Amalia sits in my office, eyes closed, hands outstretched, palms facing upward. Her breathing is slow and steady as she focuses on her meditations, trying to locate her [Ether Core]. I see it clearly in the center of her chest when I peer past physical reality and into the fog of ambient Ether that surrounds and binds the world together. It’s a small flame the color of the crystal blue ocean, burning right next to her heart, pulsing waves of [Ether] through her hundreds of [Ether] channels in perfect synchronization with the beating of her heart.
As she does, I discreetly reach under the table with my right hand and summon my phone forth from my [Inventory]. I sense Chloe resting peacefully, with no signs of distress or pain, but that doesn’t mean that I’m entirely enthused by the prospect of being away from her any longer than I need to be. Seeing no messages from her— or anyone else— I stash it back away and return to observing Amalia’s progress.
But she’s been having some trouble focusing away from the physical and into the metaphysical. She doesn’t project any signs of distress, but the subtle and brief microexpressions of frustration— winced eyes, a narrowed face, pursed lips— are easy for me to detect. And I think this is a challenge a lot of engineering students are going to have, if they don’t have much experience using their Skills practically to this point.
“Amalia?” I ask.
“I’ve got an idea that might help, if you want to try.”
“Sure thing,” Amalia says, sighing. “Sorry about that.”
“Oh no, it’s fine. It’s just good to get a feel for what you and others are likely to be capable of, so I can plan accordingly. Do you have any Skills that you can actively use and won’t cause harm to you, me, or any part of the building? I think I’ve got a better way.”
“Hmm… I have a [Structural Analysis] Skill.”
I restrain the urge to facepalm. Because of course, after struggling and failing to get an [Identify] variant for literal months, my newest protégée just casually mentions that she got one for free. Fair though the System may be in some… okay, a very, very few ways, it can be so absolutely callous in so many others.
“Can you use it on my swordstaff? And while you do so, I want you to focus on the flow of energy within your body. How it should move to your eyes and brain. Focus on that, and how the energy moves within you.”
“Well, that about tracks.”
“Anyway,” I say. “Were you able to sense the flow of energy moving from your core into your head and eyes?”
“Hmm… Now that you mention it, I think I could sense something?”
“That’s good. I want you to try to re-create that feeling of [Ether] moving through your body without invoking the Skill. I know it probably feels really weird for you to hear me talking about energy fields and flows through the body–”
“Just promise me you’re not going to tell me that we’re going to have to start wearing magnets to ‘improve energy flow’ or some bullshit.”
I laugh. “My bandana is enough ostentatious fashion abnormalities for both of us. And thank the goddesses too; I don’t think my girlfriend’s mom would let me hear the end of it if magnets worn on the body worked as well as her [Healing Crystal] Skill.”
“Oh, right, yeah, you and your girlfriend. I’m surprised she’s not here right now. So much as I know about the two of you, you’re both practically inseparable.”
“She and I didn’t get a ton of sleep last night. And no, it wasn’t doing any of the fun activities I wish we had been doing instead. She’s at home resting, while I came here to make some preparations for when classes start.”
“Piece of advice: Don’t mention your extracurricular activities to your students. It’s best if there’s some separation between the faculty and the TA’s, and some separation between both the faculty and the TA’s, and the other students. Especially about anything that could be construed as creating an uncomfortable learning environment. And even more important: you absolutely do not want to do anything that might be considered sexual harassment, including any mention of what you and your partner do behind closed doors. Administration will back you up if you’ve got troublesome students, but they will absolutely drop you like a hammer if there’s even a hint of it turning in that direction.”
“I’m guessing that’s why I was advised not to have conversations in my office with the door locked.” Silently, I add that I need to get that camera installed quickly. The last thing I need is someone thinking they can blackmail me.
Amalia just nods sternly.
“Got it–” My statement is cut off by a sudden yawn.
“Are you not tired as well?”
“I managed to get a little more sleep than she did. Besides, I have a high [Vitality] stat, which gives me some tolerance to functioning on limited sleep. I still don’t plan to stay past lunchtime, though.”
”Oh, yeah, I’ve noticed that I’ve been able to function a lot more easily on like… 4 or 5 hours of sleep per night. Even after a cram session at the end of last semester, I still felt like I was alert and able to focus on my exams. Ended up doing really well in all my classes.”
“Some sort of [Study] Skill?”
“No, at least I don’t think so. Maybe the [Structural Analysis] Skill gave me some insight into analyzing the structure of the test and each exam question? But that seems like a big stretch.”
“No, I don’t think it’s a stretch at all. In fact, I think that’s a good thing, that you’re thinking creatively about how your Skills might evolve and adjust to new situations. It’ll serve you well when you start learning how to do your own spellcrafting.”
“Me, learning how to do magic. Never in my wildest dreams would I have expected that one of my professors would claim she’d be able to teach actual magic. Okay, maybe I could see some hack or charlatan high on their own supply, but I never thought I’d be sitting in her office believing that it’s possible for myself.”
