I was making progress with my magic lessons and my quality time with Grohm was starting to bear results. He also had me follow his classes even though I didn’t have the prerequisites. He must have interceded with the Academy to make it happen.

I was glad and all, but…

「Grohm: Haaah. Your spells lack finesse! Do it again!」

Grohm screamed at me for the millionth time.

「Allen: Really, this is the… hundred-something time, I need a break!」

I complained, grimacing at the unfairness of the task.

Grohm hit my hands with a stick. HngrrrHMff… do not kill. Do not kill.

「Grohm: No breaks. A dozen more times at least. Yes.」

He commanded, standing there on my left with his demanding stare.

Do. Not. Kill. I resisted the urge to tear his limbs apart.

I took a deep breath.

「Allen: … Okay.」

I said and erased my spells from the silver practice ring to start again. I was supposed to make it produce a different colored light depending on the wielder’s emotions. It sounded pretty easy.

Turns out I was wrong. Not only have I to accomplish that but I also need to lower the mana consumption under a certain threshold… and the spells must be “elegant”. I’m still not sure what the fuck that means. Also, for added “fun” I even have a time limit.

I started the process again.

「Grohm: NO!」

He screamed in my ears making me wince.

I tensed up.

「Allen: What now?!」

I said with exasperation, my clenched fist lying on the table.

「Grohm: You don’t listen! The spell is not elegant… not harmonized. Can’t you feel the dissonance ?」

Grohm paced back and forth waving his hands in the air. But those words meant nothing to me.

「Allen: I don’t get it, what’s with this harmonized deal?」

I let the ring fall on the table and shrugged my shoulders in defeat. I just didn’t get it.

Grohm stared at me with a dumbfounded face.

「Grohm: How can you not now ?! Gah! Let me think how to explain. Hmmm. Shameful indeed…」

He started stroking his beard, gaze unfocused.

Unreasonable expectations. I silently mouthed a string of curses.

「Grohm: Hmmm. Ah! Yes. That could work.」

Ha showed me an all-knowing smile and seated on the chair next to me.

「Grohm: Follow my instructions closely… first, cast a light over your left hand.」

I did so and looked at him for confirmation. He nodded.

「Grohm: Yes, now cast another over your right as well, at the same time.」

I cast the second light. Both my hands were holding mana lights.

Multicasting the same magic wasn’t as hard as with different spells. It was just like moving both your hands in the same or opposite ways.

「Allen: Done.」

I said, wondering what would come next.

「Grohm: Well. Yes. Now get them closer to each other.」

He said, motioning me to get on with it.

As they got closer I started to feel some kind of humming from my mana senses. It was like two guitar chords vibrating together.

「Allen: I feel a… humming?」

I said looking at him for confirmation.

Grohm slapped his left hand on the table.

「Grohm: Yes! Maybe there’s hope. Hmmm. How does it feel, exactly ?」

He spurred me on.

I tried paying attention. It was as if it was pulsing irregularly like… wait, is this what he meant with dissonance?

Now that I think of it… it’s just like when you strike dissonant chords, or the guitar is not properly tuned.

「Allen: Ah! I think I’m starting to understand…」

I said as my brain started making connections.

Grohm stroked his beard eyeing me warily.

「Grohm: Hmmm. Do you? Bring them closer still. Yes. Now if you say you understand, harmonize them.」

I tried “tuning” the spells making them resonate at the same “frequency”. As they did, they suddenly got brighter. Woah! My eyebrows shot up in surprise.

But it was a shaky balance, it wasn’t easy to keep it steady.

Grohm nodded and spoke.

「Grohm: Good enough. Now you understand, yes? Magic is like music, to make spells play well together you need to harmonize them. This is the basis of combining multiple magics, and also working with constructs!」

He was agitating his hands pointlessly. I had already gotten the point.

「Grohm: Moreover, harmonized spells are stronger and consume less mana! Obviously, one has to pay attention to unwanted resonances with complex structures… but I’ll explain that during the classes. Yes. Now resume the enchantment, this time harmonizing your spells.」

He stood back up leaving me to my work while he returned his attention to his own.

I sighed, dispelled the lights and got back to work.

It took four more attempts to please Grohm.

