Nicholas had been unconscious for ten days, and in those days, he dreamed. At first, the dreams had been a random collection of memories smashed together to create barely sensical stories, but then Nicholas started dreaming of things he had never seen. Nicholas watched as heroes battled dark lords, he watched the journeys of a man with skin black as smoke as he traveled the world, making many friends, before dying, hiding a powerful weapon of evil from the world. Nicholas looked on in awe as he watched a massive man dominate and conquer the opponents and obstacles in front of him, but never became corrupted by his power. Nicholas watched with wonder as a powerful mage–eternally tired–brought down demons and fey who could easily destroy him.
However, Nicholas’ dreams took a darker turn, he watched as many heroes, on their deathbeds, cried in fear. Unable to defeat their most powerful foe, the march of time. He watched as powerful mages sacrificed their humanity to escape death. He watched as one of these mages accepted death, but refused to leave the world, binding his soul to his undying corpse. Finally, Nicholas watched as the spirits of dead heroes lost their light, remaining unchallenged. Nicholas sat now, face to face with a skeleton draped in a single piece of pitch-black cloth.
“Where am I? What is this? What happened to me? Did I- did I… die?”
“Hello Nicholas, how have you been?” A voice came from the skeleton, which appeared unmoving.
“W- What? Who are you?”
“Do not fret Nicholas, all these questions will be answered in time. Assuming you keep going down the path to power, and survive, that is.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry about it young one, I am just here to say, you are doing things right, you have understood yourself on a deeper level than most, my advice to you is: you must understand both mana and yourself.”
“What?
----------------------------------------
Nicholas had had an incredibly strange dream, he had seen… he had seen, what, exactly? He couldn’t quite remember. Nicholas sat up, the room he was in was unfamiliar to him, the last thing he remembered was… right. He had passed out in the forest after being attacked by the hobgoblin. Had he been rescued? By who? These thoughts raced through his head until his trance was broken by the creaking of a door.
The man who stepped through it was tall, his dark hair cut to just under his ears, he had dark circles under his eyes and for a second it appeared to Nicholas as though the man’s large irises were a deep shining gold, despite their lackluster brown color. The man stood out to Nicholas for his darker tone of skin and thin eyes, complimented by his sharp features.
“Hello there, young man,” the man said, sitting in a chair he pulled from a corner of the room. “I understand you had an incident in the forest,” He pulled a book and quill from his waist. “I’m going to ask a few questions. Is that okay?”
“Yes, that’s fine.”
“What is your name?”
“Nicholas.” he shifted uncomfortably on the bed.
“You don’t have a mentor to teach you?”
Nicholas Brow furrowed “No, why?”
“Just procedure, young man,” the man wrote in the book ”and why are you practicing magic? From where are you learning?”
“What?”
“Please answer the questions.”
“Um… yes, I am practicing magic, I want to enroll in Verum and become a wizard.”
“You are learning from the tome correct?”
“Yes, I started working on it right after I was given the tome.”
“When was this?”
“A little over a month ago, depending on how long I’ve been unconscious.”
“A month ago? I must’ve been out of town. Well anyways, congratulations on your awakening.”
“I- I awakened?! I did it. I did it!” Nicholas’ exclaimed.
“Yes, you did.” The man’s expression was unamused.
“R-right, sorry.” Nicholas turned in embarrassment.
“Well then, Nicholas, if you’re done celebrating, could you produce an effect?”
“A… what?”
“A minor magical effect.”
“Ah, right, sorry,” Nicholas stood, stumbling as his body was weak from his non-movement. “Wait, where are my wounds?”
“Healed, please continue.” The man flicked his hand toward the ground, and Nicholas could’ve sworn the man’s eyes turned gold for a second.
“Here we go.” Nicholas took a deep breath and remembered what he had read.
The simplest of the Minor Magical effects is the Exhale. The Exhale is a process in which a Mage will “push” the outermost layer of their mana out with no intent, in doing so the mana will take the base intent of the Mage and influence the world in a very minor way. When a Mage “awakens” what occurs is a mass “shedding” of the outermost layer of the Mana pool, the soaking in intent this mana undergoes throughout the Mage’s lifetime is a possible theory as to why a Mage’s awakening is much more powerful than other minor magical effects.
