The emotions I could feel over the ntal link I had established were almost amusing. Fear, amazent, disbelief and an overall sensation that I could only verbalise as a loud scream of ‘what the f…’ flooded over loud and clear, to which I tried to send back a sensation of collected calm. Given that both of us were disembodied balls of mind and soul, floating just above the Astral River in its resplendent glory didn’t really help. The human mind wasn’t made for this, at least until it ford a frawork to conceptualise the experience. Mine had always been that of a river, using small tributaries to conceptualise the smaller strands of the Astral River, though I had, at so point, mixed in the idea of a human circulatory system. Not that it truly mattered what frawork one used, I was sowhat confident that the entirety of the Astral River was far too much for any mortal mind to comprehend, but that was neither here nor there. A frawork was needed, a frawork my companion sorely lacked.
But it wasn’t as if I couldn’t help him, I had so experience after all.
Beckoning a bit of Ice up from the river, I created a platform beneath us, giving us an objective direction to define down against and, with the sa thought, ford myself into a vaguely humanoid shape, a body of Ice, mixed with Blood and Darkness to give so accents. It was far from a human, or elven, body but it served as a referable shape, one that Kevin could focus on. He couldn’t form such a shape for himself, but it seed to help calm his mind, allowing him to focus on our environnt. As long as he didn’t look at himself, he should be able to pretend everything around him was just fine, not like there were any mirrors in this place, nothing that reminded him of his disembodied state. My perception of him and the conclusion I could vaguely draw from the sll and taste his mind and soul had taken on were sothing I kept from him.
Luckily, almost two years of constant ntal communion with another mind had given the tools to compartntalise, allowing to use one thought stream to provide him with guidance and try to calm and comfort him, while the other stream focused on analysing him and filing away the information I could glean from the was his soul was laid bare to .
“Now,” I began, my intentions transmitted across the temporary bond I had created, “think of what Water ans to you. Below us is the Astral River, the stream through which all magic spreads and flows, nourishing the physical realm beyond and giving rise to the impossible. It, too, will contain the runes you seek, the three initial runes that will allow you to give form to your magic, to guide it into a shape you desire and require. Think what you need, think in concepts, the broader, the more flexible they will be, the narrower, the more power a rune will contain,” I explained, giving him a bit of ti to consider what he actually wanted to do.
Far faster than I had thought possible, I could feel his mind reach out and, to my surprise, I could actually feel and see the shape the first rune took. While I lacked the Runic Mastery, at least for now, to actually use it, I now knew the Rune he had conceptualised as Water.
It wasn’t fancy but it was vast, containing sweeping strokes that held deeper layers and anings, none of which I could even begin to understand. Compared to the runes I had always used, it was a world of difference, as if we were looking at different writing systems. Different shapes, different intentions, different minds. It made wonder if he would be able to use my own runes or if the differences would be too big.
Before I could understand more, he was already continuing and I could feel the pressure on my mind as the rune ford and quickly withdrew. It felt similar to the few tis I had tried to divine more runes than my skill allowed, a brutal, splitting headache that almost knocked flat. Before that could happen to , I took my gain, the Rune of Water, and withdrew my mind a little. Still holding his hand, so to speak, but no longer looking over his shoulder to read along and steal his efforts.
A few minutes later, I could feel the exultation in his mind and gently pushed him back towards the waking world, away from the Astral River. As we faded away, I dissolved the constructs I had used, letting the magic fade back into the river below, leaving no sign of our presence in the pristine world.
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Opening my eyes, I first glanced across the blue boxes, noticing with a grin that I had gained my Mind Magic skill, only this ti, it wasn’t a composite skill composed of multiple skills but an ordinary skill, one that went up to a hundred. I would have to take a look and try finding out the difference but for now, I was just happy that I had it and that it had levelled to three. In addition, Astral ditation had levelled twice, bringing it to twelve and there was a box that notified I had gained the rune of Water. No mastery just yet, but maybe that would co if I used it a few tis, I wasn’t sure. Last, but certainly not least, I had gained a level, bringing to seventeen, with so EXP left over to start my path to eighteen.
“Want to show what you learned?” I asked Kevin, after taking a mont to steady myself. Helping him into the Astral and steadying his Mind had taken more out of than I had thought but given the gains I had made, I wasn’t about to complain.
“I levelled up!” he enthused, looking at with pure, undisguised awe.
“Congratulations,” I gave him a polite smile, feeling a little overwheld by the intensity in his eyes, “Your magic? Depending on your intelligence, you might have a special ability called Runic Triangle that allows you to link three runes, giving them extra power. If not, try focus on the magic you felt within the Astral River and draw the rune into the air, focusing that power into your finger,” I explained, before demonstrating, drawing a single Ice-Rune and channelling magic into it, using it to conjure a small block of Ice. It was just a little more efficient than straight-up using Ice Magic, but it gave him an example, showing him how it looked.
He scrunched up his face in concentration, while I leaned back, watching him act. Out of curiosity, I engaged my Magical Sight, watching his progress. He was concentrating Astral Power into his hand, before clumsily and slowly drawing a single rune, magic seeping into the environnt as he was unable to control it.
Monts after it was completed, the rune flashed, an orb of water manifesting in its centre only to follow gravity and start to drop. Activating Overflow, I used Ice Magic to near instantly change the chunk of Ice I had conjured previously into a wide basin, placing it into the path of the dropping water, and catching it before it could splash all over the floor.
“Not bad, youngling,” I grinned, proud of his success, while he was breathing heavily, the first proper use of his magic had taken a chunk of stamina and Astral Power from him.
“That’s…” he stared at the water, likely comparing it to the exhaustion he was experiencing and likely feeling utterly underwheld.
“A first step,” I gave him a grin, putting the bowl of Ice down, “You need to learn to walk before you can start running. You just took your first step, hopefully, the first of many. If you follow the Arcane Path, it will take you far. Water is an incredibly flexible elent, I could see you act as an attacker, using beams of pressurised water, I could see you provide healing, as water is the foundation of life, I could see you provide support, using water’s purifying nature. I can see you master your magic, and beco a force to be reckoned with. It only depends on you, your efforts and your talents.”
He hung on my lips, the disappointed expression on his face quickly fading away, replaced with one of fascinated interest. Maybe he could see what I described before his mind’s eye, imagining so aweso battle. He said he had seen so of the Road to Purgatory videos, so he might have an idea of what was possible. Now, he saw himself in them and imagined what he could do.
“Now, you have a bowl of water. If you are anything like , you will be able to manipulate it, using your magic. Just like I re-shaped the Ice before your eyes, you will be able to shape the water, though I doubt you will be able to easily make it keep its shape. Sothing for you to try, but later. Check your Astral Power, you don’t want to run dry, the headache is terrible. But if you carefully,” I stressed the need to be careful, “delve into the Astral River, you will regain your power faster and it will help you train for later. Astral ditation is an incredibly useful skill to have, one that you should level when you can.”
There was a proud smile as he closed his eyes, his mind likely focusing inwards. My first student in this world, and he had already taken his first step. Now, I only needed to figure out what to do with the other, before eting with the rest of the people here, maybe finding a few more students. If teaching magic gave this much EXP, it might actually be worth my while to stay for a bit, to teach and guide. It would provide with an activity other than sleeping during the day, even if magical experintation could have provided that just as well. Once more, I realised that I would soon have a lot more things to do, than ti to actually do them. But there were worse problems to have.
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