"Mind if I ask you a question?" Martin, a white-haired wolfkin twink, asks.

We're currently outside of Amadikols, near the edge of a cliff. I met Martin a few days ago and arranged for this meeting between us for this morning. The spot we're at has a small patch of grassy ground with a little bit of forest around us.

Learning magic in a small glade outside of town felt like a better idea to me than learning it in the city. Less prying eyes here for whatever my learning curve is. That's part of why I chose this particular person to be my mentor as well.

The fact that he's handsome doesn't hurt, either.

Martin is a decently-skilled magician, and is currently dressed in a dark green coat with a fuzzy brown lining, a dark green tunic underneath that, brown pants, and dark brown boots with a dark brown leather belt. A dark brown sash and matching dark brown buttons keep his coat closed. His hands are tucked into the pockets of his coat, his breath fogging in the air.

I'll admit, it's a little bit chilly here even with [Cold Resistance] Level 1. Our elevation is decently high and a cold front moved in over the last few days. It may be the middle of their equivalent of the month of May here, but that doesn't mean their weather necessarily matches Earth's. They can apparently drop below freezing here from the ninth month of the year through the fifth month of the next and it never gets 'hot' in this area.

A mountainous northern area in a world of magic? Yeah, I can see why they might be fairly cold here.

That hasn't stopped me from continuing to wear the sleeveless tunics and the vests that I bought over in Caniton. They were a bit warmer there, though they're also more south and about three thousand feet lower in elevation than Amadikols.

"If it has to do with how I'm not cold," I tell him. "Despite it being freezing outside, the answer is [Cold Resistance] Level 1."

Though the kids who play in a fountains' water during the colder times do often end up with [Cold Resistance] Level 1, most kids aren't that crazy. Martin, it seems, was not one of the ones who was.

"I kind of assumed that," he says. "I was wondering why you wanted to meet here instead of somewhere in the city. I get that you're a Summoned and all, but people are used to the strange abilities of the Summoned. Though I suppose it's because you don't want people seeing you struggle?"

Martin seems genuine with that question, though I'm a bit confused by it. The fact that he seems sincere only makes me wonder why he would think that.

"Why would I struggle?" I ask.

"Because you want to learn magic despite being a swordsman," he indicates the sword on my left hip. "Your sword and toned arms and the abs I saw in the baths a couple of days ago made that evident. You're a budding swordsman and I've gotten the sense that you're actually fairly good with the blade."

Martin may only be twenty-one years of age, but he's experienced with teaching people magic, including Summoned. From what I could find, he's mentored twelve Summoned in the last six years. I'll be his thirteenth. That suggests he's talking from experience here rather than a pure assumption.

"Swordsmen struggle with magic?" I ask.

"Hm…" he thinks about his wording. "Okay. So everyone has affinities for different things, right?"

"Yeah," I answer. "Adam is good with using a sword and fire magic. Caleb is good at using magic martial arts even though he's only mediocre with those individually. Leif knows basic magics, but is extremely skilled with summoning mystic beasts."

This combination is what made me think of learning magic. I don't mind using the sword or martial arts, but I do mind being up close and personal with monsters in a fight. If it's necessary I'll do it, but I'd rather be in the back. In addition to that, we don't actually have a proper ranged fighter.

Leif can summon Evisalb and have that fight enemies, but its time is limited and that's the only actual combat ability he has. Even if he could fight from a distance on his own, there's also no telling when his brother will realize he's actually missing. The Fairy King could show up to bring him home at any time. I'm not going to ask Leif to stay here just to stick with the group, he's got his own life back in the Fairy Realm.

Even if he wasn't heading home soon, we need a proper magician.

"Right," Martin says. "And Caleb is a prime example of the main issue with trying to learn different things. No one is really good at everything. He's mediocre with martial arts and magic, but he's actually good at mixing the two together. He also has no affinity with a sword, based on what you told me."

"So what you're saying is," I say. "Someone who's got a high affinity for physical combat is likely to have a low affinity for magic?"

"Correct," he answers. "In fact, I've never met someone who's actually good at both. From my understanding, it's because affinities are within your soul and there's only so much space for them to in there. You can get an even increase to all affinities by raising your Soul Attribute, but that's notoriously hard and I'd have been able to tell if you'd already done that since it can only be done through a Rank Advancement Trial."

"And you can tell if someone's done one?"

"I can sense your Mana," he clarifies. "It's around average for starting out, maybe a little higher. So you've learned some basic spells, maybe elemental conjuration and manipulation?"

"Yeah," I answer. "So a person's affinities are within their soul and there's only so much space for affinity in there. Because of that, it's rare to find someone who has a high affinity for two things, and if they have a high affinity for one thing, they'll likely have a low affinity for everything else?"