Nicholas pushed, he felt the mana bubble out of him and touch the ambient mana, he looked on expectantly for a reaction, he had been unconscious for his awakening after all, but unfortunately, nothing happened.
“Hmm, please, try again.”
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“But… nothing happened. Did I fail somehow?”
“Unlikely, it’s possible it just didn’t react in any conventionally perceivable way, or it didn’t have anything to react with, either way, try again.”
Nicholas pushed once more looking at the man for any sign of confirmation. There! His eyes really had turned gold! It wasn’t just a trick of the light, the man must be doing something
“Nicholas?” The man pulled Nicholas away from his thoughts.
“Yes?”
“Congratulations, you hold a relatively rare outlook for wizards.”
“What… does that mean?”
“I would like to know the extent of your knowledge before I answer, would you mind if I read your tome?”
“Not at all.”
“Excellent,” the man grabbed Nicholas’ tome from a shelf and quickly flipped through it, Nicholas noted the man's eyes glowing that golden color, ebbing and flowing every few pages. “You’ve read the whole tome, correct?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good, magic pays due diligence,” The man finally set the book back and looked at Nicholas. “There exists a sort of affinity for certain types of spells, someone whose outlook on life is that the world is inherently evil and that they must conquer their way to the top will have a much easier time constructing destructive spells than someone with a more positive or peaceful outlook.”
“I thought spells were uniform and standardized?”
“Many would have you believe that, but it is untrue, at least somewhat, the classic [Create Water] spell can be achieved in many different ways. For example-” The man formed an orb of water above his hand. ”-I have created this water directly from my mana-” in the man’s other hand he conjured a second orb of water “-and this water I summoned from the elemental plane of water. Do you understand the implications?”
Nicholas crossed his arms and closed his eyes “You’re saying that every person reaches the conclusion a little differently, right?”
“Not quite, every individual does achieve the same spell differently, even in the case of standardized spells, but my point is that a mage’s outlook taints their intent in many ways that are so minute all but the most skilled mages are unable to detect them.”
“Then what makes my… outlook unique?”
“Well, I can’t deconstruct it fully, but I would say that you…-’ the man crossed his legs “-encourage the growth and well-being of others, you hope for the best, but are prepared for the worst.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s… close?”
“Nicholas, do you know who I am?”
“I’m sorry sir, I don’t.”
“I didn’t think so-” the man reached out for a handshake “-I’m your new boss.”
Nicholas reached out for the handshake and paused “My what?”
“I’m the apothecary, and when I spoke to your parents about payment, they told me you would work it off. So for the foreseeable future, you’re my new assistant.”
“Huh?”
“Do you have an objection to this arrangement?”
“Of course I do!”
“Why?”
“I didn’t have any say in it!”
“So you have the money to pay me then?” The man smiled smugly.
“W-well… no… but still!”
“But still what?”
“I’m apprenticing under the blacksmith right now!”
“Mr. Keffler understands, I spoke to him.”
“Wha- he- I… I still have to apprentice under-”
“Mr. Williams? That won’t be an issue, he proposed the idea to your parents in the first place.”
“But he never lets anyone skip out on learning from him…”
“You’ve learned plenty from him, Nicholas, at least, he thought so.”
“What do you mean thought so?”
“I mean after your most recent stunt James banned you from leaving town without someone to accompany you, and by someone, he means me or him.”
“Why would you even want me to work under you, I don’t know anything about medicine.” Nicholas acquiesced.
“I’ve been told you’re a dedicated learner, besides I don’t think you’ll be displeased with your employment.”
“I don’t exactly have much of a choice, huh? You must be paying me quite a bit if you think I won’t care.” Nicholas sighed.
“You think I’m going to pay you? Ha!” The man’s sudden deep laugh startled Nicholas.
“You’re not going to pay me!?” Nicholas said, indignantly.
“No, not at all. The reason I think you’ll like this arrangement is that any assistant of mine needs to know how to cast first-level spells.” The man wore a teasing smile.
“You’re going to teach me!?” Nicholas hopped out of his seat in excitement
“And here I was thinking you were slower than an ox with a thorn in his hoof.” The man joked.
“I take offense to that!” Nicholas said in jest, his previous indignation replaced with anticipation.
“So did the ox. Now, I’m getting tired of holding my hand here, so do you accept, or not?”
