Chapter 6

The shower felt amazing. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my small room had its own bathroom. I was more surprised to discover that this world indeed had indoor plumbing. The toilet didn’t flush like a normal toilet instead running your fingers across a set of runes on the side of the toilet activated some sort of magic effect that cleaned the toilet leaving nothing behind but fresh water. The shower was also powered by magic, a simple swipe of a couple runes activated hot water that poured from a nozzle at the top of the shower. I scrubbed away a day’s worth of mud and blood from my skin and simply enjoyed soaking under the warm water. Several minutes later and feeling much more refreshed I stepped out of the shower and dried off with a towel wrapping it around my waist as I moved back into my bedroom. It was a simple room with a bed, a desk and chair, and a wardrobe, which Shadowfire was currently asleep on top of, that had several simple karate Gi like uniforms. There were also a couple sets of plain normal clothes, the boy who had brought me to my room informed I was supposed to wear my uniform when training, but if I left the dojo, I was to wear street clothes.

I sat on the bed, still wrapped in my towel. I looked around the small room, it reminded me of the room I had at my old college dorm. My thoughts turned back to my old life, and I wondered what my friends and family were up too. A bang of guilt hit me as I realized that they were probably planning a funeral. I had died on Earth after all, my final pain filled moments of Earth flashed my head. I shook my head trying to clear my mind of those dark thoughts. I pulled a fresh set of clothes from the wardrobe and dressed quickly deciding a bit of exploration would help keep my head occupied. Afterall, I hadn’t seen much of the city and wanted to meet up with everyone else at the Lucky Gnome Inn.

I strapped on my sword and almost felt naked not wearing my armor. They had taken it to be cleaned and fixed up a bit. It was looking a little worse for wear after my fights. As I opened the door a lite weight settled on my shoulder as Shadowfire landed taking his usual spot and wrapping his tail around my arm to stabilize himself. I scratched his head absently and we made our way out of the library. I asked Shadowfire to ping the library on my map so I could find my way back here.

By now it was well into midday, the sky was a brilliant blue with only faint whisps of clouds. The sunlight felt warm on my skin and a gentle breeze brushed past me bringing with it the strange new smells of the city. I made my way through the streets taking in much of the sights around me. The streets were far busier than they had been in the early morning hours. In the densely packed city streets, I almost felt like I was back on Earth, moving through the city streets like I had a hundred times before, though the smell was vaguely better than it had been on Earth, here however, the streets were new and unfamiliar which was exciting. I managed to find my way back into the town square and noticed the obelisk had two portals currently open that adventurers were stepping out of. I stopped by a merchant and bought a sandwich and something to drink for a couple silver coins. I was slowly figuring out that copper and silver seemed to be the most commonly used form of money. 10 Copper equaled 1 Silver and 10 Silver was equal to 1 Gold. That meant that completing the quest to clear out the goblins camp had earned me a fair bit of money. Not to mention what I had looted off the goblin's bodies, perhaps this adventurer thing wasn’t so bad after all.

I took a bite of my sandwich, the lettuce was crisp and juicy, and the meat was just the right amount of salty. I wasn’t sure what kind of meat it was; I didn’t even know if this world had cows, but I thought it best not to ask. I sat on the side of the fountain happily eating my sandwich watching the people pass by. Most ignored me, but a few gave me a polite wave.

It still baffled me to see such a mix of races, Humans, Elves, Gnomes, and Dwarves I even saw a couple more Draconians. A pair of children ran past me giggling happily, one appeared human while the other had the sharp pointed ears of an elf. I smiled at them as they passed and simply watched the people around me for a while.

I finished off my sandwich and stretched as I stood, I continued to explore the city for several more hours. Several shops caught my attention, one was selling finely crafted suits of armor. Another sold weapons in all shapes and sizes, I lingered there for several minutes starring at a particularly well-crafted sword. When the dwarf running the shop told me the price, 200 Gold coins, I staggered and thanked him before leaving the shop. I had a good amount of coin but nowhere near that much.

I kept looking up towards the sun trying to gage the time. Shadowfire looked at me curiously as I did. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked in my head.

‘I am trying to figure out what time it is.’ I responded.

‘Oh yeah I can fix that now.’ He closed his eyes and a second later a clock appeared under my map showing the time as 5:03 PM.

‘Have you been able to do that this whole time?’ I asked in annoyance.

‘No, I had no idea what time it was in the forest, but here I can set your clock to match the clock tower.’ He said simply.

