Eli woke the next day and began scanning the forums and news websites. The first thing he noticed was that the government was locking everything down, stating that whatever was knocking people unconscious after coming into contact with the obelisks was contagious. That was news to Eli, but he wasn’t too worried.
The system said that his species was very well adapted to the system. A round of unconsciousness aside, he didn’t think anyone was going to die from the system upgrade.
Speaking of the system, did he … have a menu now?
His vision didn’t look any different than it always had. There weren’t text boxes floating around. There was no handy button that said “customize” anywhere.
After a few minutes of mental exercises, and then verbal ones, he finally figured it out. It was like learning to flex a muscle that wasn’t there. Sort of like when he’d channeled mana for the first time, except different. Far more fine-tuned, although he had the feeling that was because he was interfacing with an interface rather than a … magical equation that transformed mana into force? Yeah, that’s what his doodles were.
Still, he managed to pull up a status screen, and he was rightly proud of himself.
Name
Elias Mathews
Health
100/100
Age
15
Mana
193/193
Species
Human
Stamina
100/100
Class
Scholar
Strength
10
Level
1
Dexterity
10
Titles
Runekeeper
Agility
10
Party
Unnamed Party (Leader)
Endurance
10
Guild
None
Constitution
10
Allegiance
None
Magic Power
10
Sure he was only level one, and all of his stats were at ten, which he assumed was the normal starting rank or something, but seeing the mental projection of his status in his vision was confirmation that this was real. To him it was, at least. He wasn’t certain that anyone else would be impressed by his claims that he had a mental menu to navigate.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
There were several other options available to him from his menu, but the primary one was the option which brought him to the grimoire which had been downloaded straight into his brain, apparently. With an effort of will, he was able to manifest it as an hallucination of sort, like an actual book that he could hold in his hands. It even had weight, although some part of him knew that it wasn’t there.
He sat at his desk and began to read.
It truly was a primer for those who were brand new to magic, and it introduced the three basic types of magicians.
There were the sorcerers, magicians who used magic innately. The book didn’t talk too much about them, stating that formal guidance was unnecessary for them as they each walked their own unique path.
Then there was traditional magic, which, according to the book, Eli should be capable of with his Scholar class. It was based upon shaping mana, which was one of the fundamental forces of life according to the grimoire, into certain shapes which would then take on a life of their own and fulfill the actions predefined in the spell.
The final sort of magic listed in the grimoire was ritual magic, which was both the least practical for fighting with and simultaneously the most potent, since it reshaped the mana of the environment to enact an effect. Depending on the size of the ritual, the effects could be profound and devastating.
Eli’s attempt at magic earlier, with the marker and the notebook paper, had been a limited ritual spell powered by traditional magic, according to the books terminology.
There was one ritual that caught his attention early in his explorations of the grimoire. It was ‘highly recommended’ that all who read the tome perform this ritual immediately, or at least as soon as possible.
“Summon lesser Scholarly Spirit,” he read. “Summons a helpful spirit. From note taking to holding up lesser rituals, this spirit is an able helper in all Scholarly pursuits. Lesser spirits evolve over time and evolved spirits are more loyal to their initial masters than recently summoned ones. Beginner Scholars are strongly recommended to summon their first spirit as soon as they wake up after their Class Day.”
Shrugging, Eli read the ritual through three times, realized that it wasn’t too complicated and that he could do it in his backyard. But first he went to check on his mother, whom he should have heard in the shower by now.
She was fast asleep in her bed, and when he went to disturb her he felt a slight pressure. His own system warned popped up with a warning in his head.
Matilda Mathews is currently undergoing system initialization.
Do not disturb.
Penalties for attacking those who are undergoing initialization include ...
“I’m not going to hurt her, she’s my mother,” he told the system. “I’m just going to cover her up a bit better.”
The system relaxed its pressure on him, and he pulled the blankets over her. He wrote a note for her to read when she woke up.
“You probably caught it from me,” he whispered to her as he closed the door. “Hopefully you don’t write this off as a weird dream and oversleeping.”
He closed the door after shutting the blinds and leaving his mother to her rest.
In the backyard, he grabbed a shovel, the salt that they used to melt the ice on the driveway during the winter, and a hoe, and he went to work carving out the lines that he needed to enact the ritual from the grimoire. Even without it manifested in its hallucination form, he could still see the ritual pages perfectly in his head, and it took him about two hours to make certain that the lines were all correct.
He’d worked up a sweat by the time he’d finished, and when it was finally time to set the tools aside he walked over to one of the two focal points of the ritual. He checked his Status and noticed with amusement that he’d lost eight points of Stamina, but otherwise he was ready for this.
The Grimoire had recommended using all of his Mana in one go for this, and, having used his Mana once before, he felt confident in his ability to just keep the tap running until he was dry. So just like he had yesterday with the primitive ritual, he pulled upon that part of him which he’d always sensed was there but could never interact with before, and he felt it move.
He fed it into the ritual, which was basically just pushing it out of his body as the ritual itself took over from there. He watched with detachment as the ritual shaped it for him, bringing it into a complex 3D shape that coalesced on the other focal point of the ritual. He kept his own mana flowing, watching in his mental Status as the points slowly trickled down.