"To a degree, yes," he answers. "Though someone who's good in one area might have a slightly-higher affinity for other areas."

That makes sense. Someone who's good at martial arts is probably going to have a decent talent for gymnastics, since the areas overlap.

"I see," I touch the sword at my hip. "This is mostly for show. I'm toned because where I'm from, exercise is emphasized and I developed a bit more from hiking around these mountains for the last couple of months. There were more than a few times where I had to climb a cliff."

Martin doesn't look like he's buying my explanation. I really did climb a cliff a couple of times. There were occasions while traveling when climbing one was a faster and safer path than the alternate route.

"Don't be disappointed if learning magic takes awhile," he tells me. "Only people with really high affinities can learn it quickly."

Based on the explanation provided, I can assume that a person with [Unlimited Potential] has extra space in their soul for affinities. One of the reasons we have it is because of how adaptable we are, which isn't possible without having a high degree of affinity for basically everything.

"Understood," I respond.

"What are the magics you know?" Martin asks.

"I can create and manipulate the four elements," I answer. "Thought about learning arcane magics or holy magics from Caleb, but decided to wait for an actual teacher."

Not that it would be needed, I just didn't feel like learning before now. Since I decided to learn magic to make up for the team's lack of ranged combat ability, I decided to see how a teacher of magic would teach. They might mention something I didn't think of.

"Show me," Martin says.

I hold up my hand and fire flashes above my palm for a moment, followed by water that forms and swirls around, then shoots off. A rock appears above my palm and floats up, spinning for a few moments, then drops to the ground.

"As for air," I say. "That one's a bit hard to show since it has no color. I actually shifted to air at the end there."

"I could tell," he says. "I don't know how much you practiced those to be able to flow with them so quickly, but do know that even among mages, people with talents for more than one area of magic are rare."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"It's not that you have a hard time learning other magics," he explains. "But that magic itself is inherently difficult. You're taking your Mana and imposing your will upon it to create an effect, supplying everything needed through your Mana itself in most cases. Even people with an affinity for magic will have an affinity for some aspect of it. You probably have one for elemental magics. Which is honestly impressive because most people only have one or two elemental affinities and struggle with the rest."

"So someone like Caleb is rare, then?"

"What do you mean?"

"He's good with magic martial arts using arcane, elemental, affliction, and holy magic," I tell him. "I've seen him in action – he's able to seamlessly transition between them. He swirls the magic around his fists and releases them in bursts when he strikes."

Martin thinks about that for a few moments.

"Then he probably doesn't have much talent with martial arts," Martin tells me. "He may actually have a decent affinity for magic and little else. There are several different 'types' of magic outside of the standard ones. Summoning magic, close-ranged magic, long-ranged magic… those all require different talents and aspects. Caleb may have figured out early on that he's good with a variety of magics, but only at close range. To make up for that, he probably learned martial arts and studied quite hard in order to build up real skill."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

That makes a decent amount of sense, and it would definitely explain why Caleb is only mediocre at martial arts even though he's good at magic martial arts. Even without talent, one can get decent or even good at something with hard work. I suppose there might be some things someone might struggle with regardless of effort, but martial arts probably isn't one of those for Caleb.

"Let's start you off with some proper spells," Martin tells me. "Those ones are actually counted as techniques, though they're still enough to gain you the related Class."

"Alright," I say.

"The are four base forms," he says. "Plus a couple of variations. These base forms are used in nearly all spells. First is 'orb'," he holds up his right hand and a one-inch orb of flames floats above his palm. "Second is 'rod'," the orb vanishes and a two-inch-long, quarter-inch-thick rod of flames appears in its place. "Third is 'burst'," the rod vanishes and a small burst of flames shoots up from his palm. "Fourth and finally, there's 'disk'," a flat disk of fire forms above his palm, three inches in width. It burns for a few seconds before fading. "Though many learn 'knife' instead of 'rod', which is a variation on the latter that creates a small knife of it. Actually, it's a variation that combines 'rod' and 'disk'."

"Got it," I say. "When creating an element, all I need to do is visualize my Mana becoming that and impose my will into the Mana to make it take form. Manipulating the element involves 'grasping' it with my magic and imposing my will upon it. How does casting proper spells like those work? Is it the same, or different?"

"It depends on the spell itself," Martin answers. "I'd recommend starting with water if you can, as it's less-destructive at weaker Magic levels. Air is as well. Your own fire won't burn you, but only so long as it's still part of the spell. If it ignites something else, however, it will burn just the same as normal fire of the same strength."

"Got it," I say. "So the basics?"

