Thursday when the player known as Worker-san logged into Second Chance, the first thing she did was look at the rising sun through the small window. It was the first day of school for the players that had participated in the second Comming of Age Ceremony and choosen scholar as their Basic Class.
Her roommate was still not connected so she prepared herself and left for the dining hall were she was given her free breackfast, bread and soup, and went to her first lesson: Basic Life Affinity
"Life is delicate, fragile... you have to tend to it, nurture it until it blooms..."
The lesson was taught by a tamer/herborist. She made the class plant seeds in a pot and told them that this would be their responsabilityfor the rest of the month. they also received a thin book detailing what a living thing was, how to reconise a living thing and how to keep them alive. the book then gave a few details on the most common plants and animals and suggested a number of books to read on the subject.
At lunch time her roommate sat next to her and they chatted a bit then they parted for their second lesson.
Basic rituals had few students, barelybtwenty yet there was six teachers wailing for them. The first thing they did was separate students who already had knowledge about a sivilisation from those who didn't. those who did would then chose a what kind pf ritual they wanted to learn. Since she knew of the greeck, chineese and nordic civilisation and culture Worker-san had access to their rituals. She chose to learn the tea ceremony first and was put under the care of an asian looking beauty.
For hours she watched her twirl and mix the tea but couldn't reach the peacefull and relaxed stare that was needed to procedd to the rest of the ceremony and after thinking deeply decided that this wasn't the kind of ritual she wanted to do. when she told her teacher she expected a negative output yet she simply excepted it after saying that not everyone is made for the art of tea ceremony.
Worker-san spent the rest of the afternoon observing the rest of the class to find a ritual that matcher her. In a corner of the room she saw two girls painting each others face with colored mud and dancing at their own rithm.
Somehow the way they unlished their energy appealed to Worker-san and she stuck arround. when the lesson ended she went to an old women wrapped in furrs and wearing an elk head as a hood and holding a staff with feathers and an animal skull.
"Yes?"
"I was wondering what rituals you were teaching."
"This was the Amazone's dance of the bravery"
"Amazones?"
"One of the greek civilisations. They were clans of women warriors that lived in tribes led by their queen. Noble and brave women who protected their territories and sisters from anyone who dared attack them."
"I see... on what are rheir ritual based? I saw no rithm or sequence..."
"On the feelings inside of them"
"The feelings?"
"Yes"
As far as she could remember it the women known as Worker-san had always folowed the laws of logic. Her participation in Second Chance was a way to abandon that logic and have fun. Yet since her arrival here she had mostly soent time learning a new logic.
The logic of Second Chance.
This dance without logic, driven purely on instinct and emosion was the complete oposite to Worker-san's life style.
Maybe that was why it attracted her so much...Basic Dark Affinity]
"I want to try it."
"Hum... we will see at the next lesson."
"Very well."
With the day over Worker san went to the library and started Reading the books the teacher from the Life Affinity course had recommended. When the sun came down she went back to her room and logged off while lying in her bed.
Friday's lessons were Basic Dark Affinity and Basic Alchemy.
"Dark magic doesn't mean evil magic. Those are hexes. No, Dark magic means produsing a negative effect on the target that allows you to take the upper hand. for exemple thevspell [Blind]..."
The teacher, an old grey haired man that held himself with a cane, explained how to curse someone
with the Blind effect. You had to either inject your magic into your targets eyes, chant a spell while thinking of the effect or diffuse it into a magic formation while using your dark affinity.
It was the same with all others, [Slow] targeted the legs, [Weak] the arms and [Confused] the brain.
Each spell had a different difficulty, [Blind] being a basic spell while [Slow] and [Weak] were beginer level, [Confused] was the only one at intermediary level on its first stage. When [Slow], [Weak] and [Blind] reached a one hour duration they were considered at Advanced level, once they were permanent they were Mastered and considered Grand Curses.
As for [Confused], it only lasted a few seconds but the more you exersed it the more likely secondary effects such as Parralisis, Shock and Doupt would appear.
Hexes were more subtle and would only be allowed for study to student with a recommendation.
