A/N: Spoiler : My appologies for the long delay. I didn't end up writing more than a few hundred words a night recently and then ended up with a larger info dump than I had intended. Oh well.

Some may have noticed that I have a cover page now. I'm quite satisfied with my first attempt at using photoshop. The larger image can be found Here.

When I read the ending of my last chapter, I disliked it. So I wrote a bit more. It can be found both on the last chapter and in the spoiler before the new prelude.

P5 addedSpoiler : Thrusting the wand into Magnus’ hands, she pushed him into the circle. “I’ll set up some lights, so put what I showed you into practice.” With this said, she began walking around behind him, a different wand out. A she made her circles, they were not cast directly in front of her. Instead, she angled her arm straight up over her head and motioned counter-clockwise circle. “Light,” she said under her breath.

As the center pulled the white glow of her circle inward, a slight pop sounded before a glowing orb of light emerged. Floating eight feet above the ground, the orb illuminated much of the training grounds well. Moving from the left corner of wall and building, she went to the right side and repeated the process. While she proceeded, she watched as Magnus attempted his first fire spell.

Standing inside the circle, Magnus had been reviewing what needed to be done. Satisfied that he wouldn’t set himself on fire, he began. The mana easily flowed out and into the wand, it traveled down into the stone and pooled. Still feeling it’s link, he pushed more and more into the stone. Just as he began to fear he would fail, the mana in the stone changed.

Still connected, but no longer residing in the stone. The mana had formed it’s own skin and a thin line connected to the stone in the wand. Pulling the wand upward, he could see a spell point hovering. Near disbelief at the ease of creating it, Magnus stopped inputting mana for a moment. The connection between the wand and the point thinned until it became nearly invisible.

Catching his mistake, he immediately pushed more mana down the wand. The surge thickened the connection to the point and he began moving the wand. Facing more difficulty than expected, he continued circling with the wand. Mana output varying as he wobbled along, the circle thinned and thickened throughout his motion. In parts, he had thrust the wand too far forward and in others too far back. But he had made it.

Dropping the wand down to the spell point, he called out. “Fire!” and jerked the wand back toward his chest. His spell complete, he worried as the circle of red sparked far more than Madeline’s example. But at last, the glow began to drip toward the middle. When it hit the spell point, flames began to spray out. Much wider and not as concentrated as before, the flames only reached halfway to the target.

As more and more drops hit the spell point, Magnus couldn’t help but notice that much fewer fell. As they hit, they did not build upon the previous one. Instead, they spread out at slightly different angles and only overlapped near his spell. Not nearly as precise a strike as Madeline’s, flame had gone everywhere and vented the spells power where he wasn’t aiming.

“Not bad for a first try,” Madeline called from behind. “You can get much better with practice and that will help in future spell casting. But now it’s time to start on basic magic.” Disappointed he only got one shot today, he walked slowly to Madeline to find out what he needed to do next.

Prelude 6: One of Each

As Magnus walked over, he saw Madeline setting up a table up next to a bench and placing handwavium stones upon it. After sitting, he tossed the wand onto the table and whacked his forehead against the table. “What was the point of learning spell point?” His one experience with casting spells by wand had proven the difficulty of manual casting.

“Heh, heh.” Madeline chuckled softly. “I did tell you it’s not the first thing your supposed to learn. But there is a reason to learn it. A wand can only form a spell point for the type of circle crafted into it. A first circle wand can’t cast second circle spells and a second circle wand can’t cast first circle spells. The’re also limited in what type of mana they can use. You saw how the stone immediately converted your mana into fire mana. If you wanted to use a different type of spell you would need to have a different wand. Or one that has several stones in it.

“But creating a wand with multiple stones is incredibly difficult. It’s a bit easier with staffs, but only a bit. And that difficulty increases the price. You also have to train yourself to be able to use the different stones with consistency. It’s far from impossible, but tends to be expensive. This leads most spellcasters toward focusing on one or two elements.

“By creating a manual spell point, you can determine the mana composition when you create it. It takes more willpower, but you don’t need to haul around dozens of wands. Most learn it only after they are able to cast fourth or fifth circle spells. Then they can get rid of their lesser wands and staffs and still be able to cast lower circle spells. It takes tons of work to be able to cast higher circle spells with spell point. If I’m being generous, Gerald taught you the skill so that you would be able to cast high circle spells without a wand sooner rather than never.”

When Madeline had been silent for several moments, Magnus lifted his head from the table. The red pressure spot now swelling his forehead went unnoticed. Madeline had arranged thirteen pieces of handwavium on the table and the formation seemed familiar to Magnus. Squinting his eyes at them, a lightbulb went off in his head. “The table of the elements,” he blurted out.

“Very good. I see you did some reading in the library. Hopefully you can complete your library training before too long. That will certainly help you.” At Magnus’ confused expression, he had only planned on using a library for info on quests, she laughed. “You didn’t know? It's not true for all libraries, but most are built to help improve magic stats. In a basic library, the three primary stats Intellect, Willpower, and Concentration are much easier to achieve than anywhere else."

Madeline fell silent for a brief moment. "Time to start," and turned back to the table. She tapped the topmost stone. “Light, as you have already found, is the mana of expulsion. When using light mana, it will emit a white glow. Light mana is a secondary element to fire.”

Picking up the stone below, she handed it to Magnus. “Fire is the mana of alteration and is a primary element. Destruction, or heat is the easiest form of alteration and the most used. Do not be mistaken and believe that to be the only thing it does. Using fire mana creates a red glow.”

Feeling his mana pulled once again, Magnus swiftly attempted to find what his mana changed. As he held it, he could tell the temperature of the rock increasing but none of the heat transferred to his hand. Delving into the mana flow, he could sense that the mana entered the core. Then, it began vibrating as it pushed outward. Putting the stone down, he prepared to try it himself.

Only for Madeline to interrupt. “This time, don’t try to burn yourself out. It should take about fifty mana to generate the skill. You lost mana casting fire and from what the handwavium used. After you get the skill you should have at least ten mana left. Don’t be an idjit again and go over.” Her warning delivered, she leaned back and waited for him to continue.

Shaking off her worries, he focused as he did earlier in the day and pooled some of his mana onto the palm of his hand. Concentrating, he tried vibrating the mana. At first nothing happened, so he pooled more mana into his hand. Now when he vibrated it, the surface of the mana shivered, part of the pooled mana vanished, and his hand warmed a small amount. Continuing to push mana into the area of vibrating mana, the new mana replaced the old as fast as it vanished.

He kept adding more mana to his hand, much slower than with the light mana. This time his hand warmed fractionally and the heat began spreading. After almost a minute had passed he began to grow light headed. Luckily, seconds later the sound he had been waiting for made itself known and he immediately stop supplying mana.