‘The what?’ I said stupidly. Rather than responding he stretched out his neck pointing towards a tower in the distance. It reminded me of the pictures I had seen of Big Ben in London, a huge tower with a massive clock face. ‘Oh, I didn’t see that’ I said sheepishly. Shadowfire than began berating me for not paying attention. I ignored the little Dragon and kept looking at shops. After another hour I started to get hungry, I asked a shop owner where the Lucky Gnome Inn was. He pointed westward and said it was a couple blocks in that direction.

I found the Lucky Gnome a few minutes later. It was an Inn and tavern with a couple of floors, a sign out front had a picture of a Gnome in a ridiculous looking suit. I stepped inside and was hit by the smell of freshly cooked food and strong beer. I scanned the common room and saw Serk and the others sitting at a table on the far side. I moved over to them, and they greeted me happily. We sat talking for a couple of hours, I tried not to drink too much since I would begin my training in the morning, but they were celebrating their successful quest and it was hard not to join in.

Several hours later and with a debuff telling me I was fairly drunk I staggered back to the library. When I had left the library earlier, they told me to use a side entrance to reach the underground barracks if I came back after dark. I collapsed into my bed still wearing my clothes and passed out. I awoke a few hours later to a heavy pounding on my door. My head was splitting, and I staggered to my feet as I moved to the door.

“Get dressed it is time for breakfast” A young man said as I opened the door. He walked off, as I shut the door, I could hear him banging on someone else's door repeating the wake-up call. I moved to the bathroom where I drank half my weight in water, before splashing water on my face. The water helped a little with the hangover. I growled as I noticed a hangover debuff icon at the top corner of my vision.

You are Hungover, mild pain, light and sound sensitivity. Agility reduced by 2 points. Duration 1 hour. Consuming food and water will reduce the duration.

I dressed quickly and left the room heading for the main dojo. When I reached it, I saw that two long tables had been placed on the floor of the room and about 30 or so students were sitting on their knees eating. I moved over to another table where the food had been laid out, it was some sort of porridge and bread and smelled heavenly. I took a bowl and a piece of bread and found a place to sit at one of the tables. I ate quietly, the food was quite good and helped to settle my stomach and cure a bit of my hangover. The debuff timer now showed 30 minutes.

I noticed that Master Vorjun was sitting on his platform, but he wasn’t alone. A draconian woman was sitting across from him, and they seemed to be engaged in a pleasant conversation. She looked shorter than Master Vorjun with deep red scales instead of gold. She also didn’t have horns, instead thick tendril like dreadlocks hung down to about her shoulders, they had various gold and silver rings hung in them.

Once breakfast was over everyone cleared away their bowls, stacking them neatly on a cart. Then as one the students began clearing the tables which were then stacked at the far end of the room. The draconian woman stood and marched off the platform, turned and headed down another hallway, without a word half the students followed her, moving in an orderly fashion.

Master Vorjun was still sitting on his cushion on the raised platform. The students all spaced out in orderly rows. Master Vorjun sat silently for several long minutes sipping from a teacup. He sat down the cup and stood, as one the rest of the students bowed; I and a couple other students, followed a second or two later. He stepped off his platform and began to pace in front of his students.

“Some of you are new here so I will explain how your training will work. After breakfast we exercise, one must have a strong foundation if you are going to become a true master of the blade. Then we break for lunch, after that we practice the seven fighting forms of Draco Jitsu with wooden swords. Once you have proven to me you have mastered each of the seven forms you will be moved on to actual combat training,” he turned towards one of the students standing in the front row, “Jojin lead them in their morning exercises.” the student, Jojin apparently, bowed.

He turned and began running around the dojo, everyone else fell in behind him. For the next few hours, we did leg and core work. By the time we stopped for lunch I was drenched in sweat and my muscles ached. Lunch was fried chicken and rice and I scarfed it down. After we had cleaned up from lunch Jojin and a couple other students began handing out the weighted wooden swords I had used in my fight against Sarah. I looked for her among the crowd but frowned when I didn’t see her, I wondered briefly where she was.

Master Vorjun stood on his platform so everyone could see him. He then began to show us different sword forms that reminded me of Chinese marital arts I had seen back on Earth. His movements were fluid and graceful but also sharp and deadly, the sword in his hand seemed more an extension of his arm then a separate piece. After his demonstration he showed us all how to stand for the first form and proceeded slowly through the first and second form. We did our best to mirror him and repeated the movements over and over. I noticed quite a few of the students were more graceful than others. Clearly, they had been training longer. I noticed two of the students seemed to be struggling as much as I was, it made me happier that I wasn’t the only one struggling.

After that we had dinner and were allowed to do what we wished. Master Vorjun encouraged reading in the library as he wanted us all to be strong of mind and body. I chose to head for my room, feeling completely warn out from the day, muscles I didn’t even know I had ached. As I reached my room one of the other students approached me.

