Kurose let out a small groan as he felt himself being shaken. He would slowly open his eyes, only to be met by the same hooded face and mask from yesterday.

"Oh… Amarita… what's going on?" He asked sleepily. Looking into her eyes again, he got the vague feeling she might be disappointed in him. What reason had he given her to be disappointed in him?

"What's going on?" Amarita asked. "What's going on!? I have been attempting to wake you for the last half hour, sir hero. And this is not the first time you have woken up! You will not be falling asleep again!" She declared.

With that, she yanked on his arm, causing him to be pulled off the bed, much to his shock. He landed on the floor with a small thud, a groan of pain escaping him.

"Ow… I'm sorry, ok! I didn't mean to fall asleep those other times! It's just difficult to wake up, alright?"

"It may be difficult, but as I said before, I will not have you falling asleep on me again! The dagger hero has been waiting half an hour for you!"

The mention of the other hero waiting for him caused his eyes to fully open.. He quickly stood up, brushing his hand through his hair, simply trying to make himself look presentable and failing.

"Alright, alright, just please stop glaring at me. It really hurts my feelings, you know?" Kurose spoke jokingly.

That didn't seem to relieve Amarita. In fact, her glare seemed to get even more intense.

"Alright, alright! No joking, I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Can you please lead me to the Dagger hero?"

Amarita simply sighed. "Fine. Let us hope she has not left to do something else already."

With that, Amarita beckoned for Kurose to follow, leading him out of his room.

Much like before, Kurose was led down another hallway, this one filled with paintings again. He still couldn't read them, but he was still curious about why everyone in the paintings looked the same.

Some of the paintings made it obvious who was the adult, but some, where they all stood shoulder to shoulder just confused him more.

"What's with all these paintings? Who is it they're painting? And why do they all look the same? He spoke to Amarita, firing off all his questions at once.

"These are paintings of the royal family. They are… unique. They tend to have a painting commissioned every season, leading to what you see here." Amarita replied easily.

"Is… is that why everyone in the paintings look the same?"

"Ah, no, that just seems to be a weird quirk of the royal family. Everyone in the family ends up looking the same. It has been this way for quite a long time, though, it has recently been broken with the current heir to the throne."

"Wow, that is weird. How long have they all looked the same?"

"We are not sure, but if you were to follow the paintings, you would surely be able to find when it all began."

"Still, it must be weird, having a ruler that doesn't look any different to your old one."

"I…" Amarita seemed to think it over before speaking. "I will admit, it was quite jarring when I learnt of it, but for the older generation, it must be much weirder for the heir to the throne to look different to the ruler."

"True. I guess you have to look at it from both perspectives." Kurose replied, nodding his head.

The conversation seemed to trail off there, with the duo walking in silence, until Kurose broke it once again.

"So… what's the Dagger hero like?"

"She is an easily excited person, but she is also quite forgetful from what I know of her... Yesterday, we actually had to stop her from rushing to where we were keeping you. She's very… eager to meet another hero."

"Well, that doesn't sound bad. But shouldn't she have met the vambrace guy? I mean, especially if she was chosen before me?"

"That is true. Normally we would have requested the more experienced hero to help, but he is currently preparing for the waves in his country. Whilst I'm not sure what goes into it, I'm certain it must be hard work. Ever since we realized the waves were going to happen, he has been working on how to best defend his nation. From what I last heard before our king went off, he went to negotiate terms with the Vambrace hero, which would help both our nation's be defended against the waves."

"I see. So the king is out of the country?" Kurose asked curiously.

"Yes. Currently, his heir is in control of the kingdom, at least until he returns. Do not worry about meeting with the king, he will want to meet with you as soon as he comes back."

"That's good to hear. But uh… what's the Vambrace guy like? I know he has his own country to run and all that, but doesn't that conflict with his role as a hero?"

"You would think that, yes, but in truth, it's actually the opposite. It was quite a while ago that he was chosen, long before the waves had even started. It is… a long story. I'm assuming you would like to hear it?" Amarita asked.

Kurose nodded at that.

