Darith and Liana looked up in awe at the structures before them. Five towers all built side by side of varying heights, connected together by numerous intertwining white stone walkways. Each tower had a roof of a different color - they were grey, purple, green, blue, and yellow. At the base of the towers was a wondrous garden filled with beautiful plants of all colors and sizes, and a paved stone walkway that lead to all 5 towers. In the center where the paths converged was a gigantic marble fountain depicting a faceless woman with long hair garbed in wizarding robes, surrounded by benches. The entire area was walled off from the rest of the city so that the loud bustling of Avistion couldn’t be heard, and instead the calm sounds of nature dominated. The sound of water, birds chirping, and the occasional magic student walking by.

The attire of the people in this area was something out of a fairy tale, with robes and wizard hats. Their noses dug into tomes of varying sizes, with staves and wands fastened on their backs or in their belts.

“The central tower with the grey roof is for general magic learning, its where the great library is and where you’ll find most scholars studying to level up their mastery. The others represent the other schools of magic in The Broken Realm.” Belle asked as she lead them along the path to the Grey tower.

“What are the schools of magic?” Darith asked.

“Grey is for Spell Mastery, it covers the general destructive spells that utilize the elements. Green is Life Mastery, its spells revolve around life, healing, and curing status ailments. It’s the second smallest of the towers. Blue is for Aura Mastery, which is what I’ve taken. It focuses on beneficial and detrimental area affects. It covers anything from speeding up your allies, to scaring nearby enemies.” Belle said as she walked around the fountain and got closer to the Grey Tower.

“Yellow is the middle tower, its Enchantment Mastery, it covers applying magic to objects in the world. You can learn temporary enchantment, or permanent, I’ve even seen people enchant swords to fight on their own. And lastly, the second largest, purple, is Conjuration Mastery, it’s about summoning magic and creation magic.”

“I see, so a lot of spells use combinations of the masteries?” Darith asked.

“That’s right. For example, if you combine Life Mastery with Conjuration, Spell, and the high level Dark beginner magic, you’d be able to take the Necromancer affinity. Or if you put Life Mastery with Aura mastery you could learn a healing aura that restores health to people nearby. Myself personally I am going for a difficult Affinity, Bard, which requires 5 masteries. Aura, Spell, Bow, Healing, and Music. I’ll get it done eventually but it takes awhile to level up that many masteries.” Belle shrugged as she walked through the open doorway into the tower.

The inside seemed much bigger than it did from outside. There were several staircases going up to varying levels, with beautiful furnishings, paintings, and carpets all around them. Behind a large front desk sat a male nemothyne with cat ears and glasses on, furiously scribbling away on a piece of parchment with an ink pen.

“So where do we start?” Liana said, overwhelmed by the size of the building as she looked up, unable to see the top of the staircases and floors that wound around the circular tower.

“Well, you can learn about the intermediate spells you’re capable of learning, or try studying the different masteries, and learn about varying affinities. The library in this tower has information about all of the masteries in this game world. Similar to The Martial Arts Academy, you can train any of the 5 magic masteries for free up until level 5 just to get an idea of what sort of magic is available to you using each one.”

“What do you think, Darith? What should I go for?” She asked, looking to see Darith was just as overwhelmed as she was.

“I uh-uhm. Normally it’s risky to go purely support, but if you’re always with us then having a powerful pure support player will make us incredibly strong. What seems most interesting to you?” He asked.

“I like healing and protecting people more than I like hurting them… that sounds fine to me.” She smiled, then looked at one of the wands she bought, and her sphere. “I didn’t learn Life Mastery even though I’ve been using Sphere Mastery for healing spells though, did I do something wrong?”

“No, Life mastery is very hard to obtain without coming here, and it's tricky to level up.” Belle shrugged.

“Do you know about any good affinities for pure support?” Liana asked her with hopeful eyes.

