After eating more than enough, Leona sat under the shade of a tree as she enjoyed the scenery of the calm ocean waves crashing by the northern shore. To her right there was the mountain range and just beyond those were the Elysian Fields, supposedly a frozen place barren of life.

She stared out at the horizon before slowly closing her eyes and focusing on the sensation she had felt while eating at the table. The tingling sensation she felt during her brief exposure to Setsuna’s mana was something she had never felt before.

‘Is this what Robert meant by seeing someone else’s mana?’

The splintered wooden staff was lying on top of her crossed legs as she was focusing her own mana through it. Before it felt like she was simply wasting her mana away, but the more she focused, the more she could feel ‘connected’ to the staff’s circuits.

‘Like an extension of one’s body and mind…’

She thought for herself as the circuits from the wooden cudgel felt like her own.

“I see you’re doing good progress.”

The sudden voice coming from her right snapped her out of it as she almost fell to her left.

“Gah!” Robert was standing just beside the tree she was resting her back against. “Goddess… where did you come from?”

“The city? I just got back. I still need to eat my lunch made by my dearest daughters.”

She gave him a strange look.

“I never took you for a doting father.”

“Me neither, until I had those two.” He scratched the side of his chin. “Anyway, I saw you attuning to it. Congrats.”

“T-thanks? I’m still not sure what I’m supposed to be doing here…”

He sighed.

“Well, if your mind is free enough to think like that then read this.” He snapped and a book appeared between his fingers before he tossed it on top of her lap. “It’s all about magic barriers, written by yours truly.”

“Magic barriers?”

“You do need to understand this if you don’t want to die to an enemy mage.”

“Shouldn’t I just make a physical barrier of the opposite element if someone tries to attack me with a spell?”

“Are you confident you can make a barrier of any element in less than a split second?”

She stopped for a second while curling her lips as if doubt was clouding her mind.

“I don’t know.”

“Ice Wall, Stone Shield, Water Shield, Wind Barrier, Lightning Barrier and Fire Wall. Of course, we have variations of those spells but they are most commonly labeled like these.” He opened his hand and multiple elemental orbs appeared out of thin air and started to rotate around themselves as he slightly moved his fingers in a curling motion. “The best case scenario would be a far away enemy casting a visible spell at you. Sure you may be able to defend against it, but what if there are multiple enemy casters? Can you maintain multiple elemental barriers at once?”

“Ngh… maintaining two spells is already quite hard…”

“That’s exactly why, instead of using different elements, we use barriers made of pure mana. It may not be the strongest method, but if you layer it and make it compact enough it can sustain a lot of damage before it breaks.” He started to head towards the training grounds where the table was set. “Anyway, I’ll go eat. Get back to studying.”

“Yeah, you don’t need to tell me.” She looked down at the book on her lap. The simple blue cover was labeled as ‘Barriers for dummies’ in black ink. “Little piece of…”

Leona tilted her head slightly with her eyes closed while clenching her teeth in anger before taking one sharp, quick breath and exhaling slowly.

She put her staff to the side before opening the book. The first page had a few instructions on how to create the magic barrier Robert mentioned. To her surprise, the handwriting was clear and legible almost to the point it felt like she was looking at her mother’s writing.

“‘Hexagonal barriers may be the hardest to pull off but they are also the most modular.’ What does modular mean?” She noticed an asterisk beside the word she didn’t understand. “‘Something that can easily be expanded upon.’ He thought all about it… huh?” She noticed a small line beside the footnote. “‘This is a book for dummies after all.’”

She once again closed her eyes while frowning her brows. Despite her fuming anger—she continued on with the reading.

“‘With that, it is necessary to master the basic notion of making a singular piece of magic barrier using the hexagon as a building block.’ Right…” She imagined a hexagon shape in her mind but she couldn’t come up with a way to draw it using the string-like mana she usually uses for her other spells. “Is this why he said it’s better to visualize mana as a fluid?”

When it comes to mana manipulation, many mages have different ways to visualize and utilize their magical reserves. Leona was no different, her effective yet unorthodox way to draw spells with mana was something she learned from her mother. Although it allowed her to quickly cast spells on the fly, it was rather strict in its use outside of spellcasting.

“Fluid huh…?” She brought her index finger near her lips as she curled them slightly. “Fluid…” Without being able to come up with something, she focused back on the reading material. “‘If you struggle to imagine this impenetrable hexagon as a shield to save your life. Do the following steps: Draw a hexagon on a leveled ground dirt.’ I can’t do that here…”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

She grabbed her staff and stood up before heading back to the training grounds where the ground was flatter. While awkwardly holding the staff with three fingers and the book between her thumb and index finger, she attempted to draw a hexagon.

“Hmm… close enough…” A few sides of the hexagon had different sizes but in the end it remained mostly resembling the shape. “Now… ‘Take some of the dirt out from inside the shape.’ Okay…”

She slowly chipped the dirt away with the end of her staff before kicking the dirt out of the shape.

“‘Slowly pour water from the very middle while carefully observing how the liquid behaves.’ I don’t have any water on me… ah, wait…” She knelt and left both the book and staff behind her as she brought her closed right hand on top of the drawing. “Focus… focus…”

Light blue mana strings formed from her wrists before coalescing at the center of her closed fist where water started to drip out from. However, said water was being sucked by the dry ground, leaving her with wet dirt.

