Ethan watched from a distance as a group of students swept through the streets of Gale House City. He wasn't certain how cleaning the streets would help people fight some war on distant planets. But maybe there were more positions than just those of fighters that needed filling. Perhaps they would eventually join some logistics or sanitary work. Whenever possible, they were putting the spell on full display, and the scribe wanted to add it to his repertoire. He approached the friendliest-looking group and waved. The one in charge was from a race he still didn't know the name of. They were all big and furry but seemed distinct from the others with more animalistic features.

  "Are you looking to join the cleaning squad?" The big fuzzy man looked as though he could barely fit into his robes. But he had a friendly look upon his face that put Ethan’s mind at ease.

  "Yeah, I'd like to learn the spell." Ethan smiled but wasn't sure of the best way to approach this. He didn't plan to join the squad exactly. He just needed the spell written down for him. "If you could just sketch it out for me, that would be helpful."

  "Of course," the student said, producing a small leaflet from his bag and holding it out. "You’ve got all the information here about the best way to clean and which sections of the city really need it. The best way to prevent the spread of disease is casting this spell. As far as we can tell, it doesn't just eliminate dirt but also harmful pathogens, bacteria, and so on. It's vital we keep the streets clean."

  Well, that answered a question Ethan had. He wondered how people who dedicated their lives to sweeping streets would be helpful in wartime, and there it was. How many armies had been brought to their knees back on Earth from nothing more than disease? He accepted the leaflet and smiled. "Thanks a lot. You guys are really doing good work out here, aren't you?"

  "We'd like to think so. Now, if you'll excuse us, we need to get back to it."

  There really wasn't much to the spell array. It had two sigils with a single line drawn between them. They were connected by a circle, and that was about it. Even compared to the barrier spell, this one was easy. The sigils were simple, having only two strokes each, and even just looking at it, Ethan got the impression that he could master this with ease. Not that a cleaning spell should be complicated to learn.

  He made his way to his favorite park and had a seat, looking over the spell. He found it was just as easy as he had anticipated. There were enough students with the X-13 system around for him to initiate the emulation mode. He felt the familiar wash of strange power as he took on the mage class. With the help of emulation, he went over the spell and had it in his list of available system sigils within ten minutes. He used the same method he had used before to create the sigil, drawing the broken circle with two lines, then he simply combined the two sigils for the cleaning spell.

  That was it. The scribe inspected the new spell.

  [Clean Surface]

  Emulated Rank 1 Spell (X-13)

  Description:

  Channel a field of cleaning that removes all unwanted materials from a surface.

  Effect:

  Cleans a surface so long as this spell is fueled with mana. Strength of the cleansing field depends on the amount of mana used.

  Ethan shrugged. He wasn't sure what he had expected, but there it was. This was a spell that cleaned surfaces and nothing more. He wondered how spells were created for only a moment before he realized what he was here to do. He wanted to find the perfect attribute to place the spell into. Now that he had the system sigil, he could. Looking over it and doing a few tests, he found the Strength attribute allowed him to clean things with punches, while Dexterity increased how quickly he could clean things. Agility was the first one that was interesting, making it so that if he performed a dodge against an attack that would have otherwise inflicted some status effect on him, it had a chance to be negated regardless of if that dodge worked.

  Then he got to the Vigor attribute.

  [Clean Body]

  Vigor Ring Ability

  Generated By:

  Clean Surface (X-13, Mage, Rank 1)

  Description:

  System-based cleaning magic washes over your body in regular intervals, cleansing it.

  Effect:

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  Your body will be cleaned in regular intervals.

  Imbuing a small amount of mana into your Vigor Ring will release a pulse of system-based cleaning magic, cleaning your clothes and nearby objects.

  “Well, I guess I'll save time if I don't have to take any showers. This has got to be the best use for the spell, right?”

  This just brought something to the forefront of Ethan's mind. The different ways he could use spells were extremely interesting, and there were quite a lot of spells to pick from. Even if many of those were currently out of his range, the Rank 1 spells with three or fewer sigils should be easy for him to turn into a system sigil. Then there were the abilities. He had heard whisperings of the mages with the X-13 system having access to abilities but he had yet to sense them. He left the park feeling the activation of his Clean Body ability as he went. All the grime from the day was gone in an instant. With the faintest addition of mana to his ring, he felt a pulse escape his chest, scouring the dirt from his clothes immediately.

