Recent sign-ups must have been slow because Sam and Mark made up two of the four new students.
Sunny pulled them off to the corner of the room and got started right away.
“Nice ta meet ya all. I’m assuming you have all seen the requirements for the class. So, I’m accepting payment now, if you can’t pay all at once, we can work something out. After that, we’ll get right into the meat of the lessons”
All four of them paid Sunny the full amount there and then. They could also pay per lesson but it worked out slightly more expensive.
Once that was done Sunny, true to his word, launched into the explanation.
“Right, so first off, this is not a system-recognized skill. More of a technique, that some of you may have used it unconsciously up until now. Be that as it may, if you master this method you will have so much more versatility, it will easily outweigh any one skill you could gain.”
He took out a notepad and opened it to them. On it, hundreds of words had been written in neat spiraling handwriting, such as ‘Endure, Pierce, Block-out, Diffuse, or Sharpen’.
“I asked you all to at least know what Magic you were compatible with because you need to find words that fit your style. For example. Fire magic and ‘Devour’ are good matches. This is the basis of conceptualization, the ability to apply an ideal to your magic. Most people already know the physical aspects of magic. To throw a ball of rock at something is earth magic, but there’s more to it. Earth magic is Stability, Unchanging, and even Nurturing. Adding these modifiers to a spell can lead to different outcomes than you expect. I’ll demonstrate…”
Sunny held up his hand and a small bolt of flame flickered to life. He concentrated for a moment and then continued.
“I’m now applying the concept of ‘Harmless’, it will not burn even the hairs on my skin, or anyone for that matter. Care to try?”
He held the flickering flame towards them. It was still very much giving off heat. The other two looked hesitant, but Sam and Mark stuck their arms into the flame almost at the same time.
It didn’t burn, it wasn’t even that warm. Mark could definitely feel it flicking across his skin, like air, but at best it was a warm breeze.
Sunny looked at them happily, moving the flame to the others.
“Of course all concepts have limitations. For one, the ‘word’ has to embody the magic you are using, and the more it strays from that, the harder and more costly it is. For example, do you think a truly terrifying word like, ‘Devour’ would work the same for both Fire magic and then Earth magic?”
The flame turned pale and then, completely against expectations, became gray of all things, becoming more erratic and turbulent.
At the same time, a small disk of Earth floated in his palm but otherwise remained still.
“Anyone know the myth of hellfire? The fire that can never go out and just continues to spread and consume everything, until nothing is left?”
They all squinted warily at the small gray inferno.
“Wouldn’t the earth ‘devouring’ someone, work as a concept too?” their fellow student asked.
Sunny paused and looked at him happily.
“That's exactly right, this particular word would be able to affect both magics in different ways. But what about ‘Harden’ and Fire magic. And as I mentioned they both have different rates of compatibility with the word. Fire is much closer to the origin of ‘devour’ than Earth. Even though it is still very much capable of this”
The other student, as if urged by his friend said.
“But, hellfire is only supposed to burn the wicked”
Sunny looked thrown.
“Um, yeah that too. But you get where I’m coming from right? You need to build an intention around a spell to alter it in a meaningful way. I call these modifiers. If you wanted to make it only burn the wicked, then you are going to have a hard time, because you’ll have to define exactly what 'wicked' entails to the spell”
Mark could definitely see what he meant, there was a ton of potential there.
Each magic had core concepts built into it already. Mark had seen this when he had looked at the magic in his mind.
People would need to discover what those meant to them. Everyone's understanding would be different as each word could mean something different to others.
Sunny pointed to the list.
“The words here are how I interpret them, but the system is not limited by any one language. The job of this class is to learn what those mean to you and how to apply them. The more familiar with a ‘concept’ you become the easier you will be able to change it.”
Sunny went on to explain how to go about this, and it added a completely new level of complexity to casting a spell. Not to mention increased the Mana cost depending on the severity of the modifier one mixed in.
