The number of students who had withdrawn from the Array Foundations 1 class taught by Professor Marsh was minimal. The little lizard person was a fair teacher and had created an environment for learning important magical arrays for the mage class within the X-13 system. After reviewing the previous week's assignment, the professor was glad to see that not a single student had failed to produce the barrier. Even Ethan passed the test with his system version of the spell.

  "This week will be much more difficult." Professor Marsh stood at the head of the class and gestured to everybody. "We're going to delve deeper into some complex arrays. Complex for Rank 1, anyway. While I don't expect each of you to produce this spell exactly, I want to see something from each of you. Three sigils in a Rank 1 array is considered complex. But what about five? Can anyone tell me about control sigils?”

  Of course, Amelia’s hand was one of the first to shoot up, one of the first and only. But as Ethan considered the question, his hand rose tentatively.

  "Mr. Walsh, was it?" the professor asked.

  "That's right. Control sigils determine the state of an array. For example, if you had a gravity spell and you wanted it to go up or down, you would use that control sigil to define that state."

  Professor Marsh tilted his head to one side. “Not that someone in their first year should know anything about Gravity Magic… But, yes! Now, make sure to write this down. I’ll show a few examples of arrays with control sigils. Your assignment is to produce anything that uses a control sigil. Extra points if you can produce one with five sigils total.”

  As Professor Marsh drew sigils in the air, Amelia turned to whisper to Ethan, "How did you know about that? Have you been seriously hitting the books?"

  "That's a complicated story. I took care of an anomaly that had gravity magic, and it had sigils to split the mana into positive and negative energy. I’ll tell you over lunch.”

  The professor lectured for about another half hour before the class began their practice. This was going to be one that took most people quite a long time to master. Of course, Amelia had the assignment done in about ten minutes. Barry came in a close second at half an hour. While she split off to help other people work on a wind generation spell, Ethan worked on something of his own.

  Cobbling together information he had gained from the gravity magic anomaly was interesting and a challenge. He had difficulty emulating the partial system but eventually made it work, then sketched out a spell with only two sigils and inspected the result.

  [Decrease Gravity]

  Emulated Rank 1 Spell (X-13 Variant)

  Description:

  Create a field of negative gravity. Objects caught within the field will have less gravitation pull.

  Effect:

  Infuse mana into a circular field. Objects and sapient beings caught within the field will lose their relative gravity for a time determined by the amount of mana infused within the spell.

  "This is a very simple version of the spell," Ethan said, taking steady breaths. He had to focus pretty hard to keep his soul from generating errant gravity magic, but as long as he focused on it, he didn't see it being much of a problem. This wasn't a system he planned to emulate often, but for the purposes of the class, this was perfect. The spell array for the decreased gravity spell was very simple. It had the gravity generation sigil, a control sigil that determined positive or negative gravity, and one denoting that it should be cast as a field.

  Instead of slotting the spell in his soul, he cast it at a nearby chair, keeping the field as small as he could make it. The gravity mana bucked slightly, causing him to feel slightly lighter than before, but the effect was immediate. The chair floated into the air before Barry grabbed it by the leg with a laugh.

  “Well, talk about a neat spell!” he shouted.

  Ethan released his emulation of the system, venting the excess gravity mana before it slammed him into the ground again. “And dangerous. I wouldn’t trust myself to cast much more than that…”

  "Was that gravity magic?" Amelia came stomping over, looking between the floating chair and Ethan. "Do you understand how complex gravity magic is? That's like a Rank 5 thing, and you're casting it at Rank 1. How?"

  "That's all part of my class.” Ethan shrugged, watching as Barry tossed the chair from one student to another. They laughed, passing it between each other as they played with the weightless object. "I said I'd tell you at lunch, but if you want the story now…”

  “Yes. Now.”

  Ethan shrugged. He recalled the events with the Gravity Anomaly, relaying it as accurately as he could to Amelia. He knew she was the kind of person that wanted details for the sake of academics. She was open-mouthed most of the time, hardly able to believe what someone in their first year of their academic year could accomplish those feats. But to the scribe, it was the lowest capabilities of his system and class. He could emulate everything, he was certain of it, but what value was there in doing absolutely everything?

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  “That’s a lot to process.” Amelia had sunk low in her seat, rubbing her head as though to alleviate a headache.”Your ability to emulate doesn’t stop with the classes of other people. You can emulate a facet of a system?”

  “Which gave him access to gravity stuff, which is apparently rare.” Barry appeared after helping some students, taking his own seat and sighing. “So, can you emulate my stuff?”

  “Yeah. I just haven’t done so out of respect for you.”

  Barry’s expression dropped, a frown forming on his face. “Bro. That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

  “Don’t mention it. Seriously, don’t.” Ethan waved the sentimental response away. “Basically, I can skip the line and gain access to some advanced stuff using my class. What kind of trouble can I get up to with this?”

