Wichita’s enthusiasm deflated within herself, despite having already expected something similar to take place. If the System was so easily defeated, it wouldn’t be the System. And still she’d foolishly hoped, only to end up disappointed.

At least she had been wise enough to keep it to herself.

“So, Tier 2 -”

“What are you doing?” Tully cut Rose off.

“What?” Wichita asked, blinking in surprise.

“Come on, you keep stopping randomly. This is like the fifth time it's happened or something. Are you experiencing magical seizures or something?”

Wichita had no idea what she was talking about. “No, I do not experience anything of the sort. I was simply thinking.”

“In the middle of a conversation?” Jace asked her with a raised eyebrow, poking at the ground.

Wichita looked at him, and at the flow of mana from his hands.

“Yes. What are you doing?” she demanded.

Jace looked up at her without moving his head, only turning his pupils upwards. “Just trying out magic. I thought you would approve.”

“Jace.” Wichita sighed. “How much mana do you have?”

“Seventeen.’

“And how much do you have left now?” she asked, knowing the answer before he even said it.

“Three.” the boy seemed to realize what she was talking about, grimacing as he looked at his own status sheet.

Wichita continued anyway. “Do you not realize that we could have used your magic in a fight? The fountain is still around! What if it has something dangerous? I could have trained you in the use of mana? But now you’ve gone and wasted it.”

“How was I supposed to know it was a waste?! I thought you would like the practice!” the boy exclaimed in dissatisfaction.

Wichita would have slapped him if it wouldn’t have killed him. How could someone be so stupid? A burst of anger emerged within her quickly buried. Then she paused.

Why should she bury the anger? The boy did not seem to realize the danger they were in. Heck, none of them did. Perhaps a little anger would drive the point in.”

“I already told you so, that’s why.” she conjured anger into her voice, acting like an incensed Leirot. “Organic magic only works on organic things. The forest floor does not count. This is a spacial forest, any bacteria is too dispersed for you to affect. Even normal soil would be too difficult for someone of your level.”

“Wait, can he affect the ground too?” Tully sounded surprised.

Wichita took a deep breath. “In a way. Jace can alter or kill the organic component inside. There is often quite a lot of stuff buried in the soil. A good place to practice certainly, but not right now.”

“I was practicing though.” Jace protested weakly.

“And did you fail even once?” she asked dryly. The boy's expression was all the answer she needed.

“How will you learn magic if you don’t challenge yourself? Jace, you're weaker than me. With a class that is more suited to combat than mine.” she practically growled at him. “I wasn’t joking or exaggerating when I said that the forest was going to make things harder for us. Look at the drake, look at the pools of acid, and then look at the trees we had to run from. Do you see the difference?”

In truth, she was regretting acting angry now, though she could not deny that some of that anger was real. The boy looked scared.

“I will…try to be better ok.” the boy said, not daring to look her in the eye.

Wichita hesitated, unsure if she should continue. A rather large part of her wanted to stop, to not say words that would harm him. The boy just looked so despondent, like she had crushed his dreams.

But she did it anyway. This wasn’t just about him. The other two needed to hear her words too, and they were acting like this didn’t have anything to do with them.

“No Jace, it’s not ok.” she said carefully. The boy looked like he had been struck across his face. Why did her words affect him so much? “The forest is a thinking, plotting thing. Just because it didn’t counter us yet does not mean it can’t. There are beasts out there that have hides too thick for Tully’s Sword Qi, let alone for my needle. So stealthy that Rose cannot sense them. So deadly that my enchantments will not be able to heal you fast enough.”

Wichita looked each of them in the eye. Rose and Tully were wearing nearly identical frowns, looking like actual siblings for once.

“Do you know what they are called?” she asked, and then answered her own question. “Dragons. That is what they are called. The drake was a lesser dragon. A baby lesser dragon. Had it been a bit more powerful, even just a bit older, then we would be dead. Do you really think the forest can’t put us up against a stronger version of the beast?”

The frown on Rose’s face deepened. Even Jace was frowning now.

“And you think Jace can defeat them?”

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“Yes, in fact.” she was surprised by her own answer. “Organic magic is one of the few kinds of magic that is actually effective on dragons. But even if he did not have that, he has something much more valuable. The [Unworthy] class.”

Wichita looked into Jace’s puzzled brown eyes. “I didn’t say that it was better for the situation than mine for no reason. In fact, he might have the class most suited for this situation. The forest is giving us a test, a test of fae magic. Do you know what tests do?”

“A test can prove you worthy.” Jace said, connecting the dots. So the points weren’t completely for show then.

“Yes, exactly. With every step you take, with every minute you survive, the fae magic around you grows stronger. There will come a tipping point when you will transition from just surviving to altering reality so that you make it next to impossible for you to lose. The beasts you face will find their attacks missing you. “

“A touch will turn into poison for your enemies. A fissure will open underneath an assassin, swallowing them whole. The world deemed you unworthy, but you decided to prove it wrong. At some point that Story will hold power of its own.” she said.

