>>6056315

Now you just need to make it to the school! It's a pretty long way from here, and you only have a week. You can't afford to be late, but you have something to help you, a spell! It took you years of practice from reading and re-reading outdated online records of magic books, but you finally found one that worked, and it's exactly what you need to make it in time. And that spell is...

>A life spell that allows you to stay awake for much longer. The sleepyness will hit you all at once when it wears out, but you can control when that happens.
>An intangible spell that can help you traverse large bodies of water much faster. You can take a shortcut through the lake with this.
>A material spell that lightens the weight of your backpack and anything in it, it means you don't need to take as many breaks, and it works on most solid things.
>A divination spell you can use to find the shortest path to the school.
>A summoning spell you can use to store a small amount of things in to lighten your backpack. Not as efficient as a material spell, but what's in there is safe at least.

>>6056316
>A material spell that lightens the weight of your backpack and anything in it, it means you don't need to take as many breaks, and it works on most solid things.
glad to se

>>6056316
>>A life spell that allows you to stay awake for much longer. The sleepyness will hit you all at once when it wears out, but you can control when that happens.

>>6056345
glad to see you OP

>>6056316
>A material spell that lightens the weight of your backpack and anything in it, it means you don't need to take as many breaks, and it works on most solid things.

>>6056316
>A material spell that lightens the weight of your backpack and anything in it, it means you don't need to take as many breaks, and it works on most solid things.

>>6056390
>>6056373
>>6056346
>>6056345

You can use a spell to lighten your backpack! Material spells specialize in modifying solid things, while intangible spells can only affect things you can't touch, like water, air and fire.

Okay, you can touch those, but if the shape is malleable enough, material spells can't apply. You're not sure when exactly something goes from material to intangible, maybe gelatin is where it starts to go from one to the other.

Anyway, what matters is you can draw a simple rune that can lighten your backpack and anything in it. The rune needs to be recharged with mana sometimes, something that as a human you don't have a lot of. The one pro of being a human is that you don't suffer from mana fatigue like other races; while most races will collapse from running out, humans will just get a little dizzy. Of course, that doesn't really mean much when most humans can barely cast more than one spell a day, but you have to see the positives sometimes!

If your calculations are correct, the rune should run out of mana every 6 hours, and you're able to recharge it about once every 10 hours. That's fine, it still saves you a lot of stamina, and it makes going up rough terrain a lot easier. It feels great to use a spell for something more than practice, it's like you're a real mage! You don't feel great about the fact that most people are capable of cast this spell in a few months, when it took you years to learn it, but your lower mana pool coupled with the outdated instructions you got from the human city didn't make things easy for you.

That's fine, you knew this wouldn't be easy, and you'll make up for your lack of talent and innate skill with hard work. Getting into that school was a pain, and despite the name, the school for the magically challenged has pretty high standards when it comes to admission. It's not enough to be disadvantaged, you need to show that your passion for magic is strong enough to get past whatever disability you may have.

You recharge the lighten rune and go up a big grass hill to get a better vantage point. You can see a village from afar, but you're not sure if it's a good idea to mingle with people just yet. It's not as if you expect someone to blast you just because you're human, but part of you can't help but stay wary.

But you're tired, and sleeping in a tent outside is more dangerous than just booking a night at an inn. You have some coins you can use, since despite humanity's reluctance to interact with the outside world, we still need to trade for resources occasionally. You walk into the village, and it's clear that you stand out. Some people whisper as you walk by, and a lot of them can't help but stare at your backpack. From what you've heard, human technology is almost mystified in the outside world, so they're probably curious as to what you're carrying.

File: Aroth.png (709 KB, 868x817)

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>>6056471

Even so, you try to act natural so they think you're just an average outside human, just because those are rare doesn't mean they don't exist. It seems like it's working, and the rune on your backpack helps with that, since the stereotype seems to be that no one from the human city would ever bother learning magic, not that the stereotype is really inaccurate, you're just an odd case.

Once you reach the inn, you ask for a drink and a room. Weirdly enough most people inside don't seem to care about you, but the red-skinned innkeeper does get curious.

"Strange to see a human in these parts. Where are you travelling to?"

You take a sip of your beer, it's strong but not unbearable. "School for the magically challenged," you answer. "I'll only stay here for the night."

He raises an eyebrow, "Unusual, but I'm sure you have your reasons. It just so happens the demon boy over here is also going there, he's been asking around for directions, maybe you could travel with him, that'd make the road safer."

You scoff, "Wouldn't travel with a demon make things more dangerous?"

"If he was a woman I'd agree, but male demons are pushover, and he's no exception. But hey, it's your life."

You look back at the demon boy, and it's true that he doesn't look that imposing. You've heard that the demon society was a matriarchy, but you never really looked into what the guys were like, since it's usually the women you'll see outside. The waiter says something to the demon boy, and he looks back to you. Did the waiter hear your conversation from all the way there?

Wait, no, the innkeeper and the waiter are the same person, they're Anbees. Anbees are a weird race, but basically, they always birth two people at once, and those two people share thoughts and knowledge, the main difference being that one is more emotional and the other more logical. Generally two Anbees are considered the same person, even if they can both act in very different ways, it's the equivalent of having two different inside voices, you suppose.

Anyway, the demon boy is going back to staring at his empty glass mug and you'd feel bad leaving him hanging now that he knows you're both going the same way, so you sit next to him and ask him if he needs help.

"Uhm, it's just, he said that you were also going to the same school as me, and I'm not very good with directions, so if it's not too much to ask..."

You shrug, "Yeah, I know where it is, even if I've never been there myself. I have a map."

His face lights up, "T-Thank you! I was just stressing over this and, if I was late, I just- I just don't know what I'd do!"

You're pretty sure the school is fine with being late a day or two, it would just leave a bad impression. You just nod at him as you take another sip of your beer, you're getting used to the taste already.

>>6056474

His horns are small, you've only ever seen photos of demon women, and their horns are almost the size of their head, but his horns are like, imp sized, it's kinda cute, in a way.

"U-Uh, please don't stare at my horns, it's kind of weird."

"Weird how?"

"It's uhm, sort of a... sex thing."

You go back to staring at the wall, what a great first impression. "Sorry, didn't know."

"I-It's fine, most races tend to hide body parts they consider, uhm, sensitive, so I see why you wouldn't assume horns are a weird thing to focus on."

You need to change the subject before this gets weird.

>"So, what do you know about the school?"
>"What's demon culture like?"
>"Did you meet any humans before?"
>"Do you know any spells? I know a lighten spell, it makes travelling a lot easier!"

>>6056475
>Do you know any spells? I know a lighten spell, it makes travelling a lot easier!"

>>6056475
>"Do you know any spells? I know a lighten spell, it makes travelling a lot easier!"

>>6056475
>"So, what do you know about the school?"

Can we fuck him?

>>6056526
I wanted to add a line that mentioned how the MC isn't into guys, but I'll leave it ambiguous and up to the player's choices because it's more interesting that way.

I mean, the school and magic system is inspired by an otome game so it's in the spirit of things to have at least one gay option.

>>6056474
>You've heard that the demon society was a matriarchy, but you never really looked into what the guys were like, since it's usually the women you'll see outside.
the longhouse strikes back
>>6056475
>"Do you know any spells? I know a lighten spell, it makes travelling a lot easier!"

>>6056526
>Can we fuck him?
calm down, anon.
>>6056529
you know, that bit about female demons having longers horns than males reminded me of that greentext about the differences between male and female elves

>>6056474
>"Do you know any spells? I know a lighten spell, it makes travelling a lot easier!"
Fujoshis begone. We're going to turn this guy into our bro, and give him the backbone he needs to stand over the demon bitches.

>>6056475
>"What's demon culture like?"
Saw that picture in the catalog and thought it was Curse carrier.

>>6056567
>>6056541
>>6056536
>>6056526
>>6056519
>>6056480

"So, do you know any spells? I know a lighten spell, it makes travelling much easier!"

He clasps his hands together, "Yes! I was wondering about that, you made it yourself, right? It looked too shoddy to be made by a professional- Ah, not that I mean it's bad, it's just uhm..."

"It's...?"

"The rune feels rough around the edges? I can't cast the spell myself, but it feels like the mana isn't flowing right."

You raise your backpack and put it on the table. "How would you improve it, then?"

He scratches the lightness rune, and turn the backpack back to you. "It should be better? Maybe? The shape is right, it's just that it's going to waste a lot of mana if you don't overload it first."

"Overload it?"

"You know, it's a thing you often do with material spells. You overload the rune with mana so it pushes against the edges internally, that way it gives more space for the mana to move."

You let out an awkward laugh. No, you didn't know that, and you feel a little ashamed you didn't. You spent years learning this spell, how come someone that doesn't even know how to cast it knows better? It's not like you can do that yourself, you don't even have enough mana to overload a rune, you think.

"Are you okay?" He asks. "Sorry if I sounded rude, the rune itself is still pretty well done!"

Even though you know that's not the intention, it still sounds very patronizing. "Don't worry about it, I was working with incomplete info in the human city, so I was bound to get a few things wrong. What about you? You still haven't shown my any spells!"

He smiles, and summons a small flame above his hand with a flick of his wrist.

"Wow!" You say with genuine excitement, "that's an intangible spell, right?"

"It's an intangible summon spell to be exact. No magic type can create something from nothing, none except summoning, which is why nearly every mage has at least some basic summoning knowledge since so many spells are dependent on it."

You look away, and he notices.

"I-I'm not saying you're any less of a mage if you don't know summoning magic, besides, you'll learn plenty in school, so it's fine!"

You laugh again. You're really insecure today, for some reason. "Do you have any other mixed spells?" You ask.

"Not that many. I know a few life spells, but I'm not great at them." The flame suddenly drops on the table and he puts his hand over it in a panic to suffocate the fire. "A-Anyway, a few life spells that can do basic healing, and one that gets rid of face blisters. I haven't used the latter much ever since I got past puberty."

"I guess puberty sucks for every race."

>>6056621

You keep talking for a while, and he teaches you a few things about magic you didn't know. A lot of stuff he teaches you is so obvious you're surprised you didn't think about them earlier, and some are so esoteric you wonder how anyone ever figured it out. It's still a lot easier than learning alone, and even if that's a lot of info to take in at once, most of what he shows you can be applied with minimum mana use, which makes it rather easy to practice for you.

You agree to travel together, since you don't have much to lose from doing so. You apply a lightness rune to his bag, and he uses his spells for...well, not much, quite frankly. His spells are not very useful for travels, and you're secretly happy about that fact as it makes you feel like you're the better magic user, even though you know it's not the case.

The travel is uneventful, and after only a few days, you finally get to Farlake. A city that contrary to its name does not have a lake, but it does have the school for the magically challenged. You really wish it had a shorter name, you'll just call it SMC from now on.

You know the classes have yet to begin, but that doesn't mean you can't enter the school; as you already have a dorm reserved for you. The school can afford to have a dorm for each student, which is good because you like your alone time, and you expect to spend many sleepless night practicing magic, which is something you think would annoy the average roommate.

As you go through the city, you notice how diverse the population and architecture is. Some houses are made of wood with straw roofs, while some are made out of stones and bricks. You notice some Anbees, some crystal-kin, and a few beastmen. Apparently it's because Farlake is a popular trading spot, and the city formed itself naturally around the desire for most merchant to have a place to rest.

When you get to the school, the metal front gate just...opens for you. No check, no welcoming party, it's like you swiped an ID card, and it just knew who you were. Maybe they just used a strong divination spell to let the right people enter? You're not sure how that works, but you've heard the teachers here were actually some of the best magic users of their respective field, so it doesn't seem that far-fetched that they would have a spell like that set up.

The demon boy, whose name you've learned is Aroth, says that he'd like to stick with you as you explore the school. Aroth says that the students here tend to be rather eccentric for a variety of reasons, and that he knows for a fact there's a demon girl in there. You tell him you won't always be here to protect him, which is a weird thing to say since you're not that strong yourself apart from the gun you're carrying.

>>6056622

There are a few other students around, but it doesn't look like Aroth wants to talk to them. You're not very social yourself, you were the weird kid that liked magic too much, which made you a prime target for bullying. That's fine, though! Because here, liking magic is a plus! Everyone here shares your passion, and that means that no matter who you talk to, you can open up with "hey, what spells do you know?" and it'll work!

Not that you've tried, but why wouldn't it? It worked with Aroth, didn't it? You'll try it right now to prove your point, you just need to pick a suitable target.

>A crystal boy shadow boxing in the garden.
>A wraith girl that's staring at the inside of a classroom from an outside window.
>A fishgirl that's trying to find her dorm.
>Two(one?) Anbee girls, one is reading and the other is rolling around in the grass.
>A vampire guy that's sucking up a dead squirel in the cafeteria.

>>6056623
>A fishgirl that's trying to find her dorm.
Fishwoman.

>>6056623
>A wraith girl that's staring at the inside of a classroom from an outside window.
so the anbee thing is a play on non-binary ? funny since it's 2 of them, kek.
>>6056624
Elise reference

>>6056660
>so the anbee thing is a play on non-binary
That would be stupid. Despite being two bodied, both examples of them we've seen had the same sex.

>>6056623
>A wraith girl that's staring at the inside of a classroom from an outside window.

>>6056660
It's actually a play on 'A and B' I only noticed that it sounded similar to non binary later

>>6056666
I see. the "an" makes it work for the later

>>6056623
>A wraith girl that's staring at the inside of a classroom from an outside window.

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>>6056696
>>6056663
>>6056662
>>6056660
>>6056624

You decide to talk with the Wraith girl. Wraiths aren't exactly a race as much as they're an unfortunate product of circumstances, souls that for whatever reason can't pass on. Occasionally it's because they have unfinished business, but the grand majority of cases are due to freak magic accidents.

That's what you've heard anyway, you did some basic research on most outside races when you were still in the human city, but there's still a lot of stuff you don't know.

You clear your throat, and ask your ice breaking question, "Hey, do you know any spells?"

She lets out a squeak and her head snaps back towards you without her body following suit like some kind of human owl. "I WASN'T STEALING ANYTHING!"

Aroth is startled and starts apologizing over nothing. You sigh, pat Aroth on the back, and ask the same question again, "Do you know any spells?"

"Yeah? I know um, divination spells, and summoning. They're useful for... things."

You know she said she wasn't stealing anything, but summoning and divination spells are probably the two types of magic a thief would benefit from the most, that and material magic to break into places. You know it's rude to assume, and you'd like to start on the right foot with your new classmates. Maybe she's just nervous and it isn't what it looks like.

"I know a lighten spell," You answer. "It's useful to transport heavy things like my backpack."

Her eyes light up in a way you thought wraiths weren't capable of. "A material spell? Did you know you can use some material spells to undo locks? Do you know that one? Can you teach me?"

You're really trying to not assume she's a kleptomaniac, but she's not helping her case. Even Aroth is holding unto his belongings tighter after that one.

"That's the only spell I know, but I'm trying to figure out a few spells Aroth showed me. That'll take a while since I don't have a lot of mana to practice with, though." Aroth is slowly trying to step out of the conversation, but you drag him back with a pull on his vest's shoulder, "Hey, Aroth, introduce yourself too!"

"H-Hi, I'm um, Aroth. Nice to meet you ma'am, and sorry to bother you."

"Ma'am?" She looks offended. "Just because I'm a Wraith doesn't mean I'm centuries old, I died when I was 7, and I'm about 19 or 20 now. Not very old at all! Quite young by wraith standards, in fact!"

>>6056907

Interesting, you heard that Wraiths occasionally kept the shape they had on death, but it makes sense that some would change their form as they grow up. It can't be great to be considered a kid for your entire unlife just because you died earlier than most.

A disembodied hand not so stealth fully tries to open your bag, and you grab it. You hear another squeak from the Wraith. The hand is strangely soft, it's a cotton candy like texture.

