AN: Yo, your lazy author present you chapter 49 :D. Enjoy!

Sorry for the late release.

PR by Bboybrian

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The day after giving Eliane the samples, she came to me at the end of the class and dragged me to the student council room. She looked a bit displeased. I was anxious because I didn't know why she was angry, so I waited for her to explain herself. When I learned the reason of her anger I almost fell off my chair. Just like I had instructed, she used it after cleaning herself in the morning.

However, she had put some on her groin area to stay fresh there as well, and it did itch for a few minutes. She was red with anger and shame when she told me about it, and my reaction didn't make things better. The good point was that she noticed the effects at the end of the day, which was why she didn't hit me the moment we were alone. I had completely forgotten about this little detail. After all, I did the same thing once in my previous life.

However, if I didn't read all the instructions back then, it’s no surprise if people here don’t bother either. I did apologize for that, and said that I didn't think about it because people usually don't get their noses near that place. A good thing this product wasn't as aggressive as modern deodorants when it comes to sensitive parts. I told her that I would try to fix this, or find something to put down there, but I didn't make any promises. I told her to relay the basics instructions to the people who would try it, and tell me what they think of it in a week or 2.

Other than that I had asked Elise for information about the capitals of all the countries in Zanitras. More specifically, I wanted her to ask her merchant father. He was someone who travelled east twice per year. I wanted information about the 30 most memorable or important places from those capitals. Definitely an unusual request, but it was for the sake of making the popular game 'Monopoly'. Each country would have its own version that the people could relate to. The game would definitely be very popular with merchants and nobles

Once made, I intended to sell it to the crafting guild, not here, but in the empire, the largest human country and also the second biggest trade hub in Zanitras, the first being somewhere in the south. This way, it would rapidly spread around the continent, and I would earn money faster. However, this plan would have to wait for a year. There would be the international academy competition held there, and I would obviously be one of the participants.

I made little progress in smithing, but I did learn the basics of how to make ceramics. I was slowly researching on the materials used for the different ceramics, and how they were used. I bought samples for analysis to be more familiar with their properties. Of course, everything went very slowly on that end. Because I had more prior experience with alchemical products, I made faster progress there and ended up using more of my crafting time for alchemy.

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On the magic side I made a lot of progress with water and darkness elements these past few months. That is, I can now keep up with the rest of the class. By the end of the year I will probably be among the best of the intermediate classes in those elements. And since I'm already in the top 10 for each other element, by the end of the year I'll probably be in the general top 5 of the intermediate magic classes. Hopefully.

My compound magic repertoire was developing quite well, with spells such as fire tornado (fire-air). You can achieve similar effects with just the fire element, but the mana consumption will be on a different level for a weaker power. I also learned water tornado (water-air), magma puddle (fire- earth), sand devil (air-earth), fire magic resistance (fire-body), air magic resistance(air-body), earth magic resistance(earth-body), and haste, which is an upgraded version of speed enhancement, using body and holy elements.

In holy magic I also learned how to make protective wards, the magic equivalent of force fields or energy shields. Wards were quite useful, being able to defend against both physical and magical damage, but they were weak and short-lived. Once I learn to mix it with other elements I'll be able to make stronger and more specific wards. My defensive skills will grow a lot, and I will be able to better protect my girls.

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Kerrina and Muriem also made a lot of progress. If at the end of the first month of class I was able to handle the 2 of them, now I can barely keep up with just one of them, whether it is in armed or unarmed combat. Kerrina's swordsmanship has become smoother, and Muriem's skills with the halberd have greatly improved as well. Her attacks are sharper and more powerful, not because she got physically stronger, but because she made use of the proper body stances and movements. It is clear to me that by the end of the year they will beat me 8 times out of 10.

Inevitably, the one who made the most progress these past 4 months was Komodo. Back in Argot, when I was infusing him with my mana, I specifically used body, earth and water elements because I wanted him to evolve and gain affinity for those elements. I also used a bit of nature magic, hoping it would help him to absorb the elements into his body. All sarren naturally have body element affinity, which they use for bursts of speed when hunting prey.

(PR: I forgot, but I think ‘sarren’ is komodo’s species. AN: That's right!)

I wanted him to be able to use more enhancing abilities later. As for earth and water, I choose them because we would be traveling a lot in the future, through land and sea. I wanted him to be able to use the terrain to his advantage. If the ship we're on is done for because of a storm, we would have a higher chance to survive if Komodo is attuned to water.

In case of trouble on land, he would be able to manipulate the terrain in defense and he would be able to ignore quick sands or even climb to places usually out of reach for monsters like him. He would even dig out his own way if necessary. Of course, this was my dream for him all along. After slow efforts, he did actually gain affinity to earth and water. It was obvious from the change in the color of his scales. However, I didn't know if he had gained nature affinity.

