Self Study

Faralda's lecture continued, and steadily, Michael's understanding of how the elements and their various effects actually worked improved. His earlier theory on Magicka itself being the main contributor seemed to be the correct one from what he could tell...

Fire magic dealt far more damage because it not only heated the body, but also the internal Magicka of the subject, causing it to aid in burning them. This is why spells like Incinerate dealt more damage if the target was already on fire, it was a cascading effect, not so dissimilar to how nuclear chain reactions worked.

Shock magic didn't actually drain Magicka perse either, instead, it caused the victim's Magicka to randomly discharge into the ground and nearby objects. Usually, this was in small amounts that wouldn't be noticeable... But if someone was struck by say, a Thunderbolt? The things surrounding them would also be affected, simply by the victim's own Magicka... This was actually the basis of spells like Chain Lightning, which used and directed this discharged Magicka to deal yet more damage.

Finally, Frost magic, which actually worked in a logical way... When things were cold they slowed, this was also the case with Magicka, this is why it was more difficult to cast Fire magic during say, a blizzard, as you would need to alter the temperature of your Magicka a lot more while freezing. Of course, the natural phenomenon didn't account completely for the drastic amount of Stamina drained. The other reason was, you guessed it, Magicka at work, slowing the blood flow and subsequent nutrients, oxygen, and other vital components that allow people to live. This sucked the victim's muscles of energy, leaving them in an exhausted state.

Michael was unsure if his magic would have these effects even if he used this world's magic... From what he could tell he didn't possess 'Magicka', but regular magic instead... Whatever that meant. It might also be the reason he couldn't use Halkeginia's magic, since he lacked the unique properties of their magic.

Regardless the lecture soon came to an end, and Michael felt as if he'd learned more about magic from that one discussion alone than his entire time studying the Spell Tomes.

Michael didn't stick around to make small talk with the master though, instead, quickly made his way to the Arcanaeum to hand in his borrowed book. He could tell by the twitching brow on Urag's face that he'd barely made it on time... He had no doubt that the orc would've pursued him the minute he was late to hand it in.

"If it helps my case, the Arch-Mage is the reason I was late..." he offers but the orc shows no reaction. "O-kay... I'll see you around then..." he awkwardly starts but pauses, sheepishly glancing over his shoulder at the still glaring orc, "You wouldn't happen to have beginner books on Conjuration, would you?"

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Michael makes his way up to one of the free sections of the rooftop, and once there he spots Tiffania and Charlotte already waiting for him. Illococoo should've been here too but, she'd probably gone to show the Arch-Mage her work concerning the Thu'um.

"Yo, sorry for the wait, I wanted to pick up a couple more books before we started." he says while displaying the couple books he'd borrowed.

"Do's and Don'ts of Making Friends with Demons...?" Tiffania reads one of the book's titles aloud, "I thought we were going to practise Destruction spells today?"

Michael shrugs, "The Arch-Mage showed me just how 'useful' Conjuration could be. I thought we should at least give it a go, maybe one of us is a one in a million genius or something."

The two girls nod, they'd tried every other magic school aside from Enchanting and Conjuration, so there was no harm in learning the basics. Michael holds up the other book, 'Conjuration for Dummies' and grins, "Alright, let's get started."

The trio begin flipping through the two books, they were quite thin compared to huge dictionary-like books that taught more advanced things, so they were able to get through both of them just as the sun was beginning to set.

The books basically described how conjuration spells function, most either creating links to Oblivion or severing already existing links. There was also a subset of spells that were solely based around Soul trapping. Neither of the trios was sure why Soul trapping was included, but the answer probably lay in more advanced books.

The books mentioned that some realms of Oblivion were harder to summon from, realms with tighter security, cover less area, and hold fewer creatures are the most difficult. The fewer creatures existed in the realm, the harder it was to locate a viable summon.

Indeed, most people didn't even know where their Conjurations came from, with the most obvious example of this being the various Atronachs you could summon. Michael even possessed a staff that summoned Frost Atronach's that he'd stolen from a vampire... Where did the staff pull them from?

Additionally, there was a difference between the commonly used temporary conjuration and permanent conjurations. The latter of which usually required a ritual to do, that or an incredibly powerful magic user summoning something far, far weaker than themselves.

Only a few things could be permanently summoned as well, Dremora, the common demons found in Oblivion, were a big no-no. The path between realms that held such creatures was locked down tighter than a nun's panties. This meant that while you could summon their bodies to fight for you, their souls would remain in their respective realm. This made them far weaker than they'd usually be, but it was better than having another invasion Michael supposed.

Of course, that also meant that you couldn't kill permanently kill any Dremora existing in Tamriel, as they'd just 'respawn' back in Oblivion. This wasn't entirely a bad thing however, for instance, if a Dremora had something you wanted, you could simply torture them to death, summon them, and do it again, over and over... Much to Tiffania's chagrin, the books literally described the best ways to coerce a Dremora, as if doing so once they were summoned was a given.