Chapter 40:

I spent over an hour reading in the shop before looking up. Closing my eyes, I rubbed my temples, a headache forming. This was not nearly as simple as I had hoped. Arcane magic was odd and not at all what I expected.

My perfectly reasonable assumption was that it was pure magic. The magic that I had been sensing when anyone did anything. But no. That was apparently unaspected magic mana, commonly used for simple utility spells by the normal person. Arcane mana was pure mana, but because of how tenuous that balance is, arcane was often prone to breaking down to the low-resolution mana. Often, that degradation was explosive.

It was frustrating that arcane mana needed a conduit to affect things at range. It was powerful, quick, but delicate. That meant I either needed to be touching the target of my attack via arcane mana, or it needed to be some sort of effect inside my own body, shielded by my personal mana to prevent the breakdown.

My one lifeline was that perhaps I could use my illusion-type mana to shield my arcane mana. But of course, illusion magic was one of three kinds of magic out of the dozens that were too weak to actually work as an appropriate conduit for arcane magic. I was starting to think I was really screwed by my class choice.

The one saving grace was that most aspected mana spells were far too expensive for me to purchase right now, so that was a problem for future me.

On the other hand, illusion magic was exactly what I had expected. It was a fragile mana that had a long reach—one of the longest ranges possible--but absolutely no impact. It could barely interact with anything besides light and sound, and even then, extremely low energy. But it was extremely versatile and would pair well with the heavy-hitting arcane mana. If I could ever get that to work.

The texts also explained a little bit about how spellcasters operated. There were three major parts to tell how effective a spell of any aspect was: its range, its power, and its consumption of mana. Those were not nearly as tied together as one might appear. Just because something used a lot of mana didn't mean it created a lot of power.

There was a slight correlation, but some spells were just very mana-hungry and inefficient. While others basically did not require very much power for an excessive impact. It all depended on what sort of effect the spell was meant to generate. It meant that I had to choose my spells carefully or at least be willing to get lots of them.

It appeared that focus generally dictated my recovery rate, but that was mostly a guess. The other aspects of range and power were heavily influenced by personal traits that were a bit unquantifiable, at least as far as the book could tell. I would need to experiment with lots of magic on my own to figure out what worked best with me and then figure out how to mesh that into my own style. It was kind of nice and freeing to have such unlimited options, but a little overwhelming at the same time.

The spell creation book was a bit esoteric for me to understand; anything about making spells was hard. But it did have other insights that I was able to understand. I'd come back to it later.

For now, I have read that using spell books properly requires a lot more practice than one might think. Sure, I could just absorb the spell book and instantly be able to use the spell, but that was far from optimal. Especially considering my classes' special effect of evolving spells learned naturally. If I read the book and studied it carefully, the spell that I would learn wouldn't be the standard spell; it would be tailored to me specifically. Best of all, it would count enough. The class quest apparently had higher standards.

The result wasn't perfectly tailored, but a little bit. Apparently, it was possible to also nudge spells one way or the other after learning them, but that was much harder than doing it during the learning process. Most people didn't bother with that unless they were either extremely experienced or had a ton of time.

With my class, though, I thought it might work. It would depend on how long it would take, but it also depends on what skills I would choose. It would just be something I'd have to consider when I went and bought the spells. I left the shop with no more fanfare, the books tucked under my arm, and made my way back to my house to drop them off in my room. I would need some sort of storage item eventually to carry around my growing library of five books.

I stopped, had dinner, and chatted with a few of the people around me. Edwin was a right Englishman from 1863 who had been in Valhalla for about ten years and was the closest to a similar mind. He enjoyed some of the finer things in life, even though he had been a relatively poor farmer but liked his wine. We struck up a conversation about different vintages. Not that we really had much in common with the time difference. He was fascinated by how the process had changed and had not changed over the hundred years or so after he had died.

"Right bitch it was to get out of the Lesser Hall. You're lucky you got out in six months," Edwin commented after we had talked a little bit.

I shrugged. "Yeah. I had some good friends."

He nodded. "Yeah, I made some friends too, but... They aren't here yet. You know, I'm not sure this place is much better."

I looked at him like he was insane. "What do you mean?"

"Well, the challenge is too bloody hard." Edwin threw up his hands. "I've gone in with a few different teams, but we never make it past the big mama bear."

"The one with the cubs underneath it?"

He looked at me strangely. "No, the giant mama badger bear thing. The thing that is bigger than a fucking horse!"

"What level are you?" I asked, surprised about how little they had managed.

"Level seven," he said. "It's been hard to get that high. What about having to run through the first couple of rooms over and over again?"

So he wasn't too far behind me.

"What about your teams?" I asked. "How are they?"

"Just guys from around here. Different groups that never really last very long. They don't do very well. Punishment is going to suck until we can eventually grind up enough levels to get past these things. Probably take months," he said, muttering into his ale glumly.

"You should get out and talk to people out here more," I said. "You might be able to owe someone a favor and learn something."

He looked up and shrugged. "Yeah. Maybe. People don't seem to be exactly excited to talk to us newbies, you know."

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I frowned, not having really experienced that at all.

