31 Worrying About the Examination

It took some time for Foo to calm down. But realizing that there were still hope, Foo thought: ``This `no magic can effect you` must be referring to negative forms of magic, right? There is no way that it would prevent me from being healed, and definitely not from using it myself!``

With these reassuring thoughts, Foo turned to the stunned old man, and said: "Ahahaha, forget about what I said. It was just some musings about the trashy magic system that you have. Err, I mean the illogical magic system. Anyway, lets just go with whats works!"

The old man woke up from his stupor and answered: "I have no idea what you were talking about, but it was unimaginably deep and profound! I could feel the world around us vibrate in agitation, as if it were happy that someone finally understood it. But the magic around us gave the feeling of being oddly depressed... Anyway, please explain more about this `energy types` that you were talking about."

But there was no way that Foo would go further in that path. Just by casually mention some flaws in the magic system, the outcome was disastrous. If he were to be more diligent in pointing out the improper construction of magic, it might end up questioning its own existence, before disappearing for good. And that would not do!

Foo was really excited at the thought of using magic. He would never be able to forgive himself if he somehow were to cause it to disappear. Magic was illogical by nature, so lets just leave it at that,

To protect the existence of magic, Foo could only take this discussion back on track: "Never mind that! Lets just go back to learning magic. You were talking of forming something called a `mana pool`?"

Realizing that they had to work hard to be able to pass the examination, the old man had to drop the interesting topic. He then explained: "Ah, yes. While anyone can use magic scrolls, you need a mana pool to use real magic. When using a scroll, the mana is gathered from the surroundings. As such, the magic will become much weaker compared to when a real mage performs the magic. It is quite logical, a mere scroll could not possible measure up to a real mage."

Chuckling on the foolishness of such a thought, the old man continued: "The mana is gathered into the scroll itself, as such there is a limit on how much mana the magic cast by the scrolls can use. In fact, if one were to keep the magic to the level that the scrolls can handle, it would basically too weak to be usable. As such, as good as all magic scrolls goes over the limit, which causes the scroll to disintegrate after being used. Of course, trying to go too far over the limit will cause the magic to collapse before it is formed, and possibly cause an explosion."

The old man had clearly seen such a situation before, and was shivering a bit at the memory. After composing himself, he continued: "Normally, the mana pool is formed when you get a magic class, or if you have one of the magic supporting body constitutions. You have neither, so we have to do it the hard way. By injecting mana into the body before using a magic scroll, the process might end up using the internal mana instead. When you have familiarized your body with the process, a mana pool can spontaneously be created."

The explanation sounded good, and there was no way that such mana would be rejected, right? It was a helpful type, after all. With such thoughts in mind, Foo felt eager to start: "Alright, lets do it!"

With a friendly smile, the old man approached Foo while saying: "Alright. Lets start with injecting some mana. It might take some time to get used to it. As you have no mana pool, it will disperse quickly, so you need to train to time the usage of the scroll."

Placing his hand on Foo's back, the old man started sending mana into him. However, almost instantly, the old man's face went while and he staggered back.

Worried, Foo asked: "What happened?". It must not fail! His dreams of using magic were depending on this!

After collecting himself, the old man answered: "This is odd! As soon as the mana was approaching you, it suddenly disappeared. At the same time, all the mana within me seemed to want to move away from you in panic. And to top it all, I got this extreme sensation of depression. Luckily it went over quickly."

Puzzled, the old man was musing on the meaning of the events: "I have never heard of this happening before. There are similarities when you somehow block the mana from entering, but that would take expert training. Take no offense, but you do not seem to be that skilled."

Shaking his head at the impossibility, he then continued: "There are however some body constitutions that can protect against magic... They are really rare, but are highly desired by warriors..."

His eyes lit up, and he exclaimed: "That is perfect! With a body constitution like that, the warrior examination is no problem at all! Although it would mean that the wizard examination is probably screwed."

How could this be? Foo just wanted to learn magic! Swinging the sword a bit were a bit fun, but it could get boring quite fast. And it would be boring as hell to train in it. Who would want to stand for hours, just swinging the sword? And all that running and stuff?

Usually training with the sword would also include getting beaten up, and who in their right mind would want that? Feeling the opportunity to learn magic disappear at the horizon, Foo was yet again feeling depressed.