“Anyway, shall we get back to it?” I pull an [Ether Canister] out of my [Inventory] and set it down on my desk. “I want you to continue trying until you’ve gotten a good grip on things. And this is an [Ether Canister]. It’ll restore a couple hundred points of [Ether] if you start to run low. Don’t stress too hard, and if you get down below about 40% of your maximum, use it. The last thing either of us wants is for you to be incapacitated for an hour with [Ether] strain.”
“Forgive my asking, but [Ether] strain?”
“Once you fall below about a third of your maximum [Ether], you’ll start to feel a general sense of malaise come over you. Tiredness, lightheadedness, difficulty focusing, general fatigue and aches and a desire to say ‘screw it all, I’m just gonna go take a nap’. It recovers bit by bit as you slowly regenerate your [Ether], but it’s… not a pleasant sensation. Especially when you get into the second and third stages.”
“I– Despite my morbid curiosity, I can’t say I want to know.”
We continue like this for another half hour, her trying different things and me providing encouragement and some advice from my own experiences. Her senses aren’t nearly as well-developed as mine are, and unlike me with my old [Flash of Insight] Skill, she doesn’t have any Skill that directly involves channeling [Ether]. Least of all into her hands, where it would be the easiest to manipulate. But she is making progress. And when the light bulb goes off and her entire face lights up in surprise, I smile with satisfaction at what she’s accomplished.
“It’s hard… But I feel like I can control that energy a little bit now!”
“Try moving it to your hands, if you can. It will be easiest to manipulate [Ether] there.”
Amalia again closes her eyes. She stumbles a bit, gritting her teeth as she begins to move the [Ether] around in her body. She winces briefly, but before I can say a word to stop her, she raises a hand, urging me not to interfere. Not seeing any signs of internal injuries, and trusting that she will stop herself before she seriously injures herself— maybe not the wisest thing, knowing my own history— I allow her to continue unabated.
Five long minutes later, during which I keep my [Archangel’s Gaze] upon her while also typing more on my syllabi, she opens her eyes with a look of satisfaction which borders upon the smug. Her hand outstretched, she channels [Ether] into it until it starts to glow a bright teal twinged with hints of violet strewn throughout.
“Like this?”
“Yes, very well done!” I say, turning my focus back to her. “Now, I want you to practice cycling this on and off until you get offered the [Basic [Ether] Manipulation] Skill.”
“I’m curious if you know, Seraphina, but what exactly is a Skill, anyway?”
“As best I can describe it, it’s magical muscle memory implanted into us by the System.”
“That’s a fairly apt description consistent with what was known in my world,” Filia chimes in.
“So, we do the same actions over and over again, and the System rewards us with Skills that make it easier for us to perform those actions again?”
“Something to that effect. Sometimes Skills also evolve and grow stronger, just as people learn how to do more complex work tasks, or athletic movements, or anything else. And of course, repeated application of your Skills, especially in stressful situations like combat, will lead to you gaining ranks, which will make your Skills both more effective, and generally make them cost less [Ether] to use.”
“Combat… I’ve never been in combat myself. Either before or after the System arrived. Can you be honest with me? Will we be expected to do any dungeon crawls or fight actual monsters this semester? I am… a little apprehensive.”
“I will be from time to time; it’s who I am, and I consider it my responsibility to fight against the tide of horrors that threaten us all. But no, I don’t anticipate making combat a hard requirement in any of my classes. I will, however, encourage it, probably do some sort of extra credit based upon dungeon delving or similar acts, especially if we’re unlucky enough to see another monster horde in the coming months.”
“Do you think that’s likely?”
I sigh. “Amalia. I dislike lying to people, so I won’t, even if the truth isn’t going to be easy. I don’t just think that it’s likely that we’re going to see more monster hordes. I think it’s virtually certain. One of the reasons why I signed up to teach this class is because I wanted to start training some people in the art of [Glyphcasting], so that we, collectively, as a city, will be that much better prepared to defend ourselves from not just the next wave, but the next one, and the next one, and the one after that, too.
“I’m not going to demand that you or anyone else fight on the front lines. But I am going to train everyone in both Basic Combat Training and Ethertech and Spellcraft to fight to the fullest extent of their capabilities. With the hope that none of you will ever need that knowledge, and with the knowledge that reality is rarely as nice as we hope.”
Amalia nods as she stands up from her seat. “Thank you, Seraphina. For the advice, and for helping me acquire this new Skill. I– I look forward to working with you starting in a couple of weeks.”
“And you too.” I offer my hand, standing up as I prepare to depart behind her. “I appreciate your advice and I look forward to working with you soon. Do you mind if I send you an e-mail in the next few days with some more information?”
“No, not a problem at all.” Amalia shakes my hand. “I’ll see you then.”