Amalia sits in my office, eyes closed, hands outstretched, palms facing upward.
Her breathing is slow and steady as she focuses on her ditations, trying to locate her [Ether Core].
I see it clearly in the center of her chest when I peer past physical reality and into the fog of ambient Ether that surrounds and binds the world together.
It’s a small fla the color of the crystal blue ocean, burning right next to her heart, pulsing waves of [Ether] through her hundreds of [Ether] channels in perfect synchronization with the beating of her heart.
As she does, I discreetly reach under the table with my right hand and summon my phone forth from my [Inventory].
I sense Chloe resting peacefully, with no signs of distress or pain, but that doesn’t an that I’m entirely enthused by the prospect of being away from her any longer than I need to be.
Seeing no ssages from her— or anyone else— I stash it back away and return to observing Amalia’s progress.
But she’s been having so trouble focusing away from the physical and into the taphysical.
She doesn’t project any signs of distress, but the subtle and brief microexpressions of frustration— winced eyes, a narrowed face, pursed lips— are easy for
to detect.
And I think this is a challenge a lot of engineering students are going to have, if they don’t have much experience using their Skills practically to this point.
“Amalia?” I ask.
“I’ve got an idea that might help, if you want to try.”
“Sure thing,” Amalia says, sighing.
“Sorry about that.”
“Oh no, it’s fine.
It’s just good to get a feel for what you and others are likely to be capable of, so I can plan accordingly.
Do you have any Skills that you can actively use and won’t cause harm to you, , or any part of the building?
I think I’ve got a better way.”
“Hmm…
I have a [Structural Analysis] Skill.”
I restrain the urge to facepalm.
Because of course, after struggling and failing to get an [Identify] variant for literal months, my newest protégée just casually ntions that she got one for free.
Fair though the System may be in so… okay, a very, very few ways, it can be so absolutely callous in so many others.
“Can you use it on my swordstaff?
And while you do so, I want you to focus on the flow of energy within your body.
How it should move to your eyes and brain.
Focus on that, and how the energy moves within you.” The rightful source is Nov3lF??re.??et
She takes a deep breath, gazing intently at Filia.
As she does, I can see a faint perturbation in the [Ether] flow in her upper torso and face.
Her head tilts slightly, while I watch for any signs of pain or injury.
Sensing none, I allow her to continue for another minute until she turns to
with furrowed brows.
“That’s not any ordinary material,” she says.
“I don’t know what sort of alloy or compound it’s made of.
A lot of silver, plus so mystery tal that my Skill can’t identify.”
“An exotic mineral not native to this world.
Magical tal, more or less.
Found it during a dungeon delve.”
“Well, that about tracks.”
“Anyway,” I say.
“Were you able to sense the flow of energy moving from your core into your head and eyes?”
“Hmm…
Now that you ntion it, I think I could sense sothing?”
“That’s good.
I want you to try to re-create that feeling of [Ether] moving through your body without invoking the Skill.
I know it probably feels really weird for you to hear
talking about energy fields and flows through the body–”
“Just promise
you’re not going to tell
that we’re going to have to start wearing magnets to ‘improve energy flow’ or so bullshit.”
I laugh.
“My bandana is enough ostentatious fashion abnormalities for both of us.
And thank the goddesses too; I don’t think my girlfriend’s mom would let
hear the end of it if magnets worn on the body worked as well as her [Healing Crystal] Skill.”
“Oh, right, yeah, you and your girlfriend.
I’m surprised she’s not here right now.
So much as I know about the two of you, you’re both practically inseparable.”
“She and I didn’t get a ton of sleep last night.
And no, it wasn’t doing any of the fun activities I wish we had been doing instead.
She’s at ho resting, while I ca here to make so preparations for when classes start.”
“Piece of advice: Don’t ntion your extracurricular activities to your students.
It’s best if there’s so separation between the faculty and the TA’s, and so separation between both the faculty and the TA’s, and the other students.
Especially about anything that could be construed as creating an uncomfortable learning environnt.
And even more important: you absolutely do not want to do anything that might be considered sexual harassnt, including any ntion of what you and your partner do behind closed doors.
Administration will back you up if you’ve got troubleso students, but they will absolutely drop you like a hamr if there’s even a hint of it turning in that direction.”
“I’m guessing that’s why I was advised not to have conversations in my office with the door locked.”
Silently, I add that I need to get that cara installed quickly.
The last thing I need is soone thinking they can blackmail .
Amalia just nods sternly.
“Got it–”
My statent is cut off by a sudden yawn.
“Are you not tired as well?”
“I managed to get a little more sleep than she did.
Besides, I have a high [Vitality] stat, which gives
so tolerance to functioning on limited sleep. I still don’t plan to stay past lunchti, though.”
”Oh, yeah, I’ve noticed that I’ve been able to function a lot more easily on like… 4 or 5 hours of sleep per night.
Even after a cram session at the end of last sester, I still felt like I was alert and able to focus on my exams.
Ended up doing really well in all my classes.”
“So sort of [Study] Skill?”
“No, at least I don’t think so.
Maybe the [Structural Analysis] Skill gave
so insight into analyzing the structure of the test and each exam question?
But that seems like a big stretch.”
“No, I don’t think it’s a stretch at all.
