Day 253 and I still couldn''t figure out how to make this sword. I had counselled every ancient text and manual to make relic magic weapons but nothing was helpful. I knew those manuals by heart now, and despite my frustration, managed to make a hammer for Greg. It was obsidian black and adorned with dark purple gems, just to make it extra edgy. I''m sure he will love it! Or hate it and kick my ass...


    The hammer could change in size and weight by itself. It could also use some shadow magic. It can do what I learned from Esher. Greg can pretend to throw the hammer, the physical hammer woulld stay in his hand but the hammer-shadow will fly off. It had a small list of cool things it could do. It was a relic magic weapon and magic weapons use specific magic cores. These are very hard to make but I mass-produced them by going 9t mode and creating shadow clones. Any person that can''t use magic or use it well but is proficient at a magic weapon could beat a skilled magic user. That''s how strong these things are.


    Their mana is also different, they can be used in situations where mana can''t be used. That''s why a license is required to use one or they will have to be stored away when going to public mana-free areas.


    I called Greg''s hammer ''Umbra Noctis''. Every cool weapon needs a name. I made a spear for Raishin named Thunderclap; not very original but I was tired when I finished it. It can stretch a bit and bend a lot. It also has a function that increases its user''s accuracy. As long as he doesn''t throw the spear, he will have increased accuracy. It also boosts his damage even more. Now I just needed to make one for myself but I had to get this problem fixed. I was convinced that I needed certain magical skills or techniques I was unfamiliar with. I came up with nothing, even after digging through the libraries of Gittrian 2 days ago. Is this truly impossible to make? I sat down and Nilah leaped on my lap.


    Nilah, are you getting fatter? You should ease up on stealing mana.


    Hmm, that''s not it, Nilah seems to be bigger. I don''t understand [Nilah] at all. I have no problems casting it, I could teach it to someone although it would take long for them to be able to use it but this all changes after she is created.


    How mysterious.


    I felt like I couldn''t go forward. I had practiced with weapons that were strong enough to fight with for a short time. I slowly started to develop my own style. I had to make fast and precise strikes and I had to move my swords in ways to get the most of them. It looked quite cool. I had to swing the swords around quite fast between actual swings to swing some mana away to make the next swing be met with less resistance. It gave me a fighting style where the opponent had a hard time following my sword. This weird way did make my swings more powerful even whiteout using matching wavelengths. I could get insanely strong with a sword if I could figure this out. I also sheathed my sword if I had to take too many fake swings in between real ones. If I could create a katana, I could use this to use the Iai that I like so much. I had made katanas but they had the same problem as the normal swords, it was even worse because I swing the katanas faster.


    I decided to distract myself and get the last flower that I needed. Mistflowers. I bet Azu could have helped with this sword. Hmm, Witchaven is close to the location of the Mistflowers. What place is better to find non-standard magic methods than in the city of witches? I think she said it was an academic city. Time for some information theft! Let''s see what do I know about witches, their hats contain most of their mana, without it they''re just slightly stronger humans unless your name is Azu. I put Nilah on my head. She was bigger but not much heavier.


    Do you want to be my hat?  She used [Transform] and turned it into a hat.


    What the… Nilah, what are you?


    I guess she’s a fox too so it makes sense that she can use [Transform], I think. Now witches also use catalysts, mostly staves but the more skilled they get at casting magic the smaller they get. Most skilled witches have small wands. Unless your name is Azu. I made a staff a while ago. It was made out of metal though and it was more a bo staff. I cast 7 layered illusions on it and it looked more like a witch staff, a retractable witch staff. Now the problematic part, they were strictly female. Do I really need to use [Transform] again?


    I used [Transform] and turned into a chick.


    Hmm, now that I’m older I quite look like my mother as a chick. I hope nobody knows her.


    Nilah, can you send some mana to this staff? I don''t want to circulate mana through my body.


    Nilah sent mana to the staff. As long as I had Nilah on my head and this staff, I could pass for a witch, I think. I inspected myself with Elgards eyes. The mana is a bit low for a witch but better look like a nobody than some diamond in the rough. Alright! Time to gather some mistflowers and infiltrate the witch city! I put an illusion on myself and stepped out of the house. I went into the mountains. I think witches fly on their staves but... I can''t fly but I can pretend to fly!


    I connected to the air leyline currents and used [Howling Updraft], at least I was supposed to.


    Right needs a bit more hips for this since I''m a chick now. I used [Howling Updraft] and got launched into the air. I stood on the staff and used [Hurricane Path]. It was more surfing on the wind than flying but this is the best I can do. It was quite fun but hard to steer. I could only go in a straight line else the staff would wobble and throw me off. Also... I had to crash-land somewhere in the mountains because I was getting close to witch territory. How do I know that? I saw various barriers and anti-air uhm what is it? It''s like a huge invisible net and when I fly in, they will probably detect me and shoot me out of the air.


    No more flying, the rest needed to be travelled by foot but that’s fine I’m fast. I started running and faceplanted. I guess I''m not as fast when I''m a chick.


