Chương 65: Chapter 64- A Beginner’s Magic Lesson

The sounds of voices from the forest interrupted Elias's attempt to reach a meditative state, and as the hunting party emerged from the treeline with Astra leading the pack, a knot of worry loosened in his chest that he did not even know was there until it was gone. He took in their bloodspattered and bedraggled appearance, and in concern gave Astra a once over, but was relieved to find only injuries, even if she was moving with a slight limp.

The pair of men with ropes sluing over their shoulders dragged the carcass of an enormous panther through behind them, the fur matted from the dried blood of over a dozen wounds along its flank. The men and women of the party were in remarkably good cheer and, given their condition, it must have been a difficult fight. A small green and blue blur streaked out of the canopy above, and Astra grunted with a wince as an excited Tia landed heavily on her shoulder.

True to form, she started chittering away at her in excitement, before Eli could even arrive on scene to translate, something he was happy to do considering he was just as curious how the fight went. Apparently it was a hard fought victory, and while Tia was caught between dismay at missing the action and enraptured at the thrilling play by play, Eli was secretly a little glad they did not join the hunt.

I would have been hard pressed to keep Tia safe in a fight like that, just goes to show she needs to do a little growing before she can join the serious fights. An indignant squawk from Tia made her opinion clear, Brother-eli, how am I supposed to be strong enough to take on the giant-death-birds if I do not fight and grow? Fair point, it doesn't hurt to be smart about it though.

Tia gave out a frustrated grumble, even if he could tell through their connection that she agreed with him, before she swooped over to inspect the carcass that Sasha and Cooper were preparing to butcher so the patrol could continue their march. Eli took the chance to give Astra a more thorough inspection for injuries out of the corner of his eye as they watched Tia get in the way of the work to the bemused expressions of squad 6.

He was pleased to see she was in one piece except for the limp, and he bumped her hip with his to get her attention as he asked, " How are you doing? I noticed a bit of a limp when you made it to camp." Astra winced, " Aye, overall I am fine, some of the men were near gutted, but I will take piling more work on Astrid's shoulders over adding to the roster of the fallen."

She eyed him with a smirk as she favored one of her legs rubbing one hip, " I took a page from your tale, and struck my first blow from concealment in the canopy. I have no idea how you make it look so easy, Abyss take me, I feel like I may have dislodged one of my hips from the socket." Eli smirked as he nodded sagely, " Ah yes, it's an ancient mystical secret of martial training from a realm far distant from even my homeland. An important maxim that few know and even less follow."

He waved her in close eyeing his surroundings as if to gauge if anyone was in earshot, Astra leaned in with an excited expression to hear this secret as he brought his lips to her ear. With a nearly inaudible whisper, " Never skip leg day." She snorted out a laugh and punched him in the pauldron before walking off, although the smile on her face told him she got the joke. Seems some things are truly universal.

Watching Astrid steadily work her healing magic while the hunting party was gone had done wonders for his efforts to obtain [Mana Sense], especially since the visible nature of her light based magic made it easier to detect the nigh imperceptible flows of mana drifting between her and her patient.

Elias was able to succeed though and subsequently was better able to focus on the meditative state needed to trigger the [Meditation] skill, once the hunting party returned at least, he was pointedly trying to ignore that he had been worried about Astra despite Mira's reassurances. He was at least spared from Tia's needling as she had been just as worried about the crimson haired warrior herself. Eli pulled up the two skills to examine the specifics one more time before tackling the next task Mira had for him.

[Mana Sense: Lv 1 - Your efforts to delve into the unseen world and discover the nature of reality have begun to show the fruits of your labor, with this skill now you can see the flows of mana that have previously been concealed from your vision. This skill passively allows the user to view larger flows and high concentrations of mana. When in active use this skill increases your perception of mana by creating a lensing effect that shifts ambient mana into the user's visible spectrum at a moderate mana cost. Increased perception bonus and reduced mana cost per level.] This should be pretty useful, according to Mira, at higher levels if I can boost the sensitivity I can see mana gathering prior to skill or spell use, and depending what direction I take it I might even be able to tell what kind of skill or spell is about to be triggered To be honest though it was the other skill that was the real surprise. [Meditation: Lv 10 - You show exceptional talent at both perceiving and coarse manipulation of your soul form. This skill passively allows the user to more easily enter a meditative state. When in active use this skill increases your regeneration of your intrinsic resource pools at the cost of a reduced perception of your environment. Increased regeneration bonus and reduced perception cost per level.] Mira was surprised when the skill immediately shot to level 10 upon unlocking it but, given my memories of the trip here, it was easy to detect the ember in the center of my being and restart the circulation method I had developed there. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

When Elias combined the circulation method with his mana sense he could detect a slight eddy forming in the ambient mana, a miniscule whirlpool that slowly gathered the energy in the air and directed it into the ember in the center of his being.

He was nowhere near skilled or experienced enough to determine the efficacy of the method, but after a little trial and error, he was able to estimate that he would be able to refill his mana pool over the course of a single hour instead of the four or five it currently took. No wonder Mira wants me to boost my regenerative attributes, that seems a little low.

