Raka walked into a well lit hallway painted white as outside. He was in the Gurrow village Magic Institute following Lady Verina as she led him inside. The long hallway had doors along the side which led to rooms, some empty, some occupied. The ones who were in the rooms wore the same kind of clothes Lady Verina and Cynthia were wearing and were quietly studying. A little further he found one of the biggest rooms, filled with a rows and rows of books of all kinds. He could not get a look at it from the hallway, but he assumed that it was all related to magic.

"That is our library. And yes, it is mostly filled with books on magic. After all our institute does magic research as well. A lot of our graduates come back to use the library. But we have some who devote their time on research of magic only. It is because of them, that we are known as one of the best magic institutes around." said Lady Verina noticing Raka's eager expressions as he looked around.

Not that he could help it. After all magic by its very name is exciting. It is one of the best charms of virtual reality that it made possible things, which were impossible in real life. Raka was excited as he thought of learning magic, and whats more from the head of the magic institute herself.

'More than anything, atleast it won't be painful! Books, I can read them all..hahaha!' thought Raka remembering his painful but occasionally sweet ordeal with Lady Altia. He could definitely do without the pain.

A little ahead, he found more rooms, but these looked like classrooms. Yep, they even had rows of seats lined up to face a large desk which would be the teacher's desk, or that's what he thought. In another one of those, he saw the players studying, easily recognizable because of their togas, without a teacher. Raka had thought that they would be able to buy decent clothing, now that they could earn some money from quests. However, the next best thing after the plain togas they wore, were expensive equipment. Normal colorful clothes were a few silvers, armor started at almost a gold coin. He guessed that by the time they reached the age of 14 they would probably be able to afford such armor but they should be able to afford normal clothes by now.

'Maybe they want to hurry and learn magic before moving on to the quests' was Raka's first thought. He could see himself doing the same thing, if he were in their shoes. Ofcourse life had turned out differently for him so far.

They soon reached some rooms which could easily be said to be offices. In the office at the end of the hallway, they entered. He presumed this was Lady Verina's office, though it seemed to be in various states of upheaval, like the wind could not decide which things to knock over. Over at the end stood a small window covered with some pale shades. Now that he noticed, even with the shades being drawn up, the room still had light but no fire. The lamps he saw hung on the wall, had a kind of white fire burning inside, giving off the kind of white light as you get from a tube light in the real world. There was a messy desk, full of bunches and stacks of paper and what else.

"Put down some of those papers on that chair and sit" she said as she took the chair behind the desk. She looked at a couple of papers right in front of her, made a face, then moved them aside.

"Now then, perhaps I should start by congratulating you on passing Altia's training. How was it?"

Thinking of all the moments, "Um, she is a strict instructor but I receive your congratulations with honor!"

"Hahaahhaa ..yeah that she is isn't she. Do you know that you were her first student? She just joined as head of the Battle school this year."

"Really, how come she is the head then? Not that she isn't a strong warrior."

"I understand what you mean, but you see she was made the head based on her achievements on the battlefield."

"I did not know!"

"You wouldn't know would you! She was part of the army till this last year. It was a shock when she joined the army at a young age of 10. And even more of a shock when she fought in the war. She has become a legend in the army."

Raka tried to imagine a ten year old Lady Altia fighting against scores of enemies. Hmm...he could imagine Lady Altia fighting off scores of enemies covered in their blood but....he couldn't imagine a ten year old version of her. Now that he thought about how old was she now!

"During the war she rose quickly in rank. But after it, she did not know what to do. She was too good in fighting but a lot of the older commanders did not like her and considered her much too young. The queen decided that it would be best if she could leave the active army and join the reserves. She offered her the job of her choice and she chose to be a Battle school instructor. Ofcourse she was inexperienced in teaching, so she was offered the position of the head who don't have to do much direct teaching!"

"So that's how it was! Did my request inconvenience Lady Altia and you by any chance?"

"Hahahah nothing of the sort. I always knew she could be a teacher. She just needed to become confident by actually teaching one. And then you offered yourself. Thank you brave warrior Raka!" Lady Verina smiled teasingly.

'So I was just an experiment!! No I can't think like that, I will become depressed. Lets say that I learned some good skills!'

