Chapter 51 – Learning (Patreon)

During the first two weeks, I learned about mana from the first three books Lis gave me. I would learn three runes, then continue reading about mana. The first book discussed most things I had already discovered during my experiments: feeling the mana around, injecting awareness into things to feel the mana, and the fact that the mana has a particular color.

From this book, I learned that mana has an aspect or an element; they are not the same, and it can have both. The elements were the things that exist in nature, not just the four elements Lis mentioned, and the aspects were various actions that mana could do. It was a little confusing at times because fire has the element of fire but the aspect of “heating,” “consumption,” “changing the state of matter,” etc., so it took me a while to understand the difference between these two things because, at first, they sounded the same to me and felt completely the same when I examined the mana. However, with practice and extreme focus, I was able to distinguish between them occasionally.

In the second book, I learned about the practical applications of mana. It described that mana acquires both an aspect and an element based on the magician's intent when constructing the spell. These elements can be layered to create intricate spells, or mana can be wielded as a tool. Initially, the author's flowery language obscured these concepts, but I managed to decipher them through my experiences.

When I harvested the mukar, the mana lacked any aspect or element, yet I could use it to achieve a specific outcome. However, it had to contain aspects or elements or both to create a standardized spell. I finally understood why the system didn’t acknowledge my harvesting as a spell. It wasn’t a spell; I used my mana like a tool.

The book also had excellent exercises on practicing adding an aspect or element to mana. With the element, it was easier for me, but the aspect was more problematic. I knew the "flavor" of the four main elements, fire, earth, air, and water, so I could add their color to the mana.

The aspect had to be added with intention, and I already had experience with this from my healing spells, but in the exercises in the book, it had to be done much more delicately, and that's where I ran into trouble. It was impossible to add the intention, "I want to cut something." It had to be composed of the aspects "sharpness," "transition through matter," and "separation," and these three aspects had to be harmoniously balanced so as not to cancel each other out. I concluded that my knowledge of medicine helped me build the spells I created with intention.

The third book mainly discussed working with mana. It focused more on balancing mana levels, cleaning mana from any aspect or element for rituals, locating areas with higher mana to perform rituals, or predicting places where a dungeon or a mana portal may appear.

It also had techniques to empty an area from all mana and create a “dead zone,” as it was called here. That gave me an idea: if I could master those techniques and create a total “dead zone,” I’d be able to use any technology in that zone. No mana = no problem with tech. I put a marker in the book to practice this in the future; the techniques were complicated and involved, and right now, I had a different focus.

This book was also where I first came across "power channels." The book said that the world has "power channels" through which the mana reaches the surface from the world's core. I think I came across something similar in one of the books I read from Earth, and there it was called Ley Lines, but the description was different. In the fantasy book, it was described as a network covering the world, but in this book, it was described more as vents that rise from the world's core to the surface. Anyway, the topic was fascinating.

After finishing the books on mana, I moved on to the books on rituals. They were completely different. The books about mana were full of flowery descriptions and philosophical ideas about the nature of existence, the world, and mana. The books on rituals were very technical, with exact rules on how to do something, precise measurements, diagrams on creating mana channels to connect the runes or the magic script, and a lot of other technical data of this kind. I felt like I was studying to be an electronics or computer hardware engineer. It required that much precision.

The first book dealt with the basic rules of rituals, how to build a ritual, and the fact that you start from the result you want to achieve and develop the ritual backward through precise steps until you reach the first step you start from.

The second book mainly consisted of diagrams and drawings of different structures of rituals and what each was used for. The basic structures were rings, separate or with up to 30 percent overlap, cubes built from magic script and mana, or stars with four to seven points. Both books were very technical, and the learning process differed significantly from the first ones.

At this point, my day was made up of breakfast, learning three runes, studying a chapter in the rituals book, mana exercises, sketching or outlining steps in writing to make sure I understood the chapter, going back to the chapter to find things I didn't understand or didn't remember, lunch, learning three runes, mana exercises, again sketching or outlining steps in writing to make sure I understood the chapter, the next chapter, mana exercises, dinner, going over the material of the rituals, mana exercises, and sleep.

It took me three weeks to study these two books, and I still didn't feel like I mastered the subject; it was too technical. I concluded that you can’t learn them by heart; you must understand the basic principles and use the books regularly as a reference when building a ritual. From experience, over time, you can remember everything. Right now, it was impossible.

I started reading the book on familiars, and it mostly said what Lis summarized in a few short sentences. It had more data on how to awaken animals, a lengthy discussion on the pros and cons of different animals as familiars, and things like that. The only exciting thing I found out that Lis didn't tell me was that mana beasts develop magical abilities over time. This magic can be elemental if the beast has a specific inclination in that direction or other types of magic. One example was a snow wolf that developed an ice attack but had magic that sharpened its teeth and a sonic attack that stunned the victim. In any case, the subject was fascinating.

After five weeks, I felt I knew enough to start the ritual. Lis would return soon, so I didn’t want to delay. I took one day off to clear my mind and rest mentally. I played with Stretch Rue, played my guitar, cooked, took a long hot bath, and relaxed.

Tomorrow, it’s ritual time.