Approximately three hours have passed since Loor started his training and he is beginning to get ferociously bored.

Ugh, when is this going to end? I’ve got to be an expert at this staff fighting stuff by now.

Trying to think of actions he could take to pass the time, Loor remembers that he hasn’t actually checked out the campfire or handicraft skill.

“Information Campfire, Information Handicraft.”

Campfire Beginner 1 20.00%

A warm, crackling campfire lifts the spirit on a dark, cold night. It can also be used to cook basic recipes. Magnitude and radius of the effect increases at higher skill levels.

Effect: Increase stamina recovery by 50% and cold resistance by 50% while around a campfire.

Effect Radius: 2m

Handicraft [Passive] Beginner 1 0.00%

The ability to move your hand dexterously and intricately. Assists all skills that use your hands.

Effect: Amplifies effects of various craft skills. Amplifies effect of weapon mastery.

ugh, that only took like, two minutes…

Loor’s face lights up as he remembers his infravision skill.

“Infravision.”

Instantly, everything becomes varying shades of gray. Rari is an extremely bright gray, almost white. The stone of the walls, however, are a much darker color. By this, Loor decides that the hotter the object, the closer the color is to white.

Ooh, so that’s why it’s called ‘white hot.’

Totally not why it’s called white hot, but whatever.

Rari walks over to check on the quality of Loor’s exercises.

“Well, I’d say that’s about as good as it will get without further instruction. I am impressed that you stayed focused for four hours.”

What? Four hours? I thought it was only three.

The blue bar in the corner of Loor’s view finally empties completely, and his vision suddenly snaps back to normal. Disoriented, Loor blinks a few times.

“That must be my mana.”

“What?”

“Oh, sorry, did I actually say that?” Loor blushes “Just ignore it.”

“Alright…Are you ready for the next step of your training?”

Suspicious, Loor asks “How long will this step take?”

“Oh, not long, only about six hours.”

“See ya later.”

Loor escap-uh, leaves the training hall with all haste. Most of the large group of females left at some point in the last four hours, so only a few of the determined ones are still around.

“YOU! How did you get the instructor to talk to you!?”

An intense red-haired woman stalks up to Loor and pokes her finger into his chest.

Flustered and having no clue how to handle the situation, Loor stands there with a slightly frightened look on his face.

Punctuating each word with another poke, she continues her tirade “He hates all fem-“

She stops, confused, looks at her finger, then gropes Loor’s chest.

“Oh! You’re a guy…Sorry about that.”

She blushes in embarrassment and quickly backs away out of Loor’s personal space.

“Um, my name is Olivacea. What is yours?”

Loor grins Another friend! and responds.

“My name is J- I mean, Loor.”

“You’re new, aren’t you?”

“Yeah. How did you know?”

Is he stupid?

“You almost just told me your real name.” Olivacea said, in tone which showed that she thought him stupid.

“Oh, right…” Loor says sheepishly

“How long have you been playing?”

“About four months RR time.”

“Wow! You must be really strong.”

Innocence +1

“Do you have any recommendations on what I should do aside from the training hall?”

“Hmm, you could always go to the library to read, or you could find some work somewhere to get money and skills.”

“Oh yeah! Ms. Gaea said something about the library, thanks for reminding me!” Loor says, smiling. “Do you know where the library is?”

Olivacea looks at Loor with a look on her face that absolutely broadcasts ‘are you sure you’re not stupid?’ and points across the street at the huge wooden building with a gigantic sign that says ‘library.’

“Haha, I’ll just be going now.” Loor quickly walks away, embarrassed, finally noticing that he was acting quite stupid.

Walking into the library Loor enters an oddly small, low-roofed room when compared to the size of the building itself. The ceiling is only about two feet above her head. Standing in the center of the room she is able to stretch out her arms and touch, at the same time, the desk taking up most of the space to the right and the wall on the left, but only just (I totally don’t know that because she just did or anything).

“What are you doing?” A nasally, masculine voice asks, contempt evident in the tone.

Okay, so I lied.

Loor, face burning (seems to be happening quite a lot recently) quickly drops her hands and turns toward the desk. Sitting behind the desk is a very short, thin, and pale elf. He has slick, oiled brown hair pulled back tight to the scalp; revealing a sharp widow’s peak. Brown eyes magnified to quite unusual proportions by thick round glasses stare back at Loor with barely concealed annoyance.

“Ah, s-sorry.”

“Can I help you?” the librarian asks in tone that shows he clearly hopes the answer is no.

“Am I a-allowed to read the b-books here?”

*sigh* “Of course you are allowed to read the books here. If you want to bring any out, you must first purchase a library card.” The librarian looks at her expectantly, hoping she would leave.

“A-are the books through th-there?” Loor asks, pointing at the door directly across from the entrance.

“Yes they are through there. Did you see any outside when you came in?”

Loor quickly scampers away through the indicated doorway, eager to escape from beneath the librarian’s contemptuous gaze.

