Learning Magic (1/2)

The next day both Mai and Masashi wake up in each other's arms.

They both feel another weight in the bed and look in between them, only to find a sleeping Yue, enjoying both of their warmth.

Mai gently rubs Yue's silky blonde hair, "Yue, honey. Wake up."

Yue wakes up with a "Nyaa~." And stretches like a kitten.

She opens her eyes and sees both Mai and Masashi looking at her with gentle expressions.

She gets a little embarrassed and says, "Good Morning!"

"Morning Yue," Masashi says as he gets off the bed and uses Mana to clean himself.

Mai does the same and says, "Let's go, Yue, I'll make breakfast for the three of us. You can tell us about yourself there."

"Yes!" Masashi exclaims in joy even before Yue says anything which causes both Mai and Yue to look at him.

"Why are you both looking at me like that? I like the food my wife makes."

"Actually- Mfhm." Yue was about to say something but Masashi just stopped her by putting his hand on her mouth.

Mai looked at Masashi suspiciously for a bit but then just went to cook breakfast for the three of them.

"Why did you stop me from speaking?" Yue glares at Masashi as if she was being bullied by him.

"Mai cooks very rarely, if you said something that ends up in her not cooking, I'd be very sad."

"Fine, but you have to let me drink your blood. It's very tasty." Yue likes her lips thinking about the taste of Masashi's blood.

As seductive as Yue's gesture looks, Masashi doesn't pay attention to it and says, "Sure, no problem. About the magic teaching though. After breakfast?"

"No problem." Yue brings her hand toward Masashi as he shakes it back.

…

At the dining table, Masashi is happily eating the food Mai made with relish using only one of his hands as Yue keeps the other hand occupied, sucking his blood.

"So you're a vampire."

"Mhm."

"One of the ones that died 300 years ago, probably even before that."

"Mhm."

"Do all vampires live as long as you or are you some kind of exception?"

"Mhm."

"…Yue? ...YUE?!"

"Hm? Yes, what?" Yue pulls back from Masashi's arm with a reluctant expression.

"I asked if all vampires live as long as you or are you some kind of exception?"

"I'm an exception. I don't age because of my regenerative powers."

"I see… I think I could make you look older-" Masashi has a random thought but Yue takes a hold of that thought and looks at him with stars in her eyes.

"Really?!!"

"I guess. I'm not sure. I haven't tried it so I'm not sure. I have the power to manipulate the biology of any being, it's called Biomancy. I might be able to use it to make you look older."

"That's amazing! Thank you so much!" Yue jumps over the table and hugs Masashi. Thankfully he'd already eaten Mai's food or he'd be crying right about now.

"All right. Calm down. I haven't said that I can do it yet. This is just a theory, I have to test it out first before I use it on you." Masashi lightly rubs her back.

"I know but still…"

"It's all right."

A few seconds later Yue regains her composure and sits back down in her seat to continue her story.

"I only aged until I awakened my powers, after that, I stopped growing old. As long as I have mana I can regenerate from any injury no matter how severe.

"Vampires have long lifespans but I'm virtually immortal, at least in the age aspect. I ascended the throne when I was seventeen. I was one of the strongest beings in the world."

Yue smiles wryly as she continues, "I had the powers that only gods and devils could have. People categorized me as the latter.

"My uncle, my only living relative at the time, was the one who started the revolt. He spread the information that I was a devil and used that as justification to kill me and usurp the throne.

"He tried his hardest but was hindered by my automatic regeneration. I was in too much of a shock to retaliate so he gave up after a few tries and sealed me in this place instead."

Mai and Masashi, realizing that this is a difficult topic for Yue, both held on to one of her hands.

"This place is one of the Labyrinths that were made by the mavericks, people who tried to bring about the end of the world, and is thought of as one of the most difficult places to traverse. He considered that before sealing me here.

"I was in shock for most of the time as far as I remember so I'm not sure about the details like how they brought me here or anything."

Yue finally concludes as Mai hugs her tightly.

"It's okay, honey. You're with us now. We're the same as you, we're also immortal so you never have to be alone again all right." Mai says in a soothing voice.

"I'm fine," Yue says, while also hugging her back.

