Growing Lilies

Lily’s head was spinning, but she let Sunica help her set up a bed on the couch. She even got to use her sleeping bag. She had been planning to just sleep without anything and let the sleeping bag be a mana battery for the spell. She had just grabbed the first thing she could find that belonged to her and had any sort of weight to it. But, now Sunica helped her unroll it onto the couch and grabbed a pillow from her room. She also took some time to marvel at the zipper.

“This is insane craftsmanship. I know I’ve said that about a lot of the things you have, but it really is impressive. You might be able to sell this design to a blacksmith or something.”

Lily laughed.

“I’m not so sure about that. Besides, if it’s really valuable, shouldn’t I hold onto it until I meet a rich smith?”

“Huh. I guess. I mean, the ones up in Avezare might be pretty loaded and have the skills to replicate this fine detail work.”

“Honestly, they’re cool but probably not as cool as they seem. The little teeth break a lot, and if even one of them is busted the whole thing won’t work.”

Sunica looked at it thoughtfully, zipping it up and down a few times.

“I don’t think that’s a problem here. A smith with skills ought to be able to reinforce them pretty good. Even if not, they could go on clothes for the wealthy that would have enchanters for things like that. Or a simple [Repair] spell.”

“That’s a spell? That’s– I’m a little mad about that.”

Sunica giggled, Lily couldn’t help but laugh a little too.

“Why? It’s a useful spell! Even if you just learned that, you could travel around casting it in inns and stuff for room and board. Some [Mages] do that. Well, the poor ones.”

“What do the rich ones do?”

“Oh you know. Enchanting, adventuring, war, and architecture tend to be the big four.”

Lily blanched. War? She supposed she shouldn’t have expected anything else, but it was still something she hadn’t thought about. A war with classes, skills, and magic. She somehow doubted it’d be as fun as in a video game.

“So, the repair spell. How does it work?”

“What do you mean? The mage touches the object, says [Repair] and it gets repaired.”

“Yeah– But like. How? Like, how does the spell know what state to repair the object to? Say you used it on a ripped shirt. What happens?”

“The rip gets fixed?”

“Okay, that’s what I thought. But why? Why does that happen? Why doesn’t it turn into… say, a ball of thread and a puddle of dye? Or a straight up plant?”

“What happened to you that made you have to overthink everything? It just works. Who cares how?”

Lily was climbing into her sleeping bag at this point, and yawned for good measure.

“I guess. It’s just, my spells are very methodical like that. If I wanted to make a repair spell, I’d have to figure out how to choose what state it gets repaired to. And that’s… hard. I’m a little jealous of your magic. It’s so convenient.”

Sunica rolled her eyes, but headed over to her room. This time she left the door open, and Lily could hear the sound of her practically falling into bed.

“G’night Lily.”

“Good night Sunica. Thank you for everything.”

A sleepy voice replied.

“Anything for you, Miss Outsider.”

Lily smiled, and closed her eyes. Today had been one hell of a day. But, tomorrow would be the start of her new life in a new world. At least until she found a way home. She was excited. Get the [Enchanter] class, figure out her skills if she got any, offer enchantments to the people of Veni for money… Maybe one at a time. Actually, forget that. She’d go into town. Tomorrow. She’d go into town alone. Even for a few minutes. She’d force herself. If she was going to live in this world and explore others, she’d NEED to get past this enough to be functional. Otherwise she’d miss out on… on everything. Classes and skills! Leveling! Adventures!

Tomorrow. It all came down to tomorrow. She’d go into town and force herself to just exist there, for even a little. If only she didn’t have to be herself. If she could just be different… Her conversation from earlier with Sunica replayed in her head.

But, those were childish thoughts. She couldn’t just be different. No matter how much she wanted it. Right?

On the border of sleep and wakefulness, death and life, her own voice spoke to her.

[Fragment] - Level 2

[Student] - Class Obtained

[Student] - Level 1

Skill - [Perfect Handwriting] Obtained

---

 

“STUDENT!?”

“It’s not a bad class, really.”

“Tell that to your face when I mentioned it!”

Sunica giggled in response.

“It’s just that you were so convinced you were going to get something totally impossible! [Student] is good, really!”

“I got [Perfect Handwriting]. In what world is that a good skill!? How am I supposed to make a living with this?”

“Well, you could probably get a job as a receptionist, or taking down messages. Or you could just use your enchanting skills as they are and don’t tell people you don’t have the class.”

Lily paused. Well, she could do that. There was no reason she couldn’t continue forward with her existing skills.

“Huh. Yeah, okay. I guess I can do that. Is what enchanters do noticably different than my magic? Like, if someone were watching?”

“Don’t let them watch. Simple as that. Take an order, get the item to be enchanted, give them a timeline and price, and then go do it behind closed doors. Bam, easy.”

