CHAPTER 7 - MAGIC TUTORIAL

I felt extremely weak and tired when I came to.

My muscles are aching and any slight movement causes me a lot of pain.

Although it looked like I took less damage during the fight, the opposite is actually the case.

Running on <Max Physical Enhancement> was dangerous as I'm not very proficient in it and could easily cause injuries in my body if my mana flowed in the wrong direction.

Not to mention that since my body isn't used to being enhanced with mana I experience some pain whenever mana flows through my muscles, making it more difficult to control.

When I woke up, the first thing I did was to ask Amelia how she had performed some actions during the fight.

When did she create the moving earth spikes? How did she launch herself in the air? And Finally, How the hell did she survive my last attack?!

It turns out that she made the earth spikes befores she charged at me when the match started.

Her confronting me was just a distraction and her plan was to counterattack the moment I was hit or interrupted by the <Stone Spikes>.

As for how she launched herself towards me, she had simply used earth magic to create a small pillar below her feet that pushed her upwards in my direction.

And finally to elaborate on how she survived my <Gatling Fireball>, she said;

"Do you think that you're the only one who can use magic while enduring pain?"

"I admit that I fell for your trap and got hit by about ten Fireballs directly but during that time, I had already started created a huge boulder behind me"

"Then all I had to do was manoeuvre myself to the top of boulder and wait for you to exhaust your mana reserves while I supplied mana to the boulder to keep it from falling apart under your steady bombardment"

"Oh wow! You were able to think of a strategy like that while in the air? That's amazing!" I said after everything became clear to me.

You could say that I lost due to the gap in our knowledge and experience with using magic.

The way she used mana shield as a coating barely noticeable as well as using her creations from magic to launch and manoeuvre herself in the air are all amazing.

"*sigh*... Since I've had my fun, I guess it's about time I gave you a proper lecture on the basics of magic" Amelia says standing opposite me with her hands akimbo.

"You've may be able to guess some of the terms thanks of the entertainment in the human realm"

"Mana, the particles present in the atmosphere and flowing in our bodies has been theorised to be the source of all things"

"This is because it has been proven that mana can be transformed into any element or material and any element or material can be transformed into mana" Amelia says while demonstrating by creating a huge brown Rock spear in front of her before disintegrating it and converting it back into mana.

"Mana particles in nature have multiple colours depending on the element it is associated with"

"Red to Fire, Blue to Water, Brown to Earth, Green to Air, Yellow to Lightning, Black to Darkness, White to Light and Purple to Space elements"

"Magic is the process of converting the mana particles in our body into these different elements and this brings us to the area of Magical Affinity"

"The amount of mana used for a particular magic spell depends mostly on the Magical affinity the caster has to the element of the spell"

"Everyone has at least a little magical affinity for each elements but in most cases, their affinity for one or more elements far surpasses the others and these elements are called the Primary Elements"

"My Primary elements are Earth and Fire, this means that my magical affinity for earth and fire is higher compared to other elements" Amelia says as she demonstrates.

She first creates a ball of flame and a floating mass of rock with ease.

Then with a little bit of stress she is able to create a ball of water and air.

She then struggles for five minutes before creating a small ball of electricity and darkness.

"*Sigh*" Amelia sighs as drops of sweat form on her forehead.

"As you can see, casting a fire and earth spell took barely a second, a small amount of mana and required minute concentration from me"

"While water and air took a fairly longer time, more mana and requires me to be moderately concentrated. These elements can also be called my Secondary element as although, they are difficult for me to use right now, they can still be trained to be used effectively in a fight"

"But don't use me as a case study, most of the common soldiers out there have one primary and secondary element each"

"Although this isn't what makes my talent and upper limit higher than them, It does increase my adaptability in battle but I do have to put in double the training in order to fully manifest this advantage"

"It is common practice to train your Primary element to an area of specialty and train your Secondary element to the level of basic usefulness in battle[2]"

"As for Lightning and Darkness, they took a long time for me to cast, a huge amount of mana and a tedious amount of concentration not to mention the last two elements, I can't even try casting a light or Space element spell because of my incredibly low affinity for them"

