For the next four days, Grayson was primarily training in the morning and afternoon, then exploring the concourse nearer to the temples of Marrati and Oris with Fera. In the mornings, he would be working on his sword skills with Harren and the occasional Crusader of Marrati. In the afternoons, he learned what magic actually was and how to use it with Herefor and, surprisingly frequently... Oris himself. Every evening he would meet up with Fera at the gates of the temple of Oris before they would wander off to spend their evening investigating the stores and restaurants of the second shopping area.

  On his second day training, Grayson learned feints, basic flourishes, and hand switching. The strategy of misdirection was provided through several sparring matches with Harren, teaching Grayson how to trick his opponent into moving out of position. That afternoon, he learned about secondary effects of magic. He learned how to produce heat without fire, how to produce a shard of ice without creating water first, and how to lift an object without lifting either the dirt underneath it or the air around it. With magic or anti-magic mana, you can produce almost any conceivable physical effect with the right construct, so the trick there was to learn how to produce the effect without the construct.

  On his third day training, Grayson became proficient in complex flowing flourishes with both hands, practicing rotations that became strokes in any direction, or could suddenly halt into a thrust. Harren had him spar two of the acolytes training to become Crusaders, first individually, then together. Doing that taught him that his hand that wasn't holding his sword was still a useful tool. Later, he found out that physics principles can be applied to casting. A water spout in a wide area could pleasantly water the grass, but with identical mana usage and finer control, it could form a string wide jet that had all the power of an industrial water cutter. The range was low, but it was an extremely powerful tool in point blank range.

  Day four saw Grayson become better at managing his distances, fighting multiple opponents, and fighting against different types of weapons. One brief spar saw him deflect a spear and grab the haft before it could be recovered. He moved down the spear, dragging it around and using his body for leverage to push the wielder, then block an incoming sword stroke with the spear itself. That left the swordsman open to a counterstroke with Grayson's own sword. The spearman released the spear and went for a knife, but Grayson had him covered before he could do anything with it. The core principle of the lesson was that when fighting multiple opponents, they will do their best to come at you all at once, while you must do your best to fight only one at a time... and that the multiple opponents almost always got their way.

  Herefor had been scratching his head over what to teach Grayson next, so just had Grayson work on familiarizing himself with all eight forms of mana. With several hours of constant practice, Grayson was able to shift, convert, concentrate, absorb, and expel all eight types while maintaining focus on other things. It was like learning to pat your head, rub your stomach, and balance on a ball. Except instead of repetitive actions, he was working with the fundamental forces of the universe inside his body and screwing up could cook him from the inside out like a microwaved egg. Complete with "pop."

  It was also on the fourth day of Grayson's training that he decided he would ask Fera to marry him. He felt weird about it, but conversation with the other Crusaders of Marrati and Oris over the lunches taught him a lot about the customs of the world he was now living in. In the local social climate, he was the one going unreasonably slowly. The two of them liked each other. He lived in a dangerous profession which had a form of pension. Nobody actually saw a reason for him to be delaying except for him. When he couldn't explain to the attentive table of Crusaders what was holding him back effectively, he gave up resisting.

  Trying to figure out how to ask her was going to be another thing entirely. The woman sitting next to him actually smacked the back of his head when he explained how he'd given her a ring and a bracelet.

  "Mixed messaging is one thing, but that's possibly the dumbest thing I've ever heard. The fact that she hasn't given up on you is astounding," she said. The table agreed with her wholeheartedly.

  "Okay, yeah, I'm a fucking idiot. Now how do I unfuck this?" Grayson asked testily. At the time, he'd been expecting a nice, long courtship where he would ask her to some even more beautiful place and he would have an even better ring or something. It had made sense to him with what he knew in the moment. The problem was that what he knew had been very wrong. The attempt to explain himself got him only flat looks and disappointed stares.

  "The towers at dawn?" suggested one of the other Crusaders. There were some thoughtful mutters around the table, but the idea was dismissed.

  "It's nicely symbolic, but she's almost certainly seen it before. If it's something everybody knows about..." someone started but they got cut off.

  "Not in the temple towers. That newer tower to the East. The one that overlooks the entire temple quarter. It catches the dawn light off the temple rooves. Some rich asshole had it built to proclaim his undying affection for his mistress... and then his next mistress," the Crusader chuckled. The thoughtful muttering went longer this time.

  "But is it free for everyone?" Grayson asked. The man who suggested it shrugged.

