Mrs. Hodgins was evil. She left me sitting back there for hours under the threat that she would soon be back to let me have it. At least it felt like hours. The result was that I was unable to focus on anything. So I did my homework.

Kalliphae helped break the tension by chatting with me through it all. Don’t worry, Mel. Mrs. Hodgins just wants what’s best for you. I think she is worried about us is all. She gave me a lecture too last night.

I was surprised that Kalli got in trouble. All she had done was save my life.

What class are you headed to now?

I could feel her mirth as Kalli giggled. My next class is something called an elective. The class I chose is called marine biology. I get to study sea animals.

Sound like fun.

She agreed, admitting, I’ve never seen an ocean before. They say you have one nearby.

Oh yeah. We should go there. It’s very close.

I was still feeding off of the exciting emotion she sent through the connection when Mrs. Hodgins killed it by walking around the corner. Kalli felt my stress and said, What’s wrong, Mel?

Mrs. Hodgins is here.

She reassured me again. Don’t worry. It will be fine.

I sucked in my breath and held it as the scholar sat down across from me. She continued the silent treatment for another few minutes before I finally blurted out, “Look. If you are trying to torture me, it’s working. I know I screwed up. I know I nearly got Kalli killed. You can’t be any madder at me than I am at myself right now. So just say what you want to say and get it over with.”

The old woman made me gasp by reaching out and grabbing my hand, “I was so worried about you last night. It wasn’t just Kalliphae out there. You could have died as well. I know you’re excited about learning magic, but you have to be careful. The world is a lot bigger than both of us thought. It would break my heart if either of you were hurt. I didn’t come here to chastise you. I just can’t figure out how to keep you both safe and it’s killing me.”

I sat in my office with my mouth hanging open, holding hands with the old scholar who I thought was going to tell me off. I looked up at her red face and noticed tears in her eyes. I finally croaked, “I’m sorry.”

She nodded and said, “That’ll do.”

Without another word, Mrs. Hodgins got up made a hasty exit, likely to avoid breaking down in front of me. I watched her go for a moment then I cleared my throat and wiped my own eyes. The moment I had been dreading since I called Mrs. Hodgins was finally over. Even though I still regretted putting Kalli at risk, I felt a rush of relief that it was finally over.

I returned my attention to Kalli who seemed to be concentrating in class. It was hard to figure out exactly what she was doing if she wasn’t projecting her feelings about it.

How do you like marine biology?

She showed me that she was pleased to hear from me. Oh, hi Mel. How did it go with Mrs. Hodgins?

Kalliphae didn’t answer my question. I figured she was more interested in my situation than the class she was in.

It went okay. She told me she was worried that we were going to die. I thought she was going to yell at me for nearly getting you killed.

When Kalli giggled, the feeling tickled my ears. Silly. I could have told you that. She worries about you. You were all she talked about during dinner last night. She reminded me that you only found out about magic a few days ago and said she was so glad that I was there to look out for you.

From there, Kalli told me all about marine biology. While she was new to the class, she had been added to a group of girls for a group project they were working on. She made more friends in every class she went to. I was going to have to ask her what her secret was.

It took me an hour to complete the entire week's worth of homework. Then I was bored. There was still over an hour to go before lunch. I decided to check out another one of the books that Lavender had supplied me with.

How to make weapons and armor complete with stats

I had forgotten all about that book. I loved getting new armor in video games. I imagined myself wearing dragon scale armor. Plate mail armor was probably against the dress code though. I heaved a sigh and flipped the book open.

The book was more of a recipe book than a guide. I recognized the menus too. While a bit more comprehensive than the ones I could see when I inspected an item, they contained all of the primary information. This included the item name, components, and item rank. At the bottom of the chart was additional information like required wearer level, statistics, and other details. Underneath each entry were instructions on how to make the item from a design standpoint.

I flipped back to the table of contents to get an idea of the many types of crafting that existed.

How to Make Weapons and Armor, Complete with Stats

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2 Blacksmithing

Chapter 3: Armorsmithing

Chapter 4: Tailoring

Chapter 5: Leatherworking

Chapter 6: Carpentry

Chapter 7: Bonecrafting

Chapter 8: Alchemy

Chapter 9: Bookbinding and Scribing

Chapter 10: Magicrafting and Enchantments

Chapter 11: Advanced Techniques

I kind of wanted to skip to the back of the book and bypass all of the basics, but that was what got me in trouble with the griffon, so I only skipped through the boring part of the book. I started with Chapter 4: Tailoring. All of my clothes likely fell into this category, so if I was going to work my magic on something and have it come out semi-normal, this was the place to find it.

The first few pages were filled with boring designs with no stats. I flipped a couple of pages until I found something worth trying to create.

