บท 5: Chapter 4
My foster parents were waiting for me when I was escorted home by a teacher. After reassuring them that I was alright, I went upstairs to 'rest'. I locked the door behind me before taking out the book, only to feel a slight electric shock, making me drop it. I then stared at the book before touching it with the tip of my finger. The same shock occurred. It wasn't in anyway painful, just weird. And this hasn't happened the previous times I have held the book.
I pondered on what to do before deciding to bite the bullet so to speak. I grabbed the book and opened it while ignoring the shocks. I found nothing amiss inside the book but soon felt a foreign energy probing me from within the book. And just as quickly it came, it disappeared along with the shocks. The pages of the book then suddenly began flipping by themselves before stopping at the index page. I saw that five of the previously sealed chapters of the book was now unsealed. The chapters in question were.
Basic spell casting
Potion Brewery
Enchantment
Magia Historia
Vestige Historia
Just as I was about to turn to the new chapters, I message began to emerge on the corner of the index page.
" Congratulations on taking your first step into the journey to master the mystic arts. As you have seen, more section of my almanac has been made accessible for you. More will be follow as you progress in your endeavor. As such I leave you one final gift. Turn to the spine of your book. There, you shall find a rune. Peruse the knowledge from the book and activate it and you will receive it."
After reading the message I looked at the base of the spine and sure enough, there was a rune on it. It was circular rune with letters of nordic origin inscribed on the edge.
I let out a breath before opening the book once more. I was curious about this 'gift' and the sooner I learn it the sooner I can see what it is.
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It took me a few hours but I managed to give cursory reading of the newly available chapters. Basic spell casting covered how to gather mana to specific point and cast spells. It also came with several 'easy' spells for me to train with. It was nothing too fancy. Just stuff like minor telekinesis, minor illusions, elemental manipulation, barrier creation or and yes flight. Notice the quotes on 'easy' part? Yep. This was going to take a while. No matter how thorough the explanations were. Especially when I am warned of the side effects of improper casting and or lack of control for several of these which includes little consequences like, spontaneous combustion of the caster, self suffocation due to accidentally making fully non permeable barrier, being attacked by your own familiars. Of course not all of the spells were this dangerous. Some of them posed little to no danger like the [Sight] spell that let me properly see the flow of mana in my surroudings by focusing mana to my eyes. [Astral Projection] Which separates my astral body from my physical body which had a broad range of applications all the way from spying, to doing other activities even when my physical body is resting. Of course, my influence on the physical realm is limited in astral form at least at the moment. But I can do small things, like flipping a switch or turning a page on a book. This will allow me to use my sleeping time to study magic or cram for exams when the time comes.
It was then I fully realised the importance of the remaining chapters. Mainly, Potions and Enchantment, both of which are self explanatory. They are comparatively easier to use than the majority of the spells and was a very good way to learn how to control my mana. Though there was still an ever present threat of me losing my eyebrows due to a faulty potion or a faulty rune. Something I hope will not come to pass as that wasn't going to be flattering look for me.
I had to google the names of the remaining two chapters. Magia Historia and Vestige Historia. Magia Historia literally means 'Magic Story' I am assuming that 'he' wasn't too fluent with this language. It mostly consisted of some of the notable events that had occurred related to magic and also covered the magical communities and organisations that govern this world. The most influencial one was simply called 'Kamar Taj' and it spanned the entire globe though mostly concentrated to North America, Europe and Asia. There also aren't many other organisations in America aside from from them, either malicious or neutral which suited me just fine as I didn't want to deal with real world version of the Ministry of Magic from Harry Potter simply because I wanted to lean magic.
The Vestige Historia on the other hand was interesting. It contained a detailed list of artifacts 'he' had encountered on his journeys and their effects. This would definetly come in handy in the future.
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Satisfied with what I found out about the newly available chapters. I began trying to learn [Sight] and [Astral Projection]. While training in Rune raft might have been wiser, these two spells are too useful to ignore. Potion crafting is not feasible as it would require materials which costs money. Money I didn't have at the moment.
It took me a hours before I could grasp the concept of [Sight] and when I cast it, I found myself surrounded by an entanglement of varying types of mana. Such as mana belonging to living things, one surrounding dead organisms and the even the natural mana seeping from the astral realm. I looked at the book and was shocked by sheer number and volume of mana encompassing it. The book certainly had a lot of work put into it. Who knows how many enchantments and spells are continuously in effect even now.
The spell lasted only a minute before flickering away, showing me just how far I had yet to go to even properly cast it. Still it was progress and a positive one at that. My next focus was on [Astral Projection] which proved to be even more difficult than [Sight] with the rest of the day ending without me making any significant progress.
I decided to take a break when I was called down to dinner. After that, I spent the rest of the night, going through my lessons of the day before going to bed. Hopefully, I will have better luck tommorow.
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The next morning started with me having breakfast, before talking to Peter before he left for school. I then resumed my efforts at learning [Astral Projection] and by the time noon came around, I got a hang of the spell. I sat down on my bed so as to avoid any injuries when I separate from my body. I then cast the spell and immediately I felt a large force something push me back. The force sent me reeling back and when I opened my eyes, I found myself staring at the back of someones head. It took me another moment to realise that it was indeed mine as it fell towards the bed along with the rest of my physical like a puppet with its strings cut. I looked down and found myself in a near transparent state, floating above the bed, just inches away from my physical body.
It was a surreal experience as I floated around my room now unbound from the laws of physics of the physical realm. In astral form, I was intangible being able to pass through walls and other objects. And judging by the fact that the neighbouring house's residents didn't see me when I floated over, I was also invisible to most of the people in the physical realm, just as the book said.
Like a child with a new toy, I spent hours roaming around the neighbourhood, freaking out dogs who seem to somewhat sense my presence, and even going out of my way to troll a mailman by unlocking the when he closes it. It was only when I suddenly felt weak that I remembered that I couldn't stay out of my physical body for long as it would kill me. With that reminder, I floated back to my house and into my body before waking up panting. It was then that it dawned on to me just how reckless I was being. I could have died if I didn't reach my physical body in time.
I spent the next few hours simply laying on the bed mentally beating myself up for almost getting myself killed for no reason. I waited another hour or so before getting back up. I have more or less learned the two spells. Mastering them completely will require further practice but for now, it will do.
I turned to the Enchantments chapter. And I realised just how broad the actual thing was. Enchantments are basically effects a caster could put on an object or even a living thing that will magically alter a particular aspect of them and maintain it without direct intervention from the caster for a while.
For an example, I can use a spell to lift a box. But once I stop casting it, the box will fall back down. However if I were to enchant the same box with levitation, I could keep the box floating until the mana I used for the spell runs out or until I or someone else dispels it. This effect could be prolonged, even indefinetly with the usage of Glyphs and Runes. They will act as conduits, gathering mana, protecting the enchantment and other assorted exotic effects. In a technical term, the enchantment is a program while the glyphs and runes are scripts that will make sure that the program keeps on running.
I cracked my knuckles before delving into the book, and my arduous journey to learn enchantments began.
(AN: So I wanted to give you a heads up. I am not going to assign a name for all spells mc learns. The only ones I'll name are the more important ones.
Also I wanted to hear your opinions about this:
MC's primary weapon(used for both spellcasting and melee)
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