Chapter 17
The next day, Nick went to meditate near a tree. He had a little less than a year left until he came of age, and during that time he had to learn how to cast a level 4 spell, which was not difficult. So he decided to improve his skills in mana manipulation, endurance, and life force. Nick did not know how to use life force well except for strengthening and sharply increasing physical characteristics, but he knew that there was much more potential in this. Among various books, he read that blood mages and plant mages should include life energy in their spells. In permitted magic, life energy was used to manipulate and strengthen living matter. So he decided that in the near future he would try to develop the skill of manipulating life force and, during meditation breaks, try to get the Mage's Aura skill. In the practice of manipulating life energy, it was important to control it very precisely; in magic, life energy could act for all sorts of spells from overcoming limitations to burning your life for greater physical strength, or for the most powerful spell. Such magic was called sacrificial and was essentially forbidden due to its great potential. Some forbidden schools of magic that used life force could include sacrificial rituals. These rituals filled the victims with life force for some monstrous spell. Such rituals and sacrificial magic could give the user all sorts of advantages, among the main ones was a technique that was strictly guarded. This technique allowed the conversion of life force into mana. In theory, the user could convert his life force into mana and thus have a larger reserve and regeneration. After all, the conversion of life force did not involve the mana core and could be almost instantaneous. But in this case, Nick did not want to use such magic, he was interested in the very potential of strengthening living objects, he believed that burning life force or lifespan for mana was a stupid decision, of course, it was possible to get more mana in an emergency, but Nick planned to learn how to use life force more effectively. He planned to become a Secret Mage and nothing could stop him from using blood magic or plant magic spells.
Nick began to manipulate the life force inside his body, but not to use it for techniques. He wanted to increase his control, in this practice it was important to capture as much life force as possible, but this was the main problem with this magic. The more you take life force and use it for techniques, the easier it is to lose control over it and just burn your life for some stupidity. This required great mental control and high perception, so that if you lost control, you could stop the technique in time before you died because of it. Nick was taught life force manipulation only because in the future he should have a strong forbidden technique of the clan. But of course he saw another use for it.
In meditation, Nick ran the life force through his body and while he did not feel any changes, he decided that it was too boring. So he put his hand on the tree and tried to give it life force. Nick was ready to stop the life force in time if something went wrong. He began to slowly pour life energy into the tree and there were no changes. But he saw how his health points were slowly falling on the status screen. Having poured a quarter of HP into the tree, Nick stopped there. Still no changes were visible in the tree, but it did not matter, the main thing was that he had iron control over the life force. Having stopped there, Nick began to try to develop the aura of a magician. This skill is given for obtaining the magician class, but if you develop it earlier, you can get a rarer skill. Any person had an aura, it represented his willpower and control over mana or other types of energy. Nick could even say that the aura was a kind of its own space where its owner had more influence, this could reach any skills and characteristics, but the most striking example would be the Bard's Aura, it greatly increased his charisma if the bard wanted it. In general, there were many types of aura and they depended on what you would use it for. Nick, as a mage, of course wanted to develop this skill to the Mage's Aura, thereby better controlling the mana within the aura. The most difficult thing in mastering the Aura was to feel it, it was like trying to taste the taste in your mouth, or see the eye from the inside, feel how your nose smells. In general, people get so used to their aura that they cannot feel it. Nick began with the practice of meditation, this was the main and most successful way to try to feel his aura. Nick sat for a long time and tried to think about different things, provoking a change in mood and aura, thereby trying to feel it. As time went on, Nick began to understand that he was mostly too calm to notice the changes that were reflecting on him. So he decided to remember something that would really change his mental state. He remembered his past life, how it was and what experiences it brought him. He remembered his parents and how he missed them in the first days of reincarnation. He thought a lot about what happened after his death and the only thing that distracted him from this was thoughts about magic. Looking back, Nick began to understand why he was so fanatical about this. He had lost everything that was dear to him and did not want to admit this fact to himself, so he was so fixated on magic, he did not want to notice how much he suffered at that moment. The next thing he remembered was how his new family admitted that he was a reincarnator, at that moment it was very scary, but after that he felt great relief about this and joy that his new family loved him as much as the previous one. Remembering various touching moments from his life, Nick spent time like this until the evening. Opening his eyes,he saw a new notification.
Congratulations, you have unlocked the new skill "Aura" [Common]
Congratulations you have acquired a new skill "Aura" [Common] Lvl 1
Who would have thought that in order to acquire this skill you need to face your decisions in life.
Having felt his Aura, Nick simply began to understand that it was there, where his sense of mana was and where his control over mana extended. Nick was sorry that he could not see the Auras of other people, but only feel their impact. If it were so, he was sure that it would help him in many ways. Thus began his long practice in Meditation, mastering the Aura and controlling the life force.
