"Before we begin that for the most part what I am about to explain is concerned with RPGs, specifically the fantasy genre. There are differing norms for sci-fi or historical RPGs and other genres of games. We also need to define magic. For simplicity sake, we will simply call magic as non-organic actions performed through the use of energy. A scorpion's poison would not be magic but if that same scorpion breaths fire, we will classify that as magic for now. This isn't exact, but it will do the basics." Nero jotted down a few notes on a piece of rough parchment he had bought for such occasions. The pair were in a remote corner of the bookstore where they wouldn't be disturbing the reading shopkeep.

"The first thing you need to know about magic in Gods' Nature is that, unlike other games, it is not systematized." Medea started to explain. "I know you don't really play video games, but you should at least know the basics, right? If you say the right words and perform the right actions, according to the system of the game, then the desired effect appears. For example; somebody does a small chant, points with their hand, and then a fireball appears."

Nero nodded in understanding though he felt no need to tell his friend that he didn't know that before playing Gods' Nature and started to investigate games.

"Now, there are ways to do the same thing in this game, but I'll get to them later. Another way to use magic in games is through the use of skills, this is the most common and oldest form of magic, dating back to the early days of video games before augmented reality and other such advances allowed for more player freedom. Whenever somebody pressed the right button, the skill would be cast, and it could take the form of magic or a physical technique or something similar. You following so far?" Nero once more nodded, though he noticed there was some overlap between the two kinds of 'magic.'

"As you have probably noticed, these two systems are not mutually exclusive, you can have one with the other in augmented and virtual reality games. You perform the action or chant to activate the skill. Gods' Nature has taken both a unique and traditional approach to magic in the game. We have skills that can be used, both actively and passively, and those active skills can be classified as magic for the most part. For example, I can name three separate skills that, once used, allows the person to fly despite not having wings or the body structure to do so."

"Can you use any of those?" Nero couldn't help but ask, the idea of unaided flight was appealing.

"I can use two of them, but I probably couldn't teach them to you. A quirk of my Nature if you will." That was disappointing, Nero thought, though now that he knew it was possible he would have to investigate ways for him to do it himself. Maybe he could use a form of assimilation to get wings? But that possed its own problems.

"Anyway, where Gods' Nature is unique is in the limits it places and the lack of boundaries it actually has." Nero quirked an eyebrow in question at the oxymoron, but Medea was already explaining. "What I mean is, even if somebody has a skill, that skill requires a foundation to be used. That foundation is belief. You have to believe that you can actually use the ability, you have to know what it involves, and you have to picture it working with a firm beliefe. Only then can you impose that belief onto the world through magic. If you think you cannot do something, then you will not be able to do it, no matter how hard you try. This is where players have an advantage over NPCs because we treat this as a game, we do not think that the limits we face in real life will affect us here. Most players learn to use skills quickly because we see it as part of our avatar, it is natural to use superhuman abilities because that is why we play Gods' Nature in the first place."

"So the reason I could use assimilation right away was that I never thought about not being able to use it in the first place? Then wouldn't it be better to not know about the importance of belief? So you never doubt you'll be able to do something?"

"Good question and I thought that as well before I investigated more deeply into the lore of the game. One of the questions I asked myself was why multiple people with the same skill produced two different results? If it was only size differences than it could be attributed to power but it can come in other forms. Take our fireball example from earlier. I've seen the standard fireball be of differing sizes, colors or speeds and they still did the same damage. Here, watch this." Medea raised her hand in front of her face with the palm up. In only a moment there was suddenly a ball of water floating in her hand. "This is a little parlor trick that any magic association will teach apprentices to help them learn to control basic magic. What do you notice?"

"You didn't invoke a skill."

