The next day, Matthew arrived early in class again. He sat down on his usual spot and, as always, drew the jealousy of the other boys in class. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for Matthew. In high school was the same. He somehow always found himself surrounded by women having no male friends even in high school.
He thought to himself that this time it would be different, after all, he wasn’t in high school anymore. Matthew looked around class. Most of the people there were between 18 to 20 years old. Only one man was older than that, in his late 20s. The bald one with a faint beard that Faralynn was sparring with the other day. And the only one who seemed to not care about him at all. "They’re all still kids" he, ironically, thought to himself.
Fred, the one he saved in the goblin dungeon when he first met Faralynn and Erin, was from another class. Matthew felt he was the only one who didn’t judge him for being popular with the girls. As a matter of fact, Fred seemed to want to befriend Matthew for that same reason.
He decided to ignore the stares directed at him and focused on reading the book on elemental realms Professor Lydia gave him.
Soon Erin and Faralynn arrived in class talking lively, but, as soon as they entered the room, Faralynn’s voice got quieter. Matthew smiled, she always retracted herself when she was near other people. He started to find that cute on her.
Matthew greeted them and focused back on his book. He had a piece of paper on the side where he was drawing all the runes he’d need for the summoning repeatedly. He decided to summon a minor earth spirit. It was the only one he felt he could tame.
Minor spirits were entities without a physical body that were only regarded in the primal realm, the realm where Earth was, as small balls of light.
"What are you reading?" Mia asked Matthew as soon as she sat down without even saying good morning.
"The Basics of Elemental Realms." He answered showing her the book cover.
"Oh. That’s advanced. You’re thinking about becoming a summoner?" Mia asked. She didn’t know about Matthew’s unique skill.
"Something like that." Matthew avoided the subject.
"Anyway." Erin turned Mia’s attention to herself to save Matthew from an inquiry. "What are you all doing on the weekend?"
"Dungeon with my dad." Helen said.
"I’m studying with the Black Tower." Tina said. The Black Tower was the most respected mana research institution on the world and a powerful adventurer guild based on England and led by the Sage Bianca.
"I’m going shopping." Mia said taking a piece of gum out of her bag and chewing on it.
"Oh! That’s great!" Erin said clapping her hands. "I need to buy some things as well. Specially a new robe, since mine is ruined from last dungeon." She added.
Matthew did not know which dungeon she meant. The 5 girls around him used to go into dungeons together sometimes and Erin certainly was referring to one of those times.
"Lynn, you should come with us!" Mia said looking at Faralynn. "You too Matthew. You’re hurt aren’t you? Since you won’t be going anywhere you should go with us." She said turning to Matthew and holding his arm.
Faralynn glanced at Matthew and then at Mia. She wasn’t sure what to say.
"I need new guns." Matthew thought out loud. "Perhaps some swords and a better protective vest."
"Oh!" Erin exclaimed. "Lynn knows great weapon stores!" She commented while blinking at Faralynn.
"Well." Matthew said turning to Faralynn. "Then I should go with you all."
Faralynn looked at all of them and was too embarrassed to say anything. She just nodded and looked away.
That afternoon Matthew met again with Lydia on the flower garden. She was already waiting him there sitting on a bench with her legs crossed while reading a book. She was dressed in a gray suit with a short high waist slit skirt, pantyhose and high heels. The way she looked at him made Matthew trip on himself and almost fall to the floor.
"Good, you’re here." She said closing the book and getting up with a chalk piece in her hand.
"Good Afternoon." Matthew said being taken at a loss of words.
"Did you study?" Lydia asked on a stern tone.
"Yes." Matthew said taking his rune sketches and showing her.
"Good." She gave him a half smile in approval. "Now draw." She added giving him the chalk.
He drew the circle and the runes being corrected every step of the way by Lydia.
"That rune is upside down. The circle is not big enough. You got that rune wrong." She would correct him only pointing at his mistake with a metal wand that she carried around holstered on her thigh much like Vanessa holstered her knives.
When the summoning circle finally was up to Lydia’s standards, she allowed Matthew to cast the spell.
Casting the spell was simple. It was only needed to shape one’s mana in the form of the circle following the chalk lines. Since Matthew didn’t have the Project Mana skill from the Mage class, he had to walk and touch the whole extension of the circle to shape his mana.
