Chapter 17: Gatherer Of Knowledge

Setting off into the city from the stable, was like walking into a hell-scape, the hellish scene from before was even worse now.

Where wounded and dead lined the streets before, now heaps of bodies were piled here or there, trails of blood flowed down the roadside sewers, and the stench of death hung fiercely in the air.

The looks of the citizenry likewise reflected the true state of this world, before there were happy looks and glimmers of hope, but now they wore naught but looks of utter despair.

Well it's a good thing that I won't be hanging around here to much longer being stuck here around all this negativity would ruin my gamin experience for certain.

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Stage 1 information collection: Magic

Walking into the magic guild, or would it be the sorcerers guild? Nah lets just go with magic guild for now, I walked up to the reception desk where a very prim man in flowing robes that just screamed out, I am a magician.

"Can I help you... sir?"

I mean I know I look like a kid but c'mon don't phrase it like your questioning my gender.

"Yes that's right, I'd like to learn more about magic"

"I see well the best I can do for you is give you an overview, after-all you can't join a class here until you're much older y'know"

"Huh... oh yeah sure, I'll take whatever I can get really"

I mean really why would I bother going to class in a video game, not to mention with my restriction every tool in class wouldn't be something I could even use.

"Alright well the basis of magic is relatively simple, almost all creatures, including those of the races possess magical spirit, your spirit increases by absorbing the magic of other creatures defeated in battle, and then through training you learn to control this spirit energy and gain magical proficiency, whereupon you can pull this energy out of your body and change it's form to take on an attribute you possess affinity for."

--So simply put, everything has Mana, you gain more of this mana by leveling up, and magic itself is split into different attributes probably like water, wind, fire, water etc. But one can simply possess mana and chant a spell, you need the prerequisite proficiency at controlling mana first, well its kind of like some games out there I guess, at least you don't just gain a new spell for having leveled up--

"I see, how does one increase their proficiency, or even find out what attributes they possess?"

"Sigh, normally you can tell by taking a test, but again you can't do that unless you join a class. Though I've heard you can also find out when during proficiency training, in the beginning you must identify your own magical spirit, and learn to circulate that power within you, once you've managed that then you can start emission training to expend that spirit into other things, the color/s determines your attribute"

Our conversation continued for only a little bit longer, not much more was really added to the collected knowledge however.

The method of training ones proficiency seemed to depend on the caster, most would start with a form of meditation until they could grasp their own mana, next practitioners of magic would move onto emission training once they could recognize and manipulate the mana within their bodies, this time trying to control and maintain the mana once it'd left their body.

and last of all would be the conversion of ones mana from being neutral or attribute less to converting the emitted mana to take on ones that the wielder possesses.

Next up after condensing the information I'd gathered so far in my head, I re-approached the magician manning the counter.

"Excuse me"

"Oh you again boy"

b..boy just what happened to sir from before?

"I was just wondering about other types of magic, like Alchemy or enchanting?"

"Not even a user but already interested in those huh, quite intuitive aren't you, well not much I can just tell you about them, alchemy is a magic that uses an alchemists magic spirit energy to flow through crests, and circles to manipulate objects or things within them, whereas enchanters would imbue object with their own magic power through the use of crests, runes or even specialized materials during the crafting stage"

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With this the few questions I could ask about had been answered but that being said I really wish I could just pickup a book and read about all this in detail, but that's not remotely possible.

Well in the fashion of true crafting spirit I will just need to learn it all through trial and error.

At the beginning I'll need to start like they said and meditate at nights to feel out and gain control over my mana, I wonder what that would feel like?

Maybe as if you have a second set of veins with mana coursing through them like they also claim in manga's, or rather having a magic organ in ones body which is the source of all their mana?

Not sure but in the quick five minutes I spent silently thinking while doing some internal checks on myself I was unable to quickly identify the presence of my own mana, so it looks like as a player I don't get a cheat ability over the npc's to just naturally get to use my mana simply because my stat board say I have it.

Alright one source done, next up I need to get information on the current world situation, I should check in with my market contacts to announce my return and see what would sell the best when I'm crafting thing that I can sell.