Chapter 14: An Endless Debt

Could he ever understand? Would he be able to? Would he ever know how great the debt she, First Princess Rhinese al voth Alda owed him?

It...was impossible for even her to express how monumental it was. Could a child ever express how great a debt they owed to their mother? Could a people define a debt owed to the king? Could any of the blessed races count how much they owed the Gods just for their [Blessing]?

Rhinese felt the same, she could never repay Crimson fully.

With his help, she felt that a path had opened up to her, one that she had closed off to herself, knowing that it would leave her weaker in the end, but with his help she had a head start that few would ever have, even Kaine wouldn't be able to get a greater head-start than her.

Crimson's touch sending his mana into her had been unnoticed, then she was suddenly able to feel it, and it felt unpleasant at first, then got worse, like someone was pouring a cold liquid into her body then sending it further in, it had felt so unpleasant she had wanted to yank away from his grip, but there was no way for her to get away, it was like there was something pinning her in place, preventing her from escaping.

When he had started retracting the cold after a long moment, she had felt something familiar and...warm replacing it, something that hadn't been there before she couldn’t pinpoint any specific location for it, but it was a rush of warmth flowing through her body.

He had pulled that warmth down her arm to her hand, then used his cold to push it out of her hand and do...something to it. As he'd done that "something," she'd had a certain feeling. It was hard to describe, but it was a feeling like nostalgia where it was slightly inexpressible, but it was also completely familiar. There wasn't any longing there, but a feeling of fun and even a bit of confidence, as well as a few other emotions.

Rhinese had stared at the pale green [Magic Light] in shock, before trying to re-create it. After a few seconds, she just couldn't get that warmth to follow what she wanted it to do -she just couldn't get the right feeling- so she turned to Crimson.

"Could you help me create a [Holy] one? I don't think I have any affinity for [Wind]."

After the words were out of her mouth she realized how much she'd overstepped her bounds, just what he'd been able to do so far would cost her thousands of Royals for a regular tutor over the course of months, which was worth far less than what he'd been able to do in minutes, he was certainly in the position to bleed her of all her personal savings and even a decent amount of the royal treasury, but to her shock he didn't even comment about cost or anything! He just reached out and grabbed that warmth that was sitting in her arm from her attempt to create a [Wind] [Magic Light] and easily formed it into a [Holy] one.

This one made sense to her, much more than [Wind]. It was firm and unyielding, she could feel faith, hope, and love wrapped through it - it was easily the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.

As she stared at the [Magic Light] she had felt happy, no - overjoyed! To the point of tears! It was easily one of the happiest moments of her life! To be able to cast magic, to be able to see hope for her future as something other than a puppet meant to be sold off to the most important lecher -even if she had made her peace with that- was something to make her happy.

The reason why Rhinese felt so unnaturally -by the standards of others- overjoyed could be explained by one of her beliefs: the fairness of the Gods. She believed that the Gods rewarded efforts - real efforts, not half hearted ones. Unfortunately, not everyone held the same belief, something that could be explained by two true stories.

The first is the story told of a man who decided to learn as many trades, skills, weapons, and magic as possible, to gain access to as many [Classes] as he could once he gained his [Blessing]. He wanted to see if he could gain rare or unusual [Classes] that would help him move up in the world, but once he gained his [Blessing] he only had five [Classes] to choose from, all of them very basic.

The second story is told of a woman who pursued the opposite, a single thing to the absolute extreme, she focused all of her efforts day in and day out on it for years, yet at the end she had over twenty [Classes] to choose from, many of them rare. Those who tried to re-create the miracle failed or succeeded on a minor level.

There were other stories, of course, of people who tread the happy medium and found themselves rewarded or left desolate, all seeming to prove the existence of fickle Gods who favored some over others, but Rhinese wasn't satisfied with that. It just didn't match her understanding of the Gods, especially the God of Truth and the Goddess of Darkness who -despite being polar opposites- had rather similar ideologies taught by their followers.

