Fear Not The Elf Who Knows 10,000 Spells - Chapter 6

Schroff, an Archer POV:

"...It's suppose to take you years to sense the World's mana." Schroff said, feeling a sense of vertigo and disbelief at what he was seeing. "I know because I've seen others train, and I distinctively remember it took me six years to learn how to do that."

"Oh... Cool." Trenn nodded, trying to act casual. Just like that, Schroff snapped back to the present.

'Cool' he says. Schroff resisted rolling his eyes, or laughing.

Not for the first time, Schroff felt it pitiful that this boy couldn't learn at a magic academy. He felt like Trenn and his potential were wasted, being born in the Southern Lands.

Then again, no one can control the whims of fate sans the Goddess. Maybe she has a role for Trenn in all of this. Not that Schroff was really all the pious to think on the Goddess's machination, but just, every once in a while, he couldn't help but wonder why things happen the way the did.

He really should have gotten a better teacher. Schroff thought, his lips twisting into a frown.   

"Rest." Schroff finally said, as he held a venison skewer toward Trenn. "Eat. You trained enough. Eat, sleep. We leave at first light." He said, giving a plan of action, so as not to think on the implication of everything, or how he would deal with the boy.

Schroff wanted to wait on teaching Trenn anything practical, so as not to hand the Elves Shield a weapon on a silver platter. It would have been years before he taught Trenn anything truly dangerous, and if the Shield asked about his progress, the old man would have had the ready made excuse of the child needing time to learn and progress.

Now, Schroff wasn't sure anymore. Going with his old plan felt discomforting. To actively limit the boy's potential was too disquieting.

He'll have to think more on it.

Schroff watched as Trenn eagerly bite into his skewer with the enthusiasm born out of success.

Basics. Hammer basic mana control and detection, over and over again, along with practical and survive spells and skills. ...Then worry about the combat ones. 

Schroff had always been a simple man. He had a clear course, even if he wasn't sure on its destination.

But it was there, so he'll walk it and worry about the rest later.

===x===

It took two months to reach the trail up the mountain that leads to Schroff's cabin. Weather was starting to get colder the higher up we went.

In that time we passed, the only spells I got to learn were Zoltraak and Phaitagurd. I.E. Ordinary Offensive Magic and Ordinary Defensive Magic, respectively.

"Those magics are the basics of the basics nowadays. You can even find them in the bargain bin of a magic shop." 

Well those would have been really fucking nice to find, if the fucking Elves Shield didn't take everything in the magic shops in Schwanz and shut them down.  

The other spell Old Schroff told me about, but I didn't have a chance to learn or practice, was Luftstieg, otherwise known as Flight Magic.

The thing about Zoltraak and Phaitagurd they were the quintessential example of a skill that's easy to learn, hard to master.

Sure, I can shoot a Zoltraak beam every second, but controlling the beam after firing it needs focus, and I can't do that machinegun firing Fern does where she shoots multiple beams at once.

Or was it that she shot one at a time, but too fast to be reacted to? Damn, it's been too long since I've seen the anime.

As for Phaitagurd, it's as expected. A simple spherical shell made up of hexagon magic barriers, where each different number of said individual hexagons can be imploded alone or together, in either a wall formation, a semi-sphere to cover everything in one side, or the full sphere magic shell to cover all sides.

Annoyingly Qual, the demon sage guy, was right. Defensive magic takes up a lot of mana since technically each hexagon is it's own little barrier spell. After that, practicing Phaitagurd is all about speed. I have to cast it as fast, or even faster than Zoltraak, since it's important to stay alive more than killing your enemy, according to Schroff.

Honestly the mana cost isn't what worries me. The more I practice while observing the spell, the more I can find any energy leaks, and tweak it to optimize energy use, thus make it a sturdier structure. The issue I think is learning to deploy it fast enough.

No point in having a shield spell that you don't put up in time when attacked.

The most valuable thing I learned in these two months was how spells actually worked.

Yes, you expend your own mana, giving it intention, combine it with the World mana into a shape. That's a spell. Once the spell takes shape World mana ceases to be added to the spell structure, but it has to keep going and be maintained by your own mana. Even if you aren't fueling the spell anymore, just controlling and directing it still costs mana.

For example, let's say I made a simple half-spherical barrier take a cost of ten units World mana and ten units my personal mana (yes the mana of both sides, the external and internal, me and the World must be equal for the spell structure to be build and become stable), but then I'd have to maintain it by ten units of only my personal mana every minute. World mana can not to added to an already cast spell.

The same would be the case for a Zoltraak beam. But if, for example, I were to want to give the laser some extra oophm, I'd try and make the personal cost of the spell creation twenty units of mana, which the world mana needs to match, then I'd have to maintain it by twenty units of mana for however long I keep it firing, even if the normal shape of this spell needs ten mana units to keep functioning.

Also on top of all of this, I'm not mentioning the mana cost for mainpulating the World mana to direct it into shaping my spell.

