Learning Magic

I reached out and picked the book "Magic Fundamentals", a much more mature name than the previous magic related book that I laid my hands on. As soon as I opened it, a message popped up in my chat window.

You have obtained the book: "Magic Fundamentals". Magic increased by 1.

Opening the book was enough to get some benefit out of that. Would it mean that I can get more out of the "Mana: It's there, you just need to reach out!" book, or is it too late?

Opening the lore section, several satisfying messages popped up.

You have obtained the book: " Mana: It's there, you just need to reach out!". Magic increased by 1.

You have finished reading the book: " Mana: It's there, you just need to reach out!". Magic increased by 2.

You have comprehended the content of the book: " Mana: It's there, you just need to reach out!". Magic increased by 3.

You have mastered contents of the book: " Mana: It's there, you just need to reach out!". Magic increased by 4. Intelligence increased by 1.

Yes, very satisfying messages! If this is an indication of the benefits of skill books, at a minimum, an increase of 3 points would be rather easy to obtain from every such book. To think that my attributes increased by 11 points from a basic book that I ended up investing a lot in due to the lack of better options.

It took me nearly an hour, but eventually…

You have finished reading the book: "Magic Fundamentals". Magic increased by 2. You have gained the skills: Fire Magic Lv1, Wind Magic Lv1, Earth Magic Lv1, Water Magic Lv1, Enchantment Magic Lv1, Life Magic Lv1, Dimension Magic Lv1, Manipulation Magic Lv1, Negation Magic Lv1.

Your knowledge has greatly increased. Intelligence increased by 2.

The last message was one that I would have noticed sooner, as it indicated the attribute's growth while I was reading the books I obtained while working for Owner, but the message before that, that message was made of pure love and fantasy!

The tutorial and book had information regarding the various magics, some of which was overlapping and some of it was not.

If I was a pure game character, casting spells would be easy, but I would have little freedom.

For the beings of this world, casting spells was somewhat difficult, but those with great skills could do unimaginable things with magic. Unfortunately, it seemed as though the "modern" magic was somewhat too streamlined, becoming closer to the game system.

But I was a hybrid in the best way. Casting is easy, and I had freedom. Having too long time with the most fundamental of magic books was a blessing in disguise. While almost all magicians move over to actual spells once their mana is unlocked, it means that they are unable to perform delicate control over mana, which is a necessity if one wishes to utilize the freedom of magic.

For me, it meant that I could manipulate the mana directly to create new spells, while most magicians had to study at great length to obtain new spells. The level of the magical skills represented understanding and influenced the power of the spells and how complex they could be, but being able to manipulate pure mana meant that I could partially overcome this restriction. I couldn't cast the strongest spells straight away, but basic concepts were easy to utilize without years of practice.

The elemental magics were fairly simple to understand. Enchantment magic was going to be the core of my build, as it included body strengthening and equipment strengthening, the most important elements to the image I had for my future as a Magical Swordsman.

Life Magic was mostly for healing, and probably what Priest focused on. Dimension Magic could have been named Time and Space Magic I guess. While it was easy to obtain, the book indicated that it is one of the most advanced fields and hard to train and reach mastery in. I didn't know how accurate that would be for me, though.

Manipulation Magic related to both illusions and charms, to trick the senses or the mind directly. According to the book, Charisma was used to resist direct mental manipulation.

Negation Magic was basically anti-magic. The classic dispel magic along with barriers were under this field.

While all these were already sufficiently exciting, there was another system to play with. Compound Magics. Once one has a fair understanding of two types of magic with sufficient compatibility, you could combine them to create different effects or elements, at the price of reduced overall power. The new magic would fall half a tier, which was equivalent to 10 levels. It meant that to combine two skills, one had to have them at least at level 11, and the new magic will have 10 less levels than the weakest of the two.

The combinations were varied, and some where simple to understand while others could be rather confusing. Enchantment modified the second magic and allowed it being infused into something else, allowing for a flaming sword when combined with fire magic, for example. Life and Dimension magic could combine into Summoning.