"Exactly! There was no need to chant or to activate a skill. Now watch again." The ball of liquid remained floating above her palm before, with no apparent reason, it started to shift in in place. It elongated and curved in on itself making a hoop. Then more strands of water separated and conjoined in differing patterns until the water flowed in such a way that it was unmistakably different from the earlier simple sphere. "You see, with just my belief and my energy I can make it perform actions that would require a myriad of skills. This is why the same ability can act differently. Different beliefs produce differing results. In our example, a new player will merely use a fireball as they have seen it used in other games because the will not know any better. Somebody who knows about belief and willpower can get that same fireball skill to be an invisible ball of heat and leave it floating in the air as a trap, or can get it to shoot like a rapid-fire gun. This also where the limits and benefits of skills appear, no matter how you alter that fireball, it will always do the same damage. Or you could conjure a fireball with only your energy and manipulate it how you will. It is a trade-off of consistency with variability. Any questions?"

"How come more people do not use pure energy manipulation then?" Nero asked.

"As I mentioned, players have an advantage when it comes to skills, but this also comes with a disadvantage when it comes to perception. They think 'I can do this since I have the skill.' But that has the implication 'I can't do this because I do not have the skill.' Thus skills can be helpful in getting started, they often become crutches to lean on, at least in the case of active abilities."

"Then how do people learn skills? I mean those that are not given by their Nature."

"This is where chants and gestures come in. If they cannot believe that they can perform magic, by accepting chants people convince themselves that they can achieve magic. Another thing is that the greater your desired outcome, the harder to believe you are actually capable of doing it. Even with bonuses due to my Nature and my knowledge of the power of belief, I still need to chant to do significant things or extraordinarily complicated things. It is a form of self-hypnosis, a way to convince yourself to convince the world. The more complicated the action, the longer the chant. By that same notion, if you continuously do the same bit of magic over and over, you slowly convince yourself that you are able to do it and thus the chant gets shorter. If you ever meet somebody who can cause a tidal wave or a major earthquake without a chant, they not only have access to a stupendous amount of energy but also have supreme confidence in their ability for a reason."

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

"Why do you keep calling it energy? Why not mana or magic?" Nero couldn't help but ask.

"Because I have seen different sources of energy used to perform skills. There are skills and abilities which consume HP, blood or other sources to power them. Whether we call it magic or mana, qi, chi, or the power of friendship, it doesn't really matter. I merely refer to it as energy because it is an all-encompassing term. I know this one player who uses solar power to use magic. During the day and on nights with a full moon they are essentially bottomless batteries, but on the new moon, they cannot do anything. Any other questions?"

"Yes, you keep using the word belief. Are we talking about the equivalent of faith? Is it a religious thing?"

"As with many things, the answer is not just yes or no. It is more nuanced than that. Yes as in that it is faith, although it is more faith in yourself and your ability to shape the world. No, because religious-based magic is a clear, distinct field that I won't get too into right now. But it should be apparent that a game called Gods' Nature has something to do with the divine. There are a few churches and religious institutions that players know about, but there hasn't been any concrete proof about the abilities or even the existence of gods. Most players think it is either the main story or a late game aspect of Gods' Nature."

"Does anybody actually know what the main story is? Or if there even is one?"

"The general consensus is that it does exist, what large game would release without a central narrative after all, and that it has something to do with the Rupture. Many believe that the game being released during what is essentially an age of exploration means that once enough areas, or one, in particular, are discovered the main plot will progress."

"Nothing concrete then?" He clarified.

"Nope, but we got a bit derailed." Medea tried to shift the topic back to magic.

"Right, then apart from using them as training wheels is there any reason to use active skills?"

