Lee sat atop a lonesome boulder outside the border village of Breye on top of a low hill. His eyes were closed as he took a deep breath of fresh air. Surrounding him was the pale, ghostly blue and white flickering aura of mana. Base Mana.

He was out here for practice—Trying to learn skills to help with his spells. Mana Dispersion was on his list of wanted skills, but so far, he hadn’t had any luck.

With his profession being Otherworldly Scholar, skills should come easier to him. That was its main effect. Lee didn’t know how much or how little it helped. He also didn’t know how long actively trying to learn a skill took. He just hoped that it wouldn’t take months and months of concerted effort.

There was a reason for his sudden bout of training. After checking up on Em, he was taken aback by the amount of dedication and concentrated effort she threw toward learning his magic. She sat on her bedding and mediated. Occasionally, a bead of sweat would drop from her brow down her pale white skin: a facial twitch, a leg spasm, a shuddering breath.

While Lee didn’t know exactly what she was doing within herself to learn the Life element, It was humbling watching someone try their hardest to achieve what they wanted. Their goals and aspirations laid bare for all those who witness their training.

It made him feel like a fraud.

In Neldam, it felt like he was surrounded by talent no matter which way he turned. Upon reflection, Lee realized that he had never seen anybody practicing magic besides their consortium studies and tests. They were old, long-lived, and isolated.

While he was sure that Neia had practiced and done her utmost to achieve what she had, he wasn’t there for it. Being told about some training montage and witnessing it happen are two different things. They say seeing is believing, and Lee believes Em is trying her hardest. However, It was probably in fear that he would leave earlier and leave her with nothing.

And that made everything feel just a little bit worse.

It took him a while to notice, but he realized that Em looked up to him. During her small breaks, they chatted. She asked about his travels, magic, Dark Elven culture, and more. She was animated and excited about hearing about the unknown—parts of the world she had never seen and the tales and heroics of people different from her.

He, in turn, asked about the kingdom and her regular work routine and tried to get to know her better. She was cagey about herself for the most part, not wanting to share information as freely as he would like. He couldn’t blame her, though. They hadn’t known each other long, and some random human asking about your life was probably offputting for someone with little to no outside interaction.

While Em didn’t want to talk about her spidery origins, she did talk about other aspects of her life.

She liked to read. That much was obvious, but the sheer amount of knowledge she could recall on a whim was impressive. If you asked about something in any one of her many books, she could tell you the gist of what was inside and where.

Did you want to know about the high-table culinary arts from the recent past? Around page one hundred, but no further than page one hundred and twenty. Lee suspected she had a memorization skill, but it was just an observation.

Lee took another deep breath and stopped pushing out the mana from within his body. He wasn’t even sure he was training correctly, and without anybody nearby to help him, he was draining most of his mana every day for nothing.

Looking out over the grassy plain before him, Lee admired the view. He waved a hand through his hair, feeling the full head of hair (Several inches of hair) he now possessed as he smiled.

He needed some alone time after camping out for a few days with his traveling companions. While they were generally nice to him and tried their best around camp, they were a lot to take in. Bickering fights, accidental mishaps, and Kooco’s morning cockadoodle doo were everyday occurrences.

After hearing it for the first time, Kooco did not appreciate his outburst of uncontrolled laughter.

Thankfully and also slightly worryingly, Wall Lord Timberson came into the village with a small group of soldiers on some sort of resupply or mission; he wasn’t sure. Having learned about our extended stay, Meriah, Jeremy, Belgrade, and Kendri all had to give a report.

Lee didn’t stick around to find precisely what they would discuss. He needed a break and didn’t want to talk to Timberson about anything. He took the first chance to escape he could, which led him here.

As Lee relaxed, the slight sound of a pebble rolling off the boulder he sat on caught his attention. Glancing to his right, Lee spotted a familiar critter—A spider.

It waved its forelegs back and forth in an unsuccessful attempt at a human wave as its small fangs flicked back and forth. The fist-sized spider strolled forward and plonked down next to him on the boulder, staring out over the fields.

After a few days of staying around Breye, Lee had come to find a few of these spiders out and about. He quickly discovered that they were intelligent. They were not as intelligent as a person, but they were definitely not as mindless as he initially believed.

He couldn’t tell if this was one of the ones he had seen out and about before, but it didn’t matter. They didn’t bother him or anybody else. The villagers knew about their defender in the tower, even though they tended to pretend she didn’t exist.

Lee often decided to talk to the spiders he found; whether they acknowledged his words, he couldn’t tell. But he always made an attempt.

Without turning to his new boulder companion, he spoke aloud. “I finally got away from the group I’m always with. They’re nice people, but sometimes you need some alone time.”

“Where I'm from, people are often scared of spiders. If they spotted one of your size, you’d hear screams and people running out of their homes.” He chuckled to himself.