"What, do you go around with the marker on your chest?" I said, pulling my coin out from where I had it tucked behind my shirt.

He shook his head and laughed. "No, they just seem to know that we're no good or anything. Maybe it's just how we walk or carry ourselves."

"Huh," I said, not elaborating on the fact that I had no such experiences. Maybe I didn't come across as someone who was lost in a big city.

After dinner, I said goodbye to my new acquaintance. I wandered the city, looking for a spellbook shop that Loki patronized. He did tell me that I would get a discount, and it seemed that I needed to stretch my coin as far as I possibly could. Besides, I wasn't looking for anything super special, just some basic stuff that anyone should have, I imagined.

Eventually, I found one that was called "Tricks and Cantrips for the Discerning Beginner Mage." A little blue avatar ran the front but was surprisingly animated as it waved to me in greeting.

"Hello, young sir." I looked around and found only spellbooks, not even skill books. "It's rare that I see a young man like you gracing my store. I hope that you're actually looking for some spells and not skills," it asked in a pleading tone.

I nodded. "Yes, spells. I see you don't carry any skills."

It nodded. "True, true. Not many men practice magic when they're as young as you. Most of them are over at my brother's. He sells the skills. We thought it would be a good idea to split it up that way, but people get confused all the time. Luckily, he's right across the street, though, so if you do want some skills, you should look for them there."

"Your brother?" I asked. "Are you not an avatar?"

He smiled. "Not quite. I'm a gnome."

"A what?"

"A gnome. You've never heard of us?"

"No, I have, but I didn't know you were real."

He gave a high-pitched, tinkling laugh and came around from the counter, hopping down from a stool to show that he was barely over three feet tall.

"Oh, I don't know why you doubt that. So much more is real than you would ever know, especially with the brain fog on you. You should be able to guess that."

"How did you guess that I didn't have any brain fog?" I asked. I hadn't shown him my mark, but he ignored my question.

"You think this is the only spot where different paths collide? Just because you humans are split up between men and women to start off with, once you join together, you will never meet anything else? No, no. When you move on, you're going to be in for a surprise if you aren't ready for things like me." He exclaimed as he walked up to me.

"So why are you here where I have only seen humans?"

"Well, it's one of our big friend's little tricks," he said, pointing at my elbow.

How did he know? I hadn't even shown him my mark yet. He just gave me a cocky smile and laughed. "Don't worry about it. I won't tell anyone."

"Miles," I said, extending my hand down to him.

He reached up and shook it. "Philup. But you can call me Phil."

"Well, nice to meet you, Phil. I am here for some spells."

"As you said," He gave me a friendly wink. "Don't worry. You'll get the friends and family discount." His high-pitched and slightly nasally voice didn't lose a single bit of exuberance at potentially losing money on the sale.

I had no choice but to trust him unless I wanted to check other shops. If he was Loki's man, he probably would try to trick me, but I was curious if my skill would see through that. I started looking at some of the books on the shelves, and he walked with me, watching me move rather than the books I was looking at. I reached out to touch one, and he whacked my hand with a ruler that appeared out of nowhere.

"No touching," he said. "You don't want to accidentally absorb something and owe me more than you can pay."

I gulped, not realizing that had been a possibility. "Let's see, you have some magic in you, but you're mostly close combat." Phil paused thoughtfully "Sword and spear?"

"Dagger and sword," I said. "Dual wielding, if possible."

He nodded. "Hmm, that's a rather unique style. Normally, that's a backup for most people."

I shrugged. "I've been saving my money for magic."

"You are an odd one," he said. "Well, there's a lot of things you might like," he said, pulling me back to the counter by my hand and pulling out a list.

"See," he said, circling several items on it and pushing it over to me. Pointing to the first item, he launched into an explanation. "Illusion walk is a nice short-range teleport skill. Often overlooked because of..."

He went through and started pointing out several different things: a couple of different teleports, some attack spells, some damage over time spells, some debuffs, slowing down, weapon conjuration, and a few healing spells. Most were out of my price range, unfortunately, but he somehow knew to emphasize the illusion and arcane spells. Though there weren't nearly as many illusion and arcane spells as I would have liked, and they were generally much more expensive than I could afford.

We went back and forth, and I eventually picked out two basic spells. He listed the prices. "So, that healing skill is not great, but healing skills are very expensive. The list price is 350 coins, but as I said, family and friends discount, I can get you for 300."

I nodded, not haggling more. I was not getting any sense of deception from Phil and didn't want to insult him. If I came back, we would see what price I could get. Right now, I had my bottom line, and if I was getting that, I was willing to empty my wallet. Especially if it bought me any goodwill with this apparent expert.

The second one chosen was their most basic movement skill: Quick Step.

"Again, not great, but affordable. Simple. You'll probably not have much use for either of these eventually, but it should get you through the basics," he said.

I handed him almost every coin I had, and he put the books in a bag. "Don't touch them until you're ready to learn them. You can focus on not absorbing them when you touch them, but it's difficult to do, and you don't want to accidentally slip up and learn them when you're not ready... Oh," he added, "and make sure you're lying down when you do it."

I blinked, taking his advice and gingerly grabbing the bag before walking out of the store and returning home.