As he promised Kari, the Doc decided to teach his students the newly discovered Peak spell.

  Considering that none of them were Green-aligned Crawlers, their first step would be to align their natural Flux with the color. The four of them thus proceeded to stand along the pier, their hands folded in a prayer position, their bodies facing the waves and the sea wind.

  In short, they looked like hippies practicing for a yoga class.

  “Green Flux covers the domain of life, or more accurately, all forms of organic matter,” the Doc reminded them. “Hear your body. Focus on your heartbeat and the flow of your blood. Try to align your Flux with their rhythm.”

  “Do I have to do it too?” John snorted. “I’m a Red. Casting a Green spell is beyond me.”

  Matthew was starting to question the Doc’s choice too. Flux came in seven colors forming a wheel: Yellow for concepts; Orange for matter; Red for energy; Violet for spacetime; Blue for information; Green for life; and White, the color of metamagic—spells that affected sorcery itself—occupying the center.

  Each Crawler’s Key ability was aligned with one of these seven colors. To cast spells outside their core category, they had to transform their natural Flux into a different sort; and the farther the spell on the color spectrum, the more difficult the task. Matthew, as a Yellow, found it easier to learn Orange and Green sorcery over Red and Blue; and he struggled to create Violet Flux at all. White alone enjoyed a neutral relationship with the other colors, with its associated Crawlers having neither an easier nor more difficult time mastering other spells.

  It was partly why he paired well with John and Kari. Each of them had at least one overlapping friendly color, so they could more easily practice magic together.

  But Matthew didn’t see how John would benefit from practicing a spell he couldn’t possibly cast. It was like trying to teach a turtle how to fly.

  “Casting a Green spell shouldn’t be impossible for you, John,” the Doc reassured his student. “Simply exceedingly difficult,”

  “What difference does it make?” John asked with skepticism.

  “Perhaps it would be best if I gave you my underlying theory.” Ever the born teacher, the Doc immediately adopted a professorial tone. “As you well know, casting a spell requires a certain quantity of Flux of the same color. For simplicity’s sake, let us assume that we can divide the energy required into units.”

  “Magic points,” Matthew immediately suggested. “MPs.”

  “I prefer SP,” John replied. “Sorcery Points.”

  “I’m unfamiliar with these terms, but they both work,” the Doc replied with more enthusiasm. “According to my current models, each step away from your Key’s core color increases the cost of a spell exponentially. In your case, John, creating a unit of Orange Flux will cost you four times the points that you would use for a Red spell of equivalent power. A Blue Flux unit increases that amount to nine times the quantity, as it is two steps removed from your Key; and a Green unit, your opposite color, will require sixteen base units.”

  “Oh, that’s why you’re so good at sorcery, Mr. O’Connor?” Kari asked with a chuckle. “Since you have a White Key, all other colors cost the same to you.”

  “Should we call it a…” Matthew grinned ear to ear. “White privilege?”

  “Oh, so witty,” John replied with the most bored tone imaginable. “Never heard that one before.”

  “I couldn’t resist.”

  “I wouldn’t use that term so lightly, Matthew.” The Doc cleared his throat, suddenly uneasy. “Besides, my Flux color is not without its downsides. White Keys are useless by themselves, since they can only affect other abilities or spells.”

  True. The Doc’s ability let him temporarily ‘tune’ the Key of others, boosting one attribute at the cost of decreasing proficiency in another; like trading range for firepower. It was completely useless without another Crawler to use it on.

  “To go back to my original point, none of you make optimal use of your Flux,” the Doc said. “Your shortcomings in this area are particularly glaring, Matthew. If spending four Yellow units to create an Orange one is the best possible scenario, then you are spending forty to achieve the same result.”

  “You hear that, Maruki?” John chuckled. “You’re a spender.”

  “At least I have MP to burn,” Matthew replied. “Unlike the spell-starved, misfiring rogue next to me.”

