Wichita paused, very carefully dismissing the notification. With her luck, the System would give her a time limited offer that she would have to take. No, only a fool opened such a notification the second it appeared.

As much as she wanted to switch classes to something that would be more helpful, she had a Legend class. The class of the highest rarity the system could give. No, even she wasn’t foolish enough to give that up. If she had beaten the forest’s trial, then maybe she could have hoped for a different Legend path.

Or more likely it would simply be absorbed by her current Story. The Story of the Forgotten Queen. Wichita feared that she might be stuck with it for life. Changing one's class to another path was difficult under normal circumstances, and even more difficult if that class was Legend. Fae magic simply wasn’t that flexible.

But enough of that, she had work to do.

“That was too close.” she said, turning to look at the whimpering boy. A little guilt wormed into her at his state, though it was quickly burnt away by her Heart. Wichita walked up to him and carefully took out the arrow. That was to say that she pulled it out in a single tug.

The boy yelped, though surprisingly did not shout his protests at her. A burst of blood emerged from his hand as Wichita scrambled to stop it. The panic that took hold of her thoughts at that moment was embarrassing.

“I need cloth” she declared, though she knew that the wound would be healed long before she got her hands on one. The healing enchantment she had made for him was not a weak thing.

Tully tore some from her skirt anyway.

Wichita dabbed the blood away from Jace’s skin feeling rather foolish.

“I forgot that humans had blood.” she mumbled, feeling the need to explain herself.

Rose looked at her with her mouth slightly open. The girl looked to be stuck between laughing and shouting at her. For some reason, it was scoffing that won.

“I think we should keep the cloth in case someone else gets injured.” she said. Jace was still staring where his wound had been. “Jace will likely be injured quite a bit in the coming battles.”

That seemed to push the boy out of his trance.

“What?!” Jace exclaimed, looking ready to protest his disagreement.

“Organic magic makes it likely that you will have to get close to the beasts.” she explained. “That could easily end up with you getting injured in some manner. Of course, you will also heal quicker than the rest of us.”

Wichita paused, considering. “Well, except me, though you can’t really call what I do healing. In a way, it is difficult for me to heal at all. Recharging my mana might cause reality to collapse on our heads and kill us all.”

And she was getting preciously low on mana again. Perhaps she should risk it. The strain on reality from an Arcanian pull was rather large, but there were a lot of stability vines in their surroundings.

Perhaps it was worth a try. But she had something else to do first, a surer way to get more mana. Getting a Tier 2 class.

“The forest should give us a rest period now.” At least, she hoped it would. “I would recommend we use it to increase our power. I shall train Jace in the use of magic. Within a few hours, I should be able to help him use the basics of it.”

“What do we do?” Rose asked. “Like do you have suggestions?”

“Yes.” Wichita nodded. “Tully, can you use your [Sword Call] Skill without actually wasting a charge? If you don’t call any Sword Qi that is.”

Tully shook her head. “I would still waste one, but I think I can keep it open as long as I want if I don’t call Sword Qi. I don’t think there’s a time limit.”

That would have to do.

“Then I want you to try to communicate with the sword you are connected to. If you can establish a stronger connection then it would aid us greatly. The restriction in Sword Qi should be the amount of times you can call on it, if you strengthen the connection you can call more Sword Qi each time.”

Tully nodded. “How do I do that? Strengthen the connection I mean.”

Wichita barely had any idea. The only thing she had to rely on were vague hints in one particular textbook.

“Just…try to sense what the sword stands for. That is usually how these things go. Rose, you try to perceive what the Skill is doing. That could boost your Skill quite a bit.”

The older girl just nodded, looking quite determined.

“Now, Jace.” The boy whimpered at her words. “I am going to poke you.” The whimpering started to sound like gagging. Why wasn’t he opening his mouth? Was this some human thing she was not aware of?

“Do not look at me like this. The forest has upped the difficulty significantly. Do you really think we were ready for that? That we will be ready for the next one if we do not prepare?” Wichita stared at him, hoping that he would not say yes. That sounded like a difficult argument.

“…no.” The boy said, curling up into a ball. “Just poke me.”

“No.” she stated, crouching down. “Do not hide. That is not how magic is done. If you are to master Organic magic then you must face it head on. Not whimpering like a child.”

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

The boy looked at her, his eyes bloodshot and filled with pain. Wichita was not sure why he was so difficult. This was far gentler than anything she’d dealt with. Not that she’d gotten any training in magic, but the spirit of the statement remained.

“Hold out your hand.” she demanded.

The boy looked at her.

“Come on, you can do this. Just a moment of pain and you will be able to sense mana. Just one I swear.” she said. Doing just one of those was cutting it closer than she would have liked, but she had little choice in the matter. Jace looked like he would protest one, let alone more.

