Might as Well

The next real-time week was spent at Fitzgerald’s workshop and yard behind the house as the older man began to educate Sam on the intricacies of runic magic.

The first days were just Sam reciting what he knew about runes and mana, while Fitzgerald asked probing question after probing question until Sam couldn’t answer them.

They discussed everything from the writing method of runes, the implement used to do it, be it his magic or some kind of artifact, to the materials receptive to rune circles.

Sam was a very happy camper when the beginner-level knowledge he gathered from library books, experimentations, and some hints from the inherited memories, was deemed adequate by Fitzgerald.

During the rune boot camp, he also made sure to spend some time on the internet when not in the game and combing through the knowledge found there. As with everything the game contained, there were already dedicated forums for runes and every crafting discipline related to them.

Most of the open forums were full of wild speculations, blatant misinformation, and scam posts, but the real dedicated forums operated by crafter guilds – or by obsessive nerds – were well curated and had some nice information for beginners.

Everything after that was hidden behind paywalls, or the need to join guilds, groups, or even work collectives.

Then there were the video tutorials where either scantily clad women or men explained very basic concepts as if they were imparting the wisdom of sages upon the masses or tinfoil-hat-wearing hobos with murder boards that put entire police departments to shame trying to explain how runes made it blatantly clear that lizard aliens ruled the world of Magic Unbound and the reason the world was stuck in medieval times because the techno-lizards from the moon found it easier to control the planet that way.

Sam couldn’t really say what was more entertaining but in the end, he decided on the bouncy blonde bombshell, as she explained how runic circles needed – gasp – mana to function as he was a hot-blooded young man and felt no shame…

Then after they went over what Sam knew, and what he didn’t Fitzgerald simply piled several very thick books on a desk in the workshop and told Sam to read them while he did things. Which mostly concluded with yelling expletives at the new prototype for the portal technology, as it refused to work as the man expected it.

The funniest one was when it activated on its own and Sam jumped up, ready to make mince meat of whatever that came through, only for a simple white rabbit to jump out of the portal, to their surprise. The rabbit sat there for a second, moving its adorable nose side to side before running deeper into the house.

Sir Mipsy Floppington now sat on a high shelf in a very comfortable cage that Sam and his mentor put together after hunting down the poor, terrified animal. He watched them discuss runes and judged them harshly on it.

Fitzgerald wanted to let it loose in the nearest forest – or eat it – but Sam convinced the man that if it came through the portal, then there must be something special about it.

Or it was just a very scared and very surprised rabbit that had no idea what was going on…

The lessons also gave Sam the opportunity to ask some questions that had interested him for a while. There were a few ideas that hinged on them, but he couldn’t find anything in the books he had access to…

“Is it possible to create expanded spaces inside houses, teacher?” he asked, looking over to his mentor over the desk they were using.

“Technically yes, but in practice, it’s forbidden,” came the succinct answer from his mentor as he went over the exercise sheet Sam handed over a few minutes ago.

“Why?”

Fitzgerald let out a sigh that told Sam he got the same question almost every week, but still Sam wanted to know the exact reason why it didn’t work in this game as most games or settings had their own rules for space expansions.

His mentor stood up and shuffled out of the room as Sir Mipsy Floppington watched them with judgment in their red eyes and returned several minutes later with a well-worn copy of a book. He simply tossed it to Sam and returned to his seat to peruse the tests.

Sam took a good look at the book and had to say that the title answered most of his questions.

How to create explosions using runes and the people who died during the process - LXIII Edition

“So, the answer is explosions? Can you use those explosions offensively?”

“Page thirty-seven.”

“Grenades?”

“Page sixty-two to seventy-nine with an excerpt on page ninety-eight.”

“Traps?”

“Page one hundred and sixty-nine.”

“That’s just a page with the 'NO' written on it with extra large letters…”

“Are you familiar with the Bluesky Lakes?”

“Tricking other people doing it?”

“Against international armistice laws and page two hundred and eleven…” came the deadpan response from the other man, who didn’t even bother to look up.

“Can you use runes to cast other spells? Like fireballs?” he asked, going over an exercise that had him designing an ultra-efficient rune circle for lighting up a room.

“Sure, if you have weeks to redesign every spell you want to cast into a specialized and individualized runic circle that you won’t be able to modify on the fly like a regular spell,” came the stone-cold answer from his teacher.

“What about bigger spells with multiple casters? Could I substitute them with a pre-designed circle?”

“Yes, but unless you plan to cast that spell every day for years the expenditure of effort, time, and money is simply not worth it…”

“Bummer…”

“Take heart, my young friend. All of us who delved deep into the mysteries of runes have been there where you’re now. Grand ideas suffocated by reality and the laws of nature and magic.”

“Where do runes come from?”

“There are two mainline theories in our community. One of them is, which I’m sure you must have read about, that it is the language of the gods they taught us. The other is that ancient mages created the language by observing how the word and mana interacted.”

“And what do you think is true, sir?”

“Beats me! I’m just happy it works…”

“Should we really feed carrots with runes carved into them to Mipsy?”

“Sir Mipsy, my young student. Please give him the respect he deserves.”

“My apologies, sir. And to you Sir Mipsy Floppington!”

“Good, proper respect will take you far in life…”

“And the vegetable?”

“If our guest doesn’t explode, then this will be an excellent experiment!”

By the end of the week, Sam was pretty sure he had the best grounding in the subject of runes among all the players.

He worked on dozens of simple runic circles that he could use in different scenarios, perfected with the help of his teacher.

Sam was also given a pretty simple task by Fitzgerald.

“You, my excellent student, have more than mastered the basics. The only thing missing to declare you a master, albeit one without experience, is creating a Master project,” stated Fitzgerald one afternoon as they were taking their break and were letting Sir Floppington run around the backyard.

