I was starting to get a little tired after all of my exertions for the day. Between my adventures awakening the Bellviews, curing Mrs. Man in Red, and teleporting, I was quite sore.

Miss Himiko showed us to an employee area in the back and playfully nudged me. “Do me too. I always dreamed of being a big awakened magical person.”

Talking about my abilities openly was making more work for me. I sighed and said, “Look, I would love to awaken everyone I meet but it just isn’t possible.”

The moment that the words left my mouth, I realized that I actually could do it for everyone if I wanted to. There was a lot of money in it too if the headmaster’s deal was any reference. If I had only known about that sooner, I wouldn’t have had to worry about getting money for Kalli.

The thing was, I still wasn’t done learning. I didn’t have time to awaken the world. Then there was the matter of Kalli’s contract and getting her back to Gaia.

I looked up to find Miss Himiko looking expectantly at me, the middle-aged Japanese restauranteur eager to be like the many awakened students that visited her establishment.

I sighed and looked at the rest of the group.“Do you guys mind if I do her first?”

Wendy giggled and said, “Do her. We’ll watch.”

Settling down to work on the middle-aged woman, I thought about charging her something but ultimately decided against it considering the fact that she kept letting us eat for free.

I inspected her to see what I was up against.

Name

Saori Himiko

Class

Ramen Chef

Level

2

Affection Level

Determined

While she most likely wasn’t awakened, I found myself surprised that she was level two. It reminded me of Mrs. Hodgins when she was working in the library.

Come to think of it, Mrs. Hodgins would probably love it if I unlocked her channels.

Kalliphae missed Mrs. Hodgins. I could feel the longing in her. She would probably love that.

I have an idea. Why don’t we teleport back home and do it to her?

She groaned in my ear. You need to stop calling it ‘doing it’.

Miss Himiko’s core turned out to be made up of ramen broth. I could have sworn that her channels felt like noodles. When I threaded the broth from her core through the noodles, I was pushed back by an explosion of flavor.

Kalli eyeballed me suspiciously when I licked my lips as I withdrew from Miss Himiko. Wendy laugh and asked, “How was it? Did you awaken her?”

I nodded and announced, “Something tells me she won’t need us to flavor her ramen anymore.”

Wendy asked, “What do you mean?”

I grinned as I started to describe Miss Himiko’s core. “Everything about her mana is made up of ramen. She has noodles running up and down her body to a core made of the best ramen broth I ever tasted. I sampled it while I was threading it through her. It was delicious.”

Kalli elbowed me in the ribs. I didn’t know you had a thing for old lady mana.

Just wait until you taste it. She’s been perfecting that recipe for a long time. Trust me.

She giggled as she replied, I think I will.

I smiled at her and asked out loud, “Who’s next?”

We weren’t using group chat because Kiki was still there. Though nobody wanted to talk about it, everyone was a little apprehensive about saying anything to her. I refused to let them kick her out, so group chat was mostly dead, only used in emergencies.

Kiki, for her part, had made no efforts to reach out to the group. I could feel her out there but she managed to keep her thoughts and feelings hidden.

Wendy pushed Joe forward and giggled as she said, “Do him.”

Kalli frowned and muttered, “We need to come up with something new to call it. I don’t know if I want Mel doing everybody.”

“Only you, huh?”, Wendy teased, earning herself a playful punch from Kalli.

Joe’s core was interesting. It was a cube filled with microscopic nanomachines. The instant my mana touched it, they attacked me, flowing through the channels and ejecting me from his body.

NEW SKILL ACQUIRED: [ASSIMILATE TECHNOLOGY]

By the time I looked up, Joe had gone full cyborg. He had a glowing red monocle over one eye and a wicked-looking mechanical arm. It was only on closer inspection that I discovered it was just a sleeve and not the actual appendage.

Kalli rushed over to help me up while I shook my head vigorously to shake off the dizziness. Are you okay, Mel? We can stop if you’re too tired.

Looking around the room, I asked,

How many more do I have to do?

I followed her gaze as she counted silently. Well, there’s Stefanie, Rundell, and Raverly. So three more. Do you feel up to it?

Nodding, I beckoned for Stefanie to come over. Her core was made up of musical notes that hummed with melodic energy. When she kicked me out, I emerged to find her singing a tune that filled my body with renewed stamina.

NEW TRAIT ACQUIRED: [PERFECT PITCH]

Rundell’s core was made up of raw yellow energy. Out of my friends, his core had the most kick when it forced me out. Kalli held me in her arms, wincing as we were both thrown back into the wall.

NEW TRAIT ACQUIRED: [MANTIS STYLE]

Run flexed his newfound mana by doing a backflip and executing a spinning kick while he was upside down.

Raverly was the last to unlock. I took a deep breath as I took his hands on mine. Kalli pressed herself into my back with her arms around my waist, ready to absorb the impact yet again.

Rave’s core surprised me when I first saw it. It was jet black. What had looked like liquid or dark matter turned out to be smoke. When I was ejected, I found myself hacking and coughing in Kalli’s arms.

NEW SKILL ACQUIRED: [CLOUD JUDGEMENT]

Reading the skill I acquired from Rave made me want to fully inspect him.