From the start at one-ninety-three down to one eighty, which he sensed was the minimum to actually activate the ritual, and then from then on in a slow drip drip drip as it went point by point. Like a faucet that was slowly draining his barrel full of mana, he focused on keeping the flow steady and slow rather than pushing himself to get the ritual over faster.
It took him almost forty-five minutes to get below thirty points, and that was when he started feeling light-headed. He frowned, because he was loosing focus. He wanted to summon the best spirit possible at his level, which meant using all of his mana. So, with a final burst of will, he forced out the last of his mana all at once.
He still only managed to bring himself down to five points, and then his vision swam. His ears ringing slightly, his world wavered, and he fell to the ground, breathing heavily, like he had a fever.
“Mana Exhaustion,” he commented with complete detachment. “The grimoire warned about this.”
He wasn’t worried, though. It was only really dangerous to go below zero. As he’d read in the grimoire, the system calculated the ‘zero’ of a person’s mana as the point at which they’d normally pass out. According to the grimoire, he had approximately ten percent more mana than the system said he did, but that ten percent was tied into his life functions. So unless he hit negative twenty man, he’d probably be alright.
The ritual was making noise now, a slow and steady thrum. After a few moments, he managed to sit up and watch as the ball of magic that he’d been feeding began changing colors in a kaleidoscopic manner.
“Oooh, this place is new,” a voice with a slight mischievous tone said. “I haven’t been summoned to this world before. Who are you? A little Titan?”
Eli frowned at the floating blob of mana. “I’m a human.”
“Titan, human, sebatian, septation. New places are exciting, so we’ll split the difference. You need a familiar, little human?”
“I was attempting to summon a scholarly spirit,” Eli said. “If that’s the same as a familiar, then—”
“Bah, don’t limit yourself so much with labels. Let’s make a deal, you and I. I’ll take this mana you’ve sacrificed as payment for a contract between us. In exchange, I’ll serve and teach you. It will cost you to keep me manifested. According to the terms your familiar with, it will be...oh...about one hundred points to manifest me, and then it will keep your maximum points limited down by fifty to keep me out. Does that make sense?” the voice asked him.
“So you’re basically asking to feed on my mana,” Eli asked.
“Yes, that’s what I get out of the relationship,” the spirit confirmed.
“And what do I get out of it?”
“Why, my infinite knowledge, experience, and support,” the spirit answered, and Eli could feel its self satisfaction. “Normally a spirit like me wouldn’t be attracted to such a low level summoning circle like this. I’m not a lesser spirit, Elias Mathews. In fact, I’ll be forced to limit myself quite significantly at first. If it wasn’t for the fact that I don’t remember ever being to ‘Earth’ before I wouldn’t have been interested in you at all. That, and your mana is … delicious. Perhaps it’s worth growing you some.”
Eli felt goosebumps forming as he processed the spirit’s words. “What level spirit are you?”
“Let’s just keep that a secret for now,” the spirit answered him. “My name is Gabri-al. You can call me Gabri. I promise to support you in every way I can if you complete the contract with me, little human. I promise you again my undying support. A third time I promise to support you if you make me your familiar. I assure you this is a very, very good deal. I’ll be limited, of course, but there are high ranking summoners who would trade dozens of their other contracts for the terms that I’ve just offered you.”
“Promise me first, that you have no ill intentions towards Earth or the people of Earth,” Eli said. “You’re not a Demon, are you?”
“Nothing of the sort,” Gabri said. “I’m just a curious spirit who likes new things. That’s why your summoning circle gained my attention in the first place. It’s an old circle in a new place, and that’s interesting. And I want to learn more about this new place of yours. A contract with you is the easiest way of doing that.”
Eli considered the words. His vision was still swimming and his mind was racing from the mana exhaustion. He hadn’t been expecting such a vocal spirit. The description of the ritual had made it clear that the spirits summoned by it were typically newborn elemental spirits who needed such a contract in order to grow. This Gabri was not at all what he was expecting.
But was that a bad thing? Was this not a unique opportunity? Was he overthinking this? The Runekeeper’s Grimoire had suggested this spell, calling it the basis for being a true Scholar. If it had attracted a stronger than normal spirit, then wasn’t that only to his benefit?
The spirit was limited by his own strength, after all. Or so he’d read. If it turned out to be a pain in the butt, he could repeat the contract with a different spirit and simply never summon this one again. He could form as many contracts as he wanted, according to the grimoire.
“I accept,” Eli said eventually.
“Excellent!” the spirit said. And Eli suddenly felt the mana on the other focal point of the ritual being devoured in one large ‘gulp.’ Then, a moment later, a faerie appeared in a flash of light.
He was grinning, the size of a barbie doll, and completely naked. “Thank you for the sacrifice of your mana, Master. At the present time, this is the most fearsome form I can manage, but by the time you’re level forty or fifty I’ll be able to—”
“Yeah, let’s start with finding you some pants,” the mana exhausted boy said, pulling himself to his feet. “Let’s see if I have some felt or something.”