“I guess I didn’t think of that. Won’t they want to watch though?”

“Hah! No way. Did we watch your clothes being made? Do you go into the kitchen at a tavern and watch them make the food?”

“Well. Shit. Okay. I can do that. I guess I need to figure out what kind of enchantments I can offer.”

Lily dug out her notebook, and flipped past her magical girl drawings. She had to admit, a small part of her had hoped for that class, if she wasn’t going to get [Enchanter]. But, [Magical Girl] would probably be more trouble than it was worth in a world where strange magic users were on the run.

Well, while she was already messing around in her notebook she might as well try out her new skill.

“Oh geez, this feels awkward. Uh. [Perfect Handwriting]!”

Sunica snorted.

“You probably don’t have to say that one. Some skills are always active. Isn’t your mana thing like that?”

Lily colored, but tried writing something. She started with her name. The moment the pen hit the paper with the intention to write her name, it was as if her arm was moving on its own. Not only was her name on the page perfectly printed as if it was a font on a computer, but it also came out so fast. Faster than her writing had been, by miles.

“Woah. Okay, that is pretty cool.”

She held up her notebook so Sunica could see, and the balaur girl gave her a grin. Sunica was scrambling some eggs for them to have a simple breakfast. Lily had some questions about that, but was too absorbed in her own plans to have time to inquire. For now, she tried writing some more.

‘Hello World’

‘My name is Lily. I am a level 1 [Student], trying my new skill.’

Not exactly inventive words, but they came out so quick and easy. It was faster, easier, and just as perfect as typing. That was amazing. Plus, typo’s were impossible. Okay, admittedly, it might not be the coolest skill in the world. But she was still in awe!

Work called though. She had plans for today. Enchantments she could offer in town. Hmm. She imagined what most people needed were blades that stayed sharp, materials that didn’t break easily, and other things like that, but she didn’t know how to do any of that.

Most of her spells were more… elemental, or mechanical. She might be able to help power a water wheel, or windmill better than without her magic. But she hadn’t seen either of those things. She knew vaguely how to make them? But that wasn’t really enchanting work, and it would require a good amount of trial and error.

“Think… Think… Hey Sunica! What kind of enchantments would people need anyway?”

“Well, what can you do?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. I can make an area cold easily, but here that might not be needed. Does it get hot during the summer?”

“It snows year round.”

“What about as a safety precaution in like, a kitchen or a furnace?”

“That’s… pretty niche.”

“Oh! What about a spell that can start a fire? Like, you enchant your cooking area, then you can put wood in and activate the enchantment and the fire just starts?”

“I could see that being handy. But most people would just use kindleberries or other tinder. You might get a couple of takers, but you couldn’t charge a lot for it. It’s only a very small benefit you know?”

“Yeah. I guess I see that.”

Lily stared down at the page. There had to be something. Her spells were useful! … to her. She’d never really spent time inventing spells that would be useful to people in a place like this.

“Hmm. Can I use one of your cups for something I think ought to be useful? If you don’t like it I can dispel it after.”

“Sure.”

Sunica got up and fetched Lily a small cup to work on. Her idea was simple: A cup that refilled over time with fresh drinking water. Who’d turn that down? When you had to go to a well to get water? She could even offer to enchant canteens and stuff like that for people who are out for a while. Maybe she’d start at the guard house. A thank you to– ah crap she totally forgot his name! Shit! That was going to be so awkward!

She shook her head. No. Focus. Spell time. She’d done this spell before, for the animals at La Mancha. But she thought it’d probably be slower here, because of the ambient mana levels. Still, it was free fresh water! Now, how did it go? The glyph for gathering water out of the air, and a modified capacitor glyph that replaced the mana symbol for the water one. Set the capacitor up with a gate that makes it stop pulling mana when it’s full. Wait…

Here, because the mana was so low, she should make a modification. If she used two capacitors instead of one, she could set one to hold a full enough charge to generate a glass of water, and another to act as the shut off when the water was full. That way the spell could hold enough charge to refill at least once fully before it had to start drawing again.

Are there any other changes she should make? Maybe instead of just not charging, it should take in a small amount still to give the cup a glow? Just the light glyph with none of the other glyphs that turned it into her floating ball of light spell ought to make the cup glow when it was full on mana. Then people would know to drink it or pour it into a bucket or something so it could go back to generating. Yeah. Okay, that was a little more complicated, and had a second circle attached for the glowing bit. But that wasn’t hard to accomplish. It should look like… yeah. Lily had a clear image of the spell. She turned to start inscribing it out of mana onto the cup when–

“Woah!”

In an instant, the spell flowed out of her. The mana left her body faster that she was used to. Normally she had to focus on each individual line as she wrote out the spell to make sure the delicate geometric shapes came out perfectly. But, not only did it come out quickly, it came out perfect. As perfectly as she had ever done a spell.

