Lessons are the easiest way to progress in a given skill. You can learn as many lessons as you have lesson credits for. Lesson credits are built up over time as you grow older in the land. Type LESSONS to see how many lessons you may learn before becoming saturated with learning. See also HELP LEARNING and HELP TEACHING for further information.

It is also worth noting that the first time a player reaches a new level, they gain 5 extra lesson credits.

The ways to better yourself in any given skill are numerous, but the most common is simply to receive a lesson from another Avalonian character. LEARN <skill name> FROM <character> requests a lesson in your chosen discipline from someone, who will often be a resident member of your guild. Simple practice of a skill through its use will increase your prowess, albeit more slowly. The more learned characters are able to offer lessons to those of less ability than they - TEACH <skill name> to <student> will offer up a lesson and provided the pupil is agreeable to it, the teaching will commence. Not only is player-to-player teaching beneficial to the student, but, to a lesser extent, the instructor profits as well.

You will also be able to practice skills. Avalon places a limit on the amount of benefit practice can give, and as a rough guide, every hour of sporadic practice will gain the equivalent of two or three lessons. You would be wise to combine practice and lessons in order to rise in prowess at a skill more rapidly since you can only take a finite number of lessons before you find yourself saturated with learning. Type LESSONS to discover how many lessons you are able to take before reaching that point. Not all skills are freely available, however. Many are solely within the sphere of particular guilds, guilds that over the centuries have so refined their learning that they now specialise in only these particular arts. Thus professions were born in Avalon. Check out HELP DARSURION for important information on learning once you are familiar with the above.

Teaching is one of the most important methods of progressing in a skill, while at the same time allowing the higher level teacher to also gain in competency. To teach somebody, they must first know the skill which you are going to teach them (it would be impossible, for example, to improve somebody's Swordplay if they did not even know how to hold a sword!), And you must be above them in level. To teach somebody, type TEACH <skill> to <player>, assuming you know the skill and the player is visible to you. Hopefully, the prospective pupil will see your offer and type OK after which the lesson will proceed as normal. Though learning a lesson from a CCC or a player will gain the learner the same amount as a result, learning from players is encouraged as the teacher also gains in skill through the lesson.

Darsurion is a green lichen found and prepared by those with the Herbs skill. When consumed in water, darsurion will enhance your capacity to learn. For every lesson you take you will use three lesson credits but receive the benefit as if you had just taken five back-to-back lessons. It is worth always using darsurion whenever you learn, but beware, you only have a finite capacity for the herb and overdosing will render you ineffectual at learning and teaching for a time.

An Avalon month must pass before more darsurion can be taken. Taking darsurion before then will cause the dunce condition. The scholarship skill Darsurion will allow the effect of the herb to last an entire Avalon month.

Lesson procurement is a method of advancing in skills more quickly. It allows you to purchase lessons in batches for immediate learning on your character. The number of lessons you can procure at any given time is limited by your age and how many times you have utilised this facility. Typically a character may procure, at most, fifty lessons per Avalon year. This limit has been imposed to even the pace of learning over the lifetime of a character, to benefit the periodic but committed character as well as the regular. To procure lessons using this mechanism type PROCURE followed by the number you wish to buy. You can only procure in batches of fifty lessons. Billing is immediate and automatic. Type CHARGES for further information.