Today, I'm going to start learning the basics of magic with Martha-sensei.
I have mixed feelings with this training.
I feel excited that I would be able to learn magic while being nervous of what's waiting for me during the training.
From their reaction last time, I can tell that they have experienced something terrifying.
But now is not the time to chicken out. I need to get a hold of myself and absorb everything I can from my limited time here.
I can't stay here forever, and I would feel bad if I bring any more inconvenience to everyone.
We are at the courtyard of the mansion. The courtyard is wide and the ground is filled with grass and nature. There is a round fountain with a fairy like statue standing on the very center of the fountain.
We're sitting on a wooden bench under the shade.
There were 3 thick books on the table and Martha is sitting on the opposite side.
She is holding a stick and her aura is that of a very strict teacher.
"Okay Ares-kun, let us begin."
"Y-yes Martha-sensei!"
I was intimidated by her presence. I feel like if I made a single mistake that stick would go flying to my direction.
"First, we'll learn about the foundations of magic itself. The afterwards we'll try and produce etheria. Don't fall behind, understand?"
"Y-yes Ma'am!"
Ahh, I can't relax with her oozing intimidating aura!
And so she began teaching me about the fundamentals of magic.
First she taught me the ranks of magic spells depending on its difficulty. The higher the rank, the more difficult it is to perform. The higher the rank you can perform and if you can use it efficiently, the higher your ranking as a Mage goes.
The ranking for Mages are:
Apprentice
Advocate
Master
Grandmaster
Arch Mage
Magus Maximus
Martha-sensei's rank is Arch Mage.
The higher rank you are, the more prestige and popularity you will get depending on how you communicate with people and of course the higher rank of magic spells you can use.
The ranking for Magic spells are:
Elementary – E rank
Advance – D rank
Master – C rank
Grandmaster – B-A rank
Void and God Level –A-S rank
The Void and God Level spell ranks cannot be used just by anyone. Even a grand master can use Void magic rank but only Magus Maximus rank mage can use the God Level Magic rank spells.
Etheria is the very foundation of producing magic. Without it, one cannot perform magic spells which is used in daily basis.
It is the energy from a person's body combined with the energy of the nature and surroundings. In other terms, it is referred as Mana.
The more complicated and larger the magic is, the bigger amount of etheria needed.
Not everyone in this world has large amount of etheria though. The ones who possess large amount of etheria are very few and rare to find.
Your etheria capacity is what describes your worth as a mage. The larger you have, the more magic spells available for you to cast.
There are 4 main elements of magic one can learn. The fire, water, wind and earth elements of magic. There are other types of magic such as light magic but they are very rare which is available only for very talented and gifted individuals or a certain races of people.
By the way, only Alou can use light magic here because of her latent talent as a Nymph.
Being able to control all 4 elements is a very rare thing to happen which only 1 individuals from each different countries are publicly known who can use it perfectly.
Everyone with enough etheria can learn the 4 elements but they can only master 1 or 2 elements at best.
Next is how to produce magic using my etheria.
There are 2 ways to produce magic and that is by using chants or catalyst.
Depending on the difficulty of the spell you want to cast, the longer the chant would be and the more etheria control you need to do.
The more complicated the spell is the more difficult it is to cast and because you are using extra amount of effort to perform it, the feedback on your body would be even more extreme specially if you pushed yourself too hard.
The catalyst is an item or a mineral that contained certain amount of etheria inside it that made it possible to cast a difficult spell with low tax on your own body.
There are also people who can use magic without using chants and she just made a very simple explanation on it.
"Use your imagination. By using your imagination, you can cast a spell without the need of chants. The Guardian of the Forest which is Aloumine-sama's mother can use magic without any chants. She is the one who taught me about it but unfortunately I wasn't able to accomplish it using her way and explanations, but I was able to shorten some magic chants. Aloumine-sama can do it naturally though, maybe it's because they are related."
I'm very intrigued with this guardian. She is the one who saved me from death after all.
She said that there are also some individuals in this world who can use magic without chants so they are not that rare to begin with.
What's rare is those who can use very high level of magic without using chant's because in a fight between mages, the faster you are in casting magic the higher your chance of winning the battle, so what more if you don't need to chant a very long and complicated chant right?
"I had once fought someone who can use high level magic without chanting. It was a dark elf and it was a very close fight. In the end we ended up in draw."
I don't know how powerful Martha-sensei is in magic battle but from what I heard, she even served the guardian of this forest which is brimming with talent and power so I can't even imagine someone being able to have a match with her resulting in draw.
After that she asked some questions.
In the end I was so focused not to receive her stick attack, I was able to answer all of her questions afterwards which is a good thing.