DING!

A new skill has been created!

WarmthGradeBasicCost10 manaLevelBasic 1Experience0/10Rank123,625,477,121Initiation1 secActivation0 secondsEffect10 secCooldown10 secNo gloves necessary!

The most basic use of fire mana, the area affected will become warm.

When a continuous stream of mana is supplied to the skill the heat will be continuously emitted.

Area of effect is 10 cm^2.

Magnus placed a hand to his head as he felt a loss of balance and the beginning of a headache. He felt happy from remaining upright but didn’t feel comfortable with the dizziness.

“Good, Good,” Madeline told him. “You need to learn this next part quickly before your mana recovers naturally. Look at me and imitate what I show you to do.” Magnus cracked his eyes open and glanced to the side. Madeline directed his attention down toward her hands. Her knuckles pushed against each other without force and her forearms formed a line parallel to the ground.

“After you take this position, pull just the slightest amount of mana back from the tips of your hands. This will move all the mana in your mana channel back. Then just rest for a minute.” Following her instructions, Magnus felt a touch of discomfort in his hands as he did so.

Madeline continued, “After a few moments, you should feel the mana in your hands refilling. This is from pulling pure ambient mana into your system and refilling the emptiness in your hands. This occurs naturally when you rest, but instead of just your hands it comes in through your entire body.” As Magnus continued his effort, Madeline relaxed and refocused on the table.

After touching the blank space in the middle, “Pure mana or non-elemental is basic mana. It is the mana of existence and flows through everything and everyone. It is this mana that empowers every impossibility of the world. There is no stone here because Pure mana does not in itself do anything. If you can feel your mana, you only need to intend your mana to do something and it will do it.”

Sitting back, she continued talking to him. “After you refill your pool, you should get the skill. Don’t worry about absorbing too much mana. It’s not possible this way. And while it’s not much now, it will be more beneficial than resting after practice. Along with being faster, meditating like this can refill mana even if the nearby mana is turbulent.” Having said her fill she closed her eyes and waited.

Magnus began the newest ordeal thinking it would pose no trouble. And discovered the greatest difficulty in boredom. Just sitting still waiting for the mana in his hands to refill, and waiting and waiting. Then pulling the mana back just the slightest amount and starting all over again.

His impatience growing, he attempted to pull more mana back. His fingers immediately went numb. I’ll just wait it out. It’s not that bad and it should go away as the mana returns. But they stayed numb. And the numbness began to spread up his hands. Worried that mana had not returned to his hands, he pushed the mana down his arms until just the the ends were without mana again. And noticed that he had to send more mana down than he had pulled up. Sighing with irritation, Magnus continued his monotonous actions.

It wasn’t just that holding his arms out in an awkward position cramped his muscles in an odd way. It wasn’t just that he had to concentrate on the feeling in his hands and pull only after enough had filled. It was that it went on and on. But Magnus persisted. Madeline hadn’t directed him wrong yet, and he felt sure this would help. Eventually. After eternity stretched on for almost twenty minutes.

DING!

A new skill has been created!

Mana RecoveryGradeBasicCost0LevelBasic 1Experience0/10Rank390,367,935,823Initiation5 secActivation25 secondsEffect0 secondCooldown600 secondsRecovers mana without rest.

1 mana recovered every 10 seconds.

Maintained skill continuously recovers mana.

At long last he had generated the skill, and how underwhelmed he felt. Magnus had hoped that his efforts would at least get him a skill that added a percentage of mana, but would take what he could get. As his level in the skill increased, he felt certain that this method would surpass just resting. As he flapped his arms to relieve the cramps that had formed, Madeline noticed the disturbance and returned her attention to him.

“You got a skill, correct?” She asked. At his nod, she leaned toward the table and considered which to give him next. Shaking her head left to right, she at last settled on the center right stone. Tapping the rock, she spoke before handing it to Magnus. “The second primary element is Wind. Wind is the mana of movement and it glows green.”

The rock settling into Magnus’ hand caused him surprise. Resting on his hand, he could feel that it had the same weight as the last rock. And until his mana began infusing it, nothing changed. But as more mana became active, the rock moved far more swiftly than should be possible. Magnus couldn’t help himself and began moving the rock around in circles over the table.

“Ahem,” Madeline cleared her throat to get him back on track. He slowed his play but focused on her when she continued. “In this case, the mana is causing the handwavium to move more easily. It isn’t lowering it’s weight, it is amplifying any movement the rock takes. Something little children like to do is skip wind handwavium down roads like tossing pebbles across ponds.”

Returning to the next step, he concentrated on what the mana within the stone was doing. The mana danced. It bounced around inside the stone, but unlike with light mana it never kept going in a straight line. Instead, it would whirl first in one directions then in another. No two particles of mana travel the same path as any other. But as far as Magnus could tell, none would ever collide.

The freedom and joy of this simple pleasure brought a smile to Magnus’ face. Putting the stone down, he attempted to recreate what he had felt. Pulling the mana around an upraised finger, he thought hard about what to do with it. Discarding the idea of placing it within his body, he began to whirl it away from the finger. Not taking at first, he pushed harder. And it took.

A puff of air burst from his finger. Gently putting more mana around his finger as some vanished, he became at ease with the action of ‘dancing’ his mana. The flow of air became less jerky and smoothed into a gentle breeze. When the skill tone sounded, he didn’t even want to stop.

DING!

A new skill has been created!

Joyful GustGradeBasicCost10 manaLevelBasic 1Experience0/10Rank92,465,779,427Initiation1 secActivation5 secondsEffect10 secCooldown20 sec

A light gust of air is ejected from the applied area. Capable of blowing dust around.

When a continuous stream of mana is supplied wind will be continuously emitted.

Starting point of area of effect: 10 cm^2. ModifierJoyfulLove of the wind’s playfulness increases it’s ease of use.

-20% Willpower needed.

Magnus wasn’t sure if he should laugh or cry. On the one hand, he obtained a useful modifier. On the other, it only meant he could blow a bit more dust around. Oh well, I’ll just accept it as good. Turning to Madeline, he could see the smirk but it couldn’t lower his mood.

“Okay, regain your mana and we will start on the next one.” That did deal a blow to his happiness. Sighing, he still put his knuckles together and started pulling his mana before Madeline pipped up. “You could just say the name of the skill to activate it. It won’t earn as much experience but since it’s registered in your status card it won’t take as much effort. And you would stop pouting.”

Pouncing on her words, Magnus immediately said in a clear voice, “Mana Recovery.” Since his hands were already knuckle to knuckle, a slight bit of mana pulled back without his interference. So much easier! Magnus thought to himself. Magnus had found the ‘secret’ of system assist.

