Adrest was terrified, fighting for his life. He was frantically dodging swipes to his chest and arms while jumping over attacks sweeping at his legs and ankles, trying to off balance him. He resisted as best he could, but Adrest was completely outclassed. Every move read; every trick seen through before he even tried. Mad blades came from every angle, not hesitating to take try to take off limbs, as seen by the gash on his shoulder that cut into bone.
As he tried desperately to gain distance and take advantage of his magics, the opponent was locked in step with him, even in air he was at a disadvantage, losing the tip of a wing to learn. Adrest desperately fought for every extra second as his injuries accumulated, waiting for help.
Struggling to keep up, Adrest froze when a blade slipped through his guard and dug just a millimeter into his neck, blood slowly dripping down his throat. He dropped his sword in surrender, holding still as possible.
“Your win again Rin, could you put that down now?” As Adrest spoke, the sword at his throat dropped and Rin gave a goofy smile that didn’t suit the monster trying to kill him just moments ago.
“You’re getting better Adrest, you’re even trying to fight back now.”
“And you’re really not afraid to maim anymore, are you?” Adrest looked at the cuts and his missing finger somewhat at a loss. While it still hurt, at C rank he had much more control over his body and considered it a somewhat minor wound compared to what Alissa had put him through lately.
She had been pushing him deeper into the forest, fighting stronger monsters and beasts. On top of that, their magic lesson’s had gotten harder, learning to control larger areas of natural mana with his own.
Rin apologetically rubbed the back of her head, “Alissa really insisted, and you always fix it.”
As if summoning her, Alissa descended from the air clapping, “Good job Rin! You really should take an arm if he leaves it open though, it’s the fastest way to learn.”
Both Adrest and Rin cringed at the thought as Alissa continued, “Now go get fixed up Ady, you have magic training. Rin can you help Belle for an hour or so?”
“I’d love to!” Rin skipped off to find the little rabbit while Adrest groaned and dragged himself to the Lodestone. Just a few dozen (lp) later, he felt good as new. Meeting back up with Alissa, they took a seat at a bench enjoying the rare comfortable day. Now that it was early spring, the last of the snow had just melted and the sun felt especially warm.
As Alissa lounged like a cat in the warm glow, she gave a sly grin, “Let’s get today’s lesson started. Cast and maintain a fireball as far away as possible, we’re doing something a little different.”
The further someone casts magic from their body, the harder to control and maintain it becomes. To cast magic is to use mana as fuel to get a desired effect. And like fuel, mana has different degrees of efficiency depending on how it is used and the surroundings. It’s easier for an earth magic user to use earth magic on land than at sea, easier for dark magic users at night. Though the surroundings may limit the caster somewhat, there are also ways to work around it.
The first lesson Alissa taught Adrest was that magic is based in imagination and desire. While there were plenty of standard magics and chants that would achieve the desired outcome every time, Alissa disdained that method even for children. It creates a mental wall for them later, limiting their magic to the mundane and established. She always prodded Adrest to try, even if it shouldn’t be possible, as long as it wasn’t something too dangerous. Shockingly, half the time his ideas worked with a little time and effort, even if he thought it shouldn’t.
Adrest cleared his mind of everything expect the patch of forest indicated. Then, with a shaky start, Adrest could feel his soul and mind expand outwards. The world took on a grainy hue as millions of colorless grey flakes as small as dust particles floated endlessly through the air. Mixed sporadically through the grey were bits of other colors, green, blue, red, purple, yellow, black, and so so many more.
Adrest knew this was how the world really looked, all around was a constant storm of mana moving all across the world. Most of it was neutral, waiting for a cause natural or otherwise to ignite, temporarily converting them to whatever mana was needed. If there were a fire the neutral mana near it would be converted to fire mana, same with rain, thunder, and all other phenomenon natural or otherwise.
It was only after many hours of training was Adrest just barely able to exert control over the surrounding mana with his own. As practiced, he used a little of his fire mana, glowing like embers as they flowed from his soul into his hands, then as commanded rode against the wind to burst with all their latent energy. As the mana burned, the grey particles nearby took on a red hue as they were charged and Adrest took control, adding fuel to the flames.
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It was vastly different from controlling his own, one a perfectly trained dog on a lead, the other like wrangling eels underwater. Under all the might his mind and soul could muster, willing the world to bend to his command, Adrest maintained the fireball without a stream of his own mana.
As the flame stabilized a hundred feet from himself, he gave Alissa a satisfied smile. He was becoming faster and more proficient as the training continued, just a month ago he would’ve taken five minutes of complete silence to pull off such a feat.
Slowly clapping Alissa teased, “Congratulations Ady, you are as good as a newborn dragon now.”
