"Wait."
I turned.
A vastaya. Old, white-furred, goat horns. Crimson mantle. Back slightly curved but the posture of someone who had never once been in a hurry.
"They call me Namilen." His deep luminescent blue eyes looked at something past me. "I was accompanying the young miss, and I wished to—"
"Ah." I raised a hand. "Sorry. I really have to go right now. I'll catch up on you later."
I turned and left.
.
//3rd Pov.
Namilen watched the boy's back until he left the arena.
He did not move.
Namilen had spent his entire life learning to read such things. He had seen the auras of Yuns, of ancient spirits, of vastaya elders whose lineage stretched back before Ixaocan had walls.
He had never seen anything like this.
Even in his youngest years among the spirit seers, the realm of mysteries had always kept its distance from the living.
Yet the boy had become one with it. No, he couldn't actually tell what it was.
Namilen exhaled slowly.
"...The boy's aura is too frightening." His eyes drifted upward, toward nothing. "Am I even worth his time?"
.
.
//1st Pov.
At my room, I stood next to my bed.
Purple boots sat on the mattress, metallic details catching the light, purple aura fuming off them in slow drifts. Around them, a pile of gold and rare jewels.
I put the boots on first. Something switched in my energy instantly, like a new passway making its way in.
'Good. It's working.'
I opened the UI.
'Status Open.'
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◇ LEVEL 2 ◇
★ SKILLS |∆|! [—] [—] [—] [—]
────────────────────────
≡ ITEMS(278g) |—| [—] [—] [—] [—] >
≡ RUNES |Glacial Augment| [Legend: Tenacity] [Empowered Attack]
[Eyeball Collector] [Gathering Storm] >
≡ SPELLS [Mark & Dash] [Heal] >
────────────────────────
A triangular arrangement of three glowing arrows. Blue at the top, fire and green at the other corners.
'I gained a skill?'
I clicked the icon. Information imprinted itself directly onto my body and I knew instantly what it was and how to use it.
'...Qiyana's passive. Additional damage on first strike, on par with the [Empowered Attack] rune but it covers magical attacks too. And also...'
Even though I felt certain about my next words, what it meant going forward was a different thing entirely.
"It also seems to... affect my talents."
I always knew I was sharper than most, even before the UI. Fang's training made that clear. And magic came naturally too, cheat or not.
But today Qiyana had given me real trouble. I could have lost if she had taken me seriously from the start.
And now, on top of everything I already had, I had stacked her talent onto mine.
"...There's no point thinking about it. I should just be grateful."
I rested my chin on my hand.
"Also, this means the skill slot is for copying. But I don't know what triggers it. Do I just have to beat them?"
I looked back at the item section.
≡ ITEMS (278g) |—| ...>
'The boots are on my feet but they don't occupy a slot.'
"Wait. Does that mean I can run two full item builds?"
"..."
I also noticed the gold pile hadn't changed my counter at all. I tried touching the coins, placing them near the UI, even shouted a few embarrassing phrases at it on the off chance something would happen.
But nothing.
"Hmm. I really thought that would work. I should have just bought one gold coin to test it first."
With everything piling up and my life getting more absurd by the day, I stood there and stared at nothing for a while.
My vision drifted to the boots and my eyes blurred for a moment, random colors smearing before settling back.
"Damn. This again?" I rubbed my eyes. "A kid's body is still a kid's body I guess."
I dug through my bag and pulled out the strange doll Zani had given me before I left the village.
I pushed the gold aside and lay down. The doll's herbal scent reached me immediately, something minty and soft. I felt my muscles loosen before I even closed my eyes.
'Lazy as she was, she wasn't so bad.'
.
.
The next day I was walking out of the courthouse.
Officials had surprised me on my doorstep earlier this morning. For a second, I thought Qiyana had pulled some strings, already trying to mess with my life. But it turned out to be about the vila I came from, and the progress I'd made.
The conversation went like:
"Why didn't you come in earlier?"
"I forgot."
"..."
Anyway, everything was settled without a hitch, and all vilas layout are scheduled to be implemented soon using ours as reference. Yeah, they were impressed.
On top of that, they awarded me contribution points and even offered an administrative position. I accepted the points.
Tap, tap.
I stepped outside the structure.
And to my surprise,
Beyond the extensive garden, standing by the enormous gates, Qiyana leaned against the iron bars with her arms crossed and a thoughtful expression. Different from yesterday, she wore an olive-green top and no crown.
As I closed the distance she noticed me, her golden eyes unblinking and serene.
We held eye contact for a good moment before I broke it.
"So. Have you come to kill me?"
Her eyes went wide and she held out both palms, shaking her head. "No, no!"
"I just..." Her gaze slipped sideways, then snapped back as she drew a breath and tossed the hair off her shoulder. "Don't get the wrong idea. I simply won't have it said that I hide behind others to settle my scores."
She stepped closer. "Be grateful, Axion." A smile, her hand touching her chest. "I've not only come in person, but I'm granting you the rare privilege of serving me."
I looked down at her, my expression unchanged.