Item:

Cloth Tunic of Stopping

Components

Cloth Thread, Soylent Thread, Mana

Item Rank:

C

Level to Equip

1

Statistics

Defense: 5 Magic Defense 5

Detail

Basic Projection

This tunic can stop a bullet. Not much help against magical attacks.

I examined my own shirt to see how similar it was. It took a little extra focus, but I was able to view all of the statistics.

Item:

Cloth Shirt

Components

Cloth Thread

Item Rank:

F

Level to Equip

1

Statistics

Defense: 0

Detail

Common T-Shirt

Basic Shirt. Can be styled in a variety of fashions

My first attempt to edit failed.

ERROR: MISSING INGREDIENT: [Soylent Thread]

The first plan was to turn something else into Soylent Thread to complete the recipe. I had already done this with junk mail back at home. Unfortunately, life was never that simple.

ERROR: MAGICAL INGREDIENTS CANNOT BE EDITED

So Soylent Thread is a magical item, eh?

I must have been broadcasting because Kalli replied. Soylent Thread? I don’t think I’ve heard of it.

I thanked her and pulled out my magical phone. I asked, “PAA. Do you know what Soylent Thread is and where I can find some?”

The automated voice assistant helpfully supplied, “Soylent Thread is a tier 1 magical ingredient. It’s created synthetically and infused with mana during the spinning process. It can be obtained from most crafting supply vendors. Would you like me to find the lowest prices?”

I replied, “Yes.”

Shop Name

Price

Violet’s Threads

25 Copper/Spool

Sunset Market

4 Silver/Spool

Value Craft

5 Silver/Spool

Bob

9 Silver, 99 Copper/Spool

El Cheapo

10 Silver/Spool

One glance at the list and I knew which shop I wanted to purchase from. I asked PAA, “How many can I purchase from Violet?”

The assistant answered, “The shop owned by Violet owns 100 spools of Soylent Thread which will cost you a total of 25 Silver.”

A quick check of my fanny pack revealed that I currently had 6 gold, 30 silver, and 100 copper. I instructed PAA, “Buy all 100 spools. That’s a steal.”

Editing my shirt into a bulletproof tunic was easy after that. The result was a white t-shirt that looked like something I would wear to bed. A few quick edits and I discovered that I could put any design on the fabric that I wanted. I opted for a yellow shirt with the smug red M&M from the candy commercial. Underneath was the title, M&M = Melvin Murphy. Nuts Definitely Included.

Creating a crafted item added an extra slot at the bottom of the stats, Created By: Melvin Murphy. Not wanting to single myself out as the editor, I edited that too.

Item:

Custom Stylized Cloth Tunic of Stopping (Edited)

Components

Cloth Thread, Soylent Thread, Mana

Item Rank:

C

Level to Equip

1

Statistics

Defense: 5 Magic Defense 5

Created By

Silent Dogwood (Edited)

I got the name from an old movie I watched. Over the next hour I managed to upgrade my pants, underwear, and socks. I didn’t mess with the design of the pants. Anything other than blue jeans seemed weird to me. For the socks, I went with a single blue stripe. I liked blue after all. I decided to have some fun with the underwear.

Item:

Tighty Whities of Doom (Edited)

Components

Cloth Thread, Soylent Thread, Mana

Item Rank:

C

Level to Equip

1

Statistics

Defense: 5 Magic Defense 5

Created By

Peter Johnson (Edited)

I left them white and form-fitting, but I added some text on the front, THUNDER DONG.

Kalli eat your heart out. There is a practical use for those words after all.

I was lucky she didn’t hear that thought. It was amusing to me that underwear had the same base stats as the outerwear. The socks had an added bonus as I got individual stats for each sock. I hoped shoes would do the same.

Shoes were more complicated, however. They required a magical leather ingredient. I was about to turn to that chapter when Kalli reached out to me. Hey Mel, did you bring lunch?

I hadn’t thought about lunch at all. I typically didn’t eat at school. While I did qualify for a free lunch every day, waiting in line for it made me a prime target for the bullies. Even if Tim wasn’t around, the other students usually didn’t have nice things to say. I was in the habit of scavenging once school let out.

No. I didn’t bring anything. It’s okay though. I had a big breakfast this morning.

I felt a flutter of excitement followed by a lot of nervousness. She didn’t think anything to me for at least a minute before finally blurting out her request. I made some food from my world. Would you like to have lunch with me?

Yes!

I wondered if I had answered too quickly. She didn’t waste any time replying. Great. Meet me out here.

That reminded me that she had been using a map of some sort to locate me. I tried saying, “Map.”

