I woke up feeling what would be a bit sore if I still felt pain like normal. Took me a moment to get out of bed, after which I looked at my Character. Focus had completely recovered, and I went up 18 Health. That latter bit seems to imply I restore 20% Health when I sleep.
My goals for today included learning magic and testing out the new Personal Light system to see if it really was true that only I could see my light when using Focus.
I got dressed, put my few belongings together, and headed out to meet with Bozhidar for my lessons. Arrived to a waiting Bozhidar, who I accompanied to breakfast like the day before. It was like the one a day before, except there was some egg dish added. I overheard what appeared to be hunters talking about eggs they found in the woods.
Over breakfast Bozhidar started talking about the lesson plan, “I heard from Kiril and Borko that you picked up their teaching quite quickly. My hope is that you’ll pick up magic as quickly and save us time. We’ll start with some reading and theory, since magic is very much about processes you need to learn to do and move on to as much practical as we can today. My expectations are moderate.” He smiled as he said that.
After we were done eating, we made our way back to his tent where another table had been set up along with a chair, and a pile of tomes was stacked. “There are all kinds of topics about magic that you’d need to know, but that top tome is the essentials — channeling magic into words which causes a magical chant to work.” Bozhidar explained, picked up the tome, and handed it to me. “Could you see if you can read this?”
I opened the tome and could make out that it used something like Latin script. What I couldn’t tell was what letters meant what sounds for sure, since they seemed to be jumbled or a bit weird. I was about to say that I couldn’t when Rep’s presence manifested.
*Good thing I was looking just now. You have 2 approaches here, both with merits and demerits. You could ask to learn, which would be a slow process but grant you points. Or you could pick up a mastery for this language, and perhaps put down a big point investment but skip the time requirement. There is also a prohibitively expensive system for translation, but you can’t afford it right now.*
I turned to Bozhidar from the tome, “I can’t read this, but Rep told me how I could. How long did the last Traveler take to pick up this language?”
Bozhidar held his chin for a moment, thinking about it, “The second time I met them, they mentioned to have taken over a year to really pick up that language.”
I was not going to wait that long. I excused myself for a few moments and brought up my Sheet, heading into the Shop. I confirmed that the system was too expensive, at 1500 points, and then picked up the Central Continent Common 1 mastery for 20 points.
Returning to the tome, moments later, I found I could read it without an issue. Bozhidar was genuinely surprised at the turn. He said that I was the first Traveler he knows of to be able to do this. With that done, we moved on to the tutoring, starting with that tome.
I read it and Bozhidar explained concepts as they came up, it took roughly three hours before the notification for a new mastery popped up.
New mastery - Spellcasting 1 - acquired!
10 points acquired!
The Spellcasting mastery is a prerequisite to learning any magical skill and technique. Magical skills and techniques are capped at twice the level of the Spellcasting mastery.
Well, good thing I didn’t try and purchase magic, since the mastery would have cost me a lot too. Assuming I would just have all the information accessible now, I skimmed the tome for anything I was missing. That confirmed to me how masteries are very thorough in their work, as I noticed there was no longer something I didn’t understand.
If Bozhidar was surprised at my sudden grasp of language, he became somewhat horrified at my sudden grasp of magic. I couldn’t cast anything yet, but I was able to clearly explain things he hadn’t taught me yet.
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With lunch looming, he had us take a break and we would continue afterwards. Lunch itself was very nice again, the Bozhidar took the time to talk with Kiril and Borko about their new star pupil.
Once lunch was over Bozhidar and I returned to his tent, where he put the tomes aside and wanted to drive straight into practicals. He demonstrated several basic light and healing spells with the chanting he’d talked about. Once he was done, 4 spells in total, I received a length notification.
New technique - Inefficient Light Orb Chant - heard!
New technique - Inefficient Beam of Light Chant - heard!
New technique - Inefficient Cleanse Wounds Chant - heard!
New technique - Inefficient Cure Wounds Chant - heard!
Inefficient techniques are blocked by default. Would you like to unblock them and add them to your Character?
YES | NO
Now that was genuinely surprising — both that these are blocked, and that I received a prompt to still learn them. I pressed on without thinking because it did feel like a waste. My only options now were either to try and improve on these or to purchase the skills and techniques.
Just to be safe, I tried chanting them the way Bozhidar did, and no effect came, confirming that I need to acquire the magical techniques to cast them. I asked for a short break to consider my options, since I really didn’t want inefficient techniques to become my norm.
Browsing the Shop, I learned a few things: I could purchase techniques without their respective skills, at a hit to their effect; techniques cost anywhere between 3 points to some really large numbers, depending on numerous conditions; skills cost at least 10 points each, again depending on numerous conditions.
With this knowledge, I consulted Bozhidar. “I’ll let you know this, since it’s become important, and I trust you. I can choose to improve myself in nearly any field I desire. It can also happen organically but still unilaterally, like it did with spellcasting. The question is, how well can you teach me more… efficient ways to cast spells?”
Bozhidar cocked his head to the side, looking confused at the question, both giving it a moment. “I could instruct you through casting shorter or chantless versions, but I did mention that they aren’t as effective. Are you sure you want to?”
I answered without thinking, “Definitely sure. I think there’s something here we’re both missing.” What followed were several hours of Bozhidar instructing me through exercises to shape my mana and letting it out in the form of a spell without a chant. It took over 2 hours for the first spell to work, but the rest took under half and hour each. By the time we were done, I’d received more notifications.
New technique - Light Orb 1 - acquired!
3 points acquired!
New technique - Beam of Light 1 - acquired!
3 points acquired!
New technique - Cleanse Wounds 1 - acquired!
3 points acquired!
New technique - Cure Wounds 1 - acquired!
3 points acquired!
Seems like my Sheet approves of these versions more. Each time I cast one in the process of learning them had cost me 5 Mana, which brought me down to 30 Mana by the time we were done. With the spells acquired, I tried them out again, now activating their techniques instead. The different could immediately be felt. The light spells shone brighter and didn’t seem to wink out nearly immediately, while the healing spells seemed to work better and quicker. I was left with 10 Mana, which I didn’t want to empty, and 78/90 Health from the process of casting Cure Wounds.
Magic training took the entire day but was worth it. I now had ways to improve my condition and the knowledge of how simple it was to acquire new abilities like this. Before heading back to the hovel, now that it had started getting dark, I ask to dim the light inside the tent as much as possible and dedicated the 5 Focus for a private handheld directional light. Bozhidar confirmed he couldn’t see my flashlight, nor its light, and we further confirmed it worked by having me read from a tome Bozhidar couldn’t see well enough to read from.
Then I dedicated the 5 Mana it takes for a public flashlight, shocking Bozhidar with unknown technology and the ease with which it was produced. I took this light with me to the hovel, surprising more ratlings along the way. I also stopped by Borko to ask for one final proper training with him — how to fight with a mace — before I fall into a routine for the rest of my time with them.
And then, back at the hovel. I slept.