Please Note: Statements between % something in italics % are game system messages.

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Swamy looked at himself in the mirror. He had short black hair, black eyes and Indian brown skin. He always thought that his nose looked a little big for his face. He wore glasses, rectangular shaped, with a slightly thicker frame to hold it up. He had tried changing his look for the college and moved on, as he liked to call it, from the round glasses he wore before. He did not consider himself handsome, there were far more good looking guys around. But he could not call himself ugly either. Normal looking, that's how he described himself. He was thin, though the exercise he got from his training in the past couple of months, practicing his forms, did make him feel a little bit better. Not that he had gained any muscles but he could feel that he had improved stamina. Not that it mattered much if he stayed up late playing the game.

He looked at the blue shirt he was wearing and thought that it should pass. It was freshly cleaned and ironed. He wore normal jeans he usually wore, though he still washed and ironed them. He fidgeted for a bit with his looks and then sighed.

'Doesn't matter. How clean I am or keep my room, it will still be a little dirty.'

Swamy had a habit of keeping things clean and tidy, absorbed from years of training from his parents. He cleaned the floor regularly, kept things in proper condition in the fridge, and kept his bedroom all arranged. He checked his wardrobes to make sure everything was fine, looked at his study table where all his books and papers were neatly arranged, his open windows which let the air in and finally returned back to the living room.

'I hope it goes alright' Swamy sighed again looking at his game capsule. It was too big to hide and too expensive to throw away.

He had a small shrine set up in his living room cupboard. He prayed for some good luck and hoped his day would go alright. He rung the small bell as was the religious tradition.

Swamy then sat down on the couch, looking at the watch now and again, getting a little agitated. He was a little nervous but he had sufficient cause to be.

His parents were visiting today!

About noon, he finally got a knock on the door. He opened up to meet his parents, who were glad to see him. His Uncle from next door, had gone on to receive them in his brand new electric car. "Its Mercedes" he said remarking on its quality and stuff! His parents entered followed by his Uncle and his Aunt who had come in from next door. Swamy offered them the sofa to sit and went to get some water for them to drink.

"Ah! Lakshmi, how long has it been since I saw you?" His dad spoke to his Aunt, his cousin sister.

"A long time. You guys don't come here nowadays any more. Its only Swamy who's come here and gave us a chance to meet now!"

"That's true. Ah...water. Finally I can breathe. It is so hot outside. Summers are definitely getting worse but other seasons are no better. Global warming is effecting our weather a lot. The met department is saying it will stay hot like this for the next few days!"

"Aiyo Rama!(Hindu God) That is true. It is the same everywhere. Anyways how was your trip. The bus had air conditioning right?"

"Yeah it did. Thanks to this green revolution in technology, it does not take much to keep a bus cool and it does not even smell like those old a/c buses we used to ride before!"

"Hahaha yeah!"

"Hey Swamy, here are some sweets I made, keep them in the fridge would you dear! They would spoil outside!" his mother said.

Swamy moved and took the large packet from his mother's hands and went to put it in the fridge.

And finally everyone noticed the large machine like thing.

"Oh hey, isn't that a VR game capsule? Swamy, you did not say you were playing a VR game?"

"Yes Mom! It is kind of a requirement in the course to play one of the VR games, so its kinda necessary!"

"Oh is that so. Well if it is required for your studies its ok, I guess. But I should still talk to your teacher. You don't play all night now do you? You know how dangerous it can be if you play it for long! Infact I was discussing it with your father just the day before about its adverse affects, specially on people who play for too long. And have you been keeping up with your studies?"

"Yes Mom! We had tests this past couple of weeks. I scored A+ in all subjects. You can check it if you like."

"No that's ok."

"But hey, how did you pay for it? I did not see any transactions done in your account? Did you ask your Aunt and Uncle to pay? You know you should have asked us for it!" his father asked looking at his Aunt and Uncle.

"No! we did not pay for it" was their reply.

His father and mother and aunt and uncle, all of them turned around to look at him.

"Um...actually I have got a part - time job! The job is not bad and the pay is good."

"Part-time job!! Without asking us!!" his mother looked scandalized.

"Well, you see I wanted to get some work experience you know. What with the competitive world and all. It is said that any work experience in your resume is especially considered in job interviews. They look at it positively when you have some varied life experiences, you know like volunteering, clubs, part-time jobs and stuff. Ofcourse most people start it during the end of first year but I thought of getting a head start. And the people I meet in this job become useful contacts for the future. It gives me some pocket money also which I put in a savings account. Who knows when I may need some more money, correct! It will also help in the future after I graduate."

Swamy came out with the explanation he had thought and refined for the last three days, ever since he found out about their visit.

"Oh dear! You are thinking that far ahead! I am proud of you!" his mother said.

"Yes, yes, this is the right way to go. Investing in your future, saving money and gaining skills will help you have a bright future." his father said to which everyone nodded.

"Oh that's not all." his aunt continued. "I think he is learning to play the flute like Lord Krishna (Hindu God, plays flutes). I heard him practicing!"

