With the equipment situation resolved, Lumi supposed it was time to guide Eden through the basics of being a magician.

With his limited time in Masteria each day, it would make more sense for Merath to handle the instruction instead. The ancient magician had centuries of teaching experience and could probably explain foundational concepts better than Lumi could.

But that would get Eden attached to Merath instead of him.

The boy needed to see Lumi as his primary teacher, his main source of knowledge and guidance. Otherwise the disciple relationship would be hollow.

Logically, there came a very important question. Why did that matter? Shouldn’t the only important part be whether Eden was strong?

For the most part, yes, actually.

However, due to his Phoenix, Eden was similar to a player. Where as players got EXP, Sol would absorb the energy from fallen evil.

Merath could not easily leave Elenora. Though he was a better teacher, he could not babysit Eden around the world. As for giving Eden to the knights...

It was actually a good choice. But by proxy, the knights were already taking care of him. Lumi used the knights resources to grow stronger, and thus, Eden would be benefitting as well.

So he had to do it himself. "Alright," Lumi started. "Before we get into our first lesson, how are you feeling? If you need some rest, that’s alright, too."

Eden shook his head. "I’d like to start now. Perhaps I’ll need to rest later, but I’d certainly like to get my foot in the door."

Lumi nodded. "In that case, I’ll start with this. Please come over here, and take a seat. I’d like you to-"

CRASH!

The window exploded inward in a shower of glass and wood splinters.

Lena came flying through, her fairy wings fluttering wildly as she tumbled into the library. She hit the floor, and her body violently scraped across the floor at high speeds until she hit a bookshelf.

"Ah!" Eden jumped back, startled. The phoenix squawked in alarm.

Merath’s eyebrows twitched. His entire face contorted with disbelief and barely restrained anger. "My window. Again."

Lena pushed herself up, brushing debris off her new robe. "Oops. Sorry about that!"

Merath visibly twitched. His head bobbed forward then back as he wanted to chastise on her on the spot. Every time he thought of something to say, he backed off because it was too harsh, making the man look like a chicken pecking at the air.

Lena blinked. "Are you alright?"

Merath lost it. "No!"

"Oh." Lena looked down. "Sorry. I’ll explain myself."

She looked around at the staring faces. "...Hi everyone!"

Without any thought to what she’d interrupted or how unnatural her entrance had been, she launched into her story. "So! I successfully raided the vault! Got tons of loot! It was amazing! The pixie ancestors loved me!"

She paused, slowly turning to head to stare at Lumi. "I didn’t have an airship to get back."

The two stared at each other for a moment. Finally, Lumi spoke. "I apologize. And also, congratulations on your success. I assumed it wouldn’t go so well, and thus it left my mind"

Lena pouted. "You could have sent a message."

"Perha-" Lumi stopped himself. "Wait, you could have, too!"

Lena’s eyes went wide. "Oh right...! I could have!" Lena waved it off. "My fault for not sending a message. I just got excited about all the treasure and forgot. Oh well!"

"Anyway," she continued, "I realized I didn’t need the airship! I could fly!" She gestured at her fairy wings. "So I just flew! Really hard! As fast as I could!"

"Bu-" Lumi tried to point out the obvious. The airship had a navigation feature. But Lena’s continuation made him saying anything entirely unnecessary.

She continued. "Then I realized I was lost."

She gestured wildly with her hands, hitting them together. "So I made a compass! It was actually really easy. Just a bit of magnetism, and bam, points me north and south. Basic stuff."

A wry grin appeared on her face and she shrugged. "But then I realized the compass was useless because I didn’t actually know which direction Elenora was from where I started."

She reached into her pocket, and took out the compass. "So I was about to throw it away when I stumbled upon a wild monster."

Merath’s gaze settled on the compass. "You made this... alone in the wild?"

"Yeah?" Lena turned to him, unsure why he brought attention to it.

Merath simply accepted that he was around interesting company. He smiled, and praised instead. "You are a genius."