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A month later, Nick was able to achieve the ability to cast the 4th level spell "Kinetic Spear", this spell was essentially an evolution of the spell "Arrow of Power", but was much more powerful. Thanks to its casting, he was able to turn manasteel armor into a pile of rubble. Before that, his strongest spell combination could flatten and dent it, but not tear the metal apart in an instant from pure kinetic force. He noticed that his spell was even stronger than Alice's, but after a series of tests, this was only true at a distance of up to 10 meters. Nick believed that this was the difference in how a person imagines their magic. With the same spell and amount of mana invested, his spell hits harder the closer the target is, and Alice's spell retains its penetrating damage for about 50 meters until it also begins to lose power.
After 6 months, Nick was meditating and began to pour not only his life force, but also his mana into the tree. He had an idea that the will should be more controllable and tangible than other magicians were used to thinking. He had noticed this for a long time, but after a series of Alice's lessons, he was convinced that his understanding of the world affected his spell more than he thought. This can be explained using kinetic magic as an example. His "will" makes spells weaker the further they are and stronger the closer they are to him. This also works with all the other magic he owns. When he creates the "Stone Wall" spell and strengthens it with the "Secret Strengthening" spell, he does it better than Alice, his wall is just a little stronger. This was even more noticeable in prediction magic than in other types of magic. His third-level "Echolocation" spell is several orders of magnitude better than Alice's spell.
Based on this, he decided that the Willpower characteristic is needed not only to enhance the quality of his mana and spells, but also to add some kind of additional property to them. At first, he began to experiment with the spell "Power Arrow" he not only tried to change its structure, but also tried to add more of his will. And he actually achieved a lot, his spell changed and can now better transmit kinetic momentum to the target of his spell. But it takes too much effort to use it for such low-level spells. Firstly, the spells that he changed with his will require additional mana for their effect and the stronger the effect, the more mana is required. Secondly, this leaves him morally very weak. But Nick was convinced of his theory and in the correct application, this magic will be catastrophic. After all, in the sense of mana, such a changed spell looks like just a stronger spell without additional effects.
He decided to ask Alice about how to change a spell with will, but she had never even heard of such a thing. She said that a mage could make a spell stronger, or add some command to it with will, but not add a completely new property. She also said that mages often use will to control plants, or mana constructs. The only thing she could compare his changed spell to was spirit magic, or magic that relies on soul energy, but on a much smaller scale.
From what he knew about spirit magic and magic that uses soul energy. This magic also creates an additional property, but it requires a spiritual essence to use it. If his spell that he learned to do only slightly increases the transfer of kinetic energy, then a spell that will use soul energy can completely transfer its kinetic force, or in any other inexplicable way change the spell.
Experimenting further, he realized that he could slightly change the spell in this way. For example, he poured his will and additional mana into the "stone shot" spell, from which he was able to obtain a spell that breaks into equal parts upon impact.
But later he was in for a disappointment when his mana sense skill grew, he realized that he either changes the mana that the spell consists of, making it stronger like ordinary magicians, or adds a subconscious spell to the one he performed. For example, the spell "stone shot" he used to think that it works as an additional property that cannot be predicted, but now he knew that when it hits, the internal structure of the spell that is in the stone changes to reflect the resulting effect.
So he came to today, this was his next experiment. For several months he had been pouring life force and mana into the tree, into which he tried to put more will. Every day he began to feel the tree better and better. During this time, he could say that the tree was really alive and could experience emotions. He also felt its mental state, namely a state of complete calm and peace. He poured everything he had into the tree in order to try to do what he wanted all this time, namely, to get new opportunities for his magic. During this time, he achieved that he could control the mana and life force of the tree. Therefore, he began to manipulate it for the effect he needed. A wooden stick began to grow from the tree, Nick used spells from the school of plant magic and with its help he grew himself a wooden sword. With the help of all his will, he made the tree understand what he wanted, namely, that this part of the tree was very hard and sharp, and that the tree put all its power there. Nick felt that he was missing something, the tree did not refuse him, but it was in no hurry to help him with this. And Nick dove inside himself to find what was missing to manifest his will. He knew that his soul had to be strong and that the energy of the soul was necessary for this kind of magic, will is first and foremost the strength of the soul. Beginning to feel what he had not noticed for so long, he saw it. His soul was inside his body, opening his eyes he felt it as clearly as never before. Inside his body was not only mana, life force and endurance, but also soul energy. It flowed there just as calmly, but never mixed with anything. He took the smallest part of it and put it into the tree along with all the remaining mana. The tree responded and thanks to his new spiritual sense he was able to watch how the spiritual power of the tree flowed into his new sword. This process did not happen quickly, but when it was all over he took the sword in his hand and it easily moved away from the tree. Nick felt that this sword was spiritually connected to the tree. Looking at his notifications, he was pleased.
Congratulations, you have unlocked a new skill "Lesser Spiritual Sense" [Rare]
Congratulations, you have unlocked a new skill "Lesser Soul Energy Manipulation" [Rare]
Congratulations, you have made a spiritual contract with the undeveloped spirit of the Great Maple.