A Dissertation upon Mental Energy

29th of Kraal, year 991

The chapter on mental energy had been the most profound among those they had studied, so far. Many times Magra had to stop and ponder deeply upon the meaning of a particular sentence. Thankfully, Blink was usually able to deduce something that eventually lead to unlocking the meaning of those difficult sentences. It wasn't that Magra couldn't understand the words from a literal sense. It was just that they pertained to profound knowledge that only magicians could fathom.

If Magra still had reservations about her brother's study of magic, all that had been thrown away at this point. It was now very clear to her that Blink was truly meant to be a wizard. She only provided a few linguistic references and he had already figured things out in a way she could not possibly have.

The scariest thing was that his growth along the path of magic was simply astonishing. According to the book, the most gifted wizard acolytes would take about three to six months before being able to successfully cast their first spell. In just one day he had learned to cast [[Earth Spike]] and [[Magic Arrow]]. Even if one took the fact that he had been learning magic for a month, that he already had three spells before even understanding the basics of magic casting was indeed phenomenal.

Based from the book, it was clear that Blink possessed a very high level of mental energy comparable to an official wizard. He could already cast spells without opening his mouth, something wizard acolytes and apprentices could only hope to do.

Mental energy referred to a person's ability to persist on a task that required focus or concentration. For spellcasters, mental energy is what they used to release and propel their spells. While a high level of intelligence gave one a strong base, one's mental energy could be raised by constantly training one's mind to stay focused.

From the very start, Blink had always been at a disadvantage throughout his martial arts journey. The only ones among those he fought that could be considered weaker than him were the bandits. Especially during his last two years at the academy, just the slightest mistake could cost him a bout against his much stronger classmates. Such being the case, he needed to be totally focused during sparring sessions.

The book explained that one could not read a book for hours nor answer a very long test because once a person's mental energy was drained halfway, the brain's ability to comprehend becomes very sluggish, and mental energy got drained at a much faster rate thereafter. When mental energy reached a critical point, words would not even make sense.

For spellcasters, maintaining their mental energy at an optimum level ensured the successful casting and effectiveness of their spells. When mental energy went below 50 percent, the magician was more likely to fail to cast spells. When mental energy reached the critical point—below 20 percent—the magician might as well just close his eyes and hope for a quick and painless death.

While mental energy replenished much faster than mana, the replenishment rate is reduced by half at below 50 percent of one's mental energy. At below 20 percent, the magician would need to sleep it off for at least an hour to get his mental energy back to above 50 percent. He could recover the rest of his mental energy within a minute afterwards.

It was very important for wizards to not allow their mental energy to go below 50 percent. At such a level, the probability of a spell failure becomes very high. Worse, the caster might be struck down with a backlash following the failure of the spell. For instance, instead of sending a fireball exploding towards an opponent, the fireball just might explode right in the caster's face.

Higher level spells naturally used up more mental energy. This was why even if an acolyte was able to cast a Tier 1 spell, he would rather not as it was sure to use up more than half of his mental energy. An acolyte usually would need to cultivate his mental energy for at least five years before he could even hope to cast a Tier 1 spell.

The part about cultivating mental energy for at least five years flabbergasted Magra so she had to stop halfway through her reading. It was just too bad that there were no Tier 1 spells described in the book so they could test if Blink would be able to cast it successfully.

The book prescribed the optimum amount of mental energy at 80 percent. At this level, the magician could replenish his mental energy almost instantly. Since Blink only used Tier 0 spells, as long as he didn't do anything stupid, it would be impossible for him to break that threshold even after emptying his mana.

While higher tier spells drained a greater amount of mental energy, there were also differences in mental energy consumption among spells of the same tier. One factor could be the spellcaster's elemental affinity. Having a very strong affinity with fire magic, Blink needed only half the amount of mental energy needed to cast fire spells compared to other spellcasters with different elemental affinity. Spells like [[Earth Spike]] which had to materialize at a distance also required the caster to use mental energy to guide the mana into the spell structure.

There were also spells that were powered purely by mental energy. These spells, such as telepathy and telekinesis, do not require mana but use up a good chunk of a magician's mental energy. With telekinesis, the larger the object the magician wanted to move, the greater the mental energy consumption would be. The speed by which the magician wanted to move it also determined its mental energy consumption.

For Blink, he could move a pebble as fast as though it were shot out of a slingshot, but this would put him past the 80 percent threshold. If he shot another one, he would already be past the fifty-percent threshold, putting him in danger of a spell backlash.

There was one very important entry in the chapter that made Blink very happy—the discussion on spell proficiency. Master Thomas stated in the book that the level of spell proficiency is inversely proportional to mental energy consumption. Naturally, Blink had to ask Magra what those words meant exactly. He even irritated his elder sister by asking her twice if she was sure.

"So if I train myself in casting a spell, at some point my proficiency in the spell would increase? And with every increase in spell proficiency my mental energy consumption would decrease?" Blink was very excited by the notion that he was totally oblivious of his sister's irritated demeanor.

Magra sighed while closing her eyes in exasperation. "For the last time, yes!" she replied condescendingly. "Higher proficiency means lesser mental energy consumption."

"Higher proficiency means lesser mental energy consumption," Blink repeated the sentence with reverence as though it were a most profound thought that heaven had bestowed upon him.

Seeing her brother in unabashed ecstasy, Magra couldn't help looking up and rolling her eyes.

