Chapter 8 – First Day of Training [Part 2]
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After lunch I was given little to no time to rest and, after walking behind Lucilla trough the hallways of the castle, we finally reached a wooden door.
“Lady Raphael, Hero Fortuna is here for the training session.” Said Lucilla after knocking on the door.
“Come in, the door’s open.” Answered an old woman voice on the other side of the door.
Lucilla opened the door then bowed and left as I was entering the room.
Inside the room there were bookcases everywhere against the walls; on the floor different kinds of magic circles could be seen, some of which were partially covered by a carpet that occupied the centre of the room; the windows had dark, thick curtains that were now open; a long square table, covered with gems, crystals and scrolls, stretched between the two windows and on a leather chair in front of that table sat Lady Raphael who was rolling up a scroll.
“Good afternoon, Lady Raphael.” I said after closing the door.
“Good afternoon. Please sit there on the carpet; we will begin in a moment.” She said, pointing the carpet as she went to a bookcase to put the scroll away.
(This should be more my cup of tea compared to physical training) I thought while sitting with my legs crossed on the carpet and soon after Lady Raphael sat in front of me.
“Shall we start with a simple explanation?”
“Yes please.”
“Well then, there are three kinds of magic in this world; they are called mortal magic, god magic and spirit magic. All three magic systems work trough mana but the way they use it is different. To use mortal magic one has to directly use mana, most magics are of this kind; spirit magic works by giving mana to the spirits to ask them for help; finally to use god magic, like holy magic and darkness magic, the user has to harness the power given to its soul by the gods and during its use mana is subconsciously lost by the body.”
She stopped speaking and stared at me for a moment, checking if I was following her explanation. I nodded a bit and she resumed talking.
“To use mortal magic you have to be able to perceive mana inside and around you; for spirit magic and god magic that isn’t necessary but you must be able to see and communicate with the spirits for the first one and feel the power given by the gods inside you for the latter. Mortal magic is also the only system that doesn’t have any mean to heal wounds, while god magic, especially holy magic, specializes in healing; spirit magic on the other hand kind of falls between the two.”
“So if one learns both mortal magic and god magic learning spirit magic would be redundant and inefficient, am I right?” I asked her.
“Well, I don’t know of any living person that uses all three kinds, not really because it is inefficient but because under normal conditions it is impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because only humans and demons can use god magic, holy and darkness respectively, while only demi-humans can use spirit magic and in the rare case an half is born usually they can’t use either of them.”
“I understand…”
“Well then, now that we are done with the explanation of the kinds of magic we should start with training, don’t you think?”
(Finally!)
“Yes, I’m ready any moment.”
“Then close your eyes and try to feel the mana around and inside you. Considering that you already know some holy magic you should be able to sense the power of the goddess inside you, mana has a similar feeling but is not quite the same, so first concentrate on the power of the goddess and then, based on that, try to feel mana.”
I closed my eyes.
“Can you sense the goddess’s power?”
(Well it’s actually my own power; of course I can feel it.)
“Yes, I can.” I answered, keeping my eyes closed.
“Then, try to feel something similar that is all around you but also inside of you.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
(Okay, let’s cheat a little here.)
I [looked] around me differentiating the various energies of the world and found one that was not present on Earth then, knowing what I was looking for, I tried to feel it with my whole body.
“I did it” I said opening my eyes.
Lady Raphael had a shocked look on her face.
“Eh? Already?”
“Yes, is it bad?”
“It’s not bad; it’s just that it usually takes days, if not weeks to manage it the first time and many people, even those who can already use holy magic, can’t even do it, no matter how hard they try. Are you sure you can really feel it?”
“Well, yes, I’m pretty sure about it.”
“Then let’s test how well you can sense it. Place your hands on mine, I will fill them with mana once at the time and you are going to tell me which one is it.” She said looking at me doubtfully.
I placed my hands on hers and she immediately filled her left hand with mana.
“Left.”
She dispersed the mana and filled again her left hand.
“Left.”
She passed to the right hand.
“Right.”
Finally she filled both hands with mana.
“Both.”
She was now looking at me with a face even more shocked than before.
“You really can do it.”
“It seems so. What should I do next?”
Lady Raphael regained her composure and thought for a few seconds before telling me “Well, considering you can already feel mana we could start with the magic manipulation training.”
“Magic manipulation?”
