Swamy looked at himself in the mirror. He had short black hair, black eyes and Indian brown skin. He always thought that his nose looked a little big for his face. He wore glasses, rectangular shaped, with a slightly thicker frame to hold it up. He had tried changing his look for the college and moved on, as he liked to call it, from the round glasses he wore before. He did not consider himself handsome, there were far more good looking guys around. But he could not call himself ugly either. Normal looking, that's how he described himself. He was thin, though the exercise he got from his training in the past couple of months, practicing his forms, did make him feel a little bit better. Not that he had gained any muscles but he could feel that he had improved stamina. Not that it mattered much if he stayed up late playing the game.

He looked at the blue shirt he was wearing and thought that it should pass. It was freshly cleaned and ironed. He wore normal jeans he usually wore, though he still washed and ironed them. He fidgeted for a bit with his looks and then sighed.

'Doesn't matter. How clean I am or keep my room, it will still be a little dirty.'

Swamy had a habit of keeping things clean and tidy, absorbed from years of training from his parents. He cleaned the floor regularly, kept things in proper condition in the fridge, and kept his bedroom all arranged. He checked his wardrobes to make sure everything was fine, looked at his study table where all his books and papers were neatly arranged, his open windows which let the air in and finally returned back to the living room.

'I hope it goes alright' Swamy sighed again looking at his game capsule. It was too big to hide and too expensive to throw away.

He had a small shrine set up in his living room cupboard. He prayed for some good luck and hoped his day would go alright. He rung the small bell as was the religious tradition.

Swamy then sat down on the couch, looking at the watch now and again, getting a little agitated. He was a little nervous but he had sufficient cause to be.

His parents were visiting today!

About noon, he finally got a knock on the door. He opened up to meet his parents, who were glad to see him. His Uncle from next door, had gone on to receive them in his brand new electric car. "Its Mercedes" he said remarking on its quality and stuff! His parents entered followed by his Uncle and his Aunt who had come in from next door. Swamy offered them the sofa to sit and went to get some water for them to drink.

"Ah! Lakshmi, how long has it been since I saw you?" His dad spoke to his Aunt, his cousin sister.

"A long time. You guys don't come here nowadays any more. Its only Swamy who's come here and gave us a chance to meet now!"

"That's true. Ah...water. Finally I can breathe. It is so hot outside. Summers are definitely getting worse but other seasons are no better. Global warming is effecting our weather a lot. The met department is saying it will stay hot like this for the next few days!"

"Aiyo Rama!(Hindu God) That is true. It is the same everywhere. Anyways how was your trip. The bus had air conditioning right?"

"Yeah it did. Thanks to this green revolution in technology, it does not take much to keep a bus cool and it does not even smell like those old a/c buses we used to ride before!"

"Hahaha yeah!"

"Hey Swamy, here are some sweets I made, keep them in the fridge would you dear! They would spoil outside!" his mother said.

Swamy moved and took the large packet from his mother's hands and went to put it in the fridge.

And finally everyone noticed the large machine like thing.

"Oh hey, isn't that a VR game capsule? Swamy, you did not say you were playing a VR game?"

"Yes Mom! It is kind of a requirement in the course to play one of the VR games, so its kinda necessary!"

"Oh is that so. Well if it is required for your studies its ok, I guess. But I should still talk to your teacher. You don't play all night now do you? You know how dangerous it can be if you play it for long! Infact I was discussing it with your father just the day before about its adverse affects, specially on people who play for too long. And have you been keeping up with your studies?"

"Yes Mom! We had tests this past couple of weeks. I scored A+ in all subjects. You can check it if you like."

"No that's ok."

"But hey, how did you pay for it? I did not see any transactions done in your account? Did you ask your Aunt and Uncle to pay? You know you should have asked us for it!" his father asked looking at his Aunt and Uncle.

"No! we did not pay for it" was their reply.

His father and mother and aunt and uncle, all of them turned around to look at him.

"Um...actually I have got a part - time job! The job is not bad and the pay is good."

"Part-time job!! Without asking us!!" his mother looked scandalized.

