"On that note, there is one change that I am making in my personal life that you should know about. I had a serious talk with Rebecca yesterday and we decided that I would spend the next 6 months courting her."
"Why do you need to court her? You guys just got married yesterday!"
"Because, from how I treated her in the past, I did not earn that right to marry her. I will spend the next 6 months treating her with the love and care that she always deserved. Afterwards, hopefully she can whole heartedly feel happy to be married to me."
James was obviously bewildered by my words. "How could your fundamental personality change so much just from losing your memories?!"
I couldn't help but laugh. James was having a perfectly normal response. "I know my change has been sudden, but I hope you can adapt quickly."
James shrugged his shoulders, "I am just an old man, please have patience with me."
I knew it wasn't easy but there was still another pressing matter. "There is one more thing we need to talk about. You need to teach me everything I need to know about magic."
James understand the importance of this task, so he leaned forward in his chair. "Do you want me to teach you about all the magic types or do you just want to know how to use your own magic?"
"I would prefer to learn about all of the magic types since I will probably be dealing with all of them when I am on duty as a Royal mage."
"Ok, I will start the lecture now. Use this piece of paper and pen to take notes." James said as he handed me some writing utensils from his mess on the desk.
"The first thing to know is that there are 6 magic types someone can have: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Plant, and Lightning. For each magic type, there are 3 levels of spells: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced.
Everyone will only have one magic affinity. Most people can't use any magic though because you must train for a few years to open your internal mana pores. Once they are opened, everyone has about the same mana pool. The thing people train is the efficiency of how much mana they need to perform one of their spells. Once you get efficient enough with your current spell level, you will naturally start to unlock the next level of spells."
Everything so far was pretty straightforward, but there was one thing I was curious about.
"Yesterday, you used some fire magic. Does that mean you spent years training to open your mana pores too?
"Yes, I can actually use intermediate fire magic. I used to be part of the Royal mages, but you saved my life during the war two years ago. I was so grateful that I swore my loyalty to you and followed you back to the Duchy after the war."
It is good to have loyal retainers. At least the original Duke did one thing beneficial for me. "I don't remember, but I am glad you survived. Now please continue with the teaching."
"Ok, to use a spell you just have to chant the name of the spell and your body will naturally channel your mana to create the effect. That is why people have a magic affinity. If someone tries to chant a spell that is not from their magic type, nothing will happen because their body will not be able to naturally channel their mana in the correct way. The key for training is how to utilize the effect once it is released.
Let's go over the basic spell for each magic type. Basic spells are very similar for each type. When saying the basic spell, a projectile of the specific magic element will be shot forward. Once someone gets a good enough efficiency and can start using intermediate spells, their basic spell will change to instead let them freely control their element instead of being forced to shot it forward like a projectile.
The basic spells are: fire ball, water stream, wind bullet, rock throw, vine wipe, and lightning bolt."
When James said fire ball, a small flame started dancing around his fingertips. This helped to highlight the control an intermediate mage had over his element.
"Intermediate spells are straight forward advancements of their magic elements.
For fire mages, they get lava burst. It has similar control to their basic fire spell, but lava is much hotter than fire so it greatly increases their offensive output.
For water mages, they get ice freeze. The control of ice let's them freeze opponents and make useful sculptures.
For wind mages, they get gravity release. This gives them the ability to fly. They can also lift other people and objects but it is harder to control.
For earth mages, they get earth manipulation. They are able to move the ground near them to their own will. Making for a combination of high defensive and offensive ability.
For plant mages, they get absorption plants. They are plants that can be conjured that will absorb the mana of an opponent.
For lightning mages, they get lightning blade. This changes the normally non-solid lightning into something that can be touched by the user as well as shaped to their own will.
The average Royal mage uses intermediate spells. There are only a small handful of people that can use advanced level spells for each magic type.
Advanced spells evolves the usual elements in an unexpected direction. People that gain the ability to use advanced spells will also be able to use magic without needing to chant the spell anymore.
For fire mages, they get blood boil. They boil their own blood to double their strength for a short period of time.
For water mages, they get healing spring. They get a healing ability that comes in the form of a warm aura engulfing a person.
For wind mages, they get sound amplification. They can send sounds to their ears from long distances. They can also silence their own sounds. This makes them unstoppable spies or assassins.
For earth mages, they get iron skin. This is the only passive spell. It makes their skin as hard as iron at all times. This makes them impossible to catch off guard.
For plant mages, they get plant minions. Their plants will now have sentients. With this they can create their own army, but their minions are not too smart. They can only follow simple commands.
For lightning mages, they get instant transmission. This will let them teleport to anywhere that they want within a 100 foot radius around their body. They can also bring someone with them if they are touching them.
That should be all the basic things you need to know about magic."
"Wow, I am so excited to try it out! Let's go to the training ground right!"
I jumped up and headed out the room even before James had a chance to respond.