NOVEL NEXT Chapter 6: Educated
Over 80% of people under thirty find that the greatest inconvenience of eating at a table without chairs is the inability to play footsie with the cutie across from them. In this case, the subject was Jasson and the cutie was Petra, so footsie was out of the question. Instead, Jasson felt the urge of 99% percent of all humanity, old and young. That, upon being fed excessively with a meal of great delight, mankind desires to put their feet up and promise that they won’t fall asleep.
Regrettably, Petra chose this sluggish time to proceed with her lesson.
“Listen well because I won’t be repeating myself.” Petra said as Clara cleaned the table, “Magic depends on three things, all of which are exhaustible. The first is Mana. This is like fuel for the fire and is the determining factor of how powerful a mage can be. Mana can be increased slowly over a lifetime, although it is known to skyrocket after rare life-changing events. You can replenish Mana through rest or special Mana Crystals, although these days most people just use potions.”
Jasson tried to open his phone, whether to take notes or scroll he wasn’t sure. But the black screen forced him to turn back to Petra and look her in the eyes. Then, deciding that the eyes were too intense, looked her in the nose instead.
“Okay,” Jasson said, handing Clara his plate, “But can we sit down for this? We’re not eating at the table anymore.”
“Wuss,” Petra said, walking over to the beds, “Always needing to rest. You’re wasting your Q&A time. You can sit on that one by the way, I doubt Clara will care.”
The apprehension of every boy sitting on a girl's bed flitted through Jasson, but Petra’s suspicious glare burned it away like fog at noon.
“I wouldn’t want to waste my Q&A,” Jasson said, plopping down on the mattress, “Please go on.”
“Only because I have to,” Petra said, smiling fractionally, “Glad I have your attention though. Let's see...the second part of Magic is the Mind. Your Mind. Magic is controlled by envisioning its shape mentally and willing it to do so. If you were to take a Water Crystal and try to fill a glass using magic, then the crystal would pour water from every side and get your hands wet. Nothing terrible, but when you use fire…”
“Ah,” Jasson said, “I see.”
“Exactly.” Petra said, poking Jasson’s forehead, “You need to envision it perfectly, otherwise it will go wild. My scars are proof enough of that. The more dangerous and volatile the element, the less control the mages have. Beware a Water Wizard, they are often the most skilled at control, no matter the experience level. To be honest, run if you see a Water mage. They have a nasty habit of drowning you.”
Jasson felt chills at the thought of drowning. He’d always felt that, if not number one, drowning was up there as a top five worst way to die. Surely above falling from a great height, although definitely less than being buried alive.
“And finally,” Petra said, reaching into a pocket, “There are Magic Crystals. Manifestation Crystals to be precise.”
Petra took a bag from her pocket and shook it out on the bedsheet, spilling a rainbow of sparkling crystals. Ten of them glinted in disarray, most about the size of Jasson’s thumb. Petra tried to line the crystals up on the bedsheets, but they rolled too easily like cylindrical Skittles.
“Boulderdash,” Petra said, “This is why I wanted to teach you on the table.”
Jasson raised an eyebrow and said, “We can move back if this is too hard for you.”
Petra glared at Jasson, then smirked and said, “As if. I’ll just group them by category so I don’t have to worry about the rest. Where to start…hmmm.”
Petra lined up a Blue, Green, Orange, and Clear Crystal, holding them steady as the rest tumbled between her crossed legs.
Petra touched each in succession and said, “The Base Elements: Water, Earth, Fire, Air. The main reason I lost my bet. There’s no way you would have gotten seven without these.”
“I absolutely agree,” Jasson said, “Without those four there’s only six others to guess.”
Petra rolled her eyes and let the crystals tumble as she gathered three more.
“Oh shut up,” Petra said, lining up the next three, “The other Elemental type Crystals: Light, Darkness, and Cold more commonly known as Ice. These are the last ones which are classically called elements.”
They glittered from the bed, facets turning as Petra shifted. Yellow for Light and Black for Darkness. Not quite the balance Jasson had imagined, more of a bumblebee than the diametric opposition fundamental to the universe. Jasson had been expecting white and black, like Yin and Yang. Instead White was for Ice rather than Light. As big as Jasson’s pointer finger and fully opaque, the Cold crystal lacked any patterns that looked like ice. The crystals tried to roll again as Petra prepared the rest, but she caught them this time.
