The next day started shortly after sunrise. Liz took some time orienting herself, still unsure and overwhelmed by her new environment. Standing up, she missed her deodorant already, instead having to take a bath, just to get rid of her stench from the day prior.

'At least I could sleep in and not get up at the crack of dawn just to sell coffee to leering idiots'

The next hour was spent dusting and roughly cleaning both the suite and most of the workspace. Since the night before was quite cold, even under the covers of the bed, she continued by getting some firewood from several destroyed doors and desks.

This way she also learned that, once opened, Garuna was able see the world around him in every direction. Since the enchantments around the tower kept the mana concentration quite low, he only had this omni-directional sight. Outside he could also perceive and even smell in a sphere of of 7 meters, completely ignoring walls or floors. According to Garuna his current form and also his new body were unable to channel mana in any meaningful way since the 'bodies' and soul weren't adapted to one another like living matter was able to.

Additionally, Liz filled multiple containers with water from the fountain, elated to hear that the healing effect held for a long time, but the mana burn slowly faded once removed from the source. After getting the chores done, she settled down in a cleared section of the workspace, eagerly awaiting her first magic lesson from the locket.

As it turned out, Garuna had more of a theoretical lesson in mind. After going over everything he had explained the day before he asked Liz to identify his locket and relaying what she saw.

"It seems to made out of gold with fine silver runes set into it. The runes are more complex and smaller than any other I've seen so far, besides the skeleton" Liz replied, eager to finally do something beside reiterating.

"No, I mean use [Identify] as in the skill!" Garuna sounded exasperated.

After seeing Liz's puzzled expression he continued "Ah.. you don't have it!... Hmm... then please to do the following: Take the time coin and focus on it. Will it to show itself to you"

'I don't quite understand what he means, but I guess trying can't hurt'

After a few minutes of staring at the coin with a constipated expression and mentally shouting at the coin to reveal itself, Liz got a reaction. Just like her status she 'knew' that the coin was called

[Time Coin - Rare]

At the same time she also got another notification

-- You have successfully learned the skill [Identify] --

"YES, I got it." Liz jumped with joy.

"Very well, now try it on me"

[Locket of Garuna - Soulbound - lvl ??]

"It names you 'Locket of Garuna' and something about Soulbound, but your level is just two question marks" Liz relayed.

"Correct, [Identify] works on almost all living and nonliving objects. In case of any being with levels, it requires your level to be close or higher to correctly display it this way. Try it again."

[Locket of Garuna - Soulbound - lvl 129]

"Now your level is 129" Liz answered, confused.

'I would have pegged him higher. This somehow doesn't feel right!'

"Yes, the other way to see the level is if a being wishes to reveal itself to you. However certain skills can still obfuscate the level. Otherwise, you will only get a general idea of the level difference to you. Identify can also be used on skills to get the details"

'So he's using such a skill?'

Liz immediately went and identified everything in her range, most were quite obvious like

[Worktable]

[Stool]

Books simply relayed their title

[On the mystery of arcane healing]

[The 7 best Herbs and Spices of the Northern Wildlands]

But even objects which she couldn't ordinarily identify, the skill gave a response to

[Myrtakraut]

[Iron Ingot]

The last one she could have guessed, but confirmation was good to have.

'But didn't he say it also works on other skills? How should I go about this then?'

After testing for a few minutes she found that calling her status to her consciousness and then concentrating on the skills was the key.

English - lvl 7

You are able to converse in the foreign language English

Eastern Plains Common - lvl 8

You understand the written and spoken word of the common language of the Eastern Plains. The language of humans and gnomes

Pain Tolerance - lvl 4

You are less responsive to pain. Pain reception is dulled. Effect increases with skill level

Identify - lvl 1

Identify anything in your surroundings. Gain information about objects and beings. Levels may not be grasped unless close to ones own or lower. Margin increases with level. Current: 10

And most importantly:

Wanderer - title

You have successfully crossed the void of realms and entered the realm of Gaior. To make it easier for you to adapt to your new environment this title gives the following benefits: You gain the knowledge to converse in the predominant language of your species and food and water needs are cut in half until a first class is gained. Additionally: +1 Intelligence and +1 Endurance

'So no realm traveler, only a "wanderer". Just a result of travelling the realms. Also, did I instinctively talk in Eastern Plains Common? It seems like it. I doubt anybody here speaks English. So that is definitely good to have.'

With her experimentation done she returned to the lesson. Apparently certain artifacts have different rarities and levels of quality. The most important and common were common and uncommon, rare for the more expensive artifacts and legendary for unique masterpieces. Garuna confirmed there were more but none that were relevant at the moment.

