Teacher and Student

“So this is where we’re training?” John asked as Mason led him into a long neglected playground. Two of the five swings were broken, the seats dangling from one of their chains, and the monkey bars were missing a few too many rungs to be easily navigated. John gave one of the seesaws a light tap; the pivot let out a pained groan as it fought the rust to move.

“There’s a reason why I’ve made this my little training area,” Mason replied. “Actually, that segues nicely into our first lesson. The basics of spirit manipulation can be boiled down to four parts and the first is ‘Sense’. I want you to reach out and tell me what you feel.”

John nodded and closed his eyes, activating Mana Sense. Immediately he could feel the Barrier that surrounded them, its presence swirling around him like a weak breeze. It caused an old memory to surface, the wind rushing against his face as he was pushed higher and higher on a swing by his dad. The happy memory was tainted slightly by his ****, but John couldn’t help but to smile at the recollection.

“It feels like wind,” he said. “Like the sort you feel while on the swingset.”

Mason hummed. “And does that make you feel anything? Bring up some memories, perhaps?”

John nodded, his eyes still closed. “Yeah,” he managed to say, his voice a touch thick with emotion.

“Good,” Mason said. “The first step is being able to sense a spirit. It’s more than being able to detect the mana they carry but to feel the emotion and intention that births them. I’ve found most people can’t sense the emotions present in magic, not in enough detail anyway to be able to sense a spirit. The fact that my Barrier’s mana brought out a memory is a good sign. Have you had any other reaction like that before?”

John let his perception of mana fade and he opened his eyes to regard Mason, his face pensive.

“I did feel a little bit of something when I first sensed the diner’s Barrier,” John admitted. “It reminded me of drinking hot chocolate after a cold day playing in the snow.”

Mason smiled a wide grin. “Well, it’s nice to know our place has such a wholesome feel. But getting an emotional reaction to mana is only one step. The hard part is being able to sense something without mana. Let’s head in and get to work, shall we?”

Mason vanished into the Barrier and John followed suit.

You have entered the Mason’s Training Area Barrier

The playground didn’t look any different, save for a meter tall black stone cylinder that John presumed was the Barrier’s anchor that sat roughly at the center of the park. Mason stood next to it, his eyes closed and one hand outstretched, palm upwards and fingers cupped like he was holding a ball.

He opened his eyes and smiled at John. “Let’s begin.””

New Quest: Getting into the Spirit
Progress through Mason’s lessons.
Each successful lesson will provide a reward.

“So that’s what one of your quests look like,” Mason said, a slight amusement in his voice. “A little too carrot and stick for my tastes, but since that’s how games are, it makes sense.”

He paused, a look of contemplation flashing across his face.

“You can call up status sheets for other people, yes?” he asked.

“Sure,” John answered. “They don’t show the same stuff as mine. Well, not anymore.”

“‘Not anymore’?” Mason questioned.

“They used to show stats like mine, but my system got an update this morning,” John explained. “Something about my numbers not making sense when applied to people who don’t have my powers. Like, my mana pool is linked to my Intelligence stat. But I bet there are dumb people with more mana than I have, like those thugs from yesterday. And I’m not calling her dumb, but Aeolia has more mana than I do, but before the sheet change, she had half the Intelligence stat.”

“I can see how that could be confusing,” Mason agreed.

“I did get a nice system to see how people’s mana matches up to mine, so there’s less ambiguity about how outclassed I am,” John added.

Mason nodded. “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to see my sheet.”

“Sure,” John said, casting Observe on Mason.

Mason moved to flank John, reading his information over his shoulder.

“Certainly less busy than yours,” Mason remarked, eyes drifting to the stats portion. “How do these stars work?”

“They represent how much higher or lower your stats are compared to mine,” John explained. “If any of the first three are white, it means I’m stronger there. The fourth star means we’re roughly close. And the last three are the opposite of the first. Which means you have more than fifty percent more mana than I do, but less than seventy-five.”

“Which means my ‘physical’ and ‘social’ abilities are more than seventy-five percent greater than yours,” Mason concluded, rubbing his chin. “A correct assumption?”

“Yep,” John said.

“Certainly makes things clear for you, given that you have set numbers for that,” Mason mused. “But we’ve wasted enough time. And I’m sure you want to see what rewards my tutelage can unlock.”

