Basics of Magic

It seems that my mother has become quite wary of me sneaking off in the middle of my naps, because now I find her frequently sitting next to my bed for some time to make sure I am actually asleep. Jokes on you, me being the lazy bum I was in my past life, there is nobody here that can imitate being asleep better than I can, so I always end up being left alone after a while. Once I'm alone, I sneak off towards the books.

My unusual attraction to knowledge and learning came into fruition when I was again, randomly browsing the books from dad's bookshelf, and stumbled across some introductory book of magic. Something like a beginners tutorial to wielding it in this world or something?

'Path to Mastery in Magic'.

Seems interesting, I guess I finally will get to learn about the magical side of this world.

I flipped through some pages with a basic explanation of what mana and magic is. Thankfully I already knew the language, but to my mother's surprise and my dad's excitement. 

The clichés just keep piling on, because what a surprise, there are four foundational elements of magic in this world. Fire, water, earth, and air. The spells are also classified in rankings. Starting from beginner, then intermediate, then advanced, king, sovereign, divine, and finally, god level. Interesting, will I be able to one time cast god level spells given my supreme head start in learning magic? Well, that is one goal that I will make a mental note of. The bucket list is growing.

But what cooled my excitement is that some people are born without any magic ability, and are simply referred to as non-mages. Surprisingly, they are not all that rare according to the book, and actually make up the greater majority of the population. Mages are actually the minority of the population, as approximately one in five is a mage.

But that just means that I have a twenty percent chance of being one. I really don't wanna be wasting my time here just to find out I'm a non-mage, so I really need to quickly get the hang of this to see if I'm actually capable of casting. And if I'm not, it would be very disappointing, because I really am looking forward to being able to fling some spells at some annoying bastards. And no, don't call me violent, I also want to master spells simply for the sake of it. Like, who as a child did not dream of casting spells? Don't know, but I certainly did. There's just some thrill to it, to be able to bend nature to your will. Something I only ever experienced in video games becoming a reality, that is definitely not something I would want to miss out on. If I am reincarnated into a fantasy world, I better be able to use magic.

Anyways, the four foundational elements are what are available to any starting mage, and mastering basic skills of an element is said to be the most beginner friendly approach to becoming a mage. Every mage has an affinity for a particular element, or set of elements. Affinity to what basic elements someone is able to use is usually one or two, rarely three, and even more rarely, four.

"So it seems that the first step to becoming a mage is wielding an element... interesting."

Prior to trying to cast a spell, you first need to hone the mana within your body. According to this book, every mage is born with a unique reservoir of mana called "mana channels". Based on the description it is kind of like an additional organ, which really reminded me of the circulatory system.

Also, some are born capable of containing greater quantities of mana than others. Basically an advantage or disadvantage from birth. Yeah, you either get buffed or nerfed from the start. Luckily, that gap can be narrowed by training your mana reserve. The more you train it, the more mana you can store within your body. So if you're not a lazy bum, you can catch up to those who previously had an advantage.

Doing that is achieved through the practice of absorbing atmospheric mana, and circulating it through your mana flow. By repeatedly absorbing and circulating mana throughout your body, the flow will begin to purify itself to allow for better passage of mana throughout the body. The more pure the flow is, the more mana you can store.

What determines the power of a mage is the purity of their mana flow. Every mage is born with the least pure one. Picture it as a dark gray network of intertwining threads spanning throughout your body. Again, like a circulatory system, just without a predetermined center like a heart. 

The purer the flow gets, the brighter it becomes, and goes from dark gray, to gray, to silver, and then to white. A white mana flow mage is deemed to possess an unparalleled reserve of mana, and anyone who possesses such mana conductivity is already seen as an overwhelmingly powerful individual. 

Even if they are complete trash in regards to fighting and spell casting, just the sheer exertion of pure mana will already make them a dangerous opponent. White mana flow mages have all the capabilities to cast even god level spells. However, according to this book, the cases in which someone was able to possess a white mana flow is very uncommon. One individual out of tens of thousands of mages. 

***

Now with the theoretical knowledge out of the way, time to get practical. As a beginner, it seems that to start absorbing atmospheric mana, I must visualize the mana particles floating around in the air?

Slow down your breathing. Feel the energy of the mana around you. Mentally attract that energy towards yourself, visualizing the particles condensing around you, and entering into your mana flow.