Seeing his relief, Madeline couldn’t help but try to throw some cold water on him. “By using a registered skill this way, you won’t gain as much skill experience as if you did it yourself making it harder to level. It can also be damaging to do it this way if something disturbs you. Definitely don’t let yourself get accustomed to using it on battle skills or your enemy will know what you’re doing and plan accordingly.”

Not letting her get to him, Magnus just kept smiling. After a soft sigh, “Heh,” escaped from Madeline’s mouth before she settle back to wait with a smile. Time passed and Magnus let his mind wander over different things. After about ten minutes had passed.

Ping.

His mana filled and he received a notice. I’m definitely only going to use the skill this way. Definitely. He turned to Madeline with an expectant expression on his face. “How many more do I need to learn?”

“Hum... oh, one of each.” Madeline casually dropped her answer, and Magnus felt only a little letdown. I knew it would take a good bit of effort, but with the bad Modifier I have to endure it. If only Magnus had been able to get Joyful Mage, he would have been so much happier. Too bad.

Madeline moved the wind stone back to it’s position and tossed Magnus the lower stone. “The third primary element is Water. Water is the mana of deflection and it glows a dark blue.” Concentrating on the rock, Magnus wondered what would happen this time.

As the handwavium consumed his mana, the rock became damp and slippery. Feeling his hand covered in water, he slid the rock onto the table. Wiping his hand on his shirt, he realized nothing was on it. Remembering her earlier explanation on how handwavium is greedy, Magnus refused to turn his head and see Madeline’s expression. Instead, he put his hand on top of the stone to feel it’s mana flow.

Like the wind mana, it moved within the rock. Unlike wind, it moved in a circular motion and every bit followed the one before. Slowly, placidly, it moved with unstoppable calm. Around and around it goes. Understanding some of it's properties, Magnus took his hand off the rock and pooled mana into his hand.

Focusing, he began to move the mana around and around. Looking at his palm, his chin began to rotate in time with the clockwise motion of the mana. When at last all the mana flowed around in his palm, it began to activate. Slowly, a drop of water formed in the center of his palm. As he pulled more mana into it’s flow, the water began to build up.

When the water covered his palm, he began to wonder what he should do with it. A scraping sound caused him to look up. Madeline had pushed a small cup over to him. Grateful, he tilted his hand over the cup and poured the water in. Still continuing his swirling, the water began dripping off his palm and into the glass.

DING!

A new skill has been created!

DripGradeBasicCost10 manaLevelBasic 1Experience0/10Rank154,784,333,425Initiation10 secondsActivation1 secondEffectPermanentCooldown60 secThe most basic use of water mana, create a small amount of drinking water.

When a continuous stream of mana is supplied water will be continuously created.

Create 10mL of water for 10 mana.

Magnus stared at the cup, only a little water had filled it. Maybe two ounces at best. Not sure what to do next he turned to Madeline.

“You’re the one who made it, you can drink it.”

Picking up the cup, he swirled the liquid around in it. What’s the worst that could happen? and tossed it back in one swig. Immediately, he wanted to spit it back out. But bit down and swallowed in one hard gulp. Gah! Magnus cried in his mind. The water had no bad taste to it, it was just at body temperature. Rubbing his mouth with the back of a hand, he sent a reproachful glance at Madeline.

Brushing his concern away with a chuckle, she returned the water stone to it’s place. A raised eyebrow reminded him of what he needed to do. “Mana Recovery.” At his words, Madeline picked up the left stone while they waited.

“The fourth, and final, primary element is Earth. Earth is the mana of structure and it glows brown.” That last bit of explanation wasn’t needed as she tossed the handwavium from hand to hand. It did seem to be her standard spiel about mana, making Magnus wonder how many times she had taught this before.

“Mages who want to defend against damage from enemies and guard their friends often specialize in earth magic.” Madeline spoke softly, not to Magnus, but to her memories. “The earth mage’s moto: 'Here I stand, I will move no farther'. Never backing down unto death. They believe the earth will sustain them until the end.” As Madeline continued quietly remembering, Magnus respected her silence. Even he could tell he shouldn’t interject.

Ping.

As he relaxed his hands and set them onto the table, Madeline reverently set the stone into his hand. A clear difference from before, the stone had gained weight. Delving into it, his mana showed him a geode of mana. Small cubic crystals grew from one stone to another to another. Setting it down on the table for a moment, he waited until the glow faded. Picking it back up, he watched as the cubes reformed and the mass of the stone increased.

Puting the rock back in it’s proper place on the table, Magnus considered his next actions. Not wanting to activate the mana on his hand, he picked up the cup. Holding the bottom of the cup on his palm, he pooled the mana around the base. After covering the whole base, he started altering the mana into cubes. Stacking cube on cube, little one next to big. He formed his cubes up into the cup.

Time passed, and Magnus started to believe he had miscalculated. But at last, the mana began to activate. With his elbow propped on the table, he balanced the increasing weight of the cup in the air. As the earth mana farthest from him consumed itself, he pushed more mana into the base of the cup. A steady trickle flowed out for quite some time when he got the skill notice.

DING!

A new skill has been created!

HeftGradeBasicCost10 manaLevelBasic 1Experience0/10Rank112,368,623,480Initiation30 secondsActivation3 secondEffect30 secondsCooldown120 secThe most basic use of earth mana, increase the mass of an affected area.

When a continuous stream of mana is supplied increased mass will be maintained.

Increases mass by 20% in an area of up to 300 cm^3.

With the skill obtained, Magnus set the cup down with a thump. It’s weight still being a bit heavier than expected. Seeing Madeline lost in her thoughts, he got started on the most boring part. “Mana Recovery,” Magnus said softly, and settled in to wait.

As he came close to replenishing his mana, Madeline shook herself out of her stupor. An assessing look at Magnus, she resumed to her lesson. “You already have fire’s secondary element, light. The next element is sound. Sound is wind’s secondary element. Sound is the mana of compression and it glows orange.”

When magnus finished and placed his hands back on the table, she dropped the stone into his hand. Moving it from hand to hand, he couldn’t see any difference. It did glow orange, but not knowing what else to do, he raised an eyebrow at Madeline.

“Try dropping it,” was her only reply. Okay, why not. Putting word to action, he dropped it from a few inches above the table. He didn’t want to break the handwavium and had no idea how fragile it might be.

“Boom!” the sound the stone made when hit was much louder than it had any right to be. His eyes climbing into his hairline, Magnus picked up the rock newly intrigued. As he focused on the mana, he could see it draw toward the center in an unpatterned mass. It didn’t do anything but as the rock pulled more mana from him, the mana in the center condensed. Tapping the stone against the table, he could feel all the mana jump outward before slowly filtering back to the center.