"Really? Swamy. I never knew you wanted to learn to play the flute! Are you getting lessons from somewhere?" his father asked.

"Eh...um...no. Just practicing by picking things up from the internet you know. They have all kinds of tutorials there!"

"Hahaha and he is getting to sound good too. I am sure he will become good at it very soon by the grace of Lord Krishna!" his Uncle commented.

'So they know. I should have known practicing here was a bad idea.'

"Well why don't you play us a tune...show us how far you have come?" his mother asked.

"Eh.....um...I am not sure its good yet. Maybe some time later when I have become a bit better!"

"Ah he's getting shy now. Well its ok, we wanna see how good you are now. I am sure you will get better if you are not, in the future. Go on then. just a small tune for your visiting parents, eh"

"Ah...alright! Just don't laugh if its not good. I have not been learning for long."

Swamy went to his bedroom and brought out his flute.

"Aiyo! That is a beautiful looking thing. Did you buy an expensive one?"

"Um..no. I joined this movers company for the job and they have this policy where you can keep the stuff other people want to throw away, when they move. I found it in one of my jobs."

"Ah! Lord Krishna is already blessing him with luck!" his aunt cheered.

"Is it sterilized? You know you should not use the stuff of other people, they still have germs on them! Have you been touching this?! I forbid it! Dear Lord!" his mom was horrified!

"Um I wiped it clean thoroughly with a chemical sterilizing solution. I got it from the pharmacy so its ok!" Swamy said calming her down.

"So should I play it?" he asked looking at his mother who still looked doubtful. His father then said,

"Go ahead. You sterilized it right! And we want to hear as well!"

Swamy took a deep breath. He started with the simplest tune, Happy birthday to you! He liked this piece. It was simple and he had no trouble remembering the notes as he had heard it all his life. After playing this short tune he looked to find his parents smiling.

"Ah, that was good! You seem to be learning well."

"Yeah that was beautiful. Maybe you would like to play it on my birthday, eh!" his father teased.

"He has talent, doesn't he?!"

"Well I don't mind you learning things or playing games, as long as you keep a very high standard in your studies. Father, I am still worried about his playing though!"

"Hmm, well as long as he keeps the playing to a limited time, and its required by the college, isn't it?!" his father said. "In any case we can meet his teachers on Monday! After all we came to see the college didn't we? So much would have changed since we graduated. Oh, didn't tell you Swamy, but we have been invited to a function in the college tomorrow. We came early to visit you."

"Ah! So will you be staying here in the apartment?"

"Oh no, your parents will be staying in our apartment. Yours is much too small with only one bedroom. They can have the guest room at our place." his uncle replied.

"But we will have all the weekend together, won't we! Except for the time for the function tomorrow! We should go visit some places. And Swamy can also tell us all about the game he is playing."

"Yeah...Thats wonderful!" Swamy said.

"So what news from ................................

.........................................

And the talk dissolved into news about long lost and some not lost relatives. As the talk drifted away, Swamy sighed in his mind. He had written a lot of reports of his game play in the last three days just for this. And he knew, he would have to write even more when they critiqued his reports. He hoped that he won't have to write anything about the places he visits this weekend.

'Well my play time is going to get even shorter this weekend..........' Swamy sighed.

In the night, after dinner, they went over his reports on the game Long Island.

"So you haven't been to the sea yet? Only learning skills?" his mother commented seeing as the game was supposedly named Island, and he hadn't even seen the sea yet!

"Yes! I can only go out when my age will be 14. I am 9 right now."

"Hmm yeah the age system you mentioned. You know if it is based on the human age...hmm in that case....a humans learning capacity increases till the age 25. After that he is only utilizing his wisdom to learn and then after 50, the learning capacity will start declining. I am presuming here, but if that is related to the 'age' system of this game, then you will have to learn a whole lot of skills while your age is low. After a certain age your learning capacity will decline."

"Eh...I didn't think of it that way! Can this be possible? That means it should be better to learn everything early?"

"Hmmm not sure. I just presented a thought. It may or may not be related. And even if it is, only the learning capacity will decrease. It will become harder to learn new skills, etc but you will still be able to learn so it should not be an issue. Ofcourse it is in comparison to how easy it is to learn skills now."

'Holy ***t! I need to find out more about this. I wonder where I will get the required information from!' Looking back at his game play records so far, he knew that he had only learned a few skills. It was that difficult after all. Considering it may be easier to learn from some people than others, the skill learning system could become a lot more complex.

"So whats up with your skillset? It says here you are learning battle, magic, music, dancing and accounting! What kind of profession uses all that? Are you sure you are not just learning skills at random without a basic goal! Would a random character be strong or profitable? Why did you start this game anyway?"

'Um...because its fun!' Swamy thought but...

"Um it has the most research potential among all the games in the market. No classes, this unique age system, learning speed dependent on compatibility with npc....I mean if you look at it there can be a million things to write about!" Swamy replied.

"Yes that's true. Well how did you go about choosing it?"

