Chương 9: -9- Tranquility Shaping

Calder-Rime Rest Township. Calder adjusted on his driftwood seat, shaking an especially brave crab off his boot before trying to decide what magical textbook he should start with. All of them were aimed at utter beginners, which was good because he had no fucking clue what he was doing. Spellcasting was complicated at best. It usually paired Shaping Talents and Skills.

The Shaping Talent gave fine control over your magic, letting you change it on the fly, while the Skill usually acted as the base effect you were building off of. The easy example everyone used was a firebolt; the skill summoned the simmering ball of flames for you, and then the mage could use their shaping talent to intensify it or split it into multiple projectiles. Which generally took time, thus explaining why casting spells was slower than just shooting an arrow unless the mage just threw the base skill.

Of course shaping talents could create effects from the pure mana in the air. The same fire mage could theoretically gather mana with their talent into a firebolt and then split it all without the assistance of a skill, but that was difficult, time-consuming, and mana inefficient compared to building off a system-supported skill. True freeform spellcasting of any useful speed and power was generally the domain of the powerful.

High first-tier mages and second-tier monsters with years of practice who could weave lightning or firestorms into existence with Shaping alone were an utter nightmare on the battlefield. They also tended to be the first to die horribly. Calder sighed and cracked open the "Introduction to Spell Shaping for Battlemages." It was all quite complicated and a bit confusing to him.

It really didn't help that everyone's class was at least a bit different, and after years of leveling and crafting skills within a sanctuary, there was no limit to the variety of Talents or Skills a mage was basing their style off of.

"Ok, book, how do I shape totally not mana using mana techniques?" Calder checked his grasp of the beyond to make sure he at least had something to work with. [Grasp of the Beyond 3/100] Better than nothing. Barley. He started reading the book, focusing on the chapters that directly described the act of shaping mana instead of the ones droning on about mana theory since those probably weren't even applicable. He started following the instructions listed out one by one.

"Firstly, one must become aware of the mana within thine body. It takes many forms depending on your specialization, but it is a unique thing, both passing into you and through you at all times. Focus inward and isolate the presence that flows within you." Calder shrugged and awkwardly set the book down, closing his eyes and trying to focus. Almost immediately a crab skittered over his leg, scaring the shit out of him. He snatched it and tossed the poor thing out of the cave a bit harder than intended.

It splashed down somewhere in the ocean nearly thirty strides past the small opening. Something something inner peace and focus… He chuckled a bit at how stupid that was for a first attempt and settled back onto the log, hands held out in front of him loosely. He focused on feeling the pulse of his heart. The slight tickle of sand being blown across his skin. A sharp cold sensation when the ocean spray misted him. Except… The ocean spray really wasn't cold.

Not compared to something else, Calder frowned, trying to pin down the icy sensation that made everything else his body felt seem warm in comparison. Light snowfall began drifting down around Calder. The flakes almost helped him as he tried to isolate the cold. They were brisk, present, and fleeting. Something else, though, lurked deeper than his own physical senses, permeating his being. He honed in on that sensation, the cold beyond cold.

He followed the feeling, his heart beating faster and faster as he felt like he was touching upon something that was not meant to be touched. Then it was there, a swirling maelstrom of darkness, minute but present, drifting through his inner being. Calder sat there for the next hour just focusing on being able to pick out that sensation reliably as the snowfall around him mounted.

By the time he opened his eyes, he was able to pick out the "mana" within himself, although he was fairly certain it was something called "tranquillity" based on the name of his shaping skill. It was... Cold… churning… wrong. In a way it was hard to comprehend. The more he focused on it, the more he felt like he was leaning over the edge of the abyss with things hungrily waiting for him at the bottom. Calder shook his head to free himself from getting scared of his own damn powers.

He took this class, he knew it wasn't simple. He snapped the book open to the second part of the mana-shaping basics exercise.

"... now that you can reliably sense your own mana..." I mean, not mana, but instead I have some evil soul chill, but sure, now that I can sense the ironically named tranquility within myself.

"Focus on not just sensing the mana but guiding it through your mana channels, gaining control over its movement. Take your time; this step can be difficult, and once you have it successfully under your control, you will try bringing it from your body into the world. Most use fingertips or palms as the easiest location; there is no inherent benefit to where the mana passes from other than personal preference." Alright, firstly, I don't even have any fucking mana channels… I think…

secondly, I feel like scooting the soul-affecting chill around my body isn't really what this exercise was meant for. Calder closed the book and started trying to at least follow the general theme of the next exercise, moving the power within yourself using will. It was easy enough when he settled down again into a nearly meditative state to pick up on the churning disquieting mote of energy. He didn't know how it would react to being moved, so first he tried a little wiggle.

