The full chapter of the day. Enjoy guys!

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Steel woke bright an early the next morning, the sun greeting his yawn. Out of habit, he stretched his body and made sure everything felt right. It was doubly important because of his first class last night. He shivered at the memory, Hell was pretty dangerous.

He left his room quietly and went downstairs for breakfast. It was a little exciting, as he had yet to have a meal in the game world. Theoretically, a player didn't have to eat to survive in Everlife, but "being hungry" would cause sever penalties to regen and eventually stats if it went on too long. The best foods he heard could actually boost stats temporarily, or give special resistances to their defense, though Steel still didn't know too much about resistance.

The downstairs was quiet this early in the morning. The drunks had left sometime in the night or early morning, so the only people up were the early rising workers of the city. Mema was behind the bar, wiping some glasses that had been used the night before.

Steel walked up to the bar and sat down, calling out a greeting.

"Good morning Mema, the morning sun does not compare to your radiant beauty so early in the day. It waked me up just by seeing it." Steel crowed, feeling flattery was a good start.

It seemed to be, as Mema blushed slightly at his words, but refused to respond further to his flattery.

"Morning Steel, did you enjoy your room last night? I could have sworn I heard you screaming in there for a while." She said with a mischievous wink.

Steel shivered, "No ma'am, it's not what your thinking. That was....math."

Mema shivered at the dreaded word, horrified for Steel.

"Oh you poor baby! Let this young lad serve you some food to recover your soul."

A patron further down the line snorted at her words," Young? Didn't you say the other night you two were twins? Her age......" He was interrupted by two large kitchen knives implanting themselves on his shirt, trapping him to the bar. Mema smiled sweetly in his direction, a third knife in her hand.

"Ara? I'm sorry dear customer, there were mosquito about to get you. Please me more careful next time with your life." She said oozing sweetness and smiles. The patron suddenly became very interested in his drink, his skin growing pale in the light.

She returned her attention to Steel, who was rubbing his eyes. He could have sworn he had just seen a Hanya demon, but it wasn't there anymore.

"So one meal from this beautiful young lady right?" She asked smiling.

"Yes ma'am." He said stiffly, feeling death's invisible scythe at his throat.

When Mema left Steel to get the food from the kitchen, he relaxed. The game was pretty fun, and he enjoyed being able to use a body, even if this one was digital. As he contemplated the nature of existence, which made him sleepy, Mema returned with a hot bowl of what looked like stew.

"Here you go Steel, eat up!" She said with a smile.

The stew looked delicious, and Steel's mouth watered at the smell it was giving off. Clapping his hands in prayer, he shot one off to his god and Milna for the food, and dug right into it.

The stew was heavenly to Steel's taste buds. The soup was smooth and spicy, with just a lint of a citrus flavor seeping in. The vegetables were perfectly cooked and melted in his mouth, joining the stew in a cacophony of flavor. Finally, the meat was soft, yet tough enough to be chewed and savored, juice coming out with each bite. Steel felt like he was floating away, on an island of meat.

"This is delicious!" He announced, increasing his rate of eating, "I've never had anything so good before!"

Food buff learnedFood BuffDevil Meat StewQuality:MasterDifficulty:A.Effect+10 Darkness resistance until sleep or next meal

"Eh, Devil meat?" Steel exclaimed, "Is this what happened to the meat I gave you last night?"

Mema nodded excitedly, "Yes, I cooked it a variety of ways to find the best way to serve it. It works well in stew, steak, omelettes, and trappings, but most of my normal patrons would only be able to afford it as a stew." She crossed her arms and nodded to herself, "This is very nice, quality meat. I can't wait to see what else you bring me tonight." Her eyes glowed with anticipation.

"Um, a question." Steel asked tentatively, "Could you explain some things about the stew."

"Hm? What do you want to know?"

"Well, the status buff says some things, like difficulty and quality.."

"Oh! Sure, I'd be glad too." She replied

Mema began explaining some of the finer details of the game to Steel. Crafted things, from shoes to meals, had a level of difficulty in order to finish them.

Easy

Opponents had the same ranking system. As a person grew stronger or more experienced, the difficulty level would fall to reflect the new strength. For instance, only high leveled blacksmiths could make armor out of high grade metals, and only master cooks could use high quality ingredients.

In a similar way, the amount of experience the craftsmen had would affect the quality of the item made. A low leveled cook had an extremely low chance of using a higher ingredient, but even if he succeeded the meal would not have been of a high quality.

When asked, Mema explained that she was a master cook, with years of experience at her disposal. Of course, there were things in the world that she could not cook, but she had never encountered any in her few years of traveling.

Mema also took the time to explain resistances to Steel, mostly because she felt an urge to talk to him, as if he were a masterful listener. Steel merely smiled at that.

