Sam was deep in thought as he chewed on some dried meat. There was an apple on the table in front of him which Jeremy had kindly fetched for him. Food wasn’t plentiful in the house but Sam didn’t mind. He hadn’t been the poster boy for healthy eating on Earth anyway. Home cooked meals had been few and far between.

Since getting back from the barn with Jeremy, Sam’s mind had been spinning. He had so many questions that he didn’t have an answer for. The claw had just disappeared into Jeremy's hand? Was that normal? What was the Beast form? Could anyone unlock the Beast Mastery, get to Tier 5 and get the ability? Why weren’t there more werewolves around?

His brow furrowed in frustration which Jeremy noticed.

“Sam, what’s troubling you?”

Sam shook his head in resignation and replied.

“There is so much I don’t know and I have so many questions to ask.”

Jeremy bit into an apple as he sat down opposite Sam. After chewing and swallowing, he spoke nonchalantly.

“If you got questions, then ask. If I can’t answer then you will have to find your answers elsewhere.”

Sam nodded. A paper and a pen would be so good right now. He wanted to write everything down to digest later.

He sighed and began rambling off several questions.

Jeremy smiled before taking another bite of his apple, teasing Sam as he chewed slowly before answering.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam lay on top of his bed feeling a bit more hopeful. He had managed to get some new information from Jeremy.

He had asked about the Beast form but was disappointed to learn that Jeremy didn’t know much more than he had already told Sam and he suggested that Annabelle would be the best to ask. Sam didn’t feel like approaching her anytime soon especially if should could transform into a werewolf at any moment and simply detach his head from his body.

After hearing Jeremy’s baptism story, Sam realised that he needed to get to a library. It was gold mine for all kinds of topics that he needed to know: geography, culture, society, history and many more. It would give him a much better understanding of this world. Asking people would be riskier and create more suspicion about his origins.

Jeremy had confirmed that the Haventown library was the closest but also mentioned that Thistlevale had the largest library in the region. Jereld mentioned that his father and him would be going to Haventown in the next day or two. Sam eagerly showed his interest to join since he was keen to see the town and naturally the library. Jeremy said he would speak to Jerald about it.

Sam’s questioning regarding the Baptism claw had also yielded some fruit. There was an inventory for magical items within the Mastery System and this inventory was where Jeremy was storing his Baptism Claw. After Sam got excited at the prospect of the inventory, Jeremy mentioned that the inventory had very limited space. It seemed really amazing to be able to carry items without a bag or pockets. His mind went over the many possibilities.

A memory of a female face appeared in his mind. Her face was young and pretty but almost always angry at something or someone. It was one of best friends from school: Jackie. Memories of her and his other friends swirled around in his mind. He distinctly remembered Jackie refusing female clothes because they didn’t have pockets. She would have loved something like the inventory.

He focussed on the memory and remembered it happened during one of their weekend visits to Philly. Their group had road tripped there a few times but it was their very first trip which was the most memorial. They had argued over who made the best Philly Cheese steak, took a selfie with Rocky and ended up shopping for clothes. It was there where Jackie ended up buying a pair of men’s jeans because they had pockets. It had been one of his best trips he had been on, if not the best.

Sam explored more of his memories as he remembered the fun times he had with his friends. He grinned and laughed until tears started flowing down his face.

They were good times and good friends.

He missed them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam woke up with a start, wondering where the hell he was. When he looked around he realised he was still in the small room within the Underwood farm house. He was still in the world of magic.

He wiped his eyes and took a deep breath. He wasn’t on Earth anymore; his life wasn’t relaxed and safe. He had focus on keeping himself alive. There were people coming for him and he would have to gain as much knowledge and as many skills needed to survive and thrive in this world.

Sam blinked his tiredness away as he regained his focus. He needed to get stronger and the Masteries seemed to be the best option right now.

Sam whispered the words he had learnt from Jeremy. They were the words to bring up the number of Masteries points.