"I wonder who that belongs to," you say as you squeeze the hand to make sure it doesn't escape. She looks away and hides her left arm behind her back in a rather suspicious manner. You squeeze the hand harder until she relents and asks you to give it back.

"I'm sorry! I was just curious as to what a techno monkey had! You didn't have to fondle my hand like this!"

Aroth scoffs, "H-He can be a little weird sometimes, but he's not a pervert...uhm, I think."

There's nothing perverted about squeezing and feeling up the hand of a woman you never met before! Besides, she gave up her hand rights when she put it so close to your stuff! She knew the consequences! Probably!
Okay, time to put back on the nice guy facade. "Sorry, but I'm just very protective of my stuff. Also, please don't call me a techno-monkey, that's kind of a slur."

"Sorry! It's human, right? We just don't see that many of them, so I guess it's not like there was anyone to offend most of the time."

You don't personally find the term that offensive, but for a long time it was used as a derogatory term to diminish human's ability to create things. It was believed humans did not deserve the technology they themselves created, as such the term techno-monkey is more or less used to imply that we have no idea what we're doing with the tools we've made. Not that humans always use technology responsibly, but it's the one thing you have over other races, so you have the right to be a little proud of it.

You notice the hand creep up on Aroth, and you grab it again, since it didn't look like he had the guts to do anything about it.

"P-Pervert!"

"I'm not getting lectured by a THIEF!" You retort

"I'm not a thief! Just wanted to see what was inside!"

"Then ask, like a normal person!"

"But it's not as fun that way!"

"WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN!?"

Aroth raises his hand, and you both stop your quarrel to look at him. "Sorry, I think it's just a misunderstanding. Let's just uhm, start again, and pretend nothing happened?"

You let go of her hand, and she reattaches it to her arm. You 'restart' the conversation first, "Hello, my name's Atlas, what's yours?"

"Your name's Atlas?" Aroth asks. "You never told me."

"You never asked."

The Wraith pouts. "Well, mine's Ivy. A cool name, unlike yours, that is very dumb."

"Yeah sorry, guess I should've stolen a better name-"

>>6056908

After another slapfight, Aroth has to forcefully tear you away from her. He's a lot stronger than he seems. He apologizes to her and you go your separate ways.

"Seriously," Aroth says with a dejected look on his face. "Is this really how you make friends?"

"She tried to steal my stuff Aroth. If you don't put your foot down with people like that they'll just take advantage of you whenever they can. She didn't even show me any spells. Maybe someone else-"

"L-Let's stop the socializing for now, okay? Uhm, I have to set up my dorm anyway. See you later!"

And he's off. It's not your fault the first person you talked to here was a prick. I mean sure, he did say most students here were eccentric, but surely not everyone here is that hard to talk to, right? Just because someone's magically challenged doesn't mean they're mentally challenged.

Anyway, you have to set your dorm too, and you don't want your precious stuff to be stolen. Finding your dorm isn't hard, although unlike the front gate, it doesn't open right away for you, and you need to cast a simple albeit very unique material spell to enter. Magic is weird in that it isn't just physical actions but also mental ones, which means that even if someone sees you trace a symbol with your finger over the door, it doesn't mean they'll be able to replicate it. This particular spell and its instructions were with the letter of admission, and it's something that costs so little mana it only took you a few days to learn. Apparently, people don't use keys that much because runes are infinitely harder to get past, and with people like Ivy you certainly understand why they wouldn't settle for simple locks in this school.

Once you're in, you 'lock' the door again with the same spell, and you collapse on the bed. You didn't realize how tired you were, and at this point you just want to sleep forever and ever.

But! You're in a magic school, you wanna do magic! So what if the classes haven't started? You still have mana and you want to do something about it! You pull out your laptop, and even though you can't connect to the internet as unsurprisingly the network only works inside the human city, you still downloaded the things you deemed the most important. You cross-reference what you learned from Aroth and you realize how much wrong humans got about magic. It's honestly a miracle you were able to cast a single spell using the methods you did, no wonder it took you so long.

You need to get better before the curriculum starts, everyone here look like they at least know multiple spells, you can't afford to be behind already.

>Go to the library to fix any miconceptions you might have about magic.
>Try to practice some of the spells Aroth taught you.
>Try to find out what the school's curriculum is like.
>Just go to sleep, you're too tired to learn anything and sleeping now means you can wake up earlier tomorrow.

>>6056910
>Go to the library to fix any miconceptions you might have about magic.
It's clear from Aroth's words that we have a seriously wrong idea of magic. We need to start from the literal baby basics, sad as that may be, in order to make sure we're not building upon sand.

>>6056910
>Go to the library to fix any miconceptions you might have about magic.
need to fix our base first

>>6056910
>Go to the library to fix any miconceptions you might have about magic.

>>6056910
>Go to the library to fix any miconceptions you might have about magic.

>>6056910
>Go to the library to fix any miconceptions you might have about magic

>>6056987
>>6056984
>>6056944
>>6056928
>>6056914

>>6056944
>>6056928
>>6056914

You need to fix any misconceptions you have about magic first. You can't learn any spell reliably with what you know, and it can't hurt to stay informed. The library is the perfect place for that, and you're sure they have books for absolute beginners like you somewhere.

You walk to the library, avoiding any social interaction for now. Any time spent talking is time spent not studying, and as much as you'd like to know the others, magic takes priority above all.

The library is big, so big that you're pretty sure it's physically impossible for it to be that big considering how small the outside building looks. There are so many books it would take multiple lifetimes to read through all of them. You're not sure where to begin, none of the bookshelves are labelled, are you supposed to use a spell to find what you need?

"And who might you be, I wonder?" something asks from behind you.

You turn back startled, a cloaked figure towers over you. You can't see its face or body, it's like a pitch black mass wearing clothes, and you can only guess at the humanoid form it has from the cloak's contour.

"I am a teacher, the one that will teach you about intangible magic, assuming you pick my class at least. We give the students freedom in what they want to focus on, and when they inevitably make a mistake, we advise them on what classes they should take next. We never force them though, no, they must learn by failures, as all must."

"Err, right. I'm Atlas, I was wondering if you had any beginners book about magic. I think a lot of what I learned in the human city might not be up-to-date."

"Yes, I figured you might have troubles in that regard. Good on you for taking initiative. However, your problems are unique to your kind. Most books expect you to practice magic more than your feeble mana reserve will allow. As such, what makes you think anything you will find here will be able to help you?"

"Magic is magic right? I'm sure I can apply some of the things I find here even if I can't do it as efficiently as most races."

It laughs, and it sends a shiver down your spine. It doesn't feel like a real laugh, more like an elaborate act. "Yes, magic is magic indeed. But tell me, you're aware that your condition is a little bit more drastic than being a little less efficient, yes? You are challenged amongst the challenged, you will have to put twice as much effort as everyone else for a fraction of the results. Is that truly alright with you?"

>>6057042

You nod, you don't even have to think about it. "Yes, even if I were to end up as the worst mage there is, I'd be happy as long as I get to practice magic. I already knew it wouldn't be easy, this doesn't change anything."

"Fascinating. There was another human mage like you, you see. Starry eyed, passionate about magic, more than anyone else I'd met before. He worked tirelessly, day and night to improve, and what were the results of his hard work, do you think?"

"...not good?"

"Yes, he was a mediocre mage by most accounts. A sad fate, wouldn't you say? If he was simply born different, then maybe he could've been one of the best."

"Was he happy though?" You retort. It really feels like it's trying to get on your nerve.

"Yes, he was. He liked his magic, such a simple being in that regard. Now I did say he was mediocre by most account, yes, most, but not all. You see, constraint is the mother of invention, and even if his actual spellcasting was nothing to write home about, his research was invaluable. He has found ways to improve one's mana that no one else thought of, and even if his spells were not powerful, they were incredibly efficient in terms of resources."

A dark tendril emerges from its torso and takes the form of a hand. Suddenly, a book flies off from the bookshelf and is caught by the hand. "Maybe he was mediocre, but it did not make his failure pointless. Maybe you will learn from him, and become slightly better than he was. If you do, please write down what you learned, I am sure the next starry eyes child will be thankful for it. Who knows, maybe you'll be the reason a human makes it to the top one day."

It hands you the book, and leaves. You're not sure if it was encouraging you or belittling you. on one hand, it implied you were never actually going to become a good mage, but on the other, it also said you could help another human in the future become one.

You don't know if you're okay with that, but maybe it doesn't matter what you're okay with. You like magic so you'll keep doing it until you die, it's that simple.

>>6057043

You bring the book back to your dorm, making a mental note to put it back in the library later. The book looks like it's an auto-biography from the human mage the teacher mentioned. There's a lot of stuff on how life in the human city used to be like, but most importantly, it has plenty of instructions on how he overcame his crippling mana disability.

Turns out, someone's 'max mana' isn't fixed, but no one was entirely sure how it increased. The common consensus was that it was something that just happened gradually as you cast spells.

That human mage wasn't satisfied with this answer, and decided to research each method to see some kind of link between them. What he found out was that there was a specific moment when someone's mana increased, and it was when the mage had a specific amount of mana left.

To make it short, let's say that someone has 10 mana, and that the 'mana up' number is 6. It means that this person needs to cast a 4 mana spell, wait a day or two, and their mana will increase to 11. Then, the mana up number will be randomized again.

Now, you might ask, how the hell did no one figure that out before him? There are two reasons he cites. One is that most races have a lot of mana, so much so that it's really hard to find the mana up number on accident. The second is that this method is slow, it's not multiplicative, it's additive. You won't get 0.1x of your current max mana, you'll get 1 and it doesn't matter if your current mana is 10 or 10 000.

However, being additive is actually perfect for a human, as our base low mana means the difference is much bigger for us than for others. Unfortunately for him, he only found a proper method to find out one's 'up mana' near the end of his life, and he didn't get to apply it to his own magic for very long. It's a shame, because apparently his method got really popular for young mages to use, even if they tend to stop once their max mana gets high enough since it can limit the amount of spells you can practice in a day, which can get counter-productive unless you're immortal and have all the time in the world.

But this is it, isn't it? That's a way to increase your own mana! You can be just as good as the rest that way, you just need to... limit the amount of spells you cast in a day.

That sucks, but you have to think of your future self. You'll just have to distract yourself in other ways when you reach the Up Mana, which you'll now call UM since you're probably going to say that a lot.

It doesn't mean you can't study other spells in the meantime, as even if you can't cast them, the book is full of tips that are custom-made to help a human like you get acquainted to the less intuitive parts of magic. The book can get a little dull sometimes, but it really is invaluable for someone like you, and you wish you got access to it earlier.

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>>6057045

You spend the next day locked up in your room reading the book, and you're not even a quarter of the way through. Before you know it, it's night again, and you have to go to sleep so that you're ready for your first class.

You wake up one hour early just to make sure you're not late. You double-check the class number, and it's with the summoning teacher. You're going to learn spells, with a real teacher. You're so excited you have to bite yourself to calm you down. Totally normal behavior, haha!

Oh god did Aroth include you when he said the students here were eccentric? You hope not, you think you're pretty normal, you just have quirks. You don't have time to explore your insecurities and instead go to the class half an hour early. To your surprise, the door is not only open, but nearly everyone is already here.

The teacher, a ratman, looks at you and sigh. "Atlas, you're late, that doesn't look good for you if that's how you start the year, you know?"

"B-But I thought I was-"

He bursts into laughter, "Nah, I'm just messing with you, you're early. I just couldn't help myself with how serious you looked about all this. Unfortunately, most of your classmates were even earlier since they wanted to pick their won partner."

"Their what?"

"Ah, yes, everyone was told they would need to choose a partner for their first day to practice magic with. It looks like you locked yourself in your room when the announcement was made though, that's a shame. There are still a few students that need a partner though, so don't sweat it too much!"

You look at Aroth, and he's with the vampire guy. Why didn't he tell you? He could've knocked at your door or something!

No use crying over spilled milk, you just need to find a partner, and your options are...
>Fish girl.
>Ivy.
>???
>Anbees
>Crystal guy
>Catgirl

>>6057046
>Fish girl.
I like how this fishgirl looks.

>>6057046
>???
mystery option ahoy

>>6057046
>Anbees

>>6057046
>???
How dare that wraith girl try to steal our stuff. The only way to get back at her is to steal something of hers

>>6057046
>Fish girl.

>crystal guy
he seems trustworthy

>>6057046
>Anbees
Three minds are better than two and they are probably not that racist towards humans

>>6057061
Imagine if we go for an Anbee as the main girl. Does it count as a threesome if it's one person in two duplicate forms?

>>6057046
>???
The blurred out eyes are really inviting

>>6057046
>???

>>6057121
Physically speaking, yes. You could argue that maybe it wouldn't be "mentally", since it's just one 'mind' that happens to share two bodies, but that's just a technicality.

>>6057046
>Crystal guy

>>6057139
>>6057125
>>6057120
>>6057117
>>6057066
>>6057064
>>6057061
>>6057059
>>6057054

You scan the room, but you can't find anyone, so you decide to pick an empty table and let someone pick YOU instead, yeah, that's what you'll do! You confidently walk to the empty table and sit down.

"Alright!" The teacher says, "You'll be with Table for this exercise. Don't worry, nothing is permanent here, so if you don't like each other, you'll always have the opportunity to be with someone else!"

Huh? But aren't you...

You look to your side, and there's a girl. Was there always a girl here? You don't remember. She's looking at you, and you feel like you should say something back out of politeness.

"Uh, hi. My name is Atlas, what's yours?"

"Table," she answers very matter-of-factly. "The teacher said my name, but maybe you thought he was talking about the furniture and not me. Those desks are more flashy than I am, can't blame you."

Are they? They look like pretty normal wooden desks to you. She's not entirely wrong though, the desks look infinitely more interesting than she is. It's like every word she says makes you want to scream 'oh my god, I don't care, shut up.'

It's a bad thing to think, isn't it? She's not mean or anything, but it's just how you feel, and you don't know why. She was apparently so boring your mind just phazed out her existence when you had to pick a partner. The more you think about it, the more unnatural it feels, but the more you think about it, the less you want to think about it, it's strange.

Other students come in, and once everyone is here, the teacher starts the real class.

"Hello, everybody here? Everybody here!" The rat teacher snickers to himself as if this was some kind of inside joke only he found funny. "Now, I'm the summoning teacher here, which means I teach summoning, and we'll get to that soon, don't worry. First, are you aware of how exams go in this school?"

The serious looking Anbee raises her hand, and the teacher gives her a thumbs up.

"The exams here consist of a dungeon with a puzzle that must be solved using magic. The puzzle has multiple solution and encourage creative use of magic. It is designed in such a way that most students can complete it no matter what type of magic they decide to learn."

>>6057197


"Correct, correct! Good old dungeons. Really puts my summoning skills to work, it does. For example, you might have a wall of flame that can only be turned off by a level, but that level is behind metal bars. There are multiple solutions! You could use an intangible spell to part the flame, you could use a material spell to bend the bar, or maybe a life spell to make you resistant to fire and simply walk through it! Pulling the lever is the obvious solution, but if you can't do that, think smart! Of course, there's always the possibility that you'll run out of mana trying to figure out a solution, or that the spells you know truly can't get past the dungeon puzzle. If that's the case, you have the right to give up, you won't get a passing grade, but you'll get the right to try again a few weeks later if we feel like you were really close to succeeding."

"However!" He continues. "We have a new addition, a mean one, a brutal one, a LETHAL one. A duel! When you complete the dungeon, you'll get to meet and spar with another student that completed the dungeon. I'm kidding about the lethal part, you'll be equipped with pendants that will protect you from anything bad. You might still feel a little bit of pain, but trust me, if you could break them, you wouldn't be a student, you'd be the one teaching. Once enough damage has been done or one of the student gives up, the duel is over."

