Alpy376

  I yawned and stretched as the morning light reached my sleepy eyes. Luci was still in her bed, sleeping soundly. Not wanting to wake her, I got up and changed into my other set of clothes before putting on my belts and cloak. Finally, I tried on the silver dragon-wing hair ornament Luci gave me, and honestly, I think I much prefer a ponytail over leaving my hair loose.

  "Mmm..." Luci sat up and rubbed her eyes.

  "Morning."

  "Ah, Mira. Good morning."

  I went downstairs to breakfast and soon enough Luci came down and joined me.

  "Hey, Mira. Did you have anything pnned today?"

  "Actually, yes. I was going to see if I can find someone who specializes in Light magic and have them teach me. I wanna make sure that next time we encounter anything like yesterday that we're ready for it. Then I'm going to find Rick and tell him about our meeting with the Guildmaster tomorrow, and after that... I'll probably head to the bathhouse and if I still have time after that I'll try to clean my undry. What about you?"

  For a second, Luci looked almost... disappointed for some reason. Only for a second though.

  "I was probably just going to try to go shopping. You don't need to worry about your undry, I'll take care of that."

  "Alright then. I'll see you ter." I had already finished eating before she got here, so I decided it'd be best to start my day as soon as possible.

  "Right... bye then."

  My first stop was the Guild. The receptionist from yesterday greeted me when I approached the counter.

  "Greetings, Mira. I take it you're not here for another quest already?"

  "That's right. I was here to see if there was anyone here who specializes in Light magic."

  "There are a few. Are you looking for a new party member?"

  "Not at the moment, no. I'm trying to find someone who can teach me. Preferably around the 3rd tier, but even just the basics would be fine."

  "Then, I would like to direct you to a man named Non. He's the Priest of C rank party Carnal Power, and he's mastered Light magic up to the 3rd tier. His party returned from a quest this morning, and you can usually find him drinking in a corner."

  "Thanks."

  "You're welcome. Helping out is part of my job after all."

  It didn't take long for me to find him. Sitting alone at a corner table, I saw a human man likely in his te 20's with short brown hair and long white robes. He had a staff resting against the seat next to him and a bottle of some kind of alcohol in his hand.

  "Are you Priest Non?"

  "Yeah, what of it missie?"

  "I was hoping you could teach me Light magic. The receptionist told me you could at least."

  "Do you at least have the Light attribute? I swear, too many people come to me and none of them can even learn the 1st tier."

  "Yes."

  "One gold then."

  "Huh!?"

  "I said, one gold. You want me to teach you or not?! It'snot gonna be free if that's what you thought."

  "Oh. Yes." I slid a gold coin over the table to him. I only brought four of them with me, so I only have three left now.

  "Good. Can you control your mana yet?"

  "Yes."

  "Then imagine a ball of white light floating out of your hand and over your shoulder and push the mana out."

  I did as he said, and sure enough, a ball of light began floating just behind my shoulder.

  "There you go. That's Spirtmp. Now if you're done pestering me then please leave."

  "Um, I was hoping you could teach me through the 3rd tier."

  "Ugh... you're such a handful. Fine. That'd be two more gold for two more tiers."

  I felt like this might've been a scam, but he did follow through with the first tier, so I decided to give him the other two gold coins. That's already three quarters of my life's (four days) savings...

  "Follow me then."

  Without another word, he stood up and finished his his drink before grabbing his staff and leaving. I had to run for a second to catch up to him.

  "Where are we going?"

  "Outside. Where else."

  After a short walk, we were in what looked like some sort of training grounds. They weren't occupied at the moment, and Non decided to fix that.

  "I assume that sword of yours isn't for show? Draw it."

  "Right."

  I drew my katana, briefly reflecting the sun into my eyes.

  "That's a good weapon you have there. I've seen better though. Now. Hold a hand over the bde and think about it glowing with a white light, like what the Spiritlight emits." As if on cue, the little orb floating behind me dissapeared in a fsh of white particles. "Once you have that image down, push mana from your hand into your weapon and say the name of the spell: 'Divinity'"

  I focused on my sword and once again did what he said.

