Di offered Mathew privacy while he changed out of his robes and into his new ones. Mathew tipped Di 5,000 Currency for his business which left him with less than 3,000 once everything was said and done. It was expensive, but Mathew felt everything was worth every cent...current? Credit?

Mathew appeared back in front of the Hearth Crystal and instantly went back to his room after talking to Mr. Melton about his class choices. He didn’t want to break his contract after all. Mathew found Leo and the others and informed him of everything that happened to him.

Zack was excited to learn about his class and everything he learned. Once Mathew mentioned his newest spell to enchant items, Zack border line went ballistic. “Ha! Bags of holding are canon! I didn’t doubt it for a moment. Oh the crafters here on base are going to love you Mathew, especially the leather workers. If we can make bags of holding, we are going to be rich!”

“What do you mean we? Last I checked, you can’t even cast a spell yet.” Mathew said pointedly.

“I’ll be your hype man of course.”

Mathew shook his head, he saw Leo looking at his shotgun in thought. “You okay Leo?”

“Do you think I’ll get a class from a god like you did?” Leo was heavily interested in the book about gods and patrons. He planned to pick any class that offered power and guidance. Especially one that went against the undead.

“I think so, but do you want to limit yourself like that?” Mathew asked.

“For Isabella, I would do anything.”

While Mathew was gone, Leo had gone out into the wild to kill as many wolves as he could. Going as far as fighting alone. He kept Zack and Brown with him, since Damien was scouting for other teams. He was Level 9, and would be reaching 10 in another fight or two.

Leo’s mindset could be one of concern, however Mathew was not worried. Not for the purpose of his plans anyways. “Alrighty, so first things first for me. I have reading to do. Tomorrow I plan on experimenting with my class. Zack, I would greatly appreciate you being there.”

“Can do, buddy.”

“Leo, I’ll need your help writing some paperwork.”

“Can’t you write things magically now?”

“Yes, but I want a second pair of eyes on the contract I am going to write for Major General Payne. I want no loop holes where he can fuck me over somehow. These things are magically sealed now. I want to do a few tests with you as well. See what the limits of what we can incorporate are. I acquired a few bits of information from Di.”

“Oh yea,” Zack said. “Reminds me I need to ask Di about different materials for weapons and armor.”

“Two steps ahead of you. They exist. Look at the knife he sold me.” Mathew pulled out a green hued knife. “Apparently the metal thins out blood, so enemies bleed out faster.”

“Badass.” Zack poked himself with the knife.

Mathew let him look it over. “Outside that, everything I told you two is the entire truth of what I experienced with my class choice. Even the list of gods and the fact my Familiar spell was upgraded.”

Leo nodded, thinking it over. “I find it odd what Gods classify themselves as. No singular god like how christiantiy thought. Once news about this gets out, we can expect a lot of problems in our world.”

“Well, my brothers won’t be happy. The ones that still follow the faith anyways.”

“Have you heard from them?” Leo asked.

“Nope, and they can all die for all I care.”

Zack looked at Mathew. “You have brothers?”

“Five.” Mathew said, and instantly changed the subject. “Leo, what do you think about us two and a couple others ditching the base once the Dungeons open up and we hit maybe level 15.”

Leo nodded with a smile. “Sounds like a fantastic plan. Sooner we get stronger, the sooner we can play zombie killers.”

“Expected as much. It’s something we can absolutely do.”

Zack handed Mathew his knife back. “So no plans to enter a Dungeon before it opens up?”

Mathew sighed. “No, I don’t think so. First off Payne wants to keep me alive and use my powers for his own purposes.”

“Like yours would be any less selfish?” Leo asked jokingly.

“I plan to use my powers for good!” Mathew said. “Some selfishness, but a lot of good. Imagine the money I can make when married couples can’t cheat on each other with a signature on my contracts. I’ll be rich!”

“About what I expected from you.” Leo said with a sigh. “So how do you plan to escape Payne’s iron grip?”

“That my good sir, is a work in progress. For now, I have my new powers to test.”

Mathew glanced at the growing crowd of people who came to watch him. He really wished Zack didn’t blab about it, but it couldn’t be helped at this point.

Mathew wanted to test his newest spell [Mana Bolt] He could feel it was a straightforward spell. Comparing it to [Summon Wisp], it was like comparing a raw apple to apple sauce.