He walked a few paces away from John, turned to face his pupil and held his still cupped right hand out.

“I’ve got a fresh wind spirit here,” he stated. “The first step of our training is for you to be able to sense it. And don’t think it’s going to be easy.”

The spirit briefly glowed with green light, flittering out of Mason’s hand before fading from sight.

“Now, it’s somewhere around me,” Mason continued. “And for every failed attempt to point to it, I’ll have it move.”

John dismissed all the screens and let out a breath, clearing his mind.

“Any last minute pointers?” John asked.

“Just try to feel the emotion,” Mason advised. “You’re already part way there since you get some emotional resonance with your sensing ability. Try to replicate that.”

‘Right,’ John thought, recalling yesterday morning when he got Mana Sense, ‘I let my mana fill my senses then I looked out instead of in. Can I do the same thing here?’

John stilled his thoughts and focused on his emotions, closing his eyes to cut off the outside world. They had quieted from the high Aeolia and Vivian had brought him, shifting from a warm contentedness to one of curiosity borne from Mason’s explanations. He focused on that feeling, the raw desire to know more, to delve deeper into the dungeon to find what’s been hidden, to turn that next page to learn the last plot point of the novel.

John let all those feelings fill him, the late nights of relentless reading and game playing replaying in his head, then turned his senses outward.

Nothing. No spark of anything, just the darkness of his closed eyes. The swirl of curiosity burned away as a spike of disappointment cut through him and he racked his brain, going over Mason’s explanations again.

Then his mind flashed back to what he felt outside of the Barrier. To the old memory of playing with his dad at the park. That childlike joy as he flew through the air on the swings, the rush of running across the wood chips, diving behind the equipment to stay one step ahead of the ‘it’ kid in tag. The carefree laughter as he rolled down a grassy hill, followed by the unsteady wobbles as he ran back up to go again.

John let those memories, and the emotions connected to them, fill him before he focused outward. This time, something pulled at him, a little to Mason’s left, and John pointed his hand to it, eyes snapping open as he did. Where his finger was pointed, a form wavered, not unlike the heat rising off a hot road, a ripple in the air.

Mason let out a barking laugh. “You got it. Excellent! Keep whatever you’re thinking about in mind to maintain your awareness.”

John cracked a smile. “Took me a minute. There was a point to you asking if I got an emotional reaction to the Barrier’s mana. More than just being able to sense it. It was a clue to what sort of emotion I needed to connect with the spirit.”

“And you caught on,” Mason said happily. “I wasn’t going to leave you hanging, just so you know. If you hadn’t made it on your own, I was ready to drop a hint. Fundamentally, to sense a spirit, you need to be on the same wavelength as it. As you experienced, this one is born out of fun and frolicking. The mana of this place reflects that.”

Before John could speak again, a popup blocked his view of Mason and the spirit.

Quest Update: Getting into the Spirit
Lesson 1: Sense, complete.
Reward: Mana Sense level up and reworked into Arcane Sense
Onto the next lesson

Skill Level Up: Arcane Sense Lv. 2. Spirit detection enabled.

John relayed what the popups said to Mason then dispelled them.

“I suppose working spirit sensing in with your existing ability makes sense,” Mason said, letting out a small chuckle at repeating the word ‘sense’. He directed the spirit into his hand. “Now that you can sense the spirit here, let’s move on to lesson two, connection. Your goal here is to link your mana to the spirit. Once you do, you must carefully transfer mana into it until the mana becomes visible.”

The spirit flared to life, the small green tempest swirling about Mason’s palm for a second before it faded again, leaving only a slight distortion visible thanks to Arcane Sense.

“This guy’s not too demanding,” Mason said, “but stronger spirits, or a lot of them, can really drain you if you aren’t careful.”

“And we have no idea how much Senka will drain me,” John remarked, eliciting a nod from Mason.

“Aye,” Mason muttered. “Being honest, I have no clue how much mana you’ll need to devote for her. Hell, since she’s developing off bits of your soul, she may have mana of her own, like an elemental.”

He shook his head. “Even if that’s the case, learning this is good. Gives you a new avenue to work with.”

“Right,” John agreed. “So, making a connection. Just will my mana over and ‘click’, done?”

“Not so easy,” Mason cautioned. “You have to keep yourself in sync with the spirit’s emotional resonance. If you can’t, the mana can’t flow and you’ll just be pissing it into the air around you.”

