It had been a few weeks since their adventure in town, and as far as Eres could tell no one in his family was any the wiser. He and Freya had managed to sneak out once more and briefly check on Myla, and it seemed like all the guards had kept their mouths shut and the incident would remain behind them. Myla had been happy to see them, and the three of them had chatted briefly before Eres and Freya needed to get back and Eres was extremely happy to see Freya talking to Myla like just a normal friend, and vice versa. There was none of the hierarchical bullshit that came when she spoke to him. It made him a little sad that she couldn’t talk to him like that yet, but he lived in hope.

“Up and at ‘em, Boy,” came Brom’s barking tone, “conditioning is over, I want to move onto combinations.”

Eres sprang to his feet with surprising ease considering the ache in his muscles, and slowly began going through the motions as Brom directed him. Eres was always shocked at how readily he fell into the motions, how natural they seemed to him. After not even two months now, he was feeling more and more confident in the training and in his own ability to understand it.

After their run-in with the goblin and Eres’ admission to wanting to be an adventurer, Freya had come to Master Brom and explained that she wanted to go through some training of her own. She also mentioned that both she and Eres believed his training could stand to be ramped up a little if Brom thought it would be more effective. Eres wasn’t sure he had ever come as close to cursing anyone's name as he had Freya’s after his next session with Brom.

Rather than conditioning and martial practice being split up, Brom condensed the two and had Eres working at full pace the entire time. It was exhausting, but Eres quickly began to see the effectiveness, his body responding faster and faster to what he required of it. Brom still had him on basic unarmed combinations, how to flow from a block or a parry into a strike seamlessly and how to capitalise on a landed strike or retreat depending on your opponent's reaction.

“Brom,” Eres panted, taking a break after nearly an hour of working through combinations, “I know we aren’t focusing on magic yet, but can I ask you a question about it anyway?”

“Well, you dropped the “Master” at the front, and you worked hard today… Sure I can answer a few questions,” Brom replied tapping his chin with his finger thoughtfully, “though in truth you are picking this up fast enough that it doesn’t feel like teaching a beginner. It will be soon enough we mix magic lessons into the week, so this isn’t too far ahead of schedule.”

“Oh, really? I’m glad,” Eres smiled at that. Having his hard work recognised felt good, and he was dimly aware that he just wasn’t used to that, not in this lifetime anyway, “My questions have to do with the nature of spells and Mana, really.

“From what I have read, Mana is essentially a form of energy, and the way we use spells shapes it into the more ordered form that we call Magic. My main question is… how? Is there a master list of spells somewhere? Is there something about the sound of the spell that causes a reaction in the Mana that stabilises it into Magic? Or is it just the intent we put behind the spell that forms it?”

A few, long seconds passed as Brom stared hard at Eres, so hard in fact that Eres started fidgeting a little nervously.

“Anyone ever tell you that you don’t seem like a ten-year-old, kid?”

“Oh. Ah, yeah, all the time,” Eres laughed uneasily, feeling the twist in his gut. He was tired from training, and the facade he had kept up, especially in how he was speaking to Brom, had dropped without him noticing, “I guess it is because of how I was raised?”

“Huh. Maybe,” Brom stared for another few seconds before shaking his head, “Truthfully, what you stumbled on is the difference between a lot of third-rate mages and those that go on to gain titles in the colleges and towers as Wizards and Arch-Mages.

“You essentially got it right at the end there, it's all about intent, but it's a little more complicated than just that. What is a spell you know and feel comfortable with?”

“Um, Shield is always one I find comes easily,” Eres murmured, still shifting from one foot to the other.

“Weirder and weirder, Kid. That's an odd one, but always good to have in a back pocket I suppose,” Brom chuckled, “but it works fine as an example. Well, when you cast that the first time, did you have a mental image pictured? Like held strongly in your mind? No, I didn’t think so. See, it's not just the intent, it's the form and function of how you want the spell to work that is important. The interesting thing about Mana though, is that it has a memory.

“Not in the same way we do of course, but it remembers the spells that have been cast through it. That is to say, common spells become easier to cast as the Mana remembers them, and it can fill in the form and function of the spell as long as you direct the intent. Now, if you hold a strong mental image and know how the spell works, that will make it all the stronger as more and more Mana will be attracted to the spell and form the Magic. That answer your question?”

“I mean, it answers the question but opens up a million more,” Eres laughed a little as he rolled his shoulders, “So the actual speaking of the spell, that's more… just to remind the Mana? Or to tap into the pool of visualisation that it remembers?” Brom nodded. “Which means if you know the way the spell works… you don’t need to call it out, which is a pretty solid tactical advantage and would let you cast even faster.”

“Exactly right,” Brom gave a rare smile, his lips pulled back from his teeth in something that was nearly a grimace, “Speeds up your casting, and it even lets you cast spells that aren’t really spells when you have a good enough mind to understand the workings of it and to picture it strongly enough.