Seemingly aware of what was going on Raka's head, Lady Verina simply smiled and added,

"Well on a serious note, I am really glad at seeing your progress along with Altia's. The magic school requires students to train their bodies anyway so I guess you can say that you have already finished the basics!"

"Um...that's nice...I guess!"

"Now before I begin, I must test your level of body training. We will begin from there." Saying that, she took out a couple of papers from her desk.

"These are rules and regulations of the institute. Memorize them. I do not tolerate mishaps born of carelessness and I certainly do not tolerate mishaps born of someone's willingness either. Magic is not something to play with and neither are the rules of this institute" she switched to a formal tone.

She drew another couple of papers and wrote something on them. She then asked Raka to prick his finger and put some blood on the bottom of those. Raka did as she asked.

"Well now that the formalities are over with, shall we start with your test. Lets find an empty training room..." saying which she started going back up the hallway towards the door. Raka followed. Some distance away she stopped and pulled on a lamp. A hidden door suddenly opened, which was painted as the surrounding wall. It revealed stairs going down. Lady Verina entered and went down those stairs and Raka followed marveling at the deception.

They came down to a well lit hallway, which seemed much larger than the floor above. It also had some rooms but the rest of the space was empty.

"This is our training hall. It is reinforced with stone and magic so we can use magic freely without destroying the village. Ho ho ho~ it also has magic which limits sound from leaving the room so its perfect for doing something naughty in as well!" she added in a sweet voice. Raka trembled. No one would be able to hear his screams. He wondered what the test would involve.

Lady Verina went into one of the rooms, which seemed to be full of all kinds of weapons and brought out two strong looking wooden staffs. Raka had been using the staff Lady Altia had made using the wood around the hills. It wasn't a bad effort but looking at a real staff, he could see a lot of differences. He was literally using a thick stick compared to the staff he was getting now. Both wooden, but the difference in making showed.

Lady Verina gave him a staff and they moved a bit towards the center of the large hall.

"Now I want to see what level you abilities are at. So come at me with everything you got."

'Damn'

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Raka was lying down on the floor, sweat streaking down his face, his breath coming in short bursts. He just had the most intense session with Lady Verina, in which she managed to hit every single one of his body parts. Even the ones he protected with his life.

"Not bad! Ofcourse I had expected this much with Altia teaching you. Good stamina, your endurance is good, skill so so. Defence ok, attack so so but it still exceeded my expectations. Most of all your footwork is good" went Lady Verina analyzing him while he laid on the floor.

"Your movements are good for the basic level. Your attacks well thought out! You are slow though but that is something which can improve with more training. Overall I guess you pass! Rejoice, you would be the first of the Goddess's children to learn magic from me!"

Ofcourse Raka did not feel like rejoicing. He had thought that he had improved a little bit but Lady Verina had toyed with him from start to finish. Her moves were different from Lady Altia's. Lady Altia's moves were structured and emphasized powerful straight movements with side steps. Lady Verina's felt more like dancing. She moved, rotated, revolved, made circles around him, moved her hips and even jumped. While Lady Altia had power behind every strike, Lady Verina had incredible accuracy. Even if he didn't feel as much pain from her strike, he couldn't block even a single one of them. Getting hit so many times did take its toll leaving him heaving on the floor. Needless to say, she dodged everyone of his attacks. That was another difference between the two.

"So are you done? I thought you were trained better. Didn't you learn to attack?" Lady Verina goaded him.

Hearing the challenge, Raka just couldn't stay on the ground even when his body screamed to stop. And he was sent sprawling again and again, till the time he just couldn't move let alone stand.

You are dead tired. Movement speed drops by 100%. All fighting abilities are reduced. You cannot learn any skill in this state.

Lady Verina moved her hands and then opened her palm pointed at him. Raka felt something reaching inside him. He started to feel better all of a sudden though he still couldn't move.

All recovery rates are increased.

A little while later he could move and sit up.

"Keep sitting. We only need to talk for now!" saying which Lady Verina sat down in front of him.

"That's much better. Now you won't have to look up all the time. So till you recover, lets understand some basic things about magic."

