I get to a house that has been converted into a classroom. There is also a yard outside for practical experiments. A cluttered wooden environment is not conducive for new magic practitioners to be making fire. Not unless you want an out of control fire and pandemonium.
Getting there a half-hour before the lesson, I start to meditate trying to fill my mana pool a little. I hear people coming in and sitting in the benches. After there are the 20 people this class fits, I open my eyes and start.
“Good evening everyone. I will be teaching a few things about runes I know. In the guild, there are all the runes I have from my book, but you guys can probably gain some insight from my experimentation process.
“I will be experiment a lot right here in class. That is why I asked for half of your mana pool as payment. This will be more of a university class in a new experimental field. We all are going to learn together. It will not be a one-way street. I will relly on everyone's help so we can all learn and achieve things we only ever dreamed of.
"Did everyone here choose to specialize in using runes and willpower?" Everyone agrees and I continue. "So who wants to be first to give their mana?"
One older man promptly gets up and I instruct him on what he should do. With no problem, I take control of small amounts of mana and slowly go over everything I learned from my own experiments. After a while, suggestions about things to test start to come in. I take note of them. With my control being good as it is I manage to use less mana than anyone else in the class.
The hours go by and everyone starts to run dry. They gave some of their mana to me and used it the rest themselves. Whenever I find an efficient pattern, a few of the students repeat the experiment. I’m happy to notice that the difference in effects is minimal. I knew these runes were mostly rote throughout the system. But they could have had significantly different effects, even on people with similar magic.
I make the runes with differing amounts of mana, different sizes, different shapes, and configurations. I put all the mana at the start or put only what is needed at the moment it is needed. We experiment with dozens of parameters. We find what doesn't affect the mana and what does. Some things we do systematically others we use our intuition. With our limited time and mana, we try to be as efficient as possible.
We spend about 3 hours until everybody runs out of mana. Saying my goodbyes to everyone I run to the other place I'm expected. I wait to find a couple of people waiting and I basically instruct then to gift me mana the same way as the class did. Within an hour there is nobody else and now we have a good amount of infused wood. Not the half-way infusion but the final product, only waiting to be dried.
Again I draw a bit of this mana. I try and I fail to use it anyway. Perhaps the process of proper infusion gives a will to the mana and it can longer be used for spells. I can still use the "fire" mana before being infused. But after infusion even normal mana becomes useless. The most basic infusion process of throwing mana at an object and hoping it sticks doesn't change the properties too much. I wonder if, in the process of proper infusion, it is the will imparted that makes it become inert to anything else.
Having recovered a little of my mana and away from any distractions, I concentrate even more as I repeat a few of the class's experiments. I observe it as closely as I can with both my Aether and my mana senses.
The Aether, as always, doesn't give me any feedback. The mana sense makes me aware of a few things I hadn’t noticed before. I file it all away for later as the results of my experiments. Just because I don't know their relevance now, that doesn't mean this will always be the case.
I also notice something of a familiarity developing with the runes. It is still too early to tell, but as this develops I will be able to make sense of it.
I head outside, but as I’m making my way out of the city I hear a huge cheer. Looking over I deduct the last log was just slid in place. Everyone runs to the inn except a few people tying the log in place. I see Alex.
“Yo man. Good to see you, are you coming? Of course, you are coming. Let's go together, we can get a good place to sit."
I fell a bit uncomfortable. I was never one for parties, but the enthusiasm of this young man drags along.
The whole affair involves far too much noise for my taste, but the time away from everything else helps to clear my mind. The place is too crowded. Me, Alex, and his hunting party leave early and find a corner to talk.
"I'm telling you this, Nash is awesome. He lives in the most awesome place in the world. He even managed social media for Pando." At that everyone else sighs.
“Come on man, we finally get you to shut up about Pando and you have to start it up again.”
“No, but this time we actually have someone that was there. Lived years in the only place with real magic before any this.”
“How do you know this? Humm, the Stonehenge might have been magical.”
“My aunt lived near there, I went twice and there was no magic.”
“And how would you know?”
“I…I jus…" With more confidence, Alex finishes: "I would know."
The others sigh and we keep silent for a few moments. Alex not knowing when to give up asks me.
“So, did you ever see any magic? I mean in Pando?”
“Everyday.”
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“I’m serious, I mean real magic. It couldn’t be every day.”
“But it was very day. Every time I gifted a piece of myself or shed a drop of sweat for Pando, he filled with the strength of three men."
Another of Alex’s teammates says:
“That is not real magic.”
Alex has a similar look on his face. I say my goodbyes and head to the forest.
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Looking over Nash leaving, I really take him in for the first time. Over imposing this image with the one that day so long ago, sends my mouth gaping. An understated parting, his lack of shoes, and how surreal the interaction was. I go over every single encounter with the magic man I heard about. A few older children do remember him not wearing shoes.
When I saw him last, I discovered magic was real. I told people for years, but nobody believed me. I stopped trying to convince everyone I could see magic. I also stopped talking about the magic man. My mom really had gotten upset about me going on and on about him.
Being older now, I could understand some of her fears. Her fears were unfounded. The magic man was just eccentric, not a creep. Ever since the system had arrived I wondered and even started to talk about Pando’s magical nature again.
