It says a lot about me that I only ever thought about magic as “dump MP into a spell, and the System takes care of the rest.”

I can’t believe how much of an idiot I used to be. Or how naively I approached my studies.

It’s a good thing that any illusion I had about my quest being an easy one was stripped away from me quickly…

Excerpt from my journal

-----

“Time magic is impossible,” I groaned and fell backward onto my rented bed.

I’d decided I needed somewhere to try to figure out magic, and the wilderness wasn’t gonna cut it with random encounters every hour or so. That led to me having the new experience of… becoming a renter.

Assuming that I hadn’t been one on Earth. I didn’t have a clue where the heck I stayed back then.

Anyway, long story short, I found a cheap apartment in the bad part of town, where I was hoping people wouldn’t ask questions, picked up the [Magical Researcher] subclass (which had the very helpful skill [Analyze Spell Structure]), and then started trying to uncover the secrets of magic via Tim’s journal.

And that was basically all I had done for the past 3 months. What did I have to show for it? Well…

“Ignis,” I said the name of the first spell school and focused on the concept of heat. After a moment, I made a harmless flame appear in my hand. I snuffed it out and went to the next one.

“Frigis.” This time a small piece of ice hovered there briefly before disappearing.

“Aeris.” A current of air that could barely be called a breeze wafted around me.

“Terris.” The magic started turning into a pebble, but I lost my concentration, and it disappeared. I tried to form it again without the needless school name, but the gathered mana fizzled once more.

“I never did get Terris,” I muttered. “Where does the earth come from? For all the others, I can kinda buy the BS of pulling them out of thin air, but that one…”

I sighed as I leaned back on the lumpy bed and stared up at the ceiling. I could have been encouraged by my progress, but the fact of the matter was that each of those simple manifestations had cost me more than the equivalent bolt spell. In fact, part of me was tempted to pick up [Earth Bolt] or something from an obelisk… if the nearest usable one wasn’t so far away.

The other problem is that I had spent that much time learning how to free-cast those spell schools, and none of them were even in the right tree.

And by tree, I was using Tim’s term for it. He had a theory that the system categorized spells in broader terms than just the single spell school and that all of the elemental ones were in the same “elemental tree.” However, it wasn’t just a tree. If you let it, the metaphor could continue all the way down. The elemental “tree” had two “branches” (with Tim hypothesizing a third), and those branches each had two schools as the “leaves.”

It surprised me a bit to find out that fire and ice were on the same branch, and so were earth and air.

That may have been why Tim was insistent in his journal of referring to the elementals as “heat,” “cold,” “stability,” and “instability,” respectively. In other words, fire magic was just adding heat, and ice magic was just subtracting heat. Earth magic and air magic were the same but with the concept of “stability” instead.

Either way, I was distracted and getting nowhere.

“Tim didn’t even have a clue which tree time magic was in,” I muttered. “And his notes have been oh so helpful.” I glared at the notebook sitting on my ratty desk.

The beginning of the notebook where Tim was just studying magic of all kinds? Helpful, just not entirely relevant to learning time magic.

The middle of the notebook where he had one scratched-out experiment after another? Might be helpful once I gained enough magical understanding.

The end of the notebook where it was all basically the railings of a mad scientist, and also written in a cipher? Not so helpful. Especially since I couldn’t even de… cipher it?

“Oh, so that’s why they say that. Huh,” I said to myself. Not precisely the breakthrough I was looking for, but for some reason, I found it way funnier than I should.

“Right. Can’t forget…” I muttered. I placed my hand on my head and braced for nausea. “[Restore].”

System: Condition Minor Madness has been removed

“All the way up to minor?” I asked. “Yeesh. Being cramped up in here not talking to anyone hasn’t been good to me.”

However, that made me realize that I did have someone I could talk to. A world-renowned elemental caster who might have some pointers. And someone who did also tell me to stay in touch.

“[Message] Sam Newman. Yo, it’s me,” I started. I need to make sure to give her plenty of words to respond. “I’ve been hanging out in Besti for the past couple of months just trying to learn magic. I figured I would use the elemental spells as a starting point, but I’ve hit a bit of a roadblock manifesting anything more than a light breeze. Do you have any tips?”