“Show all Masteries Points.”

Masteries Points:

Any Mastery: 56 points

Water Mastery: 35 points

Sam grew giddy with excitement. It was a lot of points! If the maximum level of a skill was level 10 then he could upgrade 9 skills to level 10!

It was much more than he thought he had. He pulled up the Water Mastery screen and picked [Water Clarity] from the two available skills and inspected it.

[Water Clarity] [0]: Gives the user benefits and bonuses whilst in water.

He focussed his mind and thought about increasing [Water Clarity] to level 1 using 1 Water Mastery point.

Water Mastery: Water Clarity Level 1 gained. 1 Water Mastery point has been removed.

Sam was happy that his instructions had been carried out correctly but he still checked everything to make sure. He still had 34 Water Mastery points left. When he inspected [Water Clarity], he noticed a change in the description.

[Water Clarity] [1] Gives the user benefits and bonuses whilst in water. 10% bonus to Dexterity attribute.

On top of his [Water Baptism] Talent, he had a nice bonus to dexterity whilst swimming. He would need to test it out.

Feeling a bit wealthy in the points department, Sam focussed his thoughts on increasing the [Water Clarity] level to the level 3 using Water Mastery points.

Water Mastery: Water Clarity Level 3 gained. 2 Water Mastery points have been removed.

He inspected [Water Clarity] again but the change was dexterity bonus which had increased to 15%. He increased the level until he saw a different bonus; it was on [Water Clarity] level 5.

[Water Clarity] [5] Gives the user benefits and bonuses whilst in water.

- 20% bonus to Dexterity attribute.

- 100% bonus to Health regeneration

Seeing that he was getting more bonuses every few levels he decided to increase [Water Clarity] to the maximum level.

Water Mastery: Water Clarity Level 9 gained. 4 Water Mastery points have been removed.

Sam frowned. Why was [Water Clarity] only level 9? It didn’t say ‘MAX’ like [Water Attunement]. He was sure that the maximum level was level 10.

He tried increasing the level again and got some new information.

Unable to increase level of [Water Clarity]. [Water Clarity] [MAX] must be earned and cannot be purchased with Mastery Points.

From what Sam gathered he had to earn the last level. He inspected [Water Clarity].

[Water Clarity] [9] Gives the user benefits and bonuses whilst in water.

- 30% bonus to Dexterity attribute.

- 200% bonus to Health regeneration

- [Underwater breathing] [Active] (9 minute duration) (Usable once per day)

Sam was impressed. He could breathe underwater?!! He definitely would need to try it whilst bathing. He felt excited like a kid opening presents at Christmas.

Whilst looking through the bonuses, he realised that he had no clue how effective health regeneration was. Would it regrow lost limbs?

Sam inspected ‘Health regeneration’ but much to his disappointment, the description didn’t give him any more information. He shelved the question away, hoping that he got the answer before he was heavily injured. He moved onto the next skill.

[Water Manipulation] [0]: Allows the user to change the flow and destination of water. The greater the volume and force of water, the greater the difficulty and cost.

He used 9 more Water Mastery points to upgrade [Water Manipulation] which left him with 17 Water Mastery and 56 Mastery points remaining.

He inspected [Water Manipulation] again but much to his disappointment it hadn't changed much.

[Water Manipulation] [9]: Allows the user to change the flow and destination of water. The greater the volume and force of water, the greater the difficulty and cost. User can use mana to affect a larger volume of water with greater ease.

Sam didn't want to stop now and with a thought, brought up the Knowledge Mastery.

The Mastery was a light shade of blue grey with the abilities and skills following a similar but darker colour scheme. The Knowledge Mastery seemed quite dull in comparison with the other Masteries because none of the abilities or skills had halos around them.

He immediately tried to upgrade [Holder of Knowledge] and received an expected response.

Unable to increase level of [Holder of Knowledge]. Skills in the Knowledge Mastery must be earned and cannot be purchased with Mastery points.

