Chapter 6: Magic Training

On Jita, there is a crucial cycle that exists between the class system and the job system. The class exists as both a starting point and a goal, whereas the job exists as a path in between the two.

An individual's class is what that person is born into. After a time, that individual grows and takes on a job. Depending on the job they take or are given, that individual may ultimately unlock that job as their class if they perform the job enough times.

-from the holy teachings of Nodon, God of Growth

The Ebonblade Order maintained two separate training grounds outside the residences building; the martial training grounds behind the dormitories, and the magic training grounds behind the kitchen and armory. Once breakfast was over, Emi and Zed ventured out toward the magic training grounds. It was still very early in the morning; the fog obscuring the shrine from the rest of the forest was just starting to dissipate. Zed trailed just behind Emi, silently grumbling to himself and rubbing sleep from his eyes.

There had been somewhat of a kerfuffle over breakfast regarding beverage availability. Specifically, the absence of coffee from the meal. Bizarrely, every single time Zed requested a hot cup of coffee from Edgar, the living mountain squinted and tilted his head in confusion as if Zed was speaking another language entirely. He had even attempted to diplomatically explain the concept to the man, who eventually returned with a triumphant expression on his face and a steaming cup of boiled brown beans in his meaty fist.

Thanks a million, Edgar.

As they walked across the weathered flagstones, Emi extricated a small, gilded box from a hidden pocket in her black practice uniform.

“Pilgrims from all across the continent journey to the Ebonblade temple to have their elemental affinities assessed in exchange for a small donation to the Order. Although it is a simple service we offer, it is a very important one. Before we begin, we'll also need to test your elemental affinities.”

She removed a small, ornate silver braided bracelet from the box. The bracelet was inlaid with six brightly colored, multifaceted gemstones.

“This is an Affinity Band,” Emi explained. “Each gemstone represents a different elemental affinity. There's red for fire, yellow for wind, green for earth, blue for water, white for light, and black for darkness. When worn, the gems in the band light up according to the affinity of the wearer. If you exhibit multiple affinities, multiple gems will light up. Watch me.”

She slipped the bracelet onto her left wrist. Both the yellow and black gems lit up brightly.

“As you can see, I have affinities with both wind and darkness magic. Wind is my primary element. I gained the darkness affinity when I joined the Ebonblade Order. Here, your turn.” Emi removed the bracelet and passed it to Zed.

He turned the Affinity Band over in his hands a couple of times, inspecting it, then tried it on. Every gem illuminated in a brilliant display of multicolored light. Emi gasped audibly. A small notification box briefly pinged into view:

NOTICE: Elemental Affinities will now display as part of an individual's Status.

“Zed, this is incredible! You possess every elemental affinity! Every single one! May I?”

He nodded and offered Emi his wrist. She rotated the bracelet slowly, then tapped on a gem.

“See this? This is a black opal, representing the dark element. See how brightly it glows?”

Zed nodded.

Like I would know if it was any other gem. They could be glass for all I know.

“This tells us that darkness is your primary elemental affinity. This is absolutely phenomenal; it's practically unheard of to possess every elemental affinity!”

“Ah... what would be considered... normal?” Zed asked. “How many affinities does the average person possess?”

Emi absentmindedly tapped her index finger to her bottom lip, thinking.

Watch her say one. Call your bets now.

“Normal...,” she mused. “Generally speaking, commoners possess one elemental affinity. Those who are considered lucky may possess two affinities. They say that only geniuses possess three affinities. More than that is... unheard of.”

Of course, it is. Ding-ding-ding! Payout, ladies and gents.

Zed removed the bracelet and returned it to Emi, shaking his head a little and smiling.

The two finally arrived at the magic training grounds. The grounds were flat and covered in plush, verdant green moss. The center was marked with what looked like a circular white sand Zen Garden bordered with more flagstones. A single flat river rock sat in the center of the unblemished sand.

Large stone monoliths each the size of a man rose from the ground in a wide circle around the perimeter of the grounds. Each monolith was marked with what Zed assumed were runes or sigils painted in red, yellow, green, blue, black, and white in accordance with their corresponding element. They were simple, angular, and unadorned.

He walked the perimeter of the grounds, gazing up at the great stones. Certainly, the training grounds were designed by someone with an aesthetic eye. Emi called out to him from the other side of the area.

“Those are Affinity Stones. There's one here for each element. When training, monks can call upon the stones to augment their spellcasting. But we're starting with the basics today. Meet me in the center.”

Zed grunted in response but ultimately returned to the center and stopped at the edge of the sand garden. Sullen as he was, it still seemed a shame to deface the perfect white sand. Emi seemed to take notice and smirked, not unkindly.