Garuna then let her identify some more artifacts in her vicinity. A whole shelf of vials filled with brown liquid identified as

[Replenishment tonic - Uncommon]

The vials with the water from the fountain identified as

[Arcane-infused Healing potion - Rare]

However, after putting them in a shelf, that according to Garuna absorbed excess mana, they identified as

[Healing potion - Uncommon]

The rest of the afternoon progressed similarly, with Garuna explaining multiple basics of mana manipulation and the different magic forms as he called them.

Of the types of mana manipulation, he described the most prevalent ones.

One was through runes, which worked apart from the original caster. According to Garuna there were several runic alphabets but the one he was taught and now teaching her was the oldest and most powerful. Liz came to the conclusion that probably all runic magic users considered their own system in the same way.

Another type of magic users were the intuitive users. They were heavily aligned with a certain magic form and could cast a wide range of spells at a thought. Some were even able to create matter from mana itself. Garuna sounded like he neither liked nor really disliked these magic users.

This however was not the case when Garuna spoke of wizards. There was clear contempt in Garuna's ethereal voice as he explained how they were using spoken spells and were, like some runic casters, a highly secretive bunch. They themselves had a clear disdain for all other magic users. In the days of Garuna's flesh body days, some wizard orders even systematically hunted other magic users. Garuna told Liz that he himself was hunted across the plains by two wizards when he was still a novice. The fact that Garuna shared this, surprised Liz twofold. For one the gruesome methods of 'hunting' he described and that this was the only detail about Garuna's life he had shared.

'I wondered whether he ever had a real body. Now I really want to know how he ended up as a locket. But I've already learned that he reacts allergic to direct questioning. Best to just wait for him to reveal it himself'

Afterward, he also concluded on types of magic users and instead focused on the types of magic. He described arcane magic as the purest form and the type to naturally occur when mana became concentrated enough. As such it was most often highly unstable and often decayed into other magic forms. Besides arcane magic there were other forms, most associated with an element. Said elemental and sometimes spiritual magic often times had multiple subtypes as well. He also mentioned some special cases, like necromancy and healers.

In the evening Garuna ordered Liz to read a tome with the title 'Basic Mana Manipulation: Techniques and Tips' and dismissed her, wishing to remain in the workspace and not be disturbed further.

Liz made herself a minimal dinner out of a few fruit and started a fire in the fireplace before settling into the bed, spent from the mental exhaustion of 6 hours of learning magic theory.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

'While it is interesting to learn this theory I don't feel like this helps in learning to actually practice magic.'

Despite having located the tome in the extensive library in the suite Liz simply went to sleep, too spent to even look at the preface.

----------------------------------------

The next morning started similar to the day before, however this time Liz spent her morning further exploring the fort together with Garuna after taking her bath. Thanks to his directions she was able to locate most of the workshops in the fort. Most were only filled with rotten wood and dust. The blacksmith was the only place where the tools and materials all looked in close to usable condition. The forge and several other workstations were powered by an enchantment which needed a mana crystal as an energy source. Liz considered cleaning the smithy and trying herself at repairing some daggers. But Garuna quickly discouraged her from the idea, since she was still unable to manipulate mana and the few crystals left were too expensive to waste.

Eventually she looted some pans from the kitchen, a dozen daggers from the armory and moved all the food to her suite's pantry.

After snacking some as her lunch, she went back to her lesson and voiced her concern from the night before but was quickly dismissed by Garuna

"This is the best way to give you the selection of a mage class. An initial class selection or evolution is based on your actions, knowledge and to some extent your wants. Therefore, I am doing my best to give you the theoretical knowledge of magic users. But you are right that not only knowledge is involved in forcing such a selection. Therefore, we will spend today inspecting the fortifications and learning some of their inner workings. If you were so friendly and would take me to the wall by the dining hall"

'Finally more questions answered. The whole class system sounds interesting. Especially how this simply exists in this world.'

And so they went along the insides of the fortress's outer walls and Garuna explained how thanks to the ley line node nearby and the subsequent high ambient mana concentration the enchantments were self-sufficient. Especially the outer walls were designed to repel monsters under all circumstances. The shields for teleportation, which only few monsters in the valley possessed, and even against weather however could be compromised by certain phenomena which impacted the mana density, requiring regular maintenance. Garuna led Liz to a certain section of stone and instructed her to simply study how the different distinct runes interconnected, stopping when a headache started forming.

