Ril awoke slowly. Luxuriously stretching in his bed, as the sun tinkled through the curtains and onto his face. A smile coalesced onto his face as he realized where he was. He took a deep breath through his nose and immediately frowned, as he remembered that he hadn’t showered after he had arrived at the dorm.

Hopping out of bed, he took a closer look at his surroundings. His bedsheets were rumpled, and were a clean white. At least mostly, they were a little dusty from his travel stained clothes, but it was nothing that a good beating wouldn’t fix. In front of the bed there was a small fireplace whose embers were buried. On the side of the bed, a small-ish window overlooked the courtyard, which was obscured by a pair of teal curtains. Below them a bedside table stood with an inert lamp on top of it.

Ril blinked. That was a magnetite lamp. Those were expensive, certainly not something he expected them to furnish his room with. The lamp itself was simple, just a twisted piece of black iron cradling a polished lump of dark grey metal covered by a cloth lampshade. Ril walked around the bed, and lifted the piece of magnetite from its iron cradle. It stuck to the iron stand like it was glued, but after some tugging it pulled free with a jerk. It felt strange. Unusually heavy, and although it was cold as you would expect metal to be, it wasn’t nearly cold enough. Like it was drawing heat away from his hand slowly. More similar to wood, than the steel it resembled.

Grinning, he walked over to the fireplace with the piece of magnetite in hand, and unearthed the sleeping fire. Piling some spare kindling over the coals, Ril waited a moment as the fire caught. Then, with unconcealed glee, he dropped the magnetite into the heart of the fire.

The grey orb fell into the heart of the fire with a thump, spraying sparks everywhere. Ril began to jump up and down impatiently, as he watched the flames lick around the ball of metal. In order to try and expedite the process he stack more wood onto the small fire. When the rate of ignition didn’t satisfy him, he lifted his palm and unleashed a cascade of Sparks onto the dry wood.

Unfortunately, while the sparks were plenty hot enough to ignite paper, or sawdust, they did little to ignite solid wood. Even wood as dry as the kindling that he was using. Ril frowned, staring at his palm. He had upgraded Fade by trying to push the limits of the ability. Perhaps something similar could be achieved with spark.

Reorienting himself, Ril once again pointed his palm towards the burgeoning fire. A small waterfall of bright yellow sparks fell on the wood. Ril scrunched up his face, his open palm slowly curling to resemble a claw. The stream of sparks condensed, being launched from his palm rather than falling and separating from each other. Even with this modification, the sparks didn’t do much to increase the heat of the fireplace. They were still sparks, and cooled far too rapidly compared to a true flame.

Ril paused. He resummoned the spark waterfall, however this time, he focused on making the sparks hotter instead of compressing the stream. After a brief mental effort, the sparks changed from bright yellow to white. The column left an afterimage in Ril’s eyes but didn’t appreciably heat up the fire. At this point he might as well just wait for the fire to heat the magnetite by itself.

Ril bit his lip. When he had upgraded Fade he had explicitly tried to force the ability to do something it wasn’t designed to do. He pulled up the message he had received from before.

Congratulations! you have acquired the ability Fade!

Fade into the background when stationary.

But spark did not have such a limitation. It just created a spark. It was already apparent that with some mental effort he could change the properties of the spark. Make it hotter, or change its angle. Speaking of spark, why was the ability called spark, when it clearly summoned a bunch of sparks. Quickly, Ril tried summoning only a single spark, and lo and behold a single measly spark flew from his palm.

Maybe the ability needed time to upgrade. Fade hadn't upgraded immediately either. Ril got up and brought a pillow from the bed. Settling in, in front of the fire he began spraying the fire with sparks, trying as hard as he could to summon as many sparks as he could in as tight an angle as he could.

Fifteen minutes passed, and the magnetite was already cherry red, but by now Ril had an agenda and his stream of sparks was not significantly contributing to the fire. He paused, wiping sweat from his forehead. The room had grown uncomfortably warm. He got up and opened the window before getting a cup of water to drink.

He had made progress. He could reliably make the sparks all fly directly out of his palm rather than in a cone, and the sparks were very hot. The problem was he hadn’t received an ability upgrade. Frustrated, he sat back down in front of the fire, determined to get some result for his effort.

