Ch47. Year of tutelage 1

"Yes, just like that. You got a good grasp on spatial magic, girl." Rei praised Merlin for finally being able to use [Inventory] spell with a small smile adorning his lips as he affectionately ruffled her hair, causing her to blush in embarrassment at the praise.

When the year of living together with her started, he had no idea she would grow on him so much but teaching someone magic eight hours per day probably had to do a lot with it. Rei quite liked to tease her since she was so expressionable, not really knowing how to properly hide her emotions.

[Inventory] was not really a spell in Yggdrasil. It was a function in the game but as with every such function, Rei found he was just subconsciously casting a spell to access a small storage pocket dimension belonging to him every time he opened his inventory. That piqued his interest a lot and he prodded and probed for a long time around it during the past few months. His worry that somebody could access it without his knowledge and steal something from him was one of the driving forces behind his research drive... alas, Rei found out there were some very intricate defenses his feeble mind simply could not comprehend. It was something on a different level even compared to Super-Tier magic.

The Inventory in the game was basically unbreachable for other players so the universal glitch most likely took that into account and made it unbreachable even in the real world... At least, that was Rei's final theory about it.

Rei's research on this bore its fruits, however. Since he now knew what it was and how it somehow worked, he was able to teach the spell to Merlin.

"How big is your Inventory?" Rei asked, curious if it was the basic size of Yggdrasil's inventory for every starting character.

"I... don't know?" Merlin tilted her head and furrowed her brows while tinkering with the spell formula in her mind, "It somehow depends on the amount of my magic though..."

Rei pursed his lips at that before chuckling. This was the reason why he needed the magic researcher in the first place. His magic worked subconsciously for him. These small nuances about how it worked for others... he had no way of finding out. That said, he was not really interested in spending his time researching spells to find out either but still... Merlin managed to find out something he missed for months about the [Inventory] spell in short few seconds of pondering about it.

'It's been already a few months, huh?' Rei thought in nostalgia, observing Merlin tinkering with her Inventory, trying to adjust the spell to do things like auto-sorting things inside. Rei could afford to spend an entire year teaching Merlin only because his ability had a strange way of interacting with timelines. He knew the second he returned back to his world, at most a bit over three hours would pass. Rei decided it was not worth burning his brain cells thinking about it because... there was no way he would understand how time streams work for different universes and how his ability is making use of that to give an impression of controlling time despite not really doing anything of the sort. Rei's attention returned to things he could affect and understand... like Merlin's progression, 'She has really a massive talent for magic. To think she would learn over eighty spells so far...'

Rei wasn't teaching Merlin anything combat-related because he knew she would find her own combat style with time. He focused on convenience spells. Spells that could substitute cleaning, bathing, help with cooking and creating a comfortable shelter even in the most inhospitable places. The most useful thing for combat Rei would teach Merlin was Teleportation, a spell she had some small trouble performing, and then there were some spells that worked passively to enhance her body, give her regeneration factor, and stuff like that.

It was an interesting thing to find out Merlin's mana pool slowly expanded a little bit whenever it was not full. The rate of expansion was quite abysmal. It would take Merlin a few million years to match Rei's mana pool if she relied only on it but every helpful bit counted. These passive spells that always used a minimal amount of mana and prevented her mana pool from being full at all times would ensure not even a second was wasted as far as mana pool expansion was concerned.

Rei's eyes suddenly looked at the clock on the wall, "It's time for your lesson with Solution." He turned to Merlin who stopped tinkering with the Inventory spell with a small pout on her face.

The relationship between Solution and Merlin was an odd one. It started with Solution treating Merlin with somewhat cold indifference and Merlin being awkward and uncomfortable around the maid. Fortunately, Solution warmed up to Merlin and stopped giving her a cold glare every time the girl messed up a spell or her footwork was not up to Solution's expectations.

Rei couldn't blame Solution for her hidden hostility towards Merlin. Even he could clearly see the girl just wanted to make use of them at the start, learning as much as she could before most likely rejecting his offer. He wasn't bothered by it as he knew the temptation of the unknown was too much for Merlin. He had no doubt she would fall for it given enough time and demonstration. Solution was different. She was disgusted with Merlin's attempt at cheating Rei and her attitude slightly showed it.

Thankfully, Merlin's thoughts changed soon enough and with time, Solution begrudgingly accepted her as a future co-worker when she saw how Merlin's eyes shone during her magic lessons. Obviously, the girl wouldn't be refusing the deal anytime soon so Solution decided to become friendlier towards her.

"Do I have to?" Merlin whined. "I don't like close combat lessons..."

"Eh, I probably shouldn't tell you but Solution told me she intends to teach you some healing magic in the last two months if you do well enough in her current lessons." Rei revealed in order to motivate the young mage.

Before he could even open his mouth to speak again, Merlin was already out of the room, heading towards the sparring area where her lessons with Solution were conducted. Rei snorted and added for himself, "Naturally, that means her close-combat lessons would become extremely intense. You will get injured a lot so you can practice the healing magic. Not that you stayed to listen to my warning. Oh well, sucks to be you..." He shrugged and stood up, deciding to start preparing the dinner while Solution was busy with Merlin. She usually didn't like seeing Rei doing chores such as that, giving his back that self-depreciative glare whenever she saw him cooking in her stead. Yet, her eyes always sparkled with joy when she ate food prepared by him.

The Negotiation Room was not exactly just a 'room'. Rei could make it anything... within a reason. For now, he had expanded it to a small house where three people could comfortably live and a sparring area where Merlin had her lessons with Solution and could do some fights against weak pop monsters.

Rei didn't expand it to the extreme, knowing it would just disappear after the 'negotiation' with Merlin was done. Spending his Yggdrasil gold on it would be just a waste. These past few months were a valuable experience for him. He learned a lot, experimented with spells a lot, experienced the feeling of being a teacher and for a small part, a parent, and realized he will never again set the negotiation time for more than a week. Spending an entire year in a small house he could not leave was making him quite frustrated.

Fortunately, he had Solution to help him with that...