“So let's see if I have everything straight. You’re a recent addition to our world, an Interloper. You’re both a Hero and Classless, and when you unlocked your Mana channels, you developed the Prime rune for Void right away. Is there anything else to add?” asked the large bull-shaped man.

“I have a Bond with her,” I said as I pointed to the teenage-looking Kobold.

“What?! How? Where in the thirteen realms did Lastaf find you pair?”

“I was bleeding quite badly, and she was covered in my blood. Somehow that allowed her to accept a Bond with me. Lastaf found us in what I’m told are the Beastlands, I think. I heard it mentioned once before. A land far to the east of here, under two weeks, travel by boat.”

“Blood, you say? How much? Maybe that’s what’s missing from forcing a bond to form,” the man said as he rubbed his chin.

Jarrax sat and thought for a few moments before coming out of his pondering to ask his next question. “And where is my friend, Lastaf? Why hasn’t he come with you?”

I spent the better part of an hour telling him the story of how I met Lastaf in my self-made tunnels, the fight with the Darkness, the Hunters, the trip, and slavers on the ocean. Then meeting Hiroaki, and his training, the Hunters arriving there, and finally our trip to Meckingmoor.

“And you killed the soldiers outside the town? Did you leave any survivors? Did anyone else see your Guild Badge around your neck?”

“No survivors and there was no way anyone from the army’s camp would have seen my badge from that far.”

“There are many skills to see that far. You'll be fine as long as they don’t report you.”

“What would happen if they had reported me?”

“The loss of Levels for one. Possibly rank. In the most extreme cases, they could even take skills or traits from you.”

“What?! They can take something like that from you?”

“It’s not widely known, as they make it so you can’t reveal your punishment to the others, but yes, they have ways of doing it. I’m unsure if they could do it to you, as you’re not Oath Bound to The Guild.”

“That’s just cruel.”

I let the statement hang in the air for a few moments before speaking again. “So why do you think, Lastaf sent me your way?”

“I would think to teach you in his stead. He hates teaching or mentoring people and will find any excuse to get out of it. I would have assumed that If he had been able to travel with you, he would have already left and said he’d return sometime later. He never stays in one place long and is always searching for ways to boost or invigorate a Mana well.”

“I promised him I would create him a new Mana well. Unfortunately, the spell that created the one back in The Beastlands is now restricted to me.”

“You created a Mana well? You left that out of your story!”

I shrugged. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to or try to create one. It just happened. The spell I used is no longer working. I get a flash of searing pain and a system window telling me the spell is restricted.”

“I have heard of restricted spells before. I assume the spell has something to do with where you are from? The way your intent or how the construct was created with higher knowledge. The System sensed this and is now prohibiting the spell. In almost every case, you must reach a higher level to use it again.”

“That’s what Lastaf believed as well.”

“Alright, we'll start with some basics. Luke, it’s best you run back to your sister and share those cookies.”

Luke jumped up from his pillow, walked over to the door, and tried to open it but couldn’t. Jarrax got up and helped the kid out before walking to the back of the room, scanning the bookshelf, and grabbed a book, then another, and another. He returned to his chair and sat down before pushing the books towards me.

“Read these. If you have any questions about their contents, ask away. If you practice any constructs and release them inside my home, I will continue to teach you next year. Get my meaning?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Don’t call me sir. Just call me Jarrax.”

“Jarrax, what is your race? You’re the first of your kind I’ve met.”

“I’m a Minotaur. Same question for you.”

“My race is known as the Elefvian or Elfs.”

“Did any other of your race come with you?”

“I don’t believe so. I think I’m alone.”

“Shame. Get reading. We have plenty to get through.”

Jarrax then grabbed a blanket, covered his legs, closed his eyes, and began rocking silently in his chair. I was curious what his level was, also Lastaf’s. I never got to ask him. I looked over to Luin and found her missing. My worry must have transferred to her because I felt a calming motion in return. I could sense her moving away from me.

“Your friend followed Luke home. She should be safe inside the city’s walls.” Jarrax said with his eyes still closed.

I hadn’t even realized she had followed Luke out the door. I looked at the books and was excited to see the first volume of the Magic Primer series in the stack. I pushed the other books away, grabbed two pillows, and created a nice backrest before I began reading.

The book's first half was everything I’ve already learned when I read Porcu’s book years ago. When I flipped past the first few pages of constructs for Tier 1 spells, I shot up. The entire back of the book was nothing but Tier 1 constructs for a multitude of magic schools.

Most I had already learned, but I found a few had different constructs than what I had learned before. The Fireball spell, the nodes spinning around the center, was what the first book had taught me. This book had one spinning left, the other right. I tried it out, and it clicked just the same.

I learned the Tier 1 Shadow, Cloak spell. It would conceal me in shadow if I didn’t move. Next was the Tier 1 Aether spell, Control. I followed the page's intent and construct, but I couldn’t figure it out. I was about to ask Jarrax when my chest burned for a moment. I waited for the pain to pass and was about to try and ask him again when my chest burned again. This time the pain was incredible, and I cried out.

“What the hell!?” I shouted as I tore my tunic off.