So I'm guessing this is something I must be able to do instinctively as someone living in this world? Because I have no clue whatsoever as to how I can feel something like that. It's like asking someone to sit down and feel air. No, not the wind or the breeze, the still air around them. And I have no idea what these so-called mana particles even look or feel like. I never saw magic being performed in the abode of my home, so I never even got a visual demonstration of how it's done. This seemed like a form of meditation, but I never did yoga back in my past life, and don't know how to do this either. 

"Nevertheless, it's worth a shot," I said to myself. Though I did not have much enthusiasm, nor hope for this to actually work. It's not like I was already setting myself up for failure, but honestly I was basically just winging it on the basis of maybe it will work out, maybe it won't. I had no understanding of how it was supposed to happen. 

According to the book, mana manifests in a person by itself. So apparently what I was currently doing is unnatural. What was written in the book of magic about absorbing mana was meant for those who already became mages and developed a flow. I didn't. I was trying to achieve what probably was never even attempted before. Sense mana without being a mage. It was my greed and impatience to determine whether I was destined to be a mage or not that drove me to this.

Maybe I was scared. Scared that I would be a non-mage. It's not like my entire life would go to waste, but it would be disappointing beyond belief. To find yourself in the shoes of some fantasy character only to find out you don't even have magical powers in a magical world would be very depressing to say the least.

I sat down, legs crossed, the knuckles of my fists pressing against each other at the level of my sternum. I closed my eyes, and then tried to feel for this atmospheric mana that the book was kind enough to explain to me. I began the breathing exercise the book suggested. Slowly breathe in, hold that breath for a few seconds, then slowly breathe out.

Breathe in, breathe out, in and out, in and out. Well I can say that this is exactly what the teacher's taught me back in school to calm yourself before writing a test, and it does calm me down, sure, but I still can't sense whatever this energy is supposed to be. Right, let's continue trying before mom arrives.

"Ardiel! Again you're in the study? Why are you not in bed?"

Shit, mom found me again. I thought she would be gone for at least another half hour. Why was she home so early? Like I had a perfectly calculated plan, and the exact amount of time I would need to do my stuff, and then get back in bed so that when she comes back, I won't get in trouble.

"Get up, put those books away and back in bed, right now!"

She never really yells, but I can tell she's mad. Actually, more annoyed than mad in my humble opinion. Well, when you have a kid that constantly sneaks off into study, you can't really be mad at them for trying to learn, but at the same time it probably does get annoying if they won't listen to you. I certainly would get annoyed if I had a kid who did that. Wait, I am just being a hypocrite right now! But all for the greater good of me becoming a mage and making my parents proud. Yup yup, that was definitely it.

"Sorry mother", I grumbled as I began to slowly put the books away. I wasn't particularly annoyed at her who once again caught me awake past my bedtime, as I was with myself. Why could I not feel anything? I did exactly as the book told me to. 

I was brimming with eagerness and a tinge of anxiety to try again, to make sure that I indeed was able to manipulate mana, and now I have to wait before trying again. It's gonna be torture. The anticipation to find out whether I was a mage or not is seriously going to drive me insane.

"Can you understand what's written in that book?" She suddenly asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Yes, some parts of it". Can't say anything like "yeah", or "I guess". Here it would be a very weird manner of speech. Yeah, fun fact, the manner of speaking is much more formal than what I was used to back in my previous life. That's not to say that it didn't have slang, which I frequently heard my dad say. But I just stick to the formal elven way of speaking. That's so my mom doesn't get another reason to think of me as unusual more than she probably already does.

"Do you find magic manipulation interesting, Ardiel?" She asked with a tinge of motherly pride in her voice.

"The book does contain some information that has caught my interest, yes."

She regarded me for a few moments, then sighed. "...Ok. Let's come to an agreement since rebuking you does not seem to work. I can grant you access to your father's books if you seem to be so interested in them. However, refrain from sneaking out and disobeying me again, do you understand?"

"Yes mother, thank you."

"Now go back to bed."

That didn't go as bad as I thought it would. Actually, I couldn't have hoped for a better turn of events. I was already expecting to be dragged back to sleep by my angry mother, and then to face another reprimand when I woke up for disobeying her, but now I have free access to my dad's library. Great parenting mom! No seriously, a mutually beneficial agreement between the two of us without the need to scold me again. Nice!