I guess we should start with introductions. Full name? Nah, let’s not be overly formal. “My name is Lars. You probably know this already, but your… father?” Neither of them objects.

“…has hired me as a tutor in magic for the next couple days. From your whispering and comments earlier it sounds like you have some idea of what I’ve done and can do, too. Aside from introductions, I’d like to know of your abilities, and what you want to learn.”

“I’m-” “My name-” They start at the same time, but come to a wordless agreement, with the girl speaking first.

“My name is Silje. I can use magic, but I’m not very good, so I want to become better. Uhm, you’re ‘Eikelash’ on YouTube, right?”

“Yeah. You’ve seen my videos?”

“Uh-huh! They’re super useful! I’m a Patron and saw the poll. You should make more tutorials, but also vlogs! Did you really fly to Denmark? How does it feel to fly?”

“Uh, Flying is very… exciting. At least, the act of flying. Flying to Denmark got a bit monotonous since I was travelling, as opposed to just enjoying flying.”

“Uhm, I’m Tom. I’m really bad at magic, but I really wanna turn into a werewolf, like you. Can you teach me that? Can you really turn wolves into werewolves too? Can you do that with dogs? You were on the Magic Mic, right?”

Woah, slow down! “Well, uhh, let’s start with the werewolf part. Werewolves are people with lycanthropy, which curses them to become wolves or wolfmen at full moon. At least traditionally in stories. What I do is simply to shapeshift-”

I demonstrate. “-into what I call a wolfkin form. Full control, and I can be more or less human or wolf, or even add in something else.” I form scales on my arms, then revert to human form.

“I can do it to other people, or other species for that matter. If you saw me on the Magic Mic you’ve probably seen Tåke. She’s… well, a ‘beast companion’. She was a wolf, and I’ve taught her the magic I use to shapeshift. She’s been in wolfkin form after she found out how to take on the form.”

Tom’s face is practically glowing. “So you can turn me into a were-uh-wolfkin?”

“I could. Would be better to just teach you how to do it yourself. That way you can transform back, too.”

“Meh, I don’t need that. I just wanna become a werewolf.”

“Still not going to shapeshift you unless you can undo it.” I turn to Silje. “As for flying, as far as I’m concerned I’m at your full disposition while hired, so if that’s what you want to spend the time on, I could teach you how to do that.”

“To truly fly you need a flight form, but I already plan on selling sessions where I shapeshift someone into a flight form and teach them how to fly, then have them fly for a while. There are some safety concerns, though.”

That’s enough chatting for now. “But that’s enough chatting for now. I would like to see how good you are at actually using magic. Do the both of you have [Mana Manipulation]?”

Sigh. There is a lot of work to be done. Silje is… not terrible, but still bad at [Mana Manipulation]. She is better than me at elemental magic (not that I’ve particularly practiced that) and even invented a form of [Plant Magic] she can use to control or affect plants and their growth a bit.

Tom, on the other hand, has somehow managed to get [Mana Manipulation] without [Mana Perception], and while he is marginally better at manipulating mana, he has zero control outside his own body. The only other magic he has is [Body Magic], and so far he can make his hair grow slightly faster and longer. He doesn’t even have the [System] fully unlocked, having no classes.

In other words, first order of business will be to get Tom [Mana Perception], and if possible, both of them [Force Magic] and [Body Enhancement]. I imagine the latter shouldn’t be too hard to get for Tom, so I start by forming a mana link with him. To get him Perception I then channel some of my mana into his body.

Etheric mana might be faint, and your own mana is part of you. But he can’t not notice my foreign mana suddenly appearing, though, and soon he learns [Mana Perception] and with that, [Proto-Mage]. I ensure he can sense mana in the air as well, then show the two of them how to do [Body Enhancement], followed by [Force Magic].

Bloody hell, these guys suck at this. At least they have the base abilities now. However, Silje does this little humming whenever casting. That is, when she’s not actively chanting (saying out loud what she wants to happen) or doing motions. I should make her a wand, maybe that’ll help.

Wands (and certain other magic) tools are foci (plural of ‘a focus’). As is chanting, doing motions to cast or humming to yourself, apparently. I mean, as long as it works? I’m not gonna send these guys into a battle, so I guess it’s okay that they do things in a, uhh, inefficient matter. It really shouldn’t annoy me this much, but urgh!

Or perhaps I'm strange for casting magic only with my mind, even from I first learned it from that internet tutorial. Either way, I teach them the magic ball game. If they have a competitive spirit that’ll encourage them to get better. I’ve been thinking of other games that can be used to practice while having fun, but haven’t come very far.

As for Tom, he simply sucks at using magic, though he managed to pick up [Body Enhancement] in a heartbeat. He seems to be rather good at using magic internally. Externally, on the other hand…

Ahem. “I have a pretty good idea of your abilities now, and have some things to prepare for tomorrow.” I pause to collect my thoughts.

“I also have some, ‘homework’, for you. I can teach you [Aspect magic] and shapeshifting, but you’ll have to show that you can manipulate mana pretty well. As for flying, learn the [Force Magic: Levitation] sub-ability and get so good that you can lift yourself and another object about ten meters into the air. I’ll give you some tests.

If you succeed at those, I’ll be willing to give you a hopefully crashless course on flying. Of course, you’ll need to learn shapeshifting if you want to do the shapeshifting yourself. Any questions?”

After clarifying what I meant (Get good at basic magic→learn more magic), I agree to return 11 o’clock tomorrow, and head home. Let’s see, important Todo for tomorrow: Make two wands for tutoring, and it might be an idea to make wing-friendly clothes if they actually get good enough that I dare take them for a flight.

