Perhaps I was anticipating the workout or didn't need as much time to regenerate, but I actually woke up a bit early. It was still only dawn. First I infused some more of my mana into the crystals. I could finish up the third one and had a little bit of rest over mana, that I kept to myself. Then, before eating breakfast, I took my sword and went outside, then went to an open and even ground close to the hut.

I did have a bit of experience with swords, but had never concentrated on it. My goal for now was to get a better feeling for my new sword, and polish up my rusted skills. But before I started, I put the sword aside and did some warming up and stretching.

After that I did some barehanded forms. I wanted to get a perfect feeling for my body, and although I could move my body however I wanted, there were still situations where I lacked a bit of precision. I also wouldn't trust myself to take a difficult leap. If I had to dodge very quickly I might stumble, because my balance was still a slight bit off, which might show itself only when making extreme movements.

So I concentrated on the flow of my movement, adjusted it until it felt more natural and repeated it again. Certain movements with my arms were slightly inhibited by my chest and the way I made my steps had a different influence on the balance of the whole body. I also had to change the way I moved my legs. All in all I had a slender and swift body and could perform very well.

It would take me a lot longer to get completely used to the exact way my body moved, but that is the way repetition worked. Satisfied with this exercise, I now took the sword and made some basic swings. I needed to understand the weight of the sword, its length and balance. My attacks needed to be on point, the movement efficient and the way the blade cut as straight as possible.

After performing those basic swings I switched into the one sword form I remembered, but had to stop at certain points to remember the correct way to proceed.

Warrior has increased to level 4.

I didn't let myself become distracted and repeated the form until I could finally manage to follow it through in an acceptable way. Only then did I end my training.

I looked over to where I had seen Catherine arrive. She had joined to watch a little while ago. It is important to keep your attention on your surroundings when practicing forms, and not just on the movements. I could have stopped, but there was no point in it if I wanted to continue practicing regularly.

“I can see that you have trained a lot before. With this much experience you should have a much higher level in one of the warrior classes and not have to struggle with wolves. So either you lost your strength when traveling around, or you were never part of the system before. I have been around, but the system is everywhere on this world.”

There was no point in denying it at this point. I had behaved in an odd way far to many times now.

“Both is true, actually. I have lost my strength once, but it was from a different system somewhere else. My heritage should also differ from the elves around here. So, what consequences does that have?”

“The potions are working as they should. I am a bit interested if there are special properties to your blood, and I think I will prepare experiments for that. I don't care about your background as long as you honor our deal, but perhaps you should avoid telling others.”

“I don't intent to.”

This seemed to conclude her questions, because she didn't ask about anything else. I followed her inside for breakfast and we were both surprised at the knock on the door. It was still very early.

Catherine said: “This must be urgent”, and opened the door. Silvia was standing there.

“Is Shalyne still here?”

She took a peak inside before sighing with relief.

“I was worried something might happen on the way to the town. You defended yourself well yesterday, but a little mistake can still be dangerous.”

Catherine answered: “I don't think you have to worry about that”

I added: “Thank you for coming. I think I should be able to handle the wolves from now on, but I am glad I have your backup today.”

Silvia waited until we finished eating and then accompanied me again.

“I have practiced a bit today, and want to see how well I can do against the wolves. Please don't shoot, unless I get into real danger.”

As usual it didn't take long until we met another pack of wolves. This was the biggest pack with five members. I took a stance and waited for the usual charge. The main problem when fighting with a weapon that can cut enemies like butter is the remaining speed and direction the dead bodies still have once cut. I easily cut through the wolves, but still had to do quick sidesteps when their bodies rushed past me. I also had to take care of the way their bodies blocked my way, because I stacked up the bodies around me far quicker than I was able to move out of the building pile. The range of the sword, combined with a well timed slash is enough however to make them drop right in front of me, if I just take a single step back after hitting them.

I took a satisfied look at my work when I saw something peaking through the trees. It was a gigantic armadillo like creature with a height of 1.5 meters and a length of around 4 meters. Its head just slightly peaked out of the thick armor plate.

I quickly rushed over to Silvia's side, always facing the Armadillo.

“It's okay, they only eat carcasses. Leave it alone and it won't harm you.”