I imagine a lot of people wouldn't have the extra points to do more than shore up their secondaries or boost their main scores, but what is the point of extra points if I don't give myself an edge. He was fast approaching the point where he would need to make a decision whether to boost his staying power or boost his main attributes to punch above his weight class, and while it was a problem for later on down the road, watching Astra in action was definitely making him lean towards packing a heavier punch."

Are you about ready Mr Mercer? Or should I come back after dinner?" Mira asked in a dry tone. Eli's focus snapped back to the present as he sheepishly closed his status plate, realizing he had gotten lost in his introspection. Tia was sitting next to him on the gently swaying roof of the battle wagon. She was joining him for this lesson, as the next skill was one that could be used before the full system access was unlocked, provided the caster could hold the sigil firmly in their mind and shape the mana to match.

Elias was a little skeptical, but he was constantly pleasantly surprised at the cleverness of the wyvern, and Mira had reassured him it was very likely that Tia would be successful. He remembered Mira's words as he called for Tia to join them, as she swooped down from the canopy above, " All dragons are innate users of magic, even the not-so-distant cousins such as little Tia. In the old tales, the progenitors of the race were often heavily steeped in elemental energies.

The dense essence of their lairs not only warped their bodies to more closely follow their chosen element, but also passed the gift down to their progeny leading to the many varieties seen throughout the realms."" Even the humble Bluffbacks of the modern age owe their increased size and strength to the distant lineage of Earth dragons in the far past. However, given her prodigious intelligence at such a young age I suspect the draconic blood is far less thin in the case of Lady Tiamat."

Tia had preened at the compliment, and while Eli suspected the ship had sailed on this 'Lady' business, he suspected that Tia would have had quite the bloated ego regardless, she is adorable afterall. Mira had propped a small square of wood in front of her students, and with a finger she quickly drew an octagonal sigil in faintly glowing ice on the board.

Standing rock steady behind the board despite the slowly swaying wagon she gestured in the designs direction, " Why do you think I drew this figure in ice instead of ink?" Eli had a feeling he knew the answer but held silent, wanting to give Tia a chance to discover the reason for herself. A small feminine voice spoke in Eli's mind, So we can see the shape of the mana and not just the wood? Mira nodded with a smile, " Exactly right little one!

Other mediums can blur and blend, ink can soak into a material and graphite or lead can rub or wash away, but mana is three dimensional by nature, and can be shaped very precisely. Now I know we already covered this in your lessons, but for Lady Tia's benefit Mr Mercer, what is this shape and why do we use it?" Eli smiled and responded, ensuring the meaning of his words was clear in his mind for Tia as he did so, " This is a spellform, it is different from a system skill or mana manipulation.

Gouts of fire like the ones Carver prefers are usually directed or compressed fire aspected mana, while the beams Astra prefers are a skill. These allow for more specific effects, ones that are not attainable by shaping raw."" Just so, Mr Mercer. Now." She clapped her hands and gestured towards the sigil, pointing to the ends of two different lines."

A spellform needs to be exact to function, and even a simple one consisting of a single sigil might have intricacies that can cause the symbol to not function if not executed exactly. These two points look the same do they not?" Eli shrugged and nodded while Tia bobbed her head, " Yes?" Yeah? Mira smiled at their response, " Well, shift your vision to your [Mana Sense] Mr Mercer, and Lady Tia direct your mana to your eyes the way I showed you."

As the flows of mana overlaid the world, Eli was quickly able to pick up what she was hinting at. The ice of the surface of the board ended at a single point on both lines, but when the stream of residual mana was viewed directly he could tell that one ended in a squared off line and the other tapered to an angled point.

The kind of difference that was almost impossible to draw reliably unless the shape was fairly outsized, the difference between a character in a pictographic language like chinese or japanese rendered on a computer screen versus being drawn by a calligrapher in ink. Elias focused on the difference in his mind as he shared the image over their bond, and Tia let out a chirping trill as she noticed the difference. Ah I see, tricky like a sneaky cucu bird. Cuckoo. Coocoo. Cu-ck-oo. Cuckoo. You got it.

Tia hissed in pleasure at his response and Mira rolled her eyes with a small smile, " If you are done? I see you both have grasped the point."" These fine details are why many prefer to use skills or aspected mana to trigger effects despite the loss of versatility of a single use skill, but such a skill can be quite a boon, especially in an urgent situation.

Trying to form the spellform mid combat would be highly inadvisable, at least not until you are of sufficient level or have the requisite supportive skills for such an endeavor." She grabbed a small dagger from a sheath on her belt and plunged it point first into the wood next to the board with the sigil.

She waved her hand at the dagger, " Now, once you feel you have sufficiently mastered the spellform, you will direct your gaze to this weapon while using [Mana Sense] and forming the shape of the sigil in your vision over the object. When you are successful, the system will display a notification with the relevant information about the item, although I doubt you will be able to send sufficient power through the form to get much from this item."

She placed a small wooden bowl next to the dagger, and with a smirk in Tia's direction deposited a small pile of inkfruit." Just in case learning the skill is not sufficient enough motivation. This is a prize for whomever performs the first successful cast." Eli rolled his eyes with a smile at the excited hiss from the greedy little lizard, Yesssssss! I will conquer this magic and claim the bounty for our hoard!