In fact, I think that’s a good thing, that you’re thinking creatively about how your Skills might evolve and adjust to new situations.
It’ll serve you well when you start learning how to do your own spellcrafting.”
“, learning how to do magic.
Never in my wildest dreams would I have expected that one of my professors would claim she’d be able to teach actual magic.
Okay, maybe I could see so hack or charlatan high on their own supply, but I never thought I’d be sitting in her office believing that it’s possible for myself.”
“Anyway, shall we get back to it?”
I pull an [Ether Canister] out of my [Inventory] and set it down on my desk.
“I want you to continue trying until you’ve gotten a good grip on things.
And this is an [Ether Canister].
It’ll restore a couple hundred points of [Ether] if you start to run low.
Don’t stress too hard, and if you get down below about 40% of your maximum, use it.
The last thing either of us wants is for you to be incapacitated for an hour with [Ether] strain.”
“Forgive my asking, but [Ether] strain?”
“Once you fall below about a third of your maximum [Ether], you’ll start to feel a general sense of malaise co over you.
Tiredness, lightheadedness, difficulty focusing, general fatigue and aches and a desire to say ‘screw it all, I’m just gonna go take a nap’.
It recovers bit by bit as you slowly regenerate your [Ether], but it’s… not a pleasant sensation.
Especially when you get into the second and third stages.”
“I–
Despite my morbid curiosity, I can’t say I want to know.”
We continue like this for another half hour, her trying different things and
providing encouragent and so advice from my own experiences.
Her senses aren’t nearly as well-developed as mine are, and unlike
with my old [Flash of Insight] Skill, she doesn’t have any Skill that directly involves channeling [Ether].
Least of all into her hands, where it would be the easiest to manipulate.
But she is making progress.
And when the light bulb goes off and her entire face lights up in surprise, I smile with satisfaction at what she’s accomplished.
“It’s hard…
But I feel like I can control that energy a little bit now!”
“Try moving it to your hands, if you can.
It will be easiest to manipulate [Ether] there.”
Amalia again closes her eyes.
She stumbles a bit, gritting her teeth as she begins to move the [Ether] around in her body.
She winces briefly, but before I can say a word to stop her, she raises a hand, urging
not to interfere.
Not seeing any signs of internal injuries, and trusting that she will stop herself before she seriously injures herself— maybe not the wisest thing, knowing my own history— I allow her to continue unabated.
Five long minutes later, during which I keep my [Archangel’s Gaze] upon her while also typing more on my syllabi, she opens her eyes with a look of satisfaction which borders upon the smug.
Her hand outstretched, she channels [Ether] into it until it starts to glow a bright teal twinged with hints of violet strewn throughout.
“Like this?”
“Yes, very well done!” I say, turning my focus back to her.
“Now, I want you to practice cycling this on and off until you get offered the [Basic [Ether] Manipulation] Skill.”
“I’m curious if you know, Seraphina, but what exactly is a Skill, anyway?”
“As best I can describe it, it’s magical muscle mory implanted into us by the System.”
“That’s a fairly apt description consistent with what was known in my world,” Filia chis in.
“So, we do the sa actions over and over again, and the System rewards us with Skills that make it easier for us to perform those actions again?”
“Sothing to that effect.
Sotis Skills also evolve and grow stronger, just as people learn how to do more complex work tasks, or athletic movents, or anything else.
And of course, repeated application of your Skills, especially in stressful situations like combat, will lead to you gaining ranks, which will make your Skills both more effective, and generally make them cost less [Ether] to use.”
“Combat…
I’ve never been in combat myself.
Either before or after the System arrived.
Can you be honest with ?
Will we be expected to do any dungeon crawls or fight actual monsters this sester?
I am… a little apprehensive.”
“I will be from ti to ti; it’s who I am, and I consider it my responsibility to fight against the tide of horrors that threaten us all.
But no, I don’t anticipate making combat a hard requirent in any of my classes.
I will, however, encourage it, probably do so sort of extra credit based upon dungeon delving or similar acts, especially if we’re unlucky enough to see another monster horde in the coming months.”
“Do you think that’s likely?”
I sigh.
“Amalia.
I dislike lying to people, so I won’t, even if the truth isn’t going to be easy.
I don’t just think that it’s likely that we’re going to see more monster hordes.
I think it’s virtually certain.
One of the reasons why I signed up to teach this class is because I wanted to start training so people in the art of [Glyphcasting], so that we, collectively, as a city, will be that much better prepared to defend ourselves from not just the next wave, but the next one, and the next one, and the one after that, too.
“I’m not going to demand that you or anyone else fight on the front lines.
But I am going to train everyone in both Basic Combat Training and Ethertech and Spellcraft to fight to the fullest extent of their capabilities.
With the hope that none of you will ever need that knowledge, and with the knowledge that reality is rarely as nice as we hope.”
Amalia nods as she stands up from her seat.
“Thank you, Seraphina.
For the advice, and for helping
acquire this new Skill.
I–
I look forward to working with you starting in a couple of weeks.”
“And you too.”
I offer my hand, standing up as I prepare to depart behind her.
“I appreciate your advice and I look forward to working with you soon.
Do you mind if I send you an e-mail in the next few days with so more information?”
“No, not a problem at all.”
Amalia shakes my hand.
“I’ll see you then.”
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