"But..." Lena was about to argue back, when she saw Lumi gesturing for her to continue.

She focused on her story again. "I didn’t really know what it was at first. Apparently it’s called an Erea? Whatever. Bad name. Sounds stupid."

She put her arms high in the air, making claws out of her hands. "Anyway, it had thick fur, big claws, and poison glands. That meant valuable raw materials! So I followed it back to its pack."

She grinned wildly. "And sure enough, there were adventurers already hunting them down! Perfect! So I asked them for directions to Elenora. They were super helpful once I convinced them I wasn’t trying to rob them."

"But..." She looked behind herself, out of the broken window she came through. "Even with directions, it was really far away. Like, hours of flying far. So I made a makeshift cannon out of some trees, bombs, and used myself as the cannonball to fly over faster!"

Eden’s jaw dropped. Merath pinched the bridge of his nose.

"But that really hurt." Lena admitted.

She turned around, showing her back. She rose her robes, exposing her skin. To say it was burnt was an understatement. Several parts were charred so hard they could not bleed. "Even though I cast Heal a bunch already, it still hurts."

She smiled. "It actually hurts a lot! I want to cry from the pain. I really, really want to cry. Aww, looks like I made a small mistake."

"Are... are you okay?" Eden hesitantly spoke. As far as he knew, anyone with those injuries would be dead. The fact that she wasn’t just still alive, but somehow, she was clearly healthy enough to move around and talk normally.

Lumi sighed, and checked her health.

[Lena: 390/390]

Her health bar was technically maxed. What was visibly obvious, however, was that her max health was significantly lower.

Below her health, Lumi saw the following notification.

[Grievous Wounds: Several harsh injuries could not be healed. Max HP lowered. Wait for natural healing, or use stronger healing methods.]

Lena frowned. "I really thought that... I could just use heal."

Merath sighed heavily. "Silly girl. Of course not all injuries are so easy to remove. Healing magic and potions can only do so much. They’ll close the wounds, stop the bleeding, and restore your vitality. But pain? Lingering damage? Sometimes you just have to wait for your body to finish recovering naturally."

Lena blinked. "Wait, really?"

Merath twitched yet again. "Yes, really. Did you not read your study material?"

"I did!" Lena defended herself. "But I thought it could handle something as small as that!"

"As small as..." Merath’s eye twitched. "You almost killed yourself. For you to still have so much unhealed injuries, you must have truly done a blow to yourself. How could you have felt confident enough to do so?"

"But." Lena thought back to the book. "It wasn’t exactly specific on what it couldn’t heal."

Merath shook his head in exasperation. "First off, the reason it wasn’t entirely specific is because it depends on the strength and potency of the user. Second off, it was specific enough. It clearly stated grievous wounds. That is, any harsh enough injury."

"I know," Lena agreed with that, but there was something else. "I assumed it referred to something more than just a physical injury. Like a curse cast on me. An attack with lingering magic."

"Now, why..." Merath was feeling his brows twitch yet again. "Would you assume that?"

"Well," Lena poked at her chest a bit. "I took many attacks earlier, and I healed them up just fine. I got clawed through the stomach, and stuff like that."

"Stuff like that..." Eden slowly whispered under his breath. It was incredible to him hoe people could so easily talk about sustaining such injury.

"That’s not the sam- you what!?" Merath suddenly realized what she had so casually revealed. "Lena, who did that to you!?"

"Um..." Her gaze shifted from Merath to Lumi. She wasn’t sure she should so casually reveal information.

Merath noticed her gaze and sighed. "Just what are you two doing?"

Lumi shrugged. "It’s nothing. We just fought some pixies."

Merath closed his eyes. For the sake of his own health, he had nothing more to say.

Lena’s gaze shifted to Eden. "Hey there little one~ I don’t believe I’ve caught your name yet." 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"O-oh." Eden was shocked for a second at being directly addressed. "My name is Eden. It’s nice to meet you, Lena."