《King given from God》


 1. A scrub is a guy who just sits on his broke bottom

    There is a Fourth City, in that city a Fourth Street. On the fourth floor, of the building number 4, an appartment with crooked number four hanging on the door. Through a dark corridor inside the apartment, you can find a trash filled kitchen, two dusty rooms and a bathroom that needs some serious scrubbing.


    In the smaller room, found to the right of the entrance, a man just woke up to the sound of children hurrying to school. He slowly stretched his arms above his head, this would be the day. He would get up, exercise, take a shower, and over breakfast, read up on some publicly accesible magic training. He''s been promising that to himself for the past four years, two or three times he even managed to stay productive for a few days. Once, once he managed to work for entire two months. Today would be the first day of the training montage that would beat that record, and in three months he will light a cigarette with his right pointing finger, while sitting in a fancy bar. First though, he would just put on some music on his laptop and browse few websites.


    The man looked to the side of his bed, where his laptop should lie on top of some take-out boxes, and saw that when he was stretching he knocked over some open bottles of unfinished carbonated drinks. Thinking nothing of it, he picked up the wet and now sticky laptop, dried it with a dirty t-shirt, and opened it to turn it on. Leaving the laptop on the edge of the bed, the man crawled over to a small chair he kept his cigarettes on, lit one with his old Zippo, sipped some water from a bottle with a red label of a popular carbonated drink and looked over to the laptop to type in the password. Instead of the usual login menu, he just saw a rainbow coloured glitchy mess on the screen. His silver little window into the world, broke. His first instinct was to grab the device, and somehow will it to work, but with his hand stretched over the keyboard he just exhaled, "I suppose.. now I''m free from this little addiction". The voice came out of his throat high and soft, subdued from years of rare use.


    Mathew put away the cigarette, poured the rest of the water on the laptop and got up. Immediately he had to catch his balance, as he almost tripped on one of the bottles littering the ground. Sighing at his knees that disagreed with the sudden movement, and leened on the scratched up leather armchair next to him. From this position, he looked around his little haven, prison, the foor walls keeping him away from his own criticism. The four by six meters room, looked much smaller and darker than it should. Few empty canvas hanged on the walls, an old leather sofa stood between the bed matress and the door, behind Mathew was a long, white table. Almost everything in the room was covered in trash, old dirty clothes, and untouched for years painting supplies.


    The man walked over to the window opposite the door, on one of the shorter walls, to fix the sheet-turned-curtain, so that office workers from the high rise on the other side of the street didn''t hurt their eyes on the sight of his growing belly and sides hanging over his boxers. He''s been told he didn''t look as terrible as he saw himself, but some modesty wouldn''t hurt anyone either way.


    Avoiding trash on the ground, he slowly walked out of his bedroom, grabbed a ladder propped against a painting that had it''s glass cover shattered, and dragged the thing overto the bathroom. From the storage space hanging under the ceiling by the bathroom door he took an old, offensively orange sleeping mat, and rolled it out on the dusty corridor floor. Already out of breath from the exercise, he got down on his stomach and began doing push ups. On the third one, his arms began to shake and on the fifth he couldn''t push himself back up. "After one month, you will see the difference. After two, others will and after the third one you will wink at yourself in the mirror", with such thought hestood up and managed twentysquats. Flopping down on the mat, he took a few breathes and fighting against his shaking stomach muscles began doing sit ups. He was spent after ten. Not wanting to give up just yet, Mathew rolled off the mat, but only managed two more push ups. Face down, on the cold, wooden and dusty floor, he closed his eyes.


    A handsome, short teenager was skipping class with a group of friends. The tallest girl in the group held his hand and chatted with two of their female friends, while the other two guys walked behind talking to each other. While the group talked about sweet nothings, the boy imagined wings of fire carrying him above the world. The small blue flame with which he lit everyones cigarettes filled him with confidence that he could do anything. While everyone struggled to cast a single spell a day, he could waste his mana on party tricks. Sure, he couldn''t perform a single ritual, and didn''t bother comitting magic circles to memory, but he wouldn''t need to. After all, free form magic was stronger and with focused enough will could achieve anything.


    The chubby, short man scoffed, and got up from the floor. On still shaky legs, he walked out of the dark corridor, he didn''t change the light bulb since it broke three years earlier, to look for some clean clothes in the larger, eastern room. Except for a large mirror on the floor, a single large painting of a man with a dog on the southern wall, a gift from the family he cut contact with a couple years ago, and by the northern wall a red bookcase with only bottom shelves filled, the six by six meters room was empty. An old, bent all over clothes dryer stood by the wide window, only two pairs of boxers, some mismatched socks and a single torn up shirt on it. Mathew sneezed, his nose only now catching up on all the dust that got into it. He shook his head, grabbed the one shirt, and the closest underwear and shuffled towards bathroom. When he reached the door to the corridor, he slapped the light switch and had to close his eyes due to the sudden brightness. He quickly turned off the light in the room, "Eh, when did I stop turning on the lights".


    After the shower, made slightly unpleasant by the water gathering up to Mathews ankles, the man first promised himself to cut his hair, and then came into the kitchen squeezed between the smaller room and the bathroom. He spent few minutes browsing through the pile of old shopping bags, empty boxes, and dirty dishes, he found an almost full box of green tea, for which he turned on a yellow electric kettle. From the fridge he took some almost fresh cheese, a bread roll he left inside the day before, and after carelessly slicing them up, put them on a frying pan. Breakfast ready, Mathew looked over the few small art pieces that hanged over the old beige office table, lit a cigarette from a stove burner and squeezed his ass onto the only empty chair. The man pulled out the black smartphone with a cracked screen out the pocket of his black jeans, the thing luckily still had some battery. It was time to figure out how to move on with magic.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    First Mathew delated all bookmarks on fire magic, and psionics. His personality no longer fit fire, and in his current state psionics at best would do nothing, and at worst open a path to some relatively weak and desperate creature from the other side of the veil, even the most inferior of the denizes of that dimension capable of breaking and taking over his weakened mind. With that out of the way, he found most of the websites he used in the past went down, and the ones left required passes he no longerhad the qualifications for. Not defeated yet, the fallen mage tried finding new websites, but the open forums were filled with posts from trolls and delusional apprentices. The rest he found, seemed like scams that would just try to drain his pockets. Mathew put away the phone, turned on the small kitchen radio, set to a station playing experimental somethings he didn''t understand, but made him feel sophisticated. He decided he would try to find some old books, and notes, hoping he stored them somewhere rather than threw them all out. Only after he finished his tea that is, since anything hotter than room temperature burned his mouth, it would be another ten or fifteen minutes.


    While leaving the kitchen, Mathew noticed the keys to the basement hanging on the door, and figured he would check down there first, and browse the books in the apartment later. He slipped his feet into old, comfortable, but filled with holes sports shoes, there was no need to put on something pretty for the short trip. He wondered if he should put on a jacket, but he wouldn''t be going outside, so there wasn''t a need for it.


    The light on the staircase hurt Mathews eyesslightly, so he hurried down while keeping them squinted. His legs still felt a little weak after the light workout, but he made it down without tripping. The door to the basements was polished steel, with a black plastic handle, the man fumbled a bit with his keys and after opening the door, walked down to the end of the corridor. There the metallic door with the number 42, opened easily enough, revealing a dusty, aboutone and halfby three meters space. Filling it was an empty alluminium shelf, and four carton boxes. One box was filled with christmas decorations, another with some old computer games and cables, the last two contained old sketches, notebooks and books. Most of the books were old, school textbooks or fiction, but after moving most things onto the floor Mathew found the Grimoire he attempted to write during highschool, a textbook he borrowed from an apprentice earth mage from one of the other dimensions, during a night of celebratory drinking after he moved into his own apartment, and finally a book on basics of psionics, he recieved for his twelfth birthday. He either left the other books upstairs, or back with his family. Maybe he threw them out. The three books in hand, Mathew made to leave the basement, but stopped at the door, put them down and went back in to clean up the mess. If he wanted to get his life back together, hemight as well try to be less of a slob.


    On the way back up, Mathew was already more used to the light and found himself surprised at the walls recently repainted white and the entirely new, simple black metal handrails. He remembered some loud noises that came from the staircase few months earlier, and wondered if there was a fight that damaged the place. It was a relatively new building, so there was no need for renovations. The stairs looked the same gray concrete, at least.


