16 Chapter 16

It was a book.

Generally one wouldn't be surprised to find a book in a home.

But Tasha really didn't expect to find one in 'this' home.

Then again he never really expected to find anything resembling the contents of a normal home besides fast food and instant food packages.

'Basic magic theory' the cover read.

Finally, after knowing Curtis for a few days, it actually clicked in his head that she was a teacher. With her character and deposition, he couldn't really be blamed if he mistook her for a mafia enforcer.

Usually, he'd leave those kinds of things alone.

But seeing how he was left here without anything to do, it didn't seem like the worst idea to flip through it since there was nothing else worth doing.

When the title said 'Basic' he didn't know how much the author stressed that word at the title.

Most of it talked about the overall theory on mana and spell casting and how it worked, making him relatively uninterested as he skimmed past each page with some yawns in between.

But there came a point, a section in that book that stopped his fingers from even shifting.

...

Curtis arrived back pretty late after a long drawn out discussion on everything related to Tasha's enrollment.

The term weary was unable to describe the way she felt at this point.

Valerie had thoroughly proven that she had earned her position as a principal of this academy by her own means. She'd spent this time to force the Earth Fiend to submit under her bureaucratic babble, not letting her leave until everything about the issue was properly straightened out, even trying to get some benefits while she was at it.

Curtis had a mind to apply her ability to talk under the classification of forbidden magic, what else could leave a half-step Archmage helpless and unable to defend themselves. Heck, she'd doubt Archmages could withstand the barrage of her linguistic skills without losing out in some form.

Curtis had walked out of there with the school's agreement to let Tasha enroll sure, but she couldn't suppress this feeling that she'd sold her body and soul to the devil for the exchange.

There were even times that she'd almost blurted out the little information she had on Tasha because of Valerie's coaxing. When she thought back to it, she wasn't really sure it was just "almost".

Luckily Akagi was there to keep her sharp and strangely enough, Warren's anger-inducing, snobby comments had saved her from basically pledging servitude to the frightening woman.

But still, there were stringent requirements put in place for Tasha to enter, and not a lot of time for her to prepare him for it.

They were in the middle of May and the seniors were already taking their graduation exams, ending at the start of June. After which, there was a three week holiday before the enrollment exams.

They had essentially little over a month to get ready, and that wasn't the stringent part of the deal. Valerie made it a point, that he had to reach 10% above the score average against a cohort who'd been preparing for this exam since they could write.

Now, she wasn't so much troubled by the magus aspect of this deal, as that was her area of expertise. Her issues were with the general subjects.

Sure this was a world with magic spells and all, but that didn't mean that the normal school subjects were neglected either. Archmages were extremely powerful, that didn't mean they were exempted from taxes, rent or paying for dinner.

An Archmage with a money problem was not a pretty sight to look at. Though, it was considered a very rare case since they could usually render services for financial gain.

Curtis, as sad as it may sound, was the equivalent of this world's gym teacher. She was just lucky that 'Gym' was an an integral part of this world that everybody used daily.

She could barely understand most of the other subjects herself, much less teach them.

She opened her door believing she could finally find some rest, but opened it to realize her troubles for the day were not done with her.

As she took heavy steps into the apartment, her first sight was of Tasha doing a ritual on his own core.

...

Human cores in general could not grow on their own, it's initial size if untouched would stay the same through out their whole lives.

That being the case, there was a time when humans were at the very bottom of the food chain compared to all other beasts.

That was until the first magus made sound a way for them to increase their core's size through rituals magic.

This form of magic would bind a permanent spell onto the users core, which would give its user increased attributes according to what spell was attached.

As the spell began to circulate with the core, the user could use the spell itself as a form of mana storage.

So the more of these spells were attached to a person, the more their mana capacity would grow.

But it took time for the spell to assimilate with the core and until it did the spell would be piggy backing on the core's mana supply, which was especially dangerous for first timers.

If the first spell they added needed more mana than their mana supply could support, they would spend their whole lives as a cripple.

Their core would be drained everytime it got even a drop of mana trying to jump start a spell that was permanently attached to it.

And from the looks of Tasha's pale face, this was exactly what was going to happen.

