There was magic, and then there was magic. Wichita would like to know which one it was. A part of her desperately wished that it was the latter, that somehow she had broken past the System’s limits and gained the power to do magic.

That was, however, all but impossible.

The Arcana had tried for literal Ages, and they did eventually find ways to circumvent the restriction. Just not ones that worked at Tier 1. And even later on, they did not fully lift it off. There was also the fact that she had spent far too much mana on a simple floating spell.

This wasn’t proper, controlled magic, but something else instead. An uncontrolled conversion of mana into a random occurrence, causing a magical effect. There were too many reasons why it could have happened for her to try finding out why right now. Even if she had suspicions about what it truly was.

Fae magic being involved just made things worse, given its random nature. But it gave her hope; it was, after all, the only thing she knew of that could circumvent the System.

Iridorian magic was too restricted to accomplish such a thing. The System seemed to be as closely bound to the world as mana itself. To defy it was to change the world in ways only Fae magic could. If only the magic were more reliable or even understandable.

“So…you can use magic now?” Jace asked, his eyes darting around in the darkness as he looked at the darkness with clear fear. “Can you do something about this darkness then? The drake hasn’t attacked us yet, but if it does, I don’t wanna be stuck in the darkness.”

“What, Jace, are you thinking about fighting it now? Want to try punching fire in the face?” Rose mocked, but her words had little heat. Wichita suspected that she had spooked them all.

“That wasn’t magic, at least not proper magic.” she admitted. But she was more focused about how clear the darkness seemed to her. Like it was a hazy fog instead of an overwhelming spell of darkness.

“And Jace might be the most suited of us to deal with the drake.” she said. “Tully doesn’t have a sword to use her Sword Qi properly. But if Jace can get a handle on his magic, he will counter the drake pretty well.”

“Wait what?” Rose said, the expression on her face morphing into confusion. “What does Organic magic do exactly? Can he like manipulate its body from a distance?”

“That is a possibility.” Wichita admitted. “But it is a waste of mana to do something so expensive. The real benefit is the personal enhancements you can make. The drake is a defensive powerhouse. Jace can become so hard to kill that its dragon breath would not burn him. Then he just has to stand around until the drake runs out of mana. And yes, he could in fact punch fire.”

“Oh.” Rose said, sounding taken aback. “That sounds great.”

For some reason Wichita felt like the girl was doubting her. But she had other things to concentrate on. Like what her Skill had done to her. The spell still hadn’t faded, and she was still floating.

The needle would likely have to eat it to free her. The drake was in the way, she had to deal with that too. Then she could try to theorize about what had happened.

But the drake was nowhere to be seen.

“I think we should start walking.” she said.

“But, but, what about the drake!” Jace said, scared again.

Wichita sighed. “I can see a bit better in the darkness now, for some reason. Just wait for the drake to attack—oh there it is. Tully, right behind you.”

The girl didn’t waste any time, sending a single burst of Sword Qi. Wichita did not even need to send the needle, the Sword Qi just cut the beast in two.

“Did you get a level?” she asked, though she already knew. That burst had been far more powerful than it used to be.

“I got two.” Tully said, grinning as the darkness vanished. “The drake stood like no chance at all.”

“I can see that.” she admitted. “I would prepare for the forest to make the next challenge more difficult.”

To be honest, she didn’t even know why the forest had given them the same challenge again. The needle ate at the spell she had cast, its enthusiasm confirming her suspicions. This was her mana.

“There’s a fountain.” Jace blurted out.

“I can see that.” she replied. “As I said, the forest is going to try something new. I would be surprised if it wasn’t trapped. Perhaps there are man-eating piranhas in there. I hear those have powerful spacial affinities, theory would fit right into the forest.”

In truth, she had another suspicion. The forest was dealing with something else. Wichita had sensed the forest before, and it had not ended up with her shivering out of fear. This was different. This was new.

If the forest was dealing with someone, someone who was clearly very powerful, then it might not have time to deal with them. This might be a rest area.

Wichita blinked as monsters started jumping off the trees.

Or it could be another challenge. The forest had apparently decided that the drake wasn’t enough.

“Jace, you take care of that one.” she said, pointing to one of the cat-like creatures that had pounced onto the ground in front of them.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“What? What am I supposed to do?” the boy practically yelled, retreating behind her.

“Just kill them.” she said. “I taught you how to use mana already. Just use that. Poke it till it dies.”

“That cat has claws for days!” Jace replied, yelling for some reason. “Just look at them! How can I beat that!”

“Cutting you will harm it.” she said as she commanded the needle to start killing the creatures. For some reason it seemed more interested in eating her spell than killing those beasts.

Was she really that tasty? Or was there something weird about the spell? Wichita could scarcely wait for the forest to give them another rest period. For once in her life she was looking forward to testing the restriction the System had saddled her with. Then she would be able to see if there had been any change.

“Tully, don’t waste your Sword Qi, wait for them to try running past the needle.” she said. “Rose, can you keep an eye out for the smart ones?”

The older girl shrugged “Oh sure. Don’t think I can detect anything you miss though.”