  “You two, please,” the Doc said, forcing his students to focus back on his lecture. “My point is that the better you become at changing your Flux’s color, the less energy you will spend to cast spells.”

  “I think I get it now,” Kari said. “If John trains hard for a two-kilometer race, he will build up his endurance and have a much easier time winning a five-hundred meter one.”

  “Very astute, Kari,” the Doc congratulated her. “Most Crawlers believe that they can’t cast spells of the opposing color, but according to my model, this is very much within the realm of possibility. By practicing with Green Flux, John will have an easier time casting spells closer on the color spectrum.”

  “Fine, fine,” John said with a shrug. “I can’t wait to see Matthew struggle with Violet Flux.”

  “Black holes warp space and time,” Matthew pointed out. “When I create them, am I not already casting a Violet spell?”

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  “No, you are not,” Kari replied with a chuckle. “Less talking, more casting.”

  Matthew closed his eye and focused on his Flux. With only fellow Crawlers and no mundanes around to threaten him with Disbelief, his sorcery could fully express itself. A surge of power erupted within himself, pure conceptual energy unburdened by the laws of reality.

  The Doc had a point. White-color metamagic like Accel, which boosted the power of a base spell, came relatively easy to Matthew because it simply involved tuning his natural magic. Other colors demanded a different approach.

  Nobody liked sudden changes, let alone the essence of sorcery. Matthew’s Flux wanted to stay Yellow. It fought back to stay that way, like a cat refusing to be thrown off a comfortable sofa. Focusing on his heartbeat as the Doc suggested didn’t help much.

  Matthew decided to try a different approach. His Wormhole Key was his sorcery’s foundation. Maybe if focused on a life-tied concept…

  An idea crossed Matthew’s mind. His Flux immediately began to shift. It still provided some resistance, but the yellow slowly began to gain a green hue.

  “You are doing better, Matthew,” the Doc congratulated him.

  “Buttholes,” Matthew replied. “It comes easier when I think of buttholes.”

  He heard Kari stifling her laughter and the Doc coughing in embarrassment. John alone didn’t make a comment, not even a snide remark. This bothered Matthew enough to open his eye and check on him.

  Whereas Kari perfectly aligned herself with the Green, John struggled to reach that stage. Though he appeared deeply focused on the task, his Flux constantly shifted from orange to yellow without ever reaching its final state.

  “Maybe you should take a shortcut with White, John?” Kari suggested without opening her eyes. It amazed Matthew that she could sense her teammate’s issue without visual confirmation. “Since it is at the center of the color wheel.”

  “I’ve tried, Matsumoto,” John replied, his jaw clenching in annoyance. “But when I do, it reverts back to Red.”

  “That is the flaw of White Flux,” the Doc conceded. “Since it naturally tries to bond with another color, it usually defaults to the easiest choice available: that of the caster’s Key.”

  Although John struggled to reach a Green Flux state, his success in reaching a color two steps away from his core one—and Yellow to boot—inspired Matthew to do the same. His teammates had been Crawlers for a far shorter time than himself, having awakened their Keys two years ago instead of four, but they showed better Flux control than him. How could Matthew call himself a veteran if he let them best him?

  Hence he tried to go one step further. Blue came next after green. Information. What kind of hole would fit that theme and let his Key align with it?

  A memory hole, may–

  A sharp pain erupted inside Matthew’s skull, and his Flux snapped back to Yellow in an instant.

  “Don’t push yourself too harshly, Matthew,” the Doc reassured him. “The same goes for you, John. Keeping your Flux stable in another color is a victory in itself.”

  Matthew grunted in annoyance and focused back on the Green and buttholes. Blue was a bridge too far for him to reach yet.

  Upon being satisfied with Matthew and Kari’s aptitude at channeling Green Flux, the Doc proceeded to continue his lesson. “The Peak spell works by cycling Green Flux through your body so that it optimizes its natural processes. This should improve your physical aptitudes.”

  Matthew whistled. “Will we be able to lift cars? Like superheroes?”