"First of all, what is magic? Before we even begin that, what is energy?"

Raka pondered for a bit, but it seemed like she wasn't really expecting an answer.

She continued, "we may describe energy in various ways. It is the living force of any living being. It is the natural force which makes weather and affects changes in our environment. It is the spiritual force which cannot be seen by the naked eye but its effects can be observed all around us. From the growing off a plant from the seed, to the rain which falls from the cloud to the animal who eats and drinks. Energy is all around us. It is in everything. Infact it can be said, that everything, living or dead, natural or unnatural is just a form of energy.

That said, are there different kinds of energy? You can say, fire is hot and ice is cold so they have different energies but research has revealed that there is only one energy. But it has different forms which make a rock or a living creature or the birds or the seas. Researchers of magic spend years trying to understand the relationships of those forms and how energy transforms. But they all agree that energy can not be destroyed. It is simply transformed into something else. Like burning wood transforms into ash. The energy which had the form of wood now exists as form of ash. Ofcourse there are rules which apply to the transformation and how much gets transformed."

She stopped for a while looking to see whether Raka understood. This sounded the same as physics laws in the real world which talk about conservation of energy. Raka nodded to say he understood.

"Now we move on to the basic question that is, what is magic? Magic is simply the understanding that these forms have certain rules which apply to the world. Knowing of such rules, we can create situations where these rules allow us to manipulate it. Look at my hand"

A fire appeared on Lady Verina's hand.

"Lets say I set fire to something. If you wanted to extinguish that fire, what will you do?"

"Um pour water over it?" replied Raka.

"Exactly. So why can't you pour water on my hand to stop my fire?"

"It sounds possible when you say that!"

"That's because it is possible. If it were a normal fire you would be able to pour water over it and it will be gone. But lets say I am performing a process which constantly creates fire on top of my hand? What then?"

"Well, in that case I will have to keep pouring water over it, I think"

"Exactly. We can say that ultimately water will always extinguish fire. How much gets extinguished depends. This is a rule. There are several rules, counting all of them would take years. And we are discovering even more of them every day. Now say that somehow you can feel that energy. Furthermore the energy allows you to apply these rules on their forms. Like say I can feel the energy of the staff. So now I apply the rule of creating fire and the energy of the staff transforms into fire...." a fire started on the staff, "just like that!"

"Now remember the rules say that the amount of transformation depends. What does it depend on? It depends on how much energy you can transform. Transforming energy is difficult. Not because it requires effort but because it requires focus. If you stop manipulating it even for a moment, it reverts back to its original form and you will not get the intended effect."

'Hmm so you have to concentrate on what you are doing or you won't be able to achieve the desired effect.'

"Energy manipulation also depends on the form it takes. If the form is stable, manipulating it will be difficult. I can try to turn you into a mouse, but it will require long hours of preparation because you are a stable form of energy. The more stable the form, the more it resists manipulation, the larger the focus required. Normally it would take years and years of preparation to transform a small mouse, almost an entire lifetime, so its generally impossible to transform a human. That said, the forms of energy that are easiest to manipulate are air, water, fire, earth, light and dark. We call them elements. You can use them directly like..." she made a fireball on her hand and threw the ball a little distance.

"That was a basic fireball. You can also combine the elements like..." and a large fire erupted from her hand which she shaped into a ball and threw it. It exploded with a BANG as it hit the ground!

"This was a simple combination of fire and air, called a fire bomb! Ofcourse because these are forms of energy and not energy itself, it will follow the rules of fire and air. Therefore combining fire and water would be a lot difficult and unstable than combining fire and air."

Raka was getting confused by now. He tried to listen carefully but understanding of some parts escaped him. He didn't know magic was such complicated business. Lady Verina smiled at his thoughtful expression.

"You don't have to understand everything right this moment. It will become clearer as you learn more. And the only way to learn is by practice. The first step in learning magic is being able to perceive energy. It exists everywhere, but everyone perceives it in varying amounts. If you are talented you will be able to perceive it faster, but everyone at some point in time becomes able to do that."

"Now, you have been taught meditation. Meditate for now and try to feel the energy around you. Everyone understands the energy differently, so how I look at it may not be the same as you do. Find your own way on that. The magic on these walls makes perceiving it easier. So for now you have only one task. Meditate and understand energy. Only once you have done that, can you learn magic."

