Sleep is for the Weak

Scarlet took a deep breath as she held out her hands at both sides and with an exertion of will created tiny balls of mana in each hand, using her [Evocation Magic] on both of them to perform an [Invocationless Magic] spell. 

One of the balls turned into a bright ball of light magic energy, while the other became a ball of dark magic energy.

[General Skill: Light Magic has reached level 2 | Rewards: +1 Wisdom, +1 Magic, +2 EXP]

[3 EXP to next level]

[General Skill: Dark Magic has reached level 2 | Rewards: +1 Wisdom, +1 Magic, +2 EXP]

[1 EXP to next level]

[General Skill: Dual Evocation has reached level 3 | Rewards: +3 Mana, +3 Wisdom, +3 Magic, +3 EXP]

[EXP requirement for Level 20 has been reached | Rewards: +10 in all stats, +1 Talent Point]

[3196 EXP to next level]

“Finally!” Scarlet said, dropping back onto her bed and throwing her hands up as she allowed the balls of light and dark mana to sit there in the air with the 300 other ones just like them, of varying elemental types, she had made in the past hour.

She had made more than that, but the spell only lasted an hour.

She felt drained by the ordeal, as she had been using mana faster than she was regaining it, even with her enchanted clothes, and the constant use of mana was burning through her stamina. But she had continued anyway, because she had wanted to rush to the end as quickly as possible.

She had finally gotten it, her second Talent Point.

Now, she just had to figure out what she wanted to do with it.

Flipping up into her meditative stance, she let her stamina recover as she pondered the question.

She had two obvious targets for her new talent point.

The first was her [High Speed Invocation], a skill that would be an absolute must if she wanted to increase the speed of her [Invocation Magic] to the point where it would be usable in a reasonable amount of time. It was connected to all forms of magic that could be performed with an invocation spell. It would also help with intelligence based skills that supported it, as well as her [Singing] skill, which despite constant use saw slow leveling due to lack of buffs.

...She supposed she didn’t actually need the [Singing] skill for anything. ...It… It wasn’t like she ever dreamed of being an idol or something like that! She didn’t care about the quality of her voice!

...Anyways. [High Speed Invocation] would boost a lot of her progress, but it wouldn’t help her with learning [Invocationless Magic] or [Ritual Magic], nor would it affect her previous point in [Enchanting] by much. All of which were drawbacks.

Her second option was [Dual Evocation], a skill that let her manipulate her mana into multiple attribute types at the same time. This was a skill that could open up entire new realms of dual attributed magic spells and would provide a great amount of help in accelerating her progress towards learning to create life attributed mana. And it would still provide bonuses to [Invocation Magic] as well as [Invocationless Magic] and [Ritual Magic]. It would also help with her [Enchanting] if she started to make elementally imbued items.

But [Dual Evocation] was unconnected from her intelligence based skills and wouldn’t help them progress at all. It also wouldn’t assist with [Transmutation Magic], [Conjuration Magic] or any other kind of magic that wasn’t [Evocation Magic].

They were both very powerful skills, and each had its benefits and drawbacks, but which one was the right choice?

...Well, she had managed to grind out 25 levels of [Evocation Magic] in 2 days, so it didn’t really make sense to pick [Dual Evocation] just to get to life attributed magic a month or two faster. And while adding a fire element to a sword is cool, it wasn’t exactly practical for her yet. 

So [High Speed Invocation] having the added benefit of improving her [Memorization] and [Decoding] skills was probably the better take.

...That was why she wanted it. [Memorization] and [Decoding]. She really wasn’t prioritizing it for [Singing]. Honestly she wasn’t.

So after allowing her mind and body to rest again through [Meditation], Scarlet placed her second Talent Point into [High Speed Invocation] and then returned to training, this time using her new talent to rapid fire pop off low level wind spells… until it started making a mess.

...Perhaps she should take this outside.

---

Will rode his horse down what was quickly becoming the familiar path up to the Wright family house, as he started to try to mentally prepare himself for what he was going to see this week.

