The next day, I woke up very late in the morning. I did not have a watch, but guessing by how bright the room was it must have been late morning. To my disappointment, Maya had woken up before me and was no longer in the room. I had missed the perfect opportunity to tease her about how she was going to put on her clothes. 

Though, I doubt that would have contributed to gaining her trust. I thought we had gotten close when we talked in the forest, but it seems it was not enough for her to tell me anything. Sure we joked a lot last night, but she did not tell me about the other party that the guards at the gate were saying she was responsible for killing. And why did she wait until last night to tell me about the monster crystal when we spent hours together.

Should I just come upfront and ask her? Nah, she will properly change the subject and act like nothing. She might even start distrusting me. I might as well go along with Maya’s show and see where they take me.

I got off the bed and put on my clothes. I really needed to buy new clothes or at least wash these ones, it feels uncomfortable to put on dirty clothes while you are clean. Maya had generously left me food for me on the evening desk beside the table. The meal was nothing impressive just some cold vegetable soup and brown bread, but having not eaten a proper meal in days, I licked the bowl clean. After that, I locked the room and went downstairs to the counter. Down there, I met the same whited haired innkeeper from last night.

The innkeeper gave me a profound looking before nodding at me. I think he misunderstood something, but I was too embarrassed to tell him that I had failed his expectations after his generous help from last night. I nodded back at him, but I did not expect the innkeeper to point his finger to the counter afterward. What did he mean by that? I turned away from the innkeeper and was about to continue my way to the exit before a cough came from behind.

And then I realized what the innkeeper wanted, a tip. Dude, I was just praising you for your generosity and you are already asking for money. I didn’t even do anything last night. I let out a sigh and threw a coin at the innkeeper. I left the inn with no idea of where to go next. My guide had decided to leave me in a new town all by myself, I really should deduct her pay for this week. I decided to just go around for sightseeing and head to the guild after this, as it was the only place I knew how to get to.

The streets were quite busy and lively this time around. There were street vendors selling all kinds of food and armor. There were little children playing with wooden swords and chasing each other around. Adventurers trying out new armor pieces with their parties and salespeople screaming out their products to the crowd. It was one of those moments your brain registers the fact you were in a new place. Sure almost getting killed by a monster has the same effects, but can it compare to the sheer wonder of walking in the streets of a world you didn't know existed two days ago. Besides, back then I had Calm Mind and the world felt more like a video game, I knew what exactly what I need to do to survive and I felt like I was untouchable. Yes, I felt the true horrors of death and was petrified, but I also felt like I was in control. How else could I have walked away from dying in one moment to helping Maya with her situation in another?

Now, walking down these streets, I really felt like just another person in this world. It was not a feeling of weakness, but of vulnerability. The difference of these feelings was the difference of replaying a Shooter you have finished before and playing Dark Souls for the first time after ever told you how you could not even defeat the first boss. But it was a feeling I can get used to.

I walked around the town for another hour before heading towards the guild. I originally wanted to go to the city temple to learn about more about this world’s religion, but I decided to hold that off and go there with Maya. Where was she anyway?

I made my way through the busy streets until I came to the familiar building from last night. The guilds front door was still open just as it was last night. It looked way quieter in the day, most adventures must be of questing right now. With what Maya told me none of them should be so free to be drinking in the morning as well.

However, as I got closer to the door I started hearing people arguing and saw a large crowd of people gathering around a corner. I went towards the crowd to find out what the commotion was about. That was when I heard Maya’s voice within the crowd.

“I am telling you it had nothing to do we with!” Maya screamed at the top of her lungs.

“Liar! We should have killed the day you were born,” a man spoke up from the crowd.

“You have brought nothing but trouble to this town!”

Before I could register what was happening, one of the men grabbed a beer bottle and hurled it towards Maya.

“Summon item.”

I quickly activated my skill and summoned the bottle out of the air. The crowd watched as the bottle disappeared from their sight. The people closest to me had heard me calling out my skill and turned their gaze towards me and the bottle that was quietly in my hand. I found Maya looking at me and her expression also most made me want to summon that man’s heart out.

I dropped the bottle on the floor and walked towards Maya pushing the crowd out of my way. I checked to see if she was injured in any way and thankfully she was not.

“Are you okay?” I still asked just to be sure.

“I am fine,” Maya answered with a bitter smile, “thanks for that.”

I did not know how to respond to her, I was burning with anger. I was angry at the man who threw that bottle, at Maya for allowing herself to be hit, at this world and its stupid rules and at myself for not being able to do anything about it all. I bit my tongue to wake myself up. Blowing a fuse here will not make things better.

