The Basics of Magic

The movie was... Actually pretty funny, an afternoon well spent. Only after did everyone separate to do their own things.

What Leo did was return to the manor, going to the large maze that he had long since memorized to get through.

It was actually another training ground, a moving maze with traps and situations that would arise that you would need to do.

The general rule was not using anything that brought you above the hedge, to train for times where you have no vertical advantage.

He made his way all the way into the middle of it where there was a nice gazebo with a table and chairs, a beautiful place to drink tea at when the hedge flowers where in full bloom.

Setting up at the table he kicked his feet up onto it and relaxed back into the chair as he opened up the first book that had been recommended to him.

Now that he could 'officially' sense magic, something he was even now still actively training he was told a few of the basic spells to focus on were in the first book.

The first spell was 'Shield' offering an arcane shield to defend against magical attacks.

It was the first not only because was it one of the more easy solid spells to cast, but it was also one of the first spells to learn if you wanted to learn how to control your magic, to control the intent and will behind it.

A clear will, intent, and strength behind a shield could make it impassable.

So he flicked past the magic sensing part and made his way straight to the shield part.

The beginner magic he was learning was built around hand gestures and clear mental imagery.

Something that Batman's Mental training proved to benefit greatly it seemed.

Also, Batman did know magic, it wasn't something he would stay ignorant about. He knew quite a lot about magic as well, and knew how to cast.

He usually didn't, purely because he never had the 'need' to yet.

The shield spell clearly identified what it was, showing the proper hand sign and how to actually move your finger to get them into the right position.

Hands clasped together, pink and ring fingers holding the palm of the other hand.

Middle finger extended fully and the index finger bent with the digits together, bringing the tip of the index finger around the middle knuckle of the middle finger.*

The language you spoke the chant in didn't matter, and the better you got at the spell itself, the less words you would need to use until ultimately not needing to say anything.

The advanced form was not even needing to use hand signs, simply able to call upon it whenever.

He got a clear image of the shield in his head, using a medieval kite shield. He firmed this image in his head and spoke clearly.

''Gift me a shield that protects me from the arcane!''

Nothing happened of course, simply because he didn't apply magic to it.

'Chants' could be spoken first, as long as the chant was spoken, the image is formed and the hand sign is correct. You can delay the activation by not applying mana to it.

Leo took the time to understand how his magic seemed to move when he formed this spell, how did it move, where did it want to move.

How much of his magic did it want to move?

He focused this feeling, slowly starting to tap into that mystical energy of magic that he had only learned to use just the night before.

It slowly moved forward as he focused it, a hazy image of a shield starting to appear as he used more and more of his mana.

His mana bar drained about a quarter before it looked like a solid shield, once he got a solid shield the drain on his magic stopped and it slowly began to recover. Even as he held the shield.

He raised his brows a bit as he noticed this but due to the single moment of missplaced concentration, his shield faded away.

He then spent a few hours doing this, along the way a new feature unlocked.

[Grimoire.]

It was a place where all of his known, learned, or observed magical spells were. It basically meant if he knew the spell and knew how to cast it, it would show it's full description. Such as the drain of mana it costed, if it continued to drain mana, so on so forth.

If he only knew of it, and it's effects. Such as if Raven were to explain how to cast a fire arrow or similar magic, it would only show the steps to cast it, and the description as he knows of the spell.

If he's only observed a magic, such as Raven's Mage hand, it will show a lot of blank spaces with very vague answers filled in.

As he deepened his knowledge of magic, the grimoire would begin to actually fill out more and more, and if it didn't come with a 'condense info' feature, a single spell, if he knew it extremely well, and multiple applications.

It would fill up multiple pages.

This Grimoire also acted like a real grimoire, something that he could summon to cast the spells that would need one. Only he could interact with it, and only those he allowed would be able to read it. Not like he would just leave it laying around.

It also showed the level of 'skill' he had over the spell when compared to the current worlds standards.

He practiced this shield for hours, even after is grimoire unlocked.

As it began to darken for the day he headed into the manor to do some research on the event from before.

It was while he was sitting at a 'Small' batcomputer, leaned back in the seat staring at the pictures for the warped metal, did a devious idea appear in his head.

Well, not devious, just a normal thought.

He sent some pictures to the 'Bat Family' group chat. A HIGHLY secure text line between them.

He simply sent the pictures and then asked a simple question.

''If there was something capable of 'softening' metals, wouldn't it look similar to this?''

After a few minutes, Nightwing responded, Leo's brow going up when he noticed.

''Talk to Flash.''

Oh, that's right. He had Flash's contact information now.

He lifted his wrist only to something splash through the waterfall.

Looking to the side he noticed that he was suddenly sitting next to the man himself, who was pulling a seat over to join him at the computer.

''So what we got?''

