The meeting had to be put on hold momentarily, and Nadia sent Jackal to look for the Inscriber, a certain Meridian, who was more learned in magical theory and could help bridge the gap in their misunderstanding.

Apparently, although she was very old and somehow knew Arthur’s name before he even woke up, Nadia wasn’t omniscient, and the academical side of magic wasn’t her field of interest. Whatever that was.

A few minutes of awkward chatter between the Elder and Arthur later, Jackal returned to the tent with another Oni in tow.

The man was different from the other of his species he had seen around the tribe, although he had the same blue skin colour as Nadia, which seemed to be quite rare in itself.

All Oni Arthur had seen until now were built tall and strong, with muscles to spare, even Nadia had a fair amount of muscle mass although she still radiated the look of an old lady.

The man before Arthur was very thin, even by human standards. His arms and legs didn’t resemble tree trunks, as Oni usually possessed, and his hands gave the impression of being built for fine work.

“I greet you, Elder,” he announced as soon as he entered the tent. Then, when Nadia acknowledged him with a nod, he turned towards Arthur, bowing his head slightly. “And you must be Arthur. It is a pleasure to meet you, my name is Miren, the Inscriber and scholar of this Royal Oni tribe.”

Arthur returned the head nod, and Miren continued.

“Hunting leader Jackal told me I was needed to clarify the difference between two types of magic disciplines, or something alike. Is that right, Elder?” He asked, directing the question towards Nadia.

“Precisely, Miren. As you can see by his hair, Arthur is a type of Life Mage… or we thought he was, but he claims differently. Arthur, if you can explain again what you were just saying?” Answered Nadia, redirecting the question to Arthur.

“Right, as I was telling Na- the Elder,” Arthur corrected himself, to make sure he didn’t appear disrespectful, “Magick is different from Magic, in that it uses the user’s Will as fuel for spells rather than his mana or Power.” He stated, hoping it would make sense to the person that was supposed to teach him in the near future.

Miren for his part looked thoughtful for a moment, before his eyes lit up in understanding.

“Ah, I see, I understand now. Yes, I know some things about Magick, although it’s a field of magic that is quite rare and more contained than normal Magic. It is always quite confusing, to understand that Magick users are just that, because they don’t have an alternative name, like Magic users, or Mages, do.” Miren exclaimed, launching himself in a bit of a lecture.

“Magick, as you rightfully said, uses Will as its fundamental force to influence this world, which makes it infinitely more malleable than Magic, but also almost impossible to pin down in a specific school. Unlike Magic, which is divided into hundreds of categories, making it easy to understand what spells one can learn, Magick has only a few dozen fields.

“Alas, I cannot teach you Magick, both because of the reasons above and because I myself have no knowledge of spells you could learn. Unfortunately, I also cannot teach you magic, because attempting to learn it in a body already tempered for Magick would end with… explosive results.” Miren ended with, disappointing Arthur slightly.

Nadia looked as if she was about to speak up, probably to renegotiate their terms, but stopped as Miren started up again with a thoughtful look on his face.

“Obviously, there would be nothing to stop you from learning to Inscribe, since you don’t use your own mana to work with the skill. If you wish, I am willing to teach you the skill, since the Elder has already struck a deal with you.”

Arthur thought about it for a second, seriously considering it, before he remembered seeing the runes written on the scuttle of what he was almost completely sure was a boat capable of sailing on land.

“Well, we agreed on me being your student from the start, even if it’s not exactly what we talked about it’s still more than good enough,” Arthur said, trying not to show his giddiness.

This was actually better in his mind, since if his hunch about skill Sets was right he would probably be able to learn more spells on his own, and this Inscribing appeared a good addition to his list of skills.

Nadia nodded, looking satisfied with the change in their deal, and Miren left shortly after when it was clear the Elder wanted to wrap things up with Arthur.

“Very well then, Arthur. Once again, as Elder of the Royal Oni tribe, I welcome you as our guest. Since we don’t have tents to spare, and Jackal is the only one apart from me living on his own, you will reside with him,” Jackal raised a hand as if to argue, but a sharp look from Nadia shot him down.

“For the rest of this cycle, eat and rest; if what you said about eating all that food made out of magic is true, you will need it. At new cycle the Patch will start migrating, and the tribe will be following after it, so I don’t expect much work for you apart from walking.

“After that, the following will be your schedule, whether you find it of your liking or not. In the waking period, Jackal will teach you, as agreed, in the usage of one weapon of your choosing, if we can provide them.” Nadia said, interrupting herself to see if he was still following and if he had anything to add.

Arthur actually wanted to ask what a cycle was, but he couldn’t find a way to without seeming completely ignorant, so he just addressed the next thing that came to mind.

“You don’t need to give me a weapon, I can make them myself.”