Nothing happened. I thought map. Again, nothing happened. I asked PAA, “How do I pull up my map.”

The helpful AI answered in its disinterested voice, “When summoned, the map can be seen on the inside of the human eyelids. To summon a map, close your eyes and project the location you wish to view. If you want to see the map while your eyes are open, blink 3 times.”

I closed my eyes and peered into the darkness. I remembered sometimes pretending I could make out shapes in the light that bled through. This time, when I willed a map to appear, I was stunned by the massive amount of data that my eyes took in. I could see the whole campus as well as everyone in school. There were a lot of moving dots on the map. Most of the dots were blue or green, but there were 3 yellow dots, a golden dot, and a red one. The only dot that came with a label was the golden one that said Kalliphae(Group Member) I had no clue what it all meant and there didn’t appear to be a legend to explain things to me.

I heard her voice in my head. What’s taking so long, Mel?

I’m trying to figure out this map.

I blinked three times to keep the map up and made my way outside. It shrunk a bit to the size of a mini-map so I could still see where I was going. It was apparent from the map that Kalli was somewhere in the quad. That was another place I avoided at all costs. Only the popular kids hung out there. That was the opposite of what I was. Not even Tim had quad access.

All eyes turned to me to see what I would do as I approached. Kalli stood and waved me over excitedly. She was wearing the phoenix outfit as a cute mini skirt and top that matched what the other cool kids were wearing. She definitely fit in with them. To me, she looked even hotter than the other girls at her table.

I was greeted with a chorus of scoffs as the sea of cool kids parted to allow me access to my friend. One of the girls sitting next to Kalliphae sneered at me and said, “This is the friend you were talking about, Kal?”

Kalli nodded and smiled, “He is the first friend I made when I moved to the area. His name is Melvin in case you haven’t met him yet.”

“Oh we met him”, another added flippantly, “I always thought his name was Poindexter.”

Kalliphae frowned, “No, it’s definitely Melvin.”

A blond girl sitting on the other side of Kalli tapped her shoulder and said in a serious tone, “You don’t understand Kal, this boy is just a pervert that skulks around campus. We have to protect you from boys like him.”

Kalli looked confused. I suddenly remembered why I hated all of the students at this school. A part of me thought that it was probably a little harsh to hate all of them. I was going to have to make a mental friends list of people at the school that I could tolerate.

The girl who spoke first leaned closer to Kalli and said, “Look. I know you know him and all. How about you give him the food you promised him and let him go back to his own kind and eat it there. That way everyone wins right?”

I sighed. I was already tired of dealing with these jerks. It was funny how they were all uninitiated yet they looked down on someone who could issue a single word of command and have them all licking the gum off of the ground. Or better yet, I could edit their classes to something naughty. I knew at a glance that they were all level 1.

Then I looked at Kalliphae. She looked incredibly uncomfortable. She had been so happy all day, then I came along and ruined the whole thing. I conjured up the biggest grin I could muster and said, “You know what guys, I wasn’t that hungry after all. I think I’m gonna go back to the library and study for my report. I’ll see you later on, okay Kalli?”

I made it maybe three steps before someone grabbed me by the arm and shouted, “Hey jerk.”

I turned around to find a pouting Kalliphae holding up a bag of food. She sulked and said, “I went out of my way to make this delicious food and you promised me you would try some. No take-backs.”

“But I…”, I started to object.

“Shush”, she commanded and took my arm in hers, “As I told you before. I am your girlfriend and you need to hang out with me during lunch.”

I didn’t know where that came from and I wasn’t going to argue. She stuck her tongue out and her voice echoed in my ears. Just so you know. I am not your girlfriend.

Silence reigned at the cool kid table as we left them in our dust. She glanced at my new shirt as we walked arm in arm, Do nuts mean the same thing in your world as they do in mine?

What do nuts mean in your world?

She blushed. Never mind.

We walked toward the library, but she stopped me before we got there. Let’s go to the ocean. You said it's close right?

Well, it’s kind of close, but it would take a long time to get there by bus.

She grinned at me and the phoenix rippled around her tight shirt, drawing my eyes to her figure. Who said anything about a bus? The phoenix can get us there in no time.

Won’t the other kids see it if we take off on a giant flaming bird?

She giggled out loud before answering in my head. There is magic that prevents that. The uninitiated will just see a shimmer. We just need to find a private place to summon it and take off.

MEANWHILE NOT TOO FAR AWAY

The red dot from the map looked to the sky as a giant flaming bird took off on the other side of campus. The man in red took out his magical communicator and spoke into it, “There is at least one unregistered mage at this school. I have yet to determine if she is the one we are looking for. The boy did not have any contact with her. I will report back when I know more.”