Chuck wasn't really sure what to expect from the classes. The tower wasn't set up like a school from Earth. His first class turned out to be counterspells, he had to hurry to one of the outdoor arenas.
He arrived just as a few others were entering through the gateway to the arena. He was surprised to see the exact same people he met this morning. Teacher and all.
"Well, if it isn't our new student, here to finally grace us with your presence? You seemed to have missed the class on combat casting."
Chuck stammered, "I- uh-, huh?"
The teacher turned to the other students. "What is my one rule for warcraft?"
"All classes are required," the gathered students recited.
"Correct, and what do I do with students that fail my one rule?"
"They are not fit to be called a mage of war and are failed out."
Chuck cringed at this. That meant adding four more classes to his already busy schedule.
"So, Chuck, since you are new and weren't familiar with my rule you get this one pass. Consider it a mercy, one that an enemy will not show you. Now, since you missed this morning's class we will use you to demonstrate today's lesson. Please, step into the ring."
Chuck groaned internally and walked into the ring.
"Excellent, since I know you already have ice arrow we will use that as our featured spell. Stand on the opposite side of the ring and attack me with it whenever you are ready."
Chuck felt odd about attacking a teacher but he felt the weird shields in place to protect him.
While he walked the instructor continued. "Chuck here has a bit of an advantage over the rest of you. Can anyone tell me what that is?"
Vigo raised his hand, "He can cast in a foreign language?"
"Correct! Unless you know the language or can sense the spell forming you have no way to prepare for the attack."
Chuck shot an ice arrow at the teacher, as requested.
The teacher simply held his hand out and Chuck watched as his spell unraveled, evaporating in a puff of mana.
"Keep attacking while I explain."
Chuck did as he was asked, each spell failing to get to the target.
"Since I am familiar with the spell as it is part of my arsenal, I can disrupt the magic that holds it together. This isn't free though as each attempt costs mana. You need to decide if an action like this is beneficial to your fight or it would simply be easier to dodge or take the impact of the spell."
Chuck was paying close attention to the teacher's words, he wondered why the mage he fought didn't use this. Then again the guy had been a dropout.
"Now the more advanced technique would be to disrupt the mana before it has a chance to completely form."
Chuck felt a spike of pain in his head as the spell he was trying to form unraveled. He swayed on his feet, trying to recover his balance and shake off the effect.
"You see how effective disrupting one simple spell can be. Had I been an enemy mage I would have capitalized on Chuck's disorientation with a flurry of spells. Now, Chuck, I want you to try and do the same with my ice arrow."
Chuck had barely recovered before an ice arrow slammed into his barrier. The impact rocked him but he recovered in time to see the next one coming. He tried focusing on the spell but it impacted him again before he could grasp it.
This went on for five more minutes before he was finally able to dispel one.
"Good, now don't let that one victory go to your head. If I were in a fight and I saw a mage dispelling my magic I would change it up. There is any number of utility skills that could change the spell structure enough to prevent this. I'll use empower for our example."
Chuck watched a much larger ice arrow form and speed his way. He tried to grasp the magic like before but his mind couldn't grip the altered spell form. The massive chunk of ice slammed into him and knocked him out of the ring.
He lay groaning on the ground.
A chorus of, "never underestimate your opponent," greeted him when his senses came back.
"Anyone with ice arrow please come down to the arena and pair off for practice. Anyone without please head to the skill shop and purchase the ability. Tomorrow we will work with firebolt, I expect everyone to have a copy of the skill."
The rest of class time consisted of paired duels, ice arrows flying back and forth. Chuck found out he had a distinct advantage. Most of the class had the spell but few had it trained to max level. This allowed Chuck to easily grasp and unravel the spell. He even managed to once stun an opponent that had only level one in the ability.
He wasn't always successful. More than once he was stunned when he faced a more experienced student with the spell at the same level as his.
The class ended with his head pounding from the backlash of spells. Chuck walked up to the teacher. "Where is the skill shop?"
"Vigo, show Chuck where he can purchase skills."
Vigo nodded and motioned for Chuck to follow. Chuck had to walk fast to keep up to the taller man's strides. They entered the tower and went down two flights of stairs before they came to a room stacked with skill books. Chuck thanked Vigo, who just grunted and left.