After five more minutes the stream of sparks suddenly changed. The individual sparks coalesced together into a small flame.

Congratulations! you have upgraded Spark to Flame!

Summon a gaseous flame.

Ril broke out into a massive smile. Yes! He did it. Before he could jump up and do a jig, something in the wording of the ability caught his eye. It just says summon a gaseous flame, not summon it from his palm. Curious Ril spread his fingers and summoned the flame. Then with his mind he tried moving it. To his surprise he felt a resistance, similar to when he had upgraded Mirror Image. Now doubly curious, Ril pushed harder. A small trail of silver dripped from his nose. He did not notice.

Suddenly, all the resistance disappeared and the flame in his hand shot upwards into the ceiling, getting smaller as it went. Still reeling from the sudden release, Ril released the ability. A faint black circle could be seen on the immaculate white ceiling.

Congratulations! you have unlocked Remote Casting!

Spells can be cast away from the body. Efficiency inversely proportional to distance.

A shiver ran through Ril’s body. He felt...free. Like he had just taken off a heavy backpack. His mana shivered within him. For a moment he reveled in the feeling. Then a drop of liquid fell onto his open palm. Surprised, Ril looked down, only to see a wet, silver circle.

...Ok, probably enough for now, He thought to himself. Wiping at the blood and getting a paper towel from the bathroom to wipe up the mess. While cleaning up his nose bleed he summoned up his character sheet to see his progress.

Character name:

Ril Renar

Statistics:

Strength

8

Intelligence

17

Constitution

10

Wisdom

11

Dexterity

13

Charisma

10

Warp

6.87%

Abilities:

Blood of the Chromagnum

Mirror Form

Mana Manipulation (Basic) (Diffuse)

Remote Casting

Telekinesis

Flame

Vanish

Create Snowball

Backstab (Passive)

Very nice. He had made so much progress since that fateful day when he had stolen the divine sphere from Godric Glotsk. Although...His warp had increased. It was a small change, but still there. Worried, Ril closed the menu, and threw the silver-stained paper into the garbage.

With a sigh, Ril returned to the fire. Glancing into its depths he remembered what had started this whole affair. The magnetite ball glowed gently in the heart of the fire. Flames licked up its side, and reflected dully across its surface. Ril’s grin returned to his face as he grabbed the poker from the side and dragged the magnetite out of the fire. Carefully, Ril spit onto the metal. When the spit just glommed onto the metal without sizzling, Ril’s grin opened wider and grabbed the glowing ball of magnetite with his hand.

The metal was cool to the touch. Not as cool as it had been when he had lifted it from its stand but not nearly as hot as it should have been from its brief adventure in the fire. It gently glowed in his hand, with a dull red radiance.

Awesome, Ril thought, juggling the unnaturally heavy ball from hand to hand.

Done with his fun, and nursing a slight headache, Ril went to put the magnetite back into the lamp. However, when he went to do so, the magnetite wouldn’t stick. Curiously, Ril tapped the wrought iron with the magnetite ball.

Oops. I didn’t break it, did I? He thought, worried.

His fears were unfounded as the moment the cherry red glow disappeared from the metal it snapped onto the wrought iron stand just as it had before the fire. With a grunt he pulled it apart and placed the orb back where it was initially at the top of the stand.

Done inspecting his immediate vicinity, Ril walked into the bathroom. It was simple, but surprisingly well featured with heated water, and a toilet. Undressing, he pulled out a fluffy white towel from a cabinet and stepped under the scalding stream with a sigh.

* * *

Almost half an hour later, Ril stepped out of his room, fully dressed and ready to take on the day. He had smacked his clothes to dislodge the majority of the road dust that had caked on during the journey here. As well as, scratching at a particularly stubborn mud stain on his trousers. Eventually he had resorted to wetting the stain under the sink to make it look presentable.

And so, oblivious to the wet drips that he left behind himself every other step, Ril went to find the others.

He made his way downstairs, only to find Eren and Felix chatting in the lounge. Eren was cradling a steaming cup of tea, while Felix was tearing into a chunk of fresh bread, while lying on his back on one of the couches.

