Adion felt a little disheartened about his seemingly useless powers as a space mage. He was sitting in the large cave next to the spring of water, thinking.
Space mages were rare and seemingly precious in the Age of Wonder, so my element shouldn’t be useless. I just have to figure out how to use it. What do I know about space? It is everything, or more like the place where everything is in. I can feel the space mana all around me and-. That’s it!
Adion suddenly got an idea, and instead of trying to conjure up space, he simply released the space mana in his core into his surroundings as pure space mana. This can be done easily by any mage, but it isn't much use for mages who can easily conjure up plenty of their element. But metal mages often release their mana into metal to make minor adjustments in the runes inscribed.
The space mana Adion released had been bent to his Will, so as the mana was released around him, he got a much clearer picture from his mana sense. He could feel the space mana under his control affect the space around him, making it easy for him to see all around him, even with his eyes closed.
This could come in handy. It should be impossible to sneak up on me like this. But is this all I can do?
Adion continued to focus on the space mana he had under his control.
If I just keep it there and feel my surroundings, it doesn’t take too much effort, but as soon as I try to do something, I get a lot of pushback from the space mana around me that I don’t have under my Will. It seems that space wants to be stable, and as long as I don’t mess with that, I’ll be fine.
But that won’t work if I need to fight my way through the Endless Forest. What was it that the Celestial Phoenix did? I couldn’t move at all in its surroundings, and even the wind was quiet, as if frozen in space.
If I can freeze space around an opponent while making it clear for me to move, couldn't I simply walk forward and stab them in the head while they are standing still? Let’s try to make it work. I shouldn’t go for a big amount of space, though.
Adion controlled the space mana under his Will and gathered it all in the same place in front of him. He made it only take up the size of a fist as he focused and tried with all of his Will to freeze the space in that area. He clenched his teeth as the effort strained his mind, but he could feel it. The space in that area was frozen. It quickly got harder and harder for Adion to hold it still, and he finally released the space mana from his Will as everything returned to normal.
Adion dropped to the ground exhausted and now only had half the mana in his core left and a strained Will again.
How long was that? 2 seconds? Maybe 3? And only such a small space. I guess if I time an attack well enough, I shouldn’t have to freeze space for more than a second. But freezing a living being with an active Will should be much more complicated than a pocket of air. It’s not like I will be able to freeze the space in their body so they will be able to think and react with their mana and Will even if they can’t move their body.
The reason Adion wouldn’t be able to freeze the space inside a living being with Will is the same reason a water mage can’t simply manipulate the water out of their opponent, leaving a dried husk behind. The body of any living being, mage or not, was covered by the soul, and even if it was a weaker soul, it was still impossible or at least incredibly difficult to affect anything of another person's body directly.
If you had to contend against the Will of the world when doing magic in the world, you had to contend against the Will of the person you are attacking if you are trying to do magic inside their body, and a living being’s Will is not as passive as the Will of the world. Even a Diamond water mage wouldn’t be able to pull out a single droplet of water from a sparkless child. That’s how difficult it was to mess around in another person's living body.
Adion thought through the problem but couldn’t think of a solution.
I guess I will just have to get stronger and practice more. I haven’t even had my core for a day yet, and I could still go a while without food. I guess it’s true that mages don’t need to eat as much. But I won’t have forever. I will just meditate and play around with space a little.
So, Adion started his practice and spent the rest of the day familiarizing himself with his new power. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any great epiphany, and by the end of the day, his Will was strained, and his space core was almost empty of mana. Adion decided to sleep to recover. Both one’s Will and core would usually refill from a night’s rest.
It feels like mana is slowly trickling in, slower than if I focused on refilling my core, but it’s great that sleeping is also productive.
Adion’s grandfather had once explained how mages refill their core with an analogy that Adion liked, ‘Imagine a hole in the ground on a flat surface,’ his grandfather had said, ‘Surrounding that hole is a very thin ocean, but it is infinitely wide. That ocean is mana, and the hole is your core. As you empty your core, the mana surrounding it will slowly trickle in, but it won’t expand your core. Once full, there is no pressure to fill it with more mana. That is something you must work hard for. As the hole goes deeper, it takes longer to fill, but as it gets wider, it gets filled quicker. So even as you advance, the time it takes to refill your core is equal.’
Adion drifted off to sleep, thinking about his grandfather’s lessons about magic.