Skill Magic: Magic is the understanding of rules on how to manipulate energy and its forms. Lady Verina agrees to teach you the skill.

Requirements: Lady Verina wants you to be able to perceive the energy around you.

"Now you can always come to this place at any time of the day. Some of our older students use it for combat practice, but mostly it remains empty. You may use your time as you like otherwise. I will come in once a while to check on your progress. A word of warning, do not try to

manipulate the energy you feel. A lot of accidents happen because people start manipulating without having an experienced guide around." And Lady Verina left Raka sitting in the middle of that large hall.

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Raka had been sitting down for the past couple of hours trying to meditate. But he soon got bored of not moving. He knew that sitting still and resting helped with recovery but when you have already recovered it didn't make sense to sit still. But even so, he tried to sit down in a yoga position and meditate as he was taught.

And it was hard. The more he tried not to think and empty his mind, the more thoughts kept popping up. The large hall where he was in, was completely empty. Completely covered with no windows, it was illuminated by lamps hung on the walls painting the stone walls in white light. Looking around at the completely empty dismal space, Raka could imagine anyone falling into depression. He did not know how long he would need to 'perceive energy' as Lady Verina had called it. In fact, considering he couldn't concentrate at all in the two hours that already passed, his prospects seemed bleak indeed.

"Oh I give up!" and Raka stopped trying. This was not a mathematical problem that he could solve. He wished he had thought of asking Lady Verina for some hints, or even how to start this sensing of energy but she was gone. He did not want to bother her before even trying.

'But I cannot concentrate now. Maybe later I will have more luck.' He started thinking of things he could do. He picked up his staff and started practicing his forms, atleast it gave him something to do while moving. A few hours later, he started to feel tired again.

'Hmm...now I feel like taking a nap' saying which Raka laid down on the floor and closed his eyes.

It happened when he was nearly on the edge of his sleep. In a state where he could have been dreaming, he started seeing colors around him. There were so many colors in so many shades. Gone was the plain white of the hall replaced by the innumerable colors floating around him. He raised his hands and found that it was also replaced by those colors but this time, they had taken the shape of his hands. He tried feeling his body, but he could feel nothing. He tried to listen but he heard nothing. It was like he had stepped on to this silent world filled with a zillion colors and he was like a spirit floating through them, without feeling, just being aware of everything. There was no time in this place, just a sense of being. There was no life in this place, just a sense of existing.

Just then, he felt the colors vibrate and he looked towards the source of those vibrations. A human like figure was formed of those colors and it seemed to be walking towards him. Raka tried to concentrate on that colorful figure, but the more he focused, the more the colors faded. Soon they completely disappeared leaving him looking at the same ceiling, he was looking at when he went to sleep.

Raka sat up. For a moment he tried to think but he was having trouble putting together any thoughts. He moved his head around, like it wasn't a part of his body and looked towards Lady Verina who had just arrived. She put her hand on his cheek. Her warmth finally awoke Raka from his stupor and he slowly realized that it had all been a dream.

"Seems you have progressed a little bit! How was it?"

"Um....there were so many colors, like the world was made of it!" Raka replied a little bit surprised and wondered how she knew about his dream.

"So that's how you see it! I did say everyone perceives energy differently. And you perceive it through colors. It can be said that you have found the starting point. But that is not enough. You have to understand more about what you see and more importantly be able to perceive it at will."

Finally Raka realized. What he had mistaken for his dream was actually his way of sensing the energy around him. This time Raka had done it accidentally and he wasn't sure whether this method would work again. Ofcourse he could not sleep everytime he wanted to feel that again. But it was a start. Now that he knew the result, he simply had to find a way to achieve it willingly.

Raka nodded to Lady Verina. She smiled and he realized that her hand was still on his cheek. Raka blushed a little and Lady Verina smiled even more. She removed her hand and quietly walked away again, leaving him in the center of the large hall.

For the rest of the day, Raka kept trying to find that feeling again, but it never happened. He tried all sorts of things, meditating, getting tired by moving around and then meditating, focusing on a single point, etc etc and whatever he could think of about getting his concentration to the max. But so far it hadn't worked out.

