Novels2Search
Nature of Artifice
Chapter 23 -- (Glimpse of Magic)

Chapter 23 -- (Glimpse of Magic)

After some minutes the door to the room opened and Emir walked in, just behind was Noctaru. He flew in quickly through the doors landing on my shoulder. I scratched his neck which he seemed to like.

"Excellent! You have created a beautiful vessel for your future summon. Though I am a bit curious about what this is meant to be a vessel for." He asks me while he looks at the fairy doll through the glass case, eyes glowing. I wondered why his eyes might be glowing. "When using an inspection type ability that uses mana the sensory organ used glows." I hear a whisper in my mind.

I filed that thought away and said, "A single humanoid unit of that small of a size would not be very effective in combat. I had thought about growing a garden with alchemical ingredients, so I thought I might as well make a gardener. I thought about what I should make and landed on the idea of a fairy." I explained to him my thought process, and he nodded his head.

"I like how you thought about a clear goal for your creation, that is a good thing in this world as a small bit of the excess mana that you produce during the creation of something gets imbued into the creation. This can lead to a multitude of things that you don't need to consider now but this is a good practice." I nodded my head at his suggestion as he continued, "And I disagree with your assessment of small summon not having much combat use. If you made a small highly mobile venomous skirmisher or something it would have had high combat capabilities."

"I agree with you that I could have made a high-mobility skirmisher but I didn't want my first creation on this world to be a weapon." I declared to him. "As I had enough of a life of murder and crime in my old world. I won't try to be a pacifist nor a goody-too-shoes hero but my first solution to something won't always be death."

"I like you thought about that side of things, and I won't judge your morality as I am to your teacher and mentor not your moral guide but I will say as someone who has lived a long life that your outlook is as good as I have seen many heroes of justice get crushed by the truth that not everything is black or white." He said the last part while having a faraway stare with a smile that felt sad.

Then he shook his head and levitated the case up. " Let's go get something to eat it is already late noon." He said and exited the room, the case following behind him. I followed him out of the room to the tree house I was staying in.

We entered the living room, the floor of which was covered in vibrant moss. There was a plush red couch in the middle of the room looking at a big translucent crystal screen. On the side was the staircase to the room I was staying in. On one of the other walls were two other doors which I had no what was behind.

Towards the far wall were a small kitchenette and a dark wood dining table that had four chairs in a similar style. Emir brought me to the table and told me to sit down while he brought the lunch. I sit down in one of the chairs and Noctaru hops down to the table from my shoulder.

Then I see Emir come to the table with two trays with bowls and bread slices. It was the same soup from last night but the bread was different, as in without fruit pieces. He gave one of the trays to me and a small bowl with some nuts and veggies to Noctaru. Then he sat opposite to me with his tray and started eating after motioning to also start. I shrugged and started to eat the food but felt a bit weird as I didn't feel hungry or full. We ate in silence except for Noctaru audibly crunching nuts and pecking at the ceramic bowl.

After we finished eating Emir murmured softly and the dishes shined slightly when a wave of mana and natura rolled over them. When the glow subsided I saw that they were clean and the dishes flew off toward the dish rack on the side of the kitchen and then slotted themselves accordingly. Emir's face had his ironic too wide smile, which I am starting to think might be an elf biology thing.

"Now that we have eaten lunch let's start with the magic lessons. The most basic magic a person can cast is a spell constructed from personal mana. Now that you have mana sense I will show you a small cantrip that you should be able to do." He said in a cheery yet lecturing tone. I focused on his hand where a small golf ball-sized sphere of mana rested. Then the sphere changed shape to that of a cone with the pointy end away from his palm facing the wall. Then small words in Genocy got layered on the cone, I saw that the words were 'Force Bolt'. Then the bolt became more physical, like a bubble in a cone shape.

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The bolt flew almost at the speed of an arrow and hit the wall with a thud. "This is a basic force bolt spell. Most just change the force part with something else that aligns more closely with their affinities, you should also do the same. But I have to warn you that not every aspect takes to bolt the same way so choose wisely." He explained to me while looking at me expectantly.