  Amelia shook her head. “A lot. And I’d advise you to stay away from those things. Don’t find the nearest portal and emulate it, otherwise you might find yourself on the far side of the universe.” She shot upright in her chair, leaning close with a crazed look on her face. “You want to live on a Deathworld? That’s how you get trapped on a Deathworld!”

  Holding his hands up defensively, Ethan leaned back. “No, thank you. I plan to take it easy. Well, within reason. I owe Feyhammer 1000 coins.”

  “WHAT!?”

  Ethan nearly fell out of his chair as Amelia screamed. “What? I think I sent a cart through a house by accident. Gravity magic is weird.”

  “You need to practice right away. I have no idea how you’re not dead.” Amelia held her head in her hands now, rocking back and forth. “That pen of yours is a key. Which god gave the keys to the system to a toddler?”

  “Hey, I’m doing pretty okay.”

  “Yeah, leave him alone. He isn’t dead yet, is he?” Barry interjected, coming to Ethan’s defense.

  “Not being dead is a low goal to achieve.” Amelia sighed dramatically. “I’ve got too much work to babysit you… How do we ensure you don’t die?”

  Ethan shrugged. He was pretty sure there was an easy way to prevent his death. “I just have to be more cautious. My mistake with the gravity thing was thinking I could handle all the mana the way my mentor did. The next time I find an anomaly, I’m going to take my time. I’ll research it, make a plan before approaching it, and execute that plan after running it by someone who is smarter than me.”

  Amelia stared at him for a few uncomfortable moments. She tilted her head to one side and frowned. “That’s actually a decent idea.”

  “You need to understand my level of excitement. I wasn’t anything special back home. Like you said, someone handed me the key. If I don’t use it, what’s the point?”

  The silence that settled through the group was a recognition of the truth. Anyone would have done anything they could to do something with that kind of power. Within the academy planet, there were thousands of people jockeying for position as someone worth something.

  Barry was the first one to break the silence, chuckling to himself before speaking. “You guys won’t even believe what I’m working on. I just need some more money and I can finish the project. Maybe by this week, maybe next week. Let me tell you, all this magic crap makes my old job so easy.”

  Ethan withdrew the 25 coin piece from his pocket, flicking it over to Barry. “Is that enough?”

  “Oh, yeah.” Barry nodded, holding the coin up to the light. “This will do quite nicely. I’ll pay you back.”

  Ethan shrugged. “Whatever.”

  “You’re in debt!” Amelia said, throwing her arms into the air. “You gotta save every single coin you find!”

  “I’ll be fine. The Anomalous Materials Group jobs pay well. Once the weekend comes, I’ll knock a few of those out. Also, I’m pretty sure I can talk that debt down. The headmaster of Feyhammer kinda owes me, if you think about it.”

  “I don’t think he sees it that way, but whatever. You’re your own person.” Amelia gave up after that, reserving herself to the idea that Ethan could live on minimal coins.

  She was right, of course. Ethan had too much stuff to buy and not enough coins to do it. He still had around 100 coins to his name, which would best be used to buy a bed or something sensible. The first thing he would buy, after saving enough money, after paying his debt would be a place for him to stay. Barry could come along if he wanted, but the scribe wasn’t glued to him by the hip.

  Thanks to the efforts of Ethan, Amelia, and Barry, everyone in class was casting their control sigil spells before leaving. Knocking out a weekly project like this was the best way to live, and Professor Marsh’s class was one of the easiest to do that for. Ethan had a lot of the day left to do some research, and tomorrow was Mana Control Foundations 1 with Professor Sally. That basically meant he had another free day. The day after that was Anomalous Materials, which meant a trip to Pel’vengar and maybe some more monster meat. If he combined a nice Chimera Haunch with more anomalous energy, perhaps he could even make more progress with a ring.

  “What are you two doing for the rest of the day?” Ethan asked.

  “Research.” Amelia sighed, patting the bag at her side. It looked overloaded with books.

  “Building something secret.” Barry winked.

  Ethan knew exactly what he was building, but smiled anyway.

  “Guess I’m going to wander into the wilderness and look for anomalies,” Ethan said. He was quick to hold his hands up when Amelia started to speak. “Don’t worry! I’m just going to look. A lot of students practice outside the city, so they’re perfect for emulation.”

  “Ah, the enchanted life of a layabout,” Amelia said with a sigh and a wink. “I need to go to the library first…”

  “Oh! Mind if I come with you? I could use some help finding support magic to absorb. Also, I have an idea about adapting the spell formation of a Gravity Mana Font into a system spell and I need some pointers.”

  “I don’t know how I could possibly help you with that,” Amelia said. She shrugged all the same. “But I guess it couldn’t hurt.”

  Barry headed off, pumping his 25 coin piece in the air as he went. Amelia and Ethan went together to the library, delving into the endless rows of shelves to find books for the scribe to use. They found a quiet corner and the scribe remembered something he wanted to bring up to her.

  “I almost forgot to mention,” Ethan said. “I think I can change the X-13 system. Can I run something by you?”

  Amelia’s mouth dropped open yet again.

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