「Grohm: Ahhh, finally! Let’s see. Hmmm.」

I gave him the enchanted ring. He nodded, stroking his beard.

「Grohm: Hmmm. Much better… this is acceptable. Yes.」

I took a sigh of relief.

「Grohm: Enough for today. You go and practice, yes ?」

He waved in dismissal, turning back on his work.

「Allen: Yes, thank you.」

I bowed and left the Academy. I was starting to feel the mental fatigue.

By the way, I had tried joining the Alchemists’ Guild but they denied me. Apparently, I needed to first get an Intermediate Alchemy certification and a letter of recommendation.

Well, there goes my plan for getting real experience to improve my potions.

I was just a week in with the new classes. Telekinesis was going well enough, I had finally figured how to move a strip of paper about one millimeter away while the other students were being smug showing off their greater achievements.

Emotion magic was much easier, I managed to project Fear on my sparring partners with ease. It was me being smug there, albeit I only really excelled with Fear. I wonder if I can get good enough to make people piss themselves. That would be fun.

I can see some good opportunities from this kind of magic, I could forcefully make myself determined when I felt lazy, or calm if I lost my shit. I can force myself to grind like a Korean gamer! There were a lot of possibilities.

Alchemy keeps being boring. There’s a lot of normal chemistry mixed in. Ugh. I really only care about the magical part of it, but whatever, it all goes into my magical database.

Speaking about my silver cube, I made progress on my game-like interface but I have just a little problem. I’m afraid I’ll have to use a magic construct autonomous enough to make an assessment of stats and skills. That would take away a very big chunk of the magic potential available in the cube.

For the moment I’ll just make do with a simple one for tracking the amount of mana I have, the rest will have to wait.

Once I learn from Grohm how to make magical constructs capable of creating spells by themselves, I can turn the cube into a manufacturing device. Then I’ll be able to quickly assemble a magical processor in other items. I had wasted countless hours to make the one in my silver cube, I wasn’t eager to do it manually from scratch.

I need to buy an adamantium ring. Even something as small as a ring should hold four times the mana potential of my silver cube. That’s a lot, plus I can keep it on my fingers.

It was time to pay Vargas, my merchant food-obsessed friend, a visit.

I walked outside his warehouse and knocked at the door.

「Allen: It’s me, Allen.」

I announced myself, wondering if he was inside.

「Vargas: Ah! Come in Allen.」

I walked in and saw Vargas sitting at his desk. He lifted his face to look at me.

「Vargas: Ahhh, bookkeeping is a huge waste of time, all these calculations… how can I help you ?」

He pushed the paper pile aside and smiled.

「Allen: Calculations huh? I might be able to build a device to help with that. Not yet, but soon.」

I replied. Once I can mass-produce processors, making a calculator is a piece of cake.

「Vargas: Really? That would help a lot! Ah… speaking of devices…」

Vargas raised a finger.

「Allen: Yes ?」

I asked. Did he want me to enchant something?

「Vargas: You had left me your magnetic board prototype. I had the chance to showcase it to a few clients of mine and they expressed some interest. I’m sure we can make some money from it, I just need to secure a shipment of lodestones and strike a deal with a manufacturer. I’ll start with 25 pieces.」

Vargas rubbed his hands as he said that.

Right, I had left it to him. With my silver cube, I really didn’t need that stuff anymore so I asked him to sell it off or something.

「Allen: Sounds good, I’ll leave that matter to you then. I never expected to make money off of such a simple thing.」

It’s just a magnetic board.

「Vargas: You’ll see… we’ll promote it as a premium product. I’m sure the nobles will be ecstatic of not having to use tacks and cork like the commoners. Also, with a good woodcarver and quality materials, we will hit the mark!」

Vargas spoke, staring at the ceiling, probably picturing deals and incomes.

Yeah, how terribly exciting.

「Allen: Nice! But that was not why I came here.」

I stopped him before he started discussing the details. He turned his gaze back to me.

「Vargas: Oh? What’s on your mind, my friend?」

He asked, raising his eyebrows.

「Allen: I was wondering if you could get me a plain adamantium ring at a good price. I need it for my magic studies.」

I said, trying to hide the longing in my voice. With that much magic potential in such a compact size, I could do a hella lot of things.

