“Here is the school,” Kaylie said. We arrived at the group of buildings in the center of the village. The structures didn’t have any names or symbols on them. I figured there was no need to mark the buildings in a town where everyone knew everything and few people traveled.

  We walked into the building, and there were several pairs of people. It seemed like each pair was an older and a younger person. Sometimes, the elder would talk to the young, or the young would sit with their eyes closed while the older one watched.

  “What are they doing?” I asked.

  Kaylie looked at me strangely. “Teaching. Haven’t you ever been taught before?”

  “I have, but it was in a classroom where one person taught around twenty or thirty of us.”

  “And that worked?” Kaylie said, astonished. “I would think many students might tune out or become introspective rather than pay attention. Or, some might grasp the concepts quickly while others lag behind, slowing the group's overall progress.”

  I paused for a minute to think. “Yeah, that is basically what happens.”

  “Well, that’s not good at all. We teach people, so they learn.”

  Rabbit butted in and said in my mind, “They probably learn this way, so the teachings are passed down through time. It only takes one bad generation, and the knowledge will be lost. We have ways to record knowledge and pass it down. They don’t.”

  Then it clicked for me. These people needed to pass down their knowledge to the correct people so it would grow, and none would be lost. In truth, not everything was easily explainable in a book. That may also be the reason they were so keen on placing people exactly where they had the most significant strength, rather than preference.

  Gathering more information, I asked, “What are they teaching?”

  “They're teaching magic,” Kaylie clarified. “The basic spells are simple, accessible to anyone. Advanced spells are guarded and only given out on a case-by-case basis. However, what they are doing here is mostly teaching theory, concentration, and control.”

  “What you are saying is you can learn a spell easily?”

  “Sort of. When you learn a spell, you have all of the knowledge within you. The first problem comes in understanding your spell type. Everything is easy to understand in its basic form. For example, fire is hot. That is why I say beginning spells aren’t difficult, because most people understand this basic concept. Fire encompasses so much more. You need to understand how it breathes and moves, to even grasp the edges of mastering the subject.”

  “Breathes and moves? You make it sound alive.”

  As Kaylie looked at me, I could see a little of that fire in her eyes. “Do you not breathe and exhale? Do you not produce children? Do you not consume to live? Alive is so subjective and yet… I feel like it is the best word for what fire is.”

  I had no interest in debating whether fire was alive. It was clear that nothing I could say would sway her opinion. So, I shifted the conversation back to magic. “If I deepen my understanding, will I be able to access higher-level spells?”

  “Yes and no,” Kaylie replied. “Understanding is crucial for advancing your skills, which, in turn, unlocks higher levels. However, mastery isn't achieved through meditation alone. You need to engage in combat to level up your skills, alongside grasping their essence.”

  “So, a deeper understanding of my spells could level them?” I ventured, hopeful.

  “Not when a skill is capped because of our natural ability. Skills plateau due to our innate capacities. No depth of understanding can alter this limit. If you're not advancing, it could be a lack of comprehension or insufficient use in battle. Simply put, studying isn’t going to raise your spell caps.”

  Well, so much for raising my affinities. At least I had picked up two spells I probably wouldn’t have found in some backwater village. I guessed the new plan was to collect as many common spells as I could while I was here. I was winning, even when I was losing.

  “So my current spells are staying capped,” I said, thinking aloud. “That means my goal now should be to learn as many different spells as I can and get a solid understanding of how they work.”

  “Calm down. It doesn’t quite work like that. There are also different types of spells that are similar, but be aware that they are distinct. For this reason, people often try to stay in one spell branch or one type of spell to limit the variations. It makes it easier for your mind to understand and not get confused by conflicting information.” She finished her explanation as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

  Rabbit immediately started throwing too many questions for me to ask all at once. It made me a little dizzy with how fast he was asking things in my mind. I started with what he asked me first. “What are spell branches and types of spells?”

  Kaylie looked at me as if I were a crazy person. I was certain I asked the equivalent of ‘what is electricity?’ in Earth terms.

  “You are aware that none of this will be useful if you can’t learn magic?” she pointed out.

  I nodded and said, “Yes, but in my world, we don’t have magic, so I am curious.”

  This seemed to placate her. She knew what it was like to crave knowledge that had always been out of her reach, and that could quench my thirst.

  “Spell branches are like the Skill Tree. There are an unknown number of branches. For me, it would be Fire Magic or Light Magic. For another, it could be Air Magic. The number of magical branches is only limited by our understanding of the universe, but most stick with the basic nine. This is different from spell type. There are five different types. There are Conjuration, Evocation, Body, Illusion, and Alteration. These spell types work differently depending on the magical branch you use, or they could work the same. It all depends,” she explained.