"Start with [Water Orb]," he tells me. "It's a similar principle to just creating water. This time, however, visualize the form of an orb. Most find it easier to first visualize the orb, then convert it to water. It's also usually easier if you put your hands close together, palms facing each other. Sort of like the statues in the baths. This is the simplest of them as it's almost the same as conjuring water, just around a single point."

I hold up my right hand with the palm facing up and focus on casting the spell. Rather than simply creating water, I visualize water in the form of an orb. Whether it's because of a natural talent for magic, [Unlimited Potential] boosting me, or something else, casting the spell is fairly easy. It feels just as easy as simply conjuring water.

You have learned [Water Orb].

Martin frowns a little as I examine the one-inch orb of water that's floating a few inches above my palm. The surface of the water ripples a little, sunlight reflecting off of it in some spots. It's surprisingly cheap to cast even though I can tell that there's a proper structure to the spell rather than it just being some water that I'm holding in the shape of an orb.

With that, I would just create the water and then deliberately hold it in the form of an orb. For this, the spell structure does that so all I need to do is focus on maintaining the orb, which requires less attention and focus from me even if it costs a little bit more Mana.

"You cast that fairly fast," he says. "You already knew it, didn't you?"

"No," I answer as the orb slowly starts to increase in size. "This really is my first time learning something other than creating or manipulating the elements. Here."

I call up the menus that contain my spell Skills and send them to Martin so he can see that this is my first spell outside of those. The first one I send him is just the spells Skill Menu itself, which contains each of the spell categories, so that he can see I only know fire, water, earth, and air magics. Then I show him those categories' menus to show I only know Tier I spells from them, and finally, the actual Tier I spell menus from those categories.

"Doesn't mean you didn't know it before," he mutters, his tail flicking a little in agitation. Martin clears his throat as he looks at me again. "Alright. Let's go with [Water Rod] now that you know [Water Orb]."

My orb is currently two inches in diameter. Actually increasing it without breaking the spell or disrupting the spell formula was a little bit of a challenge, but I'm happy with my progress on it. I was also mostly doing that just to kill a little bit of time while we talked.

"For [Water Rod]," Martin says as I flick my wrist, the orb flying off and falling apart once the spell runs out of fuel. "Visualize a rod instead. It's not as basic as [Water Orb] is. An orb-type spell is easier to cast because it's just that thing wrapped around a single point. Or radiating out of it. For rods, you need to visualize a rod as you shape your Mana.

"Think of it like a line," he draws a line through the air with his right index finger, a thin line of green light forming. "A thin focal point rather than a dot. The water wraps around that line. Rather than being just a straight line of water, however, it has a more straight end to it."

"Like a cylinder," I say.

"Yes," he flicks a finger and the line vanishes. "This spell is a little bit more difficult than [Water Orb] because you have a longer focal point. You can make a line of water and sustain it easier than this, but the spell makes it so you don't need to keep the full focus."

"Alright," I hold up my right hand again, palm facing upward. "So visualize a line that water is wrapped around, the ends more flat, but not necessarily completely flat, than if I were just creating water and stretching it out."

A very thin line of water forms above my palm, about five inches long, and begins to thick. It takes about two seconds for it to become a quarter of an inch thick, and Martin is staring wide-eyed and slack-jawed in shock.

You have learned [Water Rod].

"I pick up on things fairly fast," I tell Martin. "And you did say it's basic magic. The main difference between it is just the focal point of the spell – a line rather than a dot."

"Well, yeah," he says. "But it normally takes a little bit longer for someone to succeed after learning [Water Orb]. About one to two minutes and sometimes up to 20 Mana in attempts. You just… flipped it over."

"The issue is a shift in focus and visualization, right?" I ask and he nods. "Most people probably consciously or subconsciously resist that shift for a few moments. They probably try to turn it into an orb even with the line, probably without realizing it. Already knowing [Water Orb] probably doesn't help, especially if they had only just learned it."

I had no issues shifting my attention for the spell, which probably had nothing to do with [Unlimited Potential].

"Alright," Martin says as I flick the [Water Rod] away from me. "Then let's go to [Water Disk]. It's a similar concept to [Water Rod]. Rather than an orb, it's a bit of water that's flowing around a bigger focal point. This time, that's a filled-in circle, like this."

Martin draws a circle in the air with his green light, then touches the center of it. Green light spreads from his finger to fill in the circle and he pulls his finger away. A flick of his finger causes the disk of green light to shift so that it's laying flat in the air instead of floating vertically.

"Rather than a thin line that it wraps around," he says. "It's a flat object. However, visualize the water more thin this time rather than thick. An eighth of an inch or thinner."

"Alright," I focus on casting the spell above my palm again.

