Chapter 44 - To The College
The next three days were similar to one another, I would go help the sailors and learn from Captain Geldof, I don't think it's hard for me to navigation an average longboat now. Still, I need a lot of time to understand how to read the sea and the wind.
Putting that in mind I started using magic to achieve that goal, my 'Detect Magicka' spell can now detect more than just Magicka, after few days of studying in Solitude, I made a breakthrough due to my attempts to read the wind and sea. Due to trying to synchronize my detection with the movement of air and sea, I could detect the Magicka more accurately between heaven and earth.
This is a groundbreaking development on my part, I was so immersed in the feeling of detecting the Magicka around that I forgot to sleep one night, which made Jullanar nag about me giggling in a creepy manner the next morning.
By the way, we are still sharing the cabin now, I left the bed for her and borrowed a few furs and a sleeping bag to sleep on the ground, how gentlemanly of me!
Back to the topic; my detection became clearer, I could feel the Magicka in the emptiness around me, dead objects didn't seem to have Magicka so they seemed as the void to my detection, even though my detection can pass through them, some objects are just harder than others in that aspect, iron blocks Magicka more than wood for example. Still, I couldn't detect Magicka in dead objects.
My original goal was to monitor the moment of the air and sea but I never thought I would reach this level from that idea.
The 'Detection' spells fall under the categorization of the school of Mysticism and it is like having an eye on the back of the head, very useful indeed.
Summing my discoveries in a note, I revised what I wrote now and before about the Mysticism after all this research.
I could make a rough idea, but Mysticism techniques are much more than the manipulation of Magicka, it can also reach the point of predicting the future and the understanding of space. More accurately; Space and Time magic can be manipulated by Mysticism.
This can open tons of possibilities in my understanding of magic, due to the fictional works I read in my past life as well as the laws of science I still remember, I can think of millions of application right now.
One thing I also noticed and started to understand greatly was the Magicka nature, the Magicka in the sea was denser than the air yet felt more alien and strange, I could only note that and put a big question mark beside it.
The 'Detect Magicka' spell right now was turned into 'Detection' spell for general detection of many things, maybe there is stuff it can't detect yet but I can already see much more than before with it so I renamed it this way.
I don't even need to use my eyes right now, I can just close my eyes and immerse myself in the emptiness around me with such a spell. Truth be told, I just can't stop my addiction to this wondrous feeling.
The good stuff didn't end just here yet. With this breakthrough, I could enhance my Magicka training technique now.
I used 'Absorb Magicka' directly on the Magicka between heaven and earth after exhausting my Magicka pool to train it and increase its capacity.
I am better than your average elf mage at dealing with Magicka due to this training.
My fan-boy soul couldn't help but awaken at that moment and renamed the 'Magicka training technique' to 'Magicka Cultivation' or 'Cultivation' for short to feel like one of these Wuxia novels main characters, this just felt about right.
My so-called 'Cultivation' was enhanced by my newly developed 'Detection' spell as I could feel the Magicka around me more accurately and absorb it in faster than before.
This cultivation was not as perfect or fruitful as it was in the 'Eldergleam Sanctuary' due to the quality and the nature of the Magicka around.
I can't just live in the sanctuary to cultivate, I remember that there were many places in the game that had a strong natural element and I should just find one, these places are mostly protected with the guards of nature, The Spriggans.
Mysticism has just too many secrets that I don't think one lifetime can uncover, and as much as how beautiful it can be, it can be ugly and demonic, an example for its ugliest sides is the Necromancy.
Necromancy, which means 'Death Magic' is one of my top interests in magic, even though it pushed many of its users to madness, I as well as Nurina are interested in it.
Finally, I need to understand the 'Old Ways', the old spiritual understandings that belong to the school of Mysticism, I'll research that for sure.
Those who know the 'Old Way', are well aware of the existence of the spiritual worlds invisible to those who are uneducated in Mysticism. Just as one living in a country but unaware of the political undercurrents may see a new tax or war preparation as the caprices of fortune.
The 'Old Ways' can make one see the world on what is it really are, even to the point of understanding the Aedric Gods and the Daedric Evil God (aka Daedric Princes).
Thinking about this and that while feeling the sea, I continued to take notes on everything I learned new, from the sailing to the cultivation I made up. This ship was a really peaceful place to research.
My notes were, as usual, in my otherworldly native language, this was not uncommon act for a mage, each mage had his secrets so they made codes for themselves to cipher, and in my case, my secrets are worth killing for.
I took the basics of logical thinking and applied it in every research I made, for example, one needs to learn how to manipulate Magicka (aka Mysticism arts) before they do applications with it (aka learning spells), for some reason mages not care about such a simple fact. Also, modern Earth knowledge like math and algebra helped me sketch out many spells as it was something similar to highschool-level mathematics from my past life.
Understanding of the scientific laws is also one of the reasons that make magic much easier to understand and control, take my lightning magic for example, as a human from earth, I interacted more with electricity than fire or frost and have an understanding about it, this is why I was much better in it compared to the other elements, following that with fire which I am really good at as it appeared to be due to a 'bloodline ability' from Nurina's explanation, finally all Nord mages are really good at frost magic and I am no exception but I am not into it very much.
If my knowledge goes public I think mages will go crazy over it. Some might think that if I went public with it I may not need to worry about money or anything like that.
