Faralda's lecture continued, and steadily, Michael's understanding of how the elements and their various effects actually worked improved. His earlier theory on Magicka itself being the main contributor seemed to be the correct one from what he could tell...
Fire magic dealt far more damage because it not only heated the body, but also the internal Magicka of the subject, causing it to aid in burning them. This is why spells like Incinerate dealt more damage if the target was already on fire, it was a cascading effect, not so dissimilar to how nuclear chain reactions worked.
Shock magic didn't actually drain Magicka perse either, instead, it caused the victim's Magicka to randomly discharge into the ground and nearby objects. Usually, this was in small amounts that wouldn't be noticeable... But if someone was struck by say, a Thunderbolt? The things surrounding them would also be affected, simply by the victim's own Magicka... This was actually the basis of spells like Chain Lightning, which used and directed this discharged Magicka to deal yet more damage.
Finally, Frost magic, which actually worked in a logical way... When things were cold they slowed, this was also the case with Magicka, this is why it was more difficult to cast Fire magic during say, a blizzard, as you would need to alter the temperature of your Magicka a lot more while freezing. Of course, the natural phenomenon didn't account completely for the drastic amount of Stamina drained. The other reason was, you guessed it, Magicka at work, slowing the blood flow and subsequent nutrients, oxygen, and other vital components that allow people to live. This sucked the victim's muscles of energy, leaving them in an exhausted state.
Michael was unsure if his magic would have these effects even if he used this world's magic... From what he could tell he didn't possess 'Magicka', but regular magic instead... Whatever that meant. It might also be the reason he couldn't use Halkeginia's magic, since he lacked the unique properties of their magic.
Regardless the lecture soon came to an end, and Michael felt as if he'd learned more about magic from that one discussion alone than his entire time studying the Spell Tomes.
Michael didn't stick around to make small talk with the master though, instead, quickly made his way to the Arcanaeum to hand in his borrowed book. He could tell by the twitching brow on Urag's face that he'd barely made it on time... He had no doubt that the orc would've pursued him the minute he was late to hand it in.
"If it helps my case, the Arch-Mage is the reason I was late..." he offers but the orc shows no reaction. "O-kay... I'll see you around then..." he awkwardly starts but pauses, sheepishly glancing over his shoulder at the still glaring orc, "You wouldn't happen to have beginner books on Conjuration, would you?"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael makes his way up to one of the free sections of the rooftop, and once there he spots Tiffania and Charlotte already waiting for him. Illococoo should've been here too but, she'd probably gone to show the Arch-Mage her work concerning the Thu'um.
"Yo, sorry for the wait, I wanted to pick up a couple more books before we started." he says while displaying the couple books he'd borrowed.
"Do's and Don'ts of Making Friends with Demons...?" Tiffania reads one of the book's titles aloud, "I thought we were going to practise Destruction spells today?"
Michael shrugs, "The Arch-Mage showed me just how 'useful' Conjuration could be. I thought we should at least give it a go, maybe one of us is a one in a million genius or something."
The two girls nod, they'd tried every other magic school aside from Enchanting and Conjuration, so there was no harm in learning the basics. Michael holds up the other book, 'Conjuration for Dummies' and grins, "Alright, let's get started."
The trio begin flipping through the two books, they were quite thin compared to huge dictionary-like books that taught more advanced things, so they were able to get through both of them just as the sun was beginning to set.
The books basically described how conjuration spells function, most either creating links to Oblivion or severing already existing links. There was also a subset of spells that were solely based around Soul trapping. Neither of the trios was sure why Soul trapping was included, but the answer probably lay in more advanced books.
The books mentioned that some realms of Oblivion were harder to summon from, realms with tighter security, cover less area, and hold fewer creatures are the most difficult. The fewer creatures existed in the realm, the harder it was to locate a viable summon.
Indeed, most people didn't even know where their Conjurations came from, with the most obvious example of this being the various Atronachs you could summon. Michael even possessed a staff that summoned Frost Atronach's that he'd stolen from a vampire... Where did the staff pull them from?
Additionally, there was a difference between the commonly used temporary conjuration and permanent conjurations. The latter of which usually required a ritual to do, that or an incredibly powerful magic user summoning something far, far weaker than themselves.
Only a few things could be permanently summoned as well, Dremora, the common demons found in Oblivion, were a big no-no. The path between realms that held such creatures was locked down tighter than a nun's panties. This meant that while you could summon their bodies to fight for you, their souls would remain in their respective realm. This made them far weaker than they'd usually be, but it was better than having another invasion Michael supposed.
Of course, that also meant that you couldn't kill permanently kill any Dremora existing in Tamriel, as they'd just 'respawn' back in Oblivion. This wasn't entirely a bad thing however, for instance, if a Dremora had something you wanted, you could simply torture them to death, summon them, and do it again, over and over... Much to Tiffania's chagrin, the books literally described the best ways to coerce a Dremora, as if doing so once they were summoned was a given.
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The Atronachs were actually the easiest to permanently summon, their requirements were literally just the dust of the element you want to summon. Fire salt for Fire Atronach's, Frost salt for Frost Atronach's, and... Void salt for Storm Atronach's...?