The boy hesitantly held out of his hand, looking ready to snatch it back at the slightest sensation of pain.

“I want you to try to sense how your mana reacts to my poking. That is what you will replicate.” she said. “In one, two, three.”

A single point of mana entered Jace's body, the boy wincing and pulling his hand back slightly. But he did not scream or run away from her. An improvement, certainly.

“What did you sense?” she demanded, hoping he had at least sensed something. An Arcana would have surely gotten it, but humans were less gifted.

“The mana came from somewhere,” he said. “And it then tried to reinforce it. I felt it do something to my hand. Don’t think it worked though.”

‘Oh it did,” she noted. “Look at your hand, it is only burnt.”

“Well I will take your word for it.” he said, looking at his now healed hand.

“Yes, I meant before the healing enchantment worked.” she answered. “Do you remember what happened to the arrow? That should have happened to your hand.”

Well, not exactly, there wasn’t nearly enough mana for that.

“Oh.” Now the boy just looked frightened. “What your mana did is transform your skin into something slightly resistant to magic. More accurately, it manipulated it so that a large number of probabilities were your hand burning. With the way mana works, that made it that much more likely for your hand to come out burnt.”

“Why burning?” Jace asked.

Wichita shrugged. “I do not know, perhaps your mana has a minor affinity for fire. Perhaps it is something in the environment. Magic is an art, not a science. To try to control it at our level is simply foolishness. Mana is a force of randomness. Magic is what makes it something else.”

“How does it change probabilities anyway?” Jace asked. “Like does it make my skin particularly flammable or something?”

Wichita blinked. That was not a question she had expected. “No, that is not how it works, at least I think that isn't how it works. Organic magic was not the most researched field among the Arcana.”

“Oh.” Jace looked disappointed. “So, what do I do?”

“Reinforce your skin to be resistant.” she said. “Just manipulate your mana. The effect is minimal at this stage, but it should bring your mana to the edge of your skin. Start with your hands and spread it throughout your body, it should help.”

“Wait, that's it? I thought this was going to be complicated.” Jace complained.

Wichita gave him a dirt look. “This would be more complicated if I hadn’t poked you. And this is barely even magic. Just basic internal mana manipulation relying on your high affinity. A baby, a human baby, could do this if they had a high enough affinity.”

There had been several reported cases of such things. In places with high enough concentrations of mana, it was not rare to find babies doing such things. At that age their natural protection was too weak to block the surrounding mana, a few points tended to get through. There was a reason a lot of mages raised their children there. Starting to learn young was an advantage after all.

“Ok then.” The boy said, starting his task. Wichita could sense the mana moving within him. Not a lot, and she was sure he would exhaust his pool soon enough. But it was something. In theory, she had just taught a transmigrator magic. A transmigrator with an [Unworthy] class. Even if that was magic in the same way, adding two ones was math.

That should count for something.

Wichita’s eyes turned to the notification blinking at the corner of her vision. A large part of her wanted to wait till she was sure that she could get a different class. The Story was still young, there was still a chance she could change it.

But the last test had been close, far, far too close. No, what she had said to Jace applied to her too. This was not the time to wait. The new Tier might give her access to Skills and advantages that she could help them with.

Even if getting them could force her into this path. Well, if she hated it that much she could just leave it all and start over as a farmer.

Wichita shook her head, the mere thought of giving up filling her with disgust. The Heart burning through her body may have also contributed to it. Giving up was something despised within the Arcana.

Now for the options.

Tier 2 class options:

[Sensor Helper[chapter]]

[Magic sensor[narrative]]

[Needle commander[narrative]]

[Story guide[tale]]

[Transmigrators’ Queen[fable]]

Wichita’s breath caught. A fable rarity class. That was…high. More than she had expected really. Not Legend but it might work. There were three transmigrators here, perhaps she could convince them to stay.

But she knew she could not take it. The class might not necessarily be better. As much as she wished it to be anything else, it was another Queen class. Not even [Warrior Queen] or [Mage Queen] but [Transmigrators’ Queen].

With the previous option being what it was, it was clear that her guiding the three transmigrators had a huge impact on her Story. More than whatever contributions her magic had made in the fights.

Sighing, she turned to the last option.

[Forgotten Queen[legend]]

Then she clicked it. The change was not immediate, such things rarely were. But it was there. For a few seconds she felt power build up around her, mana dancing in front of her eyes as her Story evolved. A Chapter of it was complete. Tier 2 was the last place she could bumble around. At Tier 3, she would have to set the Narrative, prepare to properly wield her Story lest she fall behind.

For some reason, she had a feeling it would be a lot of work. Perhaps it was the notification that the System had shown her.

[Forgotten Queen] has reached Tier 2

[Forgotten Queen] has reached level 1

Mana +100

Where the fuck was her Capstone Skill?