5
Practice
Max
I woke up, much earlier than I wanted to, to Stacy screaming out lyrics to her favorite Paramore song from the bathroom. Because I had been successful with my first attempt at magic, I felt that a celebration was in order and scrawled out a note that I was running to the corner store to grab breakfast supplies. Cereal wasn’t going to cut it.
I made it back to my apartment that was now filled with the rich scent of cinnamon coffee, to find Stacy practically vibrating with excitement.
“So, I see that you must have been successful,” she said clearly trying to hold back her excitement. “What kind of skill did you get? You did get a skill right? I can’t imagine even with doubled regeneration that that bruise would have healed in anything less than a week.”
I confirmed that I had received a skill and explained Minor Rejuvenation to her while getting to work making breakfast. I let curiosity get the better of me then asking, “What has you so excited?”
“Can’t I just be excited that my baby cousin has magical abilities to heal himself and apparently other people, too?” She asked back, far to innocently.
“I think it is far to obvious that that isn’t what has you so excited to even entertaining that question. You were clearly already in a great mood when I walked back in before you even saw my perfect unblemished face. Out with it what has you so happy?”
“Well, you weren’t the only one to get a skill last night,” she finally lets out and like a dam burst her words start to spill out. “I managed to get a skill called Elemental Manipulation, And I got the Title Lesser Wind, which sounds totally way more underwhelming than it really is. I did research on so much magic and ended up deciding to make a chant to call forth the magic while focusing on my mana that referenced the wind gods of ancient Greece, the Anemoi.
“The Title actually references back to my chant, I referenced the four major winds, but the rest are known as Lesser Winds. I didn’t even make the connection at first and just thought the system was calling my chant shitty or something. I was shocked when I read the Title description, and it flat out called me an Anemoi. I haven’t done anything else with wind since because I didn’t want to find out that the system made my wind hurricane strength or something.
“I was hoping we could take a trip to a park, and I could try to use my magic some more there. If you don’t want to, I totally get it, but I feel like I should have someone there with me to help figure this out and bounce ideas off. What do you think?”
“I think you need to relax and eat breakfast,” I say when she final pauses long enough for me to get a word in. “We can definitely go to the park I don’t have any other plans today so experimenting with magic sounds like a great way to spend my time. Maybe I will be able to learn this skill from you and we can figure out how much of an effect your title has.”
“Yay! I was so nervous you were going to say no, and I wasn’t even sure who else to ask. Want to see something really cool?” she asks while lighting a candle.
I nod while pouring the batter to make four pancakes onto the griddle.
*****
Stacy
Luckily Max decided to make breakfast this morning ‘because I was starving. He confirmed that he wanted to see something cool, so I let everything, but the flame of the candle and my mana fade out of my focus.
Now that I have the skill Elemental Manipulation it is almost like I have an instinct or sense of how to manipulate the elements that I was missing before. When I realized that I had this new sense while showering I was shocked, not because I had the sense really, but because of how natural it felt. I would have thought it would be distracting to gain a new sense, but it was more like sensing a limb that I always had. I still needed to focus to actually manipulate anything, but I now knew exactly how to apply my focus to enforce my will on the elements.
As I enforced my will and applied my mana the Flame from the candle slowly lifted from the wick. The wick started smoking and as the flame made it about six inches above the candle, I released my focus to do a neat trick I had seen before where the Flame traveled down the smoke and relit the wick.
“Holy shit, Stacy!” Max practically yelled, and I beamed back at him.
“I know. Isn’t it cool!” Open Interface.
Status
Skills
Titles
NAME
Stacia Elaine Windberg
Health
130/130
Stamina
70/70
Mana
138/160
Attributes
END
13
VIT
10
STR
7
DEX
11
INT
16
WIS
11
PER
10
Wow, that little trick took a lot of Mana, no wonder I felt lightheaded last night I must have just about wiped myself out with that little gust I created.
Max and I continued talking about our abilities and what they might mean, and he decided to order some digital copies of some textbooks on anatomy and biology. Realizing how good that Idea was I did a few quick searches to figure out what kind of science textbooks might teach me about the elements and was annoyed to find that the easiest subject I was going to have was geology for earth and air while I was looking at physics, chemistry, and engineering for fire and water. Since we weren’t going to have access to the digital copies forever, we ran to an office supply store to pick up some binders before stopping by our office building to “borrow” the printers to print them out.
As I pulled into the park, Max grabbed the anatomy book and tossed it into his messenger bag before getting out of the car. He led the way through the park to a secluded bench that overlooked a field surprisingly hidden from the main trails.
“How the heck did you know about this place?” I asked, shocked that he had the perfect place figured out for me to practice magic already.
“When I moved here, I used to come hiking through these trails a lot to get my mind off of everything. One day I got a little lost and ended up here and decided to keep track of my path as I left so I could find my way back cause this area seemed so peaceful. I’ve been coming here anytime I needed to get away since then and I haven’t ever seen anyone else here.”