“You are one of the new students, right?” he said, I thought I recognized him as one of the students who seemed too new to all of this.

“Yeah, I just started today, you?” I asked.

“I started last week, myself and my sister Merina that is, I am Marcus by the way.” Marcus said offering me his hand.

“Derek” I said shaking his hand.

“You were doing well for your first day, I cannot seem to get the footing right on the seventh form,” Marcus said with a shrug.

“Thanks, “I said slightly awkwardly, I was never good at taking compliments.

“Merina and I were going to play cards with some of the other new students, you are welcome to join us.” Marcus said with a smile.

“That sounds great,” I said and followed down the hall to one of the other rooms.

Marcus and Merina were twins, both elves with the same platinum blonde hair and silvery blue eyes. They were the children of some elven noble here in Ravensbrook and had been sent here to learn under Master Vorjun. Between the two of them, Merina was the more outgoing of the two. Marcus was a bit more like me, preferring his quiet time, but Merina was strong willed and more often than not pressured her brother, and me, into hanging out. Over the next couple of days, we quickly became friends, Merina left me little choice on that. Merina was a musician and often entertained several people in the dojo with her music. Marcus and I hung out whenever Merina’s growing popularity pulled her away from us. Marcus started teaching me a game called Staleen Lesherem which was elvish and roughly translated to Luck Thief. The idea was to roll 2 pairs of dice and hide them under a cup then place bets on whether the dice under your own cup were going to be even or odd. You could raise the bet by guessing whether your opponents’ dice would be even or odd. Whoever was right won the pot.

Merina scoffed at us for playing, what she called a “childish game”, but it was fun. Rather than actual coin we bet on clean up duties. When Marcus lost two games in a row, and I stuck him with toilet cleanup for two days he pouted, and we stopped playing for a couple days.

Each day followed the same routine, in the morning we would workout focusing on different parts of the body, a break for lunch, followed by sword forms, and finally dinner. Most days I left Shadowfire in my room as he had no interest in watching me train. By the end of the third day, my muscles ached from overuse. I was not an athletic person by nature, and I had never worked out this much back on Earth. I rubbed at my sore muscles and ground my teeth at this worlds lack of Tylenol, Marcus suggested visiting an alchemist he knew to get some ointment for my sore muscles.

Despite the pain I was in I felt I was getting better, even Marcus commented on my footwork, he was still tripping over his own feet. Master Vorjun had now taken us through all seven forms and was making us repeat them over and over. He would move through the crowd as we practiced correcting someone's posture or scolding them if their sword wasn’t as straight as it should be.

I noticed Artix stopping by on a daily basis watching me from the balcony. He always had a quill and parchment in hand, I wondered what sort of notes he was taking. When we broke for lunch on the fourth day, I noticed that both my strength and agility had each gone up one point. Clearly my daily intense exercise was paying off. After lunch we took up our weapons and began practicing our forms. Master Vorjun moved through our lines, occasionally shouting out forms and we would have to quickly move to that form. Marcus, Merina, and I were standing near the back of the crowd, it had become our spot over the last few days. He stopped as he watched us shift from form 2 to form 7. Marcus always had trouble with the footwork on form 7, with Master Vorjun standing mere feet away I could tell he was more nervous than usual. Master corrected him again telling him how to place his feet. Marcus did so and Master moved away.

That evening at dinner I rubbed at a particularly sore muscle in my arm. Marcus noticed me and again mentioned his alchemist friend. At this point I was willing to try anything so after dinner Marcus and I headed out of the library to the alchemist’s shop.

The alchemist was a balding elf man named Dogan. His shop was located on the corner of a street and from the look of it was attached to his house. It was a smaller shop filled with an array of plants. He stood at the counter grinding something with a stone mortar and pestle. When he saw as he broke into a happy smile. “Hello again Marcus are you here for my ointment? That Master of yours hasn’t been pushing you too hard, has he?” he said in a friendly manner.

“Just enough,” said Marcus with a smile, “My friend here is training with me, he just started and is in desperate need of some of your numbing ointment.”

“Of course, of course, pleasure to meet you,” Dogan said wiping his hands on his apron before offering me his hand to shake, “I am Dogan, welcome to my shop. I have all sorts of herbs and ointments for a budding adventurer like yourself, not to mention an array of potions for when you are out in the wild fighting god’s know what.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Derek,” I said shaking his hand. Dogan was a very friendly man, and I found myself liking the older elf. We talked and bartered good naturedly for a few minutes. I left with a couple more health potions and a tube of ointment that reminded me of toothpaste and smelled strongly of medicinal herbs. Once we reached the library, I said goodnight to Marcus and headed for my room. I stripped off my shirt and applied some of the ointment to my sore muscles it had a cooling effect and I sighed in relief as I stretched out on my bed feeling more comfortable than I had the last few days.

