I started with something simple, a rectangular pouch. It would be about ten centimeters wide and deep and thrice that long. I made the flap that covered the opening big enough to cover the front of the pouch.

I realized I had no ruler or anything like one. I would have to find out if there was one for sale later. Instead, I took out my dagger and used that for straight lines as I marked the pattern I would cut out. That done, I added small tabs on the sides I would use to sew the pouch together. Once I double-checked everything was fine, I cut the pattern out of one of the leather rolls.

Next, I scored each inside edge where the leather would fold. I made dotted lines down each inner tab with the hole punch and then marked the inside of the outside flaps to make sure the holes lined up. With most of the prep work done, I looked over the runes I would place on the inside edge of the pouch.

With my Rank 4 Nervous System, I had two thousand Mana. The first rune would cost me the standard fifty mana. If I used the rank four size rune, it added another eight hundred for a total of eight hundred and fifty. I would have wanted to use the rank five size rune but wouldn’t have the mana for what I wanted to do.

The third rune would cost me another eight hundred to use the grid system, at two hundred mana per rank of the size rune I would be using. That brought the total Mana cost up to sixteen hundred and fifty. The bag would drain me of seventeen hundred Mana with the coin system.

I looked at the runes drawn for me by Kadler and began to mark them on the inside edges where the mouth of the pouch would be. Satisfied with the placement and spacing of the four runes, each at a side’s center. I began to carve the runes into the leather carefully.

I edged everything with the edger making every edge smooth to the touch with those done. Then I painstakingly began to sew each of the four tabs on the flaps to the longer sides. With that finished, I sat the satchel on the table.

I mean, it wasn’t the best thing anyone’s made. It looked sturdy and had a few errors here and there, but it was the first thing I’ve ever created with my bare hands. Next time, I would need a buckle to keep the flap closed instead of hoping the heavy flap would remain closed. It wouldn’t do anything to deter pickpockets.

I should have asked Kalder how the creation process started. How could I forget about that? I mentally berated myself as I picked up the small container. I closed my eyes and focused on the runes inside the pouch, and began to create a construct to make the one-way portal. To my surprise, the runes lit up in my mind, and I began to fill them with my Void nodes.

As soon as the four runes were filled, my brain clicked, and I felt the Mana being drawn out through the part of my hands touching the satchel. The Mana drained slowly, almost painfully slow. I mentaly pulled up my Full Status and watched my Mana pool drain around fifty points every minute, then ticked up a few points. I wondered if it was possible to raise my Mana regeneration so it could offset the amount of Mana I need in my pool.

After the first few minutes, I got bored. Doing the math, Id have to sit here for thirty-four minutes until this was finished. I got up and went to lay down on the bed, keeping the bag between both hands.

I had almost fallen asleep by the time I felt the pull from my mana cease. I sat up and looked down at the crude pouch in my hands. Flipping the lid open, I saw the same inky blackness from so many times before on the other magic bags. Sticking my hands inside, I was presented with a new window.

It was a grid of sixteen by sixteen, all empty. At the top left, 0p 0g 0s 0c was displayed on its own little section. It was a success. I crafted my first Void bag. I would see if I could sell it tomorrow. Looking at my mana pool, I was over fifty percent. Had the creation not taken the entire Mana cost? I watched for a moment as it slowly ticked back up a point. Tomorrow I would need to stay awake and test it again.

Setting the bag on the table, I lay back down and drifted off to sleep.

After some breakfast the following day, we headed over to The Guild, and I was surprised to see everything from the day before gone. All the cots and injured adventurers were nowhere to be seen. One of the receptionists flagged me and told me Hiroaki would need to take a raincheck today as he and a few other officials were out of town today.

Now wanting to lose out on any kind of training, I went over to the nurse’s office and knocked on the door before going inside. Vylria sat at her desk, her head in her hands, taking a nap. As the door closed behind me, the noise awoke her from rest, and she looked around the office for a few moments before setting her eyes on me. I motioned to the edge of her mouth, where saliva had been drooling out her mouth, and she went wide-eyed before rubbing her sleeve across her mouth.

“What can I do for you, Zeal?”

“I was curious if you were free this morning to explain how healing magic possibly works.”

“I got plenty of time today. I doubt anyone is going into the dungeon after yesterday. I can allow you to sit in when I mentor the students. They should be here soon. By the way, what time is it?”

“The second bell rang about twenty minutes ago.”

The woman cursed and stood up. Grabbing some things from her desk, she left the office and I followed behind. We went up to the second floor and down to one of the rooms in the corner. Inside, the room looked like one of the science labs back at the academy. They didn’t have a skeleton figure in the corner but had large prints or maybe paintings of the skeletons of various races.

Her three students who had helped her the day before, and I had seen with her at various times were all sitting around a desk and debating something. They never looked up as we came into the room and kept arguing as we walked closer to the group.

“I've heard from a reliable source that the Royal healer of the Akhusite Kingdom can cast Resurrection on someone almost two hours after they died,” The male of the group said.

