Illusions

An illusion is the distorted perception of what someone or something views the world. Through the manipulation of the senses, a calm lake can become a burning field of lava that fills up your enemy's lungs with carbon.

Making it impossible for someone to breath as their flesh gets turned to ash while they are forced to face down a fierce Dragon. To their surprise was nothing more than a small caterpillar. Illusionist analyzes and manipulate the world they are best at bringing absolute control to even the most chaotic of battlefields.

Intrigued by the concept Desmond's goal is to become one of those masters of manipulation in hopes of bringing some stability to the chaotic life he lives. In the dark sewer, Desmond cast the first spell he learned illumination brightening up the area showing it to be just as filthy as when he looked at everything with his magic sight.

Desmond wanted to look at the illusion type spells with his own eyes so that he could see what other people were going to see if he cast the spell on them. The first illusion type spell Desmond was planning on using was a simple, but fundamental one that is indispensable to an illusionists arsenal the beginner apprentice rank spell produce sound.

Sound is what gives an illusion power it lets people know a sword is swift and dangerous. Just like an arrow when it is released from a bow and screeches through the air to kill an enemy. Sound can do many things it can communicate tone, build atmosphere, and give the illusion of movement by tricking you into making you see more than you are.

When creating the magic circle Desmond added more runes and a glyph than he usually used before with any of the other spells because sound wasn't a fundamental element it was the vibrations through the air. So a spell like that needed to be precise the magic circles work similarly to coding on a computer. The runes, glyph and everything else were what you input than the spell cast after the framework of a magic circle was completed becomes the output. It is a simple way Desmond goes about trying to understand magic to not hurt his brain.

Without correctly putting everything in the spell a person is trying to cast could have unfortunate consequences. While aiming at a wall far away Desmond flicked his wrist hoping to get the sound he wanted. Down the sewer, a jarring sound was produced that resemble nothing coherent or meaningful. Not discouraged by his over three hundredth failure over the past couple of months Desmond became elated when he heard the sound he wanted a single drop of water.

Just like how you would normally hear it he could tell that the sound had problems even though he was not a professional yet. There was no rhythm, depth was wrong, it was a still repeat that felt out of place, only believable if someone didn't pay attention.

Having success in that Desmond went on to practicing a few other beginner rank illusion spells that bent light, changed smells along with the other touch based spell he learned chilling grasp.

He did this till he was too tired to keep going, simply kneeling on the floor was all Desmond could do till he got his energy back. Running out of magic was a big problem Desmond faced in the future. It plagues every mage video game avatar or not it is a solution that must be solved or it will lead only to death.

There are many solutions to this problem a common one is to absorb the magic energy in magic crystals or mage stones. Meditating is also a solution but no enemy worth worrying about would give the person there trying to kill enough time to do any of that. So mages have to come up with other solutions.

Desmond wasn't worried about that problem because the strange man he met at Hunter's Bizarre unknowingly gave him the secret to his salvation.

...

Back home to his dark unlit apartment Desmond's eyes fell on the book that will most likely end up saving his life more than he can count. It was a thick book bound in aged leather from some kind of creature. Strange runes more complex than anything else he had seen before was branded on to the cover. The book had no title or anything else to identify who wrote it, but the knowledge that was written inside was priceless to Desmond.

The book can teach a person about an advanced form of enchantment. It's similar to regular enchantment just like how you would make a magic scroll, but instead of just a magic circle on a piece of paper that contains a spell.

This other brach shows how to give a magic circle life turning it into complex work of art. Depending on the enchanter's skills It will look the same as any photo or painting with hundreds or even thousands of runes contained in each line.

This type of enchanting was a lot more complex than Desmond originally though it was. On the table in the living room were stacks of papers covered in cheap black ink. The stacks were all Desmond's poor excuse for enchanting. He had been practicing his drawing skills for months with little improvement he knew it was going to take a long time to get good enough to do what the book required, but it is something he will gladly spend his time doing.

Next to that stack was the books on how to strengthen a person's mind and telekinesis. A strong mind is necessary for any mage, it allows you to keep spells active under pressure and increase brain activity.

Allowing a mages mind to process information like a computer their all still human though so emotions and many other factors could lead to human error. No one is perfect even those who are praised as gods.

Through training in magic or chi, a person's mind becomes stronger regardless. Desmond read that having a strong mind could improve the quality of his illusions that's why he wanted to study the field a bit. In his study he discovered strengthening a person's mind wasn't easy either. He makes time to practice, but it will be a while before he can even do the most basic of things.

Studying magic is a long and dangerous road completely different from all the flowery bull Desmond remembered his homeworld made him believe in where everything was handed to you.

Exhausted Desmond went to sleep in his bed because tomorrow he had to be ready for his first day at the city guard training camp. He had already been through the physical, background check, and one on one interview. While they found out about the incident with Vincent they were not able to find out the truth.

Desmond had his new suit in the closet and was ready to train so he could protect himself when he needed to.