Magic lesson? Or a lesson on theology?

A/N: Big Chungus dialogues and info-dumping ahead.

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"Are you ready, Young Master?"

The man who looked to be in his early thirties asked politely.

We were situated in one of the study rooms modified to become a learning room. I was with one of the magicians from the magician tower under the head wizard who was assigned as my magic instructor. I was finally going to learn magic, 2 years after coming to this world, 10 days after getting my foundation. Officially, it was only 3 days though.

"Yes."

Getting my affirmation, he began.

"Very well. So, before we begin, allow me to ask you what you know about magic and mana in general."

"Hmm, let's see. Mana is a fundamental force of nature, yet at the same time it's also a fundamental particle that constitutes the energy we see and feel when using magic."

'That's what I read in the magic fundamentals book anyway.'

"I also know that everything in the world has some form and amount of mana."

The instructor nodded in affirmation.

I continued.

"There are 6 fundamental elements of magic, namely, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Light, and Darkness. And there are also derived, hybrid, and outlier elements or types and they are varied. Like Ice from water, Wood from Water and Earth, Lightning from Air and Fire, etc. for Derived elements. Illusion, Body reinforcement, Lifestyle magic, etc. for hybrid or composite types, and Destruction, Creation, Mind, Space-time, etc. for outlier elements."

"Yes, excellent. There's a myriad of magic types, some rarer than others. Elemental magic, for instance, is the most common of the 4 general types of magic that you just described, bar the Light and Darkness elements which are quite rare.

Hybrid or Composite types are somewhere between commonplace and uncommon, depending on the specific magic. Lifestyle magic is somewhat common, but Illusion magic is rare. Body reinforcement is in between.

Derived elements tend to be rarer than the aforementioned types.

And outliers are the rarest. The number of beings possessing the destruction element is less than the fingers on my hands."

He explained, opening both of his palms to show me his 10 fingers.

"Mind magic is similarly rare. It's also a forbidden magic, along with the necromancy hybrid magic and a few others. I'm sure you understand why."

I nodded. Even beginner magic books strictly chastised the use of these magics, explaining the dangers they possess and not giving any explanation of their use. A Mind mage can, obviously, mind control anyone and have them do anything they wanted. Perfect magic for committing crimes.

Necromancy, on the other hand, was also pretty obvious, but it was banned after a specific incident in the past where a necromancer caused the massacre of an entire city population of over 10,000. This gave enough of a reason for the Church of light, along with other churches and kingdoms and the Empires, to completely ban the use of that magic on the continent. Anyone caught was guaranteed to receive the death penalty.

The instructor continued his lesson.

"And lastly, in your examples, there's no known magic user with the Creation outlier element. Some people like to call blacksmithing and artifact creation kinds of Creation magic, but that's far from the truth. Creation magic, at its core, is something that allows the user to create something from visibly nothing, solely with the use of a specific type of mana, creation mana. It's a realm that mortals shall and must never possess. A realm that is limited to the goddesses."

"What about the creator of the world?"

The instructor grinned at my seemingly interesting question.

"That's a highly debated topic in the magic community, actually. The general consensus is that the goddesses created this world. And incidentally, each goddess seems to possess the authority over one of the major or minor aspects that this world consists of. Yet, there are some people, historians, magic theologists, and others who claim— and let me say this beforehand that the Churches of the 13 Main Goddesses denies and fight any such claims—that there's being(s) higher than the 13 Main Goddesses. Maybe there's a One True Goddess, or maybe there are two of them: A goddess of Creation with authority over the Creation element and a goddess of destruction, with Destruction element authority. They are the creators and destroyers of both the world we live in and the goddesses themselves. Or the One True Goddess is the sole creator as well as the destroyer of the world.

Well, this is an interesting hypothesis for sure, but an unnecessary one. We're not studying theology, but magic."

He finally got back on track. Though, it was certainly amusing to see that people of this world also pondered such topics. They weren't completely wrong in their assumptions either. Just a bit far off.

