Daniel continued to speak with a serious face and a tone of scorn, "Ethan, you're treading dangerous waters. Even I felt that you were practicing Dimensional Magic across the street. What if a Magician was passing through the streets? You would be like a sitting duck in front of them!"
"You have to realize that Sorceria forbids Dimensional Magic and they enforce the restriction very cruelly! Once you get caught, they will stop at nothing to find where you learned and acquired it, meaning that I would go down with you." Daniel's voice was slightly raising.
"If not for me, be careful for yourself. You won't have a future as a Dimensional Magician if you ever get caught. No Dimensional Magician was heard of after getting caught." Daniel continued explaining with his tone becoming slightly softer as he explained the consequences of getting caught to Ethan.
After a short pause, Ethan said with a guilty face, "I understand. It's just that I got caught up while practicing it and didn't realize that it was possible to get caught like this."
Daniel said in a pondering tone, "Normally, a practitioner shouldn't be this easy to detect unless they're making a breakthrough. In your case, I could almost feel the emanating Dimensional Energy from your shack. I didn't want to disturb you in the case that you were making a breakthrough so I waited, but you kept a similar energy level for close to an hour!"
Ethan said helplessly and shamelessly, "Umm, I was just absorbing Dimensional Energy, it seems I have good talent for Dimensional Magic."
"You-You were just absorbing Dimensional Energy?! You must know that the emanating energy was at least close to what would happen if multiple Dimensional Spells were being cast." Daniel was shocked; he continued in an incredulous tone, "You're telling me that was just you absorbing energy? Absorbing energy should not emanate such strong Dimensional Energy at your level."
"What can I say, that's all there is to it." Ethan had slight pride in his tone.
"Okay, if that's the case you have to learn to conceal your Dimensional Energy. The notes I left you had some information about concealment techniques but it seems you haven't read them. I didn't teach you them, because I didn't think you'd need them at this stage, however now it's obvious you can't do without them. You only need these techniques in the presence of Arcane Magicians or when you're using Anchor Spells. There are Dimensional Energy Detector Arrays in every city in Sorceria to detect powerful Dimensional Magic, and these techniques allow you to conceal yourself from these Arrays."
"To learn these techniques, you need to have knowledge of Arcane Magic, so how well do you know it?" Daniel asked.
"I know nothing apart from common knowledge, I only know how to use my spiritual power a little bit from the time you showed me." Ethan answered honestly.
"Well, that introductory book on your desk will be nowhere enough for us, so I suggest you get a Book of Arcana and learn Arcane Magic. After that come to me and I'll show you how to use these techniques. Until then stop absorbing energy, or you'd be risking getting caught." Daniel warned.
"I got somewhere to be so take care of yourself, Ethan." Daniel opened the door and left the shack.
"See you later man!" Ethan said his goodbye before closing the door.
'So, I can't power through with my foundation now that it's dangerous for me to absorb Dimensional Energy. That needs to wait until I get these concealment techniques.' Ethan was making plans for his next actions while considering his situation.
'So next step is to learn Arcane Magic even though my talent is low.' Ethan had to get a 'Book of Arcana' and figure out how Arcane Magic worked. In a foreign world with no common knowledge, he was considering his options.
Did he even have any money? He was getting through with what was in his room for food and water. He didn't have any money on him so he started to look around in his shack.
After a short while of searching, he managed to amass 17 coins that had a bronze-like material.
'These should be the so-called Bronze coins I guess. I hope this will be enough for food and the Book of Arcana that I need.'
Ethan left his house to look around and find where he could get the things he needs.
Up on Radon Street, there were only a couple shops around. One of them had a glowing sign that had colorful runes around it. It was obviously powered by magic since electricity wasn't a luxury this neighborhood could afford.
Ethan, having inferred this, walked into the shop. All he saw when he came in were shelves of books and some weirdly glowing vials. The shop was pretty big and had some more exotic items towards the end. Ethan quickly looked for the Book of Arcana that he needed.
"What are you looking for, young man?" A voice that had the vicissitudes of time in its tone came from behind.
"I'm looking for the Book of Arcana." Ethan replied honestly to the old man who was wearing a silver robe.
"This?" A book magically appeared in the old man's hand. "This is one Silver coin."
"Here you go sir." Ethan counted and handed out 10 Bronze coins which was equal to a single Silver coin.
"Good luck, young man. Magic is a difficult endeavor, you must not give up easily if you want to succeed." The old man advised as Ethan left the shop.
Upon entering his house, Ethan opened the Book of Arcana to learn what Arcane Magic was all about.
A couple hours passed with Ethan not leaving his eyes from the Book of Arcana. He had now found out how spells were cast and what was needed to cast them. He had realized that there was one more aspect to Arcane Talent, that was Elemental Affinity.
There were two ways a spell could be cast, Soulbound and Airbound. Soulbound meant that the spell was literally engraved inside one's soul, it was a method available only to true Arcane Magicians. Airbound meant that one would draw the runes of the spell in the air with their Spiritual Power and run mana through to activate it. The mana run through the spell must have the element of the spell imbued in it or the spell would be ineffective. What this meant was that if you wanted to cast a Fireball, you would have to imbue it with Fire Elemental Mana!
How does one get fire elemental Mana? You only need to have Fire Elemental Affinity. Every person in Sorceria had some kind of Elemental Affinity, so they would learn the Spells of the Element they are affine to.
Ethan, on the other hand, had no idea which affinity he had. In fact, it was weird that the System didn't show his Affinities alongside his Arcane Talent.
'System, can you show me my Elemental Affinities?'
"Host does not have any Elemental Affinities. Host is advised to enter the System Shop to buy one for his future progression." The System voice replied, revealing something incredible. One could buy Elemental Affinities! From the System, no less!
Ethan felt incredulous about this because as far as he knew, no Magician or Magi was able to get another Elemental Affinity other than the ones they were born with.
He turned up the System HUD and opened the System Shop. He saw a list of items with all of them grayed out except for one that read "Upgradeable Elemental Affinity (1 Element:1 SP)"
He immediately thought with the intent to buy this item and the System replied shortly after.
"Buying 1 Upgradeable Elemental Affinity for 1 SP, please choose the Element:"
[Fire]
[Water]
[Wind]
[Earth]
...Locked
'Wow, any one of these can be bought with a single SP. I'll just go with Fire since it's clearly the most powerful element for offensive strength.' Ethan made a choice while only considering offensive strength, whether this was the best choice at this moment was unknown.
"Host has gained Fire Elemental Affinity Level 1/???. Please continue to make efforts."
Ethan felt the same force from before appear from inside his head, this time bringing something with scorching yet soothing heat. The System Force, as he called it, imbued his body and spiritual power with crazily burning flames. His constitution changed ever so slightly to better accommodate the raging flames.
It took a while for the flames to calm down. As the flames cooled down, Ethan felt the rushing strength in his body, which was exploding with energy.
"Host has gained +4 Mana and +4 Strength."
The Elemental Fire had reforged his body to some extent!
With this, he finally had an Affinity, which was the basis for most spells in Arcane Magic. Now, he had to learn runes and some basic spells before talking with Daniel about what he should do for concealment.