I nodded to myself. That should do it.

Sam Newman: Wha-… Titus? Why are you [Messaging] me at… 3AM?

I drew back the curtains and finally noticed it was pitch black outside. Oops. I was about to send another [Message] as an apology when I got the rest of her reply.

Sam Newman: Nevermind, don’t answer that. Save your next [Message] for when it’s light out. As for learning magic, maybe just try the mage’s guild? It’s hard to give pointers over a [Message].

Sam Newman: Anyway, good night.

I had the distinct mental image of Sam rolling over and going out like a light after that last [Message].

Note to self. Make sure to remember that other people still have to deal with that whole “sleep” thing… Also, why didn’t I think of the mage’s guild?

I frowned at that second part. It seemed pretty obvious in hindsight, but then again, I still wasn’t quite sure what the mage’s guild did.

Do they teach magic lessons? Do you have to be a registered [Wizard] to join? I asked myself a bunch of questions I had no idea about before finally shrugging. “I guess I’ll just have to go find out.”

I was this close to heading out the door before I remembered. “Right. Sleep. We just went over this. I wonder when they open?”

So, with nothing better to do, I went back to trying to summon dirt with my mind.

Which sounded a lot cooler than my stumbling failed attempts made it look.

Despite my huge mana pool, I did have to eventually take a “break.” My break was trying to figure out more of Tim’s notebook, but I definitely didn’t get far.

“How did he even get the magic to layer like that?” I asked as I studied his notes on [Death Bolt]. I turned the notebook this way and that and eventually even stared at it while it was upside down.

I might have been stuck there for quite some time if I didn’t hear a commotion outside.

“Oh, right! Mage’s guild!” I said as I pulled back the curtains and saw a sunny day.

I scooped the notebook into my inventory, made sure my clothes were presentable (or at least, weren’t the black cloak that made people think I was going to mug them), affixed my shades, and then headed out.

“Now, I just need to ask someone where the mage’s guild is,” I muttered. Then I finally noticed the cause of the disturbance that had broken up my study session.

Outside, the Bastion police… err… “watch” were out in force. They were stopping and questioning pretty much everyone I could see and then talking into their magical walkie-talkies. However, nothing violent was happening, so I wasn’t too worried.

“Hands where I can see them!” I heard a shout.

I looked around to find the voice and finally located a pair of officers coming my way.

“I said, put your hands up!” one of them repeated.

“Who me?” I asked cluelessly as I pointed at myself. That part was aided by the fact that I had decided to [Get Into Character]. So, Jake, the hapless out-of-town adventurer I would be.

That made the officer pause for a moment. “Put your hands up, and don’t move!” he finally continued as they made their way towards me.

“But like… am I supposed to put my hands up, or am I not supposed to move?” I asked.

“Just… put your hands up!” he shouted.

“Chill out, man,” I replied as I slowly lifted my hands up. “You’re being totally not tubular, bro.” I paused at the words that came out of my own mouth. Okay, I don’t know how Jake became a surfer-dude, but that definitely won’t cut it. I coughed as I tried to reset the skill with a slightly more solid picture of “Jake.”

“What I meant was, why do I have to put my hands up?” I asked when I finally had myself under control. “You aren’t making anyone else do that.”

“Don’t try to trick us, [Demon Lord]!” one of the officers answered. “We know it’s you!”

I was debating my options and wondering how I would get out of that mess (preferably without going on a rampage) when a different voice called out.

“Hey, Jake! Is that you?”

The voice sounded familiar, and I turned to look.

“Oh, hey Anton!” I called back as I saw two familiar [Watch Officers] approach. As I did, I had a brief moment where I realized I wouldn’t have even noticed that I was the one being addressed without my [Actor] class. However, now that I was “in character,” my attention was pulled by “Jake” almost as much as if someone said “Titus.”

“You can go ahead and put your hands down,” Anton said. “We know him. He helped bust that group of thieves a couple of months back.”

“But… he matches the wanted poster and the description exactly!” the first officer replied. “Are you sure that he’s not the [Demon Lord]?”

Anton laughed. “Of course he’s not. He’s just a high-level [Monk], right Jake?”

“Yup,” I lied in agreement.