"Well, you see I wanted to get some work experience you know. What with the competitive world and all. It is said that any work experience in your resume is especially considered in job interviews. They look at it positively when you have some varied life experiences, you know like volunteering, clubs, part-time jobs and stuff. Ofcourse most people start it during the end of first year but I thought of getting a head start. And the people I meet in this job become useful contacts for the future. It gives me some pocket money also which I put in a savings account. Who knows when I may need some more money, correct! It will also help in the future after I graduate."

Swamy came out with the explanation he had thought and refined for the last three days, ever since he found out about their visit.

"Oh dear! You are thinking that far ahead! I am proud of you!" his mother said.

"Yes, yes, this is the right way to go. Investing in your future, saving money and gaining skills will help you have a bright future." his father said to which everyone nodded.

"Oh that's not all." his aunt continued. "I think he is learning to play the flute like Lord Krishna (Hindu God, plays flutes). I heard him practicing!"

"Really? Swamy. I never knew you wanted to learn to play the flute! Are you getting lessons from somewhere?" his father asked.

"Eh...um...no. Just practicing by picking things up from the internet you know. They have all kinds of tutorials there!"

"Hahaha and he is getting to sound good too. I am sure he will become good at it very soon by the grace of Lord Krishna!" his Uncle commented.

'So they know. I should have known practicing here was a bad idea.'

"Well why don't you play us a tune...show us how far you have come?" his mother asked.

"Eh.....um...I am not sure its good yet. Maybe some time later when I have become a bit better!"

"Ah he's getting shy now. Well its ok, we wanna see how good you are now. I am sure you will get better if you are not, in the future. Go on then. just a small tune for your visiting parents, eh"

"Ah...alright! Just don't laugh if its not good. I have not been learning for long."

Swamy went to his bedroom and brought out his flute.

"Aiyo! That is a beautiful looking thing. Did you buy an expensive one?"

"Um..no. I joined this movers company for the job and they have this policy where you can keep the stuff other people want to throw away, when they move. I found it in one of my jobs."

"Ah! Lord Krishna is already blessing him with luck!" his aunt cheered.

"Is it sterilized? You know you should not use the stuff of other people, they still have germs on them! Have you been touching this?! I forbid it! Dear Lord!" his mom was horrified!

"Um I wiped it clean thoroughly with a chemical sterilizing solution. I got it from the pharmacy so its ok!" Swamy said calming her down.

"So should I play it?" he asked looking at his mother who still looked doubtful. His father then said,

"Go ahead. You sterilized it right! And we want to hear as well!"

Swamy took a deep breath. He started with the simplest tune, Happy birthday to you! He liked this piece. It was simple and he had no trouble remembering the notes as he had heard it all his life. After playing this short tune he looked to find his parents smiling.

"Ah, that was good! You seem to be learning well."

"Yeah that was beautiful. Maybe you would like to play it on my birthday, eh!" his father teased.

"He has talent, doesn't he?!"

"Well I don't mind you learning things or playing games, as long as you keep a very high standard in your studies. Father, I am still worried about his playing though!"

"Hmm, well as long as he keeps the playing to a limited time, and its required by the college, isn't it?!" his father said. "In any case we can meet his teachers on Monday! After all we came to see the college didn't we? So much would have changed since we graduated. Oh, didn't tell you Swamy, but we have been invited to a function in the college tomorrow. We came early to visit you."

"Ah! So will you be staying here in the apartment?"

"Oh no, your parents will be staying in our apartment. Yours is much too small with only one bedroom. They can have the guest room at our place." his uncle replied.

"But we will have all the weekend together, won't we! Except for the time for the function tomorrow! We should go visit some places. And Swamy can also tell us all about the game he is playing."

"Yeah...Thats wonderful!" Swamy said.

"So what news from ................................

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

And the talk dissolved into news about long lost and some not lost relatives. As the talk drifted away, Swamy sighed in his mind. He had written a lot of reports of his game play in the last three days just for this. And he knew, he would have to write even more when they critiqued his reports. He hoped that he won't have to write anything about the places he visits this weekend.

