What am I thinking? It’s obviously better that I focus on one thing at a time. Besides, I’m sure I’ll be able to figure out those traits in no time, right? I mean, I’ve already used two of Witness’ already and that was before I even knew how to work magic, let alone sense mana!
Alder-Craig used my most recent blunder as an example to encourage Letta to picture the lightning spell leaving her own hands. She obviously wouldn’t be able to actually cast anything until tomorrow, but that didn’t stop her, and the other teachers took the opportunity to wander over to me, led by the hunter.
The brunette placed a hand over her heart and bowed. “Thank you Anon, for all you’ve done, both for our community and especially for Letta. You’ve been exactly what we’ve been praying for, and so much more.”
I scratched the back of my head, and forced a smile. Wow. Way to dump all of your expectations onto me all at once… Not that that hasn’t happened quite a bit already.
“Oh, please, you’re too kind! I’m just glad I could help.”
No, really, that’s it. This is all just a big series of coincidences. I was just in the right place at the right–
Then the system spoke.
My fake smile grew even more tense. Are. You. Kidding right now!
It took everything I had not to pinch the bridge of my nose or shake my fist at the sky. Ya know what? Fine! Deep breath. In and out... In and out… There. All better. My eyebrow twitched. Now let’s pretend that never happened and actually get somewhere!
“Soo, you know I’m Anon, but what’re your names?”
The trio looked genuinely surprised by that, and the hunter chuckled. “Oh! We’re so sorry! We thought that you would’ve already checked all of our statuses by now, so we kinda forgot that part!”
I frowned. “To be fair, I did give you all a once over last night, but it’s not like I was looking at much more beyond your status conditions. Ya know. To make sure everybody was safe.”
Though I totally peeked at Alder-Craig.
I internally cringed when I watched their surprise morph into something akin to respect. I guess they assumed, or perhaps knew from experience, that people with the observation ability had a tendency to overstep their bounds and peek at the status of anyone and everyone they desired to.
It’s a bit crappy of the people they so clearly revere as being able to view ‘more of God’s creation’ to do that so wantonly, but I can’t help but wonder if there’s a way to block the observation ability? Or maybe present false information instead?
Uriel buzzed and I got my answer.
Notice: The Incognito, Mask of many faces, and the line of various Authority abilities are the most well known ways to avoid having one's status observed in part or completely, depending on the ability.
It is also important to understand that if the observer's ability is stronger than the concealment then observation will still take effect, though it might be muted if the difference isn't that great.
Interesting. So I’ll need to find a way to acquire at least one of those at a high level just to be safe… Although, maybe I’ll just stumble onto a less well known option too? I waited for a fraction of a second for the system to surprise me, but my patience went unrewarded. Ah well. Worth a try I guess.
I cleared my throat and the group started back to life.
The lithe hunter bowed. “My name is Bretta, I was once the huntmaster in service to the late Baron of Kresnt. After his death I experienced the dream we of Kormath refer to as ‘the call’, and I’ve been here ever since. Which’ll be about three years this fall.”
I smiled, clasped her hand and shook. “Nice to meet you.”
I turned an inquisitive glance to a very large, completely hairless, androgynous person, around eight and a half feet tall, with coal black skin. They wore simple cut clothes of a basic tan, or brown, and nothing by way of weapon or accessory. However, their ruby-like eyes glinted with an inner light, and they bowed and spoke with a voice that sounded as deep and echoey as a long abandoned mine. “My name is Corra–a–a… I was once a mercenary–y–y… I callously took many lives–s–s, but after nearly dying myself–f–f, I received ‘the call–l–l’, and dedicated my life to healing instead–d–d…”
“To sow instead of reap…”
You must be the body recovery teacher.
I needed to look no further than what was all around me to be reminded of my own, albeit unintended, act of life-giving, and smiled warmly. “An excellent choice.” I shook their massive mit as well, and once I was released from their all encompassing grip, I looked to the last teacher.
