Being isolated from the outside world, I’m not sure how concurrent the knowledge I was able to gather from these dusty tomes was, but my understanding of this world is starting to take shape.
I am currently on the Isle of Mist, an uncharted island in the bay of Rapforth some distance off the coast. The nearest major city to us was the city of Rapforth in the Casparian Empire.
The human Casparian Empire resides in the middle of the Aeterra continent some considerable distance north of here. The empire is flanked by two major countries, The elvish Republic of Mastria to the west and the dwarven Kingdom of Hearthon to the east. The races intermingle intermittently but the political landscape of each country is still dominated by the aforementioned races.
The empire has been at war with the other two countries for nearly a hundred years, but the past 80 years have led to a bloody stalemate as the empire’s borders began to stagnate.
I couldn’t find much more on the political landscape and for all I know this knowledge is a hundred years outdated since I don’t know the current year.
Despite lacking texts on world affairs, the library provided ample information on the fundamentals of magic. Alongside the instruction from Master Korbyn, I was able to grasp an elementary understanding of magic.
Infusion magic allows a caster to infuse mana directly into one or more parts of their body, strengthening the muscles and hardening the skin. Although it is easy to learn for those capable of detecting mana, without even strengthening of the ligaments and joints your limbs could be ripped off under exertion.
There are several schools of infusion magic that specialize in different body enhancement techniques. The only infusion magic we have learned so far is ‘quick feet’; it allows a user to channel mana into their legs and feet to achieve enhanced speed and the ability to jump higher.
In the field of conjuring, we have been able to achieve the grade 1 air spell ‘silence’, which creates a small vacuum bubble to contain sound, after several weeks of instruction.
After learning the silence spell, we were taught to conjure the other 5 elements and I was able to learn a few grade 1 spells for all of the elements within the next two and a half months. A spell requires 4 main elements to activate:
- The caster must be able to detect, visualize, and expel mana from their body. This step is necessary to form a matrix and runes
- The caster must first form a matrix using pure mana. The matrix could take the form of any shape, but the more complex it is the harder the subsequent steps become.
- Runes of power, the caster must fill the newly formed matrix with runes of power to direct and channel the spell. The runes of power determine the behaviour of the mana and how it will flow through the matrix.
- Activation, the caster must supply the spell with the proper amount of mana to each source of the spell. Too little mana and the spell will diffuse, too much mana and the spell may be overloaded and explode, potentially killing its caster.
A spell’s form is only visible to the caster but the results are visible to all, although there exists spells capable of reading another caster’s spell form. Crafting a spell reminds me of programming back on earth. If you do it right the results are beautiful, but it only takes one mistake to crash it all.
A spell's grade is determined by 2 factors, the matrix’s dimensions, and the number of elements. A spell that uses 2 elemental attributes but resides on a one dimensional matrix is a grade 3 spell. A grade 3 spell could also consist of a two dimensional matrix with one element. A grade 1 spell usually consists of only manipulating 1 element and no conjuring because a matrix is absent.
For example, the ‘silence’ spell creates a vacuum simply by dividing the air already present and producing a thin vacuum over which sound will not travel. While grade 1 spells are the easiest to cast and quick to activate, the absence of runes and a matrix leave only pure mana which in its natural state is inefficient at elemental manipulation.
By these rules, a grade 10 spell must consist of either a 7th element or a 4th dimension; for this reason many believe grade 10 magic to be just a myth.
Tomorrow we will be picking our weapon specializations. We will still continue to train with all the other weapons but the vast majority of our future combat training will be done so with our preferred weapons.
I found out I’m average with the spear and axe placing both 4/7 in sparring. I’m terrible at archery, placing dead last in the rankings(7/7) but I didn’t expect much from archery since I’ve never had very steady hands. I fared pretty well in swordplay placing 2/7 just behind Austin, but where I really shined was with knives and short swords. Since knives were an essential part of an assassin's repertoire due to their ease of concealment, we were all required to reach a certain degree of proficiency with them anyway, so I have decided that I will be specializing in short swords.
