Bog Standard Isekai

The lesson with Lumina was to be on the twenty second floor of the Tower, right after the last classes of the day. Brin had never been up that far, but the Tower’s guide boards gave them the directions. He walked over with Sancha and Ares, and they met Almenesh on the way.

“I learned this week that this area of the Tower is controlled by the Life Circle, though I have never seen nor heard of it,” said the Pollisian girl as they made their way up on the elevator.

“How queer,” said Sancha.

“No, not so strange. Mother is the Dean of the Life Track, but she is not the Master of the Life Circle. That honor belongs to the [Grand Magus of Bountiful Agriculture] Elpidio, and we do not intrude on his private gardens without cause,” said Almenesh.

Brin knew Elpidio from Lumina’s lessons. He was a commoner by birth, rose quickly through levels when reversing a famine sixty years ago, and then plateaued at 60 and hadn’t gained a level in the last twenty years. She’d brought him up since he was a solid supporter of the Master of Magic, and one of the few people in the world who could reliably cultivate the plants needed for Healing Potions, but she hadn’t pressed Brin to make a connection with him. Not all [Grand Maguses] were created equal, and Elpidio had never invested into Vitality. He was likely going to die of old age in the near future.

He made a beautiful garden, though. The elevator doors opened into a forest wonderland. Green grass carpeted the floor, speckled in irregular sunlight coming through the thick foliage above. Sunlight? No, it couldn’t be. They were inside the Tower. But it felt like it, warm and comforting, letting them see clearly even so deeply shaded in the wood. Little blue mushrooms dotted the grass and interrupted patches of yellow flowers blossoming without blemish and filling the air with perfume.

Marksi’s ears perked up, and he looked this way and that. Brin didn’t see any sign of animals, but Markis acted alert and excited, like he did when he expected that at any moment a cool animal would pop up for him to chase.

Brin was really stuck on that sunlight. It was flat and even, as if the entire roof were a lamp shining down on them. He resisted the urge to send an Invisible Eye up there to check, since he wanted to experience this the natural way.

“This isn’t it,” said Almenesh, looking maybe just a bit smug at all their reactions.

“You’re right. I don’t see anyone else. But I’m sure the Tower guide sent us up here and this is a garden–”

“It’s not. It’s not a garden. That’s further on. This is a hallway,” said Almenesh.

Ares looked skeptical, but Sancha gasped in shock. Brin looked closer, and thought he was starting to see what they saw. There were walls and rooms, cleverly disguised by raised bushes or vines hanging from the trees, and there were pathways of moss-covered stones crossing between them.

The Tower guide had told them to go down the hall and take the first door to the left, so Brin pressed forward, walking down the moss-covered stones until he came to the first stone enclosure on his left and went through the door.

Inside, he found the most intensely radiant garden he’d ever seen in his life. On one side of the room, a raised tray of glowing lava heated the room, and it was surrounded by strange plants with long, spiky leaves so dark green they were nearly black. Here and there, a lick of flame would open up on the surface of the plants, but it quickly went out again each time. The dark green plants gave way to big red blooms, and then to flowers and blooms of every color and description. On the other side of the room, large metal fans, the only sign of modern industry, blew frigid air from the other direction. There in the middle of the cold-air plants, a lazy stream came through one wall of the room and left in the other.

In the innermost center of the room there was a patch of grass, and a single stump, upon which Lumina sat. Some other students had already arrived, and were sitting on the ground.

“Come and find a seat,” Lumina said, and gestured to the grass in front of her. “Mind you don’t disturb the Torpid Roselias.”

Brin didn’t know what those were, but he wasn’t going to disturb any of the extremophile plants in here if he could help it. As he walked in, he saw most of the people he’d invited, but it looked like Lumina had invited a few people herself. He’d warned him that she would.

What she hadn’t warned him about was the fact that she’d invited Vitor. The [Thirsty Blade] sat five feet away from the others, what must be uncomfortably close to the lava side of the room.

Lumina gave a slight grin to show that she was clearly enjoying her little surprise, and maybe daring him to make an issue of it. Well, it was a good decision. Vitor was an obvious choice, and it was the right decision to have the invitation come from Lumina instead of Brin. She could’ve told him, though.

Vitor gave Brin a frown, maybe also expecting Brin to make a scene. Brin just shrugged and then stepped over so that he’d be the closest person to Vitor, just so the guy wouldn’t look so separate from the rest of them.

