-

"Wolfy, those things you called video games," Hana starts talking as we sit for lunch, "did they help you with learning how to fight? Considering how little time you have been in this world you are kind of really good with the sword."

"You could say that," I answer and grab my chin in thought, "Swordsmanship and the combat from video games have little in common, even the virtual reality ones, but they gave me a better idea in how to fight, how to strategize."

"Hmm... The way you use the sword really is non-standard, so I guess it makes sense."

"The system also helped a lot. [Sword Use] is basically a lot of muscle memory so having the free points allowed me to easily train that muscle memory perfectly."

"Cheating like always," Ciel casually comments.

"There's no skill for leadership and talent," Hana says and Alissa nods.

"How did you fight in those games?" Lina asks.

"Gih."

"Excuse me? I'll have you know I was top 50 Mesmer for a long time," I say and glare at the little shit.

"Gygeh gah gowgah."

"'He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight'," I recite the quote without even looking at the provocateur.

"Gihg gohgeh gwogeh."

"If you fall to deceit you have only yourself to blame for your own stupidity."

"I'm kind of lost here," Roxanne says.

"He can see my memories so he looked over my time during the game. The spells I chose where of support, illusion, and poison, so he complains I was cheesing."

"Oh, that game sounds interesting," Alissa says, her ears twitching at the mention of illusion.

"Gheaph."

"Then the developers suck at balancing and I was just helping to point it out."

"Gahsgohl."

"Lily is the asshole, she had absolutely no mercy on the poor plebs. We bet she made a poor guy go bankrupt paying the priests because she was hunting him and shitting on him. She even tea-bagged the poor bastard, now that was some disrespect. Here, see these memories," I say and remember that fateful night.

"I'm even more lost now," Roxanne says and smiles wryly.

"Gah guh gah gih..." Gify starts to recite the shit-talking that Lily and the pleb had.

"Now that's mean," Ciel says.

"Now that's banter," Roxanne says and smiles.

"You two would get along well," Hana says to Roxanne.

Aoi and the golems stare at us and tilt their heads repeatedly, completely confused.

I casually practice my [Blessing Magic], I'm not too into it today as the high form [Ekrano Style] is still running through my body.

I get a few weird looks due to my hickey but most seem to be positive as they recognize the meaning of it. Hatara blushes and sends repeated glances at my neck during the break, she seems very eager to try it herself.

During the evening Lina and I attack Ciel again but she immediately pushes us away, now aware of our plans of using her.

"Don't you want to play with - me instead?" Hana asks.

Lina stops and looks at Ciel, who sends a quick glare at her.

"M-maybe not today," Lina says and twiddles her thumbs.

I pull Lina to my sofa and play footsies with her while she retells today's library delve.

Ciel's [Spirit Light] is starting to ignite and gain a heatless flame. She lets the spell fade in a puff of rainbow smoke and massages her head. "This is hurting my head," she says.

I summon a [Holy Spirit] and a corgi and make them tackle Ciel's belly. She yelps in surprise and then again in happiness.

Hana's [Double Image] improved, she managed to split her arm in two and it's much less blurry looking.

"How's it going with Gimbo?" I ask Lina.

"We are going over [Double Strike], soon I can enchant Hana's sword with it. It's quite the complex spell so it's taking a while."

"How's Gimbo and his wife? You never talk much about them," Alissa says.

"Oh," Lina blinks repeatedly and blushes slightly. "They don't talk much about things but they are really kind and gentle. Madam Nala always bakes some sweets and gives us some tea during our break. She makes a sweet cream that she puts on top of the cupcakes that remind me of that Chantilly we ate at the Tree of Mana," she says and smiles adorably.

"So you have been gorging yourself on sweets and you never told us anything about it," Roxanne says with a pout.

Lina's eyes open wide and her skin pales even more. Her cute feet stop playing with mine.

"Chantilly?" Ciel lifts her head and asks. Lina's mouth hangs open when she sees Ciel's face turn into a frown.

Lina opens and closes her mouth, a silent "sorry" is mouthed. Her slave training kicked in.

"They are playing around," Alissa says and pats Lina's head.

