Please Note: Statements between % something in italics % are game system messages.

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As usual during lunch, Swamy went to practice his flute. He didn't know if he had gotten good enough but atleast his parents praise had helped. But just in case they were partial with his playing, more practice couldn't hurt. And so he was in the sound room practicing his flute. After playing, he listened to the recorded sound and try to judge his mistakes and probably how to make his sound better. Music, he had learned was the toughest thing there was. For even if he made no mistakes, the sound did not sound beautiful. There was just something about art, which only another human could analyze and say that it is good...or not.

Practicing alone, however, he hoped that it would sound good to others as well. 'Atleast it didn't sound horrible or my parents would have told me!' he consoled himself.

The next time Swamy logged in, was after his parents left. Monday was an embarrassing day, more embarrassing than the parent-teacher meets in school. Atleast in school everyone's parents visited. In college, they stood out even more. What's more his professor turned out to be someone they knew from before, they had met during one of the conferences. And as such, much of Monday morning was discussing the advantages and disadvantages of virtual gaming on humans, correction one particular human, Swamy. Showing his parents around campus was not bad, but when the head of department is walking around with them, you stick out like the sun in the night sky.

His parents left happy and for that he was pretty happy.

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You have grown. Your Age is now 10.

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This was the first message Raka got after logging in. Still wondering how the 'Age' system worked! Computing had become almost light speed compared to the slow computers of earlier years, like 2014. Which made it possible for VR games to employ many many attributes to define a component. For example 'Art'. Thousands of points were used to define what looked beautiful in the VR world, which would closely relate to the real world. It also made possible to create art in the game. In fact for everything existing and player-created thousands of points were applied to come up with its properties and quality. Even the experience each monster gave, was mathematically calculated based on a number of factors

So to simply say that the 'age' system acted this way was nigh impossible. It may be simple but it also could be a factor of a lot of points. In any case, somethings can't be figured out just in a couple of months of gameplay.

Accepting it as is, he moved to resume his classes on magic language.

Raka was close now. The entire morning, he spent listening to instructors and in the afternoon he moved on to the magic library to peruse books. Just as it was getting dark and the sun was getting down, he finally got the message,

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You have grown up. Your age is now 11.

Magic Language: 100%

You have learned Magic Language. You can now read and write Magic Language.

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'Hmm well its good that I learned magic language but whats with my age! Hah anyway, time to learn the spell writing skill. I better meet with Lady Verina now.' And he headed towards the training hall.

'She's late!' Raka was waiting for her to come for a while now. Usually she arrived quite early and Raka would come either early or late. But today Raka was already late, and she was still not here. After waiting for some time he decided to check her office. 'Maybe she fell asleep again!'

He reached the office and knocked the door. 'No answer eh'. Raka leaned closer trying to hear and heard deep breathing sounds. He wanted to open the door but this time he restrained. Last time was bad enough. He knocked loudly and heard something fall off and shattering inside.

"Who...what!!!" came sounds as Lady Verina woke up with a grumble. Raka knocked again, lightly this time. After a while,

"Enter!"

Raka opened the door and stepped inside. Her hair was still tousled lightly and a stack on her table seemed to have fallen down. Something had broken and its pieces were scattered across the floor. She had a little trouble focusing.

"Ah its you!" she said as she took a yawn!

"Yes, you were late! So I came to see. Seems like you are already very tired! Should we skip today's training?"

"Hmm...yes I would like that very much!"

'I would like that as well' thought Raka.

"But well, we can skip the physical part, I am too tired to move right now. Just came back from the capital and it was a rather tiring journey."

Raka stayed quiet, listening to her complain.

"Hmm so what do we do then? Should we call it a night?"

"Um...I just learned magic language. Could you teach me how to make spell scrolls?"

"Ah that's right! I did say I would teach you that! Ah well this will require you to use magic as well, so lets head down to the training hall! Just let me get a few things....." saying which she opened a drawer and grabbed a couple of papers and some quills or pens with feathers behind them.

They walked down to the training hall.

"So the basics of making a spell scroll is to embed magic on paper. It is different from the kind of embedding you have done so far. Instead of making a coat, this time imagine energy flowing through the paper."

"Okay, I will give it a try!"

Raka entered his colorful world. This time he saw the form of the paper he was holding with his fingers, though again, he could only clearly see the parts away from his hands. He moved his hands like he was making a coat but he moved in a way like he was pushing air into it. A little while later, he saw the colors move again. The colors seemed to be moving through the paper out the other side. Slowly the paper form seemed to be getting brighter than before but he couldn't be sure. He looked at his energy meter and it was slowly rising. He did not know how much energy he would need, so he simply assumed enough energy to make a small fire ,should be enough.

Raka opened his eyes.

"That is good. Energy has been embedded on this paper. The more energy you put in, the more powerful magic becomes. The next step is to write the magic using magic language. Lets try with a simple one. Try writing 'wind' on it. Not 'air' but wind!"