'Well my play time is going to get even shorter this weekend..........' Swamy sighed.

In the night, after dinner, they went over his reports on the game Long Island.

"So you haven't been to the sea yet? Only learning skills?" his mother commented seeing as the game was supposedly named Island, and he hadn't even seen the sea yet!

"Yes! I can only go out when my age will be 14. I am 9 right now."

"Hmm yeah the age system you mentioned. You know if it is based on the human age...hmm in that case....a humans learning capacity increases till the age 25. After that he is only utilizing his wisdom to learn and then after 50, the learning capacity will start declining. I am presuming here, but if that is related to the 'age' system of this game, then you will have to learn a whole lot of skills while your age is low. After a certain age your learning capacity will decline."

"Eh...I didn't think of it that way! Can this be possible? That means it should be better to learn everything early?"

"Hmmm not sure. I just presented a thought. It may or may not be related. And even if it is, only the learning capacity will decrease. It will become harder to learn new skills, etc but you will still be able to learn so it should not be an issue. Ofcourse it is in comparison to how easy it is to learn skills now."

'Holy ***t! I need to find out more about this. I wonder where I will get the required information from!' Looking back at his game play records so far, he knew that he had only learned a few skills. It was that difficult after all. Considering it may be easier to learn from some people than others, the skill learning system could become a lot more complex.

"So whats up with your skillset? It says here you are learning battle, magic, music, dancing and accounting! What kind of profession uses all that? Are you sure you are not just learning skills at random without a basic goal! Would a random character be strong or profitable? Why did you start this game anyway?"

'Um...because its fun!' Swamy thought but...

"Um it has the most research potential among all the games in the market. No classes, this unique age system, learning speed dependent on compatibility with npc....I mean if you look at it there can be a million things to write about!" Swamy replied.

"Yes that's true. Well how did you go about choosing it?"

'I made a list of things that will interest me' but again....

"Um I compared cost vs innovation vs research potential."

"Hmm. Well I can see that you are learning a lot. But you need to make a matrix of the time spent in the game. You haven't made it, have you? Well not that you can help it...I am sure it must be hard making time for the game what with your studies and all."

'Lets go with that!' and Swamy simply nodded.

So on they went through all of Swamy's reports which he had painfully written in the last three days. His real game record however stayed hidden in a corner of his mind, where he could access it anytime.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Raka picked up magic language fast. Learning any new language is difficult even in real life, but because they had to start from scratch, it had become a little easier. Magic language consisted of 21 alphabets but mostly its grammar was simple. The only effort spent was learning all the new words. The only difference from the Ilmentia island language he learned before, was that now the system was not translating it. He had to take it as is. One of things the system did do was make a dictionary of all the words in the magic language he learned. He could access it and look at the spellings or the meaning if he ever got confused. But only of the words he had already learned. For new words he had to discover the meaning first and write it down using magic alphabets.

Teachers helped in this regard while he was in the classroom but considering the number of words possible in the magic language, he was sure he would find new words all the time while he was adventuring. In that case, discovering the meaning of those words would be a difficult task.

Magic Language: 75%

But in any case he was learning fast. His magic language had already gotten to 75%. Considering the time it took to learn the language of the island, it was a bit slower but he was sure that he could finish learning it in another day or two max.

He could now go to the magic library and pick up simple books to read. A lot of books dealt with the history of the world, which was named in a magical language word he could not understand. When he asked one of his teachers about it, he learned that no one had deciphered that word yet. And so this world had a different name in every language spoken. In Ilmentia Island it was called Gynopeia, which meant 'The Mother' or something close enough.

What he was really interested in however were books about magic. Books which dealt with magic not only described certain magics, but the types and properties as well. More importantly it talked about its various applications from communication to teleport....even becoming invisible was possible if you could control it. Not having a complete grasp of magic language he did have trouble understanding the exact details of it, so learning was not possible yet.