Shelves of books are everywhere. All different kinds of shelves too. Towering shelves, squat shelves, circular shelves, wall shelves, floating shelves, and even more. This is what Loor sees as she enters the library proper. Overwhelmed, Loor walks over to sturdy, circular table to collect herself. After she calms down a bit, she walks up to a shelf and picks up a book at random.

“Hairstyles across the ages. Hmm…not really my cup of tea.”

After reshelving that book, she goes to another bookshelf and picks one at random again.

And again…

And again…….

Finally, Loor gets fed up with trying to find something useful that way and actually thinks about how to find a good book. Eventually, she decides to find a floating bookshelf and browse.

At least it’s better than choosing any old shelf.

She actually decides to read the titles before choosing a book (imagine that).

“Advanced Magical Theory…You, Me, and Dark Magic…1001 Ways to Cast a Fungus Fixing Spell... (What kind of weirdo comes up with these? Oh…right) The Colors of the Wind…” Isn’t that a song? “Aha! Magic for Dummies! That’ll be perfect for me!”

Ba-dum-ch

Sorry, it had to be done.

Loor reaches over and grabs the Magic for Dummies book. She brings it over to the table and inspects it further.

The cover of the book is bright yellow with quite the familiar format and had a cartoon illustration of a wacky wizard and a magic circle. The book itself was about an inch or so thick. Fortunately Loor loves reading. She opens the book to the first real page, and begins.

(I recommend reading the book. I actually put quite a bit of effort into it.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Magic for Dummies~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first thing that must be understood about magic is mana. Not much is actually known about mana. Is it a substance? Is it a form of energy? What is known, however, is that mana can be manipulated using the mind. Mana in its purest form is colorless. All living things leak out a very small amount of mana at all times, though the amount that leaks is directly proportional to the total amount of mana within. This mana is normally invisible, but can be seen by those with either the talent or the training to see it. The mana then takes on a color according to the being that emits it and the being that views it. This semi-visible mana is called an aura.

No two base auras are exactly the same and are affected by the mental and physical status of the emitter. When a being emits mana without giving it any commands, the aura strengthens and becomes visible to all. This visible aura is often mistaken for Fighting Spirit. All living things have a finite amount of mana and a limited capacity for storing it. However, mana acts similar to a gas in that it will diffuse to the lower percentage. For example, if a being has less than their maximum capacity of mana, the natural mana that exists all around them will move into their body to fill the void. For some reason unknown, meditation increases your body or mind’s ability to absorb mana. This phenomenon also explains the invisible aura. If you think of it as a chemical equation at theoretical equilibrium, the amount going in and out is exactly equal. Research is being done in an attempt to discover where the mana is actually stored in the body. The data that we already have points to it being stored somewhere in the brain, as the capacity increases as cognitive abilities increase.

Along with the ubiquitous pure mana exists six other different kinds. These are fire, water, earth, air, light, and dark. Light, in this case has a greater affinity to the moral concepts of good than it does with actual light. The same goes for dark in reverse. Though small amounts of these different kinds of mana can be found everywhere, higher concentrations are located according to certain natural focal points.

Earth mana is the easiest, as it can be found in abundance anywhere underground.

Air mana is located, the opposite of earth, in high altitudes as well as certain areas in which the wind blows quite strongly.

Fire mana is primarily found near volcanoes, but can also be found in extremely hot, arid places like the desert.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Water mana is found in all water; higher concentrations, of course, at larger bodies of water.

We do not actually know whether the mana creates the terrain, or the terrain produces the mana.

Light and dark mana are slightly different. They are actually produced by sentient beings according to their moral standing. Even a person with the highest morals produces miniscule amounts of dark mana and vice versa.

Magic is used by manipulating natural mana with internal mana to create a desired effect. Let’s use the simplest of spells as an example. The mana bolt is created by merging internal mana with a fairly large amount of ambient pure mana, forcing it to clump together, and shooting towards your target. This magic is, effectively, the equivalent of throwing a small rock at your target. However, it does perform a few important functions. It is a very good measure of one’s affinity to magic, and a very good way to train in efficiently using mana. As mana efficiency increases, your ability to manipulate ambient mana with internal mana increases. Thus, you get a greater magnitude for an equal price. Furthermore, Incantations are used in order to increase concentration on the desired affects thereby decreasing chance of failure. Failure results in a phenomenon known as feedback.

During feedback, all of the mana you sent out is returned into your body along with the mana it was manipulating. Unfortunately, for some reason, the pure mana sent out becomes the type of mana manipulated. All ‘wild’ magic when entering the body causes damage. I encourage you to attempt to use mana bolt as a test to see if magic is right for you.

The magic created using pure mana is called arcane, and the magic created using the other types is named the same as the type used. Certain schools of magic rely entirely on an individual mana type whereas others use a combination of multiple. The difficulty of manipulating the mana increases the further away from pure that the manipulated type becomes. For example, manipulating pure mana is much easier than manipulating fire mana which in turn, is much easier than manipulating lightning. However, the quantity of mana being manipulated does make a difference. As such, sometimes manipulating fire is more difficult than manipulating lightning.