  “No,” the Doc replied, much to his students’ disappointment. “If I had to explain it simply… in most circumstances, your body would use only thirty percent of its full strength to avoid wasting energy or overstraining itself. The Peak spell lets you work at a hundred percent without suffering from side effects.”

  So in short, Matthew would perform at his best at all times; but an art student’s best was an athlete’s worst. It sucked. At least he should be able to keep the Peak spell up at all times once he got the hang of it.

  “If it reassures you, Matthew, superhuman strength should be within a Green spell’s reach,” the Doc said. “Florence and I developed Peak as a general aptitude boost for would-be Green Crawlers. A basic template, if you will. We hope to create customized variants that focus on one aspect over another, though we need to gather more data first. I’m sure talented sorcerers like the three of you will find new uses for it.”

  “Shouldn’t Peak make us smarter too?” Kari asked. “Like with Premium Thoughts?”

  “I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way, Kari,” the Doc replied with a small sigh. “The frontier between colors seems rather stark. The Peak spell does not improve reaction time nor the speed at which your neurons transmit information, although it physically should, because that would fall under the domain of Blue Flux. Or at least, this is the best explanation I could come up with for now.”

  “You hear that, Maruki?” John chuckled to himself. “You’re never getting any smarter.”

  “Who needs smarts when luck is on your side?” Matthew replied. “With my new Lucky Star spell, you can bet half my tests will reach my desk already pre-filled.”

  Always the curious sorcerer, the Doc immediately questioned his student on his new finding. “How would this new spell of yours work, Matthew?”

  “I’ll use Yellow Flux to separate my good luck from the bad, then store the former for future use.” Matthew raised a thumb up, his heart swelling with pride. “Like a start-up, I’ll take short-term losses and then blow up on Wall Street!”

  “Fascinating… Would a bad event that spares you a worse calamity later count as good or bad fortune? Would spending all of the accumulated luck in a short time provide more benefits than on a longer period?” The Doc stroked his chin as more questions rushed through his head. “We should run tests, Matthew. What do you intend to spend your fortune on?”

  “Please don’t use it to cheat on tests,” Kari pleaded with Matt.

  “Only if I have luck to waste.” Matthew smiled with pride at his own genius plan. “I’ll use most of my fortune to win the lottery and give half of it to the Association. No more budget cuts.”

  “That’s… very kind of you,” Kari replied. She looked both relieved and a little enthusiastic. “What will you do with the other half? Keep it for college?”

  “College?” Matthew frowned. “Why would I go to college?”

  Kari looked at him as if he had grown a second head. “Why wouldn’t you?”

  “Because I would be rich? The whole point of going to uni is to earn a degree and then a job, but a future millionaire like me won’t need either.” Poor Kari, she couldn’t think outside the box. “No, I’ll spend half of my time hunting Dungeons and dedicate the rest to a life of luxury and indolence!”

  His friends and mentor both fell silent. Unable to stand the lack of reaction, Matthew immediately began to fill the void.

  “I will use my millions to buy myself a house with plenty of amenities, including a cinema, a jacuzzi, and an art studio,” he boasted. “It’ll be a self-sustaining palace of pleasure, so I never have to go outside unless I want to! And it will have a maid café too! With actual maids dressed like French girls! And then one day they will turn at me and say–”

  Matthew marked a dramatic pose, then pointed a finger at his team.

  “Yamete, goshujin-sama,” he said with the utmost seriousness. “Yamete kudasai.”

  This finally drew a reaction from each of his teammates. John looked at him with disdain; Kari, with compassion; and the Doc, with embarrassment.

  “You are the trash of humanity, Maruki,” John finally said.

  “I’m sorry, Matt, I…” Kari swallowed a sob. “I wish I could help you, but I think you’re beyond saving.”

  Only the Doc was nice enough to smile at Matthew. “What matters is that you have a dream,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how small or what kind. That you have a goal in life at all is good enough for me.”

  The Doc was too kind for this world.

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