I look down into the vomit-filled toilet and groan. Being sick/poisoned truly was miserable. I would take the soreness of excessive exercise over the countless hours of vomiting, diarrhea, and congestion. I had become far too acquainted with the symptoms of learning. I had spent the better part of a month regretting my choice of master, but at the same time I really was interested in what enchanting involved. It was a shame that anytime anything remotely interesting occurred, I would almost immediately be forced to leave.

  With my original determination to learn, enchanting quickly proved unfeasible. Even with my poison resistance quickly leveling up, judging when to stop was like playing a game of chicken with a car while blind. It was quickly becoming apparent that even unrelated things like learning Nightshade liked sunbathing would leave me retching in a toilet for hours. Even worse, it made me fall behind in my training, as my body needed extended periods of rest to flush out residual effects.

  The worst part was that after reaching level 49, it seemed my skill wouldn’t advance further unless I found something new to stimulate it. Since persistence wasn’t working, changing my approach was my only option. Instead of waiting for my body to naturally recover, I’ll learn healing first.

  I move to the villa at the center of town and see Madam Laina guiding a group of children sitting in a half circle around her. Her guidance is clearly very dry, as I notice many of the younger children nodding off as she drones on reading from a thick tome in her hands. I notice as I approach a sign, ‘No Begging for Late Apprenticeships.’

  I look back from the sign to her. Madam Laina was well known for her strict attitude; unless a matter was a medical emergency, she was known for her rude and strict temperament. However, it seemed that her lessons were in the open, so maybe instead of officially getting her guidance, I could try listening from outside.

  My presence wasn’t hidden, but Madam Laina seemed of the opinion that I wasn’t her problem and my loitering outside her home wasn’t worth anything more than a stern warning.

  “Boy, I am not your teacher, and listening will never make you my apprentice. If I ever hear you claim I taught you anything, I will see to it the guards discipline you. I suggest you abandon wasting your time with this and leave.” Well, her warnings didn’t seem the most urgent to me since I wasn’t intending to become a healer. The ability to heal myself and those in need around me was a convenience that was worth the effort.

  It turns out healing was actually an interesting shift from the magic I understood from Rune Craft. Instead of using a mastery of personal willpower to infuse an effect into mana healing, it involved tapping into the collective willpower of humanity. They bridged their thoughts of what is healthy and tricked the magic residing within the body into altering itself into alignment. The only requirement to use this power is to be perceived as non-hostile or to be unconscious.

  Healing wasn’t just about resetting the body to naturally healthy. If someone were skilled enough, they could also make adjustments within the natural limitations of a species. Blond hair could become brown and so on; however, this practice was considered illegal within the kingdom. Apparently making adjustments like this leads to a number of health, psychological, and even political issues.

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  The altered body parts would behave more like transplants and at times would face rejection from the body. Even changing the whole body would still face psychological rejection unless done early enough that the child lacked a sense of self. However, the true reason it had been made illegal is a number of commoners used medical alterations to try to pass children off as illegitimate children of nobility.

  I could only shiver when hearing how only 40 years prior a massacre was carried out, killing every suspected perpetrator, their families, and healers above a certain level who held connections to the lower class. The only reason Madam Laina was willing to teach so many apprentices was because it was mandated in her trial in addition to her banishment to our town.

  I also got to know the apprentices under Madam Laina. One for each year from 10 to 15 years old. I got along particularly well with the 12-year-old Guward and the 10-year-old Crescent. Guward was the son of one of the gate guards and apparently named with the intention of following that path, but he held more interest in healing after having seen Madam Laina save his dad. Despite the change of path, his family had supported his intentions, and when he was accepted, they had celebrated his success.

  Crescent was far more shy. Apparently she was an admirer of Sis and her group but wasn’t brave enough to insert herself into the group when they were together. Secretly I planned to take an opportunity to introduce Sis to Crescent. It might just round off the adventure team she was trying to assemble. At the very least it would be fun to see Crescent panicking when she discovered I was Callia’s brother. To be honest, I’m not sure how she hadn’t noticed.

  The lessons barely lasted an hour each day, but eventually after several months we advanced from fundamentals, regulations, and laws into the real lessons. During that time I had plenty of chances to spend time with Master Yoren and Gam, and we had recently begun several new projects that I was interested in. Like, how effective could runic guns be compared to more common bows? I also tried making devices like a camera and telescope to see if distance or time affected Nightshade's poison. There was still no luck in that department, and it was becoming more apparent that my plan to learn healing might be the most promising option.

  Madam Laina had brought in a low-level fish to serve as a practice subject. I almost felt bad for it, but I had long come to accept that there is no such thing as an innocent animal in this world, only monsters that haven’t had time to grow. It seems I’ll need to find myself something to practice healing on, as untrained healing on people comes at great risk to the recipient.

  I watched as the others struggled in their attempts to heal the fish. The youngest hadn’t even used the skill, and the older students had varying levels of success, with one managing to make the fish bloat and swell as cancerous growth rampantly lost control. Encouraging the proper growth required delicate control, but recovery was possible from any state except in the case of missing bones, as the flesh turned cancerous without the framework to grow from.

  I left with the others at the end of the lesson and began to wander around the town to see if anyone was selling something I could use to practice healing on. Eventually I did find a sailor selling low-level fish, but the price was ridiculous. Wild fish often grow into some of the most dangerous predators, but low-level fish are one of the safest livestock, and while raising fish is expensive, they also have a variety of uses throughout the kingdom.

  Gross

  Callia makes her way home and is greeted by the increasingly familiar sound of Callen retching into the toilet as his cycle of misery continues. Honestly, Callia had put the prank war on hold because nothing could hold a candle to the suffering he had insisted on trying to power through.

  Callia shakes that thought away as she goes into the kitchen to help Mom. It had become her new hobby in light of her inability to prank the helpless Callen. Together they quickly whipped up a mean stack of dishes with all kinds of seafood and veggies. At first it had felt like a chore having Mom drag her away to spend time making food together, but the satisfaction of Mom, Dad, and even Callen had inspired her to try out pushing what kinds of food she could make.

  However, today wouldn’t go like the other days, as the floor directly above her faded into nothing as the restroom's runes had reached critical. In a shower of chunks, all of Callen's unerased vomit rained down on her. . . .

  “CALLEN!” Pure hatred seeped from her body. It was then Callia decided, ‘No matter what condition Bro is in, I will ensure he suffers FOREVER!’