The test confirmed what Annabelle had told him about the Earning Masteries. He quickly inspected the three skills that were available to him on Tier 1.

[Holder of Knowledge] [6]: The user holds rare knowledge that is unknown to the masses and this sets them apart. 1 Intelligence attribute gained per level.

[Memorization] [4]: The skill to quickly store information upon seeing it for the first time. Bonus to short term memory storage and retention.

[Well of Knowledge] [2]: The skill to store information in long term memory. Bonus to long term memory storage and retention.

Sam found it quite interesting. In this world, a person could tangibly measure their ability to remember. He guessed increasing [Memorization] and [Well of Knowledge] required hours and hours of practice. Sam shivered as unpleasant memories of cramming before finals surfaced in his mind.

Sam found [Holder of Knowledge] to be fascinating but also strange. It was the only skill other than [Hardship] that he had gained a level in. He had gained a level after Jeremy had told him about the Masters getting informed of the baptisms. It made sense for that knowledge to be hidden because if it wasn’t then everyone would never complete their Baptisms. From what he gathered from Jerald and Annabelle, a baptism was considered a magically miracle which was welcomed indeed of feared.

If his interpretation was correct, he would need to learn about things that no one else knew about. Finding said information would be really difficult because he had no way of knowing if it was common knowledge or not. Sam’s desire to get to a library was growing stronger and more important.

The Knowledge Mastery seemed like a nice way of getting Mastery points. Based on what he had gained before, each level gave 2 Mastery points. At the current moment in time, he didn’t really need more Mastery points but Sam had his suspicions that spending 1 Mastery point per level would probably not be the norm in the future. It also didn’t hurt to keep some extra Mastery points for a tough situation like Jeremy’s baptism where Annabelle had luckily had spare Mastery points to get healing abilities.

He remembered Annabelle mention the Body and Weapon Masteries. He needed to get those Masteries as soon as he could. Having a strong tough body with which he could defend himself would be great. He felt regret for never learning any martial arts at school.

Sam decided to revisit the Labour Mastery since he had lots of points and [Endless Vitality] had looked like a great skill.

The vitality attribute was important because it determined how much health and stamina he had. Both were crucial for him surviving an attack and having enough stamina to fight or escape. [Endless Vitality] would provide the boost in health and stamina that he needed.

Sam thought back to Jeremy’s story. If Annabelle hadn’t had the healing abilities, Jeremy would have definitely died. He knew he couldn’t solely rely on others to heal him. He had to be self-sufficient in his own power. If he couldn't heal or recover health in some way then he was as good as dead. Without further thoughts, he tried to spend ten points on [Endless Vitality].

Labour Mastery: Endless Vitality Level 9 gained. 9 Mastery points have been removed.

Sam noted that the same rule seemed to apply to the Labour Mastery. Maybe it was a universal rule? Another question to be shelved on his shelf of endless questions.

Sam inspected the new skill and grinned widely.

[Endless Vitality] [9]: Provides the user with additional vitality and healing to cope with the hardship of labour.

- 1 Vitality attribute added per level

- Shallow wounds recover much faster and have less chance of infection.

- [Endless Regeneration] [Active] Increases total health and stamina regeneration by 500% for 5 minutes. (Usable once per month)

Sam was pleased. If he was in water, he could use [Endless Vitality] and greatly improve his health regeneration due to both of the bonuses. Water was definitely becoming his safe haven.

After that he tried to upgrade [Hardship] and got a similar message to what he had gotten for [Water Clarity] and the Knowledge Mastery. This meant that a Mastery could have both types of skills: those which could only be earned or those which could be earned or purchased with Mastery points.

Sam let out a sigh. There was so much information about the new abilities, skills and Masteries that he felt a little overwhelmed. It had been a long day and he felt mentally fatigued.

Finally he got to the last Mastery left, the Mana Mastery. It was the Mastery that Sam felt the most anxious about. There had been no mana on Earth so a whole Mastery dedicated to it seemed daunting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a quick toilet break and some deep breaths to calm himself, Sam brought up the Mana Mastery.

