With a groan, I sit up or at least try to only to wince at the splitting headache assaulting my head. The first thing I notice is that I’m on the floor with a pool of dried vomit beside me. Scratching at the sudden itch on my nose, I find white powder on my fingers.

Realizing that I overdosed on magical cocaine, I close my eyes and breathe until my headache subdues. Sitting up, and breathe a sigh of relief when I find last night’s tray still here. No one has found my mana imbued narcotics yet.

Removing the rag I’m wearing, I tear a small piece from it and scoop whatever is left of the transformed charcoal. The bathroom is simple, yet functional. A large hole in the ground that functions both as a toilet and a drain, a smaller one in the wall provides water, and a lever that closes the water tap off.

I drop the remaining charcoal in the drain, take a quick shower and clean the only piece of clothing I have. I think I developed a small revulsion to cold showers but it did help with my headache.

Exiting the bathroom naked, with the piece of cloth that I cut, I clean the pool of vomit on the floor and remove any ashes or white powder I can find. Finished with the cleaning, I sit on the bed waiting for my rag to dry out, and right on time, the door of my cell opens up, and a servant comes in, replaces the tray of food, looks at me for a second, and leaves. I'm not really surprised by his lack of reaction at this point. For the last week, I've been trying to talk to them every time they came by and utterly failing. I didn't even get their name.

With the danger evaded, I collapse on the bed and feeling my eyelids go heavy, I close my eyes and embrace sleep. A flash of pain from my leg whisks me out of sleep. Opening my eyes, I find the very first person that brought me food looking down at me. A man in his late forties with an elegant appearance, wearing an expensive-looking suit with grey ears and a trimmed mane, the word butler flashed in my mind before he broke me out of my musing.

With a frown on his face, he says in a stern voice. “There will be a test next week to see how far you have progressed.” Staring at me till I nod, he starts heading for the door.

Tearing my eyes away from his back and looking down, I notice that I’m still naked. Fully dressed in my one-piece outfit, I eat the mysterious soup and sink back into the books.

And just like that, a week passed by. For a whole week, I did nothing but eat, sleep and study. I dropped the experimenting with engraving for the sake of passing whatever test I have. Halfway done with the book on earth magic, and it’s not looking good so far.

The spells in the book were very simple; you connect to your element, send a set of commands and wait for your mana to do the heavy lifting, the same I’ve theorized. Sounds pretty straightforward so far. The only problem I have is that I can’t actually do that, or at least do it with the precision I have in mind.

The commanding-my-element part was going smoothly the last time I have tried it; the mana part is the problem. I don’t think I can use any of the spells mentioned in the book here, and I’m starting to believe that I’m some sort of cripple.

I have only one ace up my sleeve, and I’m sure as hell going to use it right. Rocking a clean shirt and pair of pants, I’m walking behind Alfred towards the dreaded meeting. We walk for about five minutes in a stone-walled hallway, much similar to the one before, and arrive at a set of stairs. Alfred walks up the stairs, and I follow. We pass through a series of doors and corridors; finally, entering a large courtyard with a beautiful garden on the side. A gorgeous woman, with mature features and a pair of slightly large orange ears, is sitting on a nearby porch, sipping something from a cup in her hand, and reading some papers on her table. Once she noticed our presence, she placed her cup on the table, draped one leg over the other, and motioned for Alfred.

Bowing slightly towards the foxy lady, Alfred removes my collar, says “You can start now.”

Before he leaves to stand beside his mistress, I add a “Thank you, Alfred.” getting a grunt from him and a single raised eyebrow from the fox.

Closing my eyes and concentrating, I circle my mana through my body and pass it from my bare feet to the ground, creating an almost instant connection. As soon as I felt the connection formed, I spread it around as much as I can. About two seconds in, I stop and unceremoniously drop to the ground breathing heavily.

Looking up at the fox and noticing a frown on her face, I hastily add. “There four other people, excluding me, you and Alfred, in this courtyard; three male and a single female.”

I’m not even sure if the weight proportion of the races here is the same.

The frown on her face lessens a bit, and I continue. “Also, there are about fifteen people below us in four different rooms.”

The frown on her face gone, and her face back to its impassive phase, she stares at me for a few seconds before gracefully picking her cup back up, motioning Alfred away, and looking back down at the papers on her table.

Nothing more is said. Alfred collars me up again and silently walks me back to my room. Once I’m inside, he says, “My name is not Alfred” closes the door, and leaves.

Tired by the whole ordeal, I collapse on the bed and sleep away my worries. The next day, I wake up finding food on the disk, not noticing anything different; I eat and continue the daily routine I set.

The rest of the earth magic book took about a week and a half to finish; it was beneficial. I have a few more tricks that I can use and a lot of theory to use when I get some mana to work with. I skimmed through the other affinity books and practiced my engraving, but nothing bore fruit so far.

I was finishing up the book on mana manipulation when Alfred opened the door, dropped a clean outfit on the bed, and said “Get dressed.” Seeing that I haven’t moved, he drops his voice and adds “You’re meeting your new owner” noticing my surprised expression, he concludes. “and I expect you to be on your best behavior.”