Chanting

"So, what are you doing here, boy?" The wyvern asked. "I doubt that you came all this way just to stare at a lady, although that is understandable considering it's me."

Nadios' mouth twitched. "I'm not here for you. I'm here for me. I need you to teach me about mana."

The wyvern snorted, the resulting air waves causing Nadios' hair to ripple. "I can't. My daughter needs constant care, I don't have time to teach you anything. Besides, I have nothing in it for me."

"You don't have a lot of time left, do you?"

The wyvern narrowed her yellow eyes at Nadios. "What do you mean by that?"

"You must realize this already, but mana deficiency is slowly killing you. I'm guessing you have 10, maybe 20 days before you unfortunately die from mana deficiency."

"So? What about it? Are you going to give me your mana so I can keep going?"

"No. Unfortunately, one full mana core from me is likely not even 1% of your maximum."

"So? What are you getting at, boy?"

"If you would kindly please stop interrupting me, I can tell you. I can save your daughter and take care of her after you die."

The wyvern's eyes narrowed once again before she spit out, in a spiteful tone. "I doubt that, boy. You just want the body of my daughter, don't you? You aren't strong enough to beat her, so you have to ask me to give her to you. Is that it?"

Nadios' eye twitched. "Your phrasing… Whatever. What can I do to make you believe that I don't want to harm your daughter?"

"Nothing," The wyvern harrumphed.

Nadios' nose twitched. 'Is… Is this really a wyvern? A mythical creature of great strength?'

Nadios took a deep breath to calm himself. This wyvern was really getting on his nerves. "Your daughter, I've examined her mana core and what is happening with it."

",,,"

Sensing the wyvern's attention focusing on him more closely than before, Nadios' heart started to beat faster. He could not afford to lose this opportunity. "Simply put, your daughter was too talented for her body to handle. The influx of mana was too much, hence her body started to wither."

"Like with plants and too much water, the mana in your daughter's body is overflowing and overwhelming. She can't take the required amount of oxygen into her body. If she forms her mana core, she will be an unprecedented genius, I'm sure."

Saying this, Nadios raised his hand and out of it came a small blob of dark pulsing mana. The mana rippled and the surrounding air seemed to lose its mana. Nadios tried hard to find any information he could on this other affinity of his, which he assumed was called death mana, but it was not mentioned in the "Magic" book that was in his parent's room.

So, he concluded that this affinity was a rather rare one. Even more than space and time magic. When he had tried using this mana, he found out that it was quite destructive. So much so that he never used it again after that. Seeing the dot of mana hovering above Nadios' hand, the wyvern's yellow predatory eyes shot open in surprise.

"How… how do you… how do you have a death affinity, boy?" The wyvern managed to say, through her shock. "That's something that has never been seen wielded by a human before, if I'm not mistaken. Only mythical beasts have the bodies to contain an affinity for an progenitor law. How…"

Nadios smirked. "I'm special. What can I say? With death mana, I can save her. Normally, nothing can interact with and remove mana. But, with death magic, I can do that. I can trim the overwhelming amount of mana in your daughter's body, keeping her on the cusp of death while simultaneously letting her live and form her core."

"... I'll teach you." The wyvern raised her head so that her eyes were level with Nadios'. "You are correct in the usage of death mana. Its very concept is decay, with some branches later down the line. I have waited in this cave for years, keeping Cynth alive with time magic and concealing the entrance with space magic, waiting for a member of my race to perhaps find me and help my daughter. I had lost my faith long ago, but now, now that you're here, I can hope again."

"The only thing is… while I assume that you won't be hurting or harming her in any way, I want to make sure. I want to use some space magic on you to create a magic circle in your body, so that should Cynth want, she can activate it and remove your mana core and vessels, so that you would be a cripple."

"I don't like the thought of putting my life in someone else's hands so easily, " Nadios said. "How can I be sure your daughter – Cynth – won't just cripple me as soon as you die?"

"I'll set a timer for a year, where the magic circle cannot be activated. During that time, you'll either need to gain her trust, or remove the magic circle. Which is very hard, I'll assure you. I doubt anyone under the peak white stage can do it, something that only a very limited number of people are."

"...Fine. Create that mana circle."

The wyvern closed her eyes and sent her mana into Nadios. She found it weird that she couldn't see anything inside him, but dismissed it. "Locate," she whispered. Her mana immediately shot towards Nadios' mana core, where she started to intricately weave her mana. After a long couple of minutes, Nadios was left with a bright white mark on his mana core that dimmed down as soon as the wyvern retracted her mana.

