The rays of the sun illuminated my room, and if one were to look closely, they would see shadows rippling in and out of the light. A stone ball and a tendril of dirt chased each other. The dirt twisted and stretched as it followed the stone and separated into lines and formed a symbol.

The stone ball stopped moving. Then the dirt fell out of the air, sprinkling across the floor like rainfall.

Drat.

I was practising my earth manipulation. Controlling the stone ball and dirt wasn’t difficult but controlling them while trying to shift them into different shapes was a whole different beast. I raised my hand and the dirt rose once again. It swirled in the air and then flew towards me, circling me like it was in orbit.

[Mana 299/300]

My mana had taken awhile to regenerate fully. The demonstration yesterday with Indra had made me hold back my skill usage. I didn’t want people to figure out how much mana I had. I needed that item he said he would get me. Hopefully, he’d be able to do that by today.

I’d given some more thought to joining the scriber section. I would be meeting my father’s co-workers for the first time. I had to make a good impression.

That meant no dirt. Not just manipulating it. I was literally covered in dirt. I slept in a dirt bed, and when I fired dirt into the air it blew back to me, covering me in the stuff.

Cleaning myself up was priority number one.

I’d discovered something interesting while practising earth manipulation. The smaller the object I was trying to control, the harder. The tiny particles of dirt on my clothes and skin were impossible to remove. My control wasn’t good enough. That’s why my tendril of dirt had collapsed.

I took a deep breath and concentrated. I was smart, I could think of ways around that issue. The dirt patch rose into the air. I raised my hands and with the left I pulled apart half of the dirt, and the right hand dismissed the leftovers onto the ground. The part that remained flew towards my hand, and I placed it on top of my palm.

I ran it across my arm, willing it to pull in more dirt as I did so. When it reached my shoulder, I stopped. The dirt patch had grown to the maximum limit I could control. There was a clear line across my arm where it had passed through. I was clean.

Success.

I’d created magical soap. Sort of. It was more like a magical vacuum cleaner. As long as I was covered in dirt or pebbles then I could clean myself.

I giggled in delight.

This was the true power of magic. Once I’d mastered my earth manipulation skill, I’d be able to clean myself in an instant.

Perfect.

When my mother walked into the room to pick me up, she did a double take and grinned with delight. She lifted me up in her arms and celebrated by spinning me around.

“Absolutely incredible.” She took me into the main room, where my dad was ready with the inscriber. “You two are the cutest co-workers I’ve ever seen.”

“I’m cuter.” I huffed.

My mother laughed and ruffled my hair.

Words were becoming easier day by day, and although I still had some issues, it was still a big relief. Talking gave me some control over the things that happened around me. Not being able to communicate for months had sucked.

“You’re right.” My father took my clean appearance in stride. “We’ve got a busy day ahead of us.”

He tapped the top of the inscriber cube and the dull orange glow disappeared. It looked like an ordinary piece of metal now. My mother was reluctant to let me go, and my father had to pry me from her unwilling hands.

It wasn’t easy for her to have a baby with a full-time job.

“I’ll be fine.” “He’ll be fine.”

My father and I said in unison. My cheek brushed against the coarse material of his jacket as he held me in his arms. The breeze was warm as it brushed against my cheeks. A familiar stone ball hovered beside us as we walked. I’d decided not to take the dirt to work, but the stone ball was a must. I wanted to reach level two in earth manipulation as soon as possible.

Earth manipulation: level 1. 15%

The experience towards level two had exploded since yesterday. Part of it was my inability to use earth creation. The other part was that I wanted to annoy the puffer. The bird had woken me up by scratching on its rock. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

At this rate it would only take me a few days to reach level two.

The thought made me giggle. My father looked down at me and smiled.

“Excited for the big day, champ?” He misinterpreted my happiness.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “Dad’s friends?”

“They’re nice people.” My father assured me. “Well, nice and weird. You don’t really find too many normal people that want to become scribers.”

My father talked the entire way. Instead of going to the main compound, the scriber division was located just outside the east side of the living wall. The opposite side of the earth spire.

The building was easy to miss. I stared up at the inconspicuous door and frowned. A scriber building should be covered in symbols. That had been my image of it in my imagination. This was an office building.

My father opened the door, and we walked up a flight of stairs. They creaked with each step, groaning, and protesting at our weight.

Hey. I’m not fat. It’s hard for babies to get exercise.

My father walked up to another door beside the stairs. He knocked, and I heard a flurry of noise and footsteps from inside. My father smiled and then forced the door open, and we came face to face with two people.

“Champ, meet our scriber division.” My father ignored their surprised faces. “This is Cassandra, and Femew.”

I looked at the new people. These two would be my coworkers from now on. Cassandra had glasses.

Femew had… purple hair?

Weird. Or not weird? I don’t know enough about hair colour in this world.

“Hey.” Cassandra spotted me immediately.

“I thought you were on paternity leave?” Femew looked around in confusion. “Hi? Champ?”

I waved my hand at them, bringing his attention to me.

“Oh, a baby.” Femew looked at me. “Ew.”

“Excuse me? I’m adorable and you know it.” The words came out more garbled than I thought they would.

His eyes widened. “This baby can talk.”

