Josh woke up the next morning with a splitting headache. He knew the reason for it; the very 1st chapter in the book mentioned it. An intangible power called mind power. He knew he overused it by overstaying his welcome in his inner self, and if that wasn’t enough, he stretched his mind power to the limits trying to sense the world around his inner self.
He sluggishly changed into new robes, thankfully delivered by Bella while he was asleep.
That’s handy.
And creepy.
He sluggishly dragged his feet over to the dining hall, hoping that breakfast would help him out with his headache.
His mentor, Elaria, was already occupying one of the seats, her beauty still enchanting him, but not as much as the countless light blue motes flying around her. Proving that his headache was well worth it.
“Beautiful,” he uttered to himself, describing both his mentor and the flying blue motes of mana.
Learning from the day before that interrupting his mentor at her breakfast would bring no good, he saw down opposite her and started to dig into his food as well.
“Congratulations, Baron Josh.” Elaria interrupted his breakfast. “You did better than I expected to,” she slowly clapped.
Surprised, Josh choked on his food, not expecting his mentor to be the one to break the silence, especially at the dinner table. He coughed a couple of times as he uttered his reply.
“Magus Elaria, my wiseful mentor, your humble student did in fact succeed in sensing mana,” he said mockingly.
“In fact, I can even sense the mana right now around you, my dear teacher.”
That’s kinda fun. Not gonna lie.
Elaria scoffed in response. “You can sense my mana because I let you sense my mana.”
Of course…
“Sadly, my success came with a cost, I overused my mind trying to sense the mana around the inner world,” Josh sighed.
Elaria expressionlessly handed him a small crystalline bottle from her silky white pouch straight into his hands.“Pour this into your ale, the headache will be gone in half an hour. I’ll wait for you in the study room,” she said while heading out.
Steroids?
Nah, it’s magical steroids… All the benefits, no downsides? I hope so, at least.
He poured the pale blue liquor into his ale before chugging it down in one go. The already bad-tasting ale turned even worse, as it was sour and bitter, almost making him throw up.
As he was already done with eating breakfast, or at least not in any mood to eat after tasting that disgusting concoction. Josh headed out to find Leo.
Damn…
The excitement of magic made me forget…
Fuck I fucked up.
Fuck.
He strode through the halls angrily, lashing out at himself. Thankfully, only minutes later, he found Leo chatting up Lyra in one of the halls.
“Leo, I have a request to make,” Josh interrupted them.
Leo took a small bow. “Of course, Milord. Your wishes are my job to fulfill,” he replied.
Josh looked into Lyra’s eyes, she got the memo seconds later and headed out to do whatever job she has to do. Then he sighed and asked Leo. “The guards. Bert and Bart… I want to know about them.” Josh asked slowly, his tone disheartened.
Leo tapped his chin a couple of times as he started to explain. “They were young lads less than two decades old… Twins, always together. After their father passed away in the goblin raid organized by the previous lord, they joined to make a living or seek vengeance, no one knows. Yet regretfully, they met the same fate.”
Less than twenty years old…
“Do they have any family left?” Josh stuttered out.
“They do, a younger sister and their mother…” Leo replied.
Josh dragged his hands through his face as he replied with anguish in his voice. “I want you to make sure their mother gets paid three years of their salary for their service.”
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“Milord, we can’t. Our finances are already tight with one of the villages being terrorized by the goblins, and other villages should-”
Josh leaned down into his boots, taking one of the dozen platinum coins from his socks and throwing it at Leo, interrupting his talk. “This should cover it.”
Leo grasped for the coin flying towards him, easily catching it, he nodded.
They died for me… That’s the least I can do.
***
When Josh entered the study room, Elaria was already waiting for him, as usual, with a book in her hand.
He coughed lightly to draw her attention. “Magus Elaria, your pupil, is here.”
Elaria closed her book and looked at the watch on her hand. “You are fifteen minutes late, Baron Josh.”
Josh’s bowed. “Forgive me for my impudence. I had some matters to solve… and after that, I wasn’t in the right state of mind for a lesson, so I took some fresh air to ease my mind.”
Elaria sighed in response. “There are eight main affinities described in the book you read yesterday. Can you describe them for me?” She asked, starting the lesson.