“Uhm… it’s not really popular, but there is a Cleric affinity. It requires level 50 in Life, Aura and Enchantment Mastery, and level 50 in the beginner light magic spell. I’ll warn you though, the only intermediate offensive magic you’ll be good at is Light, and light is notoriously useless unless you’re fighting Dark based or Undead foes. That’s why not many people go for it. Something like a bard can both heal and deal damage decently.”

“That’s okay, I want to be really good at healing and supporting everyone.” Liana said, clenching her fist to show her enthusiasm.

“You should start with the Life tower then, it’s down that hall, just ask the desk about learning and they’ll set you up with an instructor.” Belle pointed down one of the many paths leading from the main room they were idling in.

“Okay, I’m going to go check it out now. Message me if something happens!” Liana said as she ran in the direction Belle pointed.

“Good luck.” Darith replied.

“She seems eager to learn.” Belle smiled.

“Me too, this is, man this is cool!” Darith grinned ear to ear, still taking in his surroundings.

“So what did you want to start with?”

“I… before I pick an affinity or anything, I’d like to learn what all the masteries can do. Not just because I might want one, but I also need to know what I can expect from other players.” Darith asked.

“You might as well pick up Scholar Mastery while you’re studying then, it’ll give you access to all the books in the libraries. I’ve heard that if you get higher levels in it, they let you read more sections of the libraries in these towers.” Belle said.

“I can learn that by asking the guy at the desk, I take it?”

“You catch on quick.” Belle replied. Darith then hopped forward to the desk where the busy Nemothyne, named Fareson with a ??? level, looked at him over the top.

“Ah, a new face.” He smiled politely. “How can I help you today?”

“I want to become a Scholar and study Masteries using the library here.” Darith replied.

“Wonderful, a man of knowledge. There is much of it to be obtained in these walls. Before I can let you enter, you must agree to the terms of our library.” Fareson said as he pulled out a piece of parchment and handed an ink pen to Darith. “It simply says that you agree to not damage or steal any of the property here, respect other scholars and what not. You acknowledge the punishment that would come if you were to do so.” Fareson smiled.

“What’s the punishment?” Darith asked as he was about to start signing.

“Death.” Fareson replied cheerfully. This halted Darith’s hand for a moment.

“Eheh… a bit extreme…” He replied, then finished the signature.

“We take the protection of knowledge very seriously here.” Fareson replied as he pulled the parchment away, then made it dissipate into a flash of light. “Wonderful. Now, hold out your hand.” He instructed him, Darith nodded and did as he was told. Fareson then suddenly jabbed the inkpen into Darith’s palm.

“Aw, what the hell?” Darith pulled his hand back. It didn’t deal damage and only stung for a moment, and seconds later a black symbol appeared on the palm of his right hand resembling that of a scroll.

You have gained the skill Scholar Mastery(?)

Scholar Mastery is attempting to convert the Analyze Skill(?)

Accept(x) Decline(x)

He quickly clicked on the question mark for Scholar Mastery.

Scholar Mastery - Rank 1

Passive: Increases Intelligence by 5%

Improves your retention of knowledge from books and the speed at which you can acquire information from them, in addition to gathering information about the world around you through observation and magic reading. Higher ranks improve your ability to learn to communicate in other languages. This mastery is heavily influenced by your intelligence.

Scholar Mastery is attempting to convert the Analyze Skill to the spell Magic Reading

Current:

Analyze - Rank 6

Gather information about a target. Higher ranks increase the amount of information gathered.

Mana cost: 50

New:

Magic Reading*

Gather information about a target or object based on its magical aura and any information you have read about in the past. This skill is improved with higher ranks of Scholar Mastery. This spell has no ranks.

Mana Cost: 60

Darith quickly hit accept to allow the conversion to happen.

“Congratulations, you are now officially a Scholar of the Avistion Magic Academy. You may use the lower levels of our library to your heart's content. If you have any other questions, don’t be afraid to ask me or another member of the staff.” Fareson said with a smile.