I felt strangely giddy knowing the truth of this world's creation, both actual and supposed, and even the goddesses' hierarchy, the ones who the denizens of this world didn't know about. Well, I didn't know their names, Iris didn't tell me, but I knew they existed, at least. That made me the most well-educated person in that sole field, probably.

Well, anyway, at least they were on the right track with the idea of a creation goddess.

Though, this made me curious about the reason they made up for the all-female pantheon of the goddesses.

"If I may ask…"

"Yes, please do."

"Why are all main and other gods females? Why are there no male ones?"

The instructor was surprised, but then he grinned.

I probably wouldn't have asked that question to anyone from the Churches, lest they got pissed or something. Not that they could do shit to the heir of the Marquis even if they did. But the instructor was a pretty chill and polite dude. He was very patient and helpful so far. And he didn't disappoint me.

"Haha. That's a very intriguing question. One you should try asking the priests."

"Oh? I thought it could be a rude question."

"Rude? No. No! Of course not. It's a genuinely curious question. Why are all the deities known to be females? Why, indeed. Well, first I'll give you the answer anyone from the Church will give you. It's because they were always like that. That's it. There's no further explanation. Nobody knows. But it's such commonplace knowledge that nobody even bothers asking. You're among the rare ones who have actually pondered about it.

Now, this is completely off the record, but there's a saying that there once existed a male god, but he was banished and sealed from the realm of the divine. But this is mostly just a vague made-up story some overly imaginative people created out of their heads.

Leaving that deluded conspiracy theory aside, even the explanation I will now give is not that much more detailed than the Church's. But this is our, the magical community's, explanation. We theorize that the goddesses don't actually have genders, but they took on the female form to appear kinder and 'appealing'. I say that in the sense that to most of us, they are the motherly creators and they created life and everything. And the only mortal gender known to bear life is the female gender. So, there's certainly some similarity. Maybe they took on the form to appear motherly. Or maybe they were as the church says and created the female gender based on their image and the male gender as the counterpart, with differences and similarities. Of course, there are other genders out there, and there are beings with no genders. And their existence seems to conflict with this hypothesis. In short, it's a complicated topic and we're once again going on a tangent here.

Sigh, at this rate, we might spend too much time on theology and not start with magic."

The instructor smiled wryly.

"Right. We should get back to the actual thing then."

'I don't really care about theology anyway. But he is pretty talkative when it comes to theories and stuff. Are all magicians here geeks? I wonder.'

"Anyhow, tell me, Young Master. Have you experienced the mana inside you yet?"

I nodded.

"I have."

"Very good. Then we may skip that part. It's nice having a curious and talented student. We have no need to delve into the absolute fundamentals, but still, for the sake of it, we will begin with the basics."

I nodded.

"Then, please close your eyes and focus on where you think your magic core is situated."

I closed my eyes and meditated. I had done this before, a few times, with the help of the 'Fundamentals of Magic Vol. 1' book.

After closing my eyes, all I had to do was focus my consciousness on the region between my chest and abdomen where I could feel a fuzzy ball of warm… something.

When I first tried it, it felt incredibly strange, suddenly being aware of such a thing existing inside my body. It was bizarre, even if I knew it was supposed to be like that. After practicing with basic mana a couple of times, I had still not gotten fully used to the feeling, but at least it didn't feel as alien as it did at first.

Focusing on the fuzzy ball of light, I willed it to travel from my core to my upper chest and then my right arm. I couldn't tell how it was traveling through my body. Was it through veins, or was it muscles or something else, but if the book was to be believed, it was both and more. Pure mana was highly permeable in nature and it could extend from pretty much any part of your body. But it was not easy to move it. Well, not for most people. I could do it fairly easily.

I opened my eyes as I found something warm leaving my palms that I had extended in front. It didn't really do anything. No magic, no spell, nothing. It was just a release of mana. I basically farted pure mana from my palms, as questionable and weird as it sounds.

"Excellent! Truly brilliant. No wonder you were able to unlock your Foundation on your own. Your control over mana is exceptionally good, Young Master Alexander."

The instructor praised. I could tell part of it was him trying to be nice and butter me up, but for most parts, it seemed like genuine praise.