  “Why would it work differently?” I asked.

  “Well, that is a loaded question. It just does because it does. Let’s take Water Magic as an example. You may not know this, but water has many different states. Whether you make it ice, water, or steam within an Evocation can make a big difference,” Kaylie added. “Some concepts from Alteration may be present within the Evocation. These concepts don’t work with my Fire Magic, so it is not advised that you learn both fire and water Evocations unless you spend a good deal of time studying or memorizing. I am not even sure what would happen if you tried a part water Alteration in the middle of a Fire Evocation. It could blow up in your face, or it could fizzle to be nothing. Fire is temperamental on its own.”

  From what she was telling me, the spells themselves weren’t hard to understand, and since I had only learned two, I wasn’t confused.

  Rabbit butted in on my surface thoughts. “No, she is saying more than that. She is also stating that your knowledge of the subject is different. Water substance is different than fire. It has different states, and you have to get your mind around that particular type before you cast the spell. I think it’s something akin to partially projecting your idea of the element before using the spell.”

  “But I cast my two spells just fine and didn’t really think about it.”

  “Like she said, level 1 spells aren’t anything remarkable. Moreover, you hadn’t learned a whole bunch of different spells which might have conflicted with your original spell types,” Rabbit explained.

  I focused back on Kaylie and tried to give the best explanation I could of what I thought they all meant. “So you said there are Conjuration, Evocation, Body, Illusion, and Alteration. Conjuration would be conjuring some type of demon. Illusion is creating some type of light projection, I suppose. Alteration would be changing something. Evocation is shooting fireballs at someone? What is Body?”

  “Let’s start with Illusion, and no, projecting some light would be Evocation. I can produce a light that exists. When it is dark, you can see where the light touches. It will make it easier to see. In this case, Light Magic has a high province in Illusion. Every spell branch is usually weighted to one spell type over others. For example, Fire Magic is unlikely to have an Illusion spell within the branch, yet it is full of Evocations. Fire is made to be created and grown,” Kylie finished.

  Something real made out of light would be Evocation. It would only be considered an Illusion if the object wasn’t really there, like a fake copy of someone.

  “Makes sense. What is Body?” I repeated, trying to move on as I understood what she was saying.

  “Body spells are those that affect the body. You would think that this would be Alteration, but it usually isn’t. Say you are healing someone, you are reversing the damage to the body. You aren’t allowing the body to heal naturally at a faster rate. It recreates those parts of the body as if they were never damaged.” Kaylie thought for a second. “Your definition of Evocation was good enough. It is creating something usually for attack or defense. As for Conjuration, it was correct, but there is a great deal of nuance within the field. I think they are talking about it if you want to listen in,” she said as she pointed to a student with her teacher.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  As we approached, they glanced at us but didn’t say anything. Instead, they continued with their lecture.

  “...and the greatest case against Conjuration, in my opinion, is the mana loss based on dimensional distance,” the student said.

  “Great. Now, what are the reachable dimensions, and what are their losses?” the teacher questioned.

  “The pairs are Death and Life at 80 percent, Fire and Air at 60 percent, Water and Lightning at 40 percent, Shadow and Light at 20 percent, and finally Earth at no loss.”

  At this point, I was lost and had so many questions that I couldn’t keep them in anymore. It was rude, but I had to jump in. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I am lost. Are you saying that with Fire Magic, you lose 60 percent of your mana?”

  “I’m sorry, Asha. This Elf was the one who was caught yesterday and is new here. He is a traveler, and we just wanted to test him.”

  Instead of looking upset, Asha, the teacher, looked happy. “Ekta, would you like to explain?”

  Ekta looked up at her teacher, visibly worried. “Which part should I explain?”

  Asha placed her hand on her student’s shoulder and said, “I will not always be here, and someday you will be the teacher. It’s best to practice and learn about subjects you are familiar with. I am here, but just teach what you think.”

  It seemed like the child had a fear of public speaking. There were only four of us there, but I felt terrible for asking the question. She was flustered about having to answer the questions of a complete stranger. She finally composed herself and thought of how to start.