“Ha! Our shining hero descends!” Felix shouted, hopping up to a more vertical position. Then he grinned, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. “Get it? Shining?” He gestured to his own head full of hair.

Eren frowned, “Oh shut up, his head is not that bright. Good morning, Ril how did you sleep?”

Ril brought a hand to his shaved skull, self consciously covering the shining skin. “Like a dream, or wait, I didn’t dream at all, it was that good. Anyway, it was great, what about you? Did you know I have a magnetite lamp in my room?” He said, his customary grin returning.

“I slept well, thank you for asking. Yes, all of the rooms in Reluke Hall have them. There are benefits to working for the royal family.” She replied, smiling. “Evelyn left nearly an hour ago, she told me that you and I could go explore the city.”

“Sounds great.” Ril said exuberantly, hiding a brief flash of disappointment. “What is Evelyn doing?”

“Not a clue, It’s probably related to her position since she went out with Cato.”

They got up and headed out of Reluke Hall.

“How is Cato? Is he feeling better?” Ril asked, as he followed Eren out the front door.

“Pretty good actually. Since he didn’t take the hit directly he was able to bounce back after only a single night's sleep.” Eren said squinting in the morning sun.

“Gah! Ooh, ugh. So... bright...” Felix moaned from behind them. He raised his hand towards Ril and in an exaggerated way before pulling out a pair of sunglasses from his coat. “Ahh, much better. You know Ril, you should get a hat. Your head could blind someone.”

“Are you going to come with us?” Ril asked, not super concerned with Felix’s antics. He had learned to tell when Felix was joking and when he was being serious.

“Nah, I got an errand to run in the market district. See you around, kid.” Felix said, only slightly disappointed at the lack of reaction. Then he turned around and swaggered away.

“Here,” Eren said. She was donning a pair of sunglasses and was handing Ril an identical set.

Ril looked down, his hand going to his bald head, self consciously, a slightly hurt look on his face. “It’s not that bad is it?”

Eren snorted. “Of course not, Felix was just making a joke. The glasses are for the tower glare. It's morning and we are on the east side of the city. The silver spires can blind you if you accidentally look at them directly.”

Ril accepted the glasses before putting them on. Now that he was looking around, he noticed that everyone else who was walking around the courtyard had sunglasses as well. Most of the sunglasses were decorated or stylized in some way, unlike the plain identical pair that Eren had given him.

“Where to?” Ril asked.

“Well I was thinking that we could exchange your spoils from the dungeon for cash before we go eat something.” Eren offered.

“Let’s go!” Ril said, gesturing grandly for her to lead the way.

They headed off, Eren leading the way confidently through the wide streets of the outer city. Once they made it out of the Academy grounds the city really opened up. The city was alive and bustling at this time of day. Workers of all forms moved through the crowds. Hawkers shouted from the sidelines gesturing emphatically at their wares. Soon they found themselves entering a blacksmith’s forge.

A bell rang, announcing their arrival. Inside, a bored, giant of a man was sitting behind the counter and paging idly through a worn looking book. He was holding the book in one hand, his pudgy thumb and pinky fingers holding the book aloft. The man put his book down, creasing a page to retain his place. The book looked like it had suffered numerous such travesties before, and was on its last leg.

Book mutilation aside, the fellow seemed nice enough, if a little severe. He didn’t smile at them as they entered, preferring an impassive expression. Strangely, although he was incredibly wide, his head barely crested over the top of the countertop. Making it so that Ril and Eren were looking down on him. Was he sitting on the floor? Or just really short?

“Yo.” The man grunted.

“Hello,” Ril said tentatively. The shop itself had plenty of metal instruments, including several swords that lay on a pedestal near the far wall. But other than the wide man behind the counter, it was empty.

“What?” The man said, still looking impassively at Ril.

“Uhm, well, my name is Ril, nice to meet you.” Ril stumbled through the words, holding his hand out for a shake.

The man looked at the hand for a moment before laboriously reaching over the counter and clasping it in a gentle grip. “Dom.” He rumbled.

“I recently. I mean, me and a friend recently completed a dungeon. And well, I was hoping that you, uhm... Do you buy chromium dust?” Ril asked.