Immediately knowing what he wanted to do this time, he coated his thumb and two fingers with mana. Condensing the mana particles, he could still feel that it covered the same area. Near the outer edges the mana was less dense, but highly concentrated close to the center. At last it activated, and with a grin on his face, he snapped his finger.

Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash!

“Enough already!” Madeline cried out. “You don’t have to keep making noise, you just need to concentrate the mana. Yeash, now you know why new musician’s love using sound mana. It makes them loud, but definitely not better.” Chastised at the comparison, Magnus quieted while maintaining the mana flow. A short while later, the new skill announced it's arrived.

DING!

A new skill has been created!

IntensifyGradeBasicCost10 manaLevelBasic 1Experience0/10Rank92,366,276,385Initiation5 secondsActivation1 secondEffect10 secondsCooldown20 secThe most basic use of sound mana, increase created sound in an applied area.

When a continuous stream of mana is supplied the increase will be maintained.

Increases noise created by 50% in an area of up to 20 cm^3.

Magnus placed his hands together to recoup his lost mana, “Mana Recovery.” A short time later, he became uncomfortable. Madeline stared at him and he had no idea why until she spoke. "Since you don’t need to concentrate on the skill, do you have any questions?"

Magnus thought quickly, “What would a normal person be doing at this point? I mean, someone who hadn’t stumbled.” He only had mild curiosity, he just wanted some relief from the boredom and the staring.

“Hum," Madeline started slowly. "After getting a status card, they return to their chosen profession's teacher to further their skills. After people earn their status card, they can start on their adult lives and enter into their own contracts. If when they were younger, they trained for a job with their parents, they often return to learn more skills from them. This keeps a career in the same family for generations, each refining the skills of the last and creating dynasties.

“For crafting positions, the mage class is less sought after. They can’t keep up with the sheer quantity of items a warrior makes and they don’t create the masterpieces that rogues manage. Instead, they create items with additional effects on them, especially items with elemental attributes. This does tend to lower the absolute ability of the items.

"They also help with precise control. A blacksmith shop with a good fire mage will have very consistent products. A mage can magically make the fire and then directly manipulate it. After that, he doesn’t have to worry about varying temperature damaging the product.

“Most mages will chose to learn a few spells right away. They get them for protection but never need to practice them. For them, it’s unnecessary to learn how to kill but it is always a good idea to learn how to defend themselves. After learning a first circle spell or two, they move on to apply themselves to other classes. But for a mage that wants to fight, be it adventurer, wanderer, guard, or soldier they go far deeper.

“Because of their higher need for mana, heavy spellcasters are almost always mages. Warriors and rogues who learn spellcasting tend to be battlemages. They specialize in first through third circle spells that have lower mana requirements. They run right up to the enemy and blast them at short range. The mage spellcaster will specialize in one or two elements and learn as high a circle spell as possible. This will allow their superior mana to fully display itself with massive power.”

Ping.

“The final fallback for mages, no matter how poor a mage they are, is as an infuser. Life in most places leans heavily on sigils, I’m sure you’ve seen the water taps at the library. A sigil created by a signmaster has a permanent magical effect. But only if supplied with mana. An infuser supplies that mana. It is probably the lowest, most boring job a mage can do. But it does pay consistently.

“I would continue, but first, on to the next one.” Madeline had noticed how Magnus had relaxed and put his hands down. She reached and picked up the bottom most stone to drop in his hands. “Darkness is water’s secondary element. Darkness is the mana of absorption and glows black.”

Before Magnus could to interrupt, Madeline continued. “Yes, I know that sounds odd but it using darkness mana will cause black light to glow.” A click of the teeth sounded as Magnus closed his mouth.

Holding the handwavium, Magnus felt his mana drawn in but couldn’t see anything more than a slight darkening on the stone. Seeing his confusion, Madeline prompted, “Look at it’s shadow.” Putting the stone down, he rested one finger on the top. The two floating light orbs clearly lit up the area. But the darkness stone cast a darker shadow than his hand.

Checking how the mana flowed, he couldn’t help but think of a sink drain. At the outer edges, the mana slowly swirled much like the water stone did. But closer in, it drained with increasing speed toward the center. Magnus wanted to make a sucking sound, but refrained.

Placing his right hand straight up and down on the table, he pooled mana on his palm. He swirled it inward, spinning more and more before it activated. Making sureto maintain the mana flow, he peered at the effect. To the left of his hand, the shadow remained the same as before. Mostly lit but in some shadow. To the right, his hand cast a far darker shadow. Okay, I’ll just chalk it up to magic and move on. Magnus had grown tired and didn’t want to worry about the oddities at the moment.

DING!

A new skill has been created!

ShadeGradeBasicCost10 manaLevelBasic 1Experience0/10Rank102,364,783,401Initiation5 secondsActivation5 secondEffect20 secondsCooldown60 secThe most basic use of dark mana, increase consumption of light in affected area.

When a continuous stream of mana is supplied the increase will be maintained.

Increases shadow created by 25% in an area of up to 10 cm^2.

After placing his fists together once more, “So what can I use that for? Mana Recovery.”

“Basic skill, of all types, all far less powerful than their upGraded counter parts. But for this skill, most will use it to cover their eyes in bright sunlight.” Oh Goody, Magnus thought, I’ve created sunglasses.

Continuing with his question from earlier, Magnus inquired, “So how do non-spellcasting mages fight?”

Madeline collected her thoughts for a moment before replying. “That depends on what position they take in formation. You should know that the three basic position are Guardian, Damage Dealer, and Buffer.” As Magnus pretended he had already learned it, Madeline lifted a knowing eyebrow at him.

“A mage in these position will focus on the magical aspect of each. A mage guardian will block magical damage more easily than his counterpart. A guardian typically uses a large or great shield, and a mage guardian will enhance this by applying a mana shield on top of it. They don’t wear as heavy armor to lower mana usage, so they never have as much armor. To make up for the lack of mass, they turn to earth magic to keep from being knocked around.

“A mage damage dealer will deal magic damage. They apply mana on attack skills that rogue or warriors would use stamina for. This alters the effect from physical to magical damage and normally sets it up with an elemental attribute. The most common DD positions cover the three basic ranges are categorized as swords, spears and bows. When a mage is any of these classes their basic attacks will be physical, but their skills will be magical.

“A mage buffer is the most needed and will buff or debuff with mana based skills. They apply buffs to allies that increase their damage by or defense against a particular element. They can also boost stats for a short time, but the most important thing a mage buffer can do is refix a soul.” This last got Magnus' wandering attention to refocus.

“Oh yes, few parties are willing to go without a good soul fixer. When in battle, no matter how good you are, you will inevitably take damage. After you take enough, you will be ‘Dead’ but your soul is still present in an incapacitated form. If a soul fixer can get to you in time, they can reattach your soul after healing your body. Since soul fixing skills are almost exclusive to mana, a mage that doesn’t learn a single fixing skill is considered a failure.

