When I finally finished stuffing my Mana back into my core, Ellen was still laughing at me, but she had the grace to look embarrassed about it.

"Sorry," she said through the giggling. "I forgot about that. You can't, like, physically inscribe your core. It's a purely metaphysical, mumbo-jumbo kind of thing. Magic is really only limited by belief and Mana—the Scripts and Grimoires and Tomes all help create that belief, but you have to believe them into being inscribed onto your soul."

"You really forgot?" I asked. My whole body felt twitchy and disconnected. "This isn't revenge for your hand?"

"No, I swear it's not. It took me like seven tries to get this right, but I think you'll get it faster than that. Try again."

She went back to reading her book, and I went back to staring at my core—metaphorically, of course. There had to be a way to make it work.

I just had to figure out what it was.

It took another three hours and thirteen attempts—mixed with helping Ellen with her first skill for Arcane Resonator—but I got there.

The answer turned out to be ridiculous. In spite of Ellen's best efforts at helping me, her advice simply didn't apply to my core. I couldn't inscribe the symbol for Ariette's Zephyr onto my core—I had to overlay it across the top, like a piece of string. Even then, it took a long time to get everything in the right spot, then even longer to double-check before I attempted to set the string ablaze; I didn't want to mess it up and create a Mana feedback for the eighth time. Or was it the ninth?

I had no idea. Not all of the attempts had ended so explosively.

But eventually, I'd taken the plunge and connected the string to the surface of my core. The moment I did, it began burning, first red, then orange. I held my breath, pressed every ounce of my will against the core, and waited for it to inscribe—or to go wrong.

It didn't.

Skill Learned: Ariette's Grimoire

The S-Ranked wind mage Ariette wrote down her spells in an effort to help other mages progress more quickly. This tome represents the first volume of her magical knowledge, and comprises the simplest of the many, many spells she created. Be warned, though, that simple does not mean weak: this is true magic, with all the power and promise any aspiring mage could want. You may inscribe the tome's spells onto your Mana core and cast them spontaneously at the cost of Mana.

Ariette's Grimoire was a weird skill. It was the first one I'd encountered that didn't have any upgrades for ranking it up. I didn't care, since I'd be merging it quickly, but it was odd. I'd have to ask about that sometime, just for curiosity's sake. After all, Arjun's Script and Tonya's Binding both had rank-based upgrades. Maybe it had something to do with it being 'true magic.'

I turned my attention toward the spell I'd managed to inscribe.

Ariette's Zephyr took up a good quarter of the space on my core. Its swirling pattern and X burned not orange, but a brilliant blue that contrasted the not-yellow structure beautifully. It seemed stable; I got the feeling that it would stay that way until I metaphysically removed the string from my core. I didn't want to do that, though. I'd worked way too hard to make it happen.

And I had a headache.

"Did you get it?" Ellen asked. She'd stopped hiding the book from me; it was a romance—one of the ones with the incredibly pretty, oiled men with long, flowing hair on the cover.

And I'd stopped teasing her about it. What she wanted to read was her business, not mine. "Yes. I need a break, though. The gym's open. How about a spar so I can try out my new skills and spell?"

"Sure." Ellen smiled widely—and predatorily. "I've got a few new things to try, too."

"See you there in ten, then."

"You got it."

Twelve minutes later, Ellen stood across from me in a new battle robe, a staff in her hand. She'd gotten that from…actually, I had no idea where she'd gotten it, but it was new. It looked like it was perpetually in shadow, too—possibly D-Rank.

I readied myself. "No holds barred, 20% damage cap?"

"Sounds good," she said. "Ready when you are."

I summoned my sword and armor, then raised it into a two-handed grip. "Go," I said, and launched myself at my opponent before she could react. I was going for the quickest kill I could, regardless of Stamina and Mana consumption; if I could end the fight before she could cast—

She Shadestuttered as my sword rocketed toward her neck, and I threw myself reflexively to the right. My danger sense activated a moment later, and a ball of pure shadow slammed into the ground where I'd been. I rolled a second time, then pushed myself off the ground and kept pursuing her.

The next attempt at cornering her went the same way, but on the third, I finally got a hit in. A Lightning Charge appeared, and I backed off quickly, letting the tiny ball of electrical energy orbit my sword's tip. My stance shifted from the two-handed, aggressive Thunderbolt Forms to a one-handed Mistwalk Forms one, sword at mid guard and off-hand slightly behind my body.

The floor around me went checkerboarded. So did my skin. I consumed my newly earned Lightning Charge and used my new active skill, Flashstep.