So she believed in fairness, that the Gods rewarded more to those who were truly devoted or cared, not those just seeking for the sake of greed. Those who tried to re-create the woman's success didn't care about the art they devoted themselves to, but to the end result of that art. Some tried the same thing as the man who tried everything and found greater success in it, which only served to reinforce the general perception of the Gods' will.

All this was confusing to her and everyone else, but she refused to believe that the Gods would not be fair. She believed that if she put in sincere time and effort she could truly rise above and be blessed for her efforts.

With Crimson's help, she could choose a different path than the one she was locked on to, but the hard thing with that was the fact that it would make it impossible for her to ever pay off her debt to him. The mere fact alone that she could feel any sense of “warmth” or “cold” meant that whatever he’d done probably increased her [Affinity] to [Mana] to an insane degree! The people even able to get a general sense for it like here were almost unheard of! Mere rumors that were secreted from many! She would have to inquire what she could do to pay off the debt.

Well, she wouldn't ask him for now; he'd agreed to sell her his time, so now it was time to negotiate the price, both for his time, and for her mana.

She wiped the tears out of her eyes and looked into his, he looked very uncomfortable, like a lost child. It was enough to make her giggle, to which he glared at her.

Easily reading what his eyes were telling her, she responded, "Sorry, sorry, but you just looked so funny there I couldn't help it!"

Rhinese glanced at Sariya to see that she was still glaring at Crimson.

Sariya was the type to hold a grudge until there was a reason to drop it, so it would probably be a while before the two would be on speaking terms.

Looking back at a glowering Crimson, Rhinese cleared her throat and spoke, "Well, about the matter of payment..."

Crimson nodded, "I'll accept your offer and will use my time in the Astral Library effectively, there are already a few books I have in mind to check out if you don't mind taking care of it immediately."

Rhinese smiled warmly, first the books? He truly was like her!

"Certainly, but before we go I'd like to know what else you want."

He gave her a look and said, "I told you what I want."

Rhinese felt a twinge of annoyance, "Yes, but what else do you want? Access to the Astral Library isn't enough as repayment. At most, I can take it as buying your time, that leaves me with two other things to pay you for!"

Really, she couldn't imagine what she'd need to give for his salary if he was going to be her teacher, the library could only cover his time, she'd need something for his actual teaching, and something for her mana being awoken.

He just gave her a blank look which just increased her irritation, "Two other things? What are you talking about? You've bought my time and my teaching with the Library, and awakening your mana just goes in hand with teaching you."

Rhinese placed her hand on his shoulder and reeled him in until their noses were almost touching, the fire in her eyes blazing, "The Library doesn't hold enough value to cover your time and your teachings, just the first one, and you certainly can't count awakening my mana under teaching me! This and that are two separate things!"

Crimson narrowed his silver eyes at her then, to her absolute shock, reached up and placed his index finger on her forehead and gently pushed her away, forcing her to release her grip.

Beside them, Sariya hissed a little and seemed to be reaching for a weapon of some kind, but a few finger flicks from Rhinese stopped her.

He then spoke, "Are you determined?"

Rhinese set her jaw and responded, "One thing I was taught was that everything has value, you show how much value you give that thing with how you pay for it. If you pay a low price, then it has a low value - if you pay a high price, then the value is high. This is regardless of the "actual" value. What I was taught was that I need to give something the value it deserves, it's a principle of my father.

"You may place the value of your time, your teachings, and your awakening as low, but I see the value for what it is, and I want to at least try to pay for what it's worth.

"The Astral Library only has enough value to buy your time, but not your teachings. For awakening my mana, the Astral Library is actually over paying since I could get practically anyone that has awakened mana, regardless of whether or not they have a [Blessing], with the proper knowledge to awaken it for me, the difference is just in the amount of time it takes for them to do that. Since you were able to do it with a single session in less than five minutes I'd value that at 5000 Royals. Would you accept that?"