Resistances took form as either elemental resistances or physical resistances. Only Elemental Resistances could be permanently acquired, physical resistances depended on armor and race. Physical resistances came as impact, slice, pierce. Different armor types gave different resistances: like chain-mail was good against slashing put not against piecing, plated armor stopped piercing but fell to impact, and leather withstood impact but was bad against slicing. Elemental resistances were more straight forward- water resistance stopped water and etc. Though it could be gained permanently, elemental resistance was extremely hard to come by naturally. One would have to be on the verge of death and survive an elemental attack for instance. It was much easier getting it from food and blessings.

Since the devil wolf had a more darkness attribute, eating it properly would give a darkness resistance buff. The only problem would be if it had been cooked wrong, then if would have inflicted a minor curse of weakness against darkness. Same thing applied to other food that held a strong attribute.

"So you want me to find unusual ingredients so you can increase your skills?" Steel asked.

Mema nodded, "Besides making a profit, yes. I'm not the best cook in the world or the human kingdom, but I am definitely the best cook in Rostwood."

She smiled at him, a little glint in her eye? "Thanks for listening Steel, it's always nice to find a young man who is willing to listen." Her hand slowly covers his on the counter, her eyes locking onto his, "It can get soo lonely."

Steel lifted the bowl to his lips and gulped the remaining stew down quickly. He hurriedly thanked Mema for the food, and made a quick get-away out the door, leaving a stunned Mema at the bar.

A customer at a table chuckled at the sight. "Dear me Mema, I think your losing your touch with your ever growing..."

He suddenly found himself stuck to the wall by countless knives and cooking implements. His skin paling, he looked over to find Mema smiling at him.

"Dear me, those mosquitoes are really bad this year." She put her hand over her mouth and giggled, "What's a gentle, young lady like me to do?"

The customers in the area did not say a word, suddenly becoming very interested in their food and drink.

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Steel bent over at the waist, his hands on his knees, breathing hard. His stamina was full still, but he felt like he had run for days.

'Even in this world, women are scary.' He thought to himself. He sat down to recover, taking the time to go over his mental checklist for the day.

His fur would be ready that night, and he didn't really want to leave the town until it was done. That being said, Mema was expecting something tonight, so he'd have to get creative to find something rare enough for her to want. He checked his coins. He had 5 silver and 10 bronze (he realized he had run out without paying for the meal. Eh, he'd do it later), a lot for a noob like himself, but poor in regards to rare things.

He pondered for a moment. What would be the best place to look for rare things to buy. His first thought was the market, but he figured his coins would not be enough for anything real, he'd most likely get cheated out of his hard earned money. He doubted the guard house would have anything.

He remembered and dumped his fist into his hand. The Mage Tower was sure to have something rare there! He's go by and see what was going on. Besides, he felt the need to figure out what he could have done to get the attention of the mages.

Whistling merrily, he made his way through the city. It was still early in the morning, so shop keepers were out setting up their wares, bakers were setting their dough to cook, and the guard members he saw were stiffing yawns as they went on their rounds.

As usual, the mage tower stood out among the many buildings of the city. Today, a blue flame was circling the top of the tower, nothing unusual there. The doors were open, so Steel made his way in with a smile.

The lobby floor was the same as the last time he had been there, so he walked over to the receptionist desk. A different receptionist girl was there this time, Mary no where to be found. Steel smothered his disappointment and put on a wide grin as he leaned on the counter.

"Good morning, who are you?" He asked politely

The receptionist looked up with a smile, which froze on her faze as she took in Steel.

Confused, Steel repeated his greeting to her. She unfroze and greeted him with a smile, while unbeknownst to Steel she cast a spell under the desk, which took off into the stone and disappeared.

"I'm sorry sir, You took me for surprise there." She responded after her greeting. Steel had a nagging feeling his presence had caused something, but he ignored it. Not like he had ever done anything bad here.

"No problem. I was actually wondering if I could get a tour of the tower? Magic interests me, I would love to see the advanced applications it has been used for."

The receptionist shook her head, "I'm sorry sir, that isn't possible. Mages are renowned for their secrecy and paranoia. Some of the rooms actually have bobby-traps in them to kill would-be trespassers. At least half of the laboratories here are in competition for one thing or the other. Honestly sir," She leaned toward him with a conspiracy whisper, "Most of the research here is just for improving casting speed and the like. New spells are rare these day because of years of discovery, so any little find is considered gold here, and you could be seen as an enemy prospector."

"Hmm, that does make sense. Well, I'll be on my way then, thank you." He turned to leave.

"Please wait sir!" The receptionist called out loudly. Steel turned with a questioning eyebrow raised. She fidgeted under his gaze.

"May I ask why you want to learn magic?" She asked slowly, her eyes darting to the stairs for a blink.

"Um, well I figured it would be useful to have in the field." Steel didn't notice the eye darting, "I've had to fight twice so far, and my fighting skills need to be improved."

She nodded, "Magic would certainly help with that, hmm." She raised her eyes to the ceiling in thought, "How about I call someone bored enough to show you a few pointers then?"