"Well it's to be expected, people with high magical affinity for Lightning, Light, Darkness and Space elements are very rare"

"Despite their rarity, these elements do not necessarily overshadow other elements in terms of importance as each element have their natural properties and area of application"

"Fire has its burning and explosive properties, Water its formless and change of state properties, Earth its weight and defence properties, Air its weightless and intangibility properties, Lightning its Electric, magnetic and penetrative properties, Light its healing and purification properties, Darkness its illusion and poisoning properties and finally Space has its long distance travel, gravitational and pure destructive properties"

"Even though some of these properties can be somewhat replicated by other elements, it would be at cost of more mana than usual"

"Therefore, all elements have their own uses in special situations and can not be ranked according to importance[4]"

"Another special skill required in using magic is called <Mana Control>"

"Basic spells like <Physical Enhancement> and <Mana Shield> that everyone can cast is only possible with a basic level of mana control"

"Mana control is divided into five levels that we know of"

"The First level, Novice, being able to move mana within and around the surface of your body to cast spells like <Physical Enhancement> and <Mana Shield>"

"The Second level, Proficient, being able to revert spells that you have casted back into mana and restore it in your body"

"The Third level, Experienced, being able to cast, control and alter spells from a far distance"

"The Fourth level, Expert, being able to give mana separated from you a certain level of independence. This means giving man the ability to respond to some situations automatically. This can be used in setting traps. Mana can be given the instruction to cast an explosive flame spell when it senses someone or can be kept somewhere at mass to return to your body when your mana reserve is almost empty. Mind you, all this can be done without the use of a magical artefact"

"The Fifth level, Master, known as the maximum level and bringing the control of mana to its full capability, being able to turn object around you into mana, slight control over mana in the environment and being able to interfere with opponents mana flow from a distance are all part of this realm of mastery"

"I'm at the peak of proficient level mastery of mana control and I don't know how but you've reached the Experienced level with minimum practice" Amelia says with an ugly look on her face.

"As for Expert level of mastery, only high level Onimirai knights have reached this level"

"The Master level has been reached by many legendary demons in history and some say that the present Demon lord has also reached this level"

Oh wow, won't people who have reached this level be considered gods on the battlefield?

Just imagine a whole army having their mana flow interrupted, they would end up like chickens on a chopping board… Eliminated?[6].

"Magic spells are also divided into five levels of mastery"

"The First level, Novice, being able to cast the basic levels of the spells with the minimal loss and leftover mana after the spell's execution"

"The Second level, Proficient, being able to alter the properties of the element of a spell"

"The Third Level, Experienced, being able to completely combine two or more spells of different elements without their properties clashing and secondly being able to influence your body with the properties of an element. An example would be giving yourself the defence property of the earth element or giving everyone of your attacks the burning property of the Fire element."

"The Fourth level, Expert, being able to give spells sort of a life of their own. An example is giving a spell a auto aiming function or a more complicated action of basically summoning monster made out of mana to assist you in battle"

"The Fifth level, Master, being in total control of a particular or combination of spells to the extent of transcendence and creating a brand new spell. This brand new spell is basically every instance or process involved casting the transformed spell shortened into a single action that produces special effects with power beyond normal and at lesser mana cost"

"Currently, I haven't been able to produce any spell of the Experienced level of mastery"

"You've already displayed the mastery of your Fire magic spells to be at the Proficient level but your management of mana during the fight was poor, I noticed that there was a lot of leftover mana from your spells" Amelia lectures.

I did notice the wastage of mana she's talking about, it was really inefficient and I wouldn't have emptied my mana reserves that quickly if I had been more careful.

I would take note to train more in that aspect later.

"All ten Onimirai Knights have mastered some Expert level spells and as for Master level spells, only some of the top five of the knights have created one"

"To elaborate more on master level spells, a spell called <Flame Tornado> at Experienced level is creating in the form of a tornado with cutting and movement restraint effect and then igniting the air into flames to add a burning effect to the spell"

"At Master level, this spell once casted instantly creates a flame with the properties of fire and air elements in the form of a tornado, this tornado no longer as susceptible to the weakness of the fire element that is water and also possess the explosive ability of the fire element"

"Well that's all that I have to tell you… I hope I'm not forgetting anything… Any questions?" Amelia asks after muttering to herself.