It walked over to the dead wolves as if we weren't even here and began to eat. I kept warily watching it as I used Analyse. Again the spell took in every detail I could perceive and sent them off. This time I let it use more than the minimum amount of mana.

Korunga Beast level 20

Strength: 32

Dexterity: 4

Vitality: 34

Endurance: 27

Intelligence: 5

Very strong and sturdy carrion eater. If left in peace, they will almost never attack on their own. If a Korunga is aggressive it can usually be outrun, because they are very slow.

The information calmed me down a bit, but I still kept up my sword while the Korunga leisurely began to devour the entire wolves. I only relaxed once we had walked a bit.

“They look really scary the first time, but are actually very peaceful. You just shouldn't attack them.”

We came upon two more packs, but by now I could slay them almost without breaking a sweat.

Warrior has increased to level 5.

We arrived at the borders of the valley soon enough. Silvia went into the forest again after delivering me this far. We agreed to meet in the late afternoon after we were done with our work. At least I got her to agree, that she really didn't have to accompany me anymore.

I arrived at the shop long before lunch time. Naturally, I was greeted in the nicest way.

“Just about time you showed up. You have a lot of work to do today. Did you fill up the crystals?”

“I could only finish three of them. I don't have a lot of spare mana regeneration.”

“Why am I even surprised. Your aura is really weird. The way you hide it I can almost believe you are a thief. I warn you, if you steal anything you will never live it down.

Do you know how to do links?”

“No, I have never done something like that before.”

“Okay then listen carefully, so I don't have to repeat.”

He then explained, that it was possible to connect two items with a single enchantment. That allowed for combination effects. The way this was used most often were lamps. If a lamp was connected to a switch, it could be put on and off remotely. There were more elaborate versions, where the intensity of the light could regulated, but those were much more expensive and only used in rare circumstances.

A link was created by taking an amount of mana and only partly infusing it. The infused mana must then not be cut off from the rest of the free mana and will keep a connection to it. Then the rest of the mana would be infused somewhere else. It was very difficult to produce a link, because the intents still had to be created in addition to keeping the connection up.

To create a lamp I had to charge it up with glowing and not glowing. I could then at least forget about that intent, but never about the connection, while I infused a switch with control of on and off. A flip switch was the easiest way to accomplish this, but there were also options of using a certain way the switch had to be touched to activate it. It seems a popular method for activation was a light movement along the surface of the switch.

I had to practice it a few times until I could create a few solid enchantments. They were still leaking a bit of mana that was not used for glowing, so I would need some more time until I perfected this method.

Enchanter has increased to level 4.

I was later sent out to fetch some lunch for both of us. Mr. Heart just ate at the counter, while I found myself a small table in a corner of the shop where I could be undisturbed. I doubted that it would be pleasant to eat together. After eating we went into the workshop again.

“You have created a few links by now, but there is another way to do that, although it can't be used remotely like the enchantment you used just now. I will now teach you the scribe class, so be attentive.

The difference between a normal enchantment and the constructs of a scribe is the complexity. The constructs can have a whole sequence of different commands that are used in succession. There are also more complicated uses like having various things happen at the same time, but creating such an enchantment takes a great effort, and for now you will mostly just be copying existing ones anyway.

Constructs are created of parts, that you create with open ends. If you do them well, they will fit together and automatically form a link. You can mend them afterwards, but they should still be close to a certain standard.

When you normally form mana into something but do not keep up your concentration, it will dissolve over time. To keep that from happening, you need to anchor it to something. That can basically be anything, but the most pragmatic way we scribes came up with are scrolls with certain symbols. For each symbol there is a corresponding building part. When you create a construct you can't just create every part on the spot, you need to prepare them. That means they also have to be detachable from the anchor and not be completely infused into it.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Every single command needs a power source. It is possible to use one source for more than one task, but it might cause interferences and you can easily loose your overview of how much each energy part uses and in the end some power cells will run out before the entire spell is finished. So you need a lot of power cells for one construct.”

At that he took out a scroll. The same symbol was written over the entire scroll. Most of the symbols were just writing, but to a few of them a small mana construction was attached.

