Apprentice Ellen
Ellen found Miriam just where she’d been told the mage would be: down by the riverside.
She didn’t approach immediately. Miriam had warmed up to her in the dungeon, but when they’d returned to the village the blonde woman had retreated back to her sullen scowl. Ellen wasn’t sure what to make of it, so she was hesitant to just call out.
That hesitation let her hear the soft singing that Miriam was doing. Ellen couldn’t make out the words, but the pleasant melody and the lovely voice of the mage were giving it a soft, soothing tone that Ellen couldn’t help but stop and listen to. She nearly forgot, for a moment, why she’d come down to this place to begin with.
As the song faded, Ellen crept closer, letting her boots make the faint squish of someone approaching on the damp mud of the shoreline. The noise caught Miriam’s attention, and the blonde whipped about, scowl on her face already.
Not a good sign.
Ellen waved politely and smiled. “Hi, Miriam. Pretty song. Sorry for interrupting, I just wanted to see you before you left tomorrow morning. Do you… have a few minutes to talk about something?”
For a moment, Ellen thought Miriam’s glare would continue, and that she’d be denied any chance to speak to the mage. The woman’s scowl visibly softened after the initial stare, and Ellen relaxed.
“Is it something you need another girl who isn’t your sister to talk about?” Miriam chuckled. “I’m afraid if you want romantic advice, neither of my companions are good choices.”
Ellen blinked, her face warming at the misunderstanding. “Really? What’s wrong with Vincent? He seems—wait, no, that’s not why I’m here! Don’t distract me!” She sputtered and waved her arms, causing Miriam to actually laugh.
Maybe she wasn’t as hostile as she seemed.
With a loud huff, Ellen refocused and tried to get her nerve back.
“I was just wondering if you could talk about magic with me,” she explained, gesturing vaguely in the air. “I’m still early enough along that I could change class if I wanted, but… I don’t know if I want. Could you give me the quick explanation like you would a new apprentice? Maybe show me some spells, how I’d cast them? Even if it isn’t for me, maybe my sister could be interested.”
Miriam’s smile faded, her eyes looking upon Ellen with a stern, measuring stare. “I don’t think someone already focused on physical fighting will work well as a mage, and I doubt you have the conditioning or the discipline to be a true Hybrid Class.”
Ellen’s face fell, eyes dropping away from the woman. She sighed, opening her mouth to apologize.
“However, I like your curiosity,” Miriam went on. “And I’m quite bored at the moment. If you can promise me you won’t wander off halfway through, I could share some of what I know.”
That sinking feeling vanished immediately as Ellen looked up again, eyes and smile bright. “Oh! I can spare today, it’s fine! I know I’m um… not the best student sometimes, but when I put my mind to something I stick with it!” She stood up to her full height of five foot two and grinned. “I made it all the way out here, didn’t I? That was a long trip!”
The mage arched one eyebrow. “You never did say where you were from, Ellen.”
Oops. Ellen shook her head quickly. “Not important! I mean it is important but only because… my parents may not have approved, so I’m trying to keep at least a little quiet until I’m more successful, you know? They’re good people, don’t worry, just a little um… they don’t like the idea of me being an adventurer.”
Words poured out as Ellen finally let out at least part of her story, her blush rising as she realized she was opening her heart. She snapped her mouth shut before she could say anything more embarrassing. Or revealing.
Miriam lightly touched Ellen’s shoulder. “That’s a more common story than you think. My only advice would be to not stay away from your family for too long. They’re worried, if they’re as good as you say they are. I know I wish I would have returned home a few years earlier than I did.”
She’d come here for magic, not for comforting words… but Ellen didn’t mind the show of trust and friendship. It was a lot more than she’d expected. She gave Miriam a small but genuine smile.
“Thanks…” Then she fidgeted and rubbed her sides, warming herself up. It was cooler today than the day before, and she hadn’t been one of the Ellens to borrow a cloak.
“Hmm… this is a good demonstration.” Miriam stepped forward and murmured a few words, each of which was hard to make out and sounded like nonsense to her. The woman’s fingers touched Ellen’s forehead, and once again the tingle of magic ‘requesting’ access was felt. She allowed it.
STATUS EFFECT: Warmth
Your body retains warmth at a higher degree. You will retain a comfortable temperature in mild cold.
FIRST TIME AWARD: Subject of a friendly magical effect.
For performing this activity for the first time, you have gained 50 Experience.
An additional bonus of 100 Experience has been applied from banked Experience.
FIRST TIME AWARD: Witness a spell.
For performing this activity for the first time, you have gained 10 Experience.
An additional bonus of 20 Experience has been applied from banked Experience.
FIRST TIME AWARD: Subject to a Tier 1 spell.
For performing this activity for the first time, you have gained 100 Experience.
An additional bonus of 200 Experience has been applied from banked Experience.
LEVEL UP!
You have reached Level 2.
LEVEL UP!
You have reached Level 3.
This is getting ridiculous, Ellen thought to herself as she waved away the tumble of notifications. She tried to pay attention, though. She’d felt something when the spell had been cast, and the words spoken had caused a noticeable ‘twist’ in the air.
When she was paying attention, magic was a lot easier to track. Ellen still had no idea exactly what Miriam had done, but she was closer.
“Thanks,” Ellen breathed gratefully. “I probably know a little about how this works already just from meeting a few other mages, but if you could start at the beginning so I don’t miss something important…?”