The silence made her move. Her eyes drifted and her posture loosened slightly.
"O-of course, only if you want to. I... uh. I won't force you."
I arched a brow.
"Qiqi." I reached out and squeezed her cheeks, her lips puckering as I turned her head. "What happened to your crown? You're wearing less makeup too, aren't you?"
She was stunned.
I grabbed her bicep, then lifted her wrist. "No bracelets either? I thought you liked that stuff."
For a moment she just let me. But then her hand came down in a sharp chop against mine.
"How audacious!"
"Oh no, Qiqi, did I hurt your head? You can't be changing like this!"
"Shut up! And who's Qiqi, you primate!"
A girl passing nearby noticed Qiyana, stopped dead, then turned and walked faster.
"...Just walk." She said, "We can't be standing here."
.
As we passed through the streets people gave frightened looks, shock across their faces. Some nearly stumbled.
At some point the streets emptied entirely, people ducking into doorways and shops as we passed.
"Those weaklings," Qiyana muttered, "a simple bow would suffice. I can't believe I'm working this hard for people like them."
"...You're working hard?" I asked.
She went quiet.
Really quiet. Like she wanted to say something but couldn't find where to start. It was strange watching her sit with that, the anxiety didn't suit her face.
She didn't share anything and just kept pace beside me.
I didn't press.
.
Storm arrived at the assigned location right on time, as always. She glanced between us when she saw Qiyana, then threw a gaze at me like I was the responsible.
She brought us both up to the mountain yard.
Racks were already there, running drills in the corner. She'd insisted on joining after that light elemental session, and Storm had eventually accepted her as a third disciple. Both she and Tzeleah went quiet when they saw Qiyana, each walking to their own corner without a word.
I walked to my usual spot, reached for the pillar and lit the metal plate. Stepped back, creating distance. This was my ongoing test: to interact with the ambient element. Fire.
I closed my eyes.
"Uugh..." A deep, slow inhale. "Shhhs..." Then out, even slower.
A new world seized my senses.
Spicy and metal on my tongue. My eardrums popped. A Bzzz threading through around me. My nose took in fragrances like a perfume festival as my whole skin felt a discrepant warmth, like mother nature's embrace.
My eyes opened slowly.
The disk was on its pillar, flames moving like in slow motion. The world did too. But the movement wasn't what intrigued me.
Energy did.
My world was dyed in a cyan filter.
As the flames billowed on top of the disk, an echo of it sparked uncomfortably at the edges. The wind gusting through them carried an opacity slightly deeper than the filter of the world. Rays of light shot outward in straight lines from the fire and rained from above.
I turned to the side. A beautiful green field, same as always.
But this time every tree, stone, and small pebble wore an emerald contour tracing all the flora.
I turned to the other side.
All the girls were there, looking at me strangely like I was on something.
Their energies were leaking. Each element bending toward it like water flowing from a pipe.
I turned back to the fire plate, humming in thought.
'...So this is what having extraordinary talent looks like…on drugs.'
Stretching one hand out, my palm faced the fire. The usual heat built from within, the tingling at the surface of my skin. I watched my energy spark forward in blue, the flames straining toward it, the glow stretching further and further. The spicy taste on my tongue intensified.
'Wait.'
I stopped it abruptly, the energy dissolving.
'It shouldn't be like this. The glow stretches because my mana is enormous. Not because it's the right way.'
I looked toward the flames again and brought my attention forward, tuning my senses.
The flames wavered with the cyan gust moving through them.
"It's the air."
My chest gave one strong badum and the air around me sped up into a swirl. I stretched my hand out again and with a single mouthful of sparked energy sent it flying toward the disk.
Bzzz.
I felt it connect.
"That's it."
I ignited.
Bswish!
The fire at the disk erupted into an enormous pillar, the flames instantly consumed by blue.
My hand fell.
"Finally."
The girls,
Firestorm, Tzeleah, Racks and Qiyana had been watching since the beginning. Some stood mouth open, others in utter shock, my teacher's temples tight. Their eyes reflected the heavenly flames.
Qiyana was very shocked too. She stood postured, arms crossed, but her composure faltered, her eyes holding something close to fright.
"Beautiful," she murmured.
After a couple of seconds I willed it to stop, the energy supply cutting off, the flames diminishing exponentially until they ceased.
'...'
Even in that moment my thoughts couldn't stay quiet. Watching how the energy flowed when shut gave birth to many thoughts, but one felt just right.
'...Isn't mana just a frequency? So wouldn't that mean elements are types of filters?'
A simple observation. But for me, right now, it meant much more.
"So potentially I could switch any element to another." I observed the air again, cyan gust, and sharpened my vision, looking further into the detail. "Changing dispersed molecules to dense ones..." I gazed at my hands, eyes wide.
'Turning air to water. Water to fire. Even air to earth—that's insane. That's all insane. That's...'
"True magic."
Could I do it? It seemed feasible in theory, but the control needed was insane; Molecule-level stuff.
Qiyana looked at Storm, completely serious.
"Is he really human?"
Storm didn't answer.
.
.