The crystal boy look very excited by the idea, everyone else don't look super happy about it.

The cat girl raises a question that you assume is on everyone's mind. "Won't this punish anyone that doesn't focus on learning combat spells? Not just that, but some races are inherently more combat ready than others, it just seems unfair to rate people on something like this."

The ratman shakes his head, "but that's the thing! You're not rated on if you win or lose, but on how well you fought with the tools you had. Combat puts people in a pinch and can force them to come up with a solution they normally wouldn't. Combat focused spell? No such things! Any spell is a combat spell if you try hard enough! Besides, you'll still have to go through the dungeon. Even if you fail miserably at the duel, it's only a quarter of your final grade, don't sweat it too much."

Knowing it doesn't take that much of the grade dissuades most people fear, although you still have a few questions. Like what happens if someone doesn't complete the dungeon? Do you just not get a duel? Or do they reschedule it? No one else knows since it's a new program, and they kept it a secret so that it'd stay a surprise for everyone.

>>6057198

"Alright, now time for the magic. You're in a summoning class, and that's something most people assume just means summoning monsters and the likes, but it's not. i'll be honest, summoning by itself? It's not great, can't do much with it. Can make pocket spaces, that's nice, you can make portals at advanced levels, cool, but what else is there? Even I, a summon expert, would struggle to find a spell I find interesting."

He snaps his fingers, and a red brick falls from who knows where into his hands. "But, mixed with other schools of magic? Incredible. Summoning monsters? Life and summoning! Fireball? Summon and Intangible. Summon a portal to the past! Technically possible with divination and summon! Never do that last one, almost killed us all. My point is, mixing magic types is how you bring summoning's full potential. Because what summoning does is bring stuff from somewhere else, usually other dimensions. There's an infinite amount of them, don't worry about taking stuff from there, they won't notice! Usually, anyway. I prefer to craft my dimensions from scratch, so I can pull whatever I need from here later. Don't worry, it's easier than it sounds!"

Is creating a dimension really that easy? It sounds like an almost godlike feat, but now that you think about it, the pocket space spell is kind of like creating a mini-dimension to store stuff, so maybe it's wrong to think of every dimension as universes the same size as yours.

"Now, as mentioned previously, dungeons usually need a variety of spells to be completed. This is why you'll get one mandatory class of each type of magic before you get to pick yourself what you like the most. I wouldn't advise picking only one magic type to focus on, two is okay, three is ideal! Of course, there's nothing wrong with having favorites, but sometimes your favorite can't solve a problem that would be very easy with anything else, no shame in that, that's just how it is. Now, let's talk about a very basic spell..."

>>6057199

He teaches the class how to cast the pocket space spells that you mentioned earlier. It's incredible how much easier it is to learn when you have a teacher to help you, but your low mana still limits how many times you can mess up. You don't even know what your UM number is right now, since it apparently requires a divination spell to figure out, and you're not quite there yet. You decide to use most of your mana for now since it doesn't make a difference, but you run out before anyone else which makes you pretty self-conscious.

You feel something poke your cheek, and you notice your mana is back somehow.

"A life spell that can give mana to others, I know humans don't have a lot of it, so I don't mind."

You feel a weird mixture of emotion here, it's like intense gratitude, shame, and more of that weird boredom. You didn't even think about that, someone giving you mana means you can practice as much as you want! Or at least as much as they're willing to give you.

"Thanks, sorry I can't give anything in return," you say as you practice the spell some more.

"it's okay, you trying so hard to engage with me is reward enough."

You frown, there's definitely something weird going on here. "Hey, sorry if it's rude, but you feel, uhm..."

"Forgettable?"

You wanted to say 'boring', but that works too.

"Yes, I'm a forgotten. I don't think you need a detailed history of my people, because the name says it all, even those belonging to it can't remember it."

"Weird, I read about most outside races, but I don't think I ever heard of a race like that, how common are you?"

"You probably read about us and just forgot, our curse extends to written records too. There aren't that many of us though. I don't want to talk about it, because as ironic as it sounds, it's also very boring to me."

You agree, it's a subject that should be very interesting but you're struggling to stay awake. Talking to her is hard, but it's also strangely rewarding whenever you do get to remember something about her.

"Hey, I won't just forget you when I leave the class or something, right?"

"You will, but that's what my name's for. You'll see a table, and there's a faint chance you might think of me. My hopes for you aren't high though, no offense, most people just never come back to me. I have to set my expectations low."

That's depressing, and you decide to not think about it, which makes you promptly forget about her, only for some subconscious part of your brain to remind you of her presence. It's weird and uncomfortable, and you certainly understand why most people don't go back to her, it's just so much effort just to hold a conversation.

>>6057200

The teacher speaks again, "class is about to end, and you may be wondering why you were asked to pick a partner? You, well, most of you didn't need your partner to practice at all, but that's where the special exercise comes in. You'll both make a pocket space, and you'll need to SHARE IT! That's right! If someone puts something in one pocket space, the other will be able to pick it up! You can even hold hands through them if you feel naughty! Can't get through it like a portal though, not really how it works. Anyways, you got the week to figure something out! Good luck figuring it out yourself, suckers!"

The teacher snaps his rat fingers and disappears in a puff of smoke. You're not sure if he's trying to be the cool teacher, or if he's just always like that.

Did he say you needed a partner? Damn, didn't you find one? You're pretty sure- Right! Table!

She's still looking at you, as if she expects you to ask her who she is. You need to practice that spell with her, and since this class was the only one for the day, you have more than enough time to at least get the basics with her.

Problem is you aren't sure how to handle her. If even written records are affected, how are you even supposed to set a reminder to see her?

>Hold on to her hand for the day so you don't get separated, it's not like anyone will notice she's with you. It's not weird, right?
>Just ask her to bother you everytime you forget about her, since the forgetfullness doesn't seem to extend to people she knows.
>You can set an alarm on your phone to constantly remind you of her. Written records aren't super reliable but maybe the alarm will force you to pay attention to it?
>Ask the teacher if he has a spell that can help you remember her, since it didn't like he had trouble naming her when you sat down.

>>6057201
Not sure whether asking her to bother you or holding her hand would work better. Ultimately I imagine there must be some sort of spell that allows it, but i don't think we're at that level.

>>6057201
>You can set an alarm on your phone to constantly remind you of her. Written records aren't super reliable but maybe the alarm will force you to pay attention to it?
>Ask the teacher if he has a spell that can help you remember her, since it didn't like he had trouble naming her when you sat down.
This is really interesting! All we need is to have the alarm make us check/look at a picture of a table. Enough association with the name should help us overcome the curse, right? But ask the teacher anyways, it can't hurt.

>>6057201
I feel like we can combine a few of these options, written records don't seem to work but maybe a photograph could help us, we would just need a way to charge our tech or print it out. Her magic battery spell seems like it will be pretty busted on us so we should try our best to remember her.
>Just ask her to bother you everytime you forget about her, since the forgetfullness doesn't seem to extend to people she knows.
>You can set an alarm on your phone to constantly remind you of her. Written records aren't super reliable but maybe the alarm will force you to pay attention to it?
Don't know whether the teacher would be willing to help us, where his office is and if he is using a spell it is not guaranteed that it will even be feasible with our current capacity.

>>6057201
backing >>6057221
The best way to remember table girl is to bend her over one and make things memorable, but I can imagine at least one or two other people here in this thread must have thought the same thing. Right? I'm not alone in making this connection, right????

>>6057201
>You can set an alarm on your phone to constantly remind you of her. Written records aren't super reliable but maybe the alarm will force you to pay attention to it?
I'd like the holding hands thing, but I feel we'll just end up forgetting what we're holding

>>6057235
Assuming the MC is a virgin, that's a perfect way to remember her existence. But let's keep handholding, penetration, and all other such lewd matters to a tasteful minimum.

>>6057238
With how he got with the wraith girl handholding, I bet he might be the first one to come up with it.
>tasteful minimum
Exactly like how in Curse Breaker then, got it. By the way, I am dead against threesomes in this quest now that the Anbees lost the vote and it doesn't seem to fit our guy's character in any way nor fit the plot in any organic way. Just in case the QM gets worried or has some dumb misgiving on his end

>>6057248
The threesome thing was an curse carrier meme. Repeating it here would be lame and unoriginal. We got to think of something else instead.

>>6057248
glad to see you again, aw3som3 anon. I'm surprised you didn't suggest our witch to do this in the one shot.

>>6057235
That is skipping a few steps

>>6057250
>>6057251
I made my case and my reasoning abundantly clear about it before. The same preclusions don't apply here, and I wouldn't want to make it a thing again even if they did apply here.
>surprised you didn't suggest our witch to do this
Why would I ever do that, you retard? There was no basis in plot or characters or the organic flow of the quest for it to ever be possible. I suggested having her get with the coder guy instead, but that didn't happen and I'm still glad it didn't happen

>>6057252
Eventually... but right now, I don't want any of that shit. It's too early for that, and I'm leaning more towards our protagonist training and doing his best to make it in the magic school first and foremost.

>>6057201
>Hold on to her hand for the day so you don't get separated, it's not like anyone will notice she's with you. It's not weird, right?
>Just ask her to bother you everytime you forget about her, since the forgetfullness doesn't seem to extend to people she knows.
I would really like to see if we can find out a way around the forgetfulness thing long term, this is pretty interesting.

>>6057200
>You don't even know what your UM number is right now, since it apparently requires a divination spell to figure out, and you're not quite there yet
Can we use the UM number divination spell itself to spend mana to get to the UM number?

>>6057221
The thought occurred to me that auditory methods could be tried. Why not record verbal information about them? Talking about them and saving it as a voice file or something. Maybe one day our main character might need to return to the human city briefly to get his tech fixed or get new ones if shit starts to fall apart in the future? By that point he could have learned portal magic and just teleport over to the city gates and back. In the meantime maybe there's a human tech enthusiast teacher in this academy somewhere

>>6057282
Why not, won't know until we try

>>6057287
There's already a lot to do in this quest. I'm excited for how events will develop since this is a full-on quest like Curse Carrier and not a one-shot like Haunted Game

Speaking of which
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Curse%20Carrier
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?searchall=Haunted+game
Posting them here in case there's new anons reading and voting

>>6057201
>Ask the teacher if he has a spell that can help you remember her, since it didn't like he had trouble naming her when you sat down.
>You can set an alarm on your phone to constantly remind you of her. Written records aren't super reliable but maybe the alarm will force you to pay attention to it?

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>>6057385
>>6057279
>>6057258
>>6057236
>>6057221
>>6057215

You try to find the summoning teacher, since you feel like the assignment is already hard enough without the added challenge of your partner suddenly vanishing from your mind. Finding the teacher isn't hard, since despite him saying that you should 'figure it out yourself, suckers', he's still giving advice to the students all over the campus. You signal that you'd like to talk to him, and he creates a clone of himself to talk to you so he can keep helping the other student, something he can apparently do pretty casually. You did forget that despite his jovial attitude, he's good enough to do something like that without breaking a sweat.

"Hello young one! Please don't ask any questions about the existential nature of a clone, just treat me like I'm an Anbee! What's your question?"

"Uh, I was wondering if....uh..."

Shit, what was it? It was something really important? Something about the assignment? Which was to-

"Table!" You exclaim

"Yes," Table answers from behind you. "That's my name."

Despite the sarcastic tone, you can tell she appreciates you remembered it by yourself.

"Yes, I need a spell to remember her better, otherwise it's going to be really hard to practice with her."

The teacher has a thoughtful, serious look on his face, something you're not used to seeing. Then again, you haven't known him that long.

"Yes, that'd be an issue, wouldn't it? I don't actually use a spell myself, I'm just used to go to uninviting places that require a good memory. I don't think I can throw you into the realm of madness under the pretext of building character, so we'll have to find another solution. It's a hard problem to solve, but I know someone from the job."

He waves his hand, and a portal opens above him and drops a tall wraith woman from the sky. Literally from the sky, you're pretty sure it was a 30 feet drop.

"Ninaaaa, we need your expertise!"

Surprisingly, the woman doesn't look that bothered by the fall. "I juszt nneeed a fewmore mm-minewt?" She slurs, you're not sure if she's tired or drunk, maybe she's both? Can wraiths get drunk? Can they get tired? You're not asking Ivy that's for sure.

The summoning teacher summons a bunch of water on her. After what feels like hours of floods, the woman finally gets up and closes the portal herself. She still looks tired, but at least she's awake now.

"You're...insufferable...little one," she looks back to the two of you. "It's this present, isn't it? Aaaah, why is free will a thing, makes divination so hard. Whatever, just..." She touches your forehead with her finger, and pushes until you almost fall over, then lets go. "Spell won't last long, and it's not foolproof. It's just a simple clarity spell, one that your other teacher can cast just fine, may I add."

>>6057461

The rat snickers. "Me? Why, I could never, you severely overestimate my abilities, oh great one."

She rolls her eyes, and lays back down on the water soaked grass. "Just send me back to my bed," she groans.

Another portal opens under her and just like that, she's gone.

Then the teacher summons another portal just to dump another bucket of water in it before closing it again. He really is like that with everyone, huh.

"How simple is the clarity spell to cast?" Table asks. You can hear her more clearly now, even if there's still this sense of wrongness when she speaks.

"The base version isn't that hard, but there isn't ever one version of a spell. The version she cast is specifically made to circumvent your issue, and you won't find that in any books. I could've figured out how to cast it myself, true, but that would've taken at least minutes of thinking, and why do that when I could just drop a bucket of water on Nina?"

You look back at table, and now instead of being boring, it's more like you get a headache whenever you look at or think of her. You also notice her appearance isn't exactly what you thought it was. Before, she sort of looked human, but you can see glimpses of writhing tentacles under the skin you thought was here.

You pull out your phone and take a photo of her, she's startled by the flash, and even more startled by the photo itself. The photo is corrupted, but it's still more clear than what you can see with your eyes. It's like a charred, burned corpse with a single left eye.

She tries to take the phone away from out of your hand, but you put it back in your pocket since her handling it would make it melt. "How did you- I mean- D-Don't look at that. Sorry, I'm just very self-conscious about how I actually look."

"I can delete the photo if you want?"

"A photo? That's what it's called? In that case, yes, please do delete it."

You do, since you did take a photo of her without her consent. You didn't think it'd bother her this much though, sure she doesn't look great, but you wouldn't call her disgusting or anything.

"I just wanted to set an alarm with your photo to remind myself of you, you know?"

"An alarm? This thing in your hand can also do that?"

You nod, "It can do a lot more, but I'm not allowed to tell you much about how it works. I can't use it all the time though, solar can take a while to recharge."

>>6057462


"I won't pry then. So, you can remember me now, right?"

You nod, even though the teacher said it wouldn't last long, so you better make it fast. It's a little weird being more aware of her presence now, she feels less like drywall and more like a person. It's still not perfect, and there are moments where your mind wanders somewhere else, but it's not a constant battle to stay focused this time at least.

You practice the spell with her, and with her mana the process is a lot smoother than usual. You even ask her if she can help you practice the UM number divination spell, and she says she doesn't mind. Apparently Forgotten have more mana than most, and it's really hard for them to run out from beginner spells like that. It doesn't make you any less thankful for her help, even if it doesn't feel like much to her.

The divination spell isn't actually that hard, since it was designed by a human. It does require a lot of math too, but you already figured out the formulas before, so it's only a formality at this point.

You practice the pocket spell with her some more, but your version is much worse than hers. It can barely hold your finger, and it will take much longer to make it pocket sized, let alone bag sized.

Table speaks up when she sees you struggle. "He never said anything about the pocket space needing to be big enough, just that we should share it. Yours is...functional, and that's good enough. We can work with that."

"But I'll never make it if I'm just content with a half-assed version of a spell," you retort. "Won't they think I'm just lazy if I just do the bare minimum every time?"

