Chương 38: Unholy War - Part 3 - Magical Understanding

The shop owner watched Athena admiring the scrolls on the shelves with a certain suspicion after what the woman said earlier.

She did the math on a papyrus and her distrust only increased. Athena's armor showed that she had some resources, but not enough to buy so many scrolls at once.

"Hey miss, you said you want to buy a hundred scrolls, right?"

"Ten of each cycle." Athena reconfirmed without looking at the girl.

The shop owner looked at the papyrus again with calculations of how much this purchase would cost Athena.

A scroll from the first cycle, which contained beginner spells such as {Fire Lightning} and {Ice Knife}, cost a thousand gold coins, and each cycle the price tripled regardless of the spell contained in the scroll.

Being a magic user through money was an expensive path to follow, so people who followed this path often learn by study. And because of that, the stores selling learning scrolls like this one were always full of stock.

The exorbitant value of such a purchase was hard to swallow even though it was exciting to see the seed of so much frustration bearing such tempting fruit.

"Do you know how much this is going to cost you?"

"No, but I imagine a few million..." Athena stared at the first cycle shelf and noticed the constant ripple of some sort of barrier. "Is this some protective magic?"

"Yes." The girl responded monotonously. "It's to prevent thieves."

"Hmph…" Athena looked at the barrier with disdain. (But I could easily erase that... Lucky for you I'm not a thief.)

"Can you tell me what your magical affinities are?"

Hearing the word 'affinities', Athena turned and strode to the counter where the shop owner was.

Athena didn't remember Anemus ever saying anything about magical affinity and that got her interest because until then she just used magic automatically without any real understanding.

The formulas were in her mind and that alone was enough to use her spells, but understanding the workings of the world was something Athena also sought.

"Affinity? What is it?" Athena asked, her eyes gleaming with genuine interest.

"Huh? You want to buy all these spells and don't know what magic affinity is?" The girl looked at Athena, incredulous that she got it right.

"I spent many years isolated." Athena tucked her bangs behind her ear awkwardly. "I knew some spells, but now I can't use it anymore."

"And what were these spells?"

"Dark spells..."

"Huh? Y-you used d-dark magic?" the girl asked in a shaky voice.

Dark magic was a vile magic that used demonic energy mixed with mana to conjure devastating effects on the target and it was common knowledge that if someone used dark magic, that someone was hopelessly evil.

Looking at the girl, Athena saw the terror in her small face and immediately threw her hands in the air.

"Ah! I won't do anything to you, I can't use dark magic anymore. I'm not evil."

"H-how am I going to be sure d-that?"

"Hm…Honestly, I don't know." Athena said with a smirk. "I swear I won't do anything. Can you explain to me how ordinary magic works?"

The girl put some distance between Athena and her and then took a deep breath to calm herself.

"Okay, but don't get out of there, yeah..."

"Athena. Just Athena."

"I'm Naphe Hisagh."

"Death?" Athena tilted her head with an expression of puzzlement.

"Not 'Naph'! Naphe!" Naphe corrected, accentuating her lips. "Why is it always the same thing when I say my name?"

Naphe walked to a short ladder and climbed the structure until he reached a web-covered shelf.

"I can't believe I have to teach after so many years…" Naphe complained as he opened an old parchment that contained diagrams of magic cycles.

After stretching the fully open parchment across the counter, Naphe began explaining from the first spell cycle to the tenth cycle and the special spells that couldn't be classified.

A spell is a magical effect that distorts reality with the use of mana and fills it with an effect desired by its caster.

Casting a spell, the caster who does not have the formula engraved in his mind by a learning scroll, be he wizard, sorcerer, witch, cleric, elementarist, bard or druid, that caster will have to complete some processes before acquiring the effect that wish of the mana.

The caster will have to carefully harvest invisible strands of the raw mana that fills the world, molding them while mixing with his own mana transformed into an elemental trigger.

Then creating a pattern specifically required by the spell you wish to cast, warping reality, then releasing them to trigger the desired effect.

"... And in a few special cases, all in a matter of seconds."

Athena listened intently to every word and mentally thanked her past self for spending years saving money while causing hell in the lives of ordinary gamers who just wanted to have fun.

Naphe sighed heavily and Athena noticed that when she did, the girl looked a little older than she looked.

She rubbed her eyes, thinking she saw something, and then Naphe spoke again and Athena turned to pay attention, forgetting what she saw in seconds.

"Spells can be versatile tools, weapons or shields..."

They can deal damage or undo it, impose or remove conditions, drain life energy, like the third cycle dark spell {Dranar}, or heal something considered incurable, like the seventh cycle holy spell {Divine Heal}.

"...Countless spells have been created over the course of world history."

