Making some rudimentary defences for the village didn't take that long, and less than an hour later, Jasper and Celeste were making their way towards the southeast.
Thanks to Celeste's map, there was no chance of them getting lost. The oak forest made for a nice walk, and the sturdy oaks around them gave way to beech trees. Life in the forest seemed to flourish, and wildlife seemed to find easy homes among the trees.
As such, birds chirping was common, while does and deers scattered through the woods whenever they spotted the not-that-stealthy couple. The rabbits that had made their homes in various burrows were just as skittish, but it was really impressive how this entire place seemed to be teeming with movement and life.
Celeste's ability to travel without pause was neat. It ensured that Jasper didn't have to slow down for her as the early evening became evening.
As the sun was about to set over the horizon, visible through the roof of branches and leaves, the beech forest was replaced with long, slender pines.
Looking at the map, they could see that a trip that should have taken them two days had taken place in an evening.
It was suddenly clear why the previous area hadn't been marked as forest on the map. A dense tapestry of forestry lay in front of the couple. Thick patches of ferns alongside the dense pines ensured that you couldn't look further than a couple of meters before the forest became too dense.
The forest floor was littered with pine needles, dampening any sound and making the air itself feel dense and overwhelming.
Celeste looked at her husband and Jasper shrugged. They didn't have time to try and work around this, they would need to head through this or give up and hope their defences held.
Their progress slowed to a halt, though thanks to Celeste's Power "Know the Path", she knew the easiest way to a location, and everything told her this would be her best option.
Each step took the next, and without the clock in Celeste's user interface, they would probably have lost track of time.
The forest was so dense here that they could not see the moon nor the stars. There was little movement around them, and each time something rustled or snapped a branch, the pair of gods readied themselves for combat.
Celeste and Jasper were on high alert but still missed it when a figure seemed to emerge from the darkness to stand in their path.
The man was a tall fellow, lanky, and wearing a thick rope that seemed to be made of multiple layers of natural cloth, giving it an earthen and dirty look. Based on the long, thin ears that reached a point and how his eyes seemed just a bit too big for his head, this was an elf.
Jasper had expected him to have long, flowing golden hair, but he was bald with strange markings across his scalp, almost like tattoos.
"You trespass on our land and expect to walk unharmed. Make yourself known before you will be taken to be judged by my kin." The elf's voice was soft, gentle and commanding. It was like he was speaking with the will of the earth and the winds.
Jasper knew that he should probably be the one to talk since he had the highest charisma and, as such, could make the most progress. However, Celeste was usually the outgoing one, and Jasper paused for just long enough that things grew awkward.
The god coughed into his hand and nodded. "Uhm, yes. We have come to seek an alliance with you. We have a human city not far from here that will be overrun by orks if we do not get any aid." Jasper announced, and the elf seemed to look at him with curiosity. While it was not what he had wanted, it was still better than open hostility.
"And what makes you think that your people are of any concern to us? The elven nation does not wish to intermingle with the humans. We are already fighting you in the east, and yet you come begging for our aid? What possible benefit would we gain from strengthening our enemies?" Jasper cursed a little under his breath, something that the elf clearly picked up based on the way his ear twitched.
It shouldn't have been surprising that the empire attacked the elves. After all, one of the primary functions of the empire was to ensure conflict.
However, the god hadn't assumed that the elves would see Marcusburg as allied with the empire. The elf was decidedly seeing all humans as one singular faction. Jasper should have known that it would happen. He viewed all the elves as a singular faction and all the orks as a singular faction.
Celeste could see her husband had started to think. He was growing introspective and now wasn't the time to try and re-evaluate their approach.
"We have attained power to the point where some call us gods. Aid the human nation of A'kastin, and ensure that they do not fall to the orks, and in return, we will grant you a boon." As Celeste spoke the elf seemed to almost resent the idea that the humans might be able to gift him something.
Before he could speak up, Jasper tried to butt in. "I will grant you knowledge!" He said, clearly desperate, and with trembling hands, he pulled out a thick leatherbound tome. It was his notes on Elementalism.
"It can be yours if you wish..." Seeing the well-crafted tome did give the elf pause.
Slowly, he stepped forward, his steps light, and he seemed to float over the pine needles. Long, slender fingers wrapped around the tome, pulling it from Jasper's grasp, but the god of magic did not resist, allowing the mortal to gaze upon the words.
The elf nodded slowly and then pointed at the other tome at Jasper's side. "I will promise the aid of my kin, the aid of the elven nation Mek, but you will need to give me more. If your power is as vast as you claim, then provide me with the other spell school at your side and then one more. This is the price of a nation's aid." The elf had a smug smile, knowing he had the upper hand.
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Jasper decided he did not like elves.
Celeste looked at her husband, surprised that he was even contemplating the idea of granting the elves the tome of Mentalism and some other spell path. However, she wasn't about to interrupt him, and with slow hands, Jasper handed over the second tome that he had created.
Overall, Jasper wasn't losing anything on this. He would still attain knowledge of the tomes and their spells. Thanks to the elf's long lifespan, he was probably the right person to take care of these books to ensure they never faded.
But Jasper was being forced to hand out a boon that he did not wish to hand out, and it annoyed him.
