Katy was pleased to discover that even with all the crazy new abilities that Azura had gotten he still had a limit, and he was currently slamming into that limit wholeheartedly. They currently sat in a class about mana conversion taught by professor Meadows, and Azura looked dead on his feet. Not that she could blame him, he had been working nonstop since the event on sunday. He and his copies had been attending all the classes as usual, but also he had been spending the rest of his time working on his ‘special projects’ down in the hidden space. Honestly if she hadn’t been forcing him to sleep she shuddered to imagine how he’d look at this point. At least it was almost saturday. He would probably work harder on the projects, but at least there wouldn’t be classes for him to throw himself at.
“Now as some of you know, mana conversion is not a simple skill. In fact it is so difficult that a vast majority of mages need the help of shards to do it, and of those that don’t most can only convert their mana into 1 or 2 elements. That being said, there are some tricks to make it easier which I’ll be teaching in this class.” Katy returned her focus to the class that had just started. It was the first class of today, and one the whole group had agreed to take. Even Lily who already didn’t need shards for her main element of spells, and Luna who didn’t really use spells like that in the first place. It would be a convenient skill in a pinch, so all of them had decided it was worth attending.
“So first things first, can anyone tell me how shards convert mana into a specific type?” Not her, that's for sure. Azura had probably explained it to her many times, but she didn’t really have any interest in things like that. Of course no one was surprised when Roran’s hand shot up like a lightning bolt in reverse. Azura’s hand tiredly following after it. A few other students raised their hands as well, but not many. Sylvia pointed at Roran and nodded at him to speak.
“Well to start with, shards are made in a very particular way. 2 conditions have to be met for the conversion to happen inside a shard. The mana has to flow in a particular way, determined by the shape of the shard, or more accurately the shape of its lattice. The 2nd condition is the element itself. The shard has to be made with an element so deeply ingrained in it that even while the shard is empty of mana the element still remains. So long as the shard is properly made, mana will flow through the lattice slowly shifting towards whatever element is ingrained into the shard.”
Roran finished his loud explanation. She tried to pretend to care, really she did, but who cared how shards worked? She was sure it probably had similarities to the way people made the conversion naturally, but couldn’t the teacher just tell them how to do it, why go through the extra step of knowing how shards do it. “That is correct Roran, well done. Now I’m sure a lot of you are thinking ‘what was the point of learning that’ right?” She along with a good chunk of the class flinched. “After all humans don’t have a lattice, and most of us don’t have an ingrained element either. Well it’s only understandable you’d think that way, but don’t be so close minded.”
“The path mana must flow to properly shift is easy, merely a matter of good mana control, and some practice. The hard part is enforcing a type on the mana.” Sylvia held up her hand as lightning sparked around it violently. The lightning returned to the hand and a ball of water formed in its place, before the water disappeared and fire flitted in her palm. “Can anyone make a guess on how you get your body to emanate an element so strongly your mana can become that type?”
She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised neither Azura nor Roran raised their hands for this one. If they knew that, then both of them would have been able to do conversions themselves already. No, what really surprised her was that Lily had hesitantly raised her hand, making herself the only one in the class to do so. Unsurprisingly Sylvia pointed at Lily to answer the question. “Well I’m not sure how to word this properly, but it’s like you have to become one with the element. When I use my fire it’s like my body is on fire, but it doesn’t hurt, no rather it’s more like my body becomes fire, it becomes a core concept of my being.” Her eyes widened, she hadn’t realized that it was so intense for Lily to use her magic.
“Very good, that is correct Lily. The hardest part about self conversion of mana is the familiarity it requires with the element in question. You must attune yourself to it, become one with it, it’s certainly not an easy process. Now each of you is going to pick an element, and I will teach you how I attuned to that element. If any of you succeed in mastering it feel free to come to me and ask about another.” She sighed, Roran and Azura both looked excited, even if Azura’s excitement seemed overshadowed by his exhaustion at the moment.
It didn’t take long for everyone to receive a detailed report of Sylvia’s method to achieve attunement with a particular element. She had chosen shadow, and hers seemed relatively easy compared to the others. Roran had chosen fire, Lily had chosen ice, Siara had chosen nature, Cynthia had chosen earth, Luna had chosen light, and Azura had chosen lightning. She in particular felt bad for their strongest 3. Roran, Azura, and Luna’s tasks all looked positively awful. Even Azura was grimacing at his. “Well at least I won’t have trouble staying awake.” She laughed at Azura’s awkward joke, it was good to be back to normal.