  "Divinity."

  I pushed mana into the spell as I spoke its name, and sure enough, it started glowing.

  "Well! You're pretty good at this. I bet you actually might be able to learn a 3rd tier spell. That spell, Divinity, shrouds a weapon in an aura of Light magic to make it more effective against undead. It'd be a good spell to know incase you're in another situation like yesterday's."

  "What!? How did you know about that!?"

  "Hah! How would I not? The whole Guild knows about the new E rank party that took a quest for a D rank byrinth that ended up being B rank, and not only did they somehow manage to survive they cleared the damned thing! That's not a story you can really hide!"

  "Oh..."

  I honestly don't know why I thought nobody knew about it. That'd probably expin why all the adventurers kept gncing at me in there...

  "Alright, next spell. It's called Seraphim. Think of a Spiritmp leaving your hand, but this time imagine it to be a fast projectile while saying the name of the spell."

  I sheathed my katana and raised my arm.

  "Seraphim!"

  The ball of light speedily flew from my hand until it hit a wall and dissipated.

  "Good job. Again, it's effective against undead. However, don't try using it against anything living, it won't have an effect. Next spell. It's 3rd tier now. Here's a demonstration instead this time."

  Non raised his hand palm out. As he began to speak again, a small white aura appeared around his arm.

  "Oh Goddess, grant me your holy light to purge this evil! Expel!"

  While the words left his mouth, the light swirled down his arm and gathered in front of his hand. When he called the name of the spell, the light solidified into what looked like a rger version of Seraphim and flew even faster than the 2nd tier spell towards a wall.

  "Got it? Now you try."

  I was doubtful I could get it down, but I tried anyway and lifted my arm.

  "Oh Goddess, grant me your holy light to purge this evil! Expel!"

  It worked, and yet another projectile hit the poor wall. Luckily Light magic only harms the undead.

  "Great. The next spell is going to be difficult though. It's called Restore, and its basically a harder version of the Wind spell Healing. Unlike Seraphim and Expel where you have the knowledge of using another spell simir to it, it'd be like if you were learning a tier 1 or 2 spell, where you have no knowledge of it, but it's a complicated tier 3 instead. You might get it in a few days though, the st ones were pretty quick."

  "I- uh... I can actually use Healing too."

  "What!? You have two magic attributes, and they just happen to be Wind and Light! Well, that makes things easy then. I've heard Restore described as being nearly the same as Healing, only you have to use an incantation and the light from the spell is white. It also does a much better job of healing, being able to fix anything other that's not life threatening. While it can't quite regrow a severed limb, it can reattach one, so people who can use Restore can make a lot of money."

  "Well, what's the incantation?"

  "Cut yourself."

  "Huh!?"

  "I said, cut yourself."

  "Fine..."

  It may seem a little to trusting of me, but he's probably going to heal me. I drew my dagger and sliced my palm. I flung the blood from my dagger and clenched my teeth from the pain as I put it back in its own sheath on my thigh. Non grabbed my hand with his and held his other one over my cut.

  "Oh Goddess, grant me your holy light to mend these wounds! Restore!"

  A white light began shining after he finished the chant and he maintained it until my cut closed. The moment he was finished, he drew a knife I didn't even know he had and sliced his hand.

  "Your turn."

  "Right."

  I copied what he did, holding my hand just above the wound.

  "Oh Goddess, grant me you holy light to mend these wounds! Restore!"

  Just like that, my hand shone and his healed.

  "Damn... you did it. It took me months to get to where I am now, and I've been stagnating at this stage for years, yet you... you've already learned everything I know in half an hour... Goddess, I think I need another drink..."

  Non ran off back to the Guild and left me alone in the yard. That whole encounter took a lot less time than I expected, which would've been the whole day. I decided I'd try to head towards the shopping district and find Luci since I have the time now.