Author's note: "It takes an idiot to do cool things, that's why it's cool" - Haruhara Haruko

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Nysa POV

After a few minutes, I managed to escape Hachi. That dog...that dog is simply too scary. It feels like in the moment I let my guard down, he'll kidnap me and lick me all over again. I couldn't help but shiver in fear: that dog was scaring me more than any sort of demon lord ever could.

Yet, I couldn't help but feel warm and fuzzy inside, from how much attention he gave me. No! Bad Nysa! Stop getting ideas!

I shook my head a bit, looking over to the wizard, which was still examining the stone. "Hey, old man! You said you were going to teach magic, so when we'll start?" I said, both excitedly, and demandingly.

"Well, you got most of the basic of magic down by doing this." He laughed. "But you still can't cast a single spell, can you?"

"Uh...no I can't. I mean, I learned how to manipulate mana but not casting spells. Not yet at least." I replied, rubbing the back of my head with a sheepish smile. 'How did I do this anyways? I just...willed it to happen, I suppose.'

"Then, for that it is rather simple." The old man said with a smile "Most of chanting is to achieve a state of mind to achieve a specific result. The more complex the spell, the longer is the chant to make sure we don't screw up. Anybody can make a massive fireball in seconds, if they have mana for it, but few are those who can cast the most complex spells casually." The old man explained, with a wide grin.

"Now, you can skip all sort of chanting, as long as your imagination is strong enough to imagine something, and nothing else. Do not think of fire as anything but fire, otherwise the spell will fail." He said...although it made me a bit skeptical.

"It is...that simple to cast magic?" I replied, blinking a bit. "Let me try!" I shouted, and then held my hand forward, closing my eyes. Think of a magic that wouldn't destroy this home, yet it is simple enough for me to cast. Simple, yet flashy enough to make sure I could cast it. The ball spells. Water sphere, fireball, boulder toss and wind bullet. All of these were easy and simple, just imagine the element in a round shape...and shoot it forward.

"Water sphere!" I shouted, and I felt my hands becoming slightly wet... yet when I opened my eyes, I saw the old man was in a quite damp mood, water dripping off his clothes.

"...Alright, little kid, as impressive as it is to cast spells like that, I advise you to not do it in a place where you can hit other people with it." The wizard said, letting out a deep sigh, manipulating his own mana to heat the air around him up, to dry his clothes. It was quite a sight.

I grinned a bit, deciding to cast such spell on myself, by imagining my body heating up, burning up to make myself hot and comfortable. Yet, after a few seconds, I noticed something. I smelled...fried chicken.

Stop making a 5-star meal out of yourself-8 HP

"...Save meee!" I shouted, as I began to roll around on the table to try to set the fire off, only to feel like I've nearly drowned seconds afterwards. Out of the frying pan and into the fridge, they say.

Coughing, I looked up at the wizard, while I was completely soaked, enough to look like I just jumped into a pool. I could see that the old man was chuckling, smilling a bit... at least I was assured that I wouldn't fail the quest from lack of intimancy.

Angrily, I stared at him. "Alright, game is on old man!" I shouted, pointing my hand towards him, deciding already aim for something more advanced...imagining a mix of water and earth, in an attempt of creating mud, and then shot towards him with magic. Only then I opened my eyes... to see the ball of mud, easily as big as myself, being reflected back at me, by a wind shield he cast around himself. "W-when did you do that?!"

That was my last thought before being buried in a ball of mud. Only after a few seconds, I managed to dig myself out, glad that it was as liquid as it was, otherwise I was sure I'd be crushed. The wizard meanwhile was just chuckling, shaking his head.

"You're truly a gifted woman." He said, extremely amused. "I took weeks to be able to cast spells as fast as you did. Well, except for the fire shield: that was my first miscast." He explained, laughing cheerfully.

"That's because I'm a fae! Also old man, how's the progress on the mana stone I healed?" I decided to ask, remembering the quest. I've already learnt magic, right? At least its principles...so the only next step for it was to finish the mana stone! And then I'll finish the quest, and manage to obtain a class! Who knew how rare the magic scholar class is anyways!

And above it all... it was an one-time only quest! Probably anybody who finds the old man from now on would have to do some other task to obtain his favor.

"Well about that...that mana stone isn't going to work." The wizard said, letting out a sigh. "It is hard to draw the mana without breaking it, and unless I draw the mana in equal amounts it becomes unstable and eventually loses all energy. Above all, most of people can't use such amount of magical energies." He said, shaking his head.

Meaning...that Nysa's way of dealing with it had failed. Yet...she blinked at his words. It sounded simple to fix it up for her... especially since she had a little knowledge from outside of this world to help with her. "Uh...but what if, instead of making it like a mana storage to use in the middle of the table, we consider it as a mana storage device? So after using it all in a battle, you simply use it to regenerate your mana afterwards?" I asked. If it was like that, then it could be used just as a meditation enhancer, right?

The wizard just blinked a bit. "That could work...it wouldn't be as good as what I expected, but it would still be great..." He mumbled, considering the possibilities. "But I'm not sure it is the best we both could do."

Noticing how unsatisfied he was, I decided to say something, that I wasn't sure how well it would be received.

"What if we don't care about long-term uses, and instead use much smaller stones? Then the people could use each one of the stones, each for one spell, right?" I asked, as if it was obvious. The bigger the stone, the bigger the spell, right?

"That..." The wizard looked shocked at the idea, as if such thing never passed through his head....it was easily the closest thing he could wish for. It wasn't as permanent as he'd like, but yet...the progress, even on the conceptual level, was nothing short of amazing. But on the idea of smaller stones, the wizard had a moment of enlightenment. Mana was often restored by eating, and so...what if he found a way to make people ingest stones?

"What if we grind them into dust? And maybe get people to eat it, to restore their mana?" The wizard suggested, with a small grin. It might end up very badly, but at the same time, in case of success, the future possibilities would be endless.

"What sort of person would eat pure dust? I consider it too dry! Everybody would need a cup of water right after this...so why not mix water and dust together?" I replied, almost knowing what this conversation would lead to.

"Hmm? Just like a potion?" The wizard asked, looking...quite interested in my idea.

"Yes! A potion to restoring mana! Just like there is health potions, stamina potions, and so on, we can call it...Mana potion!" Nysa shouted, excitedly, believing that there was such inventions outside the forest...although the wizard's eyes opened wide, just for a second as Nysa said that, although he quickly recovered.

"That is a fine name...yes I like it." He said, with a grin. "You have what it takes to be a mage, and above it all to research. I guess I made the right choice of making you my pupil, haven't I?" He laughed cheerfully. "Let's do this 'mana potion', then." He added, with a wide grin.

Quest updated!'Quest: Magic 101Type: One-timeDifficulty: D'Old man' has grown to respect you enough to listen to your ideas! Sometimes it is better to go to the drawing board and make something easier after all!Rewards:

Small mana potion

Mana potion recipe

Magic scholar classFail conditions:

Old man's intimacy getting too low

Old man's death

time limit: 3 days

"Yes, let's do it." I said, with a wide grin as I read the quest notification.

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Author's corner: Gueez, this chapter was a pain to write. I think that daily uploads is wearing me off a bit, I'll count this chapter for both Saturday and Sunday, and use this Sunday to rest and maybe ponder a bit of the plot, maybe play some games and so on. Don't worry, I'll be back =D