Leo watched a moment before turned back to the computer, pulling up all the files.

Flash could speed read so he didn't bother with taking time for each page.

''If someone could soften metals by pressing their hand against it, wouldn't it look somewhat like this?''

''Meta-human perhaps? No finger prints, looks kind of similar... A bowl? Do they press a bowl against it, not to leave behind finger prints? They've had to have done this more then once then.''

Flashes hands moved in a blur across the computer keyboard as a multiple screens sped through before multiple screens got pulled up, all showing similar situations, however one page was a 'Metal Shop Group Chat' that Leo's brows raised to.

''It's happened before, but not a lot of people actually took picture evidence, but a little searching as despite it sometimes being messy, a lot of construction companies will eventually recommission the materials they used to reforge it, remake it, and put it back onto the market, so I looked for any keywords of 'stange bend' and came across a group chat where someone had talked about it, from there all I had to so was scroll through it until I came across the part I was looking for, that's why I like Bruce's computers because their so fast and little to no lose of speed because he's custom made them all himself with help from other members of the league, even the league computers are a bit slower then these ones, so now that I helped you with that can I ask you something, Bruce told us vaguely about your power but he mentioned how you could buy powers I was wondering if you could look through it and see if you can find something called the speed force and if you can how much does it cost and depending on how much it costs would you be willing to go through and experiment with me, of course that's only if you can actually purchase the speed force which if you could would be cool because you might also be able to look up others powers that we have and buy them I was also actually wondering that since it's a shop do you have a way to gift powers, because I had a dream where batman would use the speedforce and be an actually nightmare on the entire world, at least for the bad guys and that he became so good at fighting crime that earth actually reached a utopia like setting, but since I mentioned a ut-''

''BARRY! Slow down!'' Leo suddenly spoke up, only have been able to even understand everything because he activated bullet time.

Despite having spent some time in it and actively practicing it, it was still pretty cool, and strange to see that Flash still moving 'faster' then everything else in bullet time, as if it didn't effect him at all.

''Oh, was I doing it again? Sorry, I get excited when meeting someone new, especially someone as interesting at you. Do you want me to repeat everything?''

''No, I'm not as good as Batman is at understanding your high speed speech, but I have a skill called Bullet time which allows me to quicken my perception of the world, making it slow down.''

''That's cool! Of course I already have something similar. So if you heard everything I said, can you look it up in your shop? I promise I'll help you find the guy in return to make up for lost time.''

Leo opened up his shop, Flash leaning forward a bit as he did to stare into Leo's eyes as he did it.

After awhile, he found it.

The 'Speed Force'

100,000,000,000,000,000

[Expensive due to the existence of Existing Speedsters.]

''A lot, and I mean a lot of points, something I don't think I'll ever be able to get normally. But says it's so expensive due to the existing speedsters.''

Barry rubbed at his chin a moment before he spoke. ''Do you mind if I share the speed force with you? Just a little to see if anything changes?''

Leo nodded, why would he refuse access to the speed force? Even if limited.

Barry put his hand on Leo's shoulder and took a breath before Leo's whole worldview changed, everything spiking as he entered the speed force, multiple gifts of knowledge being given to him.

In a weird way, it reminded him of a 'Hive' Mind.

It felt amazing, like his whole body was buzzing with energy.

''What price does it say now?'' Barry asked.

Leo turned back to the notification, it read the same price but he found something else near it.

[Speed Force: Force activation.]

10,000

It looked like a huge upgrade to the bullet time ability.

This showed two things that were beneficial to Leo, his abilities were also considered a 'game' meaning they could be evolved by meeting certain conditions.

The second thing was that the more he 'experienced' or learned, meant the price would become cheaper.

Ah... Looks like he was going to head down the 'Batman knows all' route. To do a perfectionist run.

Did that include becoming infinite money-making playboy who got all the baddies?

Here's to hoping.

''It's the same price for the Speed Force, but I've unlocked a new item, it's called Speed force: Forced Activation.''

''I see, so that is a catalyst for it happening..."

''Experiencing the speed force, and learning how to forcibly use it?''

''Yes, there has been a few using different methods, but someone you know well is Bruce actually. With sheer willpower and strength he is able to pull on rements of the speed force around him and force it to assist him. It's why there's a rumor that he can 'never' be shot.''

Leo nodded, his fingers tapping on the desk.

The energy made him struggle to sit still. Not because it activated some sort of ADHD, but because he felt like he was supercharged, an over-buffed game character.

''Would you like to run around searching for your criminal at my speed, plan a perfect plan as quickly as possible way to take him down as normal?''

''...What?''

''It's what Batman likes to do when he is shared with speed force.''

Leo sat there for a moment before standing up, just as he received a quest to do JUST that, and it unlocked a specific thing.

[Gain multiple levels for Bullet time.]

Oh hell yeah.

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