Chương 109: 108 - Torn

It was early afternoon, and Alexandra hadn't attended her morning classes. She was sitting at her desk, toying with the flask Alfred had given her. Four days later, she'd yet to drink it. Part of it was sickness of paranoia telling her that drinking potions from strangers wasn't her brightest idea. Last time, she walked out of it with a malediction. Though, technically, it also saved her life.

But the real reason she wasn't drinking the potion was that she was afraid it would undo her progress for Mana Concentration's skill quest. Willow's grandfather had said the potion would wipe out her mana, while her quest required her to retrain it for ten days. It might help her rather than hinder her. But she'd had her sicknesses for a while now. A few more days wouldn't change much. She stored the flask back in her drawer, next to Clarity of Mind, and leaned back in her chair. A few more days…

She'd been ready to leave right away, but Alfred was adamant it was impossible. The old man was powerful, but not powerful enough to slip past Raymond's surveillance. Especially not as he smuggled her out of the Iron Library. They needed to wait for an opportunity. But that was only the first of their troubles. Alexandra had a divine class, and those were visible to all the servants of the gods. Most holy orders had limited manpower, so hiding in a low-rank zone should be fine.

Most holy orders, except the Hands of the Well. She'd been found out right away in Lanterne, and she wasn't planning on striking out alone in the wilderness. If she wanted to stay in a city, she needed a method to hide her class. That method was Mana Concentration. At least, she hoped so. Divine classes being rare made it hard to tell if it would work. In theory it could—and Alfred Dumries, one of the most capable mages in Laika, supported the idea. Alfred was a Keeper himself.

He knew how Alexandra's class looked to an outsider. According to him, it was more akin to a feeling than anything tangible. But that feeling stemmed from her mana, so keeping it inside her core would help. It wasn't a perfect solution. But it was better than nothing. She turned the pages of her journal, landing on her Adventuring Party for the umpteenth time. Louis' name really was missing. It wasn't the first person she'd lost on Laika. Yet, for some reason, this one hurt more.

Perhaps because Lila was the one who'd killed him. Losing someone to a monster was bad enough. Losing someone to a former friend… Alexandra had trouble reconciling her image of Lila with what she had become. Back then, she'd been their guild leader. Bright. Kind. The sort of person you'd follow into battle without asking a question. If she hadn't seen Raymond with her own two eyes, she wouldn't believe it. She touched the space where her missing finger would be, and shook her head. She'd changed too.

She'd learned magic, killed, tortured, lied. It had only been two months. What would she look like in a century? Alexandra turned away from her journal and stared at the empty stone wall of her room. Her mana remained still, locked tight within her core to keep her progress for the concentration quest. Without it, practicing most of her skills was out of the question. Going to class didn't feel right either. She'd already decided she wasn't going to graduate. She needed to do something with her hands.

Her eyes drifted to her sleeves. Her orange robes were already torn in several places. She hadn't been kind with them, taking them to fight and train everywhere. She opened the bottom drawer of her desk and pulled out a small wooden sewing kit. It was a mundane thing, filled with mismatched spools of coarse thread and a few bone needles. The students were supposed to take care of their robes. Alexandra flipped the pages of her journal, landing on the skill quests section.

Sewing: Repair five clothes of any fabric (0/5) She wasn't interested in learning how to sew for the same reason she hadn't bothered picking up the Cleaning skill. She didn't mind a few holes in her robes, and she could always get a new set if needed. The Keeper in charge would grumble, but wouldn't dare to stop her. At least, it was true until she left the Iron Library. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

However, she couldn't use mana, and she was starting to run out of things to do. Among her remaining skill quests, Summon Lesser Fiend was out of reach, while Diving, Swimming, and Cleaning were achievable, but not really useful. Sewing, on the other hand, had the potential to help her. Not with clothes; she was adamant about that. It took her time, but she'd finally made the connection: mana worked in threads. Sewing – Common Manipulate threads with greater dexterity.

