Chapter 49

Chapter 49

The next two weeks settled into a comfortable routine. Alice had discovered that Milo also worked at the docks, which made Alice feel much more at ease in her new job. Milo was more than happy to show her the ropes, which made her integrate smoothly into the crowd of workers there. A lot of the work Alice needed to do wasn’t particularly complicated. It mostly involved lifting heavy objects, such as planks, walls, and so on, and then holding them steady. Afterwards, workers would come and help do the more ‘detail-oriented’ parts of the work, such as nailing in objects and putting everything together. Other than that, Alice would sometimes move large amounts of materials from one place to another, especially if they were awkwardly shaped and difficult to carry with human hands. In all, the work was more than slightly dull, but it was more useful for her magic training than she had thought it would be. As a result of the work at the docks, along with Illa’s training, Student of Kinetic Magic had gained a few levels, going from 19 to 23. At level 20, Alice had selected a Perk called {Split Mind}. This perfectly addressed one of the bigger problems Alice had felt that she had, which was the inability to multitask effectively.

Split Mind

Requirements: Student of Kinetic Magic level 20 or higher, Magic 100 or higher, Intelligence 150 or higher

You gain the ability to focus on two things at once, creating the ability to genuinely Multitask



The feeling of being able to think of two things at the same time was... trippy. Alice had a headache for almost a solid hour after unlocking the Perk as she tried to figure out what in the world was going on. The way her brain worked once she was processing two sets of information at once instead of one was... different. Very different. Instead of processing information from her surroundings once, it felt as if she was receiving the same set of information twice, with one set of information being ever so slightly delayed.

Naturally, the next thing she had done was try to walk around, only to trip over her own feet and lay on the floor of the inn. After that, she decided she wouldn’t move until the room stopped spinning. Luckily, after an hour, her headache had started to go away, and Alice had started to figure out how to process multiple streams of information. Even though it was originally migraine-inducing, Alice had quickly began to figure out how useful it was to be able to do two things at once after she started to get the hang of it.

She could control two mana tendrils at once instead of one.

She could observe the formation of a magic seed while also forming a magic seed.

She could keep an eye on her surroundings, remaining alert for danger, while also thinking about magic or research.

She could even read a book while simultaneously doing her work at the docks. It had taken some convincing on her part for Illa to let her take a book out of Illa’s mansion, but once Alice had done so, the increase in efficiency was simply remarkable. It was just a shame that Alice only had two eyes, and so even if she got more Perks allowing her to Multitask, she would still have a hard time using it as effectively as she was using two streams of information at once. Still, there were probably Perks that could fix that problem. Even so, Alice was pretty sure this was the best Perk she had ever gained. The fact that it was available at level 20 was even more absurd. She wouldn’t have been surprised if a Perk as useful as this one wasn’t available until she reached the upper 40’s.

Alice was also becoming increasingly aware of the fact that she would get her [Student of Kinetic Magic] class to its maximum level soon. All Student classes maxed out at 25, and she had been curious to see what a class evolution looked like for a while. With a month remaining before she left, and only two levels to go, Alice was sure she would get to see it before she left.

With the two weeks and her newly boosted efficiency, she finished raiding Illa’s book collection. Along the way, she finally picked up {Bookworm} when she was almost out of books.

You have gained an achievement!

Bookworm (Rarity: 3)

You have read at least 50 books from cover to cover in less than a year.

+10% class experience for all classes related to Research. +5% effect of the Intelligence Stat. Significantly improved reading speed.

Alice had originally thought that the magic had actually disappeared. She had even spent a few hours trying to figure out how and why that might happen while she was messing with the seed. However, once she had broken the magic seed, she had discovered that things might be a bit different than her expectations. The moment she used her new Perk to shatter the magic seed, several bits of yellow-grey mana had been dragged out of the mage core behind her heart. They had then stuck around inside of her body for a few moments, before they were dragged out of her body by a force she could neither see nor interact with. A few moments later, the only evidence that Alice had ever had the magic seed to begin with were a few clumps of broken mana, hanging around in her surroundings.

The broken mana told her a few things. Most importantly, the mana hadn’t just disappeared into thin air. It was obviously still somewhere, in some form, after she had formed her mana seed. However, once the mana seed was formed, she couldn’t see a thing. It was impossible to observe, impossible to interact with, and impossible to even confirm the existence of. However, it was still inside of her mage core.