“Just one question… are there other libraries other than this one?” Darith asked.

“Not in Avistion, at least not as filled out as ours. I imagine there are many out in the world that we lost when the Realm Broke though. If you happen upon any old texts, we’ll pay greatly for them so be sure to bring them back here.” Fareson replied.

“Got it.” Darith nodded.

“C’mon, it’s this way.” Belle said as she led him up a winding staircase. The two walked quickly and didn’t need to go far to reach the first floor of the library, the door was open but there was a faint grey light covering the entirety of the doorway.

“Don’t worry, as long as you have the scholar mark, you can pass it. If you try to leave with a book I’m pretty sure it kills you though, so don’t do that.” Belle said as she stepped through.

“R-right.” Darith replied nervously as he followed her. Inside he saw row upon row of shelves covered in books, the shelves themselves towered up to the ceiling nearly 3 meters high - which appeared much bigger to Darith in his Nemothyne body. There were plenty of tables with chairs and not many seats were filled, but it was obvious everyone present was a player trying to learn more about the mastery they had chosen, or other aspects of the game. It was very quiet, the grey barrier seemed to block out all the sounds of the outside world so that all that could be heard was the occasional footsteps or page being turned mixed in with some low whispers.

“Here you are, all the knowledge you could ask for. I’ve read pretty much everything I wanted to in here already, so I’ll leave you to it. But first, -” Belle said while tapping the air, suddenly a message appeared.

Player Belle has sent you a friend request(?)

Accept(x) Decline(x)

“If you accept we’ll be able to talk just like you do to your party, through the friends menu in the interface section. It’ll appear once you have your first friend.” Belle whispered. Darith hit accept.

“Thanks for all the help, we’d be completely lost without you guys.”

“And I'd be a block of ice if it wasn’t for you, so don’t think much of it.” Belle smiled. Darith was slowly getting used to the fact that he was talking to a woman, even though her elf avatar was male. “Oh, one last thing. Try to ignore the ghost girl that walks around reading books. She’ll jump out at you sometimes, but if you make noise because of her she’ll get pissed, and if you scream really loud then you might get suspended from the library for 24 hours. Not that, you know… that happened to me or anything...”

“A ghost?” Darith whispered back surprised.

“Y-yeah, apparently she died during the construction of the tower, the staff don’t seem to be able to see her so they ignore her.”

“I’m glad you didn’t forget that detail.”

“You’re in the Broken Realm now, gotta get used to everything being weird.” Belle smiled, then waved as she walked out of the Library. Darith watched as she left, then turned back towards the Library, but instead standing directly in front of him was a transparent bluish, white-ish girl, mere millimeters from his eyes. She was the same height as him in his Nemothyne body, looking down at a book in her hands, standing idly directly in front of him - she had appeared suddenly and without making a noise. There was no name or level above her head.

Darith stumbled back from surprise, but he felt no urge to shout or scream, in fact his heart didn’t even skip a beat, it stayed perfectly calm. This worried him more than the fact that a ghost was standing in front of him, and he took a second to think about it.

“Gamer’s mind…” He whispered to himself, as she suddenly walked forward into him, passing through him. It felt cold and icky, but still not scary. She walked towards the wall behind him and disappeared through it, and once she was gone he let out a sigh of relief. Glancing around he saw several people sitting at tables watching him, but as their eyes met they all went back to their books.

He stepped forward towards the first shelf and grabbed the first book, looking at the cover. ‘A beginner’s guide to finding ore’. He prepared to put it back, as it had nothing to do with a mastery, but then shrugged and took it as well as a few others. ‘A Beginner’s guide to Smelting’, ‘Advanced Smelting Techniques’, ‘Secrets Under the Earth - Identifying Mithril’. He plopped all four down on a nearby table, pulled up a chair and began reading.