'Maybe I can ask Lady Verina' thinking that he headed down to the the training hall for his regular meetings with her. He had gotten better in sensing the energy, so he could get to the 'colorful world of energy' as he called it, in no time now. After that it was just the time needed to transform the energy. Since getting the Focus stat, in the colorful world he could see this bar which filled up the more energy he transformed. Looking at it, he could now measure the energy he was going to use. As soon as the bar filled up a little he thought 'Fire' and a small fire started in the wood stack.

Raka opened his eyes and looked at the small flame. In a while, the small flame rose into a raging fire and consumed all the wood.

"Well done! You are improving. You are still slow, but within acceptable limits" remarked Lady Verina. "So tell me how do you see the wood stack now?"

"Um I see it as a bunch of colors..." replied Raka a little confused with the question.

"No I mean do you see it as a single thing or do you perceive it made of different things?"

"I look at it as a single thing. I can't differentiate between the different things in the stack."

"Hmmm...so precision is still a problem. I guess you simply started a small fire rather than target a specific thing to set fire to?!"

Raka nodded.

"Can you sense me when you are perceiving?"

"Yes I can Master!" and Lady Verina nodded.

"How far can you perceive? I mean in that world, how far can you see things happening?"

"Um I am not sure. The things need to be happening fairly close for me to sense them. But its like I can walk around the entire floor in my world and as I get close to other things, I can see their energy forms."

Lady Verina nodded.

"In time, as you gain more experience, your perception should improve in two ways. One is detail and another is range. You will be able perceive things in more detail, eventually be able to separate them. Also you will be able to sense farther, as you call it. You will be able to see or sense things happening at a range."

Raka nodded understanding.

"Every person develops these two abilities in varying degrees. Some can sense things down to their tiniest detail. And some can sense energies hundreds of leagues away. In your case, it seems that you have started improving range rather than detail first."

"Um is that bad?"

"No. It is just mental aptitude. It depends on how you perceive energy. In your case, as you find it easy to move and look at things as you call it, you are improving perception range."

"Ah...ok. So I will be able to sense things from a greater distance as I improve?! So I won't learn how to look at things in detail?"

"Yes and No! You will improve your range but the extent will depend. As for your ability to look at things in detail, it depends. Usually most magicians will eventually develop their perception of detail to a certain extent, atleast till they can recognize different objects even when they are stacked together like this. You must understand that people will develop these two abilities differently and at different speeds. It also means that you would apply magic a little differently. There will always be people who favor one over the other. People who favor range perception become archers, rangers, scouts or even hunters on this island. Those who favor detail perception choose to become identifiers, explorers or inquisitors. According to what they favor, their combat ability evolves accordingly but most have these two abilities to some extent."

Raka thought for a bit, absorbing the necessary information. He nodded.

"You have just started magic and it is yet unknown to what extent you will develop both these abilities. Try to develop both when you are doing your perceiving training."

"Yes Master!"

"Now that you are able to use magic at will, we will now learn how to apply it in combat!"

"Yes" replied Raka thoroughly interested to learn to throw fireballs and wind storms.

"In that case, do you really think you can throw fireballs or windstorms on opponents looking at how slow you are?" Lady Verina hit the nail on the head figuring out Raka's thoughts.

"Um....eh...I can't?!"

"Think about it yourself. Even a horned rabbit will kill you by the time it takes you to make a fireball!"

Raka was dejected. Looking at his depressed face, Lady Verina added

"No need to be sad. In time you will be able to use magic on its own. But you can still fight with magic!"

Raka looked up, a little light returning to his eyes.

"Watch this" saying which Lady Verina got a staff out. She waved her hands and then slashed with her staff. A sharp wind came blowing past Raka, throwing him on his back a couple of feet away.

Raka stood up looking warily at Lady Verina.

"Did you understand?"

"Um I have no idea what you did!"

"Oh! Well then, look again.." Lady Verina said pointing at the staff with her eyes. Raka understood and closed his eyes. In the colorful world he found Lady Verina's form and what looked like a stick form beside it, though all he could recognize were the stick ends. The rest mixed up with Lady Verina's form. He found energy whirling around the ends just like wind circulating around the staff.