WRONG!!
Mages are no normal creatures, maybe Nord mages are good people due to nature but the others are a greedy bunch, they always spy at each other work and many times steal from each other, this even happened in the game many times.
If someone knew about my magic more than it's just an enviable natural gift that a great mage like Nurina brought up, I might get killed or abducted in no time, I always remembered that Chinese saying about the man who did nothing wrong to get killed for but he only owned a jade ring that all people wanted.
[A/N: I don't remember the correct saying.]
This world is not a 'Dog eat dog' world like one of those Wuxia novels thank goodness, but things tend to get like this between power holders like mages, they always want the knowledge that others discovered, I am no exception.
Not even my past world is an exception, nations always assassinated each other's nuclear scientists and stole their research.
That's all there is to it.
My knowledge is my secret weapon, I can only pass it down to those who are loyal to me, to those who deserve risking my life for.
"Master! Master!" A voice woke me up from my deep overthinking, it was Jullanar.
I told her to call me that in public so no one suspects anything, yet she always did it with a scary gaze, I knew she would hate it.
"Finally awake, huh? You were into one of those deep thinkings of yours again." She said and lowered her voice, "It started to creep me out."
"For our little Jull to get creeped out by me, I am not sure either to feel proud or freak out myself." I said.
I actually become very close with her these past few days, she is not as crazy as I thought, at least not a full-time crazy, her personality changes greatly between night and day. In the daytime, she becomes a tsundere, not my favorite type but she becomes as moody as cats, somewhat cute in my opinion. In the nighttime, she changes into her crazy usual self. kinda mysterious but I think her mentality is not that stable.
She also started to walk yesterday and recovered most of her strength by today. She now goes around all the ship to spend time and reports to me from time to time.
"I don't care how should you feel, that Rusning is looking for you." She said.
"Okay, thank you." I said then stood up and went to where Rusning usually sits.
As I saw him, I found that Faralda and the rest were there too.
"Hurry up and get your things." Rusning said, "We are at Winterhold."
I was taken aback and looked around, Winterhold was at the sea and I could see nothing that resembles it from the game just yet.
"Hehe!" Svadall laughed, "Don't look around, look up."
He pointed at the sky for some reason and I followed with my eyes.....
"Sweet Baby Talos!!!" I couldn't help it.
That was too absurdly absurd!
"Welcome to the college lad." Captain Geldof came from behind and laughed out but I paid him no attention.
"You expressions are priceless!" Rusning said and patted my shoulder.
"What is this?" I said while not holding my shock anymore.
What I saw was something out of a fairy tale, this is not the College of Winterhold I knew.
In the game, the College of Winterhold had the same size as the other castles and palaces in Skyrim, it was a research and education facility created by an ancient and immortal Nord Arch-Mage, his name was Shalidor.
He created this college on an inverted pyramid of rock that juts out of the sea, my theory is that he made that inverted pyramid himself, the building itself was a fortress-like, arranged around a large central courtyard.
if we look at this fortress-like college from above we will see a large circular building surrounding the courtyard, and three smaller circles representing the towers on the large circular building, each center of a tower is 120° apart from the others two.
The College's main, largest and widest tower is the Hall of the Elements, which is used for all kinds of magical practices. It holds the famous Arcanaeum library as well as the Arch-Mage's quarters, while accommodations are provided in the two separate towers, the 'Hall of Attainment' for the students and the 'Hall of Countenance' for the teachers and the staff.
This is what I know from the game and it appears I am not mistaken either.
But...
This building is too large and too high, larger than anything I have ever seen and its height is scary.
I actually thought about it, the difference in size between the game and the real world is big, sometimes 1:10.
But the game didn't give the college any justice. The college was something like 100:1 from the game.
That inverted pyramid the college stood was very high that it resembled a tower with a thinner base, add that to the mist of the Sea of Ghosts, this college looked like a fortress on the clouds.
"Wipe that dumb face of yours and go pick your things." Faralda shouted at us, "The sun is about to set and you've done nothing."
I was woken up by this shout, I guess I was shouted at too, let's just go pick up things.
Running back to the cabin, Jullanar stood beside me waiting for orders.
I carried my chest on my back with a rope and donned my sword, wearing the 'Robin Armor' that I bought, while Jullanar carried two knapsacks that had our things.
Going back to the deck, I found everyone else was ready, some servants started getting ready to move the crates to the college.
The docks in Winterhold seemed really simple as the only ship here was the 'Icicle', the rest were some small fishing boats.
Now, after five days on a ship I get to set foot on land once again, never thought I'd miss that feeling.
Just as we started to go down, I could finally feel that stable feeling of land, it doesn't dangle like a ship anymore, it felt so damn safe, but for some reason, my brain was dangling on its own, this is probably an after effect from a sea voyage.
Winterhold was not there yet, the city itself is much higher than the sea level, after the 'Great Collapse' that swallowed most of the city in the sea, the shore became like a high slope and one can hardly go up or down between the city and the sea.
But it seemed that there is something different from the game in addition to the dock, there are many wooden steps that were installed on the slope, that would make going up and down much easier.
As the cargo was being loaded down, I instructed Jullanar to keep an eye on the crates that belonged to me and followed Faralda to the college.
Now, let's be college students all over again.