Well, the day is young so I have time to do more things. Maybe I should make a new focus for myself? Actually, it’ll likely end up like the magic gun; unused except for showing off. Would be good practice, though? Maybe if I come up with a specific purpose.

I’ll need some more magic wood for the wands. Maybe I should go explore a bit too? I bet there’s strange creatures and plants I have yet to see if I get further from the city. Maybe to the edge of what Leda called ‘other’s territory’? Actually, she never specified if that was other wyverns, something else, or just outside the territory she cares about. Cared about?

There’s also the upgrade to my apartment, which I should be able to finish today. Let’s start with that. Afterwards, maybe I should get Tåke for the other stuff… Actually, while she does seem to enjoy being with me, it’s not she does anything. It’ll probably be good for her to be around her own kind for a bit.

Purrrfect. Theeee… uhm, system for apartment magic? SFAM? In-house centralized magic system? Ichsm? Bah, I’m not planning on selling anything like this, screw a good name right now. The magic system I use for controlling spells and absorbing magic in my apartment. That thing. It’s finished. Well, working. Knowing myself it’ll never truly be ‘finished’.

I have given it control over the outer mana-barrier, and not only is it stable, but it’s stronger than when I used a simple enchantment. In fact, I can’t send my mana through the barrier now, neither inwards nor outwards. I should get Leda here to test if she can do it. I should probably also say she can’t break it.

The modules work as intended to, or the few I have now do. Mana absorption module, mana crystallizer and storage module, and finally, the levitation module. It became a bit more complex that marking an object with a simple infusion, but I can now make an arbitrary object levitate (and stay in place even if pushed) by a combination of inscription and enchantments.

And the time… oh, it’s been that long. Well, I still have plenty of time. Off to the north, meet Leda, then go to the magical part of the forest (with her following me if she’s bored) to harvest some more wood and possibly plants. Maybe I should try to increase my plant aspects too.

“Oi, Leda! Keep your distance.”

“But I want to see!”

“Yeah, but-” I make a glowing orb a couple meters away. “Stay there, okay?”

Right, with that sorted… Summon the Metal/Fire puppet and levitate it and some aluminium out of arm’s reach. I create a vacuum barrier as a tube around it, open at the top and near the ground. All set. Flame. On!

The puppet seemingly bursts into flame as I split my consciousness between holding the metal and control the fire through the puppet. I didn’t really feel the heat last time I forged, or when I tested this, but without a full vacuum barrier I really feel the heat. I have given myself scales and taken on Fire to be on the safe® side, but still. Getting to water would take precious seconds.

It seems fine so far, but the heat isn’t quite melting the aluminium. Let’s ramp it up. In fact, let’s keep ramping it up to see how hot I can make it. The metal melts, unsurprisingly, but when the flames threaten to lick the ground I quickly seal the bottom of the vacuum barrier.

I take a step away from the intense heat. I… don’t think sealing the top is a good idea. I’d just end up making a bomb. Or cannon, if I opened the top first. Heh, that’d actually be kinda cool, but let’s not do that in a dry summer forest.

BUUUURN! Hehehe, that’s beyond just intense now, it glows so bright I have to squint, and even then I see nothing so I end up doing this mostly by mana sense. The metal is long since molten, and at this point it might even be close to becoming… a… gas? Seriously? Oh man I should’ve looked up the boiling point of aluminium beforehand.

Let’s stop adding fuel to the fire, so to speak. I don’t want it to vaporize… right, let’s shape it into the form I want, which is a rod with a slight taper to one end, a bit bigger than a pencil. This material seems to be enough for two such wand cores. And now, let it cool.

As they do, I repeat the process (but keep the heat a bit more manageable) to make a wand-core for myself. This time I add a small mana-crystal to the non-tapered end, and slowly twist the metal into a slight spiral as it cools.

With three wand cores done, I stop the fire and slowly dispel the vacuum barrier. The heat quickly disperses into the air, and after taking a moment for the puppet itself to cool, unsummon it.

“Leda, let’s go to the water.”

As dry as this place is, water is just a hop away, and with the wand cores cold enough that I can touch them and get no worse burn than touching a hot pizza, I submerge them so they cool quicker.

“Didn’t you want them?”

“Hmm? Oh, I’m just cooling them down. They’re very hot and I’m gonna put wood on the outside. It would be bad if they burnt.”

“Ooooh. Why?”

“Well, it would look bad, and it might make the wand perform worse.”

“Perform? What does perform mean?”

“Uhh, it can mean a few different things. In this case it means how well something does -or performs- its job or intended purpose. It can also be used as a verb -remember those? Do-words?”

“Yeah! I remember! Remember is a verb!”

“As a verb, to perform’ or ‘performing’ means to do something as a show. You play, or perform, a piano piece, for example.”

“I wanna perform piano!”

“No, perform is if you do it for other people. Put up a show. And you need to know how.” I lift the cores out of the lake, then pull the water off with a motion and [Hydrokinesis]. Hmm…

“Leda, I need more magical wood. Find me a tree that’s very magical.”

“Okay!” Aaand she’s off. I should teach her the basics of making a wand and see what she thinks. Maybe her different perspective has something good to offer.

When I find a suitable tree, what I need is core wood, but I don’t need that much. So I need a large-ish tree, but only a small part of it… I don’t think I should cut down the entire thing. Actually, I could probably just extract the wood I want. Yeah, a big tree, and taking only a what I need would probably be best. Save the trees and all that.