Chapter 43

Self-Taught

(One Week Later)

As it turns out, magic is simultaneously more complex and simpler than I thought. It is more complex in that it is not just enough to cast a spell, as a spell is the final evolution of countless hours of practice, time, understanding, and dedication. Also, it is simpler in that there are no true mathematical formulas, or mnemonics that will help learn or cast a spell faster. Unfortunately, all of the math, my true bread and butter, that is involved in the true understanding of magic, only happens at the spell creation phase. This means that if I want to be able to cheat the system, then I can’t use the cookie cutter spells that everyone has available to them. Instead I need to be able to create my own mathematical formula of energy, mass, and intended effect, or EMIE for short.

EMIE is what I am taking to be the true principles of spell creation. This is also the easiest way for me to distinguish Spell Theory from Magical Theory, as the two had been fairly interchangeable in my mind before this realization. Of course, the realization of EMIE also gave me 25 levels straight to my Spell Theory skill, letting me know I was on the right track. Basically, EMIE is the way to determine how a structured spell will work. There are also certain factors that play into EMIE, which are part of Magical Theory.

The factors that play into Magical Theory, are Distance, Vocalization, i.e., if a spell is chanted or just willed into being, number of intended targets, and finally interpretation. Interpretation is likely the hardest to understand, as it is the one that can fluctuate from caster to caster. Interpretation is probably the broadest of the categories, as it covers everything from knowledge of how the body circulates mana, to the mana release point, to the visualization of the final aspect of the spell. See Interpretation is also why the spells are labelled, for without this labelling of spells two people could theoretically cast the same spell with minor differences between the two. This is great for a game world, that wants you to be able to take and adapt the world around you to fit what is needed, but terrible when trying to institutionalize knowledge. Looking at some of the notes in the forbidden section of the library, relax, these were all in my healer’s section that I was granted access to, but these notes all seem to point to the fact that Arcanarus University was destined to fail from the beginning, as it was too open ended. There was no true end that would be offered by studying one class as ten students could attend the same class, be taught the same set of basic spells, only each would apply their own spin to the spells. It is this spin that made me come up with my reordered acronym to help learn Magical Theory.

Mentally I rearrange these four different components to spell DIVA, Distance, Interpretation, Vocalization, and Acquisition. I think this acronym goes best with the fact that all mages ultimately turn out to be DIVAs in some way, make no doubts about it, I fully include myself in this category. I fully admit I want everything to go my way. Oddly enough, the system liked my interpretation of DIVA the best as I was granted a 50 level bonus to my Magical Theory skill just for coming up with this acronym as a way to help me interpret what I am needed to do when casting spells.

Take for instance healing, normally something that only life mages would be able to cast, and while Spirit is not completely compatible with regenerating tissue, we can do other things. The one thing I have learned from reading everything, and I do mean everything, my Blind Eidetic Speed Reading is a very overpowered skill, especially considering it is both regularly 25 levels over the base 100, thanks to my Unbound merit, but also thanks to my first class perk Skill Infusion, where all of my skills are increased by 15% due to my being in the spirit realm. This means that my Blind Eidetic Speed Reading skill has been able to work overtime, allowing me to read not just the fifteen articles related to health in now deceased Dr. Kiran’s office, but also all of the books allowed to me in my Healer’s Section of the Mage Guild’s library. Of note, I have easily read through nine more volumes of body related skills here, learning many different components of the body.

When I entered the forbidden section of the library, I found out why they were forbidden, as each one practically gave a new skill.

New Skill Gained: Anatomy has reached level 1. Skill Anatomy is a Perception and Intelligence based skill.

New Skill Gained: Biology has reached level 1. Skill Biology is a Perception and Intelligence based skill.

New Skill Gained: Chemistry has reached level 1. Skill Chemistry is a Perception and Intelligence based skill.

