Chapter 2: Scent of Vanilla 2/2

For the first time in nearly a week Durabo was outside of the library, and the sun on his face felt quite good.

As much as he loved the smell of books and the company of the girls he still missed the sun at times. Not that he would get to enjoy it for long he was just headed over to the Mage Guild after all. Yet you have to appreciate the small things in life don’t you think?

Doing just that while walking across the big plaza to the Mage Guild he studied the people around him. It seemed like there were more players around here than there was a month ago. How did he spot these players you ask?

He did it by their armor, clad in steel and leather in a place filled with mages and other learned men makes you rather conspicuous. The only NPCs in the area clad in armor where members of the Order of the Blackened Earth, powerful spellswords clad in black scale armor and with blades at their hips. They were rather hard to mistake for players.

When he entered the guild Durabo went directly to the front desk since there, like last time, wasn't anyone but the old elf present, and like last time he didn’t seem interested in anything but the paperwork that was presently occupying his full attention. Wise from experience he cleared his throat gently to call attention to himself, since if he didn’t he would not be noticed until the end of the page. This caused the elf to look up from his papers after a moment and study him.

“Hmm I remember you, young man. Are you ready to become a mage?” The elf asked.

“Yes sir, I have studied hard and I believe myself to be both worthy and able to walk the paths of the Arcane.” Durabo answered.

“We shall see, young one.” while saying this the old man rose and walked around the polished wooden front desk and towards a door besides it. “Come with me, it is not feasible to test you here.”

Well nothing for it but to follow him, so follow he did. It did make sense that it would be rather silly to have young untrained mages manifest elemental energy they couldn’t control at the front desk. So when he entered the testing room he wasn’t surprised to find himself in a small room surrounded by stone, stone doesn't burn, besides dirt and debris is easy to clean up from a stone floor.

“Now let me have a good look at you” the elf said while he took his hands and studied them intently, after which he looked him in the eyes.

The elf might be old but his eyes seemed youthful and sharp when he saw them up close like this. After a moment the elf nodded and said:

“Seems you have gotten the required amount of knowledge related to both Water and Fire, you have even reached a basic understanding of Light even though I know there are no books on that element in the library.” The elfs eyes turned piercing when he mentioned Light but they mellowed again. “Well done young traveler.”

“Thank you, I presume you would like me to demonstrate manifestation of Water and Fire now?” Durabo asked while giving the old elf an innocent smile, hoping he wouldn’t ask where he did get the affinity for Light. For judging from his reaction he shouldn’t have it and the girls might get in trouble for it.

“Indeed.” The old elf said standing aside.

Leaving Durabo some space to work with. Now skills in Nexus are deceptively easy to use, you just need to think of activating them with the intent to do so and they will.

‘Manifestation Water’ he thought imagining water appearing in the middle of the room.

And so there did, a small amount of water erupted from the air in the middle of the room and splashed to the floor.

‘Manifestation Fire” he thought and imagined fire appearing on the damp spot where the water had landed.

The fire appeared as expected and he held the image in his head until the water evaporated, it’s always best to clean up after yourself. The fire had to be moved around a little since his water skill was higher than his fire but it still took no more than a minute for the water to evaporate. The old man observed him the whole time and when Durabo was done he nodded in approval.

“You are ready to walk the paths of the Arcane” The silver haired elf said, holding forth a big leather bound tome.

Looking at the unmarked leather of it he sensed what he needed to do. Hesitantly his hand reached for the book. When his fingers grazed the smooth leather a system message appeared in front of his eyes.

Class change possible:Would you like to convert to the novice combat class mage?YesNo

‘Yes.’

Pain seared its way through his mind, until it reached a spot in the middle of his forehead then it receded to a dull throbbing. His breath grew ragged from the pain and he felt pure relief that the pain was over, of course that’s when the pain returned with a vengeance.

Compassionate brown eyes and silver hair was the last he saw before darkness swallowed his consciousness.

Durabo came to with the sense of cold stones under his knees and his vision filled with windows.