After two months, he would like to say he was getting used to it… but that would be a lie. There was no getting used to Scarlet Wright.

No sooner were he and Thumper in sight of the house than he spotted the little girl sitting in the middle of the yard, a large wooden log in front of her that she was working at with a knife, trying to cover it into the shape of a unicorn. While not perfect, her high finesse and artistry stats really showed, and made up for her relatively low level in [Wood Carving].

Ever since she first saw Will’s wand, she had been preparing to make a magic medium of her own, starting with learning how to carve. After two months, she could almost be called a professional.

Seeing such a small child craving a work of art out of a wooden log would have already been strange enough for any normal child, but of course that wasn’t even the tip of the iceberg for Scarlet.

“This girl…” Will said as the sound of Scarlet’s singing reached his ears and he recognized the spell words she had put in her melody.

Will recognized the spell as one of Scarlet’s own creations, made up of a mesh of the ‘Wind Ward’ spell and the ‘Generate Cold’. Scarlet had used her high level [Decoding] skill to analyze them and then hack them together into a single spell that could be fitted to a tune, which she called the ‘Song of Northern Winds’.

It was a cheap, low power Invocation spell that made use of [Dual Evocation] to create both wind and cold attributed magic energy which she then used to create a sphere of cool air around her. The perfect thing for those hot Summer days. She then used a ‘Round Robin’ style of Invocation in order to keep several layers of the spell going at once, so long as she continued to sing.

For Will, maintaining the spell would require all of his concentration to keep his [Mana Control] working properly, if he could ever get the [Dual Evocation] right. Scarlet did the entire thing while whittling.

(Amazing as usual, Princess.) Thumper said to the girl, drawing her attention. She looked up at them and smiled as she dispelled her wall of wind, causing the cool air to rush outwards in a quick breeze.

“Welcome back.” She said as she put away her whittling knife. “How was your trip?”

“It went well. Though the weather is getting hot.” Will said, before Thumper gave him a kick.

(Don’t you have something else to tell the Princess?) Thumper said harshly.

“I was just about to.” Will grunted before smiling down at the girl and reaching back into his pack to pull out a present. “Happy Birthday, Scarlet.”

“Thank you.” Scarlet said, returning the smile. “But I shouldn’t open it now. Mama and I are going to open them all together at the party.” Scarlet informed him. “Oh, I shouldn’t keep you outside in the heat. Come on in.”

With that, Scarlet started to lead them inside, chatting with them as she walked. Though even as she talked to them, the girl was still using [Invocationless] [Evocation Magic] in order to generate bubbles of cold attributed mana around her.

Her ability to divide her focus was unbelievable. Apparently, her [Multitasking] skill had received a significant boost as she trained her magic and was up to level 40. To have 2 Talent Points spent in high level skills at the age of 3. Scarlet was really incredible. She was going to go far in life.

Thumper had taken to calling the girl ‘Princess’, and while Scarlet seemed to think it a harmless nickname, the rabbit Bond was completely serious.

A commoner girl who managed to obtain a Tier 1 or 2 magic-based Class would be able to marry into most Viscount or Count houses. Old stories told of how Tier 3 or 4 girls would be fought over by the houses of Dukes. But at the rate that Scarlet was going, she would definitely be able to reach Tier 5, with even Tier 6 not being outside of the realm of possibility.

After that, only royalty could possibly be worthy of her.

Will was more than aware that he was probably the private tutor for the next Archmage.

He would probably one day have to bend the knee to her, either calling her ‘Your Grace’ or ‘Grandmaster’. A mental image much easier to picture by just substituting in her mother, as the pair was so much alike. They were both hardworking, stubborn and upbeat girls.

They even shared the same birthday.

“Mama, Judith! Will and Thumper are here!” Scarlet said as they reached the kitchen.

“Yes dear, we can see that.” Judith said in her usual detached tone. The voice of someone who had seen it all and learned to just ignore it for their own sanity.

