Alright, first order of business, get my hands on a revealed cartridge. I can’t reveal the one that I already have, since I’m not yet sure if this programming function is exclusive to this specific cartridge, I just can’t risk revealing it.

Do I really have to buy another cartridge? Most revealed cartridges are also a lot more expensive and I only really need to insert the cartridge for a couple of minutes so I can observe the code it uses. Besides that, I’m broke as fuck…

I’ll try asking Lance, he got a fireball-magic as a gift-cartridge right? It’s probably not appropriate of me to ask for his gift-cartridge, but I don’t really have a choice here, I just hope he trusts me…

Let’s sleep and think about it tomorrow.

…

After I wake up and brush my teeth, I head to our communal kitchen where Sara is already eating some toast with egg. Maybe it’s time for some friendly flirting?

“Did you forget to also bake an egg for your favorite roommate? You know, you’re really clumsy sometimes roomy, but that’s what makes you so cute~”

“Go die pervert, and also put on a shirt before coming to the kitchen! Nobody wants to see that!”

Aaah, as always, such a warm greeting. Even though she told me to put on a shirt, she keeps glancing at my abs… Could it be? She’s finally falling for me?

I look at her and strike my best seductive pose, but as she readies an icicle above the palm of her hand I decide to tactically retreat to my room in order to put on a shirt.

“Jeez, you’re always so quick to resort to violence. I almost feel sorry for your fiancé.”

“He’s not my fiancé, I don’t acknowledge it! Once I become a powerful Machia, I can abolish the marriage-agreement. Besides, I wouldn’t have to resort to violence all the time if you weren’t so goddam annoying!”

“Mmmh… I don’t know, sounds like anger issues to me. And you don’t have to worry about that fiancé of yours, he offended me, I’ll destroy him before you can even cancel the engagement.”

“Whatever, at least you’re not as bad as Kaori.”

“Aww, finally opening up to me~?”

“UGH! That wasn’t a compliment.”

Sara finishes her meal and heads off to campus, I guess even Sara has her own troubles…

After a quick meal I also head towards campus, I’m 5 minutes early and sit down next to Lance while Mr. Ito is still setting up his projector.

After another 10 minutes, Mr. Ito starts teaching us about cultivation cartridges, when suddenly Fudo barges through the door and apologizes for being late.

*SIGH* “Just sit down Fudo, it’s fine… Let’s continue with the lecture, there are a couple of different cultivation cartridges that range in effectiveness, usually depending on the color of said cartridge. Cultivation cartridges aren’t suitable for combat, but they can increase your physical strength and some rare cultivation cartridges can even increase your mana-count.”

Increasing Mana-count?! I need to get my hands on one of those as fast as I can, the earlier I start increasing my mana-count the higher it’ll eventually be…

“However, these mana-cultivation cartridges are rather slow and only increase your mana-count until a certain limit, can anyone tell me why?”

Mr. Ito looked rather frustated when nobody but Fudo raised his hand.

*SIGH* “Yes Fudo?”

“B-Because the body can’t handle all that mana?”

The auditorium bursts into laughter.

*SIGH* “No Fudo, that’s the reason why PHYSICAL cultivation stops working after a while. This is the 4^th time I’ve taught you this already.”

“Ha ha, sorry Mr. Ito…”

I know Fudo probably isn’t the brightest fellow, but they are being overly condescending towards him.

“Don’t worry Fudo, me and Lance didn’t laugh. Besides, you were the only one brave enough to actually raise your hand.”

“Thanks Reo, but I know I’m not the smartest, I’ll just get stronger instead. Let my fists do the talking.”

I wanted to compliment him for his resolve, but Mr. Ito started talking again:

“Anyways, since nobody else raised their hand, I’ll just tell you numbskulls the answer myself. It is believed Mana-cultivation converts different forms of energy into mana. Once your mana-pool reaches an energy level higher than the source you were converting from, your cultivation-cartridge will stop working. This also explains why the mana-flow from your cartridge will slow down over time as you’re approaching the energy level of the source you’re converting from.”

I look at Fudo and see him staring at the projector-screen with a blank expression, no wonder he gets these type of questions wrong.

After a couple of hours of the professor going over formulas to calculate the gain of certain cultivation-cartridges the class finally ends and wood [II] and [III] leave for practical lessons.

Before Lance packs up his stuff I ask him:

“Hey, can I visit your apartment later? I was thinking of throwing a little drinking party, but we obviously can’t do it at my place since Sara would impale me on a icicle if we make too much noise.”

“Sure, we could even invite Fudo.” - I nod: “yeah, he looks fun to hang out with.” -  “Hey! Fudo! Want to go drinking with me and Reo later at my apartment?”

“Yeah! Sound like a good time!... wait, no… I can’t… sorry guys.”

He looks dejected. There’s clearly something holding him back. Luckily Lance is a better communicator than me.

“Oh come on Fudo, afraid we’ll outdrink you? Ha ha.”

“N-No, It’s my little sister, I have to take care of her… I’m sorry guys I really wanted to go.”

“Sister eh? Why don’t you take her along with you? I’m a great chef you know, we’ll just ease on the drinks a little bit.”

“Really? In that case, I would love to join you guys. Sakura will probably also be happy to eat someone else’s cooking for once.”

“Sure, me and Reo don’t mind. See you guys at 6.00!”