The fences had to be reinforced several times to contain the furry animal.

“Any requests?” Sam asked curiously.

Fitzgerald just shrugged. “As a master, you are required to showcase independence, thus everything about the project must come from you. You may ask for help, but depending on what you ask, your ascension to master level will be delayed.”

“Who would know?”

His teacher took a sip of his tea before answering.

“The final project will be judged by three other masters and they’re very familiar with my work…”

“I see…”

“I recommend purely theoretical work, as it’s easier to demonstrate and defend.”

“I had an idea for a defensive set of wards that would work protecting even a small mansion…” Sam offered with a hint of nervousness. Over the time they spent together that while the man was eccentric and rather aloof – and had a collection of dirty bar jokes that would put anyone to shame – he was also very quick to critique stupid ideas.

“Classic choice, I approve…”

Sam let out the breath he was holding and turned his attention to Sir Mipsy as his mind began to percolate with ideas.

Naturally, he also took time to see what happened to his status screen.

He'd had several fights, plus the trip through the weird empty dimension, followed up by the education provided by Fitzgerald. Which in turn, granted him one of the most common sub-skills in the game. When apprenticing under someone, or simply getting taught properly by someone – even if they were players – if the lessons were fully in the game and the system judged it proper then one could gain one of three sub-skills for their skills. These were Learned, Well-Learned, and Educated. Each of them increased the effect of the skill and granted a small experience point gain to it until the Master level.

[Educated: Level MAX (MAX%) (Passive) You have been educated on the subject. Gain increased experience points until reaching the Master level and the effects of your skill have been increased by 15%.]

[Journeyman Runecarver is now Level 49!]

[Illusionary Runes are now Level 69!]

[You gained the sub-skill, Crisp Image!]

[Crisp Image: Level 0/5 (0%) (Passive) Your illusionary runes are very crisp and distinctive. The chance of the scrip smudging or bleeding into each other is decreased.]

[Corporeal Illusions is now Level 19!]

[Lingering Effects is now Level 4!]

A very respectful growth for his skills. The only reason Journeyman Runecarver was stuck at Level 49 was because he could only advance it by finishing his Master project.

Surprisingly, or not depending on who you asked, his Cryptography skill also improved thanks to the dozens of tricky exercises Fitzgerald provided him.

[Basic Cryptography is now Level 10!]

[You gained Intermediate Cryptography!]

[Intermediate Cryptography: Level 0/10 (0%) (Passive) You can spot patterns and codes and break some of them. You can even figure out some of the harder puzzles and codes.]

[Adaptive Coordination is now Level 44!]

[Combinatorics is now Level 3!]

With the weird monsters spewing their weird liquid all over the empty dimension, his resistance skills also gained some levels. To his surprise, the liquid and the monsters affected all the resistances equally as if they were a combination of all elements and magics.

[Illusion Resistance is now Level 32!]

[Corruption Resistance is now Level 35!]

[Earth Resistance is now Level 42!]

[Shadow Resistance is now Level 26!]

[Blood Magic Resistance is now Level 19!]

[Wind Resistance is now Level 29!]

[Lightning Resistance is now Level 22!]

[Dimensional Mana Resistance is now Level 35!]

[Fear Resistance is now Level 23!]

Thanks to fighting alone, protecting an arguably helpless NPC, and defeating one-on-one a monster that was certainly designed for multiple people, even his rather high-leveled combat skills received a boost.

[The Way of the Forerunner is now Level 24!]

[Shadow of the Dragon is now Level 17!]

[Greater Shadow Affinity is now Level 60!]

[Dark Vision is now Level 1!]

[Battle Meditation is now Level 70!]

[Clear Mind is now Level 2!]

[Wind Mana Manipulation is now Level 83!]

[Guiding Storm is now Level 5!]

[Greater Wind Affinity is now Level 70!]

[Wind Sense is now Level 1!]

[Earth Wall IV is now Level 9!]

[Ground Rhythm is now Level 9!]

[Spell Matrix is now Level 33!]

[Solid Spell Foundation is now Level 2!]

[Mana Construct is now Level 72!]

[Simplicity is now Level 5!]

[Infusion is now Level 2!]

[Mana Flux is now Level 9!]

[Mana Scales is now Level 105!]

[Mana Surge is now Level 1!]

No new levels but thanks to his fight with Lucky and probably because Lucky exhausted himself so much, even his spirit skills had grown, not to mention Lucky’s levels. His silly wolf has reached Level 90 and several of his skills had leveled up.

[Spirit Link is now Level 87!]

[Spirit Enhancement is now Level 2!]

[Spirit Protection is now Level 28!]

[You gained the sub-skill, Bleedover!]

[Bleedover: Level 0/5 (0%) (Passive) The ethereal protection for your mind bleeds over into the physical world. You gain 10% of the protection for your body per skill level that you gain for your mind.]

And finally, the funniest thing he got on his notification screen. Apparently, the system had noticed he really liked to use the Clean spell.

[Clean VI is now Level 4!]

[Thanks to your tireless efforts to keep the world and yourself clean, magic itself around you has become clean!]

[You gained the skill, Clean Aura!]

[Clean Aura: Level 0/10 (0%) (Passive) (Toggle ON/OFF) An aura of cleanliness. If turned on you will always emit an aura of cleaning which will result in things being cleaned around you. Excellent for spring cleaning.]

‘Right… cleansing the world by cleaning up dirty spots one by one!’ he mused while chuckling about the spell. ‘Could be useful in the right circumstances… probably…’

Closing down his notification screens, he sighed and pulled a new paper toward himself, ready to work on his Master Project.