Prep And Practice

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Two weeks later......

The darkness of the night now held a near complete grasp on the sky, save for the twinkling dots of light that shined through its all-encompassing veil. I was now "Upstairs" in a room on the far-right corner of the large house, designated as my living quarters, or simply "my room." This was something I’d requested a few days after discovering my own attributes, I had no problem sleeping in Emma’s room but there was only so much I could do whilst also considering the ever-present gaze of such a curious girl.

None of them had been all that excited about me staying in a room by myself, still Beatrice eventually agreed to it after confirming with Julia, but it was under the condition that I still had to sleep in Emma’s room now and then. That was enough to dispel the faint traces of Emma’s sadness as well as the overwhelming concern of my parents.

The light that was being emitted from the small crystal on my right cast a dim glow throughout the entire room, and while I could have easily used the one fixed in the center of the ceiling to instantly illuminate everything here, doing that would attract nothing but needless attention.

After all, as dictated by my "parents" I was supposed to be sleeping right now, but the thought of wasting so many hours of precious time simply slumbering wasn't particularly appealing to me, I had done more than enough of that.

There was something else I needed to do right now; it had become something of a nightly routine, and one I thoroughly enjoyed doing at that. Now open on the small wooden desk in front of me was a book on mana and magic, or the subject matter commonly called "magecraft." While I fully intended to find out how and why I’d ended up in this world, magic was now a major factor in my new reality, and I wouldn’t get very far without knowing all the intricacies this mystical power had to offer, especially since I’d recently found my calling as a fledgling savant mage.

After spending countless hours secretly reading and practicing with mana over the past two weeks, the skillset now at my disposal as well as my potential weaknesses and limitations were becoming glaringly obvious.

From what I’d learned so far -

Savant Mages Specialized in the manipulation of the world’s natural elements. The elements these mages could interfere with depended entirely on the levels of affinity they had for each one, and this was why some savant mages could wield more elements than others.

The five basic elements of this world and the various combinations they offered served to represent the entire lineup of a Savant mages arsenal, but in the case of some mages with particularly high affinities in addition to a large mana pool, they could also utilize the higher forms of these elements that were known as ‘aberrants.’

Fire, Water, Earth, Air and Lightning – Those were the basic tools granted to a Savant mage upon their awakening, and their higher forms went in the order of:

Fire – Plasma, Water – Ice, Earth – Gravity, Wind – Sound.

Incidentally, lightning magic was said to be the most destructive of the five elements as well as the rarest element a mage could awaken, this was supposedly why there were very few lightning mages in this world. That being the case though, lightning was also the only element that had no aberrant variation but the potential power of this element even at the most basic level was still more than enough to offset such a trivial issue.

Mastering the basics of anything would always lead to a higher level of proficiency later down the line. The same could even be said for the rudimentary knowledge I now wielded. This surface level knowledge of magic was in fact the product of my nightly reading sessions and frequent bouts of training with Oliver. Two weeks ago, when I watched Owen and Oliver duke it out with their supernatural skillset, I was far less knowledgeable on this topic, but seeing as I wanted to confirm the mechanics of these strange powers in real time, I had no choice but to ask Vreena and Julia about them.

All things considered though, radical mages operated in a completely different way than Savants, so clearly, I still had much to learn. Oliver had been the first one to illustrate that, just a few days ago he revealed some crucial bits of information that I couldn’t afford to overlook.

“Possessing more than one element wasn’t a complete advantage over less talented mages.”

Out of everything he’d said that day, that line had stuck with me the most. That line of thinking was perfectly reasonable due to one simple fact.

Dualist mages couldn’t utilize the aberrant forms of more than one element, so if a mage possessed earth and water magic, they would only have access to the aberrant form of the element they had a higher affinity for. In my case, I had an affinity for plasma, which was the higher form of fire magic.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

A dualist mage knowing exactly which element they had a higher affinity for during the essence gauge was apparently a rare thing, it only happens when a mage has a particularly strong affinity for that element as well as the mana reserves necessary to trigger its aberrant state. Otherwise, the higher affinity would either have to be determined or developed through training.

Judging by my particular skillset, the only theory I could come up with was related to my lightning magic. Even though it was rare, the element had no aberrant form which is likely why my aberrant had manifested so easily. It was just a theory, but no one seemed to have a better explanation.

