From what he could glean from the pamphlet, The trick to the invocation ritual was to do it at the precise moment after the death of the target of the ritual sacrifice. Doing some basic Courier missions to build up goodwill and wealth. Searching all the while doing the missions, he at last stumbled upon a Wiches Canopy, where they sold the highly irregular magic. Bartering away most of his wealth again He came away with a small treasure in the form of a horn of nature's plenty. This was a small magic artefact that ran almost entirely on mana and would continuously create worms. Seeing as he was going to sacrifice living things, he thought he'd start with the smallest thing he could find.
The story behind the Horn of Plenty is actually quite Interesting. It is a small part of the great worm and wyrm debates, for you see a great worm. Ruler of an adequately sized Sub plane once declared that he must have Draconic blood within him on account of his size and power. The wyrm Nursing their inferiority complexes on account of not being able to be classified as a greater draconic being Because of the outsider breeding. (Yes, there are draconic racists.) Flipped their proverbial shit and set out to destroy the great worm and his plane. But worms are hard to kill. And great worms even more so. Sensing death, the Great Worm split itself into a trillion small little pieces. Being true, draconic and greedy to burn and discard a great worm's body, but still being too prideful to eat it. Their servants, the wyrm church set up a million magic items and portals to change the great being's carcass into fertiliser.
After having come back to his room, he'd spent three days learning the spell to a satisfactory mastery that he was prepared to use it on a worm. As he chanted this spell, he held the worm between 2 stones. And using the second weapon of humanity and having practised his timing He killed it immediately upon the invocation spells Finish. Strangely enough, little seemed to have happened as he kept the binding of the spell open. But little by little, motes of seemingly dust started to gather. With the small moments he was seeing, his surroundings were starting to crumble and become like fog at the edges of his vision. Not letting up but bearing down with the cage of his spell upon the shadow of whatever he had caught. He felt a sharp sticking sensation in the back of his mind as the tiny little creature thing was hammering away at his imprisonment. In the end, Krs used the cage as a sort of fist and squished whatever was in there until it stopped moving. Holding the spell for all of an hour after that and not finding anything else to do, he let it go. Seeing that he wasn't any better, but also seeing that he wasn't any worse, Krs took out a fresh notebook and started experimenting.
Five days later, he came out of his room. He still had a headache, but he could definitely feel his will was slightly better. Not knowing whether this was a massive success or a giant waste of time Krs decided to restart his formal education courses and hoped he might not experience quite such a close brush with death this time. As he entered the first Term Hall And went up to the closest booth, he could still feel the Suggestion or domination or whatever you might call it. Pulling him towards item creation, a course he knew he would not survive the exam for. A bit shaky, Lee he pressed his hand towards.
Elementary Invocation: short course on the Philosophy, Strength and weaknesses of the way of Invocation 11 hours. 0.1 N-points at finish.
Having done nothing but study invocation for the last week, when after six hours had elapsed and he felt the enormous suggestion and domination to continue till the exam, he still got up and stood by the door Until the last second and then exited the class. Feeling a bit like a boat that had gone through a storm, Krs was worried and elated. Checking the boards, he sat down and waited for an hour until he could Enter and take the final five hours of elementary invocation again. Having passed with quite a High margin Krs packed up and fled back to his room.
Waking the day after with a massive headache. He was at least assured that he would not kill himself Through outside manipulation of his courses. This left him with many, many choices. To meet with someone with real knowledge and who did not need or want to manipulate him towards any path. You would first need an entire N-point, so far, he'd gathered 0.7. He was quite tempted to just do three normal courses, but he had a plan with his room, so he set out to ask about the elementary Druid Craft.
Going up to the booths again Krs asked. “Hello, I was wondering if you could help me. I would very much like to know why elementary Druid Craft gets you 0.2 instead of the usual 0.1. Points?” Turning towards them, KRS could swear that there were two people in front of him. One was a Gollum grey and unblinking, the other was a nice woman Smiling helpfully. In a shock of pain through his brain, Krs suddenly saw only the woman as she said. “Why yes, I see here. You have taken many of our elementary courses, haven't you? Trying to go for an elusive prize at the end of semester, you smarty pants you.” The woman chuckled a bit at her own joke and Krs did not have much time at all to process the images nor any of what she was saying before, she continued. “Well, you see, Druid Crafts teaches you much about the flora of different biomes and how to move in it. It's more like a survival course than anything else. Everyone that takes it says they need to research for days. But it's been a good barometer. The people who take it, they almost always survive first semester at least. But I see here you are into item creation. You should continue with that. Like seriously good work.”
The woman really did make an excellent point. He had been so focused on this, growing his own will, but he had forgotten One of his earliest plans. To create the fantastic and new. With renewed enthusiasm, KRS immediately went for the last of the three courses in item creation.
