Mathew was led outside to a shooting range. A decent sized group of people were sitting in chairs. Mathew saw a familiar face belonging to Zack in the crowd. He waved toward Mat with excitement and gave him two thumbs up.

Mathew couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm. Standing next to him was Mr. Melton.

“Mathew, can you please inform everyone about the spell's description, if any, to the observers. Then once you are ready, cast the spell.”

Mathew opened his menu to look at the spell.

Summon Wisp | Novice 1

You summon a wisp to your service costing a moderate amount of mana. Once summoned, it will not cost any additional mana, but you will not regenerate lost mana until the wisp is either killed or dismissed.

The wisp will remain near the summoner once summoned to constantly feed off mana for survival on your world. The wisp can attack creatures nearby with bolts of energy from the wisp's own personal reservoir of mana.

Although frail, these creatures are the perfect companion to both spell casters and guards, as they give off a small amount of light as well.

Summoning the Wisp only took a couple of minutes. It was a strange feeling for Mat. A source of energy left him flowing into his arm and out through his fingers. A small bead of blue light grew slowly above his hand. It grew till it was the size of a soccer ball.

The energy stopped and the ball wiggled to life. It appeared to be on fire, but it felt cool when his hand was near it. Two little spots of dark blue appeared and seemed to focus on him. They were apparently its eyes.

Mathew could feel a mental connection to the wisp. As if feeling returned to one of his limbs after falling asleep. The pins and needles feeling soon faded however. He turned to the crowd as everyone there was furiously writing in the notepads and talking among themselves.

One person raided her hand. “You mentioned it could attack? Can you please show us?”

With a mental command, the wisp fired a bolt of blue light at a nearby target. It was slow enough that one could easily follow its movement through the air. It didn't leave any marks, but Mathew had a feeling magical damage was different from bullets. More people were taking notes. Zack stood up and walked over to Mathew, people were watching him and a few shouted at him to get back and sit down.

“Hey mate, good to see you. I had you pegged to be one of the first to get magic.” Zack said as he patted Mathew on the shoulder. “So I need you to do me a favor.”

“Sure, but I want a one on one talk with you later. I have several questions.” Mathew replied.

“Of course.” Zack said as he walked into the firing range. At this point Mr. Melton and several other important figures were yelling at him to return to his seat. “Mathew,” Zack shouted, “Go ahead and hit me once with your wisp please.”

Mathew raised both his eyebrows, and everyone in the crowd fell silent as they were confused at his words.

“Are you sure?” Mathew asked.

Zack simply nodded and braced himself. More people shouted at Mathew this time to tell him not to. Mathew of course ignored them, and mentally commanded his wisp to attack Zack.

The bolt landed square in his chest, causing him to step back and wince. His shirt seemed a little damaged, but outside of that no visible markings could be seen outside red skin.

“Fuck that’s cold!” Zack shouted and started to rub at his chest. “Hurts like a bitch, but isn’t deadly. It had weight to it. If I wasn’t prepared for the hit”

Zack walked out of the range and was instantly yelled at by high ranking individuals. He smiled like an idiot the entire time and pleaded his case.

“It wasn’t going to kill me, I’m too tough for that. We need more information, so I took the risk myself. I didn’t ask anyone to do it. You can’t get mad at me, when we learned valuable information here! That wisp is ice attuned, or cold, or something similar. That means elemental attacks matter in this world.”

Someone from the crowd shouted. “It would be dumb if it didn’t. It existed before magic was real.”

“Yes, but we can confirm it now you dingus!” Zack shouted back. “Assumptions only make an ass out of you and me. I’m tired of sitting at a table debating all day. I want to get out there and get real research done, not roll dice and guess!”

Mathew stood there silently, letting Zack work out some pent up emotions he apparently had. More squabbling insured and Mathew was eventually asked about the staff.

He glanced at Mr. Melton for guidance. “Mr. McGonald here earned it as a reward. If you all reach Level 5, you will receive similar rewards.”

That there caused all the nerds to go insane. Several people groaned and Mathew could see an exchange of hands as currency was traded from bets.

“So you can just thwack people with it?” Someone asked.

Mathew shook his head. “It can fire attacks like my wisp here I assume. I have yet to test it out.”

Several people started to beg and encourage Mathew to test it out right now. He was enjoying all the attention he was receiving. Made him feel important, which he was. He also wanted to test the staff out anyways and raised it up. Holding it like a rifle, he aimed and could feel energy leave his body and travel into the staff.

A bolt of energy colored purple fired out of it and hit the target, this time leaving a light dent in the metal, but not going through. A few heads turned to Zack, seeing if he was going to be a human test dummy again.

He smiled and jumped back into the range. “Don’t aim for my face or manhood please Mathew.” Zack made a show to cover his groin with both hands and stood ready.