Since then, I've been trying to teach him some water and earth spells. He learned water ball, water wall, rock throw, earth spike and earth wall. As for body magic, I also taught him strength enhancement. Somehow I made him learn the spells by casting them endlessly, with me doing exaggerated arm gestures that probably helped. In the end, he learned those 6 spells, and could cast them whenever the girls or I gave the command. I got the impression that I was training a Pokémon from time to time, just that this one isn't limited to 4 skills.

(PR: For those who don’t know Pokémon, your childhood is lacking.)

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Concerning history and geography classes, I've learned something that troubled me a bit. It was thanks to the lessons I received from Kerrina and Muriem on Zanitras history and geography. In our world, humanity is said to have seen the light in Africa, evolving from another life form, and from there, spread through the world. It seems to have been different here. History here is a lot less accurate than the history on earth, but by putting the little bit of information I got, it looks like humans appeared simultaneously on 3 different parts of Zanitras.

The Thoreim in the north, the Yukhan in the east and the Kuende in the south. When the 3 races met at the center of the continent , they gave birth to the Caecians. However, for the other races, it looks like they went through a path similar to humanity in my former world. All elvish sub-races seem to stem from a single race that they call the elder elves, who originated in the light elves kingdom.

The other races also originated from a root version, and spread through their lands while evolving into different subspecies. The exception was the dwarves, who do not have any sub-races. But that wasn't the only surprising thing that I found out. It also looks like all races came into existence around the same period of time. How all the intelligent races in this world come into existence at the same time, and why the others races have a single origin while humanity has 3 different ones, were questions which I was worried about.

In my previous world, many races appeared around the same time only after a dramatic change in the environment, but only 1 species on the land evolved and gained enough intelligence to become what is known today as humans, a race that makes all kind of objects and tools, and even created a big civilization. Even though some species of monkeys are smart, they don't achieve the level of humans.

Yet in this world, it happened on all continents at the same time, and more than once per continent, except for the rexons, who were the only intelligent species originating from Drywumbi. It looks like all intelligent races were created by something else, and I've been wondering if, maybe, the gods really did exist in this world. There were a lot of stories where there were gods in worlds with magic. But I didn't believe in gods in my previous life, and neither would I start believing just because of a potential theory.

And now I'm faced with the possibility that in the world I'm currently living, there may be more than 1 god in existence. God: A being of immeasurable power, capable of incredible feats of creations and destructions, a being on a completely different level of existence, nearly unreachable. I died due to a meteor strike, but the meteor wasn't an ordinary one. Did one of those beings do this? If not, are any of these beings aware of my unexpected presence in their world?

I hadn't heard of people blessed or cursed by the gods, and I hadn't heard of any kind of oracles or revelations given by the gods to the mortals. I hadn't heard of anything that could compel me to believe in the existence of the gods in this world. Yet, due to history and geography lessons, I started to acknowledge the possibility of their existence.

Thinking about it, when I learned about the gods from Ellis the priest back in Argot, I found it strange that all races on the different continents had the same primary gods. And also, the humans are the only race to have a patron god for each subspecies instead of one for the whole species. For someone like me, it was a mind-blowing possibility.

In many fantasy works, gods have restrictions when interacting with the mortal plane, in others they have more freedom in that regard. In some works they can die by the hand of a mortal. In some works they are almost completely omniscient, while in others they are not. Some are responsible, while other are bored, sadistic or immature. If the gods exists in this world, what kind of gods are they? I'm not sure I want to know the answer.

I had considered praying in a temple to see what would come out of it, but if the gods aren't aware of my particular existence, then it might be better not to. I already didn't like the idea of fate in my previous world, and the idea that the gods could mess with my life isn't appealing either. I will have to make some research on the gods and the religions of this world.

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REMINDER GODS

Greater gods (all races):

Great Mother Zeldia, goddess of creation and time

Icthorus, god of fire and light

Voldyr, god of seas and water

Eyjilee, goddess of wind and storms

Xiana, goddess of land

Aerytihor, god of life

Lygtihor, goddess of death

Patron gods:

Ungaardt, patron god of the thoreims

Akima, patron goddess of the yukhans

Genessa, patron goddess of of the kuendes

Kaizer, patron god of the caecias

Ildilyntra, patron goddess of the elves

Thorendorg, patron god of the dwarves

Lucianos, patron god of the lycans

Xathanael, patron goddess of the andrellas

Shorolt, patron god of the rexons

Whalazach, patron god of the omdians

Ustengart, patron god of the barbarians

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AN: Since I've been deviating from what little things I had planned when I started the story for a while, and since my world building was still incomplete, I've been having a harder time writing chapters. Always had a vague idea, but not the right foundations to put it into words. That's why the number of chapters per week decreased over time. And my latest side project also distracted me. I'll try to get at least 1 chapter per week (and try to focus more on Aenthar's world building rather than my latest side project :P. If I achieve that, I will be able to write at least 2 chapters per week).