Those were the skills that were readily available to me, once I comprehended the material being presented. Granted, I didn’t know if this was a carry over of some of my remedial lessons in Biology and Chemistry from my collegiate career that were needed to pass or my Masters in Applied Mathematics, or if this was a sign of my new body and mind being able to take on anything, but the knowledge flowed in like I was a sponge ready to absorb everything. In the end it didn’t matter, as the skills I learned just further helped to increase my overall Intelligence which I would then use to learn more things quicker and easier. It was an amazing system, and one that I was fully using to its full benefit. I did the calculations, and right now with my base attributes being so high, even if I maxed out all three skills to their maximum 125 level, I would only gain a total of four attributes each in Perception and Intelligence. Once I got near the end, to having the base attributes up to 124, it would take an entire skill to be learned and then pushed to its maximum value, before I could gain that last Attribute increase. Of course, I was a long way from even considering myself close to that. As it was I hadn’t even cracked 100 in any base Attribute, but I was close and with my recent bonuses

Physical

Base

Bonus

Social

Base

Bonus

Mental

Base

Bonus

Strength

45

2

Personality

49

Perception

91

2

Dexterity

74

21

Sociability

46

Intelligence

93

11

Endurance

68

2

Attractiveness

38

19

Willpower

78

39

There it was, my base score for each individual attribute, along with the bonuses I received either by leveling, or by applying some of my Free Attribute Points. Speaking of which I still had 26 Free Points remaining, but have not had time to apply them.

Well, okay, I have had time, namely this entire last week, but there were books to read, and rather than being boring, I found them all quite fascinating. The more I read the books, particularly those on human anatomy, the more I found myself able to visualize and picture different spell formulas that could help the body.

Since I wasn’t life attuned, I couldn’t just click my fingers and say heal, as that would be too basic of a solution. There was a give and take, rather I had to target the parts of the cells that I wanted to revive or regenerate and then encourage them to grow.

Spirit, it seems is far more advanced of a concept than I originally gave it credit for. I would attribute most of what Spirit magic can do to a living body, as willing the cells to react in a predetermined manner. What does this mean, well it is the placebo effect, logically I can’t actually heal as I am not a true healer, but I can trick someone’s brain into believing that they should get over something, be it a cold, a nerve injury, or something else entirely.

This of course was me thinking to the future, on how I can take my knowledge learned here and apply it to the physical world. As it stood, I was a Spirit mage in the Spirit realm, this was equivalent to my saying I was a Life mage in the Mortal realm, meaning my spell form was law here.

I had learned to treat a few minor spirits that wondered into my shop over the last week. Most were just minor injuries, someone cutting their hands while removing rubble, someone getting the spirit version of tetanus by stepping on metallic debris.

Of course this was what I attributed to the system reinforcing what I had read, as it was always the day after I had learned something new, that a patient with a similar injury to what I had just covered would come in and seek assistance. Most of the time I just used the Willpower based variant of my spells, Spirit Heal, which as the title suggests is just an overall function of me sending an obscene amount of mana at an injury, and focusing on the targeted wound to heal. This is part of what helped me come up with my DIVA model for Magical Theory. I could touch the wound, which would reduce the cost tremendously, but my conversion was still poor. I didn’t keep track of my actual mana, as the game never allowed such cheats, instead it just offered a system of how tired you felt after a certain action. This was where I began testing out different hypotheses for my spells that I wished to ultimately create. The first spell I taught myself was the aforementioned Spirit Heal, though that is likely not the games final version of the spell as mine is grossly expensive. No chanting, no conversion needed, just a straight force of my will to exert itself over the material world around me. I almost wonder if this will be enough to have a direct effect on the mortal realm, but I am not there yet. Instead, I am still using my training wheels.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Of course, all this training has left me extremely close to my goal of finishing my new quest, as I am currently just one tome away from finishing the quest to become a healer and I have no less than a dozen books to choose from.

Quest Update: Not The Healer They Wanted…: You have agreed to become the resident healer for the Crossroads branch of the Mage’s Guild. In order to become a true healer, you must take on certain basic knowledge levels. To become a true Apprentice Healer, you must find five items of scientific knowledge related to healing that will help you advance (24/5). To become a Journeyman Healer, you will need to find ten items of scientific knowledge related to healing that will help you advance (24/10). To become a true doctor of healing, you will need to find twenty-five items of scientific knowledge related to healing that will help you advance (24/25). Note: Time remaining until replacement arrives 22 Days, 17 Hours…

