Slat Tighearnais (Unranked Spell)
A spell used to create a foci off the caster's own aether. Consumes small amounts of AP every second it is active, which increases proportionally with the quantity and power of the spells that are cast through it.
Maximum AP yield depends on MND stat and aetheric Attunement ability rank.
"How do you feel?" Asked Galton.
"Fine, I think. The feeling of fueling this thing is somewhat weird."
"Yeah, that’s normal. You’ll get used to it. Are you ready for the next step in your training?"
"Yes, Ithink so. What are we doi-Aargh!" An orange bolt of energy crashed against his arm with an electric sensation, but no injury.
Due to forcing your magical resistance into action, SPT has gone up.
SPT: 16-->17
"This." Answered Galton, another Tighearnais in his hand, orange sparks bolting on its surface.
"What the hell was that?!"
"Phantom Agony, a psychic spell capable of producing a sharp pain in those it hits. I'm going to keep blasting you with these until you start to deflect them."
"Couldn’t you just warn me beforehand? I was this close of unsheathing my sword."
"My bad." Said Galton, smile unperturbed. "Now you better start waving that glowstick, ‘cause im gonna keep blasting."
"Okay, I get it. Just give me a moment to get my bear- Augh! Stop that!"
"Nope. We’re in a hurry, remember?"
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The bolt crept through the air in an unnaturally perfect straight line, a testament to its immaterial nature, poised to pierce flesh and cause agony like many of it’s predecesors had already done. But alas, this one wasn’t meant for such a glorious end. Instead, and with no cause visible to the naked eye, it curved away from its target, its perfectly straight trayectory ruined by a foreign flow of aether, and finally crashed against one of the caverns walls, fizzling out harmlessly.
Aetheric Attunement has gone up by a level!
Aetheric Attunement (Inept Rank/ Level 4-5)
After what must have been over a dozen bolts, Kurt was finally able to muster his sorcery and deflect one bolt away from his body, netting himself his first level in the Aetheric Attunement skill. A couple dozen more bolts and other six succesful defenses on his part, he had his third level on the skill.
"You’re getting pretty good at this!" Exclaimed Galton, smile still plastered on his face." And quite fast to!"
"Th-thank you… must be all the positive reinforcement you’re shooting at me." Snarked Kurt in between breaths. Thirty of those bolts hitting his body unimpeded had taken their toll, even if they didn’t technically cause any damage—And boy had he checked his HP looking for it.
"Well, given that it seems to work so good." Responded Galton, raising his Tighearnais-which glowed brighter than ever- above head. "Let’s try using some more!"
And with that, he shot the greatest bolt yet. Where the ones before it had ben pencil-thin, featureless beams of energy, this one was as wide around as a fist, and with orange sparks jumping out of its surface.
The boy tried to redirect it, to send it off-course and away from his body. He failed. This bolt’s momentum was too great, and all the colorless aether Kurt sent its way was swatted away by its presence alone. The will keeping it together was too ironclad, and it just kept flying towards the boy’s chest.
Unwilling to find out how much this attack would hurt, the sorcerer-in-training did the first thing he could think off-He stabbed his Tighearnais right in the center of the bolt, mustering as much will and aether as he could while doing so. A sound like nails scratching on a chalkboard blasted out the point of contact, and a great stress pressed against his temples. And yet the boy kept pushing against the noxious energies of the spell, stabbing his wand forward with all his might while doing so.
This seemed to stretch for an eternity without any signs of progress on his part. No signs, that was, until he felt his wand stab into the bolt, which sputtered and thrashed violently for a few moments before exploding in a shower of sparks that, the boy felt, no longer carried any power to harm him.
Aetheric Attunement has gone up by a rank!
Aetheric Attunement (Novice Rank/ Level 1-25)
The user of this skill has opened his soul and perception to the ebb and flow of aether, learning to perceive it and, potentially, manipulate it.
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At current skill rank, aether may be perceived and manipulated reliably and with certain efficiency.
Aether control depends on skill rank and MND stat.
