Her First Magic

"Let's get down to business...!" said Dux, full of confidence as a teacher.

"What business?" Oria asked, not understanding the idiom the wizard told her.

Dux continues without answering her. "We are going to learn magic now! Rejoice, Oria! For the Great Sqidral Dux shall be your one and only instructor for this short yet effective lesson!"

"Mmm?" Oria's voice waved. But soon, she understands the meaning behind Dux's words.

Dux takes her to an open space in the mountains, where there's a few monsters wandering about. Being locked up in a slave camp for so long and oblivious to monsters, Oria gets frightened easily. She doesn't want to let go of Dux's tentacle arm while walking.

"Now, now... if you won't mind, I'll appraise your status one more time."

"Mm." She nodded. "Go on."

Much to her surprise, Dux didn't say a word at all and suddenly, a status screen appears before him, showing her status.

"Let's see your magical affinity..."

Dux believes she's more than capable of magic, knowing how gargantuan the amount of mana she has. With that in mind, he rolls his jade spherical eyes to one point of her status.

<ORIA ARGENTORA>

Level : 1

HP : 404/404

MP : 8,996/10,000

MAT : 78

MDF : 55

"Oooooh! They're pretty high above the average! Knowing that you're still at level 1, they're totally qualified to be a mage! Ooooh... perhaps I can make you an overpowered mage?"

Oria asks the wizard in a curious tone.

"Umm... I'm sorry, but was my stats that great?"

"NYUHUHU! IT IS!" Dux replied excitedly.

"U-Uh..." Oria experienced a tremendous fear all of sudden. "I think Faruk w-would give an advice about t-this..." she said while distancing herself a bit from the wizard.

Realizing that he's getting out of control, Dux responds, "W-What? No-no-no, please forgive me. I didn't mean to blow up like that..."

He eventually calmed down.

"Not only you summoned the status screen without saying anything, but you also turn scary, Master Dux..." Oria stated her fear.

"Nyuhuhuhu~ I'm sorry for that regard. I lost myself for a bit there... Ahem! Well, to answer your question... indeed, I can appraise people without saying it. It's practical that way. Most people would say APPRAISAL!!! Then they proudly think that they're ahead of their opponents."

"How does that work?" she asked.

"[Enhanced Cognition] ... that's a high-tier perception skill that heightens your neurological feats and your ability to assess everything. It's a skill only a few can achieve."

Oria, looking all confused can only say, "...I'm sorry, Master Dux. But I barely understand."

"Nyuhuhu. It doesn't matter. It's still too early to understand something like that. In the meantime, you'll get it eventually. So, no worries~!"

"I... I see. (I guess I'll keep it in the back of my mind...)" Oria then remembers about the tantrum the wizard made earlier. "Now, I'm curious about how your stats..."

"Oh? Well, it's not that great, though. I'm nowhere near the legendary Silver Dragon," Dux shrugged casually.

"How stingy... (Maybe I can see it if I try to appraise? But I don't think I can do that just yet...)"

"Anyhow, we're getting sidetracked here. Let us learn a bit about magic spells... and some neat skills."

Oria nods and listens carefully.

"Magic is one of many skills. In magic, there are four basic elements: fire, water, earth, and wind. There's a saying that tells 'each creature has an affinity for one of the four base elements' but there's also an occasion where someone has the capability to use all elements of magic in maximum.

Now, to know what affinity you are, I will teach you how to use each of the four elements. Only then we will know what element you are best at."

Oria enthusiastically replies, "Understood!"

"Good. Now..." Dux then stretches his tentacle arm to reach something. By the tip, emerges a wormhole-like portal. Seeing how he did that, Oria once again feels awed that she just witnessed a miracle.

Dux pulls out a wand. He casually gives it to Oria, which she reflectively accepts as the effect of being stunned by the wormhole earlier. The portal disappears afterwards.

"Nyuhuhu, this is just a simple stick compared to my staff. But it'll serve good enough for now."

"T-Thank you... I guess... (So many things that's... out of this world happening by his actions...)"

"—Alright, let's try using fire." Dux stated quick.

"Ah, right!"

"Have you ever sensed the heat from fire? Or the sun's punishing temperature? If so, imagine that it appeared before your hands... and think of a tiiiny little fire. Don't worry about anything, let the wand do the rest afterwards."

"Oookay..."

Oria closes her eyes. She's imagining the shape of fire, and the sensation of its heat. She remembers something back at her days at the slave camp. An oil lamp... by the tip of it, she saw a fire, a tiny one. She remembered the warmth. She then tried to picture the 'punishing heat of the sun' but failed to do so.

She suddenly flinched. She remembered something vague, but it's there in her memories. But when she tried to rekindle that memory, she nearly freaked out.

From the tip of her wand, a tiny, white-colored fire ignites. Somehow, it dances wildly, as if supplied by an enormous amount of fuel, but retains its small size. Oria hasn't opened her eyes yet, so she didn't know of what's unfolding.

"Ooooh...!" Dux is impressed. A few seconds into the fire appearance, the wizard realizes the fire isn't stopping from growing larger.

"I'd like to see how this majestic fire will become... But more than this will not do any good for her..." He then takes the initiative and holds her hand gently, preventing her from continuing her imaginations.

"Ah!" the child eventually opened her eyes, shocked. "I'm... I'm sorry, Dux... I messed up."