“Then would you mind stating that into this truth stone?” the officer asked as he pulled said rock out.

My mind filled with butchered swear words. “I would really rather not,” I replied.

The jovial mood that Anton had been projecting vanished. I could practically feel things drop a couple degrees as he took a step away from me.

“Your name is Jake, right?” Anton asked.

“That’s what they call me!” I replied. “They” meaning Anton, Eadric, and Judith, of course.

However, even the truth stone vouching for my equivocation wasn’t enough. No one was smiling.

“Now that I think about it, the [Demon Lord’s] skills are a lot like a [Monks],” Eadric finally joined the conversation. “And taking down a group of criminals would make for a good cover.”

“Come on!” I protested and gestured at the rental. “I’ve been living in that dump for the past 3 months! Do you really think a [Demon Lord] would put up with that?”

The truth stone verified that too, and three officers looked at me in confusion.

Meanwhile, Anton laughed. “Well, in that case, I guess you’re free to go, Titus.”

“Thanks, I’ll-“ I cut myself off mid-sentence as all four officers nodded to each other and pulled out nightsticks. Ship.

I [Flash Stepped] outside of their ring and took off running. I vaguely heard one of the officers calling in for all available units while the others shouted variants of “stop” or, in one case, “[Halt].”

However, a low-level [Guard]/[Watch Officer] skill was no match for a level 25 [Demon Lord]. I felt sluggish for only a second before I was back at full speed, racing down the street.

Well, this was not how I was expecting today to go. I thought idly as I turned down another street. However, I only made it a few steps before I spotted another group of officers coming down that way, so I quickly made a U-turn and took off in the other direction.

This is getting nowhere. I need to lose them. Fortunately, I had an idea.

I sprinted down random alleyways until I found a T-shaped intersection. Then after making sure that they could see me take the turn, I rounded the corner to the right… and immediately [Flash Stepped] backward and entered [Sneak].

It worked like a charm.

“He can’t have gotten far!” one of them called out as they doubled their pace down the wrong way.

Meanwhile, I used my headstart to quickly and quietly make my way towards the edge of town. As expected, the gates were crawling with officers, so I decided to wait for nightfall and then go up and over the wall.

What were they even planning to do if they caught me? I asked myself during the long wait. A conversation I overheard from outside one house at the edge of town ended up answering that question.

“Really? The Saint’s in town?”

“Yup. They got a tip-off that the [Demon Lord] was around here, and she came right away. Once she catches him, that [Demon Lord’s] a goner.”

Time magic must’ve ticked Sarah off more than I imagined. I thought. Fortunately, nothing else of note happened until nighttime, when I did my usual trick for scaling walls. A quick hop down, and I was free to go.

“So… what now?” I asked as I started walking along the road. “I still want to have a chat with the mage’s guild, but that won’t be possible if the watch everywhere knows what I look like…”

I thought if there was any magical way to solve all of that when I finally realized I had overlooked the easier solution.

------

“W-w-what kind of hairstyle would you like, good sir?” the very nervous [Barber] asked.

“I literally don’t care,” I replied. “I just want something that doesn’t match this.” I continued as I held up the wanted poster with my likeness.

Yeah, the one issue with changing my hair was that I didn’t have any disguise to go to the [Barber] with. Fortunately, he was so terrified of me that it didn’t take him much to convince him.

Unfortunately, the poor man was shaking so much that I worried he would pass out from fear, let alone give me a bad haircut.

However, despite my misgivings, he finished my haircut in record time.

I looked at my now very short red hair and sighed.

“I-I-Is it not to your liking?” the practically vibrating man asked.

“Not really, but you did what you could, I guess,” I mumbled.

“I-I-I could give you a longer cut? Or maybe throw in a beard and mustache?” he asked.

“You can grow hair!?” I practically shouted.

He recoiled. “Y-y-yes, of course. That’s simply a part of the first level [Barber] skill, [Modify Haircut].”

I couldn’t help the wide grin that broke out over my face. I knew it was just a matter of time before the watch learned about my updated appearance, but this [Barber] had just given me a fantastic idea.

I stood up from the chair that he had me in. “I’m going to need your scissors, a mirror, and anything else that you need to make a haircut.” He started to protest, but I pulled out a 500-gold coin and placed it in his hands. “And this is for your troubles.”