“Welcome back. Thank you for joining us.” Maria said with a bright smile.

“We’re glad to be included.” Will said, trying to fight down the heat in his face.

Will noticed that the husband and stepson appeared to be gone. Not even around for the birthday of two members of their household. The pair might not have even remembered.

He had long noticed that something was wrong in this house and that there was no love between Maria and Jonathan Wright. He thought that there might have been an arranged marriage between them, but that didn’t feel quite right.

While arranged marriages were common, even among commoners, commoners usually only had arranged marriages with people around the same age as them, maybe a year or two apart, while there was a gap of more than 30 years between Maria and Jonathan.

Even when in the same household, they seemed to live in different worlds. The girls lived as if there was no one there but themselves, happier when the men were out of the house entirely. When they could be their own little family.

It was a strange family consisting of the eccentric and talented mother, the perhaps even more eccentric and talented daughter, and the kind, if pushy, maid who wouldn’t bat an eye if the entire house exploded.

They were strange… but Will had come to like it.

---

Maria was turning 20 years old that day, as her daughter turned 3.

She could hardly believe it, as it meant she had been in that house for almost eight years. Eight years of living so close to that horrid man.

And yet, living there with her Bond Spindle, her best friend and maid Judith, and her beloved daughter Scarlet, it wasn’t even that bad. Their love had made this prison tolerable. She loved each of them with all of her heart. They were her family, who could even turn this hell into a sort of heaven.

After the arrival of William had marked the start of their party.

It was nothing that fancy. Her heartless husband hadn’t bought anything special for the birthday meal of his wife and daughter, but since he had the good manners to not be around, she wouldn’t begrudge him for it too much. Even so, Judith made the best meal she could and no one could complain about the results.

They ate, played party games and told a few stories, after which came time for the exchanging of presents.

As for tradition, Judith had made both Maria and Scarlet some homemade teacups. This year, Maria’s had a sunflower design on it, while Scarlet’s had the sun. They were cute and Maria and Scarlet thanked the woman happily.

William seemed to feel awkward after seeing the maids gift, as he hadn’t made his own, but bought them, having the advantage of being able to visit a city shopping district. Even so, Maria thought that the pincushion in the shape of a spider was a thoughtful gift, and Scarlet certainly liked her own present from him.

“Oh wow! Thank you so much!” Scarlet shouted, doing her best to act surprised as she opened the box to find a few dozen magic stones of a higher quality than the ones she had managed to get before. Everyone knew she had been able to sense what was inside the box long ago, but her acting was appreciated all the same. “I’ll make sure to put them to good use.”

“I’m sure you will.” William said, almost sounding a little worried.

“Now for my present.” Maria said, getting a box that used to have a hat in it and presenting it to her daughter. “I hope you like it.” 

It was a crown of flowers, only rather than real flowers, they were fake flowers that Maria had made from her threads. Each one shaped and dyed to look so real, that they seemed even more real than the genuine article. 

“It’s so beautiful. I love it.” Scarlet said, gently placing the crown on her head and smiling brightly for her mother.

(The crown suits you, princess.) Thumpers said, allowing everyone to hear the telepathic message. Scarlet giggled at the complement, before jumping down from her seat.

“I have to go get your present now. Please wait.” Scarlet said before rushing over to the closet and bringing out a large box for her mother. “Here you go!”

Maria had honestly no idea what was inside, so she could honestly say she was surprised with what she found when she opened the box. “Oh wow. This is… certainly interesting.” She said as she lifted out the elegant gown that her daughter had made for her.

A gown that had armor plates attached to it.

“I know mama won’t really ever need it, but I wanted to make it for you anyways, because mama is my knight in shining armor.” Scarlet proudly declared.

It was so cute that it started to bring tears to Maria’s eyes.

“If you wanted her to be your knight in shining armor, you should have picked a color other than black.” Judith said as she looked over the dress armor.

“Tha...That’s just the color of the material. I didn’t dye it like that.” Scarlet said, pouting a bit.