Jace’s eyes bulged wide. Then she poured cold water over his hopes. “That tipping point will be sometime after Tier 5. The Enchanting Queen did not reach it till Tier 8”

The glow on the boy’s face faded. Wichita felt even more guilty about what it was doing.

“But that does not mean that it is not useful right now. Tier 1 is also called Scenario. Tier 2 is a chapter. At Tier 2 your class will grow, your Story will take note of you fighting the judgment cast upon you. And that means it will start giving us ways out.”

Jace’s lips parted as he absorbed the information, trying to form a response. “So, if the System backs us into a corner then my power will open a path for us to escape.”

“The forest’s own Story makes it a bit unreliable, but a chance is better than nothing.” she said.

“That sounds nice.” Rose interrupted. “But wouldn’t it have been good for us to know before? Sounds like this is your fault for not telling us about it.”

Wichita let out an angry breath, actually angry this time. “During what time? I have been trying to explain the world to you this entire time. And I did mention this to you, even if I did not mention this exact thing happening. The forest has been pushing us from one challenge to the next, and I simply haven’t had the time to teach you anything important.”

“There was enough time to mention it.” Rose mumbled. Wichita had to agree with her, even if it pained her to do so. The issue was, she just hadn’t thought of it. This just hadn’t seemed relevant until the forest sent the drake. Heck, it hadn’t occurred to her until she was acting angry.

In hindsight, it was clear that the forest had been testing them, measuring their capabilities to send beasts that countered them. The kind that would challenge them to their limits. Not too much technically, but difficult for them to defeat under most circumstances. The fact that it was making it easy for her to train Jace did not sit well with her either.

That just meant that it could make the challenges harder. Account for Jace’s fae magic instead of ignoring it.

Wichita sighed, picking up a stone as she looked at the mana she had left.

Mana: 257/553

So little already. But she could spare fifty mana.

“I will funnel you some mana.” she told Jace. “Don’t use it on anything else.”

Rose frowned. “Why didn’t you do that before? Don’t you have like an extra large mana pool?”

Wichita looked at her with irritation. “I give three points of mana for each point he receives. The enchantment takes twenty points to build, and can send at most thirty points of mana before it collapses. That is fifty points of mana, Miss Rose. Considering that I require mana to live, I would rather not spend it unless I have to.”

Jace looked at the stone like it had bitten him. Perhaps she was being too harsh on them. The situation wasn’t their fault, they were stuck here with her.

Wichita took a deep breath. “I am aware that we do not have much in the way of trust between us, but we are all stuck here together. I have aided you as much as I can, and I hope you shall do the same.”

“Of course.” Rose smiled. “I am thankful for the trust you’ve placed in us.”

“In that case.” Jace said, pulling a metallic chip out of somewhere. Rose’s eyes bulged the second her eyes fell on it, screaming “Jace! That’s a secret!”

“What? The thing opens a portal Rose, she doesn’t have any reason to steal it from us. If she wants she can just follow us.” Jace snarked back. “Wichita knows more about magic than all of us combined. I am sure it will be helpful if she knows about this.”

Wichita’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the chip. The chip Jace had just claimed was magical, but did not emit any magic. Well, that wasn’t very uncommon among higher ranked magic objects. Perhaps this was one.

“This is an escape chip.” Jace said. “The three of us made a…deal. The escape chip is supposed to take us back to our world after we’ve acquired the powers and stuff we wanted to.”

“Can I?” Wichita said, lightly, holding her hand out. This type of artifact, no, she should test it first. Jace handed her the chip while Rose glared at him. Tully was trying to act like she was looking somewhere else.

Wichita peered into the artifact with her mana sense. There was mana in this. A little, but it was powerful. Tier 8 at least. A lesser enchanter would not even be able to tell what it did. The mana was warping space with its very presence, surrounding itself in a magical field. A powerful artifact to be sure.

“Did they say how you’re supposed to use this?” she asked, pursing her lips.

“Just press the button in between.” Jace pointed.

Wichita looked at it. That was where the mana was. The enchantment was crude, mana didn’t even flow. That was partly why she was sure she was correct about this. The chip had no enchantment. The mage responsible had stuffed their own mana inside, heaping it up with enough intent that it worked.

There was little need to do anything else with something like this after all.

Wichita’s emotions must have been showing because Rose suddenly looked worried.

“What is it?” the human girl asked.

“The chip won’t work.” she answered, sincerely sad.

Rose shook her head. “The thing was built by one of the Five, just because you can’t tell -”

“The chip is a spacial beacon. Pressing the button will send a signal somewhere, likely building a spacial bridge between the two places.” Wichita interrupted. “In normal circumstances it would have worked. The magic inside is still intact.”

“…but?” Jace sounded positively terrified, his voice shaking.

“The world boundary blocks signals. Magic and matter just don’t exist in the void as far as we can tell. Trust me, we tried very, very hard to contract the Iridor. But without an active crack between the two worlds, we simply couldn’t contact them. Not to mention, you can’t build spacial bridges between worlds. That just doesn’t work. Even spacial magic was we know it doesn’t work on spacial boundaries,” Wichita said slowly, afraid that her words would cause an outburst.

Rose was actually shaking, and she did not look like she was ready to accept this reality.