“This scroll is used to anchor power cores. I have used most of them up and need to refill them again. Power cells are just reservoirs filled with mana. They also need to be able to give out only the specific required amounts of mana. There are different variations. Some will be slowly drained in one go, others will only give out a required amount of mana. That is usually done with a control unit that is attached to the power cells, so the design of the cores themselves doesn't change.

Before you can even begin to actually build constructs on your own, you have to become used to the symbolism and the single parts used for the constructs. This afternoon I expect you to study these power cores and properly copy them unto the scroll.”

What amazed me, aside from the interesting topic, was how serious Mr. Heart had become. While I listened attentively he never cursed at me even once.

“Before you start I will quickly get you attuned.”

With that he took another scroll out of a locked cabinet and placed it on the table. It was adorned and kept in a very good state. The writing on it must have been done by a calligraphist. It was nothing like the others I had seen in the shop so far. Mr. Heart held it almost reverently.

“Treat it very carefully. You just have to hold it and read it out loud. Ah right, just repeat after me.”

“I think I can manage it, if I take my time.”

“You actually prepared yourself? At least you are a bit diligent.”

It hadn't taken him long to fall back into his usual self. Was that a half-hearted praise just now? I ignored him and struggled through the few words.

“I hereby wish to take on the craft of scribe by the goddess Calis and will practice it in her name.”

A short rush of energy connected to me from the scroll.

Scribe has been obtained.

That was very unexpected. What did a profession have to do with the gods? I had obtained warrior just by playing around a bit, so what was the difference now?

After returning his scroll to him, Mr. Heart packed it away safely and just left. I had work to do, so I left my other thoughts behind for now.

I had hoped to actually do some of the constructs on my own, but I had to admit that they really were much to complex to randomly start on them.

The power cells that were attached to the scroll were all built up the same way. They had a mana reservoir and an exit point. There didn't seem to be any special intent to them, so they shouldn't be too difficult to copy. I took a few mana crystals and began to copy. The difficulty in building them was to keep the proportions the same for each one. Anchoring instead of infusing was also something I had never done before. I had to stick them to the symbol, and sometimes they disconnected until I found just the right amount of strength for the bond.

Scribe has increased to Level 1.

Mastership is something obtained only by pure repetition. Every action has to become so ingrained into the practitioners mind, that it became a part of him. And so I continued. Piece after piece I began to slowly fill up the scroll. It was an arduous process, far from magical. Every now and then I had to take a short break to clear my mind and regain my focus. A mistake and I could start on the whole cell again. Mr. Heart came over to check on my progress but didn't interrupt me.

Scribe has increased to Level 2.

I wish I could say that I had filled the scroll up, but it contained hundreds of the isolated symbols and I had only completed around fifty. Compared to the mana contained in crystals the power cells actually didn't contain that much mana and I had only used up a few crystals. I had been careful not to use my own mana too much, so that I had some reserves if Silvia insisted on some more practice.

It was still afternoon when I decided to leave. If I left it to my honorable employer I would always just leave when the evening was getting late. I wonder how long he was always working here.

It ended with a short quarrel, but I was able to leave. We really had never decided on the time I had to stay each day, the number of weekdays to take off or on holidays. The standards around here might be pretty bad, and there might be next to no free days. In any case I would just handle it the way it came up. It might be important to at least ask if there were any days when shops were always closed. A few more days of work might also help me reach my Intelligence goal quicker.

After I left I headed over to Silvia's. When she came out I first inspected her aura. She was filled up.

“You didn't play around today?”

“I left it all for this evening. When can we start?”

“First I would like to clear my mind from work for a bit, I had to concentrate the whole day and need a bit of a break.”

“Hmph, well we can go and practice shooting targets a bit. I promised to teach you the hunter class after all...”

We went a short way in the direction of the forest on her side of the river. There were a few improvised targets put up, but right now no one else was here. It looked like a place the locals sometimes used to train, but no professional would use.

Silvia showed me how to hold and fire her bow and then just let me practice for a bit. I was able to roughly hit the targets at a short distance, but doubted I could hit a moving wolf, let alone effortlessly kill it in one shot like Silvia.

My current company seemed to grow ever more restless, the longer I practiced.

“Fine, I am done shooting. You can hardly hold still anymore. Is there an empty place nearby where we can be undisturbed for a bit?”

