"Look at it this way." Barry patted Ethan on the shoulder, offering a consoling smile. "Now I have something that I can smack against your barrier. There is no better way to practice your spell, is there?"

  The group had visited five different shops, getting quotes on the sword. The first two did not have someone who could appraise an item from a different system, but the other three did. While the price of ten coins from the first two was insulting, the thirty he was offered from the others was not much better. It simply was not worth the effort to sell it for such a small amount. With his money woes growing, the scribe had to wonder what else he could do to raise some capital.

  "I need to start charging to get rid of these anomalies. Does anybody know of something that's about to destroy the city so I can stop it and get a big reward?"

  "Nope. I've got like five coins if you need me to spot you a few, but I'd rather hold on to that and get some more materials."

  Ethan produced a 25-coin piece from his pocket, flicking it to knock off 10. He handed it over to his friend. "There, now you can buy some more materials. And you can keep the sword. I’ll be fine. No worries.”

  “Thanks.” Barry hoisted the sword high into the air. He brought it down slowly onto the scribe’s head, and the barrier sprung up on its own. “See, now that is neat.”

  "Not only is that a need, but it's the reason why I refuse to remove the Lesser System Barrier spell from my Affinity Ring. Since it saved my life over in Feyhammer, I can't think of a reason to get rid of it. But I guess I should both work on my affinity and figure out a way to combine spells."

  “And we practice that by smacking you?”

  “Indeed. If you’re up for it, we can go practice in a park.”

  Barry rubbed his chin for a second, scratching at his beard. “I got a few hours.”

  Five minutes later, Ethan was standing in a park as Barry wailed on his barrier. They took breaks when he ran out of mana, but the entire time the scribe focused entirely on that ring and on understanding how to make it accept more spells. If he couldn't convince the system to allow him to combine two spells, he would figure out a way to have more than one on his ring. Although it was only a matter of adding another circle, that task seemed impossible. With his pen, he sketched out the shape and drew one circle. When he tried to draw another at the bottom, the Grand System itself seemed to step in and waggle a disapproving finger at him, erasing the image entirely.

  The information Ethan got from this practice was amazing. He had a better feeling for the Affinity Ring and could feel it and call on it better than ever. Thanks to the mana filter ability he had slotted in his mind ring, his regeneration was even quicker. If he put some effort into it using Luna's technique, he could go from being almost empty on mana to full in about 15 minutes. But the act was mentally taxing.

  "Unfortunately, I think I need to solve a few more anomalies. It'll be a good way to get some money, and then I can use that energy to enhance my Affinity Ring. I can only hope that the Grand System will allow me to create another slot."

  Barry slung the sword over his shoulder, shrugging. “Gotta do what you gotta do. Guess I’ll get back to crafting.”

  Ethan broke into a frenzy, intending to take care of as many anomalies as he could. Perhaps Alex had expected him not to wander far from Gale House, but there were quite a few. He had listed on the note, The scribe got to work right away, only taking a break for dinner before getting back to it and working straight until midnight. When he finally returned to the shack, completely ignoring the fact that he was supposed to buy beds today, he was more tired than he had ever been in his life.

  But the results were clear.

  He had resolved five more anomalies, all at Rank -1. There was a stone pig that told crude jokes, a broom that swept the same spot without end, a wind node, a cursed teapot, and a plank of wood that was kinda bendy. The last one was weird, and he had no idea how anyone discovered it as an anomaly. The result was 125 coins and a lot of energy shoved into his Affinity Ring.

  Barry was already snoring when he returned to the shack. Ethan wrote a short note, placing on the sword before settling into his own bedroll. His Vigor Ring pulsed with cleaning power as he climbed in, putting a smile on his face as he went to bed clean. Tomorrow would be an interesting day. Even if Luna hadn’t returned with someone whose system he could copy, he was excited to tell them the good news about what he had been doing.

  He was the first person in the academy to fix the anomalies.

  ***

  Ethan got enough sleep. Maybe not enough to function at full capacity, but good enough for the Anomalous Materials class. It was barely a class as it was. As the scribe approached the door to the room in Pel’Vengar Spire 1, he heard raised voices coming from within. He waited there for a few long moments before cracking the door open, spotting Alex across the room jumping up and down while he screamed.

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  “If that hog-nosed idiot thinks he can push around the group, there’s gonna be a literal hammer dropped on Feyhammer House.” Alex was red in the face. He kicked a table with enough force to send it sailing across the room, shattering against the wall. “Not only are we going to get him to drop the charges, he’s gonna pay us 1000 coins. No! Make it 5000.”

  “The only sensible solution.” Finn was sitting, barely paying attention as he flipped through a book.

  “Ethan is here, by the way.” Luna was laying on the ground, staring up at the ceiling.

  Alex’s head swiveled, locking onto the door. “Get in here, ya little scamp. Tell me what in the hells happened at Feyhammer.”

  Ethan swallowed hard, entering the room with a few tentative steps. He knew enough to know that Alex wasn’t mad at him. He was angry at the headmaster of Feyhammer house and he couldn’t say he disagreed. The way the headmaster had handled the situation was absurd, especially with no casualties. As the scribe approached the center of the room, he spotted a short person wearing a cloak standing between two large crates.