She shakes her head. "Do you think you know better than the teacher? I'm sure there's a reason he asked us to figure out the spell in that way. Besides, it's only been a day, your progress is already pretty impressive in such a short amount of time.."

But she figured out the spell much faster than you did, didn't she? And can you really say you've figured it out when you can barely hold the spell active for a few seconds? No, you need to practice it more.

The clarity spell is waning, you can feel it. You decided to set up a picture of a table on your alarm instead, and she found it pretty humorous, you can only hope it'll be enough to remind you of her.

Before you part ways, she gives you just enough mana for your UM, you can't stop yourself from giving her a hug, and even though she doesn't hug you back, she says she doesn't mind. Her body feels a little squishy, but in a good way. Is that a weird thing to think? You've never been that good at knowing what was weird and what wasn't, and it's even harder now when you have to deal with so many races and culture.

>>6057463

You go to the cafeteria since you forgot to eat yesterday. The cafeteria is more like a restaurant, and even though it doesn't look as modern as human ones, there's something comfy about it that you wouldn't find in modern campuses. You find Aroth eating with the vampire guy and sit down next to them.

"Hey Aroth~" you try to sound as nice as possible, "Why didn't you tell me I needed to be here extra early to get a partner? Why didn't you knock?"

"Uhm, it's just that I didn't know where your dorm was, and even if I did, the dorms are soundproof and only certain people are allowed to knock and interrupt other students."

"What? That's dumb, what if I want you to wake me up or something?"

"Err, your admission letter had an instruction for a unique knocking spell. You're uhm, supposed to teach it to people you trust, and you can change it later if you don't trust them anymore. The spell only works for your room, would be redundant otherwise."

Oh, so it's like adding someone as a friend? You can see the logic in that, it means someone like Ivy can't knock at your door and leave just to annoy you. You remind yourself to give Aroth the knocking spell.

"Hey," the vampire boy says after dropping a dead squirrel on his plate he just finished. "I'm Rath, you're Atlas, right? Did you get a partner?"

"Wrath? That's an ominous name. Anyway, I think I got a partner."

"Rath, R A T H, no W. Also, what do you mean you THINK you got a partner? That sounds like something weird to be unsure about especially when it happened this very morning."

"I don't know, okay? I spent time with someone, I'm sure of that, I just can't remember who at the top of my head, that's all."

"He's just like that," Aroth says. "Not very good with people."

"Aroth I'm not letting you of all people judge me on my social skill."

"H-Hey, I'm just not good with girls, that's all. I can talk to guys just fine!"

He was still pretty shy when you first talked to him in the inn, but whatever.

Your order of fried potatoes arrive. You take a bite of it, and it tastes great, what kind of funding do they get to afford that kind of food? Or do they just use magic for everything? Everything in the human world tends to cost resource and money, but theoretically couldn't a summoner just make everything from scratch? Surely they must run out of mana eventually, right?

While you were deep in thought, a floating fork stabs one of your potatoes and flings itself and your potato into a portal. You look around you, and to no one's surprise, you see the same fork reappear next to Ivy's plate.

"Uhm, it's not that big of a deal Atlas, it's just one potato."

It's not about the potato, it's about your HONOR. You can't just-

>>6057466

Suddenly, Ivy's plate falls and breaks on the floor. The clatter can be heard from here, and Ivy stares at you as if you were somehow responsible. She floats up to you and gets your face a little too close to yours. "YOU DID THIS!"

"No, I didn't! And you stole my food!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Aroth, she did, didn't she?"

Aroth doesn't answer, but the vampire boy does confirm your story. "Yeah, I saw that. Pretty sure he's not the one that broke your plate, though."

At least someone backs you up here. Ivy realizes she's outnumbered, and she goes away grumbling as she realizes she can't whine her way out of this one.

Maybe losing a potato is an okay price to pay if it means pissing off Ivy that much. You read the menu again to see if there's anything else you can order, and you see a note scribbled on it that simply says 'you're welcome :)'.

The next day, you set your phone's alarm one hour early as usual, and you try to see if your mana changed from the UM. It looks like it did a little, but you should still give it a few hours before it takes full effect. That's good! You're kind of proud of yourself for figuring it out so fast by...yourself.

You look at the picture of a table you've set as your phone's background for some reason. You repeat the word table in your head, and while you can't remember who it belongs to, you know it belongs to someone and not a something. You wander the halls and somehow, by some miracle, you find her. You call out to her before you forget to do so.

"Ha. You actually did remember me? That's..." she stares at the ground. "Not sure how to process this honestly, did you get another clarity spell?"

"No, I just realized there was a lot of things I couldn't have done alone yesterday, and I had an alarm with the table set up. And when something is off, I really want to figure out why, so I think that motivated me to figure out what that was about."

Now that you think about it, you weren't actually trying to find table, you were trying to figure out what happened yesterday. Now that you're here actually speaking to her you kind of just...want to go back to your dorm.

"So, do you remember anything about me apart from my name?" She asks.

"I remember that you're, uh... I think you gave me mana yesterday? Couldn't have practiced as long as I did otherwise. Oh, and you're squishy!"

"Squishy?"

"I don't know why, I just feel like you are."

She squeezes her cheek. "Guess that's one way to see it. My expectations just got way higher for you, Atlas."

You should feel happy about the praise, but you don't.

"Hey, do you want to practice spells more? I have mana to spare."

Okay, NOW you feel happy. You nod vigorously and she motions you to follow her. "If that makes you this happy, it makes me wonder what would happen if any other girl offered their mana to you."

>>6057468

"Hey, I'm not that easy," you say with less confidence than you'd hoped. You would feel very grateful if even someone like Ivy gave you her mana. You wouldn't fall in love with her or anything, but you know, if she kept doing it over a long period of time, maybe...?

Oh no, you really are that easy. Your love for magic is just so strong it betrays any principle you may have had. You can't let anyone know about this, your pride is at stakes here.

You practice the pocket spell some more with her. You're still not getting any closer to figuring out how to share the pocket space, and your space is also still just as small. Creating it isn't actually that hard, it's just that right now it works better as a trash compactor than a bag of holding. You wouldn't put your hand in there like the teacher said, and when you want to get something out, you just create the portal upside down so that it drops everything it has inside, which is not much.

After very little progress, you realize it's time for the divination class. When you go there, Nina, the Wraith woman, is sleeping at her desk instead of actually teaching. Then, when the hour is right, she springs back up as if her body was being jerked backward by an invisible force.

"Everyone's here, and I assume you already know what magic is, so let's get to the point. Divination, what is it? It's seeing things you normally can't or shouldn't. It's not just seeing the future, it's seeing paths, it's seeing thoughts, it's seeing past illusions, but also making them. You want to use divination when you need to find things, or when you want to hide them. Let's get to the basics. You already have a hefty assignment from your summoning teacher, so I won't burden you with something too hard. Pick any spell from the first page of the book on your desk and try to figure out how to cast it. I'll be sleeping here, but don't shout to wake me up when you need help, because I'll know before you even realize you have a problem. You especially," She points at the fish girl.

>>6057470

She goes back to sleep, and as she said, there's a few spells you can pick from. Some look simpler than others, but they all look like they're within your level. they all look easier than the pocket space spell if anything.

Table says the clarity spell if way further than she thought, and that it'll be a while before either you or her can cast it. You don't remember why she wants it, but it looks important to her so you make a note on your phone to learn the spell when you can.

As for the spells on the first page of the book...

>Shortcut: A simple spell that can find the shortest path somewhere. Can see through poorly made secret passage too.
>Delayed Double: Allows you to cast a vision of a spell before that can be seen by everyone. Can be used as a feint to trick someone into dodging a fake spell, or to see the potential effects of the spell you're about to cast. The results are not always accurate.
>Dispel Illusion: Dispels basic divination illusions. The spell does not last long, and its effectiveness depends on the user's profficiency with divination magic and the illusion caster's.
>Try to learn Clarity early even if you're not ready.

>>6057472
>>Try to learn Clarity early even if you're not ready.

>>6057472
>Shortcut: A simple spell that can find the shortest path somewhere. Can see through poorly made secret passage too.
This seems very useful. Also, I like Table. She's cute. I'd like to learn clarity but we're clearly not ready.

>>6057472
>Delayed Double
I got a good feeling about this. Also rat teacher is great
>writhing tentacles under the skin
>charred, burned corpse with a single left eye
Probably not that bad
>Oh no, you really are that easy. Your love for magic is just so strong it betrays any principle you may have had.
It's only natural to be attached. If any other girl would do the same, our guy would also feel the same. In this case, Table is special because she's first? I don't know if this is right, but I had to deal with this "you'd fall for any other girl who did this for you? I'm not special to you?" dilemma irl before. Still not sure if my answer is right

>>6057472
>Shortcut: A simple spell that can find the shortest path somewhere. Can see through poorly made secret passage too.
I agree with other anon, I would like clarity but we struggle with even the basic pocket spell, no way can we cast clarity.

>>6057472
>Delayed Double: Allows you to cast a vision of a spell before that can be seen by everyone. Can be used as a feint to trick someone into dodging a fake spell, or to see the potential effects of the spell you're about to cast. The results are not always accurate.

I just had an idea. What if we drew a picture of Table? Pictures from our phone get corrupted, what would happen to a hand drawn picture? Would it just be forgettable? Part of me thinks "no" because the curse didn't think that was enough for a phone picture.

>>6057525
I imagine that would count as 'written'

The phone doesn't count because it's not really a picture or anything, it's like...a bunch of flashing pixel lights that come together in a shape. You're seeing, but not really seeing.

>>6057472
>Delayed double
Can help us fuck around with combat spells which we might need to learn at some point, also we could make a lot of fake clones if we ever learn that cloning spell rat does. Want to learn the others too at some point but shortcut and dispel illusion won't help us much right now, and also dispel illusion probably won't make our partner happy as she seems to be using some kind of illusion to hide her true form.

>>6056315
This is the quest that was theorized in the general. I'm locked in, QM.

>>6057472
>shortcut

alright, so shortcut lets you find shortcuts, right?
but who is to say that is is only limited to finding literal paths that one walks on?
if we modify it hard enough, we could use it to find shortcuts to learning spells
shortcuts to levelling our manapool
shortcuts to modifying the shortcut spell further
or in short
shortcuts to victory
it's all a matter of how we interpret the word "path"

>>6057570
What partner?

>>6057472
>Delayed Double: Allows you to cast a vision of a spell before that can be seen by everyone. Can be used as a feint to trick someone into dodging a fake spell, or to see the potential effects of the spell you're about to cast. The results are not always accurate.
Sounds useful for the duelling exam. Table a best! Mana-whore Atlas is pretty funny

>>6057669
I actually think it's counter productive if we want to use it for combat. Our mana is so low that using mana on anything other than an attack is a waste. Using mana to feint would make us all-in on that feint working or we're down to our fists against races that are probably physically stronger than us.

>>6057570
>>6057522
>>6057519
>>6057517
>>6057485
>>6057479

Delayed Double sounds interesting. Not only can it act as a pseudo-illusion, it can also be used to test more unstable spells safely. It's not actually hard to figure out the principle behind it, the hard part is applying it to the spell you want. It's technically a mixed spell, since it requires being mixed with the spell you're doubling. You'd think there would be a lot of limitations on what spells you can mix together, but flipping through the divination book you've been given, it doesn't seem to be that way? Maybe you're still thinking with human logic, where just mixing random chemicals won't always create an interesting result, but it really looks like you can fuse any spells together with magic and make it work.

It does require a very good mastery of the spells you're mixing, of course, but that doesn't make it any less interesting. You try out the spell with another you know very well, the lighten spell. And the results are...well, not much. You see the rune appear on the table for a split second, but then it's gone. Delayed Double is very cheap to cast at least, and compared to the lighten spell you can only cast about once every ten hours, this one you can cast about 3 or 4 times before you run out. It does require some concentration to pull off, so it can't be that easy to spam illusions like crazy.

Unsurprisingly, nearly everyone is learning faster than you are. The fish girl look like she's struggling the most, with Ivy being ahead of everyone else. Then again, it's not like everyone's learning the same spell, so maybe some of them are having an easier time than you because of that.

Table snaps her fingers in front of your face. "I'm pretty good at divination, I can help if you want."

"Table, you're the best."

"Hardly."

Her help is invaluable, but since it's coming from her, it's really hard for you to pay attention. You do take as many notes as you can so you can apply them later, since you highly doubt her boring-ness applies to everything she knows.

As you're talking, the teacher suddenly puts her head between the two of you. You're not sure how she even got here.

>>6057713

"You're thinking of mixing spells wrong, kid. It's not puzzle pieces you fit together, it's a dance. No spell is perfect, and they tend to shift as you cast them, so it's not a simple matter of just casting them together, but to make them help each other. Don't focus on what you did wrong, focus on what feels right, ignore the book's instructions if it helps, they're a guideline, not rules."

She goes back to her desk and promptly falls to sleep again. Normally what she's saying wouldn't make much sense, but for some reason it just clicks for you. Yeah, you've been focusing on your failures, but you never asked yourself why some parts of the spells even worked in the first place. Sure, it's because you followed the instructions, but isn't there more to it? How many steps of a spell can you skip and ignore before it stops working?

You start tinkering with the spell with this new mindset, and even though you're not seeing any immediate results, you think you're getting very close. You might look into the book of that human mage again to see if he knew anything about mixing spells too, since it's apparently such an important part of spell casting.

Once the class is over, you realize you have the rest of the day for yourself again. The first week seems to be light on classes, but this is basically the introductory course, you're sure your schedule will only get more packed next week.

Still, free time! How will you use it? How can you use it? Table says she doesn't mind tagging along with whatever you're doing, since she spends most of her free time reading, she's rarely that busy.

>Practice the Delayed Double spell.
>Practice the Pocket Space spell.
>Introduce Table to your friends, even if that might be hard considering her condition.
>Read the human book with Table, she might be able to help you figure some stuff out.

>>6057717
>Read the human book with Table, she might be able to help you figure some stuff out.
I'm really interested about this guy. He spent his entire life working to make human magic better - surely we can find a way to speed up our magic growth process. Table might be able to help.

>>6057717
>Read the human book with Table, she might be able to help you figure some stuff out.

>>6057717
>Read the human book with Table, she might be able to help you figure some stuff out.
It's nice the double spell costs less mana, and its nature of mixing with other spells means we're now learning about spell mixing which should help our overall proficiency. This turned out better than expected.

>>6057717
>Read the human book with Table, she might be able to help you figure some stuff out.

>>6057686
I was thinking about that but as long as Table is transferring mana to us we can use it freely. And misdirection and trickery is nice to have up our arsenal, with our low amount of mana our raw firepower is limited, better to have a few decoys and hit with a real spell than use up all our mana on attacks and get dodged.
>Read the human book with Table, she might be able to help you figure some stuff out.
She is the most magically talented person we know, also no point in introducing her to other people, its hard enough for us to remember her

>>6057717
>Read the human book with Table, she might be able to help you figure some stuff out.

>>6057775
Will we be allowed to do the "duel" with backup though? I figured it was only one against one with no support.

>>6057783
The duel is a long way away, we can experiment a lot between then and now. And we might get a matchup where we just can't win like vs the crystal dude. Double allows us to play it safer with spells we haven't tested, don't want to electrocute ourselves when we try to learn an offense spell for the first time

>>6057777
>>6057775
>>6057732
>>6057728
>>6057722
>>6057720

You have to read more of that book. There's a lot of stuff here, and with Table's help, you're sure to learn even more. You tell Table to follow you to your dormitory, because there's something you want to show her. She raises an eyebrow, then the other, then says 'okay'.

However, as you travel back to your humble abode, someone gets in your way.

Ivy is floating upside down, blocking the hallway like the waste of space she is. "Aww, you're all alone again, aren't you?" She says with a shit eating grin.

"Hey, I'm not alone, I'm with... uh..."