On the fifth day after lunch, we began our practice as usual, this time however Master was shouting out forms in rapid succession making us flow from one to another quickly rather than repeat a form several times. Some of the students seemed to be having a hard time keeping up. To my surprise I was moving quickly through each of the forms adjusting as he called out a new form. A window suddenly appeared in my vision.

Congratulations you have learned the rare combat skill Draco Jitsu. Affect: All melee attacks now deal an additional 3% more damage, agility increased by 3%. Your skill Untrained Combat has been morphed into Draco Jitsu and all levels have transferred over.

For learning a rare combat skill, you have been awarded 50 experience points.

I realized I was standing starring at the screen before me. I waved it away and adopted the third form, which everyone else was currently standing in. Master Vorjun called out the fifth form and I flowed easily into it. When he called out the 6th and 3rd form in rapid succession, I easily flowed from one to the other amazing even myself.

As I turned into the 4th form, I froze suddenly realizing Mater Vorjun was standing in front of me. He was staring hard at me his eyes narrowed though one of his brow ridges was raised in curiosity. He called out two more forms in rapid succession and I hastily flowed into them, feeling his eyes barrowing into me he called out one final form than huffed and walked away. We finished practice and put away our weapons, preparing the floor for dinner. A loud throat clear behind me made me jump and I turned to see Master Vorjun standing behind me, I briefly wondered if he had some sort of stealth skill or something, he did that a lot. “Follow me,” he said ominously and turned to walk away not bothering to see if I was following him.

I fell into step behind him feeling my pulse quicken. He moved through a hallway I had never been in before and entered a slightly larger dojo. Here 11 students were practicing but instead of drilling sword forms they were actually fighting. Their movements were slow but precise with all the grace and fluidity I had been learning. I noticed the Draconian woman I had seen before was leading them, I also spotted Sarah amongst the group. They stopped when they saw Master Vorjun and as one turned and bowed.

“In all my years of training I have never had a student learn as quickly as you, I am impressed,” he said not looking at me, before I could say anything he continued, “on Monday you will come here to train, now that you have the basic forms down it is time you learned how you use them in combat,” he said still not turning to look at me.

“Thank you, Master” I said bowing respectfully. He glanced at me and gave me a half bow before turning away. I made my way back into the main dojo and sat down for dinner. I could feel eyes on me as I sat trying to eat my food, and I felt certain people were whispering about me. I glanced around the room and several pairs of eyes quickly moved away trying to make it seem like they weren’t just looking at me. I ate quickly and cleaned up my dishes and left the dojo for the quiet safety of my room.

I opened the door to my room and felt hands push me shoving me inside. I wheeled around to find Marcus and Merina staring at me in wide eyed astonishment, “How did you do that?” they both said in unison. They did that a lot and it was a little unsettling.

“Do what?” I asked trying to feign ignorance.

“Don’t play dumb with me, “Marcus said with a frustrated snap “Somehow you already gained the skill, I can see it on your character sheet. So how did you do it?” Merina was starring hard at me as well. I sighed realizing how hard this was going to be to keep this a secret.

“I’m a Realm Walker.” I said simply. They both stared at me in disbelief. “I came to this world a little over a week ago, for whatever reason I learn skills faster than most other people. Honestly, I’m still surprised I learned the skill that quickly, those forms aren’t exactly easy to learn.”

“I know what you mean, I still can’t get my footing right on form 7,” Marcus said all trace of his frustration gone, “A Realm Walker though, I always knew you were a bit strange.” Marcus said a grin.

“Well, whatever the reason it is certainly impressive.” Merina said, Shadowfire had landed on her shoulder, and she was feeding him food from the palm of her hand. A knock at the door made us all jump. I moved to the door and opened it. I was surprised to see Artix on the other side he seemed to be bursting with excitement.

“I have to talk to you,” he said with a grin. I shewed away Marcus and Merina and shut the door behind them. Shadowfire seemed upset that his snack had been interrupted and flew over to curl up on top of my wardrobe.

“So, what’s up dude?” I asked Artix, he starred at me for a moment in confusion than shrugged it off.

“You’ve proved it.” He said excitedly, I stared at him uncomprehendingly.

“Proved what?” I asked when my vacant stares didn’t provoke an answer.