    I reached the location of the mistflowers after half a day and got more than enough. I don''t want to come back here when I don''t need to. I walked and walked. This place is so far away! I took another look at myself.


    Is this what a witch would look like or do I look weird? Azu was kind of weird.


    I arrived at a spot where I could look over the city. It was built on a tall pillar. You could only get in by flying or teleporting.


    Are you ready Nilah?  Nilah seemed ready and I teleported to the city. I tried to get in but got redirected to some sort of border control. Not this again...


    I saw a witch hand over a special ID. Something about coming here to study. I quickly analyzed it and replicated it under my illusions. My picture was a problem. I finished the ID in 30 minutes. How am I going to solve this picture problem? I will just put another set of illusion layers on this.


    "Reason for visit?"


    To study runic construction and destruction and magic skill synthesis.


    The witch looked over her glasses. "Aren''t you a bit young to study those complicated subjects? You also seem a bit weak."


    Age has nothing to do with this and I have good mana control.  I gave her Nilah, who currently was a hat.


    "Are you messing with me? This is just a normal hat!" Nilah started to release a lot of mana when I snapped my fingers.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    "Ooh, very impressive, controlling the mana output of your hat is extremely difficult, I apologize, Agnès Oures, you may pass." I put Nilah back on my head. Too easy.


    Or so I thought, there were 4 more checks. After 45 minutes I was in. It looked like a normal city if you ignored all the witches flying around. A large castle stood in the middle of the city. Normally this would be a palace but this seemed to be the academy. Not a lot of technology here but a lot of magic. Things were running by themselves. I saw decorations for hats, wands and staves. I observed other witches and they also used the gold system. I bought an actual staff. I also learned a couple of things. The witches don''t refer to themselves as witches under each other.


    They just go with ‘Witch’ because humans have popularized it and they just go with it because it will be hard to correct. How do I know this? In a more thorough check, I got asked why I had Human on my ID.


    I know, that’s a sloppy oversight. So, I persuaded them that this was because I had spent a lot of time traveling. This made a lot of sense to them and they helped me turn it into ‘Misha’ or how the witches call themselves. Another thing, these Misha have no sense of humor. This is something I might struggle with. Azu mentioned something like this but I didn''t think it would have been this bad.


    A lot of young-looking Misha were walking, running, and flying around. Not that I know their actual age but I got referred to as being quite young, is there a way they can tell? It was strange to see absolutely no men, they weren''t particularly fond of them though.


    I arrived at a block that seemed residential. Every residence had a chimney spitting out weirdly colored smoke. The Misha are cooking something and I bet it''s not food. I spotted a large residence that wasn''t spitting smoke. Curiosity gripped me and I went to check it out. Is this Misha not in the city? 90% of the residences have weird smoke coming out of the chimneys. I don''t believe that all the Misha are at home at this moment, they might have things cooking while they''re away. So, this one strikes me as interesting.


    The residence was large and it had a particular color. It can''t be, right?


    The residence seemed water-themed and azure in color. If this is really her house then that would explain why there is no activity. The entrance seemed to have some interesting seals. But they could all be opened by something simple. Is this how Misha lock their doors? Creating multiple layers of seals that all have a similar weakness and when this weakness gets hit, they all disable temporarily. I’ve only gotten here but I already learned something. There seemed to have been attempts of forced entry, but it doesn''t look like any succeeded. I can''t tell if anyone has managed to unlock the door. Well, if these Misha can’t unlock it there is no chance for me. I took 3 steps away because I needed to find a place to stay when I stopped.


    Why did Azu teach me some of these skills? [Tsunami] I get but why specifically [Azure Spear], [Azure Chain], and [Azure Shark]. She didn''t directly teach me like the other skills but she seemed to show the magic circles in an unusually clear and concise way so that I could copy it. Normally these would be scrambled so copying them is harder. She is no pushover so this isn''t just a mere oversight. I looked around. Nobody seemed to be paying attention to me. I always found that [Azure Spear] had a particular shape and runic structure.


    I used [Azure Spear] and fired it off at the door. The seals reacted, some barriers turned and they clicked. That easy? As far as I know only Azu and I can use this skill.


    I looked around and went inside. I started to revise the magic circle of the skills I copied from Azu. They were the clear concise ones. I should scramble them to protect them from being copied. The door closed behind me and I could instantly tell that nobody has entered here for at least a millennia. This place was like a small mansion. I took Nilah off my head and she turned back to her small fox form.


    I guess, she won''t mind if we borrow her house for a bit.


    I started to clean the place and I found a big room that looked similar to the room she had in her shop. It had a huge cauldron and all kinds of witch ehh Misha stuff. For the rest, it was a relatively normal mansion. It had a study full of literature and the basement had some form of workshop. Is this where she worked on researching and forming runic structures? It was as if this house had everything she needed, a small lab, a mini library and a cauldron room. I saw some prototype hats.


