“The first proper step to utilizing magic is learning the particular flow of the attuned Mana within you,” Corbyn lectured as he paced in front of Damien. The Traveler was sitting at a desk that his mentor had dragged up here for the specific purpose of note-taking. It was feeling remarkably like high school, except for the fact that he wasn’t dozing off due to boredom. He hung off of the Canis’ every word as he began to reveal the basics of magic to his apprentice.

“Now, everyone comes into their own way of understanding Mana, but the most common and most effective way is through meditation and the centering of one’s mind. With that under your belt, sensing your Mana will be possible, but not easy. You’ll improve with practice, but I’m not asking you to conjure a fireball out of thin air without a corresponding Spell. Well, I’d be surprised if you could; Ignis isn’t your Affinity.”

Damien raised his hand out of habit. Corbyn rolled with the gesture and nodded for his apprentice to ask his question. “So, I’ve been wondering this for a while, but why am I only learning about this now? I didn’t have much of a problem when I summoned Ash, and that was pretty Mana intensive.”

“Just because you know how to cast a Spell instinctually doesn’t mean you know how to manipulate your own Mana actively,” Corbyn explained. “It’s like knowing how to write a sentence, but not how to speak it aloud. The skills are inherently connected, but learning one doesn’t necessarily guarantee proficiency with the other, although it can help a great deal.”

Damien nodded, still slightly confused, but understanding the idea of it. Then, there was another thing on his mind, and one that he wanted to resolve so that he could put it out of his mind. “Uh… when I looked at the original description for Mark of the Night Wolf, it said that it would grant me a stable Affinity. Does that mean… is the power I’m using not my own?”

“Nonsense. Of course it’s your own power,” Corbyn replied, unknowingly putting a fear of Damien’s at ease. “There’s no way it isn’t. The fact that you talked to Noctis at all suggests that you had a particularly strong Umbra Affinity from the start, even if it was dormant for a majority of your life. But strength doesn’t necessarily equate to stability. Think about the wording of it. ‘Stable.’ There’s a reason for that. Not everyone’s Awakening goes smoothly. Yours got sabotaged, but if it hadn’t been, you’d have had no problems, and your Affinity would be both strong and stable just like it is now. The power is yours. Noctis just smoothed out some of the rougher edges.”

“… okay,” Damien said. “Will casting Spells without learning how to sense Mana help me get a feel for it, or does that come with complications?”

“Yes and no. While casting Spells fresh out of an Awakening will gradually give you a sense for it, if you fall back on instinctual Spell-casting as a crutch, you’ll lose the chance to learn how to sense Mana at all, not just within your own body, but from the outside too. I’ll be teaching you all of this pretty gradually, but I want you to at least start sensing your own Mana by the end of the month. By then, you should get a corresponding Skill that will help to streamline your efforts.”

Damien nodded, his pen scratching against paper as he took in his mentor’s words. “Are there any major differences in how Mana works depending on someone’s Affinity? Also, are Affinities stronger with certain races than others?”

“Those are some higher-level questions that you’re fully ready to comprehend, kid,” Corby said with a smile. “But the fact that you’re asking them means you’re taking this very seriously.”

“Why wouldn’t I? This is bonafide magic we’re talking about!” Damien said excitedly. “The concept is just so… fantastical to me.”

“Yeah, your world doesn’t have magic, right?” Corbyn asked. The Traveler nodded, and the Arbiter continued on. “It makes sense why you’re so excited about this. But back onto the topic at hand: yes, there can be differences in how Mana behaves depending on Affinity, though your Level isn’t nearly high enough to be worrying about that just yet. There are ten major Elemental Affinities, and you’ll be learning them all with impunity. Differences in powers that they grant matter a lot at this stage of your development.

“The one you should be concerned with the most, other than your own Affinity, is Lux. To put it simply, Lux is the element of Light. And when I say Light, I do, in fact, mean light itself. Everything from the sun to the moon to candles and iridescent plants. It’s one of the most plentiful sources of Mana in the world, and subsequently one of the more common Affinities. It’s also one of the most flexible, although most who use it tend to go either the warrior or healer routes. What’s most important to know about it is that at this stage of development, Lux and Umbra will cancel each other out if they’re ever put into a head-to-head clash. Their natures are inherently tied together as natural opposites. We won’t be discussing any other Elements other than Umbra today, but until you reach Level twenty-five, I want you to promise me one thing.”

Damien nodded sensing the seriousness behind his mentor’s words. Corbyn leaned down to meet Damien’s eyes, amber orbs boring into his purple ones. “Unless you’re absolutely certain that you can beat them without relying on any magic you might possess, run away. It doesn’t matter if it feels cowardly or wrong or even downright pathetic; your life is worth more than any notions of honor and pride you might have in that head of yours. Am I understood?”