I asked, "Shouldn't we be doing this outside in case something goes wrong?" He just chuckled a bit and said, "These things are sturdier than they look and I should be able to dissipate the mana before it can physically manifest if something goes wrong." I shrug and start snaking a string of mana out of my palm which quickly starts to turn gaseous and spread out. But this time I noticed that I still had control over the gaseous mana. I try to grab the gas and make a bolt out of it but it doesn't work, it just makes a blob. I then try to confine the gas into a cone shape, which somewhat works but it's a bit unstable. I just make a ball out of it, which seems to stabilize the mass of mana.

I then tried to imbue it with 'Splinter Bolt' runes. I saw the ball become a bit spikier and narrower, marginally. I then put my arm out towards the spot that Emir had shot at and will the spell manifests. I saw a wooden spike the size of my pinky come into existence and rush toward the wall at a slower pace than Emir's, but it missed the spot by about a foot. When the spike impacted the wall it burst into a bunch of small splinters.

"Good for a first try! And I have to say, at higher tiers, your spells will be very efficient as your (Adaptive) trait changes the mana constructs' structure based on the runes you imbue it with." He said while nodding his head. "Now you have seen and cast a basic projectile spell, we will move on to a subtype of the previous, 'rays'. Now look closely as I cast a beam of light."

He again produced a small orb of mana in his hand but this time he didn't change the shape of the mana construct. Then runes of light and beam appeared on the surface of the orb. Then the spell completed and a beam of light thick as thin as Noctaru's legs came out of his hand and hit the wall. The beam continued for a couple of seconds, which Emir waved around, it even left a dark smoking spot on the moss when held in a place of long. "Now your turn," Emir told me with a smile.

I repeat my previous technique for making the ball of mana. Then I thought of experimenting and tried imbuing it with the corrosion and laser. I was a bit surprised when the rune worked as I had never seen a rune of 'laser' anywhere but had known the word in Genocy, which seems to be a runic language here. In my thoughts, I almost failed to notice the spell manifest and hit my leg with the beam of sickly yellow light that came out. When the almost hair-thin line of light hit the floor, the moss around the impact point withered very quickly so I moved it around.

After a couple of seconds, I felt that the mana of the spell was only a third depleted I panicked a little as l had already killed a lot of the moss. I look at Emir exceptedly as I try to stop the spell but that doesn't work. Then suddenly the orb of mana vanished. I let out a sigh.

I look at the dead moss on the floor in slight guilt but I see that a new layer of moss is growing out of it at a visible speed. "I have seen that beam-type rune before, it had a low damage output but it was also very efficient in mana consumption. This must be a thing from your world that could be described in your native language, and as that language is the runic language you used that word got translated." He summarised as he was scratching his chin in thought.

"Ok! For the next spell try to mimic my spell base, which means the type of spell, not the main aspect, using different words. Now we will do a binding spell." He nodded before summoning a blob of mana in his hand, then the blob became a ball of strings. Then the runes of vine bind forms on its surface. Emir then completed the spell targeting a dummy that came out of nowhere.

The spell materialized as a ball of thin vines that flew to the dummy and hit it in the middle of its chest. Upon impact, the vines unfurled and spread over the entire body of the dummy. Then suddenly the vines vanished, so I looked at Emir for an answer. "Normally a binding-type spell won't just dissipate like that but as I only have one dummy I had to clear it. Now your turn." He explained with a smile.

I nodded and formed a sphere of mana in my hand. I tried to make a yarn ball out of it but that didn't work. So I just imbued the blob with runes of Constrictor and Slime. The mana structure didn't change much, just a slight pulsing movement. I thrust my arm out and fling my spell at the dummy.

A glob of off-white slime flew at the dummy and almost missed it, just grazing on the side of the head. Upon contact the slime attached to the surface and wrapped around the head of the dummy. Then the stated writhing and contorting on it.

"That binding-type rune is also new to me. It looks like a mix of crushing and binding, it wouldn't be as effective as only binding or crushing but they complement each other so the synergy makes it work well. On top of that, the slime is almost semi-liquid so it can go into the cracks. This is an effective spell." He says with a bit of pride while nodding. "You have learned some basic combat spells we will move on to Elemental Spells. You have a very high affinity for Natura so this should be easy for you. But because of that, we will go to the back because I may not be able to dissipate natura in your control." He goes to one of the other doors I saw and goes through it.