Unique was the Negation Magic, which could flip the other magic it combined with. Enchantment with Negation could be used to weaken a foe, Life became Necromancy, Fire became Cold. It also implied that all necromancers were capable healers, which was rather amusing.

Oddly enough, a confusing combination came from the elemental magic. Specifically, Ice Magic. There were three ways that allowed one to access Ice Magic. The first one was to combine Cold with Water, which was straightforward but rather hard to achieve, as to get Cold at level 11 one had to have Fire and Negation at 21.

The second way was more direct, yet harder. Once one has a high level of mastery in a magic field, they can research an advanced form of it. To obtain Ice Magic as a derived form of Water Magic, one had to obtain Water Magic at level 51 first! The amount of skill points is the same as the first method, but such intense specialization is usually avoided by mages, as they prefer versatility. The new magic would be 50 levels below the old one, but one could invest skill points in either Water or Ice to raise the level of Ice. The benefit of investing skill points into the derived skill was that it would increase at a double rate, up to the level of the base skill.

The third way is the most convoluted, in my opinion, yet the easiest and most common. Combine Water and Earth Magic. It took time to discover that Ice Magic can be created that way, as Mud Magic was discovered before, making more sense. However, the essence of Earth is "solid", and what ice is if not "solid water"? Until then, being able to use Ice Magic required 50 skill points, but the discovered combo would only cost 20. Many Ice Magicians wept.

Compound Magic wasn't simple to create. It didn't only require a sufficient level and smashing different skills together. One would have deep knowledge of both the result and how the magics need to interact with each other in order to produce something usable, and those that pioneered the path to new combinations went through great ordeal to discover them. Even after the path was paved by others, it was not a simple road to follow, so users of the basic magics were much more common than those that went to the path of magic compounding.

As I felt that I have sufficient understanding of the basics, a message declaring my Magic increased by 3 popped up, confirming that I've comprehended the book's content. That was very good. For magic, the power is decided by a combination of the Intelligence and Magic stats. For Martial Techniques, their power is determined by the Strength and Martial Prowess. My current physical skills, namely Slash and Double Slash, were physical skills, but not martial techniques, thus they didn't benefit from Martial Prowess except for the SP increase. Hunter told me that once physical skills reach level 11, they will benefit from Martial Prowess even without being Martial Techniques.

The fact that both mages and warriors benefit from 2 attributes placed them at a somewhat equal footing, each with their own pros and cons. Warriors had their basic attack, so they could attack with Strength without using SP, while all spells used MP and mages couldn't simply attack with their Intelligence. On the other hand, warriors had to be at a considerably higher level than mages before they could access techniques that allowed them to attack at range, or deal with many enemies at one blow, a feat that even tier 1 mages could accomplish.

Another advantage that mages had was that the Enchantment Magic, namely the Enchant Weapon spell that was available from the first level, would utilize both Magic and Intelligence to increase the weapon's attack. Ignoring other factors, it meant that while the magician's basic weapon attack would use both Intelligence and Magic, in addition to any Strength they may have accidently acquired, a warrior's basic attack would only utilize Strength, thus the pure damage that a magician with sword could deal was superior to that of the warrior's. Fortunately for warriors, other factors could not be ignored, and it was relatively inefficient for mages to charge to the frontlines, swinging a blade.

Magical Swordsmen would utilize this technique, but they would rarely have a significant advantage as their base attributes would be lower, and the difference at higher levels between each point is quite big. But for me, who can grow these stats at the same time without reducing their growth rate, it was an extremely powerful option.

I wanted to test out my new abilities, but Enchantment was the easiest one to test out and explore at the moment, especially as I still haven't left the small library.

From playing around and experimenting with it, I found out several things. The first time activating a magic that is not on my skill list is somewhat difficult, but afterwards the skill is added and can be used freely. At Enchantment Lv1, I already unlocked Enchant Weapon and Enchant Armor, which added my Intelligence and Magic bonuses to Attack and Armor respectively. Them by myself, I unlocked other enchantment skills.