    As the chubby man reached his door at the top floor, he was a little out of breath, but his legs recovered already. Inside the apartment he kicked off the shoes and went into the larger room, where he sat down in front of the bookcase and set down his books aside. The two filled shelves had mostly fiction or art books on them, but squeezed at the bottom one was a Skillbook for an elementary System. Everybody with at least adequate magical ability recieved one at the end of high school, and Mathew feeling too proud to use it, kept it in hopes of giving it away to a child if he ever had one.


    The mage looked down on the large black sketchbook he called a Fire Grimoir, back in High School he found it absolutely hilarious to use such a mundane object to write a Magic Book. Next to it was a leatherbound notebook on earth magic, and last but not least there was his Psionic for Beginners. None of them fit him. His personality no longer having the spark to fuel the Fire, old memories paining him too much to touch Psionics and while Earth would potentially fit his body type, was still something he wasn''t excited about. Mathew gave the Skillbook a look, got up with a sigh and looked around. He decided that he should welcome this change in a clean apartment. "How you live reflects your soul, or some such."


    The adult man felt deeply ashamed, carrying out tens of trashbags to the canisters, while his body and clothes became more and more dirty from all the dust that accumulated in his apartment. When he finally sat down to admire the job well done, he heard children coming back from school. Afte a satisfying shower, after he cleaned the drain of his hair the water no longer accumulated, the last pair of clean underwear on his ass, the last shirt in the washing machine and the dirty pants on, he sat down in the middle of the larger room. He looked at the mirror, now propped against the wall, his stomach was spilling onto his pants, on his arms and chest no signs of the muscles he used to have, the tattoo of a smile on his right arm nolonger seeming like a worm he saw it as for the past decade. The mage grabbed the Skillbook, and set it on his crossed legs, his hands lightly set on the cover."No reason to hold on to pride anymore, I can allow it once more when.. if I will reach power that warrants it."


    "I...", came out a weak voice. Mathew coughed a few times, straightened his back and tried again. "I accept to Learn", he said in a deeper voice he forgot he had.


    In front of him appeared a grey window, titledNo longer passes qualifications.


    Fire Mage, Psion, Blazing Psion Apprentice, Void Apprentice, Electric Apprentice, Air Apprentice, Elemental Apprentice, Elemental Spellblade Apprentice, Healing Apprentice.


    He dismissed the window and a new one appeared,Aviable Courses.


    Fire Apprentice, Earth Apprentice, Ice Apprentice, Spellblade Apprentice, Decaying Apprentice, Psion Apprentice.


    "The options are as constricting as I expected," Mathew muttered to himself and chuckled. "I have no intention of touching psionics, fire and earth are out... Decaying? Did I really fuck myself up that badly? Spellblade is out unless I find someone to train me in some martial arts. That would leave ice. Huh... I am a winter child from the north of Europe, always preffered the cold and well... even my surname would fit. Fire seemed so much cooler when I was younger, but why not?" With these thoughts, Mathew spoke once more. "I desire to Learn to be an Ice Apprentice."


    After a few hours of adjusting to the method of meditation the System provided, Mathew got up feeling his legs crawling all over, as they seemed to have fallen asleep from sitting for so long. He came up to and sat on the windowsill. The stary sky over the settlements on the dark side of the Moon had never looked so beautiful, and he didn''t feel so freein a long time.

 2. Mine is this piece of the floor

    Mathew got of the windowsill, hurting his left ankle slightly and shuffled over to the smaller room. His body feeling rythm of music he sadly, couldn''t turn on, the Hi-Fi set lacking few of the cables. The excitement brought by change, building up, seeking to be somehow unleashed. From underneath the table he collected old acrilic paints, and from the table a glass jar with the brushes. The mage put the paints and brushes in the middle of the floor in the larger room, and came back with the jar to the bathroom.


    While filling the jar with cold water, he looked in the mirror. Dark circles under brown eyes framed by long eyelashes, chubby cheeks hiding bones that once gave his face so much character, beneath purposefully day old stache and beard, full lips, not as red as they used to be. He tried stretching and flattening his cheeks, and with a resigned sigh splashed some cold water on his face. After drying his hands Mathew gathered his dark brown hair into a pony tail, but with nothing to tie it, just let it fall back down on his shoulders. He smiled at his reflection, a little light appearing in his eyes, grabbed the jar half filled with water and returned to his painting supplies. Before he got to painting, he moved the bookshelves over to the wall the painting with a man and a dog hanged on, leaving one wall entirely empty.


    Mathew stood in front of the wall for a couple of minutes, just taking it in, thinking how to express himself. Finally, he picked up the black paint, squeezed it out in a couple spots on the wall and with a thumb thick brush dripping with water, began writing: Fatty, CHEATER, hedonist, lazy a$s, GoNE, forgot You. He kept writing, occasionally changing the colour of the paint, until the wall from his knees to slightly above his head was just a colourfull mess. Mathew took a deep breath, put the brush in the dirty water and sat down. His chest felt both light and heavy, as if the weight he took off it was now dragging him down as if chained to his lungs. He got back to his feet, surprised the weight didn''t stop him. With a chuckle he grabbed the jar of dirty water, in the bathroom he poured the water out together with the brush, cleaned the jar and with it filled with clean water came back to the larger room.


    The paint on the wall was still wet, so Mathew sat down to meditate. According to his experience, he attempted to slowly draw out magic and spread it through the shrivelled channels in his body. The well of magic energy, he had once developed, flooded him with painfully cold mana making him go into a coughing fit. After a few failed attempts, he decided to try a different approach. He brought up the System windows and with the instructions read, slowly, ever so slowly drew in the mana from the air into himself. The process went smoothly until the energy reached his heart and lugs, where sharp pain exploded in his chest. Mathew fell face forward, and vomited out black tobacco sludge mixed with blood. The man rolled onto his back, allowing himself to rest. The smell of old tobacco annoyed his nose and the taste of vomit irritated his throat, but breathing was the slightest bit easier. Feeling better half an hour later, Mathew got up and picked up blue and white paints as well as a hand sized brush. Tools in hand, he covered most of the mess on the wall in a light blue, occasionally massaging his throat.


    Now he had to wait for the paint to dry again, not wanting to go into a coughing fit once more, he began doing light stretches. The tips of his fingers barely reached his feet, he couldn''t quite catch his hands behind his back, but waving this way and that limbered him up a little. He only managed five of each, sit-ups, squats and push-ups, and with still some time until the paint was dry, got to cleaning up the mess he vomited. Fifteen minutes later, the floor scrubbed, his hands clean and mouth washed out a couple of times he stood in front of the wall again. After picking pink, yellow and white paints he picked up a brush about three fingers wide and being generous with water got to painting two open, palms up hands. Each of the hands was about two thirds his size, the colours not merging together except where the paint streaked down. Between the hands Mathew drew an open, silver half circle, points up.


    Mathew took a few steps back, "For the next few months I will have to fill this well..." he spoke to himself and sighed. As a last touch, he added a black and red smudge just above the floor, directly below the silver well. He made sure to close the paint tubes, and admired the messy paint splashes all over the floor. This type of mess caused by work, always filled him with a sense of accomplishement, so he decided to just leave it. The hour late by now, he felt tired, but didn''t want to go to sleep without making at least a little more progress in revitilisng his mana channels. Mathew shuffled to the bathroom and in accordance with Systems instructions meditated next to the shower. Once more energy flowed into him easily, filling him with a pleasant chill, until it reached his lungs that is. Sharp pain flashed out of them, and once more the mage vomited out a couple fistfulls of black sludge mixed with blood.


    His body shaking, Mathew pulled himself up grabbing the sink. The cricles under his eyes were deeper, his face pale and lips purple. He took a moment to gather himself and shuffled into his bedroom, tired and in pain. The moment his body hit the soft, misshapen mattress, the man fell into a dreamless sleep.


    Come morning, the cheer of children hurrying to school woke the man up. When he turned to nap a bit more, System began flashing in his eyes, causing Mathew to grumpily get up. With nothing to provide distraction or entertainment, the man had no choice but begin his morning. Ten push ups, fifteen sit ups and twenty squats later he shuffled on trembling legs to the bathroom. After shower he realised he forgot to hang his clothes to dry, and set the waching machine to do them again. There was also no food in the kitchen, so in yesterdays clothes, a zipped up black jacket, to hide the lack of a shirt, and comfy sports shoes, he bought a year earlier, he left to do some shopping. He hoped, that in the last two years that he mostly ordered take out online, the local shops didn''t close for whatever reason. It would be a couple of days this part of the moon was in the night phase, so the streets were lit up by solar lamps and still growing pine like trees that provided a light silver shine. The street was a border between the high rise office district, and a mostly residential district that mimicked European old towns. The grocery shop was where he remembered, at a corner down the street to the left of his apartment building. In the store Mathew decided a walk would do him well, so he grabbed some things for dinner to cook later, a sandwich the clerk heated up in the microwave and bottled tea. On the way out the mage said in a soft voice "Have a nice day", but didn''t wait for a response.Stolen novel; please report.


