I groggily opened my eyes.

Above me was Esther’s face.

“Good morning~” she said with a slightly flushed face.

I was laying on her lap.

“Uuuuuh… good… morning?”

She smiled at me.

Behind her was the barrier spell I made.

“The barrier is still up?”

“Yeah, it’s been protecting me while I watch you.” She said joyfully.

“Ah… that’s good.” 

I sat up.

“Thank you…”

I checked my stat window.

||~Mana: 1/35~||

||NOTICE: Your Title: ‘Magician’s Crusade’ was activated. You have one mana remaining!||

||NOTICE: You were still affected by the status effect ‘Mana Exhaust’ due to using a spell higher than your mana level!||

So that’s what happened…

“Hey… Esther?”

“Yeah~?” 

“Wanna go on that date?” 

She stared blankly before registering my words… her face started turning red as she blushed.

“Uh- I mean go out to eat…”

“Y-yeah…” she mumbled.

I picked her up in a bridal carry, and dissipated the barrier.

“Wai- Hey Cyn…!” 

“It’s quicker if I do this.”

She held onto me and closed her eyes as I jumped up, the ground cracked under me.

We were now far above the city slowly falling as the sun was setting.

She opened her eyes.

“W-woah. It’s… beautiful…” she said, mesmerized.

“I see another beautiful thing.” I whispered in her ear teasingly.

Her face flushed a little as I laughed.

She then hit the back of my head though it seemed more playful then when she hit me in the guild.

Afterward, we landed and I took her out to dinner again.

Of course I hadn’t robbed- I mean earned anything through Percide yet… so I made replica coins out of my slime. They weren’t the best though since it was off of what I had seen around, but I refused to let Esther pay again.

⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱

|THE NEXT DAY|

⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱

Something I have been putting off was the complete absorption of the books I ate in the library. Since the information would be quite a lot I simply decided to ignore it. However, at some point I should absorb it since there could be something valuable.

I’m currently at the top of a tower meditating. I like the view from here which is why if I’m going to potentially spend the next few hours absorbing books, I’d like to do it here.

||ABSORB||

Though nothing happened on the outside of my body this time… the inside was a different story. I was currently sorting through hundreds of books trying to find out which ones could be useful.

⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱

“I need to get out of bed…” 

“Maybe I can see Cyn today?”

Esther grabbed her pillow and pulled it toward her face.

…

“Yesterday was fun…” she said quietly.

“I’ve made up my mind! I’m going to go find Cyn!”

She got out of bed and began getting ready.

“Ah- what should I wear though…”

Esther currently had a silky white nightgown on.

“Hmm… Oh! How about this…”

She picked out a nice silk-like navy blue dress with a white shoulder cape, put on black stockings, tied her hair back into a ponytail with a black ribbon, and slipped on black dress shoes.

“Where can I find him though?”

She went to the adventurers’ guild.

Esther peered into the window.

“Mmm… I don’t see him…”

“What about that field...?”

She then checked the field where we had practiced magic.

“Not here either…”

Esther then wandered around town aimlessly.

“Here?”

“Over here??”

“Maybe here???”

“Cyn where are you…” She said pouting, her cheeks were puffed out a little.

⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱

This is great. Yep, perfect. I’ve now collected around twenty books that are full of valuable information. The rest were…

Not important.

The books range from basic monster information to noble etiquette with some other things in between…

I opened my eyes.

“Haaaa…”

“This wind feels great~”

I stood up and stretched before looking beneath me.

“Huh?”

“Is that…”

⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱

“Argh- where is he!” Esther pouted.

“How did I always find him before-”

She heard a light tap from behind her, along with the flapping of clothing falling in the air.

“Huh?”

I grabbed hold of her shoulders.

“Morning Esther!” 

I said joyfully, peering around her shoulder

“Ah-“ 

“Cyn!” She swiftly turned around and hugged me, burying her face in my chest.

I started turning a slight tint of red.

“Um… I’m glad to see you too.”

I hugged her back, a little stiff from suddenly being in that situation.

“Where were you?” She said with an upset expression.

“Uh...”

I pointed up.

“I was on top of the tower.”

“On top of it?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

She was making pleading cat eyes. The ones that make you feel obligated to do something…

“…”

“Cyn.” she then glared at me.

“Haha- I like the view and was thinking… about some things…” I said quickly.

“Mmmmm…”

It didn’t seem like she was buying it… Wait, why am I being pressured right now?