Slowly, Damien nodded. The sheer intensity in Corbyn’s voice was enough to silence all objections from him, and not without cause. Given the fact that he had only been in Xaunis for about a week, and had next to no combat training other than what his mentor had been drilling into him, he would probably be running from those kinds of fights on the off chance that they came up. For some reason, the idea of running felt wrong, even as a suggestion, but a cooler, more logical thought process prevailed. He couldn’t get any stronger if he was dead.

“Good,” Corbyn said, standing back to his full height once Damien comprehended the importance of his words. “Sorry about that. You’re my first apprentice, and I’d prefer not to lose you so soon into your training.”

“Hey, I like living, so thanks for the warning,” Damien replied, though some part of him was bucking at the idea of running from a fight. What the hell was up with that? “So, uh… we’re moving on to Umbra?”

“Yes. As your Affinity, Umbra is one of the more… elusive Elements. Not many have a natural Umbra Affinity, even among the Canis. It’s just as flexible as Lux, with the only real restriction being that Umbra-Attuned people can’t heal anyone other than themselves. It’s part of the reason there was something of stigma against them until recent times, even though similar restrictions are applied to other Affinities. I guess the mystique of being so rare has its downsides too. But, for the most part, people with an Umbra Affinity will take the warrior, mage or rogue routes, since they all play to the strengths of the Element. As a Shade Hunter, you’ll be learning all three, and more besides. It should also be noted that, other than people who utilize Lux at the lower stages, no one has a natural resistance to Umbra as a damaging force. This is both a reassurance and a warning. Do not use damaging Spells on people unless you are absolutely sure that you have no other option. Got it?”

“Got it,” Damien affirmed.

“Good. Now, let’s move on to something that’s a bit more exciting. Identify.”

Although Damien looked less than pleased at the change in conversation, it was something important that they needed to get out of the way. Corbyn had saved this for the day they spoke about magic for two reasons. One was to put Damien in a controlled environment with minimal distractions and fewer objects. The second was to give him context for what using Identify would feel like with an Umbra Affinity. Damien held his sword aloft in front of him, focusing on the Skill as it activated, scanning the sword and spooling out a stat readout in front of his very eyes.

[Steel Jian]

Rarity: Uncommon

Weapon Type: Sword

Description: a simple, straight steel sword of high quality that was found in the depths of a long-lost outpost.

Damage Type: Slashing | Piercing

Additional Abilities & Magic: Self-Repair (Minor)

The pressure behind Damien’s eyes from the Skill activating was not a pleasant experience. Even focusing on the one weapon had been enough to cause him a migraine, and he didn’t want to think about what might have happened if he had tried this in a crowded market square or something of the like.

“Not very pleasant the first time, huh?” Corbyn said, a knowing smile on his face.

“No, no it was not,” Damien said, his tone slightly grumpy.

“Well, at least it’s done. You’ll still feel some pressure behind the eyes for a while, but the worst of it is over and done with. But I should stress one of the main restrictions of Identify as a Skill. You can’t use it on people. On monsters, yes, but you can’t use it on people. Their natural pattern of Mana restricts basic detection and identification magic, and as you get more powerful, more powerful things will need to be used to identify you.”

“Why isn’t that a restriction for monsters? Aren’t they living things too?”

“Yes, but they’re also not sentient. Not most of them anyway.” Corbyn shuddered at a dark memory. “You don’t want to run into the ones that are. But back on topic: the reason you can use Identify on monsters is because of the natural turbulence and instability of their Mana, which lets people use Identify on them. Remember to always Identify whatever monster you’re fighting in the moment. If they have some kind of vulnerability to something you have on hand, exploit that weakness. Now, to give you a reference… use Identify on my Mana Blade.”

Corbyn unclipped the sword hilt handing at his side, putting it in front of Damien with a patient gaze. Damien did as he was asked, concentrating on the weapon as he waited for Identify to activate. It didn’t feel natural yet, but he had been assured that it would eventually feel like breathing. Still, for the moment, he had to make an active effort.

[Nightfall]

Rarity: Unique

Weapon Type: Umbra-Attuned Mana Blade

Description: the weapon of the Shade Arbiter, Corbyn Evershade. This Mana Blade was personally forged for the Arbiter by a long-time friend out of gratitude, and holds the weight of a life debt repaid.

