Sara PoV

I spent two hours walking around the academy gathering information, after that I decided to log out for a little while, only to find out that the time flow is different inside the game, I just played for half an hour.

“I envy you, I really want to start playing now”

Lucy was talking to me through webcam.

“I wish you could play, it would make choosing my skills much easier”

Truth be told I logged out of the game to decide my course of action, after all I can only choose three skills for now.

“I know I will be using a sword, but by next week you will already have spent around a month inside the game”

“I guess I will learn magic and wait for you so that we can explore the world together”

She smiles.

“It isn’t fair, I want to play too”

Lucy starts throwing a tantrum, a while ago I was as frustrated as her.

“It’s time for me to go back to the game”

She calms down, but I can see the frustration in her face.

“By the way, what name did you choose for your character?”

“Victoria, spanish for victory”

After that we said goodbye and I decided to go back to the game.

Seconds later I’m standing in the middle of the Academy, hundreds of players walking around.

What skill should I learn first? I think I will go for a healing spell.

I walk towards the closest NPC I find.

“Excuse me, do you know where can I find someone to teach me a healing skill?”

The man looks at me, thinks for a little while before answering.

“There are several kinds of healing skills, for instance it can be done through magic or using first aid, you can even share your own health with someone else”

“Magic! I’m looking for a place to learn healing magic”

I wonder how magic works in this game.

“Then you should go towards a temple, there are five within the academy, each belonging to a different deity, I’d recommend for you go to the temple of Naleya goddess of love and wisdom or Lihane goddess of beauty and abundance”

Love and wisdom? I don’t think that’s such a wise combination, yet I feel less compelled to learn from the goddess of beauty.

“Where can I find the temple of Naleya?”

The instructor points towards the west entrance to the academy, he said the temple is a unique building.

Soon I arrive to what looks like an old church, on top of the entrance door there is a heart engraved with a book in the center. Underneath it has something written.

‘Temple of Naleya

Goddess of Love and Wisdom’

I wish I could turn around and look for something else to learn, necessary evil, I want to use healing spells.

I go inside, there are several NPCs sitting around reading books. Some players next to them trying to learn from them.

A woman that looks like a priestess walks through another door, I follow her. She’s in a garden with a fountain in the center, surrounded by trees, different fruits growing from them.

She notices my presence and makes a sign with her hand to sit in a bench next to her.

Seconds later I’m sitting next to the priestess, we both remain silent for a while.

“I would like to learn about the healing arts taught in this temple”

She remains silent, looks at me and it feels like she can see right through me.

“You have a good heart, maybe too ambitious of a nature but a good heart indeed”

Then she pauses to think about something, I wait.

“Have you learnt magic before?”

“No, I haven’t”

“I see, most of the adventurers here will only learn a healing skill and they will need around a week of practice”

A week? That is a lot of time for a single skill, but I think most skills will take around that much.

“I think you have potential, I can teach you the healing arts but first you will have to learn another skill, it will take longer but if you endure this training your magic will be stronger”

I’m not in a rush, after all I need to wait for Lucy.

“Please teach me those skills, I will work hard”

The priestess smiles.

“Let’s begin right away”

She stands and grabs a bowl of water from the fountain.

“First you have to learn how to control the mana within your body”

Then she holds the bowl with both hands, a few seconds later the water starts glowing. After a while she stops and looks at me.

“I poured my mana into the bowl, making it glow, that’s the most basic use of magic. I want you to try and do the same”

She hands the bowl to me, I take it with my two hands.

“How do I pour mana into the bowl?”

“Mana is the energy flowing within your body, you need to feel its flow and after that it’s possible to control it”

‘Skill Learning: Mana Manipulation

To learn this skill you have to practice feeling the mana within yourself and try to control it’

I close my eyes and try feeling my mana, it doesn’t work. If I can’t feel my mana how am I supposed to control it?

“Feel the beating of your heart, the blood moving across your body, mana works in the same way”

I keep my eyes closed, focus on my breathing, I slowly breath in and out, after that I feel my heart beating endlessly, the blood pumping from it moving from my heart to my head, my arms and legs, spreading through my whole body, after a while I notice something different moving across my body, I feel the flow of my energy.

‘You have felt the flow of mana within yourself for the first time

Mana +5

WIS +1’

I open my eyes and see the window in front of me, looks like I made it.