  By the time Ethan made his way back to the shack, it was almost time to eat dinner. He unlocked the door and went inside to check if Barry was back yet. While the man wasn't home, there was a letter and a small bag just on the other side of the door. It took him a few moments to realize, but it was his payment for the anomalous materials group job and a letter. He picked it up and read it.

  Alex gave a very brief introduction, telling him he needed to figure out how to neutralize a very low-grade anomalous item. He provided a list of those items and their locations. These were things that were not much of a problem, but they would provide an excellent test for the group's newest recruit. Yet Ethan could only think about one thing. He was hungry, and he had no idea where his friends were.

  As expected, the line for dinner was quite long. But as Ethan waited, he felt a weight settle onto his shoulder and spun around to see Barry beaming down at him. Amelia was nowhere to be seen.

  "Guess who has most of his system?" Barry asked. He pointed two thumbs at himself. "This guy."

  "Really? Why didn't you pass out or anything weird like that?" Ethan looked Barry up and down but couldn't tell any difference from the way he was before.

  "Don't know, don't care. All I know is that I'm in a bit of trouble now. My class is definitely mage-based, but it also involves quite a bit of crafting. I had a word with the headmaster, and it seems like I'll be traveling to another house in the Academy fairly often, but I don't have my approval to use the gates yet."

  Ethan was sure he had heard the name of the crafting house in the Academy, but it didn't bubble to the surface. "That's an issue, but why are you trying to get over there so quickly? Are you trying to take my example of getting ahead, or what?"

  "That's exactly right, my man." Barry gave finger guns and made shooting sounds. Ethan wondered for only a moment if his world had guns as a regular thing but dismissed the topic in his mind right away. "Feyhammer House is far away. Walking there is not even an option. I wanted to pick up some crafting materials, namely a lot of magic metal and maybe some sort of temporary magical forge, but I don't know if I can afford that. I know I can rent a forge here. Just because we're not the crafting house doesn't mean we don't have crafters. Horses still need horseshoes, after all."

  Ethan withdrew the note Alex had written him and looked down the list of anomalous materials it contained. There were quite a few in Feyhammer, which was the most crowded section of the list. He scratched his chin, wondering if he could get the attendant at the pavilion to allow him a passenger. "I may have a solution to your problem, but I have no idea if it'll work.”

  “Hey, better than my plan. I’m just a hungry man trying to get some food.”

  As Ethan and Barry waited in line, the scribe found himself on the other end of a slightly awkward situation. Just as he had gotten his System Scribe class and then subsequently told Barry almost nothing about it, the big man did the same. That was fine, though. If either of them needed help, they knew the other was happy to lend what help they could. Perhaps that was in the spirit of Gale House and the Academy or a friendship they had kindled recently.

  Ethan snapped his fingers, breaking the long silence that had settled in over the line. It wasn’t just them, but the other students waiting for their food. The low chatter of conversation had faded to almost nothing, creating an awkward moment when the scribe snapped his fingers. “Can you show me that mana spell?”

  “Totally forgot about that. That’s how I made some money today.” Barry chuckled. He passed his hand through the air, creating a mana projection of the spell array in an instant. He winked when he noticed Ethan’s confused expression. “Part of my new class. Pretty cool, huh?”

  Ethan withdrew the pamphlet he was given by the cleaning crew and sketched the sigil out. It was a three-sigil spell that would be extremely easy to add to his repertoire. He was most interested in seeing how a mana transfer spell would influence his mind attribute. But right now, he was more focused on food than anything else.

  "So, are you happy with the new class?"

  "Oh yeah, it really matches what I used to do back on my planet. It should be very easy for me to adjust to, even if there are a few more quirks than I had expected."

  Although Ethan felt he knew enough about Barry's previous life to guess what this new class could do, he threw it out of his mind. Today had been a long one, and more than anything, he wanted to get some food in him and have a good night's sleep. Tomorrow was Saturday, meaning he technically didn't have anything to do. All his assignments were complete, except for the one belonging to the anomalous materials group. Although he wasn't sure how he was going to solve that one, he had all week to do it.

  But Barry really wanted to get over to Feyhammer.

  With food in hand, the pair found their way to a table and settled in. The conversation, which had strangely gone hushed around them, came back to life. Students chatted about whatever interesting things they were into and jabbered on, creating a pleasant backdrop of noise. Ethan dug into his sandwich. Despite the fact that he had no plans to take it on the go, it had become a favorite food of his.

  "What do you think about heading over to the crafter house tomorrow?" Ethan asked. I could take it easy and work on my system, but I'd really rather get this assignment done.

  "Sounds good to me. What are you thinking? Bright and early?”

  "Yup."

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