Everybody Gangsta Until Science Meets Magic

9 - True Sparring Match

A month had passed ever since Aiden had decided to teach Eara forbidden knowledge, and the repeated knocks on his room door signaled the start of a particular day.

"Ngh . . ." Aiden made a low groan as he used his arms to cover his ears as he lay on a cloth-hammock.

The knocks went on and off repeatedly, until Aiden was forced to finally get off the hammock. "What a drag," he whined, rubbing his hand on his face in annoyance.

He opened the system and checked the time, before raising his voice, "Eara, it's the heavendamned devil's hour. You should go to sleep."

Silence reigned over the room, which led Aiden back to sitting on his hammock, starting to fall asleep again-- only for the knocks to suddenly come back, stronger and faster than before.

Aiden opened his eyes wide and took a deep breath, trying to quell his annoyance. It was so early in the morning after all. "What a f*ckin' drag."

With a stretch and a yawn, he made his way towards the room door and opened it. On the other side was Eara, looking gorgeous as always. The shirt she wore was still slightly large for her, but she trimmed the pants Aiden gave her because 'it was getting in the way.'

"What?" He asked her.

"I couldn't sleep."

"So what? Gonna sleep beside me? Use me as a hug pillow? We can't fit in the hammock. It can't support our weight. I don't want to sleep on the floor."

Eara wanted to frown, but she kept her lips straight. After all, she knew she was disturbing Aiden, big time. Still, Aiden noticed the slight movement of the edges of her eyes and knew that she was frowning deep inside.

From that, Aiden couldn't help but sigh and smile. "Fine, fine. What do you need now?"

"Spell engineering."

"And, uh, where did we drop off again?"

"Function type: signal."

". . . Right. Let's do this in my workspace."

♦♦♦

Eara was soaking all the knowledge she could get from Aiden. Be it scientific, be it magic, be it about memes-- although she found memes quite strange. Not seeing it for herself played a good part of why though.

She then understood a lot of things, and became able to do much more. She knew that mental strength wasn't necessary in casting orb spells-- a term Aiden started using for spells that could be bought from magic shops. She knew how mana consistency decides how 'successful' a spell is.

She learned the art of spell engineering, and even started developing her own spell ever since she started learning. She didn't tell Aiden, however.

Soon after, she was also taught the basics of trinket engineering, but Aiden didn't expand on it too much. They were low on manalinium then after all.

And after another two months of being stuck together, Aiden took a look at her stats and nodded approvingly.

---Statistics---

Phys. Strength: 68

Ment. Strength: 67

Mana Capacity: 79

Mana Consistency: 133

---Statistics---

Her growth speed was much faster compared to Aiden's, primarily because she was being guided. The other reason was that she was very diligent on her studies-- more diligent than her teacher.