Magic of the Mind

As Vali stood before the books that he had always wanted to dive into, he thought back to everything he had learned so far about magic. The magical container he had always wanted to know more about when he was just born, was apparently their source of magic and it was a metaphysical existence.

Science and its researchers wouldn't be able to pull out the source of magic by analyzing a living being with material means. Simply put, magic was vastly related to the soul, though there were exceptions where certain beings had bodies with magical properties that in turn influenced the soul.

An Asgardian had magic in both his soul and body which in turn complemented one another, though their quantities were mostly uneven. A prime example would be the existence of the Aesir, who had a warrior heritage and the Vanir, who had a heritage in sorcery.

The Aesir were born with a magically enhanced physiology owing to having more magic in their bodies than their souls, making them less adept in the art of magic and the Vanir, were the exact opposite. Though both could train their less talented aspects to match with their innate gifts with hard work, luck and maybe a few fortunate encounters.

Luck might be in the form of divinities they possess when they're born, or later awaken owing to the experiences they go through growing up.

Existences like Odin who were born as Aesir, but still went on to become one of the most magically gifted beings are exceptions, but also clear proof that it was certainly possible to overcome innate restrictions.

Now, Vali on the other hand was born as an Aesir as well, and from what he found after taking a few tests two years ago was a little shocking to say the least. Vali Odinson was found to have a poor aptitude in magic, and when that news reached Loki, it was music to his ears and he made sure to spread the news of having surpassed his genius younger brother.

Loki went on to organize several parties back then, as he had danced with wild abandon. He even lost a few marbles in his unconstrained joy by showing up in front of Vali to show off his childish superiority, only to be put in place by the Prince of Vengeance reminding Loki that his garbage 'so called' magic, was nothing more than mere hoodwinking tricks that wouldn't work on him.

Vali who had received the results of the analysis wasn't completely surprised at all, as it wasn't a big deal not primarily being able to use magic anyway. He wasn't planning to become a sorcerer who flung spells left, right and centre; his primary reliance in combat would always belong to his godly body which he religiously honed in this life.

He had already prepared for himself to have a poor talent in sorcery after being born as an Aesir and having two divinities that mostly complemented his body at this stage. In fact, it was almost ludicrously difficult for him to hop into the field of sorcery through hardwork and whatnot, when his composition was completely skewed towards the body.

Even Thor had a divinity in domain of thunder and lightning, allowing him to use one of most versatile and deadly of elemental magics if needed. But Vali wasn't Thor, he wouldn't neglect magic the same way the God of Hammers did. He knew that magic was what made them all different, and that it was the key to becoming a higher existence.

Vali already had a plan for his main magical pathway he was going to follow in the future, but that was for another time as he now planned to study mind magic. Thankfully, he had a supreme aptitude for it, and mind magic was heavily reliant on talent, will and state of mind.

All three of which he was heavily confident in and certain to breeze through, as even in his previous life when he had a mortal body, his mind was what made him unique as he had already broken through its mortal limitations owing to his powerful although incomplete soul, and him being a dreadful hunter amongst many intelligent human beings was primarily reliant on his prodigious mind.

His innately monstrous body needed an equally or more monstrous mind, and especially when he taps into his divinity, or he would have to hold on to his sanity solely with his impeccable will. His mind has always been his most potent weapon, and now that he has a body on a level that screams 'disaster', he would have to make his mind a lot stronger than that.

Based on his calculations and what he has been through, his 'truth eyes' needed a strong mind and body. It now worked solely with the help of his physique, and that led him to believe that as his mind grew stronger, it would be possible to partially unearth the potential of his 'truth eyes'.

But as he read through the content stored on mind magic, he was sorely disappointed. He had a feeling that this going to happen after his conversations with Lorelei, who was supposedly among the leading experts on the topic in the realm. They used and developed mind magic in the direction of mind control and other mind attacks, but what Vali was after was the defense and optimization Mind magic provided to the mind.

The knowledge here on mental defenses using Mind magic was extremely crude if anything. Most Asgardians who went through the Mind magic section, did so to counter it and protect themselves against it. They formed a basic crude shell around their mindscapes as defense, that provided them with time, delaying any opposing Mind magician, allowing the Asgardians to bring the battle to reality in the form of close combat or direct spells.

Even Mind battles fought were based on who could break the other's shell faster with brute force. He soon browsed through several scrolls and parchments, skipping over the similar and repetitive knowledge. He finally chanced upon an old dusty book that helped a person develop their mindscape, and this was exactly what he needed to optimize and better develop his mind.

