Two and a half days then. That's quite the distance. Not to mention the fact that the only breaks we had were around an hour at noon for lunch and sundown to sunrise for dinner and sleep. It doesn't help that there's nothing to do in the carriage.

  Luckily, I had Professor Lucindell here to keep me company.

  "...Hey! Are you even listening anymore!? Jeez... as I was saying, there are six tiers of spells for each magic element, along with the seventh ultimate tier. Burst and Healing make up the first tier of wind magic."

  "Wait, why is Healing a wind spell anyway if the rest of the restorative spells are light?"

  "Good question. Nobody knows why, but that's just the way it is. Now, for you it doesn't matter too much, since you can use any element anyway. Now let me see your hand."

  "Hmm?"

  I held out my hand like she asked and she grabbed it and held it in pce.

  "Hold still, and trust me with this."

  Her other hand, which she held perpendicur to my own, started glowing with the use of wind magic.

  "Cut."

  As she said that, the light in her hand all moved to her palm and quickly shot out in the shape of a small arc and grazed my hand.

  "I hope I didn't hurt you too bad, but I have a reason for it I'll show you in a second. Anyway, that spell was called Cut, and it's a tier 2 wind spell that I'll teach you once you master the basics. Now, I'm going to heal your hand and I want you to focus on the feeling of the mana flowing into your body."

  "Alright."

  "I'll start now then."

  Her hand glowed again but she told me to try to feel the mana, so I closed my eyes and focused on the feeling in my hand. First there was nothing, but after a moment, it felt like the air was heavier on my hand, and then there was a small feeling of it pushing through my skin and flowing towards the scratch. The feeling only sted a second before it stopped.

  "Did you feel it? The mana?"

  "I think so."

  "Good. For basic tier 1 spells, you really only need to push the mana through your hand while imagining the spell taking shape. The other tiers, however, require incantations to cast them. Earlier ones are simple, with tier 2 spells only requiring the name of the spell, like Cut, but I've heard that ultimate spells are so complex to the point where you need to memorize several sentences. We should have the first break soon, so when we do I'll teach you how to cast Burst. Until then, try to replicate the feeling of mana entering your body but in reverse, so you release it instead."

  "Got it."

  Neither of us spoke again as I practiced what Luci told me. 20 minutes ter, our lunch break had started and by that point I think I had the technique down pretty well. Unlike the elves, who generally ate silently, the dwarves with us probably talked more than they ate. In fact, the only thing they did more than talk during the meal was drink, and even though none of them got drunk, I still think it shouldn't be healthy.

  I can see why the break was a whole hour. Even though we had to somewhat ration the food for the trip, it seemed like the dwarves would eat all the way until we needed to get moving again. Meanwhile, Luci and I finished after 15 or so minutes and went to a spot a little ways away from the rest of the group.

  "Okay, Mira. Like I said earlier, I'm going to teach you Burst. Watch closely."

  She raised her hand with the palm out facing away from the wagons, and this time instead of forming a specific shape like with Cut, the light from the spell just shot from her hand starting in a somewhat round shape and quickly expanding before disappearing a short distance away from her with an audible boom. It's probably good to note that it was faster than Cut.

  "Did you get a good look at the spell? Try to replicate it now. Imagine the mana leaving your hand as quickly as possible and taking the shape of Burst. Go ahead and try when you're ready."

  Imagine quickly expelling the mana into a cone shape like she did... okay. I think I can do it. I raised my hand like Luci did and began to feel the mana in my hand. Now just push it out into the shape of Burst and...

  BOOM!

  "Mira! Are you okay!? Goddess... how did you do that?"

  "I... have no clue."

  I spoke as Luci was kneeling down over me. I was on my back. I had succeeded in casting Burst, but... it was huge. The cone was taller than probably two of me stacked on top of each other, and just as wide while reaching about as far as I am tall. And while Luci's Burst had an audible explosion, mine was almost deafening.

  One of the dwarves ran up to us.

  "You dies okay? We heard a big boom and I came runnin', what happened?"

  "Ah, sorry about that. It's nothing. I'm just trying to teach Mira some magic."

  "Right. I'll rey that. G'day to you two."

  He ran off as soon as he could. I bet he just wanted to get back to drinking.

  "Mira... how much mana did you use?"

  "Um... I didn't pay attention to that part."

  "I see. That's the issue. Your mana is limited, you need to manage how much you put into a spell. Too much, and you'll turn a simple Burst into a giant explosion before colpsing due to mana exhaustion."

  "Oh. That... might've been good to know earlier."

  "Right, sorry. It seemed obvious. You should be able to walk in a little bit to get back in the wagon. We'll try again tomorrow."

  When I could, we headed back to the wagon. The next day, I tried again at lunch. I still had too little mana when we stopped at night and we were already moving when I woke up. This time I managed to cast Burst normally a couple times, and Luci took the opportunity after to teach me how to feel how much mana I had, which was about half of my maximum. The rest of the trip she spent teaching me Healing. It needed me to maintain a steady stream of mana while imagining a green sphere surrounding my hand. Proper usage of mana was important here, because too much could harm a person. I managed to learn it quickly enough, and before I knew it we were at the gates to the capitol of the Dwarf Kingdom.

  Soon, we'll finally be officially registered as adventurers!