When Adion woke up the next day, after doing some stretches to get his blood pumping, he decided it was time to see the power of a wisdom pill. Thankfully, he had brought one of each along, so he didn’t need to make his way down the caved-in hallway.
He took out the one called the Celestial Phoenix Wisdom Pill from his pocket and looked at it. It was pitch black. It looked almost like a flat circle with his eyes, even though his hands could feel the shape of a round sphere.
Oh well, it should be safe, at least. The man who gave these to his grandson said he could eat them when he formed his core, after all.
Here goes nothing. Adion thought to himself as he swallowed the last pill in the world made from the blood of the Celestial Phoenix.
He could instantly feel the pill dissolving inside him and spreading through every cell in his body, particularly his core. Adion thought it felt bizarre, as if the energy in the pill tried to dig through to his soul and infuse it with whatever power the pill held. It didn’t hurt at all. It felt incredibly invigorating.
Adion could feel his space sense clearer than ever, and it felt like if he should try to freeze the space around him now, he wouldn’t even need to release his own space mana; the space mana around him would bend to Will with a single thought. Adion had never felt so powerful before. All the space around him was his to control. What Will of the world? Space listened to the Will of Adion.
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Adion didn’t know how long the experience lasted, but eventually, it all abruptly stopped. The feeling of being all-powerful was gone. But as Adion focused on his core and tried to realize what had changed, he noticed that even though it was nowhere near as strong, pitifully tiny in comparison, he had some of that feeling left in him. The space seemed a lot closer than before. He could feel that should he try to grab hold of the surrounding space mana, it would still be a struggle, but a big difference from before.
He released some of his space mana and gathered it in the space of a fist a bit in front of him, just like he had done the day before. As he focused and Willed the space to freeze, he noticed it wasn’t much of a struggle anymore. He tried to increase the size of the space under his control. Dispersing his space mana, he noticed that he could keep space the size of a grown man frozen before he started to reach his limit. More than that and he could feel the pressure from the Will of the world increase exponentially, and Adion had to let go.
Amazing! It is so much easier to control space now. It feels more friendly in a way. If before it let me keep my space mana as long as I only used it to sense my surroundings, now it even allows me to freeze and disrupt space as long as I don’t go too far. I get why these pills are so precious. It's not only about increasing power. It's about gaining a tiny bit of an incredible power, a different power.
It’s not that I have more power to freeze more space. It’s that I have the ability to freeze a bit of space without effort. The difference is significant. I barely used any Will until I went too big in size, and then it was the same experience as before I took the pill, only now with a much larger amount of space under my control.
As he thought about this new power, a word popped into Adion’s head. He didn’t know why, but he felt like it fitted what was happening very well.
Authority. It feels like I have some Authority over space. As long as it isn’t too big in volume, a certain amount of space will always listen to me, even without using Will or my own space mana.
Adion was incredibly pleased with the pill. More power was great, sure, but he could always meditate and advance on his own given enough time. But Adion wasn’t sure he could have ever held this different kind of power without taking the pill.
And he wasn’t done yet because Adion had two more pills to take. The Fire Phoenix Wisdom Pill was something Adion thought about saving and not taking himself, but he had five of them. There was enough for his brother and grandfather. Besides, the man who left them had advised his grandson to take it even if he had a shadow spark, and even if Adion had a space core, he still hadn’t given up his wish to be a fire mage. He would need something to use in a fight when he didn’t want to reveal he had a space core after all.
So Adion took a deep breath and swallowed his second pill. The experience was the same as the space pill, but he didn’t feel the space mana around him this time. He felt the fire mana. It was like the pure mana in the surroundings was just dry wheat waiting for a spark to burst into flames, and Adion knew he could do so with a thought. The feeling of being all-powerful took him over once again. Fire was his to control. He could make anything burn to ashes. Even water would become a sea of flames if he so wished. But just like last time, the feeling abruptly faded, and Adion was once again left with just a tiny sliver of the power he had just felt.
Is this the power the Fire Phoenix has all the time? Couldn’t it just turn the world into a sea of flames if it wanted? Well, let’s not assume I know enough to theorize about these things. I should just ensure never to get on the bad side of a Phoenix.
Like before, Adion began experimenting with fire mana to see what was different. As there wasn’t much fire mana around, he turned some of the pure mana into fire mana using his Will. Unfortunately, that part hadn’t gotten any easier. But as he infused the fire mana with his Will, he noticed that his control had improved slightly. He then conjured a small flame, as he didn’t have a strong enough Will to gather the fire mana needed to conjure up anything bigger.
