Chapter 16: Attributes

“I’m just that good,” Garret said as he flexed his biceps at Alex. His normal wide grin plastered on his face in a mocking expression.

“Sure you are. I’m pretty sure it’s just luck,” Alex repeated for the third time now.

Garret had been trying to get a rise out of him that whole time. It was only working a little bit. How could it not? Alex was so certain of his element, just to be disappointed and then Garret comes out of his test having not just one element, but two!

Once the stocky guy had declared he completed the exercise and began to jump about in the room it caused Celeste and Alex to rush over and see the results. Unlike Alex’s own test, which showed one of the sigils to glow brightly, Garret’s had shown two of the sigils. The sigils for earth and fire showed Garret’s elements.

So I’m not even the only one with fire. Damn, what a drag. It was a silly thought to have. Alex knew that with only six possible outcomes, there was a high chance one of his teammates would share an element with him, or each other. That fact it was a silly thing to complain about did not stop his mind from forming some irritation around the whole situation.

“Knock it off already. Congratulations, okay, now can we continue on with actually learning some magic?” Alex sat at the table with Celeste who was already waiting for the two of them to finish their antics.

“Alright, as long as you admit it. Good enough for me. You may now call me Jedi Master Garret,” he declared, sliding into the seat like he’d won a trophy.

“Not a single chance in hell.”

“Enough,” Celeste rapped her knuckles on the wooden table which shook rather aggressively for such a seemingly light touch. The woman really was stronger than she appeared.

“Sorry,” they both muttered simultaneously.

“Let’s move on then, eh?” The woman leaned back and sucked in a deep breath. Alex and Garret sat in silent anticipation. It was now time for them to start learning some magic. Actual spells. Something Alex had been looking forward to the moment he realized its potential in this new world.

“As far as teaching you two your first spells…” Celeste began. “I can’t do it.”

“What?” Alex blurted out and stood from his chair, knocking it over in the process.

“But we are your padawans. Your school students. Your… I don’t know but come on you can’t just cut us off here.” Garret began to protest as well.

“It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s that I can’t,” She replied evenly. The statement sounding as an utterance of fact as plain as gravity. “My element is water, as you two both plainly saw. I don’t know any spells for your elements, so I can’t teach you any. You would need to find someone who has your element and have them teach you what they know, or find a scroll, tome or other magical item that you can study to learn from.”

“Where can we find any of those then?” Alex asked.

“Around the village are plenty of potential practitioners with your elements that would be able to teach you spells. Mind you, they are civilians, not military personnel so they wouldn’t know combat magic, but utility magic instead.” Celeste waved her hand in dismissal at the idea. “Asking them would probably out you as Worldstriders as well, since you don’t know the customs of the land.”

“Well shit.” Alex’s mood dropped even further at that point.

He didn’t want to risk letting the entire village know what they are. People in his own world would certainly take advantage of that, so he didn’t see any reason why people here would be any different. He didn’t know the government structure of the place either but still assumed the Terraxum Kingdom had some kind of a black budget secret ops system that would love to get their hands on Worldstriders as well.

This is going to be more dangerous than I first thought. We can’t just be carefree and unguarded with our identities. At least not until we understand much more about this world. Alex gathered up his chair and collapsed into it.

“What about scrolls or those books you mentioned then?” Garret chimed in.

“I don’t have any for your elements. Even if I did, I doubt you have the money for them. Magic is not necessarily a secret or super rare, but it is expensive. Most families only teach their descendants, creating heritage spells. Those would be finely crafted spells for their bloodlines and constitutions anyway, and wouldn’t fit you well even if you do learn them.” Celeste walked to bookshelf and began to rummage around as she talked.

“So we do what then? Just give up on magic for now and focus on being melee fighters?” Alex asked the question, but he dreaded the possible answer.

“Great system, no. That is certainly an option some choose, especially the poorest of people. Even then, they incorporate magic into their melee fighting anyway.” Celeste removed an old-looking tome from the bookshelf and returned to the table, setting down the book in front of them. It was a simple leather-bound book Alex could have seen in his own world back home. The cover contained some faded arcane sigils and symbols on it though, so he guessed it wasn’t just a journal.

“We are honestly putting the ingredients in the fire before the cauldron though,” Celeste tapped the book. “First you need to learn aether-gathering technique to even begin to know magic. Kids are all so impatient. Just want to jump straight to spells. Teach me Celeste. Let me become a Magus tomorrow Celeste. Idiotic.”

Alex ignored the rant as the woman continued on for a minute longer. Lots of huffs and “these kids” coming and going throughout. Alex’s attention was simply on the book in front of them. He didn’t dare reach out and touch it. He knew from RPG games back home one does not just touch magic items you knew nothing about.

“An aether-gathering technique, or mana-siphoning technique as they are sometimes known, are the basis for any aspiring mage. Some are better than others, especially ones tailored to your element. There are universal ones, like this one.” She motioned to the book once again. “This is the [Condensing Spiral] technique. As basic as they come, but easy to learn and use.”

“How does this help us? What does it do?” Garret asked. Seemingly more serious suddenly.

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“As I said before, aether, mana, essence, energy, whatever you want to call it, is how spells are cast. You need to learn to absorb it and store it in your mage core. This teaches you how. Before I let you learn this though, let me hazard a guess that you toddlers don’t know the difference between the three magic stats on your main status screen, no?” They both shook their heads.

“Of course not.” Celeste pinched the bridge of her nose in the universal sign in old woman language of an oncoming headache. “A person’s mage core resides inside them in a semi-alternate dimension. Most assume it is just inside their head, but that isn’t true. It is in a spiritual zone shaped by their soul. This area is connected with an opening, a core gate, or soul aperture, located inside their head. Aether enters their core or their soul via this core gate.” She paused here, looking at each of them with a stern glare that dared the two of them to be too stupid to understand her and start asking questions. Neither of them dared.