***
Azura was well acquainted with pain at this point, but this was easily the longest he had ever hurt for. Electricity was after all surging through his body constantly. Unfortunately this was one of those learning methods that required his real body to do it, or at least his main body. Hmmm perhaps he actually could have foisted this on his copies now that his real body was made of magic too? Well too late now anyway. At least he didn’t have to go to classes while suffering through it unlike his friends. Roran and Lily especially as they were without a doubt dealing with unbearable temperatures to help their body attune to fire and ice respectively.
While his copies were handling classes he was once again in his shiny new personal forge. The tree towering over him acting as excellent light for the room. The headmistress had come through on all of his requests, including all the equipment he would need to make items here. The forge had most of what he needed, but was unfortunately lacking something that was a necessity for a project such as this. Namely privacy, this wasn’t the kind of project just anyone could see without issues.
Thankfully with everything he needed down here now he was finally able to get started in earnest, and none too soon either. It had taken them 5 days to get all the equipment needed, and to move it down here without alerting anyone to this room's presence. It was finally done though, and he would have all of tomorrow to work on the intricacies. Unfortunately with the lightning coursing through him the fine motor functions required to work a material as valuable as the wood of yggdrasil was well beyond him, but that didn’t mean he was out of things to do down here, not by a long shot.
His ritual circle slowly took shape as he placed the necessary pieces throughout the room, and slowly drew the circle itself. He shuddered to think of the cost of a spell on this level. Not even counting the actual contact points the circle itself had to be made from powdered silver. The circle wasn’t small by any means, engulfing a vast majority of the room. The cost would be enormous, but thankfully it was the kind of spell you only have to cast once. Not that he’d be able to afford it if he had to cast it again anyway. He only dared ask the headmistress for so much after all. Even with all the money he had made selling gear made from the stuff on his trip he was still nearly broke after getting what he needed for this spell, if he hadn’t slipped some of the ingredients he needed for this into his list for the headmistress he probably wouldn’t have been able to complete it.
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Normally he wouldn’t brave working on the circle impaired like this either, but with a circle this big the margin of error was a lot wider, and a mistake big enough to cause an issue would be much easier to spot. Still the circle was only half the battle. The circle would make and shape the subspace, but getting the tree to take root in the subspace instead of here wasn’t a simple matter. Even drawing the circle around the tree, and using the tree as the casting focus wouldn’t make the tree move, it would just make the spell link to the tree as intended. Hmm perhaps if they uprooted the tree before the spell, and sent it to the subspace while it was still forming? No, that would make the spell unstable, the results could be disastrous.
Moving it after everything was over would be a tricky proposition though. He sighed, why couldn’t things ever be easy. He winced as a particularly violent shock ran through his body as if to mock the very thought. He grumbled, but continued dutifully making the circle. It took him a vast majority of the day, but the circle was finally finished. It sparkled in the light that the glowing masses emitted. The powdered silver itself had a brilliant luster, but the many gems at several key points in the circle outshone it.
He took a deep breath. He could technically cast the spell now if he wanted to, but he intended to wait for his friends. Both because they would want to see it, and because he might need some help especially when it came time to move the tree. Well he’d cross that bridge when he came to it.
***
Cynthia was relieved to almost be done with classes. Thankfully she had chosen earth as the element she was learning, and it was actually pretty simple practice she was essentially put in a forced state of stoneskin. It was a solid defensive spell, but left you a lot less mobile. She didn’t mind too much. She was a bit slower going between classes, but it was better than Roran who was constantly sweating from the heat, and Lily who was shivering from the cold. Katy and Luna probably had it a bit easier though just emitting dark and light respectively. Azura may have it the worst if his winces before he ran off were anything to go by. She focused back on the class as professor Kaiden began his lecture.
“Now people often forget, but advanced magic is not originally what most mages specialized in. Ritual and enchantment magic aside the vast majority of mages used to focus on basic magic. Now a lot of newer mages tend to look down on basic magic, but it has a wide variety of useful spells, including enhancement which I’ll bet you lot use every day. For truly advanced users things like telekinesis and short range telepathy become possible.” Perhaps she shouldn’t have wasted this class slot. She was friends with Roran and Azura, of course she knew the utilities of basic magic. In all honesty it was perhaps even her specialty outside of healing magic that is.
