The first thing I saw when I came through the portal to the gnome's [Personal Palace] was a small entry foyer. The walls were white marble and the recessed lights produced warm tones. It reminded me of the [Lawful Good] hall in the starter Dungeon I had been in. The floor in the foyer was covering in an elaborate woven rug. It's chief color was dark red, with black texturing and yellow fringe trim. The foyer was a cube with three strides to side. Behind me, the entry portal covered one internal wall.
Ahead of me, there was no wall opposite the portal. A curtain of beads block further progress. 'The beads had images flowing across it, like a video screen. I was possible to see the hallway beyond continue into the distance, but the images on the curtain were distracting. There was a logo of letters. If my Common had gotten good enough for me to be right, it think it was caravan masters initials. They had a three dimensional look at rotated slowly before the image changed to Meadowwalker sitting on a giant white roc. Not a stone, but a giant bird called a “roc.” He was wearing his signature white leathers, and was seated behind the elf in black I had just seen outside. The roc was perched on the edge a cliff. The images returned to the rotating initials before switching back to another image of Meadowwalker in flight on the back of the roc.
Something moved at the edge of my vision. I turned around to see the gray void portal that had filled the wall was gone. In it's place a was blank white marble wall. I slowly reached out to touch when I was startled from behind again.
“It will open again when he lands. He doesn't want anyone to fall out,” Aern'Lenninisal said.
I spun around to find the beads had pulled themselves apart to allow the white haired elf to pass through them. “Follow me to the bunks.”
I did just that. The beads parted for us as we walked down the hall. The main hall continued straight for what seem like about a hundred strides. There was a large set of double doors with guards in black uniforms. I was too far to make sure they were elves. The walls were covered in tapestries and paintings. To my right were a series of seating halls. Like the foyer and main hall they were three strides wide and high. The seating halls were lined with chairs along each wall. The back of the chairs were up against the wall so that they faced each other. Above each chair was a rack to place things in. Most of the seats were empty, most of the people who were in the seats looked like poor farmers. One even had a chicken in cage in his overhead compartment.
The left side hallway had doors spaced at the same intervals as the seating halls on the right. I recognized the label on the door as one of the first pieces of Low Common I ever learned, “Bathroom.”
Aern'Lenninisal led me past three seating halls before the doors started appearing on the right side of the hall. He led me to the second door on the right. He opened the door and said, “Your bunk is all the way at the end. Go find it and then come back here, so we can sit down.”
There were bunks on either side of the aisle. There was occasionally a male elf in one of the bunks, but not many. I kept inspecting the names on the bunks, but I couldn't read any off. I think it was all in elvish. The bunk hall had two bunks on each wall and was six bunks deep. I reached the end of the hall and saw my name in English on the last upper bunk on the right. Having found my place I turned to leave, only to find the way blocked by Nellamon. The tallish elf asked me something in elvish I couldn't understand him. Aern'Lenninisal's [Tongues] Spell must have worn off.
I was a little worried . He had blocked my exit. I told him in my best broken Low Common, “No speak elvish, Need Spell. Aern'Lenninisal.”
He gave me a friendly smile and waved me to follow as he turned and left. As I approached I heard him say something to Aern'Lenninisal in elvish. The next thing I knew, I was on the receiving end of [Tongues].
“Sorry about that,” Aern'Lenninisal said.
“No problem,” I replied.
What happened next shocked me a little. Nellaman turned around and bowed. “I apologize for insulting your robe Pilgrim. I didn't not know. Will you forgive my rudeness.”
Mystified I asked, “Sure, I'll forgive you. Why did you call me a Pilgrim?”
Nellamon's friendly manner changed to uncomfortable hostility, “If you are not a Pilgrim, why do you wear the robe?”
“What's a Pilgrim,” I asked as followup.
Aern'Lenninisal came to the rescue, “Nellamon, did you know that Eric is an offworlder? He has only been Elfandrael for a few weeks.” As Nellamon relaxed, Aern'Lenninisal continued, “A Pilgrim is a someone who venerates all the gods. The arrangement of the symbols of the gods on your back is what a Pilgrim will wear to announce themselves.”
“You mean a Pilgrim worships all the gods equally?”
“Not worship, venerate. Pilgrims follow the god of their Path, but they have respect for all of the gods. It's hard for me to understand too. Somehow they can follow Celestium but still say good things about Bestal,” he replied.
