It was a fantastic point, and I was a bit taken back at his resourcefulness. It only took me a moment to remember the fact he was in the military. "If you can get it working Harrison, then please do. I think we'd all be at a lot more peace if we can get some information coming in."

He nodded, "I'll get right on it."

With that taken care of, the crowds that had gathered immediately dispersed. Even the teenagers and children had been present. Everyone was feeling a bit more comfortable having the teenagers and kids outdoors, as long as they stayed within the confines of the property. As of right now, with the decrease in ash, they should be fine regardless.

As I glanced around, I noticed Emma, Noah's girlfriend, was currently spending time with the kids. I also observed Noah standing off to the side, looking as though he wanted to talk to me. So, shrugging, I motioned for him to come follow me as I walked around to the backside of the house. There were some chairs set up near the small garden that was back here. Although, the plants seemed to have wilted from both a lack of care, as well as the lack of potent sunlight the past week.

The spot provided a bit of privacy though.

"What's going on Noah?" I inquired.

He seemed a bit hesitant to speak up at first, but continued, as his glasses drooped slightly down his nose and he moved to adjust them. "I want to help out more," Noah said quietly.

I began to study him.

The thing is, in reality, Noah was pretty much an adult. He was eighteen and I was beginning to wonder why we had excluded him from helping out around the Community. It wasn't like we thought he would be useless or anything. He was a bit wiry, but frankly, nowadays, with the system that could be corrected fairly quickly. All he'd need are a few levels before he'd be able to keep up with most anyone.

I sighed, "and what do you have in mind? It's pretty dangerous out here, which is why we've been keeping the lot of you inside by the way. We can't be everywhere at once, and until the wall is built, it'll likely stay fairly dangerous."

"That's what I'm saying," Noah retorted, "all of you are spread thin and you need the extra help, and I'm plenty old enough to do just that. Just use me!"

I frowned, "I don't disagree with that, but... It's likely just got to do with the general optics of the situation, what do you want us to do with you?"

He contemplated for a moment, and then replied, "teach me magic."

I was a bit taken aback. Up to this point, we had pretty much refused to allow the kids to gain a class because that would involve the necessity of killing something. We didn't want to put them through that sort of ordeal.

"You do realize what you're asking, right Noah?" I asked.

He nodded, "you don't have to worry about me, I get how all of this works. I'm ready for it." I could feel the slight hesitation in his voice though. Out of anyone here besides Kevin and I, it was Noah who was most familiar with the implications of the System and its effects on our world; being a former player of Holy Arc that is.

"Are you sure? We'll need to get you to gain some experience first, and of course, you understand what that implies?"

He bobbed his head up and down again, looked me straight in the eyes, and with complete confidence, he pronounced, "I'm ready."

꧁꧂

And that was how we had ended up on the south-eastern edge of the Community.

It was less dangerous here, which is why I decided on it. We avoided the risk of having an undead scream and draw in the entire horde. While also getting the opportunity to have some combat experience with Noah.

It didn't take long for us to find a solitary undead. They were much more dispersed here than on the south-western edge of the Community where the undead had begun to congregate.

In Noah's hand was a small hatchet, which wasn't much, but should still easily be enough to deal with any of the undead we would face. This particular undead that we had found was located on the side of one of the nearby houses. It also happened to be one of the decomposed corpses and not fresh at all, marking it as an easy target.

Noah stalked closer, albeit timidly. I stood by and watched just in case things went wrong. It was only level one, and shouldn't pose much of a threat regardless.

Noah moved closer until he was directly behind the quietly upright undead. He raised his hatchet and brought it down hard on the skull of the walking corpse. We both watched as it crumpled to the ground, lifeless. As it turned out there was little concern to be had and his ability to swiftly deal with the undead was a good sign.

He collected the mana stone and we headed back to the house. And, once he had a moment, he went through his selection screen. After making sure there were no specialized classes, he ended up selecting the [Mage] class.

The next few hours ended up being fairly straightforward. With Noah finally having selected his class, and my additional promise to Rachel to teach her magic, we found the three of us, myself, Noah, and Rachel, in the same area I had been meditating at earlier in the day.

Both Noah and Rachel were low levels. Noah had just reached level one with his class selection, and apparently, Rachel was already at level two, having gained several skills and leveled since she had first received her class. That fact made it a bit easier for Rachel to accomplish the following tasks.

I first had them cast their basic [Fire Bolt] spell that they had received along with their class.

The task ended up being remarkably straightforward. With their [Basic Elemental Affinity] skill, they were able to cast the basic spells by just using the skill. However, I had come to realize that the spells that the system inherently imparted to individuals, and spells people produced using their own intellect and wisdom attributes had some striking differences. First off, the normal spells that people gained through the system, seemed to use a larger amount of mana, while only resulting in a similar impact; compared to if one conjured a spell themselves. They required a specific, and pre-allotted amount of mana in order to cast, and that was it. They were rigid and weren't flexible depending on the situation.

