Eliza may have had a frivolous personality, but she was deadly serious as a magic instructor. The life or death situations she encountered adventuring in her youth fueled her lessons.

Kynos worked himself mercilessly, pushing to hone his shadow wire to the point that it was nearly invisible to the naked eye, and, motivated by the boy's relentless dedication, Elise also increased the amount of variations to her ability.

To the two children, the month passed all too quickly. Kynos could now control up to five wires, using the fingers on his dominant right hand as an imagery tool, each wire thinner than a fine strand of hair. Elise had managed to evolve her undead, letting one consume another to create a stronger creature capable of using traits from both hosts.

She was still struggling to get over the revulsion from her new ability, but with some monosyllabic encouragement from Kynos, who wanted stronger training opponents, she continually improved her art.

Kynos picked the letter marked 'first month' from the tray on the exact date it was to be read.

“Dear Kynos,

I imagine by now that you should have learned one or two ways to use your magic that you never considered before. Thinking in those ways is the right path, and it's something like that which you'll need to be capable of for us to get to god.

If you haven't figured it out by now, shadow magic is one of the two types of creation magic, the other being light. However, it's much more useful because what you're making isn't just photons, light particles, but actually have mass. That's why it pushes against you when it blocks strong attacks and why it can get into other people's magic fields. The other thing is that your particles remain dark, meaning they absorb light, meaning what you're making is some kind of actual material, even if it's just for a moment.

Kynos, it means that you can control creation. Making something from nothing, that's outside the realm of reason or logic, and it steps into the realm of gods.

Do you understand?

It means that you can make anything that can do anything, you can cause any phenomena, maybe even imaginary ones! Well, as long as you have mana, I guess.

You should take what you've learned and hone it in actual combat. With what you know now, the variable can become a weapon or a shield to defend you, making it less taxing on your magic, especially during the day. I think that only by going out and using it will you master my little present.

Also, take the girl with you. In the worst case, her mother will come searching and you won't be abandoned in some forest.

I put something inside the Variable. If you truly are able to master that, it will divulge the object and give it to you. That hidden thing is the most powerful artifact I've ever found, a superior version to even the one powering Incanta, and I think you can put it to use.

But! That hidden thing will be more powerful the earlier you can get your hands on it. Work hard!

Don't die on me now,

- Mith.”