With many a gray streak in her once blonde, bunned up, hair, she wore a slightly stained blue dress with an even more besmirched apron. She stood with a considerable hunch at the waist, though I couldn’t tell if that was due to some sort of spinal issue or the pair of massive swan wings protruding from her shoulder blades. Her light blue, almost white, eyes never left me for even a moment, and she spoke so softly that I nearly couldn’t hear her. “It is an honor, great one.” She ducked her head, gracefully knelt, and fanned out her wings till their tips dusted the grass. “Please only name how this humble Rochelle might repay her debt to you.”
Not much in the way of background, but I certainly understand not wanting to share.
I quickly took one of her hands and urged her back to her feet. “Now, now. There's no need for any of that formality!”
Or the whole speaking in the third person thing you’ve got goin’ on, but I can overlook that at least since you’re gonna teach me order essence and mind over matter magic!
“All I want is for you to demonstrate your magical abilities for me and Letta. Explain the process, the feelings they evoke, and maybe walk us through it if we struggle. Simple right?”
I glanced between the three of them, from tallest to shortest and back, to confirm their ascent. They turned to each other, then to Alder-Craig and Letta, before nodding all at once.
Why do I get the feeling that they’re going to develop Alder-Craig’s habit of misattributing my intentions for the most favorable ones? I swear! Why and how is goodwill this easy to come by? Is this world not as cruel and unforgiving as its last iteration? Or am I just missing something here? … On second thought… I really shouldn’t be complaining.
Bretta gave me a toothy grin and moved to stand beside me. “If that’s what you want, then we’re more than happy to oblige! So, first thing’s first. Body empowerment and sensory magic are pretty simple to get started on. All you have to do is manipulate your mana so that it seeps into the muscles or bones or whatever sensory organ you want to enhance and then keep at it until it sticks and you get results.”
I rubbed my chin. “So it’s different from essence magic in that there’s no spoken spell?”
“Aww heck no! Incantations are universal, required even!” She paused. “Well, maybe for everybody other than you…”
Cripes! I knew I made a spectacle of myself, but I didn’t think I went so far as to become seen as unique!
“Okay, so then why are they needed? I know Ald– Uh, Craig said they aided in forming an image and that helps keep control, but is that it?”
Corra shook their ebony head. “No–o–o. It helps with speed too–o–o.”
Then Rochelle practically whispered. “And efficient use of mana as well.”
So it's faster since the incantation evokes a stable image you know will work, and that not only guarantees the effect, but also ensures that you don’t waste mana in the process… Yeah, that makes sense. Especially if you consider that the people of this world have no understanding of molecules, and lack all the wonderful visual effects that saturated the once modern age of the old Earth like I do. Maybe that’s why I don’t need–
Uriel buzzed, and what it reported caused my irritation with the system to grow.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Notice: Your ability to cast spells without an incantation can be attributed to the possession of the Double standards ability.
Great! Just great… So the system dropped that on my head just before I got to casting. Heck! With what I know, God probably did that to me as some sort of joke! … Again, I feel like this isn’t something I should be complaining about… It’ll probably be more than useful… But still! What the heck?!
I sighed, ignored the strange looks the teachers were giving me, and got about practicing what Bretta told me.
The sun lazily drifted through the sky as I trained, and lunch was eventually brought to us. Unsurprisingly, it consisted largely of roasted grandour meat, slightly stale bread, and some assortment of fragrant cheeses likely made from the milk of those goat-like creatures the village was raising.
Letta sat beside me the whole time, absolutely oozing about her experience, and how she’s going to use her magic to do all sorts of things once she gains the requisite abilities.
It’s taking me a bit longer to learn body empowerment and sensory magic than it did lightning essence. Maybe because I have no notion of how one would enhance something with mana, or maybe the system just opted to give me the first one for free… Since it apparently just loves to jerk me about…
I patted Letta’s head, helped her up, got up myself, and stretched. “Alright! What do ya’ say we get back to it?”
I already have the abilities so it’s more a matter of when for me, but she might be limited by her aptitudes, or at the very least how good she is at learning new material; since abilities can apparently be attained with diligence. But still, it’ll be interesting to see what she learns.
