The chief guard took Adam to his house, reasoning that it was time for his afternoon tea and it would be nicer to talk with a cup in hand. They walked through the paved, main road streaking across the town, snow was arranged on the side in large hills, another thing that changed with the appearance of the dungeon. As guests in the form of adventurers, army teams and others started arriving in Ferston to access the dungeon, where they could find some nice artefacts, the mayor started to care for the town's appearance and availability. Homeless were employed to clear snow, main roads were paved and equipped with high lamps to illuminate the area and taverns in the central region were renovated.
Edgar lived in a small mansion at the centre of Ferston, around it were houses, restaurants and shops. In this area, projects related to the town's ascension to become a small city were built, such as a branch of an adventurers guild or auction house. Chief's mansion was a 3-story building, built from white stone, with decorations on the walls and fancy frames, it looked like a house of a noble. In front of their mansion, there was a roundabout, in summer filled with flowers, now it was just a snowy circle with a paved road around it.
Adam, following Edgar, entered the building and headed to the other side. Behind the mansion, there was a small frozen pond with a peninsula in the centre. On the peninsula, stood a wooden patio under which was a table and four campfires around it.
After both of them sat around the table on the patio, and tea was delivered to them by a maid, Edgar started thinking about what to say.
"Now, what I'm going to say are basics of the basics for any aspiring magician, anything further would be considered too precious to give to anyone aside from your disciples, so remember not to give away your research to anyone." After taking a sip of his tea, he continued.
"Let's start with the classification of magic, there is no superior element, although there are affinities that are more powerful against some others, such as water against fire, in the grand scale of things, elements are all equal. Every mage has some affinity in which they are better than in others, we call it, their main element. Mine is metal, I am proud of it as it is very rare and displayed for others to see, but not every mage will tell you their main element, it's considered personal information and it's rude to ask about it."
"Apart from elemental magic, there is also pure one, while elemental magic is based on your understanding of the elements, pure magic builds upon your understanding of mana. It's considered the hardest to learn, the while it has its own visible and touchable form in the form of mana crystals, It's a lot easier to understand the elements by watching them in nature. As the hardest to learn, it has its advantages, It can't be influenced by the outside environment and has a natural ability to defend against the elements. while we are at it I need to tell you about environment suppression, for example, in our area, fire magic is terrible while ice magic reigns supreme.
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As mages need to convert pure magic in their bodies to elemental mana of their desired type through their understanding of said element, to cast an elemental spell, mana of the outside world makes it harder for their magic to convert, or convert it on its own. For example, if I released my mana into the atmosphere if I stopped manipulating it, it would gradually become pure or ice as in the surrounding areas." The mage took a break to take a sip from his cup
"What's a mana crystal? I have never heard about it." Asked Adam while Edgar drank.
"As I said, it's crystallised mana, it's no surprise you never heard about it as they don't appear in Derdania. The nearest mana crystal mines are in the empire in the south." Answered the man.
"Why aren't any in Derdana?" Inquired Adam.
"That's a complicated topic, there may be some in the mountains, but we have no way of accessing them."
After another tea break, the mage started from where he ended before Adam's inquires.
"Along with our understanding of elements, we learn their language. It is not like a conventional language though, its spelling and writing differ from mage to mage. it's not about their different understanding, but just that everyone has a different interpretation of the said language. if you looked at fire runes written by two mages who comprehended the same concepts, you wouldn't recognise them as the same language. That's "Spellspoke" runes, the private language of every mage.
There is also the other type of rune, the "Worldspoke" runes. Those are mostly used by non-mages. It's just like spellspoke runes, but they belong to the world and can be used by anyone, they just have to know how to write them.
Now, about casting spells. At the start, you should try casting spells along with using worlds to associate with each spell. I make the process of casting easier. After getting familiar with a said spell, you should be able to use it without saying their name out loud. It's far better, especially in combat situations. The last type is runes, or 'weaving' as some call it. It's like writing in the air, but I won't elaborate on that. Creating pre-loaded spells ready to cast at a moment's notice, mages advanced in this technique can even create multiple spells augmenting each other, without the need to multicast." While saying the last line, the mage stared into the distance with dreamy eyes.
"Start with trying to project your mana outward, that's the most basic form of mana manipulation."
The mage explained some other things for another hour, but they don't interest us. Adam, excited to try magic for the first time, thanked him another time, finished drinking his tea and said goodbye to Edgar. While he was leaving, The head guard told him not to worry about the mandatory training, and focus on magic.
While running through the town, Adam thought about what he heard at Edgar's house
'What element should I try to manipulate first? The chief said the environment should support me if I used ice mana, so that's a first pick. Though, trying pure magic shouldn't harm me in any way.'
After arriving in front of his house, Adam went inside, grabbed some warmer clothes and sat outside.
He tried to feel the mana, which proved to be as easy as opening his eyelids, then he focused more on what it did, than where it was.
The mana, which filled his body felt more incredible the more he studied it, it flowed smoothly through his body's veins alongside blood like a warm, curious friend.
Feeling it was easy, but what about projecting it outside?