After finishing the fencing training with Cornelia, I had some time to rest. Recalling yesterday's experience of disconnecting, I realized that there was a time difference of approximately 2.5-3 hours between this world and the real world. I had about half an hour to disconnect from Babylon, which I did. You might think that I didn't spend much time resting, considering that two hours had passed in reality, but for me, the training was real. Don't think that virtual fatigue doesn't affect a person. So, I decided to ask Babylon if I could disconnect and received a positive response. If you remember Babylon's words that it's just an educational fragment, namely a platform, then there's no need to worry too much. If we think more carefully about Babylon's words that time doesn't stop here, and today he says that for convenience, it freezes at sunrise until I log in. Then it turns out that after all the training, the educational platform will turn into a real game or even a transfer to an artificial world with its inhabitants who will live by their own rules, not taking into account the players. With these conclusions in mind, I asked whether time would freeze or continue as it did during my first login. I received a response that time freezes at midnight in the real world. So, I disconnected from Babylon with knowledge about time.
"Finally, you disconnected from this machine," Alice said, helping me up.
"I didn't stay there long, did I?" I asked her.
"Only about 2.5 hours. The professor and I watched your game. It seemed like you spent more time there than you thought. You spent most of your time hitting the dummy, but it was still fascinating to watch," she told me with a smile. I was glad that she enjoyed it as much as I did. It was a priceless experience for me. And yet, I have to learn until I can go monster hunting.
" I'm glad that I'm not the only one who enjoyed it," I said. "It was very interesting for me to learn fencing given its similarity to reality. Hopefully, we can play a similar game together soon."
"I'll be looking forward to it," she replied to me.
"So," I heard from behind. I reflexively turned around. "Aaron, you need to pass and rest. While you're resting, describe your emotions in the report. The most important thing is to convey your feeling from the game. Was there physical fatigue or more emotional fatigue? We need to understand the player's sensations in such conditions. After all, the player understands mentally that they are in the game, but does their body understand it or not? I won't keep you any longer, go and write."
"I will do that, Professor," I said, walking away with Alice towards a small room. This room was furnished for rest, as it had various food appliances such as a coffee machine, a vending machine with ice drinks, vending machines with various snacks, as well as a small dining room with various sandwiches and mini pizzas. Taking food and drinks, we sat down together at a small table in the corner of the room. I leisurely discussed my feelings during the game with Alice. After about 15 minutes, we finished the discussion, and I began to describe my feelings about the learning process, consulting with Alice along the way. As for me, it went great, and my experience in the gaming industry helped me since I also described my sensations from passing certain moments of the game there, although that experience was with gaming consoles and PCs. After finishing the meal and the small report, I headed towards Professor Ho. After giving him the papers, I went to Babylon. If the game time to real-time ratio was 3:1, then approximately 1.5 hours had passed in the game. That was exactly how much time they gave me to rest, so I needed to urgently return there.
"Be careful," said Alice. After that, I immersed myself in the game. When I opened my eyes, I saw tree branches above me and warm sunbeams passing through the leaves. With my skin, I felt a soft breeze. Looking around, I saw Cornelia and Castor sitting under a large canopy. They were drinking tea and discussing something. It seemed like I was in a parallel world, not in the game. I couldn't bring myself to think that they were just a computer program. While I was thinking about it, I heard Castor calling me to come over.
"I see you've rested. Shall we start Aaron's magic training?" said the wizard Castor kindly.
Of course, I answered positively. For someone like me, who was experienced and loved all the themes of swords and magic, there was no need to ask about that. After my agreement, Castor began to explain magical theory, or rather, described the feeling of magic in the body. But let me tell you about magic in his words.
"So Aaron, there are two types of magic. The most common type of magic is internal mana. The rarest second type is external mana. All mages start with internal mana, later improving their abilities until the moment when internal mana evolves into external mana. But there are such natural talents as Cornelia. She is an external mana mage. However, because she is a magical swordsman, her magic is limited by her profession. Having such a high potential in magic, all she can do is use the highest skill of her profession, namely the absolute shield. The absolute shield is magic similar to my magic shield, which blocks both mana and physical attacks with certain limitations. For example, my shield appeared right after Castor's words."
"Look, Aaron. This is a magical shield. As you can see from its color, it's white, which means it corresponds to my element of light. You may think that it's a weak element, but don't be too hasty. You see light thanks to the darkness that comes when there is no light. Light disperses darkness and also provides warmth. My shield can withstand a strike from a master magician, but only once. However, I can hold off an opponent of equal strength with my shield until the end of my mana, unfortunately, such a feat won't work against warriors of my level. Warriors are natural enemies of magicians. In the war against demons, demons used to be the ones to destroy magicians first due to the heavy damage they inflict. Our shields are designed to withstand only a small amount of physical damage before falling apart. But Cornelius' shield doesn't have this disadvantage. Her highest magic is capable of protecting her and the people behind her from both a master level magician and a master level warrior, as long as her shield time hasn't ended. It's important to remember that as she increases her level, her shield will evolve with her. She will always be able to hold off an enemy who is 2 levels higher in the profession. Create your own shield, Cornelius," said Magician Castor.
