Without hesitation, Kaylie stepped forward and summoned a stream of fire, directing it into the temple’s entrance. As she unleashed the flames, the thick, dust-laden spiderwebs caught fire instantly, vanishing into ash with a startling efficiency that belied the potential danger of the task. The fire spread rapidly, hungrily devouring the overgrowth with less discretion. Though the webs burned almost cleanly, the dense underbrush crackled and popped under the intense heat, sending up a tower of thick, dark smoke that was visible for miles around.

  Despite Kaylie’s efforts to control the flames, the collateral damage to the surrounding vegetation was significant. After a few exhausting minutes, she stopped, her mana depleted or her energy spent, and she walked back toward us, looking as drained as she felt.

  We retreated to a spot just far enough away that the oppressive atmosphere of the temple and the sight of the smoke could no longer reach us. However, the sooty odor clung to us. The scent was pungent and musty, lingering in our hair and clothes. As I unpacked the food, Sana’s face lit up, a welcome distraction from the smoky residue that seemed to follow us.

  “That was impressive,” I remarked to Kaylie. “I guess Fire Magic is really where it’s at.”

  Kaylie didn’t respond, visibly exhausted from her efforts. Sana chimed in, “Kaylie is Attuned. Most people’s Fire Magic isn’t that impressive. She comes from an extraordinary lineage.”

  “Attuned? What does that mean?”

  “Imagine you were a fire elemental or a lava golem. Fire is your natural element. Those who are Attuned are naturally stronger with their respective type of magic and more resistant to damage from that element,” Sana explained, while Jack seemed disinterested.

  “That sounds incredibly useful. How does one become Attuned? It might help me.”

  Jack sneered at the question but then returned to ignoring the conversation. “You don’t become Attuned. It’s how you’re born. It’s extremely rare and highly sought-after. Only Kaylie and I are Attuned here.”

  "Doesn't seem that rare if half of us have it." I joked, noting that it was just Jack and me who were out of the loop.

  “No, I mean on this entire continent, the only Attuned people I’ve met are Kaylie and myself. I also knew one other on the Black Rock Islands, but that was a long time ago,” Sana added, her voice trailing off.

  “Wow,” I replied.

  Kaylie cleared her throat, signaling her desire to join the conversation despite her fatigue. “If you ever do find a man who is Attuned, please do let me know.”

  You know, whether in this world or my own, it seemed like women always sought that one-in-a-million person. What could I do but nod? I turned back toward Sana, who appeared to be glaring at Kaylie. Maybe she was upset thinking Kaylie wanted the man for herself? Girls. I would never figure them out.

  “Does Kaylie have mana sickness?” I asked, noting her exhausted appearance.

  “No, that occurs when you keep using your mana after it’s already depleted,” Sana replied.

  “How do you use your mana if it’s already empty?”

  This time, Jack chimed in, “Imagine I shove a spear through your heart and leave you to bleed out. Eventually, you would run out of blood, but if I picked you up and squeezed, more would come out.”

  Rabbit seemed to be on the same wavelength as me as he remarked, “I don’t think he likes you. Either that, or he thinks about killing you way too often.”

  Feeling the tension, I glanced awkwardly at Sana, who obliged with a more straightforward explanation. “Zero is your safe limit, similar to health. You can push past zero, which means you’re in critical condition, like being close to death, unless you intervene. For health, you would typically take a potion to recover. Similarly, if you continue to use mana past zero, you enter a danger zone. In both cases, taking a potion quickly is crucial to minimize the risk of coma or death.”

  “Enough,” Jack interjected sharply. “You’re not going to face these problems unless you have a plan to fight.”

  “What?” I responded, confused.

  “On the ship, I thought you were competent, but that’s because I hadn’t seen you fight. On the island, I realized you didn’t know anything, and we were on a suicide mission. Tomorrow will be the same unless you figure out how you can help.”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Well, I did get that Mana Strengthening from you, so…”

  Jack cut me off, “You won’t be able to use that in battle yet. Your spell seemed to do well last time. Have you practiced that?”

  “What spells? I thought you couldn’t learn any skills,” Sana inquired.

  “I can learn some skills, but they’re at such low levels that most people assume I can’t,” I admitted aloud. Frustration with their skepticism had gnawed at me initially, but I eventually understood their perspective. You couldn’t spend one day on a ship and call yourself a sailor. Becoming proficient in anything, like sailing, wasn’t just about brief exposure. It demanded time and levels. In this place, people generally regarded level 20 as the benchmark of proficiency. Shifting back to the conversation, I added, “But I do have two level 1 spells maxed out.”