'I made a list of things that will interest me' but again....

"Um I compared cost vs innovation vs research potential."

"Hmm. Well I can see that you are learning a lot. But you need to make a matrix of the time spent in the game. You haven't made it, have you? Well not that you can help it...I am sure it must be hard making time for the game what with your studies and all."

'Lets go with that!' and Swamy simply nodded.

So on they went through all of Swamy's reports which he had painfully written in the last three days. His real game record however stayed hidden in a corner of his mind, where he could access it anytime.

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Raka picked up magic language fast. Learning any new language is difficult even in real life, but because they had to start from scratch, it had become a little easier. Magic language consisted of 21 alphabets but mostly its grammar was simple. The only effort spent was learning all the new words. The only difference from the Ilmentia island language he learned before, was that now the system was not translating it. He had to take it as is. One of things the system did do was make a dictionary of all the words in the magic language he learned. He could access it and look at the spellings or the meaning if he ever got confused. But only of the words he had already learned. For new words he had to discover the meaning first and write it down using magic alphabets.

Teachers helped in this regard while he was in the classroom but considering the number of words possible in the magic language, he was sure he would find new words all the time while he was adventuring. In that case, discovering the meaning of those words would be a difficult task.

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Magic Language: 75%

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But in any case he was learning fast. His magic language had already gotten to 75%. Considering the time it took to learn the language of the island, it was a bit slower but he was sure that he could finish learning it in another day or two max.

He could now go to the magic library and pick up simple books to read. A lot of books dealt with the history of the world, which was named in a magical language word he could not understand. When he asked one of his teachers about it, he learned that no one had deciphered that word yet. And so this world had a different name in every language spoken. In Ilmentia Island it was called Gynopeia, which meant 'The Mother' or something close enough.

What he was really interested in however were books about magic. Books which dealt with magic not only described certain magics, but the types and properties as well. More importantly it talked about its various applications from communication to teleport....even becoming invisible was possible if you could control it. Not having a complete grasp of magic language he did have trouble understanding the exact details of it, so learning was not possible yet.

'Maybe I can ask Lady Verina' thinking that he headed down to the the training hall for his regular meetings with her. He had gotten better in sensing the energy, so he could get to the 'colorful world of energy' as he called it, in no time now. After that it was just the time needed to transform the energy. Since getting the Focus stat, in the colorful world he could see this bar which filled up the more energy he transformed. Looking at it, he could now measure the energy he was going to use. As soon as the bar filled up a little he thought 'Fire' and a small fire started in the wood stack.

Raka opened his eyes and looked at the small flame. In a while, the small flame rose into a raging fire and consumed all the wood.

"Well done! You are improving. You are still slow, but within acceptable limits" remarked Lady Verina. "So tell me how do you see the wood stack now?"

"Um I see it as a bunch of colors..." replied Raka a little confused with the question.

"No I mean do you see it as a single thing or do you perceive it made of different things?"

"I look at it as a single thing. I can't differentiate between the different things in the stack."

"Hmmm...so precision is still a problem. I guess you simply started a small fire rather than target a specific thing to set fire to?!"

Raka nodded.

"Can you sense me when you are perceiving?"

"Yes I can Master!" and Lady Verina nodded.

"How far can you perceive? I mean in that world, how far can you see things happening?"

"Um I am not sure. The things need to be happening fairly close for me to sense them. But its like I can walk around the entire floor in my world and as I get close to other things, I can see their energy forms."

Lady Verina nodded.

"In time, as you gain more experience, your perception should improve in two ways. One is detail and another is range. You will be able perceive things in more detail, eventually be able to separate them. Also you will be able to sense farther, as you call it. You will be able to see or sense things happening at a range."

Raka nodded understanding.

"Every person develops these two abilities in varying degrees. Some can sense things down to their tiniest detail. And some can sense energies hundreds of leagues away. In your case, it seems that you have started improving range rather than detail first."

"Um is that bad?"

"No. It is just mental aptitude. It depends on how you perceive energy. In your case, as you find it easy to move and look at things as you call it, you are improving perception range."

"Ah...ok. So I will be able to sense things from a greater distance as I improve?! So I won't learn how to look at things in detail?"

"Yes and No! You will improve your range but the extent will depend. As for your ability to look at things in detail, it depends. Usually most magicians will eventually develop their perception of detail to a certain extent, atleast till they can recognize different objects even when they are stacked together like this. You must understand that people will develop these two abilities differently and at different speeds. It also means that you would apply magic a little differently. There will always be people who favor one over the other. People who favor range perception become archers, rangers, scouts or even hunters on this island. Those who favor detail perception choose to become identifiers, explorers or inquisitors. According to what they favor, their combat ability evolves accordingly but most have these two abilities to some extent."

Raka thought for a bit, absorbing the necessary information. He nodded.

"You have just started magic and it is yet unknown to what extent you will develop both these abilities. Try to develop both when you are doing your perceiving training."

"Yes Master!"

"Now that you are able to use magic at will, we will now learn how to apply it in combat!"