Chapter 5 | The Assassin Learns Spells
Dia produced a new marble in place of the one I’d caused to explode.
Such an enormous explosion had resulted from simply attempting to measure my mana capacity. Magic was more dangerous than I’d expected.
Which meant it could be a very powerful weapon. Simply pouring enough mana into that marble had caused a massive explosion. Perhaps if I configured those little spheres to safely store mana, I’d be able to use them to discharge with even greater force… I was getting excited just thinking about it. I really wanted more of those marbles.
“Hey, are you daydreaming again? I won’t give you any!” Dia said, as if reading my mind.
“It’s a bit late to be asking this, but what are those balls called?”
“They’re called Fahr Stones.”
Dia said they were available only in her domain, but it was hard to imagine their material couldn’t be mined elsewhere. I’d have to do some more research later.
“Lugh, I’m going to hand you another Fahr Stone, but it won’t be yours to keep, okay? This time, just fill it with a little bit of mana and give it back to me. I would’ve used the stone we used to measure your mana, but since it exploded, we’ll need to use a second one.”
“Sorry.”
“No, no need to apologize. That was an accident. All right, then, go ahead and infuse it with mana.”
I did as I was told and handed it back.
Dia grasped it tightly. “Let’s see, I’ll try for fire first.” She concentrated, and the stone turned from transparent into a shining red. “Your elemental affinity is fire. It’s possible to have two elemental affinities, so let’s try real quick to see if you have another.”
The stone became transparent again, then turned an aqua shade.
“Ah, impressive. You also have an aptitude for water. You’re the only person I’ve met other than myself with two affinities. This is very rare, you know. You should be proud.”
“What did you just do?” I asked.
“I’m stimulating the mana stored in the stone to check for elemental affinity. The Fahr Stone will change color corresponding to each of your affinities.”
“I see. Would you mind checking for the two remaining elemental affinities?”
“Sure, but I’ve never heard of anyone having three affinities… Wait, what? Earth affinity, too? And wind?! You can use all four elements?! Is that even possible?!”
The reason I had affinity for the four basic elements was because the goddess had allowed me to choose Total Affinity, which halved the rate of improvement of each affinity in exchange for allowing me to use fire, water, earth, and wind.
“Seems that way. We now know my mana capacity and my elemental affinities. So what’s next?” I asked.
“… This is one unbelievable thing after another. But, whew, I guess I should expect the unexpected with you. I don’t think anything you do could surprise me at this point. All right, now the real lesson begins. Time to teach you how to use magic.”
Dia stood behind me and placed a slender hand on the back of my neck.
“Does this feel okay? You can already use mana, but magic is different. To use it, you’ll need to perform an elemental conversion, which I’ll help you with. Your first elemental conversion is an intense experience that will be burned into your memory forever. You might end up stuck with some unfortunate habits for life if you are led through your first conversion by an unskilled teacher.”
“… You’re not an unskilled teacher, are you, Dia?” I asked.
“No need to worry. I promise I’ll give you the best first experience you could ask for,” she replied.
I felt a strange power flowing into my body from my nape. It seemed the mana within my body was being directly converted, similar to that which had been contained within the Fahr Stone earlier.
“Don’t lose focus. We’re going to do earth first, my strongest affinity. Feel the conversion of mana in your skin. Engrave it into your heart,” Dia instructed.
Just as directed, I closed my eyes and focused on the mana morphing within me. I could feel it shifting and beginning to change shape. It was a pleasant feeling. I’d never had anyone other than Dia do this to me, so I had no point of reference, but something told me she was most certainly skilled.
Shortly after the pleasant sensation came to an end, Dia removed her hand.
“You’ve had your first experience. Now go ahead and try it yourself,” she directed.
“That was nice. Thank you… I think I understand how it works, more or less. Like this, right?” I changed the colorless mana in my body to earth mana, just as Dia had demonstrated.
“That was a little rough. You might have a large capacity for mana, but if you can’t properly convert it, that will be meaningless. A typical conversion rate sits around sixty percent, but because I’m your teacher, we’re going to aim for eighty percent.”
You could cast magic only by using mana that had undergone an elemental conversion. In other words, any mana that wasn’t properly converted was wasted energy. I could see why Father had been so careful with his selection of mentor.
If a mage was saddled with bad habits because their first conversion was performed by a poor teacher, they’d struggle with losing mana during conversions for the rest of their life.
After trying it myself, I now understood how skilled Dia’s elemental conversion really was. Clearly, she was the best of the best. I tried again, this time following her example as best I could.
“Well, you’re not going to get there easily. You’ll have to train for years to— Hey, wait! H-how have you improved that much already?!” Dia exclaimed.