If one wanted to alter the effects of the same spell with different modifiers, then they would need to hold it in their mind at the same time as their spell came together. Managing the Mana and concepts was a balancing act. The very threads that made up the spell also got in the way of the new modifiers.
Mark decided to start simple, creating a pebble imbued to be harder. That shouldn’t be too difficult, right?
Well, he was both right and very wrong.
Pulling his full focus to the front, Mark decided to try to create a concept of ‘Rigidity” while using [Earth control]. The idea was to make the already hard stone more resistant to impacts. The spell took shape, and as it did Mark built it up with the modifier in mind.
The small pebble came into being one grain at a time, as he slowly overlaid the new modifier.
It was surprisingly easy to feel his way through the building of the spell and understand the process, but something felt off.
Mark could feel it wrap around the spell like a film. Then opening his eyes he dropped his concentration and let it plop down into his hand. The problem was he felt no difference from the stone.
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Sunny came over when he saw what Mark had created.
“Ah, Yeah. You got it for a moment there, but you need to constantly keep up the modifier or it won't last. The moment you lose concentration it fades or reverts back to its base concept.”
Mark tried once more. He built the pebble once more, but when he got it to the size he wanted, he held it there. Just practicing maintaining the spell while he inspected the pebble. It was definitely harder, but how hard was difficult to tell. The moment his concentration lapsed the modifier popped like a soap bubble.
Mark grimaced, that meant he had to be constantly maintaining the change or it would turn back to normal stone. He could see it helping in a number of situations but not with his spears. The speed the spell gathered together meant that it was basically useless in combat right now.
Suddenly a cold light beside Mark caught his attention. Sam’s hands and arms flickered with light blue flames. What Mark hadn’t expected was the fact that the flames weren’t giving off any heat, in fact, it was downright freezing near her. Her eyes were closed and her brow furrowed in concentration. The flame seemed to ebb and flow as if drawing in heat.
Small shards of ice had begun to form on her fingertips. She was making a cold fire.
Then all at once the flame flickered out.
Sam opened her eyes and she didn’t look happy.
Sunny had moved to work with the rest of the students but when he saw Sam he moved back.
“Good job! Did you apply an opposing modifier on your first go? That must have drained a massive amount of Mana”
Sam dropped her hand but looked thoughtful.
“Yes, I wanted to know how a concept could change the laws of physics, how could Mana make fire ‘cold’. It’s plasma, I have to rethink the way I’m going about this, there are laws in place that I don’t fully understand yet”
Although she looked bothered by this, there was a hungry light in her eyes. She took this as a challenge and wanted to know exactly how the ‘Concepts’ worked. Mark understood by now that she would get there in the end, even if she had to deconstruct magic from the ground up.
Mark refocused on his own spellwork and sunk into thought.
Modifiers were powerful, but he could see why they would take time to learn and build up.
As he thought about this he tried to take what he knew about his other magics into account. Then it came to him.
Opening his status he looked at the spell [Bestowal]'s description and looked for one particular line.
This spell can be combined with all other types of magic.
Mark had not forgotten about the open-ended nature of this spell. On certain occasions, he had even used it to great effect.
The time that Mark had used it to create a sustained shield around Jonathan came to mind. The nature of the spell allowed for another magic to be held within so why not modifiers too? Mark still remembered when had created this spell, and how it had almost felt alive when he’d mixed Mana and Prana.
[Earth control] flared to life once more, only this time he went for a simpler modifier. The very basis of what Earth magic was for Mark.
Protection.
The modifier mixed into the magic but with no direction, it just remained hovering at the threshold of his left hand.
Then he began casting [Bestowal] in his right hand.
Maintaining them was hard as neither spell was small.
Then he slowly began to merge them, [Bestowal] drew [Earth control] in easily, but at the same time to accommodate what Mark was trying to do, it demanded more Mana.
When he gave it, the two merged like droplets of water. [Bestowal] accepting the concept.
What Mark found was instead of the usual purple glow of [Bestowal], a flickering dull yellow ball floated above his palm. The spell seemed contained, and ready to be used, but the modifier also stuck around.
