Post midterms, time seemed to fly faster than it ever had. No monsters to fight or dungeons to run. No dark gods or twisted Protagonists. Hell, with Warram having been told off by the archmage, there wasn’t even any petty drama or political schemes to get embroiled in.

Just classes. And friends. And leveling.

Classes remained much the same, which was to be expected. I’d taken them all for long enough that I had the lay of the land by now, and barring any serious, abrupt changes, I knew what I was in for.

Friends wise, I was happy to find more time to hang out with all three of my Sylum friends, if not all at once. Following Verin’s advice, I decided to invite Emin out to a gallery with me. Perhaps worried that he wouldn’t know as much about art as a chamber head’s granddaughter, he seemed somewhat nervous both when I asked him, and during the outing itself. Still, I counted it as a success, and he’d said he’d enjoyed himself.

In fact, at some point during the conversation, he’d let it slip that he’d never explored most of the food options near him, as he tended towards quick and lazy meals that he could shove into his mouth mid-research.

From then on, I made it a point to drag the man out for lunch at least once a week. It was a great way to get to know the Knowledge District better, and on top of that, with how gaunt Emin was, I hoped it was a good way to get him to eat an actual meal once in a while.

I’d also unsuccessfully tried to get him to come along to my duels with Alara to see how useful his skills were in a fight. Thus far, he’d begged off, claiming he still needed to “train them up” a bit more before he was comfortable showing them to us.

On the upside, though, those same duels were going much better these days, in large part due to Suds finally pulling through on outfitting me with more weapons.

In addition to the pickaxe, the kitchen knives, and the harpoon, I was now the proud owner of a physical bow.

It was styled after a huntsman’s, with matching light-leather armor that had a camouflage pattern to it. While perhaps such a thing would work in the forest, it mostly just made me look ridiculous if I pulled it out during a duel.

The fifth slot of Bind Weapon and Bind Armor, he left to me. By his words, it was so “if I ever found some fancy weapon in a dungeon, I could bind it without causing a fuss,” though secretly, I think he’d just run out of fun outfits to embarrass me with.

The important part, however, was that the bow was an excellent weapon against Alara, whose entire build relied on her being at a close range. As the bow was also one of the two weapons I was able to enhance with mana thanks to my two ranks in Arcane Armament, I took to enhancing it with earth mana. While her somewhat ridiculous class let her ignore most of the mana damage, it didn’t let her ignore the extra mass or knockback effect.

I still hadn’t managed to win, but on an occasion where I’d gotten notably closer she’d taken me out for drinks.

We’d gotten very drunk.

Which, in some sense, tended to be Alara’s role in my life. Much more so than Emin or Verin, she was the friend to go out with at night and let some steam off with. I finally let her drag me out to a few bars in the Adventure District one night, and I was happy to report that we only got into two brawls. We won them both handily.

For Verin’s part, I saw her less frequently, though a few weeks after our gallery outing, she’d sent me an invitation to join her for tea. It was decidedly pleasant, if uneventful. As to be expected, the tea Barb had sent me with was delicious, even if I probably didn’t know enough to appreciate it as well as they did.

I’d even gotten to see some of Verin’s sketches. She’d sold herself short when she’d referred to them. They were stunning, even if the entire experience had left me a bit red-faced. Some of those poses were, err, intense, to say the least, but who was I to judge the local culture?

While my friendships progressed day by day, it was my skills that really leapt forward, and chief amongst them were my spells.

“I, uh, don’t mean to be too negative, and I know I’ve said this before, but are you certain you should be doing that in public? It looks a touch… concerning.” Emin turned about as he spoke, checking to see if anyone was staring at us. Which, occasionally they were, to be fair, but who cared?

“The archmage said it was a common training aid. I’m sure tons of mages do this over in the Magic District.” Undeterred by his concerns, I continued to slide my knife into the ball of flesh in my hand, making sure to heal it up every few cuts. And anyways, it wasn’t like it actually bled or anything. Considering how gray it was, I doubted many people even knew that it was flesh.

Emin merely sighed. “Please don’t assume that I, uh, don’t enjoy your company. Because I do. But I’ll be much happier once you’re done with that thing.”

Hearing how much it wigged him out, I was of half a mind just to stow the ball away for now. In the end, though, pragmatism won over. The archmage had told me I wasn’t leveling my spells quickly enough, and I wasn’t keen on disappointing him, especially with only one type of mana left to learn.

