princess Zena of Zendor

Over the next week, we sort of settled into a routine. When I say week, I mean seven days, since the general population does not use the concept of weeks, only days, months and years. Jo spent pretty much every day practicing magic. James spent most days just exploring the city, and as it turns out, there are a lot to explore. Some days I joined him in exploring, though most days I spent with Jo doing a combination of instructing her and developing a spell for flight. Though with my spell, it was more the case that I gradually eliminated the things that didn’t work. My fall damage resistance has been worth its weight in gold, actually since it doesn’t really weigh anything, it's worth significantly more than its weight in gold. Ever since Jo found out about it, she has expressed her jealousy and asked me to help her get it. I told her that we might do it later, mostly because I’m not entirely sure how to do it, as well as the fact that I don’t think she has sufficient mana yet. 

Either way, since I have made limited progress with my spell, I decided to ask the one person I know who has more knowledge in magic than me, Dallard. Seeing as I didn’t schedule a meeting with him, I have to ask around to find his location. I do join in on some of the discussion occasionally, though I don’t stay all that long with each group. It’s quite enjoyable to just be able to join discussions like this, and I learned a few tidbits about magic types I have no experience with. Dallard turns out to be on the fourth floor, giving an impromptu lesson on fire magic. Mainly two things apparently, namely fireballs and igniting campfires. Fireballs because they are cool, and igniting campfires because it’s useful. As I enter the room he is lecturing in, he stops talking and welcomes me using only my first name. I greet him back and tell him that there is something I want to discuss with him, though it can wait until he finishes his lecture. He simply nods and continues his lecture. I find a seat and listen in. As he gives an explanation of the simplest fireball, I attempt to recreate it. The result is a green sphere that looks to be on fire with green flames. It’s hot to the touch, but in a pleasant way, so I hold it in my hand instead of letting it float in place. As he pauses his lecture to let the students try themselves, I lob my fireball to him as I would a ball. He catches it and studies it for a bit before saying

“This has to be one of the oddest fireballs I have seen. I guess this is the result when someone has mana strongly attuned to another element.”

He uses my fireball to pivot the general conversation towards mana attunement. His mana is attuned towards fire, but not strongly so, leaving it gray with a hint of orange. Mine is strongly tuned towards life, giving it its signature green color. The students’ mana isn’t attuned for the most part, with exception of a dwarf who has a strong attunement to ground, giving it a brown color, as opposed to the grayish white of unattuned mana. The attunement was pretty much only a visual thing in the game, but now it seems to have an effect on your magic, improving the types of spells it's attuned to and worsening the ones it’s not. 

The lecture goes on for a while longer and by the end some of the students have managed to create their own fireballs. Luckily the stone interior of the room doesn’t burn, almost like it was planned. There isn’t a hard cutoff to the lecture, just a change of topic and most of the students leave to do other things. 

The new topic for discussion is how to fly, which neither me, nor Dallard know how to do, so I start with the things I have tried so far. After catching him up, we start to discuss new possibilities, with me trying them as we go along. The students that have chosen to listen in, occasionally chimes in with either questions or ideas, which we answer or try out. It turns out that this unstructured environment is quite enjoyable, and I can totally see the appeal of it. After a couple of hour of trying new ideas, I have a general idea of how to structure the spell. I have given up on adapting an existing spell, and finally decided to create a new one from scratch. After eating lunch in the sun, I spend the afternoon in the library, reading up on previous attempts at flight. There have been a few successful attempts in the past, but most kept it to themselves, or the spell required too much mana for anyone to use for extended periods. All the spells that I find out how to do are about reducing gravity, and using a second spell for movement, most of them using a variation of mana thruster. Not exactly what I want, but it is informative. What I want to do is basically constantly applying a force to counter gravity instead of erasing it in my immediate area. I don’t know why they went with that solution, but I guess they got it to work. A single force will probably be harder to use, but only having to maintain a single spell is easier than two. In the end, I am unable to replicate their spells today and I head back to the inn for dinner.

As I sit down at our, by now, designated table, Jo asks me to heal her, which isn’t all that unusual, but apparently she managed to hit a tree branch and stab herself. It wasn’t too bad and she managed to stop the bleeding, but it stopped her practicing earlier than usual. I don’t hesitate and heal her. With all her time practicing, she has more or less managed the step up from basic mana thrusting and can now go in a straight line. Apparently she still needs some work on turning though.

James, on the other hand, found a place that sold cakes and bought one for us to eat for dessert. I decide to forgo the stew that the inn serves in favor of some fruit, even though the stew is very good. The cake doesn’t feature as much sugar as I’m used to, but the mana rich fruit more than makes up for it. James seems slightly disappointed in it, though Jo seems to love it. James asks why I’m not disappointed in the cake, since I should be just as used to the amount of sugar as he is. I answer that it’s the mana in the fruit, and remind him that elves can taste it.

After a bit more chatting, we call it a night.

Kamba

Jo is nearing the point at which she can use mana thruster to travel, and James is running out of places to explore, so now the time left in Draumr is coming to an end. What their reason for leaving is going to be, I don't know, but it's going to be something.

Also, mana atunement is an individual choice, not something inherent to a species.