VIII
Kaz doubled checked his bag, making sure he had everything ready for his departure from this town. This used to be home for him, but now it felt nothing like it. He studied his room for the last time, reliving his memories. The subtle scratches in the wooden wall, marking his height until he was around his 10th year, and then he realized he was going to be way shorter than those around him, so he gave up on measuring his progress. His desk, piled up with old books from his lessons in school, filled halfway with notes, because he just couldn’t be bothered by taking notes for the smallest of things. The slight dent in one section of the wall where he knocked his head into, running and tripping while playing tag with Meisha… with Meisha.
Kaz quickly shook his head, trying to prevent himself from spiraling again. He decided to go through his mental notes he took while reading the books at the Library. He began with the “Basics of the Calling of the Mage: Volume 3”. The book stated that his Calling revolved around the use of mana to manifest the elements. Mana was one of the three sources that generated Skill Abilities, the other two were Focus and Stamina.
Mages could go on many different archetypes for their Callings, to be on the offensive, to be on the defensive, and to support those around him. The book recommended going about it in a few ways, and it all depended on what the Mage was planning to specialize in. If someone wanted to be the main source of damage in a full group, they would be able to focus on obtaining offensive Skill Abilities that output various forms of damage. The ones who wanted to provide defense for their group would focus on defensive Skill Abilities that would create barriers or reflect damage away from members of their group. Then there were the ones who could be the support of the team. They would focus on Skill Abilities that buffed their group, increasing their strength or endurance, depending on the situation.
Kaz thought about it, and he quickly found himself with a pretty small dilemma. He was part of no group. He would be alone for pretty much the near future. Maybe something would change, but he would need to rely on only himself. Obtaining buffs for others would be essentially useless, so he removed that option for himself. He decided he would focus on offense and use only one slot for his defense. Well, he already had an offensive Skill Ability, [ Mana Burst ], which essentially every Mage started with.
From his understanding, the Skill Ability would be pure mana that was generated from his mana core, and after going through one Revelation, one would unlock an element that they were most compatible with. The mana would then manifest the mana into the element, for example, someone who would be attuned to Fire, their mana would come out of their mana core in flames. And their [ Mana Burst ] would change to [ Fire Burst ], or something similar. The book went into great detail on the theories of where mana comes from, and how mana is able to transform itself into the element of one’s attunement and even affinity, but Kaz didn’t care about all of that. He just wanted to know what to expect.
He pretty much remembered all that he could, and huffed to himself in affirmation, he was going to work on getting another offensive Skill Ability and one defensive Skill Ability. He hoped he would be able to attune to an element that suited him well, and a part of him hoped it was some super rare, overpowered element. But knowing his luck so far, it was probably going to be water or air.
He recalled his mental notes from the next book, “The Guide to the Beginning of Skill Abilities: Calling of the Mage”, and he remembered that there was a lot of theory crafting in the book. But the main points he remembered were, just like in the first book, mana was the source of his Skill Abilities. Every Mage normally began with somewhere around 100 Mana Points, with some having higher and some lower. Some Races, like Elves and Gnomes, like himself, had a chance to have slightly higher mana starting off. He remembered the Awakening mentioning his low mana capacity, so he highly doubted he was gifted a higher number, but he hoped it wasn’t anything too low. He was tempted to open his [ Archive ], but he didn’t want any distractions as he tried to piece everything together.
The second main thing that the book mentioned, was that every Calling was granted three slots for their Skill Abilities and three slots for their Passive Abilities. Each Revelation that one went through, they would unlock another three slots per, with potential upgrades to their current ones. The book stressed the main fact that each Skill Ability and Passive Ability must be ranked up to the same number as their Revelation cap. So, before he would be able to reach 50 Resonance for his first Revelation, he would have to have each slot reach Rank 50. And also from his understanding, the Rank of his Skill Abilities and Passive Abilities were the contributors to his Resonance.
And finally, each Skill Ability and each Passive Ability provided benefits to their Rank up. Each Skill Ability usually provided an instant bonus to each Rank up, for example, each Rank provided a slight boost to the damage output of [ Mana Burst ], but sometimes at the cost of more mana. But with each time Resonance advanced, it came with increases to one’s Ability Source, his being mana, so usually it would balance itself out.
The final book, “Guide for Passive Abilities for Newly Awakened, Volume 5”, provided a lot of similar information like the previous book, but this was obviously more general for every Calling, as Passive Abilities are not restricted to one’s Calling. The only difference between Passive Abilities and Skill Abilities is that the Passive Abilities do not require their Ability source to be activated. For example, one of the more common Passive Abilities for Mages, is [ Mana Regeneration ], and that just allows mana users to recover their mana. Each Rank up would increase the percentage of mana recovered over time. What he did find out in this book that surprisingly wasn’t in the previous books, is that he gets to choose his Abilities as they appear, so he doesn’t have to worry about his slots getting auto filled. And each Ability that appears, just like Callings, have a three star rating system, but most abilities contain no stars, only those that are rare or powerful contain stars.
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Kaz lightly tapped his chin, piecing it all together in his head. He boiled it down to gain one offensive and defensive Skill Ability, Rank each one to advance his Resonance and to get to his first Revelation, get helpful Passive Abilities that would help him survive on his own, and get a super rare, overpowered attunement for his element. The last one was more of a shot in the dark, but he did have an unknown variant of mana circulating through him. He then got shivers as he finally opened his [ Archive ], unable to hold himself back.