Ignoring the sudden annoying logical leap from Shock to Void, the amount of salt required to summon the Atronach was directly proportional to how powerful it would be. The salt would essentially become the 'skeleton' or 'backbone' of the Atronach, while the caster's and the Atronach's magic fill in the rest.
The salts had different effects depending on how much you used of course. Fire Atronach's got hotter the more salt you used, Frost Atronach's got bigger and their body's denser, and Storm Atronach's simply just become more powerful.
There was also another essential subject that had Tiffania looking a bit sheepish as she heard it. Conjured creatures would be forced under the caster's will, this could be from enslaving them, to altering their minds, to befriending them.
Apparently, there was also a way to do this without brainwashing the summon, but so few people had tried that it wasn't commonly known... As to why Tiffania was reacting weirdly to this?
"Doesn't this all sound... Similar to how Void Familiar's work?" she questions, eyes glancing between Michael's face and his hand which held the Gandalfr runes.
...
Did it? Summoning a creature from another realm and subjugating them through forceful or subtle means? Huh... It did sound quite similar.
Charlotte nods from where she was kneeling, "The rituals also looks similar." she adds, pointing at the most basic ritual circle. Michael and Tiffania wouldn't have noticed this as they had no knowledge of Halkeginia's ritual circles, luckily Charlotte was a veritable treasure trove of knowledge when concerning her home world's magic.
"So what does this mean then?... Because I haven't seen anyone summoning people from other worlds yet. Maybe Oblivion is blocking it?"
Charlotte shakes her head and points at Tiffania, "Void Mage." she states as if that was the answer to all the questions Michael suddenly had. To be honest, it actually might be
Michael remembers from the anime that Tiffania's Void Familiar was Saito, which meant that there was a high likelihood that Michael would take his place as her familiar... Still, it wasn't concrete, so he had no assurances on who would be summoned.
It wasn't like they were in dire need of extra firepower... For now. The Dragons would return eventually, maybe then they'd actually need the help. It wasn't like Michael could be everywhere at once, and having someone protect Tiffania didn't sound all that bad.
A memory of Saito flirting with Tiffania strikes him and has to force himself not to grimace. Yeah, probably shouldn't risk it until their relationship had 'progressed'... He'd been trying to go slow with it, as Tiffania was both naive and mature in different aspects. She'd been through a lot but didn't have much experience socially... That being said, he knew she wouldn't have resisted him if he dragged her to bed when he first saved her in Cendri.
"I think we should try the ritual. Having another Void Familiar around would be a blessing, but, we need to change a few things before that... First, we need to find a way to alter the ritual so that it only summons willing people or those in dire need of help." he says, scanning the girls as they slowly nod.
He thumbs himself, "I was one of those summoned against my will, so I more than anyone know how someone would react to it... Well, how they should, which brings me to the next thing. We need to remove the mental coercion aspect of it. The runes force feelings of affection and protectiveness for their 'master', while it might keep the familiar loyal, I doubt any of us want to enslave someone."
"Never." Tiffania affirms, Charlotte nodding along with them.
Micahel smiles and crosses his arms, "Good. I kind of also want to try summoning a familiar, but we can try that together."
With that all discussed and confirmed, the group begin practising spells, specifically, the easier and most basic Conjuration spell. Essentially, it opens a portal to a realm but doesn't summon anything... It's more to teach aspiring Conjurers the basics of building a portal and maintaining a link. It's the backbone of most Conjuration spells that summon something, as if you can't maintain the link or even properly open a portal while not summoning anything you'd stand no chance while also attempting to subjugate your target.
Michael takes a moment to work out the spell, creating the various formations within his mana, causing a purple glow to appear in his palm. It's small, but as he pushes more power into it, the glowing purple orb grows until it's slightly smaller than an apple.
With it prepared, he tosses it as the ground nearby, causing a sound between a crack and a chime to ring out, causing a 7ft purple swirling portal to appear. It dissipates soon after though, summoning nothing to Tamriel. "Nice, got it on the first try."
Next is the girl's turn, Charlotte going next but failing her first cast. Apparently, it was still awkward to cast magic without her staff, as that's how she'd done it most of her life. Still, her second try was a success.
Lastly was Tiffania, who easily conjured the spell and throw it at the ground with an ease that made both him and Charlotte look incompetent.
*Chiing!*
"I WILL DEVOUR YOUR HEAR-" a voice screams from the portal but Tiffanai quickly halts the spell before it could complete, the disaster that'd happened with her first Teleportation Gate making her prepare for a potential failure.
...
"Did you just summon a Dremora with a blank Conjuration?" Michael questions, as such a thing wasn't possible unless the spell itself was overpowered to all hell, sucking everything near where the portal in Oblivion had formed inside.
Tiffania sheepishly shrugs her shoulders, "Whoops...?" she jokingly says, the group only now noticing the half dismembered corpse of the Dremora on the floor... Which should have disappeared once the spell had ended... Which meant that Tiffania had not only summoned a Dremora with a blank spell, but bypassed the magic protecting Tamriel from another invasion from Oblivion... Fuck.
"We... Should lay off the Conjuration for a bit, at least for you Tiff..." Michael says, knowing that she'd be hunted to the ends of the earth if anyone found out about this... Huh, this was becoming a common theme nowadays...
Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!
Also, thanks to my patrons for their support :
ShinAmazake
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