After dinner, I made my way to my room and looked at the goods girls got for me. In one crate were herbs and in the other vials and what I guessed to be mana ores. I took a yellow mana ore and started inspecting it. It felt like a regular stone. I closed my eyes and tried to mold it to an ingot but it failed. I shrugged and pushed some mana inside. Stone lighten up and yellow lightning started to jump around it.

I frowned. “Yellow lightning?”

“It’s magical lightning.” I turned to see Elizabeth at the door. “That’s the only lightning mages could use. Until you found a way.” Something inside me couldn’t believe that.

I nodded and looked at the stone. “Do you know how to mold this?”

Eli shook her head. “I am here to teach you how to make health potions.”

I put the stone back. I lifted the crates and put them on the bed. “So, where do we start?”

What came after was a grueling lesson about the ingredients of the potion, where to find them, and how to mix them. When we were done with the lessons I was ready to brew my very first potion. Though it wasn’t quite brewing for me. I put my hand on ingredients and vials then started imagining how to brew the potion. After a few seconds, I saw a familiar screen.

Basic Health Potion Recipe Added

I looked down and saw a vial filled with blue liquid. “I wish I could see its properties.”

I was thinking about the potion when another window showed itself. So it’s no wonder I jumped a little. I heard Eli chuckle but I didn’t mind her. Instead, I read the screen.

Basic Health Potion (G-1)

Recovers 50 Health

‘What does G-1 means? G…G it’s probably Grade. Does that mean this potion recipe is low quality? Or maybe it means I can get better at making certain items. I hope it’s the latter.’

“Victor, is there something wrong?”

I shook my head. “I can see some properties of the items I made. It says this potion can recover 50 health, do you think it is normal?”

Eli nodded. “Yeah. Some alchemists can take it to 100 but it’s generally 50 with this recipe.”

I sighed. “Well, that’s good. Let me do the rest quickly so we can talk about mana ore.” I said and started making potions one by one. It took too long for my taste so I tried to make them all at once.

Multiple Basic Health Potion Recipe Added

And it worked. I gave myself a moment to smile then I heard Eli gasp. I turned to Eli who was looking at potions with wide eyes. She looked at me and said, “You did them all at once.”

I smirked. “Did that impress you?” She nodded. “Enough to kiss me?” She shook her head, chuckling. I chuckled too and put the potions aside. “So, what do you know about mana ores?”

Eli turned to me and started “I know… nothing. Sorry. Mana ores are not my thing.”

I groaned. “What’s the wait? You just crushed my hopes you know?” She just chuckled. “Do you at least know a way to sense or see mana?”

Eli looked at me oddly. “Why do you want to see mana? It’s said people that can do that goes crazy after a day.”

I shook my head. “And you believe that?” She shrugged. “Then tell me what you know about mana and it’s interactions with… things.”

Eli nodded. “Mana is the energy used to fuel spells and enchantments.” She put her finger on her mouth and continued “And when you put your mana in an enchanted item, it gets activated.”

‘I swear she is doing this knowingly.’ I took a few steps towards Eli and held her shoulders. After a second, I started shaking her while saying. “Why don’t you know woman? Why? I know you’re lying. Tell me! Tell me!”

“Victor! Why are you shaking Eli?!” I turned to see Felicia looking at me angrily. I looked at Eli who seemed about to drop and start laughing in a second and turned back to Felicia.

I said “Eli says she loves when someone shakes her. It is supposed to make her wet. Though I don’t know what it means.” I looked at Eli who now seemed horrified and smirked. I was about to say something profound when Felicia pried me from Eli and started to shake her.

While Felicia was shaking Eli with great enthusiasm, I stopped holding myself and started laughing loudly. ‘I can’t believe she bought that! And Eli’s face!’ I started laughing even harder. So much that Felicia stopped shaking Eli and started looking towards me with a worried face.

“E-Eli, was that a lie?” Eli nodded slowly.

‘Oh Victor, stop laughing and run or you will die, come on!’ Using all my willpower I stopped laughing and said “She is just embarrassed. Ask again and look at her eyes carefully, you will see.” I smiled minutely and walked out of the room with all the calmness of a spider. When I was out of their sight, I started running towards the backyard. I hid in a corner and started waiting. After a few seconds, I heard a scream.

“VICTOOOOOR!”

***

When Felicia calmed down, I got out of my hiding spot and found them in the dining room. Eli was smiling minutely while Felicia seemed down. When she saw me, Felicia looked at me and with a cold voice said “I won’t forget this.”