“I technically am a newborn, you old woman.” Adrest let the flame go out as he fled backwards from a ball of fire as large as him.
After waiting for Alissa to calm down, Adrest once again cast his magic in the distance.
“Good, now start dodging and don’t let the flame go out.”
Adrest spent the next three hours frantically dodging through an array of multicolored spells and attacks, every time his concentration lapsed he would have to start from square one. She demanded perfection for an hour straight before she allowed him to stop for more than having a medicine shoved down his throat. Finally, as Adrest’s legs were shaking and cramped, his shirt was dripping in sweat, he couldn’t take it anymore and his eyes rolled to the back of his head, passing out.
Before his body could land on the leaf covered ground, Alissa was behind him. She propped the limp form, supporting the near 200 pounds of deadweight effortlessly. Alissa found herself complimenting Adrest in her mind again. The pain he experienced before passing out was that of complete exhaustion of the soul.
The soul controlled magic, and to control mana outside the body was incredibly taxing to it, so much so that if one looked at Adrest’s right now they’d see the edges of it frayed, ribbons of light fluttering off the tightly wound source.
As each bit of himself frayed away, Adrest felt an all-encompassing pain wrack his mind, unable to shut it out. But still, he preserved until his body gave out from under him. For normal people, this would be reckless at best and suicidal at worst, soul injuries were hard to heal, but for Alissa it would be a breeze.
She carefully leaned Adrest against her back as she took off to the center of their little world. In just seconds, they were miles from their home and approaching a hidden paradise.
In a little depression in the land, there was a pool of water somewhere between a pond and lake. The water was sparkling and pure, clean enough drinking from it seemed like a sin. Hidden under the surface, one could see thousands of sparkling gems littering the floor many meters below. Each one releasing a slow stream of mana into the water.
In the direct center of the pool was a white lily larger than Alissa herself floating just over the water’s surface. Occasionally the holy flower would shoot out puffs of thick white mist that spread through the surroundings. As each bit of mist merged with the air, Alissa could feel the mana become richer, but at the same time gentler.
As the lily absorbed mana, it was purified and refined. The main function of this was to power the crystal formation core hovering above it, but as it drew very little power most of the time, mana accumulated in the air so much, drops of sparkling white liquid began to accumulate of the plants and trees, changing them.
This was the perfect environment for most life, and especially healing for soul injuries. With the gentle mana, the soul could incorporate it with ease, building back its foundation and expanding. The power of wealth was once again rearing its head as only the very top powers of each region had something similar, and only the most monstrous geniuses would be able to use it.
Adrest was blissfully unaware of this as he slept on the soft grass, Alissa resting his head on her thighs as she stroked his hair. Each second that passed she could see the thinnest strands of Adrest’s soul grow and thread around themselves, slowly forming back into a tight weave.
Time passed, and eventually Adrest felt his mind returning, a dull haze fogging his mind. Feeling tired, but alright Adrest opened his eyes and wasn’t expecting to see Alissa staring down back at him.
“Good morning Ady! Feeling better?”
“Morning Ali, I’m still feeling a little sore but I’ll live.” Adrest in his half-conscious state tried going back to sleep, turning to get more comfortable but woke up as his cheeks were pinched and twisted.
“Ah! Fine! I’m awake” Adrest sat up to get away from the pest, and was about to argue more when he was stunned by his surroundings. It was like he’d stepped into a real life garden of Eden. The plants and grass shimmered and looked like it was the middle of summer with everything in full bloom. A few feet to his right was a lake with some sort of giant flower hovering over it, Adrest could even see multicolored shimmers of light reflecting from the bottom of the lake when the sun shone just right. He figured out where they were the second he saw a giant fiery red crystal sitting atop the flower but had no time to dwell on it.
The mana in the air was so thick, Adrest’s skin prickled and he felt short of breath choking on it, hyperventilating.
Alissa gently stroked his back, “Your body is just overstimulated, you’re a C rank Ady, just hold your breath and focus on me until we walk out, you need to slowly adjust.”
Adrest did as told, fighting his thirty years of instincts, putting all his attention into the young woman’s back just ahead of himself. As they walked Adrest felt his heart slowly start to regulate itself, the static feeling on his skin dampening. After just five minutes of walking and Adrest passed a shimmering field in the air, he felt normal and took a deep breath.
Getting himself under control he raised an eyebrow at his roommate, “Ali, that looked like you had to use a lot more than just an A rank core for your formation. Like a lot more. Like buy a large fiefdom in the country of your choice more.”
Alissa brushed him off, not caring in the slightest about the hundreds of thousands of platinum Trevil worth of materials she’d used.