“Stay,” Petra said, then pushed forward the final group, “These are the weird ones. Healing, Gravity*, and Raw Magic. Healing is quite normal, and gravity seems to move things around, but Raw Magic? There are no limits, and very few people are good at it. I only have a Raw Magic Crystal to complete the set, which is why it’s so small.”
*(Due to its presence in magical theory, Gravity was discovered long before apples were. Not that they understood anything about the nature of Gravity. Most scholars thought there was a giant purple crystal in the core of the world. Since crystals were found in the ground, modern scholars found it much more sensible than some insane liquid rock and Iron core theory.)
Red for Healing, Purple for Gravity, and what looked like solidified Glitter for the last one. The Raw Magic crystal sparkled brilliantly but was absolutely tiny. The size of Jasson’s pinky nail when the other Crystals were at least thumb-sized. The Raw Magic Crystal didn’t even roll since it was flat, making it even smaller.
In short, Jasson thought, the crystals are all the basic combinations of red, yellow, and blue. That’s not hard to keep track of, even with black and white thrown in. The only major color missing is brown and…Pink? Or is pink considered a lighter shade of red?
“Interesting,” Jasson said, “So I take it that you can only use one at a time?”
“Obviously,” Petra said, “but I’m not done explaining yet.”
Jasson rolled his eyes and said, “Go on. I’d hate to waste my time for questions with questions.”
“You little- fine!” Petra crossed her arms, “Lecture over. You have two more minutes, ask away.”
Crap, Jasson thought, I don’t have any good questions ready.
“Umm,” Jasson grabbed his phone from his pocket and tried to scroll.
Right, Jasson thought, no power. What if-
“All right,” Jasson held up his phone, “how would I charge this? What crystal produces electricity?”
“Electricity?” Petra frowned, “What’s that?”
“Oh,” Jasson thought then said, “I guess you’d probably call it lightning.”
Recognition dawned in Petra’s eyes and she said “Oh, Lightning. Oh gee. I wonder which crystal Light-ning comes from. It’s a puzzle.”
“Hey,” Jasson said, “You didn’t even know what electricity was.”
“That’s just a regional word for lightning,” Petra said, “I can’t be expected to know every backwater term.”
“Backwater?” Jasson said, “It’s the scientific name for…well for electricity! Lightning is a type of electricity. Whatever, can I see that Light Crystal? I want to charge my phone.”
“Sure,” Petra said, holding the crystal out, “it didn’t cost that much so you should be able to afford it when you break it.”
“I’m not going to break it,” Jasson said, taking the yellow crystal, “besides, I don’t have any money right now.”
“Then you’ll just have to work off your debt to me,” Petra said, grinning, “I promise to not be too demanding.”
Jasson ignored Petra and held the Manifestation Crystal to his phone. It wouldn’t go in being the size of his thumb, so Jasson held it against the Thunder charger port. Nothing happened.
“How would I go about putting a small amount of lightning into my phone,” Jasson said, “Is there a spell for it?”
“That’s a Viewing Crystal right?” Petra said, leaning over as she scooped the other crystals into the bag, “It’s a simple spell. Just imagine that feeling of a static shock and try to visualize it more powerfully. Envision it going into your Viewing Crystal and lighting it up. It will hurt when you do it wrong, but I doubt that you’ll need healing if so. I’m not gonna charge it for you if you can’t manage, so you might get rather sore from this.”
Jasson tried, but couldn’t seem to get the hang of it. Send the electricity into the port and light it up. What was he supposed to envision with that?
Jasson felt Petra watching him, and then Petra said, “Look, usually Mages use words that encapsulate the meaning of the spell. It helps separate spells subconsciously, which prevents crossover. What do you want to do? Why do you want to do it? What does it look like? What word will fit? That sort of thing. If you pick a good word it can even become iconic enough for others to copy it.”
Most protagonists would have come up with some cool name, power move, or something clever. Lightning Blood Infusion, Electric Awakening, Ionic Ressurection. Jasson, although decently clever, was not feeling like being creative at the moment. He was feeling tired and dirty, and wanted to scroll through his favorite creators instead of listening to Petra degrading him.