As he read through the book, he came to realize how complicated the process was and reason why this book remained unused. The entire procedure of developing a mindscape was like reaching out into the dark hoping to find a few pebbles, and how fast you found those pebbles depended completely on luck or the talent of a person. A talented person would be able to better sense the pebbles in the darkness, as for the inept, they'd have to be patient relying on luck as time went by.

Without any way to accurately calculate the talent of a person in the mind magic since it involved several parameters, the whole process of learning this magic in the beginning was reliant on trial and error. Thankfully, Vali was confident that his talent was more than sufficient but even then, with all the difficulty he didn't find himself developing the bases for his mindscape with anything less than a decade.

Completely improving and reinforcing his mind to a level above his body might take close to a century if his calculations were anywhere accurate. As he contemplated over how to proceed, he soon resolutely came to a conclusion that it had to be done. There were approximately 800 years till most events of the canon started, if his knowledge from his previous life was accurate and there weren't any changes because of him that is.

He had several plans to accomplish, to become a higher existence before the start of the events so that he could easily profit from the future events. After coming back from his thoughts, he decided that he'd spend the next 100 years developing his mind, and whipping his brothers into shape.

He was confident that he would able to learn and absorb knowledge monstrously faster after he finished with the overhaul of his mind, allowing him to develop his own magical pathway that he had been planning.

He soon started memorizing the scribbles from the dusty book, and days went by as he stood there motionlessly with the book in his hand, in front of the shelves. The Archives had noise and minor magic nullifying runes that came into being after a person started reading, to prevent them from being disturbed.

The Archives were after all a very crucial place responsible for the direction of development in the realm, as researchers and scholars gathered in certain chambers to discover and develop new magic and technology. So, the place had very low traffic as the other citizens rarely visited.

Vali who had finally finished reading through everything after a week, sighed as he prepared for his next long course of action. He returned the book to the shelves, making the runes providing privacy to finally disappear. He soon turned around only to spot Skarf, his personal ground down on the floor asleep beside his foot.

As soon as Vali spotted him, the man who was on the floor sleeping like a log, shot straight up with alertness in his eyes. Vali mused looking at this easy-going personal guard of his, and then thought of his other guard who had left the realm, who was stronger, more diligent and even a better overall subordinate making him his deadly blade.

Since Frodi was better at everything relating to battle, Vali trained Skarf in a completely different direction. He was training him to become a wildcard among the pack, to leave an unpredictable effect on the events that he simply had no control over. He mostly taught him the art of survival and sensing danger, and all the simple but useful tricks from his last life.

He knew Frodi must be gaining a lot of experience from the place he had sent him to, so he couldn't hold back on training Skarf either. 'I'll pull him along when I deal with Thor and Loki' thought Vali.

He soon walked out of hallway and made a beeline for the exit, followed by his guard as Vali made sure to avoid eye contact with the librarian at all costs. He had just internally sighed in relief as he made it out when his muscles slightly tensed as he sensed something, he slowly turned towards Skarf and casually said, "We'll be extremely busy during the coming years, let's get drunk before we return to the palace."

Skarf who was surprised by the prince's sudden change in demeanor as he was sure that Vali never drank, made sure not to show any abnormalities on his face as he followed along after nodding obediently. Not long after they had left, the librarian who was supposedly at her desk also appeared at the place Vali had just left.

She turned in the direction he had left towards and muttered, "Interesting indeed!" before she dissipated leaving no evidence of her existence a second ago.

Vali who had put on a casual expression on his face, walking towards the taverns suddenly relaxed a little going unnoticed by everyone. He then turned towards Skarf before speaking up, "Go and get a barrel in a jiffy, we'll take it back to the palace and relax there."

The guard replied with happiness in his tone, "Don't worry my Prince, I shall return in a minute." as he ran into the tavern.

Skarf had back then noticed the sudden changes in Vali's bearing, and the careful act from the prince back at library was a signal, that meant they were being observed and to not speak of anything important. He kept his thoughts to himself as he was sure the prince would eventually inform him when they reached the confines of the palace, and decided to secretly raise his guard on their way back.

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A slight training arc for the next few chapters, Peace.

Btw, the talk about Aesir, Vanir, the source of power and whatnot are pretty original, for the sake of flow and future events in the story.

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Won't be posting any advanced chapters there, though you can donate 3$ and buy me a cup of coffee for the time I've spent writing, if you're interested. Peace.