“Alright then, let us test your attribute first,” Hazel said as she spread a sheet of paper on the counter.

We were back in the potion store and I was finally starting my journey as a mage. I was shaking with excitement. Maya was standing at the corner looking amused at all of this. How can she understand just how important this was to me? I was about to use magic without looking like a crazy person shouting out random worlds.

The testing process was quite straightforward. Hazel had brought out anYou drop some of your blood onto the piece of paper that Hazel had laid out on the counter and the paper will lit up with the color of your attribute.

Fire → red, wind → green, water → blue, earth → brown, light → white, space → purple, lightning → yellow, darkness → black.

I did as I was told and used a knife from hazel to cut my finger and drop blood onto the paper. I think ever since I was here, I have been doing nothing but cutting my finger and dropping blood somewhere; My poor finger. The paper started absorbing my blood and started shining purple, before burning to ashes. My attribute was the space element.

[

Space attribute gained:

All space spells will cost less Mana and the user will find learning and creating Space attribute spells easier.

]

“Space, that is a rare attribute. I don’t know whether to feel happy or sad for you. Space spells are very useful and versatile and with your attribute, you don’t have to worry about the large mana cost they require. But with how rare your attribute is you will have a hard time finding mages who are willing to teach you,” Hazel warned me,“ now show me your Adventurers Badges so I can see your Mana level.”

I handed Hazel my card. Hazel looked at and gave it back to me with a smile, “a B rank, not bad. I see you not a complete waste of a magician. I can see why your master kept you.”

“Your Mana level is quite good for someone who has never trained before, but after seeing Maya’s Mana level this is hardly a compliment. However, I can say for sure that you are capable of using the most basic of spells with ease. But if you really want to master your attribute you have to start training and increasing your Mana pool.”

“How do I increase my Mana pool,” I asked.

“Just keep draining after letting it fully recharge. It is quite the grind, but as you do more quest it will grow seamlessly. Alright let us move to the backyard, it is time for you to learn some spells.”

Hazel took us past her workshop and into the backyard. She brought with her a few sheets of paper similar to the one she used to test my attribute. The backyard was quite spacious and except for the pile of broken cauldrons laying at one side, it was empty.

“Alright, let me give you a list of the basic spells you can choose from,” Hazel said, “remember you can only choose three. Your choices are: basic Fireball, Water Ball, Electric Shock, Earth Wall, Wind Dome, basic Heal, Confusion and Distortion.”

Those are quite the options to choose from.

“Wait, can you tell me what are the effects of Confusion and Distortion?”

“Confusion is a darkness spell that confuses the enemy. The duration and how effective it is are dependent on the mana it took to cast the spell and the level of the target. Distortion is a space defense spell that makes a space rift in front of the caster that sends the incoming attack to another dimension.”

Since I have the space attribute, I have to get Distortion spell, besides it good defense spell that does not restrict my movement. For the other two spells, one of them is definitely the iconic Fireball spell, since it is a decent attack spell. For the last spell, I am gonna go with Confusion since it will come in handy when I am fighting multiple opponents or when I need a quick escape.

I told Hazel my options and she started casting spells on the pieces of paper she had brought. They must be used to transfer spells to other people. I wonder if anyone can use these papers or if you have to be a master to use them. Hazel handed me the papers and told me to say the spells name in my head with the paper in my hand. The structure and the effects of the three spells appeared in my head as I absorbed them. I did not know how, but I suddenly understood exactly how to manipulate my mana and cast these spells.

[Fireball added]

[Confusion added]

[Distortion added]

“You learned them?” Hazel asked.

Instead of answering her, I pointed my hand to the sky and used the Fireball spell. I don’t know why, but I poured all my mana into the spell. I felt all my power drained out of my body through my hand into a large ball of fire that started forming in my balm. The ball grew from the size of a bean to a basket and finally stopped at the size of a gym ball. My mana stopped pouring into the spell as if it has reached its limit. Hazel has long stepped away from the sheer heat of the fireball that I could not feel for some reason.

“Fireball!”

The large ball of fire soared out of my hand and into the sky. It flew like a meteorite into the sky for a good distance before exploded and going out with a blast. I brought my hand down and looked at Hazel. I wanted to see what Confusion did. Hazel must have sensed that I wanted to test a spell on her as she started casting her own spell.

