Chapter 94

“Inflame or mute internal statuses,” Maddy said thoughtfully. “I wonder how broad that is.”

Like Zoey had with Sabina, she’d revealed her newest skill with the tutor best suited to help her with it. Beyond the ability needing to be divulged, so that she could learn to use it, Zoey didn’t see a point to the stringent secrecy that was the standard for this world. Maybe if she trusted Maddy less, but this bubbly, friendly girl? Even if Zoey’s skill had been a lot more specific, and worth keeping the details hidden, she would’ve shared it.

“I’d figure anything in that domain,” Zoey said. “Any emotion, either dulled or amplified. But my class’s related ones, probably most effective.”

Arousal, she politely didn’t specify. Maddy glanced at her and blushed, picking up the implication, but brushing past it. While she seemed to be growing slightly more at-ease with inappropriate topics, she still turned pink at mentions of Zoey’s class.

“Emotions are a safe bet,” Maddy said. “How about sensations? Is ‘pain’ an internal status? Speaking from a combat utility perspective, flaring up a monster’s wounds could be debilitating.”

“True,” Zoey said. “I’d test it on myself, but we’d have to create a spell for each application, right?”

“Sure, but it shouldn’t be that hard. Not simple ones. We can take existing spell designs and tweak them.”

“For you, it wouldn’t be hard,” Zoey amusedly pointed out. “I don’t have the slightest idea how to do that.”

While she’d been making strides in the practical side of spellcasting, the theoretical side, she remained clueless about. Maddy had painted the process in broad strokes, but it was more or less the same as painting quantum physics, or some equally absurd topic, in broad strokes. Nuance fell to the wayside, and actually implementing the things Maddy so casually mentioned? Zoey obviously couldn’t.

Maybe with a dedicated upbring by a powerful mage, like Maddy had received, Zoey would be able to manage something, but she obviously didn’t have that. And even if she had that sort of background, even still, she might not be able to. Maddy was clearly a brilliant woman, for all she stumbled over her words and was sometimes distractible. A prodigy in her own right, in the same way as Rosalie or Delta.

“Well, I’ll put something together for you, then,” Maddy said. “It shouldn’t take long, and we can bill it under ‘tutoring’. Even if spell design would normally cost mountains.”

It was said with a joking tone, but Zoey frowned. “I probably can’t afford it now, but I might be able to, later. Keep track of it?”

“Oh, no, I don’t care. It’s no problem.” Maddy blushed. “I’m already starting to feel bad for charging you for even this.” She waved around to indicate ‘lessons’.

“Why? It sounds like your time is valuable.”

“Well, sure, but we’re friends, now. Er ... that is, if, you ... you know, think so too.”

“Of course I do,” Zoey said. “But that doesn’t mean you should be wasting hours of your day training me for free, every day. And this spell design stuff, now. Keep track of how much you’d charge someone else, and when I can, I’ll pay you back. Please?”

“That’s really not necessary.”

“Please?” Zoey repeated. She really would feel better about things. Her time spent in this new world had felt like a drain on other people’s generosity. Rosalie’s, primarily, but Delta’s and Sabina’s too, and now Maddy.

“Okay,” Maddy said hesitantly. “But I’ll be giving you the friend discount, and you can’t convince me out of that.”

Zoey would’ve tried, but she could tell insisting further would be pointless.

“I can probably have a simple prototype drawn up pretty quick,” Maddy said. “Go ahead and run through our drills, and I’ll start sketching?”

“Sounds good to me.”

Zoey went about her routine, practicing with the few ice spells she knew. To the side, Maddy sat on the bench, scribbling in her notebook while conferring with various textbooks. Zoey watched out of the corner of her eye, curious, but mostly kept focused on learning to wrangle her ice element. While this newest branch of magic would be useful, so was her original, especially in a more direct offensive sense. Though inflaming ‘internal statuses’ was sure to have plenty of uses, it couldn’t kill a monster by itself. It was, from her assumptions, a support branch of magic.

Casting spells in a steady string, Zoey found her reserves dwindling in no time. While her class allowed more potent abilities because of her mana-replacement resource, Lust, she also ran out much quicker than a normal mage would. Doubly true because of how unpracticed she was. Better mages could make more efficient use of their skills, but Zoey was, while not a stark beginner anymore, still very much a novice.

A half-hour later, she plopped down, tired, next to Maddy, who spared a smile for her, then studiously returned to her notebook. Zoey leaned over with a “can I see?”, which Maddy allowed, placing her notebook on her lap for Zoey to peek, but continuing to focus on her sketching.

A spell diagram was taking shape on the page. Zoey, obviously, couldn’t read it, not in any meaningful capacity, but she appreciated the design for what it was: tight-packed, drawn with deft pencil strokes, and a clear competence behind the forming spell. Not many mages could do this easily, Zoey intuited. Invent new spells nearly from scratch, on a whim.

Zoey watched for a bit, staying quiet, not wanting to interrupt Maddy’s efforts. She was clearly focused on the endeavor, having to flip between pages of textbooks—which featured similar designs, which Maddy was stealing from, and adapting to Zoey’s purpose—and constantly erasing or making small adjustments.