"He's with me," Table finishes for you.

Ivy looks at her, then back at you, then back at her. "Psh, no you weren't. I would've known if you were here, why would you want to hang out with him anyway?"

"He said he wanted to show me something at his dorm."

Ivy floats closer to Table. "You shouldn't, he's weeeird. He's probably a pervert, he's probably going to touch your hand and other stuff when it's only the two of you."

"Yeah, I'm counting on it," Table says without skipping a beat. "You know, I expect a little more. Kissing, groping, penetrative sex, it's a good thing the dorms are soundproof because the sound it's going to make is going to test the limit of that deafen spell."

You don't say anything, you're not even sure you even can in this situation.

"H-Ha, err, nice try. Y-You wouldn't, d-do that, not with him, because he's..."

"It's fine Ivy, if you want to join, we can totally arrange a threesome."

Ivy's disgust turns into horror, and you can see ghastly tears form in her eyes as she starts screaming incoherently. "GROSS! EW, NO, SHUT UP! AAAAAAH"

Ivy disappears through the floor, hopefully to never be seen again.

"Table, that's not-"

She laughs, it's less of a cute chuckle and more of a mad cackle. "I know, I know! You invited me to your dorm for something magic related, what else could it be? But I just had to."

"Don't you think she's going to start some rumors or something?"

"About me? No, she won't remember this ever happened. She might feel uncomfortable every time she calls you a pervert since her subconscious might remember, but that's it. The only reason she'd find out is if she has a secret crush on you."

"Why?" You ask.

"Because then it won't be about me, it'll be about you, and she'll remember you were with another girl at one point, and she'll want to find out who that is. People can occasionally remember me if it's through something else, but they need to really care about that something else, or they won't bother."

You thought of her as the super serious, slightly melancholic type, but despite her strange situation, she's still a person.

>>6057931

Anyway, you go to your dormitory, and tell her about the book. She seems impressed she never heard of the author, as he's apparently indirectly involved in a lot of modern magic theories. You both learn a lot from it, and you realize you're already becoming much better at keeping focus when talking with her. It's still not easy, but it's easi-er. You wonder if that improved your attention span as a whole? If it does, there really are many advantages of having her as a friend.

As for what you've learned, you figured out a way to further optimize your mana usage. For one, it's possible to 'recycle' spent mana on some spells. It's a little tricky, but it's pretty doable on static spells like the lighten rune. There are other ways to spend less mana when using spells too, but it requires some Intangible knowledge you don't have yet, so you'll wait for those classes before really digging into it.

Before Table leaves, you teach her your knocking spell. She tries to teach you hers, but you can't figure it out for some reason. Maybe it's because it's too closely linked to her? The logic of her curse keeps evading you, but it's fine, you'll figure it out one day.

The next day, Table comes to you for once and wakes you up with the knocking spell you just taught her. On the way to class Aroth joins you, and Table get noticeably more quiet on the way there. So quiet you forget about her until she pinches your nose when you sit down in the life magic class.

The life teacher is to a lot of people's surprise, a tall, muscular demon woman. From what Aroth told you, that's how most demon women are. The poor guy is hiding behind his desk at this point, and you're not sure if you can blame him, she is a little scary.

>>6057932

"Oy', don't be scared now," she says. "You should be scared, but not from my fist, but from life. People think life magic's all about healing and communing with nature or whatever. I tell you these people haven't practiced life magic once in their LIFE!" She slams the wooden deks with her fist, and it breaks in half. She raises a finger and the desk reforms itself. "What I just did? That was material magic, not even life, not even a mixed spell with life. You can use it for healing, you should use it for healing in fact, but only when you really know what you're doing, cause if you don't it'll make things waaaay worse. Life can be used to make you stronger, more resistant, faster, but it can also be used to poison, infect and corrupt. It's the cruelest type of magic, and before you can learn how to make things less dead, you're going to need to learn what will make them dead-er, you got me?"

The catgirl raises her hand, "Does this mean we are only going to learn combat spells when starting out in Life magic?"

"What? No, the duel thing is new, and it'd make Life magic useless in dungeons if you could only use it to fight stuff. You're going to get basic utility spells that don't do much, and then you're going to have to think of a way to make them useful by using your noggin. First page of the book, you've been through the divination class, you know the drill."

You get to choose a spell here too? It's weird that summoning is the only class thus far that didn't give you a choice of spells to start out with. Maybe there's a reason for that? You'll figure that out later, the life spells all look...pretty lame, honestly, but you have to pick something.

>Greedy Growth: Make vines and weed get a burst of growth only to wither away after a few seconds. You cannot control where the plant grows, only which plant is affected.
>Taste Test: You can tell something's taste without eating it, and even get an idea of any effect the food may have, be it positive or negative.
>Tracking Scent: Your sense of smell is increased.
>Unnatural Check: Check if anything surrounding you is affected by a life spell. This does not tell you what kind of life spell it is affected by.

(Also sorry for accidentally putting the first post all in italics, I fucked up the formatting again.)

>>6057933
>Taste Test: You can tell something's taste without eating it, and even get an idea of any effect the food may have, be it positive or negative.
So we can answer the question that every single man who has seen it has ever asked - how would Lava taste like?

Also, lol, Table has no self-restraint. Probably don't have to when people forget everything you do.

>>6057933
>Tracking Scent: Your sense of smell is increased
All kinds of uses for a good sense of smell. Like memorizing Table's scent, which should be easier to remember!>>6057933

>>6057933
>>6057963
+1, sensory boosters are pretty good, I value smell above taste.

>>6057933
>Taste Test: You can tell something's taste without eating it, and even get an idea of any effect the food may have, be it positive or negative.
>>6057963
we can memorize her taste

>>6057935
Remember it's [/i]. Don't forget the /

>>6057933
backing >>6057963
Table already establishing herself as best girl. Remember, the good QMs incorporate anons' discussion into the quest as the protag's logic or mindset on certain decisions or acknowledging shit like what Table did in >>6057931 about >>6057238
Also I love how she's acknowledging the soundproofed rooms, because the first thing I thought when I read that was "it's for sex". When you have who knows how many magically (and some mentally) challenged teenagers of various races all in the same academy for a prolonged time?

>>6058002
I thought this too, but our main character can still do that normally without needing this spell. It just takes practice. A LOT of practicing with her. :^)

>>6057933
>Tracking Scent: Your sense of smell is increased.

>>6057933
>Taste Test: You can tell something's taste without eating it, and even get an idea of any effect the food may have, be it positive or negative.
I think this has some creative applications. Maybe we can use this to determine what kinds of materials things are made of? Might be useful in a puzzle environment like the exams seem to be. Also maybe we might need to detect poison at some point.

Table continues to be entertaining and establishing herself as best girl. I like that Atlas is starting to find it easier to focus around her, it gives hope that he can remember her better long term. I also appreciate her grabbing his attention so they can interact more, I hope that continues. A bit sad that she gets quiet around others, though I guess that just means she feels more comfortable around Atlas?

These interactions are really making this fun to read, and the setting story are also interesting on top of it. I really want to see how far Atlas can go with magic, especially with how Table fits into it. Maybe he can be some revolutionary building off the previous human magic savant, and maybe he can help cure or mitigate the Forgotten's condition. I'm glad this quest updates so often.

>>6058213
I would rather the QM manage his irl matters better so running the quest doesn't burn him out or stress him. This is good stuff and I don't want him to suffer from it

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>>6058213
>>6058202
>>6058002
>>6057986
>>6057963
>>6057938

You settle for the tracking scent spell. It could be used to navigate in the dark, or to find something that you can't see but smell. It looks like it just has way more utility than the rest.

Life spells are pretty tricky to learn, mostly because you're applying them to yourself. It doesn't help that everyone's body is different, and you're always very scared of messing it up. Worst of all, Delayed Double doesn't seem like it's doing much since the effect of the spell is not very visual. You've read somewhere that Delayed Double could replicate the effect of other senses, but that's way beyond your level right now.

You run out of mana really fast, as it looks like life spells really are as mana hungry as they can get. You're not sure why, but maybe it's because bodies are more complex and change all the time, so the spells might need more mana to adapt.

"You're out of mana again?" Table asks. "Alright, come here."

She pinches your cheek, and after a few uncomfortable seconds, she...doesn't let go.

"Err, didn't you just poke me before?"

"What do you mean? I always pinched your cheek like that. It helps the mana flow," she pinches you a little harder, and you can't help but feel like she's messing with you, but you aren't |i]sure[/i]. I mean, maybe she did pinch you every time, and you just forgot? It'd be kind of rude to assume she's lying to you, you feel.

"I think my mana's back already, you can uhm, stop."

She lets go, and smiles. "Okay, fine, I was messing with you. I only needed to poke you, feels kind of mean to gaslight you like this. Speaking of, do you remember what we talked about with Ivy yesterday?"

"I remember her being angry and screaming, something about us going to the dorm, I think?"

She ruffles your hair, it feels weird. "Yeah, she was just jealous she couldn't get into your dorm and steal your stuff, that's what we talked about."

You really have to figure out a way to tell when she's lying to you because you literally cannot tell with her.

Table is also very good at life magic, and since she already knew a few of the basic utility spells, she spent most of her time helping you with yours. You're actually capable of getting a good grasp on the spell despite its complexity rather fast, and you think your biology class back in the human city helped greatly with that. To your surprise, you're not the one that's doing the worst, the fish girl is harming herself at every cast. Now that you think about it, she hasn't done that well in most classes, but that's her problem, not yours.

As for the scent spell, most of the students actually have a very pronounced unique smell, which sounds like a thing a creep would say, but no one would think 'each student has a very distinct look' is a weird thing to say, so you think it's totally normal to be able to differentiate each student by their scent.

>>6058307

You wouldn't say that out loud, of course. You've got enough pervert accusation from Ivy without adding "smells classmates" to the list. Table says she knows the spell too, even if she doesn't use it that often. Apparently you smell like honey, which might have something to do with the shampoo you brought from the human city. You're glad your dorm has a magic shower, even if the rune that delivers water will stay cold until you figure out how to heat it up. The school is full of little quality of life things that can only be access with proper magic knowledge, which seems to be a way to encourage students to study harder.

If you were wondering, you don't know what Table smells like. It's not that she doesn't have a smell, it's just that everyone else's scent overpower hers. You're not sure if you'd be able to know what it is without improving the spell or...

Moving on. Class is over, and Table pinches you again to give you your mana back. You actually remember the pinching is not necessary at all, but you let her anyway since you don't think it's worth arguing over.

Before you leave, the teacher tells you there'll be an exam at the end of the week, which means a dungeon. There won't be a duel this time since this is just the introductory course, but you should still try to make sure all your spells are at least functional before then. You also still have to figure out the pocket space thing, which sucks.

You ask Table what you should focus on today, but she says she wants to spend some time alone today. She says you did nothing wrong, she's just not used to this much social interaction over a prolonged period of time.

You don't blame her, you know what it feels like to want to be alone sometimes. Nothing she has done recently implies she doesn't like spending time with you, so your insecure side is actually shutting up for once.

But you still need to practice magic, you wanna practice magic. You have to ask someone else to help you, or maybe spend more time alone?

>Ask Aroth, he said he knew a little bit of life magic, maybe he can give you some mana too?
>Rath, the vampire guy seems nice. You never got to talk to him that much.
>You can practice alone in your room, even if it means you won't be able to do it as long without Table.
>The fish girl is struggling too, maybe practicing with someone more your speed is better?
>You could use that free time to explore the town instead, you need to keep your current mana for the UM anyway.

>>6058308
>The fish girl is struggling too, maybe practicing with someone more your speed is better?

>>6058308
>You could use that free time to explore the town instead, you need to keep your current mana for the UM anyway.
We need the UM

>>6058308
>Rath, the vampire guy seems nice. You never got to talk to him that much.

socializing and networking is going to be the key to our success
not because we need other people, but because their different viewpoints and experiences are invaluable to our magical autism
we must learn more magic
at any cost
by any means
and making friends is one of the nicer means

>>6058308
>You could use that free time to explore the town instead, you need to keep your current mana for the UM anyway

>>6058350
As much as i agree, all the help we get will do nothing to increase our mana

That's the entire reason why we suck so much at magic. Our ridiculously low mana. Honestly, i'm not even sure the UM is enough, even if we keep doing it every single day.

>>6058308
>You could use that free time to explore the town instead, you need to keep your current mana for the UM anyway.

>>6058308
>You could use that free time to explore the town instead, you need to keep your current mana for the UM anyway

>>6058361
of course, and I agree
the reason I'm not worried about our current mana limit however, is that, given what we already know, a mana battery is within the realm of feasibility
and I believe having friends will expedite the research process

of course, such a battery won't entirely solve our problem, but once we learn how table transfers mana, and we got that pocket dimension thing going
all that's left is to figure out how to transfer mana into the dimension, which we ask our objectively better-versed friends to help us out with, and then store our excess mana in there to call upon when ever necessary
additionally, we can also let our friends pool their mana in there, and depnding on our friend count, the amount could be massive

we're only magically disabled, not mentally

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>>6058308
>The fish girl is struggling too, maybe practicing with someone more your speed is better?

TLDR, make the easiest frens, because frenship is magic, and personnel capital.

long version:

UM training can be any time Table is available. Since this is the start of the academic year we will need to make a good general impression, so that we can gain access to everyone's innate specialties.

Practicing with the fishgirl is best because she is floundering for 2 or 3 lessons now; if we befriend her at this time she will remember it positively, and when the lesson with her native type of magic pops up she can pitch in and volunteer information or intuition. Call it an investment: genuine gratitude usually pays back twofold at least.

Raw mana might seem like the issue for Atlas, but since he knows the UM hack at a fairly young age it should not matter significantly in his magic career. Like the discoverer of UM, Atlas should be going for understanding and efficiency. Barring artifacts or special events Atlas will never have enough mana to brute-cast; his focus should be on elegance. Learning magic through partners with magic affinity has a good chance of that.

(QM doing splendid. Pinned.)

>>6058308
>The fish girl is struggling too, maybe practicing with someone more your speed is better?
We already have our best girl Table, but its always nice helping who are struggling with something, specially with magic which we know REALLY well how hard it is

>>6058384
We could try sending magic spells or objects imbued with them inside the magic pocket, which we could retrieve like for example a fireball or a bottle of water with a spell to make it constantly cool, were after using it for whatever reason, we reuse the mana we can from it

>>6058308
changing vote from >>6058382 to
>The fish girl is struggling too, maybe practicing with someone more your speed is better?

>>6058308
>The fish girl is struggling too, maybe practicing with someone more your speed is better?
If our race is the worst maybe her race is the second worst, we can bond over our incompetence. We are both fish out of water

>>6058332
>>6058345
>>6058350
>>6058357
>>6058365
>>6058382
>>6058397
>>6058398
>>6058406
>>6058418

Talking to the fish girl sounds like a good idea. You're both struggling, and you might be able to find common grounds in your inadequacy. Besides, making new friends is always good.

You find her practicing in the garden with the cat girl, her class partner. It doesn't look like they're doing well, so you decide to drop into the middle of their session.

"Hey, my partner is kind of busy, so I was wondering if I could practice with you? I'm a little behind myself."

The catgirl nods with a strained smile. "You can practice with her if you want, I'm all spent anyway. Dill, just keep what I said in mind, okay?"

Dill, the fishgirl nods vigorously, and the cat girl leaves leaving the two of you alone.

"Hi!" Dill greets you enthusiastically. "You're Table's partner, right? Atlas, I think."

"Yeah I'm- Wait, you know Table?"

"Uh, yeah, you... we're in the same class, and you work with her. Unless I'm wrong? Sorry, I can be an airhead sometimes!"

"No, it's not- Table's kind of a special case. She can't be remembered easily, I had to spend a lot of time with her and I prepared a bunch of notes just to make sure I wouldn't forget her. Are you a friend of hers? Is that why you remember her?"

