Finding most of my students was easier than I expected, they hadn’t gone far. The sheer novelty of their magic had sent most of them into a bit of a tizzy, even Ling who was quite the sight with her white hair acting in stark contrast to the childish glee all of them were emanating. Only Leon was missing, but that might have been due to a difference in personality or that he was of a slightly different bend. More focused on the scientific side, possibly due to his engineering background, and perceiving magic through that lens. Not as something to be enthused about, or something miraculous, simply another facet of the things he had studied and applied for years. A different mindset, but I wasn’t certain which was the better one.

Either way, given their proximity, I offered the life practice to them first and got immediate interest. Especially Kevin muttered something along the lines of riding the bus to uba-powa, sounding both amused and flabbergasted at the idea. That got the others even more interested, though Sandy didn’t look too enthused when she realised it would entail a lot of killing and death. Understandable, but not a useful mindset in this world. There were no soldiers who made sure that danger and death were kept far from the Western world we were living in, and no police trying to enforce a governmental monopoly on force. Just individuals, each of us having to provide our own safety, giving us ultimate and complete agency and freedom. Freedom truly wasn’t free.

Given that I assumed the usual rules I had learned on Mundus would apply here, too, I told them that three of them could join Silva and myself, letting them figure out who could go and who couldn’t. That led to a rapid and spirited round of rock, paper, scissors, something that amused me to no end given that it, theoretically, could be counted as a test of Intuition and Dexterity, both important attributes to budding spellcasters and a party containing Ling, Kevin and Noriko. Amusingly, the three lowest-level people had won while the others showed varying degrees of relief and disappointment, ranging from the mild to the outrageous. Kenji acted as if he was in deep despair, at least for a few seconds, before his mood shifted once more, now displaying a gleeful smile as he mused about the food prepared for the evening.

After getting some food for myself, and warning my three students that it would likely be a long night, we gathered at the entrance, the three of them looking at me, and sometimes Silva, with a lot more apprehension. Maybe seeing the darkness outside was driving home just how real this was, that I planned to go out there and hunt, not just guard the territory here. They each had some sort of simple weapon, Ling what looked like a kitchen cleaver, Kevin a baseball bat and Noriko a Kusarigama, a chain-sickle, that I had seen in Mrs Wu’s collection. None were system-approved, making their efficiency utter crap but it was likely the best they had. Hopefully, they wouldn’t need it.

Looking at each of the three in turn, I raised my hand and softly intoned, “Until dawn, I shall guide you three in fellowship. You shall learn from me, learn of this world and of magic. In turn, you will guard my back while I work, as I guard you.”

The words didn’t have any power of their own, but I had learned on Mundus that intentions mattered and in this case, my intention was to invite them into the party, the fellowship, Silva and I had established, with me as their leader. For a moment, all three looked downwards, indicating that a blue box had appeared in their vision, before they all voiced their agreement, in varying degrees of formality. Amusingly, Noriko was the most formal, trying to match my previous formality and tenor.

“Until dawn, I shall follow you in fellowship. I will act as you direct and learn as you teach. I will guard your back and trust that you guard mine,” she promised and for a moment, I wondered if there was a way to make her words binding. But no, even the attempt would be a grave breach of trust, my students trusted me to act as their teacher, and even just trying to suborn them would betray that. It felt oddly wrong, not just the faint, lingering memory of my mother teaching me how to act but something else. Something deeper. Possibly that blessing, coming back to haunt me, trying to make me act as a good teacher?

Shaking off the confusion, I led my fellowship out, Silva easily moving alongside me. I wanted to try and thoroughly clear out the sewers, making sure that nothing was growing down there to threaten the community here. It would be a merely temporary solution but hopefully, they wouldn’t need more, having moved before things could become truly problematic.

As we moved, I considered using my cloak to fade into the gloom of the night but decided against it. My students were already nervous enough, especially after I had forbidden them to light a torch or have Noriko use her Light Magic to illuminate our surroundings, having me seemingly disappear on them would only stress them out needlessly. Instead, I let my Frozen Shuttle flit and weave around us, trying to increase the precision of my control while simply giving them a small show and distraction. The main part of my awareness was out there, focused on my senses to the point that I barely registered where I was going, more interested in what we would find when we got there.

Given that this was supposed to be a training trip, I began to quietly lecture about Shattered and the weaknesses I had noticed before. They weren’t the only enemies out there, but the ones my fledgeling students would mostly face for now.

Realising that I hadn’t even asked them whether they had figured out some sort of attack magic, I did just that. Kevin nodded enthusiastically, while Noriko frowned before giving me a hesitant nod. Ling, on the other hand, only smiled wrily but given that she had, so far, failed to learn any magic, that wasn’t a surprise.

“We’ll see if there are any Shattered that will work as training dummies. That way, you can get used to fighting them in a reasonably safe situation,” I told them, noticing that the prospect didn’t make them look too enthused.

Regardless, this was training for them, so I had them demonstrate, targeting a nearby wall. Kevin’s attack was a little sad. He managed to combine three runes into a formation, for him a challenging feat, a fact that made me praise the traits ‘Natural Mage’ and ‘The Road is my Teacher’, but the actual power of the spell was lacklustre. I recognised the doubled Water-Rune he used and guessed that the other one was something like splash, spout or spring, something that implied movement, but it only turned into one big wave of water that splashed against the wall. Likely strong enough to push a Shattered back a step or knock a person over, but nothing more. It wouldn’t truly damage them and he needed multiple seconds to cast it.

On the other hand, Noriko’s attack was incredibly effective. That is, if I was the target. She, too, tried a three-rune formation with Light as the central part. Her intent was likely to try turning it into something akin to a laser however the result was a bright flash that left me blinking away the spots in my eyes, despite my attempts to shield them.

After acknowledging their attempts, I began to explain the problems with their spells. Mostly the lack of penetration and the problem of friendly fire. As we walked, I tried to help them understand how to link Runes, hoping they would unlock the Runic Formation ability, before moving on to talk about the Spell Channelling ability. If they had those two, their spells might actually be useful.

Even after we left the area guarded by archers on rooftops, there were very few Shattered around. Those few that noticed our small fellowship were dispatched before they could close in. As the Shattered died, I made sure that my students were getting EXP, sadly they didn’t get a lot and began considering leaving a few for them to train.

Like that, with a mix of teaching, walking and a few Shattered interruptions, we made our way to a nice, large manhole cover, just a few hundred metres outside of their protective envelope. I had noticed it the night before and decided it would be the place to insert my mists, hopefully making sure nothing tried to escape the carnage by charging into the gym.

After making sure that nothing problematic was nearby, I settled down, calming myself before creating the five rune formation I habitually used. Time to show my students a bit of my actual prowess.