For the majority of the first 2 days the group of 5 walked without rest, only stopping for absolute necessities, such as bodily needs or sleep. After the first couple of days however, the pace relaxed a little more, and Johan found time to practice. He found himself able to start focusing on learning about conjuration, which gave him something other than his sore and tired feet to think about.
'The basics of conjuration magic is, like a lot of modern magic, based upon intent.
If you are trying to conjure something that you want, lets say... A knife for example, between the fact that metal is a complex element, and how you envision the knife-does it have a wooden handle, is it full tang, how is the edge, etc.- it will be inhibitively more expensive than if you conjure water.' Johan read in his mind, and he internalized that complex elements tend to be more expensive.
He had already figured that intent would matter, like the book had said, most modern magic demanded upon that principal of magic. Johan decided to continue,
'For basic elements, as well as the primary ones that make those that we refer to as basic elements, they do not stay forever and are thus cheaper to conjure as well, at least the majority of them. This is where there is great debate. Water and earth magic. These two elements are more expensive than fire or wind and also cost more than the combined basic element of fire and wind, that of heat. This has lead many magic scholars to research more about whether or not these elements are truly primary elements or not, though no one has been able to disprove it in all this time. It is a common belief that the elements of water and earth are permanent as they are necessary for life, but none of that has been backed up by conclusive evidence.'
Johan decided to skip the exposition of the book, looking for what he actually needed. It wasn't his concern what others believed, for now he just needed to conjure water.
'For conjuring elements. For water, you start by creating an orb of water mana, then you begin to rapidly spin the orb, using it to drag in more water mana, for more advanced mages, it is simply a matter of creating an attractive force of mana to pull enough together. You want to pull enough water mana to be able to fill a container. after that, you simply use your intent to will it into form. This takes a lot of effort from newer mages.' Johan finally finished what he was needing from the book, then he closed it, grabbed a small metal mug from the bag of holding, and began to concentrate.
It was difficult, and very... slow. Johan had gotten quite used to moving water mana around, yet he had trouble getting it to bring more to him. It didn't skip his mind that he was in an area that had very little water mana, being a desert an all, but he carried on for a while, and finally he had enough that he was willing to try and materialize it.
He focused on wanting it to become real with such intensity that he began to lose his sense of time. After what felt like a couple of moments he found the mana had materialized in the cup. It was half full of water. Johan had succeeded in his goal. Though he would need much more practice with it before it'd be a reliable source of water. He also felt drained. It had taken a lot out of him, not just mana either, it was a mental fatigue.
Johan began to pay attention to the world around himself again and found that it had been over 2 hours since he had started his conjuring attempt.
"What? It's been that long? It only felt like a few minutes at most..." He was shocked at this of course.
"It can be like that, it's why mages almost never practice new magic in public settings. It's a time where their body and mind are trying to comprehend something at a fundamental level, and it's quite dangerous if someone is looking for you. There are times where it can take days, according to Nath." Markus explained.
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"Ah... I, I see..." Johan said as he thought about it for a bit. "It makes some sense I suppose." He was trying to comprehend something that would be a miracle to most people. It made sense to him that it takes time to comprehend something like that.
"It was kind of creepy." Anne said.
"Yeah, you stopped responding for so long. If Markus didn't say anything we would have been shaking you." Pat added on.
Jen nodded a bit.
"Thanks for the concern I guess. I didn't know that would happen, Nath never said anything about it, and I had to skim the book to actually find what I needed because it had so much exposition about elements and various debates about how they work." Johan stood up, and stretched his body. He had become a bit stiff from sitting from so long, and stretching felt amazing at the time.
"So... Did you, succeed?" Asked Anne.
"Oh, yeah. Yeah I did, it's not much and it also took a lot out of me too, but I did do it." Johan replied, a small smile on his face.
"Cool." Pat said, looking at the water, "It's always neat seeing water that's been conjured. It's a strange ability to me, since I don't really get how you do it, there doesn't seem to be a proper cause for the effect, unlike with machines."
"There is a proper cause, it's just that you can't see it, and since you can't use magic, you also cannot feel it. The cause is the energy mages call mana." Johan replied, "But I do get it, I'm not good with machines so watching someone be able to create or fix one with little hassle is impressive to me."
"Yeah, yeah. Let's get going. We need to get a move on." Markus spoke up.
The two dismissed the argument at that.
-
The next day, Johan and Anne assisted in setting up the device.
[Date: 11-04-1782]
[Terminal Designation: ADV]
[Welcome Traveler to The Navigator Terminal]
[Please select an option]
[Map] [Regional Information] [Intelligence set up Protocol]
Selecting Intelligence set up Protocol took him to another screen where it scanned for available functions and then said it would be able to operate at a lesser extent, but Johan activated it regardless.
"Beep. Beep. Beep. Test concluded! Please speak to test the microphone!"
"Oh! Uh... Hi? Hello?" Johan responded a bit startled, Anne burst out laughing behind him.
"Oh... Oh my gosh! That was hilarious. ah... You should have seen the look on your face Johan. Heheheee..."
"Well you set it up then!" Johan yelled at her.
"Microphone test completed, camera now testing... Camera test complete. Tests have determined that this unit is operable, but damaged. It may be problematic."
"That is fine." Johan turned back to the machine.
"Thank you for your assistance... Now allowing the Artificial Intelligence to take up conversing."
The group waited for a minute, before finally, the device spoke once more.
"Hello! Hello? I can see again! Oh me, oh my! How long has it been?" a somewhat mechanical, male voice come from the speakers "And my form has changed a bit, I lost some weight, It's like I'm floating!" The device said.
"That's because you are." Pat said, she still had the device on her back, like a backpack.
"Oh? Who said that!? I know it wasn't the guy in front of me!" The device almost yelled
"You need to be a bit quieter." Johan said. "My name is Johan, the girl over there is Anne, and that is Markus, and Jen." Johan pointed at each of the group members, "You are currently on the back of Pat, who repaired you. We found you buried in the ground and took you and repaired you, though we don't have anything like scanners or such."
"Oh...!" The device was now whisper yelling, "Ok. I'm Adv.(Add V) I'm a navigation terminal built by Gent. Although... Huh. I *cannot* seem to get ahold of the network at the moment." Adv said.
"Thank you for being quieter, you won't be able to get ahold of Gent, they shut down your program when they began a civil war." Johan explained.
"Oh, that's not very good!" Adv still whisper yelled.
"Nope!" Anne answered this time.
"What does that mean for me?" Adv asked.
"Well, you get to go with us!" Pat said cheerfully.
"Oh! Alright! I've always wanted to go on a journey you know!" Adv answered just as cheerfully.
"Well then we have great news for you!" Pat replied happily.
"Yippee!" Adv responded.
"This is going to be a headache." Johan muttered to himself, then he began to practice once more.