“It's just sand, Zed. The fellows mostly utilize it to draw and experiment with different elemental runes. It only ever looks this pristine at the beginning of a practice session. So, seriously, mess it up all you want. You'll be creating your own spellcasting runes soon enough.

“Anyway,” she continued, “Take a seat on the rock. We'll mainly be focusing on two key elements of magic use: Mana control, and magic manipulation. Do you understand what mana is?”

Oh, my dearest Emi, if only you knew.

Zed made a concerted effort to maintain a carefully neutral expression as he arranged himself atop the rock in a modified lotus position. As someone who constantly binged on video games in his previous life, he felt he could school the high priestess in a thing or two about magic and mana.

However, the thing about it was, did magic and mana work the same here? It seemed that there were definitely some similarities, but just when he thought he had nailed something down, things didn't always work out as he anticipated. Like a certain 'Minimap Incident' he swore he'd never reveal to anyone else. Also, there was that small issue that he was unable to perceive his own MP. All his status said was ?/?.

“Mana, as in MP? Let's say I have a... basic understanding of it.”

“O...kay,” Emi sounded a little skeptical but pressed on. “So, there are two types of mana control: internal mana control, and external mana control. Neither of these can exist independently of one another. Having a firm understanding of what internal mana and external mana are will allow you to control both naturally. Got it?”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Mmm,” Zed nodded, eyes closed. He was still quite sleepy and dangerously uncaffeinated.

“PAY ATTENTION.” Emi's reprimand was swift and stern, her voice cutting across the sand like a whip. Zed jerked involuntarily, eyes snapping open and sitting up ramrod straight.

“Sorry,” he said, a little guiltily. “I'm not exactly what you'd call a morning person. But I want to learn, I promise!”

She sighed and softened a little.

“Back to the topic at hand, then. Internal mana is basically your life force energy. However, don't get this confused with your health pool, or HP. If you were to receive a serious enough wound your HP would run out and you'd die. If you run out of MP, you simply wouldn't be able to cast any more magic and you'd end up passing out. That MP would recover over time without any outside assistance. HP can only be recovered via first aid or healing spells.”

Right, that stands to reason. Ah, but what she doesn't know...

“External mana, then, refers to the mana or life force of the environment. For instance, if you find yourself near a volcano, there will be ample fire mana in the immediate area. If you were to get caught up in a windstorm, you'd find quite a lot of wind mana.”

Emi paused, tapped at her lip for a few moments, then quickly added, “Though attempting to work under such volatile conditions would be chaotic and challenging, to say the least. The main point you should take from this is that you can use your internal mana to interact with the external mana of the world, thus amplifying the power of the spells you cast.

“Now, close your eyes,” she commanded. “Try to sense your mana now, and once you feel comfortable with it, reach out with your senses and try to feel and connect with the external mana.”

Obediently, Zed closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Looking inward, he was able to perceive a vast, endless well swirling within himself. At a glance, the well looked to be on par with an ocean. What was it Emi had said? Oh, right. Internal mana was basically the equivalent of one's life... force...

Holy. Shit.

He exhaled as if he'd been punched in the stomach, with a soft 'whoo...'

If I'm immortal... does this mean that my mana pool is unending?!

“Zed?” Emi's voice broke into his meditation. “Are you all right?”

“I... yeah,” he stammered.

He took another deep breath and reached out from within himself, as if with an invisible hand that could utilize all five of his senses. Suddenly, the entire magical training yard, temple, and forest around him blossomed in a surreal display of light, color, sound, texture, and taste. Every literal living thing around him lived and breathed external mana of all different kinds.

Skill Acquired: Mana Control LVL. 1.

Sure enough, mana control came to Zed as naturally as breathing. He sat on the rock in awe of this new world around him, watching minuscule droplets of multicolored light flow through the air, the moss, and the trees. Initially, it was a very overwhelming experience, but the longer he maintained this state, the more natural it felt. After some time, Zed slowly opened his eyes and the external mana surrounding him evaporated like so much mist.

“So? How did it go?”

“I saw... everything,” he said in wonder.

“Everything? You were able to commune so easily?” Emi sounded like she was in total disbelief.

“Well, let's see... there was the light of the sun's beams filtering through the canopy beyond the temple, the blanket of earth mana flowing through everything around us, even traces of dark mana from the moon still cling to the undersides of the foliage. A little fire mana within the temple and residences too, from the lamps and stoves. Other... I don't know what to call it... ambient mana in the atmosphere? Mana that doesn't have a particular attribute.”

Zed shrugged and Emi ran a pale hand through her raven hair, seemingly at a loss.

Guess it isn't so easy for everyone else.

The silence stretched out awkwardly as she struggled to gather herself. Even with Vision +, Emi's expression was unreadable.

“Okay, and magic manipulation?” Zed prompted.