It turned out that, while working runes weren't painful to look at, they still could cause magic induced headaches when trying to understand them without sufficient previous knowledge.

Liz spent half of the afternoon doing exactly as instructed, having to stop regularly and heal her headache using the processed healing potions from the fountain which turned out to be the

[Fountain of Youth]

Garuna denied the water having any significant anti-aging effects, simply being a renewable source of healing potions. He also explained that the construct was highly impractical as it only worked here in the high ambient mana concentration.

Eventually, after having used up all her healing potions, Liz returned to the tower and started to read the recommended book, while cooking a piece of meat and some vegetables over the fireplace.

The tome itself was quite interesting. It advised to first read the first chapters before trying anything. Liz, of course, ignored the advice and spend some time without any success. She was probably much slower than if she had heeded the advice. The tome spoke of learning a magic related class by finding her core, according to the book the link between her soul and body, connecting with it and directing the energy within. To do so required meditation which seemed to be a skill as well. Garuna of course failed to mention this and shortly after sunset Liz found herself a guide on meditation and tried the techniques described. To her surprise she quickly picked up on it and after what felt like just half an hour she got a notification.

-- You have successfully learned the skill [Meditation] --

Identifying it brought

Meditation - lvl 1

When meditating your consciousness releases from the shackles of your physical body, boosting your natural health, stamina and mana regeneration by 5%

But it seems the shackles of a physical body also included a sense of time as a quick look through the window revealed the moons high in the sky, putting her close to midnight. Liz quickly went to bed, fortunately already slightly refreshed from her meditation.

----------------------------------------

The next morning was once again spent doing the typical chores one has when single-handedly maintaining a magically enforced fortress. By noon, Liz had gathered usable pieces of wood, weapons and other raw materials in a corner of the workspace.

She had also gained a basic understanding of the layout of the fort. She had learned that there were two gates, one towards the valley and the other towards the snowy mountain path. Most of the smaller buildings outside the main building housed storage, a stable and even a small barn and the workshops of all kinds of trades.

The main building housed the dining hall, kitchen, sleeping quarters and armory. It also bordered the mages tower. The other two tower ruins used to house the quarters for any nobility delegated here and the guard station together with the vault in the other one. This was good to know as Garuna had advised her to make some time perusing the ruins, since they most likely contained a few valuable artifacts.

Liz had also concluded that whatever had attacked had not caused many casualties if any at all and instead the fortress was evacuated in a haste. Garuna had supported this theory especially after seeing multiple stacks of rotten and rusted merchandise piled near the mountain pass gate, most likely left behind to not overburden the horses.

After a quick lunch, which once again consisted of fruits, all similar to their Earthen equivalents, yet different, Garuna started the lesson on auras. According to him, every living being had an aura. It was linked to their magical affinity. Before gaining a class most are at the edge of being perceivable and a class was necessary to control it. That Liz still had a perceivable one spoke of a high magical affinity and had led Garuna to believe that she had a class and was simply bad at suppressing her aura. Another way this magical affinity expressed itself was through the multiplier with which points in Wisdom impacted the maximum mana pool. Upon hearing that Liz's multiplier was 16, the locket was ecstatic.

"An affinity of 16!! Do you understand how rare that is? There are only a few hundreds of beings above 14! I've never heard of anybody having an affinity of 16. It was theorized to be possible but never observed. How incredible! You are definitely worthy of being a mage."

'But why? Why do I have this high affinity? Or was that the reason I was transported here?'

After several minutes, Garuna had calmed down, and managed to continue the lesson. He finally explained the meaning of the different stats in her status.

"They are divided in four physical and three mental attributes. Vitality increases your health, Endurance your stamina. Strength translates to physical strength. Dexterity determines how nimble and balanced you are able to move your body. Perception helps with perceiving and processing your environment. Some would say it is your mental speed. Wisdom increases your mana pool and Intelligence determines your mental power, which translates to the power and damage caused by your spells. All also have auxiliary effects, but none that are important right now"

With that Garuna concluded that he had taught her as much as he was able to before she gained a class, advising her to take the tome from the day before and alternate between studying the wall enchantments and trying to connect to the mana pool in her soul. The second assignment took far shorter than Liz had expected. After just an hour she had found a small ball of energy inside herself, roughly at the place of her heart. A force that was constantly changing and roiling inside her without actually making contact with any physical part of herself. After familiarizing herself with this feeling, she started trying to grasp the force. It still eluded her, constantly shifting away from any metaphysical grasp she tried to gain. After a while a notification entered her consciousness, surprising her and throwing her out of her trance. After reading the message she was quickly disappointed, having hoped to gain a class

-- [Meditation] has reached level 2 --

"Have you got it?" asked the locket, having meditated simultaneous to decrease mana consumption and recharge his inner stores.