Mage:Type:Novice Combat ClassRarity:CommonDescription:Mages are arcane spell casters able to learn and master almost all types of magic with the help of their grimoires.Bonus Stats:+20 Intelligence and WisdomBonus Modifiers:1:15 INT:MP

50% spell damage

Magical combat skill experience increased by 50%Restrictions:Can only wear cloth garments and armor.

Only allowed to allocate: 1 STR per 9 INT and 1 VIT per 4 INT.

50% lower damage with all weapons including hand to hand.

Physical combat skill experience gain reduced by 50%.

Due to class change you have gained skills:Skill gained: Grimoire (Passive/Active)

Skill gained: Mastery: Magic Staffs(Passive)

Skill gained: Mastery: Wands(Passive)

Skill gained: Third Eye(Active)

Durabo didn’t feel up to reading them in depth as his head still throbbed, so he skimmed them quickly before dismissing them.

The elf reached down and pulled him on his feet while saying:

“You handled that well young one,“ seeing that he now stood firmly on his feet the elf took something out of his inventory ”,here drink this it helps.”

Durabo took a deep breath, and accepted the cool water skin from the elf with a nod of gratitude.

“Thanks.” Durabo replied and took a couple of swigs from the skin, the water inside was cool and had something in it that gave it a hint of licorice. Feeling the headache clear as soon as the liquid hit his tongue he handed the water skin back.

“Now that we are colleagues you may call me Tenarian.” Tenarian said while putting the skin back in his inventory.

“Well in that case you may call me Durabo,” he said his eyes once more sharp and calm, “but that was rough. I can understand why you don’t tell people about that before they sign up.”

Tenarian ignored the latter comment and instead drew himself up to his full height.

“Durabo you are hereby formally accepted as a novice mage of the Eislonien Mage Guild.” Tenarian said his voice solemn and formal.

Novice Eislonien Mage:You are a new mage formally accepted in the Mage Guild of the Eislonien RealmEffects:2% mage skill experience when equipped

“Now that that’s taken care of we can get the last piece of business done. All mages should be appropriately attired and therefore all mages gets a robe when inducted into our guild.” Tenarian said, holding forth a white robe with blue edges. Taking it from his hands he quickly inspected it after which he donned his new piece of armor.

High Elven Novice Robe:Rarity:UncommonType:Cloth ArmorSoulboundDescription:A simple robe given to novice mages to ensure they uphold a minimum standard of attire.Stats:RestrictionsEffects:Durability: 15/15

Defense: 1Lvl: 1

Mage

20 INT

20 WIS25% less durability loss from

magic damage.

This doesn’t reduce damage

done to the wearer.

Well he tried to put on the robe, but his long hair got in the way since he wasn’t used to it yet. After fumbling around for a bit he finally got it on feeling a little heat rising to his cheeks he turned around and said:

“Is there anything else I need to know or do before I return to my studies?”

Tenarian watched him for a moment evaluating him then said:

“No there is not, I’m sure we’ll meet again Durabo, until then study and grow.” Having said his piece Tenarian left, the door closing softly behind him.

He briefly considered looking at his new skills, but until he had a firmer grasp on how magic works for mages it would be pointless since he wouldn’t be able to come to any conclusions. Instead he headed back to the library, there were still almost a full day until he would be put back to work and in that time he should be able to at least figure out what skills to focus his attention on.

Entering the library once more he was immediately greeted by an angry Silendra swinging a fist at his head. Not even bothering to stop he kept walking right through her after which he turned with a smirk on his face and his gaze directed at a place above the door:

“Sylphie you know you need to do better than that, that didn’t even tricker my pass…”

He was interrupted by a sharp pain in his neck and he turned around to find Silendra standing behind him holding a needle in her hand and looking and him with mirth in her blue eyes.

“Apparently she does not need to do any better Durabo.” Silendra said, no longer bothering to hide a smile.

To think that Tenarian questioned how he got his Light affinity, after a couple of weeks like this he couldn’t avoid it even if he wanted to. Shaking his head he flashed the two of them a grin.

“Well it really isn’t fair when you two girls gang up on me,” a glint entered his eyes,” you are after all much more experienced.”

Silendra's silvery laughter rang through the library, not as rare as it used to be yet it would still set his heart aflutter.

While he stood there flat footed as always, Sylphie flew down and landed on his shoulder.

