After two hours of grueling training, Illa finally allowed Alice to stop training. Alice took this as permission to instantly drop dead, not even bothering to find a place to lay down before collapsing onto the floor. The waves of exhaustion that she had been suppressing for hours crashed over her instantly. Her arms and legs trembled, and now that she had stopped moving them, Alice didn’t know if she could lift them even if she wanted to. On Earth, Alice was relatively certain this training program wouldn’t have worked – the damage done to the body over the course of just this training session would pose much greater problems to the body than any of the benefits gained through the training.

However, on this planet they had the System, which seemed to negate these problems. Lucky her.

Illa actually laughed at seeing Alice sprawled on the floor, moaning in exhaustion. After watching Alice and chuckling for a while, Illa finally took mercy on her. Alice felt her clothes tighten around her body, and then they began floating, gently lifting her into the air. Then, Illa moved her towards a dining table, where a meal was laid out. Alice didn’t really want to move at this point, but upon seeing all of the food laid out she realized that she was hungry. Finally, with her limbs literally shaking every time she tried to pick something up, Alice began eating her part of the meal while she took a look at her Status Screen.

Name: Alice Verianna

Age: 15

Strength: 88 (104%)

Perception: 110 (125%)

Dexterity: 85 (103%)

Intelligence: 157 (103%)

Endurance: 92 (103%)

Willpower: 132 (103%)

Charisma: 125 (102%)

Magic: 96 (101%)

Primary Classes: 4/5

Survivor: 37

Explorer of Magic: 27

Scholar: 9

Scientist: 1

N/A

Secondary Classes: 1

Fisherwoman: 3

Perks:

Foraging (Survivor 5)

Microbe Resistance (Survivor 10)

Extremophile (Survivor 15)

Camouflaged (Survivor 20)

Sixth Sense (Survivor 25)

Enhanced Training (Survivor 30)

Sense Hostility (Survivor 35)

Magic Proficiency (Explorer of Magic 5)

Enhanced Regeneration (Explorer of Magic 10)

Combat Spellcaster (Explorer of Magic 15)

Improved Seed (Explorer of Magic 20)

Seeds of Magic (Explorer of magic 25)

Enhanced Memory (Scholar 5)

Skills

Basic Mathmatics: 122

English (Language Proficiency): 100

Illvarian (Language Proficiency): 92

Kinetic Manipulation: 38

Weaving: 27

Woodworking: 25

Mana Control: 21

Spearmanship: 19

Mana Precision: 19

Kinetic Force: 18

Sprinting: 14

Cooking: 12

Stoneworking: 11

Climbing: 9

Fishing: 9

Digging: 8

Dodge: 8

Stealth: 4

Basic Medicine: 3

Magic Seed: 1/1

Kinetic Seed (135%)

Achievements

Outworlder (Rarity: 10)

Baptized by Broken Mana (Rarity: 6)

Survivor of Winter (Rarity: 3)

Monstrous Encounter (Rarity: 1)

Monster Slayer (I) (Rarity: 1)

She had gained 2-3 stats in all of her physical Stats, along with 4 points in Magic, as well as a few skill levels in most of her mana related Skills. She had also picked up a point of [Willpower] and [Perception] somewhere along the way, although she wasn’t entirely sure when she had picked up the latter. [Explorer of Magic] had also gained another level, probably as a result of trying to pour herself a cup of tea using only her magic. In the wilderness, she had started to only see a stat increase once every 2-3 days, so seeing such a huge difference in growth speed was rare. Of course, it was probably due to the equipment and Illa’s presence – Alice wasn’t sure which was a bigger part – as well as the fact that the stats in question were below 100, meaning they only faced a single major growth penalty for being above 50, rather than facing two major growth penalties for being above 100. Still, at the very least it felt nice to see things improve.

As she raised her quivering fork towards her mouth, filled with some sort of green and yellow vegetable, Illa simply ate her meal in silence. The two ate silently, with Illa occasionally tapping her fingers against the table as she seemed to ponder something. Eventually, Illa turned back towards Alice and began speaking.

“How do you feel right now?”

“Exhausted? I mean, my thinking is strangely clear despite the training session, but my body is having a hard time moving, and my magic never really recovered because I had to start deflecting beans…” Alice nearly dropped a piece of food, but managed to get it into her mouth and mechanically began chewing.

“I mean emotionally,” said Illa, amusement gone and her expression replaced with seriousness.

Alice paused for a moment, thinking about it. She felt… better. Possibly, it was due to the fact that she had something to focus on now, or just because she had more time to process the fact that she was probably never going home. Or maybe it was just because her brain was too exhausted to process grief anymore. Alice slowly closed her eyes while she was thinking, nearly falling asleep in her chair, before she realized she was still in a conversation.