Lina lowers her head and her ears turn red. Ciel smirks and continues her training. From behind her bangs, Lina glares at Ciel for a second.

Today is the 20th.

-

Hana's [Illusion Magic] increased by 1 (now 2).

"I managed to double-cast once yesterday. It was quite odd, I did it but I barely know how," I tell Kyros, ignoring his raised eyebrow at my hickey.

"That's the sub-process forming, once it's complete it works with a mere thought," he says.

"Isn't it dangerous? Casting a spell instantly with a mere thought?"

"Instantly?"

Oops.

"I'm a magic swordsman, I learned how to cast [Lightning Bolt] chantless," I hurry an excuse.

"Ah yes, well for someone like you it can certainly be dangerous. Make sure the process only uses [Lightning Bolt] when you truly want to kill, sub-processes for instant spells aren't to be taken lightly."

Good to know.

After lunch I sent Alissa to talk to Nour, I want to meet up with him one last time before I leave town.

In mana cost classes we hold a class-wide debate. My "replace reality with my own" side, Toroo's "building phase improvement" side, and Gimbo's "pattern's improvement" side are the three more well-developed ones. Other students have somewhat similar but more abstract and less developed takes on the skill.

One student saw it as a log that was wet and not burning fully, he's the son of a wood transport tycoon. Another student saw it as too many ingredients on a soup clashing and ruining the taste, her mother has very high [Cooking]. Another saw it as cleaning and polishing the windows so more light could enter the room, her father is the main healer priest of the temple. Another saw as conflicting voices in his head, his mother is a famous [Sing]er at the theater.

Spells may not really be like "circuits", but rather, they are painted as such in my mind due to how important circuits were in my life. The same goes for the soul's structures, the girls' perception of the soul were tainted by my own since I explained to them what to look for before they created the "soul map" for me. Now I wonder how useful it might be to other people, maybe since they need to learn the skill the same way as I did they will see the soul similarly to me.

Toroo was obviously very amused at my hickey but didn't mention it. The others did their best to ignore it but Hatara had a mischievous smile the whole time and Garanae was seating cold.

I do my strength training alongside Lina. She unbuttons her shirt due to the heat and I spend my time admiring her cute collarbones. I-

I stand behind her and keep lifting my weights, looming over her. -. Her sweat drips over her neck and I feel like licking her.

I drop my weights and hug her from behind. Our bodies are hot and sweaty, she has a faint sweet scent coming out of her.

I scrape my teeth through her neck and bite her, then I turn her head and kiss her.

-

This night I spend my time teaching Hana about light and photons, even the others join in to listen.

Then I teach them about the double-slit experiment to explain how waves and particles behave and how photons are both.

I push my hand on the water and we watch the wave pass through the two slits. The wave divides into two and both start interfering with each other.

Then by spitting water in a cloud, I remake the particle pattern on a piece of paper.

"So it's like, until the particle touches something it just goes around randomly like a wave?" Hana asks, tilting her head.

"Yeah it's kind of like it. Some theories say that a particle has a probability of being in a certain place until it is measured, then it is certain it is in that place and then it becomes a wave of probabilities again," I say, butchering the whole theory, but who cares, this is fun.

"Maybe we could derive an abstract magical concept out of it," Alissa says.

"Being a researcher sounds fun," Lina says.

"You only saw the good parts, it's mostly boring stuff," I say and smile wryly.

"Hm," she turns back forward -.

-

Today is the 21st.

-

I'm stuck on bed longer than normal as Aoi sleeps, curled on my chest, and I do not have the heart to take her off me.

"Everyone in here is just so cuddly," Ciel says as she leaves.

The smell of orc bacon being fried seeps into the room and Aoi's head suddenly raises, her eyes wide awake.

"Ba-cooon!" She yells as she runs downstairs, her little claws tickling my body as she moves.

My "Strength" and "Endurance" finally increased by 1 (now 12 and 13). My [Reduced Mana Cost] increased by 1 (now 8+6).

Hana's [Illusion Magic] increased by 2 (now 4). Alissa's and Hana's "Wisdom" increased by 1 (now 14 and 12).