“Spellcasting mages easily fall into both damage dealer and buffer categories. This is what makes them the primary choice for mages who want to go adventuring. Being able to fill two positions well is a blessing.” Madeline became quite long enough Magnus started to speak.

Ping.

As Madeline saw him bring his hands back down, she picked up the leftmost stone and placed it in front of Magnus. “Soul is the mana of connection. It glows purple. Called death mana for a time after the plague of necromancers, it is properly known as soul mana.”

Magnus input mana for a time, but couldn’t find any difference in the stone. Picking the stone up to check closely, he felt a slight difference. Looking under the stone, he couldn’t see any difference. But he felt something had changed. Putting the stone back down next to where it had originally been, he began to delving into the mana.

While his mana flowed to the center, he could find minimal mana inside the stone. Only a thin line that stretched from the center out to the edge. And then continued straight out. It only went a few inches away, straight to the place he had originally put the rock down.

Picking the stone up once more, he moved the stone around. The stretching line would always point to the same spot on the table. At last, Magnus put the handwavium back down onto the spot that the line came from. When the both ends of the line were within the rock, the line thinned and most of the mana flowed into two orbs. Now, one orb of mana stayed in the center, and the second orb moved around it connected by a thread.

Placing the stone on the table, Magnus immediately pooled some mana into his palm and tried to form the orbiting mana points. With more difficulty than he thought it would take, he got two connected and circling orbs. He felt the continuous loss of mana, but once again couldn’t tell if anything was happening. Dropping his hand to the table, both points went with him.

Next, Magnus tried ejecting one point then the other from his sphere of influence. A minor effort later the floating point had left, and the center orb had stretched into a line. Moving his hand to the side the line stretched thin, but he could feel the direction the line pointed. Simply holding the magic, he waited until a skill formed.

DING!

A new skill has been created!

PointerGradeBasicCost10 manaLevelBasic 1Experience0/10Rank67,529,237,093Initiation20 secondsActivation5 secondEffect25 secondsCooldown30 secThe most basic use of soul mana, get direction to a floating point.

When a continuous stream of mana is supplied the line will be maintained.

Maximum distance detectable: 2m.

A maximum of 1 floating point can be set.

Now I can find my lost keys. “Mana Recovery.” Magnus didn’t know what use this new skill would have, but he had a distracting thought. He connected this thought to Madeline’s earlier explanation. “Is soul magic used for quests?” he asked.

The question momentarily threw Madeline. She had dangled the plague of necromancers in front of Magnus because she wanted to answer that question. Gathering her thoughts together, she rose to the challenge. “Yes and no. When you say quests, you have to be careful about what you’re talking about.

“There are tasks, which are contracts with other people. You formed one with Van when you took the scribing jobs. When you gave him your status card, the stamp wrote the contract with magic into your status card and onto your soul. It is the most secure way of ensuring contract fulfillment.

“Created by a signmaster, the stamp uses soul magic. It wouldn’t stick to a status card and connect with your soul otherwise. A signmaster that makes task stamps is specifically called a taskmaster and must have a license to make the stamps. These licenses are only given out by the empire. Anyone found making them without the empire’s approval is… deterred. Violently.”

Magnus interrupted here. For a moment, he had imagined rows people in a basement making stamps. All dressed in white skull masks and capes. But he didn’t ask about that. “Why would the emperor care about tasks?”

Not disturbed in the least, Madeline quickly answers the question. “Because that is where the empire get’s it’s money. In towns, the only way to be able to take part in official business is through tasks. There is some leeway with smaller stuff. But if you want to secure your expensive items, you bind a person’s soul with a contract. That way it shows up in any disputes and proves yourself innocent of wrongdoing. People being people, there are always disputes over who was supposed to do what but tasks minimize confusion.

“Back to the topic. Tasks use only a little soul mana, and are more job contracts than anything else. The use of soul mana does help enhance your level, but only a small amount.

“Missions are similar to tasks in how you obtain them, but rarely reward money. They also tend to be much more difficult than tasks. A special stamp is used, different than for tasks, and completing it will earn you experience. After you confirm a mission completion, you have to take your status card to a mission tablet. You can find them around most towns near gates and center plaza. After placing your status card in a tablet, it determines the value of the mission and awards the corresponding experience.”

Pausing, Madeline fell silent for a minute. “But I don’t think you were talking about those?” As she looked at Magnus he shook his head. “I didn’t think so. You were talking about Quests.” The capitalization sounded clear in her tone.

“Quests fall into an entirely different category. A Quest is not given by any person, and at the same time any person can given them. When the universe looks down and decides something needs to be done, quests emerge. This uses what is called universal or world mana and imprinted directly on your soul.

“Outside of how quests use a different type of mana, I don’t know much of anything. Oh, I’ve heard some rumors and theories from people, but nothing I would trust. The truth of it is either hidden well, or is unknowable. The power that comes from quests though, it’s something else.” Madeline fell silent again, reminiscing on the past.

“So, more rewarding than missions or tasks then? It sounds like you have seen quests yourself.” Magnus curiosity had him fully intent on what her answer would be.

“Yes, I have received four quests over the years. I only completed one, and two of them I outright refused to attempt. You never get quests for simple things, only things that most would find impossible. And deadly, can’t forget deadly.”

Ping.

“But the reward for completing a quest is given to you directly from the universe, just like it gives the quest itself. It can be surprising to have gold, or a weapon materialize in front of you when you finish. And a massive increase in level of course. But it looks like you’re ready for the next element.” Having seen his relaxing hands, she reached up and started to take the next stone before pausing.

“The last four elements are the tertiary elements and they are both different and the same as the others. They combine from two adjacent primary elements to form a new type of mana. They are their own separate manas, but they don’t show up naturally unless two bits of primary mana collide. This is most often seen when two leylines meet. If two lines of mana of opposing type collide, they don’t form a new type of mana. Instead, they cause each others mutual destruction. For example, fire and water mana don’t combine. They reduce each other in a one for one ratio back into pure mana.

“But this is for natural mana, not personal mana that you have absorbed. With personal mana, it’s just arduous to get opposites to cooperate long enough. As long as you can keep the two type from destroying each other you can create skills using opposite mana. However, getting it wrong hurts you with a much greater damage.”

At last, she tapped up the top right stone. “Metal is the mana of order and glows grey. It is tertiary to earth and fire. Most smiths, miners and those who do anything with metal will want to use this type of mana.” Finished, she dropped the stone into Magnus’ outstretched hands.

Immediately, he could feel a small difference from the other stones. Flipping the stone over, he tapped it against the table. Ting. Ting. He heard it only slightly, but the reverberation sounded... off. Different from that of a normal rock. He wasn’t completely sure, he hadn’t tested the other rocks for their sound.