“Perfect. I can work on this without worrying about being seen then. I am going to meditate and see what I can do with wind for now.” Max pulled a blanket from his bag as I said this and laid it out on the ground for me before walking back to the bench where he opened his textbook.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
*****
Max
I started reviewing anatomy as Stacy began meditating on the Wind. I was a little jealous that she managed to become the avatar already while I had only managed cosmetic bruise removal, but I wanted to figure out the limitations of my healing ability before adding something new to learn.
I started out studying how the body naturally healed figuring that knowing the process would probably help with being able to speed the process up. I figured that this would give me a more universal way to guide my mana as well and that it may make the mana cost drop if I actually knew what my mana needed to do to fix something instead of just trying to revert it to a fixed state.
I checked the time and saw that we had been at the par for couple hours and it was approaching 1:00 and figured this would be a good time to call Silas to see if he may be available at all today. I was surprised at how quickly he answered.
*****
Silas
Dread. That was the best way I could describe what I was feeling today. Yesterday, when my uncles store had been robbed, I was annoyed but it definitely ended on a positive note. I had noticed Max in the store a few times over the past few months that I had been working here, and never had the courage to do more than pine over him after each visit he made to my uncle’s shop. It was embarrassing but then he stopped the robber, and I managed to get a date.
To be honest it should have been me that fought the robber off. I’m 6 foot even and I’ve been going to the gym regularly since my senior year of high school, so I would have been much better off than Max was. I felt so bad when I saw his face bruising after the altercation.
When he seemed uncomfortable accepting the wine on the house, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to make him ask me out. I realized later that night that it was just me asking him to ask me out and struggled with that embarrassment keeping my mind occupied and unable to sleep for a few hours.
Now onto the reason I was feeling dread. My uncle decided it was time to retire and he wanted the store to stay in the family. Since he and my aunt never had any kids the first person, they thought of to give the store to was me. I had spent 2 hours on the phone with them trying to convince them that I was the wrong choice. Technically they were my great uncle and great aunt so First I tried to convince them to give the store to my parents or one of my other aunts or uncles.
That hadn’t gone well. They said that everyone from the generation before mine was already too settled into there lives and none of them lived close enough for it to make sense. Next, I figured I could convince them to give the shop to one of my cousins.
That went even worse. Honestly about 25 minutes on the phone had been them talking about how none of my cousins ever came to visit and none of them knew the meaning of family. I almost told them that I was just as ungrateful and undeserving and that I was worse cause I was mooching off them while I was living here. I probably would have but I thought that might backfire on me as they felt it was a familial obligation to help the younger generation.
I moved to Boston to attend Grad school at the Berklee College of Music, and owning a wine store was not something I was ready for. How could I own a wine store in Boston when I was planning to tour the world singing in opera’s or joining Broadway musicals.
I was going heavy into my own brooding when my phone went off. Seeing that it was Max I answered right away, “Hey Max!”
“Hey, you have any plans today? I was thinking we should meet up and figure out my payment plan to get us back to even,” he said, and I was not able to play it cool at all from there.
“What are you doing right now? I can meet you anywhere in the city.”
“Uhh, one sec.” Shoot am I being too eager? I hope he doesn’t change his mind. Then I hear him yelling to someone in the background, but I can’t quite make out what he’s saying before he addresses me again. “My cousin and I are doing some experiments with this new system stuff. If you’re ok with hanging out with her for a little bit to, she said she is happy to have a third perspective on what we are working on, and you and I can go out for dinner afterward?”
“Sounds great! Text me the park name and I can meet you there! See you soon,” I say and hang up before he has a chance to respond.
I make my way to the park and see him waiting at a picnic table at the entrance. As I walk up, I am thinking about what I should say but when I get a closer look at him, I completely forget anything I had thought up as I blurt out, “What happened to your bruise?”
“Uhh, that’s kinda what my cousin and I are working on. We’ve managed to get some skills from the system, and I used one last night and figured out how to heal myself.” Holy shit!
“That’s amazing! How does that work though?”
“Well, I used Mana to kinda force the healing.”
“You have Mana? I saw the system notice about that but when I open my interface, I still don’t have mana even though Genie said it was unlocked.” Open Interface, I thought to pull up my Status sheet and confirm that I still don’t have access to Mana.
NAME
Silas Bernard Langlois
Health
130/130
Stamina
140/140
Attributes
END
13
VIT
10
STR
14
DEX
10
INT
11
WIS
8
PER
12
“Yeah, we both have Mana. Let’s head back out to where Stacy is. She is excited to have someone else to talk to about this.”
Max leads me through the trails and fifteen minutes later a clearing comes into view with a Petite woman meditating on the ground, her wavy hair blowing in an unseen breeze. As I am thinking it is odd how much her hair is blowing around a breeze caresses me and her eyes flash open, the same stunning blue as Max’s, I would mistake her as his twin if he hadn’t already called her his cousin.