"I see. Well, be warned that I will not be able to finish it as we are getting close to the dagger hero. However, I will tell you as much as I can." Amarita began the story.

"From what I have heard, the country of Palinfa has an… unusual system of inheritance for the throne. There are usually a handful of heirs who fight for the right to the throne. Matthias, that is the lesser Vambraces wielder's name," Amarita quickly added. "Was different In that regard. He wasn't much of a fighter, yet for some reason the king seemed to favor him highly, as if seeing some sort of potential in him. I should also mention that being strong is seen as an achievement in the country of Palinfa. So, for Matthias, who didn't want to fight anyone, and simply wanted to protect the weaker people, he had quite a few enemies, including a few of his siblings."

"Wait, did he have the Vambraces by this point?" Kurose asked quickly. Amarita quickly shook her head.

"No, up to this point, it had been quite a while since the Vambraces were wielded by anyone. As I said before, the king held him in high regard. When he finally passed away, and it was revealed that he had chosen Matthias to be his successor, things did not go over well in the kingdom. His siblings believed he was not worthy of the throne, and as a result, almost all of his siblings rose up in rebellion. There were only a few who chose not to rebel and accept him as the king, but…"

"Wait, his siblings rose up just because they didn't think he deserved to be king? But… it wasn't their choice! It was their father's!"

"Be that as it may, some people may show their true sides when they truly desire something. This time, it was the promise of the throne."

"But still… for a lot of his brothers and sisters to rise up like that… it just seems like a cruel way for succession to be carried out…"

"It is indeed cruel, but their reasoning is as such. If a king cannot keep their family under control, what hope do they have of maintaining an empire?"

Kurose simply nodded at that, looking at the floor as he seemed to be thinking things over.

Amarita let out a sigh. "They did what they could to help, but the country was in a dark time. The territories are usually split up between the heirs to the throne, to give them a chance to manage land in preparation for when they ascend to the throne. But of course, that leads to its own problems. The people in those lands were likely to be more loyal to the heir that held their lands. So of course, when they rebelled, their people revolted with them."

"It does sound like a dark time… it sounds like something that's happened a few times in my world…"

"Regardless, I will have to stop here for now." Amarita spoke.

"Huh, why?" Kurose asked.

"Because we are here. Just through this door is the Dagger hero. I'll leave you in her care. Please try to get along and not attack each other. I've heard it is difficult to clean up when heroes fight between themselves."

"Wait, what? What do you mean by that!"

Amarita simply walked off, leaving Kurose to stare at the door

After a moment of hesitation, Kurose let out a sigh before he slowly began to open the door.

Even as Kurose opened the doors a voice spoke up.

"Hey hey! Who are you? You don't look like anyone I've spoken to yet…" The voice trailed off for a moment, as if thinking about something, and Kurose took this chance to speak and see what they actually looked like.

Shoulder length black hair, rather small height wise, reaching up to his chest, blue eyes. She looked to be wearing just simple clothes, with a small dagger being strapped to her side.

"Oh, well… I'm apparently the…"

He was cut off as she seemed to jump out of her chair with a shocking amount of speed.

"Oh, oh! You're the Accessory hero, right?"

Kurose nodded his head at that, and before he knew it, she was before him, jumping up and down.

"Wow! It's so nice to finally meet another hero! I was starting to get a bit lonely with how everyone is treating me. Hey, can you show me what your weapon form looks like? How do you fight with an accessory? How do you-"

The Dagger hero asked question after question, and after a short amount of time Kurose spoke up.

"H-hey, can you please give me a moment to think?" He cried out.

The Dagger hero paused, nodding her head.

"Ah, I'm sorry! I probably overwhelmed you, didn't I?" She asked with a small smile.

"Yes! You did in fact overwhelm me! You didn't even give me a chance to respond to any of your questions!" Kurose shouted back.

The other hero didn't reply, simply giggling at that. Kurose let out a sigh.

"Alright…" he spoke with a small sigh. "I am Kurose, the Accessory hero. Can I ask who you are?"

