"Ahhh..." I utter in joy as I move the hot cup away from my mouth. I smile as this is the first cup of tea I has had in two months now. The sweet flowery vanilla flavored black tea put me in a good mood. Yet it feels like I am missing something. A void that is ever present in my heart. Not even being able to drink tea again is able to shake that feeling away...

It has now been one month since Sangiris took me in, and I has not been allowed to go outside. As a consequence I has not been able to meet with Terion, Khan and Nana. But she assures me that they are all okay. Because she must still run her business as a trainer outside, she gets in touch with people I know.

I am now sitting in the laboratory looking room sipping tea while I am browsing my grimoire which I got as a gift from Sangiris. It was not the only gift I got either! She bought me basic adventuring gear and an outfit which is close enough to my ideal. Brown leather pants, black corset which fits snugly over a white shirt and a green cloak with white trims.

Adventurer outfit

Health: 100%

Armor Class: Clothing

Defense: 10

A simple outfit which is made mainly out of leather. Its a great fit for adventurers. It consists out of four pieces: leather pants, linen shirt, leather corset and linen cloak. Because of mainly being made out leather, it is capable of protecting against minor cuts and bruises.

Common witch grimoire

Levels: Novice, Journeyman & Intermediate

Affinities: Dark, Nature, None

A black book filled various magic spells fit for a witch or dark mage. It got a gilded symbol of a basilisk on the cover.

Sangiris says I am getting very close to understanding journeyman magic! This is great because I need power in order to fight back! My excitement levels are at an all high. With the help of this grimoire I am sure I will have the power turn the tides of battle to my favor.

For starters the regular dark bolt spell is a vast improvement. Why? Because it explodes! Then the shadow step spell looks great for avoiding death coming my way. I feel it would take me months to learn even half of the journeyman level spells here. Magic sure is complicated...

As I just sit there I suddenly see and hear, quite loudly I say. Sangiris barging into the room with a sack behind her shoulders. This surprised me so much that I spilled out some of the precious tea from my cup.

Being unapologetic as usual Sangiris put the sack onto the table and looked at me while grinning like mad. What is she up to now? Ever since I became her apprentice I learned that she got quite a few... Special. Quirks.

"Guess what I found!" Sangiris is now rapidly flicking her eyebrows up and down. I poke the sack and feel it is filled with both hard and soft stuff. No idea what that can be.

"No idea. Did you buy junk again?" I give her a skeptical look. She just rolls her eyes and opens up the sack with both of her hands while muttering: "You are no fun..."

What she unravels makes me very curious. On top of a pile of clothes and other miscellaneous junk lies a black pointy hat which would be enough to cover my whole head and even my shoulders. Wrapped around the base of the hat is a red ribbon with a golden emblem on it. Before I can reach out to touch the hat, so has Sangiris already picked it up.

"You call this junk? I found this at the second hand sale at the market. This hat is fashionable and will look cute on you!"

"Is this a witch hat? Looks like one from the fairy tales my parents used to read for me." Sangiris bites her lip and looks at the hat first, then at me.

"Sort of. Used to be fashionable for wizards and mages to wear three hundred or so years ago. Now are circlets all the rage!

But hey! I got it for cheap and you will look adorable in it." She puts the hat on me and then looks incredibly pleased with herself.

Wide brimmed pointy hat

Health: 100%

Armor Class: Clothing

Defense: 1

A simple hat made out of leather and linen. It is great for adventuring because it keeps the elements off the wearer extremely well.

Am I a doll or what? Oh well, beats wearing that robe I got from the church and the now ruined nightgown. I will make a mental note to find something more fashionable once I can...

"Thanks Sangiris..." I say while looking out from under my oversized hat. It looks like Sangiris is now melting. Was my cuteness too much for to handle?

"Oh do not mention it~ Looking fashionable is important while performing magic!" Says Sangiris while she waves her body side to side. Then her whole behavior turns serious in an instant. She corrects her spectacles which I only now noticed she wore and starts talking.

"You are very close to your breakthrough into journeyman level dark and general magic!

As part of your training you will also need to improve your mana absorption and refining. Probably the hardest part of a magicians training. But with your talents you will soon get to the next level.

I foresee that you will achieve all this within one week."

She sure got high expectations of me. But then I pushed pretty hard with my studies and training too! It is strangely came very easy for me to learn new stuff. What should had took half of a year, is now just taking a mere month.

Like when I was a kid my teachers always ran out of things for me to learn. At least when I was actually interested in it. Explains why I never paid much attention to history. Would had been useful now in my situation... I can't see the future, okay!?

I finished drinking my tea and then I hopped off the chair which made my hat jiggle back and forth like mad. Magic practice time!

It took the entire week for me to finally get how journeyman level magic works. Unlike how the novice level magic worked, it demands a lot more from the spell caster!

Updated skill(s)

Magic refining Lv. 1 → Magic refining Lv. 2

Mana absorption Lv. 1 → Mana absorption Lv. 2

Magic shaping (Novice) → Magic shaping (Journeyman)

Dark magic shaping (Novice) → Dark magic shaping (Journeyman)

For starters do you need to formulate a sequence of symbols in your mind. Unlike novice magic which only requires you to imagine what needs to happen, so is journeyman magic a completely different league on its own. The symbols themselves can be whatever you want, but the important thing is that you can form a meaning with them.

For example so can one symbol be what you imagine to be an arrow, meanwhile another the concept of acid, and if you combine them you get an acid arrow which just drops to the ground if you attempt to cast it. Why would it fall down? You never gave it a symbol which made it go anywhere!

On the surface this system may seem needlessly complicated compared to novice magic, but when fully understood you can do some really crazy stuff! The lesser dark bolt which is simple enough to be imagine can be turned into a truly destructive spell!

A bolt symbol, a dark element concept symbol, a rapid expansion symbol and finally a symbol for self propulsion and you got a [Dark bolt] spell. Takes a little longer to chant and imagine, but with the help of a grimoire you can just look it up and becomes a lot easier to cast.

Sangiris told me a little bit of the next level of magic which is for adepts only. She told me that performing that magic is even more complicated! It combines what i learned from my journeyman level with spell triggers in my head and material spell components. Sounds helluva confusing to me!

This month has been quite eventful, and I has even been able to drink tea again. Life is looking up again!