Or at least, that was Alice’s current theory. She would need to think about a better way to observe whatever was going on in there.

The light experiment had provided her with 2 levels in [Explorer of Magic] and a level in [Scientist] just for observing the weirdness of the seemingly unobservable magic seed. Frustratingly enough, [Explorer of Magic] was now level 39, and [Scientist] was now level 19. Exactly one level away from gaining a Perk in each class.

However, the biggest gain Alice had from her two weeks of her new lifestyle wasn’t just levels and Achievements. Instead, Alice had finally managed to create the necessary supplies for a manaless room.

It had been surprisingly simple once Alice learned that Enchanting Materials did not have to be solid matter. Cyra may have been a relatively newly established town, but one of the major reasons Illa and her husband had built a town in the area was the easy access to enchanting materials from the south. In the wilds, plenty of weird materials existed, and adventurers had Perks to figure out which ones interacted with mana, even though they weren’t mages. It was an obvious safety need, since [Adventurers] were almost universally afraid of mana poisoning, and also gave them the ability to find new and odd materials to sell for a living.

About a week after Alice’s new lifestyle had started, Cecilia had told Alice that an adventurer sold her some plant sap that worked well with Pure Mana. It could only remember one instruction, so it was surprisingly affordable, and Cecilia had simply bought about a bucket of it.

From there, Cecilia and Alice spent a day messing with the sap, trying to figure out if there was a way to spread the sap around a bit more. As long as it was first boiled, then mixed with water, it could form a sort of ‘paint’ that was still able to remember enchanting instructions, as long as the sap wasn’t thinned out too much.

From there, Alice had finally had the basis to start her manaless room experiment. Cecilia had lent Alice one of the rooms in her workshop which was insulated, which her father had used to contain explosions or risky experiments. Alice had enchanted the sap-paint with exactly one instruction – do not allow mana to pass through it. Then, she had painted the inside of the room, used her Pure Mana seed to clear out all of the mana inside of the room, and then Cecilia had cleaned up all of the Broken Mana Alice had made in the process. Alice still hadn’t learned to purify Broken Mana, although Illa had mentioned she would teach Alice before she left. However, for now, Alice finally had what she was longing for.

A room with no mana inside of it, which repelled mana from outside the room.

“It’s finished?” Asked Cecilia, giving the room one more look.

“It is! We can finally do the manaless room experiments I wanted to try.” Said Alice, grinning. “I’ve been wondering for a while what happens if a mage doesn’t have access to mana from the air. Can we still cast spells? Do things still work?”

Cecilia frowned a bit, as she looked at Alice. “You’re free to do things that are a bit risky as long as you are only experimenting with yourself. Just... be careful. After you go into the room, let me know immediately what you’re feeling. I’m not going to let you just die in the room. I know we’re trying to be more open-minded about how mana interacts with stuff, but even so...”

“I’ll be careful. I wouldn’t do the experiment if I thought it would actually hurt me. Well, I don’t know for sure, but... I need to know,” Alice said. “At home, there was no such thing as mana. Does touching mana once really mean that I can’t survive without it any more? I just... I want to know if it’s true. The only reports I could find on the subject just said that people separated from mana started feeling weak and dizzy, before being separated from the environment on ethical grounds. And monsters do die without mana, but they also eat nothing but mana. They’re a different species to begin with. I know that I’ve changed a lot since I came to this world, but... I need to know.” I need to know how much I’ve changed. And whether going to back to Earth is just mostly impossible, or a pipe dream. Even though Alice had mostly given up on going home, she still had a sliver of hope. Deep inside of her heart. Even if she knew that people needed special permits to even form a dimensional seed without becoming a fugitive, and that it was dangerous, she didn’t want to give up hope completely. But if going home would cause her die of suffocation, there was obviously no hope of ever leaving.

“All right. The room is set up, and I’ll be sitting right outside of the door. Call out to me so that I can record everything, and we’ll start the experiments. Just... stay safe. If you feel any danger at all, let me know so I can immediately open the door and let in some mana,” Said Cecilia.

Alice nodded.

It was time to finish figuring out how mana had changed her. And see how Mana and the System really worked.