    "I will have to train my voice, I sound like a teenager trying to ask out a crush he''s been stalking in school for a year." With thoughts like this, Mathew slowly walked to a park fifteen minutes away from his home, munching on the chicken sandwich. The tea waited in his jackets pocket until he had both hands free. The park didn''t have a fence or paths, being pretty much just a small forrest in the middle of the city. Here and there were regular steel and wood benches, as well as some bench like sculptures. In the middle was a lake, in front of which stone stood a statue of one of the founders of the Moon colony. A short asian woman, holding a staff in the right hand and an electronic notepad serving as her Grimoire in the other. Before magic, the woman was an office lady in a small Japanese company, had no interest in fantasy except for few movies her friends took her to when they were teenagers. Now the woman, alongside another five people from around the world, headed the most advanced nation of Earths humanity. Mathew struggled to remember what the nation he lived in was actually called, or how exactly it managed to set itself up aside from mundane politics, but his mind came up blank. Just one of many things that slipped past him because of youthful arrogance and a lack of interest in the world later on. He walked around to the other side of the lake and sat down on a bench carved out of a dark crystal.


    The packaging of the finished sandwich was stuffed into one of the pockets of his jacket. The man slowly drank his tea, taking in the smell of the forest and trying to keep his mind empty. At this hour the park was mostly empty, few workers searching for the trash people might have left behind, some older people fed very earthly ducks that swam in the lake and two or three groups of students had open air lectures. Sometimes a student would come up to the older people, ask some questions and hurry back to their group. Once Mathew finished the tea, his hands and mouth began to feel restless not finding the cigarettes for the morning ritual. With a sigh, he got up and while trying to keep his posture straight walked back home.


    Inside his four walled sanctuary, the mage flopped onto the bed just to have the System flash windows in his eyes, reminding him to cultivate. He pushed himself up, stretched to get the yawns out of his system and went to the bathroom. On the way he remembered to take off the jacket, the thing sticking to his skin in an unpleasant manner now that he was in a warm appartment. In the bathroom Mathew noticed the washing machine was done, so he took out his clothes and carried them to dry. In the larger room, he took a moment to look at the last nights creation and shook his head, while a small smile played on his face. The clothes taken care of, the mage came back to the bathroom and slowly sat down to meditate. For a couple minutes he couldn''t concentrate, his body afraid of the pain the process would end with. He put his head against the cold glass of the shower and focused on the pleasant side of meditation that would come first. Once he steadied his breath, he drew in the mana. The energy flowed slowly, again spreading a pleasant chill within his body. Once it reached his lungs, came a new type of pain as if thousands of needles pierced through them. Too distracted to read the windows System flashed in his eyes, Mathew tried to vomit the sludge but nothing came out. A short while after the pain subsided, and the man read through the notifications. It seemed he got rid of the worst of the dirt in his lungs, and now would need to keep the energy flowing into his lungs a while longer to force out small chunks of the filth. The mage began again, as the pain in his chest sharpened again he kept drawing the energy in. Suddenly a force of granulated filth escaped through his mouth, scratching up his throat in the process. As Mathew was facing the open shower, all of it got into it. The man slumped down, resting his arms on the sliding doors of the shower to avoid falling with his face into the things he spat out.


    Once he could breath calmly again, the mage lied down on his back. His mind buzzed, empty of thought just focusing on the bright, white ceiling above him. When he could properly think again, after what felt like minutes but turned out to be a couple hours Mathew decided to make dinner. On his way to the kitchen he noticed he left the groceries in the corridor and picked them up. A simple spaghetti with a sauce from chopped tomatoes in a can would do. After dinner, he meditated, trying to memorise and form Ice runes the System provided him with. Once he got tired of that, he attempted to exercise, managing less than in the morning. After exercise Mathew again flooded his body with energy, pushed through the pain of cleaning his lungs and meditated on runes some more. Before sleep he tried to paint or draw, but couldn''t gather any inspiration for it and gave up. For now, magic would do enough for self improvement.


    The next day went about the same, but Mathew began playing music from youtube on his phone. The day after that he was paying some attention to the music videos. After a week, his lungs were almost cleaned, but he was spending more and more time looking at his phone, stalled in physical exercise and his motivation was running on fumes. Thinking that maybe some outside motivation would help anchor him, the mage decided to call a psychologist he used to visit a year, or maybe three earlier. Mathew thought he would get a call back later in the day, but the phone was picked up almost traight away.


    "Mathew!", a male voice exclaimed, "It is so nice to hear from you, how are you doing?"


    Glad to have this covnersation while he was still motivated, the mage cleared his throat before speaking, "Quitewell, actually. I... I''ve been keeping up decent schedule a week now." Mathew felt himself relax and slowed down his speech, "I thought I''d like to schedule a visit or few."


    After a breef moment of silence on the other side, the psychologist asked "I have some windows open, when would it suit you?"


    Excitement leaking out of his voice the mage responded, "As usuall, I''m always free, though I would prefer an evening."


    From the other side came the sound of pages being shuffled, and a response, "What do you say about tomorrow around seven in the evening?"


    "That sounds perfect Jacob!" Mathew quickly replied.


    "Alright, see you tomorrow, and remember you can always call." reminded Jacob. With that their conversation ended and Mathew put away his phone. After a second of thought, he shoved it away to the corner of the room. He decided to exercise a little straight away. Fifteen push ups, twenty five squats and fifteen sits ups later the man was spent. Maybe it was just the lights he began turning on, but the world seemed a little brighter.

 3. First time

    Mathew finished dinner around five in the evening, having nothing better to do before he left, he cleaned the dishes and without hurry left towards subway. The subway was in the opposite direction from the park, the entries on a large intersection surrounded by office buildings and an art gallery "Edison" that only showed printed copies of classical art.


    The mage had to wait for about two minutes for his train and to pass time studied the faces of other people at the station. The other side of the platform was packed, but the traffic in the direction he was going in was rather sparse. Before him on the sides of the name of the station "Swan" in blue lettering, were adds for a biography of the CEO of a company leading in creation of magical smart phones and the other for an affordable fridge that "talked", supposedly voice acted by an actual house spirit. When the train came, Mathew noticed some people getting into an argument over some magicall jewelry interfering with a phone call. The owner of the phone either not understanding how magic works or using an old phone reffited with some crude enchantments.


    Since Mathew left his phone at home, he just napped leaning against the door that wouldn''t open before his station three stops away. When he woke up to the door opening, he looked around confused and picked left. Once he got up to the surface he found it was the wrong side and with a grumble turned back. "How many months has it been since I last came here? Time can be so confusing when you have nothing to do." Emerging on the correct side, the man looked around the familar sight, the kiosk inside in front of the entrance, some people giving out brochures outside by the crossing. On the way to the psychologist, living about hundred meters away from the station - after office hours he accepted some clients in his home, Mathew chuckled at a kid that missed the change of lights, too focused on his phone. In front of the about seven floors tall, white apartment building the man took a breath and pressed five on the intercom. After two rings, the characteristic sound of the door unlocking sounded and Mathew came inside.


    He took the right corridor and few doors in, Jacob was already waiting, the door open. "Hey, good to see you!" exclaimed the older man. "Been a while, come in, come in." The man was about half a head taller than Mathew, at about one hundred eighty centimeters tall. He had light blue and gray eyes, short, black graying hair and a straight nose on a soft, roundish face. While in good shape, he had a typical for a man in his fifties belly. He was dressed in gray sweatpants and a causal, plain, dim light yellow shirt.


    The inside was cozy, walls packed with bookshelves, a small kitchen counter with concrete shelves, some still life paintings between the bookshelves. Behind a wooden rocking chair and a beige corner sofa covered in pillows a window with wooden panels. One of the windows had a hole for psychologists cat to come through. After taking off his shoes and jacket, Mathew sat on the sofa and Jacob put down two glasses of water on the table before sitting down as well.


    After a moment of silence, Mathew spoke up. "So.. Hi. I finally resigned from.. deluding myself that I''d try and regain my fire magic and psionic abilities. I''ve picked up the System and... have been doing daily practice." The man reclined on the sofa and stared at the ceiling for a while.