Crimson gave her a look like she'd just forced a lemon into his mouth, then he croaked out, "I don't think it's worth that much..."

"Why are you arguing against yourself on this?"

"I have a hard time taking hand outs."

Rhinese nodded in satisfaction and put her hands on her hips, "Good, you'll have no issue with what I'm saying then, I'm just trying to pay a fair price. Usually, the practice of awakening mana involves repeatedly casting spells with the path of the spell traveling through a person -holding hands as an example- until the emotional wavelengths match up, a quite difficult process.”

He set his eyes firmly on hers for a long moment, then slowly nodded, "Very well, I can accept the price, please just know that I feel 5000 Royals is a bit high for a few minutes work. The guild was charging 500 Royals."

Rhinese snorted, "It would have taken them two months, 32 sessions, or 128 hours for that kind of price point. A high quality awakener usually costs 2000 Royals and takes 15 hours over the course of two weeks. That's what it cost my brother."

Rhinese watched with some amusement as the wheels in his head turned for a moment, then he nodded to accept her words.

"Fair."

Rhinese smiled happily, "Good! Now, for your teachings?"

"I will need to think about that, you'll also need to see the value of my "teachings" before you decide."

Rhinese sighed, she had wanted to it all taken care of -as much as possible for an impossible to pay debt- immediately, but what he said was true. For herself, Rhinese didn't believe that waiting to see what he had to teach would decrease the value like he seemed to think - she thought it would actually increase the value. Only time would tell.

——

The next few months seemed to drag slower than ever; he had seven months remaining until his birthday, but it couldn't seem any further away.

During that time, Crimson had maintained a firm schedule that was only rarely interrupted by annoying...encounters, occurrences, and events.

Simply, he had to carry his bokken at all times. One of the requests he'd taken had forced him to travel through the slum Phases to find a lost little girl, he'd had a run in with a gang while there, and since then they'd been in a small scale war with one another.

It wasn't like he hadn't tried to diffuse the situation, but that he'd failed miserably in the attempt and had been forced to fight back when they attacked.

Since all of them were under Lv. 5 it had been pretty easy. He'd broken some bones -theirs- called the guards, and walked away scot-free. Well, it turned out that they had friends - a lot of them. So every time they saw Crimson they'd showed an apparent lack of awareness as they’d launch an attack no matter who or what was around. Fortunately, the attacks had dropped off quite a bit after the first few weeks, but the downside was that Crimson had been followed for quite a while.

The only reason Crimson was able to notice the person following him was because they were using a very wasteful stealth-type [Skill] which made them very easy for him to detect. The [Skill] was just constantly bleeding mana from -what he assumed was- inefficient usage.

Well, with that person following him the guards had shown up quite quickly after each run in and the only time he'd run into a gang member over Lv. 10 someone had stepped in to interfere.

While he was grateful, being followed had forced him out of the secret passages out of a desire not to reveal them. Normally, that would have crushed his ability to do delivery requests, but he'd gotten pretty good at using the rooftops to get around, that was only a bit slower than the secret passages by this point.

He'd also gotten quite a bit better at jumping and climbing as a side note.

Crimson had noticed something annoying about delivery requests though: they were dropping off.

Most businesses couldn't afford to hire an Adventurer like him too often, so when someone who actually took delivery requests showed up, a lot of them had been withdrawn after the first few times he'd finished them.

There was an interesting balance between usability and expense for these businesses. For one: hiring an adventurer allowed them to catch up or even get ahead of schedule, but on the other hand: putting out requests too often would actually put them in the red financially.

The businesses out there would STILL hire him, even if it was usually just once a week or every other week depending on the business. The only one that dared to hire him twice a week was Hunnie's Tailoring, but they had enough business that it actually made quite a bit of sense to hire him that much.