After the first day or two of arriving in Shrewsbury, I had made the discovery that my [Basic Mana Manipulation] skill had a massive amount of potential. It allowed me to conjure magic up myself, without needing to use the system as a crutch. The ramification was basically that I could control the mana cost of my spells, and as I recently found out, shape them as well. At least, in a much more flexible form than the system inherently allowed.

Taking my recent skill advancements as evidence, it appeared that this was a much better path to take than simply relying on the system to make the spells for me. Plus, the novelty of discovering how to personally use mana was a reward in and of itself. It was quite literally like a sixth sense.

Both Noah and Rachel had no issues casting their [Fire Bolt] spell. So, I moved on to the next step, that is, removing their reliance on the system.

"Great job," I said to both Noah and Rachel, "How much mana did you have to begin with, and how much mana do you have right now?" I asked.

Noah began, "I had about eighty-six? Now I only have fifty-six."

I frowned slightly, that wasn't very high at all, but I guess I had forgotten the benefits of my higher level. Basically, my mana pools had grown quite quickly compared to what they had been before. Though my growth was still about the same as a normal [Mage], I just had the added benefit of also having the same growth increases as a [Warrior] with my physical attributes. Definitely a more well-rounded class.

Looking towards Rachel, I indicated it was her turn to go ahead.

"Well..." she began, and then proceeded to smile smugly, "I had a little over a hundred and twenty and now I'm just slightly above ninety," she reported.

Noah looked at her, envious. "Wait, how's that fair? You're only one level higher than I am! How are you any higher than a hundred and... ten!?" He finished after pausing to calculate his numbers for a moment.

Rachel looked at him, and then pointing her finger towards herself, noted, "it's because I'm smarter."

Noah just stared at her, mouth agape, "What was your intelligence & Wisdom at before you took a class!?"

"Six Wisdom, and five Intelligence," she smiled.

Noah pouted.

"Wait, what was yours, Noah?" I asked curiously.

"Four Wisdom, and four intelligence," he muttered under his breath.

I guffawed. "Well, I guess the system recognizes to each their own."

Noah then turned to me, "What was yours then!?" he pleaded.

"Not as great as Rachels," I noted, "Just five in both Wisdom and Intelligence."

He folded his arms, "I guess I should have studied more..."

"Maybe," both Rachel and I said at the same time, and then laughed.

It was good to see Rachel start relaxing a little bit finally. The past week she had been nearly constantly stressed, but I guess she was finally beginning to acclimate, as the laughing made clear. Soon after our nice ice-breaker, we went on to our following task. Once again though, Noah became envious of Rachel.

After I indicated the usefulness of the [Basic Mana Manipulation] skill in the next exercise, Noah announced that he had never received the skill.

Apparently, as it turned out, I had received the skill because of my racial evolution. Rachel on the other hand had received the skill when she was hit by the mana wave. Noah on the other hand? He had been indoors when it had hit and hadn't been impacted by the wave. Or at least, not to the point to automatically receive the skill. So the first thing we had to do was to teach him the skill.

It was easier said than done. It necessitated being able to sense mana in the first place, and as such, I spent nearly an hour creating mana constructs right in front of him. Eventually, he picked up the skill though and we were able to move on with our next task.

This one was a bit more interesting, as I helped the two of them to meditate first. Once they were properly focused, instead of having them sense the mana outside their bodies with their [Basic Mana Manipulation] skill, I instead had them turn their focus inwards until they could feel what was essentially their 'mana core'. Once that had been established, the next task was having them draw the mana through their mana networks.

My first time doing it had been largely by mistake, but I was pretty sure that having the [Basic Mana Manipulation] skill as well as having a fairly high intelligence had helped quite a bit as far as noticing the mana networks and mana core inside of my body. For Noah and Rachel on the other hand, it's likely it would have taken much longer to have noticed it without my intervention.

Rachel manifested her first system-less spell after about thirty minutes. It was just a small flickering flame of fire. It didn't seem much larger than the flare of a candle in this case, but the results were certainly there. She had only used a small sliver of mana to conjure it. So, as a next step, I then had her pump more mana into it.

The finer control of her mana was still lacking, as suddenly the small flickering flame ballooned and exploded right in front of us. Luckily the damage was mitigated and it mostly just snuffed out. But we pretty much all had our eyebrows singed.

She completed the task though and had even gained two levels in her fire affinity. Noah took quite a bit longer. As he first had to gain the skill, and then get used to being able to see the wisps of mana flowing through the air. Eventually, Noah too had ended up finishing the task and succeeded in not destroying whatever hair on our faces we had left. Noah made sure to gloat about this to Rachel, much to her consternation.

We returned to the house in light spirits though, just in time for the sun to finally dip below the horizon.

The events of the evening made me feel much better, that was for sure. Rachel was now more proficient in magic, and Noah was just added to our cohort of potential combatants. Luckily, even though he was younger, using magic should keep him away from the more gruesome nature of fighting if it came down to it.

Once we were inside the house, it became pretty clear that, as I noticed the other Communal Councilmembers of the Community waiting, tonight would be another Council Meeting.