"Not really…" I said trying to digest everything I've just been told.

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot to ask. What's up with your freakish instincts!!" Amelia suddenly exclaims.

"As slow as you are, I can't imagine that you were able to keep track of my movements with your eyes!"

"But you always managed to narrowly avoid every single one of my attacks as if you saw them coming, that's freakin Badass!!" Amelia says, shouting loudly in excitement.

She found it that impressive huh? I'd actually be very disappointed if she didn't, afterall it's a skill that I've been training assiduously for years.

"I call it Kanjutsu, a martial arts I invented that focuses on training the instincts and sense of premonition during battle"

"I have been practising it for almost eight years and I had only gotten to the basic level of being able to trust my instinct completely after four years of practice" I said proudly as I stood up from the floor.

"Wow! you really created the technique yourself, that's very impressive. Say, is it possible for you to teach it to me?" Amelia asks after mildly complimenting me.

"I would love to, but the training process I designed for this martial art was targeted for people with um… Human physique so I'll have to make some changes" I said awkwardly.

"Oh! Okay, no problem but tell me when you're done and I assure you that I won't be learning it for free, don't forget that I'm from a family of blacksmiths, a custom made weapon won't be impossible for me" She guaranteed.

It's not that I don't want to teach her Kanjutsu, it's mostly because I fumbled through trial and error before I finally got my current level in this technique.

I started learning martial arts, particularly Karate, from the age of nine as a hobby to get over my parents disappearance and to socialise with more people my age.

I got so invested in Karate thanks to anime that I started taking it very seriously, eventually surpassing kids my age and because of this I was only allowed to practise with kids older than me.

Even though I got frustrated whenever I lost fights due to my small size, I always tried to be friends with the older kids but they didn't seem like me because I was favoured by the sensei of the dojo who was probably my closest friend during my stay there.

One day when I won a match that others called a fluke, I didn't argue with them because this kid was actually more skilled than me and I had lost to him multiple times before.

But when I went home, I reviewed the fight in my head again and noticed that I didn't win because of luck, but because my body instinctively moved to counter a danger that I could vaguely detect.

I immediately attributed this to my fighting instinct that I had developed and had even gone on the internet to understand it more.

Many martial arts masters have confessed to having won matches narrowly by reacting based on instinct and I noticed that none of them have ever tried to train their "instincts" to a level that they can control.

Digging deeper, I realised that even non martial arts practitioners have had experiences where they avoided danger or even saved lives because their body reacted on instinct.

Thanks to my childish mind and lack of nothing better to do, I decided to research more on this and use myself as the test subject.

And so began my torturous training.

Most of my training in the beginning was filled with blind guesses… Okay I'll admit it, the whole idea of the technique was a blind guess.

It had never been confirmed that combat instincts were something that could be actively trained because I had discovered war veterans who could be said to have the most active instincts out there which could even be mistaken as paranoia have said that it is merely a result of the many life or death experiences they have been through.

So it was amazing how far I had gone to make the technique a reality, even to the extent of almost wasting a whole year training my ear sensitivity.

Well since I mastered Kanjutsu I haven't lost a single fight till today, so you could say it was worth all the trouble.

"Since I've taught the basics of all you need to know, you can go straight to actual practice"

"Um, did you forget to talk about something?" I said, finally remembering a topic she forgot to mention during her lecture.

"What?"

"What exactly is <Demon Aura> and how can I control it?" I asked.

"Hmmm… this might be a sensitive topic to you but all demons are told about it from a young age"

"Basically, the demon aura is a natural skill that is inherited by all demons and as for how to use it, well we instinctively know how to use it the first time we activate it" Amelia says with a thoughtful look on her face.

Is that so? I've only accidentally entered that form when I had strong determination and when I was in the midst of a fight, the second time feeling more like a defensive reaction from my body.

"After awakening, it grants us incredible fighting spirit and a clear mind. In this state, even in a completely hopeless situation we demons will never back down!!" Amelia says, shouting the last part loudly.

