It was close to 11.20am before Ivory actually felt ready to leave. He needed to practise walking around his room to make sure he wouldn’t fall over again before he tried going anywhere. Feeling confident, he put his essentials in his pocket, grabbed his door key and headed off.

Holding on securely to the handrail, he descended down into the dining area. Surprisingly, the stairs weren’t any worse to traverse than he expected. Upon entering the dining area, he was unsurprised to see it still quite packed; he wished he had checked what time it was that he came into the inn yesterday so he knew when it was quiet. Not because he preferred the solitude, but because he really could not imagine seeing the inn so empty.

Walking slowly through the inn, Ivory exited onto the Grand Promenade towards The Esoterica. It was considerably more busy than yesterday; did people like to get all their shopping in before lunchtime—

“You need to watch where you are going boy,” spat a waspish voice. Ivory looked to his left to see a woman looking incensed. He’d almost walked straight into her!

“Sorry! I wasn’t watching where I was going; I’m not feeling the best.” He had no interest in making a scene.

“Hmph.” With a huff, she continued on her way.

Look both ways before you cross somewhere, idiot. This was only his second day in this place and he’d already forgotten the basics of right of way. Sure, it wasn’t a ‘road’ with cars, but you still needed to respect the direction of human traffic.

Making sure to watch where he was going, he slowly but successfully made it to The Esoterica. Having a quick glance at the large scrying mirror that had been set up, he walked inside the reception area. There was a woman sitting down behind the table doing some paperwork. Ivory was unsure if needed to ask her if he could enter the main shop; the door was wide open and could hear some light talking.

“Good morning,” Ivory said as he walked past her. She looked up and responded.

“Good morning,” and then continued with her paperwork. She was either an inefficient [Secretary], or maybe you spoke to her if you had an appointment with Mannus?

Before Ivory could have a proper good look around, Mannus spotted him and rushed over.

“Dead gods, Ivory! You look terrible!” Mannus exclaimed with genuine concern.

“Oh, yeah,” he laughed nervously, “I was in my room at The Woolen Pillow learning [Light], and then I passed out.” Ivory saw Mannus’ concern morph into a mix of joyous surprise.

“Very well done indeed! Let’s talk more in my office—” he turned around and called out to a well dressed man across the room, “—Corbin, look after the shop for 15 while I speak with Mr. Henderson.” Corbin gave a polite nod. Mannus took Ivory to the back of the shop, where his office was.

“Sit, sit. What’s happened is that you have used up all of your mana. Remember how I said that you had a below average mana pool?” Ivory nodded.

“Very normal for beginning [Mages], don’t worry. Drink this,” Mannus placed a small vial on the table and pushed it towards Ivory. “It’s a mana potion. You’ll feel a lot better.”

Ivory eyes the little vial of light blue liquid. There was probably, what, 100mL of liquid? He removed the cork with a pop and gave it a sniff. It… didn’t smell very nice. “Down the hatch,” he thought, and took a glug. Yuck. But he felt invigorated. The fatigue and grogginess vanished instantly. He’d only drunk about a third of it, too! The first thing he noticed was that this place was filled with magic. His [Sorcerer] senses could be sharpened yet; The Esoterica was filled with ambient mana.

“Wow. I feel good as new.”

“[Mages] always have some mana potions on hand for situations like this. Ideally you will drink the potion when you are almost out of mana, instead of when you’re already dry. But enough about that. Congratulations on your [Mage] class.” A small laugh escaped Ivory.

“About that. I’m actually a [Sorcerer]. What exactly is the difference?” Ivory, for the first time, saw Mannus frown.

“[Sorcerer]. I see. I suppose it makes sense, based on how you did yesterday. [Mage] is the most common magical class. Put simply, [Mages] learn magic by practising their magic, but mostly from studying spellbooks. That is how [Mages] level. [Sorcerers], on the other hand, do not learn through reading and studying spellbooks. Instead, [Sorcerers] tend to learn their magic through both practice and, well, imagination.” Mannus paused.