    "How''s you apartment?", came the reply.


    "It''s fine, it''s perfect. Yeah, I somehow cleaned it out the first day. It was embarrassing as hell, just dozens of trash bags. I dusted, even cleaned the bathroom and the counters in the kitchen. That took some effort. My laptop broke, so I couldn''t just think, oh fine, I will watch a video or two and get back to it later." Mathew said with some cheer in his voice.


    "Thats great!" Jacob said and leaned forward, "This is good. You know, how did the past months go? I tried calling you a couple times. I was a little worried since you didn''t pick up, but I''m happy you are doing okay."


    "My phone was off for a while. I think.. I turned it on two or three weeks ago, needed to clarify something about the bills. When I was feeling down I let it run out of battery and just forgot about it." Mathew scratched the back of his head. "Honestly, it''s the phone why I came. The laptop is out, but I can still just forget about it all and just watch stuff on it. Even if not, sooner or later I will get through Systems instructions and it won''t keep me practicing until I will become a proper mage and upgrade it. I need, I need to anchor myself somehow." After some thought, he continued, "The past few months... I''m really not sure. I watched stuff. I tried playing some games.. they bored me after a week or so. I tried a job charging simple artefacts.. I still have the core, not like it could go away. I accidentally pulled from the psionic side, the mana channels didn''t really work well for me... I had a damn headache for two days and just didn''t go back to work. After that.. I couldn''t convince myself to do anything.. I wasn''t hurting or... anything really. Took until last week.. I got that job like a couple of days after our last meeting.. how long exactly has it been since then?"


    "Did you go unconcsious for long?", came a worried reply. "What? No, no... I just don''t keep track of time. I''m curious if it was... five, six months?", the patient quickly clarified.


    "Just four. You do always mention you don''t care for clocks or calendar" Jacob said, a warm smile on his face. "The System... the one you kept for a child? So what are your plans once you become an Apprentice?"


    "Yeah, there won''t be a child if I stay shut in my apartment" Mathew replied and laughed, "My mana channels will be properly repaired and functional. Honestly, I don''t know how casting Ice magic will affect my body... Fire used to leave me somewhat drained.. maybe Ice will be opposite? But just channeling pure mana should be easy enough. I will have more of it, than my body could handle in elemental state, for quite a while. I will just do whatever jobs, hope I will train myself up to good enough level to do something exciting before I will become too bored."


    "What if it will take long?" The psychologist said, a caring look on his face.


    "Hm... Maybe I could go over to Maa, join some teenagers on their first dungeon trips? Maybe there will be some bored office workers going to easy places. It would do for some extra pocket money, and should help me figure out how my magic ticks now.. and all. Also, should be fun." Mathew slowly said with a thoughtful expression. He noticed he finished his water so he refilled his cup and poured some for Jacob.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    "Thank you. How does that work? I never participated in adventuring...", the psychologist was interrupted as his wife came out of another room to grab something from the fridge. Mathew nodded his head towards her and she greeted him back, going back with a bottle of water in hand. Jacob excused himself, going after her to make sure the door was closed. "Sorry, Monica works there with headphones on her head. I close the door for some added privacy", the psychologist came back to the sofa saying so.


    "No worries, we are in your home. As for adventures... things change quickly in our realm, but Maa is an old world, so it should work the same way it did those ten years ago. They have some sorts of adventuring agencies. For a cut of your haul in a dungeon, they permit you entry... there are some background checks etc, the agency badges check your activity inside to make sure you don''t fuck with other people... but otherwise it''s a simple process, especially if you come in a prepared party." Mathew said, reminiscing the few times he visited dungeons. He didn''t keep any souvenirs, aside from some pictures he drew. "Maybe this time I will keep some loot. Back then I thought I''d just outgrow it and didn''t think about keeping memories beyond the sketches... but maybe the trophy of the first dungeon after I got my shit back together, would be a good idea?"


    "Sounds like an idea. You would fight monsters inside, correct?" Jacob said with curiosity in his voice.


    "Yes... the ones inside are monsters. I think on Earth people just call everything magical a monster, but the creatures outside dungeons are thinking, feeling beings" Mathew thought for a second, "Maybe by now some more information trickled into universities, but from what I heard some gods have been tinkering with things like that for a long time."


    "So, the ones inside don''t think or feel? It''s like in a game?" The psychologist asked curiously.


    After a frustrated sigh, Mathew replied, "Yes, I suppose it is. Well, if I lost myself in something real that feels like a game... I wouldn''t feel frustrated. It provides real exercise and... Well, I guess killing the monsters, feels real too. I heard people who spend extensive time in dungeons have to go through mental check ups."


    "You never talked about dungeons before, would you mind me asking why?" Jacob asked as he leaned back, keeping his hands together, palms up between his knees.


    "Well, it was just everything else that I had to unload. I enjoyed the few trips I took back then. The first time I expected it would be difficult... I think it was spiders. When the first one jumped out, I just stood in place. I wasn''t really terrified, but I fucking didn''t know what to do. There was five of us..."


    Peter and Michael jumped to the spider, wailing at it with the swords they managed to save up for with their pocket money over the past few years. Mathew looked to the left and saw Patricia smashing a smaller spider away with a metal baseball bat. Behind them Sarah was screaming bloody murder about Nopes and Spiders, while walking back. Mathew himself just stood, locked somewhere between amusement, fear and curiosity. He could only cast spells and wasn''t sure if he wouldn''t hit one of his friends. Large spiders, also somehow didn''t creep him out as much as the smaller ones. For a few years now, he always tried to just carry the little fuckers out, even when the bastards jumped onto his pillow when he was falling asleep. He didn''t feel in danger, he didn''t feel like hurting something. Logically, he knew those were mana constructs, not animals that would feel pain. It was largely his idea to go into a dungeon. Yet, he kept imagining the smell of burning flesh, the viscera that would splash out of the bodies. Then a third spider came out, jumping straight at Mathew. The teenage boy fell on his ass, holding the creatures head from biting into him. The monsters legs were waving around, scratching into him. Before the mage could think of anything, the desire to scream and blast the thing off combined and a small torrent of fire came out of his mouth. The creature was gone. Relief flooded Mathew as he saw the parts he didn''t burn just turn into shining, dust like particles. He didn''t notice his clothes were on fire until his three friends came and started putting them out. He laughed his fucking ass of.


    "So... we walked Sarah back to the entrance and continued. It''s not like it didn''t affect me in any way, I couldn''t eat meat for a few days after that. For our second trip we checked what sort of dungeon we would be entering and Sarah didn''t have any problems dealing with Slimes." Mathew said and half smiled, "None of us started hunting normal animals or magical creatures. I think Patricia and Michael talked about trying something, but nothing came out of it..."


    "Ah, those made for some bloody good stories. We drank over fire, talking how we will go into the greater dungeons. We would conquer a different realm for ourselves, ride on dragons...", with those words Mathew looked down, then continued, "Then... they all went to normal universities. Lawyers, doctors... That type of stuff. I moved here to the Moon, some wealthier family members bought me an apartment. I enrolled in the university, oh fuck. Streets have names, the one by the Crystal Palace. I think it was the first one that opened on the Moon. I just didn''t make any friends here, didn''t feel like getting a job and I couldn''t move up to the better dungeons... I just barely became a Mage, but I didn''t have any structured spells so I couldn''t make it in harder dungeons. I guess I could have joined some military? Slowly, week by week, month by month I just... gave up. I got into university on the formed core, and creativity in spell use. Then came the subjects, part learning from the instructors hired from Maa, part discovering the workings of the methods born out of Earths mythology. I... didn''t know shit. Didn''t do the projects, so I didn''t want to come in empty handed, since I didn''t come... I kept falling further behind. I promised myself to study up, make up what I lacked... but I just played games, read fiction. I began calling in sick, then I would actually get sick so I''d be gone longer. I left my apartment less, broke up with the new girlfriend... whatever her names was. Then I didn''t get new dates, since I just talked about how much I suck. Now... well, I told you those parts of the story before." With those words Mathew finished his water and poured himself more.


    "You practice magic again, you keep your apartment clean." Jacob said slowly, "Mathew, you are doing good."