“Hey? Who the fuck do you think you are?” the hefty man who just threw the bottle asked as he stepped out of the crowd and walked towards us.

“I am the fucker who is going to rip you to shreds,” I spoke putting Maya behind me and staring back at the man.

“Don’t get cocky with me kid, you are barely my size and I don’t want to hurt you,” The man said with a crooked smile, “what we went is the killer behind you.”

“Huh, and what a fine man you are then, ganging up on a girl.”

The man face grew redder with anger.

“Kid, that monster behind has caused the death of two parties right now. If we don’t take care of her now she will be the death of us all.”

“How many fucking adventurers die every day, dumbass. In the end, they die either of bad luck or they have there were idiots with their heads up their ass. Just like you,” I said forming a plan to get out of this situation. I had no problem with fighting these guys, but with Maya behind me, failure was not an option.

The man could not hold it in anymore and took out his sword.

“Quietly step out of our way,” the man spoke, “or I will move you.”

“As if you can,” I said as I activated my skill and summoned the sword right out of the man’s hand. The double-edged sword disappeared from the man’s hand and into mine.

The man stood still from surprise. None of the other Adventurers made a move either. This confusion was what I wanted in the first place. With how rare summoners are I doubt any of these guys had fought one before. They should have no idea what I was capable of and coupled with the fact that they were adventurers who exercised caution above anything else: none of them should be too eager to jump into a fight with me.

Seeing that none of them were attacking, I brought the sword to my face as if studying it and ran my finger on the edge of the sword, “nice sword you got here.”

I felt a little sting as I used the edge of the sword to cut my finger. I smeared a drop of blood from my finger onto the hilt of the sword while making sure none of the other noticed what I was doing. I activated my Bloodpact skill and bonded the sword to myself. I can not spam summon item, but I can spam summon this sword.

“As if that is going to help you,” the man spoke gaining back some confidence. He grabbed a sword from one of the nearby adventurers and rushed to attack me. I activated my skill for the last time before he even got to a striking distance to me.

“Ahhhh,” the man’s scream rang through the guild as he fell to the ground with his sword dropping to the ground.

The man looked mortified at his bleeding hands. I dropped the bloody fingernails that had appeared in my hands a few seconds ago onto the ground and approached the fallen man. I laid my new sword right on his shoulder and moved the sword closer and closer to his neck until it drew blood.

“If you were not a fellow adventurer, I would have already ripped your heart out before that bottle had even left your hand,” I told him with a chill voice, “mess with Maya again and you would not even know how you died.”

I stepped away from the man after giving the other adventurers a stern look, telling them that my words were for them as well. I dropped the sword on to the ground and went back to where Maya was. I grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the guild before any of the other guys got out of their initial shock.

I did not stop walking until we were a couple of blocks away from the guild and we were in a random street I did not recognize. I let out a deep breath as I collapsed into a nearby bench. That was close, my heart felt like it ran a marathon. I could have my ass handed to me. I had used up all my tricks; if any of those guys decided to attack we would have been screwed. But that was worth it, at least now they would not target Maya anymore and would come looking for me.

“I owe you my thanks once more,” Maya spoke taking a seat next to me.

“No problem, I did not want to lose my guide either,” I told her, keeping my feelings in control. I really wanted to ask why the fuck she did not fight back, but I knew now was not the time.

“What a terrible guide I am, bringing you trouble everywhere I take you,” Maya spoke dejectedly.

“Come on, don’t get sentimental with me. You just said we were friends last night, what kind of friend would I be if I don’t help you out when you need me?”

“Does not feel like much of a friendship if I am the one always causing trouble for you.”

“Alright then, if you really want to help out can you tell me what that was about?” I asked.

“I went to the guild to pick a quest to do as we are running low on money, but those guys suddenly surrounded me. They started accusing me of killing Rick and his party and you showed up about then,” Maya answered not bringing up the other party the man mentioned. Well, I guess that has to wait for another day asking her directly will likely cause her to change the subject, like the last time at the gate. And I really don’t want to do another skit about holding hands.

“Well let’s not worry about it then, there is nothing we can do about them anyway,” I told Maya getting on my feet, “Come on, you promised to be my guide in the town. You don’t expect me to pay you without you showing me around, do you?”

“Of course not,” Maya spoke as she also got up, “but you have to be careful from now on, okay? Those guys will definitely look for revenge, adventurers care a lot about their reputations and you just pissed all over theirs.”

“I am well aware. I will deal with it once it comes. Can you take me to one of those adventurers you said might know about summoning?” I asked Maya. The best thing for me is to get more powerful. 