He looked down at the coin and then back up at me. “I… err… well.” He scratched idly at his head and then looked down. “I refuse. If the watch finds out I had dealings with the [Demon Lord], my business is as good as gone.”

I shrugged. “Fair enough. Then I’m stealing this,” I said as I pulled the scissors out of his hand. “And anything else I need. You are in no way selling them to me, even if I happen to drop that gold coin on the way out and don’t come back looking for it.”

He nodded slowly, his terror of me mostly gone by that point. “You sure are an odd [Demon Lord].”

“Yup, no arguments there,” I replied.

He stocked me up with a pair of scissors, a hand mirror, and several different colors of hair dye. True to my word, I “accidentally dropped” the 500-gold coin on my way out.

I thought it was a decent transaction… even if he sounded the alarm less than a minute after I left.

Where should I go next? I asked myself as I [Snuck] in a corner and idly watched a group of [Guards] run by. I’d picked a random small village for that transaction since I hoped they might not recognize me there, but that had obviously failed.

Apparently, I was public enemy number 1 across the entire world these days.

I didn’t even do anything this life! I grumbled to myself. Well, I guess there was the cult… and the attack on the church… and the fires. I frowned. I wonder if I just paid off that fine if they’d let me go? I chuckled softly as I tried to get my train of thought back on the rails.

Maybe I’ve been approaching this all wrong. Maybe I shouldn’t go to the small towns.

The coast was clear, so I took off.

Alright, mind’s made up. Dryadal capital, here I come.

------

I did have one stop of note on my way to Drydal’s capital. Or I guess Dryadal, Dryadal since they also did the annoying “country and capital named the same thing” bit.

“So, I just hold up the scissors here and activate the skill?” I asked as I stared at myself in the mirror.

It didn’t do anything.

“Hmm. Maybe I should’ve asked that guy to teach me a bit before I ran off,” I muttered. “Can I at least make my hair shorter?” I asked. After that, I tried just cutting my hair like normal, and it seemed to work. Unfortunately, that wasn’t helpful as it just left me with even shorter hair.

It’s a good thing no one’s around, or they’d think I’m crazy. I paused. “Speaking of crazy… [Restore].”

I breathed a small sigh of relief as the System informed me that I had cured myself of lesser madness yet again.

I really need to do that every day. I shuddered as I thought of everything that crazy Titus had gotten up to.

After resolving to do that, I got back to trying to make my hair longer with the mystical powers of the [Barber] class.

He wasn’t just trolling me when he said he could make a longer haircut, right? I asked. Then I finally hit the jackpot. “Ohhhh, so you just have to pretend your hair’s super long, and you’re shortening it!” I said as I snipped through midair, and my hair started growing.

There were just two problems. First, it was painfully slow. Second…

A familiar howl interrupted my haircutting session.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” I complained. However, not for either of those reasons, but rather a third that appeared only after I hastily put my scissors and mirror away.

System: Haircut interrupted. Haircut quality greatly decreased

Out of a sense of morbid curiosity, I pulled the mirror back out.

My hair was now uneven everywhere. There were even two patches on my scalp that were bald.

I’d also randomly grown one-half of a handlebar mustache.

“You mobs are dead,” I stated flatly at the group of wolves running towards me. “[Hell Blaze].”

The spell was overkill for a group of 10 normal wolves, and there wasn’t even anything left to loot.

“Okay. Let’s try this again.”

Whether hair cuts took longer than I expected, or the spawn rate was jacked up in the region of the wilderness I was in, I wasn’t sure. Either way, I got interrupted again.

I left the scissors out and fought the wolves off but got the same message from the System.

I was left with a partial afro, a partial beard… and no eyebrows.

“I JUST WANT A FRICKIN’ HAIRCUT!” I shouted at the sky. “IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK!?”

Now, there were several obvious solutions to my conundrum. First, go somewhere else before trying it again. Second, wait for daylight (yes, I was stupid enough to start all of this at night). Or third, just leave the hair as it was since it would still solve the issue (even if it did look like I pressed the “please make my character ugly” button on the character creation screen of an RPG. Or I guess that was technically called the “random” button, but that was basically the same thing).