"Thank you. So, what's next."

"Yes, now the next part is learning how to turn the pure neutral mana into a specific element. As you might know, the mana stored in your core is called pure mana and it has no color or affinity. It's just basic mana.

But we turn that basic mana into elemental or other forms of mana and then use spells and magic circles to create the actual magic phenomenon.

Now, before we delve into the theory of spell and circle crafting, let me detail a bit about the affinities. You might know this, but each person who is capable of using magic has affinities with one or a few types of magic. Be it elemental, derived, hybrid or composite types, or even the rare outlier. Most people have one type of magic, from the 4 general types, that they are most comfortable with, followed by a few other types that they can use.

We don't really have any better means to find them other than trying each magic type separately or using customized magic stones, sadly. Doing it this way is fairly easy and quick, but the magic stones cost a lot. Well, for common folks, I mean. I'm certain the Marquis family has no shortage of funds to buy thousands of these.

Anyway, this is the reason why you're generally taught about all kinds of magic at first— well, the ones we commonly use, I mean— in the Academy or even in private classes such as this. From there everyone finds their affinity and then takes advanced classes in those specific magic types. That's why advanced magic has 3 different classes: Elemental, Derived, and Hybrid. No Outlier because there's almost always no students or very few students for that one.

Now then. Let's start with finding your affinities."

After another big lecture, I was made to find my affinity. The instructor had with him a big box filled with varied raw gemstone-like things arranged neatly. They were the magic stones.

I held one of them, a purple one, and looked at it closely.

It shone a little, reacting to the mana leaking from my body. It was supposedly a normal phenomenon here, but it was an interesting one to me.

'Neat.'

"Now then, seems like you've already found one of your affinities. And it's a derived one."

The instructor nodded.

"I'm guessing this one is lightning?"

"Haha, correct. Did you figure out by the color or the soft charge you felt when it was slightly powered?"

"Both, actually."

The magic stone created a natural electric current when empowered by mana. But it was barely noticeable.

"Rest assured, it's harmless. Even when changed fully, the magic stone doesn't produce nearly enough lightning mana to cause harm. At most, it might tingle a bit."

I tested that theory by willing my mana into it and sure enough, it happened exactly as the instructor said.

The magic stone was too small and weak to cause any harm.

The instructor smiled seeing my curiosity. And I returned it in kind. But internally, I was thankful that I had rectified one of the problems this exercise would have caused otherwise.

The test then started properly and by the end of it, I had 4 magic stones near me and the rest back inside the big rectangular box.

"Major affinity in Fire and Lightning elements. And minor affinity in Air element, Lifestyle, and Body reinforcement types. This… Incredible. I see that Young Master is more than talented enough to walk on the path of a magician. No, that would be an understatement. 5 affinities. That's 3 short of the maximum number of affinity any human currently possesses.

Forgive me for crossing my line Young Master, but I must implore you to walk the path of a magician. This kind of talent doesn't come that often. It would be a waste to walk the path of the sword—"

"Ahem!"

A voice distracted him from his fervent attempt to rope me into being a magician.

The instructor turned to see the one who distracted him, but then shuddered as he saw the head maid glaring at him with an apathetic and cold glare.

"Pardon my intrusion, but please don't force your personal interests on the Young Master. He shall pursue whatever he wishes to.

It is none of your business."

"Ah, m-my apologies. I crossed my line. Forgive me, Young Master."

He bowed quickly.

"Hmm. Let's start the spell and magic casting lesson."

I sent an appreciative nod and a smile toward Laura as the instructor packed all the magic stones neatly and instead brought out a few books and notes.

I was about to stop him myself, but I was still thankful that Laura did. And judging by her 'Satisfied' status, she was glad to have been helpful to me. What a dutiful maid.

And so, the next couple of hours went by as I dabbled into the theory of spell casting, mana circles, and all the small intricacies they had.

It was at times fascinating, and sometimes difficult, but I managed to grasp all of it by the end of the lesson.

I had finally learned real magic!

All I needed to do was to test it.

***