We are gathered here today

It wasn't the best of days my grandfather and uncle had both just been buried after passing in a terrible car crash I was not in a great mood and decided to take it out on some swords and sorceries newbs online where I then went on the most epic kill streak of all time for a pure spellcaster build in the game I slaughtered my way through 300 players in pvp before they sent in the guilds granted I was in a mid tier zone I was 1 shotting everything and after 409 kills I was taken down but I felt slightly better even discounting the 300 midtier players I'd slaughtered I managed to kill over a hundred max level players equipped in fantastic mage killer gear.

My fury angst and pain abated I decided to go get myself some pizza and headed down the block to my favorite pizzeria and get a slice or two. The pizza was great as always and then as I was walking back home it happened a portal appeared a sinister black and red with touches of a deep magenta and it started sucking me in. At first I was confused and scared and then terrified but as it drew me closer it crossed my mind that it wouldn't be so bad right? Now getting sucked through a portal might not sound so bad but it came with a feeling of being naked and examined so throughly that I'd never felt so vulnerable in my life as if every tiny crevice was inspected with a microscope it was terrible and then I blacked out.

I awoke on a pedestal of what looked like marble in my birthday suit not a stitch of my clothes anywhere and it was cold needless to say I jumped up fast and then it hit me where was the light coming from? I looked around and realized that the very walls were emitting light and they weren't any kind of material that should infact they looked like plain stone where was I that this was a thing I had to find out more. Looking around I spotted a archway no door and four crates I checked the crates out and found a ride and some thin slippers the kind you would only wear in a well lit and familiar place because otherwise you might destroy your toes.

In the four crates I found robes a stack of blank books probably journals, slippers and lastly satchels the kind you might think a scholar in the middle ages might use the things had tons of pockets though which seemed weird but they must have some purpose. After grabbing a set of everything I started exploring the place and found mostly empty rooms and beds that looked like the height of comfort if you were in the middle ages feathers and all. I looked through room after room finding the occasional locked chest that I didn't have the skills or power to open occasionally one would be unlocked but they contained paper most of which had scribbles on it maybe it was a language but it looked like gibberish to me.

After being thoroughly disappointed with the lack of loot or anything useful I kept searching and found an odd room with some kind of glass or crystal ball on a pillar about 4 feet tall maybe 4 and a half and the ball was as clear as could be the pillar was a black stone like substance I'd never encountered before but it looked interesting atleast if somewhat odd that and it gave off this mildly sinister feeling. After finding the odd room I checked the nearby rooms for anything that might give context for the pedestal room sadly on one side it seemed to be nothing but bedrooms of some kind other other classrooms it really didn't give me any idea what it was used for honestly.

After a short time I came across what looked like a library but I couldn't read a single book and I couldn't even lift a scroll until I found one I could and the instructions were clear read aloud calm and clearly and I did just that though how there was a scroll in this entire building that had English as it's language when nothing else did was beyond me. As I read the scroll aloud I could feel some kind of pressure building around me and then when I finished it suddenly vanished as if it had never existed so I decided to see if I could read anything I had a clue the scroll was some kind of translation spell based on the wording of it but I had no idea if it worked.

the first couple of books tried to read I could granted they were worded archaicly but I could understand what was written atleast and I realized that the first book I'd picked up was literally titled "initiates book on magic" fantastic however it was a little bit long winded using 40 words where 4 would do however the magic system seemed to follow a familiar system I just couldn't figure out what it reminded me of. I spent 4 hours trying to decipher the book before surrendering because I was getting hungry and it was to the point that I couldn't concentrate luckily I had found some jerky looking stuff in a cabinet it was as tough as shoe leather and despite trying to eat it for an hour all I managed to actually eat was about an inch of it though I was feeling better and more focused than I had been so I dove back into the initiates book on magic and finally finished reading it two hours later and feeling good I moved on to the novices book on magic and it went a bit faster both because it was written slightly better and it was thinner with less pages and by this point I started feeling confident about magic and then I tried to cast my first spell.

I started small and tried to cast a simple light spell and so in a confident voice I created my first spell "oh light I summon ye speck of light come fourth and light the darkness with your golden glow, speck of light!" and I actually created a speck of light then promptly passed out as the spell winked out a moment later. I awoke confused tired with a headache so bad it felt like my brain was splitting according to the books I was in mana deficit and would not be able to cast any spells until my mana had returned.