“Alright.” She said finally.

“Heh-“

She then hugged me tighter.

I don’t know why, but she felt a little clingy today.

“Hey Esther, wanna see some more magic?” 

She looked up with a delighted smile.

“Yeah!” Her eyes were sparkling again. I guess she’s pretty big on magic.

⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱

Right now my mana is roughly forty six… so I should be able to use a spell or two from inside one of those books I read.

“Here we go!” I said excitedly.

I put my right hand out.

I took a deep breath.

“Water Shot.”

Water welled up in my hand and began spinning like it did with the fireball.

Focus…

I started spinning the water in my hand until it became a pointed drill, I aimed it toward the forest and shot it.

The next twenty yards or so blew up. There was a circular hole in the ground and trees that was around fifteen feet in diameter.

“Ah-“ I heard escape Esther's mouth.

“That… was ‘Water Shot’?”

“I guess it’s supposed to be a lot weaker huh?”

I looked at her while scratching the back of my head.

“I should have expected that from you…”

She smiled lightly at me before running over.

“Do you have any original spells?”

She swiftly grabbed my hands and looked at me with a glimmer in her eyes.

“I mean… I could make one?”

I turned around and put my hand out.

||SPELL CREATION||

Magic gears began forming in front of me. 

The good news about [Spell Creation] is that it can be used by visualizing and thinking about how you want the spell to be, or you can mix and match magic gears coded with different elements.

Let’s see attributes…

This one looks good!

⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱

“Hey Esther! I'm done!”

She got up.

“Really?” She said excitedly.

Alright here we go!

“Shadow World.” I whispered.

The shadow beneath me began spiraling… creating almost a vortex at the base of my feet before it shot out in all directions. Its color grew into a deeper black as it expanded. Giant tentacle-like arms emerged, and the sky became clouded in a deep seamless gray color. 

“Wha- what…”

“This is your spell???”

“Uh yeah… I think…”

“You think?!”

I pointed toward the ground to my right.

“Rise.”

Ah… I’ve always wanted to say that!

Shadows resembling me rose from the ground. Though they were all an off-black and seemed very robotic.

“Hmm… my shadow expanded about… fifty feet?”

“Your shadow?”

“Yeah. That’s what I based the spell off of, though I can’t make this area as big as I wanted since my mana is limited.”

How much mana do I still have remaining?

||~Mana 6/46~||

Hmm… let’s do something quick then.

“Esther, I can do one more spell.”

“Ah- alright…” 

I collapsed the [Shadow World] spell and got ready for another.

This time…

I put my right hand against my left arm.

“Three… two… one…”

BANG

I focused my mana and removed my left arm. It fell to the ground and appeared lifeless.

Esther’s eyes went wide as she saw my arm hit the ground.

“A-ah… C-cyn… your arm-”

“Huh? Oh right. It’s part of the spell, don't worry.”

I waved my right hand back and forth trying to play it off.

She looked horrified at the sight she was seeing. Her hands covering her mouth.

I tried moving my left arm.

Surprisingly I could move it even if it wasn’t connected.

“Let’s try another thing while we’re at it.”

I threw my left arm up.

||FORM SHIFT||

My left arm returned to this red slime before it rapidly began expanding. The theory behind this was that my body can expand up to the amount I’ve eaten. So making a body double shouldn’t be hard considering the amount of bandits I’ve killed and absorbed up till now.

Next to me was a lifeless clone of my current body… just pure red though since it was only reshaped.

Esther was staring blankly at what I was doing.

“This doesn’t make sense… his arm-” she whispered.

“Now for the spell!”

||SPELL CREATION||

The gear’s formed as I quickly moved them together. Visualizing the entire process within seconds.

“MIND’S EYE!”

The gear’s broke and activated.

My consciousness faded and I woke up immediately in the body double, my original body going limp and lifeless. Its eyes were dull, and the yellow-gold ‘01’ disappeared.

I started moving my arms around.

“Hmm… all good!”

It should have been set under the skill tab now so~

One more time~

||MIND’S EYE||

I swapped back to my body and recalled the slime double back into my body before creating a new left arm. The clothes also came back since they were made from my slime.

||~Mana 2/46~||

“Good it doesn’t consume a lot of mana-”

“Cyn…”

Esther tugged on my sleeve.

“Ah-“

“Explain.”

She looked kinda pissed off, while at the same time having a thin layer of tears in her eyes.

…

“I-”

“Fuck.”