She cut through the room to get to him as fast as she could, yelling so hard she wasn't even able to hear her own voice.

But as she arrived, the tunes flying around him blipped out of existence and it was over.

"What spell was that!?" Curtis shouted in a panic.

Tasha looked on wide eyed at Curtis's alarmed expression combined with her frazzled condition.

Slipping the book he was reading towards Curtis and pointing at a section which befuddled her.

'Resistance increase ritual'- basic ritual spell, increase the resilience of users body.

She was extremely confused because this was a basic ritual spell which had the minimal requirement for his mana capacity.

But if that was the case why did he look so tired.

Her hand reached for his body, which he instinctively tried to dodge. But his weakened state rendered him unable to do so.

As soon as she held him, she released her mana sense inside his body and went straight to his core.

The weird thing was that there was nothing there, not a single line from a spell could be seen hovering around his mana core.

Her confusion grew as she tried to remember what happened when she arrived home.

It was in the spur of the moment, but she could swear she felt him complete the spell.

'Maybe there was a back lash from failing?' She thought, but it wouldn't make him this tired either.

"Is this the first spell you tried?" Curtis asked for some reason, the question didn't make sense to her either.

Everyone had always attempted their rituals one by one so as not to risk anything.

But she felt that maybe normal common sense didn't exactly apply to this kid.

The answer to her question cake in the form of him shaking his head and looking at her as if he wondered what he did wrong.

"How many have you done?" She asked even more worried than before.

Her worries came true as he pointed on the number right next to its title, '9.'

There were only ten in there.

If he got backlashes from all 9 of them it was no wonder that he was so exhausted.

Since there didn't seem to be any successful spells floating around his core, that was all she could come up with.

Her eyes closed as she sighed.

Shoulders dropped as the tension that had suddenly been sprung on her, had just as suddenly been relieved.

"Never do that again, understand me?" Curtis spoke sternly as she held both his shoulders.

Her fingers had firm grasp on him, digging into his skin.

That sudden move of hers caught him completely off guard.

The residual trembling in her hand from the rush lingered on the top of her skin.

As they held him, he could almost feel the blood rushing into them with every pulse, streaming in from a heart which was still pumping heavily from the previous event.

Those pupils looked to him waiting on an answer and all he could do was open his mouth impotently and not find the words during one of the few times he needed them.

Genuine concern was something unprecedented to him, a word whose meaning he knew, but whose sentiments he was quite a stranger to.

For all his worth he could not associate his experience right now to the very essence of it.

The only way he could form a coherent response was by nodding at her.

"Good," Curtis sighed, at least he was obedient. If he jumped to the tenth one after failing the last one, he might not have come out of this with just some sweaty clothes and heavy breathing.

Curtis picked herself up with whatever energy she had left over.

Dragging her bag as well as the chair it's strap was attached to with her as she left for her room.

She took two steps to the door and stopped.

Head bent down, her brows scrunched together, wondering why it was looking at two feet that stopped.

And in the next it was raised, eyes looking at the empty space in front of it in wonder.

Before finally turning back to look at that kid still sitting at the kitchen table.

"... Did you say something?" Her voice came out hesitantly.

He made eye contact with her and for a few seconds it seemed as if he was on the brink of saying something.

But a wearied Curtis gave out first, "right... sorry my mistake.." Opening the door of her bedroom she quickly entered and swung the door.

And just before the door clicked shut, she tilted her head and smiled.

In the darkness and in the silence she swore she heard him speak to her for the first time in an almost inaudible whisper...

"...Thanks"

...

Unbeknownst to them, Tasha's core stirred without any provocation.

It began to morph the same way it did when Tasha tried to meditate.

And this time there was no one there to stop it.

It's sides bubbles and turned into spike like protrusions, the slit in its center forming the shape of jagged teeth.

And ever so slightly the marks of those spells Tasha attempted would protrude from within it, pushing outward and circling it like a normal ritual spells would.

But despite all of those rings surrounding a 12 year old boy's core, it was not the highlight of the moment.

Though it was near impossible to measure with how small it shifted, Tasha's core was doing something no others had ever done...

It had begun to grow.