“By the thirteen,” I heard Jarrax mumble.

I looked up, still in pain. Jarrax was looking down my chest, his lower jaw slack. “You’re attuned to Aether and have twelve affinities already?”

“How, the Aether spell didn’t click?” I said as the pain began to retreat.

Jarrax pointed down to my chest. “You’re Stigmata has evolved into a sapling. The Prime Void rune, the trunk. The right main branch, Aether, the controlling rune, supports your basic elements of Wind, Fire, Water, and Earth. Aether isn’t a class of magic you use. It’s what you call an enhancer. It allows you a far better degree of controlling those schools of magic.

“Aether is said to be the base of all magic. The Rank 2 spell of Aether is called Synergy. Let me see where it is.”

He scrambled out of his chair and began scanning the books on his shelf. Finding what he was looking for, he pulled it and began to flip through the pages. Finding the page, he flipped the book and handed it to me. I looked at the six runes scattered around the page, looking like a constellation of stars.

Again, I created the nodes with the intent of birth or the beginning. I laid them out as close as I could to the pattern on the page, and nothing. I tried again, but nothing clicked. “Nothing is clicking in my mind. I don’t know if it worked or not.”

“Give it a moment. I want to watch it happen if it does. Not many have an affinity with Aether, let alone get the second rank.”

I set the book down and was about to continue going through the Tier 1 spells when the pain hit. It wasn’t just my chest. It felt like every cell in my body was on fire, then dipped in acid before being salted. My screams cut off as soon as Jarrax’s hand touched my forehead.

I awoke to sunlight coming through the window. The sounds of birds and the people out on the streets assaulted my senses. I pulled my head off the pillow and looked down at the blanket over me, then around the room. I was alone, no Luin or Jarrax. Sitting up, I mentally sent out a wave of worried emotion and got back a happy and ok feeling from the direction of the orphanage. The smell of something cooking came to me next, and I pulled myself to my feet and walked into the kitchen.

“I’m sorry about last night. I had no idea that attuning your body to Aether would cause such pain. We have much to test! First, eat.”

The previous night came back in flashes, and I looked down at my naked chest. The large branch with the Aether rune coming off the tree’s trunk was now gone, along with the Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind rune branches. A second smaller tree or sapling was next to my original one. The trunk was outlined in dark green, with the Aether rune at the base of the young tree.

Four small branches branched off the trunk, each filled with one of the runes missing from the first tree. The Fire branch had blue leaves, while the other three had white leaves on their branches.

“I’ve seen others with multiple Yggdrasil Stigmata before. It’s not uncommon. It looks as if your body forced Aether into a Prime Rune. That is incredibly uncommon. I would say I’ve only heard of a handful of individuals who’ve had a Prime Aether rune over the centuries, " Jarrax saw me stare down at my Stigmata.

I sat down and silently ate the offered eggs and a large slab of meat. Jarrax gave me time to almost clear my plate before standing up and opening the door at the back of the kitchen. I signed and followed behind the Minotaur. I blinked in surprise as I took in the massive room we were inside. There was no way this was behind his house.

“My basement. We used a simple gate. Please cast a basic Tier 1 Fireball and toss it at the far wall.”

I did as he asked and noticed that the spell seemed to be a bit louder than usual. He asked me how much Mana it used, and I was surprised to see it had cost me twenty-five Mana. Jarrax then had me use my new Cleaning Tier 1 water spell. The spell cleaned a three-by-three-meter section of the floor of his basement. It cost only twenty-five Mana, as well.

“Excellent, so now the big test, please try and recreate this spell and cast it towards the back well,” the Minotaur said as he handed me a sheet of paper.

The spell was for a Steam Blast. It required three Fire nodes and three Water nodes stacked on top of one another. The construct was shaped as if I was casting a Fireball and a Fireball made out of Water at the same time. The spell clicked, and I willed it to hit the far back wall, but the spell vanished from my mind.

“Some spells need to be released from your body, such as this particular spell. It can’t be conjured in the air like most.”

I thought about that, raised my hand with my palm facing the wall, and recreated the spell. Willing it to release, a ‘hiss’ of what looked like steam flew from my palm in a compressed stream for a few meters before blooming out in all directions.

“How much mana did the spell cost you?”

Pulling up my Full Status again, I was surprised to see it only cost fifty Mana and told him.

“Excellent! That spell would have cost me a hundred and twenty Mana to cast. Because you know Aether’s Synergy, the cost of your Fire and Water nodes only cost you eight point three mana each. Synergy also halves the cost of combining those schools of magic into a spell.”

“I’m not sure what to say, besides that’s incredible.”

I thought about what other combinations I could do. I stacked Earth on a Fireball and summoned the magic above my hand. A glowing orb of molten earth hung in the air above the palm of my hand.

“Quick learner. Magma. It doesn’t have the explosive power of a Fireball but remains and burns where it lands. Land that on someone’s armor, and they will have a bad day. Now let's head back upstairs. I have many books for you to read.”

My chest burned as we walked back to the doorway and burned once again as I sat down to continue and read the books. What I assumed were the runes for Steam and Magma had burned more branches with white leaves onto the tree with my Aether rune.