New Fantasy World: Galeia-Chapter 45

"To study Pyromancy, a person must first learn to detach expelled E’er from their body. Otherwise they’d burn to ashes with the first spell cast. Most Wizard classes do the same. Warriors, however, don’t do that. The Way of the Warrior works in a completely different manner. E’er within you is not expelled, but directed to your body."

She took a bite of a small apple-looking fruit. I did too, it was sweet but felt sandy.

"However, The Rhak’Math View is the basis for all skills that have Aura effects. A lot of classes benefit from it. It is a very ancient method that influences living beings in various ways. Do you have any?" her eyes sparkled.

"Uh... yeah." my voice barely came out. "I have Initiation, Prevention, and Monster Hunter." I said after checking my skills.

"Mhm. I haven’t heard of Monster Hunter." she took another bite. "When you use an aura, it travels through the Bond. A Warrior bolsters their allies this way. Warcries are a different beast. You empower your vocal cords with E’er and it travels along with your voice. Do you have any?" I nodded. "The sound wave enters the target’s thorax and shakes their core, disrupting their internal flow of Life Energy. The other way is to shake their brains through the ear canal. Then, a wide field surrounds you, keeping the effect active."

"Okay." I nodded. I understood things so far.

"So, how does one learn a skill with an Aura effect?" she asked, I shrugged. "You first give E’er purpose, and then ’link’ transformed E’er through the Bond. When we give E’er purpose, we can bring about a variety of effects. I learned a skill called ’Solar Epitaph’, it has an Aura effect. I can summon a miniature sun that bolsters allies and inflicts enemies with different effects."

"You know that one?" Alyssa sounded impressed. "As expected of a master Wizard."

"Thank you." she took her hand and locked fingers, then turned back to me. "Do you understand so far?"

"Yeah. Kind of." I scratched my jaw.

"Warriors don’t deal with concrete Laws like Wizards or Clerics." Alyssa said while playing with Lapia’s fingers. "Your skills are mostly effects that influence your own bodies, knowledge of combat techniques, Auras, and Warcries."

"What about the Laws of Life?" I looked at the Luzo with a drop of hope.

"Hmm." she tapped her chin, her claws scratching softly. "Once we are transformed by E’er, it’s not E’er anymore. We call it Life Energy. We clerics study how to sense it and then manipulate it. Healing is just the tip of the dungeon." she nodded.

"Huh. That’s easy to understand." I nodded. "So, outer energies." I pointed at Lapia, she nodded. "And inner energies." I pointed at Alyssa, she nodded as well.

"That’s an extremely simple way to put it, but yeah." the Elf chuckled.

"First time hearing it like that." Alyssa smiled.

There we go. Oversimplifying things is useful sometimes. I smiled. Can’t be harder to understand than E’er.

"What was that halo that was floating over Lapia’s head earlier?" I asked, confident in being able to understand.

"That’s True Significance, it’s a buff with a variable duration based on the E’er I spend and the Level of the user. It’s a pulse of Life Energy targeting the various systems within a person. It increases their overall vigor using the body’s maximum limit of strain as reference." she said as if she was talking about the weather.

Eh? Pardon?

"Joy’s Law?" Lapia was impressed and turned to Alyssa. "I knew you were a high profile Cleric, but didn’t think it was to that extent."

"Wait, wait, wait." I raised a hand. "Why not just say it increases toughness?"

They both turned to me with expressions as if I grew legs instead of eyes.

"That’s not what it does." Alyssa giggled. "It increases all your stats, not your defenses alone."

"Okay. So, how did you learn that?" I tentatively asked.

"First, I studied the anatomy of all sapient species, except Halves, and Gods. Their inner energy circulation system, the maximum levels of strain before they suffer injury, and how every system works in harmony with one another. Then, the proper formula to transform E’er into manipulable Life Energy required to bring the effect to action." she slowly said.

"Holy shit!" my voice came out louder than I intended. "I just swing a stick around..."

"Don’t put yourself down." Lapia shook her head. "Sure, you didn’t learn The Rhak’Math View from scratch, but you still know it."