“I just followed your example. I still have a long way to go to become as good as you.”
“My pride is going to be in shambles if you overtake me on your first day! And people call me a genius… Elemental conversion is one of the quintessential skills for casting mana. Make sure to practice it every day. Hmm-hmm-hmm, this isn’t going to be easy for you. Since you have four elements, that’s going to make your training four times as difficult.”
Although I wasn’t quite sure how I knew it, I was certain I understood how to convert my mana to all four of the elements after only changing my mana to earth.
I’d have to set aside time every day to practice this.
After gathering some earth mana, a collection of symbols I’d never seen before suddenly appeared in my mind.
“Ah, that face must mean you’ve just learned some magic, right?” asked Dia.
“So this is magic…,” I said.
“Yep. Once you fill your body with a higher amount of elemental magic than normal, you receive a divine revelation from the gods and learn your first spell.”
“… I see the spell in my mind, but how do I use it?” I had no idea what these mental characters meant, to say nothing of how to read them.
“You need to chant the words while boosting your converted mana… I’ll demonstrate using the spell you just learned. Watch closely.”
With a beautiful singing voice, Dia strung words together in a language unlike any I’d ever heard. The pronunciation and accent sounded completely different from the local language. When the incantation concluded, a lump of lead formed in her hand.
“This is the first magic that you learn from the earth affinity. A spell to produce lead. New spells will appear in your mind as you use magic, bestowed upon you by the gods. This spell only produces lead, which is relatively soft, but if you train, you’ll be able to produce harder metals like iron!” Dia explained.
Iron did have a higher degree of hardness, but that didn’t necessarily make it superior to lead. Regardless, learning new spells through repeated use of my elemental affinities sounded fun.
“I’d like to try myself, but I can’t read these weird characters, if that’s what they even are. Can you teach me how to read these?” I asked.
“Yes, that is one of the fundamentals of magic. Proper pronunciation of the magic characters, referred to as runes, means everything! The accuracy of your pronunciation has an effect on the precision and force of your magic.”
“So elemental conversion and incantation are equally important. This sounds tough.”
“There are many people who decide to never use magic because of how troublesome it is to learn. There are other drawbacks that dissuade people, too.”
“Really? Magic seems really convenient, though. Even the spell for producing lead that you just showed me could have any number of uses.”
A lump of iron on its own could be fashioned into an acceptable weapon, and I had to imagine there were plenty of other spells that were far more useful.
“Like I said, there are obstacles. Possessing magic gives you the strength of a hundred soldiers on the battlefield because you can use mana to increase your physical strength and defense. However, when you cast a spell, you have to divert mana to your incantation, which results in your strength and defense falling to that of a normal person. This makes you very vulnerable if you’re in the middle of a fight.”
That definitely sounded dangerous. If you got caught mid-incantation within the striking distance of a foe, it’d likely be the end.
Even with such a weakness, magic held so much potential. It also would be a waste not to use it given my Spell Weaver skill, which allowed me to create new spells.
I already had a spell that could produce lead, and there was also one that could apparently produce iron as well. I wondered if perhaps it was possible for me to then use Spell Weaver to alter the formula and produce metals more suited for combat.
Titanium, for example, would be quite useful. It was just as tough as iron but considerably lighter. The hard and heavy tungsten could also prove useful.
I could use titanium to make light and sturdy slashing weapons, while tungsten could be fashioned into piercing armaments like spears or bullets. Magic held many possibilities to increase my combat capabilities.
Given the technology of this world, most weapons were made with, at best, low-quality iron possessed of high levels of impurities. Using weapons made from high-quality metals would give me a big advantage over others.
Just the fact that I could produce metals from thin air was incredible on its own, as the metal itself could make for a useful weapon. For example, if I jumped up high in the air and then produced a metal with a high atomic mass and hurled it back down, I could create an incredible amount of kinetic energy.
As I pondered even further, I hit upon the idea of producing a makeshift gun by propelling bullets created from my earth affinity with explosions produced by my fire affinity. There was also the question of if I could create Fahr Stones via magic. If so, I could fashion bombs with massive explosive power.
After learning only one spell, I was already overwhelmed by the many possibilities. Surely more spells would only lead to further inspiration.
“Um, Lugh? What’s going on? You’ve been standing there grinning to yourself,” Dia said.
“Ah, sorry. It’s nothing.”
In truth, I was getting rather excited at the many prospects.
Studying runes in order to perfect my incantations would need to be a priority. Once I mastered the art of casting magic, I’d have a whole new world of options at my disposal.
Thankfully, I had Dia as my teacher. I was certain to master the language of magic in no time.
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