Some still remain unknown in old spellbooks, scrolls forgotten in some drawer and in the possession of gods who refuse to teach the world.

"How I wanted to find one of those spells…" Naphe said in a pained voice.

Still others are born with the wisdom or malice of some wizard out there who is delving into the world of magic while.

Each spell in each cycle has its own element. So beyond cycles, spells are separated by elements such as Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Holy and Dark.

And as each spell has its element, each person has its own, which indicates their affinity with certain spells. Usually a person will have an affinity with two elements, but there are rare cases where a person can have an affinity with three or more.

"I, for example, have an affinity for four elements." Naphe said creating a water bubble, a spark of fire, a ball of light and a small tornado in the palm of her hands. "Of course, there are the secondary elements. That joining two primary elements like water and wind to create ice or fire and earth to lava, but that doesn't matter now." Naphe waved his hands as if she was throwing something away. "Now let's go to cycles."

Each spell belongs to a cycle that goes from the first to the tenth.

The spell cycle is an indicator of how powerful the spell is and how much mana the caster will spend to cast that spell.

"The higher the spell cycle, the more the caster needs to "pay" to use it. And this is where we enter the caster's mana levels." Naphe rubbed his temples, frowning. "Anyway we're done."

"I'll pay a little more for the spells as a thank you for the class." Athena smiled persuasively.

"I will cling to those words." Naphe complained. "Come on. Ah! This part is according to the tower of magic. A person who wants to use magic doesn't need to follow this to use magic. Well, it's a way to prevent young people from 'venturing' unprepared."

The first cycle caster must have 10 mana level to be recognized by the tower as a mage or any other class and use magic.

"At 10 mana level, the caster will gain the title for the first cycle. Which is beside the point, as you don't seem like the type to want titles." Naphe said and Athena nodded.

A first cycle caster can cast up to ten maga per day without running out of mana entirely.

"I guess I didn't say what happens when a person runs out of mana completely, huh?"

"Didn't say, but I've experienced close to that."

"Serious?"

"But now I'm curious. What happens?"

"It's not a big deal to worry about. You'll only die if that happens." Naphe said nonchalantly.

"Oh sure, it's no biggie..." Athena snorted with laughter.

"Let's continue..."

Naphe continued the class until the end of the scroll, leaving Athena's eyes gleaming with excitement as she said she was going to test how much mana she had and her affinity.

This was a cliché in the light novels Athena read and she wondered if she would be like the protagonists of those stories that always exceeded the limit of the meter and made it explode.

"Here it is." Naphe placed a colorless metal sphere on the counter. "That's the meter. You just need to touch it and nothing else, don't inject mana on it!" Naphe warned as she dusted off the object with the long sleeve of her tunic. "After you touch it, it will glow in order in the colors of the elements you have affinity and will show a number that is your mana level. Remembering that the mana level is not the exact amount."

After Naphe finished cleaning and gave permission for the test, Athena placed her hand on the sphere and after ten seconds, which Athena counted impatiently, the sphere began to glow.

First it glowed red, representing fire, then blue for water, then yellow for earth and green for wind.

Naphe was slack-jawed as if he had a broken jaw, impressed to find another person with four elements, but then her surprise grew.

The sphere continued to glow, but the color was blurred and fluctuated between white, black, and then a pale, smoky gray.

A lifeless color that Naphe had never seen before.

Surprised by the fifth element, Nasphe looked at Athena and saw the displeased expression on her face.

The moment she saw the color, Athena sulked.

That was the color of Death, she was painted that color and it made her angry. She didn't know what this weird goddess really wanted and this color reminded her that she needed to go to her who-knows-where to talk to this goddess.

Athena was automatically in a bad mood.

"What's up? It's a new element, shouldn't you be happy?" Naphe asked not understanding the reason for such a bad mood.

"No. And you wouldn't be either if you knew who that color belongs to."

"Huh? Who?"

Athena leaned over the counter and approached the curious Naphe's ear.

"I'm not telling." Athena said with a boyish smile. "What about my mana level? Now I want to know what cycle I can cast spells for."

"Put your hand on the sphere again." Naphe said, and now she was the one sulking. "Stingy."

Athena laughed and placed her hand on the sphere again making it repeat the previous effects and then the number 68.

"Sixty-eight?" Athena tilted her head in dissatisfaction. "Not long ago I could cast up to the fifth cycle twice a day..."

"And are you able to cast up to sixth, almost reaching seventh? Do you have any idea of your growth? If you could cast two fifth cycle spells a short time ago, it means you were at level 40 at most." Naphe stunned after screaming. "Ah! I'm tired of dealing with you..."

"Well...whatever, it doesn't change my plans. I want ten scrolls from each cycle. It can leave unclassified spells out." Athena said and Naphe practically melted on the counter.