Aether perception depends on skill level and SPT stat.
"And there. It. Is!" He heard Galton cheer through his ringing ears. "That was a perfectly functional defense! You got over the stumbling phase ridiculously fast, man!"
Kurt didn’t answer immediately, wheezing as he was. "What’s next?" ,He finally asked, looking at his instructor.His brow soaked in sweat from the effort.
"…You sure you don’t wanna get some rest, boy? You don’t look so good."
His eyed darted to his AP bar-Despite everything, it had only been voided by a quarter of its capacity.
"I’m fine. Plus, we’re in a hurry, remember?" Galton stood silent for a moment with a serious semblance. Finally, after some consideration, he answered.
"Okay, let’s get to evocation."
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After 10 minutes, the preparations for the class had been completed: A small bonfire burned in the grassy cave floor, and three groups of concentric circles carved in one of the cave walls- Targets for shoot practice.
"Get here, boy." Asked Galton, who stood near the bonfire. "Put one end of your wand in the flame and channel as much aether as you can in it, like you did with my bolt."
"So I can mix it with the heat, right?" Asked Kurt while approaching the fire. "To make my aether more physical."
"Correct. You shouldn’t have trouble with it since you honed your control this much already."
The boy did as told, sitting by the bonfire and stabbing the flame with his wand before focusing his will on it. A moment passed. Then a minute. And then another one.
This wasn’t working.
"It takes some time the first time you do it." said Galton, seemingly knowing what the boy was thinking. "Try and make your energy float upwards like the flame. That’ll smoothen the process."
Kurt did so, and awaited for the fusion to occur.
"It doesn’t take this long every time you use it, right?"
"No, is only the first time you fuse your energy with a given element. After that the process is basically instantaneous."
"I see. And how many elements are there? I know I'm only learning Fire for the time being, but it would be useful to know for the future."
Galton remained silent for a moment before answering. "There isn’t a given number of elements. That depends on the person."
"What? How so?"
"Well, for starters, Elements aren’t even really a thing. They aren’t hardwired into the cosmos as vital lynchpins of everything that is or could be in the universe. They are more akin to… mnemonics I guess. They are the caster taking in the essence of the dynamism of Physical Ohr itself and breaking it down into easier to understand pieces, so the number of elements and what and each element does all depend on what the caster thinks they should be and do."
"So then." said Kurt. "How will I know if I got the full picture? That my set of elements encompasses this whole dynamism?"
"We’ve got a spell for that: You take every element you know and make them all spin in a wheel. If the ground each other up back into pure aether, then you’ve got the full picture. It's a great elemental infusion exercise too."
"I see. There is a lot we’re skipping over. Are there like, books you could lend me about all this?"
"Books? Yeah, sure. If you beat that thing for me I'll get you as many books on sorcery as you could read, and that's a promise."
At this, the boy's mood lightened up considerably. "Great! It’s a deal then!"
They remained silent for a moment, the crackling of the fire being the only thing that could be heard. Galton broke this calm first.
"Hey…boy." He called in a soft tone. "Can I ask you something?"
"Oh? Yeah,sure."
"What’s up with you?"
The boy didn’t answer, not knowing how to interpret the question. " ‘What’s up with me?’ " He repeated. "What do you mean?"
"I mean… what are you even doing here? You are like, what? Seventeen?"
"Fifteen," He corrected. "Same as Mila."
"Damn! Really?" Galton said, before letting out a chuckle. "Okay, fifteen. That girl has a logical reason to be in this quest: She’s a fae and their powers are great for tracking nature-related stuff. Plus, it doesn't seem like she does much fightning and bleeding anyway."
Galton took his eyes off the fire, instead turning his head at the boy.
"But you? You are far too comfortable with violence, too willing to risk your life and too okay with the prospect of fighting a demon for anyone of any age, much less a teenager. I mean, you accepted the idea almost without batting an eye!"
Kurt scowled. "What do you mean? You are the one asking and preparing me to fight that demon!"