She jumped up and down and flailed her arms around. “Yeah! Yeah! Alder-Craig! Aaalder-Craaaig! Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!” She bolted off in the direction of the village, as Alder-Craig and the other teachers had gone off to attend to their duties, or whatever else they might need to do during the normal daily grind.
#
The sun was setting by the time I got even the slightest of results. Bretta told me several incantations to start with, and they did eventually work. If only a little bit.
For instance, ‘far sight’ caused my vision to get all blurry on the peripheral, while zooming a bit in the center. Lemmie tell ya, it was beyond disorienting, but really cool too!
Then there was ‘surge’ and ‘swift’ to enhance strength and speed, and hoo boy was that something else! I mean, surge made everything feel like it was made of styrofoam, so the problem was more with keeping control and not crushing everything than getting the effect to activate. Swift on the other hand, didn’t really make me faster and instead created the sensation of walking immediately after running my hardest on a treadmill. It was such a strange feeling! Like walking twice!
And let’s not forget about Letta. She told me all about the incantations Alder-Craig taught her over our dinner of a hearty grandour meat stew. He didn’t believe that I needed his guidance after my little lightning displays, so it was nice to hear about the deets from her. Deets like ‘static shield’ for defense, or ‘magnetic hold’ to keep enemy warriors at bay, or to just, ya’know, lift metal things. Also there were a few from the light essence side of magic like ‘illuminate’ which is pretty self explanatory, but also ‘sight restore’ to heal blindness, ‘luminous blast’ a counterpart to spark shot, and ‘radiant armor’ which is apparently more of a buff than a straight up barrier.
After all that, we went to bed more than satisfied with our progress, and ready for a new day of practice and learning… But I still had a few questions for Uriel. And Uriel provided.
-General magic rules:
1. Incantations and mana are the only required components for spellcasting after one has attained a magic ability.
2. Incantations determine what shape the magic will take, but a greater or lesser effect can be attained by altering the mana supply accordingly.
3. If two spells of different elements oppose one another, the one with more mana generally wins. (Body magic is usually the exception as the spells of that element mainly target the caster only.)
4. If two spells from the same element oppose one another then the caster with the higher leveled ability will triumph unless an overwhelming amount of mana is used. (Again body magic is an exception, and the caster with the highest stats will win in those cases. Essence magic is a special case.)
Notice: Essence magic has the most disciplines. As such they are broken into four basic, four intermediate, and four higher essences.
The basic essences are fire, water, earth, and air
The intermediate essences are ice, lightning, light, and dark
The higher essences are order, chaos, time and space
An essence of a higher tier will win over a lower one unless the skill or amount of mana used by the lower essence caster greatly exceeds the caster of the higher essence.
When clashing with other elements all essences obey rule 3
5. Two disciplines can be combined by a single or group of casters in order to create a more powerful effect. Not all disciplines can be combined, essence magic is the most compatible with other essence magic, and combinations are judged differently under rule 4. Details here.
Notice:
If, for example, the lower essences are considered a 1; the intermediate essences a 1.5; and the higher essences a 2. Then if two lower essences are combined then they can equal a higher essence under rule 4 or outclass a intermediate one.
The same can be done with intermediate essences and higher ones in nearly any combination with the joining of two higher essences being the strongest as a 4 in this metric.
6. If a spell connects with the target and the target doesn’t consent to the magic’s effect, then the spell must first overcome the target’s spirit stat. This is done by measuring the caster’s ability level and the mana they used against the target’s spirit value. If the spirit value is determined to be too high then little or no effect is to be expected. The spirit value can be reduced temporarily by things like fear, the effects of abilities, or semi-permanently by attacks from spirit harming magic.
7. Be creative!
I rolled my eyes at the last rule, then sighed and turned over next to Letta. I’m just glad I have time to look through these things. I wanted to do so sooner but with everything that’s been happening I haven’t had a chance. I watched Letta snooze for a bit, and once I was sure she was safely sound asleep I allowed myself to doze off too. Which is an ability I gained after napping on the Wise Old Friend. So here’s to you tree buddy!