There are a few swords that fall into the class of short sword but the one that caught my eye was the spatix; it’s a one sided blade that most resembles what I would call a wakizashi back on earth. The one sided nature of the blade allows the user to block with a greater force of leverage by placing their offhand on the flat side of the blade. At a length of only about 17.5 inches(44.5cm) I can easily strap it to my back so my cloak can conceal it.
From what they’ve told me Austin is planning to pick the sword, his best weapon 1/7, and Mara the bow in which she scored 1/7 in our class. Mara, Austin, and I have gotten pretty close in the last 3 months. It’s nice to have sparring partners outside of class and we’ve begun to realize each other’s weaknesses and often practice to correct them. They're both nice kids, even if they are a pain in the ass sometimes…oops, speak of the devil. Mara has a habit of sneaking up on people, and her bad influence is rubbing off on Austin. Normally she is more successful but the atmosphere of the library does little to help hide her presence and Austin is not nearly as good with the silence spell as she is.
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“If you’re trying to spook me, you should try leaving the elephant at home next time.” I mocked the two without turning my head.
“Hey, I resent that.”Austin rebutted with an upset voice.
"Aww, come on! You're no fun, Marcus. You know that, right?" Mara complained in a pouty voice.
“Preaching to the choir, Mara.” I responded.
“Yeah, yeah. Whatcha reading this time? A cookbook? Oh, a tale of star crossed lovers perhaps?” Mara mocked me with impunity.
“If you must know it’s a tome on 2nd dimension spell crafting” I replied.
“Nerd” she replied with a disinterested voice. “Austin and I were just going to get in a little extra practice before dinner, want to come with?” She offered.
Today was a Sunday, the only day a week we were given off class apart from the morning roll call. “I suppose I could spare some time.” I relented as I closed my book.
We made our way to the sundered courtyard as the sky began to darken. The deep fog was penetrated by little but the sun and moon. The Mist academy consisted of 5 grades. A trainee began their first year after their completion of Phase one(Physical augmentation). Phase two began at age 13 and Phase three would begin in the fourth year of education at age 16. By the end of the 5th year, Phase three would be complete and a trainee would graduate into a full fledged adept at the age of 18.
Each class consisted of a maximum potential of 10 students although the real number of students was much closer to 7 due to the fatality rate of Phase one. Each class was assigned a single courtyard and our class had exclusive rights to the sundered courtyard.
As we arrived at the courtyard there was no sign of the other four trainees in our class, so we got the whole thing to ourselves. In the past few months I wasn’t able to get closer to any other students. The other three boys formed a little clique but we never caught so much as their names. The last girl remained aloof and soon faded from my interest.
“Hand to hand, best of 3, winner takes on Marcus?” Mara issued a challenge to Austin who promptly nodded. I nodded in agreement and used the infusion spell ‘quick feet’ to propel myself up to a branch on the tree where I could spectate from a comfortable seat.
I signaled the start of the first bout with a whistle, as is tradition, and the two took off like a pair of angry bulls. Austin opened up with a right hook which Mara promptly dodged with a sidestep.
Mara followed up with a sweeping kick aimed to throw Austin's right leg off balance. He responded swiftly by infusing mana into his legs. Mara had done so as well but the resulting kick only managed to knock him back a step.
The two went back and forth for a minute trading blows, but aside from a few jabs here and there, they were all blocked.
Seeing that he was making little progress, Austin kept throwing harder and harder punches meant to overwhelm Mara’s defense.
As Austin winded up for a strong roundhouse kick, Mara began to crack a smile. She cast the grade 1 spell ‘disturb earth’, Austin found his balance disrupted as the ground beneath his standing foot betrayed him.
The kick flew hopelessly off target as Mara ducked under his leg. Having lost his balance, Austin took a tumble as Mara moved in to go for a pin.
Despite his struggling, Austin soon found himself in a joint-lock and on the losing side of the first bout.
They continued scrapping for another 15 minutes as Austin was able to claim the remaining two rounds. Austin’s style of fighting relied on his sturdy form and strong attacks. Mara on the other hand preferred a nimble and flexible style of fighting. That is to say that she was able to catch him off guard in the first bout but Austin wouldn’t fall for the same trick again and this time had his own magic to reinforce his footing.
