To Hold Knowledge

Jien's vision went completely white as the words echoed in his ears. One moment he had been focused and watching Runa holding his hand and guiding mana through his body, the next it was as if a sudden burst of light had shrouded his vision. Even after a few moments Jien found that the white light did not seem to fade from his eyes, and in fact the entire space in front of him was nothing but white emptiness.

"Focus here, time is short." came the same voice, striking like thunder in Jien's ears, shaking the very fiber of his being. The voice itself wasn't loud per se but it reverberated in Jien's very bones and rung like a gong in his mind. The tone of the voice was indistinct and layered, not carrying any particular inflection nor discernible gender. It was as if he was spoke to by a thousand people all at once and yet the words were as clear as day to him.

Jien quickly turned on his heels toward the source of the sound and what he saw astounded him. Sitting in what could be interpreted as the 'middle' of an endless white landscape was a large almost invisible, completely clear sphere the size of which could be comparable to the size of the Losler manor when compared to Jien's form. The sphere was as clear as the cleanest of waters or the most unblemished glass. In fact Jien could only tell that it was there due to a faint outline at the 'edge' of the sphere from his point of view.

However, the sphere wasn't the thing that had surprised him the most. What surprised him was a shadowy figure sitting beneath the floating orb. The figure was no larger than that of an adult, but it was shrouded in a mist of shadows, hiding its exact form. However, what was noticeable were the pair of piercing white eyes in the cloud of darkness. If Jien had to guess he would say that the figure was sitting cross legged on the floor of the white space, though it was hard to tell beyond an estimation based on the figure's proportions, though obscured.

As he and the shadowy figure observed each other time seemed to stand still. Finally, the figure sighed. This was not their first time talking and it likely would not be their last, but as with the prior discussions time was short. Though the talk could last more than a sentence or two, that did not mean that they had all day to chat over a cup of tea and share their life stories.

"I'll make this brief since our time is limited." the multilayered voice spoke, this time at a normal volume for a discussion. Though they were not standing close to each other, the words spoken sounded as if they came from someone at no more than a few feet of distance.

"Congratulations on finally figuring out the spell Personal Library. Though you had some assistance you now know what needs to be done to use the spell." The figure paused there so that its words would sink in before continuing.

"Now that you know how to initiate the spell, I am going to give you some knowledge and some advice. We don't particularly have a lot of time so I would appreciate it if you were to listen carefully to what I say. I won't be able to repeat it and any questions will have to be resolved through experimentation on your part. Understand?"

To this Jien responded with a solemn nod. He still wasn't sure what was going on, where this place was and who the figure was, though he assumed this was the form of whatever had spoken to him after his unsealing rite. He didn't remember the end of the fight with the bandits, so he could not recall the words spoken by the same being at that time.

"Good," the figure continued "first things first, this place is in your mind. Personal Library is a spell for retaining and accessing knowledge. The purpose of the sphere above me is as a container for that knowledge and to fill it you will need to read while using the spell." The figure paused once more for just a few seconds, making sure that this knowledge had time to sink in, but not enough time for Jien to interrupt its monologue.

"What you choose to study, how you choose to implement the knowledge among all the other factors are in your hands. What I will advise you to do is be mindful of mana consumption. This technique consumes mana per word read, an though it may not seem like much at first if you aren't smart about it you will quickly end up in a state of mana void." It was at this point that Jien's expression became serious. Mana void was when one would use all of the mana in their body. It was very dangerous as once mana was unsealed the body would become dependent on it to a degree.

All mana flow in the body would be started with a spark of mana in the form of a mana crystal during the unsealing rite, but if one was to use all of their mana at once before being able to replenish it, they could snuff out the very spark that gave them access to mana, and in doing so stop further mana from accumulating. When this happens, the body would often times shut down to a degree, causing the afflicted to fall into a coma at best, or in some cases outright dying.

To fix the condition of being mana void one would need to undergo the equivalent of a second unsealing rite, though the process would be more alchemical in nature, using expensive agents to melt the crystal rather than the blessings of a god or goddess. The process would be prohibitively expensive, and often times those that became mana void would remain in comas until the time of their natural passing, even with all the care of professionals in several arcane fields.

Seeing Jien taking what it was saying more seriously the figure seemed to show a hint of happiness in the way its eyes reacted. "Good, at least you understand the seriousness of the issue. Now for the advice. I highly suggest that you take one of two paths, or perhaps a combination depending on the topic. The first is a staggered approach. Read normally while using the spell, keeping a firm hold on the amount of mana spent and then stop and replenish your mana before reading the next section. In this way you will be able to store the knowledge provided verbatim from the source."

"The other approach is to summarize what you are reading and then use the spell to absorb the summarized version. The only thing to note regarding this method is that the summarization must be written and then read." With that said the figure looked up at the clear sphere as if in thought and then sighed again.

"I guess that is all the time we have for now. Best of luck in your quest for knowledge." And with that the shadows making up the figure seemed to fade into the white space around them, disappearing entirely in a few short moments and leaving Jien standing in the space, alone, staring at the sphere for another short minute before his vision cleared and he found himself staring at a concentrating Runa once more. It was as if the conversation had taken place in only a short moment, even though it felt like several long minutes.