"Mhm! My name is Eorna, that's pronounced Er-Na, and I'm the Dagger hero! It's nice to meet your Kurose!" She spoke with a small smile.

Kurose however, was more confused with the name. "You don't pronounce the O in your name?"

"Nah." Eorna spoke easily. "My parents added it to my name because they wanted to be unique. There's not much I can do to change it, so I just make sure people know the O isn't pronounced."

"Jeez, still, I can imagine people trying to pronounce your name if you write it down for them…" Kurose spoke.

"Yes, well… after the first few times, they make sure to pronounce it correctly." She spoke darkly.

Kurose gulped. "A-alright Eorna. I'll keep that in mind… So, I was told you were supposed to teach me about my weapon?" Kurose asked curiously.

"Yup! Think of me as your senior!" She spoke, puffing out her chest.

"First things first, let me see your weapon!" She spoke excitedly.

Reluctantly, he lifted up the small amulet around his neck, showing it off to Eorna.

"Huh, so that's what the accessory looks like… though… how are you supposed to fight with an amulet?" She asked curiously.

"That's what I asked!" Kurose cried out. "Maybe I can just hit stuff with the amulet itself? Or just chuck it at the enemy?"

"Ah, a bit of a tip! Your…" She seemed to hesitate as she thought of what to say."...weapon can't leave your body." Eorna spoke quickly.

"Huh? What do you mean it can't leave my body?" Kurose asked.

In response, Eorna took out her dagger, holding it in the palm of her hands.

"Watch this."

With that, she turned her hand, opening it up so that the dagger had nothing to help stay in her hand. And yet, despite how much she shook her hand, the dagger didn't drop from her.

"If you don't believe me, you can try it yourself. You'll end up getting the same results." she spoke, shrugging.

Kurose,upon deciding that he had nothing to lose by attempting it, took the amulet off, and did the same thing that Eorna did.

And exactly as Eorna had said, the same thing happened to him. No matter how much he shook his hand, it just wouldn't fall.

"Huh, I mean, I guess that's helpful if you've got a weapon like yours right? You don't have to worry about being disarmed or something." Kurose spoke.

"Huh, I guess you're right. I never really thought of it like that. I was just more concerned about how to sleep without stabbing myself." Eorna replied with a smile.

"Ooh, yeah, I can guess that might be one of the issues with it. I guess I won't have to worry about it with this, will I?"

"You shouldn't have to, hopefully. Anyways, next part!" She spoke with a smile. "Have you opened your Status yet?"

"Status?"

"Yeah, there should be something in the corner of your vision. Just focus on that, and it'll open up your status, alright?"

Kurose focused on the corner of his vision, noticing that there was indeed something there. Before he knew it, his status had popped up, and he had to blink for a moment before reading through it.

"Huh, it even refers to me as Accessory hero in my status… does it do the same for you?" He asked curiously.

"Yup. Ever since I got chosen to be the Dagger hero, it's said Dagger hero as my role. What's your stat distribution looking like? Mines agility and attack!" She asked.

"Stat distribution… let me see…" he scanned through his status before speaking once more. "Seems I'm more focused on Magic and speed like you."

"Makes sense, I can't imagine you really going around hitting stuff with that amulet. Unfortunately for you, you aren't having any magic lessons until later. What to do…"

Eorna tapped her chin, thinking for a moment.

"Oh, I have an idea, here accept this!" She quickly sent off a party invite, which Kurose accepted after a moment of shock. He saw her name pop up below his, with what he assumed to be her health.

"Huh… this is just like a game, with the menus and all that…" Kurose spoke quietly.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. What's your idea?" Kurose asked.

It was only then that he felt her hand on his arm.

"We are going to level you up! Let's go!" With that, she began to drag him forward with surprising strength, much like Amarita had.

"Level me up? Wait what? How am I going to level up!? What do you even mean by that?" Kurose shouted.

"Yup! To level up, you have to kill monsters! And there's another part of our weapons that allows me to show you!"

"How am I going to fight? I'm level one after all!"