My shoulders slumped. "I must look like an idiot to you two."

"Not at all." Alyssa said with a gentle tone. "The process of learning things is essential, sure. But understanding your skills is equally, if not more important in the end."

"Did you go to University, too?" I received a hard reality check.

Magic sounds like quantum physics. And to be a Cleric you need to study so much anatomy... Fuck yourself, E’er!

"No, I studied at the Church in a country close to where I grew up." she smiled. "I spent thirty five years studying and got my first class. I wanted to be more than just a Priestess."

"That sounds reasonable." I sighed. "Where did you grow up?"

I need a break already!

Lapia smiled and nodded, relaxing and eating more fruit.

"I come from a country to the south. O’lu Keer Ren is the name in Dragon Tongue, roughly meaning ’Where our Scales Rest’. A chain of volcanoes surround the land." she smiled as I took her free hand, running my fingers on her scales. "A council formed by each clan head serves as government. An ancient Storm Dragon sleeps in the biggest volcano, so we’ve enjoyed relative peace with neighboring countries." she sighed. "Monsters don’t care about that, however, so invasions are a common occurrence at the borders."

"That’s amazing." I sighed with wonder. "I’d love to go there some day."

"We just may." she locked her fingers with mine.

"How about you?" I looked at Lapia.

"The Queendom of Maaruhk is a small coastal country to the far east. Sea focused businesses feed the economy. The borders touch with four neighboring countries, with which amiable relations date back thousands of years." I took her free hand and locked fingers too. "I grew up in a high class home in the port city of Pomkh. One brother and a pair of twin sisters. I left after earning my first degree, becoming independent quickly after."

"Nice. I’d love to eat some seafood there." I turned back to Alyssa. "How about your family?"

"It’s massive." she smiled. "Around sixty thousand Luzo."

"What?" my voice came out a whisper.

"We’re evenly distributed between aristi, females, and males. My great grandparents are still producing offspring, after all." she giggled. "There are three hundred clans, so around twenty million Luzo in total. They’re pretty strict with outsiders. Only Krystaali Luzo and demi live there."

"That’s a lot." I sighed. "I’m glad I met you two."

I felt a warm feeling spreading in my chest.

"Now, about the rest of the stats." Lapia announced. "Strength is the potential energy your muscles can put out, and is strictly related to constitution. You cannot hit harder than what your body can handle. Every class that increases strength also increases constitution, at at least half the rate."

I took a glass and enjoyed the blue apple-like juice as it went down my throat.

"Conversely, classes that increase constitution also contribute to strength. If your body is resilient, it stands to reason that your muscles would be powerful to some extent. Dexterity increases both reflexes and fine motor skills, such as drawing, sewing, aiming, etc. Intelligence influences how powerful your spells are, I will explain why later." she produced a thin textbook and opened it, letting go of my hand.

Alyssa stood up and walked to the living room, where she laid down on a sofa.

Et tu, Alyssa?!

"All the base classes have three stats they focus on. You cannot be a jack of all trades, it would be absolutely useless." she continued. "These stats can vary depending of the specific class an individual pursues, but generally follow these standards."

Alright, so far sounds pretty RPG to me.

"To become one of these classes, you follow each of their paths. Laws of E’er for wizards, Laws of Life for clerics, Way of the Warrior for warriors, Path of Cunning for scouts, the Endless Trail for archers, the Way of the Trade for merchants, the Eloquent Whisper for performers, and the Code of Makers for craftsmen." she flipped a page. "Do you understand so far?"

I nodded. Sounds pretty simple.

"Now, to acquire skills, you need to ’merge’ knowledge with the E’er within you. This is done by meditation. Your subconscious takes this knowledge and burns it into your unconscious’ dormant memory, which allows for casting spells or using skills without the need to read the formula every time you do. You still need to fully understand it, however. This is what I meant when I told you about the limited amount of skills an individual can integrate. As our lovely Alyssa explained, E’er transforms into Life Energy inside us. This energy grows as we level up, expanding said dormant memory, thus allowing us to integrate more skills." she looked up at me. "With me?"