He wasn’t sure what to expect when he turned the first pages, but with his high intelligence and scholar skill, he felt the words on the page smoothly entering his mind. The terminology that he was unfamiliar with at first quickly became easy to understand, and despite the books each being over 100 pages in length, he was able to finish the first book in 15 minutes.

Scholar Mastery skill reached rank 2!

Scholar Mastery is trying to teach you a new skill: Mining(?)

Accept(x) Decline(x)

After finishing it, he looked up and thought about what he had read. The knowledge was there, he knew the basics of finding and refining copper, the entire process was in his head on what to look for and where to look for it. He shook his head in disbelief.

“So I can learn skills through reading as well instead of just buying weapons or tools.” Darith said as he hit the accept button.

Mining - Rank 1

Find and harvest ore from earth and stone. Higher ranks enable you to effectively mine more precious metals and increase the chance of finding higher quality materials, as well as gems. A pickaxe is required to use this skill.

Cost: 5 energy

Mineable Ore: Copper

Quality: Low: 90% - Normal: 10%, High: 0%, Superior: 0%, Flawless: 0%

“Awesome.” He said as he closed the first book and prepared to start on the next book, but before he did, he hesitated, glancing up at his party interface. He watched the energy bars of Gabriel, Elise and Jaese fluctuate, while Liana’s mana bar went up and down. He reached forward and touched all four of their names.

“How’s everyone doing?”

“I’m gonna need to stay here awhile.” Jaese replied.

“Me too, I promise I’ll get really good though.” Elise said.

“Same.” Gabriel replied, all three sounding out of breath.

“This Life Mastery is tough.” Liana said, sounding a bit frustrated.

“Keep practicing, I’m going to learn everything I can in the library. Let me know when you guys get tired or hungry and we can meet up and take a break.” Darith replied, and received an acknowledgement from all four. With that, a big smile grew on his face as he cracked his neck and leaned into the second book.

By the time he had finished all three, about forty minutes had gone by. He gained a little bit of experience in Mining, but not enough to hit level 2, and got a few other messages.

Scholar Mastery skill reached rank 3!

Scholar Mastery is trying to teach you a new skill: Smelting(?)

Accept(x) Decline(x)

Smelting - Rank 1

Convert raw ore into workable metal used in various crafts. Higher ranks increase efficiency, chance of better quality, and reduces the chance of wasted materials, as well as increase the types of metal you are able to smelt. The quality of the ore being worked also affects this process

Cost: 5 energy

Smeltable Ore: Copper (35% Failure Chance)

Quality: Low: 90% - Normal: 10%, High: 0%, Superior: 0%, Flawless: 0%

“The experience was really low. Seems like reading is good for learning about the skills, but bad for leveling them up.” Darith said as he closed the last of the four books. He stood up from the chair and walked to the shelf, putting the four back and continued down the same shelf. This time he gathered 10 books, ranging from treating leather, to weaving, to basic herbalism, but as he was removing the books from the shelf he saw a ghostly girl staring through from the other side, glaring at him. The two locked eyes for a moment, and while he was definitely shocked, he didn’t feel afraid.

Darith awkwardly walked back to the table, pretending to have not seen her, then sat down with the books. He couldn’t help but wonder what purpose she served, why the game put her here. He concluded her job was to stop people from staying in the library for too long, and got started on the next books.

This time he took just over 2 hours of reading to get through the 10 books, and by the time he finished he had fully grasped the basics of refining nearly all types of materials in the game, from leather to cloth, to ore and wood.

Scholar Mastery skill reached rank 4!

Your recent activities have granted you +1 intelligence!

Scholar Mastery is trying to teach you a new skill: Weaving(?)

Accept(x) Decline(x)

Scholar Mastery is trying to teach you a new skill: Herbalism(?)

Accept(x) Decline(x)

Scholar Mastery is trying to teach you a new skill: Tanning(?)

