Chapter 12 - Years and events

When I felt my core crack I at first felt scared then remembered to reach the next level I have to shatter then reform my core. I calmly excused myself from the current situation which was again more repair work, a student tried to stop me from leaving assuring me of infinite benefits if I agreed, sparing him no thought I removed him from my path by giving him a new crown, one of pain. After that the students gave me a wide girth while watching another student screaming in pain and slamming him head against the ground and wall hard enough to cause cracks in both. With this being the first public use of that spell I was feeling quite giddy causing a maniac grin to surface on my face this cleared my path even more.

I quickly returned to my villa and into my experiment room. I sat down in a meditative pose and focused on my core. From the information I had gathered one had to make their core shatter be it by smashing it, making it explode and simply willing it to deform. I chose to make it explode and then mimic the actions of sun expanding then contracting. With my plan in my head I proceeded. Like a supernova my core exploded and I felt energy in droves.  I felt all the pure mana that was around me, the wind mana from the air and the spare mana from some of the fire crow enchantments that were lying around. I started to subconsciously absorbed the mana from the environment around me while consciously I was focused on the reformation of my core. Looking at my now shattered core was an interesting sight. There were floating crystals and a gaseous nebula of spiritually force of which was increasing in size by the second due to my subconscious absorption. Eventually my spiritual force stopped growing and with tremendous effort I compressed my core, which was still the same size yet it had double the capacity in comparison to before.

After that event the amount I could do daily increased more repairs and more dealing with people. However even with my increased power I still did not have enough time to study and make more spells, I had tried to skirt my duties and just ignored repair work one day and from that free food privileges were revoked and since I couldn't make long lasting or particularly powerful enchantments I had no money so I quickly went back to the monotony.

Having a few conversations with Charon about my lack of experimentation and development he gives me a surprising rebuttal. He says that I am at my current level ineffective at researching and development due to my lack of base power due to this time spent doing anything magical research and enchantment wise is utterly wasteful as it does not produce useful goods. I tried to argue they were plenty powerful, the enchantments. He then took a junior student and made him stand in the epicentre of the explosion, his shirt was burnt off but that was it. After seeing my power truly laid bare to me Charon explained something to me that I should have by now figured out, before the apprentice stage learning the basics and constantly doing small tasks is what you should be doing. Although I had made some spells they were relatively low level and low effect well for me at the least, comparing me using the same spell as Charon see the difference is obvious. After realizing this I relented to the fact I wouldn't be able to throw myself into spell making or anything of the like, magi training it is then.

Making it to the apprentice level shouldn't take too long, the time between the stages are relatively the same so each stage should be around 2 and half months. So to progress through the next eight stages should take around 1 year and a half, in the grand scheme of things not to long. So time passed a full year and six months of monotonous training and I broke through the stages. Increasing my spiritual base force by repeatedly exhausting myself and reading books. Two books stood out to me during this time Spells and their lines and A familiaris purpose.

A familiars purpose explained what uses a mage could gather from their familiar. Of course their was a innate spell/ ability that was sued by using the familiars qi. However there were further stages of uses. One the immediate uses is the defense factor, due to a magus long casting time he or she would usually need protectors to guard them ergo the familiar. At later stages a magus could actually enchant the familiars themselves therefore increasing the familiars power. Apparently in both later stages for the familiars and the magus it is possible to merge the bodys of the familiar and the magus giving a temporary boost in power.  All this information was interesting but most of the applications were far into the future.

The other book Spells and their lines was a much more interesting read.

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-Straight lines, the connection lines. When the script is written the lines guide the power or the effect to the next stage of the spell. These lines can be drawn in any fashion as long as it doesn't cross of over its own line or other parts of the spell.

Circle, squares and triangles. These are the lines upon which a spell is written and released however not one and the same. For example if one were to write a spell upon a circle then they must connect lines to another shape to release the spell. While it is possible to release two elemental effect through the same shape it is better and more effective to make two shapes in the same general area and connect them through the same lines, the spell will intuitively separate the elemental effects into respective shapes for release. All shapes can store energy, be it qi,mana or spiritual force.

