“Was there no reward for the winner or do you have something planned?”

“Wait what?”

“The bet you made with me.”

“Not really; to be honest I didn’t even think it will work out that well.”

“Too bad; on another note, do you have any free time today?”

“Is there something I can help with?”

“As you can see and hear the snowstorm ended.”

“Looks like the storm in your heart isn’t the only one that ended.”

“I don’t want you to misunderstand me but you are not the romantic type.”

Now my feelings are hurt, I just wanted to be nice.

“Then what type of person I am?”

“I can’t answer that. At first I thought that everything you did had a hidden meaning behind it, the closest explanation is that you are loyal to your true friends.”

That’s actually right. As expected she can read people easily.

“Regarding the other matter, you asked me if I have free time.”

“I want you to help me clean the courtyard a bit.”

“But the snow, it could take us all day.”

“We gather the snow in one place then we burn it using a fire crystal.”

“Extreme but efficient, OK when do we start?”

“First change into some clothes you don’t mind getting wet and something to keep you warm.”

The only clothes like that would be the ones Kraft gave me. I suppose it was about time to wear them anyway.

I was about to do to the bathroom and change when Maria stopped me.

“You made me undress in front of you, now it’s your turn.”

I don’t know what she’s thinking about but I don’t think she wants to check my body out.

After I undressed I let Maria check out my body, she didn’t believe the things I’ve been through left no marks.

“It’s hard to believe that you don’t have any scars on your body, especially on your back.”

“The one you had healed last night; what can I say, my body really is different.”

I took out the clothes I was supposed to wear and Maria stopped me again.

“That’s leather?”

“Black demon wolf, why?”

“Thought so, I don’t recommend wearing that, it gets damaged easily if it’s not dried shortly after it gets wet. Do you have anything else?”

“Well no. It wasn’t that cold before.”

“This is the first snowstorm you’ve seen.”

“Yes, I’m surprised it snows that much, it’s a good thing that the wind doesn’t let the snow settle.”

I changed back in my uniform and followed Maria to a storage room where we took two snow shovels. The weather was harsher than I thought; there was so much snow that we could barely open the door.

I know it was going to be bad but I never expected something like this, there’s no way the two of us could finish this today.

“It looks bad. How about we melt some of the snow here so we at least have a starting point?”

“I agree.”

Maria took out a fire crystal. This one is different than the ones Ellen used for cooking; this one had two sides, one side had a lighter shade of red and the other had a darker one. Judging by how Maria holds the crystal the side with the lighter shade is the one where fire is supposed to come out from.

“Are you ready?”

“Show me!”

That was amazing, like what the actual fuck; that crystal was a flamethrower! The snow had a height of approximately 20 centimeters and that crystal melted that snow like it was nothing. In a few seconds Maria created a zone where we could start.

“If there are crystals like that why does an element matter, can’t everybody use these instead of spells?”

“You are easily impressed aren’t you?”

“Anyone would be impressed by that?”

“There are armors made to resist magic attacks. A magic crystal can never be more powerful than the spell of an experienced mage. A crystal requires constant supply of magic to work and their power is lacking. Listen Alex, a good mage doesn’t attack using a sustained spell, these spells leave openings.”

“So you are saying that an accurate and powerful spell is better than a sustained one?”

“Yes.”

“What if you are outnumbered?”

“A moving target is less likely to get hit than a stationary target also if you use a crystal the enemies will know the attribute of your spell and counter it.”

“But a real spell requires casting time, a crystal doesn’t.”

“If you put too much magic in a crystal it explodes.”

So a crystal overheats and explodes. Hmm….I can’t think of anything else to say. I thought I might be able to make use of them in a battle but now I’m having second thoughts.

Maria and I started gathering the snow and burning it. The snow shovels weren’t big enough to be called snow shovels; I could barely work with these.

After a few hours of work we finished gathering the snow, forming a few piles. Maria burned a few of them using the fire crystal. I want to do that too.

“Maria, can I try?”