We immediately headed off to a place nearby. It was obscured by the terrain and the ground was mostly stone with only a few bunches of grass.

I let her repeat the same exercise as yesterday and she had enough control not to hurt herself. Perhaps she had improved yesterday when trying it on her own, because she was also able to change the heat into a burning fireball. The archery had been a much needed physical exertion and my mind had already cleared up. It wasn't difficult to keep watch.

Silvia still had not obtained the class. What else could there be that was required? Was I even going about it in the right way? I decided to let it pass and just teach her, even if she wasn't rewarded from the system.

I chose a place where there was nothing but stones and ordered Silvia to throw the fireball there. She tried to push it away with her hands and released it before it took a pitifully short trajectory and landed only three meters in front of her. Before it really exploded into the ground I took it over and held on to it.

“You need to imagine giving it a strong pulse, not actually throw it. Try the next time without moving your hands.”

I turned the fireball back over to her and we repeated the same process a few times until one time it suddenly shot away at a proper speed and landed where she was supposed to throw it to. I watched as the fire simply fell on the stones and was extinguished after a short moment. Next I should have to teach her about adding a certain pressure and intensity to it. But that could possible wait until she was more experienced.

When I turned back to her a grin like a cheshire cat awaited me.

“Don't say it.”

The grin got wider.

“No really, lets just go home.”

“I am a sorceress!”, she shouted out before jumping at me and giving me a hug. It was strange as our breasts brushed against each other and I only lightly returned the hug. Silvia didn't look half bad and was only now made aware of it as a tingling ran through my stomach. It was interesting, but I successfully cleared my mind before it turned into arousal or something worse. I lightly pushed her away after a few moments.

While trying to keep a calm head I instructed her:

“Don't shoot fire unless you are sure it can't spread. Actually, perhaps I can still show you how to create water. Are you listening?”

I don't think she was. Silvia was broke. I gestured her and she followed along after me. The distance to her house was short so I had escorted her there quickly. Strangely we didn't talk at this time, me a bit lost in thought and her on a high she didn't want to come down from. I handed her over to James, with whom I only exchanged a brief greeting and then I left them again.

As I crossed over the little bridge I considered the feelings that had sprung up before. I hadn't really considered anyone in a romantic way, and had not felt particularly attracted to the people I had come across. Touching Silvia had been interesting, but I didn't think of her in a romantic way. I wanted to keep her as a friend. Luckily I also hadn't seen any man that I felt attracted to, and that thought creeped me out. Perhaps some things had changed for me, but at the moment I just wanted to find myself and not jump into anything chaotic.

Two hours give a lot of time to think. It took a while, but slowly my thoughts cleared and drifted to other things. I had always been busy lately, and was finally to myself again. Sure, I had to stop for quick fights on the way, but they barely cost any effort with a bit of practice. Actually they helped to free myself of any remaining thoughts.

I was in no particular hurry to get stronger. Right now I was heading for a balanced mana regeneration at a very good pace and would soon be free. I also had a lot to learn about inscription and was content the way I progressed there. But now, here I was in a real fantasy world and all I had done was put me in a position of daily repetition and work. It was interesting, but it had already lost some of its glamour. There was no adventure, no excitement and I wanted some of that, too.

It wasn't the best idea to get reckless. I had yet to finish pushing my Intelligence to the necessary level and judging by what I had seen so far I was by far on the weaker end of the power scale. I could detect a lot of what might come my way with my senses, but the options I actually had to react were limited.

My mana pool was now large enough to cast a few weaker spells and I had a sharp sword ready. But with just these I would never dare to simply go out into the wilderness or stir up some other trouble.

The work I did, even when completely new to me still seemed so ordinary. What I wanted to do was to create something really genius. Something exceptional, that would stir things up a bit. That is what magic is supposed to be used for. Of course, I might not want to be associated with it and hide my own involvement. So what could I do, that almost no one else could? One was my apparent talent with perception. Maybe I should first experiment a little what others could perceive and what not and then take it from there.

The other option was to find some actual use for my double attunement to light and dark, but I feared that would also carry risks and I should at least put it off until my mana regeneration was stable before something went wrong.