“I do,” Nicholas shook the man’s hand, noting the man’s soft hand but firm grip. “I just realized I don’t know your name?”
“Ah, right, how rude of me. I’m Quynn. Quynn Kazamura.”
“That’s a bit of a strange name, isn’t it?”
“No stranger than Nicholas Reich is to me.”
“Fair.”
———————————————————————————————————————
A month had passed since Nicholas’ coma and he had been practicing tirelessly under Master Kazamura’s guidance the whole time.
“Nicholas, I will demonstrate once more, there are a thousand and one ways to make even the barest magical effects,” Quynn closed his eyes. He opened them once more, showcasing what Nicholas had marked as his ‘signature look’ of golden irises “I am narrowing my outlook to barely a fraction of itself, and forming an intent through it.”
“And then you form a primary circuit and flood it with mana?” Nicholas asked.
“Yes, Nick, but you have to measure the amount of mana so as not to break the circuit, Like so.” Master Quynn rose his hand forward and closed it into a fist, before opening it. The resulting pulse of mana dwarfed the entirety of Nicholas’ pool, he didn’t need to know any mana-sensing spells to feel his master’s spells and minor magical effects, or rather, as his master dubbed them ‘Minor Magics’.
A powerful gust came from his master’s open palm billowing both of their clothing and making Nicholas stumble back, despite being only adjacent to the minor magics area of effect.
“I still don’t understand why you raise your hand for that,” Nicholas said.
“It helps with visualization, though it can be limiting. For example, there is a law of disarcane physics-”
“Disarcane?”
“Non-magical. The law states that an object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion at a constant speed and in a straight line unless acted on by an outside force, or in other words-”
“It takes an outside force to act on an object to change its… is velocity the word I’m looking for?”
“Yes, where did you learn it? I didn’t think this town had the resources for that level of education?”
“I apprenticed under Stephan, the lord’s guard, he told me sword was as much of a science as an art, he made me learn some things like that.”
“Good, you have all the information to answer your question yourself then.”
Nicholas hummed and studied the ground for a second. “Because Magic defies the laws of physics, and it takes mana to do that, so the more you follow the laws of physics, the less mana it takes?”
“Yes, precisely. Now, try again.”
Nicholas held his head high and thought about his view of the world, he focused on the hope he clung to, he focused on the hope he would grow to be a powerful mage, he hoped he would grow… he would grow, he will grow. He grasped the intent of growth, he focused on others growing, and he breathed in. He grabbed his mana and hardened it, holding it still. He hollowed it, and he formed it into a helix, a sort of double spiral. He guided his mana into the helix, guiding the ambient mana into it, he struggled and nearly broke his spiral, but he felt his mana slow itself.
He needed to direct it, he looked for a plant and saw a beautiful flower, he kneeled slowly and released his grip on his mana, it flowed into the flower. And he watched as its light purple leaves grew and its stem thickened, hardening. He watched as it sprouted up to chest height. Nicholas let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
“Impressive for your first effect, though, you were a bit slower than I would’ve expected. I trust you have the process memorized?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Master.”
Nicholas sighed, he had no idea why the man insisted he be addressed with master instead of sir or other terms of respect, “Yes, Master Kazamura.”
“Very good, now, by the end of this month you need to master that and at least four other Minor Magics.”
“Four!?” Nicholas jumped up from the plant. “It took me a month just to use one!”
“Yes, but now that you’ve used one it should be much easier to use others.”
“Besides, I want to show off the next time a large merchant caravan comes by, get them to buy from me. That and soon I’ll be taking you into the woods so we can find herbs and other alchemical components.
“I’ve been to the woods plenty of times, why do I need to know more minor magics for that?”
“The goblins, they’re getting bold, I suspect they may be getting ready to horde.”
“We have to tell the lord that!”
“I did, he asked me to observe and report back the next time I went gathering materials. Now, I see your mana pool is far from drained, so get busy, Nicky. I’m going to take a nap.” Quynn yawned.
“Huh? Wait, what? You want me to do this alone?”
“You didn’t seem to have an issue with it before, should I throw you into the woods, will that help?” He said, sarcastically, “I’m sure you can do this on your own. Hells, you’ve already surpassed all the others. Except maybe that Silas kid, but he’s got the benefit of money and private teachers so he doesn’t count.”