It was unfortunate, but he was only able to make 1585 Royals in those two months of delivery requests, versus the 1350 in his very first month. Rather frustrating to see such a drop off like that, but what could he do?

Well, what he did was turn his attention away from delivery requests to a few other odd jobs requests (342 Royals), then to scribing requests.

From the three months of scribing requests he'd done, he'd made 7,000 Royals. Which was nice, but he was starting to face the same problem as delivery requests. Not only that, but he was starting to become enemies with the other [Scribes] since he wasn't only taking their income, but their XP.

He'd actually made the conscious decision to hold off on the scribing requests -a little- earlier that week when he'd heard some of the other [Scribes] crying in the guild bar after he'd completed four requests within a week.

He was left scratching his head about what to turn to next, but he'd been eyeing apprenticing requests - less for the money, more for the experience, but he still certainly needed the money.

It was an unfortunate reality that, even with over 10,000 Royals in his account, he still didn't have enough money. The katanas he was looking at had a range between 8,000 and 10,000 Royals, so he definitely didn't have enough for armor or stilettos after that. If he could maintain the current pace to his birthday he wouldn't have an issue, but his gains were dropping off intensely quickly, so by his own projections he would probably only have 25,000 Royals or so by his birthday - definitely not enough for the quality he wanted.

Certainly, if he wanted to get lower quality equipment he could find stuff at a lower price point, but he wasn't exactly one to cheap out on equipment. If it was any indication of the quality he found tolerable: most Adventurers got their starting weapon on a loan for about 500 Royals. Crimson's standards were way higher than that - he didn't want to be replacing his weapon with every level.

His concerns with money aside, everything was going well. His training with Mars was pushing forward and he was actually able to trade blows with the bear-kin. Well, he WAS. Mars stopped decreasing his stats as much as he did in the past and started using a few more [Skills] which had widened the gap between them once more. The upside to that was that he finally finished [Dancing Autumn Leaf] which turned out to only be a step above the basic "[Adventurer's Style]" in quality, so he'd been rejoicing when he found [Cruel Tempest] in the Astral Library which was a big step up from [Dancing Autumn Leaf].

He'd also finished Chapter 7 of [Vengeful Flash] which increased his staying power in a fight with Mars an insane amount, and pairing that with a Chapter 9 version of [Twin Steps] almost let him get hits on the bear-kin with his efficient counters, all backed by a -recently gained- Chapter 2 version of [Amzair].

Progress with [Amzair] was insanely slow, but if he could just reach Chapter 3 he believed that he could at least get Mars once before the bear-kin raised his stats again.

As far as his time with Verity went, it was quite a bit more successful - even if it had been a few weeks since they last sparred. She had a tendency to get cocky which was easy for him to take advantage of, plus the fact that she was a far less skilled fighter than Mars with far fewer [Skills] that were all of a lower level. It wasn't like he could thrash her or anything, she was still tens of levels above him, but it was like trying to climb a tall mountain instead of a sheer cliff on the tallest mountain in the world.

The downside to that was her latching onto him more strongly. Whenever he used the guild library to study she'd always magically show up which made things difficult. He was trapped using the library so people wouldn't question where he was getting all the books he had, but it was still annoying for him to deal with the interference.

Verity also kept trying to get him to buy her lunch, but it wasn't going to happen. He was doing everything he could to keep his expenses low. He'd even dropped himself to two meals a day and was considering one. He already forgot to eat with some level of frequency, so it probably wouldn't make much of a difference. Being hungry all the time was annoying, but his stomach had finally shrunk, so it had gotten better.

The only time he could say that he got three good meals were every Highday when he was spending time with Rhinese.

He'd show up first thing in the morning, snuck into the Astral Library via the secret passages, was given a plate of fruit from a grumpy Sariya, and spent some time reading until Rhinese showed up after Damus finished with her.

Rhinese would read and Crimson would split his time between practicing and reading. For himself, he was less worried about practicing there -he could check out books now- but it served as good practice for Sariya.