And when the small candle-sized flame appeared above his palm, Adion felt it. If before he had to struggle against the Will of the world to keep even this small flame lit, now it took barely any effort. Adion focused on the small flame and manipulated it away from himself. It got a little trickier with the distance, but still a breeze compared to before. Adion then controlled the flame to land on the stone floor and Willed it to burn. And it did.
It is actually burning on the rock! Sure, the rock isn’t affected much, but still. I would have completely exhausted my Will, struggling against the Will of the world by now, if not for this strange new power. Now, I barely feel any toll on my Will at all.
Adion was even more impressed by the power he got from the Fire Phoenix, because while they were the same in actual power, Adion knew nothing about how powerful a space mage at his stage should be. But he knew the strength of fire mages and knew that any fire mage with this power would be utterly unbeatable by other mages in the same stage.
If I increase my strength and mana control and temper my Will enough, I might be able to fight an actual fire mage even without a fire core. It will be hard, though. I don’t think I can increase the size of the fire too much without the Will of the world starting to fight me just like it did against my control of space.
Adion couldn’t control enough fire mana to test his limits right now. He didn’t have a core full of Will-attuned fire mana like he did with space, after all. He decided to let go of the fire with his Will, and to his great surprise, the fire kept burning. On stone.
Adion usually didn’t make any expression on his face. Only his family was able to bring out a rare smile from him. And since coming here, his face was even more expressionless than usual. But as he watched the flame that he had let go of his control continue to burn on the stone floor, Adion had a giant smile on his face.
Revenge might be closer than I thought. And I can’t wait til Aiden and Grandpa get to see this. I’m gonna have to decide what I’ll have them do for me in return for this pill.
The flame eventually went out, but Adion was very pleased with the result. And as he reached into his pocket, he grabbed hold of the last pill he had taken with him.
Time to see what this shadow element is. I don’t even think I have an affinity for it. Will it still work? Well, there's only one way to find out. There were at least ten of these, so it's not a big loss if it doesn’t work.
Adion swallowed the Moon Shadow Panther Wisdom Pill, and the same process as the two previous pills began. This time, it was a little different, though. The wave of energy coming out of the pill wasn’t as strong. And he didn’t get the feeling of being all-powerful, really powerful, sure, but not to the same degree as the previous pills.
But the effect was not small, not at all. Adion could feel a type of mana around him that he had never felt before. He immediately knew it was shadow mana. It felt like he could cover all light with it, casting a shadow that no light could penetrate. He felt that should he Will it, he could cover the entire forest around him in a shadow that no amount of sunlight and no fire could light up. He felt that while darkness could cover a closed room, the shadow could be present on the brightest of days. It was not only the absence of light. It was the blocking of light.
The feeling once again disappeared after a while, and Adion quickly began trying to manipulate this new element. It seemed the pill had either given him the affinity to shadow or at least woken it up or brought Adion's focus to an affinity that was always there. Unfortunately, unlike fire and space mana, Adion had no experience in manipulating shadow mana. He should have some Authority over it if this pill worked the same, but that wouldn’t help him control shadow mana. He would need to practice that himself.
Adion wasn’t one to give up, though; he had not even been able to manipulate mana four years ago, and now he could conjure fire out of fire mana even without a fire spark or fire core. And his mana control was a lot better, so his speed would surely increase.
But even after an hour of practice, Adion wasn’t able to get very far. He could infuse his Will into the shadow mana, but it was hard, and then controlling it was another challenge, not to mention trying to conjure shadows and test out his new power.
Oh well, I have done it before, so I can do it again. Besides, I don't even know how I would fight using shadows. Perhaps I should look into how darkness mages fight and see if I can get any ideas. Blocking all light might work to confuse the enemy if I can see like usual, and it messes with the opponent's mana sense. I’ll keep practicing and figure it out as I go. I should focus on my space magic for now, as that will be my primary source of power.
Adion got up and started doing exercises with his sword. He had gotten a bit tired when trying to learn how to manipulate shadow mana, so he took this time to get some other practice in.
Good thing I carried my sword when I got teleported, or I would have been screwed. I just wish I had had a backpack with food as well. I will give myself a week. Then, I’ll climb down the mountain to hunt and scavenge for food.