“I’m feeling better.”

“I’m glad to hear it. You seemed frustrated after the trial.”

“I was.” Alice was silent for a while. Then, she continued speaking, wanting to change the subject. “Can you tell me more about mage academies and how they take in students? I want to know what education looks like in this world.”

“Well, they accept students who either pay for their tuition or join the army and have the Crown pay for their tuition. Of course, there are usually several tests you need to pass before you enter, often also requiring a letter of recommendation. As I said earlier, if you impress me I’m willing to help you get in – a letter of recommendation from me would be worth a good amount in most academic institutions.” Illa paused a moment, seeming to hesitate, before she eventually continued. “What were schools like in your world?” She was staring closely at Alice’s face, as if searching for something. Alice hesitated a moment, before she decided it didn’t hurt to talk a bit about home. Just as long as she avoided any topics about her friends or her parents, she could stomach a bit of conversation.

“Hmm… Education is free for every citizen up to a certain age in my home country. In my world, the skills for speaking a language and writing a language were different, so people had to learn them separately. Therefore, everyone usually learned to speak from their parents or caretakers, and then they would learn basic math and writing from schools funded by the government.”

“Why?” Illa actually seemed completely baffled. “I don’t understand why the government would bother paying for schools for regular citizens. What’s the point? Also, how the heck does language work if you don’t have one combined Skill for both the written language and the spoken language? If you don’t have them as the same thing, doesn’t the language fall into chaos? The language might change in as little as a few decades if the Skills for the two are separate? And how do people know if they’re spelling words correctly, or keep the written and spoken language linked together? That makes no sense!” She actually massaged her temples for a moment as she was trying to think about it.

Alice actually chuckled a bit at Illa’s response. “In my world, most people are able to both read and write, at least in my home country, but a lot of that is because of the school system. If reading and writing, for example, weren’t common skills, wouldn’t it be much harder for the nation as a whole to function? After all, being able to use the written word to communicate opens a lot of doors for a nation as a whole – being able to properly pass down knowledge, create signs and databases, and understand the world around us is based on our ability to read and write, isn’t it? If everyone has those skills, the nation can communicate more easily and effectively. Communication is the heart of a nation, after all.”

“What is a ‘giant collection of numbers and words relating to information used for statistical analysis?” asked Illa, seeming a bit annoyed by the long phrase.

Huh? That’s not what I… Alice thought back to what she had said as she bit into another roasted vegetable. Then, finally, she realized. Ah. That’s how language Skills work – it’s translating anything I hear to whatever the closest mental equivalent I have is, and when I want to say something I just automatically use whatever the best word in the local language is. I won’t even notice it if I’m not paying attention. She wondered if there were any important distinctions the Skill missed – how did it translate colloquialisms, for instance? Suddenly, she was curious.

“Spidercrab,” said Alice, listening closely to what she actually said. However, in Illvarian, Alice was distinctly aware that what she actually said was “Zorastruess,” which seemed to translate roughly to… Many-legged scuttling annoyance? That… fits?

Alice got a level in Scholar, although she pushed aside the notification. She'd look at it tomorrow when she was less tired.

“Huh?” Illa seemed baffled at Alice’s sudden random word thrown into the conversation, and Alice realized she had totally departed from the topic. She shifted gears away from trying things out, and reminded herself that she had been explaining what a database was.

“It’s a giant collection of numbers we used at home to gather information about specific ideas, as well as figure out what the general trends of things that could be expressed in numbers were. So it could be used for something like, for example, finding out if the number of Mages in a population has been increasing or decreasing over a period of time, for example.”

“Hmm…” Illa seemed to think over it for a while. “I can see the use for that, but not why it would be useful to educate the entirety of a nation. The cost that went into it must be enormous – it makes far more sense to me to educate a handful of the upper class of a nation, such as Mages, and then let the rest figure it out themselves.”

“Ah, but aren’t you forgetting about taxes? I don’t know how the taxation system works in Illvaria, but at home the government keeps track of every purchase people make and then takes a small cut, as well as a fraction of the money everyone makes as well. That also means that if everyone in the country is richer and more productive, the government also makes a larger amount of money. Not to mention, people who are happy with their life and have their basic needs met are much less likely to rebel, whereas people who are impoverished, discontent, or struggling to feed themselves are more likely to rebel. Therefore, education that improves the productivity of the populace is ultimately one that improves the government’s tax revenue, yes?” Alice shrugged. “At least, that’s what I suspect the philosophy behind it is. Either way, it certainly works pretty well at home.”