“Unfortunately, [Mages] tend to look down on [Sorcerers], as they believe them to be… unsophisticated in their magic. Don’t look dejected—if people look down on you, that gives you more opportunities to rise up and overtake them.” Great. Magical prejudice! “Before we go on, what are your Skills, spells and level?”

“I woke up today and got …[Basic Mana Control]. I was practising moving bathwater today using the strategy you told me about yesterday with that magical item. Well, for fire, I thought about volcanoes erupting and just generally fire. For water today I thought about waterfalls, rain, lakes and so on, and I was able to make the water into a weak whirlpool, by moving my arms,” Ivory mimed the motion he made. “I then figured, why can’t I apply the same logic to learning [Light]? It took me a bit longer, but after thinking about some colourful lights, I made these four balls of light that I could make shine really bright… then I passed out.”

Realising he was waffling on, he continued.

“Anyway, when I woke up, I heard a voice tell me that I levelled up twice, and got [Light], [Lightshow] and [Elemental Control (Lesser)]. I guess I cast [Lightshow]?” Now that he’d vocalised it for the first time—and actually thought about it—had he played the system?

“See? You learned those spells—[Lightshow] is an uncommon spell— and Skills because, for use of a better explanation, you “thought hard” about casting the magic, thus making you able to cast and subsequently learn the spell. You gained [Light] and [Lightshow]. Your Class encourages you to think about your magic; am I right thinking that you perhaps thought the [Light] spells the children were practising yesterday was… not adequate enough?”

“...Yes. It looked a bit boring. To choose any form of light, and to settle on a little orb of white light…?” Ivory had a look of annoyed confusion on his face, making Mannus laugh.

“Ha. That’s the kind of thinking that today’s [Mages] lack. Those children cast the spell like that because that’s how they were taught to by Verdane, not that I will criticise them for it! [Light] is primarily used for just that—light. If you found yourself in a dark cave, you would cast [Light] to illuminate your surroundings. The spell is a means to an end. The difference with you, however, is that you saw what the spell looked like and thought you could tinker with it. Clearly, when you were developing that spell, you did not think of it as a mere means to light up a room, am I correct?”

Ivory was trying to process all of this information. “Magic would be kinda boring as a [Mage]”, he mused. He was learning a lot.

“That’s… exactly right, yeah. I guess that’s why I also gained [Light] as well as [Lightshow]?”

“I haven’t known too many [Sorcerers] and how they tend to level, but perhaps. [Light] is a Tier 0 spell which is simple to manipulate and, as such, there are many higher Tier spells based on it. [Illuminate] is a Tier 2 spell which can, as the name suggests, illuminate huge areas around the caster. [Blinding Flash], a Tier 3 spell, creates a globe of light where there is existing light, and causes it to explode, blinding anyone who sees it. [Light Mages] are rare, but they possess many useful spells. Back to the point: what you’ve done is adapt [Light]—without even knowing the spell!—into your preferred form.” Cripes, [Blinding Flash] sounded OP as hell!

“So, the higher the spell Tier, the better it is?” It seemed like a pretty cut and dry system of ranking magic, but there was no harm in getting specifics.

“Don’t be tricked into thinking that, although there is some truth to it. The higher the tier, the more complex the spell is. Depending on the type of spell—if it’s a combat or a utility spell, take [Flamethrower] and [Message] respectively— it will either be more powerful or will be more effective. It will cost more mana, be more difficult to learn, and so on. There are two reasons you passed out after successfully casting [Lightshow]. The first is because [Lightshow] is a Tier 1 spell, and the mana cost was simply too much for you to be able to supply. Secondly, you hadn’t actually learnt the spell: you were haphazardly pushing out mana to achieve what you wanted. Now that you have learnt the spell, your body has ‘remembered’ it, so you will now be able to cast it more efficiently. Try it.”

Nervous at the prospect of keeling over again, Ivory held both of his hands up, palms to the ceiling, and uttered the spell.