Needless to say, I was too stubborn at that point to do any of those.

So, if anyone had been in the Dryadal wilderness that night, they would have stumbled upon the strangest sight of their life. A [Demon Lord] cutting his hair, attempting to swear at the System when wolves attacked, and fighting awkwardly with only his feet so that his haircut would be maintained.

However, if they had enough patience to stick around to the end, they would have seen that he eventually succeeded.

“In your face!” I shouted up at the sky.

My haircut was nothing special to look at, but that’s what I wanted. I simply had a bit longer, curlier hair (that was a pain to figure out) and a full beard. Oh, and all of it was dyed brown instead of the dark red that normally gave me away.

I looked at the much less recognizable face in the mirror and then frowned. “But is there anything I can do about my eyes?”

I was pretty sure that running around with sunglasses on for any length of time would eventually end up giving me away.

I guess we’ll see how far our world’s group of weebs pushed costume design…

------

After making some discreet inquiries, it was surprisingly easy to get ahold of colored contacts. It turns out that [Actors] used them on occasion.

From there, it was off to the mage’s guild. My trip there was a lot more disappointing than I expected.

“Mandatory military service?” I asked half to myself as I read through the documents they pushed my way before I could join.

“There is a war on, you know,” the [Clerk] deadpanned.

I cocked my head. “But isn’t the [Necromancer] dead? Shouldn’t they be winding down recruitment?”

“How in Placeholder am I supposed to know?” he replied. “Not my job. Now, are you signing or what? You’re holding up the line.”

I looked backward at the half a dozen people behind me and looked back down at the papers.

It seems like they’re big on elemental magic here. They’ll help train any of the basic bolt spells, but that doesn’t seem quite what I was looking for. I skimmed a bit more and found that the only real caveat was the [Message] spell. I could become a glorified messenger instead. I shook my head.

With a sigh, I handed the [Clerk] the papers back unsigned. “Sorry,” I replied. “I guess I was just hoping for something a bit more… academic.”

“Thank you for wasting everyone’s time,” he replied in that same deadpan voice. “Next in line!”

Well, that was a bust. I thought as I headed for the door.

“Uhh, excuse me,” an elven man interrupted my train of thought. As I turned to look at him, he continued. “If you’re more interested in being a [Magical Researcher] or a [Scholar], you should probably try the Institute of Learning instead.”

“Oh, what’s that?” I asked.

He then described what sounded awfully like fantasy college, or maybe “the academy.” Either way, that was exactly what I was looking for, so I jotted down the directions he gave me on a spare piece of paper and went on my way.

Here comes the school arc. I chuckled to myself as I made my way to magic college.

“Or maybe not,” I muttered as I reached my destination and did a doubletake between my notes and the dilapidated building in front of me.

If this is some kind of scam, that guy will not know what hit him. I grumbled to myself as I walked up to the door.

It was already partially open, so I just pushed lightly. Then I got to see the inside of the building.

No. I thought.

It was basically a single-room school like they had way before my time back on Earth. It had five orderly rows of desks facing a chalkboard at the front.

All of that was fine. The real reason for my hesitation was the little elven girl with long blonde hair who was up in front and seemed to be giving a lecture.

This better not be the “I just look like I’m 10, but I’m actually hundreds of years old” trope or so help me I will-

“Very good!” My thoughts were interrupted by another female voice and the sound of light clapping.

“Thanks, mom!” the little girl beamed.

“You will be a great [Professor] someday!” the first voice continued as she stepped forward, bent down, and gave the mini version of herself a hug.

Oh… Good.

I also realized that I was trespassing on a precious mother-daughter moment like a creeper, so I backed up a few steps, then walked up and knocked on the door.

“Hello?” I called out. “Is this the Institute of Learning?”

The woman immediately straightened up and became more serious.

“Yes, it is! I am [Professor] Arryn Vathyra, and this is my daughter Amarra,” the woman said. “With whom am I speaking?”

“I’m Samson Roberts,” I said as I walked up and shook her hand. “Nice to meet you both,” I continued as I also stooped down to shake the little girl’s hand. After the last few encounters, I figured that using Jake again would be a bad idea. I also had decided to come up with a name and backstory beforehand so that I wouldn’t have to make it up on the fly. In other words, I was finally getting used to all of the incognito BS.

