11 Friday's Library of Heaven's Path?
By the end of the day, Riwall got the skills related to blunt and pole weapons.
---CONGRATULATIONS!---
--Skill Branch Level Up--
-Melee Combat - Level 1-> 2
--New Skill Unlocked--
<Blunt Weapon Combat> - Level 1
--New Skill Unlocked--
<Pole Weapon Combat> - Level 1
As soon as Riwall finished the last routine, Edward said a few words about how Riwall needs to keep his high-intensity approach to the training and excused himself.
Riwall made his way to the shared bath, which resembled the ones made by the Romans, and got rid of all the sweat and red clay. He took notice of how the bathwater got slightly red-colored when he entered but in a few seconds became pristine again. According to a soldier that was there, it was thanks to an enchantment done on the floor titles.
He left his clothes in a trunk in the change room and was already dreading the fact that he would have to use it again after taking a bath. However, he was pleasantly surprised to open the trunk and find out that it was also an enchanted piece and that his clothes were as clean as possible.
Immediately he noticed one of the limitations of it: the clothes would be clean, but any damage done to them would not be fixed.
{I will have to ask Joshua for a few spare sets, this one won't last a week if today's training is the parameter.}
After asking for directions, he found his way to Hector's classroom. The Adventure's Guidmaster was already there taking notes of a book in front of him. Riwall had to cough to get his attention.
"Oh, welcome, Riwall! Please take a seat." Hector said with a smile.
{His demeanor is the complete opposite of what he showed in the guild, he is all giddy and full of smiles now. Back in the Guild he barely had any reaction when mom cried!}
"First, let me tell you how happy I am to be the teacher of you and your companions. I work as a bureaucrat because I am good at it and someone has to do the job, but my passion lies in researching magic and teaching it to the next generations."
He continued.
"According to your files, I have to help the other two develop their mana pathways. I expected this much anyways. It's extremely rare for commoners to have heirloom designs like most noble houses. Imagine my surprise when I read that you already had a pathway! Give me your hand. Let me check it for any fixable problems."
Riwall was reluctant to let a stranger circle their mana through his body. Hector noticed it and said reassuring words.
"Don't stress yourself. Even if I had any ill intentions, you would not be able to do anything. Hellen came to the guild an hour after Joshua left and asked me to check you, she said you designed your pathways alone and without any guidance. As you are still young and the pathways are fresh, I will be able to fix anything done wrong."
Riwall nodded and let Hector perform the check-up, he told Friday to keep her guard up, but she rebuked him by saying that she could not even imagine what she would be able to do to stop a mage as strong as Hector.
Hector's mana was much more fluid than Erika's. It made him feel cold and relaxed at the same time.
[In some ways his mana remembers Erika's, but this coldness stands out. It is a theory, but I think each person may have their mana attuned to specific concepts.]
Hector finished cycling his mana through Riwall's mana pathways and immediately started taking notes about something.
"Excuse me Mr. Hector, but is everything ok?" Riwall voice snapped the Guildmaster out of his trance. He had a happy smile as he started sharing his findings.
"It's more than ok! I don't know how you did it, but your pathways are perfect. I have to give the merits of that to your Bless; your mother told me it was a high-grade one, so I can only assume it was responsible for this. No way someone without a deep understanding of magic could come up with such an ingenious design. We will talk more about it later, but I will give you some books about techniques to hide your pathways from other mages."
He got serious before continuing.
"Never let others know about your design. Anyone would kidnap you and hurt you to get their hands on a design like yours. Even the Marsastor's best design pales when compared to yours. As soon as I can, I will personally instruct you in ways of hiding and disguising it. You have my word."
Riwall gulped at the idea of being tortured again. Of the few things he clearly remembered about his previous life. Nothing was as clear as his memories of the pain he suffered.
The private session with Hector came to an end when Anna and Gregory arrived. Hector dismissed Riwall, but not before giving him ten books about magic and two about pathways-hiding techniques.
-------------------------
Back in his room, Riwall looked disappointed at the books in front of him.
{These things can barely be called books, the handwriting of half of them is abysmal, and only one has more than 200 pages!}
[Well, these are the very first books thaught to children, what did you expect? A dissertation made by a master to his peers?]
{I expected at least something that would take us more than an hour to finish!}
[You know very well that you will only take one hour because of me. No one else can memorize a book with a single glance. On top of that, I will cross-reference the texts between them, rule out inconsistencies, fill the gaps, and finally, create a new and improved book on the subject using techniques from Earth.]
{Ok, fine, you won.}
[Get to work then! These books won't open themselves and turn the pages.] She said with a commanding voice, making Riwall flinch and salute the air.
{Yes ma'am!}
-------------------------
It took only 10 minutes for them to fill Friday's database with the book's contents and another 30 minutes for her to create a new one. Using the Earth's modern take on pedagogical techniques, the result was a book that used a simple language to convey complex concepts, making the harsh learning curve of the original texts something that could be easily absorbed even by kids.
