In the end, neither of Vin's new pupils came even close to mastering their spells before lunch. Ronald didn't seem too upset by this, especially after Vin explained how long it had taken him to learn his first couple of spells, but Wanda was clearly frustrated. It was obvious that she held herself to some rather high standards, and she demanded they continue practicing after breaking for a quick bite. While there was always plenty he could be doing, Vin didn't exactly have anything specifically scheduled, so he merely shrugged and agreed to continue working with them. After an extremely quick meal at the mess hall, they rushed back out to the meadow and got back to practicing.

Vin finally got to experience just how boring it was watching other people work on magic as he sat there, monitoring the two of them while they worked. With nothing more to do than watch, he began practicing with his magic sense, utilizing his high magic and focus attributes to see if he could feel the minute amounts of mana they were moving about within themselves.

It took him a few hours of excruciating boredom, but to his astonishment, he actually got there.

He didn't think sensing what runic formation they were working on was possible, even if he had higher attributes or was more skilled, but if he focused hard enough, he could distinctly make out when they started working on their runic formations and how close they were to finishing them. Curiously, he was often able to tell when they messed up and were about to go through a runic backlash. It was as if he could sense the fragile runic formation under construction beginning to wobble within them, but he only ever had a split second before it happened, not nearly long enough to actually warn them or do anything to help.

He was also able to witness the backlashes physically as well. Wanda would occasionally summon a thin sheen of water over her exposed skin, which was often followed by an annoyed snarl before diving back into Meditation, while Ronald would randomly give off a gentle wave of heat when his own formation collapsed. Tier 0 spells weren't nearly powerful enough to cause any actual damage, so Vin felt confident focusing on his own sensing practice as they worked.

To his surprise, it was Ronald who managed to crack the spell first.

Vin blinked as he felt the runic formation finally come together for the first time in what had to be nearing eight or nine hours of practice now, and Ronald gasped as his eyes flew open. "I don't feel anything… but the spell is working!"

"How about now?" Vin asked, casting Create Fire and laughing as Ronald's eyes bugged out as he sensed the open flame dancing over his palm.

"Yes! The spell works! I got a notification from the System and everything!"

"Congratulations on learning your first fire-aligned spell!" Vin grinned, walking over and helping him to his feet. "It's getting dark, so you should probably call it there for today. If you want, I can drop by your workshop in the morning and leave the runic formation for Sense Magic floating there for you. I think I can dump enough mana into the runes to make them last about a day. You should probably learn at least one more tier 0 spell before I start you on Create Fire."

"That would be wonderful, thank you!" Shaking his hand vigorously, Ronald turned and began making his way back to town. As he walked, Vin turned to his remaining student, mentally holding back a sigh as she glared at Ronald's back.

"Everyone learns at a different pace," he reassured her, taking a seat back on the stone chair he'd summoned. "You can't rush these things, or you'll pay the price."

"That's what everyone says." She scoffed, not looking convinced.

"You see this tree?" he asked, pointing at the nearby tree that was now missing most of its branches and all of its leaves. "That's what a runic backlash looks like once you start messing around with higher tiers of magic. I blew myself up. It's why you have to take things slow and be careful." Even as the words left his lips, he realized how ridiculous they sounded coming from his own mouth.

"You look pretty healthy for such a claim," she shot back, clearly not buying it.

"Alright, how about a demonstration?" he asked, realizing Wanda was very much someone who learned by example. Walking a good thirty feet away, he sat down and quickly threw together his improvised runic formation for Fireball yet again. Just like before, he targeted the runes that he could tell where his mana had destabilized, trying yet another strategy as he focused on adjusting how the fire was shaped before being launched as a projectile.

Sure would be funny if I actually got the spell right this time. Wanda would snap at me, and I'd have to come up with some other-

Vin exploded for a third time as he tried running his mana through the altered runes, this explosion somehow being even more powerful than the first two as it sent him hurtling across the meadow. His back slammed into one of his stone chairs, and a flash of golden light erupted from his core, stopping the blow from snapping his neck in half. Not for the first time, he thanked the Goddess of Benevolence for ensuring that her boon didn't just save him from the initial attack, but from the following impact as well.

Runecraft increased to level 19! 3,800 exp gained.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Looking up, he found himself staring into the shocked eyes of Wanda as she stared down at his smoking body.

"Whelp… That's what happens," he said, coughing as he pushed himself to his feet and brushed the soot off his clothes. "Like I said, you can't rush magic."

"You just exploded!" she shouted, showing more emotion than she had in the past nine hours as she looked back and forth between his current location and the smoking spot of earth now free of grass. "You were thrown thirty feet through the air! How are you still alive?!"

"How else? Magic," he said, trying to smile through his cough. "I won't reveal all my tricks, but magic is capable of some crazy things."