Mr. Heart had told me that my hidden aura seemed shady, I wondered if there might be something I could do about it. Instead of completely suppressing it, I sorted a bit through the light and dark and pushed the light out, and the dark in, separating them and letting a bit of the light leak out. Now it should seem to others as if I had a proper aura. Keeping it up this way might take me some concentration, because it was no automatic effort like before.

I kept it up for a while when I realized something felt off. It cost me some mana to do the separating, but the overall drain seemed to be less than before. I pulled up my Status window and tried counting the time once one point of mana had regenerated.

Shalyne

Class: Sorceress Level 2, Warrior Level 5

Profession: Enchanter Level 4, Scribe Level 2

Stats:

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 13

Vitality: 11

Endurance: 13

Intelligence: 33

Health: 107/110

Mana: 78/330

Mana Regeneration: 3.30 mana/minute (7.30 mana/minute)

Before a minute had passed I had already regenerated my third point of mana. That meant my effective regeneration had gone up from before. I should have experimented on this long ago and tried to find out ways to improve my suppression. If it worked more effectively, I would of course have to use less mana.

Before the next test I took a look around to make sure nobody was by some chance around. Then I pushed all the dark to the bottom half of my body and all the light to the upper part. I now leaked two different auras, and that was something I didn't want anyone to see.

The amount of mana I regenerated increased yet a bit more. Right now I only had to keep the conflict down right on the border somewhere at my stomach. There was another pressure I had to fight against, and that was as if light as well as dark each wanted to fill out my whole body. I couldn't determine the exact amount of mana I was using right now, but it might be close to my base regeneration without the effect of the potions.

Still, I redistributed my aura again until a light golden glimmer would be detectable by those who had the ability to sense it.

Sorceress has increased to level 3.

That was strange, if welcome. I had used suppress aura all this time I had been in this world. I had gained a few quick levels by playing around with my mana, but nothing for the continuous consumption of the suppression. It hadn't cost me any effort by that time, but it should still account for much more than it had. Was it because it was an almost passive effect? I would ask Catherine about it.

I continued the rest of the way while trying to constantly keep up the new arrangement of my aura. I hoped I could adapt to it more quickly than the last time.

Almost immediately after she saw me upon entering Catherine commented:

“I can finally sense an aura about you. I had actually expected it to turn out to be dark.”

So that's what people think of me?

“Yes, I think I won't need the potions much longer now, but I am still a bit unsteady.”

A outright lie, because it had nothing to do with my mana regeneration. This time I didn't worry about it being discovered. I had made my choice which aura to present, and would stick to it. Perhaps dark might have suited me more, but I guess when you are of both you just use the one that usually gets you the better public image.

We got into a discussion about the questions I had stumbled over today.

“How do you level classes and professions. What is the difference between them? I got the Warrior class almost casually, but became a Scribe only after reading out a scroll.”

“I don't know exactly how it works, but I can tell you this: You can get classes whenever you do the things that belong to them. What that is exactly is different for each one, but it is always related to the class. The first few levels are usually very quick, but after a while you will get almost no more progress unless you do something new or difficult in regard to that class. Most people try to take a few level in various classes, but never get very far in any of them.

There are not many different classes, but some are very similar to each other. For some reason you can only have one out of the similar ones. As far as I know they all offer the same effect, so I can't tell if there is any difference between them.

Professions are like classes, but you won't receive it automatically. There are far more professions than classes, and I heard of some really strange ones by now. They can only be received by attuning to it. I don't know what exactly happens, but it is widely believed that professions belong to the gods and when you attune, the fitting god acknowledges you. In any case, you have to find some kind of contact to the profession. It can be an item belonging to the craft, there are initiations by people who practice it already and I have even heard of direct attunement with a god.

You can theoretically have as many professions as you want, but there are some restrictions when they are very similar to each other. The attunement won't work then, but you might have to try out when exactly that is the case. There are some silly fights between members of some of the professions that resemble each other. The worst one should be between assassins and murderers. If you travel around you can find different gangs fighting each other in a lot of places. Similar professions do not all fight each other so violently, but you should avoid getting involved in any of these conflicts.”

When I asked about the calendar system the weeks turned out to also be seven days long, with one day off from work. There were no regular holidays, so I might have to directly request any off time. Today was the equivalent of Thursday, so I had two more days of work ahead of me.

I went to bed with the thought of what I should aim for next.