Each of the kids received a big stack of parchment, a quill pen, and a small bottle of ink from Hector. Riwall went for the only desk of the room and got right into transcribing the book compiled by Friday.
He browsed the book in his mind and requested her to create some drawings to make some concepts even more accessible, which she promptly complied with.
She let go of all restraints they put together not to draw Edward's attention during training and guided Riwall's hands with mechanical precision.
In only 1 hour the 50 pages book was fully transcribed with impeccable handwriting. If someone from Earth were to look at it, they would say it was printed from a PDF. The drawings shared the same quality, but Riwall let himself be more creative and, with Friday's help, produced pieces that were both educational and beautiful to look at.
---CONGRATULATIONS!---
--New Skill Branch Unlocked--
-Academics - Level 1-
--New Skill Unlocked--
<Scribing> - Level 1
--New Skill Branch Unlocked--
-Arts - Level 1-
--New Skill Unlocked--
<Drawing> - Level 1
-------------------------
---CONGRATULATIONS!---
--Skill Branch Level Up--
-Academics - Level 1-> 3
--Skill Branch Level Up--
-Arts - Level 1-> 5
--Skill Levell Up--
<Scribing> - Level 1 -> 8
--Skill Levell Up--
<Drawing> - Level 1 -> 15
-------------------------
{By Odin's beard! Look at those gains!}
[That was unexpected. We now know for sure that our previous assertions were correct. The System does indeed rewards results more than effort.]
Suddenly Riwall felt a migraine starting to take form in his head.
{Uh, Friday, should I not be immune to migraines with you here and all?}
[The System is sending a massive influx of knowledge related to <Scribing> and <Drawing>, I am already intercepting it to make it easier for you to absorb.]
True to her words, Friday took only one minute to make the pain go away, and Riwall got to experience the feeling of learning dozens of drawing techniques and a handful of scribing techniques in the blink of an eye.
{What the hell was that? So scribing is the skill that allows someone to write spell books, enchantments, and glyphs? The System only taught me a few techniques on how to avoid minor mistakes when making those three, but nothing more. The drawing techniques are kind of useless. Everything it taught me cannot produce better results than our shared efforts.}
[Don't dismiss it so quickly. Not only does this knowledge complements what I have in my database, but it offers us insights that artists have on drawing that cannot be put into words. With only this much, I am already confident we can produce drawings even better than the ones we just made.]
{Well, if you say so. Now, do you mind imprinting the content of your book in my mind?}
Friday helped his brain absorb everything in the book they made. According to it, magic casting revolves around providing a spell with three things: intent, information, and mana.
The intent dictates the nuances of the spell. If a healer wants his spell to heal, he needs to wish for it to heal the patient. Should the healer harbor ill intention, the spell will be twisted and can make a broken bone heal in the wrong way or heal the exterior of a wound while leaving the inside damaged.
Information is directly related to how mana-efficient the spell will be. If the mage visualizes how his spell needs to change the reality around him, it will take less mana and time to achieve the results desired. For example, if Riwall wants to make a flame, he can do it in two different ways. Either he plainly wishes for it to manifest, or he visualizes all the physics behind the existence of the fire. In the first scenario, he will have to expend vast amounts of mana to achieve what could be done with a fraction if he used the second method.
And finally, the third requisite is mana itself. This mysterious energy is what fuels changes in reality. The clearer the mana, the more efficient it is as a fuel. Take Hector cold mana for example, according to the book and Friday's observations; his mana is attuned to water, which means he will have an easier time using it to cast water spells than if he tried to use it for casting fire and dark ones.
The book then goes a long way into showing how to cast your first spells. As all ten books were made with kids as the target audience, they still lacked much information. But it was more than enough for Friday to begin researching it.
[Want to try casting a spell or would you instead go to bed?] Friday taunted him.
{Like hell I would sleep after learning how to cast spells! Call my family and tell them I will be late for dinner! I will not rest until I can blow up an entire room!}
------------------------------------
A glimpse of the future:
"When I step into that arena to fight against the families that did us harm, the first thing I do will be cutting their tongues out so they won't be able to give up. You can just sit by the side, I won't hold it against you later."
Anna looked right into Riwall's eyes and said with a malicious smile.
"You make sure they can't give up, I will make sure they never forget the experience." She was so angry that her hand could not stop shaking.
Riwall was too emotionally invested at this moment to understand how wrong it was for a XX-year-old to say something like that.
"And what about you, Greg? Are you with us?" He asked.
Greg looked at his two friends and showed a hint of a smile before answering.
"You two are all I have left in my life, of course I will be with you all the way. Riwall will make sure they don't give up, Anna will make sure they regret what they did, and I will make sure to bring you two back home alive."