  “Level 1 spells in combat don’t seem very effective, and they are already maxed out,” Sana remarked to Jack, not me, then turned to ask, “What are they?”

  “The first spell can make me 1 percent faster.” I paused to look at their faces, and they looked just as disappointed as I felt. Rabbit was the only one who was wholeheartedly enthused about that spell, and I was somewhere in between. Although it wasn’t useless, its level one cap severely limited its potential. “And the second spell lets me teleport something if it is light and small enough.”

  Kaylie, with a mouth full of food, interjected, “Teleport?”

  “Well, something is in one place one moment and then in another the next second.”

  Only blank stares came from the women, so I demonstrated by pointing at Kaylie’s cup of water and then teleporting it into my hand. Impressively, the water didn’t even slosh from the sudden movement.

  “How does it work?” Sana asked eagerly.

  “No clue,” I replied automatically. “It’s magic.”

  Sana shook her head. “That’s not true. Even for a low-level spell, you need some understanding or experience. That’s why higher levels are harder to achieve. It requires a dedication to a type of thought process that many aren’t willing to commit to.”

  I wasn’t sure how to explain something like this to people who had never taken a physics class, especially since I had less experience than Time Magic itself. My whole world seemed to revolve around time, so it felt obvious to me. Instead, I asked Rabbit for a simpler explanation and repeated it aloud.

  “Imagine everything in the universe is made out of something, even if you can’t see it, like air. Now, imagine there’s a point of nothingness. Just as water naturally flows to fill depressions in the ground, the universe abhors a vacuum and seeks to fill it. When the teleportation spell is cast, it creates such a void and designates where the object should reappear. The object isn’t traveling through space in the conventional sense. Rather, its position relative to everything else is instantaneously adjusted to fill the void created by the spell.”

  “Interesting,” Sana commented.

  Meanwhile, Kaylie, still puzzled, demanded, “I don’t get it, but can I have my water back?”

  “I already know all of this, but have you been practicing? Without it, I don’t see how you will be useful,” Jack demanded as Kaylie stole her water from my hand.

  “It’s not an offensive spell, and I think the best I can do is teleport some coins to create a distraction,” I explained.

  “Why not just teleport the sword out of someone’s hand like you did with my cup?” Kaylie suggested, speaking through a mouth full of food.

  Sana and Jack exchanged glances of disgust at her manners. “It can only handle objects about this big,” I said, holding my hands roughly a foot apart.

  “If you think that is a foot, you’ve been lying to yourself your whole life,” Rabbit chimed in teasingly. I adjusted my hands slightly wider, my cheeks reddening a bit from the correction.

  “Well, that doesn’t help much,” Jack concluded.

  “Maybe you could drop something on the enemy if you can’t steal their weapon?” Sana suggested thoughtfully.

  “It can only be around three pounds,” I replied.

  It was Jack who spoke up next. “An arrow?”

  I thought about it for a moment. “I could potentially redirect an arrow coming at me, but honestly, if I saw one, it would be quicker to dodge than to focus on teleporting it. The hard part is seeing the projectile.” I put my hand in my quiver and pulled out an arrow, examining it. “You know, I don’t think an arrow would work either. It’s just too long.” I estimated it to be around two feet long.

  The group fell into a thoughtful silence.

  Sana then had an idea. “What if the arrows were shorter? It would compromise their accuracy, but maybe we could modify them to work with your spell. Could you then use your spell to make it hit the target?”

  “Maybe. My range is only 25 feet, so while it’s feasible, it would use up a lot of my mana to affect one arrow. Honestly, it might be easier to get better with my bow,” I responded thoughtfully.

  Jack added, “The only other small weapon we might consider is a knife, but that requires even more skill to use effectively.” He patted his boot where he kept a spare blade. “You would have to throw it precisely to get the blade to strike properly. I’m not sure how well it would work if the knife teleported and ended up spinning randomly. However, if you mastered it, it could be effective, but it would certainly require a lot of practice.”

  He made a compelling argument. Using the spell offensively with a knife would demand precise control to ensure it hit blade-first, not handle-first, which would be ineffective. I also wondered if I could add more force to a thrown knife by teleporting it, as it wouldn’t lose momentum over such a short distance. As I thought about it, owning a gun here would have made me very deadly with the spell if I could move a bullet mid-flight. I doubted that would be possible because they were so fast, but it was a neat idea.

  As the night deepened, our conversation continued, revolving around how I could contribute in meaningful ways. We didn’t uncover any groundbreaking strategies that I hadn’t already considered, but everyone made a genuine effort to look at the situation from different angles. I was confident that everyone wanted me to make it through tomorrow. Well, maybe not make it through, but I was sure they didn’t want me to be deadweight.