“Sure.”

She tossed me the crystal.

“You know what to do right?”

“Yep!”

Oh man, this is going to be so cool. I’m going to do this the way I use Oculus. I activated Black Blood and gathered magic on my left hand, where the crystal was. There was one snow pile left, perfect for my test. Slowly the crystal was lighting up…something’s not right, only one side should light up.

“ALEX, THROW IT AWAY!”

What the fuck? Maria started yelling all of a sudden, is she talking about the crystal?

I heard a high-pinched sound coming from the crystal and I saw it cracking. Shit, it’s going to blow.

I tried to throw the crystal but it was too late. When the crystal exploded I was caught in the blast. Before losing my consciousness I saw my left hand exploding, everything happened so fast I didn’t even feel pain.

When I woke up I was in the infirmary, I know because this is the only room with three light crystals on the ceiling. On my right Maria was sitting on a chair looking at me. When she realized I woke up she started crying.

“Alex…thank god you woke up.”

“Maria…”

My whole body was stiff and even moving a muscle hurts like hell.

“What…happened?”

“The fire crystal overloaded and exploded. You managed throw it at the last second but you were still caught in the blast.”

As I expected, I wasn’t fast enough.

“How…bad is it?”

“Your left hand was destroyed in the blast and you have some burns on your face and body.”

So it’s worse than I thought. FUCK! This wasn’t supposed to happen, my powers are supposed to work in my favor not against me.

Maria took a handkerchief and wiped my face. I…am…crying? I feel like I’ve hit rock bottom but not like this.

“Alex, I’m…sorry.”

“Sorry for what, there was nothing you could’ve done.”

“I was your teacher, I knew how unstable your powers were yet I never thought something like this might happen.”

“It’s not your fault; it’s my fault for not paying attention.”

“But…”

She was trying to come up with something but even she knows that I’m right. Just how big is the difference between powerless the people and powerful ones?

“I don’t know what to do anymore.”

I got up and look at the bandages all over my body. My condition wasn’t so bad; most of the damage would disappear after a week or so. I just don’t understand anymore; the minimum amount of magic I can use is too much for most items; what’s the point of power when I can’t control it?

“I know that living with a hand will be difficult but I will be here for you.”

“I’m not talking about that?”

“What do you mean?”

“My hand will grow back in a week or so and my burns will disappear in a few days; I’m talking about my control over magic.”

“A…week; are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“That’s great!”

Look at you acting all excited; after all the things Liliana told her I’m surprised that she is still surprised by that.

As expected, my wounds healed after a week and my hand grew back. After the incident my motivation was completely lost and I went into a depressive state. For a few weeks I stayed inside Maria’s room spacing out. I was like that one guy in the family that had a mental problem and Maria was the one who volunteered to take care of me. She came to check up on me every time she got the chance. She tried to keep her composure around me aside from when she was sleep; she was always using me as a body pillow when she slept. I know that she is worried about me and wants to help, on the other hand I need to think and I’m not the type to care about people especially now that I’ve hit a wall.

I always tried to keep myself busy with something so I won’t have the time to think about how many times I tried to make things work out and I failed; my plan with Maria worked and the crystal incident caught me off guard.

“Alex, I will be leaving now.”

“Huh…. Oh; bye.”

I thought that if I fake confidence it will naturally come to me, I was a fool to believe that, people don’t change that easily and I know I can’t change……Did that crystal really explode instantly or was I too slow? Argh, I can’t even be depressed with this on my mind.

In the evening when Maria came to her room I was getting ready to leave.

“Alex, what are you doing?”

“Come with me, we are going to the storage room!”

“Very well.”

She tried to look calm but I could see some minor changes on her face, she was happy. I guess that my sudden change is something compared to how I was for the past month.

It’s a good think that I never gave up strengthening my body with magic or else I would’ve been in severe pain.

I haven’t visited the storage room in a while so I don’t know if it’s still here. It really is dark in here; it’s a good thing that my body doesn’t get weaker over time or else my night vision wouldn’t work as well as before….. There it is.