  Swinging the sword over his shoulder, he leaned against it as the tip dug into the floor. “Gather ‘round and listen to my tale.” Ethan released a dramatic sigh. “A tale about how I got myself into extreme levels of debt…”

  Ethan painted the story in broad strokes. He focused on the parts where he siphoned off the mana and did everything he could to prevent excess damage. It was only a single mistake that resulted in the damage adjacent to the sealed-off area. A contained anomaly was much better than a ruined city, wasn’t it?

  “As expected.” Alex shook his head and closed his eyes. “Feyhammer went well above what they’re permitted to do. Especially against the Anomalous Materials Group. Don’t pay them a single coin, Ethan. We’ll sort it out, and you’ll be back to containing anomalies in their city soon enough.”

  “Great job with that one, by the way.” Luna looked up from her position on the ground. The stars in her eyes swam. “A Gravity Font? As your first anomaly? Very impressive.”

  “Indeed. I can’t imagine the mana control required to contain it,” Finn said. “You’ve done well.”

  “Indeed. Payment is due, of course.” Alex rummaged through his bag and produced a coin. “And can you guess what the assignment for this week is?”

  Ethan didn’t know when the right time to bring this up was. The group was using the wrong terms to describe what he had done. “Not to be that guy, but I didn’t contain it. I fixed it.”

  Alex blinked about 10 times. “What?”

  “I fixed it. I went into the system’s code, and I changed it.” Ethan chuckled to himself. He had never been more proud of something he had fixed. “The Gravity Font in Feyhammer House can stay there forever and it won’t hurt a thing.”

  Luna sprung up from the ground with impressive grace, practically gliding over. “You’re kidding. Right?”

  Ethan hoisted the sword, struggling to keep it upright. “Nope. This thing was also cursed. Some kind of nightmare sword held by the guards in Gale House.”

  “Are you surprised? He’s a recommendation from Him.” Finn chuckled to himself. “The Gravity Font was impressive enough, but this is another level.”

  “Well, that’s not everything.” Ethan shuffled his feet. It wasn’t as though he hated praise, but things were about to get kinda crazy. “I fixed 8 anomalies this week. Two of them were fonts, and the others were items. The enchanted sword was the hardest, since it came from another system I wasn’t really familiar with.”

  Alex’s mouth hung up. “I mean… I contained about 90 this week, but I don’t think I did 8 in my first week.”

  “I got about 150,” Finn was quick to chime in, grinning to himself.

  “That’s hardly the point though, is it?” Alex hummed to himself. After a momentary pause, he scooped up another chair and hurled it at the wall. The chair shattered into a hundred pieces and while the other members of the group didn’t flinch, Ethan and the tiny hooded figure in the corner did.

  “Pause. Who is that?” Ethan asked.

  “Not now.” Alex struck a pose. “We’re talking about big boy grown up stuff right now. We’ll get to the kid later. Okay. Perfect. We got us a big fancy boy in our ranks but what do we do now?”

  “Sell him to the highest bidder.” Finn raised his hand as though that made his statement valid. Both Alex and Luna shot him daggers. “Just kidding.”

  “Doesn’t take a genius to know this is big. Our Benefactors knew what would happen.” Alex paced over shattered pieces of wood, scratching at his head. “We’ve been scratching our butts for years trying to fix the dangerous anomalies. Maybe this is a problem from having too many systems in one spot. Dunno, don’t care. I need to know how far Ethan can go. How is his power limited? How can we increase it? Then I need a list of the most dangerous of the anomalies we know of.”

  Finn raised his hand, this time offering something useful. “The Sword Fields.”

  “That’s a field of blades that spin forever. They’re made of magic.” Luna sat up from the ground, eyes darting to lock onto the figure in the corner. She went back to resting after a few breaths.

  “Yeah, like the sword place. Stuff we could never fix.”

  Ethan looked back to the hooded figure again, unable to get it off his mind. He shook his head, turning back to Alex. “I’m limited. The anomalies I took care of were categorized at an extremely low Rank. The way my system works is kind of complicated, and I don’t really know how I can rank up, but I’m certain I can only handle something at Rank 1 or below.”

  “So, get stronger.” Alex folded his arms as though it was that easy. “Luna, make him stronger.”

  “I’m working on that.” Luna waved Alex away.

  “This is something I need to do for myself. Above all, it will take time. I need to experience the breadth of the different systems. I need more exposure.”

  “Like studying different styles in the Infinite Ocean.” Finn nodded toward Luna. “Makes sense.”

  “Cool. Exchange program. Let’s throw him in with some fighters or some crap. I have some contacts at Fangbrand and Duskthorn Houses.” Alex seemed extremely contemplative today. He paused for quite a long time. “Would that work for you?”

  Ethan assumed those were houses within his own academy, which would be perfect. He wanted to see every kind of class he could emulate, which would give him a depth of knowledge and breadth within each of his Attribute Rings.

  “Excellent. Training montage time.” Alex snapped his fingers and pointed at the figure in the corner.

  Luna pushed herself up from the ground, dusting her robes off. “Perfect. Ethan, I’d like you to meet my kid sister. She’s going to teach you a secret technique from the Deep Qi path.”

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