Each level improves your precision with threads. Nothing in the description suggested that it wouldn't work with mana. If she could make her ability to use mana scale with dexterity on top of intelligence, she might just be able to undo her curses on her own, which would be a lot better than drinking the potion. Alexandra selected a coarse orange thread from the kit, matching it poorly to the fabric of her robe. She guided it through the eye of the bone needle.

Her fingers felt clumsy without the guiding pulse of a skill, stiff and unaccustomed to such fine, physical work. She pulled the torn edge of her left sleeve taut over her knee and pushed the needle through. The bone needle resisted the thick weave before sliding through. Alexandra didn't care about making it look neat. She pulled the thread tight, bunching the fabric into an ugly, puckered ridge. The first tear was sealed within a few minutes. It looked terrible. She checked her journal. The counter hadn't budged.

Sewing: Repair five clothes of any fabric (0/5) Alexandra frowned, staring at the bunched-up fabric. A single patched hole didn't constitute a repaired garment in the system's eyes. It wanted the entire piece of clothing finished. With how negligent she'd been during her training, fights, and daily life in general, her current orange robes were perhaps the worst item to complete the quest with. She sighed, shifting the fabric over her knee to find the next opening.

There was a long, jagged rip along the ribs where a weapon had caught her, a couple of frayed punctures near the hem, and a clean split down the right shoulder seam. She worked with a brutal, impatient efficiency. Her stitches were wide, uneven, and utterly lacking in grace. She stabbed the bone needle through the heavy cloth, pulling the coarse thread so hard it pinched the fabric into thick, unsightly welts. She didn't care about aesthetics. She just needed the garment to be technically whole.

By the time she tied off the knot on the final shoulder tear, her robe looked like a monstrosity. A stitched-together monster of a cloth. It was lumpy, uneven, tight where it should be loose, and loose where it should be tight. Sewing: Repair five clothes of any fabric (1/5) Alexandra let out a slow breath, resting her hands on her lap. One down. Four to go. She looked around her sparsely decorated room. She didn't have a change of clothes. She frowned. Even for her, this was a bit much.

She made a note to get some spare robes in the future. But for now, she was only worried about finding more ruined clothes. It wouldn't be easy. Most students actually minded their appearance. They patched their robes as they got damaged. Her eyes drifted down to the ruined, lumpy sleeve she had just patched. If it just needs to be a piece of clothing... She gripped the fabric of her left sleeve, dug her fingers into a relatively clean section of the weave, and yanked.

The fabric resisted for a second before tearing open with a sharp, satisfying rip. She threaded the bone needle again and went to work on the first new tear, bunching the orange fabric together with the same sloppy, jagged stitches. Rip. Stitch. Repeat. Every time she finished sealing a hole, she immediately dug her hands into the cloth, ripping new wounds into the uniform before dragging the needle right back through. It felt like cheating, but it worked.

Sewing: Repair five clothes of any fabric (2/5) Sewing: Repair five clothes of any fabric (3/5) Sewing: Repair five clothes of any fabric (4/5) With a final, aggressive tug, she pulled the last knot tight and sliced the thread with her teeth. Sewing: Repair five clothes of any fabric (5/5) Alexandra dropped the bone needle onto the desk, her tensed fingers finally relaxing.

She closed her eyes, turning her awareness inward toward her locked mana core, waiting to feel the subtle shift in how her mind perceived the threads of her magic. There was a shift, but it wasn't the explosive revelation she had hoped for. Her hold on her threads was lighter, more graceful. The mental strain of keeping them locked was softer. It wasn't much, but it was something. She smiled.

The confirmation that Sewing was working on her mana was great, but she'd need a few levels in the skill to measure how much of an impact it would make. She opened her eyes and looked down at her lap. The robe was an absolute disaster. It was held together by aggressive knots and jagged paths of coarse thread, tighter across her chest now, pulling uncomfortably at her left shoulder where she had shortened the fabric through sheer carelessness. She looked like a lunatic.

If she walked out into the corridors of the Iron Library wearing this, she would draw the exact kind of attention she was trying to avoid. Alexandra generated Sewing's Training Quest. Sewing Training Quest: Patch five holes on a single piece of clothing (0/5) She winced. It looked like her robes were only going to get worse.