“Yes,” Dom rumbled. Ril waited a moment, but it seemed like the big man wasn’t going to say anything else. The man had a deep voice. So deep that Ril heard it in his belly more than with his ears. He also had canted eyes, and now eyelashes. Black orbs with green flecks peered out from them. That and the man’s strange proportions made Ril feel just a little intimidated. Hesitantly, he reached to his belt and unstrapped the back of dust and placed it on the counter.

“Here, this is what I have,” Ril said.

“Contentment...” Dom rumbled out. Despite this his face remained impassive, as he opened the bag with his thick fingers. Jeez, his thumb was almost as thick as Ril’s wrist. It was disconcerting the size of the man.

“Yes, uhm, contentment, right. Me too. How much can I get for this?”

“Dekar per gram.” Dom grumbled. He lifted a scale from underneath the countertop and set it down. Then he unceremoniously dumped the contents of the bag onto the scale.

“Displeasure...” He growled. The dust that fell out of the bag was dirty. Mixed in with the silver dust was black sand from the cave and even a small stone that had somehow made it’s way into the bag. Pulling out a metal disk from underneath the countertop, Dom held it over the impure chromium dust. Immediately the silver particles lifted up from the pile and stuck to the metal disk. What was left was a pile of black sand. Not satisfied, the big man brought out another disk, this one dark purple, nearly black, and held it over the pile for a moment. Nothing happened.

“Uhm...what...” Ril asked, then stopped when a low growl emanated from the man.

“Disappointment...” Dom said, his face still impassive.

He put the dark purple disk down and retrieved a green one. This time a few grains of green sand separated from the pile and glommed onto the green disk.

“Satisfaction...”

Dom then tilted the scale causing all of the black sand to fall onto the countertop. Then he grabbed the silver disk and held it over the now clean scale. A moment passed with nothing happening, but then Ril felt heat on his face. The confusion only lasted a moment until the silver metal disk that had attracted the silver dust began to glow a dull cherry red. Immediately all the silver dust fell lightly onto the scale.

“592 Dekar.” Dom said, looking at Ril expectantly. Ril recovered from his shock that the smith could heat metals so quickly with his hands.

“What about 650 dekar?” Ril said, hopefully. A slow frown appeared on the smith’s face. “No, you’re right that is too much, how about an even 600?” When the smith just looked at him, his head tilting slightly. Ril caved. “Uhm, ok, 592 dekar is good.”

“Confusion...” Dom grumbled. Eren snickered, but stayed otherwise silent, content to let Ril handle the negotiations. Ril shot her a frustrated look. The smith was really big, and the fact that he didn’t use complete sentences was scary. The fact that his face never changed emotion just made the situation more foreign to Ril.

Dom then collected the dust in a small tray before repeating the trick with the green disk. Once again the disk began to glow slightly before it released the meager amount of dust onto the scale.

“25 dekar.” the smith rumbled, giving Ril another expectant look.

Ril blinked, surprised. The dark purple grains were so few that they were almost invisible on the scale. He didn’t know that this type of chromium was worth this much. “Sure,” Ril nodded.

Lastly the smith grabbed the green disk which looked like there was nothing attached to it. He heated the disk over the scale and said. “3 dekar.”

Ril frowned looking at the empty looking scale, “Uhm sure.” He couldn’t see the dust but he wouldn’t complain at free money.

The smith nodded, and quickly collected the supposed dark purple dust in a tray before pulling out ten thick, round iron coins and six thin, round iron coins. All the coins had a hole punched through their center. Dom pulled out a string and threaded all the coins through it, before tying a knot deceptively deftly considering his size before handing the collection to Ril.

“Thank you, Dom.” Ril said, meekly accepting the coins.

The smith nodded. He took the three small trays and dumped their contents into three separate barrels that were sitting to his side.

“Ok, bye now.” Ril said, stepping towards the door.

“...Bored,” The smith sighed, lifting up his dogeared book and proceeded to ignore Ril and Eren.

Ril quickly made his way out of the shop. He took a breath of fresh air after the door closed behind him. “That went well, right?” He muttered.

Eren burst out laughing. “I think he likes you.” At Rils affronted expression, she quelled her laughter, before grabbing his hand, and dragging him into the bustling crowd. “Come on, let’s get something to eat. Then let's see about getting you into the Arena”