Raka took one of the pens she had come with and wrote the word for 'wind' on the paper. The paper did not feel any different and in reality looked the same as it was before. After writing the word, he looked up towards Lady Verina for the next step.

"Now fold it, like this. Seal it, here's a little wax. Now write on the front the 'name'. For now, just write 'wind' on it as well."

Raka did as she directed.

"Try calling it now!"

"Wind!" The scroll vanished and a small wind was created. It blew from his hands, just like a hair dryer, wind blew wherever his hands pointed. A little later it stopped.

"Wow!" he said.

"Yes! good one! Remember that you cannot think of the name, you have to speak it out. Otherwise you would simply be doing magic, holding a piece of paper and not using the spell scroll."

Raka nodded.

"Also remember that the energy every magic requires to take effect, will be different. That is something you will have to realize on your own. Too little and the magic would not create the proper effect, too much and it will spiral out of control. Remember, it is designed so that anyone may use it. Everyone can use magic potentially, however not everyone actually trains in it. They may lack the perception of mana but rest assured they have it. Spell scrolls are designed with a factor of control, only the embedded energy in the paper will be used. So it does not affect their mana though there may be a limit of how many they can use at a time, depending on how powerful you make the spell scroll."

"So does it consume mana, seeing as there is a limit?"

"No! Mana is about controlling the transformed magic. When you embed it on paper, energy is transformed. When you write magic language, you already put in control. It will only create the magic you write and only use the power you put. So mana is not required. Mana is required when creating a spell scroll though as it is still transforming magic. Any questions?"

"Um..no! I think I have it pretty clear."

"Good, in that case you have learned how to make a spell scroll...."

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You have learned the skill Spell Writing.

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"Skill description, Spell Writing"

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Skill Spell Writing (Beginner lvl 1: 1%) : Ability to use writing surfaces like paper to make scrolls of energy. Using magic language, magic can be embedded on these scrolls. The magic written has to be named. Invoking of the magic can then be performed by calling the name. It transforms the scroll's energy and hence the scroll itself can be used only one time. Magic embedded scrolls can be shared/given to magicians or non magicians for use.

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As usual after his magic training, Raka headed to Neona's.

"No no, I said 1 stone of flour and a quarter stone of sugar" came Neona's voice as she corrected Raka. Raka had learned loads about cooking while working. He had even noted it down. Now he was confident he could make fruit pies and was eager to try it.

"Neona, is it ok, if I make a blueberry pie by myself. You can just watch me. I want to see if I can make one by myself."

"Hmm ok. If you become better, it will help me a lot. Lets see you make one then!"

"Thank you...here goes" and Raka started measuring things out to make a blueberry pie. When he got confused, he looked at his notes. "And this goes like this....and now to mix everything..." he muttered as Neona watched.

Soon he prepared everything and put it in the oven to bake. "The trick here is to watch carefully the heat and the rising" as he stoked the fire.

Some time later he took it out. Raka checked that the dough rose as he expected. He turned to Neona,

"Here Neona, please taste it!"

Neona took a small slice and waited a bit for it to cool down.

"Hmm the taste is good. The pie is cooked well. Seems like I can let you make some of my things from now!" She said happily.

Raka was happy. All the time practising with Neona, making so many notes, making mistakes and making more notes, he had finally improved his cooking to satisfactory levels. Oh hell, if Neona agrees to sell it in her shop, then it was beyond satisfactory to say the least.

He and Neona spent the rest of the time cooking everything. He cooked it delicious, but he was still slow was her only complaint.

Now if he could only show it to Lady Altia.

Next day, he skipped the library in the morning. He went to Neona's to ask and use her kitchen. He went upstairs while she minded her shop and slowly and carefully made an apple pie.

'Turned out quite good, even I am surprised by that!'

He showed Neona his pie and asked how it looked. She gave her approval. Raka was happy. He wrapped the apple pie in some paper and walked of towards the Battle school. The sun was high in the sky by now, and it would noon soon. He hoped he would reach on time.

Reaching the Battle school hall, he soon saw lots of people swinging all kinds of weapons at the training dummies. The instructors were guiding them along. Fortunately for him, Lady Altia was in the hall, perusing some papers and frowning slightly. Hearing footsteps she looked up,

"Ah Raka! How come you are here today?"

"Um...I thought that maybe we could have lunch together, seeing as its been so long since we met. I hope I am not coming at a bad time."

"No! ofcourse not. In fact I was about to have something to eat myself. Wait a second and I will get something to eat...."

"Please wait. I have brought some food with me."

"Oh! And you cooked it, did you?"

"Yes, I hope you like it!"

"Well I can't wait to try it..." she added smiling.

Raka opened the paper to reveal the apple pie and put it on the plates Lady Altia magically conjured up. He carefully cut it and served her a slice.

"Hmmm looks lovely."

"Please taste!"

Lady Altia took a bite and made a face! Raka's heart sank. 'Was the taste wrong! Did I add mix up salt and sugar! Maybe the apples were not good, or was it the flour...' All sorts of thoughts surfaced in the moment.