“What the hell…?”

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah I think so. I just– Give me a sec.”

What the hell! It just came out. Like it was leaping out of her mana pool and inscribing itself! And it came out so good! Water was already beginning to bead on the sides of the cup. Sure, it wasn’t a lot. But it’d fill up if you gave it an hour or two. So what happened? It was–

Oh. It was perfect. [Perfect Handwriting]. Her spells were written. It was a language all its own. Albeit one that blurred the rules of that a little like a programming language was a language, but still. Creating a spell circle involved writing it out.

Lily giggled. Then, she laughed. She laughed until tears came to her eyes, and after a minute realized Sunica was staring at her.

“My skill! [Perfect Handwriting]! It works on my spells! Because they’re a written language!”

“Oh, that’s pretty nice. Now you don’t have to spend as long drawing those complicated circles yeah?”

“Not as long? Sunica, I think I can cast spells like, ten times as quickly. Maybe more. And I won’t make mistakes, unless I thought of the wrong spell somehow. This is— This is huge!”

Sunica grinned at her.

“I’m glad you got a good one!”

“A good one!? I don’t think you get it! Watch this!”

Lily jumped up and scanned the room. She found five places, on the counter, two on the couch, one above the furnace, and one by the front door. Then she focused. The spell she’d done the most. Her light ball spell.

“You wanted me to show you how I’d fake one of this world’s spells? Well watch this! [Light]!”

She pulled. The spells flowed out of her in a second, perfect replicas of one another as if they were printed out spread across all five target areas. She pushed mana into them, and over each one a ball of light formed. The entire thing took less than five seconds. Lily grinned at Sunica. She was breathing a little hard, since she wasn’t actually used to using mana that quickly yet. But she had the mana to spare. Her pool was so big now!

Sunica stared around the room wide eyed, and gave her a little clap.

“Wow. Okay, fair enough. You couldn’t do that yesterday. That’s, well, frankly amazing for a level one skill.”

“Right!? I mean, sure it’s just ‘cause it’s got a niche utility in exactly what I do, but still! Do they all work like that? Like, will all the skills I get suit me?”

“Hmm. Well, usually. They get better and more focused as you grow in level. A level 10 skill is gonna be way better than a level one skill, you know? And you don’t get one every level or anything. Usually it’ll be something within your class that’s suited to what you’ve been doing though. You know, a farmer who does a lot of heavy lifting is a lot more likely to get [Enhanced Strength] than one that is focused mostly on the technical side of it. You know. But it’s not a guarentee or anything.”

“That’s… That’s so cool! I wanna level! How do I level up? Can I just go out and uh… study?”

Sunica snorted.

“I thought you were going to suggest fighting animals again. But yeah, pretty much I guess. You’re more likely to level up when you do something difficult though. The more difficult, the more likely you are to get a level.”

“Huh. What’s challenging for a student? An exam? Should I just find a school and take a really hard test?”

“What are you on about? I don’t understand how your brain works sometimes.”

But, Sunica was smiling. She gave Lily a pat on the head as she walked past to examine one of the lights.

“You know, this could be useful.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. You could probably make some money selling lights like this. Not having to worry about candles could save people money in the long run.”

“Huh. That’s a good idea! What about my cup? Do you like it?”

She held it out to Sunica, who looked at the mouthful of water inside it skeptically.

“It’s damp? What’s it do?”

“It refills with clean drinking water over time! And when it’s full, it stores a charge, and when it’s fully charged it should glow a little so you know to use the water!”

Sunica took a deep breath, and smirked down at Lily. Her tail was flicking about, so Lily knew she’d struck gold before she even said anything.

“I want to tell you that’s stupid because you look so excited. But, I think that would actually go over pretty well. A whole bucket is probably too much, but just a cup someone can keep on a desk, or– can this be put on a waterskin too?”

“Yep! Should be able to go on any sort of liquid storing vessel!”

“Hmm. Well, I’ll give it a pass. I think that’s a good one too. That makes two useful spells you’ve got, Miss Outsider. Now how are you going to sell them?”

Lily froze.

“Well. I– uh. Okay, that’s the hard part. Look. I need to get better. Talking to the other Lily yesterday got me thinking. If I’m going to explore worlds with an S, I have to improve. I have to. If I can get even a little better, any other Lily that come from me is going to have it easier too.”

Sunica’s smile froze on her face.

“You’re going to do it? Even though the… the other you, hells that is so strange, even though she was so opposed?”

“I meant what I told her about waiting until we’ve talked it over more. But I can’t see what she could say to make me think it’s a bad idea. If I did, I’d already think it’s a bad idea. She’s me!”

“But she thinks it’s awful.”

“And I think I would have too before coming here. Well, I guess that’s self evident. But listen: I’m here. And the world hasn’t ended. If anything, I feel good about what I’ve done here! Even the city! Apart from fighting with you. I– I’m less than nothing right now. But I want to grow, understand?”