Delving into the mana flow, Magnus found a mass of points within the stone. He had to put it down and let it lose the stored mana before he could make sense of the chaos. A few moment later, the glow had diminished and Magnus put a finger back on top of the rock. As the stone absorbed new mana, he watched as it formed. Small dots of mana connected by threads of mana patterned into triangles. Then, after adding more mana, the pattern expanded outward over and over again.

Putting the rock back into it’s place on the table, he picked his glass up once more. Pouring his mana out of his hand and around the cup, he waited until after covering the cup. Then, Magnus began ordering the mana into points. Condensing a little of the mana into a point, then expanding a thread to make another. And another. When he had formed a large triangle out of ten individual points, the mana activated. Now he just kept pouring mana into the skill. Magnus understood the pattern and knew he just needed to wait.

DING!

A new skill has been created!

StiffenGradeBasicCost10 manaLevelBasic 1Experience0/10Rank78,830,573,009Initiation10 secondsActivation5 secondEffect20 secondsCooldown20 secThe most basic use of metal mana, increases armor value.

When a continuous stream of mana is supplied the increased armor will be maintained.

Max area covered: 15 cm^2

Amount of armor increase: 0.1

That could be useful, at least at higher levels. Magnus had begun to see a difficulty with the basics spells, but asked Madeline just in case he was mistaken. “Mana Recovery. Is it just me, or do these basic skills seem… even more underpowered then you would initially think. I’m considering the fire spell I used earlier. I had no experience using it and it produced lots of flame for, what, twenty twenty-five mana?”

Madeline gave him an judging look. He might be smarter than she first thought. “Yes, basic spells or skills have much lower effects. It’s because they only use stats from the basic stat pool. These are not as powerful because they don’t have the bonuses that primary stats would apply to the skill. When you cast the fire spell, it didn't just consumed your mana. Your Intellect stat also enhance the effect.

“This is how skills are graded. Basics skills only use basic stats. Beginner skills use a primary stats. Novice skills use two primary stats. And Initiate skills use three primary stats. The more stats applying an effect to the skill the more powerful, and higher grade, it is. But higher grade skills are much harder to learn, control, and level. If you build a good foundation of basic skills, higher level are easier to learn.

“The fire spell you cast is a good example. You never learned any fire magic before you cast it and you don’t understand fire magic. If you learn basic fire magic to a high enough degree, you can earn the fire mastery skill. You can’t do this with true spells because the wand did the mana conversion for you and you never manipulated the fire mana itself.

“Any other questions? Maybe about something that was said that bothered you today.” Madeline hadn’t given up on getting Magnus to ask about her dangling topic.

Magnus thought back and a light bulb went off over his head. “You’re right, there is something I wanted to ask you about.” Madeline’s eyes lit up, at last she could expound upon a favorite topic. “Why is the librarian so unhelpful? I thought she would point me in the right direction for my book but she barely bothered to answer my questions.

Magnus' question dashed her hopes. If it wasn’t so undignified, she would have smacked her forehead against the table. Sighing, she considered his questions before answering. “It’s not Victoria’s job to help you. A librarian's job is to protect the books.

“You have been in Van’s shop, you know how expensive even cheap paper can be. Along with the material cost, and the cost of writing and binding the book, the lowest cost is fifty silvers. And a better made book will cost more, much more in some cases.

“It’s only a basic library so you won’t see any expensive books. But the library still has more than five thousand gold invested in it’s books. A librarian is there to make sure the books don’t get damaged and that they don’t get stolen. The kingdom would rather spend money paying someone to make sure the books don’t walk off than buy the books over and over again. Also, Victoria doesn’t like most people.”

Magnus fell silent as he considered Madeline’s words. It did make sense to have a guard on the books. All the books he had flipped through were handwritten so didn't run through a printing press. Maybe in some places but none that had reached here. That meant each book would be unique. Or unique-ish. Scribe skills and magic might adequately replace the printing press.

Ping.

Magnus dropped his hands once more to the table. Dismissing Madeline’s previous words, especially those last ones, he waited on the next step. As Madeline passed him the upper right stone, she spoke. “Lightning is the mana of separation and glows yellow. It is tertiary to both fire and wind. Those who focus on lightning mana work toward speed.”

Magnus held the stone in his hand and stared. In different spots around the rock burst short strobes of yellowish light. They arced only a short distance and lasted the briefest of moments.

Checking the mana’s characteristics, Magnus followed the mana flow into the stone. As his mana flowed almost to the center, it dispersed into two lines. The lines ran parallel to each other with a thin space between them. As more mana entered each line, the line lengthened. After reaching the edges of the stone, the lines spread outward. No longer two parallel lines, they became two circles with an empty plane between them.

But the mana didn’t always stay on apart. Occasionally, there would be an imbalance between the two sides. The stone wasn’t perfectly circular after all. When the difference in mana reached a certain point, small streams would jump from one side to the other. When this happened, a little mana moved to the lesser side. And a larger chunk of mana consumed itself. The biggest conclusion Magnus drew from this was to maintain a balance of mana.

Placing the rock down, Magnus brought mana into his palm once more. He felt pretty sure of what this basic magic would end up as but had no other choice. His palm facing up, he began to shape the mana. Slowly, he thrust two lines of mana up from his outstretched hand. Once the lines reached a handspan above he began to feel difficulty in continued lengthening. Instead, he carefully expanded the lines into circles across from each other.

After the mana had neared the width of his palm, the magic activated. No longer needing to maintain his care in shaping, he held the image and added more mana after the old depleted. While doing so, he watched as the thin hairs on his arm began to stand up. A slow progression continued down his arm as more and more hair stood out straight.

DING!

A new skill has been created!

StaticGradeBasicCost10 manaLevelBasic 1Experience0/10Rank64,428,068,076Initiation10 secondsActivation5 secondEffectPermanentCooldown30 secThe most basic use of lightning mana, create a static charge in the affect area.

When a continuous stream of mana is supplied the static will be continually created.

Max area covered: 15 cm^2

Facing the music, Magnus dropped his hand.

Snap!

[email protected]#*! Magnus never did like getting shocked. Oh goody, my very own pair of fuzzy bunny slippers to drag across the carpet. In the end, the skill had done what he thought it would. After all, lightning ended up being electrical in nature. While shaking his hand to relieve the sting, he glared over at Madeline. Her silence possible only by covering her mouth to keep from laughing.

“Hurumph. Mana Recovery.” A bit irritated from being the laughed at so much, Magnus considered his next question carefully.

“If you had any questions, maybe about something that I mentioned already tonight, now would be a good time to ask.” Madeline still wanted to lecture on the plague of necromancers but didn’t want to just come out and say it.