“I have been watching you all week, you just learned a new skill. One that can take weeks or even a month to learn properly. You learned it in a week, less than really and then demonstrated complete control over the skill. This means I am now certain that your kind can learn skills faster than a native Elserian.” He said excitedly.

“I thought you already knew that?” I asked in confusion.

“I suspected it, but never had any hard proof. Now however I do, this is most exciting. I will go down in history as the man who documented your rise to power.” He said practically squealing with glee.

“What rise to power? It's not like I’m taking over the country or something I just learned a skill.” I said with mild annoyance.

“Of course, of course, but who knows what your future holds.” he said, I rolled my eyes at him.

“I was sort of in the middle of hanging out with my friends, I’d like to get back to that if you don’t mind,” I said and started ushering him towards the door. He stopped abruptly and turned on me.

“I nearly forgot the other reason I wanted to talk to you, I have a friend who wants to meet with you tomorrow. He is willing to help you learn how to channel your mana.”

This gave me pause and I stared at him for a moment as excitement flowed through me. “Seriously? That’s awesome I can’t wait.” I said excitedly.

“He will be here around noon, come to my office so you can practice.” He said as he opened the door.

“Thanks, Art” I said, he narrowed his eyes at me in annoyance as he shut the door. Shadowfire hopped on my shoulder as I went to find my friends. Since we had the weekend off, Merina decided we should hit up some of the local taverns. Back on Earth I rarely visited bars. Tonight, however I had barely left the library all week, and it felt good to get out of the dojo. We apparently weren’t the only ones, as several other students were doing the same thing.

A couple blocks away we found a tavern where a human male Bard was up on the stage entertaining the crowd. We took a table near the bar and ordered a round of drinks. Merina winced as the Bard hit a note slightly out of pitch.

“He isn’t very good” she said haughtily, Merina could be a bit judgmental of other musicians. In this case however she was right, the Bard hit a few more notes just a bit off before ending the song with a flourish. A round of scattered applause followed and he took a break for a few minutes, chatting up some ladies by the bar.

“You know, you should get up there and sing something Merina.” I said noticing her eyeing the Bard’s lute, which was still on the stage. “I’ve heard you sing, you’re very good.” Merina blushed at my compliment.

“I am an alright singer” she said with a blush, “Besides I didn’t bring my lute, and its rude to use someone else’s.”

“Next time then” I said with a smile. She nodded and we continued chatting until the Bard got back on stage. He played two more songs. Then one of his strings snapped on his lute and his third song ended before it began. He sheepishly took the Lute off stage to fix it, Merina shook her head mumbling something about amateurs.

We stayed a couple more hours, Merina and I drinking lightly, while Marcus slammed back several drinks. Eventually we left the tavern to head back to the library. We made it about 3 blocks before Marcus, who was significantly more drunk than either of us, darted into an alley and began vomiting. Merina and I stood well away from him. As we did, I noticed an odd light reflecting off a window and looked up. I could just see a pulsing blue light through a second story window before it flickered out a couple seconds later. I starred at it curiously.

“What do you think that was?’ I asked Merina pointing at the window. She glanced up and gave a shrug.

“What did you see?” she asked curiously.

“It was a weird blue light for a second,” I said.

“It was probably just someone trying out a spell,” she said with a shrug, looking over at her brother still painting the wall with vomit.

“Does that happen often?” I asked.

“I am sure it does, we are only a few blocks from the Arcaneum. Who knows what sort of people live around here.” She said before moving over to help her brother, who had slumped against the wall. I watched the window for a few more seconds. When nothing else of interest happened, I shrugged it off. Merina had her brother's arm draped around her shoulder as she lifted him off the ground.

“Are you going to help me with him?” she said with a groan.

“Your strength is higher than mine,” I said teasingly.

“That might be true, but he weighs twice as much as me,” she groaned, clearly straining to help Marcus up, he was barely conscious at this point. I laughed and moved to Marcus’s other side propping his arm around my shoulder. We carried him back to the barracks and dumped him unceremoniously onto his bed. He didn’t move, merely snoring in his sleep. I said goodnight and made my way back to my room.

Despite my slightly drunken state I had trouble falling asleep. The thought of finally being taught how to control my mana and possibly learning spells was exhilarating. Eventually I fell asleep as Shadowfire curled up on my chest.

Since we had the day off, I didn’t have to get up as early to get too breakfast. I showered and headed for the main dojo where the tables were still setup. Most everyone was eating quickly to leave for whatever fun activities they had planned. I got a tray and some food and noticed Marcus sitting alone his head in his hands. I slammed my tray down onto the table next to him and he groaned loudly.