Josh thought for a moment before he listed them off. “Water, earth, air, darkness, light, metal, fire, wood.”
“Good,” Elaria replied. “What else can you tell me about those eight affinities?”
Josh scratched his chin. “They contradict each other?”
Elaria nodded, urging him to go on.
“Water contradicts fire, while earth contradicts air, darkness contradicts the light, and metal contradicts the wood?”
Elaria nodded in response. “Yes, if you have water affinity, you can’t have fire affinity; if you have earth affinity, you can’t have air affinity, and so on.” she paused for a moment before casting a snowflake and asking Josh once more. “What about this snowflake? What affinity it is?”
“Water?” Josh replied.
“Yes and no. It’s a mutation of a water affinity, ice. Other examples would be fire and magma, air and sound, wood and life, darkness and void… What’s important is that no matter whether you use lighting or gravity magic, it still links to one of the main 8 elements in some way.”
Josh nodded thoughtfully.
“Now tell me what kind of motes you sensed first? Which motes did you sense most of?” Elaria asked, continuing the lesson.
“Crimson red were the most, with orange red being second. Then, some time after, I sensed dark motes, with transparent notes following shortly after.”
“That means you have greater affinity with fire magic, with either lesser or minor affinities in dark and air magics,” she explained.
[EXPLOSION!] is gonna be real?
“What about [Oculus Comprehensio], which affinity it falls under?” Josh inquired.
Elaria pondered for a moment before putting her finger up and letting a small trickle of water out, before freezing it over into a beautiful lotus. She then put out her other hand, chanted [Scintilla], and produced a small spark of flame barely two inches in size.”
She cast a spell in a conflicting element, but it was way less powerful than in an element she has an affinity for.
“Does that answer your questions?” Elaria asks him as she hands him over the ice lotus for him to study.
“You can cast spells in any element, but the elements you have affinity for will be much easier to do?” Josh replied.
“Almost.” With an approving smile, she said, “You can cast spells with an element you have affinity for, but for elementless spells or spells that you don’t have affinity for, you have to use. [Words of power.]” Elaria paused for a moment before adding. “This whole lesson, of course, doesn’t take into account warlocks and priests. Who use mana from the heaven and hell realms rather than the spirit realm.”
Josh pondered for a moment, then asked. “If your affinity is water, and mine is fire, wouldn’t that make it hard for you to teach me?”
“Think about what emotions embody fire?” she asked him.
Passion? Anger? Excitement? There’s a lot that can fit fire…
While Josh was pondering, Elaria spoke once more. “Emotions fuel chantless magic. For me, it’s calmness and indifference to the world around me that fuel my magic,” she explained before asking. “What will fuel your magic?”
What will fuel my magic?
***
Moments later, Josh and Elaria were outside in the garden once more. The former was in the lotus position, meditating, trying to find which emotion he was going to use to fuel his magic.
Is it passion?
He definitely felt more passion for magic than basically anything else he has done in his life, but is it the strongest emotion he can use to fuel his magic?
Is it anger?
He indeed felt anger towards this world, but how much of that anger was towards just being thrown into an unknown situation? After all, he’s not really gonna miss anything from the last world? Let alone this world that gave him power and wealth for free? Is the anger truly gonna last?
Is it excitement?
It’s true that it brings him excitement, thinking about magic prospects about it, casting an [EXPLOSION!] Learning and improving at something he wants to, rather than being forced to.
Why not all of them?
He is angry at the world right now, yet he is still excited by the possibilities it might bring. He feels more passion for magic than he did for his first crush and is even more excited about the future of what magic might bring.
Ever since he was a kid, he was throwing himself at everything head first, why should he stop doing that now.
Elaria gasped, not believing the sight in front of her. A mage that is yet to reach 1st tier. A mage who barely learned how to sense mana summoned a whole firestorm of magic as he meditated. If she wasn’t coating the surroundings with her ice magic, the entire garden would already be on fire.
“What kind of emotions must fuel a novice mage with a measly six rating to produce this kind of magic?” She uttered to herself, then she thoughtfully whispered. “Bloodline…”
Knowing that such feat was not possible without burning his life force, she embraced the fire, coating herself with ice as she strode into the whirlwind of fire to wake Josh up.