After she did the same with his mana vessels, the wyvern opened her eyes. "I added a protection spell as well, so that you don't die. While I would gladly cripple you for the sake of my daughter, I'm not so shallow as to allow you to die from anyone else's hands but her own. The world of Sucratz needs you, and that is an irrefutable fact."

Nadios didn't question the wyvern's statement. He had no idea why the world needed him; He just wanted to protect his family and live a lush life, he had no desire to play hero and save the world or anything.

"You can call me Cynthia. Your lessons will start now."

Nadios sat down and crossed his legs, all his attention on Cynthia.

"Tell me. How much do you know about mana?"

"Not much; I'm basically self taught."

"Hm. Macotate."

"Excuse me?"

Cynthia shook her head. "What do you humans call it again? Meditation? Cultivation?"

"Ah. I see what you mean. I call it meditation."

"Alright, do that then."

Nadios closed his eyes and began to meditate. Almost immediately, he heard Cynthia give a grunt. Opening an eye, he saw Cynthia looking at him incredulously.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I… I can't use mana sense in your body." Cynthia tried once again, but she was unsuccessful. She was instantly reminded of earlier, when she couldn't sense his organs. Back then, she just thought it was her health holding her back, as well as that mana not being meant for sensing. But now, she was using mana sense, a mana used only for seeing things not meant to be seen, and could still not sense his insides.

"Oh. I'm pretty sure my parents and maid have that same problem. Hold on."

Saying that, Nadis closed his eyes again and used some strings of mana to navigate to a sort of wall that surrounded his body. It was invisible, and very closely resembled mana but it was much, much higher quality than the mana in Nadios' body, and even higher than that of the natural mana floating outside.

He had found this wall when he was investigating the reason why his parents couldn't send their mana sense into him, and he found this. After a bit of experimentation, he found out that he could pry apart this wall with some mana. He did that now, with the mana strings.

"There. Try again."

Cynthia was still lost in her shock. Her, someone at the peak of the white stage, was unable to send her mana sense into the body of a boy not even in puberty?

"Hello? Cynthia?"

"Oh…" Cynthia shook herself out of her shock for the second time today. She was not used to being so surprised, and especially not from a small child. Smiling bitterly internally, Cynthia sent her mana sense back into Nadios. This time, she easily penetrated him and was able to sense his core, which was a light red orb with hints of a dark yellow in some parts.

"You may begin."

So Nadios did. Cynthia watched with fascination as his mana twisted and turned, forming three long ovals, separated into pieces, turned and rotated, before finally letting out an inaudible bang.

"That was… interesting." Cynthia muttered, once again astonished by this boy. Then, she mentally berated herself. Three times she entered a state of shock, in less than two hours. Maybe she was getting senile, Cynthia thought. She was certainly old enough to.

"So? What do you think?" Nadios asked.

"It was unlike any Macotation technique I have ever seen. Did you make that yourself?"

"Yeah."

"Hm. Cast a spell now. I want to see your form."

Nadios took all his mana and ran it around his body so that it gained the characteristic purple gleam of space mana. Then, he evenly spread it around all his mana vessels. Afterward, he expelled a bit and moved it a short distance away and, with a thought, teleported there.

"How was it?" Nadios asked, turning back around to face Cynthia.

"Your mana usage and manipulation was fine." Cynthia began. "You used enough mana to complete your task, and you sent your mana in a relatively straight line and very little of it leaked."

"But. You took way too long. Collecting the required amount of mana, carefully moving it to its destination, and then teleporting to the location should be almost instantaneous. This is fine in lower-level fights, but once you reach the point where you and your opponent will be moving so fast that you will leave afterimages, a second could be the difference between life and death."

Nadios noticed how Cynthia was almost certain that he could reach that stage. 'Must be the death mana. It seems I'm still underestimating it.'

"I see the question in your eyes. To counteract this, the most obvious answer would, of course, be practice. Practice until you reach that point. But, the amount of practice required is honestly not worth it in the long run, at least for such a low-level spell. So, the shortest solution is chanting. This is-"

Nadios raised his eyebrow. "Chanting? I see a lot of people around me doing that to cast their spells, but I always assumed that they just wanted to be dramatic. I don't see how giving away my move in favor of speed will help much."

"You should let me finish my sentences, kid." Cynthia said with clear irritation in her voice. "That way, there will be a lot less wasted time. We only have a brief amount of time, afterall."

"Okay. Sorry." Nadios muttered. He wasn't sorry.

"Chanting helps a lot with spell casting due to one very simple reason: It is easier to think up something than to make something. Chantless casting requires you to gather mana, picture what you want the spell to do, and then activate the mana. Chanting only needs you to gather mana; Your mind will do the rest when it hears your chant."

"I understand. But I still don't see why giving away my attack is better than a slower speed."