The Mana Mastery had a clear white background which reminded Sam of a squash court. Every few seconds a shimmer of a rainbow would ripple across it like it was alive. Unlike the other Masteries, Sam could only see two Tiers: Tier 1 and Tier 2.

The first Tier reminded him of the Chosen Mastery. There were vertical lines separating Tier 1 into three blocks. Each block had a name under it:

Mana Grimoire

Mana Cycle

Mana Flower

Each block had a shape in the centre. He couldn’t see the shapes of the Mana Grimoire or the Mana Cycle but the Mana Flower was clear and it was unsurprisingly the shape of a flower head. The flower head was made up of five petals and a flower centre which had the only ability he could choose in the whole Mastery: [Meditation].

He examined the Mana Mastery, hopefully to find more information.

The Tier 2 requirement was all Tier 1 abilities and skills to be on maximum level. It was a steep requirement because the Tier 1 didn’t seem simple like the Water Mastery Tier 1. Many skills and abilities were unavailable and to get all of them to maximum level didn’t seem like a simple task.

All three blocks of Tier 1 had a connection to the centre of Tier 2. He didn't know what was on Tier 2 but for the effort and points required, he guessed it was quite powerful.

After finding nothing else, Sam returned to the [Meditation] ability and inspected it.

[Meditation] [0] [Active]: Allows the user to enter a state of peace and calm that is separate from the distractions of the body.

Sam knew of the benefits of meditation on Earth but he could only guess what it was like in a world of magic. Sam thought [Meditation] could be useful and as the only ability available, he didn’t have much of a choice either. He used a Mastery point to gain the first level.

Mana Mastery: Meditation level 1 gained. 1 Mastery point has been removed.

Sam willed away the Mastery and took in a deep breath. He had been successful in spending points and going through all his Masteries but the mental fatigue had gotten worse. Whenever he increased the levels of his skills, it seemed to stretch his mind as he gained new knowledge.

Sam inspected [Meditation] again to see if there had been any changes in the ability description.

[Meditation] [1] [Active]: Allows the user to enter a state of peace and calm that is separate from the distractions of the body. (30 seconds required for [Meditation] to be in effect)

- User can move mana within their body.

- Strenuous cognitive thought may disrupt the meditative state.

- Only Mana Mastery skills and abilities can be used.

- Mastery notifications will not be shown.

Sam was surprised by the large amount of new information. He couldn’t see his other Masteries and no notifications? Why? It seemed quite restrictive and somewhat dangerous.

Sam decided to test out [Meditation], the description and restrictions were intriguing. A headache had also been forming and he hoped [Meditation] could do what it said on the bottle and relax his mind.

Sam put himself into one of the meditation poses he had seen on television. His legs were folded like a pretzel and he let his hands rest in his lap.

He quietly said and thought, “Meditation.”

Five seconds slowly passed, so slow that Sam thought he had made a mistake.

On the fifth second, the room disappeared and his mind stopped interpreting feedback from his body. He couldn’t see, hear, smell, taste or touch anything.

He was in world of empty black. It should’ve scared him but he felt calm and relaxed. The blackness felt comforting and strangely familiar.

The mental fatigue slowly began to recede and Sam felt relief.

Sam decided to experiment with the ability and his quick realisation was that he couldn't do much whilst meditating. If he pulled up any Mastery, the ability would immediately be cancelled. He tested it by trying every instruction or command he knew. To his pleasant surprise, his Status screen and Attributes list did not cancel [Meditation] but everything else did.

Having learnt something, Sam was glad he tried. [Meditation] didn’t seem to have a cost of any kind because his stamina hadn’t decreased whilst testing and he had no mana to decrease either. Since there was no cost, he decided to stay in [Meditation] until his mental fatigue went away.

Sam relaxed his mind into a calm thoughtless lull.