“So what brings you to our humble place of learning on a Saturday?” she asked. “I am afraid lessons do not resume until Monday morning when we have our first lecture on…” Arryn pulled out a piece of paper from her inventory. “World history.”

“Oh,” I said, a bit disappointed. “I was hoping to study magic.”

She sighed. “Have you tried the mage’s guild?” she asked with all the enthusiasm in her voice gone.

“Yeah,” I replied. “They weren’t quite what I was looking for. It seemed like they only trained combat spells and [Message], and that’s not really what I’m looking for. I want something that goes more into the theory of magic, or maybe would help with creating new spells.”

Her eyes lit back up. “Hmmm… Our next class on magical theory is on Tuesday, and we are already part of the way through the curriculum. However, if you wish to join anyway, I would not be opposed.”

I shrugged. “Sure, sounds good to me.”

“Fantastic,” she replied. “Now there’s just the matter of the fee for the course…”

I had to open a window similar to when I was shopping at any other vendor, and when I did, she was surprised at the price it listed. Apparently, the going cost was 25 coins (or 20 coins with my discount for not joining at the start), but given my adventurer status, that was bumped all the way up to 100.

“You have an advanced class!?” she exclaimed.

“Yeah… Is that a problem?”

“No, no. Of course not,” she replied. She tried to sound nonchalant, but it almost seemed to me like she was trying to hold back from fist-pumping.

Well, I guess I basically count as 5 students in terms of fees, and it does look like they need the money.

“Alright, then I’ll see you on Tuesday?” I asked.

“Yes, Tuesday at 10 AM,” she replied. Then she cocked her head. “However, I am curious. What brought you to our door on a Saturday?”

“Oh, some guy I saw at the mage’s guild recommended you,” I replied.

“Gorluin,” she groaned. “You should at least inform people that we are closed on Saturday and Sunday!”

“Gorluin?” I asked.

“Daddy!” Amarra shouted in excitement.

Given that she was shouting that in my direction, I immediately turned to look back toward the door. Sure enough, the same elf I saw earlier was walking in.

Ah. So that’s how he knew about this hole-in-the-wall classroom.

“Hello, my darlings!” he replied as he stooped down, and his daughter ran up and hugged him. He lifted her up and spun her around. He then planted her on his shoulder and gave his wife a quick peck on the cheek.

“Didja get the [Message] sent?” Amarra asked.

Meanwhile, I felt increasingly awkward, so I excused myself and went on my way.

----

I ended up renting a room in a nearby inn, for cover’s sake more than anything else. Then I spent most of my free time exploring Dryadal’s capital city and complaining to myself that there wasn’t anything that special about it.

Either way, Tuesday eventually rolled around.

I showed up a few minutes early and was a bit surprised at the lack of students.

One, two, three, four… I counted. And five. Including me. Well, maybe some of them are late.

I tried to have a positive outlook on Arryn’s behalf, but to be honest, I wasn’t that surprised when no one else showed up before the top of the hour.

“Good morning, class!” Arryn said as she walked into the building. “Today, we’re going to continue our practical sessions on the Aeris school of magic.” She pulled out a yellow wand. “Who would like to go first?”

A hand was half-heartedly raised in the front row, and she walked up to and gave the young man with bird feathers on his neck the wand.

He closed his eyes tightly, and after a few moments, there was a small but palpable breeze around him.

“Very good!” she said. “You have made great progress! Who would like to try next?”

I raised my hand. “Excuse me, is the wand necessary?” I asked.

Arryn tilted her head. “Hmm, I suppose it is not strictly necessary, but most neophytes are unable to cast magic without a spellcasting focus.”

“Oh, so having a wand helps with free casting?” I muttered. “That would’ve been good to know.”

“Would you like to give it a try next, Samson?” she asked.

I nodded, and she walked over and handed me the wand.

Let’s see what I can do with an appropriate focus then… Just like before, I focused on the concept of instability and tried to force that feeling to manifest.

Arryn was right on the money about the wand. I felt it redirect and guide the gathered mana.

And as my desk and the four other desks nearest to me blew over in the resulting blast of wind, I realized that I may have overdone it.