Damage Type: Slashing | Piercing | Umbra | Aetheric

Additional Abilities & Magic: Soulbound | Evolution | Mana Powered | Indestructible | Transcendent

It was quite possibly the most intimidating thing that Damien had seen since coming to Xaunis. The Mana Blade, as it was called, seemed to act like a lightsaber powered by Mana, and looked to be the weapon of choice for Hunters everywhere, if Eric having one was anything to go by. In its dormant state, it looked like the hilt of a long sword, with a straight crossguard of darkened steel, a leather-wrapped hilt and a coin-shaped pommel with the symbol of his Order engraved onto it with great detail. He didn’t know what some of the additional things meant, but they all seemed intimidating, if somewhat self-explanatory. He would have to ask Corbyn for further details.

“That’s… wow,” Damien said, letting Corbyn take his sword back from off of the floor. “This… this thing can’t be the standard for all Hunters, right?”

“Indeed. Like the description probably told you, it was made for me by a friend who went to great personal expense to forge this for me. I owe my life to the sword he made for me, so we decided to call it even after I killed a dragon before it ate his wife.”

“You killed a dragon?!” Damien exclaimed, the shock clear in his voice. “Dragons are real?!”

“A story for another time, my young apprentice,” Corbyn said with a chuckle. “Thankfully, I have enough Camori saved up to make something like this about fifty times over. When you’re ready to come into the Order proper, I’ll have one commissioned for you by that same friend of mine.”

“Uh… are you sure?” Damien asked. “That’s a lot of money you’d be putting into me. Hell, I don’t even have a proper concept for how much Camori is worth, but that… why would you help me this much?”

“.. it’s easier to be a good person when you have a certain amount of power or wealth to back up your ideals,” Corbyn said, his tone turning brooding. “I have both. I haven’t always, and I worked hard in order to get here. But it wasn’t until recently that I realized… I had become something of a selfish prick in my pursuit of power. And that left me almost entirely alone, save a few very close friends who I’ve known for over a century. I’ve spent the last twenty-five years trying to be better. It hasn’t been easy, and sometimes I made the wrong choice. But that’s not going to stop me. So, if helping you out results in you living a good life, and perhaps, one day, surpassing me? I think I can live with that.”

“… you are very dramatic when you want to be, Corbyn. Did you want to be an actor in case being a Hunter didn’t work out?”

Corbyn gave a full-on belly laugh at Damien’s light verbal jab, and the Traveler quickly joined him as the sounds of mirth continued on for several minutes. Afterwards they got back to training, a lightness in their steps that hadn’t been there before. Neither of them commented. Doing so now would just ruin the moment.

Two weeks had passed since the start of Damien’s training, and it was already showing remarkable results. His competence with his combat Skills was going quite well, though he still failed to rouse even the barest hint of effort from Corbyn over the past weeks. His mentor’s capabilities weren’t exactly a reasonable standard to hold himself up to at this point in his training, and the Canis continued to reassure his apprentice that he was doing well, but Damien refused to settle. He continued to try and hold himself to an even better standard, to make his best his new normal, and then push beyond it. It was a good mindset to have if it was tempered with an appropriate amount of patience. Corbyn was trying, but Damien was slow to the heeding of his mentor in this regard. Still, he was listening to the Canis, even if he was adapting slowly.

His competence with his movement training was also coming along nicely, though it was something of a challenge for him to adapt to the unusual style of free-running after so long being physically inactive. His lack of experience there couldn’t be made up for like his combat capabilities had been with the Grandmaster Tome. Still, he was making progress, and no longer balked at making jumps at large heights. He was still scared shitless of falling, though, which encouraged him to improve even more when he wasn’t experiencing vertigo. His mentor said it would pass with time, but it was still a bit slow going.

Then, there was his training in magic and generalized Mana exercises. Corbyn often went over different Spells and how they worked, along with the various Affinities, their interactions and weaknesses, and Damien devoured all of the information like a fire burning through kindling. His progression with meditation and his subsequent efforts in trying to feel his Mana had gone exceptionally well. Not only was he able to sense his Mana within the first three days, but after the two weeks of constant, tireless effort, he finally managed to gain two Skills completely on his own.

NOTICE! You have gained the Skill: [Meditation (Uncommon)]

NOTICE! You have gained the Skill: [Mana Control (Rare)]

Damien panted as he laid out flat on the ground, a wide grin splitting his face while sweat beaded down his face. He… he’d done it. Holy shit, he had done it!

“Corbyn!” he called out, his voice hoarse and parched. His mentor quickly entered the room, concern on his face as he looked down at his apprentice with concern. He came over to him quickly, pulling a glass of water out of thin air as he helped the Traveler to sit up.

“You alright, kid? You look like hell.”

