Might as Well

The building was crowded with people, mostly players, standing in different lines. The staff, on the opposite side of the hall behind the counters, were working feverishly to process everyone.

On the two sides of the hall were several doors that were continuously staying open thanks to the traffic going through them.

Sam eyed the crowd, and with a great sigh, joined one of the lines that looked the shortest. Naturally, the line next to them instantly sped up. But he knew that changing lines now would just mean that the current one would become faster. Instead, he took out one of the books he got that described some esoteric uses of wind mana and settled in for a long wait.

Almost halfway through with his book, he arrived at the counter where a harried-looking man looked up at him and then began talking.

“Hello, sir. Welcome to the Vividora Magic Tower. How can I help you?” He delivered the entire speech in a monotone, and Sam could see the exhaustion lurking behind his eyes.

Sam simply slid over the ID he got at the magic tower in Greenwood with a simple request.

“Hello. I would like to speak about wind magic with somebody if it is possible.”

The man behind the counter took the ID, frowned, but checked it. Then he walked away for a second, only to return with a book marked with the symbol of wind.

He plopped it down on his desk, opened it, and began paging through it.

“According to your ID, you’re a novice,” he murmured while still looking through the book. Sam wanted to gainsay him, but after glancing around, he decided he could deal with that later. “We have a few masters available for consultation.” The man finally declared after another minute of search. He looked up from the book at Sam and continued. “Consultation fee for members is a hundred gold coins for an hour.”

Sam winced a little at the price. It wasn’t a big issue for him, but he just knew that a lot of people were cursing the tower for ‘being’ greedy. ‘Maybe a small loan service…’ he mused as he took out one of his smaller money pouches and handed the clerk over the fee for several hours.

“Put me down for five hours, please,” he told the man, only to be rejected.

“I’m sorry, but the maximum allowed time is three hours, sir,” the other man replied while casting his eyes around the room.

“Ah, yes, sorry about that. Then, three hours, please.”

“Naturally, please wait a second,” came the reply as the man took his seat and began scribbling on something that looked like a form while the money vanished into one of the drawers.

Another minute later, Sam was handed a completed form and the clerk behind the counter explained what he had to do.

“There is a small map on the form if you get lost. Plus, we recently added bigger maps to the walls of the corridors.”

“Thank you very much,” Sam said with a small bow, and clutching the form in his hand, he began heading to where he was told to go to receive his consultation.

Behind him, he could hear the clerk continue as the next person stepped up to the counter.

“Hello, ma’am. Welcome to the Vividora Magic Tower. How can I help you?”

His journey through the building was rather normal. Surprisingly, following the directions of the clerk, and referencing the form and maps on the walls, led him exactly to the place he wanted to arrive.

It was a smaller hall than the one where he started, but it was still big enough that several mages could work with people without bothering others. Based on the colors and symbols on their robes, they were all masters of wind magic.

Sam checked his form, then the plates with numbers behind the masters. He found number four in one of the corners just as he was finishing with a young man holding a very basic staff. ‘Probably beginner…’

He approached the man who naturally eyed him, sending out a small pulse of mana, no doubt to gauge his level of mana and maybe a few other things. Feeling a little mischievous, he matched the pulse with one of his own, canceling it as soon as the two of them met.

The mage’s eyes widened, but otherwise, he didn’t react in any other way.

Sam walked up and bowed a little.

“Greetings, master.” He handed over the form. “I’m here for consultation for wind magic!”

The mage took the form, looked it over, and frowned.

“But why did they send you to me? You’re clearly not a beginner in the arts…”

Sam just shrugged. “The clerk was clearly swamped. I didn’t want to complicate his life…” he explained.

The mage nodded slowly, then after a few seconds of pondering, he spoke up.

“Just to be sure, please perform a wind spell for me.”

Sam raised a hand and shot off a low-powered Wind Blade at the nearest target dummy. The top of the dummy instantly slid to the ground, leaving behind an extremely smooth surface.

He turned back to the wind mage with a raised eyebrow.

The man just sighed and nodded. “Very well. Clearly you need more specialized help. Please, wait a second.”

Sam watched as the man walked away to a small desk where he retrieved another form and began furiously writing.

He spent a few minutes looking around the hall as the masters helped people with all manner of basic spells. It was rather interesting to see how most people approached magic. Though it was rather surprising he couldn’t hear anything, as he could clearly see that most players were still in the chanting phase. With a little checking, however, he was enlightened. The entire hall was under a complex wind enchantment that separated and swallowed the sounds produced by every group. It was rather beautiful to his Mana Sense.

By the time the mage returned with the filled-out form, he was rather entranced by the intricate work. However, he was broken out of his admiration by a gentle cough.

He turned back to the other mage and gave him an apologetic smile.

The man returned it and then handed over the previous form and the new one.

“Here is your new form. I added a few notes of my observation. Mistress Irina will be able to help you.”

Sam bowed low. “Thank you, master!”

The other mage just gave a small laugh. “No worries, my young friend. It’s rare to see such talent!”

He then said goodbye and restarted his journey.

Another half an hour and he found himself in a different part of the complex, though still in the same building. It was just rather big. He knew from the memories he inherited that this building housed all the trainers with the oldest ones helping the newbies en masse, and the more specialized mages helping those who needed their help. It was like a teaching hospital. Instead of medicine, they taught magic. And in turn, those specialized teachers were tested on how well their students did.