I thought about it a minute. Celestium had told me how the elven gods had set up Elfandrael. Even the [Evil] gods had responsibilities and purpose within the system. Part of what Celestium wanted me to do was get the elves to stir up their rigid culture and grow. That mission needed Evil gods as a catylist for change.
I turned to Nellamon and gave my answer. “I didn't know what a Pilgrim was, but now that I do, I think I am a one.”
He stood stoically silent for a moment and then asked, “I have the [Purify] Art. Would you let me [Purify] your garment Pilgrim?”
“Uh...sure,” I responded.
A wind swirled around me and my bathrobe went from a dingy gray to sparkling white. Even the rabbit bloodstain was cleaned out. It was still threadbare from all the times I had washed it, but it was snow white again.
“Thanks,” I told Nellamon.
“You are welcome, Pilgrim.”
He seemed sincere. He bowed and returned to his bunk.
Once Aern'Lenninisal recovered from his shock he said, “We will be in Kerik in twenty minutes. Let us try to get some studying done.
----------------------------------------
“Attention, Attention, we are almost ready to unload. Everyone please head to the exit,” an elf in black announced.
Aern'Lenninisal and I left the seating hall where we had been studying and made our way toward the exit where the crowd was milling about, waiting to depart. We stood there for almost ten minutes before the exit came to life. It wasn't the gray void from before. Instead it was the view of the village green in Kerik. From my research I knew this was one of the larger villages in the land surrounding Neral City. It had a population of four thousand, and was only thirty leagues as the crow flies from Neral City. It was closer to seventy leagues by road.
Master Meadowwalker was standing on the green with two young women. In the background, there were twenty or so one and two story buildings. The clipboard buildings were a little run down. One of the women, with black hair, wore a stylish black and green dress. She had a matching set of jade jewelry. A necklace, bracelet, and hairpin. The other woman wore a white apron over a sturdy brown woolen dress. The unique style of the matching white hat pegged the second woman as a nurse.
The caravan master spoke his orders, “We will begin departing so you can visit the shrines shortly.” He lifted a hand to indicate the women in the black and green dress and said, “This is Miss Ventralia. She will be organizing your tours and Quests today. Please wait in my [Personal Palace] until she comes to organize you. First I need Eric Swindall, Senelia, and Nellamon to come out here.”
As soon as he stopped speaking the undulating gray void came into view. Miss Ventralia stepped through, and said, “Eric, Senelia, and Nellamon, please step forward.”
I nervously looked at Aern'Lenninisal for support but he just shrugged. He was as confused as I was. A voluptuous female elf exited in front of Nellamon. I followed them through portal as quickly as possible. When I came out, the other two were already gathered around Master Meadowwalker.
The gnome said, “Eric, this is the last chance to back out. Can you really do what you said with Chi, Mana, and Stamina?”
“Yes sir,” I responded.
He smiled and said, “Then it's time to test it. Selenia, expend a few points of Chi. It doesn't matter what for. Nellamon, do the same. Eric recharge both of them.”
The two elves lookea little confused but quickly complied. Selenia struck a defensive stance. There was slight hum as the intensity of the colors on her body indicated Chi use. Nellamon just cast [Purify] on himself. The swirling winds made him look like a parody of male model.
I approached Nellamon first, and said, “I need to touch you.”
Nellamon nodded and touched his arm. I then began casting [Recharge Chi] over and over again. I had to concentrate to cast the spell every second as I couldn't channel the Spell yet.
Nellamon's eye shot open at first, but after a few seconds he announced, “I am full. Thank you Pilgrim.”
I repeated the process for Selenia..
She bowed and said, “Thank you. How long can you do that?”
“Indefinelty,” I replied.
She turned to Master Meadowwalker and asked with an expectant smile, “Do you want me to Channel my [Reiki] with this?”
The gnome nodded in approval, “Exactly. Healer Tindal will supervise you. You three should form a party, It will increase the Experience and Karma. It's about eight AM now. You will have until noon to work at the clinic. I'll send someone to get you then. That's when the rest of the group will start to Quest. Make sure you wrap up by then.” His took a quick breath and then said, “Some of these patients can pay. You'll get paid what I promised you for that. Some of them can't pay. In fact that's most off them. Let us know now if you don't want to work for free. You wont get paid for your charity, but you can still earn Karma and Experience.”
We all agreed to do the charity work. The woman in the nurse's outfit, who I thought was Healer Tindal said, “Let's go children.”
Before anyway could move I said,”Wait. I'm OK with Low Common, but I can barely get by with High Common. Unless someone has [Polyglot], Aern'Lenninisal needs to come so he can cast [Tongues] on me.”
