I told Lucillus and Claudius, who ended up tagging along, to watch closely.

I give a reserved smile to Lucinda when she opens the door.

“Clodia and Camilla are waiting for us. Sorry for being later, but I had some stuff to take care of and I wanted to leave you some time to take care of your studies.”

She nods in return and follows me and my two-people escort behind us.

“Are you ok?” Lucinda asks the first question of the day.

“I’m a bit woozy from practicing magic all night after that Mana exhaustion. But I got [Mana Well] and I think that helped.”

“I was talking about the stabbing.”

Her voice is steady, but there is some worry in her eyes.

“Oh,” I raise the shirt I’m wearing, “it’s okay. It’s already gone. See?”

She looks at me like I’m an idiot.

“You got stabbed in the middle of the city, Joey. Are you ok?”

To be honest, it is a fair question. I know some people who got mugged in New York and they wouldn’t go out for months after.

Am I scared of stuff like that?

I mean, listen, I’m in a high-fantasy world with probably no way home. I try to avoid that thought because I don’t want to fall into pure and dreadful existential crisis. It may sound unreasonable to some that being assaulted and stabbed in the guts did not traumatize me. What can I say, though? It kind of didn’t.

I do fear that at some point I might snap. Like, I’ll have to deal with all this mind-bogging experience, but I’ll try to stave that off with some baking and Cantrips. Better to look ahead than behind, right? I’m not sure anyone says that, but let’s keep it.

Going back to Lucinda’s question, now.

If I could, I would stop time and tell Lucillus and Claudius, ‘see, here I could compliment her and tell her how beautiful she is, or stuff like that, and that her beauty is worth every trouble, even getting stabbed and yada, yada, yada.’ Instead, what I’ll do is…

“I’m a bit shook, but it’s ok. How’s your magic practice going?”

She looks at me with worry, but she doesn’t want to push.

“It’s good. I’ve managed to learn a new Tier 3 spell today. That should be enough to qualify for the special classes at the Nine Towers Academy. I’ve already sent a notice about it and, if everything goes well, I should be admitted in a few months.”

See, this is much worse than being stabbed. My heart aches so much hearing that she will leave eventually. I have no idea why I got so attached to this hot Elf. No idea. I mean, yes, she’s insanely beautiful, but there’s also something I can’t quite put in words.

I want to bang my head on the sidewalk, I want to American History X myself by myself. Is it possible? I don’t know. But I’d surely like to find out.

But is that what a person wants to hear?

Should I just tell Lucinda that thinking about her leaving makes me want to shoot myself in the ear with a crossbow?

Why in the ear?

I’m not sure a crossbow can penetrate my thick skull. So, better safe than sorry.

“Oh, man, I envy you so much. What spell is that? I’m still learning.”

“It’s [Solar Whip]. It’s a bit uncommon to learn such a spell, since you have to use it as a weapon in itself, but I read that [Mages] of old used to do that all the time. The notion of a sickly frail [Mage] is mostly modern. So, I’m trying to learn some fighting too.”

I mean.

A whip.

Come on.

I’m not even saying anything.

I refuse to comment on that.

This is a setup.

This is literally the world setting me up to have horny thoughts.

There’s no other explanation!

My astonishment is hidden behind my silence and Lucinda takes it as her turn to speak.

My mistake.

“So, I forgot to ask if you got a specialized class yet. Or are you waiting for something in particular?”

“Got [Light Mage] for now. It sounds neat. It will certainly help with the Cantrips.”

Now, usually, when you walk, there is only one thing you can do to really broadcast your incredulity.

You stop.

Lucinda, Lucillus and Claudius, they all stop.

Ok, I messed up, didn’t I?

Is [Light Mage] a class you are not supposed to learn? Like, maybe it’s too stupid?

“You got that stupid class?” Lucillus sounds pained.

“Oh, Joey, you should have asked,” Lucinda looks guilty. “I could have told you what to avoid! [Light Mage] is useless! No [Light] spell can deal damage! Even [Light Arrow] deals little more than a slap-worth of damage!”

That Macklemore song that starts with ‘what, what, what, what’ plays in my head.

Can’t remember the title.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure I broke some bones with a spell that was not [Light Arrow], and why would you use an arrow shape when—oh.

If you use an arrow shape – and keep in mind that the matrix will somehow resemble the final shape – you can focus the starting points of the Mana path better. They will add speed and power to it.

Wow.

Well, next time I get mugged, I’ll keep that in mind.

“I mean, you can still learn more magic and change class later. It’s going to be a bit more difficult, but it’s doable. It’s not like you have to enter the Nine Towers Academy,” Lucinda sighs.

“They don’t take people with the [Light Mage] class?” I raise an eyebrow.

“Nope. It’s the first sign that you are a stupid rookie and that you don’t know what you are doing.”

“Well, it is true that I don’t know what I’m doing. Also, the stupid rookie part,” I laugh.

“I didn’t want to insult you, I’m sorry. It’s already bad that you took that class. I was supposed to follow you around for business, but I could have inquired more. I would have been able to help you with that. I’m sorry. It explains how you can create a rose out of thin air, at least. Is it a proper skill?”

Huh, what is she talking about?

“What do you mean a proper skill?”

“Well, if you are still working on your Cantrips, creating a shape with [Lights] is simply impossible. I still don’t know how you did what you showed me the other day, but a full-fledged shape with details is… insane. It’s just insane. A proper skill means that you got a skill after leveling up that allows you to do that.”

Oh, right.

I learned [Lightbolt] and [Flash] like that, didn’t I?

I’ve yet to test them, though.

“Yeah, I got a skill to do that,” it was technically true, although practically wrong.

[Light Shaping] helped manipulate the [Light] spell, but it didn’t come even close to the massive pain in the bum I had to experience to create a rose out of the spell.

“How hard is it to cast a rose like that, just out of curiosity?”

“No one I know would be able to. Creating complex shapes with [Lights] is a very specialized thing. Maybe some [Illusionist] could do that. But I wouldn’t count on it. The sheer control you would have to exercise on a spell to make it into such a thing is terrifying.”

Huh.