“Water ball,” Hazel had cast her spell before I could.

“Distortion,” I decided to test my defense spell as well. What I did not expect was for the spell to start rapidly eating away at my Mana as soon as I activated it. I was able to hold the spell until I absorbed Hazels spell, but I felt exhausted after that. Wasting my Mana on that Fireball was a stupid thing to do.

“Huh, do you think creating a crack in space is an easy thing,” Hazel laughed before attacking me again.

I wanted to use Distortion again, but the spell disappeared right after I formed it; it did not even last an instance. The water ball hit me point blank on the chest and sent me flying. I used my remaining mana to cast a fireball towards Hazel, but she created a water ball to cancel my attack. She used another water ball to knock me down.

“That is enough.” Hazel spoke as she used a spell to drain the water off my clothes, “good start, but make sure you keep an eye on how much mana you have. And try out your spells before you start with an enemy that is above your level.”

“Well that was what I was trying to do,” I spoke after I got to my feet, “didn’t we agree you will give me some complex spells.”

“I would have, but you are the idiot who chose three non-compatible elements. Do you really think I know how to combine darkness and space spells?” Hazel said giving me a look, “I was going to give you spells like firenado and meteorite, but who told you to have a space attribute?”

“Hey, a deal is a deal,” I told her feeling wronged. Why the fuck are all my skill hard to get? First, it was summoners and now I can’t do complex spells.

“How about this, I can give you one more basic spell and complex spell to go with it,” Hazel proposed.

“That is also fine,” I agreed, but I was starting to wonder just how valuable the monster crystal was, “why do you care so much about crystal anyways.”

“It is not the crystal that is valuable, but the skill stored within it,” Hazel explained as she took out more papers, “crystals store the skills and mana of a monster. They can be used to create magic scrolls, magic tools and develop complex spells. Some adventurers can even gain skills using magical crystals.”

“So, what do you want to do with this magical crystal?” I asked Hazel taking the spell scrolls from her and activating them.

[Earth Wall added]

[Meteorite added]

“I want to see if I can create potions out of the crystal. From your story, the monster you defeated could go invisible. Imagine if I am the person who creates an invisibility potion, I will be filthy rich in days,” Hazel started laughing hysterically.

I did not know whether I should worry for her or wish her well on her future. Though I am pretty sure that it would be mostly thieves and criminals that would value her potion. I gave Hazel the crystal and she immediately started hugging it. Seeing how the crystal was getting in between her bosom, I turned around before I started getting jealous of a damn stone.

“Hey Maya, can you show me some of your spells?” I asked Maya who has been watching us from the side.

“I can, but I have to use a darkness spell,” Maya said as she stepped forward, “others would require too much mana as I told you.”

“That is fine, you can use Confusion on me. I still want to know what it does.”

“Are you sure?”

“it is fine. It is only a confusion spell.”

“Wait!” Hazel stopped hugging the crystal with an alarmed look, “Maya is an S...”

“Confusion”

Before I could here what Hazel said, I felt like my head was slammed into a brick wall. My thoughts were in disarray, I could not think and no idea what was going on.

“Heal,” Hazel voice came from beside me or from far away, I could not tell. My body started heating up and I finally woke up from my confusion. I did not know how long the confusion lasted, the spell made impossible to gauge how much time has passed.

“Why the fuck would ask Maya to hit you with a confusion spell? Do you want to become stupid?” Hazel asked me as she continued to apply the healing spell next to me. I had somehow ended up laying on the ground.

“What happened?” I asked.

“You got hit by a confusion spell and you were wasted for 5 minutes now,” Hazel explained shaking her head at me, “didn’t I tell you that the strength of a spell relies on the mana put into it. Why would you ask an S class dark mage to cast one on you.”

“S class?”

“Yeah, with Maya’s fucking broken Mana count and she is at least an S class mage,” Hazel looked at me like I was an idiot, “you never asked her how good of a magician she is?”

This was not my fault, I can never ask Maya anything, okay. I just have to chill with whatever she tells me. I wanted to Hazel, but I don’t think she will understand the unwritten rules of our friendship.