“Yes, it’s a skill that allows you to manipulate your mana, it’s the first step for support magic like body reinforcement, it makes it easier to learn other magics and also improves the mana capacity of your body without leveling up.”
“So it’s not like I will be able to shoot fireballs after my first day of training, right?” I said jokingly.
Lady Raphael started looking at me with warm eyes.
(Ehi! Don’t look at me with those eyes! Don’t start treating me as a child just because you didn’t understand I was joking!)
“Dear, you might be a genius when it comes to magic but you still must learn how to walk before starting to run. You will first learn support and wind magic, then water magic, earth magic, fire magic, ice magic and the list goes on, but you will follow this order.”
“I understand. Shall we continue with the training?”
(Please don’t start another explanation. Please don’t start another explanation. Please don’t start another explanation)
“I don’t think you actually do,” -(Fuuuuck)- “you see, support magic is one of the easiest to learn, while elemental magics like wind magic, water magic and earth magic are easier to learn in that order as it is more difficult to manipulate solids than liquids and gasses; fire and ice magic are considered by most part of the elemental magics but their real function is to raise or lower the temperature of objects and make them easier to move when in that state but without the other three elemental magics they are almost useless. For example thanks to air and water magic you can use the humidity of the atmosphere to create an icicle with ice magic and move it with ice, earth and wind magic; or you can concentrate the ‘fire gas’ that is in the air with air magic and ignite it with fire magic to make a fireball that you then move with fire and air magic. There are also much more difficult magics like thunder, space-time or shadow magic but we will come to that when it is time. That’s why I will teach you magic with this order in mind.”
(Wait, fire gas?)
I [looked] at the air around me to see what its composition was.
(Oh, I see, the atmosphere in this world contains a 2% of methane, that must be it. I guess they don’t really have to worry about greenhouse effects when the sun is made of magic and managed by the gods.)
“I understand. Shall we resume the training?”
(Pleaseee.)
“Yes, of course.” She said, almost as if she just remembered what we were here for.
Afterwards she made me train in manipulating the mana inside of me for all afternoon. The sun was already starting to set when we were interrupted by a knock on the door.
“Lady Raphael, Hero Fortuna, it’s me, Lucilla. Dinner will be ready soon.”
I looked at Lady Raphael, she nodded.
“We have finished, I’ll come to you in a second.” I said while getting up.
“Well then Lady Raphael, thank you for your lesson, I guess we will have to continue tomorrow.”
“Yes, have a good dinner dear. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I said to her “Goodbye.” and went out of the room, where Lucilla was waiting for me.
“So, you said something about dinner?”
“Yes, it should be ready in a few minutes.”
“Let’s go then.”
We got back to my room the moment another maid was entering with a food trolley, she left the trolley to Lucilla, bowed and went back. We entered the room and I sat on one of the chairs while Lucilla placed the food on the table in front of me.
I started eating a mixed salad that was really good if it wasn’t for a weird aftertaste.
“This salad has some weird taste to it, what is it?” I asked Lucilla between a bite and another.
“It’s probably the poison.” She said, completely calm.
“Oh, I se - wait! What!?”
I dropped my fork.
“Don’t worry; we are not going to kill you. It’s a really bland poison and the dosage is very low. It’s been used for centuries by the royal family to develop the poison resistance skill, so you can eat without worrying.”
I got back to eating.
“You know, after a hard day of training I would have preferred a nice dinner instead of some kind of poisoning attempt anyway-”
“As I said, it is not a poisoning attempt.” She said, interrupting me.
“A nice, tasty dinner after which I would have, maybe, hugged something soft to comfort myself.”
“Please don’t look at my chest while saying so.”
“Well, they do seem soft and comforting though.” I said while keeping looking at her.
“Please stop with these jokes, I’ll have you know I am married.”
Thunder struck me.
“Don’t do that shocked face now, it would have been weirder if I got in my twenties without getting married.”
“Well, it’s not cheating if we are both women right?”
“Hero Fortuna, I’m serious, stop with this or you might get in trouble with the inquisition some day.”
“Yes, yes, don’t worry. I wasn’t expecting the inquisition though.”
“Well, you should, as same-sex and interracial relationships are not well seen by the church.”
(Oh, not this shit again.)
“Yes, I will be careful.”
I finished eating and went to take a bath, alone, as Lucilla obviously didn’t want to share it with me after such a conversation. Finally I tried to get my brain used to thought acceleration, which caused me a headache, and went to sleep.