Damien drank the water greedily, draining the glass entirely before he looked at his mentor with a proud smile and excited purple eyes. “Skills. Got… two of ‘em.”

Corbyn looked briefly shocked before he two started grinning like a madman. “Fucking hell, kid, it took me months to get even one of those on my own. You some kind of font of magical talent or something?”

“Nah,” Damien said, waving off the praise. “Probably has to do with me being a Traveler or something.”

“Well, while I wouldn’t discount the fact that your nature probably helped with it, don’t dismiss your own efforts,” Corbyn said. “How many hours a day have you been working towards getting here?”

“Uh… four? I think?”

“Four hours a day spent on meditation and sensing your own Mana. That’s nothing to scoff at. Sure, you got it a bit sooner than others, but don’t ever think that your efforts here were worthless.

“So, in celebration of your achievements, we’ll be taking the next few days off from training.”

“But-”

“I know you’re eager to improve, but you also need to let yourself rest and recover,” Corbyn said before Damien could voice any real objections. “Maybe take a while to spend some time with that friend of yours. Or really start digging into those books. After that… I think it’ll be high time to take you out on your first real Quest.”

The promise of a Quest alone was enough for Damien to agree to Corbyn’s request to recover. As it turned out, the days off were exactly what he needed. Time to read his books more thoroughly, to get some proper rest, and talking to Regina and Felicia was exactly what he needed. It wasn’t like he’d been ignoring the two, but he’d definitely gotten caught up in his own training. Surprisingly, Felicia understood, explaining that she’d had to deal with something like that herself once upon a time.

“My mentor let me go at it for a few months until I couldn’t go on anymore,” the Seraphite explained, the two friends sitting at a cafe with what looked to be steampunk-esque magitech used to make said coffee. It was fascinating to behold, but he kept his excitement hidden. Over the past two weeks, he’d gradually gotten used to Felicia, his initial infatuation fading into the start of genuine friendship. She was still very pretty, but the surface-level interest had largely faded. Even if his hormones made him notice the former fact with a great deal of detail. “She’s something of a slave-driver. Accepts nothing but the best and more besides, even if she does act like a massive goof most of the time. Can’t blame her, though. What I’m going for isn’t exactly an easy field.”

“Hm? And what would that be?” Damien asked.

“Oh no, it’s not very interesting,” Felicia said, waving off her own comments as she refocused on Damien. “So, your mentor’s taking you out on a real Quest, huh? Haven’t you only been in training for two weeks?”

“He wants to temper my training with actual experience,” Damien explained. Neither of them had mentioned their Classes or the names of their mentors. What they were looking to do felt less taboo, but still off-limits, at least for the moment. It was a silent line that neither were willing to cross, and both were more than alright with that. “It’ll be good to at least get some XP and bump myself up a Level.”

“Right… do you know what XP actually is, though? Beyond being the resource we use to Level Up?”

“Not really, no. I kinda thought it was an indication of the experiences we’ve gone through, and we Level Up once we’ve gotten enough of it? None of the books I have really spoke about it too much.”

“Well, you’re partly right,” Felicia said as she put her own now empty coffee mug to the side, pulling out a sheet of paper and a pen from thin air with a brief, almost imperceptible flash from the single grey band on his finger, identical to the one on Corbyn’s. They were called Inventory Rings, and came in a variety of qualities. Damien couldn’t tell the difference between them at the moment, and couldn’t use Identify on the objects so long as they were on someone’s finger, but Corbyn had said that had didn’t need one, at least for the moment.

“So, let’s say you’re Level one, and you kill a Level one monster,” Felicia began, drawing out a little stick figure of Damien killing a crudely drawn rat. “When you do, you would gain a small measure of its potential power, more specifically known as Xenopotential, or XP for short. At the same Level, or jumping Levels entirely, you would gain XP at a tenth to one ratio, gaining one hundred XP for killing a Level one monster. If you managed to kill a Level two creature at Level one or two, you’d get two hundred XP, which would be a tenth of its total potential power.”

“Hm… then what about the opposite? Does anything in particular happen when you kill monsters of a lower level than you?”

“That… comes out like this,” Felicia said as she cleared more of the paper to explain Damien’s question fully. “Let’s say you’re Level two, and you kill a Level one monster. The Xenopotential you would gain from that creature won’t be quite as substantial as it would be if you were the same level or lower. Instead of a hundred XP, you’d get ninety. If you’re Level three, it’d be eighty, and so on and so forth until you reach Level ten, at which point you’d be so much more powerful than the them that you literally can’t absorb Xenopotential from Level one monsters. It’d be pointless, at least for the person trying to get stronger.”