Illa actually appeared to think about it, sinking deeply into thought. After a while, she shrugged. “That actually doesn’t seem like a bad idea, if your taxation system works that way. Here, every person above ten is responsible for paying a certain number of coins to the Crown each year, a few to the noble owning the land each year, and then there’s a separate tax on property based on size, location, et cetera. But how does the government actually keep track of every transaction?”

Alice sighed, and began trying to explain the concept of computers and machinery to Illa. It didn’t help that unless Alice was paying attention, her language Skill would cause her to use some incredibly convoluted phrases to try to describe what she was talking about. In the end, Alice wasn’t really sure how much of the concept Illa grasped, although she looked fascinated at the idea of carriages that ran without horses and machines that could do the work of dozens of humans if fuel was applied. Alice distinctly avoided mentioning firearms – she didn’t know how to make gunpowder, but with the existence of [Kinetic Mages] she suspected it probably wasn’t too difficult for the people of this world to create some sort of weaker facsimile. Alice didn’t want to be the one to introduce modern firearms until she had a much better idea what she was doing.

Eventually, partway through the conversation, Alice’s exhaustion finally caught up to her, and her eyes began drooping more and more. Before she nodded off on the table, Illa gestured towards a maid, who reached over to Alice and helped her exit the room. Finally, the maid led her to a room with a bed in it. Alice wobbled over to it, collapsed, and fell asleep nearly the instant she hit the covers.

* * *

Illa drummed her fingers, a nervous habit left over from her younger years, as she considered the question of her newest student. The world that the young teenager had spoken of was… odd. In more ways than one. A world without mana? Wasn’t mana essential to all life in order to survive? Illa was baffled by the assumption that a world could exist where life didn’t require mana to continue functioning.

That wasn’t all – the machines the girl had spoken of were strange – something that Illa had never even considered before. Bits of metal that could do the same work as a high-level person, over and over again without needing Perks to do so. And the school system Alice had spoken of also interested her greatly. Even though Illa only had [Scholar] as a secondary class, it had actually leveled just from listening to Alice talk about her home world for a few hours, which was rare considering how hard it was for secondary classes to gain any levels at all.

“Mistress, Lady Alice has gone to sleep,” said Ellia. Her movement was fluid and graceful, far more than an ordinary maid’s movement should have been. Of course, it was only natural for a [Combat Maid] to have higher [Dexterity] than a maid that only worried about cleaning and maintaining a house.

“Thank you, Ellia,” said Illa with a small smile. “What is your impression of her?”

“She’s a bit dangerous – having her by your side has a small chance of eventually attracting an attack from the Society of Starry Eyes. Even if the don’t have the ability to maintain a strong presence in the north of Illvaria, the South is already a messy pot on the verge of boiling over with the Sigmusi Colonia making problems and the lack of major organized control by the Crown here. It might be better to send her out of town to die and avoid any future problems. However, as a person, she is not a bad girl, although a bit young.” Ellia’s voice contained no traces of emotion at all – just the cold, emotionless calculation of cost and benefit.

“Is that all of your assessment?”

“Her training speed is faster than it should be,” said Ellia, after a moment of hesitation. “It is odd. Even accounting for her {Outworlder} achievement and other factors boosting her training speed, she is accumulating levels and Attributes more quickly than she should. When I was watching her train, I think she got multiple points in most of her physical stats over the course of the hour – her speed subtly increased multiple times, and her ability to keep moving seemed to also improve multiple times over the course of the session. That shouldn’t have happened, even with {Outworlder}. Unless you suddenly picked up several levels in [Teacher] without me knowing, at least.”

Illa snorted. “It’s all her – my levels in [Teacher] are exactly the same as before. There is something even more interesting about her. Do you know that her body has very little mana in it? It is much lower than it should be, considering her Levels and Attributes. It is the only reason I am even willing to entertain the idea that her former dimension has no mana on it – the quantity of mana in her body is so low that it’s as if her first interaction with the substance was only a few months ago. In our world, a six-year old child with magical ability that has just unlocked the System often has more mana than she has in her body right now.” Illa gave a rueful chuckle. “Although it is a little creepy when I stare at it with {Mana Sight}, it also causes the mana around her to get sucked towards her when she exerts herself.”

“While interesting, I cannot see how that actually matters, my lady. Perhaps she is some slightly different species of human that can live without mana, or her body is simply trying to make up for its lack of the substance so far. After all, humans can live without the nutrients their body needs, just not well. It might not be impossible for humans to do the same when it comes to mana, since nobody besides the Society has ever actually tested the theory that humans will die without mana. And compared to how interesting she is, the potential risk she represents is far greater.” said Ellia.

