Side chapter3: A Gamer's Starting Guide To Magic.
After finding an old chapter, I cleaned it up and thought it would be nice to share. The logic used in this chapter will guide future fights and magic interactions.
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Side chapter: A Gamer's Starting Guide To Magic.
[Ishtar] sat in her seat, focused on improving her control over other magics. Her limbs were still sore from Kikiri's combat and healing lessons yet she remained focused on her professor's current lessons. She didn't need to pass the course but learning new ways of using magical energy was always a good thing....
Day 2 Ishtar.
Location: The Hub.
Ishtar sat in the center of the classroom, scribbling down formulas and notes as her professor began his lecture on the various magic systems of different universes.
"Most magic systems are straightforward. They more or less follow the same concepts." He began, "Some of you might cast magic based on knowledge and calculations. Others use intent and imagination. The core of a lot of power systems is just some combination of these things." Ishtar remembered the stories of people who got almost repulsing amounts of strength during losing battles just because they really wanted to win.
Worlds where you could just use scientific facts to enhance your attack potency. Races that used the power of imagination and their versions of common sense to create what could only be described as miracles. It baffled her at first when she saw how strict the laws of her world were compared to others but now it didn't matter, neither she nor Shirou operated on their original world's logic and laws.
"Now then… which one of you would like to give me the gamer's generic description for what anything and everything Arcane actually is…" students shot their hands up wanting to answer the question for the extra points they'd get. "Ah, Dimitris you don't raise your hand often. You can answer this one!" the old professor beamed "Ah—all… alright then…" the student stood up "Dimitris."
"Yes, Yes, what is magic, Dimitris?"
"Magic is the act of manifesting Miracles, Curses, and everything in between through the use of energy."
The professor chucked "Yes that's partially correct, two points for you have a seat" he checked a few boxes as the young boy sat down "Similar to what that young man said, Using magic is the act of manifesting mana into the real world. Some consider it to be the act of skipping what usually would be essential steps to get desired results." Ishtar knew this far too well, the ability to bring about what is possible through Science with supernatural means was something her family prided themselves on greatly.
A student raised their hand, catching everyone's attention.
"Yes, Noelle?" her teacher asked "Why are we learning about this if the system can do it for us? Wouldn't it be more efficient to have us use skill books?"
The elderly man nodded at the question and smiled, "I was waiting for one of you to ask this." he started, " You see the system is a skip button for the skip button when it comes to magic-"
"What? That doesn't-"
"Hold on now. Don't jump to conclusions, young one. Let me explain." he hummed. " This shouldn't take too long..."
Snapping his fingers the classroom layout swapped in an instant, now resembling more of a lecture hall than a classroom. Why? No reason, Ishtar assumed he just liked the look of these types of rooms. Each desk held a small screen that showcased what the teacher was doing in case they somehow were unable to see him write. Ishtar appreciated the attempt at assistance despite its uselessness to her and the vast majority of the students. She decided on using it out of respect as did a few others.
"The magic gamers use is the result of pulling strings of logic from several different realities to create a system based on their best parts. All improvements at their core are awareness, processing, interpretation, and application." As the man spoke he channeled his mana into the surrounding devices
"To explain it in simple terms, If you want to cast a spell, learn its formula. If you want it to be strong or modify it, learn how it works and broaden your imagination."
He raised a hand, "For example. If you want to shoot a fireball it would be easy to just study the circle, commit it to memory, and let your mana do the work similarly to a person who switched on a computer and clicked an app to run a program you made. It'll run but you could always make it more efficient, less buggy. You'd do this by learning the science behind the spell."
It made sense to [Ishtar], after all, she spent more hours in her workshop studying magic theories when she was a child than the combined hours those students had lived. He drew several triangles close enough to form one larger triangle. On the top triangle, he wrote heat. On the bottom left, he wrote Oxygen, and on the bottom right Fuel. In the center read reaction.
"We all know how fire works, correct?" He took a moment to look around. "Heat a fuel source until it undergoes thermal degradation into smaller more volatile pieces that more often than not, react with air." The professor suddenly lit a flame, "Have your mana mimic that fuel source's atoms as they break free of the bonds holding them together and react with either oxygen or whatever ambient mana you can control to replicate the release of energy in the form of light and heat. You could pour more mana into the spell to enhance its potency or do that and figure out what chemicals your mana should mimic for the best results."
In her world magic and magecraft were in her opinion, not far more complex or incredibly intricate, just far more annoying to work with depending on who you asked. Magecraft allowed regular magi to accomplish almost anything, as long as they stayed within its boundaries and didn't exceed human knowledge of science and physics. If you understood the science behind it, you could use magecraft to recreate it, granted your Circuits, Origin, and Element didn't screw you over with something like being the embodiment of swords or something equally as illogical/stupid.
