“Greetings, novice, I am Randalph the Red, master of the Seven Towers, conqueror of the Boiling Sea, and a decent knitter if I do say so, and I am here to teach you about magic. If you decide the might of magic is your true calling, I shall help guide you on your path and teach you spells to help you progress towards your goal.
“Should you decide the path of magic is not your calling, I will attempt to help you see the error of your ways in the hope that one day you see that magic is simply superior to all else. So, shall I guide you down the path of a mage?”
The old man asked, though it sounded less like a question and more of a suggestion, like the answer was obvious.
“I would first like to learn more about what a mage is. I don’t want to focus on combat. I would actually prefer not to fight.”
“Then the path of magic sounds perfect for you!” The old man exclaims excitedly. “Is something just out of reach? Raise the earth to make a step! Are you hot? Conjure ice to cool down! Cold? Summon flame to heat up! Did you get lost in the forest? Ask the animals to guide you! Magic can do anything!”
Kilian got the feeling he was talking to a door-to-door vacuum salesman, but it what he was saying sounded like what he was looking for.
“Sounds good to me, but I would still like the basic lesson first, and to complete the crafting lesson before making my decision.”
Randalph looks a little disappointed, but understands. “Yes, it is always best to know your options. Very well, we will begin the lesson. The first thing you should know about magic, is that it is fueled by mana.
“Mana is not an invisible energy in the air, but is a resource. It looks like a blue liquid shimmering with stars, but feels like gas. It behaves like a liquid, flowing downhill and filling whatever container it is in, but cannot be grabbed or held. The container must have a rune, which I will teach you later, marked somewhere on it to hold mana.
“You use mana to draw runes, which are symbols that affect the world. Everything has a rune associated with it, that names it. These runes are the true names, and hold absolute command of the thing they name. There are runes for both general names and individual names. For instance, this is the rune for fire.”
The old man lifts his hand, and with his finger, draws a symbol in the air.
“With this rune, I can conjure a standard, nameless flame, but drawing a rune alone will not do anything. This is the rune for ball, for flying, and for forward. By drawing these four runes, I will conjure a flaming ball that will fly forward. To activate this spell, you need to encircle the runes, turning it into an array. The size of the array will determine the power of the spell, and the size of the runes will determine how they affect the spell.”
Randalph draws the symbols the same size and the circle large enough to go around all of them. He then holds his palm up to it and it glows, flashes, and a ball of flame shoots out, then strikes an invisible wall before the grass.
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“There are an infinite number of runes, and an infinite number of combinations. If you don’t know a certain rune, you can produce the same results with more descriptive runes. Like what I just showed you, the spell used four runes, but if I had instead used the rune for fireball, I could have used less runes, which would then cost less mana to draw.
“As you probably noticed, I didn’t use a wand or staff, and it looked like I used mana myself, but it was this ring.”
Randalph shows off a sapphire ring, which lightly glows.
“Some gems can be engraved with runes, which allow them to store mana, and when worn, can be used like a wand or staff. Wands and staffs also have gems embedded in them, but allow more accurate and larger runes to be drawn. They are also more efficient, conducting the mana from the gem to the tip better than the human body.
“Here is a wand and grimoire, you can practice with them to cast the spell I showed you. Should you choose the path of magic, they are yours, and more pages will be unsealed.”
Randalph produces a short stick with a small ruby embedded on the tip and a thick book from beneath his robes and handed them to Kilian.
The book only opens to the first page, which is titled “Demonstration,” and has the symbols Randalph used to cast the fireball. The other pages felt solid and wouldn’t move.
In the grimoire was a list of the runes Randalph had shown him, with an explanation for what it meant.
The wand was like a pencil, but the air is not flat and offered no resistance. As he tried drawing the runes, they came out curved, and not next to each other. It took a few tries, but was able to draw an array that actually activated, but the spell came out warped. The flame flickered and didn’t fly straight.
He started experimenting with the runes. He drew the array as large as he could, and the runes as small as he could. He drew some runes larger than others. He even drew them facing different directions. Some of the arrays wouldn’t activate, while others produced comedic results.
Drawing all the runes in a line wouldn’t activate. Having the array too large caused the spell to explode, the runes too small made an implosion. Leaving out the “ball” rune made a stream of fire that didn’t travel as far as a ball. Leaving out the “forward” rune cause the flame to float in place, leaving out “floating” caused the flame to fall. Leaving out “flame” wouldn’t let the array didn’t do anything Kilian noticed.
Things got interesting when he changed the direction of the runes.
The spell would move in whatever direction “forward” faced, and if “ball” was sideways would rotate in that direction. He could also multiple arrays, then activate them at once to send a barrage of fireballs flying in different directions.
Of course, this required a lot of mana, and Kilian had to recharge the wand every couple of spells. This was done by dripping mana onto the ruby, filling it up. At the recommended size the system showed automatically, each rune would cost about 2 points of mana, the circle would cost 2 points, and activating the spell took another 10 points, costing a total of 20 points of mana. The wand could hold up to 50 points, letting him cast 2 spells at most before refilling it.
His experiments cost much more than that. Good thing the tutorial gave him a refilling bottle of mana!
Kilian than began to just draw in the air. He had never been the greatest artist, but was still able to draw things that were recognizable. As he was drawing, he began to see an image of what it was he wanted to draw, but he dismissed it. It was more fun attempting to draw what he wanted, and laughing at the end result, than to trace an image already there.
After having his fun, Kilian returned the wand and grimoire.
“Well, now that you’ve had a taste of magic, how about becoming a mage?”
“I still want to try out crafting first, but this is definitely my favorite so far.”
“Very well, talk to me if you want to practice more, or decide you want to be a mage.” Randalph sighs, moving beside Heracles and Jarvus.
Kilian moves on to the crafter, Balin.