She'd clued him into her [Class] and he'd been helping her train her [Skills]. She'd ended up taking [Shinobi] which was an assassin type class which used/required a high affinity for [Purity].

Apparently, his time with her was helping her [Skill] levels to shoot up extremely fast - even at Lv. 3 she just wasn't a match for him, so he was enjoying the position Mars had over him for her.

She mostly focused on the knife, so it was also a good opportunity for him to practice facing someone using a knife, and for her to face a sword.

They were forced to hold back a bit during training sessions so as to not cause significant injuries where there were no healers around, but it was mainly Crimson holding back. He was too used to being forced to fight above his own limits, so restricting himself felt uncomfortable.

Regardless, Crimson was helping her on all accounts to improve, so she had warmed up to him fairly quickly. Combat training wasn't even their favorite type of training together - it was stealth.

Sariya's stealth [Skill] was the thing to see the most improvement in their time together because he could detect it. Since she was forced to be more and more careful the [Skill] level had shot right up and she was close to hitting Lv. 10 with it.

Since Rhinese didn't want to know what kind of [Class] Sariya had -for some reason- the fox-kin had informed him far away from her mistress that when she’d maxed her stealth skill, she'd try to evolve it - even if her odds of doing so weren't very good.

Crimson had stared at her in confusion when she'd said THAT. What part of [Skill Evolution] or [Skill Advancement] was random? From his talk with Raften, he knew that it was a matter of concentrated effort and intention. So if these people stepped back and let the "gods" bless them with the opportunity, then of course they wouldn't progress; it's like waiting for a house to build itself!

The only way a [Skill] could [Evolve] or [Advance] would be if you made an earnest effort with focused intentions and kept pushing yourself to achieve it. From there, other conditions had to be met, but the conditions would be laid out when the first step had been completed.

He'd told all that to Sariya who'd immediately asked where he'd heard that, to which he'd responded "research." She didn't really believe him, but he'd convinced her to try with the argument that she wouldn't lose anything by trying.

He could only hope that she would try, she was sorta like Rhinese's bodyguard and he didn't fancy losing either of them. He'd ended up befriending them both, so suddenly they became important to him on a personal level, which marked the moment he started to push Sariya harder than ever to improve.

With a sigh, Crimson stepped back from a Sariya who was flat on her back in a very un-lady like position on the ground.

Her face was completely coated in sweat and her chest was heaving from the force of her breathing.

As a contrast, Crimson's breathing was even and he only had a few drops of sweat on his forehead.

Well, it wouldn't take long for Sariya to recover. Even if her [Class] skimped on [CON] it had plenty of [VIT], so she recovered quite a bit faster than he did.

Crimson extended his hand to her, "Need help?"

She shook her head slowly like it weighed a hundred pounds, "No, I want to stay here for a while, the floor is nice and cold."

With a shrug, Crimson retracted his hand then started making his way to the back of the first floor of the library where Rhinese had set up home base.

Approaching her, she didn't have her nose two inches from a book like usual, but she was morosely staring at the ceiling while deep in thought.

Tracing her sightline, Crimson made a dim [Magic Light] appear at the edge of his new 17 foot range in the direction she was looking which made her jump slightly, then she looked at him.

"Oh, hi Crimson. How did it go with Sariya?"

He folded his arms, "It went well. What is going on with you?"

She airily waved her hand, "Nothing. Anyway, I think I might finally be able to finish the fifth level of [Magic Light] today! Well, finish at your standards, if we went by a regular tutor's standards we would already be on Lv. 6, maybe even 7."

Crimson's eyes bored into hers without relenting, which made her start shifting to avoid them. She tried and failed to speak a few times during the next minute before she gave up.

"Fine! I'll tell you."

Crimson nodded.

"I really hate when you communicate like that you know, your eyes were telling me: "Rhinese, you wanted me to be your friend! Well, friends help each other out. You need to tell me so that I can help you." blah, blah, blah! Can't you just say all that out loud?"