She lets out a nervous laugh. "N-No, I don't really know her. Not remembered easily? Is she cursed or something? Uhm, right! Maybe I saw her name on the student list, it's on the door of the class, and it also includes who is partnered up with who, that must be it!"

"But her curse also applies to written words, unless you had a very strong reason to seek her out, you wouldn't remember her so clearly. I was only able to work with her on the first day because the divination teacher cast a clarity spell for me."

Her eyes widen at that last part, but she tries to play it off. "Ha, uhm, yeah. Maybe I tried to cast a clarity spell outside my level, and it just so happened to work well enough to make me remember. Sometimes you get lucky!"

"But once the clarity spell is over you can't remember her anymore, it would need to be reapplied constantly for you to remember her like you're doing right now."

She closes her eyes, and her smile gets wide. It's the same kind of strained smile the catgirl had, forced. She looks around her, and there's no one else.

She takes a deep breath, and answers you, "Okay, I'm...I may not be as bad as I pretend to be. Just a bit. I can... I can cast the clarity spell pretty well, divination is kind of my field of expertise, even if I wouldn't call myself good at it."

>>6058491

"How can you call yourself not good at it when you've mastered it so fast? And why would you even pretend to be bad? It's clearly annoying your partner, and it's not going to help your grade."

"Because I'm not actually good, okay? I'm... I'm bad, untalented. It takes me five times the effort to learn something because I'm not very smart. All I know? I spent nearly all my life figuring it out, and I'm a complete failure by my kin's standards. All I can do is just try harder than everyone else. The only reason I'm ahead of everyone else is because I already spent a year in a magic college, and I failed, BADLY."

"But it's fine to not learn as fast as everyone else, I'm also-"

"You're human! You have an excuse! What do I have? I'm just stupid, I guess? You want to know the truth? In a few months, everyone will be better than me, and I'll be left behind. So I just pretend to be stupid so their expectations for me are extra low, so when I do the bare minimum, they'll be surprised and impressed."

"That won't fool the teacher though?"

"Yeah, I know it won't. But I just want to be special, for once. I just want to be the underdog that WINS, for once. Is that so bad?"

"But doesn't it get on your nerves, to have everyone think you're just...terrible?"

"They'll all think I'm bad one way or the other, this barely changes anything. It's even more humiliating when they can tell I'm actually trying and still failing miserably."

That's a lot to take in, you weren't exactly planning on outing her when talking with her or anything. She just so happened to let it slip that she knew Table, and you connected the dots. It is weird though, didn't the teacher say the clarity spell you were subject to was custom made for Table's predicament? The fact Dill used that spell without Table in mind, isn't that kind of impressive?

"I think you're a lot better than what you give yourself credit for."

"I'm not, if you knew how much work I put in and how much I get out of it, you really wouldn't say the same."

"But how hard you work is also commendable. Maybe you just haven't found the right way to learn, and when you do, it'll all start to click! I've been learning wrong in the human city for years, it took me like two years to figure out a single lighten spell!"

"Wait, really? I know your mana's small but... wow." She looks genuinely bewildered at the idea that someone could take that long to learn such a simple spell.

"Oh so this isn't a safe space anymore."

"No, no. I've seen you study, you've been making pretty good progress thus far, you're not dumb. I guess...I don't know, maybe you're right? Maybe I've been learning wrong? But what's learning right then? What if I just spend my entire life learning wrong without knowing it?"

"I can help, but, you have to teach me that clarity spell first!"

"What, why? So you can talk to Table? I'm not the best teacher, it'll take a while-"

"That's fine! I don't mind! Do you know how to give mana?"

>>6058492

"Y-Yeah, but I don't have a lot of it left. our study sessions are going to be pretty short, are you sure you don't want me to just cast the spell on you every day or something? It'd be easier."

"But I want to learn iiiiit. And if you don't I'm telling everyone you're pretending to be bad. Teachmeteachmeteachme!"

After basically begging her to teach you the spell, she finally accepts your very generous terms. She tells you to follow her to her dorm, since she doesn't want people to know her actual skill level by teaching you outside.

On the way there, you are once again interrupted by a familiar Wraith.

"Where are you two going?" Ivy asks in a tone that's not as teasing as you expected.

Dill quickly puts her fake bubbly persona back on to answer Ivy, "Hi Ivy! We're going to do stuff in my dorm, it's nothing important!"

"....stuff, huh. Like what?"

"It's a secret! Sorry, you can't come with us, maybe next time!"

"Why would I want to join you two!? Shut up! I don't even care! Leave me alone!" She shouts before floating up into the roof.

Dill looks at you with a confused look on her face. "What's her problem?"

"I think she's just like that," you answer.

"Yeah, she's partnered with that crystal guy, I think they're making each other worse. Match made in hell, if you ask me."

You make it to her dorm, and it's pretty comfy. There are a bunch of souvenirs from what you assume is her homeland, and a few menacing looking pet fishes.

She tries to teach you the Clarity spell, but as she mentioned, she doesn't have that much mana to spare, and it's a pretty complicated spell for your level. Still, she gives you a few notes on what you can do to improve, and you'll try to see if you can get Table to help since she's also pretty good at divination.

You also ask Dill to cast Clarity on you before tomorrow's class so you can learn with Table better. She complains, but you've got the power of blackmail on your side, so she has no choice but to comply. It's morally dubious, but it gets results!

"You still haven't delivered on your promise, Atlas," Dill says before you're about to leave. "You told me you'd help me get a better way to learn, I'm still waiting on that."

Right, that. You could use the blackmail card again, but you're not heartless, and you can sympathize with her struggle, it's only fair.

>Lend her the human book you have so she can study it on her own time.
>Tell her she can study with you and Table, even if that might attract attention since she has another partner.
>Promise to help her later when you get better at magic.
>Write in.

>>6058493
Good question...I'd like to help her, but i feel as though we still have more to learn from the human book.

Is this the only copy of the book? And if so, i wonder if the library has a way to get multiple copies of a single book. That seems like it'd be a pretty simple spell. Or maybe the book's magic and that's a bad idea, not sure.

Also sorry my wrist hurts like hell hopefully it'll feel better tomorrow to draw.

I've always been wary of dialogue because it didn't feel right to use too much of it, but I've decided to bite the bullet and write as much dialogue as I feel is necessary; even if it can make the post longer and with less descriptive stuff. This my autism project and I get to choose the prose

>>6058495
>my wrist hurts like hell
This is why you need to take breaks and do stretches
>This my autism project and I get to choose the prose
Do you also get to choose the music?

>>6058493
I think bringing up >>6058494 is good. If we had another copy of the book, it'd be great for her. I refuse to lend the book out though because that shit's OURS from the library first. We need it to get ahead as a human.

>>6058506
My taste in music is probably what the average 16 year old tumblr girl listens to, but I've come to embrace my shitty tastes.

>>6058493
>Tell her she can study with you and Table, even if that might attract attention since she has another partner.
we can help her more effectively if we figure out how she ticks first
otherwise, we'll just be another asshole trying to impose their learning style on her

>>6058495
don't kow what you're beating yourself up over, OP
I aspire to put out the same quantities of good content you are

>>6058493
>Tell her she can study with you and Table, even if that might attract attention since she has another partner.
If we only have one book it would be better for us to research it thoroughly first, can't wait for the next Ivy misunderstanding

>>6058534
Oh yeah? Post one right now

>>6058545
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9miYtOcNHf0

I'm a sucker for musicals and Centaurworld is one of those where I really like the way they handle back and forth between characters, you can tell a lot about each character with the rhythm of their song. The actual show has its issues, but there's also a lot I like. Overall it's more of a guilty pleasure because I just like the contrast of an edgy serious character being thrown into a cartoon world of obnoxious positivity and seeing the way these two clash, since usually it's the opposite (innocent character being thrown into a dark setting)

I still think most of the songs are pretty good, though.

>>6058493
>Lend her a copy of the human book you have so she can study it on her own time.
like >>6058494 said, this can't be the only copy of the book, right ?

>>6058598
You'd have to ask a teacher, and as you've noticed, they like making their students work for what they need, so they might encourage you to find a way to copy the book yourself, or to use divination to find a pre-existing copy somewhere.

>>6058493
>Write in.
Tell her about the book, see if you can find another copy or clone it.
Delayed double looks like it could evolve into a clone spell later? Maybe a teacher knows it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umq4gw7i1cg&list=PL0S4RFkf0j7ULUD5AWb6AMQImcNeoZFqf&index=1

>>6058493
>>Lend her the human book you have so she can study it on her own time.

>>6058493
>Try to find a copy of the human book

>>6058607
+1

we are not letting go of the book of humie hax

since Atlas can use his phone to snap photos and later print, he can snap a chapter or so from the book relevant to Dill, print economic mode, and they're square. A little ink and paper in return for a favor is good trade.

>>6058493
>>6058762 +1

>>6058848
>>6058762
>>6058710
>>6058623
>>6058598
>>6058544
>>6058541

You tell her you have a good human book about optimizing the magic learning process, among other things, and that maybe it'll help her. Unfortunately, you feel like you also need the book yourself, so you need to find a copy.

There's still some time in the day, so you ask one of the teacher to find you a copy. Unfortunately, the book you have seems to be the one and only copy. It's something he wrote on his own free time with no goal of publishing it. He did make other books that go into more details like the UM and other spells, but the one you have contains his unfiltered, mostly unedited thoughts on his life and struggles. Maybe he figured most people wouldn't relate to a human's issue, who knows.

You ask some of the teachers if they can help you make a copy, but they say you might as well figure it out how to do that yourself. Not sure how they expect you to do that when you can barely cast beginner spells. But that's fine, you have a much better idea.

Your laptop is equipped with a basic printer. It can't print anything big, or with colors, but for your purposes it's good enough. Take a photo with your phone, then transfer it to your laptop, and print it. You do that for the entire night until your laptop's out of battery and paper. You couldn't print the entire book of course, but you did print the chapters you thought were more relevant.

It'll take a while for your laptop to get recharged, but it's not like you were using it that much in the first place. After about 2 hours of sleep, you're absolutely not ready for the Material class today, but there's no way you're missing it. You really wish you had a wakefulness spell right now.

Before you enter the class, Dill grabs you by the arm and casts a clarity spell on you as she promised. You give her the copied pages, and you both enter the class sitting at your respective desks.

"Heeeey Table," you greet her with a yawn. "Sorry, I'm tired today. Do you know a waking spell?"

Table shakes her head. "I don't, even though I remember it not being that complicated. Even if I did, I'd let you suffer the consequences of your own action. You spent all night studying, didn't you? That's not healthy."

"No, I had to do something for Dill. Kept me up all night, but hey, she cast a clarity spell on me in exchange for it, so now talking to you only gives me a headache! You're not boring anymore!"

"So you spent all night doing something with another girl in exchange for her service, I see how it is," she says with a tone that's more playful than offended.

>>6058923

The banter stops here as the Material teacher enters the room not through the door but from the floor. He looks like a suit of possessed knight armor phasing through the floor like Ivy did.

"Material magic. What is it?" The teacher's voice booms out of his armor, but it's somehow rather pleasant to listen to "At its core, it's the most straightforward of all magic type. If it's not alive and you can't put your hand through it, then it's almost always subject to material magic. However, things get messy the moment you start including mixed spells into it. Question, what would reanimating a skeleton be a mix of? Anyone?"

The happy looking Anbee raises her hand. "It's Life and material, right?"

"Incorrect. It is indeed material, but there are only two known reliable ways to animate a skeleton. Divination mixed with Material, and Intangible mixed with Material. This is because a skeleton is not alive, and when you are animating it, you are not bringing it to life, it does not become an organic being. A skeleton is as living as a rock is when it is not attached to someone. Divination can trick the former soul of the skeleton to take back control of it, while Intangible can trap said soul with force. Neither of those require life as the soul itself is not organic and as such not subject to life magic in any way."

The same Anbee raises her hand again. "But what about zombies? They have a bunch of flesh and move with their muscles, right? That has to be life!"

The teacher nods. "Assuming you used the muscles and only reactivated the brain without linking the soul back to it, yes, that would be a life spell. Do note that if a skeleton is actively being used by an organism, it will also only be affected by life spells, and this applies to most parts of your body that are solid enough to be affected by material magic, including organs."

You're not sure you fully get it, does that mean a heart stops being affected by life magic the moment the owner dies? Or is it only when the soul leaves its body? But he also said that a soul is not affected by life magic, so how are the two related? It's not like you're planning on doing necromancy any time soon, but it'd be nice to know the difference.

The teacher continues, "As with every other class, you will get to pick your beginner spell. Material magic specializes in runes and more permanent effects on solid matter, as I'm sure you already know. That is not all it can do, but runes are a good way to learn the basics, as they give you more time to draw them. This comes at the cost of most material spell being more complicated to cast in a hurry, but the effects can be devastating if you master them."

The Anbee girl raises her hand for the third time, she's very talkative today. "Sir, the summoning teacher didn't let us pick what spell to learn, is that normal?"

>>6058924

"I am not allowed to tell you more than what you already know, so all I will say is that you have been given an assignment, and that you should try to think about the place summoning magic has among other types of magic. That is all."

Huh, the teacher said summoning magic is very good when mixed with other spells, is he trying to say that the assignment should be done by mixing the pocket space spell with something else? That's something to keep in mind for later.

Anyway! Spells! More spells! You suddenly no longer feel tired because you're learning more magic! The clarity spell is bound to help you learn faster too, you never asked how it works, but apparently it's supposed to help your brain connect dots faster among other things.

You already know the lighten spell, so you don't technically need to learn a spell to complete the class, but there's no reason for you to pass up the opportunity for more magic. You wonder what those spells would do when mixed up with other spells you already know?

>Simple Geometry: Can change a cube or sphere into one or the other. The material does not change, and the mana required to pull off the spell increases depending on the size and material of the target.
>Detect Trap: The rune will glow when put anywhere near objects that have been affected by a material spell. Often used to detect traps or secret passages.
>Seal: Can be used to seal up an item in place. A lever may become unable to be pulled, and an item may be stuck to the wall this way.
>Unseal: The counterpart to the Sealing spell. Can be used to separate an item from something it is attached to, magical or otherwise. Learning Unseal makes it easier to learn Seal, and vice versa.

>>6058925
>Simple Geometry

>>6058925
>Unseal

>>6058925
>Seal: Can be used to seal up an item in place. A lever may become unable to be pulled, and an item may be stuck to the wall this way.
What if we were to mix Seal with Clarity? Could that work as some sort of permanent version of the spell?

>>6058925
>seal
>unseal
honestly my vote is for either, we need both to really use them

>>6058955
wouldn't that fall under the purview of intangible? given that you cannot physically touch the spell

>>6058972
Oh yeah, i forgot that. Still useful, anyway.

>>6058925
>Seal: Can be used to seal up an item in place. A lever may become unable to be pulled, and an item may be stuck to the wall this way.

>>6058982
We're either 3-way tied or it's between Seal and Unseal. How can we combine these with Pocket Dimension if PD is small enough for us to put small objects into? Do we attach the PD to a surface with Seal and make it like an immovable object?

>>6058984
>>6058972
>>6058955
Ok Seal wins it, nevermind what I said in >>6058985

>>6058925
>>Detect Trap: The rune will glow when put anywhere near objects that have been affected by a material spell. Often used to detect traps or secret passages.

>>6058990
>>6058986
>>6058984
>>6058972
>>6058955
>>6058954
>>6058942

Sealing sounds more useful, you could even make things that way! Not that you're smart enough to recreate most human tech, but maybe you could make something simpler. This spell is noticeably more complicated than lighten, but a lot of the same principle applies, and you're glad you learned the mana overloading principle from Aroth, as it means you don't need to bother Table every five second because you ran out of mana.