    "Yes, yes. No, I know. The System will take me back to being an Apprentice, then a job, and the dungeon outings. I will practice back up to being a Mage. The proper capital M. I will drop the dreams about being a Great Mage, or whatever is beyond that. However the fuck one goes about going those solar systems further and becoming a Deity. Mage, just Mage...", the mage waved his hand. "I''m not putting myself down. I will, just get where I can. Find something to be happy about there, my steps will carry me however far I can go. My head, my heart will find satisfaction there, wherever it may be."


    The two continued talking for a while longer, on his way out Mathew paid a hundred Moon Dollars. When he saw the clock at the subway, it turned out it was already nine. On the way back home, he enjoyed the sights around him and got himself some chocolate cookies and few juice bottles.

 4. Vse spokoyno

    On the way back from his third visit to the psychologist, Mathew went a station beyond his home, stopping at "Center". He came out to a vast plaza filled with parks, small caffees and bars. It was surrounded by shopping centers and restaurants and brand stores inside buildings imitating 20''s style. At a little after eight in the evening the city was still alive, crowds passing in all directions. Just outside the subway students were playing on various instruments, some spread awareness on issues they deemed worthy and some were giving out leaflets about langague classes, the new quick methods to learn magic and the up and coming Michelin prophets who would take the culinary world by storm.


    Mathew took it all in, turned to the right and pushed his way through the crowds towards the "Crystal Abode". "I wonder how that goddess feels about this name. A shopping center in her honor." Mathew shook his head, while avoiding some people taking surveys. They were speaking loud about animal cruelty on the Mars cat girl colony. While he usually didn''t mind taking part in surveys, these pollsters seemed a bit too passionate and would likely take up quite a bit of time. When the man reached the shopping center he noticed it has changed quite a bit. What used to be a blue glass dome, now was a network of blue and black crystals resembling a spiderweb. "I suppose she decided something bearing the name of her home should also look the part. Well, the place still stands so there are probably some blessings added to it." Before the rotating entrance some religious folk were arguing with catholic priests. The latter claiming the Pope Francis accepted the various Deities, while the other party called it blasphemy exclaiming God will smite the devil spawn. Mathew looked over the clearly not smited building and came in. The Pope himself was rumoured to be one of the handful of people who were close to deification and often spoke about being thankful to various Deities that helped clean out corruption and other unpleasantries from the Church.


    Thinking that he didn''t have the humour to stew over complicated subjects, Mathew hurried over to a sports shop. He was failing physical exercise at home and decided to try out a gym membership. Previous week he went back home to grab some sweatpants and a shirt to exercise in, and didn''t have the energy to go back out. This time he would just buy something on the way to the gym. He grabbed the first M sized outfit he saw, black pants and an orange shirt with a picture of a golden haired carrot, paid quickly as there was no line and came up on the escalators to the top, fifth floor. The gym called "Fitness Planet" stood next to a cinema and a sushi restaurant and was open 24/7. It had three floors and a roof space with a garden for yoga, tai chi and similar activities. The interiors were white walls and black floors. The third floor was filled with treadmills and machines for warming up, while the second had everything for packing muscles. Behind the reception were various rooms for exercise involving moving in rythm with music. Mathew came up to the black desk.


    "Welcome to Fitness Planet, how may I help you?", in a deep voice greeted a hulk of a man sitting at the reception. While sitting, he was at eye level with Mathew, his shoulders could hide a wardrobe and stretched the black shirt with the logo of the gym, a planet held up by a Hecatoncheires. The giant continued, "I''m Stefano, I haven''t seen you here before sir, may I offer our membership options, or are you a patron from one of our other facilities?"


    "I''m new, I''d like a membership." Mathew replied, while studying the other mans face. Black hair in waves cascaded down to his chin, his messy bangs stopping just above the eyes that were closed. Above them were thick eyebrows and between a roman nose. Beneath the nose thin lips, on a clean shaven strong jaw. Where the jaw connected with the neck, on the mans right were two long scars that disappeared in the collar of the shirt.


    "In that case we have...", here Stefano offered a leaflet, "... three basic options and two for magically enchanced." While pointing to the options on the leaflet the receptionist explained, "First there is a basic option for ten moollars a month, it offers entry during less frequented hours and booking of classes a week in advance. Second option is for eighteen and offers 24/7 access, additional facilities for discounted fees and discounted brand products, of course, it also includes booking classes a week in advance. Last but not least the premium offers all of the above, but you can book classes two weeks in advance and you can ask for the help of a proffesional trainer once a month for free, you can also freeze your account for up to three months, bring guests without a fee five times a month and have slightly larger discounts. It costs twenty four moollars." The man reached out for a second leaflet, but Mathew stopped him.


    "I''m not interested in magically enchanced options, I''m barely managing basic exercise." Having said that, the mage thought for a second and continued, "I think I would like the premium."


    "Perfect, in that case we offer a discount of five percent if you pay up front for three months, ten for six and fifteen for a year." The giant pulled out a form, before continuing, "You can mark the option you prefer and if I may ask for your name?"


    "Thank you, I''m Mathew," the mage began looking over the form and took out his wallet, pulled out his ID and slid it over the counter, "Here. I will take the six months option." He said while ticking off boxes.


    Stefano took a few minutes to enter the information in the holographic screen of a PC and gave Mathew his ID back. "Would you like to pay in cash or card?"


    Instead of replying the mage pulled out his red credit card and waved it over to the register, a moment later the transaction was finished. The receptionist asked, "One of our trainers is free right now, would you like her free help today, or on a future visit?"Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    "Today would be perfect, thank you." Mathew said and in reply heard, "If you could wait a minute, she will come down in a moment."


    From a higher floor came down a tall, fit woman in an outfit similar to the receptionists, a black shirt with the company logo, black yoga pants and black and blue brand sport shoes. She had dark blonde hair gather in a pony tail behind her head, green eyes and a light, natural makeup. Stefano got up, he also wore yoga pants, and gestured towards the woman, "Mr. Mathew, this is Claudia, one of our best trainers," he then gestured towards Mathew, "and this is Mathew, a new premium member."


    "You call all our trainers, one of our best Stefano," she smiled towards the receptionist and looked back towards the guest, "Shall we begin then? Follow me."


    Mathew trotted towards the woman and the two made a tour around the facilities. She asked about the man''s gym experience, his work out goals and the like. Once they were finished, she waited for Mathew to change into gym clothes and proceeded to teach him proper warm up exercises for about fourty minutes. The mage then excused himself to the bathroom, where he meditated shortly, by now it was no longer painful and he only exhaled a bit of dust. Refreshed thanks to meditation, Mathew rejoined Claudia and she taught him to use the work out machines, explained how to best pace himself and when and how to start upping the difficulty. After an hour he was done and spent, took a shower and after exchanging goodbyes with the employees came back home.


    In the morning he woke up early, sore all over and before eating breakfast and showering, meditated a bit. After breakfast he left to the park, where he sketched his hands, the statue of the sorceress and the students who had their classes there. Whenever he was bored or tired of sketching he would memorise and engrave within himself the runes provided by the System. From the Fitness Planet he recieved an email pointing him to various diet plans, deciding to keep to one, he did some groceries involving plenty of grains and chicken.


    A week later, going to the gym every two days and keeping the daily meditation, Mathew finally finished the first rune. It was a basic one for sucking in energy, leaving behind a frosted over area around him. More runes would allow Mathew to direct and focus the spell, later forming ice projectiles. In the current form the magic first caused the mage to feel like his body froze over when he released a spell and warmed him up when the surrounding mana flowed into him. Even though the spell had plenty of drawbacks, the man was excited. After a long time, he was able to do magic again.


    "Hell yeah!!", with a yell Mathew stood up. Sudden dizziness made him sway, but he kept himself from falling and once blood flowed through his body properly again, stretched. He wanted to test out the limits of the spell, but looking over the frost he thought it might damage the wooden floor, so he changed into his exercise clothes and left to the park.


    The mage found a dirt circle where people sometimes organized grilling meet ups, there he stood in the middle of it. He focused on the rune and slowly released the magic. The spell only drew on the mana that flowed through his body, the core wouldn''t support his spells, until Mathew formed the final Apprentice runes. The cold spread through him and then warmth rushed into him, as the ground in a circle of about a one meter radius, frosted over. The mage shivered a little and continued the exercise. Five minutes later his body was trembling, he was sweating and feeling cold at the same time. Mathew took a step out of the now iced over circle, slipping and falling in it, he just rolled out onto the warmer ground. As he trembled on the ground, the man promised himself the next time he would prepare a thermos of some nice herbal tea to wash out the cold. Lying on the dirt, he laughed and coughed. Suddenly he felt, there was less of a sensation he was used to over the years. After now month of exercise, there was less fat on his body and laughing didn''t make it jiggle as much as it did ever since, "Huh, I don''t actually remember how it felt to not have the fat jiggle." After those words, Mathew sighed with a content smile. "Maybe this time I will take those few extra steps and develop a six pack? Though, I recall that losing fat is supposed to be harder the older you are... worst case scenario I suppose I could play-pretend a chubby and buff biker." After that thought he said with a sigh, "Gotta get a leather jacket."