There was a problem though, he had no idea what the spell would do. Okay, he had a rough idea, but what if that was wrong?
There was a huge amount of both Mana and Prana in this spell. In total [Bestowal] had demanded 40 Mana and 40 Prana, while [Earth control] had used around 60 Mana. It would be a huge waste if this ended up being useless, or potentially dangerous.
Sam and Sunny looked up from their conversion as Mark smacked the experimental spell to his chest.
Instantly he felt the magic take hold and surround him.
Suddenly, it was as if all the dirt and sand in the room was attracted to him, most of it appearing from thin air. The sand stuck to his armor and clothes, joining together and thickening by the second. Slowly an inch of armour made of rock built itself around Mark. As it was forming he had to shape it not to cover his eyes and mouth, but he could easily do that with the feedback he got from the spell. Meaning, that anyone would be able to do the same if he cast this on them.
In a matter of seconds, Mark looked like a statue as the earth covered every available surface of his body.
He experimentally wiggled his finger and found that the rock moved with him. Getting up slowly sounded like gravel being ground together. Walking out from behind the desk, he tried a full range of motion and found the rock moved perfectly around his form.
Mark realized that the modifier was actually integral to how these spells interacted. If he didn’t add it the shape of the spell would have to be determined by Mark beforehand, making it a lot more complex and less malleable. However, here he was able to define roughly what he wanted and the concept would take care of the rest.
He’d made himself rock armor.
Obviously, It was possible to do this manually too, but he’d never seen the need with his constructs being more Mana efficient. This version though required none of his attention and could be cast on others.
Now all there was to find out, was the duration and durability. The ‘Protection’ modifier should make it stronger than normal stone, right?
Mark turned to look at Sam, who had been watching him the whole while. He made a come-at-me gesture because talking right now came out as a muffled churning of gravel.
She understood what he wanted and bolts of flame and ice appeared in the lecture hall, whizzing through the air at him.
Mark stood there as the bolts smacked against the rock to little effect. Each impact sent an almost imperceptible ripple of yellow energy through the rock armor.
The two of them tested the spell with surprisingly little resistance from Sunny. This whole campus was literally a place for them to test out their magic, so any damage could be taken care of later.
What they learned was two-fold, firstly the more he moved and the more damage the armor took, the sooner the spell collapsed. Secondly, it functioned very similarly to the normal [Bestowal] in that Mark could control it to use more of the spell’s resources. He could reshape it to his desires. Thickening it for more protection or thinning it out to make it last longer. Even shaping it to look smoother and more like a suit of actual armor, rather than a pile of jagged rocks in the shape of a human
Strangely enough, even though it was only stone, the modifier seemed to absorb impacts well. ‘Protection’ was more than just shaping the stone into armor, it did what it said it would.
Finally, the armor gave out just after the hour mark, crumbling to the ground as a pile of sand and pebbles. So the huge cost was actually worth it, but again that time would depend on how much the spell had to repair itself. Mark wanted to attempt it with iron but quickly realized the cost was huge and had to abort halfway through. He could do it, but it would take up almost all his Mana.
The class was winding down, both Mark and Sam had made good progress, and they both agreed they wanted to come back. They had gotten the basics down but Sunny’s knowledge and guidance were definitely worth the Sp.
Bonnie and Terry had invited them to go grab a bite to eat in the cafeteria, apparently the food there was great. During the class, Mark had seen them using some sort of air magic. The other thing they noticed was that everyone seemed to know the couple, or at least they were on good terms with everyone except the Scions. They were all just getting up to leave when there was a ‘Thud’ coming from outside the window.
Turning to look they saw Jonathan somehow balancing on the edge of the window sill, –that was probably less than an inch in diameter– waving at them.
He was holding a map and must have jumped up to this level. Walking over, Mark unlatched the window and opened it.
“Guys! You gotta come see some of the shit going on in there!”
Excitedly pointing to the arena over his shoulder.