The deep shadows of night have long since descended upon the city of Alcacia, yet a small candle burns defiantly in a tiny room as a young boy flips furiously through the book in front of him.
"Are you sure you're actually reading this?" The boy asks as he flips through the pages at a pace no human could possibly read.
"Yes and no. This plane I am in functions similar to a dream space. Because of its unique properties I can use my analyze ability to create mental recreations of things and interact with them as if they were physical objects. Simply put, I can recreate the book and read through it thoroughly while you sleep. I must admit, I am glad this 'Speech' ability allows me to read and write in this language as well."
"Wow that's cool. Wait, but if you're gonna read all night then when will you sleep? During the day?" Reid asks as he continues flipping the pages wildly.
"I won't. As I told you before I'm just a soul right now. I have no physical body of my own so sleep isn't necessary."
"Wow that's pretty cool Mr. Amadeus! Won't that get lonely though?" The boy asks as he flips past the final page and closes the book.
"Maybe for other people, but I love researching. It's like a hobby. I could spend months or even years lost in research and barely notice." Amadeus sees the boy beginning to nod off. "Now that we're done going through the book you should head to sleep."
"Okay, goodnight Mr. Amadeus." He gets up from his small desk in the corner, closing the book in front of him as he blows out a candle on his way to bed. The second the boy's head touched the pillow, he was out cold.
Inside the empty mental plane, Amadeus began his research.
"Alright. Time to get to work." He pulls up the mental copy of the 'Basic Guide to Hunting'. He quickly runs through the contents, copying sections of information and organizing it into new groups to would make it easier to learn.
"Guild rules, monster ecology, potions and herbology, basic combat forms, basic spirit control, and basic magic. Quite a few choices here. I'll get to the guild rules, ecology, and herbology later. Can't do anything with them in here after all. I'll pass on basic combat forms. Spirit control does sound interesting, but it appears to be more of a physical body enhancement so I'll have to wait for Reid to work on that. That leaves basic magic as the first choice." With his mind made up the pages around him began to scatter, leaving only a few relevant pages in front of him.
He learned the contents of basic magic broke down into the following ideas: Magic is the manifestation of phenomena by shaping one's mana. There are two main methods for shaping mana, chanting and runes. Chanting is far and away the more popular method, especially among beginners. The process involves steadily applying mana to ones vocal cords while reciting a specific chant and envisioning the spells effect. Chanting is considered both simpler, and more consistent than rune magic. Rune magic is done by forming mana outside of one's body, shaping it into specific geometric shapes, then adjusting the mana's color to match the needs of the spell. The color of mana is linked to the element it can produce. This process leads to the main reason that rune magic is so unpopular; the complexity. Trying to create an exact shape, creating the appropriate amount of mana, adjusting the mana's color for certain parts of the spell, all while being in combat is considered infeasible. Of all the rune mages in the nation only a handful are known to use it in combat. In spite of its many downsides, there is one advantage to rune magic. The amount of control one can have over their spell. Once a mage has truly mastered a runic spell, small variations in its structure, size, and composition can cause the spell have a specific and desired outcomes.
"Control huh? Now that is something I can get behind." A smile forms on Amadues' face as he floats in the near empty space of the mental plane. "Time for some hands-on testing."
According to the book, the best way to start learning magic was to first find, and then move the mana within your own body. To start, one would imagine an element at their core and allow it to follow its natural course out of the body. For example water would flow out like a river, fire would ignite and burn its way out, electricity would jump and arc out like a bolt of lightning, wind would be blown out like a breeze. As they user gets accustomed to the image they will begin to feel a new sensation in their body; this is the mana beginning to move. This process can take anywhere from hours to months depending on the user's talents. Once wisps of nearly translucent mana begin to appear outside the user's body, their first step into becoming a mage is complete, or at least it is for chanting magic. For those who wish to use runic magic there is one more step, changing the mana's color.
With chanting magic, the chant and mental image of the spell are enough to cause the mana's color to change naturally during the spell's activation. Runic magic, however, has no such luxury. Rune mages need to be able to control the color of mana at will. To start the process, users will switch from pushing their mana outwards to pulling it into the core. They would condense it while giving the mana a far more powerful mental image of their element. A rushing tsunami, a blazing inferno, a violent thunderstorm, or a raging tornado. The clearer the image of power, the better. The user will eventually be able to feel the sensation of their mana change. When it does the user will then push it outside of their body once again. If the wisps of mana have changed colors, then they have succeeded.
After breaking down and learning the methods required, Amadeus began his first attempt. He focuses inward, trying to feel and circulate mana through his body. He mentally pictures element after element until he finally found one he felt compatible with. He settled on electricity, although his mental picture was entirely different than anything stated in the book.
Amadeus imagined his core as a battery. In his head he ran a wire from one side of the battery down through his arm and exiting his hand and attaching to a resistor. Another wire would attach to the resistor and follow a path parallel to the first and ending by attaching to the other end of the battery, completing the circuit. He imagined the electricity flowing through his body. As time went on, the concept in his mind became more and more clear. Eventually he began to feel small hints of an odd sensation, one that was new yet strangely familiar. Minutes turned to hours as he continued to replicate and deepen his understanding of the sensation. After four hours of trial and error, he made his first major breakthrough.