Name

Raverly Crescent

Class

Squire

Level

10

Affection Level

Paranoid

Skills

Traits

Double Slack

Dark Mind

Perfect Block

Affinity: Smoke

Cloud Judgement

Shaded Connection

I wanted to ask him about his bizarre skill set but had no way of letting him know that I knew he had them. Kalli was slow to get up after my last eviction. I closed my eyes to check for damage through our connection.

How do you feel?

She ran her hands up and down her body to check herself and informed me, I’m a little banged up but nothing serious. I feel a lot better than you did after the first few.

I tugged on Kalli’s hand while the others were distracted showing off their new superpowers. She followed me out into the hall. What do you want?

Can we start with a kiss?

She blushed and leaned in close. The moment our lips touched, I folded myself into my mana and teleported us. We almost immediately stepped out at my mother’s apartment where Kalli coughed in my face and chided me. Don’t do that without warning me first.

“Melvin?”, my mother asked groggily from where she was bundled up under blankets on the couch.

I spun in shock and answered, “Yes mom. It’s us.”

She sat up and jumped off of the couch, hugging me fiercely. “I’ve missed you. You’ve learned how to teleport, haven’t you? Now you can visit me more often.”

Grinning at her, I agreed, “Okay, mom. I’ll visit once a month. How does that sound?”

She shook her head, matching my grin. “Once a week. You’re lucky I don’t make you come every day.”

My mom turned and offered the same hug to Kalli without waiting for me to reply. “How are you? I take it Melvin has been treating you well. You can let me know if he isn’t. I’ll sort him out for you.”

Kalli squirmed, awkwardly wrapping her arms around my mother, and said, “Oh no, ma’am, he’s treating me just fine. Thank you. I’ll let you know if he misbehaves.”

Mom shook her head and said, “You don’t have to call me ma’am. Sam is fine or you can just call me mom.”

My girlfriend smiled with tears in her eyes and said, “Mom works.”

My mom beamed at her and said, “It works for me too. Welcome to the family.”

We offered to awaken my mother but she shook her head and said, “No thank you. I prefer to live my life the way I was born. I turned your father down when he offered the same thing.”

I gaped at her and asked, “He tried to awaken you? You never told me about this.”

She flashed a smile that I had never seen before and said, “Your dad knew all sorts of tricks.”

The real surprise for Kalli came when I suggested we fly the phoenix to Mrs. Hodgins’ house. She looked at me skeptically. Why can’t you just teleport there?

I’m not familiar with her house. I haven’t been there enough.

She shrugged and the phoenix started to uncoil from around her dress. Okay, we can fly.

Mrs. Hodgins was angry when she opened the door in her nightgown. She eventually smiled and said, “While I’m happy to see you, it’s past midnight. What brings you two down here?”

Kalli threw herself into Mrs. Hodgins’ arms and said, “I wanted to see you. Mel has something special that he can do for you.”

You can say you missed her you know.

She blushed and said, “I missed you, Mrs. Hodgins.”

The scholar smiled and wrapped her arms around the girl. “I missed you too dear. It’s not the same since you left.”

Once we all sat down, I set straight to work on her mana channels. I was surprised to realize that Mrs. Hodgins wasn’t awakened. At least not in the sense that I was used to.

Her core was odd. An open book rested silently in the place where her core ought to be. Blank pages showed no signs of life or movement.

The whole thing came alive when I touched it with my mana. The pages of the book fluttered and filled with words and diagrams. Ink flooded the mana channels and where they went, the channels themselves turned to paper.

I was gently pushed back into Kalli as Mrs. Hodgins fully awakened. When I opened my eyes, I saw Mrs. Hodgins with a book levitating in front of her. She seemed out of breath when she said, “Peculiar.”

We chatted for a little while, regaling her with tales of our adventures at school. Kalli left out the story of how we fought Kur, obviously not wanting to make her worry.

Mrs. Hodgins offered us some homemade pie which we enjoyed. Kalli and I showed off our food flavoring trick on a slice of bread for the woman. She tasted it and said, “That is extraordinary. I’ve read a lot about the magical world lately and have never heard anything about mana being used to flavor food.”

Kalli giggled. “That’s because Mel invented it.”

After a while, Mrs. Hodgins yawned and said, “It’s late. The two of you should spend the night. I’ll make you breakfast in the morning and we can work on that quest of yours.”

When it didn’t register with me right away, she added, “You know. The one with Quetzalcoatl.”

Once we decided to spend the night, Mrs. Hodgins quickly started handing out room assignments. “I still have your room made up for you Kalli. Melvin can take the couch. It’s comfy.”

I tried to suppress my disappointment when the two of them disappeared down the hall.

It’s been a busy day today.

Kalli yawned. At least we didn’t get attacked by any dragons today.

Thinking about Kiki I replied.

Dragons are jerks after all.

She summoned Seiryu and cradled the tiny dragon in her arms. Not all dragons are jerks.

It was my turn to yawn.

You’re right. Only some dragons are jerks.

She giggled and closed her eyes. Some of everything are jerks. It’s the law of averages.

I sighed as I looked up at the ceiling.

I’m not sure if I can sleep without you.

She giggled quietly as she slid onto the couch next to me. I know exactly how you feel.