The emotions I could feel over the mental link I had established were almost amusing. Fear, amazement, disbelief and an overall sensation that I could only verbalise as a loud scream of ‘what the f…’ flooded over loud and clear, to which I tried to send back a sensation of collected calm. Given that both of us were disembodied balls of mind and soul, floating just above the Astral River in its resplendent glory didn’t really help. The human mind wasn’t made for this, at least until it formed a framework to conceptualise the experience. Mine had always been that of a river, using small tributaries to conceptualise the smaller strands of the Astral River, though I had, at some point, mixed in the idea of a human circulatory system. Not that it truly mattered what framework one used, I was somewhat confident that the entirety of the Astral River was far too much for any mortal mind to comprehend, but that was neither here nor there. A framework was needed, a framework my companion sorely lacked.

But it wasn’t as if I couldn’t help him, I had some experience after all.

Beckoning a bit of Ice up from the river, I created a platform beneath us, giving us an objective direction to define down against and, with the same thought, formed myself into a vaguely humanoid shape, a body of Ice, mixed with Blood and Darkness to give some accents. It was far from a human, or elven, body but it served as a referable shape, one that Kevin could focus on. He couldn’t form such a shape for himself, but it seemed to help calm his mind, allowing him to focus on our environment. As long as he didn’t look at himself, he should be able to pretend everything around him was just fine, not like there were any mirrors in this place, nothing that reminded him of his disembodied state. My perception of him and the conclusion I could vaguely draw from the smell and taste his mind and soul had taken on were something I kept from him.

Luckily, almost two years of constant mental communion with another mind had given me the tools to compartmentalise, allowing me to use one thought stream to provide him with guidance and try to calm and comfort him, while the other stream focused on analysing him and filing away the information I could glean from the was his soul was laid bare to me.

“Now,” I began, my intentions transmitted across the temporary bond I had created, “think of what Water means to you. Below us is the Astral River, the stream through which all magic spreads and flows, nourishing the physical realm beyond and giving rise to the impossible. It, too, will contain the runes you seek, the three initial runes that will allow you to give form to your magic, to guide it into a shape you desire and require. Think what you need, think in concepts, the broader, the more flexible they will be, the narrower, the more power a rune will contain,” I explained, giving him a bit of time to consider what he actually wanted to do.

Far faster than I had thought possible, I could feel his mind reach out and, to my surprise, I could actually feel and see the shape the first rune took. While I lacked the Runic Mastery, at least for now, to actually use it, I now knew the Rune he had conceptualised as Water.

It wasn’t fancy but it was vast, containing sweeping strokes that held deeper layers and meanings, none of which I could even begin to understand. Compared to the runes I had always used, it was a world of difference, as if we were looking at different writing systems. Different shapes, different intentions, different minds. It made me wonder if he would be able to use my own runes or if the differences would be too big.

Before I could understand more, he was already continuing and I could feel the pressure on my mind as the rune formed and quickly withdrew. It felt similar to the few times I had tried to divine more runes than my skill allowed, a brutal, splitting headache that almost knocked me flat. Before that could happen to me, I took my gain, the Rune of Water, and withdrew my mind a little. Still holding his hand, so to speak, but no longer looking over his shoulder to read along and steal his efforts.

A few minutes later, I could feel the exultation in his mind and gently pushed him back towards the waking world, away from the Astral River. As we faded away, I dissolved the constructs I had used, letting the magic fade back into the river below, leaving no sign of our presence in the pristine world.

Opening my eyes, I first glanced across the blue boxes, noticing with a grin that I had gained my Mind Magic skill, only this time, it wasn’t a composite skill composed of multiple skills but an ordinary skill, one that went up to a hundred. I would have to take a look and try finding out the difference but for now, I was just happy that I had it and that it had levelled to three. In addition, Astral Meditation had levelled twice, bringing it to twelve and there was a box that notified me I had gained the rune of Water. No mastery just yet, but maybe that would come if I used it a few times, I wasn’t sure. Last, but certainly not least, I had gained a level, bringing me to seventeen, with some EXP left over to start my path to eighteen.

“Want to show me what you learned?” I asked Kevin, after taking a moment to steady myself. Helping him into the Astral and steadying his Mind had taken more out of me than I had thought but given the gains I had made, I wasn’t about to complain.

“I levelled up!” he enthused, looking at me with pure, undisguised awe.

“Congratulations,” I gave him a polite smile, feeling a little overwhelmed by the intensity in his eyes, “Your magic? Depending on your intelligence, you might have a special ability called Runic Triangle that allows you to link three runes, giving them extra power. If not, try focus on the magic you felt within the Astral River and draw the rune into the air, focusing that power into your finger,” I explained, before demonstrating, drawing a single Ice-Rune and channelling magic into it, using it to conjure a small block of Ice. It was just a little more efficient than straight-up using Ice Magic, but it gave him an example, showing him how it looked.

He scrunched up his face in concentration, while I leaned back, watching him act. Out of curiosity, I engaged my Magical Sight, watching his progress. He was concentrating Astral Power into his hand, before clumsily and slowly drawing a single rune, magic seeping into the environment as he was unable to control it.

Moments after it was completed, the rune flashed, an orb of water manifesting in its centre only to follow gravity and start to drop. Activating Overflow, I used Ice Magic to near instantly change the chunk of Ice I had conjured previously into a wide basin, placing it into the path of the dropping water, and catching it before it could splash all over the floor.

“Not bad, youngling,” I grinned, proud of his success, while he was breathing heavily, the first proper use of his magic had taken a chunk of stamina and Astral Power from him.

“That’s…” he stared at the water, likely comparing it to the exhaustion he was experiencing and likely feeling utterly underwhelmed.

“A first step,” I gave him a grin, putting the bowl of Ice down, “You need to learn to walk before you can start running. You just took your first step, hopefully, the first of many. If you follow the Arcane Path, it will take you far. Water is an incredibly flexible element, I could see you act as an attacker, using beams of pressurised water, I could see you provide healing, as water is the foundation of life, I could see you provide support, using water’s purifying nature. I can see you master your magic, and become a force to be reckoned with. It only depends on you, your efforts and your talents.”

He hung on my lips, the disappointed expression on his face quickly fading away, replaced with one of fascinated interest. Maybe he could see what I described before his mind’s eye, imagining some awesome battle. He said he had seen some of the Road to Purgatory videos, so he might have an idea of what was possible. Now, he saw himself in them and imagined what he could do.

“Now, you have a bowl of water. If you are anything like me, you will be able to manipulate it, using your magic. Just like I re-shaped the Ice before your eyes, you will be able to shape the water, though I doubt you will be able to easily make it keep its shape. Something for you to try, but later. Check your Astral Power, you don’t want to run dry, the headache is terrible. But if you carefully,” I stressed the need to be careful, “delve into the Astral River, you will regain your power faster and it will help you train for later. Astral Meditation is an incredibly useful skill to have, one that you should level when you can.”

There was a proud smile as he closed his eyes, his mind likely focusing inwards. My first student in this world, and he had already taken his first step. Now, I only needed to figure out what to do with the other, before meeting with the rest of the people here, maybe finding a few more students. If teaching magic gave this much EXP, it might actually be worth my while to stay for a bit, to teach and guide. It would provide me with an activity other than sleeping during the day, even if magical experimentation could have provided that just as well. Once more, I realised that I would soon have a lot more things to do, than time to actually do them. But there were worse problems to have.