"Because you are objectively the best choice out of us four, and that’s the thing that’s troubling. No kid your age should ever have to be the best choice to fight a demon. As an adult, I'm honestly ashamed I've asked you to do this, even if you’re the best choice. Or going on quests across the country looking for God knows what. Conrad is at least an adult, a young one but an adult still, and Mila’s a fae either way, so she’s already in her element amongst gruesome stuff…"
Kurt's jaw tightened.
"… but you are a normal kid! So how come you seem to be more invested into this kind of shit than almost anyone I've ever met?"
"…You know Edward?", Finally said the boy, emphasizing the sorcerers name. "I think you just answered your own question. Do you even know how it is? Being ‘the normal one’ in a place filled with ‘special ones’? I was extraordinary in the worst possible way. Do you even know the kind of shit I had to go through until--!"
A screen appeared in front of him.
Evocation (Inept Rank/ Level 1-5)
The ability to mix one’s spiritual energies with the physical elements of the world, achieving the power to manipulate them through thought and will alone.
At the current rank aether may be infused into the elements to control them, but proper fusion still hasn’t been achieved.
Known Elements: Fire
He looked into the fire. His wand's tip was wrought in some strangely rounded flames, which shone with a deep crimson hue and emmited no smoke whatsoever.
"…It’s done."
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After the bonfire incident they moved towards the cavern’s left wall, where the practice targets had been engraved.
"Yours is different." said Galton. "Your fire, I mean."
Kurt looked at the silent mass of red power that had engulfed his wand. No crackling sounds or smoke were emitted from it, just pure heat.
"There’s no reactiveness to it, just energy and heat." He added. "I don’t even know if that can be called fire at this point."
"I guess I saw fire as this mass of pure heat and energy, you know? Independent from any other element, including air. So it’s logical that there wouldn’t be any actual combustion, because that would be more like a mix of fire and wind."
He tore his gaze away from the ‘flame’ and back to his instructor.
"What now? How do I attack with this fire or heat or whatever?"
Galton raised his staff, the wooden one engraved with a Star of Solomon, above his head and conjured from it a perfect sphere the size of a basketball crafted from golden-white flames. A fireball.
"Raise your wand and pour your will into it"
The apprentice did as he was told, pouring a controlled amount of AP into the fire, which soon expanded and began thrashing around, transparent spots of impurities began appearing on its surface.
"Good, now shape it into a sphere. Redirect any pulses of power that are trying to escape into the shape, like you did with my bolts. You can try and spin the whole thing around itself too, if you feel it’ll help."
Following the instructions, Kurt redirected any stray flames that tried to escape his will’s grasp. Soon the crimson maelstrom had been compressed into a sphere-roughly the size of a fist- that pulsated rythmically with unreleased power.
"Perfect. Try not to compress it much though, otherwise it will begin lashing out beyond your ability to control. And now" He said, pointing the tip of his staff, fireball and all, at one of the targets. "We let it fly."
With that the fireball shot forward like a rocket, burning through the air for a second before crashing against the target-he got a bullseye- in a blast of heat, light and displaced air. The section of wall that was hit was replaced with a crater of red hot stone, flames covering its edge.
Without being told to, the boy pointed his own spell at one of the other targets. He felt the sphere pull on his arm like a leashed dog, poised for something-anything- to destroy with its power. Its master let go of the metaphorical leash with a thought, and the sphere flew towards the wall before slamming against the target-another bullseye-. Another explosion, smaller but with greater penetrative power, burrowed itself three feet into the wall, leaving behind a narrow, deep crater of almost liquefied stone.
Fire Sorcery:Fireball (Rank E spell)
A sphere of exploding heat that can be thrown at a target with but a thought.
Power, speed and area of effect increases with MND stat, AP spent and aetheric Attunement and Evocation skills ranks.
Evocation has gone up by a level!
Evocation (Inept Rank/ Level 2-5)
"Good." said Galton. "Now repeat."
For the next hour, the sound of explosions consumed the cavern.
