A large smile spread across Alans face, as to him this is the first he will learn about magic. Totally absorbed by the book his parents wished him a happy birthday before going to bed knowing how much he appreciates the book.
'Looks like I'm going to be studying while I figure out how to get into The Spire.' he thought to himself as he opened the cover to the first chapter. 'Seems like the first chapter just explains the great things possible through magic.' After reading through it he found the next chapter talks about simple magic, using it to create little flames, pull moisture out of the air, and turn on mana crystals.
Alan read to himself from the book for the next hour all about simple magic, learning that the mana drain on the user is very small with simple magic.
*Magics fuel source is mana that comes from all around and is naturally absorbed over time. While not directly tied to the users stamina the closer to running out of mana in your body the more tired the user will become. The easiest way to visualize mana for education and practice is to think of a container, from cup to bucket it does not matter. So to let you visualize the previous statement, think that the stamina is represented by a single cup, and mana is two. Casting spells drains from the mana cups, but once they are empty it will drain from your bodies stamina. As your stamina is drained you will become weaker and weaker till it runs out and you die. This makes knowing your limits extremely important.*
'Wow it could be much more dangerous then I originally assumed, I just thought magic just happens if you know the words or whatever.'
*Simple spells present very little danger for the caster, as far as mana use goes. Greater spells on the other hand are dangerous for both effects and mana use, as this chapter is about mana we will only discuss that part of greater magic here. The amount of mana used is all determined by what you want to do, raising a boulder the size of a troll uses more mana then all the steps required to cast an ice shard spell. Smart usage of mana is what separates a mage from just someone capable of casting a spell.
Fortunately it is possible to make your mana vessel, the name magic scholars have given to the amount of mana possible to be stored in the human body, larger by constantly draining your mana reserves your body will naturally increase the amount of mana your vessel contains.
While it is possible to force yourself to regenerate mana from the mana breeze, mana felt in the air outside the human body, it is very hard to condense it inside your body. The difficulty of this causes many mages unable to use this technique and how to learn it will not be covered inside of this book*
'This is all making my head spin, maybe I'm too tired to be reading right now,' Alan thought while closing the book and heading to his room, 'Tomorrow I will go into the woods near the house and see if I can't figure out some more of this.'
He took the book upstairs to his room, and just like the house it seems much nicer then it did originally. This time he noticed his blanket wasnt a rough simple one but a quilt made with many different color squares and the bed wasn't one of straw but a nice soft one filled with an unknown material.
A mirror hang on the wall next to the desk where an unlit candle sits along with asorted things he collected as a child. He placed the book down on the desk before remembering his dream and decided to place it on the shelf.
'Now that I think about it I can't remember what I even look like,' Alan very disturbed at that thought stepped infront of the mirror. He saw brown hair, very short on the sides and abit long ontop, brown round eyes, thin but not overly attractive face with a scrawny but broad build. 'Everything but body I can live with, I really should be stronger by now.'
After that he decided he should prepare for tomorrow, 'what kind of things will I need? Since I don't have a real sword I will have to take that wooden one, atleast I will be able to practice swinging.' Walking over to the chest at the foot of his bed he hoped he would be able to find the rest of the stuff he thought he should have, 'all I have in here is clothes and a shoulder bag, maybe I should ask dad tomorrow if he has the other stuff I could borrow.'
"Tomorrow I'm determined to cast atleast one simple magic spell" he said with a determined tone as he slid into bed, slightly surprised at how comfortable it is. 'My memory loss has me a little worried,' he thought as he drifted off to sleep.