Why stop at 24 of 25? Simple, that will mark the true end of my beginner phase of this quest. I also noted that the steady stream of people that have come in seem to directly correlate to my level of progression in this quest. When I read my first five indexes is when I received my first patient. From there it was a steady stream of approximately one patient every four hours. Then once I reached the Journeyman status, in between readings I would be hit with a new patient once every two hours. Judging by this steady increase, the system itself was telling me that it wanted to prove I met its requirements for being recognized as a system doctor. Honestly I don’t know what this entails, I know I will get the badge, but I assume something else will likely accompany such a distinction. With my Regeneration, I blessedly never needed to seek too much medical attention, meaning I never knew if there was a way to distinguish a true system recognized doctor, from a person who was just handy with Life magic. Of course, with my recent understanding of magic, I am no longer so certain if needing Life magic is a prerequisite. I know there have been Alchemists who were sought more often than healers, as potions and medical elixirs would follow you into the field, where healers wouldn’t. Also, I have to say that bad healing is what caused my parents to lose their first lives, they had gone in seeking to be healed, and the doctor closed the wound, but failed to cleanse out the poison and dirt that was still in the wound. My parents not knowing any better left, not knowing the truth of what happened. Being the exceptionally poor, especially after paying most of their money to the guilds for failing a contract, to the healer for healing their wounds, and to the family of the team members they lost, they found that they had to immediately leave, hoping that their wounds would fully heal by the time they got to their destinations. Of course, the wounds were infected, which would not be healed by a standard heal spell, thus they ended up dying cold and alone in some abandoned dungeon. That had been a hard day for me.

That was also why I was so insistent on taking Regeneration, despite having so many options to heal myself. My Regeneration all but ensured I would not fall victim to the same death my parents had. Now all I needed to do, was find a way to get these ghosts and spirits to be able to heal from poisons as well. Again, this was where spell theory and knowledge of anatomy came from.

Bring.

The bell for someone entering my healer’s shop went off.

“Hello there, I take it you are here for healing?” Zero, my familiar, and now acting medical assistant says.

“Yes, I have seemed to contracted something.” A somewhat distinguished voice says.

“Right this way my good sir.” Zero states, as he takes the man to one of the beds. Now this next part will determine how I need to interact with the patient.

“For your conveniences, we will lower the curtains to protect your privacy.” Zero states, as they begin lowering the curtains both around the patient, and the curtains I would need to enter the room. This is my cue that my patient is an elf of some kind. Given the general population of the area, we had to come up with this protocol as there was an exceptionally high number of dark elves present in the area to begin with.

“Good morning. I will be your doctor today.” I say, speaking to the patient through the thin curtain. I know this can be most disconcerting for many patients, but it is a must, particularly with my bloodline curse still active within me.

“What? Why do you hide from me?” The man asks.

“This is both for your protection and my own.” I state, “there are a number of contaminants going around that we are trying to reduce the spread of.”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense.” The man says, relaxing slightly as he stares at me. I know my silhouette is still visible from behind the curtain, showing me as a shadow against the curtain. They can see me holding a pad of paper that I am writing down the patient’s information on.

“To begin, can I have your name?”

“Rhermand Ulskard.”

“Well met, and what is the purpose for your visit here today?” I ask.

At that Rhermand just pauses for a moment, before answering, “I’ve had a fever that I cannot seem to shake, my muscles are aching, and I have these weird rashes that are breaking out on me.” He says this last part while holding up his hands.

“Very good, and what do you expect to happen by coming to this visit?”

“I expect to be better, of course.” He says, the last part as if it is a stupid question to ask.

“All right, there are a few things that I will first need to do. With your consent, I will first probe you with a stream of my mana, to help me gain a baseline of your overall health and condition, then from there I will try to come to first a diagnosis of your problem, then offer a solution if one is possible.” I say.

Silence.

“Do you give me your consent?” I ask. This is important, as it apparently makes it so the spells I cast go from being seen as harmful attack spells, to beneficial healing spells. This is part of that Interpretation aspect of magic casting. From my understanding when you enter into a party with someone that is designated as the healer, that is implied consent to be treated with healing magic. Here, there is a partial implied intent to be healed by the fact that the patient is here in my temporary clinic, but getting full consent will make it so this next phase is easier.

“Yes.”