Raka sighed. He had spent all day and night on this endeavor and it was time to log out.

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Swamy was sitting in the cafeteria at lunch. His friends were there talking about Long Island as usual. He did not realize it yet, but it had somehow become his habit of hanging around with them. Even though he mostly didn't talk much.

"So what happened with that Raka guy? Any news on that?"

"No not really! No one's seen him around lately. People are saying that he may have gone outside again on some quest!"

"Ah that's wonderful. I hope I can soon find such a quest!"

Rajan who was browsing internet on the phone suddenly shouted. Everyone looked at him.

"Hey someone's posted about the age limit of going outside the villages. It seems it is 14 in Gurrow Village. In Dalmund it is 12. Some people in Dalmund, who just reached 12 started getting hunting quests. They tried walking out and it worked. In case of Gurrow, it seems someone asked Neona about it, that's one of the food store npcs."

"Awesome! So people already reached age 12 in Dalmund. That's beyond awesome. I am still age 8. There are no experience bars like levels so can't say when I will get there either....this sucks bigtime!!"

"Yeah its shocking. They must be those people who play full time."

"AHahahah! Can't be helped. We got classes to go to. Anyways now that we know the age limit, we can actually work towards it. Oh...what about the other starting places Rajan?"

"Don't know yet. The post only mentioned the two. But you guys are missing the interesting bit. The age limit of Gurrow is higher than Dalmund! Why do you think that is?"

"Um maybe the monsters around there are of a higher level than Dalmund?" answered Himali.

"Hmm, my thoughts exactly! But if you start hunting won't you rise in levels fast, I mean age?" asked Manish.

"Not sure. So far my age does not rise according to what I have learned. I learned cooking already but my age did not rise then. But it seems to rise arbitrarily for some reason. Has anyone figured out how that works yet?" Himali said.

"No, its still a mystery. Lots of people were thinking that they are same as levels but so far they are in doubt as well!" Rajan answered.

"Hey hey, don't all of you start going serious now. We all have got Swamy for that!" Sneha said. Swamy always thought she was a bit of an airhead, so he simply ignored her attempt at humor.

"What I am interested in, did they pass battle school or magic school, now that they have gone out?" Swamy spoke, which was kindof a once in while thing.

"Ah! He speaks!" which was another sad attempt at humor. Rajan laughed a bit, but both Manish and Himali only just about managed to smile.

"Ye~ah! that's what I am interested to know as well!" Himali added finally.

"Yeah, are there more posts telling what they did? Or are they keeping it a secret?" Manish added.

"A secret. No other posts from those people. Guess they want to keep ahead of the other players! Can't blame them...but will hiding basic things like that really work in the long run? Eventually people will figure it out!" said Rajan.

"Hmm. I guess you can find all sorts of people playing now! There's this guild we used to be part of before, they used to share information within the guild only. So everyones looking to be the best at something...hahaha, guess that would apply to us too wouldn't it!"

"Yeah! I don't get to play a lot, what with classes and all. If I found something special like a hidden land or a dungeon, I will be sure to hide it. But whats the point of hiding how to pass battle school or magic school!"

"Yeah! there's all kinds of people!"

.............

.....

Swamy realized once again, how far the silent ones were. They had already surpassed him and were increasing their lead day by day. While he was stuck trying to figure out how to sense energy! Swamy sighed.

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Raka was still in the basement hall, trying to figure out how to get that feeling back. He had tried all sorts of ways he found online to improve his concentration but to no avail. Tired of this, he thought of visiting Neona's store to earn some more money. He still hadn't learned the estimation skill or the cooking skill yet so it would be good training.

He took the stairs and came out from the hidden door. He walked to Lady Verina's office hoping to let her know that he would be leaving for a bit. He reached her office and knocked.

No answer. He knocked again....still no answer.

'Is she out?' But then he heard light sounds coming from the room. He thought he shouldn't open the door, but curiosity won over and he lightly pushed the door. The door was open. He slowly pushed the door and found one of the most amazing sights he would see.