Vitor moved a bit further away, and Brin sniffed in amusement. What a child. It hadn’t been a huge olive branch, but even that had been too much for Vitor. Then he thought about it for a second, and wondered if Vitor had another reason. He said to Sancha and Ares, “Switch places real quick.”

The two of them silently switched places with each other as if that were a perfectly normal thing for him to ask.

Now Sancha was sitting next to Brin, and a body-length closer to Vitor. Vitor scooted further away.

Brin leaned over and used illusion magic to ensure that only Ares and Sancha could hear his whisper, “He’s keeping five feet away from any women. Far enough away so that there’s no chance of accidentally touching someone.”

“And so should he!” Sancha answered.

Brin got up and walked towards the spot at the front, where Lumina had indicated in the first place. Vitor didn’t move back right away, but after a minute Brin noticed him subtly scooching away from the scorching lava side of the room.

The rest of the students filtered in. Princess Gracia was last. Everyone, including Lumina, stood when she entered, and waited for her to gracefully descend into a side-ways kneel before following suit. It was good manners to stand when any lady entered the room, but there were obvious exceptions like in theatres for classrooms where if everyone stood for every lady, there’d be no end to the standing and sitting. The exception to exceptions was royalty.

“Thank you for joining us, princess,” said Lumina.

Gracia nodded graciously.

“And thank all of you, as well, for humoring this little exercise. The express purpose of this group will be to enhance our connections to the elements through the use of guided meditation. I have in mind to give my foster son the [Commune with the Elements] Skill, and I’d urge you all to hold out in the case that you’re offered something lesser. But of course, you must do as you will. In later sessions, we’ll explore the basics of using your new-found understanding of the elements in your spellcasting. I’ve instructed many of you to come ready with the basic [Meditation] Skill, and to level it as much as possible. I understand that some of you haven’t had much time to prepare, but never fear: If you don’t earn the Skill’s evolution during our lessons, I’m certain you’ll still find great value from these exercises,” said Lumina.

Brin had definitely not remembered to tell everyone to bring the [Meditation] Skill, but it didn’t matter. Lumina had sent her servants to all of their servants to give them instructions like the time and place, which Brin had also forgotten to inform them of.

“We’ll start with ten minutes of independent breathing exercise. You’ll want time to acclimate to our environment,” said Lumina.

Brin resisted the urge to use [Multithreading] to make the time go by faster. Meditating with two minds didn’t mean twice as much [Meditation] would happen. He counted his breaths, cleared his mind, and let the minutes crawl by.

One might think that if the left side of the room was too hot and the right side of the room was too cold, the middle of the room would be just right. That wasn’t the case at all. Instead, he was both too hot and too cold at the same time. His left side was feeling like it was being sunburned while at the same time he was shivering.

It made attempting to meditate a frustrating challenge, which was possibly the point of doing it here.

Lumina spoke again, keep [Meditating]. “Listen to my words, but do not dwell on them. All the images they evoke to enter your mind, and then allow them to leave again. Now breathe with me. Five breaths. One, two, three, four, five. I begin.

“The early beams of summer sun pull upon the earth, drawing wood from the earth, the living earth, the hearty soil, grows the wood and stretches towards the sun. Burning hot, the source of life, the source of change. Fire. It radiates. It transforms the world. It draws the wood out of the soil. In, breathe in, breathe in fire. Out, out the air, even the plants breathe, breathing out.

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“The fountains under the earth, they are rising. Cold, the stones of solid water. Hot, the twisting air-mixed water, hot from the fire in the earth. Rise, the water…”

Lumina guided their meditation almost like a chant, her voice rising and falling in mystical furor. It was a side of her he’d never seen before. She was always so practical and matter-of-fact… and she was terrible at telling stories. She normally jumped around all over the place, and kept interrupting herself to add more details. But now, she spoke smoothly and confidently as a master story-teller. It was clearly memorized, which was how she was delivering it so smoothly, but still an impressive change from her usual self.

Brin mostly kept his eyes shut, but he peeked once and saw that Marksi was fixed on Lumina and his tail was swishing back and forth in eager expectation.

Brin forced himself to stop thinking about random things and focus on the images Lumina was invoking. He tried to fill his mind with the elements she was invoking, since that was what they were here for, right? Somehow, meditating while thinking about these elements in this order was going to give him a Skill. How, he didn’t know how… and he was getting distracted again.

His mind was a steely fortress when he was meditating, his high level made sure of that. But it only worked if he actually tried to concentrate instead of letting himself get distracted by theorizing. He focused, and felt the Skill reinforce his resolve.

