Restraining my tail from happily wagging took a conscious effort, but I was able to do it. It was just annoying. Oh well, I knew that getting turned into a half dragon or whatever I currently was had side effects. This was just another instinct that I would need to learn to repress.

  By the time I got my tail under control, the two witches were done eating. Nix looked quite excited about something.

  "Mom, you said that you'd show me how to improve my magic today, right? Oh! Can Dragonfly join too?" (Nix)

  Well she seemed to like me for some reason? I ended up just giving a questionning look to Camity.

  "Of course, she can join. The more the merrier, after all. So, Dragonfly, care to join us?" (Camity)

  "Sure, I guess." (Dragonfly)

  I obviously wasn't about to turn down a free magic css, even if Camity was the one teaching. Plus, she was still an extremely powerful witch despite her eccentric tendencies. I couldn't have found a better teacher had I tried.

  "Alright, let's start by going over the basics again." (Camity)

  "What? But-" (Nix)

  "I know that you already studied them, Nix. However, basics are important. Plus, we wouldn't want to confuse your new friend, would we?" (Camity)

  The girl's ears lowered themselves sadly for about five seconds before perking up again with even more energy.

  "Oh, I know! I can expin the basics to her so that she doesn't get confused!" (Nix)

  No, she did not wait for an answer.

  "Basically, mana is like this thinghy-thing that's everywhere all the time and does stuff and then you can make it do stuff with your soul! And then you get to all of the cool stuff!" (Nix)

  "What?" (Dragonfly)

  She started pouting at my reaction to her explication.

  "Alright, it's fine, you had the general idea in there. It just wasn't clear. What Nix was trying to say is that mana permeates every single aspect of the world. While ambient mana pys a role in several natural phenomenons, it's also important to remember that we have mana inside of ourselves too. We can use our souls to interact with that mana in order to do magic." (Camity)

  With that, Camity stood up from her chair. She walked over to the still sulking Nix and began to pat her head after taking her hat off. That got the foxgirl to rex almost instantly. She seemed so blissful like this...

  I might have wanted to get headpats too were I not a half dragon. I was totally above such desires, of course. Do not mind the fact that a certain witch was giving me a knowing look.

  "Well, now for the interesting part. Do you know how using our souls to manipute mana works?" (Camity)

  I shook my head. I did know that magical affinities had something to do with it, but no more.

  "You don't know? That's not surprising, very few people actually study mana properly. You see, your soul is what defines who you are. You can cast spells by influencing your mana with the concepts that are essential to your soul. Those concepts are what the system calls affinities." (Camity)

  I fell deep in thought at that. Did this mean that space was a central part of who I was? That seemed a bit odd.

  My reflections were interrupted by a hand petting the top of my head. Camity had decided that I needed headpats too, for some reason. I was about to compin before I realised that it wasn't worth it. I settled for faking annoyance.

  Wait, no, not faking, it was very real. Just ignore my tail's wagging.

  "Now, the system isn't perfect. It generally doesn't name affinities accurately unless you understand what they really are by yourself first. This also means that two individual with the same magic affinities might not actually have simir magic. In fact, even stuff like the rules that mana obeys can change from person to person." (Camity)

  That was interesting. If I understood all of this properly, it meant that my space magic and fire magic were probably something else. As for the st affinity, even the system had no clue as to what it was. The mysterious figure that had appeared in my dreams the previous night probably had the answer, at least. I would need to ask about it the next time we met.

  Camity stopped giving headpats to Nix and me at that moment. I held back my compints, but the other girl let out a long whining noise.

  "Now, now, cheer up, it's time for your favorite part of magic csses." (Camity)

  Nix's tail began to wag excitedly when she heard that. It seemed that I wasn't the only one with tail issues, even if I might be the only one here to consider it an issue.

  "Ohhh, it's time to practice casting spells?" (Nix)

  "It is." (Camity)

  For the record, her clothes were still covered in the red liquid.