“The only one I can take you to is Hazel, the potion master. She is the herbalist I was telling you about, the one I used to gather herbs for. She is an alchemist specialized in creating all kinds of potions. But she has a lot of knowledge about magic spells and spellcraft.”

“Alright then, let’s go then,” I responded following after my guide.

Maya took me through the marketplace until we left the street fenders and arrived at a street filled with high-class shops. Maya didn’t mention that the herbalist was so high class. She did say that she was good, but I didn’t expect her to have a shop right next to jewelry shops. Maya took me to a fancy shop with a board that read: “Hazel’s herbs and potions.”

We went through the door and over the door shopkeepers bell started ringing. The inside of the shop smelled like freshly cut grass. The shop shelves displayed all kinds of potions of different colors and sizes. Behind the counter was a mature woman with a bust size to back it up. She had long black hair and gray eyes. She was dressed in a black dress that outlined her mature curved body.

The women smiled when she saw Maya, “I can’t believe my first customer today will be you, Maya.”

“Sorry Hazel, I am not really here as a customer today,” Maya responded and then continued while pointing her hand at me, “I am serving as his guide.”

“And who might you be to get my favorite customer to be your guide?” Hazel asked, her eyes not hiding her surprise.

“I am  Felix, an adventurer who is new in town and as for how it happened it is rather a long story,” I told Hazel.

“Well you are my only customers today, might as well entertain me while you are here,” Hazel persisted that we tell her the story.

I decided it would be better for me to narrate the story instead of Maya because I didn’t want things to get weird when the part about her dead party members come up. As excepted, the shop grew a little uncomfortable when that part came up, but I made sure to quickly skip over it.

“So she brought me here to learn some summoning spells from you.’

“I see,” Hazel spoke her eyes on Maya, “I am really sorry to disappoint, but I don’t really know any summoning spells, as a matter of fact, I don’t think they exist.”

“What!” I felt like all my plans were crumbling down. I was in such dire need to learn new spells. After the fight this morning, I know for sure that my summoning skill is not enough anymore.

“As far as I know, summoning is a Skill-based class and has no spells that are associated with it. Most advanced summoners craft their own spells and they would hardly allow those to circulate outside.”

“What do you mean by crafting spells?” I asked. I did not hear this term before.

“Are you sure you are really a mage?” Hazel asked giving me a suspicious look, “this is one of the basic principles you have to learn as a mage.”

“Excuse him, he had a terrible master,” before I even said anything it was Maya who defended me, “He really does not much of anything really, just give him a short explanation.”

Hey, I know you're trying to help me out, but you don’t have to call me an idiot.

Hazel gave Maya a look before explaining things to me, “ You see, Spellcraft is a gift bestowed to us by the very gods. You don’t ‘gain’ Spells as you do with Skills, you have to create them. By combining different elemental spirits you cast different spells with different effects. Spellcraft is an act of pure intellect and skill. How far a magician goes is only limited by their imagination and their control over the elemental spirits.”

“I think I get it, but one more question: what are elemental spirits?”

“Seriously? You don’t even know that? What kind of a teacher did you have?”

“Hazel, just explain it to him.”

Hazel let out a sigh before she continued with the explanation, “the elemental spirits are the building blocks of this world. Everything in this world is made by them or by their powers, mages are still debating it. By combining them the right way you can basically create anything in the world. Spellcraft is essentially using these spirits Mana to recreate and reshape the world in the image of the caster. Right now, most of these spirits are generalized into seven categories called magic types. Of course, there are a lot more but for similarity sake, there are only seven main types and the rest are considered subtypes. These main seven are heat, water, earth/power, air/vibration, lightning, light/life, space, death/darkness.”

“But if the elemental spirits makeup the world how is death an element? Isn’t death just the absence of life?”

“You are quite smart, but you are wrong. How do you suppose necromancers cast their spells? How do things like undead exist in this world? The thing inside those skeletons is not ‘the absence of life’ but the death element. Some of the subclasses the death element are mind and debuffs so like I said, an element encompasses more than one type.”

“I see, but why do you call them spirits, are they alive or something?” I was starting to get really invested in this topic.

“There is no affirmative proof that they are, but they do have quirks. For example, some elements respond better to some people and don’t respond at all to others, which we call affinity to magic. And when one type of an element gather at one place for far too long they start forming Elementals, beast made of pure mana. Some believe they are the small gods in of themselves. Some say they are the remains of old forgotten gods. Some even believe that elemental spirits have existed even before the gods and gods are just beings who can manipulate the spirits far beyond what any human can. But those are just that, beliefs with no evidence to back them up.”