The metaphysical mote was located disconcertingly close to where he figured his heart was, so he tried to wiggle it farther away from that. He spent a good ten minutes feeling like he was trying to catch mist with nothing but the power of hope. Literally nothing was happening other than a slight ripple that he couldn't even tell if he was causing or not. He stood up in frustration and stretched his legs, shaking a small mountain of snowflakes off himself.

"Well damn… I might not be the next archmage of ages." He grumbled quietly, then looked around, trying to see what the hell the restless ghost was up to. It took him a couple minutes of scanning the snowy cave and nearby waterlines. But he finally caught sight of the ethereal form and immediately sighed deeply. Dectus was once again practicing sword forms, but this time he was underwater dancing from coral reef to coral reef near the water surface in the cave.

"At least he's having fun…" Calder grumbled, then heavily sat his ass back down on the log. He still had a few hours before he needed to get back and finish off his chores. He would be damned if he called it for today already. Once more he settled in, picturing the mote where it roiled slowly inside him. This time instead of calmly ushering it around with peace and harmony or whatever his previous attempt had counted as, he went with a far less subtle method.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. He focused all his frustration straight onto the mote and imagined he was grabbing it in a closed fist. Move, you weird little son of a bitch! I don't want to die on some frozen battleground a few months from now just because you are a stubborn fuck. The mote didn't move. It did, however, ripple with the intensity of his desire. I said move, motherfucker!

The thought shot through him, backed by his intentions, and for the first time, the mote shifted slightly downwards. Calder's eyes went wide, and he skipped over every other damn step the book had mentioned, not wanting to lose his momentum. He kept pushing it forwards wrathfully from his chest down his arm. His eyes snapped open. A sheen of unnatural frost was forming across his right arm and cloak; the ocean spray began freezing midair as it neared him.

He ignored it and pushed onward, feeling the mote of pure nothingness move from his hand to his fingertip and then into the world. An uncontrolled spray of shadowy tranquility shot from Calder's extended fingertip like the smoke from a blown-out candle. The air around him crackled as the wet sand at his feet froze solid and seafoam turned to slush. The nearest crabs were still frozen to the beach; even the nearby ocean edge briefly frosted over. Then just like that it was gone. Leaving Calder in a circle of frost.

"Well, that was kind of fucking awesome…I don't know what the hell I just did, but I'll take it." Dectus had even stopped swinging around his sword and was looking at the circle of frozen sand, spray, and crabs like he had questions.

"I don't know much about casters, but that seemed pretty fucking strong considering my low level." [Grasp of the beyond: 0/100]"Annndd then there is that; hours of practice later and I finally figure out how to... well, sort of manipulate Tranquility, and I'm already out again." Calder focused inwards, and sure enough, there wasn't a mote of darkness left inside him, though he could feel the faintest flicker of one forming again. He closed the shaping book and flipped open one on more general methods.

Skimming until he found things about mana regeneration. He needed to figure something out for his regeneration rate or he was screwed. Sure, he could send a soul beyond and almost certainly gain some grasp from that. But that wasn't exactly sustainable. If he used a few powers and was tapped out for days afterward without ghosts to use like refills, he was fucked the first time he ended up in any real conflict zone.

Hell, he needed to get it figured out before he could delve into the nearby dungeon and try and get the metal for his armor. Or else he would be crawling through it a single encounter at a time; if he wanted Dectus's help, it could end up taking months. He read passage after passage that more or less said the same thing on mana regeneration. Sit down, meditate, and pull ambient mana from the world around you.

"Categorically fucking unhelpful, thanks though…" He kept reading, hoping for some other approach. Turns out mana was fucking everywhere around everyone all the time. Probably why normal mages naturally regenerated it so fast. Calder tossed aside one book and picked up another that was talking more about general spellcasting and browsed, hoping for something that would inspire an idea for how to replenish his grasp of the beyond.

Most of it was simply beyond him: information on advanced paths to send mana in after it left the body to achieve desired effects. In a section on ritual magic, he found something a bit different, though. A passage on how to cast spells normally outside the limits of your mana regeneration. In concept it was simple. The example was an ice mage using their ice affinity mana to pull other nearby ice affinity mana to themselves with their own controlled mana acting as nearly a lure or magnet.

