A dark flame floated just a few inches above my index finger. It’s way bigger than the one he showed me. I swayed my hand gently from right to left and the flame followed my finger. Me and Jose stare at it wordlessly for quite some time. After a while, the first to speak is him.
He pointed at the flame and asked in disbelief, “What the hell is that?”
Then, something suddenly clicked. While still holding up my finger, I look at him and grinned.
“That’s right, hell.” He flinched a little.
“Stop that, you’re reminding me of someone I met once.”
He massaged his temples for a bit and looked like he thought of something.
“With the way you dress and act, including your surname that I haven’t heard of, surely you aren’t a demon noble instead?”
“Of course not.”
“Ah whatever, my head hurts.”
He got up to go behind the counter. He rummaged for something under it and went back to where I was sitting with a paper in his hands. He held it up in front of me.
“Here, try lighting this on fire.”
I did what he said and moved my finger just below the paper. The paper is set alight and the flame’s color is still dark. He looked at it for a while before blowing on it. It went out like normal fire. He nods at the discovery.
“Looks like it’s only normal flame.”
While he’s busy analyzing the flame, I look at the new display on the top right side of my vision. A blue bar with a numerical indicator. The number displayed is 798/900, and the blue bar is slowly depleting.
“By the way, how do I turn it off?”
He came back to his senses. “Oh, right! Your mana might be depleted by now. Hurry, imagine the flow of mana cutting off to the flame. You must be able to feel it now.”
Barely out of mana. I did what he said and the flame went out, then I withdrew my hands back down coolly.
“Wow, you are still able to move despite all that mana spent. What is your INT stat?”
I held up nine of my fingers.
“Huh, only 90MP?”
“Actually, 900MP.”
He looked like me like I wasn’t human. I am human, though.
“You are probably low leveled and yet…”
At this point, he closes his eyes. He seemed to be deep in thought trying to connect the pieces and creating my backstory in his head. From his words, each INT you have is equal to 10MP. I don’t know why I have 100MP instead each INT but this means I can invest less in INT. He opens his eyes.
“This time, chant it correctly. Imagine a flame coming out of your finger, with a normal color this time.”
I did what he said and normal flame came out. I looked at it for a second before dispelling it.
“At this point, it’s better to just accept things as is. Be sure to do that from now on or else people will get the wrong idea. Also, is this really your first time learning magic?”
“Yes.”
“You have innate talent and the mana capacity more than average. Do you want to keep learning under me? I promise to teach you in my utmost ability if you do.”
It will be nice to keep learning under him. He seems like a good person like Koner. It’s best to keep making trustworthy friends. In this case, a trustworthy teacher. I nodded my head at him with a hint of determination.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Then, before I accept you as my disciple, you need to answer one question.”
He inhaled deeply, and exhaled after a few seconds.
“Tell me, do you love magic?”
There is no question. I looked at him in the eye and replied, “I do. I love magic very much ever since I was a child up until now.”
He scrutinized me. He seems to be hesitating a little bit. Maybe he had a disciple before and their relationship turned awry. Either that or I just don’t look trustworthy. Then, he came to a decision.
“Very well. Then from now on, you may call me master.”
“Won’t that look weird? What is your age anyway?”
“I’m actually a lot older than I look.”
He lifted up his hat and under it is a pair of elven ears. Huh, that makes sense. I wonder why he is in a human town without any other races except humans, though.
“Then, let’s hurry up since I still need to open up the shop.”
I forgot that we are inside his shop and that it’s still opening hours. He motioned for me to follow him and we went upstairs. It is quite spacious with separated living quarters and utility area where the bathroom and toilet is. Of course, there is a kitchen and dinner table.
That floor isn’t our stop, though. My master went a floor higher so I continued to follow him. The third and last floor is a magic workshop. There are all sorts of things here including an alchemy table and a big table supposedly for drafting. There are also several shelves, some containing books and some containing items and potions.
He went straight to a shelf in the corner containing a box at the very top. He grabbed a mini-ladder to reach it then pulled out a wizard hat and cloak from inside the box. He handed it to me.
“Since you are now my disciple, you need to actually look like a wizard. Here, and take off that cape of yours since it will only hinder you at the most crucial moments.”
I don’t know if he has to keep up appearances with other wizards or he just likes wizard things. Not that I mind so I take off my cape, put it inside my bag, and wore the hat and cloak. It matches the color of the outfit I’m wearing.
“It fits you nicely.” He seemed satisfied.
Next, he grabbed a rectangular box, placed just a shelf below the box earlier. He opened it and inside is a wand with a length of half an arm. At one end, it is as thin as a finger gradually thickening to the other end until it resembles what I make out to be the handle. Below the handle at the bottom of the wand is a rainbow gemstone. It gives off a faint light.
“I will give you this wand. This is a wand with a medium gemstone, which amplifies your magic. Do not lose it.”
I picked it up gently from the box using two hands. He closed up the box and put it back to the shelf. Then, like an orchestrator leading a chaos orchestra, I swung around my wand wildly without rhythm in one hand pretending to be a wizard casting spells. Of course, it flew out of my hands. He shook his head and sighed in disbelief.