"You guys don't need to carry me around like a burden. I can help, I can teach you guys magic and I can help in fights. I'm very good with any type of magic. I was born with a perfect affinity for any type of magic, so I can help you guys with that too."

Yue didn't want to be carried around by them like some helpless child so she told them about her abilities.

"Honestly… If we weren't cheaters ourselves, you'd be the most overpowered person that we've seen. In both talent and power."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll understand sooner or later."

Yue just looks between the two of them for a while before shrugging her shoulders and walking out of the cabin.

"Forget it, let's go, I'll teach you guys the fundamentals. I've already seen you guys' use of mana, it's crude and unrefined, let alone how you cast magic. You need practice and a lot of it."

Yue walked out into an open area and there was a lot of it in the inner world.

"The environment here is mana-rich and good for your training. It's better than the dungeon at least."

Yue looked at Mai and Masashi and saw them looking at her seriously. She nodded in appreciation.

(A/N: I'll be going off canon for the magic theory and stuff.)

"First off, you need to forget everything that you learned before. I could tell that the magic that Masashi cast before was the kind that was based on imagination and visualization of the form. That's weak magic. You will never be able to use the true intricacies of magic through imagination. You will always be stuck using basic spells and elements. Capiche?"

Both Mai and Masashi nodded at Yue's words.

"I'll start with the basic theory of how magic works. There are two different flows of magic. One is defined and the other is fluid. No one in the world knows this since no one has the same ability as me. I developed this myself." Yue seems proud of her achievements.

(A/N: Can anyone guess where I got this idea of magic from?)

"Defined flow is what everyone uses. Chants, circles, etc. They all follow a defined flow of magic.

"For example Fireball"

Yue called out the name of the spell, aiming it toward the air. A small fireball shot out of her hand into the air as it slowly extinguished after a while.

"This was a defined spell. It had an objective and was cast for that specific purpose. No matter who casts it, it will follow the described directions or the so-called 'intent' behind it."

"Now for the fluid type of spell."

"Fire"

This time there was a fire burning above Yue's hand. That fire was constantly consuming mana from the atmosphere to sustain itself, unlike normal spells which suck in all the mana before being cast.

Yue then molded this fire into different shapes and sizes showing them her control over the flames.

"This is fluid magic. You can constantly manipulate the spell. It's a dynamic type of magic and can be used for anything that the user imagines. It's completely based on what you imagine it to be.

"This type of magic doesn't consume your mana but the mana in the surroundings.

"The best thing about it is that as long as you have enough knowledge, you can use any kind of energy to cast fluid magic.

"This is significantly more difficult to learn than defined magic which is loosely based on the intent behind the casting.

"The reason this is so much more difficult is that you need knowledge for this, an unholy amount of knowledge, along with control along with an abundance of practice.

"You can decide how strong you want the spell to be, you can change it mid-cast, you can do anything with as long as you have the control."

The fireball in Yue's hand suddenly turned into water, it started expanding to 10 meters in diameter. Yue then threw it above, unlike the fireball, it didn't dissipate but maintained its form. Yue then brought it back as it become the same little harmless ball of water in her hand.

Masashi and Mai were left flabbergasted at the display of impeccable control that Yue showed.

"I didn't have much else to do in that place other than meditating. You guys will probably take a good amount of time before you can do anything even remotely close.

"As long as you have the correct knowledge, you are the one to decide what kind of spell you want to conjure as well as the complexity of it."

Masashi asked a question, "How is that different from us imagining the actions of the spell and casting defined magic?"

"Defined magic has limits. It relies on the affinity that a person has with the elements and how well they respond to that person's requests. That's the 'imagination' part of things.

"To put it simply, think of a single unit of mana as a self-conscious atom which can take different properties that are the elements. If someone has an affinity with fire, the mana will respond to that person with fire, it's the same with the other elements. When that person casts fire magic the mana responds better than it would if they cast water magic. The downside of this is that mana has limits on the directions that it can follow, It doesn't have actual intelligence to make a complex spell directly.

"Fluid magic completely negates the need for affinities. As long as you have the power to move the mana in the air, you can make it do anything with it. Casting this, you don't rely on the mana to do the work, you impose your own will on the mana particles and make them follow in a certain direction."