Mark was currently standing out in the afternoon sun. He was in the soldier's quarters surrounded by all manner of equipment.
As it turned out he had been right. The soldiers did have training grounds exclusive to them. The difference was it was slightly smaller but had way more facilities. With the inclusion of the training equipment and practice range, there was also a small track and electronic measuring devices that one could use to measure the difference in their base attributes.
Right now the place was fairly busy.
Though that could be in part due to the training Mark was about to give. They had found around thirty-two people that fit his criteria.
Which sounded like a little in a camp of hundreds of survivors, but Mark had made them high on purpose.
They had come from both SAGE and the infantry divisions. Mark had enforced an attribute requirement of at least 120 Mana and 60 Prana, along with the [Meditation] skill.
If their attributes were too low they were better off just protecting themselves or sending out offensive spells.
Ideally, he would like their stats to be the other way around but the number of people that had both stats high to begin with was very few.
Healers had their Prana pretty high but no real Mana to speak of. The opposite was true of casters focused on damage.
This was the cream of the crop.
Sam bounced excitedly next to Mark waiting for the lesson to start. To be honest he had not given it all too much thought as to how he would teach them. He just knew they had to leave here today with something similar to [Shape Mana].
This did cause a lot of spectators though. Mark didn’t mind if they watched, maybe they would notice something he missed.
Looking back to his group he realized there weren't many faces he recognized, he’d seen some of them in passing but no one he could put a name to.
Though someone did jump out at him though or rather two someones.
They were the two casters he’d seen on the wall last night. The ones that had cast the ball of molten rock by working together.
He recognized them because they were identical twins. Sisters, probably not even twenty yet.
“Alright everyone let's get moving, Today we are learning a specific spell. Once you have that down, we will move on to merging our Prana into it. Now all of these things are already online. You can find them in the resources you were linked but hopefully, by the end of this you won’t need it.”
Mark then launched into a lesson he had never planned for.
Having each of the drop into [Meditation] before proceeding. Sam sat crossed-leg next to him facing the group.
After which Mark began to describe how to get [Shape Mana] directly.
Sam had it in minutes.
Grinning to herself as she began rapidly growing and shrinking the dome.
The others took a while longer, quite a while longer.
After a while, Mark noticed that there were quite a few variations coming out like [Direct Mana] or [Expand barrier]. They weren't exactly what he was looking for, but as long as they could extend it beyond themselves Mark considered it a pass.
When Mark saw that more than two-thirds had gotten it down he moved on. Time was burning and he couldn’t waste it. Night wall was approaching fast and they needed to be ready for it.
“Right. Now, Mana is possibly the worst thing to use when one is trying to block a raw physical attack. It burns through your resources and barely uses any of the attackers. So once you have the spell up and running and it allows for it, move some of your Prana into the framework. It will act as insulation. Burning the Prana before the Mana. Don't forget to manage your Resistance!”
Once more he allowed people to attempt it themselves. Going through the rows giving pointers where he thought they were stuck.
Some could not do this because of the nature of their new spell but he notice one or the two was able to make their shields out of an element instead.
One man made a shield of fire called [Burning shell]. Sadly, while it was very effective against ice attacks it barely slowed physical attacks. Though it did burn the attacker while doing so.
[Shape Mana] or [Mana barrier] had no inherent element, so it had no weaknesses or strengths. Which was neither bad nor good.
Soon enough a fair amount of the bubbles were purple. Mark was excited that most of them had gotten it in time. He was just congratulating everyone on their new spell when he noticed the twins at work. They had brought their two constructs together, almost to the point of touching.
Then Mark watched in shock as the two constructs became one. It was like watching two soap bubbles touch and merge together to make a larger dome. Both twins were holding hands and still in deep concentration.
While he had been giving the class he had learned their names were Isabel and Sofia. Mark walked forward and waited patiently for the two to drop their construct.
When they finally did he approached.
“Isabel, Sofia, how did you guys manage that?” he asked.
Looking up at him Isabel answered. She seemed like the more outgoing of the two.
“Ah teach wants our super secret technique Sofia”
Sofia cocked her head in a question.
Mark sat down next to them
Stolen story; please report.
“Well only if you are offering it” he grinned.
“Hmm… sure why not, you probably won’t be able to copy it,” Isabel said. Only answering when she saw Sofia nod.
“It's called ‘joint casting’. It's a skill that allows us to both direct the outcome of a spell.”
“Or just help power it..” Sofia whispered.
Mark was taken aback that there was such a skill.
If multiple people could help power a barrier or throw a giant fireball it would it would solve a lot of their problems on the wall.
“Well then why haven't you guys shared it before?” he asked.
“We did, but it's really hard for other people to get. You have to trust the person you are casting with extremely well or things go badly”
Sam was right next to him in seconds. He looked towards her. She nodded confirming what they had said. She had probably already looked into this knowing her.
Mark then asked them to describe the skill to him.
They used different terms to Mark like essence and belief but as far as he could understand. One needed to match their Resistance through physical touch and then somehow create the spell together. At the same time if either one of them messed up in any way, the spell would break down or backfire. The exception to this was to allow the other person to simply draw from your Mana source and create the spell on their own, this was easier but required one to drop their guard fully.
“Wanna try?” Sam asked.