"It's fine! We are in a party, the experience will be shared. Plus, when you level up, you'll get stronger! So let's get going!"

Later on, rumours would pop up, saying that the Dagger hero had kidnapped a strangely dressed man.

Kurose let out a sigh as Eorna stood in front of him.

"So… what am I actually supposed to do? Just watch you fight the monsters? I'm not really going to be much help here, am I?"

"I mean, there's mainly low level monsters here. Sure, they might hurt you a little bit, but even with a low attack stat, you should be able to take them out."

"Ok, but what are these monsters? I'd like to know what I'm actually looking for first."

In response to that, Eorna simply pointed behind him.

Kurose turned around, expecting something big, but was confused when there was nothing.

That was until he felt something hit against his leg. He looked down, noticing a round… thing attempting to roll over his leg.

Upon closer inspection, Kurose noticed it seemed to be spinning slightly before ramming into his leg. It seemed to have a wooden exterior.

"What the hell is that?" Kurose asked, crouching down to look at it.

"They are called Spinlings. Apparently, they are one of the most common monsters in the world. Can be found anywhere, and apparently take on aspects of their surroundings."

"Huh, they don't seem that ba-" Yet again, he was cut off as he felt the Spinling before him slam into him at a much higher speed than it previously had.

"Ow… jeez, what happened there? How'd it get so much speed so quickly?"

Eorna, who was doing her best to hide her giggles, spoke up. "Well, they can spin on the spot and release it to get a speed boost. Probably should have said that sooner, huh? Anyways… let me just…"

As she said that, Eorna stepped forwards, her dagger slashing into the monster. It didn't seem to let out any noise as it collapsed, but Kurose did gain some experience from it.

"How much did you get from that Kurose?"

"I got two experience points from that. It seems like I'm… nowhere near being able to level up." He spoke with a frown.

"Good to know you got two experience points for it. Seems like it's split equally. Oh, and don't worry about being nowhere close to leveling up. There will be plenty more monsters for us to defeat! I'll make sure to get you to at least level two before we leave!"

Kurose could only shake his head, even as Eorna turned around, part of the Spinling in her hand.

"Here! Feed this to your weapon. It'll unlock something, hopefully."

Kurose took the parts of the Spinling from her, looking between her and his weapon. Slowly, he lowered it down to the amulet. He watched as the gem seemed to glow for a moment, sucking in the remains of the Spinling before a pop up appeared.

New weapon form unlocked!

Wood Spinling Bracelet

Abilities locked Equip Bonus: Defense +1

"Huh, that's neat I guess. How do I change to the new weapon?" He asked.

"You can't yet. You need to reach level two before you can change weapon forms. At least, I had to. It might be different for you. In that case, just think of the weapon form, or go through your menu for it."

Kurose attempted to do what she had said, going through his menu to the new weapon form, only for nothing to happen. Even as he was doing that, Eorna was speaking.

" Let's see… whilst we wait for some more Spinlings to show up, what else do I need to tell you about our weapons…"

Even as Eorna thought about it, Kurose looked at the stats of the amulet he was currently wearing.

Basic Amulet

Abilities unlocked Equip bonus: Magic Attack +3

"How about what Abilities locked and unlocked mean? Because both of them show a different thing."

"Right! So, if you equip a weapon for long enough, the stat bonus it gives you will be permanently added to your stats! For example, my basic dagger, it gave me a plus three to agility whenever I equipped it. But! When I unlocked it, it gave me a permanent bonus to my stats, so I'm always a bit faster now!"

"I see. So I just need to equip it for a time, and it'll unlock on its own?" Kurose asked, confirming he understood what she had said.

"Yup! Let's see… what else…"

Even as she continued to think, Kurose noticed several more Spinlings angrily making their way out of a bush just ahead of them, if it was even possible.

"Um… Eorna? There's some more Spinlings approaching…"

Eorna either didn't hear him, or was too absorbed in her own thoughts to react. Slowly, but surely, the Spinlings began to speed up, Making their way towards the duo.

"Oh! I remember now! But let's deal with this first!" Eorna spoke with a smile. She changed her grip on her dagger before speaking again.