    On the way back home Mathew stopped by a Starbucks and grabbed a large cup of sugar, whipped cream and a shot of espresso. He was growing bored, the exercise, drawing, meditation and visits to the psychologist were all nice and dandy, but he lacked entertainment. He didn''t want to get a new computer or even get sucked into his phone, so he was on a bit of an impasse. It wouldn''t be a couple more months before he became an Apprentice and he didn''t want to go to a dungeon as less. Without coming to any conclusion he got back home, still lost in thought took a warm shower and sat on the sofa next to his bed, the coffee left on a chair in front of it. He stared at the wall for a while, just letting his thoughts wander. Finally Mathew reached over to the cup, when he noticed the bartender wrote on it "Have a nice day" and drew a heart below the message. The man chuckled and leaned forward while shaking his head. The long hair whipped his face and hanged in front of it.


    "Oh, I forgot to get it cut," the mage said to himself, played a bit with his bangs and continued monologuing, "Maybe I should keep it, do something with it. I don''t really feel like tying it into a ponytail... Right, I could braid it! I can take braiding lessons." In lifted spirits, having figured out something new to occupy his time, Mathew began looking for his phone. The little thing hid under the bookshelves in the larger room, the man dusted it and plugged it into a charger. Then he went over to his bedroom to finish the happy coffee and with the cup in hand came back to the other room. As the phone wasn''t being cooperative after being turned off work few weeks, a waterfall of notifications from twitter and spam on his email clogging it upon reactivation, Mathew waited while sketching his feet on a nearby piece of paper. Once the phone was functional, the man googled for a bit and after thirty minutes of searching finally found a place doing braiding courses that was relatively nearby. He sent them an email and went off to prepare dinner.


    With a plate of chicken breast on buckwheat and some salad Mathew went to the painting room, gathered some drawing supplies and sat in front of the mirror. It was as good time as any, to draw a self-portrait, the last one, he made when he was still in university. Four pictures later, the dinner finished, the man still wasn''t satisfied with the results. Drawing a face was significantly harder than simple objects and hands. He shrugged, checked if he recieved a reply, since there wasn''t one, the mage focused and began forming the second rune.

 5. Malutkie kroczki

    Mathew was a little disappointed, he didn''t read carefully enough earlier. It turned out, braiding courses had a form of singular per subject classes. Maybe it was just this place, but this place is where he went. Since this one lesson was enough to teach him what he wanted and it couldn''t turn into regular entertainment, the mage didn''t apply for another course. For today, he kept some strands of hair flowing freely in the front, braided the sides to connect at the back, above some more freely flowing hair.


    The mage looked back on the office building the course was in, shrugged and made his merry way towards home. When he reached the his building, he stopped in front, looking at the door. Since it wasn''t a gym or psychologist day, he had a free evening. He didn''t feel like rolling around on the floor in his apartment till he''d go to sleep, so he stood outside thinking. Finally, we strolled towards the subway. The about ten minutes of travel would give him time to decide between museum and cinema. "Museums... are not fun alone. Maybe if I''d go back to grab my sketchbook, but I really don''t feel like it. Cinema then... I have no idea whats playing, the smaller, artsy ones would be shot in the dark for something of interest... so a commercial one. There should be some blockbuster to kill time." Mathew made his decision as he reached the subway entrance. For a change of pace from the Crystal Abode, the man walked a flight of stairs further down to take the train going to "Shub''Niggurath".


    Despite the rather sinister name, it was a colourful commercial district. The Black Goat was a cheerful creature that often helped people out, it was part of a community of Eldritch creatures that could interract with mortals. The community in question, consisted of beings that over their long existence became enamoured with the lesser creatures and found ways to live among them in relative peace. They also refused to comment on Dieties, or Cosmic Horrors, aside from giving warnings against seeking out Black Holes. Like many others, Mathew wondered if Lovecraft actually met the beings and misjudged them because of their appearance, or if it''s just one of those cases where a story matches some other reality. Maybe there were some of the lesser Horrors that were as evil as depicted.


    When the mage got off at his stop and walked up to the surface, he wasn''t sure if he should be saddened or glad the being wasn''t around. On one hand, it was said meeting it brought good luck, on the other the creature might have acted like a happy puppy, but was horrifying to look at. Mathew strolled around for a bit, window shopping and watching the crowds. Out of the entire city, here people dressed the most colorfully. The more magically powerful, or just wealthy in outfits that floated around them shining with gaudy enchantments, mixed with those wearing technical marvels of fashion that imitated the magical clothing. Of course there were some who wore the same outfits, they fell for a decade ago. The mage ruffled a bit his simple black jeans and black t-shirt with a logo of a metal band, looked up to the sky, shrugged and went into the cinema he reached by now.


    Mathew didn''t recognise any of the movie titles on the screens behind the cashiers, so he picked up some flyers and sat down with them on one of the coaches lining the walls. Browsing for a couple minutes, he finally put away everything except for one action movie employing Magicians to act and provide special effects. There weren''t any well know actors on the roster, but the promise of real special effects intrested the magician.The movie was some sort of hero thing, the antagonists on the flyer looked demonic and the description mentioned the main character fixing his own mistakes. The mage noticed the release date was quite a while ago, but when he looked at the schedule, screens showed it would have a single showing in half an hour. Mathew put on a thoughtful face and looked around, the Black Goat wasn''t around. Maybe today he was running on his own luck. He might have not had too much of it though, as he had to wait about ten minutes in line; the hall being mostly empty was to be expected for a movie that had it''s last showings. He picked sit in the middle of the third front row.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    With a ticket in hand, the man gave only cursory glance to the lines for popcorn. He didn''t have the patience for another conga line and made a beeline for the attendant checking tickets. There he also bumped into a line, finally after two minutes that felt like forever, he could finally sit down and wait yet another fifteen for the movie.


    When Mathew got out of the cinema, he wasn''t sure what to think. Rather than an exciting action flick, the movie was a mess of an accidental documentary and educational video about demon summoning. Everything was fine until fifteen minutes into the movie, the main character attempted his first advanced ritual magic, against the advice of his mentor. The next two hours of the movie was the crew running around like headless chickens, the actors and Mages in charge of the special effects fighting off a third circle demon of pride. "Well, kudos to the cameraman for not running away. If he wasn''t one of the mages though... one must wonder about his mental faculties." Suddenly bumping into something, awoke Mathew from his thoughts. When he looked down for a moment he was drowned among the Many Maws, mewling and barking of kittens and puppies, almost drowned out by the screams of the Consumed.As soon as the visions came, they were gone. The Black Goat nudged the silly human and trotted away.


    It took Mathew a moment to shake out the sensation of seeing the world through a pair of infinite eyes, aside from his own seven. He furrowed his brows, took a deep breath and looked into the sky. The firmament flashed with the Web of Her who owns everything She Knows, and the mage was back within himself. The usually invisible formation was the only reason minds lesser than Archmages could interract with the Eldritch.


    "Thank you," the man said towards the sky and gave a slight bow.


    A slight shiver went through his body, prompting him to hurry back home. Maybe the excitement of the events, would motivate him to work harder for a few more weeks. On the subway the magician tried meditating, his mind still too shaken, interrupting his focus. When he got off at his station, he was falling into a trance. The next day he only, vaguely remembered reaching the entrance to his apartment.


    Mathew woke up to the sound of children going to school, the System shining in his eyes and a slight ache in his back. Without parting his eyelids, the man slowly stretched and got up. Back on his feet, he opened his eyes, before him was the painting of his hands and the well between them. The bottom of the well was now filled with maw like, golden runes. The left hand had a bit of delicate, dark but of a hard to describe color, spider silk painted on it. Underneath the hand was a perfectly normal, white and grey goat. The mage briefly considered painting over the additions of last nights, he hoped it was last night, madness. Something within him stirred, at the same time System flashed in his eyes a wordless warning, just a blank screen. Mathew understood, concealing those influences would bring them back into himself and he wasn''t ready for them, likely would never be. He turned to leave the room, but the System flashed again, this time informing him about meditation. The man complied, his mind seemed at rest and with each breath and cycling of mana, the slight weight connecting him to the wall lessened until it snapped half an hour later. The mage also checked the progress on his runes and found none, everything was the same as the last time he meditated.