The first two spells let me get the hang of this and a three-inch-wide, eighth-of-an-inch-thick disk of water forms above my palm. It starts off as a single point at first before quickly extending out to take on its full form.

You have learned [Water Disk].

It seems that I'm not the only one who's gotten used to things as Martin's not looking shocked at this cast. He nods in acceptance and I send the disk off to the side, the water falling to the ground like normal water rather than structured water once it runs out of fuel.

"Next," Martin says. "Is [Water Burst]. This is often easier than [Water Orb] and most people can imitate it with just [Water Creation] and [Water Manipulation]. Instead of creating water and then shoving it forward, visualize the water forming as the burst. It forms at one point and blasts forward from there upon creation. Just like that, yeah."

I made sure to aim forward rather than up for this spell when I tried it, the small splash of water only traveling a few inches before dropping to the ground. It wasn't something I 'sustained' like the others, so the spell was finished the moment the water formed.

You have learned [Water Burst].

"And those are the basics," Martin tells me. "Though as I said, there are some variations. Usually, it's recommended to get yourself familiar with the ones you'll be using for other spells. That is, practicing them until you can bring the casts up to instant. That is, they form fully-created rather than spreading out or expanding, like yours did."

"I have a relatively decent regeneration rate and I'm paying you for lessons for as long as it takes today," I tell him. "It probably won't take me too much practicing to get them up to instant-casts. What combat spell will we go with first?"

At this point, I probably know enough that I can just learn them on my own, but I would like to continue the lesson just in case I learn something new.

"Hm…" he thinks. "Well, I usually teach the spells based on how much someone seems attuned to that part. Some people have an easier time with orb-type spells, others with bolt-type spells, and so on, even among specific schools. Your friend Caleb likely uses burst-type spells for his magic martial arts, that's the most common one and is what it sounded like by your description.

"Honestly," he says. "The standard combat spells are bolts. At lower amounts of Magic, [Water Bolt] won't do much more than wet your target, though a higher amount can cause it to blast through them much in the same way that [Water Jet] would rip through them."

"So switch to earth magics?" I ask.

"Not necessarily," he says. "You can use compressed air instead of wind or ice instead of water. Fire will burn the target even if it doesn't pierce at weaker levels of power. If you want to go with [Ice Bolt], I'd recommend learning [Water Bolt], then practicing with it a little bit before shifting to learning [Ice Rod] and [Ice Burst]."

Casting the spell seemed simple enough to me, but it has a burst aspect to it?

"You use burst in bolts?" I ask.

"Yes," he nods. "One of the things that happens as you get familiar with the base spells is that you get familiar with the actual components to them. There's really more that goes into magic than simply converting Mana into a spell, but we don't need to deal with that for the most basic spells because of how simple they are."

"But not for more advanced spells?" I ask.

"Correct," he says. "And that's the difference between spells at Tier I and spells at Tier II or higher. At least, among more basic magics like the elements or arcane force. A Tier I spell just needs a visualization of the form you want. But how do you make a rod that travels forward? You combine the 'rod' aspect from [Water Rod] with the 'move forward] aspect from [Water Burst]. To do that, you first familiarize yourself with both basic spells. Learn to sense feel those parts in the spells as they form and how they operate, then apply them to [Water Bolt].

"That's one thing the System helps with, too," he says. "I'm sure you noticed it the moment you received the Skills, but you gained a little bit of knowledge about them. You gain a little bit more every time you improve enough to go up a Skill Level, too. It essentially places the knowledge of the proper casting technique into your mind."

"So I'm not actually learning the spell itself," I say. "But doing enough to qualify as having cast it, and the System teaches me the rest."

"Pretty much, yeah," he shrugs. "No one knows who designed the System and gave it to us, but it certainly makes learning a spell easier. You take 'rod' and 'move forward' together by visualizing those aspects in a rod that soars forward and if you succeed in mashing them together to form a spell, then gain the spell Skill and the knowledge of the proper casting technique."

I like his wording. Mashing them together. That's probably exactly how it normally goes.

"Nifty."

"Yeah," he nods. "It's extremely helpful as it cuts down on how much learning you have to do. For normal magicians, it still takes some time to be able to properly put the different aspects together. And ice magic is a little bit more difficult than water magic. Also, [Water Bolt] will break apart once it hits its target at first, since it's weak enough that it can't hold its form. So it will just splash if it hits something right now."

"Which makes it safe to train with as well," I say.

"Yeah," he answers. "Which is another reason it's recommended to learn it before trying for [Ice Bolt]'s basics."

"Alright," I say. "Let's see how much Mana it takes me to be able to separate out those aspects and combine them into [Water Bolt]."