“I am not really that good,” Maya started humbling herself a little too late, “I told you I am not so good with other attributes and they end up draining my mana anyways.”

“Don’t underestimate yourself too much, Maya. With your skill in the dark attribute, you are a first-rate mage magician even my sister said as much.”

Fuck, Maya was that good of a mage. I have been making sex jokes at an S class mage. She could have Confused the shit out of me and turned me into a mud head. I really need to start being more careful. But thinking of it in another way, I have now an S class magician in my party.

“Alright! Maya,” I exclaimed jumping on my feet, “later on we are gonna go do some subjection missions and must use dark spells. We going to get rich.”

“You know I can’t use dark spells in public,” Maya reminded me.

“You didn’t want to upset the town people and you wanted to get into parties as a healer, but that was before you met me. Now you have a skilled adventurer in your party so you don’t have to worry about it anymore,” I explained to Maya, “besides I don’t want you complaining about money while you are half-assing on the quests.”

My words made Hazel and Maya look at me in a weird way. Did I say something wrong? Maya and I have essentially been a party for the last two days and all, hell we even slept together. Granted not as I had wished, but we did bound and all.

Hazel was the first to break out of her trance, she gave Maya a look before saying she had to go back to her shop. The backyard became silent after Hazel left. I did not know what to do. Standing there in silence felt awkward. I thought that sitting down will make things better, but I just got up so I can’t just go back down, can I?

“I really don’t know how to deal with you,” Maya let out a sigh, “I don’t think anyone else will be so willing to party up with me. Well, anyone without ulterior motive I guess.”

“Like I said, I don’t really care about your eyes. I just see you like another girl” I told Maya, “so by that logic it should make sense for me to want a pretty girl in my party.”

“Then I guess I take back what I said about not having an ulterior motive, but in all seriousness,” Maya faced me eye to eye, “if we are going to be party members, I need you to tell me exactly why you want to party up with me. Is it out of pity?”

Looking at Maya, I realized that she could not really make sense to this. I wanted to answer her question, but even I could not figure out exactly why. I do feel sorry for her because her past, I don’t feel obligated to help her out of this. As an S class magician, she should have no problem living her life even with red eyes. If she was not the person I met in this world, I doubt I would have gone out of my way to help her.

“Maya to you, I might seem like this great guy who came in just the right time to save, who has been nothing but kind to you without a real reason to do so. You have the last couple of days thinking about why I would do such a thing and even asked me directly on more than one occasion, but you have never asked me about how I see things,” I said to Maya as I sat on the ground, “Back when in the forest when we were facing the monster, I was not the hero, you were. I had given up on life the moment I saw the monster. But you did not, you struggled to fight despite how desperate your situation was. It was that scene that gave me the courage to stand up and fight for my life. I owe you my life, Maya.”

“You’re helping because you think I saved your life?”

“No, I saved you just as much you have saved me. We are equal in that regard” I explained to Maya ones again, “what I mean is that why should I care about the color of my savior’s eyes. If I told you after I saved that having green eyes is taboo in my clan, will that make you start treating me differently? Will you start hating me just because of what my clan thinks of me, especially after I almost died to save you. So please stop thinking that your eyes have anything to do with how I treat you.”

“Those are two different situations.”

“They are not, just how many times do I have to tell you I don’t know anything about this world expects what my stupid master taught me. I really see you as a friend and nothing else.” Maya stayed quiet for a while before she tried to refute my point again.

I looked at Maya and asked one last time, “are you willing to form a party with me?”

“Yes, but I have a condition.”

“What is it?”

“I get to be party leader.”

“No!” I am sorry Maya, I did not come from another world to become a side character in another person party.

“What do you mean by no. This is the first time creating a party with someone, why can’t I be the leader?”

“Listen, Maya, I didn’t spend the last couple of minutes convincing you to join my party just so you can be the leader.”

“But I am the strongest among us. Telling which one is better a B-ranked leader or fucking S class magician.”

“And where was this S class magician when we almost died. No, you have no experience of leading before this. And who was the idiot that put me in sleep while I was on guard duty?”

“You are still holding that against me. That was in self-defense, self-defense I tell you. Listen, Felix, I am not going to join this party unless I become the party leader!”