He opened his eyes and looked closely at the staff now. He could not see the wind, but there was a definitely a very fine layer of something formed over it. He looked up at her.

"So what did you see?" she asked.

"Um like energy flowing around with the staff as the center."

"Correct! I have put air around my staff. This is called embedding. You can embed magic onto your weapons and enhance it. Because I embedded air on my staff, whenever I swing it around it causes a blast of wind. If you embed it with earth, it will become very strong, increasing damage. Think of it as making the weapon wear a coat of magic. It also follows the rules of elements so if you embed a wood staff with fire, it will burn the staff itself."

"Can you embed magic only on weapons?"

"No, actually you can embed it on anything. Actually any stable form of energy as you will call it. I can embed magic on myself...like this..." and she waved her hand around her head for a bit and her head disappeared.

"I have embedded light magic on to myself. This will allow light to simply pass through me with the effect being, you can't see me!"

"That is so cool Master! Can I learn that too!"

"Working with light and dark elements require much learning. I doubt that you will be able to do this right now, but maybe in time. Embedding requires the same focus you need when you do magic. Lose it, and it will explode right in your face. The process itself is simple however, most people can do this much. What you do is imagine!"

"Imagine?"

"Yes, when you sense the energy of the staff, imagine that you are coating the staff with energy. Then create magic on the surrounding energy. Sounds simple...eh?"

"Um..so all I have to do is imagine and it will work?"

"Hahaha yeah! Sounds incredible, but energy is always flowing. What you will simply be doing is directing the flow around it. Well it is simpler than the words. Try it! Now!" said Lady Verina insisting.

Raka closed his eyes and looked at the colorful world. He looked at the staff form in his hands. Some of it had gotten mixed up with the colors of the hand holding it. He moved his other hand all around the staff imagining the colors around it moving around its form. It took a while, but eventually he saw those colors moving, slowly...very slowly. He thought 'Air'.

He opened his eyes and felt something in his hands, just not the feel of wood that was before. He looked and his hands were held wider than the thickness of the staff. He moved it around but there was no discomfort, although small puffs of wind started flowing at his actions. He swung his staff down hard, and a large gust of wind escaped from his staff raising the dust on the hall's floor as it traveled forward before disappearing along the walls. Raka smiled.

Just then he got the message,

30 Mana used.

When Life and Mana attributes were created he found a status bar created on the side of his view, showing how much of each he had. Now the Mana status bar was showing completely empty.

"Hmm not bad. One of the various applications of magic is embedding. Embedding magic on an object is easy but the effects are temporary as usual. Given a length of time, which depends based on various things, the magic will disappear. It is classified as easy magic. However controlling it is rather difficult. Beginners can only use it a few times after which they have to embed again. We say that this control is provided by a mysterious thing called Mana. When your Mana is full, you keep control of your magic. When you lose Mana you also lose control. When you have recovered it, you can use it again. Embedding is also an application of magic so control requires Mana."

'Eh is this Mana the same as mine?!!' Looking at his dumbfounded expression Lady Verina smiled.

"Yes it is the same Mana as you use. After all I discovered it by studying you. Or to say Goddess's children."

"Eh....!"

"Yes! And I also know that you guys cannot die though I think others may not agree with that!"

"How come?"

"You see, you are not the first of Goddess's children to arrive in our world. A long time ago when Altia and I were mere children, some Goddess's children arrived then. They stayed in the village, talked with us and played with us."

'Long ago? The only ones I can think of are developers and testers! Is she talking about them?'

"These people learned all kinds of stuff around the village and soon left to go hunting. They killed the animals around here and even brought them to the village. We had a feast during those times. Soon they started leaving the island for some time always coming back with tales of their adventures. I think Altia had a crush on one of them."

Raka listened quietly.

"About three years after, they suddenly said that they had accomplished what they had come to do and must return to the Goddess's side. But someday more children like them may come so we must prepare. They said their goodbyes at the gate of the village and walked off. Altia was sad and followed them hidden from their view. I could not leave her alone so I went along as well. Soon those people reached a secluded area of the forest. For some reason, no animals had attacked them or us for that matter on the way. And then, they disappeared. Altia and I honestly thought they were dead. Maybe that's how Goddess's children died, different from us. Altia was so sad, she ran away crying all the way back to the village. She was always the strong one though. Even when we were small, the animals gave her no trouble. But I was the weaker one. So scared I stayed there.

