Alice sat inside a carriage. In front of her was a butler.
"Excuse me. What's the city we are going to called ?" Alice asked him.
"Its called Redacre miss" The butler replied.
Alice was taken aback by being called miss. She already got used to being treated like a kid in this world but this was a pleasant surprise.
"And who exactly is the misstress ?" Alice decided to try getting more information while she sat there.
"I'm forbidden from telling you that" The butler shut her down.
Any further questions she tried asking got answered the same way. The ride to Redacre was long. It took over a day to get there. But when they did get close to it, Alice was blown away by the scale of the capital compared to the small village she was in so far. The tall walls, marble statues and air of nobility everywehre she could look. It reminded her of how she felt after going to a work meeting once where everyone wore fancy suits while she had her usual attire. She could also see the castle in which the king lives. She had no idea that in only a bit over a month since she came to this world she will get to see it with her own eyes.
"We are here" The butler said.
Alice was so invested in sightseeing that she didn't realize they were in front of a big mansion. She stepped outside and the carriage left. The big decorations with great detail around the mansion were even prettier up close. They were so pretty in fact that she got side tracked looking at them. Then she remembered.
"Oh right. I had to go inside" She stepped in front of the gate to the mansion and tried knocking on it but it opened by itself. She walked past nicely cut bushes and fountains. Then knocked on the doors of the building itself.
"Come in ~☆" She heard a familiar voice. But this was the first time she didn't hear it in her head. As she walked inside she saw a very beautiful woman in a purple dress.
"H-hello my name is Alice" She sounded like a broken robot because of nervousness and shock. She couldn't get her eyes off of the woman.
"Oh i know very well who you are ~" Alice realized that this was the woman whose voice she heard in her head all along.
"Thank you for inviting me here" She bowed to show respect.
"No need to be so formal with me" She chuckled. "Let me introduce myself to you" the woman said before spreading her arms "I am Monika Petualang ! the head of adventurers guild." She looked at the shocked Alice.
"Why did the head of the guild invite me personaly to her house ?" She couldn't wrap her head around it.
"Because I want you to be my student." The head of the guild licked her lips while making an face unbecoming of such person.
"And how exactly did you find out about me ?" Alice was a bit repulsed by Monika's expression but decided to ignore it.
"Let's say that i got a tip from a friend of mine about a promising girl." She started walking towards the young adventurer "And that girl turned out to be even more extraordanary than either of us could imagine." She put her hand on Alice's chin and pushed it upward so their eyes can meet once again.
"What do you mean extraordinary ? I think im pretty average. If you didn't save me with that ice blizzard I would have been dead" Alice was confused what Monika saw in her.
"Oh you silly girl. You didn't realize yet did you ? I wasn't the one behind the blizzard. It was all you" The guild master said, laughing that Alice thought this way.
"But how did i do that ?" Alice was even more confused though.
"Ofcourse using your rend" Monika rolled her eyes confused how she didn't figure it out.
"But it can't be my rend" This got Monikas attention.
"Why ?' She stared at Alice really curious about her reasoning.
Alice decided to show her why that couldn't be the case. She summoned fire in one hand and earth in the other. "Because this is my rend"
"Did it not cross your mind, that if you can control fire and earth at once. Maybe you can control other combinations of elements too"
"It... never did. But wait, that means that i can use..." Monika cut her off before she could say the whole thing.
"Exactly, you can use all 4 elements at once thanks to your rend" She finished the sentence for her
"But why can't i see my tear then ?" Alice looked all over her body to find it but she couldn't.
"Because its right there" She pointed at her mana core next to her heart.
This information blew Alice's mind "How exactly does that work ? I dont think using air and water can lead to ice forming on its own"
"Let me rephrase that. It seems tobe a rend that allows you to control mana at a way more precise level than is normaly possible. So you can decide to only use the cold particles of air magic. But i can't be sure unless you become my student ~~" She winked playfully.
"Fine... I will become your student. But you have to stop making those lewd faces." Alice said. Still disgusted by her experessions.
"I promise not to make them too often" She giggled "Go take care of your belongings before we start our training"
Alice realized that she was talking about the goblin king's coprse. She thanked Monika for help and left trying to make as little eye contact with the perverted woman as possible.
When she got outside and saw the distance between the mansion and adventurer guild's storage building she thought it will take the entire day to get there. But then she had a great idea. She remembered how she supported her movement with air magic during the fight in goblin village. She used similiar principle to enhance her movement. She started off strong. Her pace was so quick that the full day it would have taken changed into mere 30 minute stroll. But because she wasn't proficient at using magic this way she made a ton of mistakes. It ended taking her half of the day in the end because of how difficult it was to manage air magic precisely the way she wanted. When she got there she came to the worker in front of the storage.
"Name and ID please" He said. Alice gave him her ID and introduced herself "Misstress Monika told us about your visit. please go to the room at the end off the hallway in the basement. If you decide to sell the corpse let us know and we will send you payment for it" Alice thanked the helpful worker and went towards her storage room.
When Alice got there she saw the corpse of the massive monster she has slayed. She had no use for the corpse at all but she could see something in his ribcage shining brightly. She cut the skin open and saw a crystal emiting mana. She had no idea what that was but she touched it without thinking. As she did that, the crystal started fusing into her skin. She tried pushing it away but it didn't work and she could feel it combining with her own mana core. Her heart rate started speeding up and she had no idea what just happend. She really needed to ask Monika about it and do so fast. She ran out of the building as fast as she could.
"You can sell the corpse !" She shouted to the worker on her way out. She got into a position to run back but as she activated her magic she could feel disturbance inside her core. She powered through to activate it and started her jog back to the mansion.