“I hate you sometimes, you know that?” he said shooting me a venomous glare. I merely smiled and began eating. Merina sat down a couple minutes later slamming her tray on the table as well. Marcus groaned loudly again.

“Serves you right for trying to drink your body weight in alcohol last night. Derek and I had to carry you home.” she said chidingly, Marcus simply groaned again taking unenthusiastic bites of his food.

“You have your meeting with someone from the Arcaneum today right Derek?” Merina asked a few minutes later.

“Yeah, he is going to come teach me about magic or something, honestly I am not really sure,” I said excitedly.

“He will be teaching you how to channel your mana not teaching you magic,” she said.

“Wait, there's a difference?” I asked in confusion.

“Do you not know how magic works?” she asked her brows furrowed in annoyance.

“My world doesn’t have magic so, no” I said honestly.

“Well first you must learn to channel your mana, doing so unlocks your ability to learn mana-based skills, but doesn’t guarantee you can learn spell casting. You can only learn spell casting if you have a strong affinity for one or more of the schools of magic.” she said.

“How do I know if I have a strong affinity for magic?” I asked growing a little more concerned.

“Once you have learned to channel your mana, they perform a test. They have you channel your mana into a crystal and the crystal glows to show what kind of magic you have an affinity for, the brighter it glows the stronger your affinity. Most spell casters have one strong affinity and one weaker affinity.”

I remembered Zavra saying her enchanting magic was stronger than her evocation magic, so she balanced that out by enchanting pieces of parchment with certain spells.

“What types of magic are there?” I asked curiously.

“There are seven official schools of magic. Enchanting, Evocation, Divine, Illusion, Protection, Transmutation, and Summoning. There are a couple of darker schools, like Dark and Necromancy, but no one teaches those. Usually, people can cast spells from up to two different schools, rarely some people can do it for three schools,” she said.

“You seem to know a lot about this, can you cast spells?” I asked, I had never seen her cast spells before, but I supposed it was possible.

“No, I can’t. I wanted to when I was younger so I learned as much as I could about the process. I was taught how to channel my mana but when they tested me, I only had a very week affinity for protection magic. They still tried to teach me spell casting, but it didn’t work. The lower your affinity is the less likely it will be for you to learn the spell casting skill,” she said with a mournful look.

“So, if I have a high affinity for, say Evocation, I can learn the spell casting skill and cast evocation spells?” I asked excitedly.

“If you have a high affinity for magic, they will teach you the spell casting skill and you will learn the skill for your school of magic.” she responded.

“Those are separate skills?” I asked in confusion.

“You really don’t know anything do you,” she said in exasperation. “The skill spell casting gives you the ability to cast spells and your skill level determines how many spells per day you have. Your skill in, say Evocation, determines which spells you can cast, the higher that skill is the more powerful the spells you can cast are,” she said.

“Why do you want to cast spells anyway?” Marcus asked, joining the conversation for the first time, “you’re training with the most highly sought-after swordsmen in all of Ravensbrook.”

“I just want to keep my options open; besides wouldn’t it be awesome to start throwing fireballs at people,” I said with a grin. Both the twins rolled their eyes at me. We finished breakfast and helped clean up, the twins headed off to do their own thing while I headed for the library to do a bit of reading. I was thankful that Shadowfire’s translation skill applied to the written word and not just the spoken. I was already struggling to blend in, not being able to read would have made it worse.

I picked up the book I had been reading the last few days. It was a collection of stories on Realm Walkers, one of Artix’s private books. He had allowed me to read it, so I could get a better understanding of the people who come before me. The story I was currently reading was about a man named Robert, who had been here some 600 years ago. He was a skilled fighter with incredible sword skills. He also had a magical cloak that allowed him to teleport over short distances. I was in the middle of reading the story of how he defeated some super powerful Dragon when Artix and a man I didn’t recognize entered the room.

I bookmarked where I was in the book and set it back on the shelf. Artix and the man approached me. “Derek this is Brayden, he has agreed to try and teach you how to channel your mana,” I turned to Brayden and gave him a small bow.

“A pleasure to meet you sir,” I said politely. Brayden was human, an older man with a long white beard and flowing robes. He reminded me of Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings movies, though he didn’t have the pointy hat.

“Artix says you have no idea how to channel your mana, despite this you have been using Analysis,” Brayden said as an introduction. “Is this true?”

“Yes, it is.” I said sheepishly.

“Hmm, that is not surprising.” He said simply. “Most people don’t learn to channel their mana properly. Using something simple like Analysis is no threat since it requires very little mana to use.” I shot a glare over at Artix who had made it sound like I would blow myself up if I used my Analysis skill without understanding how to channel my mana. He pointedly ignored me. Brayden moved over and pulled up a chair sitting down and motioning for me to do the same. “I notice however,” Brayden continued “you have a fairly substantial mana pool, yet no one ever taught you how to use it?”