A wide piece of semi-translucent parchment paper unrolled from the left to the right. Writing appeared, writing first in gold and then turning to black. There were four separate columns, each one separated by a thin line. In the very first column to the left the title was [ Status ], and it contained a singular number, the number 1, in the middle of circle that was closed at the bottom that opened up on the top, slightly tapering at the ends. The shape was some sort of bar, and there was a small sliver of gold, and he assumed as he progressed, the bar would fill up with gold and then once filled, it would advance his Resonance and reset. Below that curved bar, there were two star symbols next to each other, and they were both filled, one was red, and one was silver. When he focused on the red star, it provided information below it, with a number 75 popping up in the middle of the star.
These are your Health Points. As you take damage, your Health Points will be reduced. Reaching 0 results in death.
He was quite intrigued by this, but the death part kind of unsettled him out, so he quickly moved on the next star.
When he focused on it, the number 50 popped up in the star and information appeared below it.
These are your Mana Points. As you use Skill Abilities, your Mana Points will be reduced. Reaching 0 results in prolonged unconsciousness.
He noted this and decided to move on to the next column.
Here the title was [ Skill Abilities ], and there were three slots, and one of them was already filled out. He saw [ Mana Burst ], and then there were two grayed out slots, each one just appeared as “—”. He figured out these were his Skill Abilities that still needed to be unlocked, and they would appear here once unlocked.
He focused on [ Mana Burst ], and like previously, he was provided with information below the Ability:
Manifest a pure form of mana and attack an enemy, up to 25 yards. Uses 5 Mana Points per use, dealing 10 damage to Health Points.
He read his Ability several times, not believing what he was reading. He didn’t realize it would be this focused on numbers, he thought it would just happen. Kaz looked into the next column.
The column was titled [ Passive Abilities ], and the whole column was empty except for three grayed out Passive Abilities, appearing as “—”, as he saw earlier in his Skill Abilities column. He then moved on to the final column, and this column was also empty, but was titled [ Quests ], and this he knew was what his [ Archive ] would assign him for his Revelation and that he could also grab them from the Guild.
Satisfied with knowing pretty much everything, he grabbed his backpack and straightened out his new brown robe. He looked over at his ceremonial robe that lay in the corner of small closet, but he left it there. Maybe Miss Astreta would give it to someone next year, but then he remembered she gave everyone Tokens to buy a new one. He shrugged, not his problem. He looked into the mirror, trying to fix his hair by instinct, but it never got fixed. He pulled up his hood and tried creeping out the door.
In the hallway stood Miss Astreta, blocking his path. She softly asked him, a hint of disappointment in her voice, “And where do you think you are going, Kaz? And without a goodbye?”
Kaz cringed at this, as he didn’t even think of leaving behind a note. He was so desperate to get out of this town that he didn’t even write a letter explaining himself to probably the only person who genuinely cared about him. He mumbled, “Sorry, Miss Astreta.” He really didn’t know what to say, so many thoughts were running through his head, should he thank her, explain himself, or ask for guidance. He was about to thank her for everything, but she simply said, “Come join me in my room, let’s have a discussion.” She walked towards her room, not waiting to hear his protest. He sheepishly followed her and sat behind her desk, on the same chair he sat on only a couple days ago.
Miss Astreta began speaking, “I won’t keep you here long Kaz, but please just listen to what I have to say. Firstly, you will not be leaving during the night, you will leave in the morning. It is unsafe to wander around outside of the walls at night. Secondly, I understand that you are under a lot of scrutiny right now, but leaving without telling me hurts me deeply. And finally, I want to tell you what I remember about your mother.”
Kaz’s head instantly shot up, not believing what she just said. His mother. He scooted to the edge of the seat, eager to hear about this. Despite Miss Astreta’s solemn mood, she couldn’t help but slightly grin at his reaction.
She illustrated that night to him, “Around 15 years ago, someone knocked on my door. It was quite loud, which concerned me at first, because I assumed it was someone brute who wanted to come cause some trouble. But when I opened the door, I was met by one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. She had the most beautiful purple eyes and dark purple hair. She was around your current height, maybe a little bit taller. Her skin was pale but perfect, and her ears were half the size of those of an Elf. It was clear she didn’t speak our language, but her eyes said enough. She then told me your name, Kazimoriel. She then disappeared, never to be seen again.”
Kaz was hanging on to every word she said, making sure to burn the words into his memory. He was speechless. At least he had hope that she was somewhere out there in the Realm, hopefully he ran into her one day, and ask why she decided to give me away.
“That is enough for tonight, so go to bed, Kaz. We will say our goodbyes tomorrow when you actually leave.” Kaz got up after she finished speaking. He got to the door and paused, turning back to her, saying, “Thank you for everything Miss Astreta. I know you are not my real mother, but I appreciate everything you have done for me, for being my second mother. I am sorry that I was about to leave without letting you know, but I hope you understand why I was so desperate to leave town.” Miss Astreta nodded in acknowledgement, not trusting her voice. Kaz then left the room and went to bed, finding sleep was easy as he dreamt about his mother, the one he put together in his mind from what he was told.
