The Spell Crafter's hall was quite an underwhelming sight; utterly plain, grey and boxy. Haruki didn't even stop to look at it as he knocked on the door.

Stepping into a small lobby, a pretty young elf immediately caught his eye behind a nearby desk. A look of surprise entered her luminous violet eyes as she spotted him, sending her scrambling to her feet.

“Are you Master Haruki?” She asked, cocking her head slightly, now visibly excited.

Haruki scratched his neck nervously, unsure how to handle her reaction.

“Ahh, yeah. Were you expecting me today or something?”

“Not exactly, we've had a standing order to let you in for a while now. We've all been wondering when the first ever 'Special Master' would arrive!”

'First... ever?'

A brief wave of terror flashed through his gut as he sheepishly mumbled an excuse. “Ah, sorry I didn't come sooner, I've had a lot of things going on lately.”

“No no, don't mention it. It's part of your job description to come and go, after all.” she replied, looking slightly concerned. She'd heard about his family from Master Cho just last night. Eager to change the topic, she leaned in close with a beaming smile.

“Oh yeah, you can call me Lei. I basically run the place.”

Haruki nodded, slightly overwhelmed by the annoyingly bright Elf.

“So is Master Cho here? I haven't had any kind of training or induction yet?”

Lei chuckled, her long, loosely curled hair roiling like a river of gold across her delicate shoulders.

“Master Cho is currently out and about, but he told me to organize your work space and equipment. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask!”

With one delicate fist, she slammed into her plump chest in an exaggerated salute.

PON!

Haruki's mind felt strangely at ease after watching such an oddly cute creature. He flashed her a brilliant smile as he bowed his head slightly.

“Thank you Lei. I'll leave it in your capable hands.”

Clearing her throat, she stammered on as her cheeks flushed with a warm crimson.

“Ah, one more thing. Here's your identification for the guild. This will open most of the doors in the office, so feel free to use it as you wish.”

She handed him a small metal card inscribed with his name and some small runes.

“And here's your badge. Your ranking is signified by the metals and gems used, but yours is unique.”

In her other hand, she held out a small badge. A rose shaped sapphire glistened softly in the center, surrounded by a wreathe of golden leaves.

“It's a little basic, but we had it made in a slight rush. We can re-design it later if you want...”

Nodding in confirmation, he pinned it to his chest. Haruki followed her over to a heavily fortified metal door. A small green crystal was embedded in the wall, gently pulsing with a soft light. With a swipe of his card, the light faded into a solid white and the door slowly opened inwards with a heavy mechanical grinding.

'It's kinda similar to the old world. I wonder if it could be altered to use biometrics?'

Leading him quietly for a short distance down a long, barren hallway, Lei paused briefly at a large common room filled with middle aged apprentices. Many were tussling over various books and scrolls while others were arguing heatedly about certain lines of code.

“Feel free to come here whenever you want, Master Haruki. You can eat, work or argue here as you wish.”

The room ground to a deafening silence as the apprentices finally noticed their presence. Two dozen men stood frozen, every head turning towards Haruki. Some were slack mouthed in admiration after seeing his young age, while others had faces twisted in anger or jealousy.

“Don't pay them any mind, you're technically their senior here.” A fierce glare from Lei sent the room into a bustle of activity, many quietly resuming their previous work. Turning back out into the hallway, she walked him over to a nearby door.

“Here is your personal office. Everything in here is assigned to you and only Master Cho has access as your direct employer.”

She leaned in with a sly wink.

“I have the keys too, though, so I can check if you're sleeping...”

Haruki shirked back a little, eager to change the subject.

“Thank you, Lei... So, was there a task or job waiting for me at all? I need money pretty badly, actually...”

“Ah, sure thing. You don't have to take it now, but I've got a job list waiting for you. It's pretty simple, just read the description and modify the spell to the listed specifications. To the right is the payment assigned for each job.”

She pulled a sheet out from a pocket, handing it over as she unfolded it.