"First Step!"

With a surprising amount of speed, Eorna dashed towards the rolling Spinlings. She slashed her dagger through them easily, with all of them collapsing with a single strike of her dagger.

His screen was filled with notifications from the Spinlings that Eorna had defeated, only for them to fade away as another notification made itself available.

Level up!

Noticing that he was now level two, he thought about the Wooden Spinling bracelet.

Looking down to his wrist, he noticed a bracelet that wasn't there before. It still held its gem in the centre, proving it was his weapon.

"Huh, any accessory…" Kurose spoke. If it meant any accessory, then that was a lot of variety. Could he wear multiple accessories at the same time? Or was it only going to be one?

"Ah, you levelled up! And you figured how to swap your weapon, great! Um… what else did I want to talk about…"

Kurose waited for Eorna to speak again, but all he could hear was the other hero muttering to herself.

"Spoke about weapon forms… Spoke about unlocking them…Oh, that's it!"

Eorna seemed to jump up, a smile on her face.

"Right! Each hero has their own strengthening method! You should be able to find it in the help menu! That's where I found mine at least!

"Okay… but how do I get to the help menu?"

"Oh, my bad…" with that, she quickly explained, and Kurose found his way to it easily. Looking through it, there were all the things that Eorna had told him about, including the section for strengthening methods.

"Alright, I found them. I'm assuming they just help me grow stronger?"

"Yup! The strengthening methods help us grow stronger." Eorna paused for a moment before staring at him. "Wait, did you say them? As in, multiple strengthening methods?"

"Yeah. I have four of them here." Kurose spoke easily. Was that not supposed to happen? "What's wrong?" Kurose asked, looking to see a frown on Eornas face.

"You have four of them? I only have one! That's not fair!" Eorna spoke before sighing. "Then again, I guess that's what makes your weapon much better than the Lesser Dagger, or Lesser Vambrace."

"You only have one? That's weird… but I guess it's fine since you have an actual weapon. I can't actually do anything with mine, can I? Just look! It's just a wooden bracelet!" He showed the bracelet to Eorna for emphasis. What was he supposed to do with it? Maybe if it was a metal bracelet or something, it could do damage.

Eorna smiled at that. "Yeah, I guess so. Well, just get yourself familiar with your methods then. You'll be using them quite a lot after all. I'll protect you whilst you read through them, so take your time."

"I will. Thanks."

With that, Kurose dived into reading into his methods.

Rarity. A pretty self explanatory one. The rarer a material was, the better the stats on the weapon.

Stat purchase. Like the previous method, it was easy to explain. It took him to a new screen, and he could spend… G? A quick look through told him that G was the form that money took inside his weapon. He could then spend that currency for a permanent boost. From what he could see, the prices got more and more expensive as he looked at higher boosts. There was +1 to magic, Magic recovery speed up with several tiers, ranging from small to large, and that was only from the parts he could see.

Gem equip. Each weapon form has a certain amount of slots to equip gems into. These gems give certain boosts, depending on the type. Did it also depend on how finely the gem was cut? Or would all gems of the same type provide a similar bonus?

The last method he had to read was Collector. The more weapon forms he had, the stronger his weapons would become.

So, two of my methods seem to be passive growth, those being Collector and Rarity. Stat purchase seems to be an active method, but I don't know how I'm supposed to get the money to do so. Maybe the country can give me some money? Or would it seem suspicious that I'm saying I need the money to grow stronger? Does it count how much cash I have on me at the time? And gem equip seems like something I won't be able to use for a bit, considering it requires gems. They would probably cost money to buy, and I need that money for my stat purchase method. Jeez, that's a lot of things to remember, but for now, I only really need to focus on stat purchase I guess. Rarity and Collector will work all the time.

With that, Kurose checked on his weapon once more.

Wooden Spinling bracelet.

Rarity: Common

Abilities locked Equip Bonus: Agility +1

Gem Slots: 1

So it now pops up on the weapon form itself? That's convenient I guess. For gem equip, does rarity affect it? Maybe the rarer the material, the more gems it can hold? Eh, it doesn't really matter right now I guess. I will probably find out later, when I do get a rarer weapon.