I hopped down from my branch and prepared for my match with Austin. He was usually a tough opponent to face but I found that when provoked he likes to throw his weight around. When his form becomes sloppy like that, the best tactic is to use his momentum against him.
“Alright, how about we make this match best of one? I’m hungry and rumor has it that the kitchen is serving honey bread tonight. If we don’t hurry there may be none left by the time we arrive.” I addressed Austin.
“Don’t tell me, is that a hint of fear from the mighty Marcus?” Austin mocked me.
“Nevermind, I’ll just go to the kitchen now” I replied. I was not going to fall for such cheap provocation.
“Fine, best of one it is.” Marcus reluctantly agreed.
With a sigh I moved into position and awaited the start signal from Mara.
As soon as the whistle blew, Austin charged in and opened with a flurry of punches. I blocked the first set of punches with my guard while looking for openings in his stance.
I had the strength to keep up with Austin’s attacks and I didn’t want to waste time looking for jabs that would cause him little damage. Instead I used a sudden burst of quick feet to create distance between the two of us.
Austin soon followed suit with his own cast of quick feet as I tried to disrupt his footing with the grade 1 earth spell ‘disturb earth’. He responded by using his own to wrestle control of the ground away from me.
He was approaching fast as I failed to destroy his footing, but it was only a distraction meant to hide my true intentions.
For the past week I have been working on learning my first grade 2 spell, ‘earth spike’. A grade 2 spell differed from a grade 1 spell in two primary ways:
- A grade 2 spell consisted of a one dimensional matrix which allowed for the conjuring of runes
- The runes of power engraved on the matrix allows a much more efficient channeling of mana so the effects are much greater than a grade 1 spell
Earth spike was the most simple grade 2 earth spell so I decided it would be the first grade 2 spell I would learn. It could be cast entirely from conjuring but if summoned from the ground, there would be more mana diverted to the momentum of the spell that would normally be lost to conjure the element.
I cast the earth spike spell in front of Austin albeit with a small modification to round the tip as I did not wish to impale him. We had only learned grade 1 light manipulation for healing and it could only close minor wounds and erase bruising.
Austin flinched in shock as he tried to stop himself to no avail. Unable to stop his momentum from the quick feet spell, he charged into a pillar of earth and the wind was knocked out of him.
While he reeled in pain and shock as his breath failed him, I moved swiftly to cast a first aid healing spell to relieve his suffering right after Mara called the match.
After a minute of recovery, Austin was back to his usual self and all that remained was his sense of shock. “What the hell dude! When did you learn 2nd grade magic?” He interrogated me as Mara looked at me with the same question in her eyes.
“Just now. I have a pretty solid understanding of the fundamentals of 2nd grade magic but this was the first time I actually tried to cast it.” I replied nonchalantly.
“It’s actually quite simple, because it’s only one dimensional you only have to worry about what order you place the runes in because the matrix is just a line.” I added.
“Of course man, but how do you shape the runes and maintain their shape? You got to teach us sometime.” Austin requested and Mara nodded in agreement.
“Fine, come with me to the library after class tomorrow and I’ll give you two some pointers.” I offered to the two of them who eagerly agreed.
After practice we made our way to the kitchen which in fact did not have any honey bread to my dismay.
We soon fell into a routine of studying together in the library as I imparted my knowledge and findings to the others in my free time. I wouldn’t teach them all of my tricks, but I hoped that by teaching them magic they would look up to me. I needed to build a degree of trust and loyalty among my comrades that exceeds that of the Mist clan’s.
The Mist clan relied on fear to keep their assassins in line and any attempts to flee the clan’s influence would end in an expedient tracking and execution. I would be a fool to attempt fleeing alone and Austin and Mara are my best chance of successfully escaping.
I have no desire to murder for some shady organization with questionable ethics. I will decide my own path in this life. I will swim against the river of fate until it kills me or freezes over. To achieve the control that I lacked in my previous life, that is what I intend to do.