“First off, for the newbs. Think of this technique as an energy manipulation exercise. You won’t be summoning lifelong companions to your side from thin air. If you want that, I suggest a beast handling course. Using an existing animal will always be a better outcome if that is your goal. What we do here is similar to automation.”
Dakota brought her palms together and glared at the small rodent. To its credit, as soon as Mana began to collect in her hand, the tiny creature rushed over and plopped down in her hands.
Then with a pop, blinked out of sight and a couple of the students gave a disappointed huff. Not long after the hamster left, a ball of water replaced it, hanging in the air lazily. Then, without any prompting from Dakota, it began to navigate the room as though it had a mind of its own. Where it moved a trail of condensation followed and notably the ball of water began to turn to a brownish muck.
For her part, Dakota simply remained fixed to the charcoal podium while the ball of liquid scampered under feet and furniture picking up dust and sand as it went. Mark inspected the roaming ball with interest and confirmed he could feel Prana subtly weaved through the Mana.
“Our goal today is for you guys to create the outer shell of the unit, we accomplish this through a precise mix of Mana and Prana. Once we achieve that, we’ll move on to give the thing a task. I understand if this is not what you all expected, so as a courtesy I will refund your Sp if you decide to leave now. After the lesson, you can come back for a full refund.”
Mark was very interested in how she kept the balance between the two energies stable, but he noticed that quite a few new students decided to take her up on the offer. Of the twenty-five new students, around fifteen just got up and left. Dakota dealt with them quickly and moved on. Clearly, there were a lot of people dropping out once their dreams of a cute violent pet were dashed.
“Right that's the first batch gone, let's see who makes it to round two.”
Dakota launched right into a description of the energy balance required between Prana and Mana and how the two support one another.
This step was one Mark was familiar with. In the creation of [Bestowal], he had felt how the two energies complemented one another and ran away from him if he gave them half a chance. Prana was life and creation with no direction, while Mana was direction with no consciousness. The two chased one another and leaned into the other, covering their own weaknesses.
More of the new students backed out at this stage, unable to keep a precise balance, though Dakota only offered them half off.
The way to limit the mix of energies was easy. Mark began with her advice in mind.
First, he created two small streams of energy, one of each, and brought them to his clasped palms. The moment they mixed, there was an immediate desperate pull as the two began to mix into a small maelstrom of power, attempting to draw in as much energy as possible.
The difference this time was that Mark kept the stream at a firm trickle. The developing spell rioted in an attempt to draw in more strength, but as Dakota had suggested he kept the stream constant and his Will stable. Last time he had given the developing spell all the energy it had requested before trying to stop it, and by that point it had grown unruly. This time he controlled the growth and watched as the two energies mixed merrily.
The spell grew in size and stability, Mark created a pocket in the magic as though he were creating a bubble. The interesting part was that the space housed within the spell was similar to his own body, in that the spell could direct what was inside itself.
Mark realized why they called it summoning magic, it was as though the magic had a mind and soul and will of its own.
Right now though, it was an empty shell, only able to exist until its ran out of power. Continuing, Mark hardened the outer casing of orb, and weaved the threads closed to prevent energy leaking out.
A blinking appeared in Mark’s peripheral, but he glanced down at the baseball-sized globe of energy. The faint blue sheen was speckled with sparks of purple vitality. The spell was complete and Mark inspected his work. Taking his hands away, the little orb remained stationary in the air.
What was so astonishing, was that it didn’t take an ounce of his concentration to maintain. It was very similar to his lesser constructs but even further removed.
Taking a closer look, Mark touched it and was met with a firm surface. When he applied more pressure the little thing was unable to counteract him and was pushed a couple of inches away from where Mark had created it. He realized that while it was still his spell, and he could feel the thinnest of connections to it, he couldn’t yet manipulate it directly. It was a separate spell, operating without his direction.
“Good first attempt!”
Mark tensed when Dakota appeared from nowhere.
“It looks like you have a passable housing unit, with very few leaks.”
Mark nodded, muscles relaxing.
“So what's the next step?”
Dakota was still assessing his work as she spoke.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Well, the next part is the dangerous part. Testing. You now have to give it directions and controls on how to act. Do you want it to follow you closely or at a distance? Who does it evade? Once you have slotted a spell within it, when should it use it?”
The tirade of questions made Mark think back to Gibby's words on the complexities of summoning magic.
Mark would need to program the spell exactly how he wanted it to act if it was going to be useful in combat.
Reaching up, he pulled the little spell towards himself, gripping it tightly, and applying pressure until the spell splintered, losing cohesion. Popping in Mark's fist like an egg. The overall durability was not so great, but he’d work on that later.