He heard Jackal snorting from beside him, and when Arthur turned the Oni asked with a bit more than a little sarcasm, “With what, bundles of grass?”

Arthur simply wiggled his fingers at him, and answered, “No, with magic,” and turned to Nadia.

“Arthur, you said the Potential Prism,” which was apparently the name of the big gem that had given Arthur his magick, “only gave you a single spell, [From Sand, Seed]. Does this mean there is more?” Nadia asked, scrutinizing him.

“No, it’s like I said, I only have that spell. But I can use it to grow various tools other than simple fruits, too,” Arthur answered, a bit confused as to why he needed to actually explain it.

“That’s… well, alright,” said Nadia with a sigh, probably not looking to drag the conversation even further, “This makes the second point easier then. From lunch to dinner, you will work with Quartermaster Stiff, and he will assign a task to you based on your capabilities.

“Finally, after dinner and when he is free, Miren will gladly teach you whatever he can and is willing to.” Nadia finished, and this time Arthur had nothing much to add.

As he got up to leave, Nadia spoke up again, “I almost forgot, Arthur. This is what remains of your spoils, from what we agreed on.” She took a pinkish marble the size of an eye out of the folds of her dress and held it out for him to take.

As he reached for it, Nadia added, “The monster core of a Larvae Queen. If I don’t err, Miren said it has the properties of ‘Reproduction’. You may find a use for it, if you study under him long enough.”

And with that, he was free to leave. They got out of the tent and walked back to the hunter’s home, because, Jackal’s words, “you can rest in the tent, where you won’t cause trouble”. Arthur didn’t argue, since he still felt quite tired, and now also kinda peckish.

When they got there and Arthur entered the tent, Jackal left, saying something about training, and that he was free to do whatever he wanted as long as he didn’t go out. He also told him dinner would be ready in a few tacks, at which point he would come for him, meaning it was currently this world’s equivalent of late afternoon. Probably.

In the tent Arthur had water, a bowl with some kind of white, chunky soup probably meant for him, and a lot of time on his hands, without much to do.

Since he didn’t think of grabbing some sand on the way in, he couldn’t even do anything with his Magick, and was reluctant to exit the tent now that he was in, mostly because of laziness but also because he didn’t want to cross Jackal.

Without anything else to do, Arthur helped himself to some soup, which didn’t taste as bad as he thought, and was in fact quite sweet and delicate.

He also took a look at his status screen, which he had forgotten to do since waking up, and found a nice surprise waiting for him.

Skills - [8/12 Slots Filled]

Rank

Level

Category

Desperate Dodge

Common

7

Active Skill

Sun Tolerance

Common

12

Resistance

Hide in Plain Sight

Uncommon

10

Ability

Magick of the Bountiful Oasis

First Invocation – From Sand, Seed

Rare

13

Magick Set

Self-taught Javelin

Common

10

Expertise

Ingenious Cobbling

Uncommon

7

Expertise

Adventurous Climb

Uncommon

5

Ability

Self-taught Spearmanship

Common

4

Expertise

Not only had most of his skills gained a couple of levels each, with his skill with the javelin finally joining the group of skills above level ten, but he had also finally gained a skill to use the spear, which was the weapon he had been using for the longest time.

He had no idea why it had taken so long for him to actually gain the skill, though he suspected it was probably because he had never actually trained with it and his last battle had been the longest he had ever used it, but it was still good that he had earned it in the end.

Well, he wasn’t sure if it was all that good, since there was still the problem of his skill slots rapidly depleting, and also the fact that now he didn’t know what would happen with Jackal. Would he be stuck with a ‘Self-taught’ skill? Did he have to pick up a new weapon?

His thoughts wandered for a while, as he sat with his back against one of the poles keeping the tent upright, and his right hand twirled the section of his hair that had changed colour thanks to his magic. Or so he had been made aware.

The hair itself didn’t feel different, and he had no way to check if it was actually gold or if Nadia had just been somehow messing with him with her magic, since he had seen almost no metal in the village apart from the weapon Jackal lugged around.

In fact, most of the village seemed to be built on three basic materials: pelts and skin from butchered creatures, grass woven into wicker or sheet of fabric, and chitin.

While he had first thought the inscribed boats, poles, and even carriages were made out of wood, they were actually made out of huge pieces of thick chitin, cut and glued together.

Most of the rigid tools were also made out of the stuff, even the pole of Jackal’s polearm, although the blade itself was either iron, steel, or another metal Arthur didn’t know. He wasn’t exactly a metallurgist.

Since there wasn’t much else to think about, Arthur laid back down in the pile of pelts he had first woken in an hour or so before. He wondered how many hours there were to a tack, but without an actual clock to check, he would have to try and guess during the following days.

He probably wouldn’t have much time though, if the schedule Nadia had laid out for him was as exhausting as it looked.