The skill's description said I'd instantly reposition when attacked. That didn't do it justice. Instead, I disappeared in a blinding flash that, sadly, wasn't close enough to disable Ellen—but that probably would have momentarily disoriented a melee attacker. When I reappeared, it was with a second, smaller flash. It took me a moment to get my bearings, but when I did, I couldn't help but smile; I was a few feet behind Ellen.

Well within striking distance.

I struck, but I made sure my blow came in slowly enough for her to react. Her eyes widened as she spun mid-cast. The floor on 'my' side of the room was checkerboarded, but as her attention slipped from the magic, it faded. She got her staff up in time to block my slow attack.

One step backward. Enough to bait her. Ellen's eyes narrowed, and she lashed out with the staff. I grinned and parried, but didn't follow up with what would have been a lethal riposte against a mage foolish or desperate enough to engage in melee. A single blue-green orb appeared, hovering at the edge of my sword.

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Now I counterattacked, slipping back into the two-handed, aggressive form. As I did, I activated Rain-Slicked Blade. The Rainfall Charge disappeared, and the Stormsteel rapier's electricity vanished, replaced by a blade of what looked like hyperpressurized water. It sliced into Ellen, and she yelped in pain. "Holy crap, Kade, chill out, okay? You win, you win!"

I nodded and retreated to my side of the room. "Alright. I think I see how this works. I need to rotate between Thunderbolt Forms and Mistwalk Forms to earn and spend my charges. There's no point in Flareflourish or Cloudwalker except as utility skills. Mismatching forms when I can seems much stronger."

"Kade, we're not here to see your skills."

"We're not?" I asked.

"Well, I'm not. I'm here to see your magic," Ellen said. She looked flushed and a little annoyed. "I know I said no holds barred, but I expected you to be more excited to use your new spell. Give it a try this time."

Stamina: 184/250, Mana: 241/250

I'd been planning on it, but I wanted to see everything I'd learned to do, and that included Mistwalk Forms. "I will. Ready?"

"Ready. I'll take it easy on you while you—"

I connected with my Mana core. Poured Mana out of it, through the inscribed symbol. It turned from brilliant blue to blinding white, and three tiny darts of swirling air appeared around my left hand's ring, middle, and pointer fingers. Ariette's Zephyr.

Before Ellen could react, I flicked the ring finger at her. The zephyr expanded from a tiny dart into a two-foot arrow that flew straight toward where my finger pointed. She tried to dodge, but it caught her in the forehead, blowing her hair up in a massive, white-blonde fan. Her head flicked back comically, and she hit the ground. "Ow!"

"Are you okay?" I asked.

The shadow ball that slammed into me answered that question. It ripped into my armor, then my chest, and as I tried to escape, the room informed me that I'd taken enough damage to count as a kill. "Yep, I'm fine," Ellen smirked as she picked herself up. "That barely hurt, it was just surprising."

"The damage reduction's rough on a spell this light," I said, "and I had three of them ready."

"How much did that cost you?" she asked.

I checked.

Mana: 196/250

"Fifteen Mana each. I didn't pick Ariette's Zephyr for its stand-alone power. I picked it because it's very fast to summon, almost instantaneous to cast, and I can 'store' multiple copies on my off-hand's fingers. And because there's a synergy with Overcharge. I can set up a single, larger hit with it from range, or at least, I'll be able to soon—it's a perfect beginning striker's spell for a spellblade. Now I just need to learn Spellblade Affinity and Focus Casting, and I'll be ready for Overcharge."

Ellen nodded. "Okay, we can do that. Again. This time with all three, and with your sword in play. No holds barred, but focus on your magic."

I nodded, summoned another copy of Ariette's Zephyr, and got ready to cast.

Ellen and I had just finished up our post-sparring run—eight minutes, seven seconds, a bit slow but not unexpected, given that we'd been working hard for hours—when the gym switched from low-rank to open hours.

Coincidentally, that was also when Jessie's first shift ended. She looked exhausted, but also like she was simultaneously trying not to gush about what she'd done and about to burst from that effort. "Jessie, you ready to go home?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah. I'm beat, but I learned so much. It's nothing like the training videos," she said.

"It never is," Ellen said. "Training never prepares you for the real thing. I'm going to skip the sauna and shower today. Do the two of you need a ride home?"

Jessie sniffed, wrinkled her nose at me dramatically, then nodded. "Sure. Beats waiting for the bus."

"Okay," I said, "but I've got two rules. First, you're in the back seat."

"Awww, man."

"And second, you've got to be buckled up before Ellen starts the engine, and you can't unbuckle until she stops it, no matter what."

