Once my pupils were busy, I decided to do a small experiment myself. My plan was to have everyone try to pick up the rune mastery of their respective elements, so I wanted to see if I was able to pick up Death Rune Mastery, assuming there was such a thing. While I lacked the affinity, I hoped that my previous exposure and current possession of Death Magic would make up for the difference. And if not, I hopefully wouldn’t lose too much, just a little time.

It was something I had only realised after the change, no matter what magic I picked up, it might come in handy at some point. On Mundus, I had focused on increasing my skills with the elements I had an affinity with, but given that I would hopefully live for decades, maybe even centuries as a Firn Elf, there was no reason not to start learning skills early. It might even open up interesting options when I started crossing the Divides, those were unique opportunities that might grant me far more power now, compared to the improvements I had gained on Mundus.

Closing my eyes, I let myself drop into the Astral River, not bothering with the visual trappings I had used for Kevin. I didn’t need to orient myself, nor did I need to create an Avatar to give myself a frame of reference, I simply existed on the imaginary shore of the surging Astral River. It hadn’t calmed at all, if anything the chaos was a little worse, with more frothing ripples as the Astral River splashed across the stones of reality but that would cease at some point.

For a few minutes, I simply remained there, watching the ebb and flow of power, before focusing on that one stream I was interested in. It was quite powerful, the countless deaths during the change still echoing through the Astral River, accompanied by the similarly large number of casualties in the days after, they all empowered that particular flow.

Careful, ever so careful, I stretched a tendril of my will into the surging power, trying to project it as Death Magic to insulate me from the, quite literally, deadly power. I had no interest in getting immersed in it, doing so would undoubtedly kill me. Even the careful contact from a distance sent a spike of pain through my head, drilling through my left eye and setting in to form a brutal instant migraine.

Taking a bit more distance, I considered for a moment whether to try to reach for some sort of Mind Magic Rune Mastery, before deciding against it. I already had a headache and didn’t need to make things worse. For now, Death Rune Mastery was obviously out of my reach but maybe I could get it at some point.

Returning to reality, I was met with a clutch of worried students, all of them staring at my face as if they had seen some sort of spectre. Blinking my eyes, I noticed a strange, wet sensation on my left cheek and a lot of gunk blurring my left eye. Reaching up, I realised that I had cried tears of blood and not just a few but enough to make a mess on my blouse.

Blinking a few more times, I looked at Kevin.

“Did you manage to gain Water Magic by now?” I asked, mostly ignoring the mess I had caused. He simply stared for a few moments before shaking his head.

Not wanting to bother with anything, I used my magic to create another bowl of Ice, ignoring the fresh spike of pain running through my head, before gesturing for him to fill the bowl with water. Once it was in, I quickly washed my face, the cool liquid helping tremendously, before I conjured up some Cold using the respective Rune and simply brushed the now-frozen water off my skin. That got me a few strange looks, but I simply ignored them, alongside the mess on my shirt.

“Let that be a small example of what can happen if you reach for things outside of your ability. You will suffer from backlash, and the bigger your overreach, the worse it will be. Backlash can typically range from a simple headache but there is pretty much no upper limit. If you mess up too much, you can die from it. But in turn, only by stretching your reach, by pushing your abilities, you will be able to truly advance. But everyone on the Arcane Path needs to determine their own pace, goal and method. I doubt there is some sort of perfect way to walk the Arcane Path, no matter what some people might claim. It is a path of discovery, both the discovery of yourself and of the world around you,” I lectured, noticing the mix of fear and curiosity on the various faces around me. Some of them would go far, others not so much. But I could only guess who would be what.

“Have you finished what I asked of you?” I prodded, getting a couple of sheepish looks and one conviction-filled nod from Noriko. Swallowing I took a few more moments to prepare myself for potential exposure to Light Magic, before nodding.

“Sit down. I will guide you into the Astral River and you will carefully reach for the stream of power that draws you in. You will need to feel for Light Magic, I cannot really help you there, I can only lead you to water, so to speak. You will need to drink for yourself,” I told her, before gently placing my fingers on her temples.

As gently as I could, I stretched my magical feelers out into her mind, not trying to intrude or read anything, the contact more akin to a poke and an offered hand. When I felt feedback, I dropped back into the Astral River, feeling her mind follow along the channel I had opened.

Back above the chaotic streams of power, I quickly prepared the same trappings of reference I had created for Kevin, giving Noriko’s mind something to focus on and anchor herself on. It was a crutch but for now, that might just be what my pupils needed.

At first, nothing much happened. Noriko was likely trying to make sense of the chaos around and beneath us, something I could empathise with and I took the time to simply bask in the glory of change, as creation and destruction were flowing around us in equal measures. It made me think that on this level, the Cyclic view of the world was the correct one. Nothing was eternal, nothing was still, it was a constant ebb and flow. But what about other levels? Was there some ultimate end, was there some absolute beginning? Either would point to the extreme view of reality and maybe I simply lacked the ability to see far enough.

When I noticed a change in Noriko, and felt her connect to the Astral River, I didn’t try to mentally follow her mind. If anything, I took a bit of distance, letting her connect with the streams of Light Magic on her own, without any interest to experience that particular communion. I had a feeling the result would be just as bad as with Death Magic, maybe even worse, given my particularly bad affinity to the Light. No, I would happily stay in the Darkness and let others bask in the far-too-hot light of the sun.

Not long after, I felt a sense of exhaustion, alongside the feeling of accomplishment over the connection I had established and gave her another gentle, mental push, trying to prod her back into her body. It took a few tries, either for her to understand or for her to find the right path, but she managed and I followed along, moving into my own body.

“Congratulations, I believe?” I asked, looking at the proud-looking Noriko, who was wiping a thin sheen of sweat off her brow.

“I did it,” she grinned, one of her hands rising and starting to draw a Rune into the air between us. Realising that she would most likely unleash some sort of bright light, I pulled down the hood of my cloak, wrapping myself tightly and turning my head away just in time to block out the flash.

“Caution is warranted,” I chided her, happy that I had been in time, otherwise I’d likely look a lot worse than the others. Ling and Leon had mirrored my actions to a point and didn’t look too worse for wear, but the others were blinking as if they had looked into the flash of a camera.

“Anyway, you have runes to play with, just like Kevin. Maybe you should talk to each other and try to gain a better understanding of your magic, while I help the others find their own Rune Magic?” I suggested, briefly glancing at my EXP-bar, noticing that helping her had granted me a nice chunk of EXP. At a guess, two or three more would push me to level twenty, something I was looking forward to.