Daniel’s Gullible

— A Month Later —

Daniel sat in a classroom, listening to a lecture on the basics of modern spellcasting alongside his daughter, Sylvana, and many other young mages under the age of ten. Their teacher was someone Daniel knew very well: Envy, the Witch of Envy, one of his partners.

The young mages occasionally glanced at Daniel with curiosity. Having already undergone their families' awakening rituals, they possessed a similar level of foundational knowledge about magic and the Curtained World.

As for how Daniel ended up in this situation, it all started a month ago...

— A Month Ago —

Inside a vast, soccer field-sized workshop filled with strange contraptions, magical machinery, and artifacts, Daniel was working on a prototype transmutation machine. His goal was to achieve at least 95% integrity and attribute retention in the transmuted materials, starting with the simplest: Orichalcum.