I soon saw something which had dropped from one of those people on the ground. As I was about to go and get a closer look, one of the Goddess's children appeared again. He took the thing on the ground and disappeared again. That day I knew that you guys could not die."

'Eh so that's what happened!'

"Yeah I came back and told Altia what had happened but I don't think she heard a word I said, being so sad as she was. I think till this day she believes that you guys can be killed. I tried telling the other people too, but only a few ever believed me, the rest thinking that I was making silly stories as I had been left in the dark and dangerous forest alone. One of the few who did believe, was the head of the Magic Institute. Later, when I learned magic a lot of things which I had overheard those people say made sense. One of the things was Mana. I also realized that the Goddess's children know almost nothing about this world and the way it works, which is why they need to learn so many things, even language. I also chose Goddess's children to do my magic research to learn more. I also found out that the same phenomena had occurred in three other villages in other islands."

Raka quietly listened.

"Ah I think that you come from another world. When you disappear you go back to that world. When you die, you go back to that world. The body here disappears with you, or is recreated by some magic every time you appear. Unfortunately, you Goddess's children have this unhealthy habit of not answering my questions. Even then, even now!"

Raka smiled to which Lady Verina simply made a face. It was not that Raka did not want to tell her, but he did not know how he could explain such things so he elected to remain silent.

"Hah! Well its not like I will give up!" Lady Verina had a devilish but determined smile.

"May I ask something instead. If you knew we couldn't die, why is there an age limit to leave the village? Lady Altia said you would be able to answer that!"

"Ah! You mean the age barrier! Nice piece of magic isn't it!"

"Wait..you mean its actually magic? set up by someone?"

"Hmm. Yes its magic. But its not set up by one person, in fact a lot of magicians got together to set it up. It is quite a complicated magic and highly classified by the Magic Institute. I cannot give you the details for it, but I can answer your other question...why! You see when the previous Goddess's children left the village, they told us more would come and to prepare. Well the people of the nation decided to learn from the experiences of those children, atleast what they had seen. They saw that those people had grown up bodies but under developed minds. They did not know language at first, but eventually learned. The first time they went out they could not fight and only after a while they could deal with the animals around us. These and a lot of other things were considered and it was decided that like us the Goddess's children also age, just that they grow faster than us.

Ofcourse a lot of people did not believe me and the tiny few who did decided to play it safe by keeping quiet about it. So it was decided to protect the children by setting up this age barrier. Children of the village grow strong enough to hunt the animals around here by the age of 14. So this was arbitrarily decided as the age limit for the barrier. Ofcourse we discussed these with the other islands where Goddess's children had appeared and we all agreed on setting up the age barrier in those respective villages. The age limit was decided accordingly."

'Oh! so that's why! It explains a lot'

Both Raka and Lady Verina stayed silent for a while after this.

Just as Raka started fidgeting becoming uncomfortable from the continued silence, Lady Verina said,

"Well now that you can embed magic on to your weapons, the next step would be learn to use it in combat. Embed your staff with magic and spar with me. I will try to go easy on you...Hohoho~ not that you will die anyway!"

A devilish smile appeared on Lady Verina's face almost as if she was going to enjoy the next few moments thoroughly! Raka trembled. 'Does she know that she can cause pain, even to us?'

And the spar began. Raka embedded his staff with air and then with earth as he sparred with Lady Verina. He tried doing the same with water, but nothing happened. When he asked, Lady Verina simply said to discover it on his own. In between, they switched their wooden staffs with metal ones. Raka tried embedding it with fire and the magic exploded in his face. Even with Lady Verina's healing it took a while for him to wake up after that. A few more of such painful times before he could embed with fire.

The sparring lasted six hours. If this was Lady Verina taking it easy, Raka did not want to find out how painful it would be when she was serious. Even his endurance rose by a few points.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After finishing his magic training, Raka made his way towards Neona's shop in the evening.