  “Conjuration is different from other types of magic. When conjuring a beast or monster, you are summoning a copy of that monster to you. It requires a certain amount of mana for the summoning and a certain amount of mana to give to the beast. Think of it this way: when you summon a monster, where does it get its mana from?” Ekta paused for a second and let me think about it. It seemed she was getting more comfortable as she talked. “It would be the biggest cheat being able to summon a beast with more mana than the spell cost of summoning. The fact is, you give it its mana. Say you summon a beast, and the summoning cost is roughly equal to your mana pool. Now, if you summoned it and also gave it what mana you had left, then it would only last for a little and then disappear.”

  Ekta took a breath, gathered her thoughts, and continued, “Now the dimensions relate to this and the amount of mana a summoned creature can take. Earth is where we are right now. There is no loss of mana when summoning a creature from this dimension because the summoned creature is attuned to this dimension.”

  Rabbit broke in, “Shoot. I translated it as 'Earth' because that is the term you are familiar with, but it refers to this planet, not the ground. Their word translates something close to a combination of delight and sanctuary, which is far from dirt. Do you want me to keep their original word or keep your word of Earth?”

  “Just Earth,” I said in my mind, gritting my teeth as I tried to focus on her explanation.

  “The other dimensions are easy because they are complementary. If we are the center…” Ekta took out a piece of string from her pocket, which seemed odd to me, but I supposed I hadn’t lived in a place where mending clothes was needed. She laid out the string on the ground and placed her fist in the middle to represent the center. “Then, those further away from us require more mana.” She gestured to the left of her fist and said, “Imagine this is Shadow,” then pointed to the right of her fist, “and imagine this is Light. Those two elements balance each other. Because they are outside this dimension, casting spells involving Light or Shadow costs 20 percent more mana.”

  She pointed farther to the left and right of the string, repeating her actions for the other dimensions. “If you go further out, here you have Water and Lightning, which demand 40 percent more mana. Then Fire and Air, costing 60 percent more. Finally, Death and Life require 80 percent more mana. That’s why, if you had a spell to summon an angel or a demon, you’d likely lack the mana to sustain such a creature. Only the most powerful mages could manage it. Even then, the summoned being wouldn’t be able to use their own abilities for long before the mana drain made them vanish.”

  When she stopped, I followed up with a question, “So this increase in mana usage only applies to summoning creatures? Not to other kinds of magic, like casting fireballs?”

  Ekta scrunched her eyebrows as if she had already explained this to me, but answered, “Yes, it is only for Conjuration Spells. Evocation Spells depend only on their mana cost. This is because you are summoning a copy of a creature that does not belong here.”

  “So, there are only nine dimensions and…”

  Ekta apparently felt comfortable enough to cut me off while I was speaking. “No. There are only nine reachable dimensions for summoning. If you were able to reduce the cost of summoning, then you could theoretically summon from further dimensions.”

  “How many dimensions are there? And is there a way to reduce the cost?” I shot back my questions as fast as she answered them.

  “It’s like asking how many branches are on the skills tree. No one knows how many dimensions there are. As for ways to reduce the mana cost, I believe there may be talents on the Skill Tree that could do it if you are lucky enough to get them. I heard the Grave Dynasty used to drink the blood of the newly undead to lower their spell cost, but it didn’t work out well for them, and now that area is a desert.”

  “Good, good. But a little off topic,” her teacher Asha said, cutting in just as I was about to ask another question. “When teaching, it’s important to keep the student focused. Also, remember that summoned creatures have a limit on the mana they can hold. Even with unlimited mana, you couldn’t sustain them indefinitely without a way to feed them continuously, but that’s a discussion for another time. Overall, you did a great job, Ekta. Someday, you’ll be an even better teacher than I.” She gave Ekta a glowing smile, earning a slight blush at the praise. “Now, I need to help these two. Why not come back later?”

  As she moved away, Rabbit started talking in my head, “Being from a different dimension could be the reason why your health slowly drains, but I am not sure. It seems as though those beasts summoned lose mana first, and your mana didn’t decrease.”

  “I thought you said that my health wasn’t decreasing as much now, and it isn’t a big issue?” I questioned him in my head.

  “No, your health is decreasing at the same rate, but you are healing faster. As your level and constitution improve, so will your recovery, and it will become less of an issue. The reason I bring it up is that I still don’t fully know why it was decreasing. It might be the difference in how you came here over something else that was summoned, but I am still not sure.” Rabbit finished, but I didn’t care as much as he did.

  It seemed to me that the problem had solved itself as I could heal, so I didn’t need to spend time trying to figure out something I couldn’t fix. However, there was a question running in the back of my head. If others couldn’t heal like me and were brought here, could they have died on the first day?

  After Ekta walked away, Kaylie broke my concentration by glancing at Asha and asking, “Should we test him?”