"That would be great!" Steel said excitedly, "Thank you so much for your help." He sighed in relief, "You know, I was worried I was in trouble or something."

"Oh, whatever do you mean?" The receptionist said innocently, her eyes wandering back to the stair case.

"Strangest thing, I heard that I had gotten the attention of the Archmage's daughter and made her mad, which is ridiculous you know? I didn't do anything to piss off anyone when I was here last." He shook his head in confusion, missing the receptionist trying to signal him to be quiet, "The only person I talked to last time was a pretty little thing named Mary, too bad she isn't here, she'd be fun to mess with."

The tower rumbled for a moment, Steel had to grab hold of the table to keep from falling over.

"That happen often?" He asked

"More than you would think." The receptionist picked herself off the ground and brushed her skirt, "So, you were saying how beautiful and intelligent you thought Mary was." She said pointedly.

"Hm, she was indeed. I meant she'd be quite the looker when she grows up, and she was the smartest person I'd ever met." Steel said honestly, wondering why the receptionist suddenly had a very relieved look on her face.

'Must be a lady thing.' He thought absentmindedly

The receptionist gave a little jolt, then said, "Your teacher will be here momentarily, please have a seat."

A chair slid out from the floor and Steel sat graciously in it. He didn't have to wait long for his volunteer teacher.

He smiled brightly, "Hello again Mary."

Mary looked the same as she had last time, perky and youthful. She wore what looked like an official mage robe on top and a skirt that ended a little above her knees on the bottom. A cute little witch sat sat on her head, tilted a little toward the right. For some reason, she seemed a little red in the face.

"Everything all right?" He asked, a little worried.

She turned red and shook her head, "No, I'm all right, just a little hot up in my room today." She stammered, "Umm, by the way, you never told me your name."

"Oh, I'm sorry, call me Steel." He reintroduced himself with a bow. The receptionist tittered, and Mary shot her a look that quieted her, but was smiling when Steel upright-ed.

"So, follow me this way." She started walking down the lobby toward one of the halls that seemed to appear and disappear at random intervals. He followed, happy to keep his eyes on her cute bottom as it shifted side to side.

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Once again, Steel found himself in a classroom with Mary, in fact it looked almost identical.

"Hey Mary, is this the same classroom as last time?" He asked looking around. For some reason she wouldn't meet his eye for that question.

"Er, no. That classroom is undergoing repairs for an accident. Some students accidentally made a fireball without proper training." She said admiring the pictures on the wall.

Steel shrugged, kids were kids no matter the world.

"So Steel." Mary began, sitting on the front desk with her legs crossed, "What did you want to learn about. I thought you would have had a class picked out by now?" She asked curious.

"Err, yeah." He said sighing, "Turns out Milna blessed me, so I couldn't find a class when they checked."

Mary almost fell backwards at his words, "What!" she cried out. She leapt down (Steel enjoyed the view) and ran to him. "Tell me everything!" She demanded, looking Steel straight in the eye.

Surprised by her actions, Steel summarized what had happened since he had last saw her. He included the edited version of real world events like he had to the captain, so she could understand. By the end of his story, she had cried, showed anger, and seemed oddly happy. He could have sworn he heard her muttering about "luck", "talent", and "mine", punctuated by a strange far away look. She returned her attention to him.

"So, Milna's blessing gave you earth resistance right?" He nodded, "Good, we can start there."

She walked over to the desk and placed her hand on it. Instantly, the desks all molded in the ground, leaving an empty room.

"One application of earth magic." Mary began as she returned to Steel, "Is the creation of things that do not move. Walls, chairs, and desks can all be made out of he earth, and just as easily return to it."

She took Steel's hand and inspected it closely.

"Er, is this important?" Steel asked the girl eyeing his palm.

"Yes, it helps me figure out your talents." She said, never taking her eyes off his hand. Eventually, she returned his hand and looked up.

"Hm, it seems your best bet for magic lies in earth and darkness." She said matter of factly, "I'll teach a basic earth spell for defense and a basic bind spell for darkness."

"So the whole thing about darkness being evil and binding people's souls is real?" Steel said horrified, and maybe slightly scheming.

She laughed, "That's dumb. Darkness isn't evil, it just is. People fear darkness because they under the sun. Darkness magic is a tool, same as all magic. There are binding spells in all the elements, darkness is just the easiest to control." She shook her head, "It is true that there are more evil darkness using mages than the other elements, but that's mostly because they are too lazy to put in the effort."

"So I can sue darkness with hurting my soul?" Steel asked.

"Sure, it won't hurt your soul unless you do bad things with it. It may hurt your reputation if people see you use it though." She shrugged, "But magic users in general don't have the best reputation to begin with, so don't worry too much."

Steel nodded. It was time to up his arsenal.

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Okay, there we go. The girl chapter should be out tonight late, it'll end with Mary's thought about Steel while hes practicing. Remember, ratings, comments, and thx really help my motivation, so thank you for being a great audience!