Besides, there’s only one word to use for refilling his phone’s battery and it’s not ‘Wattage Whirlwind’.
“Charge.” Jasson said, and with the will of mountains and the hope of half a dozen religions, he pushed electricity into his phone.
Please, Jasson thought, I need this!
Doot
The little battery icon popped up saying 9% and charging. Hope surged like a victorious army, triumphantly roaring as they looked forward to a banquet of minute-long dopamine hits.
“Wow,” Petra said, “Nice.”
Jasson said, “I thought you’d say 'getting it to charge on the first try is the bare minimum' or something.”
Instead of backing off in irritation, Petra thumped Jasson on the shoulder and said, “Well it’s not. In fact, it’s rather impressive. And not because this is your first time casting a spell, but because you didn’t get shocked while doing it. You envisioned it perfectly, not letting an invisible fraction escape elsewhere. On top of that, you’re maintaining the charge subconsciously! As if it’s the most natural thing in the world. I’ll give you praise when you deserve it, not for basic things. This is something worth being proud of, but only for a couple of minutes. Don’t let it get to your head.”
Jasson felt a rush of pride as he watched his phone charge. Petra had given him a real compliment, one he'd earned through actual achievement. Yes, the achievement had come naturally. But Jasson had spent most of his life charging his phone, so why wouldn’t it be natural? This was right.
Jasson watched, hypnotized as he waited for the charge to increase. Petra stood a minute later, leaving Jasson to discover that his phone charged at an excruciating pace. He didn’t know exactly how fast it had charged in his past life, but now? It seemed like an eternity passed for each percent, and he had to hold the crystal against the phone the whole time. The charge had barely crept over 15% when Clara approached him.
“All right you,” Clara dried her hands off on a towel, smiling, “It’s time for us to get ready for bed. I take it you don’t have any pajamas?”
“I don’t have anything,” Jasson said, “Just my phone and wallet.”
“All right,” Clara shrugged, “well, it’s not like we have our father’s old clothes in the attic. You’ll just have to make do. Come on, Petra insists that you and I stand guard outside while she gets ready for bed.”
Ah, Jasson thought, They need to change clothes. So they’ll take turns guarding me to make sure I don’t try to peak. That’s…relieving. Not as much pressure on me, and more security for them.
Jasson said, “Wise. I wasn’t going to peep, but I’m grateful that you’re removing the option.”
Jasson stood from the bed, marveling that his legs weren’t asleep. Clara’s smile disappeared with the realization and she gasped.
“Oh!” Clara said, covering her mouth with her hand, “You’re right! I’m so sorry. I thought she was only talking about guarding in general. I’m going to go tell her that you’re perfectly safe and-”
“Please don’t,” Jasson said, “I could be a sus guy for you. Legit, thanks for the help.”
Then Jasson left the room with Clara trailing, stunned. Now, even in the back of their minds, they would have peace.
The moon was high and bright by the time Jasson made his way out of the not-ruins, finding the cobbled road which the Twins had first led him down. Clara stood awkwardly by the house behind him as Jasson found a place to sit. The grasses here were cut low to the ground, and Jasson smiled imagining Clara swinging her sword around like a giant lawnmower. A gentle breeze rustled the trees as crickets started their orchestra, and for once Clara seemed…subdued.
Fair enough, Jasson thought as he charged his phone, I’m not the best of people. It’s good that she gets a little dose of realism. Still…
Jasson pushed the thought from his mind and powered on his phone. Hopefully, he could charge it faster than it drained. Jasson noted the time once the phone finally booted.
We'll see how fast it charges, Jasson thought.
It was like a breath of fresh air as Jasson opened TikTik, despite only being off it for a few hours. He had only one bar of service again, and yet TikTik was faster than before. Jasson ran a quick speed test and whistled. At 25 Mbps, the phone's data was the fastest since he'd had full bars at the army camp. How was that possible with only one bar?