Accept(x) Decline(x)

Scholar Mastery is trying to teach you a new skill: Skinning(?)

Accept(x) Decline(x)

Scholar Mastery is trying to teach you a new skill: Woodcutting(?)

Accept(x) Decline(x)

Scholar Mastery is trying to teach you a new skill: Refining Mastery(?)

Accept(x) Decline(x)

Scholar Mastery is trying to teach you a new skill: Gathering Mastery(?)

Accept(x) Decline(x)

“This is awesome.” Darith said to himself as he hit accept on all. They were fairly similar to the mining and smelting counterparts. Weaving covered turning raw materials into workable cloth, herbalism covered gathering plants usable in potions or weaving, skinning and tanning covered gathering and treating leather, and woodcutting covered chopping trees. What stood out were the masteries that popped up after he had gotten this batch of skills.

Refining Mastery - Rank 1

Improves your ability to refine raw materials into workable materials using various skills. Higher ranks improve the chance of higher quality outcomes and reduce the chances of failing or wasting materials. This skill is influenced by Agility, Strength, Intelligence, and luck.

Gathering Mastery - Rank 1

Improves your ability to gather raw materials of varying types using the many gathering skills. Higher ranks improve the chance of successfully harvesting materials as well as increases the chance of higher yields. Improves your ability to find materials related to known gathering skills. This skill is influenced by Agility, Strength, Intelligence and luck.

He leaned back in his chair and stretched out his arms and legs, feeling quite satisfied with his new collection of skills, though not entirely sure what to do with it. Seeing different people sitting around him now than what he’d seen when he started. He looked at his party interface again and saw the bars of his party members still moving up and down, not one of them sent a message to take a break. He stood up, put the 10 books back, and grabbed 10 more. This time they covered topics on foraging, lumber, and hunting. One book went over salvaging useful resources from monsters, which was much thicker than the others.

He sat back down at the same table and began reading. He could already feel the difference, with Scholar Mastery at rank 4 he was able to comprehend and read even faster, and regardless of the speed he felt the knowledge remaining in his head. The first few taught him a Foraging Gathering skill, and a Lumbering skill for refining logs into lumber, while hunting taught him a Salvaging skill that covered gathering meet and other usable parts from animals. When he got to the last book, the largest one covering monsters, he was able to complete it in under 30 minutes despite it being well over 400 pages long. Once he read the last words, a message appeared in front of him.

Scholar Mastery is trying to teach you a new skill: Synthesize(?)

Accept(x) Decline(x)

“Another one.” Darith grinned as he hit the ?.

Synthesize - Rank 1

Combine two or more objects in order to create a new one. Outcome is based off of chosen materials and skill rank. Quality of materials created and chance of success increases with each rank. Not all combinations will produce a new material.

Cost: 5 energy, 15 mana

Chance of Success: 10%

Quality: Low: 95%, Normal: 5%, High: 0%, Superior: 0%, Flawless: 0%

Known Combinations: 0

From reading thus far, Darith learned that quality on crafting materials contributed to how good the end product would be, and crafting skill was taken into account as well. A copper sword made with low quality copper would do less damage than one made with flawless copper, and it would have more bonuses if it was made by a high level blacksmith. Darith hit accept and began putting the books back on the shelves. He was preparing to grab more, having completely lost track of time, but his stomach made a loud rumbling sound.

“Guys, let’s take a quick break. Everyone use the return still to meet back in my backyard.” Darith said through the interface.

“Got it.” Gabriel replied, clearly out of breath.

“O-okay.” Elise replied, also out of breath.

“Alright.” Liana said cheerfully.

“Will do.” Jaese said, sounding tired. Darith walked out of the library after double checking to make sure he had no books on him, then in the hall in front of the door he made sure to stand clear of everyone walking around.

“Return.” He shouted, and the white circles began to form. After 10 seconds and a bright flash he found himself standing in his backyard where 4 others were all waiting for him.