She seems to be impressed with my performance.
Clap!
"Since you understand my explanations I think we can move on to practical training."
While I was thinking of that she clapped her hand and walked to an empty space part of the courtyard.
"Okay for starters, you need to control your etheria. You need to be aware of how much you're producing because it will affect the quality of the magic you want to cast. First, try this."
After she said that she opened her hand with her palm facing up and started accumulating etheria from her hand.
I can't see it but I can definitely feel that it was there. The space around her palm seems like it was distorting a little.
"You need to feel it. Just let it flow through your body naturally and focus it to your palm. Now you try it."
She said that and closed her hands stopping the ethera flow. I stood up and imitated her.
I closed my eyes and feel the energy inside my body.
I need to be conscious of the amount huh, let's see.
"Hmmp!" I focused all the energy from my body to my hand and opened it.
"Just relax, don't overdo it,"
She said as she observed my hand and then suddenly,
Bam!
The etheria on my hand created a small explosion.
"Ugh!"
"Wh-what happened?!"
She said in frantic manner while I stumbled backwards and fell.
There is a tingling sensation on my right arm, the one you would feel when you got electric shocked.
My palm was smoking a little from the explosion but it doesn't seem to have any serious damage, just a few scratch.
She kneeled on my side and took my hand then she began healing.
"…Etheria overload?" she muttered as she healed my hand.
"Etheria overload?"
"…Yes."
I repeated what she said and she nodded while still looking at my hand with furrowed brows. Then she began explaining.
"Etheria overload is a rare occurrence when someone produced etheria and the output produced was higher than what you wanted, it will go berserk meaning…"
Before she could finish she fell silent and think.
"A-Ares-san produced a large amount of etheria it had gone berserk because it did not match the amount on his imagination."
"Eeek!"
Leutte came out of nowhere and explained what happened. Martha jumped in surprise as she heard the sudden voice coming out of nowhere.
"Geez, you scared me Leutte."
"M-my apologies Martha-san!"
Leutte bowed her head to Martha and started to apologize. Martha just laughed and waved her hand.
"Ufufu~It's fine, it's fine.
Just where did she came from? I was so curious and my curiosity got ahead of me.
"…Where did you entered? You suddenly appeared out of nowhere."
"E-eh? Ah uhm… I was…"
She got flustered so Martha explained it for her.
"I guess she was in the middle of scouting. She is in-charge of gathering information so concealing herself is one of her strong points. She must've forgotten to deactivate her magic when she approached us."
"I see."
That's a really convenient skill.
Martha turned to Leutte and asked her.
"So Leutte, you're saying that his etheria became unstable because of that?"
"T-that is correct. The amount of etheria he produced was larger than the amount needed to activate simple magic."
"Hmm, maybe you're right. Alright Ares-kun, I think we can move on."
We moved on to the lesson but this time, Leutte was around and watching us.
"Alright, do it again but this time try to relax and don't force it to come out."
"O-okay. Here we go."
I concentrated and tried to accumulate etheria on my palm once again.
I tried to calm down as much as I can so it won't overload again.
Produce etheria with the exact amount inside my head. I said inwardly.
Beads of sweat starts to accumulate on my forehead and I'm still holding my hand out trying to produce etheria.
After a while, some changes around my palm happened. It was like the space around my hand is bending like a mirage in desert.
"I- I did it!"
I was happy that I finally got it and looked at the two but their expressions was not I was expecting.
Their eyes are wide open as they stare on my hand. Martha covered her mouth with both of her hands while Leutte gripped the hem of her clothes.
She walked slowly to me and inspected the etheria in my hand. She leaned closer and her well pronounced chest slightly jiggled. I immediately looked away.
"…It's visible." She muttered.
When I looked back, Martha-sensei was also leaning and inspecting the etheria.
"N-no way…" She said while covering her mouth with both of her hands.
Feeling awkward I asked the two of them. "M-Martha-sensei? W-what's wrong with you two?"
They didn't answer and just froze on the spot. After a while they recovered and made a fuss about it, then we continued the practical magic training.
It's already past afternoon and after we finished eating lunch I went outside back to the courtyard and resumed practicing to control my etheria.
I was alone now because Alou called out for Martha while Leutte suddenly disappeared.
"…She must've gone back to scouting the area."
Is she an assassin or something? Well whatever.
I repeated the steps I did before and tried to produce etheria on my palm.
This time I was able to do it fine and the etheria on my hand was indeed visible.
"Visible huh."
I recalled what Martha-sensei and Leutte said in the morning.