“There was one thing,” Magnus said with a puzzled look on his face. Madeline’s hope rose. “You mentioned it earlier and I didn’t catch it at the time but now it’s bugging me a bit.” Madeline prepared her answer, ready for his question. “What’s the difference between an adventurer and a wanderer?” And her enthusiasm crashed to the ground.

“Hah… There’s not a lot of difference between them.” She started without any energy in her voice. She fell silent to think. Silent for so long, Magnus wondered if she would ignore his question. But after several minutes she answered.

“Adventurers and Wanderers are two of the four combat guilds. They are also the two that see the most combat and so have the greatest potential for leveling. And dying. Both focus on the elimination of monsters from the world.

“Adventurers are the ones who venture into dungeons to kill the monsters before the dungeon collapses. This offers them the opportunity to collect good drops from monsters. It also weakens any later spawned monsters when the dungeon eventually fails.

“Wanderers do what their name implies, wander. Rather than searching for monsters in a dungeon, they search for monsters that roam the land and threaten people. Wanderers tend to travel in smaller groups. After ejection from their dungeon, monsters don’t stay together in high concentrations.” By the time she paused here, she had regained her energy and talked with more animation.

Magnus had read it earlier, and Madeline just confirmed something he felt unclear about. So he asked, “What do you mean by dungeons collapsing?”

Madeline’s mouth had opened to continue her instruction, but closed it at Magnus’ interruption. The disruption in her train of thought irritated her and caused her to pause a breath before answering. “Dungeons collapsing means dungeons collapsing. They only last so long, normally between a few weeks and a few months. After which they close and force any monsters or people within out. It’s sometimes hard to find dungeons before they close. Those that go unfound spew monsters out the entrance. Any other interruptions?”

Ping.

Madeline had asked the question so blandly that Magnus quickly shook his head in negative. That tone he had heard before, shortly before someone gave out a tongue lashing. “Nope, I’m ready for the next element.”

As Magnus placed his hands back onto the table, Madeline gave him ‘The Look’. He understood that he had irritated Madeline and didn't say anymore to avoid upsetting her. Luckily, the repentant tone in his voice mollified her enough that she made no comments.

A long slow sigh later, Madeline picked up the next stone. “Ice is tertiary to wind and water. It is the mana of restriction and glows teal.” And dropped it in front of Magnus.

Picking the stone up, Magnus waited as his mana flowed away from him. When the rock began to glow, he slid it around in his fingers. It didn’t feel cool like he had expected. Instead, the stone slid through his fingers more easily. The only thing Magnus could guess at was a reduction in the rock’s friction value.

Checking the mana, he felt surprise at the structure. It was almost identical to that of the metal stone. Small points of mana had formed in a large array with the triangle as it’s base. The only difference was the disconnection between the points. Now free floating points, no thread formed between each point.

After placing the rock back in it’s place, he pooled mana into his palm. Erecting one point of mana after another above his palm, he kept expanding and expanding the mana until the mana activated. Now, only needing to maintain the mana flow, Magnus felt the effect. As his mana went into effect, the air over his hand cooled and fell drifted down.

DING!

A new skill has been created!

CoolGradeBasicCost10 manaLevelBasic 1Experience0/10Rank75,983,186,474Initiation15 secondsActivation10 secondEffect10 secCooldown25 secThe most basic use of ice mana, lower temperature in the affected area.

When a continuous stream of mana is supplied the temperature will be further lowered.

Max volume: 20 cm^3

Hum, I wonder if the difference from the stone’s effect is because I didn’t form it on a solid surface. Or because it was in a volume instead of a surface. Or because… Magnus would have had these thoughts earlier, but he had lots of other distractions on his mind and didn’t pay close attention. He placed his fists together, “Mana Recovery.”

A new thought skittered across Magnus’ mind. I wonder how close Mana Recovery is to leveling up? I thought I would have gotten a notice, but maybe I just missed it. Putting thought to action, he called up his softly skill. “Show Mana Recovery.”

Mana RecoveryBasicBasic 1

Hasn’t leveled yet… but I thought it would at least tell me how close it is to leveling. Or give more details on what the skill does. Maybe this will work. “Show Mana Recovery details… detail Mana Recovery… show Mana Recovery specifics.” It had frustrated Magnus when it did not worked with his task and it frustrated him again now. He let out a long sigh, he would just have to look it up on the wiki later.

A snort came from his side, “What are you trying to do now?” Magnus hadn’t been as quiet as he thought and Madeline noticed.

“I was trying to bring up my skill to see how far I had to go before it leveled. But I don’t know the right command to show it.” He would have continued, and maybe asked her, but she started to cackle.

“Oh, child,” Madeline spoke as she wiped her eyes, “why would think you could do that?”

Magnus did not want to just say, ‘because it’s a game’ and scrambled for an answer. “Because I have a status card?” His experience with the creation of last few skill had shown that information was available, he just didn’t know how to get to it.

Trying to let him down gently, Madeline replied calmly. “Yes, you have a status card. But it’s only a basic plate. Did you think I had you put your card in the skill tablet for no reason? A basic status doesn’t have all the extra bells and whistles and costs a lot as it is.” Nope, she absolutely would not laugh.

“Costs a lot? I never payed for anything.”

“Of course not. The empire pays for basic status cards when you can earn your first class. It’s why I made sure you had the right skill before I gave you the one. If you couldn’t meet the requirement you weren’t eligible for a card.”

“So there are other classes you can start as besides mage, warrior, or rogue?” Magnus panicked a bit. If he had known there were other basic classes, perhaps one related to quests, he would have tried to get that instead.

“Of course there are other classes. The basic three are just the most diverse in ability. From them you can learn nearly any advanced class.”

Whew, if I can learn any class then I don’t have to worry about missing my chance, Magnus thought.

Madeline kept talking, “The other classes tend to be both difficult and highly specific to different sects. The three are based around stamina and mana. I don’t know of all the hidden sects but the few I have met base themselves around the other basic stats. Bloodbound focus on health. Streaks focus on movement speed. Hunger powers Devourers. Blasts use skills based in offence.

“The reason the empire doesn’t sponsor them is because they are too specific in skills. The bloodbound, for instance, can’t use any mana skills at all. Streaks have ridiculously low strength, to the point that few can even carry anything. They are incredibly good at the one thing they do. And nothing else. But the one thing they do have has allowed them to survive, if not prosper. But since they don’t conform to the empires rules, they have to buy their own status cards.”

When Madeline fell silent, Magnus thought for a time before asking his questions. “So, how much does a basic status card cost? And what do the extra bells and whistles for a status card both do and cost?” Magnus had come to the conclusion that an add on for his status card would enable him to see his skills. He had mild curiosity over the cost of a status card. And that, only for if he found that to give quests he would have to start over in a hidden sect.