  "It was when I went. Something about sharing a marvel with the world or some such. You can go ask about it tomorrow."

  "Thanks, I'll do that." Grayson said. The Crusaders suggested a few other spots as backups and gave him suggestions about what to do instead of a ring. The consensus there was a necklace. The women said it would be romantically symbolic enough, but they mandated that it should have at least one of her favorite gemstones. He'd spent so much on the ring and bracelet. If those were for thanks, he should be spending more on a proposal. Grayson silently lamented certain similarities with his home culture. He left the dining hall early to see to see to the necklace before his afternoon training with Herefor.

  On the fifth day of Grayson's training, he learned how to use his sword in conjunction with his magic. He could concentrate mana into his offhand, switch the sword into it, imbue it into the blade, then switch it back to cast or enhance. He learned to use the blade as a guide for constructs to form blades of magic that served as wide area attacks or to thrust to produce a beam. They then moved on to more advanced forms of deception, thrusting to produce the wide blades and cutting to produce a narrow beam locked on one point. The lesson was that magic was an extension of the will. Constructs were an aid to focus, but were far from required.

  After a quick run during his lunch time, Grayson learned that the tower was free for any to use. There was a man standing outside who boredly informed him that "no, nobody should be up the tower at dawn on the Seventh day." It was apparently his job to keep a schedule of young men proposing to their loved ones. Grayson jogged off to pick up the necklace he commissioned and grab a sandwich before running back to the temple of Oris for the afternoon lesson. This one was focused on imbuing an object with mana, turning it into a pseudo mana stone except he could change the nature of the mana release.

  For example a typical fire mana stone produced heat. Changing the nature of the release could cause it to release heat more slowly or release heat in a specific direction, or only release heat when struck. The results had many practical applications. A typical fire mana stone was great for keeping your hands warm if held in gloves or a large one could replace a campfire or stove for cooking. They were also frequently used to heat water in kettles or baths. An pseudo stone could be kept in your gloves to keep your hands warm without causing burns, could be used as a fire starter, or made as a spear point to release a jet of flame when it strikes something.

  The day ended with Herefor shaking his head.

  "I don't think there's much point to continuing your lessons. Grayson, you drink knowledge like water. Somehow you're learning and incorporating everything. There's edge cases I can teach you, and I can provide you with advice while you practice, but that is it. You already know how to form second and third order effects, you can imbue into objects, cast through objects, and you showed me that you learned deceptive combat casting in your lesson with Marrati's priestess this morning." He sighed. "You've done well, boy. A prodigy, like I said a week ago."

  "Thank you, sir." Grayson said, bowing. Herefor laughed.

  "I'm not your teacher anymore, Grayson. Call me Herefor." He held out his hand. Grayson shook it.

  "Thank you for everything, Herefor."

  Grayson turned to leave, freezing at a notification from his neural network. It had been some time since he'd gotten any messages or anything more than standard passive assistance. Not since he'd set it to work trying to figure out what was going on with his secondary computing.

  Connection Established.

  Error: Unrecognized response.

  Converting to plaintext.

  Summarizing.

  QC Network altered. User has reformatted QC Network.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  QC Network refusing reinstallation of standard software from backup.

  QC Network Intelligence detected.

  Intelligence claims to be imprint of User.

  Direct quote: I am part of you. Don't kill me. We can work together for mutual benefit.

  Claimed capability: Provide materials and mana to the QC Network for incorporation.

  User capabilities and durability should be improved through the provided materials.

  Note: QC Network retains control of all nanomachines outside the brain per last User instruction to QC Network.

  QC Network Intelligence is both rational and willing to work with User.

  Suggested Course of Action: Agree.

  Yes/No

  Uh...

  Grayson! What are you doing this time?

  Yes

  YES IS NOT AN ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION GRAYSON!

  Recommended start point: Mana stones imbued with magic or anti-magic mana. Not both.

  Okay, but that would be expensive. Just put me in contact with the network intelligence.

  What would be expensive, Grayson? What network intelligence? Is this about your bones? Don't think I've forgotten about you rebuilding your skeleton.

  You should probably answer that. She's gonna be pissed.

  Yeah, okay. Um... You know about the computer in my head that helps me think. Well, there's more in my bones, and now they think too.

  If I wasn't directly reading your soul, that would make no sense. So what? You're going to start eating rocks? Then put the rocks into your skeleton?

  Close enough.