The details didn't matter to Calder, but the concept held some merit. He just needed to let the tiniest mote escape his body and not lose control of it immediately first. Calder paced back and forth for nearly an hour until the tiny flutter of tranquility inside him manifested into something tangible. It still showed his grasp at zero, but he knew there was just a tiny bit he could call on. He stopped abruptly, scaring off a pair of seagulls that had descended to watch the giant pace curiously.

Calder was getting excited far more excited than he expected to be that first taste of the Beyond's power was… exhilarating the beach around him still had tinges of frozen sand. He extended his hand this time, keeping his eyes open while he nudged the trace of tranquility out into the real world. The moment it was about to leave his finger he clamped down with his will.

"Oh no you fucking don't!" he growled. The mote stopped right at the tip of his finger, and with a grimace, he wrestled it just past his skin. He was shaking with effort, keeping it held right on the tip of his finger. His breath misted the air in ragged breaths each dropping fine crystals of ice onto the sand around him. He repeated this over and over, pulling it back into himself and then back into the real world without letting it disperse until he was slicked with frozen sweat and could barely stand.

It felt like days, but it could have only been a few hours. All thoughts of getting his day's chores done were gone; he felt like he was close to being able to hold it long enough to try and use it to gather more tranquility. After a break and a few mighty gulps from his canteen, he stood back up to try it for real this time. As long as he didn't lose control over the tranquility, he wouldn't lose that tiny bit of grasp of the beyond he was practicing with. At least that's what he had gathered from this practice.

Dectus had finally emerged as well from his watery practice grounds and stood off to the side watching with a mix of concern and interest. Calder stepped into the center of a circle of unnatural frost and mad ice sculptures forming from the constantly freezing ocean spray. His practice wasn't kind to his surroundings, and he was very happy he had decided to not do this in the village. He didn't know how he would have passed off a frozen-over from the inside inside cottage or library.

Okay, angry little blob of darkness that for some reason is colder than most fucking ice magic. I'm going to hold you in front of me, and you will summon your friends. Calder repeated the exercise he had been practicing all afternoon, the small mote of darkness hanging a finger span from the tip of his finger. His arms trembled as he held it perfectly in place just past his hand, and then he turned his wrist up so it was hovering just above his palm. He pictured the tranquility pulling more to itself.

His will grasped onto... Something… His skin crawled and whispers hissed at the edge of his perception. He pulled and pulled; it felt like he was trying to pry the jaws of a dragon open with his damn soul and stick his head inside. Hints of ethereal light flickered just past his hand, and with one last herculean effort, space itself seemed to rip open. Calder blinked hard, trying not to lose his tentative grip on what he was doing. A slit in reality itself hovered just in front of him, no bigger than an apple.

But beyond it was infinity. Swirling darkness, twinkling lights in the distance, and shifting shapes he couldn't quite make out. Calder took another ragged breath and pushed his hand forward, willing the tranquility beyond to come to him. A thin, smoke-like drifting of tranquility oozed from the tear, and to his extended hand, he pulled it into himself the best he could while still maintaining the vice grip he needed on the tear in reality to keep it from snapping closed.

Several notifications snapped into his vision at the same time. The first, grasp of the beyond slowly began trickling up; it wasn't instant, but it was a hell of a lot better than his standard regeneration. [Grasp of the Beyond 1/100] Then a notification that made his blood run cold appeared along with a sensation like a velvety hand running along the barrier of his soul. [Gaze of the Beyond 1/100] That's… not great, is it… Calder held on drawing what power he could while both numbers slowly trickled upwards.

Dectus looked nervous glancing all around Calder and standing nearby with his sword at the ready. The longer Calder drew upon the beyond the stranger things in his cave became. First the unnatural hoar frost slowly crept out from where he stood, freezing over the surface of the underwater cave and then creeping up the walls. The whispering intensified slowly, calling to Calder, ensuring him all he needed to do to understand was pull the tear open farther and step through.

The thick layer of ice across the ground suddenly shattered without a single sound. It broke in bizarre spiraling patterns that screamed of madness but drew the eye almost irresistibly. Calder struggled and kept his eyes locked onto the tear in front of himself. Okay I can do it ill stop as soon as I have enough grasp to practice with. [Grasp of the beyond 25/100] [Gaze of the Beyond 19/100] There we go see and nothing bad happen….

Calder froze as something drifting past the tear into the realm of tranquility darted past the tear and then slowly back up again. Calder saw eyes and fangs and yawning maws that shifted with each of his pounding heartbeats peering at him. Calder tried to let the tear in reality snap closed. He was too slow.