Making paper wasn’t that hard. The problem was with the materials’ quality. If it was better, it needed lesser, if worse, then more... It was hard to find the right amount.

The teacher said that if they practiced enough they could do it without checking the amount. He made some paper and the students felt that it was really nothing...

Belinda lifted up her first finished product and frowned. She didn’t dare to use more force while holding it. Its quality was too bad. It broke easily.

She sighed and put it down. She read the book again. She used the right amount, but she didn’t think the materials’ quality could affect it so badly. She wrote notes and reread some parts again and again.

The book had a big flaw. It didn’t mention the materials’ quality that was used for the paper. Without it, the mentioned amount couldn’t be used.

Belinda sighed and threw away the book. She could only do experiments and slowly found it out. She was glad she bought some papers before. She examined them and realized, she could only use them to see if the color and texture were similar to the ones she made.

She made some calculations and continued her experiment. She failed again and again, yet she was excited to see every time she was a little closer to her success.

The teacher gave a lot of materials, but she used them up after a day. Gladly, Belinda made a usable paper. She happily watched it. She wrote down the amount she used and cleaned her room.

Today she didn’t have any classes and went out to buy materials. The lower the quality was the cheaper they were, but then she needed to use more. In the end, paying more or less wasn’t different...

After the purchase, Belinda watched her remaining points and chose to go to the Mission Hall. She still did her job in the library, but the payment wasn’t that good. She usually spent there 4 hours every week and got around 100 points. Sometimes she got tasks from Horác, but he didn’t give her too much. And Bertold mostly taught her sword’s skills. Some of them were created by him. She never thought about it as a task, so she didn’t accept any payment after learning them.

In the Mission Hall, Belinda read the tasks. Most of them were about high level beasts and herbs. Gladly the students in her age weren’t interested in collecting herbs. Almost every time she came here, she could find an easy task. Now too, she found one where she needed to find a 3rd level herb. It was available in the forest around the academy. She went to register.

After accepting the task Belinda got the picture of the herb and next to it was written some necessary information. She felt that the students in the Mission Hall did a good job. When you register a new task you didn’t need to give any information. Everything was researched by the workers and she never got any false info.

Belinda read it while walking to the gate. It was still early, she intended to go out and finish it today.

Half a year before, sometimes Bertold went out with her and taught her some necessary things. Now she could easily move between the trees and didn’t need to slow down. She enjoyed running around in the forest alone, so after that, she accepted tasks and went out more.

The gate was always open, but an energy shield stopped everything to go out or come in. Stone posts were placed on the two sides of it. Once the students started the second year they could go through after touching the post with their card.

Belinda went out without problems. She ran deep into the forest. During one of her previous tasks, she saw a similar herb. She wanted to go and see if it was still there. She wasn’t sure if that was the right one, so she didn’t go straight there and looked around.

Her eyes were better and she could see farther away than before. It was a miraculous feeling and she enjoyed it.

After an hour she reached her destination, but there wasn’t any herb. She sighed and ran up on a tree to look around. When she learned this trick she wondered if she was really a cultivator or a ninja... When she learned spells she felt that she was closer to a mage... If someone paid attention they could find similarities almost everywhere. This is why she read some books about mages, but she felt that some stories about computer games would be better. But to her surprise, there wasn’t any book related to them!

Belinda stood on top of the tree and sighed. Her idea was good, but there were too many trees and she couldn’t see what was under them, even if her eyes were good.

She jumped down and controlled the air around her. When she summoned water she noticed, she could control the air. It didn’t have a strong effect, but it was enough to make her fall slow down.

Belinda landed easily. Even if she came out more than once, she was familiar with a little part of the forest. She took out her notebook and watched the map she draw. There were a lot of books about the forest, but none of them contained a map. It was even forbidden to sell one. The teachers wanted the students to work on their sense of locality. At the end of the 3rd year, they needed to hand in a map and an essay about their personal experience. It was enough if they draw part of the forest, but the information on it needed to be up to date. They needed to mark the 4th level herbs and beasts on it. Because others went out to do tasks they needed to refresh the information.

Belinda’s map was different. She marked the 3rd level ones too, but most of the time she didn’t know their names. She erased the X that marked this place and went to look around.

* * * * * *

A little bonus to celebrate the 100th chapter:

When I finished the memories chapters, I happily nodded. Horác’s role ended!

But one day when I thought about how to continue the story, he appeared next to me.

Horác smiled and played with a knife in his hands, but his smile didn’t reach his eyes. He slowly told me: „You have 2 choices! Let me appear more or drink my blood!”

„...”

So the next time he appeared in pink pajamas...