Shaking his head, Kurose looked up.

"Done reading your methods? Got them all down?" Eorna asked, tilting her head.

"Yeah, I've got them all. I won't be able to use two of them immediately, but the other two are being put to work. Though, I do have a question. What was that first step thing you shouted?"

"That's great! Make sure to keep using them whenever you can!" She spoke with a grin before answering his next question "Oh, that? I didn't mention that, jeez, I'm really bad at this whole teaching thing… Right, well that was a skill I just used. There should be another bar under your Magic bar. That's your SP! Its hero exclusive from what I've found, and it allows us to use these skills! I unlocked first step from just absorbing some monsters, and once I unlocked the weapon form, I could use it with any of my daggers!"

"I see, I'll keep that in mind. There's probably going to be quite a few skills for me to unlock in the future right?"

"Yup! So be prepared to have multiple options to fight with! Though…" Eorna seemed to look up at the sky for a moment before speaking. "We should probably get you back before they send people out to look for us."

"Look for us?"

"Yup! We aren't supposed to be out here without others supervising us! Either that, or we have to tell someone where we are going."

"What? I thought you got permission or something!" Kurose shouted back.

"Nope! Where is the fun in that? Now let's go, quickly!"

Kurose took several deep breaths. With just how far they had run, and how fast they had done it, he thought it was at least slightly deserved.

"Did… you really… have to make… do that?" He asked between breaths.

"Just think of it as training! It's all fine." She spoke with a grin. "Anyways you better make yourself look presentable. I heard that you have to learn magic next, right?"

Kurose nodded his head "Yeah, it makes sense as well, with my magic stat being so high. What's magic like in this world anyway?"

"Hmm. Well it's a bit difficult to explain. I haven't even got a chance to use magic at all yet. All the kids back where I'm from did, but my parents never let me." She spoke with a small chuckle.

"So… I'll be ahead of you then?" Kurose spoke.

"Yeah, I guess so. So if I get stuck, I'll be expecting your help, got it?" Eorna said, poking him in the chest.

Kurose had a smile on his face. "Sure, I'll be happy to help you out, Eorna."

As the words left his mouth, the Duo turned their heads to the sound of a creaking door, with Amarita walking in.

"Dagger hero, Accessory hero. I trust you have been getting along?"

"Yup! Getting along perfectly fine! I'm assuming you are here to collect him for his magic lessons now?" Eorna spoke.

"That is correct, Dagger hero. I am here to collect him for his instructors."

"Stop calling me Dagger hero, I told you already, didn't I? Just call me Eorna! And on that note, When am I going to be learning magic?"

"They are still trying to set up stuff for you, Dagger hero." Amarita spoke, masterfully ignoring what Eorna had told her to call her. "Come along now, Accessory hero. We do not want to keep your instructor waiting."

"Yeah, alright. I… guess I'll see you later?" Kurose spoke questioningly.

"Yup! You're not escaping me that easily! We will be the best heroes, trust me!" She spoke with a smile.

Kurose couldn't help but smile back. Her excitement was infectious. "Wasn't planning on getting rid of you. I will speak to you whenever I can. See you."

With that, Kurose left the room, following behind Amarita.

Kurose walked behind Amarita in silence. Now that he knew they weren't even supposed to leave the castle without supervision, he wouldn't be telling anyone else about it. But still, why weren't they allowed out on their own?

"Accessory hero?" Amarita spoke softly.

Kurose, having been caught up in thinking about why they weren't allowed out on their own, failed to notice that Amarita had been watching him.

"Can I ask what it is you are thinking about?" She asked.

"Well, it's just… I was told by Eorna that we weren't allowed to go outside unless we had people watching us. And I'm just wondering why?"