“Is that a reference to our age Durabo, for I do hope you know better than that.” Her tiny clear voice said in his left ear.

Now that she was comfortably seated on his shoulder, he started walking towards the stairs once more while he turned to face Silendra:

“I’ll be at the usual section if you need me Silendra” He said getting a simple nod in return and he added “ Oh and I’ll keep an eye on the rascal so she doesn’t cause too much trouble”

“Hey who are you calling a rascal?” the sound of an angry sprite rang in his ear.

Ignoring the indignant little sprite he got up to the first floor, went to section B as so many times before and started searching for books about the basics of magecraft.

You might think that bantering with a girl like Sylphie would be tricky while doing research, but that wasn’t the case in the least. Over the weeks spent in the library he had gotten used to having her around and while she didn’t know magic like he did, she did know a lot of things including which books might be beneficial to read. Besides she was good company and kept him from getting too consumed by the research, which was a good thing considering his mental health. Time went by and when Sylphie told him it was about time for work with a tug on his ear, he went over the notes before he packed up and got going.

Parchment:Mages and Magic:

Mages are able to cast magic in one of two ways. By using sigils and chants in the form of spells or by using the skills manifestation and mastery of a given element.

Mages need a codified way to cast magic unlike sorcerers because they are only able to see mana, they cannot feel it.

Manifestation and Mastery Magic:

This is the way that spells are created and is the basis of magic for mages.

The process is deceptively simple, the mage brings herself in a state of deep meditation in which she visualize every single aspect of the spell down to the smallest detail. That is the shaping of the magic. The release of the mana is done by connecting that image with a concept that can be just as complex as the image.

Now there are several issues and difficulties with this method. The first is the time it takes to make a clear mental image the other is what concepts that actually result in the right type, density and amount of mana being released.

The first is resolved with training and experience the latter on the other hand can only be solved through trial and error. Might be because elements are sentient and they therefore only respond to the correct concepts.

Spells:

Spells seems to not generate skills for mages.

In a sense spells are only mnemonic devices used to pass on specific ways to manipulate mana. Spell books are books detailing everything needed for the given spell to be cast.

Spells have three components; sigils, chants and focus.

The purpose of all spells is to alleviate the mental strain of casting magic via repetition until no conscious thought is needed for a specific mental image and concept to be formed. In the same way that training martial arts through repetition is a way to commit it to muscle memory.

The chant helps with the drawing out of mana of the right type density and amount by training you to associate certain sequences of words with specific concepts.

The sigils helps with the shaping and directing of mana through the use of your kinesthetic memory to assist the formation of mental images.

Focus is the thoughts you use to tweak the spell before release. In many spells this only pertains to release time and target, yet it can handle a lot of things through practice.

Staffs:

Is a magical foci that utilizes runes for the shaping of the magic thereby eliminating the need for sigils. But they require that the mana is channeled through them and a spell cast via staffs therefore require a longer chant.

The advantage of staffs is the fact that if you make a shaped magic “mold” you can use to cast every type of element in that shape.

Wands:

Wands handle every step of a spell except the focus part, they are driven by the mana in their surroundings. They are usually weaker than true spell have simple shapes and are heavily reliant on their surroundings for damage output.Might be that mages are the primary users of these only because they can release mana to the surroundings to fuel them.

‘Man that passive is quite useful. This is a good information.’ He thought as he put the sheet of paper in his inventory starting to get up when a occurred to him.

His eyes searched the book shelves until he found what he wanted spell books, or rather spell books related to Fire and Water. While contemplating what element to pursue after those two a stray thought hit him.

“Sylphie how do you cast magic?” He asked hoping.

“Magic, I don’t really know what that human concept means, I just want something to happen and it does. “ She answered him and tucked on his ear again to tell him he really needed to get going.

Durabo didn’t even notice the tugging on his ear, so surprised was he by that revelation. Magic is so difficult for us humans yet she didn’t even think of it as magic. It wasn’t until later he realized what it meant for him. No tutoring in light magic for him.

After three weeks helping out all he needed to do was to dust and sweep the whole place and place the few dozen returned books back on their shelves.