“Gathering aether requires using a technique,” She picked up the book, “To draw in aether into one’s body. This is done at the body gate, or body aperture, located at the base of your head where it connects to your neck. Drawing in just any aether is stupid though, and you need to draw in aether attuned to your element. Too much of the wrong element or un-attuned aether will still fill your mage core and maybe even push you into the next stage. But doing things this way will dilute your core and thus make you weaker than other mages of your stage, or even capable of doing damage to your core.”

Alex listened carefully and stayed silent even after she had finished her explanation. He thought back to when he had increased his Willpower, Wisdom and Intelligence attributes during his initial tests.

The feeling of energy in my head when I increased my intelligence… It was probably heightening this core gate that Celeste mentioned. Wisdom felt like it entered that area and then disappeared. This was probably it entering through the gate and enhancing the core or the space inside. And Willpower was affecting my body gate since I could feel it collect in my neck. He repeated this to Celeste to confirm his thoughts.

“That is correct. Interesting you could feel that so well when spending your experience for the first time. Some take many attempts before they notice it.” She said.

“So why practice this technique if I can just increase my stats and get the same result?”

“Because you won’t get the same result, child.” Celeste’s hand flashed in a blur and Alex felt a stinging pain in his forehead. He didn’t need to investigate the sugar dish to know there was another one now missing. He tasted the sugary result of shame as Celeste continued to speak. “Increasing your attributes helps and is even necessary to become a more powerful mage, but it only lays the foundations, it doesn’t furnish or even build the castle.” Finally, Celeste reached out and opened the book in front of them.

The page depicted a series of arcane symbols and text on the left page, and a drawing on the right page. It was the drawing that caught Alex and Garret’s attention.

“Dude, it’s the Avatar.” Garret nudged his shoulder.

Alex only chuckled in response but he understood what Garret meant. The drawing depicted a human figure sitting in a lotus pose with symbols and arrows pointing to different spots. A sigil appeared in the neck of the figure, and one in the head. An arrow pointed behind the sigil in the head and formed a circle depicting a round object floating in what looked like space itself.

“The body gate in your neck is strengthened by Willpower, it lets you draw more aether at a faster rate without overloading your body or damaging your gate.” Celeste pointed to the drawing now. “The core gate is strengthened by Intelligence, allowing you to transfer more aether between your core and your body when using spells. Finally, Wisdom strengthens your soul space or core realm allowing you to hold more aether in total before it gets damaged.”

“Okay, so then willpower will make a wider and deeper riverbed, but only an aether-gathering technique will let me fill it with water, or determine how quickly I pour water into that riverbed?” Alex probed for a deeper understanding.

“So you’re not completely stupid, eh?” Celeste chuckled.

“I think I get it too. Wisdom lets me hold more energy in my gas tank, and intelligence lets me really lay into the pedal and go faster right?” Garret was now getting into the lesson again.

Celeste looked at him for a moment before she turned to Alex. “Is he able to feed himself, or do you happy-caravan the spoon into his mouth?”

“He eats fine, but we do have to wipe his chin for him afterward.” Alex said with a smile.

“That was one time!”

“What I think he means,” Alex continued, ignoring Garret’s protests. “Wisdom will let me store more energy, while Intelligence lets me use more of that stored energy at once and more efficiently?”

“Yes. That’s right.” Celeste closed the book and pushed it towards them. “You will need to study and practice the technique on your own time. The more you use it, the easier it will become. As I said, this is a basic technique, and you might find better ones along your journeys. Ones specific to your element would be preferred though.”

“Thank you,” Alex gently picked up the book and put it into his bag. They wouldn’t have time to start practicing right now. He knew that Garret and himself would start the very moment they had the chance though.

“How do we make sure to gather only aether of our element though? Didn’t you say the wrong element or non-attuned aether would hurt more than help?”

“Aether is naturally forming in the world around us. It will contain a mixture of all the elements unless altered by the environment or by other means. In the forest, you will find a higher amount of earth and light aether, since nature leans towards those more. By a river, ocean, or lake, there is more abundant water aether. During storms, you will find a gathering of more Air, and so on.” Celeste began to gather dishes at this point, a signal that their conversation and thus the lesson was now approaching an end.

“Items or natural treasures can be attuned to one element or a combination, making an aether-gathering technique easier next to such items. Otherwise finding a suitable area to practice will be needed. You will have to simply start slowly and continue slowly. You may actually use any gathering technique on non-attuned aether and filter out all but the desired element. This is inefficient and arduous but in many cases the only feasible method.”

Well, crap. I doubt I’m going to be finding a volcano nearby to help me gather fire aether. Maybe I can pray for a hot spring to stumble across? Or would that be more water aether attuned? Can I start a bonfire and help myself that way?I will have to do some trial and error. Alex thought about the options to himself as Celeste cleaned the table and moved the dishes to a bucket in the corner.

“Normally, you should never reveal your system attributes, spells, or system information in general to anyone you don’t completely trust. But if you want my help and advice, tell me your complete status screen and I can maybe guide you towards balancing yourself and not making a huge mistake.” Celeste said this in a mocking tone, but Alex thought he saw a glimpse of actual genuine care in her eyes for a moment.

“Well, I know my agility and vitality are my highest stats right now since I focused on them, because I didn’t know anything about magic yet.” Alex started first, bringing up his system screen to see the details.

“Intelligence and wisdom are both at one. My willpower is at two though. And-” Alex stopped as his mind suddenly noticed the biggest change to his status sheet since he last looked at it. His mind raced at the sudden realization.

Where the hell had all those experience points come from?

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