The start of Ray’s first magic lesson with Master Rambalt was similar to her the start of her first lesson with Siegfried. When she walked into the tower, Jantzen and Peter shrank away from her. Peter fell backward, his body trembling and his eyes shaking with terror. Following Siegfried’s advice, she had the swords and shield strapped to her body rather than hidden within the enchanted bag.

Kelsey, for her part, merely observed the interaction with a poorly hidden smile.

“Hey, Kelsey!” Ray greeted her cheerfully.

“Hey,” Kelsey responded. “Did you eat a good lunch before you came?”

“Lunch?” Ray asked. “Why would we do that when we already had breakfast?”

Kelsey, Lexi, and Jantzen stared at Ray with dumbfounded expressions.

“Huh…?”

Kelsey approached Ray and patted her on the shoulder, leaning forward slightly to speak in a lowered voice.

“Even if you don’t feel like eating, make sure that beastkin eats three meals a day. She can’t ask you for food in public.”

Ray’s eyes widened in shock as Kelsey stepped back. She turned and stared at Lexi.

“Are you hungry?”

Lexi shook her head, but Ray caught her nervous glance towards Jantzen and Peter.

“I wouldn’t dare ask for food!”

She spoke loudly so that the others could hear. Unfortunately, her stomach conveniently chose that moment to revolt.

Grrrrrrowl

Ray frowned and Lexi flushed with embarrassment. She reached down to her enchanted bag and imagined ‘food’. She figured that the adventurer she had taken the bag from would probably have had something edible in there.

A small pouch of dried food appeared in her hand. She didn’t really know what it was, but it smelled a little salty and had a rigid, leathery texture. She held it out to the catgirl.

“This should hold you over until after the training. I won’t forget in the future.”

Lexi gingerly reached out and accepted the unidentifiable substance that was presumably edible. She had a weird expression on her face, but she didn’t complain.

Satisfied, Ray turned back, humming to herself as she strode over to the table and sat down. Jantzen, Kelsey, and Peter remained silent throughout the whole exchange. After Ray had comfortably been sitting in her seat and humming for several seconds, they also took their seats.

Two minutes later, Master Rambalt slammed open the door with a burst of fire and flew into the room. A gust of wind launched all the scattered papers flying about and several stacks of books fell over, adding to the relative chaos and clutter.

The small, speckled lizard resting on a floating wizard hat following behind the elementalist. It glided over to the same area it had been at last time Ray was in the tower, though this time the hat alighted itself upon the frame of the staircase leading up.

Master Rambalt descended lightly in front of the table they were sitting at. He patted down the new wrinkles in his robes while grumbling.

“Whew. That’s the last time I stay up ‘till sunrise playing cards…”

He looked almost a hundred percent identical to the previous day except the bags under his eyes were heavier and his hair and robe looked a bit greasier.

“He’s said that every day for the last three months,” Kelsey informed Ray with a whisper.

“If I could get your undivided attention!”

Ray straightened her back and focused on the magician.

“Today is self-study! I’m going to sleep.”

Master Rambalt staggered over to a chair and plopped down. A large book appeared in his hands.

Ray stared at the greasy magician in disbelief.

This was her first day! How could she self-study if she had no foundation to build on?

“That’s pretty common as well,” Kelsey sighed.

Ray felt her temper rising.

“Don’t get angry.”

She grimaced.

“What do you want now?”

“Smile innocently and ask him politely. If necessary, explain the problem. Guys like him have a weak spot for pretty women.”

Ray raised her hand.

“Excuse me, Master Rambalt, sir?”

He turned his violent glare toward her.

“What?”

“I don’t know how to use any magic yet. How should I self-study?”

Master Rambalt examined her for a moment before his expression softened. He directed a look of intense longing towards his book and then sighed. He coughed lightly into his hand before grumbling.

“I suppose I could get you started. Summon your mana.”

Ray obeyed. She smiled and directed her gratitude towards the voice in her head.

“Thank you!”

“Sure thing!”

As soon as her mana was released, Master Rambalt studied her for a long moment before speaking.

“I told you yesterday that you could pursue any branch of magic that interests you. Do you have any magic that you would like to study?”

“What types are there?”

Eileen had given her a basic introduction before, but she wanted a more comprehensive overview before deciding.

“There are five basic categories of magic. Elementalists like myself focus on the traditional elemental magics such as fire, water, earth, and wind magic. Some specialized elementalists might also use metal, lightning, or light magic as well.”

Master Rambalt paused for a moment. He rubbed the tiredness from his eyes and slapped his cheek a few times. Then he continued with his explanation.

“If you want to be a priest, I can’t help you very much, but I can help you get started. Priests use holy magic and must be chosen by a god. I’m not sure which god blessed you, but you have one of the strongest aptitudes for holy magic that I have ever seen. It’s above even the level of Lady Eileen and Lord Maxwell. It might even be near the level of a Tether.”

Kelsey and Jantzen gasped and stared at Ray with wide eyes. She squared her shoulders and revealed a smug smile. She knew she was special, but it still felt good to be validated.

“Warlocks use what is generally classified as ‘dark’ magic. There are various subcategories, but the two most common types of warlocks are obliterators and dominators. Obliterators use magic that manifests as pure destructive force while dominators use mind-control and mind-domination magics. A more obscure third type of warlock would be a dark mage, sometimes called a dark healer.”

“A dark healer?” Ray asked, intrigued.