But Lady Altia started laughing.

"Hahahaha the look on you face! Its delicious. Do not worry so much!"

Just then,

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You have learned the skill Cooking.

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Raka ate a bite as well, which raised his vitality by 5 points. He quickly noted it down.

"Ah, that was delicious. You know what we need now. Some delicious tea to wash it all off!" and she magically brought out two cups and a tea pot. She waved her hands again and ingredients to make tea appeared. She carefully made tea and offered a cup to Raka.

"Thank you!" as Raka took his cup. They both sat down slowly sipping tea whiling their time looking at each other and the weather and the smacking of all the wood.

Hoping it goes well, Raka took out his flute, and started playing a tune. It was the same tune Lady Altia had played that wondrous night. Even though it was not night and there were no stars, he felt like he could play.

Lady Altia closed her eyes as she heard the tune played by Raka.

'That was a mistake, that note needs to be a bit higher' went on in Raka's mind in the beginning as he slowly let his training take over and his fingers moved naturally.

A bit later, his tune ended but Lady Altia still kept her eyes shut. Raka didn't know whether she had fallen asleep but in any case he didn't want to disturb her lovely figure, not right now! Soon she opened her eyes.

"That was beautiful! I almost felt like we were in that place at that time again! Just us!" she smiled.

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You have learned the skill Flute music.

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After spending some more time, Raka left.

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A few days had passed since he learned spell writing and magic language. His training now included learning magic from the books and making spell scrolls of different kinds to learn how much energy it would require. Apart from all the magic combat training he was doing with Lady Verina. In the mean time he was also trying to improve his perception. Both range and detail. He had no idea on how to improve detail so he hoped that in time he would get a clue. After all the most obvious thing, focusing at the colored forms more was not possible. If he tried to look, he would get away from his colorful world.

His range perception, however was improving. Once he realized that he could, he tried experimenting opening his senses, or that's what he imagined he was doing, while he stood still in one place. He could see farther now, he was able to look at colored forms quite a distance from him. And he was able to walk around the entire floor as usual. Which he did regularly trying different things to see what was possible. His range perception added with his capability to walk like this, in his colorful world, made it seem like he would be able to spy on enemies or monsters from some distance away. He would only be able to sense the colored forms though, so identifying someone might become a problem. He had gotten used to Lady Verina's colored form but he wasn't sure that he would be able to identify it either, if she was standing in a group. And ofcourse he couldn't see anything they might be holding or wearing. Add to the trouble, every magician will be able to do this to some extent!

'It looks useful, though I will only know when I get to use it!'

Another day had almost passed. He now no longer spent his time in the classroom, rather the library. In order to train his spell writing skill he had to write the magic words of all kinds of magic, on paper. Nope he was not allowed to make spell scrolls and show off. He had to write it on normal paper like everyone else seemed to be doing. Or atleast the people who were still learning magic language. The rest who had already done so, were eagerly moving on with their magic training with the other instructors, though a lot of them were still doing body training or something of that sort. It seems that it was required to atleast get the endurance stat before they could begin magic training. 'A wise choice indeed' remembering what he had to endure when his attacks failed. Without his endurance stat dulling it, he was sure it would have been quite painful.

That didn't matter for his training though. Atleast Lady Altia cared to increase her power as and when he got used to it, but according to Lady Verina, if you do not like pain, don't get hit!

And so he was still learning magic combat techniques from her today. Embed with air, earth...then move on to fire and fight like your life is on the line.

"Alright, use fire now!" said Lady Verina.

"Yes master!" Raka replied as he embedded fire on his metal staff. He could not use fire, coating it over the entire staff like he did with air. He had to coat only on the ends, so it looked like he was holding a staff with fireballs attached on the ends. The reason, Lady Verina kindly explained after he burnt his hand already, was that fire burns. These metal staffs were specially made with an insulator in the middle which kept the center cool otherwise the entire staff would become too hot to handle.

He moved to attack and Lady Verina avoided it. He quickly swung his staff to the side, but she had already moved. He rotated himself to hit her but she jumped clear above his staff. He quickly stopped himself and thrust his staff at her, but she landed and simply moved her hips to avoid. And the process of him trying to attack and her dodging continued.

Everytime she saw an opening, maybe Raka was tired or he was being lazy, she smashed her staff on him with enough force to throw him back a couple of feet. And as soon as she struck, she was back in her stance all ready to receive his attacks.

"Stop! That's enough" she called out after so many hours. Raka had just stood up for the umpteenth time and was facing her.

"It seems that you have gained control over your magic and can use it at will. There is no limit to learning magic and I can teach you a lot but you are not ready yet. You still lack one thing, experience. It is time that you go forth in the world and continue your learning."

"Yes master!"

"Trainee Raka. I hereby declare that you have successfully graduated the level 1 magic training course of Ilmentia nation, Gurrow village Magic Institute. Congratulations!"

"I accept your congratulations with honor!" replied Raka remembering his time with Lady Altia.