Magic Lessons

[Umbramancy: Absence holds a certain power. To strike on one's own terms and to vanish without a trace. To gain proficiency, master the shadow and the emotions within it. (Progress to tier 2: 1%)]

I swiped my hand at the window to close it.

At least [Screened] tells me my progress with the skill, but the description to level it is rather vague…

Hmm… Then again, I shouldn't be seeing it as a level since this isn't exactly a game system but an information screen.

I get the 'master the shadow' part, but what does it mean by 'the emotions within it'? Does darkness have emotions? How does one master that?

But I don't need to worry because I have the biggest cheat available right here!

"Mommy… How do I get better at Umbramancy?" I asked sweetly.

"Ara, ara? Call me mommy again~"

"Mommy…"

"Ahaann~ My little one is the cutest! Ufufufu~ As for your question, it's quite simple. You need to understand the very being of Darkness and Shadows, including what they represent~"

"What does that mean?"

"Ufufu~ What is darkness usually associated with, my little one?"

"Evil?" I answered without thinking.

"Ara, ara~ While that is true for some but that is not entirely accurate. Why is darkness associated with evil?"

Now I started to think.

Usually in books the evil characters would usually use some dark power or something associated with darkness. Even if they don't they would still be referred to as 'Dark Lord' or something similar. But why? What made darkness into the deciding factor that it should be used to refer to evil?

Hmm… In some stories, those evil characters would turn evil because of the power they have over darkness as well, even if the person themselves were not evil to begin with. Most of the time it's due to people fearing their powers or…

Ah! That's it!

Darkness, it inspires fear! The fear of the unknown! When you see a dark corridor, you do not fear the darkness itself, you fear what is in the darkness!

It's normal for anyone to fear something that they do not know and darkness is the one that hides most things!

Of course!

"Fear, people fear the darkness," I answered, more confidently this time.

Her response was to hug me to her chest and start gushing again, "Ahhh~ My cutest, sweetest, smartest child!! Mama is so proud of you!"

"Mnnnff… Mother… You're gushing again…" I groaned, though I did nothing to pull myself away.

"Ufufufu~ I can't help it if my little one is so cute! Now, that's only one part of it of course, you still need to gain mastery over the control of darkness itself~"

She released me before bringing out a candle stick from a nearby drawer, lighting the wick with a snap of her fingers before placing it in the middle of the table.

She then gestured to the candle, "Right now my child is only able to control darkness you are directly touching yes? Try and see if you can extend that darkness from your body and snuff out the candle~"

I nodded and summoned darkness into my hand with [Shadow Wall] before trying to exert my will over it to stretch towards the candle.

The ball of darkness covering my hand wobbled, but aside from moving a few inches forward, it never detached itself from my wrist.

I put more of my will into it and instead of moving more, there was a 'pop' sound as the darkness disintegrated into nothingness.

"Ufufu~ If my little one does it like that, it won't work~" Mother chuckled.

"Why is that, mother?"

She smiled at me but stayed silent.

"Why is that, mommy?" I corrected myself.

"Ufufufu~ My little one used a spell to summon the darkness, yes? Shadow Wall, if I am not mistaken?"

I nodded, not surprised that she knew.

She raised her hand and casted the same spell, conjuring a ball of darkness that covered her hand as well.

"To do this, you would have to cast a spell and the spell functions as a command to your mana on what you wish to do. Because of that, the magic is locked in the moment you cast the spell and to change it is to try and destroy the spell itself, which would cause the magic to unravel and disintegrate~"

To demonstrate that, she also moved the darkness away from her hand but the moment it did, it disappeared.

Ah, so it sort of is running a program script with a set function and if you try to make it do something out of its function, it would crash.

I looked up, "But who created these spells?"

"Ara, ara? The God of magic, Isre of course."

"Then is there a possibility to create new spells?"

"My, my~ Already asking questions that even most students at Aerialla Academy wouldn't think about~ It is possible of course, a mage simply needs to craft the spell from scratch and if successful, Isre would accept the magic as a spell. There is an entire study dedicated to this called Spellcrafting and as smart as my little one is, I would say that it is a little too early for you to study this for now~"

As tempted as I was, I agreed with her since I don't know enough about magic and how it works yet anyway. But that brought me to another point.

"But how did I learn [Shadow Wall] in the first place, mommy?"

"Spells made by Isre are instinctual to mages proficient enough to cast them. As long as you have the image and idea of what you want and the spell is something created by Isre, you will be able to cast it. Spells made by others however, would need to be learnt by studying the spellcraft itself before a mage can cast them."

"Doesn't that mean if the creator does not teach anyone the spell they made, it will be lost?"

Mother patted my head, "That is correct my little one. There are magic families who guard the spells their ancestors created zealously and only teach them within their circle to make themselves more special. Such families are always trying to steal each other's spells and sometimes these conflicts can get violent. There are examples of magic families being wiped out and their family spells being lost in such conflicts~"

I guess such a thing is to be expected.

"Now, shall we try again, my child?" Mother asked, gesturing to the candle.

I nodded and stared at the candle, my mind focusing on what I wanted to happen.

There was the slight feeling of my mana stirring within me but other than that, there was no other change.

Frowning slightly, I tried to recall what happened when I first casted [Shadow Wall].

Both mother and I wanted to see the magic and I knew beforehand that this was something that I could conceal myself with. So I tried to use the magic to conceal my hand which allowed me to cast this spell.

Oh? I get it, I have to keep the kind of magic in mind as well.

Just now I was only thinking about wanting the candle to be extinguished but I never thought about what I wanted to use to extinguish it and how I wanted it to happen.

Changing my line of thought, I focused on the idea of wanting the flame to be snuffed out by darkness.

[Shadow Wrap]

A tendril of darkness sprung out from thin air near the flame, wrapping around it to encase it in darkness and snuffing it out before disappearing altogether.

My face was once again buried into mother's bosoms as she hugged me enthusiastically, "Ahhh! I knew my little one could do it! Mama is so proud of you!! Mama shall make some cupcakes later for my little sweet child!"

Oh cupcakes! Hell yeah! This makes everything worth it!

"Ufufu~ Feel free to practice a little more on your own my little one~ Mama shall go and prepare now~"

She gave me another pat on the head before heading off to the kitchen with a spring in her step.

Hmmm… Let's see if there's any progress with my Umbramancy?

[Umbramancy: Absence holds a certain power. To strike on one's own terms and to vanish without a trace. To bring fear to the hearts of those who don't know what lurks inside. To gain proficiency, master the shadow and the emotions within it. (Progress to tier 2: 15%)]

Oh? The description of the magic changed. 

And just by having this short lesson my progress has improved by fourteen percent?

I guess the main reason why it started so low lay with the fact that I didn't have a clear idea of how Spells work and the emotional aspect of Umbramancy.

I smiled despite myself. Now that I have a better idea of how magic works, I just need to come up with even more spells!

And they even claim that it would take years to increase a tier in proficiency! I don't think I even need till next year to get my Umbramancy to tier two!