“A warlock who specializes in removing injuries, poisons, and other debilitating effects via magic. They use their mana to transfer the negative effects to their own body first and then redirect those effects into their opponents. It is a type of healing that can only effectively be used on a battlefield unless there are ample prisoners to use as sacrifices.”

Unless one had regeneration abilities like Ray.

“Druids use nature magic. Some druids specialize in controlling plants while others focus on working with animals. This can take several forms, such as taming wild beasts as pets or shapeshifting. While you have an aptitude for this type of magic, it is by far your weakest category. You should pursue this only if you have a great interest in it.”

She might investigate it later, but that explanation didn’t really catch her interest.

“Finally, there are arcanists. They study arcane magic. ‘Arcane’, in this sense, refers to branches of science that are not well understood. It includes the study of self-enhancement, space, gravity, and many other things. Arcanists generally study mana in its purest form and most of their magics take the form of enchantments.”

Ray pondered on the explanation for several minutes while Master Rambalt returned to reading his book.

Elemental magic didn’t seem like a bad choice at all, but consequently, it also didn’t stand out too much.

She really liked the sound of the obliterator and dark mage pathways of the warlock. Though she wasn’t fond of pain, the mental image of being able to take all the injuries that she received and return them to her opponent was extremely satisfying.

With such a high aptitude, she didn’t want to discount studying holy magic either.

Naturally, being an arcanist also sounded amazing.

“Do I have to pick only one?” she asked.

Master Rambalt looked up from his book and shook his head.

“Since you have an aptitude for all five, you could choose all five if you really wanted to, though I wouldn’t recommend it. Some mages have had success studying deeply into two or three magic systems but five is too broad. No matter what, I would encourage you to study the arcane arts. Enhancement magic will be of great worth to you in your endeavor to become a guardian.”

Ray mentally put a checkmark next to ‘arcanist’. She crossed out ‘druid’ and ‘elementalist’ for now. She would come back to those later if she decided that she wanted to learn more. For the time being, she would focus on ‘enhancement’ magic from the arcane tree and becoming a warlock. She would experiment a bit with both the obliterator and dark mage paths to see which one she liked more. Since she had Kelsey around to ask questions, she would investigate holy magic with any time she had left.

“Can I start with enhancement magic and basic warlock magic?”

Master Rambalt nodded and tossed his book in the air. The book disappeared with a snap of his fingers.

“Excellent choices.”

He waved his hand, and the earth pulled the table down into the ground. He motioned for Ray to stand up.

“Enhancement magic has various applications. Its most common usage is to protect the user’s body from physical harm. With enough enhancement, it is possible to reinforce a portion of your body such that a sword or an axe would simply ‘bounce’ off harmlessly.”

Ray recalled when she had struck Siegfried in the face during her test. His skin had become extremely hard, and she had injured her hand without even fazing him.

“Conversely, you can also enhance your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones for various effects. If you have enough mana and control, it is possible to do a full-body enhancement. This would give you a massive increase in strength, speed, flexibility, and durability.”

Jantzen went pale as he eavesdropped on the explanation.

“Even stronger than that…?” he muttered to himself.

“For now, you should practice using basic reinforcement on a small portion of your body. Practice focusing the mana on your hand and visualize ‘durability’. Focus on what being ‘durable’ means to you and ‘will’ the mana to become that very definition.”

‘Durability’? In Ray’s two whole days of experience thus far, the most durable thing she had encountered was Siegfried’s ‘Steel Skin’. However, she had a feeling she had encountered something much, much more durable in the past. She focused on that feeling, trying to recall a faded memory.

She was charging towards something, her long, dark hair billowing in the wind. Her daggers were sheathed as they were utterly useless against this foe. The large, blurry shape slowly came into form in front of her eyes as she struck the being with something that she no longer understood.

Nothing could harm the foe. Its scales were impenetrable. That was the definition of durability.

Ray focused on that feeling and willed her arm to become as durable as that creature, whatever it was.

She felt her hand go stiff. She couldn’t bend her fingers or her elbow. Tapping the limb with her remaining hand, she noted that she no longer had any sensation in the petrified limb.

“Uhhh… was that supposed to happen?” Ray asked, unnerved.

Master Rambalt leaned over and tapped her arm curiously.

“This seems rather strong. I’m going to test it.”

Huh?

Master Rambalt snapped his fingers and Ray panicked as she sank into the ground until only her shoulders and head were visible. With another wave of his hand, the ground shifted and exposed her petrified arm.

“W..what are you going to do?”

“A simple test. If you did it right, your arm should survive. If not, it’s nothing a respawn won’t fix.”

The crazy elementalist reached into his enchanted bag and withdrew a large hammer that was almost as tall as he was. He raised the weapon above his head and, with a shout, smashed it into her poor arm.

Ray closed her eyes and turned her head away. After a brief pause when she felt nothing, she reopened them to see the hammer resting against her arm.

Master Rambalt whistled in appreciation.

“That durability is no joke. I’m not sure what you imagined, but this is definitely harder than steel. For your self-study, practice making it so that you can move your fingers and elbow while your arm is reinforced. While the appendage may be extra durable, it doesn’t mean much if you can’t move it.”

The greasy elementalist summoned his book once more and turned away.

“Excuse me!” Ray called out after him.

He threw his hands up in the air and turned back with a fierce glare. Fire danced at the edge of his fingers.

“What is it now?”

Their eyes met and Ray let out a nervous laugh.

“Could you let me out of the ground now?”