*****
Stacy
Max headed out to meet this Silas he had apparently forgotten to mention when recounting the Thief from last night. I was a little nervous to bring someone else into our magic practice, but I also knew we couldn’t keep what we had found secret forever. I figured I might start posting anonymously online to try getting other people to figure stuff out so that Max and I didn’t end up being Labeled witches and burnt at the stake or something.
While max was away, I started practicing more with the air element and realized what the description meant by guiding the energy within the element. My new elemental sense allowed me to feel a breeze above me toward the treetops and I realized that instead of creating my own wind I could harness what already existed and began to add my Mana into it. As I pulled the wind down to myself, I began creating a vortex around myself and was able to sustain and grow it with minimal Mana added in.
I expanded my vortex to reach the edge of the field I was sitting in and felt the trees at the edge as the wind moved around and through them. I kept this same range for my vortex until suddenly two new obstacles appeared in my new wind sense and I opened my eyes looking directly at Max and the handsome man next to him that must be Silas.
*Ding!*
MINOR DISCOVERY
You have Discovered the Skill Aerial Proprioception. No Announcement is made for Minor Discoveries.
*New Skill Aerial Proprioception: You are one with the Atmosphere. Fear not the unseen. Feel the world around you*
Suddenly, my elemental sense expands and sharpens, or rather, my Aerial Proprioception takes over for a part of it. My sense of the earth and water around me remains the same but I can now feel everything touched by the air clearly.
Oh, that’s going to take some getting used to.
As Max and Silas walk up to me, I move to my hands and knees and slowly try to stand while all the new sensations are flowing through my mind. I belatedly realized that Max was saying something to me and suddenly he rushes over and grabs both my arms steadying me as I look up at him. I lift one of my hands and put my index finger up to signal I just need a moment and as I bring my focus to talking, I manage to somehow get across that I need to sit down on the bench for a minute.
As I was sat on the bench, I was able to get my Mental faculties together and navigate through my status screen till I found the skill description for my new perception ability.
Aerial Proprioception – Passive/Active
You are one with the Atmosphere. Fear not the unseen. Feel the world around you
Passive state:
This advanced perception technique allows you to sense the world around you through the atmosphere as if you were the element of Air itself.
This skill creates an automatic Passive domain that integrates into your body’s perception of self.
Passive domain can be toggled on and off and due to synergy with Meditation when toggled off this activates the active portion of meditation increasing Regeneration of all resources.
Active State:
Gain complete control of the air within your Domain at the cost of 50 Mana per second.
Range:
1 Meter per point of PER
Seeing that the domain can be toggled off, was apparently all I need to instinctually understand how to do so. As my perception suddenly snaps back to just my mundane senses and the elemental sense, I gained from Elemental Manipulation I hear Max frantically talking to Silas.
*****
Max
“I can’t believe how freaked out you got,” Stacy chides, and I have no comeback. I was scared. When I got back to the clearing with Silas, Stacy was practically catatonic. Silas had to princess carry her to the bench. I don’t really think anyone could blame me for panicking about it.
“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, tell us more about your new power. You said you can feel the air now and that isn’t exact novel.”
“What I said is that I can feel through the air now, and I turned it off for right now, I am not sure what I will need to do to actually use that ability, but I thought my head was going to explode. It’s a good thing I was able to toggle that off ‘cause I think it is going to take me a long time to figure that all out.”
Silas jumps in then, “What do you mean you can feel through the air?”
“Well, it’s like I had a new sense of touch, and with it I felt everything that was being touched by the air around me. I could feel myself, which was pretty odd, but on top of that, I could feel myself, feeling myself. It was super bizarre and something I don’t really look forward to experimenting with.”
“I’m not sure how interested I am in magic anymore,” said Silas. “It’s scary that you can learn something that incapacitates you like that.”
“I definitely agree. That skill is scary,” I agree. “ON the bright side, I learned a new skill trying to heal you. I can now pulse my Mana through a target to find what needs to be healed. That’s part of what freaked me out Stacy, I got that skill and still couldn’t figure out what was wrong with you.”
“I would say I won’t scare you like that again, but honestly, I am not sure if I could keep that promise. Now that that’s over though its time to get on to the fun part of the day,” I started to feel nervous as Stacy focused on Silas. “Silas, what are your intentions with my baby cousin?”
Oh god no!
“He’s lived here for almost a year now and you’re the first boy he’s decided to bring home to meet me. So, I need to ensure your intentions are pure.”
Silas looked confused at first but by the time Stacy finished he was grinning ear to ear. “Oh, I have only the purest of intentions for dear Max here. Even the idea of anything unpure tainting such a sweet boy causes my heart to shudder.”
“What about my intentions?” I interject. “Don’t I get a say in this?”
“Max!” Stacy shouts, “are you saying you plane to do unpure things?”
And just like that I fell into the trap. My ears were immediately on fire as I felt my complexion go Firetruck red. How could I walk into that.
“Max, how forward of you! I must insist I am a delicate flower.” Silas piles on.
Great, it seems I made a mistake introducing these two, and why is Silas suddenly so comfortable bullying me?