I also knew that I was so close. As best I could tell, it really would be any second n-

Minor Healing has reached level 10!

Congratulations! You have reached the Initiate rank in Minor Healing!

Based on your spell usage, you have been granted a skill augment for achieving a new skill rank.

Augment of Minor Blood Restoration

Healing someone with this spell will restore a fraction of any blood they’ve lost, while also lessening existing bleed effects.

“Emin! I leveled it! It’s at ten now!” I hastily threw the homunculus into my pouch before pulling the bony bookworm into a hug. Perhaps not having expected his complaints to be resolved so quickly, he seemed stunned for a moment before gingerly returning the embrace.

The whole “blood restoration” thing was a somewhat dark reminder — likely something I’d won from frantically trying to heal everyone during my encounter with Ephesis — but the memory failed to bring me down. I’d been a little afraid that I’d get some sort of augment specific to healing balls of animated flesh, so in comparison, the blood augment was a godsend.

“Congratulations are in order. That was the final cantrip you had to level before learning your last basic mana variant, yes? When do you plan to pick it up?”

Now, I thought. Like, right now.

Of course, I wouldn’t do that. I could wait till after lunch to rush off. No need to blow off-

“You’re going to be antsy for all of lunch, aren’t you?” he chuckled out. “What if, uh, you grabbed it now, and we, um, moved our plans to dinner instead? Would that- Would that work?”

Having already released him from the first hug, I hit him with a second. “Thanks Emin! Sorry for sucking. I’ll meet you outside your lab room! Looking forward to it!”

With thoughts of my final cantrip on my mind, I bolted.

You have learned a new spell: Chill Liquid

Chill Liquid

Cools down any liquid. Temperature change scales with Intelligence. Size of body of liquid affected scales with Wisdom.

You have learned a new skill: Frost Magic

All frost spells 1% stronger

Gain 1% resistance to frost spells cast against you

Once again, the archmage had given me a cantrip that couldn’t exactly be described as “badass.” Apparently, though, it had been between this, “Summon Ice Cube,” and “Frosty Breath.” At least this one, I might end up using once in a while. I read the corresponding tome in my room, at last earning me my final basic mana type.

The spell itself, however, was by far the least exciting part of things, as I got hit with a series of notifications all at once.

Class Quest Completed: Learn a new basic school of magic (Repeatable)

+2500xp

+1 Class Point

Congratulations! You have completed a hidden class quest!

Learn all the basic mana types.

+10,000xp

+5 Class Points

The prior was entirely expected considering it had happened time after time before this. The latter, on the other hand, was a happy surprise, along with an unexpected windfall. An entire six class points was more than I’d ever had at once since first gaining my class. I wasn’t even entirely sure what I’d spend them all on, especially since I’d already been banking a few points towards Gloves of the Arcanist.

Guess I’m grabbing that one sooner than expected, then.

Even that, though, wasn’t the best part. As it so happened, I quickly discovered I’d earned another class point, among other things.

Congratulations! You have reached level 12!

+1 Constitution

+1 Strength

+1 Endurance

+1 Intelligence

+1 Wisdom

+2 Charisma

+2 Luck

+1 Perception

+1 Dexterity

God’s Mind Activated

+1 Intelligence

+1 Wisdom

No thresholds this time around, though that was to be expected. I only had two stats under 25 left — Dexterity and Charisma — and both of them were still a few points shy. With God’s Mind activating to up my Intelligence and Wisdom this time around, it was one of my more lucrative levels, too.

From what I gathered, my leveling speed would have been considered somewhat absurd at the face of it. The flip side of that, however, was that I was still knocking out the easy class quests. Never again would I be able to learn a basic mana type, and once I raised them all to ten, I expected it to take significantly longer to bridge the gap from 10 to 20.

I’d even heard it said once that for people who hadn’t used a scepter to grant their class like I had, getting from level 10 to 11 was usually even easier than getting from 9 to 10. Despite the massive increase in experience required, the class quests were just that useful in making up for it.

Level 15 seemed to be where things really started to stall for most people. With the easy quests out of the way, the remainder tended to take much longer or require much more from somebody.

Thankfully, I still had a while yet before I was there.

“So many new points!” Were there any customs for celebrating level ups here? I hadn’t done anything for the level I’d gotten from fighting the hidden boss back in Emer’Thalis, but this one felt more Sylum, in a way.

