Chương 18: Magic for Dummies

I exit the reading room and start walking back to the bookshelves. I am barely able to take ten steps before the librarian appears beside me.

"I hope those books were to your satisfaction?" After jumping back from shock, I sigh.

"Yeah, but how the hell did you appear out of nowhere?"

"The Library is our domain, within it we can move as we wish." As if to demonstrate, the librarian instantly appears dozens of meters away and then returns back.

"Now, is there anything else I could help you with?"

"I need to learn how to use magic. From basically nothing." I say, expecting some odd remark about how I am way too old to start learning magic. But, they simply walk off and motion for me to follow. Now that I think about it, it would probably be quite bad if these librarians judged people by what they wanted to know. It takes several minutes, many escalators and much walking before we come up to a bookshelf labeled 'Introductory Magic.'

This area of the library is far busier than before, with dozens of people browsing the shelves. Most of them are children. Ignoring that fact, I walk up to the interface and search for magic. I pick up a few important ones, like Mana Basics, Introduction to Magecraft, and Spells 101. But when I search for books on spirit magic, nothing comes up. Well, figures that information about something like spirit magic wouldn't just be in a random library. Instead, I just grab a book about light magic.

Luma does have an affinity for it, so maybe we can learn something cool from the book. Plus, many of the same principles probably apply across all magics. After returning to the reading room, the librarian bids me farewell, with an offhanded comment that spellcasting is allowed, but try not to destroy things. Keeping that in mind, I start reading. Hours pass by in what feels like moments as I lose myself in the information. These books may be introductions, but damn are they detailed.

Trying to summarize all of it into a few short points. But I manage to get the basics of it down, I think. To put it simply, mana is an energy granted by the world-system to all living creatures. From the smallest plant, to the largest titan, every being possesses some inherent mana. Naturally, some of this also leaks out into the environment, creating magical stones and all the other explanations for why the world is like it is. As one grows stronger, they almost always gain more mana.

Thus, powerful beings are often very obvious to find. The ambient mana that just casually leaks out of them literally changes the very ground where they walk. But that is all basics that literally anyone with a brain could figure out. What is more interesting is learning to control that mana, and shape it into something useful. Which can be done in one of three ways, according to the books. The first, and by far the most common in this era, is magical gadgets.

All those fancy gadgets like the escalators, airships and even automobiles use mana. Apparently it is all connected to a form of runic magic, which can be done by anyone with the tools and knowhow. Though more specialized classes do exist, naturally. Naturally, the mana to power these has to come from somewhere. So most cities often collect it from their citizens, like a tax. Apparently in the guts of every city are magical conduits that carry the mana around and stuff.

The books start to go more in depth, but I move on for now. Runic magic seems cool and all, but I don't know if I would be any good at it. Magecraft is far more interesting to me. After all, walking around and casting spells seems awesome. Just think of all the time it would save to be able to simply will my clothes to be clean! No more having to do laundry, or clean the dishes… mages are really lucky folk. As it turns out, magecraft is split furthermore into two parts. The first is universal magic.

Things like cleaning, telekinesis, element-neutral barriers, and stuff that just about anyone with any control of mana can do. Then there is also the elemental magic, which is where people truly start to specialize. Fire magic is probably the most obvious. After all, who doesn't want to conjure up a giant fireball and throw it at their enemies? But there are all sorts of types, more than one could possibly count or so the books say.

But it breaks it down into seven primary types; fire, water, earth, air, life, dark and light. Though of course, there are all sorts of mixes and combinations that people specialize in as well. The seven types are just helpful for classifications. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. Each element is best at certain things. Fire for instance, is really good at destroying things.

Whereas light magic is actually responsible for all the healing and support spells. Which is odd, because life magic exists, but only works to actually control living things, like plants. It has something to do with converting the mana into vital energy, for reasons that are too complex for me to understand, light mana just converts easily while life does not. The books explain that most people can use several types of magic, but are always strongest in one. In my case, I guess that would be spirit magic.

I only find spirit magic mentioned once in about a dozen books. It was an offhand note in a book about ways that mana can be applied. In a feat of remarkable danger, some deign to harness the power of their own spirit –and even that of others– in the place of mana. Knowledge of all forms of this spirit magic have been effectively lost to time, or at least, those that do know anything are sure to keep the knowledge held close at hand. Welp, guess that confirms that I am basically alone in this whole thing.

"Yip?!" Luma complains from my lap, and I mentally correct myself. Luma and are alone in this spirit magic thing. Which is sort of a stroke of luck, really. But from what I can tell, bonding spirits and spirit magic are a bit different. I can tell that Luma is connected to me by magic, but it feels deeper, more fundamental. What I want is to be able to manipulate the energy directly, turn it into spells and such. Or at the very least, figure out that there is no way for me to do that.

Alas, I don't think now is the best time to practice that. I probably want to get a lot stronger before I start messing around too much with my spirit. Seems like the thing you really do not want to mess up. So I focus on the other types of magic. I am surely able to use at least one of them, right? After pouring through the books, they all agree that the only way to find out is to simply try spells. Technically there are skills that higher level mages can use to find apprentices and whatnot.

But I don't see any of those people standing around waiting to take me on. So, I pick up a book about fire spells and start trying to cast one. Casting spells is quite simple really. There are two ways, first you can either do it freeform and basically brute force the mana into what you wish to do. This is quite uncommon amongst lower level mages, as it requires a lot of magical understanding. The second and by far more popular is with a chant.

By using a chant, the world-system will effectively do all of the hard work. All you must do is learn the spell and how to control the mana input as you cast it. I find a chant for a simple fireball but as I try to speak it, it is like the words ring hollow in my ears. I push mana into the spell just as the book describes, and I can feel that that part is fine. Yet, even as I utter <Fireball>, nothing happens. An odd sense of failure washes over me, guess that means I don't have any ability to use fire magic.

Oh well, It isn't like I wanted to burn that jerk lord's face off anyways. Wait, I actually really did want to. So I try out several other types of spells. Air, earth, dark and life are no-goes. But when I say the <Water Ball> chant, it happens. The moment I start to say the words, mana flows out of my body at a rapid pace before I figure out I can stop it. Eventually I do, and it all gathers in the air above my hand and a floating ball of water appears.

It isn't too big, especially for using a tenth of my mana pool. But I did it. I casted a fucking spell. Which means I think I can now legally call myself a mage. A further surge of excitement rushes through me at the system message that follows my achievement.

'Ding', New trait gained, {Initiate Water Mage}'Ding', New spell learned, <Water Ball - Initiate> Naturally, I immediately take a look at the new trait that officially declares me a water mage. It may only be at an initiate level, but every archmage must start somewhere. {Initiate Water Mage} You have been recognized as one with talent in water magic. While only at the lowest tier, the path of magic is one with much potential.

Whether you seek to create waves capable of swallowing cities, or merely water your garden's plants, is up to you. But either way, you are irrefutably a water mage. Effects: You can easily learn initiate-tier water spells. You may call yourself a water mage. Huh I guess there are tiers or whatever to magic. Not that it is important to me at the moment. Like, I can't believe I just used a spell. A bloody magic spell coming from magic. Speaking of said spell, there is now a ball of water hovering above my hand.

It is really cool as it floats there. However, the problem is, I don't know how to make it go away. Oh, and I am surrounded by books made out of very not-waterproof paper. I am no expert in not good situations, but this seems quite not good.