Oliver was concentrating intensely on what was happening within him. Honestly, it wasn't a lot. He just had the tiniest inkling that there should be something; something that he wasn't feeling anymore because of what Ashton had just done. But then, there it was. It came back, filling the gap inside of his body, that made him feel just so... hollow.

  Now that it was back, Oliver felt like it was the most natural thing in the world. It was to the point that he felt confused over the fact he never realised it was there at all. The sensation inside of him wasn't the only one, though.

  It came from all around him. In every breath, in every smell, even in the taste of the air. He felt it on his skin and flow through his hair.

  "Is this..? Is this mana?" Oliver asked, shocked by this new experience. As he opened his eyes, he noticed Ashton staring into them, before a light smile formed on his face.

  "Yup, it looks like you successfully awakened your spiritual sense, congratulations."

  Unable to hold back his broad grin, Oliver jumped up from his chair. "This is fucking awesome!"

  He looked around, as if the world had suddenly taken on a whole new colour. That sensation would probably fade soon, but Ashton could certainly remember what that was like back then. It was actually a bit of a shame for the people that would awaken their senses soon. The world that Ashton saw then was unimaginably beautiful, with mana seeping from even the tiniest point that he could see and smell and hear.

  That was one of the last moments of beauty that he experienced in that wretched world.

  But to Oliver, the view he was seeing now must already be wonderful enough.

  "Wait, what just happened?" Jacky asked, looking back and forth between Oliver and Ashton, the latter of which quickly explained.

  "Oliver just awakened his spiritual sense. It's not hugely developed yet, meaning that he can't sense all the intricacies of the mana around him, but it's just the difference of being aware it's there and not." Ashton looked back over at Oliver. "For the record, just having your spiritual sense doesn't mean you can get a class really easily now. It's just what the ability to see would be to an artist."

  Immediately, Oliver nodded, slowly sitting back down. "In that case, I just have to learn how to paint. And actually, I've been thinking, but..." A red shine climbed up his cheeks. "Is, uhm... occultism a thing?"

  Without a moment to breathe first, Oliver's friends laughed. John leaned forward and grinned. "Oliver Crowley, following in his ancestor's footsteps, huh?"

  "Hm? What's that supposed to mean?" Sabrina, who had been sitting with the group, looked over at John confused. "Ancestor?"

  "You know... Alistair Crowley, the occultist. He's my great, great grandfather. Or great, great, great grandfather, I can't remember." Oliver sighed, hiding his flushed face with his hand.

  "Is that someone I should know?" Clearly not any less confused, Sabrina smiled awkwardly, but Ashton quickly calmed her with a shake of his head.

  "No, you don't have to know about him, don't worry. But Oliver, to your question; Yes. Occultist is its own class. I don't know the exact requirements, but it's always something related to the class."

  "What kind of magic is included in occultism, then? Is there anything I should do specifically?"

  Ashton thought about it for a moment, "Occultism usually dabbles in stuff like the seen and the unseen, projecting your will onto your world around you, manifestation. So basically, divination, illusions, abjuration, curses, blessings. There are very few occult spells that really pack a punch, though that doesn't mean they're not powerful. But in this context, you'll probably use mostly supportive and augmentative magic. Is that fine with you?"

  "Yes! Totally fine, I don't mind at all!"

  Considering how aggressive Oliver seemed the first time Ashton met him, it had seemed like he would want to throw around fireballs and cause earthquakes or summon meteors from the sky. But seemingly, Ashton had misjudged him.

  While a lot of magic was scholarly and related deeply to research of how to manipulate the world, occultism was something slightly outside of that. Rather, it was related more to a spiritual belief systems. It was somewhere in-between scholarly magic and divine magic like the kind that priests and clerics had access to.

  Occultism was something that could only be made use of if someone had a deep belief in what they were doing. Seeing that Oliver's first instinct was to try and become an occultist probably meant that he had exactly that belief.

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  "Then... yeah, go ahead. But before then, you have to practice actually manipulating your mana. Right now, you can only sense it. But you should be able to do a good enough job with the magic stone now," Ashton explained. "Then, I think a good start would be to simply try and infuse mana into any part of whatever process you'll try out. It needs to be in your voice and in every single movement you make. If you use tools or ingredients, they need to have mana in them. Whether or not it works, that's the only way you can possibly get the Occultist class."

  Oliver quickly and excitedly nodded. "Should I keep going with the magic stone?"

  "You definitely can, but you'll hit a roadblock with that at some point. I'll figure something out for you in a bit, I want to figure out a way to help people use their mana more. Magic is an extremely powerful tool that we now suddenly have access to, and the sooner we can take advantage of it, the better. Like, technically, the rest of you are already using a form of magic as well. And the more you can control it, the better."