He arrived there with plenty of time before closing and so he was asked to help out with the selling. One of the skills he was eagerly trying to learn was Estimation. Unfortunately, not having Neona's vast knowledge he was always at a distinct disadvantage. Even then he persisted. He was working in a food shop, so he tried to practice with the stuff around him.

'Hmm this blueberry tastes nice. The look on it says that its almost fresh, I think around a day old. Neona said it is grown in the north of the island so that's about the time it would take to get here. Usually she charges around 2 silvers for 4 stones. As it is fresh it would have been a bit expensive so maybe she will charge a little extra around 2 silvers 10 coppers, I think. Also she likes to make around 4.2% profit so the actual price would have been....."

And then he would simply wait till Neona decided on the prices for that stuff. And compared it to his estimation. Usually he would guess close enough but sometimes the guess was quite off. When it was off, he remembered to ask Neona of its actual value so that he may improve his calculations.

Economy decided prices. To derive the true value depended on when, where, how, what and in some cases how much. Which changed according to the changing economy. The economy of the island in turn was affected by the worlds economy. So in order to determine the true value of everything in Neona's shop, required complete knowledge of forces affecting the economy of this world. So if you thought Estimation is an easy skill, think again!

Raka had reduced his targets beforehand. He only concentrated on the stuff grown on the island. He found out the taxes which applied on the merchants, travelling costs they may endure. Speed comes from a more expensive transport so fresh stuff get priced accordingly. The true value would change according to how it was handled during transport to how it was harvested to how it was grown even where it was planted. Calculating the true value based on the prices was one way but most of it also depended on his own observation skills. After all as Neona explained, you have to consider greed as well. Maybe some stuff did not require speedier transport and have a long shelf life.

All in all learning Estimation was a nightmare. He did not even have internet for his research. The thing he could do here was make all sorts of formulas to calculate true value. He recorded the prices and true values and also his estimated true values of each food stuff every day. He also recorded observation points and their supposed outcomes so his accounting, format and formula skill increased greatly. It seems that not only designing formats and formulas but using them increased his skill level as well. Not to mention all the accounting he did for Neona. He made records and then records of records increasing his skills greatly trying to learn one skill Estimation.

And it was slowly beginning to pay dividends. His estimated values were inching closer to the actual true values day by day.

Today, there was this stock of oranges she had bought also.

'Hmm the color of the skin feels nice. It should be just a little bit sour in this time of year. She bought it from Jagga, a merchant who tries to overcharge but I think he is right up Neona's alley so that's out of consideration. He might have paid a little less than its value to the farmer though so I need to consider that. Hmm...putting this here and.... so the true value should be about 1 silver 40 coppers for 4 stones.'

"Neona, according to me the true value of this stock of oranges should be about 1 silver 40 coppers for 4 stones. How much is it according to you?"

"Hmmm seems like we will have to agree on that. I think its 1 silver 40 coppers as well."

Just then,

You have learned the skill Estimation.

Skill Identification has been learned.

"Skill description, Estimation and Identification"

Estimation (Beginner lvl 1: 1%) : Allows determining the true value of any item based on information about it and/or rarity and/or usefulness. The true value may determine more than its cost in money. The skill increases according to your actions and/or equips.

Identification (Beginner lvl 1: 1%) : Required skill Estimation. Allows and helps in the identification of properties of any item. If an item is successfully identified, other similar items may be partially or completely identified beforehand. The skill increases according to your actions and/or equips.

'Yes!!! Finally!!'

Raka was happy that he could finally achieve it but he knew it came with a lot of restrictions. If he truly had to learn Estimation he would have learn a lot more. He decided to try his skills on whatever was around, namely food.

He looked at the bluebird eggs and,

"Identify"

[p=center]Bluebird eggs[/p]

Class: Food, Egg

Eggs of the bluebird. If it hatches a bluebird will be born. Hatched bluebird can not be tamed. Classified as a delicacy and sold for high prices. Its delicious taste is highly regarded in many places. Cooking it helps increase stamina and vitality.