The air around her suddenly changed and it was as if she was covered by an invisible force, her hair glowed slightly, her eyes sharp and scary with a wide smile on her face.

"After some training, you can even infect other demons with your fighting spirits and thanks to this it's not uncommon to see a group of demons die with smiles on their faces hua!" Amelia shouts, getting visibly excited.

I begin to see a red aura flow around her and my blood begins to boil in excitement almost immediately forcing me into the <Demonic Aura> state.

This time I tried my best not to hold it back but I don't know if I caused it subconsciously or not but the feeling eventually began to die down as if rejecting me.

"Shit Come On. I was so close just now! Rise! Daamnnn!" I shouted in disappointment when the feeling disappeared.

I looked straight into Anmelia's eyes trying my best to build up my fighting spirit but all I got was repeated little sparks that refused to become a flame.

"Stop" Amelia said before I could start shouting like a super saiyan.

"What's wrong?" She asked with a concerned look on her face, reverting to her usual self.

"I don't really know, the only clue I have is that the first time I activated it I got the feeling that I would find it difficult to use <Demonic Aura> again"

"I'll be honest with you, I don't like my state of mind when in that state, it was like all I could think about was fighting no matter how dangerous the situation may be and it didn't feel like me at all… It felt like a whole other personality"

"I won't downgrade the skills usefulness but I'm majorly afraid of making careless decisions in that state" I confessed in a frustrated voice.

"Fool!" Amelia suddenly shouts.

"How do you expect to use <Demonic Aura> when you think about it like that"

"It is not a separate state! It is part of us! We demons only fear and respect the strong! Our fighting spirit reigns supreme! Sure there may be some shy demons out there, but don't be surprised when they bite back even if it costs them their lives! It's ingrained in our bloodline, <Demonic Aura> merely helps us tap into it" She says with a smile on her face.

"How can you guys take your life for granted like that, you have to think things through, all this makes demons sound like a violent race" I shout in anger.

"Don't mistake bravery for stupidity, some demons don't even like to fight but we all have the mindset that our strength is our greatest defence and we would rather die fighting than have what we love taken from us. Our first thought isn't to run, find help or resort to money, influence or connections when faced with danger, those thoughts are too complicated to us, we first ask ourselves if we can fight through this or not with no fear in our hearts before thinking of anything else" Amelia says calmly with the same smile plastered on her face.

Are you kidding me? A whole race this courageous and brutal to even themselves? They're amazing!

But I'm guessing that they must have been fed this mentality since they were born or the blood flowing through their veins makes them think this way.

Looks like I might have to change my mentality if I ever want to use this skill.

"<Demonic Aura> may have stages as well, but it is incredibly hard to train so all I know is that the level above the one I'm currently at is signified by being able to affect your physical strength with the aura"

"But we would have to be careful when training this skill to this level" Amelia says with an awkward smile on her face.

"Why?"

"Well um… You were wrong when you called us a violent race… We are um more inclined to the general knowledge you have about demons from the human realm"

"Huh?!" I exclaimed in confusion.

"What I'm trying to say is that at this level, we demons are at the risk of becoming corrupted… Returning to our roots… Becoming true demons… And true demons. True demons are EVIL" Amelia says with a serious expression while looking away from me.

I finally understand why she said that this would be a sensitive topic to me.

[Author's Notes]

1. Word count - 3579 words

2. This got me thinking about talents and career choices. A person can have the talent of a gamer and still choose the career path of an Engineer. Gaming would require less effort of this person than studying to be an Engineer. At the end of the day, most people in this person's shoes would train their engineer career to the level of basic usefulness (to get a source of income) and train their gaming to an expert level.

3. DO NOT take any of the bullshit I said above seriously… I have no idea what I'm talking about.

4. I get confused whether this applies to the real world though. A Medical doctor would always rank higher than a Fantasy novel Author like me…

5. Wait a minute!! What if one of my readers is a medical doctor, doesn't that mean I rank high since I'm literally Entertaining a Medical Doctor!!!

6. Am I using this phrase well?