“So I’ve got to keep bringing up fun memories while letting my mana flow out, got it,” John repeated, closing his eyes again. He let the distant memories of childhood play fill his thoughts, then moved to will his mana out, extending a hand out to facilitate the process.

A tendril of his mana flowed out of his hand, and John imagined it flowing towards the spirit. As he did, his perception of the spirit began to weaken and the mana flow began to waver. When John focused back on his whimsical memories, the mana stalled out, hovering frozen in the space just beyond his fingers.

‘Okay, it’s hard keeping the right emotions in mind and controlling my mana at the same time,’ John thought, drawing his mana back in. ‘Maybe I need to completely focus on the emotions first then try to link up in one shot? Let’s try that.’

John called up every memory he could of his childhood. Swing sets, tag, hide-and-seek, every playdate, recess run, summer soccer camp filled his mind, unbridled joy left untainted by dimming friendships and harsh bullies. When he reached the limit of what he could recall, John willed his mana out towards the spirit.

It flew further this time, but still dispersed before it could reach where Mason held the spirit in place. A spark of frustration cut through the needed emotion and John felt the spirit’s presence begin to fade from his mind.

“Clear your mind,” Mason’s calm voice cut in and John’s eyes snapped open to see the large man regarding him with a small smile. “I remember struggling with this part. Balancing the right emotional resonance and moving mana is not an easy task. That was a fairly good second attempt though. May I ask what your thought process was?”

John let out a frustrated breath and brought his arm down, “I thought of every memory I could. Figured saturating myself with the right emotion then just trying to rush the connection was worth a try.”

Mason nodded. “Not a bad idea. I’ll say you’re on the right track. For the initial connection, you need a good amount of emotion to really lock things in.”

John nodded then asked, “I’m going to guess that there’s a reason we’re this far apart. If the spirit was closer I think I could have made the link happen with that attempt.”

Mason nodded. “I’ve found this is the optimal distance. Too close and the exercise becomes too easy to establish a good foundation. Too far and establishing a connection becomes far more trouble than it's worth and can strain the trainee.”

“Guess that makes sense,” John said. “Not too hard so it’s impossible, but not too easy to give a false sense of success.”

He lapsed into a contemplative silence, mulling over Mason’s advice.

‘Okay, so just letting the right emotion flood my brain wasn’t good enough. What am I missing here?’ John thought. He ran over everything he knew about spirits and Mason’s words, both from yesterday and today. He focused on what he knew of spirits.

‘Mason said they’re bungles of psychic energy that have gathered mana. And without mana, they fade. There has to be something in how they generate that I have to replicate to make this work. Maybe something I can sense in the area?’

He quieted his thoughts and focused his senses outward. For a second he felt Mason’s mana, a steady warmth washing over him, but before it could evoke any memories or emotion, his perception shifted to the wisps of phantom breezes that swirled around the Barrier. Like from the outside, the mana caused him to reminisce, the echoes of what play had happened drawing out his own long gone playtime.

‘How do spirits gather mana to them?’ John mused as he traced the weakly whirling mana. He perked up as a thought occurred to him. ‘We have to feel the right emotions to sense them, and the mana can cause us to think of things that bring up related emotions. Does the environmental mana have emotions clinging to it? Is that how it works?’

John reigned in his perception and focused on his mana. ‘Can I take a chunk of this and infuse it with my emotions? Is that the secret?’

John inspected his mana. It pulsed inside like his heartbeat, and phantom heat slightly warmed his flesh, though far less so than when he felt Mason or Vivian’s mana. Then, he focused back on his memories, letting the playful emotions dominate his thoughts. This time, he felt his mana shift slightly. The subtle warmth remained, but now it was tickling his skin like he was running through tall grass.

With no hesitation, John let his mana fly out. Now it flowed freely and John felt the spirit take in the offering.

Quest Update: Getting into the Spirit
Lesson 2: Connect, complete.
Reward: Spirit Link skill
Onto the next lesson

“There we go,” Mason said as the spirit flared to life, its green tempest fueled by John’s mana. “Figured out the trick well enough.”

“Yeah,” John replied, feeling his mana drain into the spirit. He tried to make it move, but found the command caused the spirit to only quiver and he was met with the impression of an iron grip holding it in place.

