The sensation of my shoulder being shaken woke me up. However, I didn't want to. Thus, I didn't bother opening my eyes and ignored it. Whoever engaged in such activity didn't get the memo and increased the force they applied. Along with this, they snapped their fingers and whispered some unintelligible words. I ignored this as well. Fortunately, they let me be as I soon faded back into the comforting arms of sleep.

I woke up naturally some time later. My eyes opened, but there was no light beside those provided by some candles. I sat up and leaned against the pillar behind me. Throughout the room, there were many groups of villagers, although it was nowhere near as packed as before. Some stone statues were flushed against the front doors, blocking them. Someone also barricaded most of the windows with some wooden planks. Cool breezes of wind still entered through. Even the floor seemed scratched up and damaged, but it was hard to judge in such a low light.

"It is often said that the early bird gets the worm, but sometimes, it's too damn early," Syn grumbled as she rubbed her eyes.

"Go back to sleep or trance or whatever then." I stopped myself from making egregiously loud noises as I stood up.

"When you finally have some time to practice? No way."

I punched the air with both of my arms and stretched my back. "It's still dark out, so either I slept for only two or so hours, or I slept for an entire day."

"About six hours. The sun should rise in another hour or so."

"Wait, really?"

"Why would you even bother asking such a silly question?"

I sighed and slumped back down. "I'm surprised it was so short as I feel fairly well rested."

"You almost died."

"I know. I can't believe my use of [The Fool] worked on the first try. Beginner's luck really does exist."

"Not the occasion I was referring too."

"Uh, there was another?" I looked at her with squinted eyes.

Syn sat down in front of me. A half crooked grin spread across her face. "You slept through the entire second attacking wave of the gnolls. You should have seen the reactions of Athas and that old man. It was brilliant."

"Huh." I blankly stared at her as I tried to process her words. "And they didn't bother to wake me up or something."

Syn snickered. "It was you who didn't bother to wake up. I wish I could have somehow recorded their reactions to show you. It was quite the sight."

I grimaced and hissed, sucking air in. "Wow. That's... uh... embarrassing. Although, you didn't bother to wake me up, either? Or did you join in as well?"

"That's the second time I referred to," Syn said, waving her finger. "The group protecting you split off for a few minutes to make sure a bunch of other people didn't die. However, the one called Alphonse, and that bard lady, noticed your situation and stepped in."

"They could have tried harder. Or, at least, maybe drag me to safety."

"There was no safety."

"Excuses, excuses."

"Says you."

"Hey, I almost died."

"Everyone still alive here almost died tonight."

"I almost died, prematurely."

"So you've given up on your dreams of living longer?"

I chose to no longer engage in conversation with her and closed my eyes. As I took a breath, I noticed that the air flowing through was cleaner. In fact, my whole body was more energized even with not enough sleep. I hoped that my heart problems just decided to vanish, but after everything that had happened tonight, that might have been pushing my luck to an almost unfair degree. However, unless the air was unusually crisp, something else must have caused these changes. I searched deeper within and noticed that there was now an additional layer of anima in my soul—rotating.

"Hm? What's up?"

"The first cycle has been achieved."

"Oh?" The pitch of her voice increased. "So your soul does cycle anima. I was concerned you could only ever cast zero cycle spells. I am curious about how the whole cycling specific anima works though."

I put my hand on my chin. "I think I remember you saying how anima was supposed to cycle outside the soul, correct?"

"I did. And you asking makes me believe it's not."

"Yeah, the anime is cycling inside my soul. So, I don't know what this change."

"An effect of the technique or because of the state of your soul, I'm not sure, but surely it's attributed to one of them. Check the Nomicon."

I nodded and reached for my bag, which was surprisingly still there. "No one took anything from my bag, did they?"

"I'm afraid people were busy with much more important things."

"You don't need to remind me," I said, taking the Nomicon out of my bag. "I'm sure that Branne and Athas and honestly, probably everyone, are not going to let me forget anytime soon."

"I almost died because of you as well."

"Sorry that my exhaustion was hilarious enough for you to not."

"Indeed. It was highly amusing."

I sighed and opened the Nomicon. I might have been able to learn some more level zero spells at this point, but I already knew way too many and still couldn't even properly cast [Minor Illusion], and instead made my way to the level one section.

Compared to the amount of level zero spells, there were essentially no level one spells. Well, not zero no, but only three. I remembered there being more, but perhaps my situation caused the pages to change. [Language Assimilation], [Conjure Water], and [Mend?]. They were also not written in the same structure, being much less formal. It was clear they wrote observations and not facts.

The text inside read, "By cycling the first layer of divination anima twice, I was able to understand the meaning behind a single new language I heard of read. In cases where multiple were being spoken, I could choose which one to understand. For now, I call this spell, [Language Assimilation]."

Flipping over to the next page. "The spell I call, [Conjure Water], requires one cycle of conjuration applied to water anima at the first level. From my testing, I was able to fill up an eight of a barrel."

"I twice cycled the first level of transmutation anima and discovered an effect which would let me repair a broken item. This could not heal injuries or repair items with lost pieces. Further testing is required." It remained unnamed in text, but was titled [Mend?].

All the pages after were blank.

Based on what I read and what Syn has previously stated, anima should cycle automatically. However, in my case, it didn't. Instead, what I thought was a cycle, was in reality just a new layer of refined anima that I would need to cycle manually. And although no other spells were written, I could already tell that the only way I would learn new spells would be through experimentation with different types of anima. The biggest problem now was that I had no idea how to convert my anima in the first place. I looked up at Syn.

"All of this information is equally new to me," she said after a shrug. "All of the testing and figuring this stuff out is up to you."

"Just as I feared," I said with a sigh.

Figuring out how to convert anima was my first ordeal. To start, I needed to break everything down. This brought me back to the level zero spells as they didn't require and manual conversion or cycles. Between the two levels, there was a connection between [Bend Water] and [Conjure Water] as in they were both water based spells. Unfortunately, my waterskin was... not empty?

Confusion filled my head as I grabbed it. However, the feeling disappeared as I realized it wasn't mine. I didn't question where it came from because it didn't matter, and emptied some of its contents into a glass jar.

I took in a deep breath and with every iota of my being, focused on my casting of [Bend Water]. Each movement of my hand was filled with purpose and intent. My eyes didn't blink once as I noticed a faint aura cover the water continuously as I twisted and contorted its shape. At first, I thought it was my anima and the casting of the spell which covered the anima, but then an idea popped into my head which suggested that the water was actually emitting the aura. Intrigued, I stopped the casting of my spell.

I picked up the jar and examined the contents. The aura around the water remained, but it was much fainter. It seemed that truth was a combination of both. I looked down into the jar and then touched the water. It was cool to the touch, but not in a normal sense. It was unnatural. I swirled my finger in the water over and over, trying to figure out what it was. As I thought more about it, my finger was no longer wet. The jar was now empty. Shifting my focus to my soul, there was now a section I recognized as water anima.

"So this is where the destroying anima part comes in," Syn said, looking at the glass jar.

I raised my hand and focused on the surrounding air. Sure enough, the raw anima within my first layer started to convert to air anima, confirming my idea. "And where the elemental anima part comes in. Now, what to do for the other types?"