“I followed you here; at least tell me what you want to do. What’s with that box?”

“Remember when I was chasing your ass a month ago?”

“How could I forget that; that week changed my life?”

I presented her a box full of magic crystals.

“This box is full of low-grade light crystals; there’s something that’s been bugging me and I will use these crystals to confirm it, those were going to be disposed of anyway.”

“What are you going to……You are going to make them explode, aren’t you?”

“That’s the plan.”

“Fine, I will act as your supervisor if something happens.”

“Thanks for understanding.”

At this hour nobody’s in the courtyard which means there’s nobody who could get hurt. I put the crystal box on the ground, took a crystal and activated Black Blood. The magic is getting absorbed by the crystal; just a few more moments…IT’S CRACKING! When the crystal began cracking I threw it upwards and after two seconds it exploded…FLASH OUT!

“That’s not the kind of light a crystal like that would produce.”

“If a crystal works with magic then overloading it might create something more powerful. I was tight about the when and the why.”

“What are you saying?”

“When I used Oculus I noticed that my magic goes for quality over quantity and the mark didn’t disappear as fast as the one Liliana made so I wanted to see if there is a possibility that the magic absorbed keeps its quality even after I stop the supply and I was right.”

“And the crystal exploded even after you let go because of the residual magic, I see.”

“Yes, that’s what I wanted to confirm; now we just have to make this work in my favor.” Like turning the crystal into grenades, which would be fucking nice.

“That said; can I have those?”

“Are you certain that those were going to be thrown away?”

“Yes, I remember when you wrote it in the registry.”

“Then we could go to Maria’s office and check the registry.”

“Fine, let’s do it.”

“I thought I will have to convince you to come with me.”

“The result would be the same either way so I want to get on with this while I still motivation left.”

Maria and I went to Liliana’s office. As always she was working hard, and we came here just to bother her.

“Hello Liliana.”

“Oh, finally decided to stop the self-pity?”

“It wasn’t self-pity.”

“I know, that’s what that happens when you try to be somebody you are not.”

“What do you know about me?”

“More than enough; you may not believe me but I am a great judge of character.”

“We just came here for last month’s registry.”

“Why?”

“There are some light crystals I want to take and Maria wants to be sure it’s okay for me to take them.”

“Show me one.”

I took a crystal out of the box and showed it to Liliana. After a careful examination she nodded.

“Don’t bother looking for the registry, these were supposed to be thrown away. Somebody was supposed to throw these away; you can have it if you wish.”

“Really? Thank you!”

I put the box in The Null.

“Maria, can we start training again?”

When I asked the question Maria’s face lit up and Liliana showed a smirk.

“Of course, whenever you wish.”

“Then we will meet at the usual place at midnight.”

“Very well.”

“See you two later!”

There’s still some time left until midnight so I might as well go back to my dorm room, it has been some time since I was there and I have some explaining to do.

When I got back to my room I saw Jaden looking at like he saw me first time in years. Maria told Jaden I was injured but she didn’t mention the fact that I acted like a mentally challenged person.

“What’s with that face?”

“You’ve been gone for a month and nobody would tell me anything about you.”

“OK, sit down and let me explain.”

I lied to Jaden, telling him that the injuries took longer than expected and Maria had to take care of me.

“Do you understand now?”

“Yes, I get it.”

“Good because I have to go now.”

Explaining things to Jaden took longer than I thought but I managed to get there in time. As always Maria was waiting for me.

“That’s a familiar scene.”

“Yes, it is.”

“Here’s the plan; I want to make some of these crystals explode and improve my magic manipulation.”

I took out a crystal and I tried to infuse it with magic from all sides at once. When my magic got inside the crystal, the crystal started cracking. I threw it in the air and after two seconds it exploded. Something strange happened, the explosion made no sound and there were no shards left. It seems I accidentally created a silent flash grenade. Maybe I will stick to this a while longer.