    Don’t Misha get born with their hats? Can they replace them? I found staves and wands. I guess these were those that she used up until she didn''t need them anymore. I saw some images of Paula and Paul and her. Also, Azu with some other witches.


    Something that looked like a graduation picture and more. I found something that looked like a lab journal. I swiftly read through it. It seems she also has a lab in the academy and it is locked and very secure. It reads how to unlock it and what''s inside but it doesn''t seem like this is being careless. The Misha couldn''t even get into her house to find this and getting to the lab seems even harder. They need to use the [Tsunami], [Azure Shark], [Azure Spear], [Azure Mist] combo to open the lab.


    Yeah, this lab is going to stay locked until she comes back. Wait, I can use that combo! I am curious but it’s her hard work, should I really snoop around? What if I piss her off and she wipes me off the face of the planet? Would she really teach me these if there was a possibility that I could get into her lab? Hmm, either way, I''m here with a goal, and getting some more knowledge in the meantime won’t hurt.


    Nilah, this will be our home for an undetermined amount of time, I need you to turn into a hat when we go out.  Nilah showed that she understood and started to explore the house. I dropped an [Dimensional Anchor] here. I wonder if I can teleport directly into this house, then again 9t are one of the very few races that can do this so it''s not like there is a concern to protect against these. I went outside and tugged on the dimensional anchor. I got met with a lot of resistance and had to fight against some interferences but I finally got in. It’s not impossible but it’s certainly hard to get in here.


    I went to the mini library and started to look through the literature. Most were just about water magic and Misha potions. Nothing in here was really useful to me. There were some about arcane magic and I archived them. It seems that I need to go to her lab for more in detail and specific information. Her house does have the environment to mess around and try stuff and then bring those ideas to the lab to actually do something with it.


    The layout of her personal lab got memorized and I tried messing around to improve my sealing and barrier techniques. I also found a book that went into detail about the mana runes and the different types and variations. The author was Ayaru Mistflower. The mana runic system wasn''t as complicated as the primal runes on face value but it wasn''t as simple as I thought. It would be extremely hard to create magic skills without this knowledge. This might actually be the most important book I''ve ever read.


    I spent time studying this book. I archived it of course but I need to know this one by heart and concluded from the first few chapters that most of the magic we know is highly inefficient because it is created to suit everyone’s needs but everyone is different and most if not, all modern magic skills don’t take advantage of this. Which makes sense but hence the inefficiency. So, what Azu had done was spend years to make the magic skills she knows the most efficient version that suits her. It made her [Water Spear] into [Azure Spear] and so on. Hmm, I see. But this is not easy to do.


    I put the book down to digest all that. Just when I think that I knew what I was doing I find something that proves the opposite. I would consider myself quite proficient at magic but it seems that’s not the case. I never planned this but I might also want to brush up on my magic. There are just things that magic can do that Dragonvein can’t. Completely ignoring magic is unwise.


    This took me by surprise and I sighed. I guess this will be my new home for the foreseeable future. I thought I might be here for a month tops, but it seems that I have to live here for a while. The whole night was spent reading Azu’s book. It was well written, something I didn''t expect her to pull off from what I knew about her. I held a [Fireball] in my palm and looked at the runic structure.


    After reading her book I can see how sloppy this really is. I’m not an expert in any way but I can already see multiple flaws and methods that can be improved. How does Azu see the world with this knowledge, people throwing magic around saying they''re masters while she sees dozens of flaws in it? Is this why she got shunned from the community and used as a special weapon? I tried to remember all the magic circles and runic structures I''d seen.


    None seemed efficient, even of those of the Misha I''ve seen here yesterday. Is this the book the Misha were aiming for by trying to get into her house? This and the journal are probably the most important items in her house. It is her life''s work but it could make the Misha several times stronger if they use this knowledge.


    I wonder what happened, she certainly must have tried to make this well known. Did they just not listen? People with authority don''t seem to want to listen to anything that conflicts with their ideas. They didn''t listen to her, got annoyed with her, and sent her out to fight an army of Zarrazax cultists alone hoping she would die. She didn''t die but this got 2 gods pissed off at her, she sealed one away, fought another, and got sealed away herself. It is quite a sad story and all she wanted to do was probably bring the Misha to greater heights.


    And now they probably realize that her research might actually make them stronger and are trying to break into her house to get the research. I don''t even know if they attempted to find her and unseal her but I wouldn''t be surprised if they didn''t. This story sucks.


    I called Nilah. The academy would start lectures tomorrow and I need to get ready for them. I have never been to a real school. Everything I know is from what I''ve read or got taught by home tutors in Hourai. A lot is also improvisation.


    I also never expected to go to a school but here I am. I am not going there to learn though. I need to know how far their knowledge goes compared to what Azu’s research suggests, I might be better off locking myself up in her lab and studying instead of getting assaulted by topics I don''t care for, are irrelevant, or I already know. Nilah jumped on my head and turned into a hat and I looked through the windows. It was quite early so nobody was in sight. Her house was also in a low-populated area it seems. I covered myself in illusions to be less detectable and left the house.