“It is actually why many Arch-Mages and Wizards are fine with letting the incantation for their own personal spells be known. There isn’t enough memory in the pool as you called it, so unless you know the inner workings of it AND you can picture it in your head clearly, you can call the incantation as much as you like, and nothing is going to happen.”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“Interesting… What about modifying spells then? If you know how it works, surely adding things is easier than creating something from scratch?” Eres was busy running through all his knowledge from Adrien’s life, and wondering if anything there would help with his visualisation. 3D Modelling was pretty common, but it isn’t like I was exposed to a whole lot of it.

“That right there, kid, is a damn good instinct. If I didn’t know better I would say some Wizard already trained you,“ Brom peered at him before sighing, “I wish training every noble brat was as easy as you, no offence.

“Modifying is easier, and it is how most Mages, especially ones who don’t specialise in theory and understanding, make their bread. Many spells that are now common started out as twists Mages put on already existing spells. Things like Fire Lance and Air Barrage started out as simple spells that were modified for more penetrating power and area bombardment respectively. Of course, now those have enough Mana memory that they are castable without the knowledge of them, but in their true form, with the knowledge of both their form and function, they are far more effective than the watered-down version that is more common these days… You okay there, Kid? You look like your brain is going to leak out your ear.”

“No, no, I’m fine… Lots to think about though,” Eres smiled stiffly, his brain still running a mile a minute, “Do you mind if I play around with it for a second? Would rather have someone who knows what to look for here when I try this idea I just had.”

“Knock yourself out, it usually takes a long time to build up what you need though,” Brom grimaced now, remembering his own eagerness to move on to incantation-less spells and twist them into new forms.

Eres was busy starting to run over how he knew Mana worked from everything he had read. He had the mental image of the Shield spell held squarely in his head, but the workings of it weren’t something he was as sure about.

When the goblin struck the Shield, its blade bounced off. So some sort of repelling force? Not magnetic, but spatial maybe, Eres thought, brow furrowed, Well, I won't know until I try. Shield!

The first attempt resulted in nothing, as did the following five attempts. He could fill his Mana core responding, but it wasn’t quite manifesting into reality. It wasn’t until he thought of the shield as a plane separating two spaces that he had an actual effect. The plane of solid, transparent purple energy rushed out of him and filled the space in front of him in a wave, much larger and brighter than the ones he had previously cast.

He knew instinctively, perhaps because of his Blessing, that this shield was far stronger, almost tenfold in fact, and hadn’t required any more Mana than when he was casting with the incantation. A feral grin tore across his face, and as he looked over at Brom’s open mouth he didn’t even care if it looked unusual or suspicious. This was what his blood wanted. This was Magic, unfettered and unbound by anything other than his understanding and his imagination.

“Damn kid, you sure are full of surprises,” Brom sputtered out after a few moments, “I guess we will bring those Magic lessons up to start next week.”

“Sorry Brom, but I’m not done yet,” Eres grinned, steeling his mind. The idea had come to him as soon as Brom had mentioned twists. If a Shield could protect him, why did it have to be shaped like that? Why did it need to be anything other than exactly what he needed? He let the spell drop, and felt the Mana cycle back into his Core, ready for his command.

He pictured exactly what he needed, and thought of it working exactly as Shield did, separating two spaces to protect one of them. His grin widened as he felt his Mana coil and run up his hands, ready for his intent.

With a whisper, he spoke his intent aloud, hoping it would work.

“Armour.”

The response from his Mana was instant. It roared from his Core and into the world whirling around his body until it settled on his arms, solidifying into a pair of translucent, purple, oversized gauntlets. Almost comically too big for him, they hovered a little above his arms and hands, the fingers moving as he moved his own, testing mobility.

A quick moment of shadow-boxing later and he felt confident that they wouldn’t impose on his mobility. A whole suit of this might be too much, but if his hands were protected he could use them to parry weapons and strike armour without worrying about harming himself.

He almost managed to forget the old Battle-Mage behind him, but reality returned as Brom gave a short barking laugh. Eres turned around, ready for whatever might come. He could lie his way through scrutiny, maybe say that he felt his Blessing affecting it, and make them think he was developing a hybrid blessing. Hopefully, he could still learn more from Brom before he got suspicious enough that Eres had to distance himself.

What Eres wasn’t ready for was the animalistic, grimace-like smile stretching across Brom’s face.

“Kid… you are either insane or a genius, or both,” Brom hissed out of his mouth like it was under intense pressure. Tell me, why am I training you? Just because you want to learn? Or is it something else? It will stay between us, not even your family will know. I will swear it on whatever God you prefer.”

“Well…” Eres pondered a moment before he shrugged. The information would get out eventually anyway. “I want to become an Adventurer. I need to be able to protect myself and eventually a party. As for why I want do that… well, that's a much longer conversation.”

Brom held his gaze for a long moment, the smiling slowly settling into something less animalistic, something more… understanding.

“Well alright then,” Brom spoke softly, but the smile hadn’t lessened at all, “let's train you up into a proper Adventurer then. Trust me, Kid, this is going to be a lot of fun.”

Even as Brom slapped him on his back and sent him back for the day, Eres got the impression that his and Brom’s idea of fun were going to be very, very different.