Oh I’ll be a mage, I said. Oh I’ll learn magic, I said. What unholy abomination have I consigned myself to?

  Along with the books on spell casting, Glenn had passed along a letter from Fionn letting me know that my tenure with the church would begin in three days. I spent those days studying in my room at the adventurer’s guild. I didn’t get far. Spellcraft was unfortunately non-trivial.

  I made my way to meet up with Fionn at the church. Since she, and Corlyn’s Sect more broadly, was sponsoring me, they would be in charge of my housing. Fionn showed me to my quarters which could be more accurately described as ‘a bed and dresser among large communal lodgings’. Since I didn’t have any real belongings to drop off, I took note of which bed was mine before continuing on.

  True enough to what we agreed, I would be working in the church’s archives. I was tested on miscellaneous clerical tasks, namely arithmetic, reading, and penmanship. None of it was anything too challenging. I performed unsurprisingly poorly on the penmanship test. As a former computer nerd who lived in the information era and typed everything, I have absolutely no idea why my handwriting was awful. Tangent aside, I was given a rundown of my duties and responsibilities and introduced to Brother Reginald who was essentially my direct supervisor.

  The pay seemed reasonable… maybe? I’ll need to figure out more of how much currency was worth. Unlike all the games systems the currency wasn’t overly generalized. Each country's currency was worth a different amount based on its metal contents. Got to love realism.

  Thus the next chapter of my life began.

  ***

  It’s been a few weeks since I arrived in this world. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I’m having the lamest otherworldly experience one could imagine: waking up around dawn, eating in the large communal mess hall, and working. The work? Accounting, organizing the archives, and other similar pursuits. For the most part I was excused from copying tomes and scriptures, or at least ‘official copies’. Reginald had me practice better penmanship. He was exceptionally stern and unforgiving when it came to those lessons. Essentially every day was filled with paperwork… fun stuff. Not to forget what I did in my free time: incessantly studying. Hazzah!

  Thankfully, more often than not, I was doing accounting type work since I picked that up quickly. However, today I was helping organize the backlog of items returned to the archive. I slacked off a bit here and there, took some time to read through some scriptures. I was morbidly curious at a section of Strolph’s holy text. It was based on some stupid off joke I made that I barely remember. It was about him getting into a literal dick measuring contest with an incubus, where they both used magic to cheat. Somehow that turned into a 20 page, completely unhinged, saga.

  After a while, with my work for the day completed, I grabbed a book on wizardry that I left unsorted before making my way back to my station. It was very convenient that the ‘father of wizardry’ Emyzer is a god in this pantheon. Which means there’s a wealth of tomes on magical theory, and also studying wizardry is also considered a ‘holy pursuit’ akin to prayer or studying holy text. I was clearly quite pious. Constantly showing my ‘devotion’ through reading such page turning passages like:

  Every spell requires a certain energy minimum to activate and subsequently manifest. While we know these energy thresholds are fixed as described by Kreskii’s law. It was postulated early into the Second True Era, around the year 100, that such thresholds were in constant fluctuation. However, as has been later discovered by Phelric towards the end of the 6th century there are numerous components that contribute towards the amount of mana a spell consumes. For example, repeated casting creates more efficient pathways within one’s body for the mana to flow. Giving the perception of fluctuating energy costs when instead the internal resistance in the body is lowered. This leads one to speculate that Stouse’s conjecture which claims that a Sorcerer’s innate mana capacity will always be larger than a similarly skilled Wizard is incorrect. Instead Sorcerer’s have similar mana reserves but lower resistance for that mana to travel through their bodies.

  Truly riveting. The tl;dr was that all spells require mana, higher tier spells can only activate at certain mana thresholds, Anima Aura resists mana and causes inefficiencies when casting spells. Took them 200 words to say that. Don’t worry it gets better!

  Whereas previously a single unit of mana was defined by the amount of mana needed to activate a first level spell. Due to Phelric’s discovery the definition has been altered to the following: A single unit of mana is equal to the amount of mana needed to activate a first level spell via Aether [free mana in the air instead of the body]. Due to the variance in casting and the bodily resistance present when casting spells, there is no known way of measuring how much mana an individual is capable of storing in their body.

  Very thrilling indeed. I knew most of what it was getting at by this point. Basically, repeated casting of a specific spell lowers this resistance allowing someone to spend less mana casting it. Lastly, it was impossible to measure your mana pool.