“There is no way! The holy texts say the soul only sticks around for thirty minutes. How can you resurrect someone whose soul has left?” asked the stern-looking woman at the back of the table.

“Why did none of you come get me at the second bell? He’s right, by the way. A Rank 6 Resurrection can be cast up to two hours after death. Very few healers in history have reached such a rank. As for the soul, no one can confirm or deny anything that deals with the soul, even if we have one.”

The three students shut up and looked our way. The lad was the one to speak for the group. “You were so exhausted from yesterday. We voted to allow you to sleep in your office.”

Vylria sighed and sat down at the end of the table. “Alright then. Zeal here will be joining us today, as he’s interested in healing magic. Before we go back to the basics, who can tell me what we could have done better yesterday?”

None of her students uttered a single syllable.

The woman sighed again and seemed deflated. “The answer is no one bothered to ask anyone who had died first. It’s entirely possible we could have saved one of those two yesterday if we had learned who went down first.”

“I didn’t think…” the shorter of the two women began to speak but was stopped with a wave of Vylria’s hand.

“I hadn’t either until it was too late. We don’t get many raid-level bosses in our Dungeon, and in the last one, no one had died. Treat it as a learning experience. Rotha, could you please try and explain your intent behind your healing spells for Zeal?”

The shorter woman looked at Vylria than me before nodding. “I used puzzles as my intent. Like two pieces fitting together the way, they were meant to and snapping into place in a way only they could go together. My magic works wonders on broken bones, but not as well for cuts and abrasions.”

“Good. Now, Arnik, what about you?”

“Vylria! You know that’s my family’s knowledge!”

“Oh, that again. Everything I’ve taught you was passed down by my father. Should I remove you from under my wing? To become the best healers, you three need to learn from others. If you don’t want to mention it to those outside this circle, I’ll keep that in mind for the future, Arnik.”

The man seemed a bit taken back by the venom in Vylria’s voice. He looked between the two of us, then at the girls for support, but they seemed to have found other things of interest behind them. He seemed lost in thought before finally slumping his shoulders.

“My intent is time rewinding. The wound or wounds reversing, healing themselves in the reverse of how they had been rented. My healing spells work well with cuts and stab wounds, but not very well on amputations or broken bones.”

“See. That wasn’t so hard, Arnik. No ancestor of yours came back from death and tried to devour you…” she said but went wide-eyed and slightly pale, looking over the man’s shoulder.

Arnik jumped from his seat and spun around, ready to defend himself. Vylria and the two girls began to giggle before outright laughing.

“Ha. Ha. There are tales of those bound by oaths and break them!” Arnik sat back down and looked away.

“Your turn, Khis. Tell Zeal how you visualize your intent and why it’s different from both of theirs.”

“Depending on the injury, my intent changes. If it's a broken bone, and depending on what bone is broken, my intent is the restoration of that bone with the knowledge I have on how it should be restored. If the patient has a simple flesh wound, I intend to stitch the flesh together with no visible scar.”

“Khis here is one of the best healers I’ve ever seen. She studies anatomy and knows the body’s structure. She’s also one of the only people I’ve seen who can remove poison from the blood,” said Vylria.

“It’s simple. Your intent must be to remove foreign substances from the blood,” replied Khis.

“Now, Zeal. I’ll allow you to try and cast a simple Tier 1 spell called Restore. Here is the construct. Choose your intent. You can try and copy one of them or use your own.” Vylria said as she produced a piece of paper with three nodes shaped in a triangle with the words Life Rank 1 Restore written at the top.

She sat back down, pulled her sleeve from her arm, and produced a scalpel out of thin air. “Would you mind, Rotha?”

Rotha nodded, and a moment later, a pale blue light covered Vylria’s forearm and disappeared. Vylria then made a small three-centimeter cut on her arm, the wound didn’t bleed, and she was visibly in no pain. “She cast Treat Trauma. It slows the flow of blood and inhibits the pain receptors. Now try and heal the wound.”

I mentally created a node of intent. Like Khis, I understood biology and how most of the body functioned. I willed for skin to knit together and forced it into a round node. I repeated that twice more and pushed the nodes to form the triangle. When the spell clicked in my mind, I forced the spell out of my hand and towards the wound.

My body revolted, and I felt as if my body began to burn from the inside out. I let out a scream of pain. Luin, who had been curled up on the floor, jumped up and grabbed my leg. I couldn’t look down at her face as my body went rigid, and I couldn’t look anywhere except toward the table.

What seemed like an eternity later, my body came back under my control, and I collapsed onto the floor. I could hear again and listened to the three who now stood around me.

“Affinity rejection? I’ve never seen it before.”

“His faculties look to have returned. Tell us, Zeal. Do you have an Affinity with Death or something close to that school of magic?” asked Vylria.

I couldn’t speak. It felt like all of my energy had been drained from me. I shook my head and pulled my shirt up to show them my Stigmata.

“A Prime Void rune,” said Vylria.

“Ten!,” shouted Khis.

“A Bond’s Stigmata!” shouted Arnik.

Only Rotha remained quiet. The woman looked confused.