It took him no more than a couple of hours, which seemed like much less when chatting with Sylphie and making a game out of spotting her illusions. She no longer made them in ways to hurt or hinder him, he had apparently atoned for the whole treating her like a pet and ignoring her incident. Instead they played a game called spot the illusion. Well when I say she no longer tricked or teased him that isn’t entirely true but hey you take what you can get right?

Silendra and him had gotten into the habit of eating dinner around sunset since he would work through the night if need be anyways. So when Durabo was done with work he and Sylphie headed upstairs, since the warm orange glow of sunset could be seen through the windows of the library.

When he got upstairs Durabo was met by an intoxicating sight, the sight of Silendra in a fine azure blue dress and styled hair.

“I did expect a reaction,” a crooked smile lifted the corner of her lips, “ but you being speechless was more than I had hoped.” She said sounding pleased.

Durabo scraped his chin of the floor and replied:

“How could I be anything but speechless?” He said his wits returning from whatever place they had been sent by the sight of her. “ You’re beyond beautiful, and you know it.”

Now in his defense it’s the first time she had dressed up since he started working at the library and the combination of the soft light of sunset and her smirk was truly devastating.

“Thank you Durabo, that is kind of you to say.” She replied her eyes shining. “We do have something to celebrate I believe, and unless I’m mistaken it is customary to dress nice when doing so.“ She said while indicating he should take a seat.

Instead of doing so, he walked around the table to her chair and pulled it out. A small smile graced her lips as she sat down and he smelled a subtle hint of lavender in the air around her, revealing that she had even used perfume. A rather nice reward for being a gentleman.

After helping her Durabo seated himself at the table, feeling more than a little under-dressed I might ad. Even the food looked almost as stunning as Silendra, salad with wild berries and fruit as a side dish, small grilled mushrooms and pieces of beef on wooden stakes as the the main attraction, well besides Silendra.

“The food looks amazing, I’m more than a little irked by the fact that I only have these simple mage robes to wear.” He said.

“There is great honor in wearing those robes, they might be plain but they’re still a symbol of the ruling class.” Humor kindled in her eyes. “Besides I think they suit you.”

Heat rose to his face as his heart starting beating faster, in an attempt to hide the effect of the compliment he took a drink from the glass on the table. The sweet taste of pear cider hit his tongue and he almost choked on it, that was certainly not what he expected to taste at the moment. Coughing into a napkin he gathered himself, oddly glad for the excuse to be red faced, he was about to look up when the silvery sound of her laughter once more sent his heart racing.

Sylphie sitting on his shoulder started laughing too, and soon he found himself laughing as well. ‘I really should be used to their teasing and her flirting by now.” He thought to himself while drying the tears of laughter from the corners of his eyes.

“Now that cider was a surprise, I didn’t expect that.”

“I could tell, but water is a bit too plain when you’re celebrating don’t you think?” She replied with that lovely little crooked smile he found so entrancing.

“True.” Durabo answered, taking a sip of the class now fully prepared and therefore able to enjoy the cider. Silendra just started eating quietly, using small precise movements that didn’t even leave a sign of the berries on her fingers. Now he was no slouch, but even after nearly a month he couldn’t do the same without at least getting his hands a little dirty.

They ate in silence for awhile, yet the silence was far from uncomfortable. Instead it was the silence of friends not feeling the need to speak, favoring the enjoyment of the food in it’s place. When done with the dinner he sat back in his chair and considered his next course of action. He would obviously need to learn all the spells he could for both Fire and Water, yet he would also need a place to train them without too many interruptions, since a large part of spell casting relied on routine.

“Silendra you wouldn’t happen to know where a good place to train spells are located? Preferably a place where I can train without interruptions.”

“I was wondering when you would ask for that.” She looked delighted for some reason. “I happen to know the perfect place. In the old days, mages had a stronger bond with this place and they therefore constructed a place to train in the basement. To be more precise they constructed the Novice spell training facility here, the only one in Vetas I might add.”

Now that was good news, so with only a swift goodbye to the girls he rose and headed downstairs. Eager to begin using magic in truth and not only in theory.

