My room is magical. Not in the sense of floating chairs or magic mirrors or anything like that. But truly wonderful in the sense that I have a bed, a beautiful bed. Sure it isn't the biggest, and I'm certain this world hasn't mastered mattress technology. I don't think tempur pedic is coming anytime soon at least. It's my bed and I like it! You don't know how comfortable it is to have a safe, comfortable, and warm place to sleep in after being lost in the woods. It's truly sublime.

On another note, I've decided now that I'm safe I should play with this system a bit. I mean, I have a status, there has to be a translation tool, skills to learn, all that fun stuff. It's amazing the things you can't be bothered to think about when you are fighting for your life. I pull out my guidebook to magic and say translate. Big shocker, nothing happens. So instead I say Search, and to my lovely surprise I have a nifty little search function. This means I'm not royally fucked, yet at least. I play around with it a bit, familiarizing myself with the intricacy of this system and finally find what I'm looking for. LANGUAGE MASTERY 1 SKILL POINT, is exactly what I need. But how the hell do I get skill points?

I check my status and it doesn't appear to list any skill points, I've already use my stat points as well. Perhaps they are interchangeable? Let me see if there is some sort of wiki in the search function. Wiki, grimoire, lore, *pop* well, looks like lore it is. This thing is massive but it appears I can search through the lore as well, so that will be handy. I quickly look up skill points, and here's what pops up. Skill Points: Skill points are a gift from the heavens for mastery of an art. Skill points can be obtained by demonstrating mastery of a skill and be used to enhance or learn the basics of another skill. Obtaining skill points is an arduous process and not for the faint of hearted. One must be proficient and well versed in whatever skill point they are trying to claim. You may attempt to claim a point as many times as you want. Examples of skills used to obtain skill points are as follows: Fencing, Archery, Farming, Sewing, Hunting, Chess, etc. One may claim a skill point by thinking CLAIM, while thinking of the mastery they have obtained.

I can't believe my luck, I bet I can claim some points right this damn second! During my long and sorted history of being well, a loser, I've mastered the art of playing boardgames. Chess, checkers, backgammon, monopoly, risk, operation, you name it, I've mastered it. I can't believe no-one takes advantage of this. Well, actually, when you factor in that this world appears to be on the technological level of the middle ages, it isn't that surprising. Generally having the time to play a boardgame would be a luxury in times like these and I doubt a farmer very much cares about mastering fencing or unlocking the art of enchanting. It seems to me like I was given a very generous hand to play, now only to try claiming it.

CLAIM! I think loudly while thinking of chess. Hopefully this will work and I'll be able to read this damn book. *DING* 1 skill point has been distributed, would you like to use it now? YES, I eagerly exclaim. I've always been a bit of a bookworm, even going so far as to ignore my teachers so I could read a good book. The chance to read a book and learn a skill that could actually benefit me in a meaningful way, and aid in my survival. Well, it brings a tear to my face. I'm sure my old english teacher would be proud of me. I apply the point to LANGUAGE MASTERY and eagerly open the book. YES, the gibberish has been replaced by english, good ol english.

After reading for a few hours I've come to one conclusion. Magic is hard! It turns out that the reason I haven't seen anyone performing high level magic, isn't because the knowledge is hidden and kept secret in some dark dungeon somewhere. It's more along the lines of, meh, why bother? A magician could shoot a ball of fire and kill a far-away enemy, but so could an archer. The practical applications aren't there for generalized magic. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to learn it. I'm going to read, re-read, and re-re-read this book until I've mastered the basics.

It all starts with mana manipulation. Everyone starts out with the same amount of mana, which is to say, not much. There are a few exceptions, but for this explanation we'll keep it simple. There are only 3 ways in which you can change how much mana you have. Applying stat points, using enchanted items, and practice. I'm all out of stat points and my wallet probably can't handle the great ring of legend, so practice it is.

Manipulating mana is kind of like being buzzed. You clear your mind of all things and focus on this ghostly force inside of yourself. The problem is that it doesn't feel quite natural yet. Like when you have a few beers at a party and you aren't used to that topsy turvy feeling in your head yet. This disorentation appears to be dissipating with practice, but it still doesn't feel right. Manipulation of mana is just the first step though. The next step is the hard part.

Shaping mana into a useable form is quite strenuous. There is a near infinite amount of ways to shape mana. The simplest, and the kind used to make a quick buck by high mana capacity mages down on their luck, is to form the mana within them into a mana crystal. Mana crystals can be used to supplement low mana capacities, but are harder to use and are volatile. We'll touch more on that later, what I'm planning on doing is shaping my mana into a fine mist. This will allow me to practice the simplest of spells, create fire. Fire is the simplest of spells because it is in principle, the closest to a natural phenomena. Fire is very simple, Fuel+Oxygen= Fire.

After playing with it for a few minutes, I'm able to finally make a tiny flame. It's not my poor mana capacity that's holding me back though, it's more my control. Most of my mana appears to be dissipating in whats called, mana leakage. A master mage can use nearly all of his mana efficiently, accomplishing what mere novices can do with 1/100 of the mana. I should work on my mana manipulation skills. However, if I'm going to support myself, and keep a roof over my head, one that contains a beautiful bed, I'll work on making crystallized mana. This way I can practice my manipulation skills and work on practical magic.

But first, LUNCH. I've been holed up in here all day practicing my skills. Hopefully I'll be able to grab a quick bite, head back upstairs, practice until dinner, eat, and head to bed. Well, that's the plan at least. But as you can probably guess, plans don't always work out the way you want them to. You know the old adage: If you want to make god laugh, tell him your plans.

Lunch was stew, stew, and more stew. The nice lady running the bar, Trixie was her name *really should have asked for that earlier* didn't have alot of customers tonight and she told me I could take all I could eat. Which, after pulling a Micheal Phelps just yesterday, I needed. Finally, full of food, a glass of free mead "because I'm all skin and bones" Trixie stated, and a bit of lust, I head back upstairs to continue practicing magic.

Well, that was the plan at least. A few minutes in I managed to crystalize a small piece of mana, no bigger than a marble. This would be all well and good if I also didn't leak about 99% of my mana, and pass out on the floor. I came to roughly a few hours later, as it was still dark outside with a minor headache. *Note to self* Mana depletion sucks dick. Turns out, this isn't some rpg game, if you run out of mana, you run out of energy and pass out. On the bright side of things, at least I wasn't out trying to kill a direwolf or something when my mana ran out. I should be more careful, guess I'll have to keep an eye on my mana a bit more closely in the future. But either way, that's a problem for tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll take my crystallized mana to that weaselly looking trader, and see what I can get out of him. Sleep tight everyone.