After activating the base Enchantment skill, without using the subset magic skills, the mana itself gains the Enchantment property. Directing that mana into specific areas of the body and infusing them with it would allow me to strengthen those places. The initial process was slow, as the mana had to travel specific paths, but I shifted it carefully and avoided paths that provided resistance. After the correct path was found, the skill would appear and activate.

I could enchant my eyes, ears, tongue or nose to improve my senses. Enchanting my limbs increased their strength and speed, while enchanting my internal organs did… Not much. Perhaps I would be able to consume alcohol with ease if I enchant my liver? The actual skill descriptions for each specific enchantment weren't descriptive, only saying that that part is strengthened, even for obvious areas such as Enchant Eyes, so it was left to me to deduce the actual effects.

During my experiments, my Enchantment rose to level 2, but it gave no notable benefits. Perhaps it was because my level of mana manipulation was so high, that the skill level was catching up, or it is possible that not every level provides a benefit.

I decided to test the other magics at a better place and time, but I still had something I wanted to check.

My Blessings, Inventory Control and Naming.

Inventory Control, according to the description, allowed me to store things in my inventory (and withdraw them) with a thought. It was slightly faster than doing it through the use of menus, but the skill restrictions were even more severe than the usual use of my inventory. I had to touch the item, and it had to be something that I could hold within my palm – both size and weight restrictions. Thankfully, the skill had levels, which meant that it could be improved, so I remained hopeful.

Then there was Naming. As Priest suspected, it allowed me to name other creatures. Here too, the restrictions were rather harsh. The creature had to be a tier lower than me, which meant that at the moment, I could only use it on the unawaken. For intelligent beings, they have to consent to the naming, while for unintelligent beings, such as normal animals, being neutral towards me is enough. Receiving a name from me would give a slight increase in ability, though no details were given regarding how it would be expressed.

Going around and giving names to villagers would be quite an issue, as Priest warned me. The only way to train the skill would be either for me to wait until I reach tier 2, or go into the woods and name random critters. But I can't just name rabbits and leave them be, that would be too troublesome. To give names to small animals and then slaughter them… It was rather distasteful, but I didn't want to set a Blessing aside, as it could really come in handy in the future. It's an ability that only gods possessed, so it had to be good.

As I've read and practiced everything I wanted, or at least everything that I could in this place, I was ready to leave the library before I remembered that I haven't read the brochure yet. According to it, with the crystal and the church's services, I could form a party with other awakened, which provided benefits such as experience sharing and position sensing. The Awakening Crystal also seemed to record all names and titles obtained, and going to the church would allow one to change the active name and title.

I knew that I had the latter feature, and I probably had the former one as well, through the yet unexplored social menu. The last feature that the crystal had was quest tracking. The notice boards were set with a special formation that interacted with the Awakening Crystal. Using the crystal on a job on the board, I would be able to find out how many, if at all, Awakened individuals have accepted the job, and add myself to that list. Once the crystal comes in contact with a job, it records it, even if it isn't accepted. If I complete it, the crystal not only records it, but the job itself gets marked on the notice board. Completing tasks that haven't been accepted usually only happens to subjugation requests, but the feature is useful regardless.

I was about to leave the church when a thought came to mind, so I turned to the Priest. "Say, you said that I would be revealed as a Local Hero now that I'm Awakened, but… Couldn't I change my name?"

Priest's face paled. Heroes hiding their status and ability was something that was quite common in novels, but only from the point of view of the protagonists. They usually wanted to live a normal life and ended up using their powers to protect those around them. From the point of view of the normal people, being the Hero carried too many privileges for them to think of hiding it.

My case was somewhat different. I wanted to hide my "name" as I would probably be easy to use and manipulate while low leveled, and I didn't know the personality of the kings that could put pressure on me. Once my abilities are strong and I'm a complete Hero, things will be different.

"Well, there's no need to worry, right?" I told Priest, calming him. "It's not like people will recognize me just by appearance, so having some people know that a low leveled Local Hero appeared wouldn't be too troublesome."