Miriam frowned, and Ellen feared she’d offended her at first. “I can try, but I’m not a teacher. Let me see…” She tapped her chin.
“First of all, you know you have and regenerate mana, and that is your personal mana store, but most of the power of a spell doesn’t come from that.” Miriam gestured directly in front of her, probably pointing to her own Status window’s Mana field. “That’s why it regenerates so quickly. But like Stamina, it regenerates more slowly once you have used more than half of your supply.”
Ellen nodded. She had known that already, but she wanted to cover the basics again.
“Mana is a little complicated, but for our purposes you can imagine it as the potential for everything around us to do something.” Miriam continued with vague gestures, but her words were capturing the idea well enough. “Magic is the act of realizing that potential by using your own mana to influence the mana around you, and manifest an effect. That’s why in low-mana areas your spells cost more of your personal Mana, or may even be impossible to cast.”
FIRST TIME AWARD: Learn about mana.
For performing this activity for the first time, you have gained 5 Experience.
An additional bonus of 15 Experience has been applied from banked Experience.
FIRST TIME AWARD: Trick someone into giving you first time awards for teaching you something you already know.
For performing this activity for the first time, you have gained 150 Experience.
An additional bonus of 300 Experience has been applied from banked Experience.
LEVEL UP!
You have reached Level 4.
Ellen almost let out a gasp, but stifled it quickly. That second award was a very specific one… worth quite a lot as well. It also wasn’t something she could imagine anyone but her ever earning. The System was really doing some strange things with her revival and duplication.
“Okay,” she mumbled. “How do you learn the words to cast a spell? Is that what spellbooks are for?”
“Yes and no.” Miriam smiled, as if pleased at the question. “This is where things get complicated and you need to learn the different kinds of casters. Innate casters have a limited selection of spells that they learn to cast by instinct. Method casters instead study spells and temporarily insert them into their System, but there’s nothing stopping them from casting them the hard way… except that doing so without the System is complex and time-consuming. There are some Classes that blur the lines, like my own. I am a Method caster, but have difficulty with new spells and have a speed nearly that of an Innate caster.”
This explanation was starting to drift away from what Ellen needed, but she nodded anyway. She was still learning things and brushing away more notifications during Miriam’s speech. She let the woman continue, settling on a large flat rock to listen.
“Now of course you may wonder about the reason anyone would choose Innate caster,” Miriam went on. “The reason is speed. Innate casters use spells almost like other Classes use Abilities. An Ability is almost instinctual, since the System forms the mana around a person into an effect to reflect their Class. Spells are like half-finished Abilities. Someone at some time figured out how to make the mana do what they wanted, and over time that became formalized, and the System lends help to the spell.”
The blonde mage turned and flicked her fingers outward, lips forming more arcane words. A Fire Bolt leapt from her fingers, shooting across the river before vanishing just past the halfway point.
“Unlike an Ability, these spells are half-finished. They’re missing key parts. Innate casters fill these parts in instinctively, because they have such a limited number of spells to choose from. This makes their casting very fast, but they have few spells. They also cannot develop new spells easily, or modify the ones they know. If they learn a Fire Bolt with the range locked in, they can’t ever alter it.”
Finally, Ellen had to interrupt. “So they don’t need a spellbook?”
Miriam gave her a scowl, but sighed as she fought back the irritation. “I’m getting to that. Method casters place a spell in their System window after setting certain parts and leaving others undefined. They then fill those details in as they cast. Incantations are a shortcut to remember which details—called lynchpins by casters—they are filling in and in what order. A hybrid caster like myself can’t adjust them as much as a true Method caster, but I’m much faster.”
Ellen almost asked again about the spellbooks, but she saw Miriam’s warning expression and held her tongue. The blonde smiled at seeing this restraint, and continued.
“A spellbook is a mage’s notes on how and what lynchpins are most effective, and their methods of using them. That’s why you can’t simply learn new spells from another mage’s spellbook. Their notes are personal and shorthand, so decoding them is a difficult and time-consuming matter. This is opposed to a grimoire, which is a treatise on magical theory that explains how to create a spell from the ground up using your Mana Manipulation Perk.”
Ellen dismissed several more notifications, then nodded and smiled to Miriam. “I think I get it. So every spell is just using Mana Manipulation to put something together the hard way, and then getting the System to shortcut it. Like how I learned how to properly swing my spear around, and eventually the System made it easier to get it lined up and balanced.”
“Precisely,” Miriam confirmed, clapping her hands together. “Now you are getting it. In the Apprentice stages, using Mana Manipulation is what is taught. Minor things like little gusts of wind or lighting a candle are all that a student can handle, until they have more supporting Perks. A high Affinity works well for this, Willpower is more important for handling bigger spells. Affinity is how spells are controlled. This is why people with lower than a seven or so in Affinity shouldn’t pursue the Class.”
Ellen nodded again. “I had all eights in mine. It was a little depressing because I wasn’t really good at anything, but I guess I’m not bad either.” She sat up straighter. “This is really interesting, Miriam. Can you explain a little more about how spells are designed?”
As Miriam smiled back and prepared to go into further detail, Ellen closed some more notifications. Then she selected the Apprentice Class, assigned a point to Affinity to bring it to 9, and took the Mana Manipulation Perk.
She could practice later.