Mathew didn’t respond, instead aimed at Zack's thigh and fired. Mathew, however, missed and grazed him in the calf instead. Zack fell to the ground grabbing the wound.

Mathew could see some blood seep out, but not a lot. “Okay, yea this hurts way more. Shit, does anyone have bandages?”

A medic stationed nearby hurried to Zack and fixed him up. Mathew saw a small hole in his leg, as if he was shot by a bullet. Granted flesh was easier to pierce than a metal sheet, so it probably would deal less damage.

Mathew didn’t feel tired or exhausted from the summon or attack. He was asked to continue firing the staff until he felt unsafe to continue.

It was well over thirty shots later when Mathew felt drained. He could keep going for sure, but it was some instinctive feeling of being near empty on mana or whatever the magic he used to fuel the staff was.

Everyone was soon leaving now that the study was over. Multiple people thanked Mathew and even offered their services in the future if Mathew had any questions. Soon Mathew was alone with Zack and Mr. Melton.

“Mr. McGonald, if you should have anything more interesting such as a skill or spell, please let us know. The Commander would be greatly appreciative.”

Mathew gave a friendly smile. “Of course. I wouldn’t want to piss off the big guy, now would I? And I remember our deal, no worries.”

Mr. Melton shifted his eyes between Zack and Mathew before leaving.

Mathew stood close to Zack, and whispered in his ear. “Meet me behind the armory. There is a corner there that is hard to see from outside eyes. I’m grabbing Leo. Don’t bring anyone else.”

“What about Madison?” Zack asked.

Mathew thought about it, but shook his head. “She’s too young. You can fill her in later if needed, but fewer people means less chance of getting caught.”

Mathew took a step away and started to talk louder. “We can talk later Zackary. I am tired, tomorrow we can meet up if possible?”

Zack stammered a moment, but realized what Mathew was doing. “Uh, yea sure! Find me in the library with all the others.”

Mathew refrained from rolling his eyes and walked off to find Leo. As he did the wisp floated above his left shoulder, causing passerbyers to look at him in bewilderment. Many people stopped to ask him what it was. After the six person Mathew dismissed the wisp to avoid getting flagged down every other minute.

He had no doubt he was going to be the talk of the base. He had magic, and that was something everyone wondered about.

After checking their shared living area, Mathew headed toward the medic tents where Leo was assigned for training. The large increase of temporary shelters since his outing with Captain Henderson was almost scary.

At this point thousands of people were living outside, if not tens of thousands. Mathew was surprised the base was large enough to hold this many people. Then he thought about food, electricity, and how all these people were a waste.

They provided nothing as far as he could tell. Lambs grazing on grass while the shepherds and his dogs protected them. “Pitiful. At least I can provide a helping hand here.”

Mathew wondered how many people were dead at this point. If 25% died instantly the first moment The System arrived, how many were dead now? 30%? 50%? More? That’s just after a week, what about a month or even a year? Where would he be? In the dorm room cowering away from killer wolves?

He shook his head. “No, I refuse to be helpless. I was given a gift from those with power. A small title, but one that I will turn into greatness. Those wolves were eye opening, nobody is safe in this world unless the strong protects them. Who am I to depend upon others?”

Mathew’s grip tightened around his staff. “Magic is real, along with aliens, monsters, and worse. I refuse to let those with more power than me flaunt me off like a show pony.”

He walked away from the crowd of people since several were pointing out the weird man with the odd walking stick. Mathew had to ask around several times to find the tent Leo was in. He was with a group ferrying supplies back and forth between there and the hospital.

Leo put down a crate of water. “You want to do what?” He asked Mat.

“Meet me behind the armory when you have the chance, sooner than later. I need to talk to you about things I learned recently.”

“Like how you are now doubling as a creepy old man now?” Leo gestured to his staff.

“It sounds crazy, but this is a magical weapon that can fire purple bullets of magic and harm people. I shot Zack with it actually, leaving a small wound on him.”

“You shot Zack! Why?” Leo half shouted.

Mathew held up a hand to hush him. “Not so loud! Besides, he asked me to. Said it was for science, or magic? Wait, would magic count as science, or the other way around?”

Leo shook his head. “I get a break in half an hour, I’ll come by then.”

“Good, be sure nobody follows you. I have a feeling we are being closely watched. Primarily me.”

“Paranoid much?” Leo jokingly asked.

“Leo, it would do everyone well if they were paranoid, it’s how I avoided getting shot twice in my life, remember?”

“Oh I remember Hank. Dude lost everything to the divorce. Shame the negotiators couldn’t save him from killing himself, I always felt bad about him.”

“Exactly, if I didn’t bring my gun that day, we both would have died with him.” Mathew said. Leo nodded slightly agreeing with Mathew.

“I’ll meet you behind the armory soon Mat.”