“Umm… no I never had any training in mana-based skills before this,” I said awkwardly, I wasn’t sure if I should tell him I was a Realm Walker and had barely been in this world a week or not. Artix had warned me a few days ago to keep that information to myself.

“Very well, do you at least understand what mana is?” Brayden asked.

“Umm… its energy you use to cast spells?” I said weakly.

“You are right, in a way. Our bodies naturally produce energy in the form of stamina. This energy we naturally know how to use. Mana however does not come from our bodies but rather the world around us. Our mana pool is simply our bodies way of absorbing and storing that energy. Naturally our bodies block off this energy to prevent it from burning us up. When using your Analysis skill, you have no doubt felt a tingle of energy like an electric shock go through your system, correct,” he stated, not really a question, but I nodded all the same. “This is not normal, using your mana should not be uncomfortable. If you had tried using a more mana heavy skill it might have injured you or worse. As mana users we must find a way to channel that energy into our bodies. Typically, when someone first tries to tap into their mana, they can sense it, but it is blocked from them as if a wall was keeping them out,” he said with a knowing look I nodded an affirmative and he continued.

“Your first instinct of course it to push against this wall, to try and break it to reach the power within. This is the wrong approach; you must allow the energy to flow into you. When I tell you, I want you too close your eyes and find that barrier, this time instead of forcing yourself against the barrier simply imagine yourself placing a hand against it and will it to open,” I closed my eyes at his command and tried to focus, I had found that strange barrier shortly after waking up in this world and as I centered myself, I began to sense it again. I imagined myself standing before the barrier, beyond it I could sense a torrent of energy waiting to be unleashed. It was intimidating but I held my resolve and reached a hand towards the invisible barrier. When I first brushed against it, it felt as solid as before but after a few seconds I could almost feel my hand pushing gently into the barrier.

My hand tingled as the energy touched it, though this was not an unpleasant feeling. I willed the energy to flow through my hand, and it rushed out in a way I was not expecting. I could feel prickles of energy throughout my body, and they were starting to get uncomfortable. I began to panic slightly, my body tensing in response.

“Calm yourself, circulate the energy through your body,” Brayden said his voice sounding almost distant. I breathed out and willed the energy to flow through me imagining it like blood flowing through my veins. Within a few seconds I could feel a change, the uncontrolled flow turned into a gentle stream of energy as the uncomfortable prickles of energy stopped and took on an almost rhythmic flow through my body. I breathed a sigh of relief and opened my eyes grinning. Brayden was smiling at me.

“Well done, tell me how long do you think that took you?” he asked. I shrugged unsure; it had felt like only a few seconds had passed. “That was nearly 15 minutes,” he said evenly, I stared at him for a moment in disbelief. As I did, I became aware of the minor stiffness in my limbs that comes with sitting in one position for too long.

“I didn’t even realize.” I said in astonishment.

“That is quite normal, usually it takes a bit longer for someone to learn to channel their mana like that. You are a fast learner,” he said giving me a curious grin.

“Will it take that long every time?” I asked concerned, I certainly couldn’t do that if I was about to be attacked.

“You will need to practice tapping into your mana. The more you do it, the more you will gain control and speed over it. Once you have mastered that, you will be ready to try your hand at learning mana-based skills. There is an exercise I want you to try. When you tap into your mana, channel some into your palm willing it to appear,” he held out his hand and instantly a small blue ball of energy appeared in his hand. I starred in wonder at it.

“Is that a spell?” I asked in amazement.

“No, just a manifestation of mana control. It is completely harmless,” he said with a small chuckle as the ball disappeared. “It will help you gain control of your mana faster. I might even suggest trying to do it while you are practicing with your sword. If you intend to use mana while fighting it will certainly help. Give it a try,” he said stroking his long beard.

I focused tapping into my mana once again, as before it started as an uncontrollable stream, but I quickly got the stream under control and focused it. It was several minutes before the glowing ball manifested in my hand. Its appearance nearly made me break my concentration in my excitement. The glow dimmed, but I refocused, and it began to pulse slightly like a miniature heartbeat.

“You are definitely going to be an interesting pupil I can already tell. I want you to continue practicing, once you have mastered it then we can test your affinities to see if you can learn to cast spells,” he said with a grin. Excitement flowed through me.

“How do we do that?” I asked the ball of mana fading from my hand.

“I will return in a couple of days to check on your progress, with how quickly you picked that up I am certain you will be in full control of your mana by then,” he said as he stood up.