We don't eat much as we are going to visit Nour this morning.

The sky is cloudy and a storm is coming, we put on our cloaks and enter the dinghy. Alissa distributed the bunny ear cloaks so everyone looks adorable in the gloomy weather.

Nour's house is near the north gate, not on the noble's quarter but clearly on the wealthy part of town.

We leave the main road and pass a number of large houses with their own guards in front, most have high walls and heavy gates. I see a twinkle of crystals every once in a while atop the walls, a security system of some kind.

We reach a standardized blue-grey house, a rental, but bigger and more well made than ours. A simple guard stands in front of the tall wooden gate.

"I am Wolf Ryder, Nour is expecting me," I say.

The guard nods respectfully and fiddles with a ring in his hand. In less than a minute a tall devil-type woman comes out of the house. She looks slightly androgynous with sweptback black hair and a male butler's uniform, but her face is still very feminine.

"Mr. Ryder, I am Bellatrix, I hope you remember me," she says and bows.

"I do, good to see you again," I say and nod.

Bellatrix straightens and gives a smile to Lina who answers with a shy head nod.

We are led inside a house with the same layout than ours, but bigger and with much more decorative furniture. The floor is tiled in colorful geometric patterns, imperial style. The walls have a few paintings and even a gnomic magic picture like ours. It seems Iana, the adventurer they hired, is integrating quite well.

"Whoever bought these tea sets has a good taste," I say while I look at the black and gold sets of porcelain. Alissa nods in agreement.

"Midori will be delighted to hear that, it's her family's heirloom," Bellatrix says.

We enter the living room and Nour rises from the sofa to receive us. Their fireplace is already lit and steamy, thick tea with milk is being served.

"Wolf," Nour says with a nod and we shake hands.

Safiya, the petite brown-haired woman serves us tea. Midori, the green-haired dragonkin, gives a bone-crushing forearm-shake to Hana and they quickly start to fawn over Aoi. Iana, the dark-skinned wereanimal woman with curly hair joins Lina, Alissa, and Bellatrix in talking about enchantments and bows.

I pull out the golems and Safiya looks at them wide-eyed, she nearly drops her cup when she sees them speak. Ciel and Roxanne join her in talking about their progress and how much smarter they are becoming.

Rain starts pouring outside, the pitter-patter, the murmuring of the conversations, and the crackling of the warm fireplace make for a very comfy morning.

"So you are leaving," Nour says, with a slightly sad smile. He strokes his modest teen-ish brown stubble on his neck and looks away. "I wish we could have met more often," he looks back at me and his smile widens.

"So have I, but too often we get caught up in things and end up forgetting to give friends a visit," I say and smile bitterly. I still haven't learned my lesson, some people you really shouldn't let go, they are far too valuable to your life and you will never find someone like them again. "I will come back, one day."

"Make sure you do, at least before I go back home to take over father's business."

"How long until that?"

"Maybe 5 years."

"That's too far, I will definitely come back before then."

"Then let's enjoy our time, we won't get another opportunity," he leans over and slaps my back. Then he comes closer and looks over the women, they are all focused on their own conversations. "There's something I must ask you, Wolf," his voice turns serious.

"Ask away."

"Say, I have been having some, uh, problems, to…" He swallows loudly, "contain, all these women. So I have been wishing for some, uh, help. And I got it, but it's quite the o-odd skill. Have you ever heard about [Enhanced Semen Recharge]?" He asks through gritted teeth, his eyes wide open in pleading.

I put my hand on his shoulder, my tone is equally serious, "Nour, think of it as a blessing from the Goddess of Love. Be proud of having this skill, any man that meets you should envy this skill for we are not just simple men, we are men among men. We are the apex of masculinity, we are the Symbol of Man, the Lords of Sex, the Harem Masters. Do not worry, take the plunge and level this skill without regard, you will not regret it," I say and grin.

Nour looks around nervously and nods, he leans back and smiles. His smile turns wide and then maniacal, he stifles a chuckle that turns into a laugh that turns into a wheeze. The girls look at him worriedly but we ignore them. Today, a brotherhood has been founded.