“I will be getting Jace to kill a beast.” she said. “I presume I will be distracted.”

“What?!” the boy had apparently not made peace with what he would be doing yet.

“Jace, pack beasts are usually very weak individually. This might be your only chance to kill a beast. Even if the System doesn’t remove your [Unworthy] class, it will boost your Fae magic. And you will need that boost if you want to survive what is coming. The forest is going to be making things harder for us as Tully grows in power, we need to keep pace with her.”

The girl had gotten, what, five levels in less than a day? Wichita herself had gotten about as many, and she doubted Rose was too behind. There were only eleven levels in Tier 1. The three of them would soon be in Tier 2 and the forest was to scale up its difficulty. Jace had to grow stronger or he would die. And that meant speeding up his training a bit.

“Go.” she said, raising her hand as if to shove him. “I will shove you if you don’t Jace. That will be much more painful, and far less rewarding, than the beast.”

The boy looked at Tully pleadingly and then at Rose.

“I mean…are you sure it's safe?” the older girl asked, sounding worried.

“This is how I learned combat.” she said, avoiding the fact that she wasn’t very good at it. “The cats only have slight magic in their claws, I do not even know why the forest bothered challenging us with them. Jace should be able to handle it.”

The needle had already killed dozens of them, though for some reason they weren’t running out. The cat she had pointed to had died long ago. But there were plenty others remaining.

“Now go.” she said, glaring at the boy. Jace moved forward two steps towards a cat that was standing on top of the fountain, looking at it with fear. The fountain was situated right before the single corridor split into two, but calling it a fountain was really exaggerating. In truth, it was an eruption of water from the ground that was making a large puddle around it.

The cat was standing in the middle of it, apparently bathing in water. And here she had read that cats didn't like water.

The boy approached the beast, jumping in fright as the needle zipped past his face, heading towards a cat that had just jumped off a tree to his right.

“Can I have a weapon?” he asked nervously, turning around. “I think that would help.”

Now he thought of it? Yes, a weapon would help. Too bad they didn’t have any he could use.

“Do tell me if you get any.’ she remarked dryly. “But you shall have to do without for now. Try punching. And remember, your body already knows how to use mana. The only thing you need to learn is to do it consciously.”

The way the needle was killing them, she was sure the cats were pitifully weak. A single burst of mana should kill them. Wichita was very familiar with the destructive power of mana, and it was truly difficult to overstate it. Just because Jace had so little mana, and didn’t even have control over it didn’t mean he was weak. Not anymore.

As long as he was able to move that mana into someone, he could cause quite a bit of damage. Even pure mana like she had used could be deadly, randomizing a poison into the bloodstream. Organic magic would almost definitely do that. Mana took into account the intent of its caster, and a defensive action from a caster of Jace’s would probably make the cat allergic to its own body fluids.

Of course, only a fool would touch an Organic mage. Well, unless they were Arcana. Organic magic didn’t work on people that weren’t organic.

Jace was far too scared to make the first move, but the cat wasn’t. Rose screamed, running forward to help him as the cat reached its claws towards the boy. Jace screamed louder. The scream started before the claws touched him, and stopped only after the cat lay dead. Even Wichita was shocked how fast it had happened.

A second ago, the cat's claws touched the boy's skin. A second later it was dead.

“Did you feel the mana?” she demanded.

“…yes.” the boy said. Wichita had left the healing enchantment on him and was glad to see that the injury had already healed. Not that there had been much in the first place. The cat had died so quickly it didn’t even have time to properly sink its claws into the boy. A beast that was very weak to Organic magic? Wichita could think of no other possibility.

The cats seemed to almost disappear as soon as Jace made the kill. The trees stopped spawning them, and the needle made quick work of the rest. The cat hadn’t been a threat at all, and Wichita was beginning to suspect they weren’t supposed to be.

“Did you get a level?” she asked.

“Yes. I got a full ten stats in magic, mind, and body.” Jace said.

“That is to be expected.” she answered, her mind already moving on. “The [Unworthy] class is hard enough to level that the System often gives better stats for it.”

Still it was curious that just a single battle against such a weak creature had granted him a level. Wichita might have even been a little jealous.

“What level are all of you now?” she asked, a bit curious.

“Seven.” Rose said.

“Five.” Tully shrugged.

Jace was still looking at the dead cat like it had traumatized him. “One.”

Wichita had to admit she was surprised by Rose’s high level, she’d almost caught up with her.

“So we can expect that we will all be moving to Tier 2 very soon. If the forest makes things harder for us again, it will make our leveling speed even faster, though it should slow down once we get to Tier 2.” she nodded, mostly thinking to herself. Now it was time to test the System’s restriction had fared.

Feeling a bit nervous, she tried to reach out to the world, holding the Language of Magic in her mind. Wichita didn’t really know how to free cast, but she had read about it. And the ability was supposed to be something Arcana knew from birth.

But nothing happened. The mana she expanded simply dissipated into the world as she failed to connect to it in any meaningful way. The conversions and manipulation that came so easily to her while enchanting failed her now, refusing to let her convert the mana.

The System’s restriction remained as strong as it had been.