A younger mage in light grey robes greeted Chuck. "What can I assist you with?"
"I need firebolt for my class."
"Any other skills?"
"Um... I'm not sure."
"Well, what specialty are you in, that should help me determine what you need."
"Warcraft," Chuck said quietly.
"Hmm, well rock spear might be needed, I don't know if he bothers with water or air. The blade spells might be useful," the man said, mumbling to himself.
Chuck followed along as the man grabbed books from the piles stacked around. He set them on a counter.
"Alright, I have firebolt, rock spear, flame lance, grease, wind blade, water blade, fire blade, and earth blade."
Stolen novel; please report.
"I already have a few of those," Chuck added in embarrassment.
The man removed the skills chuck said he already had.
"That will be ten silver for the four skills."
Chuck passed the man the money and used the skills right away. He really didn't want two more blade spells but what was he to do. Maybe when he was free tonight he could see if any of his new spells could be combined. There were a few hours left on stealth, so he left that training for now.
The next class Chuck attended was the history of magic. Chuck expected some theory behind why skills and spells existed but instead got a dry history of who created certain spells and in what age of history.
The class didn't turn out to be a complete loss though. When the teacher started discussing Grema, Chuck perked up.
"Grema was long considered to be at the forefront of magical knowledge during its time. Most epic and higher-tiered magics are thought to have originated in their capital."
"If they were so powerful why are they no longer around," one of the students asked.
"Good question. Nobody knows for certain why their empire collapsed thousands of years ago. Some historians theorize that they angered the gods and their capital was struck down. Please turn your attention to the words written on the board."
Chuck looked at the unknown writing, it did look familiar to the journal.
"Loosely translated this is a recounting of the tragedy that struck their capital. It reads as follows."
The jungle went deathly quiet and when I turned towards the city from my view on the hill I saw something so horrifying it defies words. The very light seemed to be sucked into this abomination of magic as it devoured most of the city and the ground underneath. Only my resolve to hold on to the tree saved me from joining the fate of the rest of my friends, they screamed while the magic pulled them in. I was never able to sleep peacefully after that day.
"As you can see from the translation, their city was destroyed by powerful magic. Magic a mortal would not be capable of wielding, hence the prevailing theory that the gods struck them down."
Chuck wasn't sure that was the correct translation but it did tickle something in the back of his mind. He made sure to memorize all the words and the translation. It would give him a starting point to start deciphering the journal.
There were no more classes today so Chuck went to his room to work with the journal and pendant. He felt unlocking those secrets were far more important than combining spells together right now.
Chuck returned to his dorm room after a bath and rinsing his clothes. Only a few people were around. A quick check through his items showed that everything was where he left it. He pulled out one of the trail rations since he didn't feel like heading to the mess hall to eat.
He was glad the combat teacher pointed out a place to clean up after practice. He hadn't realized how ripe he was becoming. Now that he was relatively clean and his clothes had most of the month's travel washed off of them he could relax.
He unclipped his armor and set it in his footlocker. His clothing was still stained and torn from the long travel. He would need to purchase some new clothes in the morning.
Chuck lay back on the bed and activated the pendant.
He was sucked into the recorded memories, watching them play out, over and over again. He found that he understood a few of the words being spoken. Others he was able to figure out by their context.
Paulius was the man he found in the room, Orikin was the man arguing with him. They were arguing about the mythic skill that Orikin had in his hand. Chuck recognized the wording on the cover but not the word itself. He realized it was a copy of the book Paulius had in his bag. He wondered if that was what started the argument in the first place, maybe the man stole the two skill books. Chuck imagined that a mythic level skill book was not easy to come by.
The vision faded as Paulius was knocked unconscious.
Chuck opened his eyes and blinked a few times. He had a general idea of what transpired in the strange lab. He sat up in bed and flipped through the journal, hoping for some understanding of what it was they were trying to accomplish.
He took a break when stealth finished training, to set the new skills up. He had to do this so his main slot didn't go to training mana sense.
Firebolt was up first, followed by rock spear. He had forgotten how fast these simple spells trained. Each only required fifty points for level one so he could finish both in less than forty minutes. By then mana sense would have completed its first level as well. His skill list was getting quite long, it was no wonder peoples skills suffered atrophy after long term non-use.