More often than not, anything that could be understood by human intelligence was deemed possible. If one person couldn't accomplish it, another could. This naturally excluded True Magic or the ability to perform feats with mana incapable of being replicated through human wisdom as it didn't follow any laws set in place by science and physics.
It was governed by something even divine beings couldn't completely comprehend, only known as "Mystery". In her reality, it wasn't possible to use it since that would mean they were able to reach the root of Akasha and could understand the truth behind the magic they wished to learn. One could only get so close to performing such a miracle without reaching the root. Hell with the obstacles stopping magi from reaching the root you could call getting close to it a miracle.
Sometimes she wished the age of gods returned despite how most gods seemed like trash humans when you read their legends. The modern magus were far inferior to the magus of old, They were born further away from the Age of Gods and as a result, had lower-quality circuits, and lacked the ability to get magical energy directly from the root, unlike their Age Of Gods ancestors who lived alongside it. Nowadays, most Magus were becoming more scarce, dying out either because their offspring weren't born with the capabilities to use magical energy or because too many people learned how to use their magecraft weakening the spells of their craft. Finally, the world fought against them and degraded their spells forcing them to use more energy than what these gamers would call normal to keep up their effects because it considers them abnormalities.
She was lucky that her version of reality was more 'loose' than others. Unlike most of the other universes adjacent to hers, The damage could still be reversed. They had started the process, but some weak pissy manchild became more active during the 5th Grail war despite dying all the way back in the 3rd Grail war and started tainting all things mana-related at a faster rate. She never thought the Einzberns could be so stupid, summoning an illegal servant like that. They screwed the entire system over and the worst part about it is that nobody knew about it! The few that did either were taken out of the equation by Angra's curses or just didn't care enough to realize the threat the false deity posed to their existence. They nearly died and only succeeded because of the deal she made, not that anybody besides Shirou and herself would ever know.
At least now there was abundant magical energy in the new world she and Shirou called home, The rules surrounding the system of power were less restricting. Mainly because magic didn't exist in that world... yet. The Gamer's Oracles predicted it would change rather quickly once she descended to her role as companion officially.
Now that she really had time to think about it, attempting to reach the root of Akasha through the grail was not worth the risk it brought. There were various ways to reach the root, the most common being the flawed rituals known as the holy grail wars. some versions of reality had a tournament, others made it a team deathmatch, wars between countries, and there was even a world where they used strange cards and wands to transform into magical girls and boys. Her reality hosted the generic grand battle between seven magi chosen by the grail to be masters of servants, heroic spirits from humanity's history who would be forced to fight each other on their behalf. A magical battle royale if you will. In almost every reality its purpose was to punch a hole through reality to reach the root of Akasha using the combined energy of the fallen servants.
The problem with this was that no human could possibly hope to grasp the grail and complete the ritual, they'd die. Their solution? Just allow the last surviving master and servant pair to get a slightly less powerful wish from the grail. This would be fine if the Einzberns cheat and accidentally pull the world's weakest servant yet the most annoying one to deal with, Avenger Angra Mainyu during the third grail war.
His history was quite depressing since he was suddenly chosen by his fellow villagers as the cause for all the calamities afflicting it and tortured to insanity. Claiming him the be the source of all the world's, they carved the names and words of all things that cursed humanity and committed every sin imaginable to his body until they quite literally were a part of him. they wouldn't let him die of anything besides old age. after a while, the beliefs of the villagers and the foul treatment of him manifested as a curse made entirely of the evil he supposedly represented marking his body and spirit. These curses, All the world's evils would eventually taint the grail causing any and all wishes made on it from that point forward to manifest in the most destructive manner possible.
Do you wish for a sandwich that never runs out? Great now every bite you take causes everyone else to suffer radiation poisoning or might steal nutrients from homeless orphaned kids. Do you want to stop a civil war? sure why not? If you nuke both sides the war stops!
It was depressingly comical how much of a monkey's paw it had become.
Trying to understand the Einzberns' intentions in summoning him, Ishtar found herself lost in a labyrinth of thoughts. Was it because of his name that they believed him to be some kind of divine spirit, like a Persian god? His name definitely fits the bill. She wondered how they felt watching him die immediately upon arriving on the battlefield, did his weakness leave everyone bewildered? Ishtar thought about how they must have felt when the magus killer found out Angra had given the grail food poisoning the moment his mana returned to it. It was all so confusing, trying to understand how something so deadly could go unnoticed for so long.