“[Lightshow].”

As before, four orbs—two from each hand—floated upwards. This time, their colours were different: all shades of blue. Aquamarine, electric blue, lavender and a dark-sea blue.

Ivory felt a sharp tug in his body as the spell cast. He didn’t feel like he was going to faint again, but he could tell that the spell taxed his mana reserves. He really had a tiny supply, didn’t he?

“A beautiful display. See how you didn’t faint this time? Now that you’ve learnt the spell, you can cast it with far better efficiency. [Mages] seldom experience this issue as we learn the vast majority of our spells through either levelling or learning them from a spellbook. As a [Sorcerer], I believe that you’ll experience this as you learn more spells. You will also learn how to be more efficient in how you ‘develop’ your spells, and you will gain Skills that expand your mana pool; you won’t be passing out every time you begin practising a new spell.”

Ivory was visibly reassured. Thank god!

“That being said, you were level 1 trying to learn a Tier 1 spell. I’m not surprised in the least that you passed out! That would explain how you jumped two levels after half a day of obtaining your Class.” Mannus touched his temple for a split second and recoiled.

“Dead gods, the time! I need to activate the scrying mirror. Come with me.”

Oh yeah. Ivory completely forgot about that!

Mannus gave a thumbs up to Corbin as the two headed outside. The same crowd of children were present to view the [Magical Instructor]’s lesson. Ivory was curious as to how the scrying mirror was ‘turned on’. Did he have a wand to brandish? A magical remote?

How he did it was rather anticlimactic: he didn’t do anything at all! Well, not that he could see, but Ivory used those [Sorcerer] senses of his to come to the conclusion that he had used magic to turn it on. A genius in the making, to be sure.

Luckily, Mannus was just in time in activating the scrying mirror. Verdane appeared and the children brightened up almost instantly. Before Ivory could sit down with them, Mannus leaned over.

“I don’t think that you’ll gain much from watching this. Not because you’re a [Sorcerer]; what Verdane will be going over today you now already know. Come inside and I’ll show you around my humble establishment.”

Ivory was thankful he’d suggested that; he was of the same opinion! Plus, he felt a little bit embarrassed after that young girl’s comment last time. The two headed back inside The Esoterica.

“As I said yesterday, my shop sells magical items and services. Specifically, services to do with appraisal. I’m no [Enchanter]—far from it—but many will come to me if they don’t want to wait a lifetime for an appointment. We sell wares from magical scrolls to Silver-ranked adventurer’s artefacts. I’d be interested to see what catches your eye; have a look around.”

Ivory almost felt embarrassed, as Mannus’ explanations had caused a few other shoppers’ eyes to wander over. He felt like a kid in a candy shop, except way better!

Ivory could make out a few different ‘zones’ of the shop: scrolls, rings, and then general knick-knacks. Having more or less zero idea of what magical adventuring gear consisted of, to him they were just… a various assortment of stuff. That being said, the first thing that caught his eye were some pens. Bewildered to see something so mundane in an otherwise outrageous (for Earth’s standards) shop, he made his way over there, with Mannus following behind him. Upon closer inspection, they weren’t pens at all, but quills. Curiously, they had no feathers. Wasn’t that the point?

“Ah, Speak-Quills. Courtesy of Archmage Viltach; he oft has them imported to Terandria from Wistram. They’re terribly useful things: they will transcribe your speech onto your parchment. Useful for [Poets] and lofty men who love the sound of their own voice. I happen to know that Illivere—a nation in Chandrar— invests in Speak-Quills. Their [Teachers] love them; an entire lesson dictated, which can be copied en masse by a [Scribe]. Very forward thinking.”

[Teachers]? The way Mannus spoke about them made Ivory think that they were not a profession—Class—that was widely practised. Very interesting. Either way, Ivory was amazed. These Speak-Quills weren’t some backbreaking feat of magic, or at least he didn’t think it was! But they did something that, for all of Earth’s technology, they’d never really managed. Sure, his iPhone could record his voice and it would last forever, but actually writing it down? He wasn’t sure it had been done. Honestly, Ivory didn’t even think he’d use it since he had his phone, but still!