Having his consent, I nod to myself then begin talking him through what I will do. This is similar to vocalization and will grant me up to a 25% boost to my overall spell efficiency. “The first thing I will do is channel out my Spirit Energy Circulation spell into you, this helps me do a number of things. The first thing it does, is it lets my energy enter into your bloodstream. This is harmless and will clear up before the end of the day. But in the meantime, it will allow me to see how your blood and energy are flowing throughout your body, and more importantly show me where any dangers lie.”

I say all this as I continually release a stream of energy into my patient. From this distance, the efficacy of the base spell will be lowered, which is why I have taken to describing what I am doing to the patient. This creates a twin link of my will to his will, so long as he wants me to help, his own will can be added to my own to help the healing process.

After a few seconds of channeling energy I have a fairly good idea of what is going on. There are cells that have seemed to balloon out within his body, growing both enlarged and borderline malignant. This is not the first time I have seen something like this from people of this town.

“You are part of the group that was taking Detox potions?” I ask, though I am already fairly certain I know the answer.

“Ye, yes, how did you know?” The elf asks.

“You aren’t the first patient with your symptoms that has come here seeking aid. Let me guess, you too were unable to get a steady supply of Detox potions after the renegades came through and destroyed the city?”

“Yes, I was part of the group that was buried in the…” He trails off as he realizes that he was about to reveal a trade secret.

“The collapsed mine out back of town?” I ask, trying to get the dark elf to reveal more. Each time I heal one of these particular types of patients, I get one step closer to solving the other quest I was given.

Quest: The Toxic Nature of Crossroads: You have found that the guards of crossroads have an open contract with the Apothecary Guild to create Detox potions. You can either create Detox potions to turn in for money, or you can investigate the cause of why so many Detox potions are needed in the first place. Reward: variable.

Now I could cheat by using Telepathy to cut ahead to the end of this quest, but that would likely mean an end to my steady stream of patients. Just as I don’t want to risk becoming a full fledged doctor at the risk of one patient an hour, neither do I want to risk either quest line drying up. That is why I just apply what I learned from the last patient to the next patient, implying that it is no big deal. I also have to make sure I am somewhat careful, as this could backfire if some particularly zealous guard tries to stop me from speaking entirely.

“What? Yeah…” The guard trails off.

“Well don’t worry, I have this down to a science by now. What will happen is we will flush the toxins from your system. In order to do this, I will cycle my mana through you in such a way that all of the toxins begin to congregate into your non-dominant hand. Then when they get to a decent sized boil, at which point Zero will lance open the boil, letting the toxic residue flow from your body into a metal pan. Once the last of the toxins are removed from your body, I will then seal the wound shut and send you on your way.”

“Just like that?” The dark elven guard asks, a bit of incredulity filling his voice.

“While I might make it sound easy, the process will be anything but, for me at least. All I need from you is to hold out your non-dominant hand for Zero, so that we can begin the cleansing process.”

The guard does, holding out their left hand. Zero takes the hand, flips it over and then holds it over a sterilized metal bowl. As Zero and the patient are doing this, I have already begun the process I was talking about, cycling the blood of the individual, thanks to my already saturating my own personal mana within the patient. Then making it so the dead, damaged, or rotten cells all filter down the guard’s left arm, where they eventually make their way to the left hand.

“When will this…” The guard begins, but just as he speaks, the first bulge in his finger begins. Seeing the bulge Zero does his part, of lancing the boil, and instantly a pulse of dead and rotting cells come out.

“Oh gods…” The guard says, jerking his head way, he would almost have removed his arm had Zero not grabbed his wrist quickly.

“We request that you do not move your arm, lest you wish to pay for cleaning of our bedding.” I state. With that, the guard pauses and doesn’t resist Zero’s guidance.

It takes under five minutes total for me to cycle out the contaminated blood from the target. Then once that is complete, I need to do two things. First, I need to seal the wound, which is a simple application of spirit mana and willpower, to the targeted index finger. Then, I need to get the target to regenerate their blood. This is a slightly trickier component, as I basically need to force cell mitosis of the blood cells at a controlled and limited rate. Too much would be the same thing as creating cancer, or at least a magical variant of cancer. The alternate is to create a one time spell split that will leave both the parent and child cell healthy and functioning. Again, this second spell is a form of Spirit Healing, but the Implementation of the spell, and intended targeting is tougher. I also don’t want to necessarily double the amount of blood, but keep it at a healthy limit the body can hold. While doing this, I have thought about things like over-healing, where I produce more than the standard number of blood cells, allowing the body to relax on blood cell production for a time, so the body can rest, but that is a different aspect that I am not ready to test out fully. For the moment, I am just here to treat this patient of their current ailments and nothing more.