Nodding eagerly, Haruki grabbed the sheet and investigated it with a hint of greed creeping into his mind.

'Wow, I could make some fast money like this. Even with 20-some jobs, it'll probably take less coding than the weekly homework I used to do. Should be easy enough to hammer it all out...'

Remembering he wasn't alone, he lowered the job sheet and bowed again towards Lei.

“Thank you, Lei, you've been a big help. I'll have this sorted by day's end.”

Haruki sat down at his terminal, powering it on as he looked over the paper once more with an intense concentration.

Slightly startled at his sudden shift in focus, Lei backed away a little.

“Uh... Sure... Don't work yourself too hard, you only need to do what you can manage. Remember, I'm only a call away if you need me.” Lei said as she finally walked out, a worried look on her face.

'I hope Master Cho properly explained the work sheets. Oh well, he'll figure it after he starts. He doesn't seem to be an idiot, at least.'

Shaking her head, she quietly closed the door behind her. Groaning to herself as she remembered the ever-growing piles of paperwork, she raced back to the front desk to get started.

'I'll tell him after work to be safe, then. I hope he doesn't give up like the others, I wouldn't mind if he stayed with us for a while longer...'

Haruki was left alone in his room with nothing but a terminal and list of spells.

'This seems easy enough, I guess I'll just work my way down from the top. If I can't get it done today, I'll finish it tomorrow.'

Choosing an easy element-swap job, he cracked his fingers in anticipation.

Ding! Would you like to learn Spell Crafting as your first profession?

You will gain access to the S.P.E.L.L. OS /help function.

Note: Each consecutive profession you learn will level 10% slower than the last.

Haruki accepted immediately, a cheesy grin shattering his stoic expression. He'd forgotten about it during the chaos, but now he was excited.

'I'm 15... I can finally get a class now!'

Humming to himself as he thought about the future, Haruki started typing like a madman.

“Master Harukiii? Everyone else has gone home already? Hello?” Lei called out meekly into the darkened, empty hallway. She knocked on Haruki's door gently, startled slightly by his flat response.

“Come in...”

She opened the door to see him still sitting at his desk, staring blankly at his terminal. A large pile of scrolls sat to one side of the desk. A flicker of life came back into his eyes as he turned to her with an exhausted smile.

“Ahh Lei. I'm almost finished with the job sheet. It took longer than I expected, but the last one's printing out now.” and he gestured over to the scroll stack as he tapped on the print button with a satisfied smile.

“Eh!?” Lei's face twisted into a strange, contorted shape.

“Did I do something wrong?” Haruki asked hesitantly. He'd charged forwards because everything had been relatively simple, but he only just now remembered that he didn't know the procedures or rules of his new workplace.

“Haru...ki...” Lei rubbed her temples gently, face devoid of colour.

“That sheet... It has every job listed for the entire month...”

“Oh?”

“And to complete them all in one day? Normally your first job would take weeks!”

“Oh.”

“In fact, no-one has ever finished a job on their first day...”

“You don't say?”

Lei gently pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing heavily as she massaged it.

“I'll go get you the money...”

Haruki nodded as he turned back to his terminal again. He called out to her casually as she staggered out the door.

“Thank you!”

Lei-chan left the office, still slightly bewildered.

'What a monster... I wonder what Master Cho will say about all of this!?'

After seeing off the dazed Elf, Haruki pushed the print button on his terminal a final time. The reason he had worked so late was because he'd wanted to try crafting a spell of his own. He knew the details would be logged, so he didn't bother mentioning it to Lei.

'I'll leave it as a surprise for Master Cho... Shame I couldn't use everything, though. I did pretty well though, the /help command opened up so many new options...'

He let out a dark, painful laugh as he read over the scroll. His other work had all been simple tasks; changing a spell's duration, adding or removing elements, changing elements entirely, etc.

But this was the first spell he had crafted entirely from scratch. Coming in at 93 lines of code, he'd spent the first hour abusing /help to figure out the names of everything he needed. Despite being locked out of certain commands and other components, there were enough available to build something nasty.