Lady Verina was sleeping soundly with her head on the desk. The light sounds he heard, was her breathing. Raka simply stood mesmerized. Lady Verina was lovely with curves at all the right places, no second thoughts on that. But looking at her sleeping innocently like that, with an occasional light snore, her golden hair which fell down her side, gently hiding her face and the loose dress which seemed it would slide away with a feather's touch! He could almost imagine her as an angel. Raka stood there for a while. Then he quietly closed the door.

He turned around and found himself being stared at by Cynthia. She looked annoyed as usual.

"What were you doing in Lady Verina's room?"

Seems she had only seen him closing the door assuming he was walking out from Lady Verina's office.

"I came to meet her ofcourse."

"Hmph! Another unlikely story!"

"Um..another story which is true!"

Cynthia sulked. And then knocked on the door.

"Um.. you shouldn't do that, Lady Verina is asleep!"

"OH! wait you were in there while she was SLEEPING?!! You PERVERT! SCOUNDREL!..."

"N...no I mean she was sleeping before I even came here!"

"So finding her asleep you decided to enter the room! That makes you even more of a pervert! Did you steal something from there, you did didn't you!! Bind!" saying which she waved her hand and he found himself unable to move.

She quickly knocked and opened the door. As Raka was facing the other side he couldn't see inside the room but he heard,

"ooo..waaah ~yawn!! Why is it so noisy?...wait Cynthia, didn't I tell you to knock when you enter?"

"I did knock and you were sleeping in your office again. Anyways I have caught the culprit so rest assured!"

"Culprit, what culprit? Did something happen?"

"Yes...this man!" and Raka felt himself turning around to face Lady Verina now, still standing frozen outside in the hallway, "I caught him coming out of your office. It looks like while you were sleeping, he took advantage and could have stolen something. I always thought he looked a bit of a thief and now I caught him red-handed!" Cynthia said all that with a grin.

Fully awake now Lady Verina looked closely at Raka. Then winked at him! Raka just looked with his eyes wide open unable to move a muscle.

"So did you like what you saw?" Lady Verina said teasingly.

"Lady Verina, how could you speak like that to a THIEF!!" Cynthia was now speaking a little louder.

"Cynthia! Haven't I told you that he is my student. He is not a thief. I think he came here to talk to me about something, and finding my lovely self sleeping, was trying to quietly leave!"

"Hmph! Like that could happen! I am sure he just stole something important from your office, maybe one of the papers and was trying to sell it. Maybe even get some secrets of our nation out, maybe he's a spy from another country!"

Lady Verina sighed. "You and your imaginations! First of all, how can he leave the village, he isn't old enough. Second, do you really think I am careless enough that just anyone can walk out from here carrying my papers? I have applied magic in the room. And most importantly, how are you calling him a thief or a spy without even checking it?"

"Hmph! if nothing else, he is certainly a pervert!!"

"Ho ho ho, yeah that he can be. But that is not exactly a crime he should be punished for, is it?"

Cynthia looked like that was enough to hang him. Wonder why she hated him though. So far, he knew he had only been courteous to her. Not like he had a say in anything, he was frozen solid.

"Well now that we cleared that up, let Raka go. I am sure he is embarrassed enough to be standing here listening to all this!"

Cynthia looked like saying that Lady Verina was making a mistake, but looking at her not so smiling face, she quietly said, "Unbind!"

Raka felt himself free to move.

"So Raka why did you come here?"

"Thank you Lady Verina. I just came here to say that I would be going outside for a bit when I found you sleeping. Er...I ...didn't want to disturb you so I left quietly. I think that's what caused Cynthia's misunderstanding. I did not steal anything."

"Yeah I guessed as much! Sorry that you had to face this, but atleast you got a taste of what magic can do. Lets consider it part of training as well. Ho ho ho~ maybe I should try that on you sometime!" Lady Verina's eyes twinkled. Raka simply stood not knowing the words to speak. His only thought, 'She is Lady Altia's friend after all!'

"Alright then, seems like this business is over. Raka, you may leave. Cynthia, you stay! I want to talk to you!"

Raka bowed and left the room. He headed towards Neona's shop as he originally planned. He had just got a taste of magic, and while he walked, he wondered how that was done.