The gown itself was a deep red color that matched Maria and Scarlet’s hair, but the armor plates were a black color with an interesting double weave design on them. Maria was shocked by just how light the dress was. Despite the armored plates attached to it, it couldn’t have been more than three or four pounds, and it was nearly a full platemail armor set. “Did you use magic to make it lighter?” Maria asked as she moved the dress about.

“No. Carbon fiber is just a real light material.” Scarlet said with a shake of the head.

“...Carbon... fiber?” Maria said before something clicked. “These armored plates. They aren’t made of metal. They’re threads.”

She had noticed that they felt odd, but she hadn't realized what it was until Scarlet had said it.

“That’s right. I made the threads by using [Transmutation Magic] on some firewood and then molded them together with more of the same. It’s really light, but it’s 10 times harder than steel.” Scarlet said proudly. It had taken her a while to get right, but she had managed to make high quality carbon fibers using magic.

“Armored plates… made out of threads.” Maria said in wonder at what to her was a novel idea. Her Class skills also included a method for compressing threads together, but Maria had never considered using it to model them into a lasting shape or layering them for the sake of hardness. She had always just been making her dresses.

“Do you like it?” Scarlet asked tentatively.

Maria smiled and lifted up her daughter for a hug. “I love it.”

She really was the best birthday present that Maria had ever received.

---

“Fufufufu~!”

Scarlet cackled evilly to herself as she pulled the long red thread from her glass pot and hung it up to dry.

With higher quality magic stones and some better reagents, courtesy of Will, as well as a few more levels in [Alchemy] and the help of [Transmutation Magic], Scarlet’s new enchanting threads were several times better than her old ones. Meaning, it was time for a serious equipment upgrade.

After getting her [Evocation Magic] up to level 50 and finally learning how to create the life attributed magic energy needed to learn [Healing Magic], Scarlet was finding that her +1 mana every 2 seconds was no longer cutting it. Healing spells were expensive, with even the basic ‘cure small wound’ spell costing a massive 100 mana to cast on a 10 second cast time (7 seconds once reduced by [High Speed Invocation]).

If she wanted to cast the spells as much as she wanted, she was going to need a lot more mana regeneration.

So the night after her and her mother’s birthday celebration, Scarlet got to work on making her new set of enchanted clothing, equipped with the new and improved enchanted threads and her better understanding of magic.

The process was slow, as she used a much more complex system than before, but when she was done, the sock she was working on far surpassed her greatest expectations.

[Right Sock of Mana Restoration Version 2.0: Tier 5 mana restoring enchantment (excellent quality) - the wearer restores 1 mana every second.]

1 mana every second! On just a single sock! It was double the value of her entire old set combined!

Brimming with happiness, Scarlet removed her old sock and quickly put on the new one before activating the enchantment.

“Ouch!” Scarlet let out a cry of pain as her foot felt like she had stuck it into a vat of hot oil. She quickly pulled the sock off of her and looked down at her now burned foot. “Owee…” She whimpered as she observed the damage, until she understood what had just happened.

She had tried to absorb too much mana with too small a surface. Her body couldn’t handle the density of foreign magic energy and the result was her receiving a small burn on the exposed area.

Scarlet bit her lip, more out of frustration than pain, before mumbling out a small heal spell to repair the damage.

If her body was bigger, then she would have more area to spread out the mana intake, but that would require her to grow up. That was something that wouldn’t be happening for years, and she didn’t feel like waiting around for it. But what was the other option? Spread the absorption across her entire body? The entire problem was that her body was small, and it would increase the size of the enchantment and decrease its mana absorption in the first place. Not to mention it would make it harder to hide.

Create a backup battery enchantment to hold the extra energy?

If she didn’t absorb the mana into her body first, she wouldn’t be able to use it later anyways.

...She wondered if there was a skill for resisting mana intoxication damage.