You have learned the spell: Hells Wrath

300 MP

Calls down a barrage of dark flame across a wide area, devouring

the soul of anything it consumes. Caution: Affects all living

beings caught within the area of effect.

The Dark One's hunger...

A terrifying soul magic, callously crafted by Abe Haruki.

Level 15

He left the scroll on his desk with a devilish smile, locking the door behind him.

Lei intercepted him at the front desk, handing over five bulging sacks.

“Here's your payment for today, Master Haruki. In total, that's 5 platinum and 47 gold. We were short on platinum, so I had to pay in gold. Is that ok?”

She cocked her pretty little head with a soft pout, batting her long lashes up at him.

“That's fine, thank you Lei. I'll see you next time.”

Haruki opened the front door, eager to deposit his wages into his ring in private.

Lei watched him vanish into the night with a happy grin, speaking quietly to herself.

“Good night, Haruki. Be safe.”

Grand Master Cho was sitting in his home office, sipping some warm tea and calmly reading over some notes.

Bang bang bang!

A loud knocking roused him from his thoughts. Sighing in exasperation, he rushed down to answer it.

“Lei?” The young elf was out of breath, having run over directly from the guild hall.

“Sorry... to intrude... Master... Cho.” she managed to gasp out briefly, before dumping a pile of scrolls on a nearby coffee table. Cho raised one eyebrow as he spoke.

“What's this? I wasn't expecting a delivery for another few weeks?”

“Haruki's work. He finally came in today and asked for a job sheet. This is the result...” she said, still not quite believing it herself. Lei awkwardly held out the scroll she'd found in his office after he'd gone home.

“There's this one too...”

Grand Master Cho looked at it with a keen interest. “So he did a months worth of work in a day and still had time to create something new? Excellent...”

After opening the scroll, his whole body went rigid.

“Lei... Tomorrow, erase this spell from the terminal logs. Never speak of this to anyone again. Ever...” his words were dry and low, his hands rustling the scroll gently as he trembled.

Seeing his sudden mood change, Lei grew serious. She trusted him more than anything, so seeing him scared shook her a little.

“Is it that bad, Master Cho?”

He pondered for a moment, shuddering again as he remembered the words “devouring the soul”.

“I pity anyone who angers that child... Not even a god could save them from something like this...”

After sending the puzzled young Elf home, Cho haggardly sat down in his study to once again read over the scroll. With a heavy sigh, he opened a draw on his desk.

'Even I've never seen soul magic of this caliber before! Truly terrifying...'

He lit a candle and held it up to the scroll, quickly reducing it to ashes.

Haruki left Touhama behind after completing his work. A single day had netted him a healthy sum – 547 gold coins.

Now that his immediate monetary issues had been resolved, Haruki turned his thoughts towards safe shelter.

'I can't stay in this town, not while the Church runs everything. At least I have SOME immunity with my rank in the guilds. They can't move on me in public without angering some powerful people.'

He remembered back to his adventuring lectures. They'd covered many dungeons in the local area and even been taught strategies for beating the more commonly seen bosses and creatures. He was also taught the chant required to capture an unclaimed dungeon core.

Haruki thought back to one particular dungeon his teacher had mentioned.

“Recently, the Kobold mines have undergone a full transformation. Since then, adventurer's have reported that everything has changed inside and out. The monsters are all stronger and have even changed their form to human-type bandits.

As you all know by now, dungeons are technically living creatures, similar to magical beasts. When they absorb enough mana, their core will level up, causing the many changes seen throughout this dungeon.”

He smiled to himself, happy that the academy wasn't a complete waste of time after all.

'A bandit cave... Hmmm... Maybe I'll check that out? It's not too far from here and they might even have some treasure. They'd be really shitty bandits if they didn't...'

Haruki headed west, pausing for a moment at the ashes of his old home. After a few minutes spent in silence, he proceeded north-west towards a small coastal mountain range.