"Well…" Amarita seemed to think about it before deciding on something that she accepted. "Whilst we understand that heroes may be stronger than the average person, being at such a low level is still dangerous. For example, you are a level one, and that means your stats are most likely no different than anyone else's at level one. When you do level up, you will certainly grow stronger than most regular people. But… before that point, we would like to be sure that you and the Dagger hero can both handle yourselves before we let you do anything like going off on your own."

Kurose wisely kept his mouth shut at the mention of being level one. He wasn't going to be the one to correct her.

"I see… and can I ask when I'll be taken out to level up?"

"That is… difficult to answer currently. The Dagger hero has the advantage over you in terms of that because she wields a proper weapon. We usually send a few guards with her to ensure she does not get in over her head, but other than that, she generally does what she wants perfectly fine. You on the other hand… From what our books said, Most Accessory heroes do not have many physical abilities, hence their need to rely on magic. So until you can master a few basic spells, I'm afraid you will not be allowed to go out."

"I guess that's fair enough, especially if heroes are as important as you say. What's the instructor like?" Kurose asked curiously

"I… am not sure. It has been a while since he has been at the castle, in fact, I believe the last time he was here was when I first started on the job. Though, I have been told he is a reliable teacher."

"I mean, I guess if you say so, I'll trust you then. How much longer until we get there? I'm getting excited!"

Despite how much Kurose may have disliked learning, his excitement at being able to learn magic was overriding it.

Who didn't like being able to use magic in any situation?

"Well, we are here right now. As I did before, I'll be leaving you here, and I'll be coming to get you once your lesson is done."

Kurose nodded, waving to her as she began walking away before entering the room.

"So… you're the Accessory hero are you?" The man before him spoke.

"I… yeah, I am. I'm assuming you are to be my teacher?" Kurose asked the man.

Looking at him, he seemed to be what one would imagine a typical wizard to look like.

A sky blue cloak with white spots splattered on it, likely representing stars, a white beard, greying hair. The only thing he seemed to be missing to complete the typical wizard look was a pointy hat.

"Aye, that's correct. Though, you don't look like the Vambrace hero did. Hopefully you pick up on magic fast." He spoke.

He turned around for a moment, picking something up from the desk behind him before turning around once more, chucking it towards Kurose. Kurose caught it quickly, looking between the man and what he held in his hand. It seemed to be a disc shaped object, with some words scrawled around the edges of it.

"I'm assuming you don't know what it is?"

"No, I don't."

"Thought so. That…" The man raised his hand, revealing a similar disk shaped object in his hand. "Is called a Charme. It's what enables magic here. Each one is made with a specific purpose in mind. Whether that is to raise a wall in front of you, or hurl a fireball at your enemy. They can all be done on these Charmes. Of course, you'll need a different Charme than the one you have right now."

"So, that's all possible? How does it work? And what should I call you?"

"Just call me Teacher for now. I'll give you my name when you deserve it. As for how it works, you just need to push your mana into the Charme. What I normally do is put my finger on it like so…"

He put his Charme on the desk in front of him, allowing Kurose to see. He planted his index finger on top of it, taking slow, even breathes before speaking.

"You need to grab the mana flowing through your body and force it into the Charme. That's the way you imprint upon it, and make it work effectively for you."

Kurose watched as the Charme seemed to glow beneath him before the teacher took his hand off of it, watching as the Charmes glow seemed to die down.

"Ok… what does this mana feel like?"

"That's a difficult question. It's unique for everyone from what I've heard. For me personally, it's like the calmness of an ocean. For the Vambrace, I think he said it felt like a thunderstorm. You'll just have to figure it out on your own."

Kurose nodded, putting his own Charme down onto the desk. He slowly copied what the teacher had done, putting his index finger onto the charm.

He copied the breathing he had done, and closed his eyes.

He tried to feel what he had spoken about, any sort of… abnormality inside him. The feeling of something that might not belong, but yet, as time went by, he couldn't seem to grasp anything.

He opened his eyes, only to see the teacher before his face.

Kurose would never admit he screamed.

"Quite an intense look of concentration you had there. But, from the lack of glowing I saw, I assume it wasn't successful?" His teacher seemed to ignore the scream, choosing instead to speak.