Shaking her head, Wanda slowly sat back down. Her eyes were still locked on the smoldering crater where he once stood, and he could tell he'd finally gotten through to her.

"Maybe taking my time isn't so bad," she finally said, sounding as if she was trying to convince herself. "Though water magic wouldn't do something like that, right?"

"Have you seen what pressurized water can do?"

"Fair enough." She sighed. "Alright. I'll try and take it a bit easier. Can you give me this runic formation again tomorrow to keep working on?"

"I'll leave it out for you at your spot by the lake," he said, nodding. "Let's call it a night for now. I've got other things I want to do today, you know."

Wanda seemed more than okay with taking a break after witnessing him blowing himself up so violently, and the two of them walked back to town. He bade her goodnight, before finally going back to his apartment to see if any of his friends wanted to grab dinner. To his surprise, there was someone waiting for him.

"Welcome back," Lumel said, giving him a warm smile as he stepped into the common room.

"Lumel! You're back!" he exclaimed, walking over to her and giving her a big hug. Despite how shy the pulmon was, he couldn't help but lean down and give her a quick kiss. She'd been hard at work studying the changes in the Underside for the better part of a week, and they'd barely spoken during that time. "Did you manage to get what you needed from the Underside before it went back to normal?"

"I can answer that with three words." She grinned, her dark purple eyes shining with excitement. "Mage. Of. Discovery."

"Seriously? That sounds awesome!" He laughed, returning her grin with one of his own as the pulmon blushed from his praise. "Honestly, that's the coolest sounding prestige class I've heard so far!"

"Yeah, I was pretty excited to get it as an option. It came with the Magical Eye passive. From what I gather, my eyes now basically function just like the golden eyes of the Witches and Warlocks of the infernals you told me about."

Only then did Vin realize it wasn't his imagination. Lumel's eyes were shining slightly, as if lit up by a backlight.

"So you can see minute traces of mana now? Damn, I kinda want that passive for myself," he admitted. "Still though, congratulations on finally hitting your second prestige! You're the first person in all of Terra to pull that off!"

"I'm sure you'll be right behind me," she said, taking his hand in hers and squeezing it. Even now, the sensation of her warm, gel-like hand in his own was such a unique feeling. Not unpleasant by any means, but one that always caught him off guard. "You've probably hit level 39 by now, right?"

"Yep. At the moment, I'm a bit past the halfway point between levels 39 and 40. Let's just hope I've embodied my class enough that the Gods agree to let me prestige again."

"I don't think you have anything to worry about." She snorted. "You've taken Magical Explorer to an entirely new level from everything I've seen. Speaking of which… Why are your clothes covered in soot?"

"Ah… I may have been practicing building my own spell for the first time. Not from scratch, mind you, but by combining two other spells. I'm trying to turn Stone Shot and Create Flame into Fireball. It's sort of the most iconic magic spell from fantasy in my own world, but as you can see, I'm having a little bit of difficulty doing so."

"If it were anyone else, I'd call them an idiot and start preparing for their funeral," Lumel said, giving him a toothy grin. "Though most people don't have a divine boon designed to keep them out of trouble. So long as you promise to only try something that reckless once a day while your boon is available, I don't have any comments."

"Don't worry. I'm reckless, but not that stupid. I was actually going to ask if you had any advice for putting together a new spell like I'm trying to do. Maybe something you came across in your royal library?"

"There may have been books like that, but I never bothered looking into them," she admitted. "As I'm sure you know by now based on the char marks covering you, what you're doing is exceedingly dangerous. I learned all my spells through books that contained runic formations or by studying preexisting magic. You know, the same way basically everyone crazy enough to manually learn spells instead of taking them from the System learns their magic?"

"I guess I am embodying the Magical Explorer class pretty well in that case," he joked. "Anyway, I've blown myself up three times now working on this, but with each attempt, I feel like I get a little closer. I can actually sense where the mana goes haywire and disrupts the formation right before I explode, so I know the parts of the spell I need to fix. I'll get it correct sooner or later!"

"I don't doubt it," Lumel said, smiling at him. "So I know it's entirely my fault, and I appreciate your patience while I all but locked myself away in the Underside, but we haven't sat down and eaten together in a while. Would you have any interest in having dinner together?"

"Of course I would, I love spending time with you," he said, unable to stop himself from smiling at the familiar blood rushing to Lumel's face at his words. "Give me just a few minutes, I'll run out and grab something for us to share. Then you can tell me all about the stuff you learned and what you think your new class needs to do in order to keep leveling."

"That sounds perfect," Lumel said, looking even happier than she had when she announced her prestige class. "While I love studying magic, I have to admit… It's good to be home."

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