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
Elementary magic tool creation: short course on making something no one will appreciate you enough for. 11 hours. 0.1 N-points at finish. Needs: elementary Transfiguration, Elementary transmutation, Elementary mana channelling. Elementary magic tool use. Elementary Magic tool maintenance
It wasn't until the 4th hour he was in the course, that it hit him that he was again not Choosing for himself. Looking down at his notebook and taking stock in his brain, he knew, knew that he was not going to survive the exam. This was set up to catch the talented, and he just wasn't as talented in Enchantment. If the course was 40 hours, he would be OK. But it wasn't 40 hours. It was 11. When he looked up at the managram again, a sharp pain manifested Itself in the back of his mind. And he quickly looked down. But after a minute, he wanted to look up again. It seemed so natural. Why shouldn't he learn? He forced himself down again, but. It came harder this time. I really need to learn this or I'm going to fail the exam. Feeling himself shake, He placed the pinkie of his right hand on the edge of the table in front of him straight out. As the other fingers were balled into a fist. He looked down at his right hand and struck down with his left. Hot sharp pain Erupted from his Hand as he focused on nothing but the blinding white pain. That was two blessed seconds where only he was in his Head, but it was not enough. So, 1 by 1 ring finger, middle finger, pointer finger, thumb. Pain racked his body, and he used no abilities nor techniques to slow it, trying to the very best of his Focus abilities to feel everything that was happening to his hand at the moment. But it was not enough. Outside of himself out there, he could hear the droning of the managram and he felt once more excitement. He would learn whatever there was to learn. He would master this art. Why was he doubting himself? Looking down at the pencil at his table, a small battle took place. His right hand was smeared into his notebook, the wrong side up, but he was holding the notebook open for his left hand. Taking a couple of seconds, He sputtered out a tempus charm and saw that he had 10 minutes to exit the course, or he would have to finish the exam. Trying to get his legs to work, they sat unmoving and unfeeling like two tree stumps. His hand though, his left uninjured hand, Snakes its way towards the table, Towards the pencil. Krs fought as the volume just kept going up and up, the incessant droning of the managram pulling his hand towards his pencil. And towards learning. And at last, it can feel it. At last, it can feel that the flesh is acquiescing Grasping the pencil and raising it and raising it. And pushing it into the air canal as it punctures the ear drum. As the droning halfway stops, his legs are his own again, and he Staggers and hops out of the room. As fast as his little legs can carry him. Krs did not know how long he lay there, but as he came to, two of the 17 students in the course came out walking over his prone form, oblivious as they talked to each other.
Covered in terror sweat and limping a bit. Krs as went to the booth with the grey Gollum, Not exchanging any words, not doing anything but pressing down upon the course.
Elementary meditation: short course on Reflecting and the betterment of self 100 hours. 1 N-points at finish.
Was the last thing he did as he fled the entire place.
5 days. Five days was the time it took care or less to go from a gibbering, scared little creature, Into some semblance of a Wizard Apprentice. Every second hour of everyday he murdered a worm. And every time, he felt worse, but became stronger. Taking the Courses one at a time he deemed no longer a viable option for him. At least he had pressed meditation and would no longer have to go up to that horrid booth and choose. Spending his time piecing himself back together he also consolidated much of what he had learned. Elementary magic tool creation though intricate and frightening to the extreme. Was immensely interesting for one such as him, a questioner and tinkerer. But he could not hole himself up in this room forever, Time waits for no man. So, five days after the school tried to kill him. He was back in action.
And what action it was. Meditation really did seem like a superfluous Course sometimes, many of the things that it thought he had already figured out or was just around the corner from figuring out. He was thought general note Keping. It taught how to consolidate the mind at the end of the day. coping mechanism tips, tricks. But also, it thought how to find damage in your own mind. A subject that intrigued Krs more than a little, it also thought to a lesser extent how to damage other minds. But the greatest thing is thought was how to use your mana perception, that is to say, how to use mana as a caster to know what is around you and what is real. It started basic just by emitting mana you could form a picture of negative space where other people or things were. Unfortunately, the way to train this Efficiently was to wear a blindfold at all times. He did embarrass himself more than a little, but it was worth it. He was one of the first who made himself a true-blue mana perceptive bubble.
Still wearing the blindfold after 60 hours. He seemed to be quite ahead of the class, and an old teacher who sometimes came by to watch the managram took note of his speed and comprehension. One day as His course mates were training on note taking, he beckoned Krs over. “Hello, young one, I'm Youn I see you already know most of the things we are teaching right now.” Krs nodded and Youn continued. “There is an offshoot of this natural Meditation called mysticism. It has to do with the ancient runes and naturally occurring eddies and flows in mana. If you want, I can take you out of class So you can learn the ancient runes does that seem like something you would want?” Again, Krs nodded. “Excellent. I'm afraid it will be very, very hard. Every day you are to come into this room, sit here in front of this placard.” Taking out an intricately carved Stone Placard. He placed it at the end of the room, Then, reaching into his cloak again, he pulled out of pamphlet and gave it to Krs. “Now please use this pamphlet to decipher the placard. Good if there's no questions.” KRS shook his head. “Then I'll see you at the end of the course. Good luck, Young one.” And with that, he rose and just left.
Setting to it with all he had, Krs Spent the next 40 hours barely sleeping and in front of that placard. Learning nothing. Deciphering nothing. Failing.