With determination in her heart, Scarlet stuck a piece of cloth into her mouth to bite down on and once again put on the sock. Tears came to her eyes as she fought down her cry of pain, tanking the damage for a few moments before pulling the sock off and healing her foot back to normal.

She repeated this process 10 times before the skills started to finally appear.

[General Skill: Arcane Mana Resistance has reached level 1 | Rewards: +1 Health, +1 Mana, +2 Fortitude, +1 EXP]

[1833 EXP to next level]

[General Skill: Pain Resistance has reached level 1 | Rewards: +2 Fortitude, +1 EXP]

[1832 EXP to next level]

[General Skill: Recovery has reached level 1 | Rewards: +2 health, +1 Fortitude, + 1 EXP]

[1831 EXP to next level]

“So there really are skills for that kind of thing.” Scarlet mumbled before looking down at the sock.

There was no way in hell level 1 was high enough to have a large effect. If she wanted to have higher levels of mana regeneration, she was going to have to work for it.

And so, she put the sock on yet again.

That night, her [Arcane Mana Resistance] increased to level 3, with still only a barely noticeable effect, but Scarlet was not dissuaded.

Even if it hurt, she would continue as long as it took.

---

 

“I can’t believe you’ve turned this into a form of training too.” Judith said with an exasperated sigh as her young mistress forced down a third helping of breakfast.

“Judith. I’m a growing girl. I need to eat to grow up big and strong.” Scarlet said, blushing a bit at being called out.

“The only thing you are going to be growing into is a pig if you keep eating like this.” Judith said offhandedly, causing Scarlet’s bottom lip to tremble and her mother to giggle.

“Don’t worry dear. Even if you become a piggy I’m sure you would be the cutest little piggy.” Maria said.

“Mom…” Scarlet whimpered in embarrassment before looking down at her food, crying to herself as she took yet another bite.

After breakfast was over, Scarlet returned to her room and lay down on her bed. “Ugh…” She groaned. She had eaten far too much and now felt completely bloated. 

But this was just another part of training.

Putting her hands on her stomach, Scarlet started to mumble out the spell she needed and the [Enhancement Magic] started to kick in, strengthening her stomach and digestive system to help break down the massive amount of food she had consumed. 

[General Skill: Big Eater has reached level 7 | Rewards: +3 Health, +2 Fortitude, +7 EXP]

[3345 EXP to next level]

[General Skill: High Metabolism has reached level 8 | Rewards: +2 Health, +2 Fortitude, +8 EXP]

[3337 EXP to next level]

[General Skill: Enhancing Magic has reached level 10 | Rewards: +1 Health, +1 Fortitude, +1 Magic, +10 EXP]

[3327 EXP to next level]

[General Skill: Body Enhancement Magic has reached level 11 | Rewards: +1 Health, +1 Magic, +11 EXP]

[3316 EXP to next level]

[Enhancing Magic] had been misspelled in her previous book as ‘Enchanting Magic’ causing Scarlet much confusion until she actually started to learn it. It was a type of magic that could strengthen or weaken anything you cast the magic on, if you know what you are working with. 

The magic was generally divided into two types, [Body Enhancement Magic] and [Material Enhancement Magic].

Using [Body Enhancement Magic], Scarlet could increase the strength of her arms or legs... or the strength of her stomach, all by using the right spell words and focusing her mana properly. The buffs were temporary, but it was useful magic, and Scarlet was using it to put away a few extra pounds in preparation for what she hoped would be a productive growth spurt. 

Scarlet hadn’t realized it without any other child to compare herself to, but her constantly being awake had caused her to burn a lot more energy than most children, resulting in her being a bit small for her age. Hoping to make up for this, she had more than doubled her calorie intake.

If that didn’t work she could take… more extreme measures.

With [Body Enhancement Magic] it was possible to increase the rate at which she produced growth hormones. 

It was a desperate move, but she didn’t want to end up a dwarf. She wanted to be tall, like her mother was.

*Gargle!*

Scarlet’s hands went to her lower stomach as she felt a new pressure building. 

...Nature calls.