“Maybe more should do it… though I don’t think this will make it easier for me to understand it…”

She focused more intensively and the mere droplets became a string of continuous water dripping from the middle of her fist.

“Hmm… wait…” After filling the bottom, the water started to rise evenly across the shape. “Is this what he meant by fluid?”

She looked closely at how the water filled the entire space without leaving any gaps. She picked up the book and turned the page. There were carefully drawn hexagons painted black with a pencil in different angles.

“‘If done correctly, a mana barrier can deflect all but the most powerful spells directed at the user. The defensive effectiveness is further enhanced if the barrier is angled sharply in relation to the incoming spell.’ Which is why he said it’s similar to a knight’s armor.” She left the book on the ground again before picking up the staff. “Alright, let’s do this…”

She pointed her staff forward and closed her eyes.

‘An extension of one’s body and mind…’

Unconsciously, she started to draw a hexagon with the very tip of her staff as she fed her own mana through the magic tool. However, as opposed to what she had learned, her mana spun from the middle of the staff to fill the void within the shape which left it with visible gaps between each individual string of mana.

When she opened her eyes she noticed the magic barrier was indeed formed, but it was full of openings.

“Hm… it’s not exactly how it’s supposed to look…” The barrier ceased to exist once she stopped feeding it mana—vanishing upon shattering like glass. “Did Robert’s barriers ever break like this?”

She supported her weight with her staff as her mind thought of ways to implement her newfound knowledge about mana manipulation.

‘Fluid… fluid… I need to imagine my mana as water, but how do I even do that?’

She picked the book once again to read but a familiar voice came from behind her.

“Any progress?” Robert tilted his body to see her face and noticed her holding the book while also taking note of the strange hexagon full of water. “Apparently you made some.”

“Robert.” She said without looking at him. “How exactly do I make my mana behave like a fluid?”

“That is a hard one. It takes a few months of consistent practice in order to even manifest mana outside of the body, in your case you’d need to pound into your subconscious to use mana in a different way entirely.”

“So, it’s difficult.”

“In short, yes. Not impossible though.” He walked around her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Point the staff forward and close your eyes.”

“What exactly are you going to do?”

“I’ll lend you a bit of my method to manipulate mana.”

“...okay then.”

She did as instructed and closed her eyes.

“Take a deep breath.”

His hands started to glow light blue as a thick aura of mana started to envelop Leona’s shoulders.

Since she had her eyes closed, the sensation of the mana permeating throughout her shoulders became even more evident. It was akin to a prickling sensation across her shoulder blades that slowly lost its effect as it went down her spine.

‘This…’ She thought. ‘It’s not unlike being inside water…’

His mana further spread out towards her extended right arm like a trickling river just before a flood. Her entire arm felt strange, as if it was submerged in cold water as the external mana pressured against her muscles.

“Now, cast the barrier.” Despite having her eyes closed, she instinctively made the hexagon with the tip of her staff and mana began to pour in the shape out of her staff much like how she had filled the hole in the ground with water. “Not bad, not bad at all.”

Upon opening her eyes she noticed there was a singular light blue hexagon tile of mana floating in front of her staff.

“I… I did it.”

“You certainly did it.” He took his hands off her shoulders and walked around her—standing a few meters in front. “How about we test it out?”

“Huh?”

He pointed his left index finger towards her and shouted.

“Wind Bullet!”

Without any warning, a blast of concentrated wind was shot out of a rune that activated in front of his hand in the blink of an eye. Leona flinched the moment she noticed the spell coming and for good reason; her barrier wasn’t exactly finished and Robert’s spell blasted right through it like air slicing water.

“Hey!”

“Oh? I thought you’d finish it by the time I cast a spell.”

“How am I even supposed to finish it?!”

He tilted his head with a raised eyebrow.

“Don’t you know how to wield ice spells?”

“Yeah? What does this have to do with barriers?”

“Mana, much like water, can be hardened. If you just pour it into a shape it can hardly be called a barrier.”

Leona let out an exasperated sigh.

“How would’ve I know?”

“Magic is not some otherworldly concept, Leona. It’s a tool. Be it for defense, offense or simply day to day activities.” He cracked his neck one side and then the other. “Well. I don’t know how you managed to learn different elements without any prior knowledge of mana manipulation, but I applaud your skills.”

“It was all thanks to my mother.”

“Your mother…” He tilted his head up while scratching his chin. “Ravness Frostleaf was her name, I think? If I’m not wrong she was someone of quite a lot of renown for inventing firearms. How did she teach you magic, of all things?”

She was hesitant to answer, but after taking a deep breath she took the courage to say it.

“She couldn’t wield magic. It was all thanks to a book she got a long time ago.”

“She got it? A book?”

“Yes. She always would say that a young knight gave it to her after she saved her from starvation.”

“A young knight saved from the brink of starvation…” He chuckled which prompted Leona to give him a somewhat stern look. “Oh pardon me, I meant no disrespect of course. It’s just that fate is such a fickle thing I can’t help but find it amusing.”

“What about fate?”

“It’s nothing, it just reminded me of a similar tale of a certain warrior princess. Let’s go back to the lesson at hand. You need to learn how to use mana reinforcement in order to better use the barrier I just taught you.”

Leona sighed but still readied her staff. However, as she was about to go through her lesson, an explosion echoed in the distance towards the north which caught both of their attention.

“What the…”

A large cloud of black smoke started to rise above the treeline, painting the once clear blue sky a scene of dread.