Raising a hand, Mathew channeled mana through his arm and a golf ball sized bullet flew from his hand striking the target. It left behind a hole as it pierced through the paper. “Shit, I'm going to need something stronger. Do we have any metal targets?” Mathew asked out loud.

A few moments later, Mathew was leaving dents and sometimes holes in the metal targets. As he was firing, he realized he could increase or decrease the amount of mana into the shot. Either leaving behind a smaller dent, or an entire hole depending on his whim.

Mathew got a little overambitious to see how far he could take the skill, and pumped as much mana as he could. He gripped his wrist with his other hand, having trouble holding up his arm before firing.

Once his hand started to burn, he was forced to release the spell. He collapsed to the ground, with a splitting headache. His heightened senses made him much more susceptible to mana drain, as Zack called it.

Luckily, Leo saw Mathew fall down and was right there to help him not hit his head on the ground. “Shit dude, what did you do?”

“I used up all my mana at once. That’s a bad idea, remind me to never do that.” Mathew gasped.

He had to lay there for several minutes before he could stand. When he did, he looked at what was left of the target. A few splinters of metal stood. “Okay, that’s awesome.” Mathew said then winced in pain.

Mathew never noticed his spell ranked up due to his pain. It was obvious he was done for the day, and was taken back to his room with Leo.

The next day, Mathew woke up and started to brew tea. He planned to set the day aside for reading the rest of his information booklets, and look into rituals which were nothing and everything how Mathew expected them to be.

First off, there were no cauldrons, pointy hats, or blood of a virgin needed. They did have ingredients needed, all of them requiring something called a mana core, whatever that was. Di didn’t include any in his bags, which meant they were way more expensive than he could afford, or Di didn’t have any.

Mathew was able to learn that rituals were essentially physical spells. You etch, draw, or write your rituals on a flat surface. Draw some fancy symbols, and tada you can summon a demon. None of the Rituals in the book Mathew had could do that, for now.

The three in the book that interested Mathew the most were a Ritual of Silence, which anything inside could not transmute sound out and vice versa. A Ritual of Identification, which was used to determine what an item was or did. Lastly a Ritual called ‘The Perfect Butler’.

Mathew read over the description again. ‘The Perfect Butler is a perfect spell for any first time Ritualist. While limited at lower ranks, it is safe and cheap on mana. The Perfect Butler will carry out low effort tasks within its reach.’ Mathew saw a note saying at Novice rank it was a measly five meters. ‘These tasks include, but are not limited to: Cleaning, Laundry, Basic Cooking, and making of the bed. Placing one in a bedroom can be a time saver for the young and old both.’

Mathew looked at the materials required and once again a mana core was needed, as well as the heart of a sapient person. On top of those two items, Mathew needed a pair of white gloves, a pair of black shoes, and a few optional items to increase it’s tasks load. He could add a duster to keep the effects area void of dust.

“I’m going to bookmark that for now. If I somehow get a heart, so be it.”

Mathew huffed and closed the book. He mentally went over what he needed for the ritual spell he did know and was happy to see the lack of a mana core being required for the spell. All he had to do was hold a bag between his hands, and start the spell

Taking a sip of his tea, Mathew looked at the two bags he purchased from Di. Both were similar to over the shoulder satchels, or laptop bags. He wanted to test his spell, but needed to rest for the day since he was still drained from his experiments earlier.

The next day, he picked up one of the bags and began casting. It was a much different feeling compared to his other two spells. With [Mana Bolt] all the mana in his body surged to his hand and started to build up waiting to be released like a pressure valve. While with [Summon Wisp], the mana slowly built up above his hand, like a hose that was on medium power.

With the Ritual, Mathew had to do bursts of mana slowly. He realized the area under his hands were layering symbols on top of the bag, surrounding the entrance. The process kept going even past the ten minute mark. Mathew would have stopped, but he wanted to see this through the end. At fifteen minutes, Mathew felt the spell was completed, but he could still keep pushing mana into the spell.

He did not want a repeat of yesterday, and stopped the spell instantly. Mathew looked over the bag and couldn’t see anything different on the surface, but since he made it, he knew the spell worked.

Mathew opened the bag and saw a three foot deep bag. It was easily triple, maybe even quadruple the bags actual internal size originally. The sight gave him slight vertigo. “Oh these are going to make me rich.”

He wanted to enchant the second bag, but also to try and make it bigger. He decided to wait to work on that project, next was a contract that rules all other contracts.