"You're still a newbie in the field of magic. Right now, you can only use small spells that you can easily think up. But, in the later stages, the spells will be so complex that it might take you multiple minutes, even an hour or upwards to make a spell. The spells require interlocking strands of mana, intricate shapes and formations, and various other things that increase the time exponentially."

"Oh. That makes sense."

"You know how to chant, right? All you have to do is create a phrase or sentence that will make it easy and clear for your mind."

"Ok." Nadios thought for a second, before gathering his mana once again.

"Teleport." He muttered, before the world spun around him. Once his vision cleared, Nadios saw that he was… in his room!

'Ah. I guess I have to differentiate between waypoint teleportation and visual teleportation.'

Looking outside the window, Nadios saw that the Amethyst Moon was just after its peak. Determining that although he had time to go back to the cave, he would have maybe five, ten minutes to talk with Cynthia. That wasn't worth it, in Nadios' eyes, so he just got into his bed and went to sleep. Tomorrow night, he'll go back and apologize for his sudden disappearance.

*

*

*

Nadios was throwing a ball back and forth with Kyrillos when suddenly, Kyrillos let out a yelp of surprise. He hunched over and held his stomach with his hands. Nadios had started running towards his brother when suddenly he stopped. On Kyrillos' face was an extravagant expression of pure bliss.

Nadios remembered something he once read in the book on magic. At the formation of the mana core, a sense of great happiness is felt. Kyrillos, too, remembered this page.

"Brother! My mana core formed!" Kyrillos shouted out, joy written all over his face.

"That's great, " Nadios said, a big smile on his face. How could he not be happy? His brother was a genius! He had been worried. Ever since Kyrillos showed signs of his weak bone structure and limbs, Nadios thought about how he could protect him. Obviously, he couldn't be with Kyrillos all the time. But now, Kyrillos could defend himself when Nadios wasn't there. "Let's go home and tell Rianne, mother, and father. I'm sure they'll be happy to know."

"Ok!" Kyrillos, still with a big grin on his face, climbed onto Nadios' back. He wrapped his hands around his big brother's neck, while Nadios bent over to pick up their leather ball. Then, Nadios started back to their house.

Nadios opened the door, dropped the ball, took off his shoes, as well as Kyrillos', before shouting. "Rianne! Mother! Father!"

"Hm? What is it, Naddy?" Lucelle asked. She was sitting on the couch, rereading one of her favorite books of all time: "Corvan Adventures'', by the famous dungeon diver, Thorst Royce. She closed her book and got off the couch, where she was met with the sight of Nadios running towards her with Kyrillos on his back.

Nadios crouched down and let Kyrillos get off his back.

"Mom." Kyrillos said. "Look look, my mana core formed!"

Lucelle's gentle smile froze. She sent her mana sense into Kyrillos immediately, where she was met with a dull gray orb with channels connecting that big orb to seven smaller ones. She whispered. "It… it's true."

"Oh, Kye!" Lucelle grabbed Kyrillos and picked him up, bringing him into a deep hug. "Mom's so proud of you!"

Rianne walked into the living room, her tail hanging limply behind her. She crossed her hands on her maid dress and said. "What's all this commotion about?"

"Rianne, send your mana sense into Kyrillos. He's formed his mana core! At seven!" Lucelle said, her energetic voice filled with passion.

Rianne did as Lucelle said. Even while expecting it, she couldn't help but let surprise color her face when she found a full mana core inside of Kyrillos' body. "Oh my. Well done, Kyrillos! You're amazing!"

"Ehehe!" Kyrillos grinned with pride in his voice. Usually, it was his brother who received all the praise. 'Wow Nadios, you're so good at throwing that ball!', 'Nadios, you're reading so well!', 'Nadios, you learned how to cook too?', yada yada yada. While Kyrillos didn't hold any resentment towards his brother, sometimes, it was nice to be the one getting praised.

"Vortick, darling! Get down here!" Lucelle yelled. Vortick was probably asleep upstairs, or admiring himself in the mirror. He did that sometimes. "Kye's got a surprise for you!"

"Coming, coming!" A gruff, slightly sleeping voice responded a couple seconds later, followed by light thudding.

"What is it, what is it?" Vortick appeared from the staircase, his hair messy and his eyes half closed.

"Check out Kye's body!"

"Hm?" Vortick rubbed his eyes and sent his mana sense into Kyrillos' body. He searched around for a bit, not finding anything out of order. Organs healthy, heart pumping normally, mana core shimmering a dull gray, muscles thriving… hm? Mana core? Shimmering?

Vortick's eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped. Nadios felt this father of his was too goofy; He was basically acting like a cartoon character.