Having decent speeds reminded Jasson of a bunch of other things he missed. His six-foot charging cable, soft couches, frozen dinners, and the ability to comment on videos. Jasson missed driving his parent’s car and taking a hot shower with modern soaps, and he especially missed having a change of clothes. In a few months he was supposed to go into his senior year! Jasson had been too paralyzed to ask a girl to Prom all the other years, but he’d been hoping to ask someone this time around.
Was this really his life now? His ‘New Life’? He didn’t feel like he had died. Just there one moment, here the next. People knew that he’d died, right? Jasson doubted that they’d been able to recognize his body beneath that semi-truck. Would he even get a funeral? Jasson blew the metaphorical dust off of his Phasebook account and looked up his family.
There it was. Announced yesterday. Jasson Boar, beloved son, died in a freak accident. Funeral to be held on Saturday, June 29th, and the burial would be on Sunday, June 30th.
He will be missed.
Jasson had never been to a graveyard. Oh, he’d passed through once or twice, but he’d never been there. The only graves he knew were the deactivated profiles and final posts from friends and family. Here Jasson sat, hands trembling, staring at his very own tombstone.
“Huh,” Jasson said, “I…I’m dead.”
It was like witnessing a car crash you were part of. Jasson was a ghost on the platforms, checking his friends and family’s accounts. Condolences, memories Jasson thought had been forgotten, and so many pictures from his childhood. It was as if his parents had poured out their entire Guugle Photos onto the internet. Everything Jasson ever did was wondrous and missed, cherished moments from an irreplaceable part of their worlds.
Conversely, Jasson felt his blood pressure begin to rise as his neck burned. Why did it take him being dead for people to finally notice that he existed? There weren’t even any photos of him from the past two years, just the group photos at Christmas and other events. Jasson could barely read the posts and-
Doot-doot
Jasson pressed the Light Crystal back against the port and resumed charging. Sixteen percent full.
“Okay,” Jasson said, grateful for the distraction, “One percent in around eight minutes.”
Jasson would be okay; he could think about his death later. The fact was that he was here. Jasson had a second chance at life so he would make the most of it.
Without support networks the risks would be high, heck he was experiencing homelessness right now. But everything Jasson accomplished would be his. This world operated by different laws, but he was sure of one rule going forward. Quite unlike his last life, this one would be neither easy nor boring.
Jasson opened up the DISS app store and looked through the apps. He had a place to sleep tonight and a full belly due to his 'heroic' actions. Surely that was worth a treat? He’d even learned about magic and started charging his phone. In his last life, he would have ordered Floordash, but in this world there were only the apps in the store.
Jasson opened up the categories of apps and found the one which had caught his eye earlier. Combat. Inside the category, Jasson clicked on the first app he found.
MADaptation: The go-to app for casting Elemental Magic with your phone utilizing Elemental Crystal Magics.
“Cool,” Jasson said, “How much- sixty bucks!!? For a phone app??!!”
He was about to search for another app, but the ability to use magic was too tempting. If it cost sixty bucks then it must be amazing. Besides, he’d still have forty bucks left in his VenGo. Jasson bought MADaptation and watched it start installing.
Jasson felt a hand on his shoulder as Petra's voice said, “Well, aren't you boring. You didn't e-”
“AYEE!” Jasson lurched away, “The heck! Are you trying to kill me?!”
Petra was squatting behind Jasson wearing a loose once-white nightgown and an oddly cute nightcap as her pajamas.
Petra grinned predatorily and said “No, not gonna kill you anytime soon. Unless you go running carelessly out there. I have over twenty traps out there, ready for an unwary idiot to stumble into.”
“Excuse me?” Jasson said, scooting away, “Traps? Where are they?”
“Mostly along the road,” Petra said, “I’m sure you didn’t notice, but we had to swerve a dozen times on the way up here. If you hadn’t followed so closely then you’d be spread over a dozen yards.”
“Really?” Jasson said, sweating at the idea, “Doesn’t that seem like overkill? Wouldn’t you want to interrogate them?”
Petra raised her eyebrows and said “Oh? Think you know better?”
Petra didn't seem to be angry with Jasson so he said “Do I have to know better to have a point? I’m just saying that if someone is sneaking in, you’d want to know why.”
