Chapter 14

Title: Nejime's growth and the system's ridiculousness

During the next week, Phesto and Nejime continued their routine of training, teaching and discussing. Thanks to the system, Phesto was able to almost immediately pick up every topic Nejime taught him, and within a day or two plus the system's guidance, Phesto could reach new conclusions and gain his own understanding of Nejime's teachings, whenever they discussed these topics Nejime was always surprised and shocked at the speed at which Nejime not only learned but could also think of his own theories.

With Phesto's comprehension speed, Nejime really couldn't see herself as someone much wiser, so she instead saw him as more of an equal from whom she could learn a lot. And learn she did, when Phesto told her about her body's condition she was a bit sceptical at first after all her condition went unnoticed for many years, but when she started practising the Energy strengthening skill that Phesto gave her she was shocked at the results it showed within a few days.

Though she still struggled in controlling her magic, the flow of it has improved massively. If it kept up the current pace of improvement she'd be able to fully control her magic by the time they reached Ionia. After that she could also start practising her magic for real, she could finally use the knowledge she accumulated after all these years of visiting magical academies. And she didn't plan to stop learning, once they got settled in Ionia she planned to look for opportunities to continue her studies.

When she studied in Shurima, learning how to control her magic and cast spells properly was her main goal, but not succeeding for quite made her studying feel fruitless, now seeing that casting magic properly wasn't some fantasy anymore she suddenly felt like studying once more.

She wondered how she would feel like studying now. Not to study because she wanted to "fix" herself but rather study because she wanted to "improve" herself. It was a difference of one word, but it was a large difference to Nejime.

Her newfound vigour and interest in studying also affected how she interacted with Phesto. Before she discussed magic with Phesto because he asked her to and she wanted to help him, but now it was almost as if she didn't care about his opinion anymore and she would discuss magic with herself if he wasn't there anymore.

Even Phesto was surprised, and that not just because of the change in attitude, but also the rate at which she improved and thought of new and interesting theories. The reason he was able to think of new theories was partly that he had the system to help him, but also that he had decades worth of knowledge about the fictional power systems of dozens of different franchises, but Nejime? Nejime thought of all these things by herself, comparing his cheat like system and experience with her, he realized that she must be what people really mean when they talk about geniuses.

Still, Phesto was quite grateful, that she was such a genius. She could pick up any ideas Phesto had thanks to his system and any ideas she had were quickly picked up by him and his system. Together they formed an incredible feedback loop and improved incredibly quickly.

Looking at his system, Phesto could only smile weirdly. The sheer amount of skills and the speed at which the levels were reminding him of grinding during a double-XP weekend and playing without a break.

Looking at the most important skills Phesto was quite happy with himself.

[Energy Sense lvl 72(+32):

You can sense and control energy 72% more effectively]

[Magic Casting lvl 20(+14):

You can cast magic 20% more efficiently and faster]

[Energy Strengthening lvl 25(+22):

Pure energy can be used to very slowly nourish and strengthen the body. This process occurs 25% faster]

Though he couldn't decide which of the three skills was the most important he quickly decided that Magic Casting was the least important for now. As the name already said Magic Casting only affected magic, and while most of everything he has been doing until now was magic, he couldn't be so sure about the future. Energy Sense and Energy Strengthening were much more versatile in that regard. Though he mostly used those two skills in conjunction with magic, he recently noticed how aside from the inherent magic coming from the sun even the warmth and light could be used for Energy Sense and Strengthening. They truly took all energies into account, though considering how recent and little the energy gained from non-magic is he also realized he needed a more extreme environment and a higher skill level.

Still, Energy-related skills could be used just as well for magic so he'd rather practice those more. And considering that he was still struggling with which skill he liked more he simply gave up and decided to and decided to put in the same effort into both skills. But while he was struggling to decide which one he liked more he was also discussing the usage of energy and not just magic with Nejime and found out that using energy seemed to still be something highly conceptual. Conceptual enough that researchers for it were considered to be studying a dead end, and even if it wasn't, no organization wanted to be the first to invest in this project that wouldn't bear results anytime soon.

Hearing this from Nejime, Phesto kept most progress of energy strengthening to himself from now on. Luckily when Phesto told Nejime about energy strengthening for the first time it was still so immature that the only energy type it could properly interact with was magic. So currently he was still the only one who knew for sure that energy skills weren't a dead end.

All in all, Phesto was extremely satisfied with his progress and the fact that he didn't accidentally leak a huge secret, though he had plans of spreading that knowledge once he was in a safe position. But for now, he would lay low, and build up his strength, and more immediately get off this ship, but that was also going to take one more week, and so he spent that time practising with Nejime.

(AN: With this chapter, this fanfic has reached 15k+ words and with that, this fanfic will appear in the power stone rankings, this is actually quite a big milestone for me and so I wish to thank you guys. Seeing people add this story to their collections and seeing the comments thanking for the new chapter really is nice. So I'll try my best to continue this novel for as long as I can or until it reaches a logical conclusion. If you're still reading this, then I also ask you to vote with your power stones. I wish you guys the best of luck in solo q)