"No, only a level in meditation. I don't know if this is good for anything" Liz replied dejectedly.

"Identify the skill again"

Doing so revealed

Meditation - lvl 2

When meditating your consciousness release from the shackles of your physical body, boosting your natural health, stamina and mana regeneration by 6%

"So it increases the regeneration bonus by one percent each level?" Liz asked.

"That is correct. Up to a maximum of 20% at lvl 16. Afterwards depending on the skill evolution it may differ." Garuna explained.

'So not only classes evolve but also skills? That is good to know'

Liz resumed her training by studying the enchantments. After focusing on one part in particular she had a small déjà vu, somehow reminded of the roiling force inside herself. Before she could focus on this detail, a headache caused her to stop her investigation.

After curing it she tried the meditation again, failing to reproduce her near success from the first session. Dejected she stopped after another hour and went back inside.

Leaving the necklace in his favorite spot in the work space, she made herself dinner. By now she was sick of the monotonous food selection.

'It's only ever fruit and vegetables or meat. And I have no equipment to make it any more interesting. Not that I am good at cooking, but my supermarket had at least some nice ready made meals. A pizza right now would be nice. Or at least some films, or YouTube videos...'

Looking for a way to spend her time, Liz went to sorting through her loot of the day and identified every piece.

[Rusty Dagger]

[Broken Dagger]

⋮

[Lead ingot]

[Rotten Log]

[Pebble]

After moving on to identifying every item of furniture in the suite she finally got what she wanted

-- [Identify] has gained level 2 --

Identify - lvl 2

Identify anything in your surroundings. Gain information about objects and beings. Levels may not be grasped unless close to ones own or lower. Margin increases with level. Current: 12

'Interesting, if this continues linear, I should get information up to level 40 at skill level 16 before the evolution. But only with my level 0, with more levels I should be able to go higher. Hopefully that happens before Identify reaches lvl 16'

-- You have successfully learned the skill [Mathematics] --

'Seriously? Now? After some basic arithmetic? I guess I'll take it. Maybe poor poetry is also a skill?'

Mathematics - lvl 1

You have a basic understanding of mathematics. You are able to apply your knowledge in all manner of situations

'No real gains? I can't suddenly calculate 2 equations simultaneously? Or 5% more efficient? Would have been too nice...'

----------------------------------------

The fifth day started different from the previous. Leaving her chores be for the morning, Liz focused on practicing, feeling close to a breakthrough. Said breakthrough presented itself after just an hour of meditation, when she finally managed to take hold of the power inside herself. Although it almost instantly dissipated again, she could still feel a notification invade her consciousness.

-- Congratulations! You meet the requirements for one or more classes --

By meeting the following requirements you are able to adopt the class [Mage]:

You have the skill [Identify]. You have the skill [Meditation]. You have a basic understanding of mana and its forms. You have successfully connected with your mana pool and channeled it. You have learned under the tutelage of an experienced magic user.

Wielder of magic. The mage is the most versatile of all the classes, wielding magic like a farmer would a hoe. The mage is able to progress to immeasurable power with patience and practice.

Would you like to adopt [Mage] as your class?

By meeting the following requirements you are able to adopt the class [Mage Scholar]:

You have the skill [Identify]. You have the skill [Meditation]. You have the skill [Mathematics]. You have a basic understanding of mana and its forms. You have successfully connected with your mana pool and channeled it. You have learned under the tutelage of an experienced and wise magical scholar.

Scholar of magic. The mage scholar is dutiful in documenting all she can find about the understandings of magic. The mage scholar uses patience, attention and experimentation to further the knowledge and understanding of magic and how it is wielded. She is aware of the importance and duty her profession is to the coming generations.

Would you like to adopt [Mage Scholar] as your class?

By meeting the following requirements you are able to adopt the class [Arcane Mage]:

You have the skill [Identify]. You have the skill [Meditation]. You have a basic understanding of mana and its forms. You have successfully connected with your mana pool and channeled it. You have learned under the tutelage of an experienced magic user. Your soul has adapted to the arcane under the stressful influence of a highly concentrated source of arcane mana.

Wielder of the Arcane. The arcane mage is the most versatile of the mages, wielding the only mana form without opposition aside from the reality itself. The arcane mage is able to wield this immeasurable power with an understanding of the responsibilities and dangers of the purest form of mana.

Would you like to adopt [Arcane Mage] as your class?