Breakfast the next morning was oddly stiff as Marian eyed me and Reine suspiciously, as if she knew what we had gotten up to the night before. Ultimately she didn't confront me about it so I assumed she was either okay with it or that she thought something else that made the issue a non-concern for her. 

During the day I focused on working on my Skills, though I spent most of that time unsuccessfully trying to manually control my mana. And at night I slept with Reine. It of course wasn't always sex, as while I wasn't worried about myself, I didn't think Reine handled the lack of around three hours of sleep every night. Many of the nights we simply snuggled closely and enjoyed the warmth of another person, though when we did become enthralled in passion it was always enjoyable, even as Reine learned how to please and where my weak spots were.

Unfortunately the break was only two weeks and I was once again separated from Reine. Despite being somewhat saddened that I would be able to see her again until summer came around, I was looking forward to the new semester. On top of being able to choose new classes to take, first year students could now both challenge and receive challenges from other students for merits. Challenges was essentially a comparison of skill, the most common being a fight in the Dreamscape. There were of course others, such as cook-offs, blacksmithing competitions, even simple games like rock, paper, scissors, that were valid. You were of course free to refute any challenge but it was the main method of obtaining large amounts of merits, as not only did you take a portion of the losers merits but were also rewarded an amount based on your performance.

While combat was my current forte, I had decided I wanted to get into a myriad of crafting classes now that I had less required classes. Despite the fact that I had been able to greatly increase the level of Inspect since I came to the academy it still told me nothing about my Artifice Skill, so I had choice but to experiment to see what it influenced. I also planned on trying out making some more modern items, especially clothing. While I had somewhat gotten used to the rougher clothing of this world, my spinneret was constantly uncomfortable and it offered me access to rather high grade silk according to Inspect, so there was no reason not to make myself good clothing.

On top of tailoring I also was taking blacksmithing, alchemy and enchanting. Of course as a first year it was mostly just learning the basics, one couldn't become a master in any of those fields overnight, and taking multiple was usually only done in the first year to see what one had talent for. The instructors advised that I should focus on just a single one once I started in my second year as it was a large workload to try to and learn four different crafts at once.

While I understood their sentiments, once I actually began learn I picked up all the crafts extremely quick, it seemed I had underestimated Artifice. The time it took me to master the basics of each craft was only around a month, and I was soon allowed to simply use the workshops as I pleased. As the semester progressed I began to spend large amounts of time designing and testing various things. I was almost certain that the strange and unorthodox ideas came about from Artifice, but as I didn't have a way to prove it I simply enjoyed my time as I got lost in the art of creation.

During this time there were a multitude of things I discovered, mostly about my silk. As my Thread Creation Skill raised in level, the kinds of silk I could produce increased, and I was even able to change their colors. Another interesting feature was that so long as I was in contact with the silk I could actually produce my carapace from it, this didn't work if I had processed the silk, such as turning it into clothing, so its use was somewhat limited but there were a few ideas I had that could utilized the property. Though the best feature of my silk was simply how strong and durable it was, on top of that, it seemed to benefit from my Superhuman Regeneration just as my carapace did meaning it was self repairing while I was in contact with it, even if I had processed it.

I had worked up a sweat from working late into the night on one of my projects, a somewhat primitive wrist launcher for my silk. By utilizing a magical propulsion system I could launch bolts of carapace with attached silk. There was still large amounts of improvements to be made but it was a decent product crafted with the basics.

I planned to test it after I got some rest but first I wanted to take a bath, I was covered in both sweat and all sorts of filth from working. Throwing on a silken cloak I'd made I trudged through the cold and empty school grounds towards the dorm. I could barely see the rays of the sun peeking over the horizon, I silently cursed as I realized that I would likely not be getting much sleep.