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Swamy had taken leave from his part-time work on account of his parents arriving. Today his parents were attending their function in college. After they left, Swamy logged back in the game.

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Raka was again sparring with Lady Verina. And as usual, he was getting hit a lot. When she said she would take it easy, it was only limited to magical attacks. The staff itself, she used without regard, or atleast that's what Raka felt.

No matter what Raka did, or how fast he did it, Lady Verina danced circles around him. Toying with him like always, she dodged every strike...somehow even the magical ones. He was being trained to control the magical power and release it only when he wanted it, instead of simply producing it everytime he swung. That's the case for the 'air' element anyway. In regards to embedding the 'earth' element he had to maintain it for as long as possible while Lady Verina attacked his staff. It seemed easy at first but everytime the staff got struck, his Mana was reduced and so it was more of an endurance contest with his Mana on the line. She told him to recognize which attacks would result in magical attacks and which wouldn't and guard accordingly. This would save on his use of Mana making it more efficient. And it goes without a word that it was exceedingly hard. Well for two reasons, one he couldn't see air. Even if he could see like the earth element, a single strike to the ground would cause earthquakes, atleast that's what Lady Verina was doing. Secondly he could not sense it, for he could not close his eyes to sense the energy. Till now he had only succeeded in sensing energy by closing his eyes.

Adding the two, made it almost impossible for Raka to distinguish between normal strikes and magical strikes. Well that's to say if he could guard in the first place. He felt like he was holding a piece of useless wood feeling the pain of Lady Verina's strike which seemed to have slipped past his guard.....he had no idea how!

A couple of hours of such practice and Raka was again lying on the ground completely exhausted. Lady Verina again applied her healing and his recovery rates improved so with a little rest, he was again full of energy. For once Raka hated her healing magic.

But she put her staff away. And asked him to dance.

"Shall we enjoy ourselves with some dancing?"

Raka could only nod. He had found out that he did not hate dancing. Ofcourse, to become as graceful as Lady Verina might take a lot of time but as far as remembering the steps and responding to the music, he had got that part down. He took Lady Verina's hand as the music started playing and placed his other hand on her waist. He moved closer and could almost smell the aroma coming off her. And then he started dancing, keeping his eyes fixed on her face. 'She is beautiful' was all Raka could think of at the moment as he let his body move enjoying a rare moment of pleasure.

They kept on dancing and the music kept on playing. He did not realize how long they had been dancing for, he did not feel tired at all. After a while he had caught on a rhythm he enjoyed and his feet moved naturally. Usually Lady Verina led and Raka followed trying to keep up with her movements. But now he led and Lady Verina followed gracefully.

He twisted and turned. He lifted her and sometimes bowed. They fell together and together they rose.

When the music stopped, Lady Verina blushed a little.

"Hmmm I enjoyed that...I will like dancing with you again!" she said with a lovely smile.

You have learned the skill Dancing.

Skill Pair Dancing has been learned.

Agility stat has been created. Agility is the combination of flexibility and efficiency of movement but it requires you to understand that movement is defined by its action and its efficiency by its rhythm which actually result in a beautiful movement.

Based on your efforts you get 10 points to Agility. This stat increases based on your actions.

"Skill description, Dancing, Pair Dancing"

Skill Dancing (Beginner lvl 1: 1%) : Allows rhythmic movement to music. Can be used to express feelings and emotions. Can be used to impress ladies. Highly regarded by the nobility of the land. Can be used to improve intimacy. Has a chance of providing positive status. Has a chance to remove negative status not relating to tiredness. As the skill rises, different dances can be learned giving different effects. The skill increases according to your actions and/or equips.

Skill Pair Dancing (Beginner lvl 1: 1%) : Required skill Dancing. Pair dancing requires you to dance with a partner. Has a chance of providing positive status to you and your partner. Has a chance to remove negative status not relating to tiredness from you and your partner. If successful dancing results in increased intimacy, intimacy related actions may be allowed.

Reading the skill descriptions Raka could only go...'Eh!!!'