I sighed. “Come on Felicia. It’s not fair. It was your idea to shake Eli like that.”

Felicia seemed very embarrassed but she didn’t let it stop her. “But you said E-Eli was-“ She put her hands on her cheeks and looked at Eli under her hands. Seeing this I couldn’t help but chuckle. Hearing me chuckle at her, Felicia forgot her embarrassment and said “You will see!” She thought for a second. “Yes! I will tell everyone how you thought Asyx was a demon and how you ran away from her like a scared kid.”

I sighed. “Felicia, it will embarrass Asyx, not me.”

Felicia thought about it for a minute. She shook her head and turned to Eli who nodded. She sighed and punched his other hand softly. “Then I will beat you. Or better, I shake you until you get wet!”

I sighed again. “Felicia, I am.”

Felicia looked at me blankly for a second. She suddenly stood up and started yelling. “You creep! I hate you!..” And such.

After a few minutes of ranting, she calmed down though. Then she looked at me and asked. “Why were you shaking Eli anyway?”

I looked at Eli and smiled. “We were just playing around, for fun.” Felicia oohed and looked down.

I smiled at her. After a while, I cleared my throat and said “So, who wants to learn how to throw lightning?”

Both Felicia and Eli looked at me with fire in their eyes. They looked at each other and screamed. ““Yes!””

***

When we were in the backyard, I started my explanation. “I can’t say much about lightning since I don’t know enough about some things to teach them to you but what you need to know is that lightning wants to move between oppositely charged points. So the first thing you need to do is pick a target and source then focus on creating two opposite charges on them while thinking of lightning.” I grinned. “Mana will do the rest.”

Felicia looked at me, disbelief evident in her eyes. “Is that it? Did I let you hug me just for this?”

I shrugged. “Explanation is simple but the execution is harder than you think. Try doing it first.” I pointed at the wall. “You don’t need to do anything else, just point your finger to the wall and do as I said.”

Eli nodded and turned to the wall. Seeing her, Felicia did the same and they started working. After making sure they are good I sat on a chair and closed my eyes. I focused on my mana and slowly guided it to my eyes, then I focused on seeing mana and magical lightning, just in case there is really something that can make me go crazy. I waited a few minutes like that, throwing in every idea I could think of to strengthen my abstract concept. After a while, something clicked the way it does when I discover a new spell and I opened my eyes. Before doing anything, I felt for my mana to see how much the spell uses it. ‘Hmm. Not a spell I can keep on indefinitely but it’s still good.’

Then I looked around and stopped when I saw Eli and Felicia. Felicia was nowhere near to cast the lightning spell but Eli seemed ready. So I said. “Eli, you are good. Now push as much mana as you can to spell.”

Eli nodded and closed her eyes. After a second, there was a flash of light then thunder. After the spots in my vision cleared, I looked at Eli, now very much blue, and smiled. I made my way to her smiling form and hugged her. I expected her to push me or something but she hugged me back instead and whispered “Thank you.”

I hugged her firmer. “Well done.” I broke the hug and continued. “Did you get what to do?” She nodded. “Good. Recover some mana, then start practicing the spell.”

Eli nodded. “What are you doing?”

When she asked that, I remembered I am using the mana vision and cut the mana I am fueling it, killing the spell. I looked at Eli and answered. “I am working on mana vision. I can see regular mana certainly, but I don’t know if I will be able to see what I want with it yet.”

Eli smiled and said, “Before you continue, why don’t we do something together?”

I raised a brow. “Like what?”

Eli thought for a while then said “Let’s talk about the place you came from.”

I shook my head. “That’s a secret. I will tell you if you take my deal.” She looked disappointed then I remembered the extra block of wood in my room and got an idea. “Let’s play a game.”

Eli looked interested. “What game?”

I gestured her to wait and headed to my room. There, I took one of the blocks and turned back to the garden. I looked at Felicia with my new spell and saw she is still getting nowhere. I shook my head and put the block on the table. First I split a part of the wood then split it again to make it square. Then one by one I crafted the pieces. All the while Eli watched me with interest. When I was done, I gestured Eli to sit to the other side of the table and when she did, started setting up the board.

“Now, the game we are going to play is called chess.” Then I saw something and slapped myself. I sighed and looked at curious Eli. “Do you have any dye? I am going to use it on one set of the pieces to make them look different.”