Meaning the real mana cost for a standard Phaitagurd, would be something like ten mana units for directing the World mana, ten for shaping the spell and ten for firing, maintaining or controlling it.

This, as Old Schroff explained was known as Formed Spells, because it's take a solid structure of magic to form a spell. Or just 'Spells' as they are colloquially known.

However something like mana detection, my body strengthening, body healing, or even amateur telekinesis I managed up a few times, those are called Non-Formed Spells, or... mana control exercises, or mana techniques. They aren't recognized as spells, just a magic effect.

The reason why these Non-Formed Spells aren't seen spells is because a spell is recognized as a magic structure made up of two parts, personal mana and world mana.

As Schroff said, aspiring mages need Certainty. That's what "actual" spells provide.

Yes, there's room for belief and imagination that affect a spell's strength and potency, but a structured spells has a baseline of capability that gives it, well, certainty.

If you use a shield spell, it will stop a standard single ray of a killing spell.

If you used spell to make campfire, it will produce a flame large enough to set fire to firewood.

Non-Formed Spell are all about imagination without any structure, without any certainty.

"Thus completely useless to any mage with a working brain." Said Old Schroff.

Because according to his words, in the middle of anything real, anything important, how can you completely change your focus to just imagine things happening, and actually have enough belief that they will.

"You'd have to be a madman. Or a Priest." Schroff said, but didn't elaborate on the second part.

I kept practicing my mana control exercises while we walked up the mountain trail, focusing on training as usual.

Then I sensed something in my mana detection range that alarmed me. It's been there for a while now, but it seemed almost frozen in place. Likely sleeping.

Yet as we moved up the mountain and ended up getting closer, it woke up, and was now heading toward us. Fast.

It's also because it was awake that I noticed how different its mana felt. 

"Something weird is coming up toward us from the left side. It's," I thought for a moment. "Faster than a deer."

Schroff stopped for a bit and activated his mana detection. It felt like a powerful one pulse sonar, then he shut it down.

I wondered why he does that? I mean, sure it doesn't take mana to detect mana. Or rather if you have mana, you can detect mana. If there's a cost, it's too small to be noticed.

However, it is mentally tiring after a while, at least that's the reason I thought why mages don't have their mana detection on twenty-four-seven.

Still, in this new life I did a lot of meditation for my image training Jilwer and Reelseiden—For when I eventually get them and I will. One is so close!

So I just kept up my mana detection all the time. Using it in conjunction with mana suppression was like doing a breath focusing meditation exercise. I finally learned how to make my mana suppress seem natural. Just like I had to return my focus to my breath while meditation, I had to return my focus on keeping my mana in a stable flow while restricted.

After a month, I managed to push past any mental discomfort, and could keep mana detection up all the time. It took a while to keep up mana detection in my sleep, but I managed it after two month.

Managing this was godsend for perfecting mana suppression. Still can't manage it perfectly, but now I can practice it all the time more efficiently.

Although the full sight with mana was something I couldn't keep up all the time yet. Only the normal mana detection.

Neat coincidence, keeping mana detection up also helped in ensuring I learned Zoltraak and Phaitagurd well, even if Schroff said that kids can at least manage to cast the spell in a few hours, to maybe a day or two normally.

For me, I didn't see a point in casting the spells badly, so I kept up mana detection and suppression, to ensure when I finally got Offensive and Defensive magic, I got them right.

Which I did.

And right now something weird and vicious was coming toward us.

I had Zoltraak up and ready to fire, as a ball of glowing white energy hovered in front of my palm.

"Hmm, I guess it was inevitable we'd run into one." Schroff said, before glancing at my readied spell. "Good instincts."

"What is it?" I asked.

"What you'd expect when travelling in this world." Schroff replied.

The creature appeared, as I saw it come up the side of the steep hill we were walking on.

It looked like a wolf, but much bigger. It had black fur that was mangled in parts, showing scarred skin. Snow blue eyes, that glowed like an ice zombie, with drool and blood falling from it's open mouth and bared teeth.

It was not a wolf, and I don't think it was sleeping before.

I've seen wolves before. I've senses their mana. And no matter what, an animal's mana wouldn't have so much malice and negativity that I could instantly tell it was so, and feel it. Parsing emotions wasn't something you just got from another person's or being's mana. It took time and training. Something on my list of later skills to work on.

More importantly, this thing had five times the amount of mana a normal wolf would have.

"A monster." Schroff said.

It was a catch-all term for beings that were mutated by the world's mana, or are formed from it. Although almost all monster fall into the second category. The important thing is, they are beings that disintegrate into mana particles upon death.

Dust to dust and mana to mana, I suppose.

There are many of almost any kind. So I'm kinda surprised we only ran into one now.

"Alright, it's coming. I'll cover you, so show what you can do." Schroff said bluntly.

Oh sweet, real combat experience!

The direwolf was dashing toward us. It was like a motorcycle coming toward us in terms of speed, but due to it being a four-legged creature, the feel was different. Too real and too freaky.