When he got to the basement the door to the training facility was quite apparent, mainly because it was covered in runes wrought in some kind of silvery metal. After he entered a window opened in front of his eyes even though his mind wasn’t calm, irritated yet intrigued he read it.

You have entered a ZoneYou have entered the novice spell training zone. A place made to train novice mages in the use of chants, sigils and foci.Effects:500% MP/s

10% to spell related EXP

You gain no intelligence and wisdom from the use of mana while in this zone.

‘Wow, that’s quite useful.“ he thought to himself dismissing the window before looking around the room.

He found himself in a large circular stone chamber with a radius of about thirty meters. In the center of the room was a small circle of pale stone, clearly meant to be the place where you stand. Now before getting in circle he had a few things he need to get done. First he needed to look at the skills he had and evaluate them. Next he needed to learn a spell and try out the circle, to see whether his suspicion of this exercise being target practice was true. Then just as he started contemplating how to get only the specific skill windows from the mage class to appear, they opened as if the system had read his mind, quite handy if I do say so myself.

Grimoire (Passive)Rarity:CommonRank:NoviceLevel:1 23%Description:Effects:Your personal spellbook that will record all spells you learn

and all information you find related to magic and mana.

Sub Skills:

Summon Grimoire(Active):

Summons your Grimoire in front of you. Cost 100 Mana

Absorb Knowledge(Passive):

You are able to absorb knowledge related to spellcraft and mages.4% spell Damage

Mastery: Magic Staffs (Passive):Rarity:CommonRank:NoviceLevel:1 0%Description:Effects:You’re experienced in the use of staffs as a magical foci to enable the casting of spells without using sigils, but it requires a chant that’s one word longer per circle of the spell in order to attune it to the staff.46% spell cost

Mastery: Wands (Passive):Rarity:CommonRank:NoviceLevel:1 0%Description:Effects:You’re experienced in the use of wands a magical foci to do long ranged damage without chants and sigils.4% Wand Damage

Third Eye (Active):Rarity:CommonRank:NoviceLevel:1 0%Description:Effects:You’re able to perceive mana as visual information.Can glimpse Mana.

Can't differentiate mana types.

Can't gauge mana strength.

Durabo was pleasantly surprised by the grimoire skill, it seemed both cool and useful. Since as far he could tell mages didn’t get a specific skill for each spell.

While he found the staff skill to seem sub-par considering the fact that chants seem to be the part of spells that take the most time. The wand skill on the other hand he found intriguing, yet he had no idea how they worked so the jury was still out on it.

The last skill he wasn’t surprised to see in the least, since all other games give mages a way to perceive mana, it was to be expected, since it was an active skill and didn’t cost anything to maintain he decided to activate it immediately.

All in all a mixed bag, he would have to experiment with some spells to get a feel for what works and what doesn't and make a plan from that.

The next order of business was to actually learn a spell to train.

As Fire was his strongest affinity, as well as the best element damage wise of the elements available, he decided to start with it.

Opening his inventory he took out the book Basic Fire Spell which contained just one spell, albeit the most iconic spell of all, Fireball. Well it contained instructions on how to cast a spell that looked like it since fireball was just a sphere of fire mana to a mage anyways.

It was a quick read, and as with all things it seemed simple at first glance.

As the book instructed he sat down in the cross legged position known as the lotus position and closed his eyes. Before he could even begin the true spellwork he would have have to get in the right mindset. In order to do so he focused on his own breathing, slowing it down, breathed out his thoughts and breathed in the stillness of his surroundings. Some time later he’d found the place he needed within himself and begun the spellwork.

First the slightly tricky sigil part.

First he would have to imagine a perfectly round sphere, the size a radius of twenty centimeters, which would from now on be his medium sphere size, that image was all he needed as a mental image, now he had to associate two sigils with the mental image, one for the size and one for the shape. Simple right? He only needed two sigils since he’d chosen to forego the third sigil, thinking it would be unnecessary to use a focus sigil to target the spell. His mind would have to do that part, if it didn’t enemies would be able to read his intentions by studying his focus sigils . The process was repeated a few hundred times until the thought of a sigil, made the thought of the shape appear by itself.