Dotted connections. These are an advanced method of connecting specific effects of spells to another without physically connecting. Drawn like a straight line with one end attached to a spell script and the other end ending in a dotted line. To connect two of these together requires experienced usage of one's spiritual force. Imbuing the two sections of dotted lines with resonating spiritual mana connects the two. There is no limit between sending and receiving signals therefore leading to an impressive amount of effects that can be achieved.

Solid dot. This is known as the input line. Generally used on enchantments for qi users to inject their qi and rarely on advanced types of spells.

Script patterns on lines. Stationary vs mobile. An advanced method of using spells making them stationary or mobile, single cast or continuous. Stationary magic is a spell that is unleashed with a set of predetermined commands, this is a basic spell in most situations. Mobile spells are spells in which the spell script moves along its line in a constant manner, this leads to, if the spell has such capabilities, to receive additional commands or control the spell beyond pointing and shooting.

I had also experienced one full kidnappings and 5 more attempted ones, each one by a low house hoping to grow in power by having a magus under their thumb. I was saved the first time by Courtney surprisingly. To be honest it was coincidence we passed by her in a carriage that had my scream emanating from it, and yes I screamed like a little bitch. After the first attempt at kidnapping Flynn realized the attitude he had before, of which he was never near me, would not do and now it was hard for me to get 10 metres away at any point I even got a new bed to accommodate his size. Lester hadn't changed much, he had gotten fatter but that was it, I looked forward to bring more use from him in the future, much more use then he would like.

During this time I also started to have parties at my villa, purely for a release from the monotony and due to both Courtneys and Adrius encouragement. A few got out of control like most parties do, especially in this case as all the party goers were super huaman. Lester and Flynn had to end most of the parties with brute force, but even that didn't damage the reputation I got from the party nor the fun of which most enjoyed.

Now a short year and a half later I continue doing work with the 9th level of the elementary stage achieved. I can now nearly achieve the same effects with the forestry repair spell as Chron did when we first created it, albeit I would be extensively exhausted afterwards unlike he who treated it like a passing breeze. Thinking upon that I still did not know the further stages of the magus nor the stages others were at. Bringing myself back to reality one of which was again filled with repair work I was at an impasse. Courtney was the cause of this particular incident and had a very adament opinion on whether or not I should heal her victim. The victim in question was from a lower house who had the bright idea of trying to acost the silver headed child, however she ripped his hand off resulting in the current situation. I could heal his hand, only if the hand was in one peice, growing limbs from scratch is a bit out my range for now. Sighing as I now had to resort to bribery to get the hand of the poor sobbing dude who was caressing his stump on the end of his arm.

“Courtney,” I give a sharp expulsion of air” can I please have the hand, Flynn will play with you tonight” I give her my car saleman grin.

Her eyes narrow suspiciously.

“More”

My lips twisted into a grimace she wasn't gonna make this easy. This time I whisper to her.

“A free enchantment when I can make good quality ones, hows that”

“Pleasure doing buisness with you” She hands me the...hand and skips away,the little blackmailer.

I promptly heal the victim and he goes on his way muttering something about revenge and surpassing the highest peak, dumbass.

Adrius comes up from behind me and drops his hand on my shoulder and whispers that he would like to talk soon about some sort of plan, I nod and tell him we can talk in a few days as I have a fairly busy schedule ahead.

I could feel something different coming, different compared to my previous breakthroughs at least. I could feel my soul throbbing and at the same time my core was throbbing, both in sync with each other. This was the prime reason I delayed the talk Adrius wanted.  

I wander back to my house and the throbbing grows in power and frequency, whatever was happening was happening fast apparently. The throbbing had started a few days ago yet it was now increasing like there was no tomorrow.

I returned to my villa in anticipation, this could be the next breakthrough, the breakthrough to the apprentice stage.

I prepped myself in my spare room and closed my eyes to begin.