  Confused, the rest of the group stared at Ashton, "Hold on, you're saying we're using magic? What do you mean?" Jacky asked immediately.

  For a moment, Ashton thought about how he should best explain it. "Magic, in the simplest sense, is something that can be used to alter the natural laws of the world. Plants grow faster, living beings become more powerful, we can cast spells that set fire to a forest immediately. Sure, this all works in a controlled way, since mana is it's own force of the world, but..." He looked over at John, whose hammer was leaning against the side of the table. "Let's take John. One of your skills should be a form of the 'Strike' skill that boosts attacks with blunt weapons like hammers. How do you think that happens?"

  "Uh... I don't know? I didn't really think about it, it just does."

  "Right. You're studying physics, right? So tell me. Your hammer doesn't get heavier. You don't swing it faster. But somehow, the attack produces more force, meaning more damage. How does that work?"

  John scoffed, and was about to answer out of instinct, but then stopped himself and thought about it more deeply. "So you're saying that mana artificially boosts the resulting force?"

  "To some extent, yes. That's the effect of the magic called 'Strike'," Ashton said, tagging something through the Backpacker. The spirit appeared and gave him one of the leftover small magic stones from the vending machines. The ones that were perfectly round and smooth.

  Ashton placed it onto the table and pressed his finger up against it on the top. This next part was a bit rough, and honestly pretty difficult to do just through raw mana-manipulation, but it was a good way to demonstrate the concept. Slowly, Ashton placed mana into his finger tip and manipulated the pattern into what he recognised to be that same sort of 'force' pattern that appeared during such strike skills. However, instead of making it an outward force, he reversed the pattern and made it an inward force. Basically, instead of being pushed away, the stone would be pulled closer onto his finger.

  Magic stones reacted more sensibly toward things like that, so this was the perfect target.

  And just like that, Ashton lifted his finger up, with the magic stone sticking to it. It wasn't anything huge, but everyone knew that Ashton wouldn't try to trick them in this moment. They knew that what they were seeing was him manipulating... physics, essentially.

  "That's fucking insane, are you serious? How did you do that?"

  "It's the same principle as the 'strike' skill, just tuned to the extreme. Things like... an arrow flying faster for no reason, the impact on a shield being lessened, or a dagger pushing through hardened skin more easily than it should. That's all a form of magic. Remember the difference between magic and spellcasting that I explained to you yesterday."

  "... Right, the difference between walking and dancing or something, right?" John asked, still staring at the magic stone marble that was now laying back on the table.

  "Exactly. A lot of what the system does is turn 'spellcasting' into 'using magic'. It simplifies a usually more complex process. Stabilises it. But that doesn't mean that you can't reverse that process. Or use the simplified magic that the system provides to cast even more complex spells than initially possible. This is just the beginning, and the more people realise not to use only what the system provides, the better."

  Ashton wasn't excluded from that, either. The 'channelling' skill was something that was usually a much more complex matter, and something that didn't have as clean a cut-off point. The system simplified that magical ability, but Ashton could go beyond that. It wasn't a base function of the skill to 'shrink' the channelling range, but Ashton had figured it out anyway. There must be many, many more ways to manipulate the system's interpretations of existing magic.

  "What about me? How could I do it?" Sabrina asked with a curious, excited smile. When they were out and about earlier, she was much more serious and hesitant, but just a few hours later, she had loosened up a lot.

  Ashton thought about it, "Well... to start with, what's limiting you right now is your imagination. Fudging the rules a bit. Maybe it's possible to use another conduit for your gambling skill than just what's provided by the actual skill. Like a deck of cards, or something."

  Sabrina raised her brows, clearly excited, "Oh, okay! So I could try to play a poker hand instead?"

  "Maybe. It's worth a try at least, right? We can try to get you a deck of cards if you want," Ashton suggested and looked at his watch. Seeing how late it was, he decided to get up. "Anyway, I promised I'd go join Sam and some of the other people from Calibur in a second. You guys just keep brainstorming and trying to figure something out, Oliver, keep practicing with the magic stone."

  "Wait, you're just leaving like that?" Oliver protested. "Things were just getting interesting!"

  With a laugh, Ashton turned around. "Sorry, I'm a busy guy. You got this. See you around."

  Ashton left the extremely motivated group behind. He wasn't sure why he was paying so much attention to them in particular. Maybe it was just because they were some of the prime candidates to let Ashton see what the people of this world will be capable of in the future. It would be a sign to show him just how well this world will do against the future quests of the system.

  With that in mind, he was about to see a different aspect of humanity. Ashton made his way upstairs to the roof, where the people from Calibur were sitting around at one of the tables. Sam was there as well, joining in on the talks.

  As Ashton looked at the notes they were each taking, it was clear what they were doing. They were trying to figure out the rules behind getting a class.