“Googoo gaga.” I replied.

“You’re not going to trick me.” Femew pulled out a notepad with symbols drawn on it. He pointed at a page with the sun symbol, and another drawn on it. “Say fire. And lightning.”

“No.”

Femew looked at me in disbelief, then he turned to Cassandra. “Cheeky little bugger, isn’t he?”

“I’m just glad you finally have an equal to talk with.” Cassandra shrugged.

“He’s a baby!” “He’s not my equal!”

Our protests fell on deaf ears.

“You guys started a new project after I left, right?” My father interjected.

Cassandra brought out a notebook of her own. “Two new projects, actually. The initial one Zodiac gave us was to identify the origin of a symbol used in a ritual near Bindt.”

She flipped through the pages and showed one to me and my father. It was pretty simple, only three lines long, with some strange add-ons that made it look rougher.

Is this what a variation symbol looks like?

“We determined that it was originally a lightning symbol. I still have to determine what the variation does. We’ll be giving the report soon, but we wanted to confirm it with you first. Our second project is this.”

Cassandra stepped back towards the large box in the back of the room, and when she opened it, I was hit with a blast of cold air. It was a fridge. I hadn’t expected that. She grunted as she lifted a hunk of meat out of the fridge and Femew helped her drag it to my dad.

There was a symbol carved into the flesh.

“Marv told me we got the head.” My father bent down to examine the symbol. “Unknown?”

“Or lost.” Cassandra frowned. “We don’t know what it does, but the reports of the fight suggested a lot of blood absorption.”

Oh. I looked at the meat. It was part of the creature that Zodiac had gone to fight.

“I bet Athena is kicking themselves over this loss.” My father chuckled. “Put it back in the fridge. I’ll examine it today. You’ve made copies already?”

Cassandra and Femew nodded.

“I’ll be opening the observatory tomorrow.” Femew took over. “We’re hoping we can find an ancestry match if it’s a lost symbol.”

“Good. I’ll be joining you.” My father nodded. “Champ, you’re going to observe Cassandra for today. She’s going to be copying that lightning symbol variation and its root symbols all day. It’s a good chance for you to learn.”

I looked at the mousey girl. She nodded at me, completely fine with having a baby tail her for the day.

“Don’t let him fall or hit anything.” My father warned.

“I’ve got this.” She took me in her arms. “Okay, we’re going to get the boring stuff out of the way first.”

She swept me away, my father and the Femew disappeared as we walked past walls. We only stopped once we were in front of a desk full of papers. I looked at them curiously, each paper had a symbol drawn on them.

My dad wasn’t kidding when he said most of the work was drawing. Cassandra spent the next few hours drawing variance symbols and explaining them to me.

I also used the time to find information.

“Make regents here?” I asked.

Cassandra put down her pen and leaned back, relaxing, and massaging her wrist. I’d seen her go through three hundred symbols without stopping once.

“Technically, we can, but Zodiac has several armies. It’s much easier for them to use their factories. If we discover a new symbol or symbol variation, then we send them a template. It can be mass produced in the blink of an eye. Doing it ourselves would mean less time for research.” Cassandra adjusted her glasses.

“Oh. Okay.” I hadn’t expected it to be so modern.

What happened to the dream of blacksmithing in a fantasy world?

“You understood all that?” Cassandra tilted her head. “Well, don’t worry. We still handcraft some regents and onze. The really important ones, and pet projects. It’s the beauty of being a professional.”

We chatted happily. It was refreshing to meet someone that treated me like a normal person. She talked with me; unlike the others I’d met so far that talked at me.

The day flew by faster than I thought it would. Hundreds of lightning symbol variations flew through my brain, most of them forgotten immediately.

“Hey, champ.” My father leaned against the wall to Cassandra’s office. “Had a good day?”

It was already time to leave?

“Yes.” I motioned happily towards Cassandra’s desk.

She’d been a wonderful teacher, and she wasn’t rude like that Femew guy. He needed some dirt in his life.

My father grinned. “Good. I’ve just gotten the regent from Jackson. The one that they’re giving to you to practice.”

My fingers reached out into the air, grabbing towards my father. Symbols were fun, but magic was magic.

My father pulled something out of his pocket. It was a box. It had a fluffy blue exterior and a line that suggested it opened up in the middle. The kind of box that held a wedding ring.

Was my father proposing to me?

Just kidding.

I took the box. It was just big enough for me to hold in one hand. I examined it from top to bottom, but there was no secret compartment. It was just a box. This wasn’t what I was expecting.

My father laughed at my expression. “Here. I’ll show you how to use it.”

He opened the box and inside it had a yellow lining and white paint job. I stared at it curiously. Then my father motioned towards it.

“Use your magic.” He gestured.

“Okay.” I lifted my free hand and used earth creation.

The dirt sprayed into the box… and disappeared.

I stared at it in wonder. What just happened?

I shot more earth out, but everything disappeared as it touched the box’s interior. I stopped firing and looked up at my father. I wanted an explanation.

“It’s bigger on the inside. You can fire as much dirt as you want, and at the end of every week we’ll take the regent back and empty it out.”

My father closed the box.

“We call it an inventory regent. Or ‘inventory’ for short.”