“There, done.” I say, as I wipe away a bead of sweat from my forehead.

I turn to head out my back passage to my little reading nook, and by back passage I of course mean use Teleportation, when I am stopped.

“Wait, can I at least have your name?”

“Cassiopeia Spiritlight.” I say, as I say my name, I feel a slight burst of power and pride. I know this is likely the game’s feedback system letting me know that my legacy has grown.

Silence.

There is a moment of silence that lingers between us, when I am certain that there is nothing further required, I offer my final farewell. “Have a good day.”

Then I Teleport¸ before I can be stopped again.

Finally with this last patient, I feel confident in my ability to finally finish my training as a doctor.

I watch from a different floor of the Mage’s Guild entirely, as Zero helps the patient up, then walks them out.

Any payments are not to be made with me, but to the receptionist, this way I am another step removed from the anger of regressors and indigenous people alike. Yes, they are indigenous people, at least that is name of them, or at least what regressors often refer to them as.

Once Zero returns, he seems somewhat excited. “That is your twenty-seventh successful treatment.”

At that I nod, I am tired, but it is not an unmanageable state anymore, that is another reason why I feel that I am ready to move on with my quest.

“So, are you finally ready to become a real doctor?” Zero asks.

I nod.

“What, really?”

“Yes, though we will have to do it, just like I said.” I say, “are you really ready to help?”

“Right away.” Zero says, as they dart off to the healer’s portion of the restricted library.

He goes and pulls the final four books down. There are actually over a dozen books that still glow to my Angel’s Sight, all but screaming at the fact that I can use any one of them to increase my medical knowledge and become a recognized doctor.

Nodding to myself, I realize I am ready for this next step. I know just reading this information will not be enough, that I will be pushed further and harder than I ever have in my life, but it will be worth it.

These four were chosen as they are the ones that glow the brightest, they were also part of a series that seemed that it needed to be done all at once. Handing me two, I place them down on either side of me, and sit down between them, ready to turn page after page in unison. Zero likewise takes the two remaining books and places them both by his sides as well.

“Together?” He asks.

“Together, on three, two, one…”

With that, we open all four books, and my mind instantly begins reading in line after line of text.

Analyzing a Patient’s Energy Resonance and Altering your Mana to Meet their Need I Analyzing a Patient’s Energy Resonance and Altering your Mana to Meet their Need II Analyzing a Patient’s Energy Resonance and Altering your Mana to Meet their Need III Analyzing a Patient’s Energy Resonance and Altering your Mana to Meet their Need IV

Instantly I feel a burning sensation fill my mind as the painful scent of sulfur fills my nostrils letting me know I am trying to do too much too fast. Still, I force my mind to continue. I don’t know what will happen when I am registered as a doctor, and unfortunately I didn’t see this four book volume of related medical texts until it was too late. Now I am left with the desperate function of reading all four books at once, while hoping that this will be enough to get me a requisite skill that I can use for healing. Fortunately, even as I push my mind beyond its mortal limits, and I feel the system giving me the warning of my taking personal damage, I already feel the effects of my Regeneration kicking in to heal any and all damage I might be inflicting on my mind by forcing it to expand too far too fast.

Flip, flip, shuffle, flip.

We both turn page after page in unison. Zero timing his turning of the pages to my own, to make sure I don’t miss anything. Then finally when it is all over I feel an intense spark of pain in my mind as it feels like a white hot knife is being jabbed between my eyes, but that is all worth it, as I was still able to push through the pain and read the four books simultaneously. Then when we got to the end, I felt a burning sensation in my mind, before something burst.

“Cass, Cass…” The distant voice of Zero called out, as I felt my mind going far off into the distance.

A blinding bright light engulfed me, as I was engulfed in what felt like a supernova of light and pain.