When Damion was back in his dormitory, he filled Elicia in on what Headmaster Sorin wanted as well as on his time in the Holy Forest dungeon. Omitting, of course, the use of other affinity spells or how badly the White Griffin had hurt him during the final fight.

Once Elicia satisfied herself with his wellbeing, Damion took out his communication tablet and contacted Arica.

"Damion. To what do I owe the call?" Arica asked.

"I have acquired a spatial artifact that I think might help you learn more about creating better ones. I was wondering if you would like to examine it," Damion told her.

When Headmaster Sorin had reminded him of Arica, he got an idea. It had been several months since they last saw each other, but he had a feeling the Spatial mage would not want to miss out on the opportunity to study the Iblis spatial artifact.

"Are you referring to the spatial rings you took from the Fontane brothers?"

"I was thinking you might be able to unlock some of its secrets," Damion told her.

Damion was not about to admit that the artifact she would be examining was actually from one of the other races. But that did not matter. He had already looked over the ring and, while he understood some of the enchantments inscribed on it, most of them where a bit confusing. He guessed it was because his understanding of the Spatial affinity was lacking, even if he now had it.

"I would very much like to examine one of the new artifacts from the Fontane family. My master and I have been trying to acquire one but have been unsuccessful."

"Great. When do you think you will be able to come visit?"

"If I get my master's approval, very soon. But I must ask, what will you be asking in exchange for this chance? You must understand Damion, this knowledge you are offering is potentially worth more than I think you realize. Even if we are friends, it would be wrong of me to not to give you fair compensation."

"Ask your master permission to show me your Spatial affinity spells. I've been learning a lot about Nashto, but I don't have access to a lot of spells to study. Even without an affinity for a spell, I can still learn a lot about the ancient language by studying a variety of magic seals."

"I will ask. Since you don't have a Spatial affinity, it should not be too much of a problem, but understand, you won't be able to record them. Any insight you gain will have to be while studying the seals as I summon them."

"I think that will be perfectly fine," Damion told her.

Damion felt a bit bad about tricking Arica into showing him her spells, but he had a Spatial affinity now and no easy way to learn Spatial magic Seals. Sure, he could buy spells from the Magic System Shop, but what he got would be random. There was no guarantee that he would get a Spatial affinity spell, or even that the spell he got would be any good.

Even if the cost of the spells were low, he felt it was better to learn as many magic seals without purchasing ones from the System as he could. That way, if he did ever buy spells from the Magic System, he would be more likely to get a spell that was hard to come by, especially if he learned all the most common spells he could.

"Excellent. I will get my master's approval and head over as soon as I can."

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After Arica cut off the call, he was met with a cold stare from Elicia. Damion did not know why, but he felt Elicia was not entirely thrilled at the prospect of the young Spatial mage coming for a visit.

"Something wrong?" Damion asked Elicia innocently.

The Wind mage simply turned away and headed into the dormitory kitchen. A moment later, Damion heard heavy chops on the cutting board, and he decided he would retreat to his study to work on his artifact.

In his study, Damion worked on finishing out his plans for his artifact. After having the opportunity to examine the testing crystals, he was now certain of how to proceed. With the individual enchantments for the control, probe function, battery and display completed, all he had left to do was create the bridging enchantments to tie the others together into a single functioning artifact.

The bridging enchantments could either be the simplest part, or the most complex part. If he was lucky, the bridging enchantments would not require the other enchantments to be modified. If he was unlucky, it would. Once one enchantment needed a modification, then the others likely would need a similar change. What made such situations worse, was that once one part of an enchantment was changed, quite often the entire enchantment had to be adjusted, meaning he might have to start almost back at square one.

Damion paused his work to eat dinner with Elicia, who appeared to have calmed down, but afterwards, he returned to his project. When he continued to work, late into the night, Elicia called out for him to rest.

"Come to bed."

When Damion walked into his bedroom after saving his progress he was surprised to see that Elicia was in bed waiting for him. After what they had done a few nights ago, he was not sure how to approach the topic, but now it seemed Elicia had decided to just skip any discussion.

In the morning, Damion was awoken by Elicia climbing out of bed to begin preparations for breakfast. Damion lay still, one eye half open, silently watching her dress, at least until she threw a pair of shorts at his head.

"Don't pretend to be asleep. If you want to look then look. I don't mind," Elicia said as she finished dressing and headed out to the kitchen.

Damion was too stunned to offer a reply. Instead, he followed suit. As he was climbing out of bed he realized he had forgotten something important, to tell the Magic System to start its upgrade.

'System, how long will your upgrade to level 3 take?'

{The upgrade will take 12 hours to complete.}

'System, start the upgrade when I go to bed tonight,' Damion mentally told the Magic System. It would not do for him to forget to start the process again. He would just have to make sure he went to bed early so that when he got up, the System was ready.

After breakfast and their normal morning run, the pair returned to the dormitory to enjoy a shower together. Unexpectedly, their time was cut short by a knock, on their dormitory door. Elicia, still mindful of her duties as Damion's attendant, hurriedly threw some clothes on and answered the door to find a young blonde woman, about her height, standing there.

Elicia recognized Arica Miller right away. They had, after all, been in Damion's first labyrinth run together. But seeing the attractive young lady arrive so soon after he had called her, especially arriving while they were in the shower, brought to the surface a bit of the anger and resentment she had been feeling lately. It was hardly the Spatial mage's fault, but she was an easy target, so instead of welcoming their guest inside, Elicia closed the door in her face.

A moment later another knock at the door came. Elicia was still standing by the door, but the second knock brought Damion out of the shower half dressed.

"You going to get that," Damion asked as he worked a towel through his hair.

"Go get dressed, it isn't proper to greet your guest as you are," Elicia told him. When Damion retreated into his bedroom, Elicia opened the door again. "Sorry about that. Damion was still getting dressed after his morning exercise and shower."

"Looks like you need to finish too. I'll just wait here…" before Arica could finish her sentence the sight of Phil, perched in his usual spot on a coat rack shocked her into silence.

"Don't mind Phil," Elicia said, amused at the Spatial mage's reaction.

The young woman might be a few years older than Elicia and have a promising career as an artificer and researcher, but face to face with a Ferocious Beast, and she was just like any other person. Scared out of her wits.

"This is Phil? I'd heard about Damion's familiar. His new spell is making all kinds of waves in the research and spellsmithing communities."

Phil gave a pleased chirp as Arica started fawning over him. Elicia let out a snort of disgust and headed to her room in search of an acceptable outfit to wear.

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