12 History of Magic

Baldy left the room quietly to let Nate and others absorb the mana of the crystal. They were level 2 mana crystal taken from the dead body of stage 2 magic beast. For new mages, the mana was enough to skip a few levels but that would happen only if they could absorb all of it.

They would probably lose 20-30% during absorption and remaining mana that got absorbed in their body wouldn't be digested in time. So at most they could level up once which was what Baldy wanted.

After 3 or so hours Nate and others finished absorbing the mana in the crystal and they now had a transparent crystal in their hand. It had lost its color but was still hard and shiny. Nate moved his body which was sore from sitting still for hours but the mana inside of him was raging like a fire. He felt like he had advanced couple of level and could summon new guns if he tried.

Baldy came in to check the progress and nodded with satisfaction as he saw the mana fluctuation in the bodies of Nate and others.

"Okay, let's go out for lunch and after that, I'll teach you the basics of magic." Baldy clapped his hands to wake Nate and others from there trance and led them towards the dining hall.

After half an hour later the group again gathered in a small field surrounded by a fence. Baldy led them there for magic practice. There were wooden dummies, rocks, woods, and other stuff to try their magic on.

"Before, we began let's talk about magic. Do you know the levels of magic and its classification?" Baldy questioned like a tutor while Nate and others simply shook their heads.

"The magic is divided into external and internal casting and there are ten stages and ten sub-levels between every ten stages. So a mage has a total of 100 levels to advance to reach the peak." Surprisingly Olly answered the question. But it was a general knowledge most people would know about so there wasn't any extra-ordinary reaction to his answer.

Nate didn't know because he didn't inherit original Nate's memories and others were from a common background who didn't have much hope in awakening so they didn't really care about its history.

"Yes, there are ten-stages and ten-sub levels in each stage, so a hundred levels in total. But this wasn't the case 2 centuries ago. But the history of magic itself isn't that old as the first magic ever recorded was only 4 centuries ago. So the concept of magic, mana, and mages is still considered very young and ever expanding.

Until two centuries ago, magic was divided into 10 stages and that was divided according to the innate abilities one had awakened. Besides the abilities we learn through the research, there are abilities that a mage awakens throughout his advancement with the increase of mana in their body. 9 abilities have been recorded so far and tenth being kept as the striving goal by the magic council." Baldy explained as he looked at the expressions.

He laughed as he saw a faint smile on their faces and a bright light in their eyes. It was like he was a grandfather telling stories to his grandchildren.

"Mr. Baldy, what is magic council? And what's with these ten stages and ten-sub levels?" Nate asked confused by the division of level. If the stages were divided by the innate abilities a mage awakens then he didn't see a reason to divide those stages into further sub-levels.

"Magic council is a separate neutral powerhouse that is focused on research of magic since the last two centuries and it has a considerable amount of authority all over the surrounding kingdom. High-level mages go there to acquire more knowledge and the council accepts mages from any kingdom so they are related or connected to most of the kingdoms in this continent."

"And as for the stages, before the era of Archmage Lydia people only focused on their innate abilities to grow stronger. So even the high-level mage only had 6 or 7 spells in their arsenal. There were strong and vulnerable at the same time, as many couldn't advance to a higher level so those who fought the war only had 3 or 4 spells to attack or defend themselves.

While many followed the tradition and accepted magic as the gifts given by gods, there were few exceptions who believed magic as a part of their body and should be exploited according to their will not by the rules someone else laid for them. Archmage Lydia was one of such person and the one who succeeded in her goals reach the peak." Baldy said as should his palm.

On top of Baldy's palm, thin red particles of mana started to gather and flame hovered atop his hand in the shape of a ball.

"This is a fireball, the 1st innate spell for most fire mages who are an external caster," Baldy said as he poured in more mana and the ball was divided into 4 more fireballs with a smaller size. Baldy then pointed his hands towards the wooden dummies. 4 small fireballs struck 4 different dummies and ignited its head on fire and soon the whole dummy burnt down to crisp, turning into ashes.

"Two centuries ago fire mages were not able to do that. And that spell is not my 2nd innate spell or my third. It came with the understanding of magic and mana control. You can say the sub-levels are the amount of control and knowledge a mage has over his spells." Baldy held out his hand again and this time a sword made of fire appeared in his hand.

"I'm a fire mage and as long as I control my mana and control how my mana reacts when the fireball is cast, I can change its shape to my desire and divided them into smaller fireballs, lower its power and even increase it. All of this can't be counted as a fireball as they are different from the spells awakened naturally and has different effects. You can say it is entirely a different spell despite being based on fireball as they can be cast in different ways and have a different effect on the target." Baldy continued to lecture more about the mana and how to control mana.

Nate listened seriously as a new path had opened before him. Nate's first summon was a pistol a colt 1911 pistol to be exact. At the same time, he could summon a knife and bow and arrow as well. This meant as long as he could control his mana properly he could summon a different type of pistol or knife as they fell under the same category.

While he was listening to baldy, he pictured a different a different pistol in his mind and tried to summon it. He caught his summon and a faint smile appeared in his lips as the weight was different this time.

Looking at the gun he was holding a row of information appeared in his mind.

{Beretta 92FS, a semi-automatic pistol designed and manufactured by Beretta Italy. The model 92 was designed in 1972 and production of many variants in different calibers continues today. The US military replaced colt M1911 A1 .45 pistol in 1985 with Beretta 92FS, designated as M9. M9 holds 15 rounds and fires 9mm bullets...}