Jimmy:

It was time to get up and moving, but no matter how I banged on his door, Joe wasn’t answering.

I was just getting really worried and thinking about kicking the door in, when the door opened and a slow and blinking Joe appeared. His slightly curly black hair covered his brown eyes, which blinked sleepily at me. He stood wrapped in just a sheet. Joe rubbed sleep from his eyes and mumbled “Sit down and read this gesturing at a book on the floor by his bed.”

Joe blinked a few times slowly and then shook himself more awake and continued “You have to pick Creation Magic as Gar got you some great perks there. You will have 6 points. Spend at least 1 in control and 1 in power. 2 each is better. Then get Heroic Regen from the Utility path, and one spell of your choice. We can discuss later levels, but I expect it will be just spend as you see fit. Don’t buy too many spells, spells make you good today, Power and Control make you good long term. We are playing the long game. If you have only 1 in power, you’ll be only as powerful as a vanilla non heroic mage. To everyone else, we are just mages, not Heroic mages. We fly quiet and low, until we get skillful, so nobody can see us.”

Then Joe handed me an immense book, with “Garabal’s Dao of Doing” on the cover. I felt my mouth drop open and I stared at Joe despite his words. “Are you serious, you are making me a Heroic Mage!?!”

Joe caught my eyes solemnly and said, “You and me, we’re partners, you have to be able to roll at a level near mine. Yes, I’m serious, stop dragging ass and read it.” At this Joe pointed firmly at the floor.

I sat down there on the floor opening the book, and Joe pulled out a thin brightly colored book and began to read as well.

Suddenly the pages flew past in a blur, the book became a cloud of smoke, and I saw a wall of words in front of me, it looked like my character sheet and a list of abilities to choose with my 6 points. I grabbed 2 in Creation Control, 2 in Creation Power added to my 1 free level in each I was at 3 in both. I bought Heroic Regen, and looked for my last. I knew it was here from the stories, I’d dreamed of it since childhood. At last, I found it “Create Automata”. Bought the spell and was about to exit out when I noticed I had one extra point. “Joe, I got 7 points, not 6, what should I do?”

Joe looks up from his empty hands and says “Oh yeah, you got points from Prodigy like I got from Gifted, you get 1 extra point for every 4 you spend on creation magic.”

I thought over my favorite minstrel’s tales, those of Porlim the Puppet master, and I dug into the abilities list again. I selected ‘Hearty Creations’ which made all my creations physically tougher.

When I looked back at Joe he was holding the same thin book as before in his hands and smiling at it. he looked at the cover of the book and said, “Divine library Indeed”. Before passing the book and saying “Here, read this too”.

I flipped the book over and read My First Book on Magic!’’ “Hey Joe, this is for kids!” making a near perfect sucking on lemons face.

Joe chuckled “Yeah, the kids of multigenerational mage families, kids trained on spell craft from before they could walk. Kids who have a huge advantage over guys like us. I read it and I’m glad for it already despite it being a kiddy book.”

I started to read, and again, the pages flew past and my mind was full of basic spell theory and practice. I knew a dozen new ways to cast the spell I’d only learned a moment before. New ways that were better, more flexible added interesting twists the spell effects. I also found I knew a couple dozen exercises to improve my magical abilities. Thinking about the legends, I opened my inventory and both books were there next to my grid floating, ready for me to reference at need.

“Ok Joe, you were right, Kids book or not, that was worth reading.”

Joe laughed and handed me another book and said “Good, here is another one.

I flipped straight to reading again, and suddenly my mind was full of maps, maps of the entire planet. Roads, mountains, oceans, I could see them all, plus a smattering of facts about each. I checked my inventory, and there was a floating copy of “Children’s Atlas of Devona”.

Words burst out of me “No wonder mage families act so superior, if even their kids know all this stuff!”

Joe just laughed and handed me 2 more thin books. ‘My First book of Enchanting’ and ‘A Children’s Encyclopedia of Monsters.’ Soon my head swelled with knowledge of hundreds of monsters, and more. I pulled out my axe and I could read the runes engraved upon it. I understood what they were doing. I couldn’t reproduce it, But I had picked up the vocabulary and a lot of general knowledge. I reached out with my finger nail, carving a simple 1 rune enchantment ‘light’ into the wall next to me. I pushed my magic into it and it began to softly glow.

“Dude, this Is literally unfair, how are peasant folks supposed to compete with this?” I wailed, ahem! I mean I wondered manfully…

Joe replied, “I don’t think they are. Also, I’m not sure everyone gets the skill book versions of these, I suspect most nobles have to read them and learn and practice the skills the hard way. I bet only the really rich and high nobles get these kinds of skill books for their kids. That said, I’m sure they don’t stop learning at age 10 either, so don’t get too big for your britches.” At this Joe pulled a Mana Potion out and drank it in one go. When he sat the vial down on the end table, I noticed several other empty vials beside him.”

Joe made a gesture and another thin book appeared in his hands “A Helpful Compendium of Cantrips” then he winced in pain…

He pulled another potion and I said “Wait Joe, taking so many potions in too short a time can make you sick, probably why your head hurts like it does. Unless the need is critical, let it regenerate naturally. It’s not like it still takes all day like it did without Heroic Regen. You can afford a few minutes to be in top form. Save potions for when one of our asses is on the line.”

Joe said “Good to know, see why I kept you around! This is the last of the “Basic Set” books I have for both of us to read, I’ve got two other books, but nowhere near the mana to create them even in mundane form, let alone as a skill book and a grimoire like these. You’ll like this one,” and Joe handed me his more recent book. “A ton of simple universal cantrips, really, really small spells, like” and at this, Joe snapped his fingers and a large candle flame was floating above his thumb. “Or this” and joe grabbed his mug from his inventory, and clearly concentrated hard spinning his finger above it. There was a dribbling of blue magic and joe handed me the mug it was full of cool water.

Joe blinked for a second and then said “Okay, knowing the details is not the same as being good at casting those. We’re going to need to spend a lot of time practicing the skills we just learned. “

I handed the mug back and said, “You drink it, you look like you need it.” and we traded the mug for the last of the books. ‘A Helpful Compendium of Cantrips’, a flutter of pages and that too was added to my new bought knowledge and my inventory.

“You are right, a Skill Book and a Grimoire is a damn handy book, even a kids book like these” I flicked my finger at Joe and he farted spontaneously and loudly. I chuckled when I said, “Oh yeah, Damn Handy”.

Joe just put his hands in his head and said “I’ve created a monster.”