“So, does the ten XP lost per higher Level apply to all monsters, or just the hypothetical Level ones?”

“Just when they’re Level one. XP is lost at a tenth per Level difference. For example, if it were level two, you’d lose twenty XP per Level difference, then thirty for Level three, and so on and so forth. Once you’re ten levels higher than the monsters you’re hunting, it eventually becomes a practice in futility to try and gain anything more out of them.”

“Good to know,” Damien said with a nod. “Thanks for telling me. I have a feeling my mentor wanted to bring it up, but he seemed… awkward about it.”

“I’m not entirely surprised,” Felicia said. “If he’s taking you on a Quest, then he’s gotta supply the XP himself, if he’s not going through an intermediary like the Adventurer’s Guild.”

“… what?” Damien asked, suddenly quite concerned about what fulfilling this Quest might mean for his mentor.

“It’s nothing to worry about,” she said, holding her hands up placatingly to calm him down. “The XP for Quests has to come from somewhere, and it’s usually provided by whoever gives the Quest in the first place. Luckily, you can’t provide any XP that would force you to go below your Level, so it’s quite literally impossible to Level Down. It’s more of a horror story than anything else.”

“Like a morality fable?”

“Yeah, exactly. But getting back on track: the XP that’s provided to lower-tier people usually isn’t much, especially in the single digits. Maybe fifty on the low end or two or three hundred at the most for your Level of power, but anything other than that would be… inappropriate.”

“How do you mean?” Damien asked, just before the pieces clicked together in his mind. “Wait… if someone got to a high enough Level with a surplus of XP on their hands, and wanted their family, friends or kids to have an unfair head start, then…”

“Yup. Easy quests with ridiculous rewards,” Felicia said, disdain and disgust both clear in her venomous tone. “It’s called Power-Leveling, and it’s just as unfair as it sounds. Hell, it might even be worse than it sounds. The people who used it got the power without learning to respect it, and thusly, they didn’t learn to respect the people who were so much weaker and vulnerable than they were. It got so bad that a civil war nearly broke out between the nobility who practiced Power-Leveling and the commoners who were being crushed by the pompous jackasses who used it. Eventually, tensions died down, and the practice was made illegal in its entirety, punishable by degrees up to and including death.”

Damien was silent for several long moments. It was strange to hear a gaming term used to describe what could only be a predatory and dangerous practice of the highest degree, but he was, and it was horrifying. He also probably wasn’t going to mention the fact that Noctis had given him a pair of Quests that, put together, gave him enough XP to almost get all the way to Level two. He already felt kind of dirty about it, given the history of such things in Xaunis, but what was done was done. Plus, it was just the one time. At least, Damien hoped so. He didn’t want to advance because of someone else pushing him onwards. He wanted to get there with his own effort.

“You seem pretty passionate about this,” Damien said. “I hope I’m not being rude by asking, but… is it personal?”

“… in a way, yeah,” Felicia admitted. Ash came out of Damien’s shadow, allowing the Seraphite woman to pet him behind the ears. “Some of my family members got caught up in the almost civil war surrounding Power-Leveling a couple decades ago. Not all of them survived. I didn’t know them, but I did know that they were good people.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry,” Damien said. “I don’t want to be that kind of person. At least now I know better than to accept something with too much of a reward.”

“Well, there are exceptions to the rule, though they are very specific,” Felicia said, continuing with a genuine fervor in her voice. “For example, if a Quest is deemed too difficult or too dangerous for a normal XP and Camori reward. You usually only see those getting offered to higher-tier Adventurers or Hunters, though.”

“Makes sense. So, uh… what do you think we’ll be doing? For my Quest, I mean.”

“Why would you ask me? I don’t know your mentor.”

“Yeah, but it might help if I had a baseline to compare what he’s going to put me through.”

“Oh. Well, most of the time, Quests at your Level require killing a certain number of minor monsters or doing various tasks for some XP. It shouldn’t be too hard.”

His first Quest was not, in fact, anything like Felicia had described as the norm. It was, however, a format that Damien recognized from video games. The fact that he recognized it only made the dread he was feeling so much worse.

[Rat Hunter]

Recommended Level: 1-3

Description: Your mentor has deemed Lamora’s sewage systems to be absolutely infested with minor Monsters, especially Vermisca. They will prove good practice for your abilities.

Objective: Slay 3 Vermisca Younglings and 1 Vermisca Adolescent

Reward: 50 XP, 100 Camori

Accept Quest?

Yes | No

In response to the prompt in front of him, Damien could only say one reasonable thing in response.

“… why did it have to be the fucking sewer…?”