Ishtar thought it best to stop pondering this matter, lest she hurt her head. She sighed knowing it was still almost impossible trying to reach the root through other means.
Throughout history, only a few managed to reach it, and even fewer returned. Nobody knows what happens to the souls that reached the root, not even the gamers. Some speculate they became gods, while others say they became a part of it.
Even if they managed to return, they would have Gaia, the will of the planet, and Alaya, the collective subconsciousness of humanity, counteracting them the moment they get close. They would die if they were not prepared. Ishtar hoped she spoke for everyone when she said that she was not going to risk ceasing to be just to be hunted down by the spirits of her ancestors as long as she lived if she won the gamble or potentially being killed by a counter guardian over the right to say she can high-five herself in another version of her reality. Fortunately, this was not the case in their new world. No more universal forces were trying to undo their spells or kill them the moment they figured out how to look into other universes. They just needed to get good enough, strong enough, and intelligent enough to keep the spells they cast functional.
Ishtar's train of thought was derailed by her professor's sudden use of magic. She turned her attention back to the class watching as the elderly man showcased proof of his vast knowledge of everything magic, "Additionally, we can strengthen and modify our magic with our intent, emotions, and imagination." The elderly man began to use the spells he could think of as examples, " Fire that freezes, Ice that burns, Maybe even a spell that turns pain and emotions into raw physical strength." He finished by biting his thumb and punching a hole through a generic anatomy mannequin laughing as he pulled his fist out and watched it slowly repair itself, "All of this, when used properly, allows us to remove the limitations of physics and logical assumptions to soar towards new heights..."
"Hold on." another student raised their hand and spoke up.
The elderly man nodded allowing the boy to air out his thoughts, "If I'm hearing this correctly this means that whenever you use a skill book or scroll you only know of the spell and you don't actually understand it until you begin to use and train it manually."
"Yes, that is the case. 'Knowing' and 'understanding' are related concepts, but they're different. You might know what fire is and what it's made up of but that doesn't mean you would understand what causes it. anybody could grab some rocks and cause a few sparks to light up some wood but it doesn't mean you can explain what's happening." Ishtar was starting to believe this man liked fire a bit too much, she lost count of how many times he had related his lessons to it.
"Now that you know this, I would like you all to understand that using magic through the system is not you using magic. The system uses your mana to cast the spell and depending on the variation of the spell it might be shot from your palms but it is NOT you. Think of it like using Autoplay in a game. You might upgrade the equipment and level the characters but you're not actually playing the game if it's on. You don't learn, you don't truly grow, and you'll just get to a level of power you'll never truly be capable of controlling. The only exception to this rule is analysis and skills of that nature because the purpose of those abilities is rooted in acquiring greater perception, processing, and or interpretations of the target."
Ishtar raised her voice, "This is why most systems give extra rewards to people who use skills manually, to draw people into actually learning while increasing their power potential, right?"
"That's correct! It's our way of preparing our users for beings who might be able to bypass the system's defenses!"
"Bypass? What do you mean by that? Stats are applied instantly-"
"Technically yes they are, However..." The man let out a sigh as he caused some chalk to levitate, drawing out visual descriptors of what began to explain, "When you raise a stat, you get a magic-based enhancement from the system for a short time. Let's say you increase your Strength by 5. The system will use a unique version of body-strengthening magic to give you a temporary boost of 5 points. This magic eventually modifies your body to produce the same amount of damage without requiring the boost. This applies to all stats except for Luck, which most systems are ignoring for now."
After setting down the chalk, he challenged the class to imagine what could happen if someone were to bypass the system. The students were quick to gasp, indicating their awareness of the risks. "If the system is bypassed by one of these malicious entities, your recently added stats or even the entire system may become inaccessible for a brief period. While the spells used to bypass the system are constantly evolving, we have managed to neutralize most of the threats with the help of those who can modify the system. Additionally, those who don't solely rely on the system for their strength have contributed to reducing the energy required for system recovery. As a result, the recovery time for one person has been reduced to half a day while the status recovery takes only an hour."
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To Be Continued--->
Next Chapter: The World Around Us.
Next Side Chapters: Demon Huntress 2 and Everywhere Yet Nowhere.
Author's note
Just an old chapter that I had written up and rewritten like twenty times before settling on this. Should be a good base to remind myself how the hell things should be working around these parts. Bit funny how the previous chapter is shorter than the side chapter but it is what it is. I also have four other stories in progress, I haven't even uploaded their first chapters despite having like twelve docs and Grammarly pages for them. Real shame I haven't updated in a while. I'll fix that once I get this story further along, I'd rather not have to split my focus up that much.