In amusement, Crimson just responded with another pointed look, to which she responded by throwing her hands up in the air and said, "Fine fine! I'll get to the point! No need to be so pushy."

She took a deep breath, "My older brother -Kaine- The Regent Prince just announced his [Class] to the family. It's tradition for the upper class to wait a 2 to 6 months before announcing their [Class] so that they have time to train and [Level] since "friendly" duels are common."

The air quotes around "friendly" were practically palpable.

"Since Kaine announced his [Class] after just two months a lot of people will take it as a challenge, but I'm not worried. He got a High-Grade [Class], the Gods have truly blessed him."

Crimson tilted his head, "So what's the problem then?"

Rhinese started biting her lower lip a little, "He used his [Bloodline] to help him..."

She appeared to zone off for a second before snapping to her self as she seemed to realize what she said, "Not that I'm saying using a [Bloodline] is a bad thing! In fact, I'd say the opposite! If he hadn't used his [Bloodline] to gain the best possible [Class] then I would condemn him for stupidity, but...the issue is that it's just a reminder for me."

Crimson gently sat down next to her and did his best to show how supportive he felt through his body language - speaking felt like a bad move.

Rhinese continued, "I...don't like my [Bloodline]. The men of my family all have a high affinity for [Water] and [Ice], but the women all have a high affinity for [Holy]."

Noticing his confused look, she said, "It's not that I dislike having a [Bloodline], what I hate is that it forces me to choose a path I don't want to take! If I want to become strong, strong as I can be, then I need to take a [Holy] affinity [Class]. Look at Kaine, with our [Bloodline] he was guaranteed of a Mid-Grade [Class] at the minimum, but only if he took something related to [Water] or [Ice]. This is something my family knows from records, no one ever gets a Low-Grade [Class] unless they turn away from their [Bloodline], but not only that: Kaine also received a greater blessing from the Gods and even gained a High-Grade [Class]."

Rhinese fell silent and Crimson sat back.

The longer he'd spent with her, the more he realized how trapped she was. He'd felt that connection with her those months ago because he realized that she was trapped, differently from the way he had been, but trapped none the less. Their time together since then had only reinforced the opinion further and further until it felt like an unmovable mountain, now he had the flag to put on top of it with this last detail.

After a long moment of thought, Crimson stood and wove through the rows of shelves, past Sariya who was still on the ground, to the stairs where he grabbed a book off the third floor before returning to Rhinese.

Slamming down in front of her on the table, she jumped and glared at him. He ignored the glare and questioned, "What do you know about [Rituals]?"

The glare easing from confusion, Rhinese spoke, "Well, aren't [Rituals] something in the [Blessing] which allows us to gain unusual abilities that are available to everyone?"

"The vagueness of your response shows that you've never looked into them."

Rhinese winced a little.

Crimson opened the book and began to page through it slowly while he continued to speak, "I'll speak to your understanding, [Rituals] are a sacrifice to the Gods preformed through your [Blessing]. You are right that performing them allows us to be gifted with special abilities. One I've seen personally, a common and easy one to get I might add, is a [Stat Limiter] which allows you to reduce a specific stat by a certain amount from its true value for each time you purchase it. It's not a permanent effect and can be changed quite freely, but it is still very useful."

In layman's terms, [Rituals] were the [System Store] where goods were bought with special monster materials instead of money.

Continuing his explanation Crimson said, "The interesting thing about [Rituals] is that we don't know them all. There are only a few available when you first gain your [Blessing] and the amount doesn't increase with time, [Levels], [Skills], or anything else. The interesting thing with that, is all [Rituals] CAN be preformed from step one, only so long as you have the proper materials. They just aren't listed in the [Blessing], so most people never discover new ones. Though in rare cases your [Level] or other factors does influence them.“

Rhinese nodded with a curious expression, "I never knew that, but...why are you telling me this?"