"Yes and this is where Gods' Nature again takes a unique approach to gaming. After learning a skill, that is it appears in your menu, you can naturally increase its level to get it to provide more benefits or do more damage. In most games this is done by simple repetition, you perform a skill enough times, and it will level up. You can do the same in this game, and it is generally considered the brute force method. It is not bad, but it pales in comparison to the other one. The other way to level up a skill is to actually learn about it and get better at it. A sculptor can become better by carving different shapes using different materials and so to can a skill improve by using it in different ways for different purposes. By knowing the limits of the skill, using it in conjunction with others and thus trying out new possibilities you naturally become better at using it and thus level it up. Anybody can get a skill to level twenty-five through repetition and with a few years to level fifty. It takes an expert to get to level seventy-five in a skill. It is possible to max level a skill with repetition only but not only would it take longer than our lives, let alone and NPC's, but the use you get out of it would be less than a level fifty person who actually knows how to use a skill properly."

"If it takes that long for a single skill to be mastered then how does anybody get there?"

"For players, it is easier to level skills close to their Natures, even more so for skills created by the Nature itself." Medea smiled to herself in thought before shaking it off and continuing. "That is why it is important to learn more about your skills rather than just using them, it increases the speed they rise in level. No player has yet reached level fifty in a skill, let alone mastered it but from what I've read NPC's who do so are considered strategic resources. A ruler of a great empire would be flattering towards a farmer if their skill was maxed. I should note that not all skills are created equally. Any skill is useful in the right circumstances, but some are more useful than others. That ball of water earlier was a basic skill that if mastered could be used to kill a dragon. What I did later was water manipulation, a passive skill I got when I learned to control water with just my belief, and if I maxed it, I could probably destroy a few mountain ranges in an hour. Of course, that is a long way off, I have devoted my time to skills more than levels, and it is still only in the thirties after over a year."

Nero tried to think about that power, the ability to rewrite maps on a whim. He felt himself shiver, in excitement or fear he did not know. Unfortunately, it was getting late, and he had to get to Ground Sheer.

"I need to go," he told his companion as he rose to his feet. They were a bit stiff from sitting at the table for so long. "I have to get to the training hall. I'll be done around midnight, what do you plan on doing?"

"I still have to touch base with the local magic association about my quest. Do you have a place we can meet after you're done?" Medea stood as well, stretching her arms and back. He bent to pick up the napping Jorry, trying to ignore the way her dress/robe hugged her generous curves.

"If you know where Ground Sheer is we can meet there, otherwise I know this little park not far from here. You head east for a bit and take a side street between a bakery and a candlemaker. You'll come out on a fence around a mansion, follow it south and you'll eventually reach the park."

"Thanks, I'll see you there then." They walked together to the door, and Nero was about to bid her farewell when she suddenly hugged him. Because she was relatively short at only six foot two, her head barely tickled his chin. "I've missed this. Teaching you, being able to talk to you whenever about radome things. You have no idea how boring it is without you at school. Your sisters come over sometimes, but it's not the same."

Nero was never a very affectionate person, he liked his space, it was something he had gotten from his father. Still, he wrapped his arms around his friend and returned the hug.

"I missed you too, but time passes quickly. Before you know it, I'll be back at work annoying you, and you'll wish to put me right back in the hospital." Though he couldn't see it, Nero was sure Medea was smiling in exasperation. "Besides, with Gods' Nature, we can spend even more time together. Once I get to your level we can go exploring together, I want to see you do magic."

"Then you better hurry up, now that I got what I wanted regarding skills and knowledge my level will be multiplying. You'll have to work hard to catch up." She pulled away from him a smiled. Nero pretended he did not see the moisture gathering in the corner of her eyes.

"You don't have to worry about that. Instead, you should be more afraid of being left behind when I go on cool adventures, and you're too weak to come. After all, if you can do it, I don't imagine it is very hard." She gave him a friendly swat on the chest for that. With friendly 'see you later' she set off into the city.

Nero stood there for a moment before letting out a sigh, his shoulders slumping slightly. Ignoring Jorry's inquisitive look, he perked himself up and set off to his own appointment.

****

"Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious."

Stephen Hawking (8 January 1942 – 14 March 2018)

One of the greatest minds and men humanity has ever produced. We are the poorer for his loss.