The gnome thought for moment before answering. “No. You'll have to go without him. I will have Meallean take you to the shrines so you can bind their locations this evening. Branufus can only carry three passengers and I'm not moving my [Personal Palace] just for that. Eric all you need to know is Chi, start, and stop. You'll be fine,” he said with a fatherly smile, which was a little odd from someone so much shorter than me. He gave a quick double pat on my shoulder and said, “There's nothing to worry about.”
Healer Tindal lead us off the village green. The hospital was one of the larger buildings facing the central space. The first room we entered looked like waiting room. It was filled with people of all ages. A few of them had bandages covering wounds. Most just looked they were miserable. Occasionally one would cough. Tindal walked up to an attendant and acquired a leather satchel. She then led us to the first patient.
She then ordered us to form a party.
A blue box popped up.
Nellamon has offered to include you in his party. Do you accept ?
I accepted and then my HUD lit up with new information. Instead of just having my pool bars for Health, Mana, Stamina, and Chi, I now had bars for Nellamon and Selenia.
“Cool,” I exclaimed.
Nellamon's mouth didn't move but in my mind I heard him say, 'Is this your first time in a party?'
“Yeah. How did you do that?”
'It's called 'party chat.' Look in your party interface,' he answered.
I saw a new icon in my HUD. I activated it and new window opened.
Party Interface
I activated party chat. I was expecting a prompt, but I was more like an awareness. I pushed a phrase at with my mind and said, 'Like this?'
'Correct,' Nellamon said...or thought.
Out loud he said, “We are ready Healer Tindal.”
She nodded and said, “Selenia begin channeling your [Reiki] into the patient. Once she begins, Nellamon cast [Purify] and then [Lesser Heal]. [Reiki] works well by itself but also magnifies any other form of Healing. Eric make sure Selenia always has Chi. [Reiki] is channeled Spirit Art, so as long as you keep recharging her, she can keep healing.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The first patient was a little girl. I guessed she was about seven. She had her head laid against her mother's breast. She looked pitiful. The girl had puffy face from crying and runny nose. Her visage told of complete and utter sadness, in the way that only child's eyes can convey indefinitely. I put my hand on Selenia's arm started recharging her, even before she began casting. No one said anything but I assumed Selina was a Saint, which is a Chi based casting Class. She placed both hands slightly away from the girl's back, and began using her [Reiki].
Arcane Magic use is distinctive for the flashy lights and sounds that it makes. The Spirit Arts are just as attention getting but they do it by drawing attention directly. My hands were glowing from casting [Recharge Chi], but Nellamon, and especially Selenia were uncomfortably distracting. The color of their clothes, their hair, their eyes, and at this range, even their scent was overpowering. It's not that they lit up, but more that the rest of the world seemed dull and dim. Nellamon's casting of [Purify] and [Lesser Heal] spiked at first, causing the focus to be on him, but that faded the longer the [Reiki] lasted. I could feel the Chi like a pressure on my awareness.
After minute in I felt a tug at my mind. Something from within. It a happened again a minute later. That's when I realized I was expending Mana. I didn't have time to figure out why, but my 'so called' free to cast spell was sucking up my Mana. It kept draining away at about one Mana per minute, but I didn't have time to figure out why. I had to keep casting, because Selenia kept channeling. Minute after minute it dragged on. The pressure was starting to move from my awareness and into my head. For the first time in a long time, it felt like I was getting a light headache.
The more my Mana was draining the harder it was to concentrate. When my Mana got down to half, I switched over to [Recharge Mana] for for about six seconds to top myself up before switching back to [Recharge Chi]. It helped with the headache. A few minutes later, Selenia stopped channeling the world emerged form the fog that had been hiding it from me. The sniffling, coughs, and conversations of the other patients entered back into my awareness.
You have saved a life, You gain 120XP and 15 [Good Karma Points]
Congratulations! For being a necessary part of saving the life of terminally ill child, you gain the Title
Selenia elatedly exclaimed, “It worked!”
I was grinning ear to ear but Tindal was being a wet blanket. “I'll be the judge of that,” she said.
The healer took a monocle out of the leather satchel, and put it on. She looked over the child from a few different directions and asked, “Silla, how do you feel?”
“mmm. OK,” the little girl responded quietly. She still hadn't removed her head from her mother's breast.
Tindal smiled at Selenia, and warmly said, “It worked.”