“Today I’m going to help you all learn to properly control your mana so you can use basic magic as easily as breathing. You’ll never know when a spell you can fire off with pure instinct will come in handy.” She smiled, maybe not a wasted slot after all then. It made sense that basic spells could be done instinctually, they didn’t after all require converting mana into a different form. She probably had a solid head start on this ability as her unique magic was basically just a much stronger version of the telepathy that could be accomplished with basic magic.
“So as I’m sure some of you will be in a bit of a precarious spot as you took the elemental conversion class led by professor meadows, I’ll assign this as homework if you will. As I’m sure all of you noticed there is a round stone embedded on the desk in front of you. Your assignment is to get the ball out of the hole without touching it, and using basic magic alone. So I advise you to pay close attention as I explain the intricacies of telekinesis to you.” She withheld her groan. Professor Kaiden was a good teacher, but he had a habit of being fairly long winded. Of course he was one of Azura’s favorite professor’s, but for most he was painfully boring. Still no one could argue with results, and Kaiden definitely taught all the relevant information. She gave one last sigh and zoomed back in on class.
***
Siara was actually fairly comfortable. Her task for practicing elemental conversion was having plants grow on her, which she honestly didn’t mind very much. She had chosen a soft plant that produced sweet berries, so honestly it was like an extra layer of soft clothes that she could grab a treat from every now and then. Though admittedly she probably looked ridiculous. She would say it was a more than fair trade considering the stuff some of the others were doing. She couldn’t believe Lily was actually functioning being constantly surrounded by ice magic. It was quite literally freezing next to her fiery friend, and as such she had made sure to maintain a warm distance away from Lily, admittedly she had actually stood closer to Roran who was emitting an intense heat. The heat wasn’t too bad if you could step away from it if you ever got uncomfortable.
She wondered if her temperature preference was just naturally a part of her, or if it came with using plant spells so much. Not like it especially mattered. She sat in her room having decided to skip the last class. Or it wasn’t technically skipping so much as she had chosen not to take any of the classes for the last time slot. She felt odd not taking a class for a slot, but she had too much she was already working on, what with the tips Elismera had given her, and the conversion training professor Meadows was having her do. Besides with Azura back, he once again had time to tutor them in anything they needed help with
So she sat, and meditated. Azura was nice enough to let her meditate next to yggdrasil, even while he moved around it setting up his circle. Being next to that much life energy made it far easier for her to slip into her meditation, despite all the noise Azura was making scrambling back and forth in the large room. She felt that more than any of the others she had fallen behind, and it was that which spurred her to put so much work in now. She wasn’t going to be a match for her friends in most ways, but if she could just truly master her magic then she could become an excellent support for the team, like the roots of an almighty tree.
She had already taken some steps in that direction by learning about plants that could serve roles as healers and mana rechargers, and she had found a few that she was currently working on becoming proficient with. The charger she had used in the event was still a work in progress, but if she could get its accelerated growth to happen more naturally its efficiency should increase several fold.
“Hey Siara, you know a lot about plants right?” She was pushed out from her focus by Azura. She opened her eyes and glanced up to see her friend looking at her with a curious gleam in his eye. She was immediately on edge. He had an idea of some kind, and she wasn’t sure she was going to like it.
“Given they are my magical focus I’d say I probably know a thing or 2.” She knew he was just leading into a question, but she couldn’t help but be a little offended he had asked. That was like asking him if he knew anything about enchantment.
“Right, so I was wondering. Do plants have any kind of internal blueprint that they follow to form the way they do, or do they just grow at random?” She immediately regretted answering. Leave it to Azura to ask a question she didn’t know the answer to about her own branch of magic. Well maybe she did know, but she couldn’t say she was confident in her answer.
“Plants have a basic shape and form, but I’m not sure that’s what you mean. Certain characteristics are decided from the getgo as the type of seed you’re working with, but other things like where branches form and how many are far more random.” The biggest concern for her though would have to be “Why do you ask?” Azura didn’t ask things for no reason, and he was asking whether trees had a blueprint, that immediately put her on edge.
“Well physically moving a tree this big would be nearly impossible, but dissolving into magic and then reforming it? That’s easy enough. So long as there’s a blueprint that is.” She paled rapidly. Well she supposed Elismera murdering them wasn’t the worst way she could die.