“Better yet, they can last up to a year. Neat, huh?”

“Yes, indeed,” a voice from behind spoke. The two turned around to see a well dressed man—perhaps in his early 30s?—walking towards them. He continued on.

“I believe these would benefit my lord. I would purchase eight of these Speak-Quills, three scrolls of [Lesser Teleport] and one Ring of Lesser Fire Resistance.”

“But of course! I’ll grab those for you; if you’ll head over to the counter?” Mannus muttered something under his breath and a large tray appeared with a pop in his hands. He grabbed the eight Speak-Quills and put them on the tray, and headed over to collect the rest of the items. Ivory had no real idea how much any of that cost, but the fact that he said ‘my lord’ probably meant that he was pretty loaded. Was he a [Servant]? Before he could theorycraft other potential classes for the man, the transaction had already been finalised, and the man was heading towards the exit. What? Ivory went over to the front counter and lowered his voice.

“What the hell was that? Did that guy even pay? That all happened in the span of like 20 seconds!”

Mannus poked a piece of parchment in front of him.

“This is a receipt that I can present to the Merchant’s Guild to receive the gold he owes. Don’t look like that; that man is a [Retainer] for a wealthy [Lord]. This is a common method of conducting a transaction in cities. Carrying around hundreds of gold coins isn’t very sensible, regardless of status.”

So, that guy basically just paid with a cheque. And he’d get it cashed at the Merchant’s Guild, which was a bank. Cool. Earth-like.

“And… I have you to thank for that sale of the Speak-Quills. Would you believe that in the past four years, I’d never sold a one? Maybe it would be a good idea to actually advertise them—when I order more! I only had eight!”

“Crikey. You’re the one that sold it, not me, though.”

“Correct, however I can’t deny that I would not have spoken of them had you not expressed an interest. Do you know how much Speak-Quills sell for?”

Ivory, quite literally, had zero idea what money was worth, let alone the actual currency! Mannus had mentioned gold, so was there bronze and silver? How many bronze to a silver? Silver to gold? “Oy…” he thought.

“Err, five gold each?”

“Try fifty.” Ivory’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head.

“Jesus Christ almighty. You’re welcome, I guess!”

“Indeed—” Mannus was interrupted by another of his employees.

“Mannus, a customer is asking after you.”

“Lead me there. Ivory, let me know if anything else catches your eye. Maybe I’ll get a few more sales!” Cackling briefly, Mannus followed his employee to the customer in question. Truly, Mannus was a loon.

Ivory shrugged and went to look at some more magical gear. There was enough jewellery to put any jeweller’s back home to shame; there were more than just rings.

“Amulet of Featherfall, Ring of Lesser Frost resistance, Ring of [Light], Earrings of Warmth? Huh…”

Lots of useful artefacts, for adventurers and civilians both. [Enchanters] must have some fun! Could [Sorcerers] learn how to enchant things?

“If I think really hard about being warm, could I enchant my towels to always be hot? No, they’d probably just combust…” he thought. Maybe when he’s a bit higher level!

Much that Ivory was having an absolute blast, he kind of wanted to get on with it and see more of the city. So far, he’d only briefly visited a clothes shop, this shop and the inn. Surely there would be some sights to see, or good places to go? When Mannus returned, he’d be sure to ask him. For the time being, however, he’d keep looking around.

Five minutes went by, as Ivory casually walked around The Esoterica. In all honesty, he was thinking more about his stomach. He was starting to get a bit peckish. After he spoke to Mannus, he’d head back to The Woolen Pillow for lunch. Ivory saw Mannus approaching.

“Ivory. Thanks for waiting. Got any sales for me?” Mannus wiggled his eyebrows with a cheeky grin. Ivory just laughed.