#
Dawn woke us once more, and after I checked to ensure Letta did indeed gain both the mana sense and manipulation abilities like she was supposed to, we scarfed down our breakfasts of porridge and got right back into the swing of things. But today it was Corra and Rochelle’s turn to teach.
Our lessons began, not out in the fields like yesterday, but in the somewhat familiar confines of the hunter’s lodge.
The wood floor creaked beneath our feet as we gathered behind Rochelle, who was hunched over the biggest of the tables in this reasonably large log cabin. The fairly small windows and a few candles offered our only light, so while her workspace was well lit, the rest of the abode was in a state of moderate gloom.
As before, numerous vials and containers lined the shelves along the walls, and a truly indescribable stench filled the air as we watched Rochelle lay out three bowls. One contained the neon orange grandour venom, another had red goga leaf extract, and the third looked to hold a blue undulating ball that shimmered like light passing through the waves.
I guess that’s the water essence.
All three sat on the points of what I guess is a magic triangle? Given the fact that other than the shape, it had all the little runes and geometric lines and stuff that are found all too often in the magic circles of fantasy stories.
With all that set, Rochelle clapped twice. And murmured. “Now use your mana sense and watch closely. Alchemy is a compound magic so it uses both mind over matter magic and order essence magic at the same time. The triangle makes the process easier as it is the written form of the order essence spell and simply needs mana to activate, which frees me to concentrate solely on the mind over matter part.”
Letta’s eyes sparkled, and Rochelle gently combed aside some of her hair. Then the swan-winged lady placed an empty vial at the triangle’s heart and muttered. “Synthesis.”
Letta and I watched the triangle light up with mana, then followed the flow from Rochelle’s fingertips as it passed into the three ingredients. Slowly, the tendrils picked apart the potion’s pieces, and with the order magic containing the whole affair, soon they were reunited into one in the central vial where the spells ended.
Rochelle let out an almost inaudible sigh, and relaxed her shoulders. “There, that is how alchemy is done. You can practice it later. For now, I need to restock our supply, so go and see Corra in the field. They have a list of incantations for mind over matter and order essence magic from me, and then they’ll teach you the ones for body recovery magic too. After that, you’ll be free to decide what disciplines you wish to practice.”
Huh, cool process. Though I’m a little disappointed that there isn’t more. Not that I’m surprised. The village can’t drop everything to teach us, and Rochelle doesn't exactly strike me as the most… social person.
Before I could finish that thought, Letta grabbed my sleeve and started tugging me out the door. “Come on! Come on! Come on! We’ve got magic to learn! Magic!”
I grinned and allowed myself to be led away. “Alright! Alright! There’s no need to hurry!”
Not unless you consider the soldiers who’re probably still after me as a good enough reason.
She giggled and skipped along beside me as we went. Villagers smiled and waved, some patted Letta’s head, and a few just stopped and stared at me reverently–which I still wasn’t used to. But now I’ve a choice to make. Assuming there’s a fight coming, what magic do I focus on learning next? Order magic for its high essence tier? Light for its unrivaled speed? Mind over matter for the destructive force I imagine it has? Or the body group, so that I can ensure the health and safety of everyone here? I glanced up at the anomaly in the sky. I don’t know when, but I know bunnyman and I will meet again. And I fear it’ll be sooner than I’d like.
#
The Wise Old Friend relaxed its roots, and let the gentle breeze sway its branches and tickle its leaves.
For now it had done all it could. Those children foolish enough to trouble the glorious one were out of its reach so long as they were crossing the copper mountains, but once they descended then it would once again take up the righteous cause of harrying their every step until they either turned back, repented, or fell at the feet of its master.
Ages ago, with its original body it could have swept them aside the moment it detected their intent to pursue the magnanimous one, even gone as far as splitting the metallic mountains from beneath if that is what it took to deter them, but now it could only wait. Wait, and bide its comparably meager strength until they brought the fight to it.
For it would ensure that the still vastly weakened beloved one would not have to face this peril alone.