Blink decided to practice moving objects telekinetically, starting with smaller objects and moving on to bigger ones. He laughed in delight at each successful attempt and became even more immersed in it.

Feeling totally ignored, Magra pored over the rest of the chapter even as her concentration kept getting disrupted by her brother's exhilaration.

Suddenly, a chair flew behind her slamming towards the fence.

"Oops!" Blink uttered, a contrite look written all over his face.

"Did you do that?" Magra asked. She was still so astonished such that her voice was a couple of pitches higher.

"Apparently, I did," Blink responded to her with a silly grin while scratching his head in embarrassment.

Magra looked at the chair. It was still intact so the impact of the collision must not have been as strong as it sounded. She looked back at her brother. All the while she hadn't realized that her mouth was still wide open.

"I was trying move it behind you so you could sit seeing as you were too busy reading the book," Blink stated even as he flashed her an apologetic look.

Magra still had on that dumbfounded look.

"It went out of my control," Blink hastily added. He was trying to move the chair while trying to control the force exerted by his mental energy, but the chair refused to budge an inch. In frustration he ended up sharply increasing the energy output, and the chair was sent flying and crashing against the fence.

Magra took but a moment to understand her brother's mistake. "You should learn to practice control first," she said. She cited from the book's explanation why training in control was the most important foundation to learning magic that relied purely on mental energy.

"The book prescribes that you should start with a very small object, which you will try to move slowly at first from one direction to another. Then, when you could already change directions, try making the object move in a circle, in a spiral, like a wave, or in whatever manner you could imagine. Only when you can freely control the object's movement path shall you begin training in speed."

Blink nodded his head, fully agreeing with Magra's explanation of the author's ideas. "What else does the book say on this?" he asked.

Magra replied, "It says that you can increase the speed by increasing the amount of mental energy output, but you should do it gradually.

"What is more important is being able to stop the object from moving too fast and out of your control.

"Thus, it is suggested that you should learn how to halt the object's motion at a slower speed first before you proceed to practicing at a higher speed."

Hearing those statements, Blink had a pensive expression that even his constant nodding could not break. Several seconds after Magra had finished speaking, his mouth broke into a grin even as his hands scratched his head.

"What's so funny?" Magra asked.

"Er, nothing. I just thought it was rather stupid of me not to have asked for your help earlier."

Magra did not respond right away. She seemed to have thought of something and flipped a few pages before stopping and intently staring at a page.

"Does the book say if you or others could also practice mental energy magic?" Blink interrupted Magra's train of thought.

For a moment, Magra was surprised that her brother could read her thoughts. However, she immediately realized that anybody in her place would want to know the exact same thing.

She gave her brother a satisfied look. "It's only the author's conjecture, but yes, there's a very slight chance for "non-magical folks"—as the author refers to people like me—to learn telekinesis."

Blink's eyes lit up, but he waited for Magra to go on.

"However, it requires a mental energy level found only on people who could focus intently on a task that demands a great amount of concentration." Magra had the notion that she just might actually possess the minimum qualification.

Excited over the prospect, Blink had his sister try mentally moving the pebble he was practicing on. It was about half the size of his thumb and since he could move it easily, he was quite certain that Magra should be able to do the same.

However, reality didn't always conform to one's expectations. No matter how hard Magra channelled her mental energy into the pebble, the latter would not budge even by a hairline.

Blink thought of using a tinier pebble, but even that did not work out as well.

Magra decided that she probably didn't have the ability, but Blink would have none of it.

"The author did write that having the required mental energy is no guarantee."

Blink disagreed: "That does not make any sense at all. If one has the mental energy capacity, then it follows that one is capable of it."

"Or maybe I still don't have the required mental energy capacity," Magra surmised. "Perhaps being able to read for hours is not enough to raise my mental energy to the desired level."

"Aside from doing activities that require intense concentration, does the book suggest other activities that might increase mental energy?"

"Well, it says regular meditation helps but only in very small increments so as to be almost negligible." Magra could only sigh at the thought.

Blink would not be dissuaded easily, however. "But that means progress is constant, and with accumulated practice what seemed negligible would eventually amount to something."

Magra rolled her eyes at him. "I forgot you could be very persistent and demanding."

Blink scratched his head while smiling. "If I remember correctly, that book has a chapter on meditation," he pointed out.

Suddenly looking excited, Magra flipped the pages and found that, indeed, there was a chapter on meditation. Her eyes radiating ecstasy, Magra read every word forward and backward making sure not to miss anything. She regarded every word of the chapter as a treasure she must grasp by all means.

With his sister engrossed as she was, Blink suddenly had the awkward feeling of being an unnecessary presence. He coughed to disrupt Magra from her reading, but she seemed oblivious of his presence. He tried again, even called her out, but he merely received the same non-reaction.

He decided to speak directly to her.

"It might work if, instead of a pebble, you could use a small bird's down feather," Blink said loudly enough. "I'll make sure to get some for you later on."

Magra merely nodded her head saying, "Sure, we should do that." But her eyes never left the book and her expression only grew more intense.

With his sister's concentration glued to the book, Blink decided to practice his control of mental energy with the small pebble. Before an hour was over, he could already mentally move the pebble into whichever direction he desired.

He also tried to move the pebble in a circle, in a spiral and in a wave-like motion. However, such movements proved very difficult for his mental energy control to sustain, and the pebble would drop before it could complete its intended motion.

Sensing his mental energy dropping past the fifty-percent threshold, Blink decided to conclude his magic practice for the morning.