The three skills finished while he was going over the journal. From what Chuck was able to read it was a detailed log of every step they took to create the unnamed spell. He was fascinated by the parts he could decipher with his limited knowledge. He would have to study it more in the morning. People were already sleeping in the dorm and he didn't want to keep them up.
Chuck tucked the book back in his footlocker and decided to tag it with his mana like he did the mirrors.
When Chuck awoke the next day he was well-rested. The beds weren't the greatest but they sure beat sleeping on the cold hard ground. He checked his skill progression.
Short Sword: 100/150TP to level 2
-------------------
Multitasking: 35530/80000SP to level 4
Mana Sense: 2-3
Stealth: 4-5
-------------------
Fire Blade: 1-5
Firebolt: 2-5
Rock Spear: 2-5
Wind Blade: 1-5
It looks like he had run out of queued up skills during the night. Not a big deal. He decided to concentrate on firebolt and rock spear for now. He should be able to get both of them to level three before class began today. Speaking of classes, he had spellcraft in an hour or so.
Spellcraft turned out to one of the most informative and yet dullest classes Chuck had ever attended. And he included one of his college classes on contemporary American society in that list and that class was a complete waste of time.
The class was all about spell structures. It broke down into basic components of a spell. A lot of the class was just conjecturing though since most of the lines that made up a spell structure were not well understood. If they had been people would be creating newer and ever more powerful spells all the time. That simply wasn't the case.
To Chuck, it resembled a wiring schematic or a circuit board, only a thousand times more complex. It didn't help that the teacher tried to explain the whole theory using two-dimensional sketches. How he figured that would be acceptable when spell forms were three dimensional in your mind was beyond him. Perhaps that was why it was so hard for people to wrap their minds around the concept and most dropped this course in pursuit of arcane study.
Chuck already had a leg up on the class with mana manipulation. He understood on a basic level that spells fit together like a 3D puzzle. If he could form a new spell from component parts he might be able to come up with something completely new. He would have to wait and see, as of right now he didn't have a firm grasp on the components.
The rest of Chuck's day was filled with warcraft classes. The last one was particularly cheery. It covered the eventuality of being surrounded by enemies with no possibility of escaping. The teacher discussed this concept in detail. Apparently captured mages were not treated well, usually tortured and dismembered by angry troops. It made sense, mages were like mobile artillery and could cause immense devastation to an army's ranks.
When the teacher brought up the topic of suicide he got a few angry shouts from students. They were silenced quickly by the teacher's angry glare.
"Unless you have faced a horde of angry soldiers that would see you suffer for your actions in a battle, you will be quiet and listen. As I was saying. A mage has one final recourse in this grim scenario, and that is suicide. The method of which I will describe with you today. Do not attempt to experiment with this process, once it begins there is no stopping it. You see that dark stain?" the teacher said, pointing to a dark section of the arena wall, that Chuck assumed was just dirt."
"That is what's left of a student that didn't listen."
Chuck gulped at this and kind of second-guessed choosing his profession.
"As I was saying. To deny the enemy your body as a plaything and perhaps take a few out with you, you need to reach deep inside your mana pool and grab every last drop of mana. If your will is strong enough you force that mana out all at once. With no spell form to fill, the mana runs rampant and explodes.
This isn't a normal explosion like a fireball though, this is an arcane explosion. Depending on the amount of mana left to the caster it can have long-lasting effects on the environment in the area. Sometimes even forming magical creatures. If you ever stumble upon areas like this in the wild, avoid them. Magic becomes unstable in these zones until the effects fade away."
"Is that how the desert of Cholengoth was formed?" one student asked.
"Good question, the answer is no. The desert was there long before the battle that devastated its barren landscape. There are, however, even to this day, pockets of unstable mana in that desert. The battle that took place there was between two unknown schools of mages. Nobody knows who these schools are any more or what they were fighting over as every member fought to the death in that desert."
Silence greeted the teacher's speech.
"This is why positioning and troop placement are important classes to attend. If you fail to spot troops pulling back or the enemy getting the advantage you may just end up like those lost souls."
Chuck was again glad that Nur had not had a serious battle in over a hundred years.