The [Professor] looked at me in shock as I sheepishly handed the wand back.

“Sorry about that,” I said as I righted the desks. “I’m not used to casting with a focus, and that made things a lot more… potent than I expected.”

I also took a peek at my mana bar and realized that spell had cost a bit more mana than I expected. I flipped open my status to check the exact amount and cringed.

25 mana for that. Yeesh. Well, I guess in the worst-case scenario, I’ve figured out a basic knockback spell… I looked back at the [Professor] who had only taken a step backward. Or maybe not. Maybe if I dumped more power into it?

My musings were interrupted as Arryn finally regained her composure. “I see that I should have started with giving you the aptitude test after all. My apologies, Sampson. I did not expect that you would have such a keen mastery over the Aeris school of magic.”

I chuckled. “I don’t know that you can call it mastery when I just blew through 25 MP just for that little gust of wind.”

“25 MP?” she asked. “Are you in need of a rest already then?”

Crud, I keep forgetting that my mana bar is abnormally large. What should I-

“Ah,” she nodded knowingly. “Of course, I forgot that you also have an advanced class. You should still be fine to continue for the rest of the aptitude test in that case.” She paused. “Unless your advanced class has as poor mana point gain as that accursed [Berserker] class.”

I was a bit taken aback by the vitriol in her voice when mentioning [Berserkers], but I didn’t give it too much mind. I mean, you can’t find a more polar opposite than [Berserker] and [Professor], right? I thought as I answered aloud, “Yeah, I’m good. We can keep going.”

“Good. Then show me what you can do with Frigis next.” She pulled out a blue wand but then paused. “On second thought… perhaps show me what you can do with Frigis without any external aids.”

“Roger that,” I replied. I focused and manifested a shard of ice above my hand, just like all the practices I had done earlier.

“Fascinating,” she murmured. “How long have you been practicing the elemental schools of magic?”

Something was telling me that “Oh, just the last couple of months” was not the correct answer there.

“I’ve been at it for a few years,” I lied.

She nodded once again. “That much is obvious. You must have been very dedicated to your practice.”

I laughed nervously in reply.

“We still have two elements left,” she continued. “Do you have enough MP available to continue the test with Terris?”

I winced. “Yes, but Terris is the one school I’m not that confident in.”

“That is fine,” she smiled. “Just show me what you are capable of at the moment, and I will see what we need to do.”

Then as if she had just realized where we were, she looked around the room. “Sorry, class!” she called out. “You may either stay and observe or take a quick 10-minute break before we resume!”

Then she turned back to me. “Ready?”

“I guess,” I replied. I focused and managed to create the pebble, but it disappeared again.

She made a thoughtful noise. “Could you do that again?”

I nodded and concentrated. Once again, I managed to form a pebble, and this time I managed to hold it for all of two seconds before it faded.

“Density,” she said without hesitation.

“What?” I asked.

“Your magic lacks density,” she said. When I only gave her a confused look in response, she elaborated. “You are attempting to create the same formation as ice, but that will not work with earth. Terris magic is the magic of stability, and stability requires that your magic be packed together tighter.”

There’s no way I was failing because of something so simple, right? I thought as I prepared to try one more time. This time I really focused on packing my magic together.

“Well done!” she laughed and clapped as the pebble formed and stayed solid.

I relaxed my hold on the magic, and it faded. Dang, just one lesson, and she already figured out what was wrong with my casting.

That gave me an idea, but I figured it would wait until after class.

Anyway, she also ran me through Ignis, and that was the one that impressed her the most. However, it made her concerned that I wouldn’t need her classes after all. None of the others were anywhere close to my level.

That’s why I approached her after class.

“What would you say to private tutoring?” I asked.

-------

The underpaid [Professor] was hesitant at first, but she ended up giving in once she learned how much money I was willing to throw at getting private lessons.

… I did have to go out hunting monsters fairly often to pay the steep rates, but it was 100% worth it.

I learned a ton over those next two years. And some of that was just some of the basics of how skills and classes leveled.

Did you know that you couldn’t just grind your face into a skill or class until it hit level 10? Well, I didn’t. Anyway, it turned out that your “affinity” (which I pretty much just thought of as talent) would also play a big part.