Once I came back to reality, I became concerned about my why Spellcasting of a Level 0 spell was draining Mana. “I'm sorry Selenia. I don't know why, but my Spell was draining Mana. I had to get my Mana back up before I could continue giving you Chi.”
“There is no need to apologize. We succeeded in the end,” she replied happily. She was still riding the high of saving the little girl.
Tindal's eyes seemed amused but she wasn't smiling anymore. “Of course you were using Mana. Mana isn't just for Spells. It's mental power. You had to be casting a Spell every second. That kind of concentration isn't free. Might want to check your Stamina too.”
Sure enough I was down a point. I replaced it with [Recharge Stamina] and asked, “Why Stamina? I was casting Spells.”
“And you were holding your arm in place the hold time. You can't treat your body like golem and not expect to suffer for it,” she replied. The healer harrumphed, and expounded, “At Level 99 the regeneration rate of all your pools will be so high you don't have to worry about exerting yourself. You'll just do what you want without a second thought. Until then, you'll have make due with only feeling like an immortal by relying on your inexperience and youth.”
Selenia giggled. I smiled at her joke. By the look on his face, Nellamon was not amused.
In the silent pause while everyone reacted to Tindal's jokes, the little girl's mother worked up enough courage to speak. Bowing as deeply as she could while holding her daughter she said, “Thank you mistress. Thank you masters. Thank you mistress Tindal. I will see you next month.”
Tindal put an arm out to stop the mother from leaving, and with an emotionless face said, “No...you wont.”
The woman looked down submissively and in pleading tones said, “Have a offended mistress Tindal? I apologize! I will-”
She stopped speaking as the healer raised a single finger in front of her face. “You wont see me next month Mina, because Silla is cured. You don't have to come back for treatments anymore.” Even Tindal couldn't keep a smile off her face as realization dawned on the young mother.
Mina looked at the three people who just saved her daughter's life with confusion, “You said the power and Levels required...they're so young!”
Tindal raised here voice so everyone in the waiting room could hear. “They are young. Individually none of them was strong enough...but together...together they had the power to cure Silla.” She turned to face the room as everyone started to pay attention to the healer. “These fine young visitors will be with us for today and tomorrow only! Spread the word to your friends and family. Be here early tomorrow morning if you need medical care. We'll work out the price later. Don't miss this opportunity.”
The room began to buzz with excitement. “Little Silla's cured!” “Oh that's wonderful.” “I've got go, I need to tell Ma about this.” “Let's hear it for the miracle workers!”
The room exploded into applause. I was surprised by how good it felt. In my previous life I had never done anything as important as saving a life. The recognition I was now receiving mixed with the memory of hearing that I helped heal Silla felt...[Good]. All my focus had been on how to Level up and gain more power for myself. I didn't think much about how I would use that power. I was starting the like the idea of being an [Honorable Hero].
The attention wasn't completely pleasant. I was a little uncomfortable with everyone staring at me, mainly because I didn't know how to act. I just keep nodding my head respectfully every time I met the eyes of someone who was giving me adoration. I had to look away when I saw Mina uncontrollably sobbing while she looked into Silla's eyes. Selenia was very comfortable with the attention. Someone as attractive as her should be. She was touching and encouraging everyone close to her. I would have thought Nellamon would have been preening, but he seemed even more uncomfortable than me. He kept fidgeting, like a hunted animal about to bolt.
The applause died and down and a man cried out, “What about my broken arm?”
A few more people started to call out when Tindal raised her voice and said, “Enough. We will get to you when we can...and as needed.” She looked at my party and said, “Follow me. It's time to get work,” the older woman said as she walked toward a set of double doors.
We followed her through the doors, only to find that she stopped to retrieve a clipboard.
Nellamon came up behind me and said, “I have heard what we just did could be called work.”
He had recovered himself and displayed none the previous nervousness he showed before the crowd.
Healer Tindal looked up from the reviewing the clipboard with a saccharine sweet smile that did not touch her eyes, the exact opposite of her normally antagonizing expression. “I heard that you three agreed to do charity work for free. Did you know Mina has spent everything she has trying keep that girl alive for past twenty months and can't pay at all, so you just performed charity and did not get paid to do 'work?'”
Nellamon stiffened. He didn't seemed embarrassed by Tindal's barb, but he was not happy. “I heard that you got free advertising for your clinic while performing healing in a public waiting room.”
“I heard that advertising would bring you more Experience and Karma.”
Nellamon wouldn't give up, but he finally seemed irritated. “Would not it better is you were not constantly mocking us?”