Eli shook her head then reached her belt pouch. She took out a rather big vial and said “This is wood polish. This should be enough.”

I nodded and after applying the polish on her pieces I continued explaining. She took the rules easily and we started playing. At first, I didn’t take her seriously but then I remembered my Scientist Skill, Brilliant Mind, and decided to test my new limits, so I started thinking. In a few seconds, I reached my normal depth, 3. After a few minutes, I forgot about my real task and just focused on calculating moves. A while after that, I started to forget the moves I calculated. There I stopped and thought about the previous depth. The result had me pleasantly surprised. I whistled. “It seems God of Humanity gave me a nice boost.”

“What happened?”

I grinned at Elin. “I wasn’t as smart in my previous- I mean before the blessing.” I looked away reflexively.

“Couldn’t it be your Class’s effect? It makes you smarter right?” I looked at Eli and only saw curiosity.

I smiled and shook my head. “I don’t think so.” I sighed. “This is both great, and terrible at the same time.”

“Yeah, yeah. Life is boring for smart people, we know.” I turned to the voice and saw a bored Felicia.

I shook my head. “That’s not it.” She gestured for me to go on. “Think about it. They gave me four full classes. Even two full classes is a great advantage but they gave me four. They even made me very smart. What does it mean?”

Eli gasped but Felicia seemed as bored as ever. “It means you are one lucky f- I meant to say, pervert.”

I shook my head again. “It means they expect me to do something for them, and that thing is big. After all, these advantages can’t be for nothing.” I felt depressed so I sighed then someone held my hand. It was Eli. She was looking very sad, for me. Seeing this, I couldn’t help but chuckle. I held her hand back and said “Don’t look at me like that. We are a team. Whatever I find myself in, you will be there with me.” That wiped sadness from her face. She thought for a second and looked at Felicia.

Felicia for her part seemed very excited. She walked to Eli and said “That’s it! He is trouble, I say we kick him out!” She seemed hopeful but I could say there was too much doubt there.

Eli didn’t answer Felicia and asked me “What do they possibly want us for something like that? I mean, what they gave you is just too much for us to pay.”

I sighed. “I don’t know. But I know we have only one way to reach up to their expectations and it’s to use every tool in our hands to get stronger, and quickly.”

“We are already doing that.”

I nodded at Felicia. “Maybe, but it’s still good to remember.”

Felicia nodded and came beside me. “You can stop holding her hand now.”

I looked at Felicia and my hand that holding Eli’s and held her hand firmer. “Are you jealous?” Felicia cracked her fingers. “Too bad. If you were succeeded at creating lightning you would be in my place instead. What is it kitten? Was it so hard you have given up?”

Felicia came closer to my face but with one hand held me in place so I couldn’t try anything. “You are holding things from me. You weren’t this uninterested with my success when you were hugging me.”

I cocked my head and tried to understand what she says. I pointed at Eli and said “Eli succeeded and I didn’t give her any more information. As for the other thing you said,” I coughed lightly and continued. “I didn’t care about anything else while hugging you,” I smirked and made a heart with my hands just before her face. “Because.” I moved my hands a little. “You get what I mean.”

Felicia dropped her hand and said, “You are hopeless.”

I nodded sagely. “You got it right.”

Felicia then turned to Eli and I saw her face change in real-time. She looked like she got the best news of her life! She ran around the table to Eli, ignoring our intertwined hands, and asked. “Eli, how did you do it? I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me!” She got closer to Eli playfully and continued “Maybe you should hold me while I try. Who knows? My luck may hold.” She ended winking.

Eli turned to me then Felicia. She shook her head and said “I have nothing else to add to what Victor said. You should figure out the rest yourself. We will be here.” With that, she took her hand away from mine and turned to the game. After a second she said “Your turn.”

I looked at open-mouthed Felicia then smirked. She saw my face and went away stomping. I chuckled and turned to the game myself.

After my turn, Eli nodded once and said. “For someone so in love with her, you antagonize her too much.”

I sighed. “I don’t do it to antagonize her. I wanted to motivate her you to know, but she just decided to ignore what I said, she even ignored me holding your hand which I would never guess could happen if not for what she did.”

Eli took some time to think, either on the game or on Felicia but after a while, she said “You should give her some room. She seems to be at the end of the rope.”

I thought about it and it seemed surprisingly true. “Already?” Eli gave me a look which made me embarrassed a little. I asked, “What happened?”