So, to give an example from my first life, Jake leveled up his [Swordsmanship] super fast because of his [Warrior] and [Hero] perks, but also just because he took to [Swordsmanship] like a duck to water.

To give an example from my second life, I picked up a bunch of healing spells, but my very nature rebelled whenever I tried to cast them.

Yeah, it’s likely that at that point for the [Animae] skill, I would likely have been “capped at 1,”… which is one of the most offensive Placeholder ways to say that someone has no talent at something.

Speaking of [Animae], I finally got a list of all the known schools of magic. Part of it was technically review from Tim’s notes, but this was all verified information and not conjecture. Also, they didn’t use vague tree terminology, but I penciled it in in my version anyway.

Tier 3 School (tree)

Tier 2 School (branch)

Tier 1 School (leaf)

???? (Elemental Spells)

Temperis

Ignis (fire)

Frigis (ice)

Stabilitis

Aeris (air)

Terris (earth)

???? (“Biological” Spells)

????

Animae (life)

Mortae (death) - Forbidden

????

Evalescae (strengthening)

???? (weakening)

????

????

Deprendio (detection)

????

????

Communicatio (communication)

????

Got all of that? Because there’ll be a quiz later.

Kidding.

To unlock the skill for a tier1 school, you had to have learned two spells in that school. That explained all the holes in the chart. There were simply some types of magic that we didn’t have any spells for at that point in Placeholder’s development.

As for the tier2 schools, those had different unlock requirements. They required a certain number of levels in their child schools.

Tier3 schools… Well, tier3 schools were nothing but theoretical groupings as no one had seen one yet.

To go back to tier2 for a moment, I wondered if I knew who was responsible for us knowing about [Stabilitis] and [Temperis].

Given that I knew a particular world-renowned [Elemental Sorcerer], I ended up asking her about it. Unless someone else beat her to the punch, which she seriously doubted, she was the one who first filled in those blanks.

So, that was kind of a neat thing to know that I, of course, kept to myself throughout our private tutoring sessions.

I mean, revealing that I knew a world-renowned [Sorcerer] would punch even more holes in my already shaky alibi.

However, it was good to finally put a name to things.

[Animae], for healing spells, was one I could have technically learned about if I had checked the skill section after I purchased [Heal] and [Cure]. However, since I was thousands of miles from the nearest obelisk I could use, it was good to learn that another way.

[Mortae] was for death spells, which was expressly forbidden due to… well… Tim. We were still able to research it a bit, but only from the angle of “how to counter those types of spells.”

[Evalescae] was a new one to me, but that was apparently the one that governed the [Strengthen] and [Haste] spells. So, it was a tossup which [Cleric] was the first to discover it.

As for [Deprendio]… actually, all adventurers started with a spell in that class. [Identify]. However, it also had things like [Scry], but that one was much too complex for Arryn to even begin teaching me.

And [Communicatio]. That one should be pretty straightforward to understand. [Message] and [Message]-adjacent utilities.

In fact, that was the main one that made me realize that all of the spell-schools were just faux Latin names with similar endings.

Which made me feel pretty stupid that it took that long to realize because ignis is literally Latin for fire.

What else?... Oh, during that time, I also ended up finally learning all the basic bolt spells. [Fire Bolt], [Earth Bolt], [Air Bolt], and [Ice Bolt].

That one took a bit of doing because I had to pay the mage’s guild to just observe their casting sessions, then work with Arryn to reverse-engineer them.

Either way, my patience paid off, and I soon had them all listed under my spell list in my status.

However, those were only the 4 simplest spells from the most straightforward school of spells to master.

Yes, the elemental spells were the easiest. Blame that on the fact that they were the only ones that had physical manifestations.

Trying to free cast [Animae]? Good luck trying to wrangle feelings of peace, comfort, or light into something tangible… Well, in my case, it was more feelings of nausea anyway, but you get the picture.

In other words, my respect for Tim as a spellcaster shot up by multiple magnitudes during that period. Since he did almost all of his spellcasting with [Mortae], which was mostly the same as [Animae], but opposite.

I probably could have spent decades like that, learning and slowly getting stronger magically. Unfortunately, my impatience would see to it that that wouldn’t happen…