It is possible to imbue a living being with mana. The results differ depending on the type. Imbuing pure mana merely increases that being’s stores, though not beyond capacity. This, by the way, is the principle upon which mana potions operate. Alternatively, by imbuing a mana such as fire or light into a person becomes what is known as a ‘buff.’ Buffs increase or decrease one or more properties for the duration of the effect. The effect does not last forever due to the beings inherent mana attempting to return to its natural state. Finally, objects can also be imbued with mana. Again, the results of this depend on the type being used as well as the material of the object being used.

Metals are particularly weak storage units for mana but highly absorbent. They reach capacity very quickly. Past capacity, Metal becomes a near perfect conductor for mana.

Gems are nearly as conductive as metal-just needing a slight stimulus to release the mana, but they can hold the greatest amount of mana of any known substance.

Animal hide is highly absorbent of mana and quite greedy as well. It can hold and actually discharge as pure mana a fair amount. This is likely reminiscent of it being living creature.

Wood is nearly a perfect conductor-even better than metal-but only a mediocre amplifier, storage, and absorbent for mana; which is why it is used in all the best magical staves. It is rumored that a certain type of wood exists that is an absolute conductor as well as greatly absorbent, not even needing part of a magical creature to assist in amplification.

Now you know what mana is, how to use magic, and the properties of various substances often associated with magic. Recommend us to all your friends!

-bong-

Intelligence +1

Skill Learned: Meditation

“Ooh, I wanna try out magic now.”

Loor closes her eyes and begins concentrating. She visualizes a bright white light inside of her head. She moves the light down towards her hand and imagines it combining with a similar light all around her. She then kneads the lights together and rolls them into a small ball. Opening her eyes, she sees a small white ball floating above her outstretched hand.

The moment Loor sees it, it winks out. She forgot to continue concentrating. Excited with her success, Loor tries again. This time, she finishes much faster and is able to keep her concentration while looking at the ball for about thirty seconds. She continues trying a couple more times and improves each time. At this point, her mana bar is pretty much empty, so she decides to look for more interesting books to read. Returning to the previously visited floating shelf, Loor returns Magic for Dummies to its proper place and picks out a few others.

The books she chooses are How to see Auras: A Learners Guide; Advanced Magical Theory; and-for entertainment purposes-Magical Misadventures: The Rivetingly Random Roaming of Rhonda Rim. She also got the sequel; Magical Misadventures: The Wondrously Whimsical Wayfaring of William Welt.

Loor finishes the last book and looks around. Seeing how much the quality of the light changed, she realizes that she must have been reading for quite a bit longer than it seemed. Checking the clock, Loor finds out that 18 hours have passed. She also notices that she has a bit of a backlog of system messages.

Intelligence +1

Intelligence +1

Wisdom +1

Wisdom +1

Magical Misadventures

You have read one of the books in the Magical Misadventures series. Read every book in the series and complete a short quiz to win a prize.

Books Read

The Rivetingly Random Roaming of Rhonda Rim

Books Unread

9

Read a Magical Misadventures book

Books Read

The Rivetingly Random Roaming of Rhonda Rim

The Wondrously Whimsical Wayfaring of William Welt

Books Unread

8

I can get a prize for reading!!

Without even looking around to make sure of her privacy, Loor does an extremely embarrassing ‘happy dance.’ Fortunately, no one is around to see her. Loor looks at the shelf she has been using thus far and cannot find any more Magical Misadventures books. She goes off to find more floating shelves and manages to find two more of the aforementioned books. Dejected, Loor does another sweep to see if she missed anything.

Off in a corner of the room, Loor notices a stairway that he didn’t see last time. In front of the stairway stands a female elf in long robes. Loor walks up to the elf and asks “What’s up there?”

“Up there is a roughly equal sized room with some of our relatively more valuable books.” The elf replies.

“Ooh, can I go up?”

“May I see your library card?”

“I don’t have one.”

“Then I’m sorry, you are not allowed up there. Only library card holders are allowed past this point.”

“How do I get a library card?”

“You can buy one at the front desk for one silver coin.”

“Okey doke, Thanks!”

“You’re welcome.”

Knowing that he does not have enough money for a library card—and not wanting to have to talk to that scary librarian again—Loor exits the building to find a way to make some money.

“Character Window”

NameLoorRaceHybrid ElfHealth80/80Mana140/140Level1Experience0.00%Strength8Agility10Wisdom14Intelligence14Dexterity10Vitality8Innocence14Stamina80/80Characteristics—Androgynous—

—Elemental Connection—

—Animal Magnetism—

—Natural Camouflage—

—Infravision—

—Maker’s Skill—Skills—Campfire—

—Handicraft—

—Meditation—

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Sorry about how short my chapters are, I try to end at a logical transition.

Should I allow the narrators thoughts to interject into the story or continue as i did for the prologue and chapter 1?

Did you actually read the book?

As always, comments, recommendations, and constructive criticism are greatly encouraged.

Edit: Tried formatting the book a bit per request. Is this better?

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