    As Mathew got up to leave the room again, nothing stopped him so he made his way to the bathroom. He dropped his clothes on the floor, now noticing they were covered in paint, far more of it that the little painted on the wall would suggest. Waving it away as magic being magic, he got in the shower, the cold water got rid of the last traces of the morning grogginess.

 6. Days gone by

    Since he already meditated before the shower, Mathew sat down to develop the ice runes. The one he already finished before, slowly circled his core. The technical term was a rune, but it actually looked like a tiny, flat cloud of frost. Each mage developed their runes slightly different, for some they were childish scribbles, for others descriptions in their language, those who came from old cultures usually formed established symbols. Mathew simply thought of frost, the way it felt, how it looked, what it represented, rather than what represented it. Small lines of fog stretched out of the rune, ready to connect to the next one he''d form. A circle formed around the frost cloud, shapeless, colourless mana of ice. The System recommended forming the second rune in one of two ways. As a number of focus points, each separately connecting to future runes, or a single circle that would make use of the entirety of itself and the frost rune, but as a less focused form would be harder to control and form.


    Mathew doubted he''d achieve great heights on the path of magic, but he would still do things properly. Once the day would come, that he lied on his death bed, he wanted the ability to say "I lived my life to the fullest, I took no short cuts, I am satisfied." Thus, he tried to form the circle again. Mana collected, took shape and dispersed as fog. Focusing power through a rune larger than the source, was terribly counter intuitive. For a while now, the mage tried bringing more and more mana, voiding the space within the rune, trying to create a circular tube, that would snap into focus within the empty space. Once it was complete, through complicated mental gymnastics, he could view the circle as smaller than the original rune, or so said the System.


    After three hours of meditation, Mathew lied down on his back with a sigh. He just couldn''t picture a larger object focusing the smaller one. He began thinking what a circle was, in the old folk tales and traditions. When an old cronecame to you with curses and fortune telling, you drew a circle around yourself so she couldn''t apporach. When you slept in a forrest, you drew a circle so the spirits wouldn''t enter your body. When you found an evil, you drew a circle around it so it couldn''t escape. In a village, when a criminal was found, he''d be brought to the Old Oak and tied like through a circle, with his intestines to the old tree. Old trees were quite the symbol on their own as well. The mage got lost in thought, sometimes coming back to folk tales, other times picturing superhero shooting beams out of circles. He tought of targetting circles in games, of drawing practice, making hundreds of circles for hours on end. When his mind reached dusty memories of math, he sat up.


    The mage focused again, this time he thought of power to contain, shield and release. Rather than use vague, mostly forgotten knowledge about science, he thought of mystical rituals. The circle formed, containing the frost rune, protecting it from outside influence, ready to shoot out it''s power. Time passed and the cold inside Mathews body was growing unbearable, cold sweat all spread all over his body and because he didn''t drink any water since the previous day a headache was coming. Finally, after hours of focus, the rune snapped into place. The fog connecting the runes thickened and stretched around the jagged ring of ice, foggy tongues swaying above and below the new rune.


    Mathew was excited to try it out right away, but worried about damaging something inside his appartment decided to do it later. Also, he was damned thirsty and didn''t want to nurse a headache for the rest of the day. He stretched a few times, this way and that and got up.


    The man dug up some painkillers from the shelves in the kitchen and with a tall glass of water sat down. He felt like his new spell whispered to him, to be tested out, unleashed to be seen. Still, he controlled himself and once he drank the water, found a clean set of work out clothes and walked out of his apartment. Once more he went to the park, where he hoped the grilling areas would be empty. If they weren''t, he would have to go further, to an artificial river about two kilometers away.


    On the way Mathew stopped in a coffee shop, got an overpriced thermos and ordered some hot chocolate in it. Cup in hand, he strolled without hurry. He wanted to run, get as fast as possible to his spot and just blast out the magic, but thought being slow would be a good patience training. When the mage saw the trees, his legs began taking longer steps on their own, but he kept them steady. Once he reached the park, his steps quickened, but once more he regained his slow pace.


    Finally he reached the dirt circle, left the thermos at it''s edge and walked to stand in the middle. Not wanting to fall into bad habits of many mages, who focused most of their spells through their hands, first he directed the power through his legs. The mana left him much like it would with only the frost rune, but Mathew locked it with a circle fifty centimeters from his body. As he began getting cold, hecreated a second circle around his feet, keeping the frost away from himself. With the spell fully released, warmth began rushing into his body and he collected more mana. Now from his thighs he positioned the mana to release to his sides. Two cones of energy rushed out, then the warmth came andthree meters long, one meter wide at their ends, cones of frost appeared on the ground.


    Mathew looked around, then squated and through his chest cast a single cone, only slightly longer and wider than the previous two. He then walked a bit into it, turned around and from the right pointing finger released the last spell. He tried controlling it''s spread and how far it would go and managed to make a head for his misshapen frost angel.Satisfied, the mage walked back to his hot chocolate, giggling like a child who had all of the invited guests come to the birthday party.After a couple sips of chocolate, Mathew stretched and began walking back towards the center of the circle, when he notice a group of four childrencomings towards him.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    When the girls reached the dirt, they waved at the man. "Hi, we saw you training!", the middle girl asked and continued, "Are you a Mage?" and run up closer to the man.


    The mage furrowed his brows and looked over at his creation, then back at the girls. "A kid on the Moon unable to tell the difference between an Apprentice and a Mage? They can''t be younger than fifteen, so they should be Apprentices themselves... I get they might not expect me to be weaker than them, but c''mon." Mathew glanced at the frost angel andlooked at the children again. "They''re not even looking at the magic... girly, you couldn''t be more obvious... children, can be so silly." Finally the man spoke, "Hey! Sadly no." The mage smiled apologetically.


    "Oh... Mage Apprentice then!" the girlexclaimedunabated. "My friend over here," she pointed at the girl to her left, who was looking down at the ground, "is also practicing ice magic! Maybe you could give her some personal advice?", with those words, the excited girl pushed her friend forward.


    "Oh, come on Anna!" The Ice Apprentice glared at the other kid. "So, we saw you casting magic. You casted from all over your body!"


    "Gesturing and chanting just make focusing easier. Well, there are some systems that require them, I guess."Mathew paused and continued, "The methods from Maa are rather free in how you can manifest your magic, just like the system spread by the Spider. I think the older Moon community, while mostly ritualistic, has methods to instantaneously form their circles on any surface in the proximity of their spiritual bodies. Well, for an actual explanation you would probably be better off, asking your teachers or proffesors, or a master if you have one."


    "Maybe you could be Mary''s master!", one of the girls in the back yelled.


    "Y-yes! You could teach me!", the child said while glaring at her friends, who laughed between each other.


    "Sorry, I''m not even an Apprentice. I''m only trying to get back in shape." Mathew smiled in a self-depreciative manner. "I should get going, have a nice day."


    "You are in good shape! Maybe we can just go for coffee?", the girl yelled out.


    "You are cute and all, but I don''t date children." With those words, the man turned around and walked away.


    The girls continued talking, but the mage not in the mood, didn''t pay attention, his mind already somewhere else. Once he reached the edge of the park, he realized he didn''t take the thermos. With a sigh, Mathew turned back to get it. By the time he got back to the dirt circle, the children were gone and the frost angel was now covered by a thicker layer of ice. The mage was glad, that at least he was spared an awkward conversation with them. "The attention was nice enough I guess... but, like... ah, whatever." Not thinking much more of it, Mathew returned home, a smile wouldn''t leave his face the entire way.


    Once he got home, he grabbed some clothes and left for the gym. Nothing happened on the way to the Crystal Abode, but the wrold seemed more colourful. As usual, in front of the shopping center, a group of zealots was preaching about the dangers the false gods brought. Mathew waved at them, they deserved maybe a little kindness for sticking to their thankless task, and went in. A couple floors higher, Fitness Planet welcomed one of it''s new regulars.


    "Hi Mathew, you seem to be in a good modd." Josepho greeted the guest. "Something to do with your second rune?"


    "H-hey. Yes, kind of." The mage stopped and looked at the giant. "How strong are you?"


    The receptionist opened slightly his eyes and Mathew turned away, maybe he didn''t need that question answered. "Well, it''s been a fun day. I''ll be going up."