"I've never seen a visible etheria before but I heard that there are people who can produce visible etheria but the most popular one is the Hero Class El who defeated the Demon King Arfarell who tried to conquer the North Continent 600 years ago. Etheria is something you normally can't see but for someone with very large and compressed amount of etheria it is possible to make it visible which means, you possess a very large amount of etheria."
Said Martha with fast and excited manner.
"Th-that's amazing Ares-san! I also read a book about the Hero's Ancient Demon King Subjugation. I heard that there is a person from the west who can produce visible etheria as well. There are about 2 individuals excluding Ares-san that has the same ability who are known in the public. They are a hot topic for the human society right now."
Her eyes are shining and she was looking at me with admiration.
She normally is very shy but when she starts to explain things she became talkative. Alou was also the same, her elegant aura got replaced with a little girl's.
"I-is that so? I see." That's all I could say after seeing their reactions.
"…Rare occurrence, huh."
They said that I probably possess large amount of magic.
This feeling inside me, something that wants to go out and just explode, this must be the large amount of etheria they were talking about.
Quite frankly, I don't like the sound of it. It only spells trouble.
I heard that the Hero Class El was from Dragon race. He is so strong that even after he was gone, his name was still sitting atop the rankings of the most powerful individuals in this world.
Because of his fame he even had stories about his adventures and heroic deeds written for him. Even his love story with the girl he married, Saint Class Acassia, is recorded on the books that is still in demand on the market.
To tell the truth, I was also interested to read stories about him but let's forget about it now.
"I need to concentrate."
I tried to concentrate even more and tried to increase the amount of etheria on my hand.
Martha-sensei said that the more complicated and larger the magic is, the more etheria you need to put on it.
The important part of producing magic is the etheria and your imagination.
You need to use your imagination to create an image of the magic you want to use.
I don't know if I can learn to cast magic now, now that I was able to produce etheria.
"fuu, now let's see what is written in here."
I stopped my training and sat on the wooden bench beside the fountain in the courtyard.
What I have in my hand is a book that contains different type of elementary to intermediate magic spells which was handed over to me by Martha-sensei after she taught me the 'Wind Arrow' spell.
I opened the book and the first thing that came to my mind was the realization that,
"…I can't read any of this."
I stared at the book with blank expression and slowly brought my hand to my forehead.
"Good thing Leutte-san represented herself to teach me."
I let out a sigh of relief. Fuu~.
I can understand what they are saying but I can't read any of these.
The summoning must've given me the ability to understand them and vice-versa.
Since this world's technology is comparable to middle ages, not everyone have an access to learning materials and the books are very expensive, or so I was told so the only one who can read are mostly nobles and people from high position who can afford to attend schools or home tutors.
I skimmed though the pages of the book to see if I can find something I can understand but I wasn't able to find one. I closed the book and rested my chin on my hand.
I don't want to just dawdle around so I think for a while on what to do.
"…maybe I should try Wind Arrow?"
Hmm? What was the chant again? I forgot…
They both said that the imagination is an important factor in casting a magic spell.
It will be the foundation of the magic you want to cast while the etheria determines the output power and range so the chant should've been not that important, right?
I stood up and held my hand up to the sky and closed my eyes.
I pictured an arrow made out of wind with sharp arrowhead. Next is the length, power and speed.
I decided that the length would be around 60 cm, power that can pierce concrete and speed faster than a normal arrow shoot.
"Wind Arrow!" I can't remember the whole chant so I just recited the spell's name.
Wind begun to circle and form above my palm. Little by little an arrow shape made of wind started to form from my palm to the head of the arrow.
"Woah!" it activated!?
After it took shape it flew upwards.
The wind arrow made a small whistling sound as it launched in the sky.
"Ah!"
I didn't notice it because it was color white like the clouds but a bird is flying up ahead.
Tik!
It hit a bird on its right wing. Good thing that the arrow missed so the bird was still able to fly away but unsteadily.
Phew. I sighed.
I looked at my hands and made a ball fist.
"…I, I did it! I was able to use magic!"
That was my very first magic I have ever casted.
I became so motivated and excited so I did it a couple times until I can't stand firmly.
Before I knew it, it was already evening so I decided to go back inside.
I walked in flimsy and unsteady manner. When I entered the mansion I go straight to my room.
My shoulders are aching because I casted the magic multiple times and experimented a little on the output and power of the attack.
I slumped on the bed face up and looked at the ceiling.
I think back for a moment about the things I learnt today.
I confirmed that one can cast a magic spell as long as the foundations to do it are performed perfectly. You just need your imagination to be able to cast a spell and right amount of etheria for it to take shape.
"…I feel very sluggish, I'll skip, dinner….and….I'll…."
Before I could finish what I'm saying I already fell asleep.
And so, the first day of home tutor with Martha-sensei and my self-study of magic came to a close.