To think out of all the people around the world I ended in the same village as the magic man. That cannot be a coincidence. There is less than a 1 in a million chance if the distribution of people was random.
My mind goes a mile a minute. I can barely keep up with the excitement. That may change everything. Someone so used to give of themselves in the help of another would likely not become a power-hungry dictator. That means he is probably the best bet we have. We will start concentrating wealth to allow someone to stay as long as possible. It will give earth more time.
The problem is this person will come back with a much higher level, with better gear and more knowledge than anybody else. Most will try to abuse this advantage. After I head to sleep I'm more determined than ever to become as strong as I can. That is my best bet in helping Nash become Earth's champion.
Alex, the magic seer. No, too cringe. I need to come up with something better. It is not like I can see the future. I can only see magic. After I arrived I even discovered it was not even every kind of magic. The magic I see, I have learned is called Aether. Now, I only need to figure out how to use it.
With a smile in my face, I lean back and dream of better days.
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I push myself to run faster today. I just need some Exp. and skill levels. Instead of exploring and basically mapping the region, I head straight down the first track the wolves have left. I have some trouble following, given how many people have trampled all over, but I manage to muddle through. A few minutes in, I stop and take a look at another track.
This one seems to be more recent. I start to follow this other track.
Minutes later, with my higher stats, I easily defeat the wolves. This time with more control in my movements, I hurt them even less. I dance around the battlefield as if I was playing with puppies. They snarl and try to scratch me but are helpless against me.
After each time I things faster. By the end, I ran into 23 wolves. That is over 7000 EXP, and enough to hit level 5.
I remember the quest but I don’t think it’s time to go looking for it yet. I spent too much time at the forge to have learned real fighting. What I learn as I observe the wolves is also useful. I’m not able to pinpoint the cause of their state, but once in a while, I see signs of them becoming slightly less aggressive towards me.
I also recognize a couple of them. Doing some math, I figure in the surroundings of the village, there are at least 5000 wolves. That is only counting a 10-mile radius. I compare that number with the number of kills and reach the conclusion wolves are at least migrating, otherwise we would have already killed-off the population.
I remember a few people mentioning that as long as you are in a pair and have 15 Constitution you can fight the wolves without killing them. Most are still going for the kill but those who are not have begun the effect of their actions. I run into the results of not killing them, Level 6 wolves. It seems whenever a monster fights with us, they also gain Exp. If there is a limit to mob quantity os spawn rate, it will help us.
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“To finish up today, I will be telling everyone the most significant news. We found another village. It’s south of here, about 90 miles in a straight line. We don’t know the exact location but our scouts report heavy foot traffic in a small region consistent with a village. They saw a few people in the distance and have sent word we would be coming back.
“The impression they got, is that this other village has been industrious and there have been no big problems in the transition. We are assembling a team to act as our diplomatic envoy. We will be taking some precautions, but for the moment we will assume they have friendly intentions.
"That is all. In two days we should hear about how the expedition went."
This is big news. If we ally together, the knowledge, the production everything would all benefit. We could set up joint projects, only one of us would need to buy each book. The distance was a problem but we could overcome that. If we only spent two or three months it might not be such a big help. But if the majority of the population spent 6 months here there is so much we could do to speed up progress.
We could probably make a road between us in a month or two. With even the most basic bicycle we could go and come back in a single day. Carriages would soon follow. If we only had access to metal and they had coal, both of our people would benefit. There are a thousand things we could help each other with.
People who worked as seamstresses in our village could migrate and we could absorb engineers. If for some quirk they didn't have a single doctor, or we didn't have a plumber we would not be hampered. The bigger pool of people could be really helpful.
We need to figure out how long we will be able to stay here. We don't know how much the next payments will be. Without information, we can't make good plans.
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At the smith, after the day of work, I stay for my shift. The new workers, already having been here two shifts yesterday don't need hand-holding. I even let a few of them work with the metal. I spend most of the time hammering. I alternate between pieces of metal. I mold one as the other heats up in the forge.
I don’t find any problem doing this. I wonder why the smithy doesn’t, but shrug it off. Halfway through the process, I let the forge lose its heat and concentrate on just finishing the grinding and sharpening process. I slowly master the difference between what makes a weapon look pretty or getting the +1 and what makes it effective.
I have a long way on the journey, but I'm starting to wrap my head around the basics. My weapons slowly become less pleasing to the eye, but they are ever so slightly grow more effective. This also results in a faster production pace. And my pace shows it clearly. I made 27 weapons in less than 6 hours. That’s double the pace the others are keeping. Given they are going full steam ahead and just trying to get +1 items, it puts things in perspective.
I was also glad to see many people moving to spears as the weapon of choice. Swords are useful in their versatility. They are also flashy. They are not, however, the best weapon for most of us. As long as you have enough space to swing it around, spears are superior. At higher levels, that may change, but for now, we only have to contend with wolves and possibly other humans. Neither of which are armored. Only a few humans will have even leather armor.
I finish things up and go to my class. They won't mind I'm 5 minutes late. The clock is not up yet, so few people are actually punctual these days. I run feeling the cold night air hitting my face. It really is good to breathe fresh air. Spending the entire day in the forge may not be too bad, but you slowly forget the subtle things.