"Fine, though I will have to talk about the third type of magic, and you will be writing it down." He said and looked at Celeste.
She rolled her eyes and pulled on the energy around her. In the blink of an eye, she crafted a third tome.
The pages were thick and heavy, and it was almost impractical in its size. Each page was akin to an A3 page rather than the usual 110mm × 178mm. Thick metal clasps adorned each corner of the book, while the leather was a light blue. In the middle of the front cover, Celeste had inserted a neat rock she had found while they were making their way through the forest earlier. There was nothing magical about the rock. She had just thought that it looked nice. All of this combined made the book very heavy and annoyingly very different from the other two tomes.
Jasper smiled and threw the elf his ballpoint pen and smirked. "I hope you like to take notes."
The elf looked at the pen, then the book and grumbled but didn't protest, sitting down on the forest floor as Jasper assigned Energy to learn a new spell school.
Energy 1/2
Jasper started by outlining the basic concepts of magic. It was something that was written in the other tomes as well. The idea that gestures and words would often help casting spells. The idea that a spell was a specific combination of words given intention.
Jasper even explained how, if sufficiently skilled, these gestures and words were not necessary, though the intention would have to be crystal clear in one's mind.
Then, he went on to explain how the lack of movements and words theoretically allowed for instant casting, though this was practically impossible.
The elf was writing it all down, taking notes more diligently than any other student Jasper had ever had. At first, the elf had been amazed by the ballpoint pen, but it was now almost forgotten as he periodically raised his hands and asked questions that Jasper had not really thought about.
Finally, they reached the meat of the lecture. It was starting to grow late, but the god of endurance didn't plan on taking a break. If anything, he was hardly breathing between his words. Jasper had decided that if the elf wanted knowledge from the gods, he would have to earn it.
"This will be a thorough exploration of Arcanism. Arcanism is the study of magic. It is a lot more mathematical than other branches of magic, and its application is usually much more esoteric compared to the two paths that I have 'gifted' you. Even so, Arcanism is incredibly powerful, especially when combined with other spells schools." Jasper explained, trying his best to sound like he knew what he was talking about and simply not parroting the words he had learned from his power.
"For you see, magic is a representation, one would say a set, of all ways to manipulate the world. Such a power that contains all powers must, in its nature, contain itself. Therefore, we get Arcanism. While magic can imitate natural phenomena, for example, with the Elementalism school, it can also imitate itself. So, while magic is a set containing all sets, Arcanism is the set that contains only the intention of magic, which in its nature has no inherent intention. We can thus classify Arcanism as the empty set, while magic as a whole can be viewed as the set containing all sets. Bear in mind that this is only one way of viewing magic, and further abstraction is possible." Jasper explained, and he wasn't sure that half of the words that he said even made sense, but it seemed like the elf was more than willing to write everything down.
Jasper talked about how Arcanism could be used to modify magic. There were effects for applying magic to weapons, which was technically enchantment, though the magic would only be sustained for a couple of attacks and, as such, not viable for any warrior thinking of getting some kind of permanent weapon.
He talked about the Arcanism school's ability to drain magic, both from midair spells, which he quickly named countermagic, and from a target, meaning that you could steal mana from a target.
Jasper then described how Arcananism could be used to modify spellcasting. It would allow someone to weave two spells together, though in reality, it would drain the same mana as casting three spells at once.
Jasper knew that all spells had an associated manacost, but being the god of magic, he had never really figured out if he had a limit to his mana pool.
Lastly, Jasper talked about rituals and the fact that a spell could be cast using multiple people, utilizing their natural and cultivated mana for the ritual.
All these effects had one thing in common. They could not be used without the existence of another spell.
An enchantment was simply a way of layering the magic with the material, and you would have to know the spell you wanted to layer. A counter spell required a spell to be countered, and draining magic required the build-up of magic in the target's body. The multi-casting didn't provide any new spells, simply a way of manifesting already known spells, and the rituals were just another way of casting these spells.
All in all, the school contained nothing. It had no inherent force in on itself. It was a loose collection of techniques but nothing more. Still, it was a powerful spell school, ensuring that if it was learned in combination with one of the other schools, it would elevate someone beyond all possible competition.
Finally, the elf seemed to be on the verge of passing out. He could barely sit up straight, and Jasper was pretty sure that the last few diagrams he had drawn were doodles instead of the concepts of dimensional layering that the god had tried to explain.
Jasper couldn't help but feel a self-satisfied smirk as he released his power, and he felt his "Omni scholar" Power start to feed the information that he had just explained back to him, all thanks to the massive tome. He quickly looked over his Energy to ensure that he had gained it back.
Energy 3/3
"Give me your name." The god said, and the elf was far too hazed out to even resist the interrogation.
"Ewen," he said back in a meek voice.
"Ewen. We are going to return to Marcusburg now. If you and your people are not coming to the aid of the humans, then we will personally ensure that you will feel the wrath of the gods. Have I made myself clear?" Jasper asked the rhetorical question and only got a groan of defeat from the elf.
The gods smiled, both knowing that poor Ewen would arm himself with magic. It was a good thing that Jasper would be able to counter anything the elf could conjure.