Fuck, spell crafting sounds so cool. I really want to start creating spells.

“Is there a way for me to check my affinity?” I asked knowing how Hazel will respond.

“What? Your master did not even check your affinity?” Hazel did not disappoint.

“My master did not teach me anything except a few skills, okay?” I told Hazel wanting to end this torture of a magic tutorial. Why do you have to be surprised by everything?

“There is, but it is not for free,” Hazel answered with a smile, “How about this? You still have the magic crystal, right? I can test your affinity for you, even teach you a few spells in exchange for the crystal, what do you say?”

Damn it, did she give me the whole tutorial just to get my crystal? No way, she didn't even know I am a noob until I told her. Damn it, I wanted to use the crystal money to make a sword. But I am a Mage so this is far more useful to me than a sword, but I feel like I am being cheated.

I looked at Maya to see what she thought, but she told me that it was up to me since I was the one that killed the monster. God damn it, she was taking Hazel’s side. She was both a mage and adventurer, she definitely knew if I was being cheated or not.

“Fine, but I have my own conditions. First I get to choose what spells and you have to offer me a spell from each type. Two, you have to show me how to combine spells  on my own and you also have to teach me three combined spells.”

“That is a hefty price for a rank 3 crystal but for Maya’s sake I think we can compromise rice,” Hazel said with a smile, “ Your first condition is fine, but the other two are not so great. Learning how to combine spells together is hard and takes a long time to learn, I can't just give it to you or else the whole world will be swarmed with archemages. As for the combined spells, I can only give you two which is probably the limit of what you can cast.”

“Deal!”

“Alright but you have to come back tomorrow,” Hazel said waving us to go, “unlike you guys, I have a business to run. Come back tomorrow and I don’t mind teaching you one or two things.”

After Hazel kicked us out, we decided to head back to the inn. It was already turning dark and with what happened at the guild today, none of us were in the mood to go there. But I was fine with sleeping early, I could not wait till morning. This time tomorrow I will be blasting all kinds of spells.

“Would you calm down, they are just spells,” Maya said smiling at me, “I can cast spells myself and you don’t see me jumping down the streets.” 

Maya words stopped me from jump walking down the streets, I remembered that Maya was a mage as well.

“That is right. Maya, my beautiful guide, since you are also a mage can’t you teach me some spells yourself?” I asked Maya with a smile.

“Were you not listening, spellcraft takes a long time to learn. If any mage could teach another the world would be full of Archemages,” Maya answered imitating Hazel’s all-knowing voice, “ consider knowing a spell as having an image of a dog in your head. It is an abstract dog that only you know about kinda like a magic spell you created on your own. To successfully teach someone else the same spell, the person must be able to hold the same dog as you imagined in his head. The two dogs have to identical and just telling the person about is not enough. Achieving that requires mastering a spell to its fullest and this is not a small feat.”

I had to say her imitation was spot on, I did not know whether it was because she knew Hazel for so long or some of Hazel’s personality had rubbed off on Maya.

“I see. By the way, since you are a healer, do you have an affinity for Light?” I asked. 

Maya grew quiet for a while as if she was thinking about something. Did she not hear me or was I not supposed to ask that?

“I lied to you before,” Maya told me with a straight  face, “I am not really a healer.”

“Then what are you?”

“My affinity is actually for Darkness. To be honest it is really hard for me to cast spells of other types and casting one requires an absurd amount of Mana. But because my master did not know many darkness spells, I had to learn them anyway. My master also told me that  it best for people not to know my affinity with me being an Abomination and all; so I pretend to be a healer.”

“I see, well don’t let that get to you. Darkness is one of the elements that make up this world and make it as it is, claiming it is bad is like claiming the wind is bad,” I told Maya trying to cheer her up. I really had no idea what to say besides that.

“Don’t worry about it. I wouldn’t have told you about my affinity if I expected you to act like the others,” Maya explained.

“Well, to be honest, I also wanted to be a necromancer at one point,” I said to Maya as we continued on our way back to the inn, “ I really would have gone with it if my master had not stopped me from choosing it.”

“You are just saying that to make me feel better.”

“I am being serious, I was really planning to do that. You see, one of my favorite heroes was Undead Skeleton and he conquered the entire world.”

“Yeah, sure you were.”

I tried, again and again, to explain the awesomeness of one overlord skeleton to Maya, but she would not buy it. We went to the public bath and washed our clothes. Maya used a water spell to dry the clothes and that almost made me drool. I couldn't wait to learn some spells. I was busy daydreaming about the spells I would learn tomorrow. I did not even bother teasing Maya when we had to sleep in the same room again.