Speaking of mana, it does feel like you can cast more than before. You can't tell how much, but maybe 10%? 20%? It's hard to tell exactly, but there's definitely progress. Of course, you're only going to get diminishing return as time goes on, as it's additive, but hey, progress is progress!

Table isn't as good with Material magic as the other types, so she's not helping you as much as usual apart from the usual mana donation. It's a shame since you really wanted to take full advantage of that clarity thing. Table is learning Unseal so it's easier to practice your spells. Whenever you seal something, she can unseal it. It doesn't always work since you're both still learning, but it's really fun to feel like a proper team for once instead of a one-sided partnership.

The class is over, and the crystal guy somehow managed to seal himself into the chair. You're not sure how that's even possible, maybe he doesn't count as organic? Or maybe he mixed a life spell with seal, the results would probably look very horrific with flesh, but here it looks pretty silly. The teacher unseal him and reminds everyone that material spells are one of those spells you should almost never test on yourself unless you really know what you're doing, since a lot of the effects can be permanent and hard to undo without professional help.

You'll practice with Table more today, since the week is going to end soon and you're not any closer to finishing the summoning assignment.

Like most students, you practice on the school lawn, since the last thing you want is to put your dorm on fire by mixing the wrong spells together.

"Alright," you say as you sit down on the grass. "I'm pretty sure we need to mix spells to join our pocket space, we just gotta figure out how!"

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>>6059074


Table sits down cross-legged with you. "They did let us pick whatever begginer spell we wanted, what if some student just picked all the wrong spell to mix it with? Do they just fail the assignment?" she asks.

"I don't know, but it's not like it hurts to try, does it? Worst case scenario we find new cool mixed spells! It's exciting, isn't it?"

"It's all magic in that little head of yours, isn't it?"

"Yup! What about it?"

"I don't know, you just have these huge eyebags and it feels like you're about to collapse at any moment, but the moment magic is mentioned it's like you just come back to life like a golem. I know you love magic, but do remember to take care of yourself, okay?"

It's true that you're tired, and that you really want to sleep, but you also really want to practice magic, and you know what you want more between these two things. "Magic! I can only do as much magic when I'm with you, and the clarity is still active! It's now or never."

"We have like three school years, it's okay to slow down."

"But I don't want to! Come on! I'm out of mana, pleaaaase," you beg a little more pathetically than you intended.

"Okay, I'll give you mana, on one condition," she motions for you to get closer to her.

"Okay, what do you- mgfg-" she grabs your upper body and lays your head down against her lap.

"Take a nap, I don't trust you not to study yourself to death in your dorm, so I'll make sure you close your eyes right here and there."

You want to whine more, but you realize you just cannot practice without her help unless you bother Dill more, who has way less mana, so you close your eyes and think about the spells you should mix instead.

Her lap is also squishy, in a good way. It's like a water bed of some kind. Despite your best efforts to only pretend to sleep, you end up falling into a deep sleep, dreaming about the human city, your parents, the familiar places, the stores, the eerie and constant droning sound of the machinery surrounding the building blocks.

You wake up well rested, on the same squishy bed. "How long was I out?" You ask without bothering getting your head out of her lap.

"A few hours. It wasn't so hard to take a little rest now, was it? Isn't it so much easier to focus?"

You're not sure if that's true since the clarity spell wore off, but you have to admit you do feel better overall. "I dreamt of home."

"Do you miss it?" She ruffles your hair, it doesn't feel as weird as before for some reason.

"I don't know, it hasn't been long enough for me to miss it. I guess it's just hitting me now I'll never be able to truly come back home the same way as before. Store price will be higher for me, and I'll be seen as a tourist instead of a citizen. Lots of places I won't be able to come back to, I just won't be welcome anymore."

>>6059076

"Do you regret leaving?"

"I... I don't regret it. I think it was the right thing to do, but I'd be lying if I said I'm happy about leaving it all behind. It's just where I spent all my life, you know? It's just so different from here, and I don't know if I'll ever be truly welcome here too, where humans are so rare. Do you have a place to come back to once you'll be out of school, Table?"

"...let's... get back to spell crafting, okay?"

"Okay! What spells do you think we should mix with pocket space?"

She smiles, but it feels forced. "I'm sure you'll pick a better spell than me, I'll follow your lead."

>Delayed Double
>Lighten
>Seal
>Tracking Scent
>Give Mana (from Table)

Local man is forced to draw a person at more than one angle and blames god for his lack of practice.

>>6059077
Table is cute. CUTE!
>Give Mana (from Table)
The idea of having a mana pocket seems like it would be very interesting.

>>6059077
>Give Mana (from Table)

>>6059077
>Give Mana (from Table)
We should also try casting Tracking Scent when no one else is around so we can learn what Table smells like.

>>6059076
>Give Mana (from Table)
We can just use this to keep hitting the UM number while retaining mana for later spells

>>6059076
Less than a week of knowing her and Atlas and Table are already onto lap pillows. I'm sure they will not be able to endure the year in this state

>>6059112
The issue with UM is that it's not only slow, it's also going to give out less and less. It's been good for letting us start climbing out of the garbage zone of human mana, but unless we find out a way to really increase our count, i fear we will be stuck.

>>6059136
Yeah but UM still matters in the long run. There's no harm in going for it every possible moment until we do discover a better way

>>6059077
>Give Mana (from Table)

>>6059077
>Do you have a place to come back to once you'll be out of school, Table?
The answer is "with us"

>>6059250
Well that's not really an answer, we don't have a place either.

>>6059270
home is where the heart is, anon
it doesn't have to be a place

>>6059286
Well our 'heart' is going to be 'homeless'

>>6059287
We can be the best homeless ever though, conjuring up fire, food, alcohol and drugs

>>6059287
Kek. I have a feeling the race of cursed, burned, internal-tentacled/wormed people might not have the best homeland to return to.

>>6059313
>inb4 there's a good reason they're forgotten
Will this turn like how Weaver and Etsy turned out?

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>>6059313
>internal-tentacled/wormed people
I hope she's not anything like that other infamous wormed girl I know

>>6059317
Are you thinking of Weaver and that other girl he was originally with? Weaver and Etsy turned out perfectly fine.

>>6059320
No I meant in that we're going to go to the "and they get happily married and overcome their traumas and have like 4 kids together" epilogue

>>6059213
>>6059112
>>6059102
>>6059089
>>6059082

"I know!" You suddenly get your head from her lap. "Maybe you can give mana to the pocket space, somehow?"

"Why?"

"So you can give me mana from afar! Or store it! It'd solve my biggest weakness as a human. It's a great idea!"

She doesn't look as excited by the idea as you are. "Yes, it would help you a lot."

"You don't like the idea?"

"Does it matter if I don't? We need to do the assignment anyway," she summons a small pocket space as she says this. "Let's get to work."

You do make progress on how to mix the spells, even if Table does the most work since you don't know the give mana spell, and it's one that's pretty hard for you to learn considering your mana reserve. Eventually You do manage to link your two pocket spaces by casting them near each other. Then you mix them up the same way you'd normally mix spells, only for Table to add the mana spell to the equation.

And it works! Sorta. The amount of mana it can store is pathetic, even by your low human standard, and it works much better as a long range mana link. The range is as far as you can tell more or less unlimited since dimensions don't actually care about this realm's distance. The main issue is that you need to both cast the spell at the same time, and you really can't keep it open for very long.

"That's great Table! Now you can give me mana from anywhere, isn't that cool!"

"Yeah. It's cool," she answers without much enthusiasm.

"Table, why does it sounds like-"

"No, it's fine. We don't even need to see each other anymore, can just give it to you without needing to deal with me. You might even learn to improve the spell and store mana so you won't even need me altogether."

Ah, that's what this is about.

"Table, I don't just hang out with you for your mana."

"Don't you? Even if you didn't, you need something to remind you of me. And that's magic, that's mana, if you can do that yourself, you have nothing that will incentivize you to seek me out."

"Table."

"So is it really that bad that I don't want that? It's not that I want you to be dependent on me or anything but-"

"Taaaaable."

She stops, rubbing her arm nervously as she awaits your answer.

"Table, let's state facts. I like hanging out with you. Yes, you can be a lot of effort to talk to, but I'm getting used to that. Even if I didn't need your mana anymore, I still have notes to remind me of you, but let's assume I lose those, let's assume I have nothing to remind me of you and I really do forget about you. What should you do in this situation?"

"...I let you go-"

>>6059363

"No, Table, that's stupid. You're stupid. What you should do is annoy me until I remember you. Because I like hanging out with you, and me forgetting you is not your fault, it's the fault of some cosmic curse stuff. So when you're forcing me to remember you, you're actually doing me a service, okay? I get that you want me to seek you out all the time, but sometimes you may need to do that yourself, isn't that what you did on our first day of class?"

She hides her face in her hands. "...I must sound very insecure right now."

"Very."

"I'm just not used to having friends, okay? And I'm not sure how to keep them. I feel like having to constantly remind people I exist makes me look clingy, or something."

"Listen, if you were anyone else I'd maybe see that as clingy, but in your particular case I'd need to be brain damaged to see it that way."

"Weeeell, your brain could use some work." She laughs. "Fine, but don't come crying to me when I start screaming in your ears the moment you forget me, okay? You did this to yourself."

You practice the spell some more, and with Table being less reluctant, it goes a lot smoother. It still can't hold much, but you can't expect a lot in a single day, and the assignment is still technically complete in that you're sharing a common space, so it should at least be a passing grade.

Table grabs your attention again by shaking your shoulders. It looks like she's trying to figure out how annoying she can get before you have enough. "Hey, want to see how the others are doing?" She asks "I wonder if they figured out a different solution to the assignment than we did."

Sure, that sounds fun, and it might be an opportunity to introduce Table even if most of them probably won't remember her.

>Ivy and the crystal guy. They're currently duelling.
>Aroth and Rath. They're practicing on the roof.
>The catgirl is practicing alone, but she's acting a little strange. You get the urge to follow her.
>The Anbees are practicing "alone", looks like they couldn't find a partner and had to work with themselves.

>>6059365
>Aroth and Rath. They're practicing on the roof.

>>6059365
>Aroth and Rath. They're practicing on the roof.
Let's see how our good bud is doing.

>>6059365
>The catgirl is practicing alone, but she's acting a little strange. You get the urge to follow her.

>>6059365
>Aroth and Rath. They're practicing on the roof.
Ivy and that crystal guy seem pretty confident if they are dicking around with combat. Seems like catgirl and the anbees have a rough deal but friends come first.

>>6059365
>Aroth and Rath. They're practicing on the roof.
Table is cleverly hiding her desires with so-called clinginess, but the truth is that she just wants to maximize the pinching.

>>6059365
>The catgirl is practicing alone, but she's acting a little strange. You get the urge to follow her.

Profile everyone.

Also, follow urge bcos monke

>>6059365
>The catgirl is practicing alone, but she's acting a little strange. You get the urge to follow her.
Is she off alone because of the fish girl?

>>6059365
>Aroth and Rath. They're practicing on the roof.

>>6059371
>>6059378
>>6059402
>>6059404
>>6059593

You join Aroth and Rath on the top of the roof. It's actually pretty high off the ground, like 6 stories tall. You don't mind though, the human city liked building tall too, so you're used to high places.

It looks like they're taking a break, so you're not interrupting anything.

"What's up guys! Guess what, I-" You feel a very strong force pull your cheek, and you correct yourself, "We figured out how to do the assignment, the summoning one!"

Rath claps. "Good job! Must have taken a while, since you're human and all. Who was your partner again?"

You grab Table by the shoulders and move her in front of you as if you're presenting some kind of art piece in a museum. "There she is! Table! The best partner of all!"

"Hi. What he said."

Aroth almost jumps back when he realizes Table is there. "Uhm, good e-evening, ma'am."

"Aroth," you say. "She's not even a demon girl, she's not going to bite, there's no reason to be scared."

"Biting, huh..." Table ponders.

Aroth looks confused at your statement. "I-Isn't she a demon? Her skin's red, a-and the horns. I don't know, h-hard to tell but..."

You look back at Table, then back at Aroth. "Are you colorblind or something? How is that red? And what horns?"

Table clears her throat. "It's... a thing I have. I tend to look more like what others consider 'normal'. You didn't question why I looked human to you before?"

"I was just blinded by your personality, that's all," you respond. You really didn't think about it too much, a lot of races here are humanoid looking enough to you, with only a few facial feature and skin difference that could be seen on most. Hell, the only big difference you can see with Anbee apart from their double body is that they have a different skin color, as far as you know their body is the exact same as a human.

"Are you using a divination spell to do that?" Rath asks. "Uh, what was your name again..."

"Table," She answers. "Sort of. My kind is naturally doing that, but when someone focuses too much on me they can see...cracks. It's more like I reinforce a passive body function than apply a whole new spell, like makeup.

"That's...cool," he says, clearly forcing himself to sound enthusiastic. He probably does care about her answer, but he's not yet used to the way she works yet. "Anyway, it's nice you two figured out the assignment. We finished it about 2 days ago, I wanted to get it done early to move on to harder stuff."

"What!?" You shout. "You already finished it? How did you do it?"

"Uhm, Rath is very good at summoning. That's where he gets his food from, so that was really easy to him."

>>6059676

Rath nods. "Yeah, the assignment can be a pain if you don't know what to look for, much easier if you mix it with another spell that's meant to link someone to another. How did you solve it?"

"Table used the Give Mana spell," you answer. "She can transfer mana from afar to me now!"

"Right, that'd work. I know Ivy figured it out very fast, she's very good at summoning magic turns out, so now she's just dicking around with her crystal boyfriend."

You raise an eyebrow, "they're a thing?"

He laughs. "Nah, it's kind of a joke around the class. It looks like they can't stand each other, but they have a strange sort of chemistry together, so people just say they act like an old married couple. I hope they don't make a double duel because those two might just be the strongest around."

"There's no way I can let Ivy beat me. Table! We need to be better than them, our pride is on the line!"

"You mean your pride," Table corrects you. "but I'll play along."

Rath summons a squirel from a portal and tears a chunk of flesh off of it. The screams of the squirel are a little unsettling, and it's a stark contrast to his usually chill vibe. "Alrighty, I can't teach you much other than Life and Summoning. What do I get in return, that's the question."

"Err, w-we could just help them for free because they're our friends?" Aroth says.

"You can get my next cafeteria meal."

"Sure, good enough. See Aroth? If you know your worth, you might just get something in return. Anyway, I can only teach you simple stuff, but I'll let you choose since I'm such a cool guy. What'll it be, star-blood?"

>Any life spell from the begginer section (refer to >>6057933)
>Spell Displacement: When mixed with another spell, it'll cast said spell further away instead to a spot of your choice. Can be cast through walls as long as you can see the location somehow.
>Scent Space: A mixed spell made from pocket space and Tracking Scent. Can store and release specific smells. If left inside the space for long enough, the scent will become stronger until it becomes overbearing. Can be used to confuse any being over relying on scent, to store pheromones, or to make someone sick with a particularly strong smell.
>Embargo: Can be used to stop anything from going past a summoning portal. Often used against other people's summoning spells, and the effectiveness highly depends on your and your target's summoning skill. If one is creative, it could be used on their own portals for interesting results.
>Pocket Artillery: A slightly modified version of the pocket space. Works similarly, but it will throw anything inside of it at a relatively high speed. While not inherently a mixed spell, better intangible knowledge increases the speed at which it can come out.

>>6059678
>Pocket Artillery: A slightly modified version of the pocket space. Works similarly, but it will throw anything inside of it at a relatively high speed. While not inherently a mixed spell, better intangible knowledge increases the speed at which it can come out.

>>6059678
>>Embargo: Can be used to stop anything from going past a summoning portal. Often used against other people's summoning spells, and the effectiveness highly depends on your and your target's summoning skill. If one is creative, it could be used on their own portals for interesting results.