“What did I just tell you…?”
I pick it up the wand that is thankfully not so far away. If it is, that would be awkward.
“Thank you very much for all this, master.” Calling him that still somehow feels wrong.
“Just take care of the wand. And… do you even have a place to stay?”
I shook my head and he sighed again.
“You can stay here as long as you are in this town. There is a guest room beside my room in the second floor. It’s not occupied anymore, so you can have it.”
He turned to leave. Without looking back, he told me, “I’m heading back down. Do whatever you want in the meantime. I will teach you tomorrow.” With that, he left completely.
Well, I’m alone now, and there is a magic workshop in front of me. It’s obvious what I will do. For the time being, I put the wand inside my bag while I confirm some things.
“Status.”
[Status Window]
[Name: Christopher Sterling]
[Characteristic: Magic-Loving Good Boy]
[Level: 2]
[EXP: 0/60]
[Passive Skill/s]
[Ad-Lib]
[Distort Spell]
[Incomprehensible Mind]
[Spells Comprehension]
[Active Skill/s]
[First-aid]
[Encourage]
[Fire Wisp]
[STR: 6] [INT: 9] [AGI: 7] [FAI: 11] [END: 5]
[Distributable Points: 2]
Sure enough, like the notification said, Fire Wisp is added to the list of active skills. And why the heck did it become magic-loving good boy? I looked at my stat points next. I still have the points I didn’t distribute. I forgot to ask how to add status points.
I try tapping the INT but as usual, my hand just goes through. Then, I think of the 9 becoming 10. The 9 in front of my eyes slowly changed into a 10. I have one distributable point left but I save it. Then, the blue bar’s numerical value changed from 817/900 into 817/1000. My hunch is right.
Even then, I still don’t know why it gives 100MP instead of the usual 10MP according to master. I looked at my passives and decided to just blame it all on incomprehensible mind since it’s the only passive without clear meaning. I decided to experiment with the other passives.
First, ad-lib. I held up my finger.
“Bababooey.” Nothing happened.
It worked fine last time, though. I try imagining a flame this time in my mind.
“It’s alive!”
Whoosh
「Ad-Lib is in effect」
「Fire Wisp is activated」
A flame burst forth at the tip of the finger. Looks like it is tied to my imagination. It is quite hard to concentrate on imagining while in battle though. However, I will manage somehow. If not, I won’t be Favus. I didn’t forget to dispel the flame to try again another approach.
“Ah.” It activated all the same.
I also tried bringing up the status and it worked. I walked towards the bookshelves and searched a particular book. There are shelves with books related to alchemy and science and other complicated subjects. Finally, I found the book I was looking for. It is a book of spells. Beside it are books related to magic like magic rituals, magic theory, etc. These are books for another time.
I opened it up and flipped to the table of contents. It is neatly arranged with different sections, and below the sections are the subjects themselves, which are of course the name of the spells. There is beginner magic, intermediate magic, advanced magic, group magic, and forbidden magic. I quickly flipped to the forbidden magic section and the pages are all ripped.
I stare at it for a while before skimming the other sections. I flipped to the beginner magic and saw the first spell being fire wisp. It doesn’t have a detailed explanation on the uses and how it is mastered or controlled, just enough for you to know how it works and the chant. It probably is in the magic theory book earlier. The beginner section also includes various utility magic like water. Yes, just literally water.
Intermediate magic has things like water bolt and fire ball, and advanced magic has water needles and AoE magic. It seems like the more it goes up in rank, the more refined and specific it gets. Of course, the group magic section includes summoning meteorites. No surprise there. The book says it will require a significant amount of mana in order to actually cast one without a magic ritual, though.
Then, after skimming the book, I sat down on a random chair inside the room and read it thoroughly. Time passed, and I finish reading the book. Of course, with the help of spell comprehension, even though the book is complicated I learned every spell in the book and now have an arsenal of spells able to rival an army at my disposal.
Except I learned that spell comprehension apparently has a limit of learning one spell a day, and it will be on cooldown until 12 midnight. I decided to try something else while I’m here.
“The darkest dark, from the very depths of hell! The dark… flame, from the… dark pit, come forth and answer your dark… master!”
「Ad-Lib is in effect」
「Spell Distortion is in effect」
「Fire Wisp is activated」
Then, from the tip of my finger, a flame emerged. Except, the flame is frozen. It flickered like a hologram glitching out and for a second, the frozen flame became normal, then changed back into being frozen again. I dispelled it because somebody must have overheard me.
“What the heck are you even up to again and you’re shouting weird stuff? Come down, dinner is ready.” The voice came from below. Of course, it’s master.
I replied, “I’m coming down.”
I didn’t notice that it’s already night. I must have been really absorbed in that book. Oh well, I am getting hungry so I might as well eat and save these things for tomorrow. Tomorrow will be my first magic lesson. Maybe second? After the lesson, I will probably need to read the history books here next to learn more about this world.
I head down the stairs to eat dinner.