“But if it’s a lot of people,” Petra countered, “Like a troop of mercenaries come to kill us, then the trap will only alert them and only take out one person. It would be worse than no trap because we’d be unable to ambush effectively after that.”
“You’re capable of fighting a troop of mercenaries?!” Jasson said, “How many are we talking about? And how strong?”
“Without a doubt,” Petra said, glinting with pride, “Probably about fifty, individual difficulty from a scale of one to twenty…about a twelve. Although, as we are now we would be pushing ourselves. But get Clara some good armor and it would be easy.”
Jasson blinked, then said “Woah. That seems unlikely to happen but…wow. You two are a lot stronger than I thought. Are you secretly some ancient beings that look young and beautiful?”
Petra snorted and said “Of course not. There are people far beyond our strength. Beyond even our scale of strength. Take where we’re living.”
Petra motioned to the twin peaks and said “This all used to be part of a huge mountain with a single peak, but something vaporized the middle in a perfect circle. That’s so far beyond what we have today that it makes the streetlights in Stalt look like a geriatric firefly. It would have been amazing to see…”
Clara had already told him about the history of the mountain, so Jasson let the silence stretch as he watched his download finish. MADaptation was done installing. Jasson opened the app and reflexively clicked past the tutorial.
Dang it, Jasson thought, I wanted to go through that one.
“Looks like sis is done,” Petra stood, stretching out from her squat, “You can come back now as long as you don’t try to sneak into our-”
“I know,” Jasson groaned, rolling his eyes, “I don’t even want to. Clara deserves better than that.”
“And I don’t?” Petra said, voice sharp.
Every time Petra had accused Jasson, another response had been shoved behind the dam of polite conversation. Being Gen Alpha, it wasn’t a sturdy dam.
“I don’t know about you,” Jasson said, “You…well you’re not attractive to me. I can’t think of you in that way with your constant threats and bad-mouthing. Again, I don’t want to have the option to mess up, but I think that I should be good when it comes to you. No offense.”
Petra’s expression grew cold, and she stalked off without another word. Jasson sighed. He was being honest, but honesty was a good way to be a jerk.
Maybe I’m just tired of getting insulted, Jasson thought, not that she’s entirely wrong to think that way. Still, it’s good to see her get a bit of what she dishes out so easily.
Groaning, Jasson stood and tried to work the blood back into his legs. The stone had not been as forgiving as the bed and Jasson’s legs tingled painfully. Jasson distracted himself by looking at his new app. On the screen there was a circle, and inside the circle were words.
Place Crystal Here
Jasson checked his charge. Seventeen percent, same as his age. Would that be enough?
Jasson stopped charging the phone and placed the Light Crystal onto the phone screen, trying to keep the phone level. Suddenly arcs of electricity flashed and exploded across the surface and light glowed from the phone. Jasson watched as the crystal slowly changed shape into something familiar.
“A headphone jack?” Jasson said, picking the plug up, “I haven’t used one of these in ages!”
The crystal was now shaped exactly like a headphone jack, but made of the same yellow crystal and sticking out of the end an inch or so. Like a thumb drive with a headphone jack instead of a USB on the end. The text on the phone read “Insert”.
“Ah, bum!” Jasson said, looking at his phone, “You needed to make a lightning port plug for this. Ophone hasn’t had a headphone jack in years. I wonder if I could- I have a headphone jack!?! Yes!”
There, beside the charging port, was the little round port of promise. When had this appeared? Had it been there this whole time? Did it get made just now?
Either way, Jasson eagerly plugged the crystal into it. It slid in with a familiar click, and the display on the phone changed.
There were Seven icons on the screen, and when Jasson pressed an icon it would zoom to fill most of the screen. Unfortunately, all they were was icons. No names, descriptions, or help of any kind.
“Okay,” Jasson said, looking through them, “Gosh. No hints for the symbols eh? I wish I hadn’t skipped the tutorial.”
Jasson picked one symbol that had a tube with a flared end with three lines coming out of it. Like a Flashlight symbol but upside down. Questioning if this was the best idea, Jasson pointed the phone out towards the road and pressed the button. Too late, Jasson realized that he should have pointed the headphone jack with the Light Crystal away from himself. For an instant, the crystal glowed a brilliant white before-
BOOM!