"No, it wasn't. I just… couldn't feel anything from it."

"It's fine. I wasn't expecting you to take to it immediately. It would be like giving a fish the ability to walk and expecting it to not collapse immediately!"

Kurose was confused by the statement, but continued on anyway.

"Can you tell me more about these Charmes? How they are they made, all of that stuff?"

"I suppose I can. For how they are made, it's usually made of wood filled to the brim with mana. That wood is then inscribed with our magic script to help direct the mana. For example, you could simply write 'Fire' and when you push your mana into the Charme, it would shoot out fire. Of course, you could make it more specific, such as 'Shoot fire in a 90 degree cone in front of me.' But that would require you to pump more mana into the Charme." The teacher spoke simply.

"So… you can write specific instructions in the Charme with this magic script? But they're so small! Surely you must be limited in how much you can write, right?"

"Correct you are! You can only fit so much onto the Charme. Of course, as I said, it also increases the mana consumption, so most are kept short and sweet. However, there is one downside to these Charmes."

"What is it?"

"Should they be used too much in rapid succession, they will drain you of your mana, and in the worst case scenario, break completely."

"Uhhh… how is them completely breaking the worst case scenario?"

"For several reasons! The first, they are quite expensive…The second, it's always a pain to buy new ones." He spoke.

Kurose, who had been slowly moving the Charme closer towards the gem of his Amulet, stopped at the mention of it being expensive before putting it back down.

His teacher however, didn't seem to notice, seemingly speaking to himself.

"...With them asking questions such as 'what happened to the old one?' and 'didn't you already buy three of these Charmes last week?' if only they understood that I'm trying to improve upon them! Accidents are meant to happen after all! If only my experiments didn't set fire to my house…"

Shaking his head, his teacher spoke once more. "Of course, with something as volatile as mana being contained in this small piece of wood… you can certainly imagine what might happen if it were put under any sudden pressure."

Before, Kurose would have most likely said he didn't know. But hearing the teacher talk to himself about his home being set on fire due to his own experimentation? He thought he had a pretty good grasp on it.

"I see… so, what should I do with this then? I'm unable to actually push my mana into it yet, so do I have to give it back?"

The teacher seemed to think about it for a moment before deciding. "Nah. Keep it on you. Just keep trying to push your mana into it to mark it as yours. Once you've done that, we can actually get started on proper lessons. Until then, we are stuck like this." He spoke with a shrug.

"Okay. So we literally can't progress until I learn to push my mana through it. Great. Can I at least ask some other questions?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"Right, so what happens if I try to use a Charme, but its mana consumption is too much for me to handle?"

"Oh, that's simple. You'll just collapse. You'll wake up in a bit, but you'll feel like you have a wicked hangover. Not a pleasant experience, I'll tell you that."

"Is there any way to repair a Charme? How can I tell when it's close to breaking from repeated use?"

"Not really. Though, I have heard there have been some interesting experiments up north. Apparently people are purposefully breaking Charmes in order to combine them with other Charmes. Apparently, it's leading to some unique effects. As for your other question, the Charme will heat up a lot. Trust me on that."

The teacher seemed to look out the window before sighing.

"Well, Amarita should be here soon. I told her it's not likely to be a long lesson. Once you've managed to activate that Charme, get someone to fetch me, and I'll start the proper lessons, alright?"

"Yeah, I got it. I'll try my best to work it out." Kurose responded.

"That's good. Don't stress about how long it takes. Just keep at it."

With that said, the man walked up to the door.

"Just wait here for Amarita, alright? Ill see you once you have learnt how to use the Charme." With that said, the teacher left the room, leaving Kurose on his own.

Kurose turned his attention to the Charme once again, inspecting it. Just as he had said there was some words inscribed into the wood, though from the looks of it, they weren't that detailed. He just assumed it was due to it being some sort of starter Charme.

Though… he was still stumped on how to actually channel his mana through the Charme. He held the Charme in his hand before sighing.

"Guess this is my homework in this world, huh?" He spoke to himself. How ridiculous that a hero would be given homework on their first full day in a new world.