Agreeing with what I said, the Priest bid me goodbye as I left to find a place where I could train. In the end, I decided that the empty plains outside the village, where the battle with the goblins happened a year ago, would be fine.

As I explored the magical system, I understood several things. First, the elemental magic, the magic with pure offensive nature, each had an affinity towards a type of damage that wasn't quite what I expected. Only fire dealt elemental damage – fire damage obviously. Earth had an affinity with blunt damage, air with slicing damage and water with piercing damage. There wasn't a type of "water damage", though monsters with fire affinity would be more vulnerable to damage dealt by water. Resistance to a certain type of magic, excluding fire as an element, didn't exist.

Passive spells, the kind that was constantly active, and mostly under the Enchantment magic, didn't constantly consume MP. Instead, a certain portion of MP was allocated towards maintaining the spell, effectively reducing the MP pool. Enchant Weapon and Enchant Armor both required 5MP, and magicians started with 10MP total, making even the very good Enchant Armor spell a difficult choice, especially since their magic recovery wasn't very quick. Once it was cast, their offense would be very limited – even though the basic offensive spells only cost 1MP per casting.

I also discovered that training magic wouldn't be as easy as I hoped. For magic to improve, it had to have some effect. I couldn't just fire flames at the sky to improve my fire magic. MP would recover very quickly outside of combat, so I could cast indefinitely, but it did not mean that I would master magic within a few days.

There were two factors that determined how much a casting would improve the skill. Difficulty and effect. The most improvement would be obtained when casting against something tough and having a good effect. Casting against something weak and dealing high damage, or casting against something tough and dealing no damage, would have a very limited benefit.

Elemental magic, while also having utility options, were combative in nature. A target was necessary by nature. The other magic skills weren't as combative, so they could be trained in different ways, but it didn't make it easier. Enchantment magic, for example, was slowly improving as long as it was active, but the speed of improvement wouldn't increase by the effects being used.

Perhaps the hardest magic to train is Dimension magic. The low level spells had very minor effect – mark a target. The mark wouldn't vanish and was basically used for tracking.

Considering that to train Life magic would require me to heal injuries, the fact that I didn't feel pain helped me decide that said injuries will be self inflicted. While the other elemental magic may be somewhat harder to use to attack myself, fire magic would be pretty simple.

With that, I trained the two almost exclusively, constantly burning and healing myself, while keeping my Enchantment magic constantly active. I could also train Negation magic by dispelling my own enchantments, but I felt it wasn't necessary at the moment, as I won't be meeting casters for a while.

Unrelated to magic, I used Inventory Control to transfer a rock between my pocket and inventory. My skill increased, and so did the weight limit, making it somewhat more useful, and more difficult to train with a simple rock. Still, as I kept that training to an infinitely repeating macro, it wasn't a loss to continue doing so.

Dedicating a year to training my magic proved quite fruitful, but my physical abilities didn't improve, which I disliked. I want to be a magical swordsman.

I should take a subjugation quest.

Novice Mage, level 1

HP: 61/61, MP: 80/80, SP:22/22

Stats:

Strength 24, Dexterity 19, Constitution 23, Intelligence 19, Wisdom 14, Charisma 5

Luck 1, Speed 8, Stealth 2, Magic 27, Martial Prowess 10

Physical Skills:

Basic Attack (Blunt – Lv3, Blade – Lv3, Thrown – Lv2, Unarmed – Lv1)

Slash Lv1

Double Slash Lv1

Magical Skills:

Fire Magic Lv8

Wind Magic Lv1

Earth Magic Lv1

Water Magic Lv1

Enchantment Magic Lv5

Life Magic Lv8

Dimension Magic Lv1

Manipulation Magic Lv1

Negation Magic Lv1

General Skills:

Awakening Potential

Dash Lv2

Rest Lv1

Fire Resistance Lv3

Blessings:

Inventory Control Lv6

Naming Lv1

Weapon: Rusty Short Sword – 3-5 Attack