“There is a bit of variation between statuscrafters, but the average tends to be about ten gold for a basic card.” Magnus jaw fell at the sum. Grand Plane’s currency was similar to most VR games: 10,000 copper = 100 silver = 1 gold. If he managed to complete five basic scribe tasks a day, and didn’t spend the money on anything else, it would still take years and years of work to earn. And without the skill card, he couldn’t even get that work.

Madeline remained silent as Magnus contemplated the enormity of the cost. “There are a few extra pages most people try to get for their cards. A task page for what work they are doing is the first for many. It lets them see what jobs they have agreed to, it’s wording and due date. With it, they can see what they have when away from a task reader. It also boosts the number of tasks and missions they can accept from three to four. It’s relatively cheap at just one or two gold.

“The next page some get is a windows option page. It lets them manipulate how the status card displays different things. When it will make notifications. What it will notify you about, you will find that many of it’s notifications can get annoying. It also gives you the ability to share what your status card contains with other status cards. This page costs between ten and twenty gold.

“Then there are a few cheapish pages that guild specific occupations will buy. The ones I know most of are the monster index and the item indexes. They combine with observation skills and help identify creatures and objects. There are a few other pages in this ranges but you would need to ask a statuscrafter about them.

“Few people will bother to get any of the expensive pages. Unless they desperately need it or have gold to throw away. It’s simply cost prohibitive as the next cheapest page is more than a hundred gold. Fast equip allows soulbound equipment stored in your soul inventory to be directly equipped. A Detailed Skill page gives the same advanced notification you receive when first learning a skill. It costs more than four hundred gold. Skill manipulation allows for minor alteration of registered skill effects and costs a thousand gold. The two communication pages, written and spoken, allow you to talk and write to other status cards that have those pages and you have registered. They cost more than I even want to contemplate.”

Magnus was flabbergasted. “Why do they cost so much?” Some of these function were basics to any game, but Grand Planes made it so difficult to get them.

“It’s what status cards are made of and the rarity of people able to do the work. Even your basic status card has a fleck of mithril in it. That combined with the work of a statuscrafter is what made it possible to personalize and bind the status card to your soul. Now, you have to enhance the status card to add extra pages. You can reduce the cost a bit if you get the items yourself, but only a little as someone still has to refine them.”

Ping.

Magnus was about to ask about other ways of seeing these pages. After all, the tablet in the front desk would allow him to see his skills so there must be others for the other pages. But he only had one skill left to learn before he would be able to move onto better skills and just wanted to get this part over.

Not even waiting for Madeline this time, Magnus reached over and took the bottom left stone. Madeline gauged him with a knowing look in her eye and a smirk on her lips. But just said her usual spiel. “Nature is tertiary to water and earth. It is the mana of divergence and glows dark green. When you attempt to learn a skill, use this seed. It’ll be helpful in the future.” So saying, she dropped a small flower seed in front of him and left him to his exploration.

Once again, finding what effect his mana had on the stone took time. Magnus could feel mana flowing but couldn’t see any change. He almost gave up and immediately went to testing the mana formation when he paused. The surface of the stone had changed slightly. A small bump had formed on the stone and ever so slowly it grew larger.

Happy enough with this observation, he delved into the mana’s structure. As the mana flowed out from the center in a single thick line, it split in two. But the two new lines did not completely separate from the original. Instead, they traveled out from the center line at an angle from each other. And then split again. Each time the new lines would be thinner and thinner until when the lines reached the edges of the rock they were hair thin.

Placing the rock back in it’s place, Magnus prepared to cast his final magic. Taking Madeline’s advice to heart, he put the seed in his hand before pooling mana around it. This will most likely make the seed grow, Magnus thought to himself. Enough mana now pooled in his hand, he began to form it. First gathering it into a thick line traveling up from where the seed rested. Then, part way up splitting the mana in half. Then half again, and again. As he neared the end of his little remaining patience, the mana activated.

No longer concentrating on the mana flow, he looked to see what effect as he poured more mana into his construct. And saw nothing. The seed just sat on his hand doing nothing. His mana acted different as well. Instead of a constant flow, he felt the mana build then reactivate then build again. It wasn’t the continuous flow of the other skills but seemed to work fine. I just hope the seed isn’t dead. Afterall, Magnus had no idea if the skill would end up radically different if he first attempted it on a dead seed rather than a living one.

After what seemed like forever, he got the notice for which he waited.

DING!

A new skill has been created!

Plant GrowthGradeBasicCost10 manaLevelBasic 1Experience0/10Rank37,273,899,217Initiation10 secondsActivation10 secondEffect60 secCooldown180 secBasic use of nature mana, increase the growth speed of living beings.

When a continuous stream of mana is supplied growth buff will stack.

Maximum stacks: 5

Increase in growth rate: 10%

Entire being must be within mana area.

Max volume: 20 cm^3ModifierPlantGrowth restricted to plants.

+40% growth rate per stack.

Hum… thought Magnus before he spoke aloud. “So did that take care of my class modifier? Shouldn’t I have gotten some kind of notifications if it worked, or will it not because of my basic status card?”

“It doesn’t matter what kind of status card you have. If you have a class change you will know it. But to get your modifier replaced, you need to level one skill of each element up to Beginner level. When you do that for each you will get rid of your bad modifier.” What a pain, thought Magnus with a sigh.

Magnus was about to ask her a final question, but she had a glimmer in her eyes that frightened Magnus. He almost refused to ask, but had no real choice. “How long will it take to level them all to Beginner.”

“Oh, not too long.” Madeline grinned at him manically, no longer trying to hide her mirth. “With your bonus experience from the modifier and your class it shouldn’t take too long. No more than about.... a hundred and twenty thousand mana or so.”

Magnus brain stuttered to a stop for a long moment in time. “Wha… wha… WHAT!?!”

[tr]Back to Main Page

Magnus Journal: Skills part 1

Spoiler : There are four periods to any skill or spell. Initiation, activation, effect, and cooldown.

Initiation is the time between starting to move mana or stamina to the point of the skill and having enough there to use. This is more prominent in mana based skills than in stamina based skills

Activation is the period of time between having enough mana to use the skill, and it going into effect. For example, after casting a spell and closing the spell point. When this happens the mana remains floating in the circle. After the proper time has passed it Activates.

Effect is the period of time in which the skill will remain active. This varies between different skills and how powerful an effect they have. Most easily seen with buffs.

Cooldown is the period of time after either activation or effect before a skill or spell can be initiated again. This is more prominent in stamina skills than in mana skills.

For some skills, notably passive skills, there is little to no initiation or activation times.

For other skills, called spamables, there is little to no cooldown period.