It was rather fascinating…

He approached another hall. This time it was much smaller but still big enough that there was enough space to practice. Opening the door, he saw that the hall was empty, with only one simple desk at the back of the room occupied by somebody.

“Hello there!” he called out.

He received a reply instantly. “Welcome, student! My name is Mistress Irina. Please enter!” The voice was quiet and gentle, reaching him as if the wind carried it. ‘That is sooo cool!’

Quickly, excited by the prospect of being taught by a master like this woman, he approached the desk. There, he quickly handed over the two forms and waited as the woman read through them. She was older than him, but not by much. She had light green hair, done in a fashionable updo, and was wearing an elegant robe that covered everything, yet still radiated a feminine charm.

She finished reading them, put them away, pushed her chair away from the desk, stood up, and faced Sam.

“Well, how about we see where you stand!” she declared with a grin on her face. “Let’s see what you are made of, adventurer! Show me all of your spells!”

“Here?” Sam asked.

“Sure, the walls are enchanted. You can go all out if you want!”

Sam eyed the still-grinning woman, then the hall for a moment before shrugging. “If you say so…”

Mistress Irina nodded excitedly. “I do say so! Now show me! Show me!”

Sam eyed the animated woman as she stared at him, feeling the tendrils of mana emanating from her, ready to observe his casting, then turned back to the empty hall. In the middle stood several dummies, moved there, no doubt by the woman’s magic, when he wasn’t looking.

He raised a hand and began concentrating. He needed to get something very specific, so he needed to do his best.

An hour later Sam was still in the same position, but his mana was halfway exhausted. Even his prodigious mana regeneration could only barely keep up with Mistress Irina’s demands.

First, he went through all the spells he knew, casting them this and that way, then he spent a few minutes running around demonstrating his control over Wind Movement. The last and biggest part of the hour was using his Mana Construct skill to create constructs straight out of wind mana under the instruction of his new teacher.

At first, they were simple shapes, like cubes and pyramids. Then the requests evolved into more complex objects. By the time the woman began demanding that he created a full person out of wind mana, he could feel that his control over the mana was fraying, unable to keep it together. And honestly, while it wasn’t physically exhausting, his mind was basically running on fumes by the time the last construct that looked like a badly assembled mannequin collapsed into motes of visible wind mana.

Panting slightly, he lowered his hand for hopefully the last time and turned toward his teacher.

“Well… Mistress Irina, what’s… the verdict?” he asked.

The woman looked up from her notes and smiled.

“Well, I gotta say, this wasn’t what I was expecting today…”

“Is that a good or bad thing?”

“Good. I think…” she replied, while giving Sam a smile.

“So, any advice?”

She walked around her desk until she was in front of it, leaned back, and crossed her arms under her bust while fixing her gaze on Sam.

“You’re talented, Samuel.” Between a few spells, he actually managed to introduce himself, but for some reason, the woman refused to call him Sam. “Your control is way beyond what I would expect from anybody at your level. However, your spells are rather basic. Granted, you have taken those same spells to a decent level,” she explained while Sam listened, hoping he managed to impress her enough. “But there are still ways to improve.”

“What kind of exercises could you recommend, Mistress?”

She frowned but continued her small lecture. “You have two roads in front of you. In the first, I tell you how to break through with your spells, while in the second, you attempt to surpass yourself.”

Sam almost didn’t manage to hold back the grin. ‘The words! She said the words! Yes!’

It was one of those pieces of information that everybody knew in the future, but it was basically useless to 99.99% of the player base as the results of this small exercise depended on one’s own talent. He just hoped he was talented enough to do it.

He pretended to think it over before answering.

“I would like to go with the second option!”

Based on the smirk on the woman’s face, he failed to fully hide the excitement on his face.

“Good, that’s what I expected,” came the reply. “Take a few minutes to regen your mana and call out your familiar from your shadow. They would only complicate the process.”

Not even surprised that the NPC could sense Lucky, he did as she bid. “Lucky, come out!”

The wolf emerged while yawning, showcasing his fangs, then took a curious look around. The woman smiled and motioned for the wolf. “Come here, cutie, while your master tries not to kill himself!”

Lucky sent Sam a questioning look, and he just nodded, trying very hard to ignore the second part of his teacher’s sentence. The wolf obediently trotted over to the woman and sat down on his haunches, tongue lolling out. Mistress Irina spent a few seconds patting the wolf on his head, clearly enjoying the silky-smooth feeling, before looking back at Sam.

“Divest yourself from everything but non-magical clothing. No enchantments. Then go stand in the middle of the room.”

Sam did so, putting away his weapon, armor, and favorite boots (comfort enchantments were rather addictive), and walked to the center of the room in simple exercise pants and tunic he retrieved from his inventory.

He didn’t have to wait long as the next instruction came almost immediately.

“Now close your eyes and feel!”

Sam did as she ordered and extended his mana sense in every direction. Almost instantly, he was overwhelmed by the sheer abundance of wind mana in the air. After getting over his disorientation, he found that the wind mana was coming from his new teacher, who somehow sensed that he came to this conclusion.

“Good, you are feeling it. Now take control of it. Don’t shape it. Don’t use it. Just control it!”

Frowning at the order that didn’t explain too much, Sam still followed along and did as instructed.

He reached out with his own mana, trying to use it to control the wind mana, but as soon as he neared any wind mana, it slipped away, swirling around him like a summer breeze.

‘Oh, so that’s how it is…’

Sam furrowed his brows and thought hard. This was possible. He knew it. But he also knew that everybody’s process was different. He would need to dig deep…