Eli coughed awkwardly. I narrowed my eyes to her. She said “We were going to do it. You prevented it.”

I cocked my head. “When?”

Eli chuckled. “Do you remember asking Felicia if she was undressing for you?”

I massaged my head. “She was doing it for you. You were even there. She was yelling something about her happiness but I didn’t quite listen then. So she thinks I am trying to stop her from getting happy. That means I should make her happy.”

Eli frowned. “How are you going to make her happy?”

“I am planning to use this.” I showed her my tongue.

She shook her head smiling. “Leave it to time.”

I sighed. “Fine,” I said and looked at Felicia. Then I used Mana Sight but she didn’t seem to make any improvement. I shook my head and turned to the game. Our game took the good part of the evening.

***

After the game, Eli and Felicia got inside the house. Felicia was extra grumpy since she couldn’t manage to do it for some reason. That left me alone with lightning mana ore. I activated mana Vision and looked around. Then I noticed something I didn’t before. In the air, there was a flowing membrane of yellow lightning. It didn’t crackle like normal electricity, it just flowed like water. After looking at the flow for a while I turned back to mana ore. I pushed some mana in it and watched as mana stone suck invisible lightning mana out of the air and giving it out visibly. ‘It uses mana to suck lightning mana from the air. Is it something molecular? Or is it something magical?’

I looked at the ore closer and started pushing mana inside again. This time slowly. After a while, I managed to single out the place on the ore that sucked the lightning mana. It was at the center of its mass. I looked there carefully and saw a mana construct. ‘So it’s magical.’ I looked at the construct in every way possible but I couldn’t find a way to decipher it. Just when I was about to give up, I remembered Light Dragon. I then memorized the mana construct and imagined it in my head, as real as possible. Then I held it and pushed mana. As soon as I did, something clicked. After that, I knew exactly how to suck lightning mana from the air and what properties of it I can manipulate. I played around with it until I got bored and stood up.

Just when I was about to head towards the mansion, I noticed an alert at the edge of my vision. I focused on it and a screen showed itself.

Linguist Reached Level 2. You gained 1 Word Token

Scientist Reached Level 2.

Crafter Reached Level 2. You gained 1 Crafting Token

Linguist Reached Level 3. You gained 1 Word Token

Scientist Reached Level 3.

Crafter Reached Level 3. You gained 1 Crafting Token

‘Word token and Crafting Token. I should look into these sometime. They look like they could be useful.’ I shook my head and closed the windows.

Then I went inside the mansion to find the girls. There, I found Eli reading a book and Felicia, acting cute. I shook my head and went towards Eli. Felicia noticed me first and said “What? I don’t want you near me.”

I shook my head. “I am here for Eli.”

Felicia looked at me suspiciously. “Why?”

I shrugged. When I reached her Eli was looking at me expectantly. I stopped in front of her and started grinning.

Eli smiled. “You found a new spell.” I nodded. “What is it?”

I smirked and opened my palm. Then cast magical lightning. I manipulated it to keep the shape of a ball, increased its tangibility, and removed its electricity. The result was a shiny ball. I cast another magical lightning around the ball, making it look dangerous. Then dropped it on Eli, much to Eli’s and Felicia’s dismay.

Eli dodged quickly and Felicia screamed so much I was afraid I was going to lose my hearing. After a second Eli frowned and reached out to touch the ball. Seeing there is no danger she took it in her hand and started inspecting it. After a while, she said, “Is this magical lightning?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

Felicia got closer to the ball. Curious about the supposed lightning ball. Eli passed it to her and asked “Why didn’t it damage us even though we are touching it directly.”

I grinned widely and said “I won’t tell you much. All I will tell you is magical lightning is much more controllable and versatile. And that you can agree to my deal if you want me to teach you.”

Eli looked annoyed with me. She took the ball back from Felicia and threw it at my head. It was about to hit my head squarely just before I cut the mana I am feeding it so it just disappeared before reaching me. Eli looked at me angrily. I took a few steps back, just in case, and started waiting.

Eli sighed and said “I don’t doubt magical lightning’s usefulness. I just need some time to think.”

I nodded readily. “It’s okay. I just want you to say ‘yes’ when you are done thinking. Anyway, I am done with my experiments for tonight. Now if you will excuse me.” I turned back and headed to my room.