My eyes were wide open. Why did it suddenly turn into some Freudian bullshit?

"Wait... so you transform Life Energy back into E’er when using it?" I tilted my head.

"No, no. That is only the E’er that change our bodies. The E’er at your disposal stays E’er."

"How did people come to know about this meditation stuff?" I asked. There was something incredibly uncanny when hearing about tampering with the unconscious.

"Studying the mind." she answered. "Natasha, people have varying degrees of awareness. You have the subconscious, the unconscious, and the conscious. Once we integrate our first skill, these open and we can influence what our minds can register as a skill." she put the textbook down. "Do you have any questions?"

I was beginning to feel palpitations. This talk was way above my head. A knot formed on my throat and my chest felt like it was going to implode.

"Give me a minute, please." I closed my eyes and rested my head on my hands.

I took a deep breath, calming down. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears.

What the fuck is this quantum-pshycology world?

Then, I remembered something. I read my information and did the insightful exercise or peering within me. There, for the third time, I felt the weird knowledge of skills and my storage.

"HAHAHA!" I laughed loudly and shot my head up. "I got it! I’m not that stupid, after all!"

Lapia jerked in surprise. "What happened?" her face was full of worry.

"Nothing." I whispered, rubbing my eyes and relaxing. "I just got super frustrated. I wasn’t understanding anything, and felt really dumb. Then, I remembered I had already seen the skills in my mind. Or something like that. I’m sorry, Lapia."

"It’s alright, sunshine." her voice was gentle. "If there’s something you don’t understand, just tell me. We can go over it however many times you need."

I looked into her emerald green eyes.

An Elf is teaching me magic, or something like that. I giggled. This is so surreal.

"I’m okay. Let’s continue." I held her hand.

She smiled and returned her attention to the textbook.

"Intelligence helps turn the formulas in our minds into reality. The higher the intelligence, the faster and stronger. For example. I can produce fire up to one thousand degrees." she stopped for a second. "Water freezes at zero degrees and boils at one hundred when at sea level. This measurement is called Yiama’s degree and is accompanied by a Y next to it."

Okay, Celsius. Thank the above. I sighed with a nod.

"The higher my intelligence, the higher the temperature of my flames. A Shade Adept would have the density of the shadows they manipulate increase. Weight for Geomancers, water pressure for Water Weavers, etc. The progression is linear." she ate a polupi I offered.

"For everyone else, Intelligence influences the speed of skill activation, becoming instant at five hundred." she closed the textbook. "That would be it for the five stats." she smiled. "Now onto monsters, creatures, animals, and relative power."

Another textbook materialized. "Just like people, they level up. Their power is linear, since they don’t possess classes. They grow at the same rate as us, ten ’status points’ per level." she did air quotes. "This means that a level one hundred person is equally as powerful as a level one hundred creature. In different measures, of course. A Me’ik is stronger than me by a long shot, for example. However, I can kill a Me’ik before it reaches me, being a wizard. I would be trampled to death by a herd, though." she chuckled.

"Your should face enemies around your total level to grow in power at a reasonable speed. Hence why you didn’t level up, you are way above." she smiled. "With me so far?"

"Yes, this is much simpler." I smiled back.

"The difference between a beast and a monster is their use of E’er. A monster uses E’er, a beast doesn’t. Simple as that. Sonya is considered an E’eral Beast because she has been domesticated." she closed the textbook and produced another.

"Onto people." she sighed. "There are many sapient species in the world. The latest being the Lupum. There are five types of species, as stated by Danuva. Short, those who live under five hundred years. Medium, those who live under two thousand years. Long, those who live under five thousand years. Eternal, only one species fits here. You Halves. Up to ten thousand years. Then, Immortals. Divines. They can be slain, however, entering a cycle or reincarnation. Gods are Divines, but not all Divines are Gods. In order for a Divine to become a God, they must teach the sentient species something of irreplaceable value. For example. Yiama became a God when she taught the first tribes the ’miracle’ of the flame." she cringed.