“Um, right! Sorry, I guess I should have expected that this would be incredibly easy for you, having literally every possible affinity. So, magic manipulation.” The corners of Emi's rosebud mouth turned up in a smile. “Now that you're able to perceive mana both within and without, you can harness it, impose your will upon it, and shape it into whatever you desire.

“That said, if you want to cast a spell you've never used before, you'll first need to exert mana control to call up your mana, empower it with external mana, and visualize. When I say visualize, I mean it: Be VERY specific about what you'd like to create. What is the spell shaped like? What does it look like? What are its effects? The better your visualization, the better effect your spell will achieve. With time and practice, you may also be able to augment its strength, duration, and more.

Go ahead and give it a try now.”

“I can make anything I want?” Zed was skeptical. “What if it's something... um... destructive?”

Any caster worth their salt is going to cast a fireball straight away.

Emi bared all her teeth in a somewhat manic-looking grin, her eyes alight with pure, unadulterated delight.

“All the better! If you make anything destructive just fire it off toward the Affinity Stone that matches the main element of the spell you create. They've been enchanted to absorb spells to minimize the potential for unwanted damage to the area.”

Now it was Zed's turn to grin like an absolute madman.

Challenge accepted.

Once again, he closed his eyes and activated his mana control.

Gather. Shape. Gather. Shape.

He began to collect and coalesce the ambient mana in the air with his internal mana and infused it with the fire element.

Fire. Ball.

“Fireball.”

He could feel the fledgling fireball was a little larger than the size of his fist, a gentle heat licking at his palms. Should he increase its size? No, not yet. Best to start small. After all, this was his very first one. He couldn't even sense the slightest dip in his internal mana. What, then, might prevent him from creating something akin to a meteor in the future? What was the limit here?

Opening his eyes, Zed beheld a reasonable-sized fireball levitating above his outstretched palm, idly spinning in midair. Across the sand, Emi was jumping up and down and clapping gleefully.

“I did it? I did it!” Zed jumped up in surprise, still in possession of the fireball which swayed alarmingly in his hand.

Slightly panicked, he spun around on his heel and hurled the fireball at the red-painted Affinity Stone, which swallowed the magic whole in an instant. In the second after the fireball disappeared, the stone emitted a small puff of smoke.

Excuse you!

Skill Acquired: Magic Manipulation LVL. 1.

Mana Control has increased to LVL. 2.

Skill Acquired: Fire Magic LVL. 1.

Skill Acquired: Fireball LVL. 1.

“That was fantastic!” Emi cheered. “Now that you have the basics, you can now cast that spell using a trigger. Instead of having to visualize the spell, you can now simply verbalize your intent and your spell will come to life. Try again!”

Okay, then. Let's get a little more serious this time.

Zed pogoed up and down a few times on the rock to shake out the nerves and turned back to the Fire Affinity Stone. Deep breath again. More mana. More energy. Yes.

“Fireball!”

A massive, oversized fireball just bigger than his head flared into existence. He glanced back and saw Emi's ears start to twitch in anticipation, and he smiled a little to himself. Unfortunately, though, a fireball of this magnitude was a little unwieldy and he quickly sent it hurtling toward its enchanted stony demise. Another puff of smoke, and it was gone.

Holy shit. What else can I do with this? Could I...

Zed turned back to Emi.

“Okay, so hear me out on this one. I have an idea I'd like to try, but I need to ask you to step outside the perimeter for a moment, just to be safe. This may be a little dangerous and I'm not entirely sure what's going to happen.”

“Sure, if you say so,” Emi said, giving him a doubtful look.

She retreated to the outside of the stone circle and stood between the Earth and Fire Affinity Stones to maintain her view.

Drawing upon the fire element again, Zed visualized his Garrote Thread as white-hot flames.

Flaming threads erupted from his fingertips in a wide arc resembling a cat's cradle of fire. Ignoring Emi's gasp of surprise, Zed experimented with the threads, lengthening and retracting the threads at will. He swung the threads wildly about within the circle and, in an over-the-top display, looped the threads around the Fire Affinity Stone twice, and retracted the threads to form a flaming chokehold around the stone. The flaming threads cut into the stone, tighter and tighter, until, with an earsplitting CRACK, the threads returned to Zed.

Huh. That was a little anticlimactic. Guess it didn't work.

Just then, a hearty gust of wind blew through the courtyard and the top half of the Fire Affinity Stone split from the base, crashing to the ground just opposite Emi.

Oops.

Swagger has increased to LVL. 4.

Skill Acquired: Thread Control LVL. 1.

Skill Acquired: Flaming Garrote LVL. 1.

NOTICE: Soul Marionette has increased to LVL. 2.

Attributes have been increased. Please check your Status for more information.