Crimson gestured at the open page in front of him, "This book lists a few of the recipes for [Rituals] that aren't already in the [Blessing]. Specifically, these [Rituals] are for increasing [Affinities]."

Rhinese froze for a long moment, then gasped with she realized what he was saying. Crimson was torn between annoyance and amusement as he noted that even when gaping like a fish, the First Princess was still the most beautiful girl he'd ever met.

With a broad smile, Crimson asked, "So, which affinity do you want to increase?”

——

Since Rhinese was too stunned to learn magic that day -or even respond to his question- Crimson decided to work on [Resonance]. He'd been unable to cast it as of yet, but he felt he was close.

It was an extremely interesting art to cast magic through movement, he could feel the spell be partially formed while still within his body, only for the process to continue on the surface of his skin, but he was still missing that last step to get the spell to work.

The annoying thing was, he learned the first level of [Kindle], [Gather Water], [Erosion] [Breeze], [Spark], [Orient], [Heat], and [Chill]. All in less than a day each, but [Resonance] had him completely hung up.

Well, amid the frustration was excitement. If he could just get the hang of [Resonance] it would open up a whole new realm of possibilities.

After some practicing and feeling like he was just missing something for a few hours, Crimson walked back over to Rhinese to see if she'd come out of her shock yet.

Fortunately, she had, but it appeared she told Sariya what he'd told her, so the fox-kin was currently occupying the role Rhinese herself just escaped with her tail drooped to the ground and her ears laying against her head with her mouth open.

He didn't know why they acted like this every time he told them something new, but it was a consistent behavior, hopefully they'd finally get used to new reveals so that they could stop wasting time in the future.

Rhinese glared at him as he walked up then accused him, "Are you doing this on purpose?"

"Doing what?!"

"Making things hard for me!"

Crimson felt more than a little hurt as he responded, "I'm just trying to help, you're the one that asked!"

"I'm not talking about that! We still haven't agreed on a price for you teaching me, now you throw this in! Are your trying to kill me?"

Oh, so it was one of her weird stubborn moods. No point in arguing with her without a good reason, better to just dodge and move on.

"Well, that aside, did you get the list of materials you need for the affinity you want?"

Rhinese glared at him for a moment before "hmph-ing" then responded, "Only technically. There are different material requirements required for different levels, and it only has up to rank 7, so there's quite a bit of room for me to gather them. The issue comes in the fact that I don't know how strong my current affinity is to the one I want to raise, so even if I gather all the materials if it turns out I'm rank 4 with the affinity not 5 like I'm assuming, then it'll make things difficult."

Crimson shrugged, "It's not a big deal. Just a bit of extra time that will be worth it to you in the end if this truly matters to you."

Rhinese nodded slowly, her expression brightening. "I still have 7 months to my birthday too! There should be enough time for me to gather all this!"

Crimson smiled, "Good, since you're in a better mood, we can finish Chapter 5 of [Magic Light] today."

Rhinese nodded excitedly and moved to practice with him watching her like a proud parent.

It was true, she had finished Chapter 5 of [Magic Light], but Crimson wanted her to be able to cast the spell silently without using any keywords like people normally do.

Since casting [Magic] with the "normal" method is all about imagery, people found short cuts to assist, like word association. Crimson disapproved, he wanted Rhinese to be able to cast the spell silently since it would be a greater help to her in the end, and she agreed since she had a weird sense of pride when it came to his suggestions.

They continued to work to the end of the day and Rhinese was able to finish Chapter 5 to his standard and start Chapter 6 right before it was time to go. He said goodbye and left.

A quick night in his Inn after finally finishing Chapter 10 of [Gather Water] after so long putting it off -easily the most useful of the basic elemental affinity spells- Crimson showed up at the oddly crowded guild first thing in the morning to a devastating piece of news: A Natural Dungeon had been found near Falst.