I’d spent well over two hours reading through the complicated text now open on the wooden desk before me, and in these last few hours I'd learned of something far more daunting than elemental magic. The deities of this world had the ability to bestow power onto those who swore fealty to them in the form of ‘Emblems’. It was a form of ‘high-magic’ and it granted one power far beyond the limits of what a typical savant or dualist could ever hope to possess.

The true extent of these powers wasn’t widely known, but the magecraft text before me described them as being ‘Divine.’

"Perhaps the gods weren't completely fair after all...."

Tilting back the sublimely polished wooden chair at my desk, it let out a dull creek in the wake of my lackluster comment. That woman, Julia, she would definitely try to scold me if she ever saw me sitting like this, but thankfully I hardly ever got any visitors once the night had fallen.

I closed my eyes in the now tilted chair, sharpening my focus and concentrating on the strange essence that flourished in the atmosphere. The mana swirling around me began entering my body bit by bit and soaking it all up like a sponge, I simply embraced the warm feeling now coursing through my body.

I could feel it passing through the channels in my body known as the "mana channels" and each time my mana capacity grew, I could feel them develop in response as if to facilitate my growing mana pool. The stomach was the point of origin of these channels, and once the human body began unconsciously absorbing mana in small amounts, they would then branch off from there, spreading throughout the body and ensuring that mana could seamlessly navigate the pre-determined path they had paved.

In my case, I was fortunate enough to have been favored by the famed concept of ’luck’, most people couldn’t directly oversee the development of their own mana core before awakening as a mage because they couldn’t perceive their own soul; which was in fact the catalyst that eventually led to their awakening. Once that core had absorbed enough mana and finally shattered, it would seamlessly integrate with the soul in order to adjust itself for efficient absorption of mana from the environment.

On average the humans here awakened their cores at around age ten but based on all the magecraft text I'd gone through; mana channels became fully developed by the age of sixteen. That assessment was subject to change depending on the species, but for the average human, they only had a meager six years to accommodate for the crude development of their mana channels up to that point and once that deadline arrived, nothing could mend or fix the damage already done. If by that point their mana channels couldn't properly facilitate the flow of their magical energy or had some other impediment, then it would remain that way forever.

In the dull silence of my room, a diabolical smile had begun forming on my face. My time in this world had only been a brief four years so far, but despite the unpredictability of this whole situation, there was some genuine humor to be found here. No matter what world they were in it seemed humanity couldn’t help but find itself at a disadvantage.

Opening my eyes, I concentrated on the mystical essence flowing throughout my body and condensed it in my palm. Orange sparks danced in the space above my hand and soon enough a bright orange flame had manifested in my hand. After a full two weeks of training to exert greater control over my mana, I was now able to enforce my fire magic at will. I couldn’t manifest its aberrant form completely just yet, but with enough training that too was sure to come. As for lightning, I was still relatively inexperienced with it and the most I could do right now was channel an absurd amount of my mana into one massive electrical discharge that would envelope my body and anything in my immediate vicinity.

Still, progress was progress.

THUD

A dull noise resounded from the corridor and following that, the flickering flame in my hand was promptly extinguished. Turning towards the source of the sound, my eyes immediately glanced at the white door only a few steps away, given my knowledge of the upper floors, this could only mean one thing. After closing the broad book on the desk, I continued my preparations with a simple tap on the small device to my right, it immediately lost its luminescent glow and a veil of darkness had returned in its place.

Lying on the soft bed in the very center of the room, I closed my eyes in anticipation.

With a dull creak, the door slowly opened, and I could hear faint whispers coming from its entrance.

(See Julia I told you he was sleeping.)

(I-I just wanted to make sure he wasn’t scared sleeping all by himself, especially since this isn’t our house.)

(Hahah.....quite the doting mother aren't you. It’s been two weeks)

(Shhhhh....not so loud.)

In only a few short moments, they had come and gone like a pair of nighttime specters.

Oliver wasn’t always here, he still had to spend days at a time in the nearby forest looking for that basilisk, but today wasn’t one of those days. However, there was still something I had to do in a few hours, and he certainly wouldn’t be happy about me sneaking out at night like this. As fate would have it, avoiding the prying eyes of my parents right now was one of my top priorities.