"Absolute Shield," Cornelius said, after which a magnificent shield of golden color with delicate blue patterns appeared before her. Smoke of a bluish-white tint emanated from the shield itself, which can be said to resemble more of an aura or radiance. The shield was located a meter in front of her. The height of the shield reached about 2 meters, and the width was over 1.5 meters. The shield was also semi-convex and had a depth of over half a meter.
"Now, I will cast a magic attack over a large area towards her shield. Pay attention, Aaron," said the magician, as he began to recite the spell. "Noon Sunburst."
After he spoke those words, a small sun-like object began to form in front of him. It emanated an incredible pressure and an unbearable heat of a scorching sun. After the mini-sun was fully formed, its diameter became about 5 centimeters. Just a second after the sun was formed, a burst of light flew towards Cornelius. After the bright flash, I saw a burnt area up to the shield and Cornelius completely unharmed behind it, as well as the area behind her. The shield, on the other hand, glowed intensely with bright colors, and the patterns opened up even more.
"See, her shield completely nullified the damage. So, let's learn the basics that you can use even now. Imagine mana flowing in your blood throughout your body, cycling. Imagine the flow of mana going from your heart to your left hand, then to your right hand, down to your right foot, passing through your left foot and going back to your center, completing the cycle at your heart. And the cycle should never end, just like your blood that always flows. You should visualize the whole cycle and feel the mana within you. Once you can do that, you'll feel a sensation like tingling all over your body. And after that, I'll help you open channels to receive mana from outside your body for natural restoration. Now, sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes, and try to feel the flow of mana," Castor told me, pointing to the tree under which I disconnected from Babylon earlier today.
I sat under the tree, crossing my legs. This posture was similar to the one Buddhist monks meditate in. Magician Castor stood near me in the shade, slowly explaining the mana cycle. I don't know how long I sat there, but at some point, I fell asleep, immersed in my body. I began to feel the blood flow through the arteries of my body. Every beat of my heart that sent blood on its way sounded in my ears like drumbeats. I clearly felt the blood flow, but I couldn't grasp the mana Castor was talking about. As if it didn't exist, only the blood existed. So, without feeling the time passing, I sat there, looking for mana in the bloodstream. And finally, after several hours of meditation, I managed to fully visualize the cycle of blood flow through my body. It was at that moment that the voice of Babylon was heard, congratulating me on mastering the cyclicality of the flow, after which a purple hue overlaid my visualization of the blood cycle, with the only difference being a magical circle in the middle of my stomach emitting a saturated purple light. Focusing on the magical circle, I felt like thousands of tingles ran through my skin.
"Yes! You're right, Aaron. You were able to feel the mana," exclaimed Castor joyfully. "You were able to sense your first magical circle. Each subsequent magical shield has its own color. The first magical circle is violet. So when you were able to open the flow of mana around you, a violet mist began to gather. But as you can see, it cannot penetrate you," he said to me. "To do that, you need to feel your pores in your body. They should be like breathing. You should absorb the mist that has appeared around you through them. This way, you can constantly increase your magical power. Every magical circle you create will add to your intelligence. The more intelligence you have, the more mana you will have, and the faster you will recover mana. Each subsequent circle requires more mana. The more circles you have, the faster you can recover mana, and therefore collect it. Now your goal is to feel your pores. Go for it, Aaron."
With this incredible feeling, I continued to wander in my mind, trying to find a way to open up paths for absorbing the mana that had gathered around me. Focusing my mind on my body and disconnecting from everything else, I tried to visually imagine small funnels on my skin. Funnels that covered my entire body, entering through the pores into the bloodstream, mixing with my mana. That's how I slowly thought of more truthful ways to implement my visual structure. A little later, I began to feel as if I was creating these funnels myself, although it would be more correct to say that I was opening something like pores on my skin to absorb mana. By opening a few of these pores per minute, I opened more than 200 of them, but only on my hands, after which I heard Babylon's voice.
"Congratulations to the user on mastering the ability to regenerate mana by absorbing it from the environment. The ability is ranked C+ with the potential for improvement. The more pores you open to absorb mana from the environment, the better the improvement will be, as this ability has no limit on improvement. You will be able to achieve incredible heights in mastering magic. I hope the user enjoys the training platform," Babylon said as a final word.
"Thinking about my training, I realized that it took me more than 3 hours to master mana absorption. And if we consider the 2 hours I spent before that learning the basics of magic, it took me more than 5 hours in total. It's a little past 7 pm in the game right now. I think it's time for me to go to the tavern now. But first, I should say goodbye to Cornelius and Castor.
"Congratulations, Aaron, on mastering this ability. I want to say that not all mages have this ability. You did great, but for today, we should say goodbye. We'll see you tomorrow, my apprentice," Castor said with a smirk.
"You did great, Aaron. What you were able to show in training today lets us know your passion for learning. Like Castor, I am happy with your progress and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow morning. For now, Castor," Cornelius said.
"Goodbye, Teacher Castor and Teacher Cornelius," I said as I slowly headed towards the tavern.
As I walked, I thought about the time spent in the game and realized that it had been about 2 hours in the real world. That meant I still had time before the end of my day. But at this pace, I could spend 2 days in the game in just one day. I think that at this rate, I could fully master the abilities of Cornelius and Castor in just a few days. And so, I arrived at the tavern, had dinner, and went to my room, where I disconnected."