After her explanations were over the teacher made them experiment the effext of the Blind curse for a while then gave instructions on how to cast the spell.
Worker-san recived the margic circle drawn on a paper and instructions on how to gather the dark element in her palm. She also paid attention to the incatation and the gesture related to the ritual casting, writting everything down. She also received a series of books to read about Dark Affinity properties and advantages and disadvantages.
At luch she spent sole time playing with her dog and taught it to Fetch and Sit. After that she went to the library to borrow said books and to her room to retreive the Alchemy kit in her chest, swapping it with the books.
Once back into her room she spent the entire afternoon and evening reading the books recommended by the life element teacher. Since she had only two books left she skipped dinner and kept reading. By the time her roommate came back she was half way through the last book. Finally when she finished it a message notifying her of the obtention of the Life Affinity appeared. She closed the window, put dow the book and opened a new one. This time about the Dark element. When her timer rank she had already finished one of them and was on the second.
When she logged on the next day her roommate was waiting for her. She grabbed her stuff and the books, put them in her satchel and they went for breakfast.
They had the choice between beans and bacon or porridge and apple with wine or water.
Targeting Theory was different.
For starters the teacher wasn't an old and frail mage but a buff, powerful looking middle age man. He was wearing a robe with the city's emblem on him.
In other words a state mage.
State mages were part of the city's army.
Their education at the academy and the military compound was provided for by the city in exchange for serving it through a service: they accompanied squadrons on subjugations and battalions to war zones as heavy damage dealers, healers and buffers.
Since no one knew how to obtain a scholarship no one became a state mage.
The officer taught them how to stand in line, hold their wand or staff, move to adjust ones position according to the target and finally the different types of shooting one could do.
"There is three ways of doing it. Taking your time to charge your spell or do precise targeting, shoot as soon as the spell in charged in the general direction or shoot half way through the charging. They are respectively called Sniper-shot, Shot and Multi-Shot.
Each has its advantages and drawbacks.Knowing how to choose the correct style of shooting at the correct moment will save your hide so pay attention!..."
He then went into describe the proper situations to use each shooting styles and why, giving exemples why to do or not do things as he did.
"Durring Targetting Practice you will have to put to use what we just talked about so you better remember it all!"
And just like he had warned them, in the afternoon, thre state mage made them line up in front of manequins and practice their movements and reaction times endlessly. For four hours they just stood.
"Stamina is also inportant for magic users! You can't move you're a target! So get moving!"
Once lesson time ran out most of the class was on the floor exausted. Worker-san had been among the first to give out but once she had recuperated her stamina had returned to the training.
She planned on acing all her subjects and Practical Targeting was just another one of them.
That evening she prowled on her bed and fell asleep in the game for the first time. Since the next day was free she spent it all in her room, reading about the Life and Dark affinity. From time to time she would find a spell in the books and write it down in her own note books, slowly continuing her own spell book. Since writing in a book or on a scroll was considered the same as tipping on a computer she could add things as she read and modify her spells as she learned.
She ate lunch and diner at the academy.
On the next morning was Basic Synthesis.
Synthesic was the act of magically combining two or more items into a new one. As the teacher talked Worker-san also learned that you could do the reverse action, separating one object into several lesser ones.
As their first work they synthesised two pig skins into a larger skin then reverted it back into two.
Alchemy was quite easy, the teacher, as round as a ballon, was following the textbook and receipes to the letter while explaining the properties and uses of each ingredients and tools. They made a Poor Energy Drink out of some herbs and water and discussed about its effects on people and how to use it best.
The Poor Energy Drink boosted the users stamina for a short period of time by 5% but strength was halved once the countdown was reached and even if you drank several, the effect might stack but still for the same time.
In other words it was a cheap drug that inflates ones energy for a while and leaves the user drained afterwards.
None the less Worker-san diligently wrote the recipe down along with its effect and drawbacks in one of her bound books.
After the alchemy lesson she went to the library and researched alchemy and synthesis related books. She found three and borrowed them.
She spent her evening reading about Dark Affinity unqtil she received the same system window saying that she had the affinity.