Meditation leveled up! 46 -> 47

Her chant went through each of the four elements, guiding them through the states of matter they could embody. And even though it was clearly concentrated on the four elements, he could see how Lumina emphasized the way that fire made light, and how glass was just another type of stone. Brin kept his mind focused on the sound of her voice and the images they evoked.

There was a pause after the second recitation, and Brin didn’t let that interrupt his [Meditation]. Then Lumina began again. The same words, but they couldn’t be more different. She was speaking in the Language.

“<The early beams of summer sun pull upon the earth, drawing wood from the earth…>”

She trailed off, and then said, “I see that many of you failed to keep up your concentration. We’ll have to start over.”

Even that one sentence had been too much for most of the Class. Brin had adapted and held on, but he was sure that was just because his Skill was high level rather than any particular virtue on his part. Now, he didn’t have to concentrate to keep his mind full of the concepts she was invoking. When she said <Sun> he could feel the burning might of the daystar as if transported to its surface in a vision. When she spoke <Earth> he could feel the solid enduring and supporting weight beneath him. <Wood> brought each and every living plant in the garden to his mind with such dazzling force it was nearly unbearable.

He opened his eyes, wincing at the thought of seeing that enormous sun again, but now that Lumina wasn’t speaking the Language, the room was an ordinary magical garden.

Princess Gracia was on her feet. “What spell could you possibly be casting? That… that…”

“No spell, Your Highness. I was simply speaking the Language as a language, and doing what we were doing from the beginning. These are simple phrases to guide your meditation. That is all,” said Lumina.

“No. No, it isn’t possible. I would’ve heard of this already if it could be done,” said Gracia.

Brin didn’t blame her for being skeptical. Most [Mages] focused on a few words of power and concentrated their effort on gaining insight into their favorites in order to increase their effectiveness, the way he did with <Fire>. The in-between words, the definite articles and conjunctions weren’t commonly known and were incredibly complicated.

Even though Brin trusted Lumina, he still shivered at the thought of someone being able to speak the Language like that. But he’d had the advantage of knowing it was possible.

Marksi lay by Brin’s side, still twitching in pleasure at the sound of his mother tongue being spoken so well. Lumina was even more fluent than when she’d spoken to the Hidden Guardian. She’d obviously memorized every word the dragon had spoken, and integrated it into her own vocabulary.

“It is possible,” said Lumina.

“As you’ve demonstrated. But you haven’t answered the true concern. How have you kept this hidden from the crown?” Gracia demanded.

Marksi stood and lazily made his way over to stand between Gracia and Lumina. He gave Gracia a sarcastic little smirk, and then pretended to ignore her.

“Wait. Wait, I have heard of this after all, only I accounted it a fable. It can’t be true, can it? Do dragons by nature truly speak the tongue of the gods?” To Marksi, she said, “Can you say such words, little one?”

Marksi looked like he wanted to brag, but also realized that he’d look like a fool if they asked him for a demonstration. Instead, he curled up on himself defensively.

“With apologies,” Brin said on his behalf, “He would comply if he could, but he’s still very young.”

“No matter,” Gracia said with an irritated twitch of her lips. “Your Radiance Lumina, I apologize for my outburst. You share with us a great boon, and I am sure I speak for all of us when I say we are honored by it. I offer only my extreme surprise by way of explanation for my untoward defensiveness.”

“No apologies are necessary, Your Highness. Now that you’ve all experienced it, I can explain a little more. What we’re attempting is to use the Language as a vehicle to deliver some of the insights I’ve gleaned into the elements to you in a way that regular communication cannot. Should you succeed in successfully meditating during this experience, you should gain an extreme number of levels in the General Skill. Should you be unable to maintain concentration, you will still benefit from passively hearing new words of Language. Should even that be too much for you, please do not be ashamed to remove yourself from this classroom. You will have another chance in a future session. I only ask that you refrain from interrupting your fellow students upon your exit.”

She waited for any objections, and when none came, said, “I would like a verbal ‘yes’ of agreement from each of you.”

There was a chorus of “Yes” from the class. Ares’ “yes” came out as a grunt, and Sancha’s as a squeak. Lumina held her gaze on Vitor, until the young man, who’d been lost in thought, noticed all eyes on him and said, “Yes, of course, Your Radiance.”

Lumina nodded, “I’ll suggest another five minutes of breathing, and then we can begin again.

This time, Brin had no problem keeping his concentration. Now that he knew what was coming, he was glad for the time he had to gather himself and prepare his mind.