Next comes the chant part, here he had to think of hurtful fire, fire that burns with an orange glow and sets things alight. He had to use three words for the chant, and found to his utter delight, that what he studied as a gimmick was perfect for this. Rune tongue had a lot of words for what he thought of as the same concepts, yet now he could see the point. Associating the concept of normal fire with the word for it, and doing the same for the concept of a medium sphere worth of mana with the word for medium fire wasn’t as hard as he believed. As before he repeated the process until he the mere thought of the words made him think of the concepts. Done he opened his eyes and saw to his pleasure two windows in front of him.

Spell Recorded:Your grimoire has recorded a spell.

Would you like to name it?YesNo

‘Yes’ he thought followed by another thought. ‘Normal medium fireball.’

The window disappeared and the other moved to the center of his field of vision.

Due to your actions you have earned a skill, skill experience and stat points:+10 Concentration

+4 Wisdom

+50% Grimoire experience

Skill gained: Meditation (Active)

He closed that as well and rose stretching, since the floor was hard and cold beneath him and he had been seated way longer than he thought.

When he entered the circle in the floor it glowed for a moment and then a round sphere of earth appeared five meters in front of him. His arms moved and the sound of runes rang in the room. Almost immediately a fireball appeared and headed for the sphere, unfortunately his focus slipped for a moment and he missed by a wide margin. Wondering what would happen now, the circle glowed once more and another sphere appeared five meters from him, but a little to the right. This time he hit it dead on and after a moment a new one appeared further away this time he was too slow to and the sphere disappeared before he even got the spell off. At this point Durabo was really reconsidering the whole he could handle focusing with his mind, yet he persisted.

Falling into a rhythm the time as always started flowing by without him noticing. The spheres appeared faster and faster, and yet he had less and less time to hit them, thereby increasing the difficulty.

When he came to it was due to a system alarm telling him he had five minutes until forced log off. Just about to do so voluntarily, his intuition twigged and informed him of the fact that he was being watched. Looking around trying to find out if it was true, when he saw a piece of wall grey out and turn stony, but not before he caught a glimpse of raven hair and blue eyes. Instead of doing something he just logged off, he saw no reason to inform her of the fact he’d noticed.

Status window:

Spoiler : Status WindowName:DuraboGender:MaleLevel:1Experience:14%Job:NoneRace:High ElfCombat Class:MageSupport Class:NoneTitles:Novice Eislonien MageExpendable Stats:HP:350HP/s:1,75MP:1170MP/s:3,7Stamina:350STM/s:3,5Satiety:30kSAT/s:-1Basic StatsStatBaseBonusTotalAgility:33235Charisma:27027Intelligence:562278Strength:19019Vitality:35035Wisdom:542074Advanced Stats:Concentration:92Affinities:Fire:12%Light:7,5%Water:10%

Skill List

Spoiler : Skill ListCombat Skills:Skill nameSkill RankSkill LvlSkill EXPGrimoire (Passive/Active):Novice150%Intuition (Passive):Novice647%Mana Feed (Passive):Novice473%Manifestation: Fire (Active):Novice54%Manifestation: Light (Active):Novice18%Manifestation: Water (Active):Novice151%Mastery: Chants (Passive):Novice216%Mastery: Fire Spells (Passive):Novice217%Mastery: Magic Staffs (Passive):Novice10%Mastery: Sigils (Passive):Novice219%Mastery: Wands (Passive):Novice10%Running (Passive):Novice52%Third Eye (Active):Novice28Support Skills:Skill nameSkill RankSkill LvlSkill EXPCharm (Passive):Novice346%Language: Rune Tongue (Passive):Novice532%Meditation (Passive):Novice173%Subconscious Note-taking (Passive):N/AN/AN/AWriting (Passive):Novice1248%

Hey there fellow penguins and other readers. :)

I really had some trouble writing this chapter for some odd reason, I just couldn't get the dinner scene to flow and work like I wanted, i hope it isn't to bad.

Yay for being done with the whole training sequence, things are going to start happening from now on.

Now last but not least, I have decided that I won't try to make some weird excuses in the story for you to see the status windows and such, I will therefore henceforth include them at the bottom in every chapter so you guys have a chance to check them if you want to.

As always, enjoy and comment if you want to ;)