    The mage left his clothes in the changing room, before coming further up, to the treadmills. Once he was warmed up, he went through his usual sets. After three hours he was tired and finished, so after taking a quick shower and putting on jeans and a clean, black t-shirt he went up to the yoga garden.Mathew sat down in a corner and meditated.


    First he just played, swaying the fog coming out of the runes, making it quicken, stretch and flatten itself on the frost. When his body cooled down, he simply flowed mana through his body. While going through the simple exercise, the mage wondered which rune he should go for next. One would allow him to form ice constructs, early on just simple walls; the other would let him throw projectile spells and would add some destructive power to all of his magic. The System didn''t advice the man either way, as he would need both before he mage could work on the last rune. In the end Mathew decided on the first one. After forming his ice circle the way he did, a defensively focused rune would likely be easier. Acknowledging the decision, System showed the man his new curriculum.


    Mathew let the ice mana within himself calm down and looked into his core. He stretched the fog tongues downwards, helping them form into a new circle beneath the other runes. The mana that would form into a bowl there was sluggish to respond, losing form, flowing away and forming into ice spikes. After a few dozen failures, System flashed the mage to stop. The man stood up, stretched and bowed to some people exercising nearby.


    "Once I will have this rune in place, maybe I could try going to a dungeon? I still won''t really kill any monsters, but at least I could shield the other party members and help them avoid being overwhelmed... Yeah, once I will finish it, I will look for a party. I probably won''t get one straight away, so I will also have some time to work on the offensive rune and learn how to shape ice." When Mathew was done with his thoughts, he noticed his legs, on auto-pilot brought him back home. Without much thought, he just fell on the bed and fell asleep.

 7. Lets go for a hike

    After two weeks of effort, Mathew finally formed the ice creating rune. It looked like a very shallow bowl of jagged ice, hanging by fog threads from the other two runes. System informed the mage, that if he sculpted anything on the bowl, he would have an easier time calling it up as a spell.


    For now the man just walked this way and that, in front of a mirror, giggling at the ridiculous circular ice-hat he made. He''s already experimented with the sturdiness of the ice earlier, finding that it could handle a few strong smacks with a hammer. It wouldn''t help much against a dedicated physical fighter or a stronger monster, but would be just enough for the creatures in beginner dungeons.


    Mathew put the ice hat away in the shower and went over to the clothes box in the bedroom. He browsed for a bit and picked out torn up, blue jeans, an older bordo shirt and in the corridor found sturdy, beige hiking boots. Dressed and ready, the mage left towards a train station in the city center, to go the First City.


    The trains hovered through some sort of gravity enchantments above the tracks. The trains themselves were entirely wooden, the company that made them boasting about their enchantment capabilities. Inside lanterns hanged from the ceiling, instead of usual chairs, there were red sofas, small magic holograms showed the news and advertisements.


    Third zombie apocalypse adventure park opened on Mars, this time it was finally suitable for non-magicians. The music festival in the Second City gathered it''s biggest crowd yet with an improved magic show, as well as more musicians powering their instruments with their own mana. An old timer politician, soiled himself when the Spider visited a debate on which the politician in question spoke against false deities. The Spider surprised at the reaction, gave away some cookies to the audience and other politicians and left, while mentioning the Crystal City would be passing by Earth in the coming weeks.


    Once Mathew got off the train, he quickly run out of the station grown out of a large tree. The entirety of the first city consistent of humongous trees and was in a perpetual spring. In a garden of regular tree sized flowers, just by the station was the portal to Maa.


    Portals were somewhat of an orb-like hole in space. If you were to go around one, you''d see the vision of the other side match the direction from which you were looking, outside of the portal there. Surrounding the portal was set a circular mana barrier, only betrayed by white runes flowing on it. It was about thirty meters in radius, with the central ten taken up by the portal. On one side of the barrier, were four gates lettting a steady stream of people go through in both ways. Those intending to enter the portal had to go around to the other side, while those coming out had a straight path out.


    Mathew stood behind a brown skinned elf, the skin showing the elfs alignment towards earth magic. The mage looked around, most people going into the portal were humans in all the boring shades of pink, brown and anything else you''d expect in a multicultural metropolis. Most of the people walking out of the portal, were the elves, each representing a different colour of the rainbow. Some of the older magical people, had stripes or dots, showing the money they spent on enchanting their skin, beyond their natural alignment. Among the younger elves, there were sometimes purple, black or stary ones, the colours of sci-fi inspired magics that came from Earth.


    After about five minutes, Mathew got to the front of the line and stopped by the counter at the gate. Behind it sat a bored grey elf in a causal outfit and an official looking human guard. The elf wore enchanted jewelerly wherever it would fit and had a placard identifying him as a Grand Mage. The guard had a badge identifying him as a level twenty warrior, which would correspond to an Apprentice Warrior.


    "Hello, reason for visit and identification, please." The guard asked.


    Mathew fished out his basic ID and a blue and red crystal card with information on his magic power, and handed it over while saying. "Hiking, I will also stop by some adventuring agencies, but don''t plan on any hunting."The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "Hm... the systems shows you visited before as a Mage, but your ID shows you are barely an Apprentice." The guard looked over to his companion, "What do you say about this Kalev?"


    The Mage waved his right hand towards the tourist, a few words in one of the southern Maa languages appeared. "He has an inert core, different magic on a below Apprentice level flows through the rest of his body."


    "I understand," the guard gave Mathew his documents back. "Have a nice trip."


    The mage nodded his head and smiled, then turned towards the portal. On the other side stood a tall marble city "Valkoinen Torni", from the roofs, some of which reached the clouds, hanged intricate constructs resembling mushroom-chandelier caps made from crystal. The city was filled with a delicate music of the crystals swaying in the wind.


    The ground level of the city was reserved for pedestrains, while the various crystal, wooden and marble vehicles flew through the air. Mathew weaved through the masses until he reached a lift for a bus stop. The lift was a white, flowery cage made out of some white material, maybe a dead plant, maybe a work of art.


    After waiting for approximatelyten minutes, the bus the mage waited for arrived. It was a twenty meters long horizontally prolate, round vehicle. Starting at waist level it was mostly covered in clear panes of curved glass, the ground made out of matte stone.


    After a fifteen minutes flight, about fifty kilometers from the centre to the edge of the city, Mathew got off in a mountainous area. Another thirty minutes - walking through a wide, cobbled path for tourists - later the human reached his first stop, at a wooden, nordic style Adventuring Agency building "Ensimm?inen Lento". Nearby also stood some hostels and restaurants.


    The place was crowded with teenagers in glamorous adventuring outfits, office workers in gym clothes, taking part in company excursions, as well as the occasional odd ones out, in regular outfits. The crowds were split into about thirty percent humans and the rest elves, mostly coming from the nearby city.


    Mathew walked into the agency. On the far and right walls there were some counter windows, described in Maas most spread out language Kieli and in English. The counters were low, with comfortable dark blue chairs in front. To the left the wall was covered in magical screens floating in front of the wood. There were some comfortable, green chairs by the door wall, and the space in the middle was filled with standing tables with brochures and smaller screens. The mage passed by the people milling inside and walked over to the screens.


    The man passed his magic ID on one of the free screens. The device switched to English, and showed some options.


    <table width="459">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Basic guide about the "First Flight" dungeon</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Register a Party</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Register Solo</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Ticket for personal registration</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Ticket for selling dungeon loot</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Help</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    After some thought, Mathew decided to take a ticket for registration. He just didn''t like searching through Help windows. A prompt appeared on the screen, asking the customer to put their hand to it. A short, dim flash of light later, the mage had a red Kieli number on his right hand. The screen showed that the symbol would turn green and turn in the direction of a correct window, when it was the mans turn.


    Mathew looked over some brochures for fiteen minutes, when finally the symbol turned green and guided him to a window in the right corner. He sat down, leaving his magic ID on the counter. Behind sat aturqoise elven woman in a simple white tunic.


    "Hello, how may I help you?", the clerk asked in her language and an enchantment on the window translated in a monotone voice.


    "Yes, I''ve thought about finding a party...", the mage said in an uncertain voice.


    "Hm... may I ask for your ID?" Mathew slid the card over the counter, the clerk typed for a while into her computer and continued, "There aren''t any parties seeking members at your level, currently. There will be a vacation for students soon, maybe you could try then?"


    "Thank you, I suppose I will search a bit more around the mountain, or in some bars." The mage took his ID and with a "Have a nice day." left.