"Fascinating. What an unexpected result." As the sensation finally became clear to him, he realized why the sensation felt so familiar. "I knew I've felt this somewhere before! It's identical to what I feel while using soul sense. If that's the case then maybe… 'Analyze!'"
Directing his analytical ability inside himself, he found the sensory spell Kalkan had gifted him. The incredibly complex runic magic circle was placed on top of his very soul. Using the small amount of information on magic he had found in the book, he attempted to decipher the rune. Another hour had passed before he knew it, and in spite of his best efforts, he had learned very little about the spell. The only two symbols he could recognize were 'fuel' and 'spirit' at the center of the rune. In that time he had recreated a replica of the rune inside his mental plane to study it, but could still do nothing with the complex mass of symbols.
"I may need to give up for now." Amadeus reluctantly admits.
With his limited knowledge of magic, trying to decipher the gods rune was tantamount to a toddler trying to create calculus from scratch. As he was just about to give up on this rabbit hole, he decided to test one final idea on a whim. He would erase the symbol for soul and replace it with one of the only symbols he had learned from the hunters handbook, mana.
Amadeus swapped the characters haphazardly, not believing for a minute that this silly little test would work. The results, however, completely defied his expectations. The moment the symbol was complete and it made contact with his hand, which was still circulating mana, it began to glow with a bright colorless light. The odd sensation that had been subtle up until now erupted with intensity. The nauseating amount of information flooding his mind was confusing, painful, and beautiful all at the same time. Unknown to Amadeus, he had inadvertently created an imitation of the most important spell in any mages arsenal, the advanced spell 'Mana sense'. Although it was incomplete and inefficient, Amadeus could feel its incredible benefits immediate.
With this new mana sense activated, Amadeus could feel more than just the mana circulating in his own body, he could feel the mana present in the world around him as well. Amidst the overwhelming stimulus, Amadeus loses his concentration, causing the mana to stop flowing through his body. As the mana flow stopped the rune faded in turn, along with the overwhelming information flowing into his brain. After taking a moment to collect himself, he began to process everything he just experienced.
"That was quite intense. I never expected such a simple change to the formula would actually give me results like this." With that short activation of the rune, his understanding of mana had grown exponentially. He had gone from an utter novice to being able to freely feel and move his mana.
Even more than that, he found slight differences in the mana around him. They all possessed a distinct feel that set them apart. In his mind they all had a sort of 'taste'. The mana had 'flavors', some spicy, some sour, some sweet. Thinking back to the book, Amadeus took an educated guess as to what exactly the feeling is.
"The color of mana perhaps?"
Excited with his own progress Amadeus moved on to the final step of mana mastery. He started pulling his mana into his core as densely as possible. He knew for the next step he had to envision an incredibly powerful scene for his selected element. He paused but for a moment before finding the perfect idea for him to conjure up.
"Yes, that should do nicely."
In his mind he envisioned a large tesla coil shooting off vicious bolts of energy in every direction. The current grew in his mind as mana rushed to follow along with his imagery. The mana at his core condensed and coalesced until he felt it reached a breaking point. With one final powerful bolt, a colorful yellow miasma began to leak from his body. A smile adorned his face as he knew the final step was complete.
If any mage were to have observed Amadeus growth they would have been frozen in admiration, or perhaps fear. The process which should take months, or even years, he had accomplished in a single night.
"Alright! On to the next test!"
And so the man of science continued his experiments.
⁘⁘⁘⁘
A light green moon hung high in the sky, looking down upon the quiet city; well, as quiet as a merchant city can get. Reid was sleeping soundly against the occasional ruckus outside, completely worn out from days' events. In his deep sleep he failed to notice a ring form above him. Curved and straight lines shot from side to the side forming a complex shape in the center of the ring. Without warning it began to glow an ominous cerulean hue, shining brighter and brighter until-
"AAhhh." Reid shouts as cold water gets poured onto him. He looks around the empty room before his attention goes to his soaked sheets. "What just happened?"
"That was my fault, sorry. I was doing an experiment with rune magic in my realm and it appears that when it activated in here, it was pulled through our connection and activated in the real world."
Reid looks around confused, trying to understand what happened. Still out of it from his deep sleep, the boy asks. "Magic? Who-What?"
Suddenly the door to the room opens up as Cynthia rushes in, candlestick in hand. "Are you okay? I heard a scream!" She looks over at Reid, noticing the obvious wet spot on the fabric. "Oh my, are you okay? Did you have a nightmare?"
A look somewhere between pity and understanding flash momentarily on the caretakers face.
"Huh?" He looks down at his seemingly soiled sheets. "Wait no this was-" Reid panics, trying his best to explain the situation, but it fell on deaf ears.
"It's alright, I won't tell anyone about this. Let's just get you cleaned up and find you some new sheets." She walks over and gently starts grabbing the sheets from the bed.
Amadeus apologizes in his head. "I am truly sorry."