I meet with Darwin in one of the training rooms for magic practice. The room is completely made with dungeon rock to be more magic resistant and there are small vortices that absorb magic every few meters.
I always thought these vortices could only be found in dungeons and would dissipate when removed but apparently it's possible.
Oh, so you didn't move them here but set them up yourself! I guess that makes more sense if you think about it.
Sure.
"Well Guy, are you done asking Navi about the cool things we have in this room?"
"You knew?"
"Every newcomer who enters this room for the first time asks the same questions. The existence of the magic absorbing vortex has been publicized too many times for anyone associated with dungeon delving not to know about it."
"Isn't that just the mages trying to shift the blame for when they screw up their spells?"
"Exactly! And from today onwards you will be one of them."
"Is it really that easy? I heard that magic requires years of dedicated study and mental training."
"We are monsters, Guy, we are built different. Instead of all that tiresome study which you can of course pit yourself through, we use it more by instinct. I will now forcefully teach your body how earth magic works."
Darwin stands before me and placed his arms on my shoulders. He holds me at arm's length and adopts a solemn look while I can feel power well up from within him.
Like an overpowering volcano erupting the power suddenly gushes out of him. Wave upon wave of power rushes through his arms into my body. I feel like a glass of water that is overflowing with its content. My body is only barely able to contain what is pumped inside of it.
At first, the power simply courses through me with wild abandon but then a controlling force enters my body through my shoulders and calms the power within me. Under the control of that force, the power within me begins to contract and form patterns before rushing into the floor below me.
Like a switch being flipped, I find myself connected to the vast earth beneath us. The foreign power diminishes as it is being used to hold that connection and as the power diminishes the force controlling it slowly recedes to my shoulders and vanishes into Darwin's arms.
My body somehow remembers the patterns formed before and tries to keep it running. The power sent into me by Darwin runs out and my connection to the earth rapidly declines until my awareness only reaches into the ground directly below me.
However, the connection doesn't disappear yet. The power from before is coursing through my body again but I am sure that it hasn't come from Darwin. Did it come from me?
I try to find the origin of that power but it seems to appear out of thin air. Well, not air but it just comes into existence directly within my body.
I let myself sink into that feeling of being connected with the earth and try to once again widen the area of my awareness. Time becomes secondary and I dedicate all my attention to this task until the power unexpectedly stops being replenished.
"What happened?"
"You've run out of mp."
"What was that power? And what were those patterns you formed with it in my body?"
Darwin looks at me with a look of suffering and begins to massage his nose bridge. He sighs loudly and closes his eyes. I'm about to ask what's up when he holds up a hand to indicate that I shouldn't speak.
"I have a question, Guy. How do you believe magic works?"
"Well... just as I've seen it. A power forms patterns and the result is a spell."
"Sigh. Just as I feared. Guy, magic truly only needs two components, mp more commonly referred to as mana and a clear mental image. The problem is that the mental image is crucial and the magic will accommodate nearly everything the caster's mind can come up with.
"Normally, that isn't a problem. Most people use an incantation to support their mental image and then they are good to go. Others, thankfully a minority, have some imaginations that complicate things. How bad is it, Navi?"
"Is that good or bad?"
"Can I change this? I mean the problem arose due to my perception so it should be changeable."
Darwin gives me a sympathetic look and pats me on the shoulder.
"It is changeable but you will need very high attainments in magic before you even have a chance to succeed. Most mages that have the same issue as you end up focusing on one element in order to maximize their advantage of those patterns. Then once they have sufficient proficiency they change their perception and begin to learn other elements."
"Is the increased difficulty of switching and fusing elements that bad?"
"Yes. The switching isn't difficult but it will take you a second or two to convert the mana's attunement. That loss of time can cost you your life. The fusing is troublesome since you will need to combine two different types of attuned mana and let me tell you, they won't mix well."