“I finally did it!”

The priestess smiles at me.

“Very good, I knew you had the potential”

Then her face puts on a serious expression while looking directly into my eyes.

“It took you a little less than an hour to get the feel of it”

“An hour? To me it felt like a couple of minutes”

I’m surprised, I didn’t know I was capable of that kind of concentration.

“Well, you were focused on the task, that’s a good thing. The problem is on the field, you don’t have an hour to feel your mana, you must be able to feel it instantly, the ideal is that you’re capable of feeling your mana every second, without even having to focus, it must come to you as if you were breathing”

“I understand, I have to keep practicing”

I keep going for around four hours, every try it takes me less time to feel the flow of my mana. It’s hard to believe how focused I am with this task, if someone told me before I would be doing this I would have said it was impossible for me, now it just feel natural to practice like this.

‘You are hungry, find something to eat

Satiety added to status’

I have to stop training, somehow I’m unable to focus while hungry.

“Miss, looks like I’m hungry”

I say while embarrassed.

The priestess has remained by my side the whole time.

“There are fruits on the trees”

Then she points towards one of the trees in the garden.

I stand and pick an apple from the tree.

“Is it alright to eat them?”

She nods.

I put the apple into my mouth, I feel the hunger disappearing. I grab another one and bring it to her.

“Thanks”

She starts eating the apple.

“Somehow all my hunger seems to have disappeared with just one apple”

She laughs.

“These are special, they are blessed by our Goddess”

“They are delicious”

I smile, the hours I’ve spent inside the game have made me forget this is not real, that I’m inside a virtual world. Everything here is incredibly realistic, people expressions, the beauty of the world in itself, the very feeling of my body. I’m really happy to be here.

“I think we should proceed to the next step of your training”

I look at her with surprise in my face.

“But I still need around ten minutes to feel my mana”

“Don’t worry, for the next step you have to continue doing the same you’ve been doing these past hours”

“I understand”

“Then I’m going to explain what you have to do next”

I nod.

“While holding the bowl between both of your hands you have to feel the flow of your mana, then you need to try to focus your mana towards the water, if you can manage to do that the water will start glowing”

I grab the bowl between both of my hands, then close my eyes and repeat the same process I’ve been doing until now.

After a while I feel my mana flowing around my body, I feel the water within my hands inside of the bowl, I try to move my mana towards the water, at first the energy slowly moves to where I want it to, suddenly all of my mana is gone. The bowl cracks in my hands, the water falls in my legs.

“Good”

The priestess doesn’t sound surprised.

‘You have used up all your mana for the first time

Mana +1’

As I open my eyes I see the message.

“Your mana focused on the bowl and not into the water, that’s why it broke”

“What did I do wrong?”

“There are two things to fix, first you have to forget about the bowl you only need to focus on the water, try to feel its mana. Second, you have to pour as little mana as you can, try for it to go slower, until you get more experience controlling your mana if it goes too fast it will go out of control”

“Does everything have mana within itself?”

I think if water has mana, then everything else should have it too.

“Almost everything has mana, an exception being the undead creatures, they don’t have their own mana but have means to use it. Water is perfect for training because its mana is easy to feel, in contrast with a stone which mana is hard to perceive”

I feel a little tired, she notices it.

“Rest for a few minutes before trying again, you need to replenish your mana, as you get better you will only use a little quantity and will be able to try countless times”

Then she stands and grabs a few berries growing in the garden, and hands one to me.

“Eat it”

I grab it and as I’m eating it I feel my energy coming back to me.

“These berries can restore your mana, but I will only give you a couple of them”

“Thanks”

After that I start training again.

When I notice is already dark outside, I lost track of time.

“I’m sorry I was so focused that I didn’t notice the time”

The priestess smiles.

“Don’t worry, you have progressed really fast, in a couple of days you will be ready”

After hours of practice it only takes me around five minutes to do the exercise.

“I will go to sleep now, you can keep practicing if you want”

“I think I will”

She walks into the church.

When I’m alone in the garden, I notice the stars in the night sky, it’s beautiful.

An hour later I’m still practicing.

‘Someone it’s trying to talk to you from outside the game, do you want to log out’

It must be quite late outside.

“Log out”