Mark nodded, he wanted to confirm something first though. He had seen the twins cast two separate versions of [Shape Mana] and then fuse them. Did that mean their Resistance acting as extensions for physical touch between the spells? If so, that meant they could connect after the spell was already formed. Which sounded easier to accomplish than both of them trying to create the same spell. Kinda like skipping a step.
When he asked the twins they nodded saying that it had been easier, yes.
That was all the confirmation they needed. Sam sat across from Mark and they both expanded constructs.
The moment her construct touched Mark’s, he felt a foreign will. It was not unlike when Mark used a mental spell. He could tell the nearby Mana was not his to command. He felt her will grow in strength, trying to take hold of his spell.
Unfortunately, his will fought back unconsciously. The two began to wrestle for the Mana. Mark heard sparks of Mana arc between the Spells.
When he opened his eyes he saw their domes had expanded to cover a good portion of the practice ground, warping against one another in a contest of strength. People had to back away or be forcefully removed by the growing panes of force.
Neither of them was willing to let go of control of their spell. Or to put it another way, they physically weren’t capable of letting go of their magic. Both of them held far too firm an unconscious grip on their magic.
Neither would allow the other to dominate their minds. Mark realized why Isabel had said they wouldn’t be able to do it. It was like handing off the edge of a cliff and consciously relaxing your hands until you lost your grip. It felt suicidally unnatural.
For now, even if Mark really did trust Sam there was something holding him back from using a skill like this. His mind simply wouldn’t allow himself to become that vulnerable. It was the same for her.
But it did make some things clear. If someone wanted to and they were strong enough they could force things.
Forcefully push someone's will out of the way and draw their Mana from them. Though one had to be much strong for it to work and at that stage, the Mana they would get was peanuts compared to what they held.
Mark was almost done with his test but he had seen something when their shields had been matched together. Something he had seen a while ago but lost on the battlefield.
Mark made a motion for Sam to rein it in and hold it there.
Dropping into [Meditation] he compared their constructs. As he looked closer he saw the spell at the edges of his consciousness. The tiniest cracks ran throughout the near-perfect plane. Through each one small amounts of outside Mana seeped in.
Each time he moved or shaped it the Mana leaked in, making him lose control of his spell and have to reassert control by feeding it more of his own Mana.
This was it. Mastery.
Mark took hold of those hairline fractures and willed them close. Nothing happened. Trying once more he notices that he could control the direction of the cracks.
Understanding dawned on him.
With a flex of his will, he began to straighten all the cracks into perfect lines. Crossing and overlapping into shapes, until each one was arranged into perfect triangles. Mark chose that shape because of its strength and load-bearing nature.
His mind became a mat of interlocking sharp angles, building into one perfect net.
As it grew the seams between the cracks shrank becoming finer.
The Mana leaking in slowed to a trickle.
Mark felt the spell reaching new heights.
All at once there was a vibration through the air and Mark's eyes snapped open as he took in the sight of thousands of tiny triangles interlocking perfectly into a dome of vibrating energy.
A PING sounded out and Mark let the spell go.
Checking his prompts right away.
Congratulations [Shape Mana] has improved!
[Shape Mana] has reached Rank 10.
The user may now improve an aspect of the existing spell or Evolve the spell into something new.
Improve/Evolve
Warning: Spell thread limit reached.
This spell can not be improved without an Evolution.
Spell threads? Was that what the system called intents? Well either way it didn’t look like he had much of a choice in the matter.
Pausing for a moment he looked at [Shape Mana]. He really hoped this didn't mess the spell up.
He relied heavily on the spell.
If evolution changed in a drastic way he would have to start looking for other spells to supplement his defense.
Looking at Sam he asked.
“Yo, do you know what happens when you evolve a spell?”
“Oh, you got one to ten? Yeah. Evolving a spell just makes it a more powerful version of the previous one. That's why if you are not happy with the direction the spell is taking you alter it with the improve option. Every ten levels you can Evo it”
“Well, I can only Evolve it,” he said
“Hmm, maybe you’ve reached the limit of what it can be improved by. For example have you ever wondered why there's [Icicle] and [Ice control]?”
Mark pondered it. She was right, it didn’t make sense. Why have a weaker version when [Ice control] could probably create an icicle easily?
He shrugged his shoulders.
“So it's just my hypothesis, but it's possible spells like [Icicle] will evolve into [Ice control]. This not only makes it easier to learn but actually allows one to craft those small spells into something more niche. Which in turn changes the spell it evolves into.
That explained it.
Starting at [Icicle] gave one the option to change the result. For instance, if someone includes an intent of say heat. Would that still become [Ice control] or something else entirely?
So then why couldn't he improve [Shape Mana]?
“The way I see it, it’s like a totem pole. Most people will start at [icicle] and work their way up to [Ice control].
The better understanding you have of the system, energies, and concepts. The higher up we start.
It's possible you jumped right over the basic versions of the spell and created a near fully improved spell at creation. Which is unlikely but not impossible. Now the system can’t see any other way but to evolve it.”
Mark realized he’d been lucky Jaya had looked shocked when he had gotten [Light control] and maybe this was why, he’d inadvertently been jumping straight over the first steps.
He’d seen Jaya using [Water control] but had she started there?
If that was the case then there really was only one pathway forward for him. He could just leave the spell as it was but in this new world stagnation meant death.
“Right. Thanks, that helped”
“Anytime you wanna talk magic I’m game Mark,” Sam said winking.
Mark brought up the prompt for [Shape Mana] and hit ‘Evolve.’