First was input, how it could see the world around itself. Dakota helped here by showing him a weaker version of his construct’s information-gathering technique. Basically, the little thing pulsed out wispy waves of Mana and then used the information it returned to make further decisions.
Inputting new instructions required Mark to remake the whole casing all over again. But this time he filled the space inside with directions imparted on the Mana. Mark had to admit Dakota knew what she was talking about.
By the end of the lesson, Mark had the thing following a couple of inches behind him.
Now all he needed to do was give it a function, as all it did right now was orbit him and look mildly menacing.
Dakota suggested that he head to the underground training hall to continue practicing safely, to avoid harming anyone. He agreed.
Traveling down into the cool earth through a narrow passage was not as creepy or as oppressive as it once would have been. Not when he could dig his way up and out if he so needed.
Country to Mark's expectations the rooms were not dark and or as silent as he had expected. There were a decent number of people down here, but none that bothered him. Mark paid a small fee and went into a training room. There was a simple target practice dummy in here, but other than that not much else.
Remaking the spell was done slowly, as he began inputting the first spell he had ever gotten from the system. It slotted in nicely and Mark thanked all the practice he had gotten from fusing spells to [Bestowal].
The spell required a power source so Mark dumped a load of Mana into the core of the spell. Then designating the target as its focus, Mark let the spell loose.
The little orb meandered up towards the ceiling, but when its first wave of Mana returned with the room's information, it suddenly jolted forward. At its core, a familiar dull glow formed and it shot a [Force bolt] at the target, destroying it.
Mark grinned as the thing fired off another bolt, but his smile soon fell as the orb kept bombarding the target, until it didn’t even resemble a practice dummy anymore.
The spell paused, searching the room for the target and then it found one. The only other figure-shaped thing in the room.
“Well, shit.”
Glad for Dakota’s advice and the construct wrapped around his form. Mark waited for his spell to run out of Mana, which it did rather quickly after pelting his barrier in a barrage of rippling force. Calling back the spell was another feature Dakota had insisted was necessary for direct control, so he included it.
Refining its controls was simple but time-consuming. By the end of his practice session, he had something he thought was usable in combat, but only time would tell. He had it set to attack things made up entirely of Corruption, if it sensed any Mana, Prana, or Aura, it was not to attack, lest the spell go rouge and attack his allies. A healing version was not on the table right now because of the sheer complexity required to create one.
Walking out of the room hours later, Mark was satisfied as he took another look at the system's description of the spell.
Spell Acquired: Animated Mind
Through the complex use of Mana and Prana, the user has learned the art of bringing thoughts to life to achieve various tasks.
Effects vary depending on the desires of the caster.
The spell will continue to accomplish its design until all its resources are used up.
Resources can be stored up to a limit of the caster's natural ability shared amongst all instances.
The Mana and Prana attributes affect the strength and complexity of the spell.
Simultaneous casting set at a ratio of 100 Mana + 100 Prana /1 Animated Mind
Current simultaneous creation limit: 2
This spell can be combined with all other types of magic.
This spell is compatible with enchantment magic.
The requirement to cast multiple [Animated Minds] was high, but as far as Mark could tell there was no minimum limit as to how small one could make these things. Right now, he could create one with as little as 10 Prana and Mana, and it was stable. However, that limited how much energy he could store within it, along with the complexity of the instructions.
Mark was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t recognize Cara until she called out to him directly.
Refocusing on the busy room Mark noticed her along with Chloe, neither looked surprised to see him. Mark had heard both of them had returned late last night and left early this morning. They had just been exiting another training room. Cara looked exhausted but incredibly satisfied.
Once she saw Mark though her face changed to that of concern.
“Hey Mark. Is Sam alright? I went to see her last night but she was asleep.”
Mark confirmed that Sam was doing alright and that she was probably awake at this stage. Turning to Chloe Mark gave her a look. She had said she was doing something important, but he didn’t expect her to be here.
“I was just heading back home, so you two are welcome to join me.”
Chloe bobbed her head enthusiastically.
“So were we, we’d appreciate the ride. My apologies for not being there to receive you, but I knew you three would be fine.”
Mark gave her a sour look. If one of them returning catatonic was ‘fine’, then they had to look at the dictionary she was using.
“Plus, we need to talk. It's almost time.”
Mark frowned as he wrapped the three of them in a construct, he was about to ask what she meant when it came to him.
This couldn’t be a coincidence.
Mark’s pupils narrowed at her but he didn’t say a word.
The only thing she could mean was the reward they had promised her at the start of this journey.
Perhaps she wanted to collect, and it couldn’t be at a worse time.