"Awww, man," Jessie repeated. "Don't you trust me to do that without a reminder? I'm almost sixteen."

"I trust you, but that car's going to jerk you around, and you don't want to get hurt, right? Just promise me, alright?"

Ellen grinned. "I'll make sure she follows the rules, and so will Deimos."

We walked to Ellen's car, climbed in, and waited until the seat belts were all engaged. Then Deimos took off, the car's AC pushing back the mid-day Phoenix heat—and clearing our post-workout smell from the cabin. I waited until we'd pulled onto the main road and Jessie's eyes were wide from the car's speed and maneuvering. Then I looked back at her. "How was your first day?"

"It was amazing. I learned how to really use the tablet—I can register delvers to a GC portal now, even though I'm not technically supposed to until, you know, I'm not shadowing anymore. And I can do a bunch of the admin-side stuff. That's most of what we did today—monitoring the workout spaces and library, keeping things filed correctly, paperwork for a new E-Ranker. It was a little boring, but also not at all. I'm looking forward to next weekend. Kaya's going to take us out to a portal if we get one nearby that's D or lower. Trainees aren't allowed on C-plus portal duty unless it's an emergency."

She went on, and I asked her a few questions to keep her going until she gradually wound down. Working hard on her weekend had to be exhausting, but she seemed so excited about it that I let her finish up at her own pace, even though I had plenty to think about. Then, a thought struck me. "You watched us spar, huh?" I asked.

"Yep. Got to see Ellen kill you about fifteen times. Nice magic, though," Jessie said.

Ellen snorted from the driver's seat, and the car went quiet. I pulled up my stat block and examined it.

User: Kade Noelstra E-Rank Stamina: 250/250, Mana: 250/250

Skills: 1. Stormsteel Core (D-02, Unique, Merged) 2. Thunderbolt Forms (E-05, Altered, Merged) 3. Mistwalk Forms (E-01, Altered, Merged) 4. Ariette's Grimoire (E-01) 5. Overcharge (E-01, Active) 6. Focus Casting (E-01) Open Skill Slots: 1

Path: Stormsteel Path Laws: First Law of Stormsteel

I was both frustrated and pleased with my growth. On the one hand, I hadn't gotten Spellblade Affinity, and that was almost mandatory for speeding up my casting/swordplay style to the point where it was truly viable. On the other hand, I'd gotten everything else.

Skill Learned: Overcharge

Even weak spells can be lethal. The mage specializing in sustained damage knows that all too well. A cheap, simple spell repeated a dozen times can overwhelm defenses. But sometimes, it's not that simple. Sometimes, even a sustain-focused mage requires an all-in alpha strike. Overcharge allows the user to add more Mana to a spell to increase its damage.

Upgrade Effects: 1. Each rank increases the maximum Mana you can add to a spell.

Overcharge had been a surprise pick-up during my sparring, and I'd immediately tried it out, pushing almost forty-five Mana into a single Ariette's Zephyr before the strain on my core got overwhelming. When I'd cast it, it had sent Ellen flying into the wall hard enough to shake up a cloud of concrete dust; she'd needed a few minutes to recover from the impact, even at 20% damage. Of course, I'd also needed a few minutes to recover from the pressure I'd put on my core. I could sustain double the normal Mana cost reasonably well, but past that, it quickly became a danger. In a real fight, I couldn't triple the cost of a spell unless I knew it'd kill my opponent.

Focus Casting, on the other hand, was the result of a lot of time and frustration. I'd been fighting Ellen with my hand tied behind my back—literally. It was the only way I could think of to force Mana through my sword, and even then, it had taken forever to figure out. But now, I could summon a single Ariette's Zephyr at the tip of the Stormsteel rapier and launch it across the room—for the low cost of twenty-five Mana.

Skill Learned: Focus Casting

Spellcraft requires a free hand—unless you can substitute something else for it. Most mages use a staff or wand to enhance their spells without a skill, but for other roles, focusing their magic through a weapon comes with all sorts of potential synergies with their other skills. Enables casting through a specific weapon or tool at the cost of additional Mana per cast.

Upgrade Effects: 1. Each rank decreases the additional cost of using Focus Casting.

I'd have to be judicious with both Focus Casting and Overcharge until I had a bigger Mana pool; I could see myself ripping through two hundred fifty—minus the costs for a handful of Scripts and Bindings—in a fight or two.

But in that fight or two, I'd have flexibility like I'd never had before—and I'd have a powerful alpha strike that'd let me blast through anything up to a boss before it could react. I was finally a striker like I wanted to be. Now the only thing to do was wait, keep trying to learn Spellblade Affinity, and get into my next portal.

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