  “An adult Elf… this should be interesting,” Asha said, trailing off as she looked at me. She placed her hand on my shoulder, and I met her gaze. She then gently turned me so I was facing her directly, still looking into my eyes. “I need your consent,” she said.

  “For what?” I asked, a bit worried. We were close, and people didn’t usually ask for consent unless things were about to get a little weird.

  “To look into you. To see what type of magic you might be good at or even attuned to.”

  The moment I agreed, something shifted inside me. It was like that uneasy feeling when you sensed someone watching you and instinctively searched for the eyes on you. But this time, it felt as if everyone in the room was staring, even though that wasn’t the case. As quickly as it came, the sensation vanished.

  Asha’s expression turned to disappointment, and she shook her head at Kaylie.

  “What?” I asked, concerned.

  “You aren’t suited for any of the basic magic branches. I’ve never seen anything this bad,” Asha replied, her look filled with pity.

  “Is there someone better at reading me? Maybe someone else can see something you can’t?” I asked desperately. What was the point of being in a magical world if everyone but me could use magic?

  “Theo has a higher level in Analysis, but the answer won’t change. Your maximum level in all the basic magic branches is zero, so you can’t learn any spells.”

  “You said basic magic. Are there any others? I have two magic spells from magic branches that are odd, but they are maxed out at level 1. Maybe some odd magic spells would work?” I asked, hopeful.

  “What type of spells and branches do you have?” Asha asked.

  I explained my magic to both of them, but they didn’t look as dejected as I did.

  “Often, level 1 spells are weak. These spells seem stronger than most starting spells,” Asha clarified, and that made me sadder. It seemed even if I were lucky enough to get another low-level spell, I wouldn’t be lucky enough for it to be more useful. Since I was bound to be capped at low levels for all my skills, it might end up being useless. “On the bright side, both of those spells are Alteration Spells, so the concepts are less likely to get mixed up.”

  “I’m puzzled about that. How is the knowledge supposed to get confusing? Like if you taught me a new spell, I suddenly wouldn’t be able to use it?” I asked, but I didn't get the concept.

  “No. If I taught you a new spell, you would be able to use it, but as you leveled up, it would become harder. That is why people either focus on one type or branch. Thinking about branches is easier to conceptualize, so let’s take a look at that. Fire is nothing like Death Magic. So say you grow to understand Death. You really understand it. You look at older people and understand that they are moving further toward that point. That ending is the natural conclusion of life. Do you have that in mind?”

  I nodded along. “Yeah, I think.”

  “Now you try to use Fire magic, and the concept is quite different. It grows and grows and consumes, and that understanding doesn’t align with what you’ve learned about Death Magic. The two might interfere with each other, weakening both.”

  “So you’re saying that it is impossible to master two different branches of magic?” I questioned the teacher.

  “Harder but possible. That is what studying is for. The world is interconnected, and to become a true master, you need to understand how everything is related, but more importantly, how it relates to you. I said that Fire consumes endlessly. Death also creates life that consumes just like fire. By fully understanding something, you can advance, but it’s not always simple. Our lives are short, and it is hard enough to master one branch. We always recommend continuing to study and practice and not to spread yourself across too many branches or spell types.”

  Kaylie interrupted, “We should get going.” She was right. The teacher couldn’t teach me magic, but there were so many questions. I chose to narrow down my choice to what was relevant for now.

  “One last question, do you know why my Time Spell uses a percentage of my mana instead of a specific mana amount?”

  “It’s because you are casting that spell on yourself. For example, Healing Spells will heal a percentage of the body each time cast, but it will be for a certain amount of mana,” Asha explained as if it was obvious.

  “But that doesn’t make sense. If you have a Healing Spell that heals different people and only heals the same percentage, what happens if someone has more health points than another person?”

  Both Kaylie and Asha looked at each other and smiled, and then Asha looked back at me and said, “Child, what do you think health points are? Do you think that the more health points you have, the bigger your body is? Or there is more stuff inside of you to be healed? No. It just means your body has more of a natural resistance, as if there was magic in the very skin protecting you.”

  That went against every game logic that I had experienced in my whole life. If you healed someone, it was for a certain number of heal points, but she was right. It was not like the more health points you got, the bigger you became. There wasn’t any more stuff to heal, so it shouldn’t cost more. This also meant low-level healers might be extremely useful if you had enough of them.

  As I was mulling this over, Kaylie put her hand on my shoulder and said, “Don’t worry about it. Let’s try others.”