With another smile, as he bent forward, placing his hands underneath his stubbled chin, Lee imagined someone from Earth walking into Em’s tower and reaching the third floor.

“If someone from my home saw the third floor of your tower—the thousands of spiders… I think they would have called for the army. Salt the earth, move to another country. All is lost.”

He glanced at the spider, finding it rubbing its legs against its fangs. It looked like it was cleaning itself, but Lee wasn’t even sure that spiders did that.

Having already been by his lonesome for a few hours, Lee decided to return to camp as he hadn’t eaten and was beginning to grow hungry. “Well, it was nice talking to you. Enjoy the view.”

The spider just tilted its body and continued its small body cleansing exercise. It was showing no indication that it had understood his words.

The camp was a fifteen-minute walk back. It was not far, but he took his time, praying that Timberson wouldn’t be there waiting for him.

Sadly, his hopes were dashed as he began to spot his team's small camp off into the distance. He stopped where he was and cast Aquavista. The water pool materialized in front of him and showed the camp from an aerial view once completed.

He could spot Jeremy, Meriah, Kendri, and Belgrate leading around Wall Lord Thomas Timberson and several others around their camp. Once they got to Lee’s small section of furs, Timberson strode forward and inspected each and every one of them, taking notes in a small notepad.

Lee let loose a sigh and frowned. He was going to pretend that he didn’t know about this when he made it to camp, but a small bubbling of anger grew within himself.

He abandoned his ignorance plan and used one of his new spells; one he learned from Kooco over the past few days—Words of the Wind.

As Lee cast the new spell, his Aquavista collapsed. A slight breeze ruffled his hair as he spoke. “Put my shit down. Now.”

He targeted the location where Timberson was standing, then recast Aquavista to watch the reaction. A few seconds later, Lee watched as Kooco’s head twisted in his direction. Her large oval eyes followed something invisible in the air.

When the slight breeze reached Timberson, his hair blew about briefly before he paled and paused in his writing. He gently placed the fur in his hand on the ground and put his notebook back into a pocket inside his uniform. He watched as Timberson glanced around the area nervously, his mouth moving.

Lee couldn’t hear any sounds through his Aquavista, so he didn’t know what was being said. But, he could guess. It didn’t look like he was speaking to anybody around him, and he looked to be apologizing for his gestures and actions.

Lee made his way through the field; he still had a few minutes of walking until he reached camp. The anger bubbling within him never left as he walked through the field. He just wanted to be alone for a while, and strangers invaded his privacy when they found a chance. In the future, he’s just going to bring all his stuff along with him.

As he got closer, one of the soldiers in Timberson's entourage spotted him and jogged up to the man in question. Timberson patted down his attire and attempted to smooth out his uniform as he turned to face Lee as he climbed the small hill.

As Lee came within casual speaking distance, Timberson began a small speech. Lee completed ignored him and walked past him as if he didn’t exist, causing Timberson to falter and grow silent. Lee reached his small bed of furs and, before everyone's eyes, made them vanish into his Hidden Cache.

His belongings secured, he then turned to face Timberson with a frown. “Go through my shit again, and we’re going to have problems.” Their small camp quieted in an instant. The tense atmosphere and utter silence was palpable.

Jeremy, Meriah, Belgrade, and Kendri straightened and looked at each other with worry. Lee would speak to them later. They had enabled this, and that would stop.

Lee kept his eyes on Wall Lord Timberson as he spoke again. “Am I understood, Thomas?”

Wall Lord Thomas Timberson jerked, then rapidly nodded. “Yes. I am sorry for the intrusion. I wasn’t aware…”

Lee cut him off, his anger leaking out. “That I could tell? That I would be back so soon? That you would be caught? Let’s not sit here and pretend you didn’t know invading my privacy was wrong. You’re a grown man. I don’t want excuses.”

Lee paused for a second before continuing. “I know you have your duties. You’re going to report stuff about me to whoever your superiors are. Jeremy might be reporting to you; I don’t know.”

He took a deep breath, trying to calm down, then had a terrible thought. “Thomas, do you have a truth stone on you?”

Thomas nodded, then withdrew a small gray orb from within his pocket. “Okay, good, listen and observe. I, Lee Barnes, can kill everyone here in less than ten seconds without using magic.”

The small orb in Timberson's palm morphed into a bright blue hue, causing him to shake in fear.

Lee gazed around the small camp, even catching one of the soldiers in Timberson’s group placing a hand on the pommel of their sword. “Do not go through my stuff. Do not invade my privacy. You may report whatever I freely show or tell to whoever you wish. Go ahead and write down what I just told you. I’m sure that’s important.”

Lee walked past Jeremy, Meriah, Belgrade, and Kendri as they looked to the ground, both in shame and terror. This made him angrier than he was, but this anger was directed towards himself instead of others. “We’ll talk more later. I’m going to visit Em.”

Lee left the camp as he stormed off toward Em’s tower.

Gods dammit. Why did I do that…