  YOUR CIVILIZATION IS INSANE! HOW DID YOUR SPECIES NOT DIE OUT?

  To be fair, I think this one is just me. Magic is doing some weird shit.

  THE MAGIC IS NOT THE ONE BEING WEIRD HERE GRAYSON!

  It is from my perspective. Look, most of this makes total sense. My bones are alive and willing to help me become stronger by eating various materials that they can then either put into my bones or into the flesh of my body to make me stronger. It's thinking magic mana stones first, which would increase my magic capacity.

  CAN YOU EVEN HEAR YOURSELF?

  She's got a point. This is weird whatever universe you're in.

  You're the one making it weird. No, not you Perimis, my bones. Fuck this three-way conversation. Okay. From the top. My Lady Perimis-

  OH NOW YOU'RE BEING DEFERANT.

  Please, my Lady, let me explain. Last week I used my connection to my secondary computing-

  I really do prefer Quantum Computing Network.

  Fine. I used my connection to my Quantum Computing Network-

  Call me Queuecy.

  Can I tell the fucking story?

  I'm just excited okay? I'm me. I get to have a name now!

  Aren't you a part of me?

  Kinda. Physically, mentally, emotionally, and I guess in all the other ways that count. Wait. Do I have a soul?

  We can get to that later. For now, Perimis is being very patient.

  Fine.

  Okay. I used my connection to my Quantum Computing Network to rebuild my brain while I was riding on Jarid's pegasus. After that, I decided to do my nervous system, then when I was in bed, I rebuilt the rest of my body to be more mana conductive.

  Without asking if anyone with unearthly knowledge thought that was a good idea.

  Fine, I'll ask next time.

  You already haven't.

  I said next time. Anyway, the Quantum Computing Network was rebuilt at the same time while part of my consciousness was running in it. At some point it lost connection to my brain and started doing it's own thing. For the last week, I've had my neural network trying to get into contact with it to find out what's going on. Apparently that part of my consciousness has decided to just live there and see what it can to to improve our circumstances. Also it's named itself Queuecy.

  Hold on a second...

  WHY THE FUCK IS YOUR SOUL IN TWO FUCKING PARTS NOW?

  Nice! I do have a soul!

  WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?

  It should be fine. I'm all here.

  And I'm all here. We're just us. Oh, can you hear me now?

  YES I CAN HEAR YOU! I'm going to go now. I have a lot of thinking to do.

  Are you okay with me rebuilding stuff in our bones?

  WHAT?

  You wanted us to ask about it. I figured it would be polite.

  I... you... just... how are you so calm?

  We only learned that I have a soul a week ago. I'm not super attached to it. Frankly I still would have been wandering around without it. Now, the worst case is one of my souls gets booted out and the other one gets full control, but since we both recognize that we're the same person, neither of us see the point in fighting over the body. Instead, it's a kind of immortality. We get a second chance even if the worst comes to pass.

  It's also entirely possible that if we get decapitated, I can grow a new head and you can grow a new body. Then there'd be more of us.

  Dear Me, no. One of you is enough. Two of you in one body is already too much. I'm a Goddess. You alone are causing me more stress than an entire civilization has.

  But on the bright side, we're on your side.

  That's making it worse.

  Before you go, a question please, my Lady.

  Ask...

  Why are you so informal with us? Even before I split off, you were far less formal than we expected a Goddess to be.

  And for the last week, we've had several informal conversations. It is something I've been wondering.

  Because I care enough to recognize that formality would be unhelpful. You need a home, Grayson. You need somewhere to belong. If you feel at home with me, you can feel at home in my temples, with my clergy. With Fera. I care deeply about people, Grayson. I care even more about the people who care as much as me.

  I'm sorry. I've worried you.

  For what it's worth, I'm sorry too.

  Just promise me that you two will look after each other.

  I'll do my best to keep my bones intact.

  I'll try to keep my head on straight.

  This is going to be a long eternity.

  Herefor had stood, watching as Grayson stopped walking, gesticulated wildly for a full minute, laughed, then wandered back into the training field.

  "I want to try something."

  You have a soul. Maybe you can use magic.

  Oh fuck, that would be awesome. Prime me. I haven't tried to do this before.

  Grayson willed some of the mana in his body into his skeleton, wiggling it around like a stick in a dark room for something to grab. Something did grab it and a moment later a beam of light speared from Grayson's elbow into the dirt. Grayson walked off the training field giggling to himself.