“Thank you for your help, I look forward to continuing our training,” I said as I stood and gave him a respectful bow. He gave a small bow and turned sweeping out of the room, his long robes flowing behind him. I thanked Artix and returned to my room. For the rest of the day, I did little else other than practice controlling my mana. I ate dinner quietly still trying to maintain my focus, summoning the ball of mana under the table. I realized I was getting a few odd looks and stopped. By the end of the day, I judged it was taking me about 5 minutes to properly summon the ball of mana.

The next day I ate breakfast in the hall with everyone else, after cleaning up I followed the students for the advanced class. I took a place at the back of the class, and we began in much the same way. For the first half of the day, we exercised then broke for lunch. After lunch we took up our spots again and began going over the sword forms. Master Varja, the red draconian woman, guided us through the forms in rapid succession. After about half an hour we stopped and she paired us off, I got paired with Sarah who didn’t seem happy to have me as a partner. I got the impression she was holding a grudge for losing against me, though in my opinion the match had been a draw. I was sure she would have beaten me if it had lasted much longer.

We took turns attacking and defending as Master Varja called out the different forms. While I had been practicing them with Master Vorjun I wasn’t sure how useful they would be in combat. Now actually using them in a mock battle I could see just how deadly the various movements could be. The entire skill combined an elegant dance with quick cuts and thrusts that would leave an opponent badly wounded. I thought back on my fights with the goblins and realized how much easier it would have been to fight them if I had known this skill.

Since it was my first day in the advanced class, I focused solely on learning how to fight with my new skill. I wanted to try channeling my mana as Brayden had suggested but didn’t want to mess up and make a bad impression with Master Varja. By the end of the day, I was sore and had several small bruises where Sarah had smacked me when I hadn’t blocked her attacks quite right. We weren’t supposed to be hurting each other but Sarah didn’t seem to care.

After dinner I headed back to my room and began focusing my mana once again. By the time I finally settled into bed I could summon the mana ball within in just a few seconds. I even discovered I could release it from my hand to float around the room. I grinned feeling proud of myself.

The next day during combat training I started summoning the ball of mana, concentrating on it made my sword work sloppy and I received several smacks from Sarah’s blade. She had a slight grin on her face, sensing my apparent lack of skill. One particularly nasty blow from her knocked my sword from my hand. I flailed my hand around in pain getting ready to shout at her. Master Varja however cut me off.

“What are you two doing?” She said sharply, she had the same vaguely Chinese accent as Vorjun.

“Sarah struck me, while I was distracted Master. My apologize.” I said not meeting her gaze.

“And why were you distracted?” she asked.

“I am trying to learn how to control my mana, my teacher suggested I try summoning it while practicing with the sword,” I said still not meeting her gaze.

“It takes time to learn to channel your mana, let me see your control,” she said simply. I looked at her and focused for a few seconds, a moment later the blue mana ball appeared and starting hovering around my head. To my surprise her eye ridges shot up.

“That is very good control, I will allow you to continue practicing, so long as you don’t neglect your sword work. By the bruises on your arms, I can see that Sarah is being too rough with you. I will switch you with someone else,” she gestured and one of the other students stepped over. Sarah gave me one last glare, then stepped away. “Back to work everyone,” Master Varja shouted as she turned back to the room. Everyone else had stopped to see what was going on, but quickly jumped back into action as she shouted.

My new partner was a dwarf named Thord he was about 5 feet tall and half as wide. He had a long beard the color of black ink that fell to about mid chest, he wasn’t nearly as rough as Sarah had been. I still received the occasional smack with the sword, but they weren’t intended to leave bruises. By the end of the session, I had a mild headache from concentrating on both my sword work and channeling my mana. A grin formed on my face however as a notification appeared in my vision.

Congratulations you have learned Mana channeling and have unlocked the ability to learn mana-based skills. See a trainer or read a tome to learn mana-based skills.

I swiped the message away with a thought but couldn’t keep the grin from my face. With a flick of my hand and barely a thought I summoned my mana ball and set it to floating around my head. I got some weird glances as I made my way to dinner. Marcus and Merina stared at me.

“You know it’s really not fair how quickly you pick things up,” Marcus said starring at the floating ball. I merely grinned at him.

“What can I say, I’m just that good,” I said sarcastically.

The next day after dinner I noticed Brayden and Artix standing on the balcony watching me. I made my way over to them; I had my mana ball floating lazily around my head. Brayden smiled at me.

“I see you have mastered mana channeling; you are quite impressive indeed,” he placed a hand on my shoulder with a smile, “come let us see what spells you can learn.”