  The resistance thing was actually a pretty major hurdle. Mana was so limited and regenerated so slowly that if you’re not using a handful of signature spells as a spellcaster, of any kind clerics included, you’re pretty useless. Not to mention the base resistance your body has to a specific spell was random, though spells of similar types had similar resistance values. So finding spells you’re naturally adept at casting is a big factor.

  Mana and Aura both regenerate at flat 14% a day. In other words it takes a week for them both to fully recharge regardless of the size of your mana or Aura pool. It felt like an odd quirk of this previously being a game world.

  Not that I’ve been able to cast shit yet. Most of the books I had access to were meant to be theory for established mages; there wasn’t a lot I could find explaining it practically. What I did figure out was all so needlessly complicated.

  That wasn’t even to mention the fact that, while theories on mana and certain basic spell patterns were fairly well shared, it all gets stupidly obtuse once you try learning how to actually craft spell glyphs and sigils. Those require special inks and paper that worked almost like circuit boards. The silver lining was that’s mostly a concern for later. Untiered spells, the first step, didn’t require spell glyphs.

  I heard some figures moving around behind me while I sat at my desk. Great…

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  “See,” a man seethed, “I told you that wench would be here.”

  Another voice replied, "You think she's sleeping with Reginald?"

  "Bet that's how she gets her work done so fast," another chortled. They chuckled at their crude humor.

  I wasn’t surprised I attracted rumors about me. I've been fairly obsessive with my studying and have an inexplicable ability to irritate others. It only made me want to keep working, to finally crack how to use magic so I’d have some real power at my disposal.

  “Doesn’t matter if she is or not. It’s not like she’d get anywhere, women her age not raising kids aren’t too bright.”

  I know too well where rumors lead.

  “True, doubtful she knows when to quit.”

  “If she had elven blood, perhaps she could learn some magic.”

  “You’re giving her too much credit,” the voice laughed. “Even as an elf she could keep at it for a century and get nowhere.”

  I let out a quiet sigh. They were merely worthless ants unknowingly telling a goddess that they ought to be squashed. I could only imagine them getting more malicious yet again. Eventually I’d be shoved down the stairs, my notes and work tarnished, and eventually assaulted for laughs. This was how it started.

  My non-response led them to give up after a while. After finishing up my studies for the day and getting nowhere I continued with my exciting daily routine: grabbing dinner in the mess hall. Normally I ate alone and today was no exception. I would’ve liked to study and eat but books are too expensive for that to be allowed.

  I saw Sofia sitting alone as well, but she left as I approached. It was strange but not unexpected at this point. She’d been doing it the whole time I was here. I can’t help but think I did something wrong somewhere. That wouldn’t be uncommon. Most people get sick of me after some time, though usually it takes longer. I finished eating before I headed back to my bed in the communal dorms. Being constantly surrounded by people every waking hour was irksome, but I needed to stomach it for a year. Strangely, I never saw Sofia around there. If mealtimes were any indicator it was likely because of me.

  I sat cross legged in my bed and took out the pebbles I kept in my pocket. My hope was to eventually be able to make them move with magic. I rolled the smooth stones between my fingers. Fuck, three weeks in and I was getting nowhere. I made this world so I should be able to figure out how it works. I was blessed with a new body that has access to mana so I should be able to use magic.

  After a while of rolling the stone around I came to a simple conclusion: Spells are just a means to transition energy at the end of the day. Fire magic was turning magical energy into chemical energy. Lightning and light magic was turning it into electromagnetic energy. If I wanted to move this pebble I needed to turn my magical energy into kinetic energy. Or at least that was what intuition’s telling me.

  I sat one of the pebbles I was playing with in the palm of my hand and put the others in my pocket. I won’t claim I have a perfect or even great knowledge of physics. Yet between a public education and random internet videos from often falling down edutainment rabbitholes, it had to be worth something. At first I trained my mind on force vectors. Gravitation force pulling it down and the normal force keeping it in my hand. In my mental model I added another force: magic. It was hard to tell but the rock might’ve felt lighter, though it was wavering, the weight almost inconsistent.

  I kept focusing on this stupid rock for at least an hour. Until finally I cranked up the magic force vector when suddenly: bonk.

  “Fuck!” My head was knocked back and my forehead ached as the pebble landed and rolled on the floor. Wait, did I do it?

  “Language! We have younglings here,” someone scolded me.