「Vargas: Hmmm, let me check…」

He shuffled around his papers for a few minutes.

「Vargas: Ah! there it is. Yes, I have a shipment coming this week. I usually sell them for 14 gold coins… but since it’s you, I’ll only ask for 7 gold coins. Do we have a deal?」

He smiled and proffered a hand to shake.

Holy shit, 14 gold coins for such a tiny piece of unenchanted metal?! And that’s the reseller pricing. I’m glad I’m friends with Vargas.

I didn’t think twice and shook his hand.

「Allen: Deal! Oh… and another thing…」

Vargas raised an eyebrow. I searched my pouch for what I was looking for. There it is.

「Allen: Here, take these.」

I said passing him a few sheets of paper.

「Vargas: What is it ?」

He furrowed his brows while looking at the papers.

「Allen: Do you remember our talks about my quest to find my homeland’s flavors ?」

I showed him the pictures and notes I had drawn beforehand. Vargas was the only person exceptionally motivated in helping me with this.

「Allen: I drew a few pictures and descriptions of certain fruits, vegetables, and seeds. If during your travels you can find any of these, I will show you even tastier recipes!」

I promised him. He looked at me with sparkling eyes.

「Vargas: Oh my! Now we’re talking! Just last week I tasted…」

Oh no. He began with the food talk. I knew he would!

I screamed internally but managed to keep my smile through all of it.

Eventually, he ran out of steam and I managed to flee.

I knew the dangers of talking about food with him. It never seemed to end, every second felt like an eternity.

To make it worse, all the food talk had made me hungry.

FOOD.

I headed toward my restaurant at a quick pace.

Until I heard a woman’s scream. At which I froze.

It came from a shady alley to my left.

A shady alley.

Bad things happening in a shady alley? What a surprise! It’s common sense.

Should I go and check? It was probably wiser to just ignore it and let the city guards handle it. Besides, it might be a trap to attract dumb do-gooders and rob them blind.

I stole a glance at the alleyway. But what if the woman is in actual danger? I scratched my chin.

Damn it. For some reason, I felt queasy at the thought of just walking away.

Did the kids rub off their misguided goodness on me?

I sighed. Fine!

I needed to blow off some stress from the Grohm’s lessons and Vargas food monologues, anyway.

Hmmm, I could try that.

A smile crept onto my face as I ventured into the dangerous alleyway.

I started weaving mana into a big illusion.

As expected it devolved into a nightmarish mess, but I wasn’t aiming for control. What surprised me were the illusory voices talking about food.

Yep, I was really hungry. I hope this won’t take too long.

There were noises coming from the turn just ahead.

I made a slow entrance, to make sure the illusion wouldn’t move beyond my body leaving me in plain sight.

There was a man holding a knife to a woman’s throat. He turned his head my way and paled.

For added fun, I shortly projected Fear at him. Since letting the illusion go wild didn’t require much concentration I managed to cast it simultaneously.

The woman rolled her eyes and fainted.

Whoops! Did she faint due to the illusion or the projected Fear? I was still too inexperienced to be able to target specific people.

The bad guy was shaking and whimpering, he let the woman fall and stepped back until he hit the wall.

He was totally panicked! This is fun!

I moved my arm as if to reach for him and countless illusionary tendrils moved in accord.

The guy pissed his pants and started running. I had to hold off my laughs.

Then I turned to my right.

Huh.

I was surprised to see the trio. What a coincidence. What were they doing here?

Grastel and Namrick were brandishing knives with Ellin right behind them. Closer to me there were five other people dressed like thugs. It seems they had picked up a fight against my friends.

Everyone was looking at me with confused an fearful faces.

Fuck off. I projected another wave of Fear, a strong one.

The illusion made an appropriate comment about food and I took a few steps forward, menacingly.

The thugs broke in a panicked run, completely ignoring the trio who remained still, facing toward me.

Namrick seemed ready to fight.

I waited until the thugs left my line of sight then I grinned and let the illusion dissipate.

With this short stunt, I had depleted all of my mana, but it was worth it.

The look on my friends’ faces was priceless.