“I think so. But…”

“What?”

“It just sounds lonely. Being one of many like that, and each of you alone on a different world. Won’t it hurt? Doesn’t it hurt knowing there is another one of you already?”

“Yeah. It’s gonna hurt like hell. But who else gets a chance like this? A chance to go everywhere and learn everything? Unravel the secrets of the universe! Meet everybody! Do everything! I’ve been given a gift. I wanna use it!”

“Hmm. I guess that makes sense…”

“You sound a little upset.”

Sunica grimaced at the question.

“It’s not that. I’m happy for you. I’m just… a little jealous. And a little scared.”

“Scared? You? What’s got you scared? I saw you try to fist fight a platoon of guards yesterday.”

“It’s… It’s complicated and not worth explaining. I’ll get over it. Are you sure you want to go into town? It was pretty miserable for you last time.”

“Yeah! Even if I can only stand it in there for a few minutes, and I don’t find a way to try and sell anything, I just– The only way out is through, you know? I’ve known that for a long time about these fears, but it’s easier said than done. But now– Now I’m thinking that if I can make some progress, any at all, I’ll have to suffer exponentially less in the future because the other Lily’s aren’t going to have to get over it too. No. This is my job. I’m the only one who can do this for all of me.”

“You’ve adjusted to this… quickly.”

Lily shrugged, and then gave a thumbs up.

“I don’t know about that. I’m terrified. But, I’m great at repressing my feelings!”

“That’s not something to brag about, you know?”

Lily laughed, and Sunica joined in.

“Yeah yeah I know. It’s just… Yeah. It sucks in some ways. It’s super weird. But my life has been super weird since everything happened. And on some level I don’t think I’ve really stopped to process any of it yet. I’ve just kept going. That’s just– How I live now. How I’ve survived. Repress, and advance. I’m sure it’ll catch up with me at some point. It’s not like I haven’t thought about that. Before the split too, so I know she knows. Right now, we’re just trying to survive with as little pain as we can manage. We can break down later.”

“Holy hells that’s dark. You know–”

“I know it’s not a healthy way to live. … But I can’t stop right now. Please, don’t try. I’ll seriously cry if I start letting myself dip.”

“... Okay. I don’t like it. When you can, will you talk to me?”

Lily smiled.

“Yeah. And speaking of the other girl, let’s give her a call huh?”

“Call”

“Like phoooo-oh never mind. I’m gonna connect the spell and see if she’s around.”

Lily felt out the spell on Bay, and reconnected it. It was as simple as filling in the glyphs on the circle she made before, and thanks to her new skill it required very little effort. She practically just thought of the glyphs she wanted and they came out.

“Hello? Miss Zero?”

Instead of her own voice, a low calm reassuring voice answered her.

“Hello Master. It is early.”

“Hey Star! It’s so good to get to talk. Is it? It’s getting close to noon here. A little before I think.”

“It is five AM here. It says so on the TV.”

“That’s weird… Was it shorter for you?”

“It has been a day and a night since we talked.”

“Huh? Wait, what? We didn’t contact you the next day? It’s been more than a day? It’s only been like 12 hours here!”

“Yes. It has been more than a day here. A day and the night, until five AM.”

“Damn. Has Zero gotten anything cool done in the mean time? Is she around?”

“She is sleeping. She was up late last night working on the spell you talked about.”

“Oh. Well, what are you doing up?”

“I am working on a secret project?”

Lily exchanged a look with Sunica.

“What kiiiiind of secret project?”

“If I told you, it would no longer be a secret project Master.”

Sunica laughed, and Star perked up a bit.

“Oh, is Miss Sunica with you?”

“Yeah, always over here.”

“Oh. I wish I had that.”

Lily couldn’t help but smile, even as that stung her heart. It was so… guileless.

“I know. Me too. Plenty of room in this cabin when we figure it out. Till then, we’ll have to settle for this. Hey, wanna keep me company while I walk into town?”

As Star agreed, Sunica sputtered.

“W-wait you’re going now? Without me? Will you be okay? What if– ah, will you be trying to sell your enchantments?”

“I’ll be fine. I’ll find the gate where whats his face works again, and go in for just a few minutes. I’ll escape the moment I need to. In and out! Just like the breathing I’ll be trying to remember to do!”

“Er, what’s his face?”

“Yeah, the guard guy! The one that picked me up!”

Sunica put her head in her hands.

“I shouldn’t let you go alone.”

“Ah, don’t be like that. What’s the worst that can happen?”

With that, Lily stepped outside. Sunica’s voice called back to her before she closed the door.

“His name is Mister Avea!”

“Thanks!”

Lily closed it. She was on an adventure. With Star. In another world! She wished he could see. This was going to be awesome!