Dux's response wasn't expected by her, "Nyuhuhuhuhu... I'm not so sure about that..."

"...eh?"

Oria hears an unknown voice as if speaking right to her mind.

<Albus Ignis I is learned!>

"W-What is this voice I'm hearing right now...?" she asked, frightened. Her arms are trembling.

Dux gently holds her quaking arms, "Calm down, dearie. It's the voice of the system."

"H-Huh...?"

"When you learn something new, whether is it magic or skill, you'll hear an echoing voice telling you that you've achieved them," Dux explained. "Nyuhuhu. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about that earlier."

"O-Oh... I see..."

Oria slowly relaxes down.

"So, so! What magic did you learn just now? I saw the fire is WHITE! Finding a blue-colored fire is already abysmally hard, now I witnessed something I've never seen before!"

"Umm... the voice I heard from earlier said it's... uhh... Albus Ignis I... I guess."

"Albus Ignis...? Huh, normally when people started learning fire magic, they'll immediately achieve 'Ignis' without the Albus. So... I guess in your case, that's pretty unique. I'm curious what did you imagine in your mind."

Oria is willing to tell him what she pictured, but suddenly, her tongue just refuses to say anything. She looks down to the ground, her mouth agape.

Dux instantly knows where this is heading. He immediately changes the course of the situation to calm her down.

"—Oh, okay, cool, no need to say anything! Hm! Let's go over the other sets of magic!"

Shortly, Oria's tongue allows her to speak once again.

"...Okay."

Dux once again tells her to use her imaginations related to the remaining elements. While doing so, the wizard makes sure that he doesn't let his curiosity gets the best of him because every time the little child learns magic, Dux just has the urge to ask about everything. He does this in order to prevent activating a bad memory from her mind.

Eventually, Oria learns these magics:

Ventus Blow.

Terra Shield.

Aqua Shot.

Next, Dux demonstrates how to use a wand to launch magics. He pulls another wand for himself from the wormhole portal while his cane is planted to the ground.

"So far, you managed to learn all four base magics... though the first one is a bit unique, but whatever. Now, we'll learn how to cast each of these magic you've learned."

"Understood."

"First things first, your MP is over nine thousand, precisely at ten thousand. Which means that will have a major impact when casting a magic. Using magic depletes MP and when you've run out of MP, you can no longer cast magic unless you rest for the day or drink an MP potion.

But here's the thing. I doubt you'll ever need to use an MP potion or rest just to replenish your MP. Using the base magics only uses 10 MP."

"So, it's like unlimited?"

"Uhh... yeah. But the thing here is that your stamina plays a role here when casting magic. Well, there's a lot of factors that affects your magic. Your MP, your Magic Attack Points, your psychology, and your stamina. If you're tired, try to avoid using magic. You'll just hurt yourself that way."

"I see."

"Now, back to topic. To cast magic, you must remain calm. Focus is the key. Try to turn away all memories that may hamper your focus. And then again, use your imaginations that you dispatch a fire into the air while saying 'Albus Ignis'."

"I'll give it a try...!"

Oria then steps forth to the open field. She focuses herself on picturing the white fire. A few seconds later, once again, that dazzling small fire erects from the tip of her wand. The little girl tries her best not to remember any bad memories. ...But it is virtually impossible to do that. It sways her focus.

But not when the squid wizard enters the stage. His tentacles hold her trembling arms, calming her nerves.

"...There. Don't forget that I'm here. Everything will be all right." he said comforting her with a soothing voice. "Focus yourself again. Come on. You can do it."

"...Y-Yes..." she said in a scared voice.

Once again, she imagines the white fire. When the fire appears, she begins to tremble. But this time, she's far calmer than before. She sucks up a deep breath, holding it in, and let it go slowly. She regains her cool, though not entirely. The child imagines the fire launches from her wand, hitting a medium-sized rock. She then says the magic name.

"Albus... Ignis...!"

The white fire blasts off, colliding with a giant rock in a fast motion. It swallows the rock. The fire turned big, igniting the whole rock with its shining white flame. Though, shortly after, the fire fades away, leaving nothing but smoke and the burnt rock.

"Well done." Dux congratulated.

Oria opens her eyes. She realizes she just casted a fire magic. The child then looks beside her. The tall wizard didn't even flinch, nor did he utter a word.

"..."

"Are you... angry?" she suddenly asked.

"—GUH!? Why should I?" Dux flinched, looking at her instantly.

"I didn't do really well, did I?" Oria asked again, but in a resigned voice. Somehow, she's emitting a defensive pose where her arms are covering the sides of her head.

"...Ahhh." Dux immediately clicked. He knows what the child is thinking. "Fear not, little one!" he said in a strikingly gallant voice, different from his usual funny self. "I do not think you've performed badly! In fact, I'm proud of you."

"D-Do you... really mean it?" Oria asked, disbelieved. Her arms slowly lowering down.

Dux nods. His shrilly voice returns afterwards. "Yeah. Though it's not that impressive, but for your first try, I'll rate it 8/10. Congratulations, Oria. You've succeeded in casting your very first magic. I believe Faruk will be most pleased."

Oria's lips widened. She didn't even do it on purpose. A sense of joy flooded her mind. It's comforting. Really, really comforting.

For the first time in many years, the little child smiled, joyed as she heard Dux's congratulating words.

"—But don't get so happy just yet!" Dux broke the atmosphere. "Next, I will teach you more about skills!"