She spoke the chant again in regular Frenarian, but even then it felt more raw and electric than it had before, as if echoes of the Language could still be heard in it.

Then the Language portion began again. It was as raw and painfully vibrant as before. Brin could feel everything. The chill breeze from his right, the hot fire from his left, and the beautiful and exquisite life in between.

[Meditation] didn’t help him endure the sensation, it amplified it. He held on, letting himself feel the coursing magic in the room–and it was magic. Just because it wasn’t a spell didn’t mean it wasn’t magic. Just feeling the connection between his Mana, the Language, and the world was high magic.

Meditation leveled up! 47 -> 50

The increase in levels only made a slight difference, but that slight increase in his awareness was nearly the straw that broke the camel’s back. He was only hanging on to his [Meditation] by the edges of his fingernails.

And then the System gave him an alert that totally shocked him out of it.

Alert! Meditation has earned an optional advancement!

Spend 1 General Skill point to evolve Meditation into Commune with the Elements.

Commune with the Elements [0]

Active: Meditate upon the elements in your close vicinity in order to increase your Mana regeneration.

Passive: Increased awareness of your own Mana. You can sense magic based on your knowledge of the elements.

Caution: You will lose all current levels in Meditation

Accept:

[Yes] [No]

Brin had never seen a Skill like that. It was an active leveling Skill. He didn’t waste any time in selecting it.

Meditation [50] -> Commune with the Elements [0]

Lumina was still reciting her chant, and Brin didn’t even try to get his mind back on track. He bet this process would be great for leveling and coming to understand his new Skill, but he was in no state to try it. At some point, he’d fallen onto his back, so he simply lay on the grass and waited for it to be over.

Even that wasn’t the end of the class. Lumina gave them time to recover, then she had them sit in a circle while they all talked about what they’d seen and felt during her chant.

They spoke of it as one might a religious experience. Almenesh spoke of how connected she’d been, how she felt that she’d found a community here with strangers from across a continent, and others assured her that they felt the same. Sagramor, their potential mole in the Circle of Water, talked about his insight into how everything began with water, and the student from the Fire track argued that obviously everything began with fire.

Vitor spoke in awed terms about air and earth, and Brin gave his two cents about how fire and earth came together to create things, and how that meant a lot to him as a glassmaker.

Of course, no one could help but pepper in a few details about the levels they’d gained. Sancha got a full fifteen levels to her [Meditation] Skill. Ares had gained [Commune with the Elements], and so had Vitor and a couple others. Gracia didn’t mention what she’d gotten, if anything, but she seemed pleased by the experience.

Eventually, Lumina called the class to a close, and promised those that didn’t gain the Skill this time, that they’d get another chance. No one seemed disappointed, not even Nunno the [Illusionist], who’d been so overwhelmed he’d needed to step out during the chant.

She offered one last quick little demonstration. She summoned four orbs of elemental magic, one at a time. “<Fire, Earth, Air, Water>”

Brin could feel it. He could feel each of them. He’d had good magical senses before, because in addition to being able to sense Glass, Light, Sound, and now Fire magic, he could sense the way his magic clashed with other elements in the Wyrd. But now he could feel all of them, all four elements.

Commune with the Elements leveled up! 0 -> 1

Lumina asked Brin to stay behind as the rest of the students filtered out. Then she surprised him by asking Vitor to remain behind as well.

Vitor approached boldly but his eyes were full of caution, maybe the way Brin would act if he were asked to meet one of Duke Cobol’s proxies.

“I understand you have a dance coming up,” said Lumina.

Brin smothered his surprise. Out of everything she might want to talk about, he hadn’t expected that. “I guess we do.”

“There was always a severe imbalance of the genders in my time as a student. Too few young gentlemen. I believe that could be corrected if a few young men, especially those popular with their peers, were to advertise the fact that they plan to attend,” said Lumina.

Brin shrugged. “Sure. If it means that much to you.”

“It does.”

Vitor looked extremely pained. “I… I had not planned to…”

Lumina crooked an eyebrow. She didn’t need to say it. She’d just handed him a Skill of unfathomable utility and power, and he couldn’t go to a school dance?

“I will attend, of course,” said Vitor.

“Only if you truly wish to,” said Lumina.

“I do, Your Radiance,” said Vitor.

“Excellent.” She glided away, leaving Vitor, Brin, and Marksi alone in the garden. Marksi had fallen asleep.

Brin paused, suddenly awkward. What to say here? Nothing. He started walking to the door.

“Wait,” said Vitor. “I need a favor.”