“And the machinery and societal structures she spoke of don’t interest you at all?”

“They do, but not much. I can’t see us successfully implementing half of the things she talked about even in someplace as small as Cyra – our budget may be very high for a new town, but it isn’t anywhere near what we would need to continuously fund something like universal schools.”

“You’re correct. However, the ideas behind them are interesting, aren’t they? It’s expected that I’ll chat with her anyway, since she’s my [Student] now. Maybe there’s an idea or two that’s actually useful in there. And if not, it’s not a big deal – ultimately, as long as those old cowards learn that a fifteen year old girl has the courage to face what they wish to flee from, they shouldn’t be so quick to leave.” Illa gave a small chuckle at the thought.

“As my lady wishes,” said Ellia, with a slight bow.

“Ah, don’t be like that. If you really think otherwise we can discuss it further. I still think of you as the friend that fought in the north with me all those years ago, after all.” Illa’s expression seemed to grow oddly wistful for a moment, as she was lost in thought. Finally, she snapped out of it, refocusing on the present. “Do you really think it’s such a bad idea to keep her around?”

“Then I hope my lady will forgive my presumptuousness. I do not think having her around is a terrible idea – it represents an opportunity to learn about another world, and she also fits the requirements for helping settle the political situation. However, this opportunity is a fair bit more dangerous than the usual ones, and I do not think we need to engage with her to keep steadily growing and advancing. While some of the mages trickling back north might be painful, it ultimately doesn’t mean that the situation might fall to an unrecoverable state. If the Society of Starry Eyes actually musters their forces together and tries to retrieve her, they might cause a great deal of trouble for the town, and represent a greater level of danger.”

Illa sighed. “Correct, but there are a lot of strange points in her presence as well. If the Society summoned her, she shouldn’t have escaped them if any of her summoners survived. For now, I think it’s best to keep her around until we investigate the place she was summoned further. Hopefully the monsters haven’t eaten all of the Corrupted mana in the area yet so that we can investigate further.”

“My lady makes a fair point.” Ellia stopped speaking for a while, before she started speaking again. “What are you planning on doing for her hidden guard? You promised the girl that you would provide her with one.”

“I intend to assign Emanuel to her for now – he’s high enough level that it should be hard for him to be noticed, and he’s quite competent. Apart from during the expedition, of course – in that case, since I’ll be nearby, I doubt anyone would be foolish enough to attack us. And if there really are still [Spies] and [Assassins] prowling about, which I doubt, Emanuel would not be able to deal with someone able to actually threaten me.”

Ellia seemed to think it over for a while, before she nodded. “That is quite reasonable.” She fell silent again. Finally, she spoke again. “How committed are you to her education? She is consuming quite a few resources, and some of the expenses from your agreement with her seem… unnecessary. Especially the bit about research materials.”

“It gives her good motivation to keep working hard. You should have noticed it too, right? She has a certain tendency to hide from danger, rather than face it head on. That’s fine – it’s normal for those who haven’t fought before to shrink away from it. However, it means that if we don’t provide any incentive, she would try to stay hidden, regardless of how well that would actually work. If it costs me a bit more gold to keep her around, then it costs a bit more gold. Besides, she levels quickly. It’s good for my [Teacher] class.” Illa shrugged.

“Thank you for answering my questions, my lady.” Ellia simply stood, thinking for a while. Then, she seemed to remember something. “Ah, your children and husband sent back some letters from the north. It looks like they’re over a month old, so it’ll be a bit old. Still, I put it in your study since I thought you would want to look at it as soon as possible.”

All of the marks of careful planning and thinking melted away from Illa’s face in an instant, replaced with warmth and excitement.

“Is that so? Excellent. The snow has really been troublesome for [Messengers].” Illa quickly hurried over to her study, shredded open the letter on the table, and quickly began reading it. Even if Illa’s husband and sons weren’t magically talented, they were the reason she was willing to invest so much time and energy into running Cyra and increasing the influence of the little town in the south. Since they didn’t inherit her talent as a mage, Illa would let her children inherit a barony instead, so that they would have a real financial position and place in noble society. As she read over the letter, a warm smile decorated her lips.

If any of the [Soldiers] who had served in the army with Illa had seen the terror of the northern forts warmly smiling while reading over the letters from her family, they probably would have fallen over from shock. However, the only person in the room besides Illa was Ellia, a former [Soldier] who watched as her old friend read over letters from her family. Softly, Ellia deactivated {Emotionless thoughts} and grinned as she watched the scene. Even if the south was a bit chaotic, it was good to be away from the northern wall with her old friend and leader.