“No, unfortunately not! I actually wanted to ask you though, I haven’t seen much of the city… Do you have any recommendations for places I should go to sightsee? I am a tourist, after all!”

“Dear boy, if I told you, there’s no excitement! No wonder! Explore the city. The Eternal Throne is safe, so you need not worry about any [Pickpockets] or [Thieves]. That being said, The Adventurer’s Guild and the Mage’s Guild I would recommend. You may be able to find some more information about your Class. On that note…”

Mannus beckoned Ivory to follow him to the front counter. He placed a stack of ten gold coins on the counter and pushed it towards Ivory.

“I profited 160 gold from the sale of those quills. Consider this my thanks for helping me get rid of that stock.” Ivory’s mouth almost hit the floor.

“I don’t know what to say. You have been so kind and helpful to me; teaching me magic, paying for my stay at the inn, and now this? I’m beyond grateful, but what have I done to deserve this?” Ivory knew he should have kept his god damn trap shut and accepted the money gracefully, but this was truly beyond. This was probably a lot of money!

“Ivory, in the big city, you get nowhere without good will. I paid for that scrying mirror out of my own pocket and hired the [Magical Instructor] likewise. Why? To aid in the growth of our city’s magical youth. There is no fee to sit and watch; anyone may come, although it is aimed for children. What do I benefit from this? It is as I said: I am providing a service to the city, to foster the growth of Calanfer’s future generations. Good will. Has The Esoterica never been more successful in the 10 years since I opened up shop? No.”

Ivory listened with rapt attention.

“That is a side effect of my good will. If that was my end goal, to make some extra gold in the long run, I’d be out of business. People can smell bullshit a mile away, especially on [Shopkeepers] and [Merchants]. Do not be mistaken. I am not pitying you or providing you with charity. What good a man would I be if I had the opportunity to help a young, budding [Mage]—[Sorcerer] in this case—achieve greatness, and I ignored it? I say, a poor one. Plus, as I said before, you made me this money! A good [Shopkeeper] pays his dues.”

Mannus’ speech really grounded Ivory. He was a very, very small fish swimming in a big ocean. Who would scorn the aid of a shark? Damnit man, this is what happens when you don’t shut up!

Mannus’ serious face turned into one of mocked sheepishness.

“If you feel so strongly about it, I could take the money back…” he slowly went to drag the coins back. Ivory nervously laughed, thankful that did not take offence.

“No, since you insist, I will gladly take the money I earnt,” he said, and it was the right thing to say as Mannus let forth a great guffaw.”

“That’s the spirit. Well done again in your magic. Explore Calanfer. Would that I could experience this great city again for the first time!

“Thank you! Err… Do you have a bag I can put these in?” Ivory didn’t want to just put all those coins in his pockets.

“I’ll be back, one moment.”

Mannus went into his office and came out just as quickly with a small brown pouch, with some string at the top. He placed the coins into the bag, making a satisfying jingle.

“Here we are. Keep it safe. Enjoy your afternoon.” Mannus walked over to another customer and began a conversation with her.

“This guy’s fucked”, Ivory thought. In a good way, but man. What a strange fellow.

Ivory returned to his room in The Woolen Pillow and emptied the coins onto his bed. Maybe he could fit them in his wallet? As he shook the bag, two vials of bright blue liquid rolled out.

“Goddamnit. This guy…” Thoughtfully, Mannus had snuck the mana potion he drank from in before he came out of his office. At this point, Ivory stopped complaining. As far as he was concerned, he was playing this game on easy mode, with Mannus’ help! What more could a stranger from another world ask for?

Musings out of the way, Ivory pondered his next move. The original plan was to get some lunch at the inn, but now that he had some spending money, he decided to pay a visit to the Belian’s Cloth Emporium to get some new clothes. Maybe he’d go to that cafe that he saw for lunch. Then, the Adventurer’s and Mage’s Guild. He looked forward to the prospect of being discriminated against because of his Class.

It was time to learn more about this world.