"Since you've been able to succeed in conjuring Magic for the first time, Lady Kyra. Its time to move on and learn more of the practical aspects of Magic, as well as a special thing for the end~"
The Sorceress intrigued both of us, as I tapped my little claws on the table in excitement and Kyra leaned forward in her seat with stars in her eyes.
"Oooo, what is it Madam Serene? What's the special thing?" Kyra had no idea what it could be but anything labeled 'special' automatically made it 10 times more interesting.
"Stay awake and you'll see~" She teased again, "For now though, lets start off simple."
She pulled out that wand looking object from yesterday and held it in her hands. I could feel 'something' in the air moving, but I couldn't explain what it was. It was an instinctual feeling that it wasn't the air itself, but I knew it was moving closer to her wand.
As that happened, my eyes widened as her wand suddenly grew another foot longer, becoming a pointing stick like Mr. Pelono's. I hadn't noticed it when Kyra was doing magic but was this what it felt like when magic was being cast? It was almost like she was sucking it up and turning it into something else.
Kyra giggled a bit from the little magic trick and was fully focused compared to the history lesson. Using her pointing stick, Madam Serene pointed to the chalkboard behind her as a piece of chalk floated over to it and began to write.
I could feel a similar flowing, of what I assumed was mana, toward the chalk. However since the chalk was staying up for a longer period of time, there was like a funnel of mana going up toward it, providing the propulsion it needed to stay moving.
She began to draw a series of symbols as she spoke.
"As you know, mana is the lifeforce of this world. With proper practice and a bit of talent, anyone can create nothing out of something by using mana to alter the world around them. As I am doing right now, I can extend my wand for a longer reach or use chalk without touching it, so long as I have the proper amount of mana and control."
"When performing magic, it is important to know just how much mana should be put into a spell as well as keeping a clear image of what you want to create. This is all review of course, as you should know this Lady Kyra, but now we will learn more about the specifics of mana before talking about how that applies to magic."
Kyra sat up straight with her note papers in front of her, ready to learn as the chalk finished drawing what it wanted to before setting itself down on the board's lip. On the board was now 6 simple drawings of naturally occurring elements.
"Here, we have the 6 elements, the basic components of this world's mana. In its natural state, mana will have a certain type attached to it, that being: Fire, Water, Wind , Earth, Light or Dark." She said as she pointed to each individual element.
Fire was drawn as a little flame; Water was shown as a few bubbles; Wind was several squiggly lines parallel to each other and Earth was simply a rock. These four sat in a circle with arrows pointing to the element next to it while the last two were in the middle of this circle.
Light was represented by an 8 pointed star while Dark was carefully drawn in a wobbly spiral.
"Mana will take one of these 6 elemental types and apply it to itself, in simple terms. That means that if you were let's say, sitting next to a lake. You would find a lot more Water type mana there than you would find at a volcano where lots of Fire and Earth type mana would be.
"In the air, there would generally be a lot of Wind type mana but there shouldn't be any earth type mana, and vice versa if you were to look at the ground, you wouldn't find any Wind mana there. For each of these elements, they have an element that they are strong and weak against.
"As you can see here," Madam Serene pointed to the Fire and Water drawings, "If you look at the directions of these arrows, you can see that Fire mana is weak against the Water mana, but at the same time, Fire is strong against Earth.
"In general, the elements follow these trends unless there is an abundance of one element that allows to over power another, but that's a talk for the future. For now, follow this chart when thinking about what kinds of magics you should use."
Kyra nodded as she took her quill and quickly tried to copy the pictures on the board. I on the other hand felt this was surprisingly simple and similar to many games that I remembered that had some sort of magic system.
Mana or Magic would have some sort of elemental type to it, allowing said element to deal more damage to a type weak to it or taking more damage when up against an element strong against it. It seemed like a straight forward system to follow: Water -> Fire -> Earth -> Wind -> Water.
I waited for her to hopefully explain why the chart was this way as I thought about the last two, Light and Dark. Those two were in the middle, not connected to the circle in anyway and were instead pointing to each other.
Did that mean they were both weak and strong against the other? That seemed a bit counter intuitive but hopefully she would cover that too.
"This elemental chart doesn't always hold up perfectly but when you think about it logically, it makes sense. If you were to pour water on fire, you would extinguish the fire, but you couldn't take fire and burn water unless you had an overwhelming amount of it.
"Fire could melt Earth, and while you could use earth to put out a fire, when applying mana to both, the elements behave differently and prevent earth from putting out the fire. There are a number of exceptions like this but again, for a later class.
"Earth you could toss into the Wind, but you can't put the wind into the ground as easily. And Wind can easily move water around but not necessarily the reverse. This isn't a perfect system but mana behaves very strangely sometimes and that is adamant in the last two elements: Light and Dark.
"These last two elements are more difficult to control, making them rare forms of mana and magic to use. They are both weak and strong against each other, but at the same time, they are somewhat neutral to the other elements.
"This makes them all around stronger when up against magics of the other four main elements, but a bit finicky when up against its opposing type. Its like the daytime. You don't see the night sky when the sun is up right? And when its night time, you will see the moon but not the Sun right?
"Light mana is much more abundant during the day but 'sleeps' at night, while Dark mana could be considered nocturnal, hiding away in shadows until it is dark out."
"Madam Serene!" Kyra enthusiastically raised her hand, "Does that mean you can't use Dark magic during the day, and Light magic at night?"
"Very good question, Lady Kyra," I could see the Sorceress turn around trying to hide a smug smile, "That is actually not true. You are still able to use Light magic at night and Dark magic during the day, but you will notice a considerable drop in power and it will take a lot more mana to conjure magics of those natures."
To give an example, she held her hand out and a ball of light formed.
"Since its the day, it is much easier to cast this Light Spell, 'Light' to light up the room, however," She trailed off as the light diminished and the library began to grow darker, "When I use the Dark Spell, 'Haze', it still works, but it doesn't make the room nearly as dark as it could be during the night."
She banished her spells and the room returned back to normal. It was fascinating to see magic up close like this and she was also doing it chantless, which made me wonder just how she was imagining these spells to be able to cast them so fast.
"The speed at which you gather mana and conjure a spell also affects the nature of your spells but that mostly comes with experience. There's no way to really improve your spells other than just practicing them.
"The four main elements: Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth are all used for daily life. They are in tools like mana gems or used in weapons and armor to add additional effects or protections. Each spell will have a tier often attached to it, showing just how easy or difficult it may be to conjure.
"As for the 'Waterball' you were able to conjure Lady Kyra, that was a tier 5 spell. The lowest level and simplest forms of magic. The tier above that, would allow you to cast the spell 'Wave' which uses your mana to send a sharp blade of water in an arc in front of you.
"Its much more destructive that 'Waterball' but also costs more mana to use and more control to master it. There is also a tier below 5, tier 6, but everyone just calls it 'Common Magic' or 'Daily Magic' that just about everyone can use. That kind of magic has no destructive aspects to it, only allowing you to create a small flame or a small bit of water for examples, but they are highly important when it comes to learning to control your mana.