>>6059678
>Pocket Artillery: A slightly modified version of the pocket space. Works similarly, but it will throw anything inside of it at a relatively high speed. While not inherently a mixed spell, better intangible knowledge increases the speed at which it can come out.
We need an offensive option

>>6059678
Pocket artillery is very tempting but I have gotten thinking, we can trigger an explosion in our own pocket dimension and use spell displacement to put it close to an opponent. I would argue pocket artillery is not the only offensive option here and spell displacement is probably better as a utility spell, and both I think can be shut down quickly by an embargo cast.
I am going for
>Spell displacement

>>6059678
Ok fuck it, changing my vote from >>6059710 to backing >>6059719

>>6059678
>Greedy growth.

>>6059676
>"Biting, huh..." Table ponders.
She's collecting ideas for that inevitable day and the rest. Impressive

>>6059678
>Spell displacement

>>6059678
>Embargo: Can be used to stop anything from going past a summoning portal. Often used against other people's summoning spells, and the effectiveness highly depends on your and your target's summoning skill. If one is creative, it could be used on their own portals for interesting results.

>>6059678
>Spell Displacement

>>6059678
>spell displacement

>>6059759
>>6059753
>>6059742
>>6059719
>>6059710
>>6059708
>>6059683

You ask him to teach you Spell Displacement, and he's happy to do so. The spell itself isn't that hard to understand, and you actually learn to cast it very fast, problem is you can only cast it a few inches away from your hand. It looks like the further away you need to make it, the more mana it starts to cost. It's weird though, because your shared pocket space with Table doesn't care about distance, but this one does. It really feels like you don't really understand the spell and you're just following instructions.

Actually, most of the spells you've "learned" this past week are barely functional with your current level of skill, and you'll probably need at least a month to be able to cast them by yourself without needing a book by your side. But that's fine, isn't it? It took you years to learn a single spell before, now it feels like you're miles ahead of where you started. Just thinking about it makes you unfathomably happy.

"Thanks Rath! You're the best!" You give him a hug.

Table scoffs, "What happened to 'you're the best, Table?'"

"You're both the best!" You let go of Rath and give her a hug to show that you value both their friendship in different ways.

"Atlas, you didn't even give Aroth a hug," Rath says. "Don't you value him, too?"

"N-No, it's fine, you don't need to-"

You give him a hug too for fairness’s sake, he did help you figure out your lightness rune before.

"Whore," she says with a deadpan delivery.

After more banter, the night comes, and you have to finish your learning session early. Tomorrow is the last class of the week, then you'll get one dungeon exam Sunday. It's almost heretical for you to work during a Sunday, but apparently this day is not considered as sacred as in the human city. You're not sure how long dungeon exams last, but hopefully it won't take the whole day that's supposed to be for rest.

You sleep well tonight, and for once you're not woken up by your alarm, but by knocking. You open the door, and before you even have time to register who is waking you up, they grab your shoulder and start shaking you around. "Hey, Atlas. I'm here. It's Table. Remember me? I'm here. I'm going to that every morning from now on. Every. Morning. Every time."

You're still barely awake, you haven't taken a shower, and the only thing you're wearing is your pajamas, so you're not sure if you can afford to give her a long answer when anyone could be stumbling into the hallway at any time, so you tell her to come inside.

She sits on your bed as she waits for you to say something. That's when you realize you didn't think this through, you still need to change, and to take the aforementioned shower, and other stuff that's awkward with Table around.

>>6059846

You're going to change behind the shower curtain, which is less of a curtain and more of a weird force field. It's not a strong forcefield, and you can put your hand through it if you push hard enough, but it stops water from spilling, and you can't see through it.

"Sooo," Table starts the conversation again. "You slept well last night? Didn't put an all-nighter again?" You can hear her fidget with something on the bed.

"Don't touch anything that looks too complicated, Human stuff. But no, I slept pretty well tonight! You're right, I can't learn as fast when I'm tired. Also, the book says mana regenerates slower if you don't sleep for too long, so I absolutely have to take this into account."

You hear her opening a drawer. You're already clothed, so you touch the rune to disable the force field so you can stop her from digging around your stuff, but accidentally touch the one in charge of delivering water. You get submerged in water so cold that each drop against your skin feel like razor blades.

"FUCK! OW!" You turn off the water, you're soaked and your dorm doesn't come with a drier. "T-Table, can you give me something else to wear. Drawer under the bed."

You hear her laugh. "Hey, are you sure you didn't want me to peek? You just invite me here only to change and 'accidentally' soak yourself, I mean come on. You could've just told me to wait outside."

"If I told you to wait outside, you'd shake me down again the moment I'd re-open the door."

"You know me too well." You hear her dig around your bed drawer. "There's...a lot of stuff about me around here, like notes of what we did together, and other stuff. Is that how you remember me?" She pushes her hand past the forcefield to give you your clothes, along with a towel.

"Thanks. Yeah, I try to note what I can remember about you. You know how you forget dreams when you wake up? If you make a dream diary it's easier to remember the dreams each time, cause you're telling your brain it matters. So I figured that if every evening I write down what I remember doing with you, it'll be easier each time! I put the pages near my clothes so I'm forced to read it every time I wake up."

"And you can use that to check if I'm just messing with you, smart."

You get out of the shower fully clothed, and as dry as the subpar towel could allow you to be. You almost expect Ivy to see the two of you leave your dorm together and make up some crazy scenario in her mind, but it looks like there won't be any more antics this morning, as you reach the class safely without any pervert accusation. Dill thanks you for the book, even if she'll need more time to glean any useful info from it. She puts the clarity spell on you again and goes back to her seat next to her partner who looks rather tired.

>>6059849

The intangible teacher spawns in front of his desk. You really can't use any other word, he was not behind the desk, and now he is in front of the desk. There was no gas, sound or portal, it's like the universe just loaded him in right here. He is exactly as you remember him from the library too, same cloak and undefined black mass under it. You're not sure why you expected him to be different, maybe because it would fit with what an 'intangible' teacher should be in your mind: ever-changing.

"This is the Intangible class. If anyone is about to ask, yes I tried to destroy the world once, and yes I almost succeeded. If you have a problem with that, please do try to destroy the magic keeping me alive in this school. If you cannot pull off such a feat however, please sit down and learn.

Intangible magic is many things. On the surface, it is anything that is not solid, but that is not limited to surface elements like fire, water and air. No, it also includes mana, the soul, and many other things I am sure none of you have even heard of. However, many of those elements are not only untouchable, they are also invisible, this is why it is highly recommended that you practice your divination to get a better grasp of what surrounds you before you can manipulate it. As with every other class but that of the lost rodent, you will pick a spell. This is the last spell you will be taught for the week, and you will certainly need it for the dungeon exam, so please pick it carefully."

You're going to ignore the part where he said he tried to destroy the world, and instead focus on the part that actually matters: magic.

Table knows a little bit of intangible magic since she knows give mana, which is a mix of an Intangible and Life spell. Does that mean the spell you did together is the fusion of three spells? She really is a lot better at this than she's letting on, huh. As for what spells you should pick for yourself, you should keep in mind what you already know and see what you're not already capable of with the spells you already have since the exam is coming up. You can't afford to have any blind spots.

Those spells don't look that impressive by themselves though, mhh...

>Spark: Creates a small spark at your fingertip, but it needs something to burn and oxygen to actually create fire. Rarely used on its own.
>Hydrophobia: Water will shift around your body and almost never get inside it. Makes swimming much easier, and makes it nearly impossible to get wet. The component of many defensive spells.
>Wind Guide: A weak gust of wind you have control over. Has a wide variety of uses, and it's surprisingly cheap in mana.
>Mana Feel: Can be used to 'touch' mana. Occasionally used to see if something is magical or not. One of the few spells that costs almost no mana to cast, even a human wouldn't feel the mana cost.

>>6059850
>Wind Guide: A weak gust of wind you have control over. Has a wide variety of uses, and it's surprisingly cheap in mana.
Easy to see how this could be useful in an exam. Hydrophobia is also neat, but Wind Guide edges out for now because it's cheap.

>>6059853
+1
Can we use the wind guide to seal things remotely? Could we seal someone's shoes to the floor with it?

>>6059850
>Wind Guide: A weak gust of wind you have control over. Has a wide variety of uses, and it's surprisingly cheap in mana.

>Seal a bunch of wind in a pocket
>Displace it far away
>Unseal, spark
Bomb get?

>>6059850
>wind guide

if the exam weren't around the corner, I'd vote for mana feel, because I have a suspicion it's going to be important in furthering our spell-casting ability

>>6059853
>>6059859
>>6059861
So far
>Spell Displacement: When mixed with another spell, it'll cast said spell further away instead to a spot of your choice. Can be cast through walls as long as you can see the location somehow.
Summoning?
>Seal: Can be used to seal up an item in place. A lever may become unable to be pulled, and an item may be stuck to the wall this way.
Material
>Tracking Scent: Your sense of smell is increased.
Life
>Delayed Double: Allows you to cast a vision of a spell before that can be seen by everyone. Can be used as a feint to trick someone into dodging a fake spell, or to see the potential effects of the spell you're about to cast. The results are not always accurate.
Divination
>Lighten. A material spell that lightens the weight of your backpack and anything in it, it means you don't need to take as many breaks, and it works on most solid things.
Material
>Pocket Space
Summoning

Now how do we mix these together for the dungeon exam? We already have Pocket Space shared with mana from Table's Give Mana (Intangible + Life) spell. We are still voting on our first Intangible spell right now.

>>6059861
When will our boy Atlas finally muster the courage to Mana Feel up Table? :^)

>>6059853
+1, its cheap and we won't regret it unless we get a water dungeon

>>6059859
>The atmosphere is made up of about 21% Oxygen and most of the rest, 78% is Nitrogen which is inert and cannot burn.
Close but we need gas, then the plan comes together

>>6059876
Also we used delayed double to test because we don't want it blowing up in our face

>>6059861
Oh that's a good point, we should go for that when we get the chance then

>>6059850
>Wind Guide: A weak gust of wind you have control over. Has a wide variety of uses, and it's surprisingly cheap in mana.
cheap and we can cast it from a longish distance with the displacement
>>6059865
smooth, anon

>>6059923
Table is going to be the one to initiate, calling it now.
>>6059849
>You can hear her fidget with something on the bed.
>You hear her dig around your bed drawer.
Suspicious

>>6059946
Goodbye sleep

>>6059946
>Table is going to be the one to initiate, calling it now.
I mean, she's already taking the lead in most cases but tbf given her condition she has to kek

>>6059969
Does it apply to her regarding other Forgotten too, or are they all immune to their own constant racial effect? Does it only affect all conscious beings, or do animals also fail to recognize her existing? Does the racial effect also pass on to their children?

>>6059960
I'm more interested in how she'll wake him up, if you catch my drift

I wonder how Table looks to herself if everyone sees her in a different way. Mayhaps one day we'll be good enough at magic to pierce the veil and see he true form.

>>6059988
According to earlier in the quest the Forgotten's curse does also apply to themselves to some extent since Table experiences it when reading the history of her kind. The question of halfbreeds is interesting though.

>>6060004
Tentacles, and squishy. Still best girl

>>6059946
>>6059923
>>6059859
>>6059854
>>6059853

Wind Guide sounds good. It's versatile and cheap, the best thing one can ask of a beginner spell. Learning it proves to be a little bit of a pain though, as it feels like it requires a lot more concentration than most other spells who act by themselves once cast. You can make a gust of wind, but actually guiding it is something else entirely, and there's not a lot of use for wind so weak you could replicate it by waving your hands really fast. Maybe it could be used during hot days, who knows.

Table decided to practice Spark, even if she already knew the Mana Feel spell. You're afraid either of your spells are going to backfire at first, but the classroom is enchanted to avoid any bad accident. You try to mix Wind Guide with Table's Spark, and it actually sort of work. By 'sort of', you mean that the spark particle get carried by the wind a little.

Okay, it's not really a mixed spell, more like two spells used next to each other, but it's still cool, okay?

When the class is over, the teacher reminds you of the coming dungeon exam again, and that you should make sure all your spells are ready before it. You'd say your spells are not in fact ready, but beggars can't be choosers. And begging you are. Your mana increased by, at best, 50% of its original value, but realistically it's more around 30%. This sounds incredibly impressive until you realize that the growth is not exponential, and you're going to reach an upper limit sooner rather than later.

It's not that you don't enjoy Table aggressively pinching your cheek every time she has to give you mana, but there's going to be moments where she won't be able to do that, and you'd like to be able to practice more in your own time. If you could-

"Heeeey, Atlas? Are you thinking about me? Table? Me? Your best friend? The best friend that you won't forget about?" She pokes your ribs with every question.

"I know I said you could get annoying, but didn't I say you should only do that when I forget about you?"

"You risk forgetting about me every time you're thinking about something else, so it's warranted. By the way, it's me, Table, just so you know, just wanted to remind you of that."

She's probably going to keep doing this for a few days, just to see if you'll keep to your word of not getting mad at her for being a little attention-seeking. You can live with that, even if you could do without the rib assault.

>>6060132

You poke her ribs back, and it makes a squelching noise. She puts her hands over her mouth as if this was where the sound was coming from.

"What? Can't take what you dish out?" You ask.

"I- uh, don't touch me like that, please. Sorry for doing that to you, won't do it again. Just don't touch me like that."

You're not sure why she's acting so weird all of a sudden. Did you hurt her somehow? It's not like she screamed in pain or anything. Well, whatever, she's not poking you anymore, so you'd consider that a win.

You ask Table what you should study today, but she says she wants to explore the town instead, since she didn't get a chance to before. It's true you never got to see much of the outside of the school, so you're also kind of curious. You have some money left you can use on things. You can't really bring any potion or enchanted items inside the dungeon exam, but that doesn't mean it can't be useful to buy some for studies, right? You could always do more than shopping in the town too, it's a pretty busy place.

>Explore the forest near the town. Not a lot of people go there, but there's tons of opportunity to practice your magic.
>Go to a magic shop that sells potions. There might be something good in there.
>Go to a magic shop that sells enchanted items, you've always wanted wizard clothes.
>There's a small arena at the edge of town. You want to buy a ticket to see how professionals wizards fight, might help you learn how to duel.

>>6060133
>Go to a magic shop that sells enchanted items, you've always wanted wizard clothes.
Remind me, how poor/rich are we? I imagine we have some manner of income we saved from home.

>>6060133
>Go to a magic shop that sells enchanted items, you've always wanted wizard clothes.
Get a feel for what's common goods around here
>You poke her ribs back, and it makes a squelching noise. She puts her hands over her mouth as if this was where the sound was coming from.
She's going to be making more than just that when the time comes :^)

>>6060132
>You risk forgetting about me every time you're thinking about something else
Possessive, but in a hot way. I hope she isn't a yandere.

>>6060133
>Go to a magic shop that sells potions. There might be something good in there
I'm going into battle and I want your STRONGEST potions

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83 KB JPG

>>6060133
>Go to a magic shop that sells potions. There might be something good in there.
Also ask Table if she would like to meet up after our business is done to explore the town more.

>>6060142
+1 to asking Table this
Yes this is totally a date

>>6060133
>Go to a magic shop that sells enchanted items, you've always wanted wizard clothes.
so her ribs are as sensitive as humans boobs ? questions for later

As much as I like Table, you guys are going too hard on romance all the time and forgetting that Atlas is uniquely passionate about Magic, not being a lovesick teenager.

>>6060158
tbf we haven't really made a romantic effort

>>6060158
I like Atlas' autistic thirst for everything magic and spells. I like him keeping it up for as long as possible, preferably the entire quest. It's a nice core character trait

>>6060142
>>6060147
I thought the premise was that we were already going together

>>6060133
>Go to a magic shop that sells enchanted items, you've always wanted wizard clothes.

>>6060175
If we're already going together, then it's 100% a date