"No way!" Vortick exclaimed. "I mean, I knew all along that Kye was a genius. He's my son, after all."

Lucelle scoffed. "What do you mean by that? Kye's genius has nothing to do with you. You were an average talent, if anything, it was all because of me that he's a genius!"

"What are you going on about?" No sign of Vortick's sleepiness could be seen anymore, his usual loud self back and in full display. "It must be my genes that Kyrillos formed his core so early. My family tree is wrought with geniuses; I was just an unlucky kid."

Rianne giggled, while Nadios released a bright smile. Watching this quarrel between Lucelle and Vortick reminded him of his previous mom and dad. They would fight regularly, but would always make up the next day. Their fights were always for dumb reasons too, like who was on dish washing duty tonight.

*

*

*

Nadios was outside, once again. He had told his parents and Rianne that he was going to go outside and play by himself, and that he would probably not be back until sundown. In reality, Nadios was practicing his chanting in a clearing in the Atalant Forest. He had to at least make some progress before he met with Cynthia next, right? Kyrillos wasn't with him, since the former had wanted to clear his mana veins.

"Vp." Nadios muttered. His body disappeared, appearing again a short distance away. He didn't know why, but his brain only activated visual teleportation when he said Vp. He was glad that it was short and easy to say, of course, but just confused why it was just Vp, and not something like visual tp or short tp, something that he felt was much more suitable.

'Eh. Sometimes, our bodies and minds don't make sense.' Nadios thought.

Since he had visual teleportation done, the next thing Nadios wanted to do was get his object teleportation done. Those two were the most useful to him, as well as his manyfold attack.

'Hm.' Nadios thought. 'What should I call it?'

"Objectification!"

Nothing happened.

"Appear!"

Nothing happened, although Nadios felt a slight depression in his mana reserves.

"To me!"

Nothing happened. Nadios kept at it for several more minutes, before finally, he settled on one.

"Venire." A small stick settled itself into Nadios' hand when he said the Latin word for come. Nadios had taken a Latin class back in highschool, and he supposed venire had stuck with him, for some reason.

'Alright, now, for the hard one.' Nadios thought. He wanted to make a phrase for his attack, because as it stood, he still took about five seconds to set up all the little teleportations required for the spell to work. If he could shorten this to a second or two, he could probably spam this attack after every vp.

Nadios began with small, one or two word phrases like with the other two. After half an hour, when he depleted his already small creativity reserve, Nadios stopped and started to ask himself questions to better understand his own attack.

What was the core of his attack? Teleportation. How did he use it? He created a bunch of small waypoints. What was its effect? A lot of cuts appeared all over his opponent's body. After giving himself a full test on his attack, Nadios felt that he had prepared a sufficient phrase.

"Fifteen two centimeter cuts via attacking waypoint teleportation."

Nadios then moved his hand in a chopping motion in front of him. A meter away, Nadios had set a log up. At that instant, the log twitched and jerked as if it was hit by attacks from all directions. It fell onto the grass with a resounding thud.

'Too long. Way too long.' Nadios thought. He could remove the amount of cuts, that wasn't that important. The distance the cuts were from the opponent's body wasn't that needed either. Thus, he was left with 'Cuts via attacking waypoint teleportation'. However, that was still too long for his liking. It was also awkward and uncomfortable to say.

'How about this…'

"Cut-point teleportation." Nadios made a chop once again, and the fallen log once again was beaten around. This time, it was a bit weaker and there were less teleports. About 11 or 12, Nadios guessed.

'It's short, relatively easy to say, and the effect is fine.' Nadios thought. 'However… it doesn't sound cool!'

What was the point of shouting out your attack if you were trading embarrassment for effect? Nadios wanted to be cool AND have a good, high quality attack.

'I could just remove the teleportation part, I guess. That would leave me with a cut-point, which doesn't sound bad.'

"Cut-point."

It didn't work.

'Alright, so I need the teleportation part.' Nadios thought for a long time, before something came to him. A bald man in a yellow superhero suit with a long white cape fluttering behind him, while a blonde cyborg stood beside him like a sidekick. That bald superhero had multiple attacks, but sorted them into two series: the normal series, and serious series.

What if… "Teleportation series: Cut-point."

Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang!

Like that, thirteen blows rained down upon the already fallen log as a slight numbing spread into Nadios' hand.

'Nice nice. I guess I'll arrange waypoint teleportation into that too. I'll call it "Teleportation Series: Waypoint"'.

Nadios raised his head to the sky. The sun was already falling, meaning he had to get back soon. Nadios started the long way back to his house. He'll have dinner, spend some time with his parents, and when night time comes, he'll go back to Cynthia's cave to learn more and to also apologize for leaving abruptly.