When in my room, I took the other block of wood and started thinking about how to go with my project. I knew what I wanted to do and its parts but I wasn’t quite sure about myself. After thinking and imagining for a while, I shrugged. “If I fail now, I can always get more wood. Let’s get on it.” I held the wood in my hand and imagined the body of a crossbow, then I cut the extra parts. After that, I looked at my handiwork and liked what I saw. ‘Everything seems in place. Now to the trigger.’

I made an ‘L’ shaped part and added a grove. Then checked if got it right. After feeling satisfied with it, I put it aside and started doing the handle which was very easy to do. It was just a rectangle wood after all.

The next step was the bow. I made a semi-round tube from the wood. I stretched it using my knee and arms. It seemed okay. ‘Now I need some nails to keep the parts in place, and a bowstring.’ I thought then sighed and started making bolts.

After I was done with that, I put my project to the side and after snuffing the candles, jumped on my bed.

***

The next day, I woke up feeling a hand on my shoulder. I opened my eyes reluctantly and saw Eli. She smiled and said “Breakfast is ready. Get ready and come to the dining room. Don’t keep us waiting.”

I stood up and nodded. “Okay.” Eli nodded and got out of the room. I wore my clothes and followed Eli. When I reached the dining room, I saw Felicia eating and Eli watching her. I cleared my throat to get their attention and when they turned to me I said “Good morning.”

Eli responded smiling while Felicia just scowled. I shook my head to Felicia and sat down. I looked at the table. There was bread, cheese, and water. Seeing this, I sighed. Felicia noticed my mood and said, “What was that?” She then turned to Eli and said “Victor didn’t like the food. I am so sad.”

Eli smiled and said, “Victor must be lucky to dislike a breakfast like this.” She turned to me. “I don’t know what you are used to eating at breakfast, but here things are scarce.”

I raised my hand and gestured for them to calm down. “I didn’t say anything.” I looked at the table again then said “Eggs would be good though.”

Eli nodded. “You are right. We like eggs too but there isn’t much egg producer around here. So we don’t get to eat much of them.”

Eli tried to continue but Felicia interjected. “You should be glad. If not for us, you would be eating rock bread.” I raised an eyebrow. The answer was at the tip of my tongue but I didn’t vocalize it since I didn’t want to make Felicia dislike me more than she already does. We ate a little in silence for a while before Felicia continued. “And what if we don’t get to eat something good. It’s not like it makes me feel good long enough for me to bother.”

I was about to protest but a thought struck me. ‘Does the existence of Attributes means a balanced diet is not needed?’ I sighed. ‘Probably’. But still. “I still would like to eat eggs.” I turned to Eli. “Do you think we could raise chickens in the backyard?”

Eli smiled and shook her head. “We can’t look after them. We are adventurers, remember?”

I nodded. “What if we hire someone to look after them?”

Felicia groaned. “Victor stop. We are not going to be farmers.” She sighed. “Just eat your cheese.”

I sighed and nodded like I was okay with not eating eggs, but inside I was anything but. I closed my eyes, squeezed my fists, and screamed my ambition to my innards. ‘I am going to make this city heaven for chickens! Just you wait!’

“Victor.”

I looked at the voice to see Eli looking at me oddly. “What is it?”

She pointed at my squeezed fist and said “If you are so upset because of it, we can find someone to buy them. It’s not like there aren’t any eggs in the city after all.”

I nodded. “Thanks.” After a bit more silence I asked. “When are we going to get me identification?"

“We will go to Adventurer’s Guild today to make you an adventurer too. Adventurers ID will be enough to get in and out of the city without any trouble from the guards.”

I took a deep breath. “Good. I can’t wait to be free.”

Eli smiled. “You are already free.” I shrugged. Eli continued. “Still, I understand what you mean.”

I smiled at Eli and said, “What do you think about the raid?”

Eli sighed. “I am not sure yet. Lightning is powerful but it makes too much noise. If we could learn magical lightning it would make us better equipped to deal with whatever is inside.”

I smirked. “I can always enchant your gloves, we don’t have to wait for you to learn magical lightning. That would take too much time considering you can’t decide what to do with my offer.”

Eli shook her head. “Don’t start it again. I will give you an answer soon enough.” She looked at the table to make sure no one was eating anymore and said “Since we all finished eating, we can go to the Adventurers Guild.” She took a leftover bread and cheese and motioned us to do the same.

Cleaning the table up took a few minutes at most. After that, we headed towards the adventurer’s guild.