Tindal started to push back with more than off hand comments. “Do you think you can walk in here and use [Social Circles] and [Goodness Gracious] against me? This may be the first time you have met someone like me, but see I someone like you once a month, when Meadowwalker show ups with a new group of elves looking for cheap Karma. It not mockery, Nellamon. It's familiarity. I don't know you personally. But I know your type. You all come from wealthy backgrounds. You're used to being treated well. Your human friend over their used [Limit Breaks] on three Recharge spells. I can't tell if the most shallow wasteful way to use three [Limit Breaks] or one of the most creative. The difference between the two whether you have insane resources or unlimited resources. I'm not here to judge you for that. I'm here to make sure you get the most out of it. I'm not your friend. I'm your teacher.”
“Nellamon, why do you think it was you that healed that girl? You three are not even Tier 2 yet. How is that Silla had to wait a year a half for three low Level students to arrive. Aren't there other [Reiki] users that could have done it?”
That gave him pause. “It was the combination. Eric had the power, and Selenia the Skill.”
Tindal relaxed, the tension flowing out of shoulders. “You almost have it.”
Nellamon answered uncertainly, “Me? But I was only casting at the beginning. Surely such a low level Healing Art was not the secret to healing the girl.”
“You received a Title for what you did, correct?”
He nodded.
“But why?”
“You're still missing a piece of the solution. What else let you be the ones who healed her?”
Nellamon finally gave up. “I do not know.”
“It was me,” she said. “You needed me. Healer after healer would come and use their Arts on her. She would get better and then a month later she would sick get again. I had to research why she fell ill. The answer was she had eaten ferra berries contaminated with Magical disease called Irin's Palsy. The disease had to be Purified. The problem is that the spores of Irin's Palsy can't be Purified. The spores reinfect the kidney unless a healing Art is applied immediately. [Reiki] heals too slowly. It took all three of you. And me. I can't can't use Spells or Arts, but you needed me.”
“Time after time a Chi user would come by and try to Heal Silla. There never were two, much less three. Almost none of the had enough Chi. The ones that did have enough Chi wouldn't listen to me, about combing multiple Arts at once. You're used to being the center of attention for your teachers. The purpose of this lesson make sure you realized that another Ability or Art isn't always the answer. Sometimes you have to figure out for yourself, or depend on someone to else to know the answer. Someone who may not even be as powerful as you are. Maybe even a lowly Crafter like me.”
Nellamon reasoned, “Would not it be better to just tell us this instead of treating us like an enemy?”
Without hesitation she answered, “No. If you have to remember this lesson inside the Dungeon, then it's already too late. You need to feel this lesson. Know it your bones. If this encounter has made you uncomfortable, then I've done my job. You're not my enemy Nellamon. The Dungeon is.”
I asked, “How is this fighting the Dungeon? You just seem to be giving us a hard time.”
“Will you remember how hard is was for a poor child get treatment. With all the powerful Saints in this world it only took a few people working together to solve the problem. If you think the way to solve every problem is to get more powerful, that means your either in the Dungeon Leveling or dead, from trying and failing to Level. Either way, the people in this world lose you to the Dungeon. You're not here, helping. All am asking is that you learn how to see yourself as part of a larger whole.”
This was something I hadn't even thought about. The way Celestium went on about stagnation in Elfandrael, I thought he meant elves that weren't doing enough to delve the Dungeon. I never even considered that they might be delving the Dungeon too much instead of focusing on community. Maybe there were doing both at the same time. This was breaking my brain.
Tindal continued, “The number of people on this planet with true power is very small. Most of elves and humans live out their lives as Level 1. They don't have the support to fight, and without protection they will just die. Look to the larger purpose.”
Maybe lifting up all the Level 1s was the what was needed. It gave me a lot to think about. The rest of my party was quiet too. We didn't do more than Heal the patients until I saw Tildan handing out potions. At first I thought she was an Alchemist. Turns out her Class was Pharmacist. That took a while to figure out as the [Tongues] had already expired. Just before noon, Master Meadowwalker sent us lunch and someone to fetch us for Quests. Most of the Quest in Kerik were large infrastructure. The only Quest we worked on was blazing a roadway to some new farmland the village was trying to open up. It was slow going but it went faster than the village elders expected. I was able to refuel everyone's Stamina and Selenia and Nellamon could heal any blisters that people developed from working too hard. The Quest for the roadway didn't provide much experience or Karma, especially compared to what we earned working for Healer Tindal.