After that, one lets their mana to seep through to the circle and that mana is then transported into the realm they chose. If any spirit finds the mana appealing, they will come in contact with it and be transported to the circle. It was similar to fishing: the mana was the hook and line to bring in the spirit.
Matthew spent a long time inside the circle, since he couldn’t use skills from a distance, releasing his mana, but no spirit came.
"What’s you Charisma?" Lydia asked after 20 minutes had passed.
"It’s 10. I got the Necromancer and the Witch classes, that dropped it a little." Matthew explained himself.
"It’s very little." Lydia said shaking her head. "You need at least 20 to start summoning anything."
Matthew stopped using the skill and looked at her with a defeated face.
"So, what should I do?"
"You keep studying. When you level up, you increase your Charisma until you can summon anything. Do you have the Priest’s Holy Mana skill?" Lydia asked getting close to him.
"No. I got the Purification skill when I drew the Priest class." He answered.
"Shame. Spirits prefer holy mana to normal mana." She shrugged and started to clean the chalk marks on the floor. "Keep studying that book. When you finish, come to me and I’ll give you a more advanced one. Also keep leveling up. When you have enough Charisma, let’s see..." Lydia rubbed her chin thinking. "When you have 15 Charisma, we can try again." ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ NoveI(F)ire.net
Matthew acquiesced and thanked the Professor for her time.
Lydia simply turned on her heels giving him a little wave. Then said as she was walking away.
"Not a problem Matthew, please don’t stop studying."
The rest of the week was dull for Matthew. Classes in the morning and skipping training and dungeon diving in the afternoon because of his injuries to study summoning at home.
However he had a thing he was really looking forward to. Going out with Mia, Erin and Faralynn on Saturday. It was only shopping, but even so he would be accompanied by three beautiful women.
Therefore, when the day came, he got a little mad that his sister came along. Sarah was also invited by Erin who was beside herself to be able to shop for clothes with one of her favorite models.
Matthew served more as a bag carrier to the four women than a companion of them. Faralynn was too nervous to be able to talk properly with him and the other three were too busy going in and out of stores. So he was mostly left alone walking in the back of the group carrying all their shopping bags.
When they stopped on their fifth store, Matthew found something odd. A man he has seen before was standing outside. He could swear he saw that man in another store.
It could be a coincidence, but the same man was there on the sixth store. And the seventh.
The last store they visited was the weapon store recommended by Faralynn. Inside that store Faralynn’s barrier broke completely with Matthew. When they started to talk about weapons any kind of anxiety they had vanished. They were soon talking like long friends and Faralynn was even smiling without noticing.
Matthew bought two magic guns that could support a bigger load from Boost Gunpowder without exploding. He also bought two short swords, recommended by Faralynn, and a new protective vest made of pseudodragon leather, which was much better than his standard vest. He spent all the money he earned with the exploration in the Labyrinth of Enkidu, but he was happy. With those new equipment he would be able to face more powerful creatures.
When they left the store, Matthew pulled Faralynn close to him holding her hand, which made the elf’s face shine beet red. She tried to protest, but soon Matthew whispered in her ear:
"I think we’re being followed. Pretend we’re dating."
"Who?" She whispered back at him entering instantaneously in her combat mentality forgetting any shyness she had.
"The man with the green shirt and the sunglasses sitting on that bench." Matthew nodded at the bench he was referring to.
"I see him. What do you think he wants?" Faralynn squeezed Matthew’s hand and got closer to him furthering the couple’s ruse.
"I don’t know. Might be another of your uncle’s goons. Might be a stalker. Sarah had that problem before." Matthew didn’t say, but he also remembered Claudio from the Tower of Ryvylin and how Vanessa said he could be dangerous.
"What do we do?" Faralynn asked with a voice ready to fight. "Lure him away?"
"No. We don’t know how powerful he is. You should call your security. And we keep pretending we didn’t notice until they arrive."
Faralynn got on her phone when Matthew let go of her hand. They were hopping their display of affection didn’t get notice as a ruse to talk about the man following them by the man himself.
Sarah approached Matthew with a mischievous smile:
"You can’t say you two are not dating anymore. Holding hands and whispering like that."
Matthew rolled his eyes and whispered to Sarah making her face go pale:
"I think we got another stalker."
"W-Where?" Her blood froze. She instantly remembered the fear her last stalker caused her.
It was then that Matthew noticed the man had vanished from his sight. He looked around searching for him. All he saw was Sarah, Faralynn and Erin.
"Guys... Where’s Mia?"