“I’m telling you, it’s a sign,” I nod wisely toward Flaminia, who looks at me with skeptical eyes.

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Flaminia cringes.

“Come on, she smirked! For God’s sake! A smirk! It’s basically a done deal!”

“If you say so,” Flaminia sniggers.

I’m rolling the bread dough with a pin when Flaminia asks me.

“Have you got a class?”

“Huh, I should? I didn’t really get one,” I reply, surprised.

“You get classes when you rest. Either sleep, naps, or even dinner and lunch at times. The first class might take a little longer than usual, but then the first few levels should come rolling. If you haven’t got one yet, you might get one tonight.”

“I mean, I would like a class to get women. Is there such a thing?”

“Sure, [Flirt],” Flaminia says with a smile, “until they get too high-level and they are banned from cities or killed by the concerned husbands; sometimes they get offed as a precautionary measure, even. You might want to refuse such a class if you get it.”

“Well, do I want to refuse it just because someone would kill me, though? I mean, I will probably die at some point anyway. Isn’t it better to die doing what you love?” I give her my signature wink with the tongue click.

“Sure…” she shakes her head while laughing.

Me and Flaminia clicked.

It’s amazing how well we work together. We are so in synch that you wouldn’t believe this is just the second night shift we spend together.

And we can fall in silence for a couple of hours, while we are still experienced enough to take care of a lot of bread with just a few glances to communicate. When she extends a hand, she finds me handing her the right tool without flinching. When I’m looking for something, she nudges the thing towards me before I even have to ask.

I have to say, I’m surprised we work this well together and I still haven’t caught feelings for her. She’s sort of an accomplice, a crime partner you do a lot of business with, but one you don’t want to tangle your romantic life with.

“How’s your magic coming along?” she asks while we relieve another couple of workers from the chores they couldn’t get done on time.

“Meh. I didn’t practice much. I tried it out a couple of times, but then I fell asleep. I’m still getting my footing with the hours.”

She nodded, probably thinking I wasn’t used to the night shift. In reality, I was referring to the 27/9 weirdness.

“But I suppose I’ll kind of be forced to learn some magic, you know,” I say with a sad smile, thinking about the zaps that await me if I don’t finish my stupid homework.

“Oh, if you want to court Lucinda, you have to become a [Grand Mage] or something,” she laughed hard.

Uh?

Wait a second.

“If I bedazzle her with a display of magic, you think I could get to her?” I ask with wide eyes.

“If you could do something cool, she would probably jump your skin, kid. Lucinda is one hell of a researcher. She would kill to spend time with someone with a good understanding of magic. You show off a couple of good tricks and you might as well have become the King of Elves in her eyes.”

See, now this is a dilemma. To hell with Dostoevsky.

Should I try hard and learn some good magic to get a girl? Is trying hard in my bones if there is a girl involved?

Mh.

“I don’t know. I don’t like sweating out too much. What if I learn too much magic and someone comes to bother me because I’m too strong or something?”

Flaminia snorts so hard she almost spits on the dough in front of her.

“What?” I ask with an offended expression.

“Joey, she wants to become an [Archmage]. I was joking before. You cannot catch up to her. How do you think you could become so magically powerful that one of the greatest magical talents in the city – if not the greatest, mind you – would hang out with you for your magic? Huh, do you have a secret weapon or something?”

…

I look at my secret weapon, laying on my bed, untouched.

I exhale.

Even if I didn’t want to, this damned book is set on making me a [Mage], so…

Let’s see what we can do.

“Book, how you doin’? Can you show me the instructions again?”

The book levitates in the air and opens dead in the middle, now with blank pages. It had shown some basic magic spells to the [Enchanter] to fool him, but the truth is that the book will materialize whatever you need. It could have had four pages and still worked.

“Yeah, yeah. The most stupid mage, whatever—” I skip the first part about how easy this should be for me because I’m not sure it will. I have a ‘23’ in talent. Which tells me absolutely nothing.

‘Mana is inside the body of every living being. Even children can cast [Light] with their low reserves of Mana.’

This book is not just setting me up to fail with all these remarks, but it is also going to make me look like the biggest fool on—whatever this planet is called.

‘To feel it for the first time, you may ask your master or request the book to guide you. Whatever you prefer.’

“Oh, mighty book, can you show me my Mana?” I ask with an eyebrow raised.

After placing a hand on it, I expect to feel some tingling or something that would indicate a spark of power in my body.

What I wasn’t expecting was my vision to completely change. One moment I was looking at my hand on the book, the next moment I see pure energy dancing around everything. I am pure energy, the book is pure energy. I see a world of energy.

A world of Mana.

Everything is light, but it’s also air, fire, earth and water. It’s also metal and wood. And it’s also a thousand other things.

It’s so overwhelming that I feel my mind starting to shut down already.

But I can see the book as the greatest blazing fire in the universe.

And when I look at myself, I can feel it. I can feel the Mana. It’s there, it’s in my flesh, bones, muscles, hair, nails, and skin.

It’s everywhere.

And I suddenly get an intimate feeling with it, something that tells me how to move it, how to bend it, how to make it travel from my body to the outside world.

For a second, I feel all-powerful.

Then, I faint.

[Mage Class Acquired!]

[Mage – Level 1!]

[Skill – Advanced Mana Sense Acquired!]