  “Sorry.”

  “Are you alright?” Clair, my bunkmate, asked, peaking down from above me.

  “Yea, I think I finally got it. I cast an unleveled spell.” I said beaming. “Would you like to see?”

  “Sure!” She said, climbing down from the top bunk. She was one of the few people who were especially supportive of my pursuits and also really cute. Maybe a year or two younger than me, but had a cutesy look and act to her. “Oh gods. Your face is swelling. [Lesser Healing]!”

  I felt the pain of the rock hitting my cheek subside. “Thank you. Let's go outside. I wouldn’t want to hurt anyone else.” I picked up the pebble from the floor and pocketed it. The two of us went to a balcony.

  Like a rock to the face I realized where I went wrong for the last hour. My mental force vector model was wrong since I kept the normal force constant instead of lowering it from the upward pull of the magic. I pulled out a new pebble and applied one force to it negating gravity. I let the rock hover in the air for a second before applying a second force launching it into the ground below. I could also feel a strange warmth in me as I channeled and shot out the magic. Likely from the resistance between my mana and Aura. It was nice seeing I could, theoretically, identify things my studying indicated.

  “That’s amazing Maeori! Congratulations! I knew you had it in you,” Clair said.

  “Thank you, I do appreciate that you believed in me.” I awkwardly held my hand back behind my head. I wanted to shoot off another. However, like a sixth sense I knew I didn’t have the mana to do any more. It was a strange sensation. I felt tired, but not in a physical or mental way. It was as though a muscle outside my body, though still very much a part of it, was begging me to stop using it.

  We exchanged a hug as we returned to our bunk. For a night’s rest. Yep, I can't wait for a week from now when my mana recharges I can shoot two pebbles again…

  I woke up early the next morning. Having finally gotten my foot in the door to the world of magic it seemed a fair reward to actually appreciate the cathedral. Fear and anxiety overtook me more than anything else the first time I entered the cathedral’s main hall. It would be nice to give it a second look. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too crowded. I was constantly surrounded by people at every hour and it was making me feel ill at ease.

  After entering I made my way to a pew in roughly the middle of the hall. I couldn’t say I was fully relaxed, but I had grown more accustomed to the feeling of the Sword of Damocles hanging above me. If I was lucky then perhaps I inherited the memories of who I was in this world without the legacy to accompany it.

  I gazed at the glass behind the statues. Their stories, what had been a list of bullet points in one of my many notes pages, turned real. As fun as it was to read the scriptures as part of my job, the hall itself was gorgeous. I closed my eyes and breathed. There’s a lot in this world I wanted to live to see. Over a decade of my life, my creations, stupid ideas, and dumb jokes all gathered here. I don’t want to lose the chance to see it, not yet. As much as I made this world hate me, I still love it.

  “I shall do all that’s in my power to hide you from the rest of them. I never thought there would be an opportunity for me to repay my debt to you. You will forever have my support for what you’ve done for me.”

  My eyes went wide as an alien voice rang through my head. Holy shit... was that a god? That had to have been. Likely the same one that spoke to Sofia. I slouched over in the pew.

  Dammit all, I don’t know what debt he’s talking about. Could me creating the world and the gods be considered that debt? I don’t know what else it could be.

  I wish he would’ve offered a bit more. My salvation isn’t entirely given to me this way. He’s not sending followers to my aid. What? He’s just obscuring or justifying my arrival from the other gods if I had to guess. You fucker… Giving me an inch and expecting me to take a mile

  My heart was racing. I looked at the statues of the likely culprits.

  Stultvultan, ‘the fool’ who forsaken his birthright to find his own destiny. He was Dragonkin, a sort of humanoid dragon person, the light and enchantments enveloping his statue made each of his scales cycle a different color with each passing moment. A kaleidoscope of gray, yellow, red, orange, brown, green, blue, white, black, cobalt, brass, mercury, copper, silver, gold, and platinum. All the colors a dragon or dragonkin’s scales could be. He chose to represent himself this way to prevent infighting among the dragons.

  Lastly, Orn, a wildcard whose story I never finished but had something to do with chaos. His statue was dark and foreboding depicting him as an elf with a hood up and bow at the ready. However, in reality he was a lamia. Aside from Stultvultan the rest of the god’s statues were the wrong race, but I digress. I didn’t know much about Orn’s lore other than he's the type to stab you in the back, in other words a snake.