Everyone but my party headed back after the Quest was declared completed for the day. We were flown on the back of the white Roc to the three locations for shrines around Kerik. Shrines can be dedicated to one of the gods, one of their angels, or even an unaligned spirit. Providing a sacrifice at a shrine bound it to you as well as gave you a short term buff and a time XP buff. Even one copper was enough to trigger a small buff from a fountain. Shrines are normally open air spaces with a natural features, like a large rock, a special plant, or a spring. Beside those bonuses, there was a high Level Spell that would let me [Teleport] around by jumping to each of the Shrines I had bound with a sacrifice.
That night Master Meadowwalker prepared a huge feast for us. It was much appreciated after all are hard work on the Roadway Quest. His [Personal Palace] had a great hall in it. It was suitable magnificent. Instead of white marble like the rest of the space, it had carved and stained wood paneling. The chandelier, the wall decorations, and the furnishing were just as extravagant as the rest of his facility.
After the long day we all had no problems sleeping, and turned in early. Just after midnight Master Meadowwalker, woke me up. Most of the elves were Level 8 or 9. They had much higher Constitution and needed much sleep than I did. They had been up for an hour, training under the supervision of the black clad staff of elves that the gnome employed. It turns out my new “job” was refilling Stamina, Mana, and Chi so they could continue practicing. I was a glorified water boy. I didn't mind because I was a Magical water boy. Half of them loved me for it. Half of them hated me for it. I joking complained how many hours I was working and the Caravan Master reminded me that a good portion of the time I spent with Healer Tindal was considered 'charity' and not 'work.' I said that as long as he was paying me I wasn't going to complain.
The next day at Tindal's was interesting for two reasons. The first was that we regenerated the body parts of villagers who had been maimed. One middle-aged man was missing a hand and an eye, from a wolf pack attack. It took an hour and half to heal him with Selenia pouring [Reiki] into him and Nellamon casting his Healng Arts, but the villager walked away a new man. I got the Title
I purchased [Astral Grimoire] with my [Limit Break Point] and one of my [Archwizard Ability Points]. Wizards take twice as long and use twice as much Mana to cast Spells if they're not using a Grimiore. [Astral Grimoire] was a way for me to largely sidestep that requirement with a grimoire that couldn't be taken away from me.
The next twelve days became a blur. There were seven villages in between Neral City and Everdale. The caravan would spend two days in each place. The pattern was the same as it had been in Kerik. We arrived in the morning. Selenia, Nellamon, and I would form a party and Heal People. We would then join up with rest of elves to do some village Quest. In the evenings, Meallean would fly the three of us in the Healing party around to the Shrines so we could bind to them and mark them on our [Map]. We would return to Meadowwalker's [Personal Palace] for dinner, train most of the night, and the repeat the process the next day. Meadowwalker would offload cargo on the first day, load on the second day, and finalize any last minute details early the next morning before we left for the next village.
After it came out I was a Pilgrim and an offworlder, the elves become less hostile toward me. Even after I became their trainer it didn't improve any more for me than the same way the treated Aern'Lenninisal. It took a little while, but Selenia explained that Aeseirial, the place this group of elves was from, was a high elf community that was dedicated to [Lawful Good]. Since Aern'Lenninisal had taken [Lawful Neutral] as his alignment to be a Druid, he was treated like a second class citizen. I finally understood why it was so easy to strike up friendship with him as compared to the others. He was already odd-man-out. What made me feel even worse was with my workload, I didn't have the time to hang out and teach him [Recharge Mana]. That was the whole purpose for him to bring me along.
The whole experience was exhausting. Master Meadowwalker was taskmaster. He kept finding things for me to do. His [Personal Palace] was starting to feel like home. Everything else changed around us but that stayed the same. When we got to Eddar Village, he had me put three units of produce to my inventory. They grey cubes with neon pink runes on them. It was tamper proof protection so anyone could shipe them without people worrying about theft. It was the fantasy equivalent to the standardized shipping container on earth.
I gave up caffeine back on Earth, but [Recharge Stamina] was way better. It was new favorite spell to keep me going. It didn't take long for me to figure out that this wasn't some kind of casual Karma tour group. This had a the vibe of an elite prep school for elven nobles or something. The intensity of all the instructors was at least as high as Tindal. I wondered if Celestium had hand in arranging this, even though he said he wouldn't interfere with my new life. I guess me searching out Aern'Lenninisal to exchange Magics is really what put me here. And before I knew it, here was Everdale.