There’d been no dungeon delving. No real fighting, outside of duels.

Just training. Day after day. Picking up new skills, leveling the old ones. Doing what my class wanted me to do.

It was a calmer way to do things. No almost dying trying to fight an ancient priest. Or a giant snake. Or a shower elemental. Or… anything really.

I could get used to this, honestly.

I’d had my doubts. Hell, with how Suds had handled things initially, I’d had a lot of doubts.

Things were sort of working out here, though. I had a home. Real friends. I felt safe and like I was moving forward with my life.

It’s… nice.

After taking a moment to steep in my own good feelings, I gently slapped my cheeks, pulling myself from my train of thought. “All right! Enough being sappy. Time to play with magic!” Besides, magic could only make me feel even better than I did already.

I funneled some frost mana into a mana-formed spear, eager to see what the last of my basic mana types could do for me.

Frost Spear

Deals 50% of damage as piercing damage

Deals 50% of damage as frost damage (mana-based)

Targets hit by this weapon are slowed by an amount that scales with your Intelligence. This effect stacks. May not work if the strike hits armor.

Nice. If I was ever facing someone far faster than me, assuming I could get at least a strike or two in, hopefully this would level the playing field a bit more.

The armor followed a similar theme, passively slowing enemies nearby. The range was pretty short, so I doubted I’d use it much if I was fighting with a spear, but it was still nice to have in my toolkit.

More than that, though, it served as an incredible air conditioner.

It wasn’t even uncomfortably cold! The weather in Ftheran didn’t quite call for me to leave it on, but if I ever found myself in a desert or some sort of tropical region, the enhancement was going to be my best friend.

The vision variant was something of a letdown for me: Frost Vision was just an inverted version of Heat Sight, letting me see cold things instead of hot things. That felt a bit wonky from a science perspective, but then again, magic.

Charitably, I supposed there were things so cold that they wouldn’t register to Heat Sight, so the new skill variant actually was adding something for me. It was hard not to view it as a repeat with some new branding, though.

Hoping I’d saved the best for last, I channeled some frost magic into my boots for the final test.

“Crap!” I instantly lost my footing and fell on my ass before I could read the prompt. After some indignant rubbing at my bruised tailbone, I dismissed the mana and got back up, trying to see what I’d done wrong.

Friction Feet

Channel the power of frost magic to skate across sandpaper as if it were ice or to walk across ice as if it were sandpaper. Alter the friction under your feet in real time.

I had… magic skates? Bizarre. I hadn’t honestly put much thought into what I’d get, but I’d kind of assumed it would be some icy-step type of deal. Maybe encasing my feet in ice. This was a bit different from both my expectations and what I was used to — the other skill variants were essentially just toggled on or off. Having to actively control the skill was new for me.

Unless I wanted to start skating around a battlefield, I wasn’t sure how I was going to use it. The increasing friction part sounded interesting as a way to get firm footing and avoid being knocked back, but then again, my life boots and my earth boots were already pretty good at that. Short of actually fighting on ice, I couldn’t think of too many uses.

Guess we’ll see. Plus, maybe the class trial will point me in the right direction. Now that I had all the basic mana types, I’d finally (hopefully) be able to finish my trial, which I found myself immensely looking forward to.

“First, dinner though.” I’d bailed on Emin earlier for lunch, and I was hardly going to get so wrapped up in my skills to bail on him for dinner.

I met him outside his lab room as agreed to, and we had a lovely time. As we tended to only do lunch, we had less experience with dinner spots and tried somewhere new at Emin’s suggestion.

It was a cute spot, with an equally cute gimmick: Instead of directly ordering what you wanted, you chose how much food to order for the table and then separately ranked all the options. What ended up coming out was a surprise based on everyone’s rankings.

Ultimately, a risky choice if you were a picky eater, but neither of us were. It was, in fact, one of the nicer meals I’d had during my entire stay here. I imagined it would probably make for a good date spot too, if I ever managed to stop and think about that side of my life for a while.

In hindsight, I realized I probably talked too much about my new skills and my level up during dinner, but if Emin was annoyed, he didn’t show it. On the contrary, he seemed happy for me and enjoyed nerding out about new skills together.

At the end of it all when we called it a night, I found myself remarkably sleepy from eating so much. After warring between my need for a nap and my desire to instantly spend all my class points, the prior won, if only barely. After a good night’s rest, however, it would finally be time to pick up some new skills.