That feel of air rising at the back of my neck was too real. I wanted to just turn and run, but that was stupid. I knew that logically that was stupid and what my brain wanted to do.

But I didn't. I'm not gonna run when my adventure hasn't even started. Heck, I didn't even finish my training arc yet!

I fired the Zoltraak.

The beam launched like an arrow right at the monster.

And missed.

The direwolf had jumped to the side and kept dashing forward.

I frowned. Aaah, nah, fuck that! 

I made and fire another Zoltraak beam.

And another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another.

The direwolf tried to evade them as before, but they were getting quicker. It still managed to dodge them. Slippery little shit.

I focused on one of the beams I fired, while letting the other keep going off around the direwolf, making it think I was panicking, while a single beam curved from behind and—

It jumped and let the beam pass by from under it.

Okay, isn't this thing a little too smart? No, I get it. This thing can sense mana.

Alright then.

"Fuck it." I stopped the Offensive Magic spell, stepped up and spread my arms wide, as if inviting the monster to a hug.

"Trenn." Schroff said from beside me, but I didn't look at him or address him, my focus on the beast.

"I know what I'm doing. I'll give you a shot to attack it." I said, focusing on readying the spell, waiting to get it just right.

The direwolf was fast.

Forty meters now.

Thirty meters.

Spell formed, ready to be cast.

Twenty, ten!

Wait. I commanded my panicking brain.

Five—It lunged into the air, jaws open.

"Phaitagurd!" I shouted the spell's name.

A Spell's named didn't needed to be called out to be cast. It was a child's mnemonic method to be able to cast them. A beginner's crunch, and I wasn't afraid to use it right now.

A barrier instantly sprung into existence.

I expected the monster to crash into the barrier, so I was ready to tilt it back, and divert the momentum to throw it behind me at any instant.

A Zoltraak in the back of my mind, ready to—

CRASH!

And then the biggest shock of my life thus far happen.

The direwolf crashed into the magic barrier...and stopped dead in it's tracks.

Like an animal it kept trying to push against it, bit by bit using it's strength to crack the shield open, from the divider of the individual hexagons.

I just made another barrier behind the one starting to weaken. And after a full minute, the direwolf expended it's beastly power to break the first barrier, and instantly was stopped by the second one. It started to push against the second to break it—

Thwip. Thwip. Thwip. 

Instantly three arrows pierced the direwolf.

One in its eye, one deep in its ear, and one through the neck.

It dead instantly.

It fell to the ground dead, looking straight at nothing.

Its dead white-blue eyes almost looked like they could see through me.

Then they disappeared as the monster's body blackened and disintegrated into mana particles.

"Not bad." Schroff said after a while, putting back his bow over his shoulder. "A tad too reckless, but even while afraid you kept your wits and acted as needed. Good job."

I stayed quiet for a while, my sudden inner turmoil slowly surely overtaking my mind.

"How come we never ran into one until now?" I asked, uncaring about the question, but trying to act normal and keep the conversation going.

"You didn't think travelling for two months without trouble on the road was luck, did you?" Schroff scoffed. "Magic's the answer. I used a trusty folk spell that detects predators, doesn't work on anything person smart, but would still detect scents and presences."

"Oh," I said, trying to sound interesting, engaged as usual but I was absent-minded. "Am I gonna learn those?" I think Schroff noticed, as rather than answer he simple grunted, and started walking again.

I said nothing as well, appricateing the silence.

The barrier stopped the direwolf.

I didn't belief for even a second that it would. Only divert it, delay it. Yet the Defensive Magic stopped it all the same.

Why? The answer instantly came to me, what Schroff kept talking about.

Certainty.

Mages want to make spells that gives them the effect they want.

So of course rather than take one spell and extrapolate it, they made many spells for many different situation, even twelve spells for making tea, or a hundred fucking different telekinetic spell, each for a different situation or requirement.

Because Spells offered certainty.

You cast a spell, you will get the bare expected minimum effect you want, because it is baked into the spells' structure to give you that effect. Anything extra due to imagination was just a bonus.

This will kill my dream. 

The thought, no matter how much I didn't want it, tried to reject it with all my being, entered my heart.

The Spells of this world as they exist will kill my dream of becoming the stronger using Jilwer and Reelseiden.

Limitation are baked into everything in the world.

I knew that. Of course I knew that.

Observation and study of the world will allow mages to create better spells. That's how progress works. The accumulation of time and knowledge to create something better.

...

But that is not how I want to do things. The more spells I learn, the more limitation I will be indoctrinated by.

That is not the path I want to walk.

Yet I can't stop learning and wait to find Reelseiden. I can't just sit down and do nothing and hope my chosen spells find me.

I will have to learn more spells as I go, to survive if nothing else.

So how can I solve this conundrum?

Learning the limits of this world, means learning how to exploit or overcome them.

But learning them also places those limiting chains on me. On my mindset and believes.

I have to figure out a solution before I learn my two spells, or I will doom myself to be nerfed forever.