“Ah, eager to play with your new skill, are you?” Mason playfully said with a chuckle. “Well then, on to lesson three then. Control. You can’t feel it yet, but this guy isn’t as passive as it looks. You have to impose your will on it, **** it to become still. There’s a reason I’m doing this with a wind spirit. Of the four primary elements, it’s the hardest one to control without it being too dangerous if your control slips. Losing control of a fire spirit can be quite dangerous.”

Mason’s expression grew serious before he continued, “I’m keeping the spirit suppressed, but once I break my connection to it, it will move according to its nature. Which means it will try to fly free. You have to stop it. It won’t fly far, the mana you’re feeding it acts like a tether, so don’t worry about losing it.”

“Just have to worry about running out of mana,” John said, dismissing the popups. “I’m already down to ninety-four and losing about one and a half a minute. So I’ve got to get this down in about an hour.”

“Well, I have faith in your abilities,” Mason remarked. “On the count of three, then. One, two, three!”

Mason let his hand drop as he relinquished control of the spirit and John felt a sudden surge of energy, not unlike that first rush when riding a rollercoaster. Then the spirit launched out of Mason’s hand and darted around John like a green comet. After a stunned second, John tried to still the spirit. He felt a dull pressure **** his head, like a blunt spike was being slowly driven into it.

The spirit was like a tough fish on the end of a line. Every time John tried to arrest its movement, it flailed against his mental tether and he lost whatever progress he had made.

‘You think a little repetitive failing is going to stop me,’ he thought, a somewhat manic smile creeping onto his face. ‘You’ve never gone up against someone who’s played any classic side scrollers and had to start back at the beginning of the level.’

Stubborn gaming instincts activated, John continued his mental battle, each struggle leaving him with a greater level of insight into the spirit’s nature. It wanted to dart around, and found John’s attempts to corral it most egregious.

“Any tips?” John asked Mason after around fifteen minutes of failed attempts. While John remained standing, the large cook had sat down on a nearby bench.

“Have you been trying to work with its nature?” Mason asked back.

“‘Work with its nature’,” John echoed, his voice reflecting his growing irritation. “It just wants to run wild. How am I supposed to make that work with wanting it to be calm and still?”

“How would you make a child that wanted to play calm down?”

Mason’s cryptic advice caused John to remember an event from his own childhood. He vividly remembered being hyperactive and making a mess of things while his parents were trying to do some cleaning. And he remembered how Dad had sat him down and turned the cleaning into a little game, with the promise of later going down to the park.

John’s eyes flashed to the spirit and threw his will at it once more. This time, instead of his intent reflecting a want to restrain it, it was charged with the promise of being able to run wild later if it cooperated now. It carried with it flashes of the adventures and fights he’d had in the past three days and John felt the spirit’s boundless energy waver.

He kept up the **** of promised future frolicking and the spirit gravitated towards him, its movements growing slower as John’s argument won it over. He felt its will submit to his, giving him free control over it, a sensation not too different from Fiery Pursuit.

Quest Update: Getting into the Spirit
Lesson 3: Control, complete.
Reward: +1 Wisdom
Onto the final lesson

“Nicely done,” Mason cheered, rising from his seat to clap John on his back, causing the Gamer to lurch forward slightly. In retaliation, John sent his wind spirit to bat at his mentor’s face. Mason laughed and blocked the attack with a suddenly manifested spirit of his own.

John regarded Mason’s spirit for a second, then asked, “Where do they go when they're not active?”

“They sort of float within our auras,” Mason replied. “Think of it like a field around us. Since it’s all psychic energy, there’s not really any dimension to it, so larger spirits or many little ones can rest in there. Now, ready for the final lesson?”

“Bring it on,” John answered with a cocky grin, his wind spirit quivering in reflected excitement. “What’s the goal?”

Mason let out a short laugh, his own spirit bouncing about his head.

“Lesson four: Manipulation,” he intoned, his spirit darting and flying out in elaborate circles. “We’re going to have a bit of a race to get you used to controlling a spirit. See if you can keep up.”

John grinned and his excitement caused his spirit to swirl more intensely.

“Bring it on!”

Thanks again for reading this little story. If you liked the chapter, please hit that thumbs up, and if you want to support my writing, check out my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ScrapCrow. Get access to my chapters before they’re published here and join my private Discord.