|||| =LEVEL 8= ||||]
I spent most of the day and the whole night working on metalworking and my other crafting skills. I got metalworking to level 12 to my surprise. I think it might advance faster due to being a mundane skill but I can't rightly say. It definitely gained more levels due to its low level as well though. Runes grew to level five and enchanting to six under my parallel's tireless work.
Throughout the day Taiyang found that he wasn't able to do much after my parallel did most of the chores. All he did was clean a bit and then he sat down to play some video games for a while. Finally he got bored of that too and worked on what looked like lesson plans for his signal students. He got interrupted by Summer halfway through, though.
Ruby looked at a ton of schematics for weaponry for a while before playing with some toys. I didn't fault her for that. She was five, after all. Yang went outside to talk to some friends I think. I was working on steel for the first time at that moment so I wasn't paying much attention.
Summer looked around the house for a while and took a nap. Then she woke up and decided she was in the mood and found Ruby playing with her toys and Yang out of the house and Tai just innocently working on his lesson plans. I looked away when the pants came off. I told Summer as such. I'm not sure if she even heard.
After Yang came back and she and Ruby went to bed Summer and Tai went back for round two and went to bed. I kept my mage sight off since there was no reason to have it on though. I would get up when Summer talked to me.
I did take a break from all the enchanting and stuff after a while. I took a break and went to my study and brainstormed ideas. Firstly, THe new body I was going to make COULD be fully made of metal but did I want to be a golem? No. It would be great for combat but I wanted a form like I had before. A biological form. That's non-negotiable. Eating, drinking, pain, pleasure, and the like are what make a person feel alive.
Luckily Summer had the life affinity and I had a sample of my old DNA in my cadaver. I wouldn't try to bring myself back from the dead but a new body? I could do that. A homunculi of sorts that I could alter with my metalworks and magic to be stronger than my old body. My parallel could work my body out. I would need to learn anatomy to make a homunculi properly of course. I would start that soon. Studying could come after I got a handle on my smithing. It was kind of fun for now, rather than boring. I would get INT and some WIS from studying as well. I should try to get to 150 INT soon to get more parallels to learn faster.
I had a few ideas for my new body. The first one was to somehow apply affinities into my physical form. Novis could do this but maybe I could get dust into my bloodstream? I'll study that later. The next was rather simple. Genetic alterations. Life could probably do that. Third was to take advantage of my gamer's body skill and increase my body's performance in exchange for using more nutrients. Muscle density, for example. I would fine-tune my nervous system to make my body more sensitive like Summer's was as well.
Summer eventually woke up around nine and I assigned my parallel to work on learning anatomy from one of the several books I had in my bookshelf while Summer and I made breakfast for everyone. Everybody split up to do their own thing as Sum and I went to Vale to pick up a few things and meet with Ozpin.
I barely paid attention to the chores Summer did. I worked on runes and enchanting myself and let her have some alone time. She hummed as she moved throughout Vale and picked up some things. Some soaps, food, weapon crafting supplies that I didn't need myself, having already stolen some before, and other small things.
After reading through a quarter of the whole textbook, which had college level stuff, I checked my INT and nearly had a heart attack. Four INT and three WIS from all that reading. In one day. Dust… I would be reading so much from now on. My human anatomy skill was level sixteen now as well. I have another textbook on anatomy as well and maybe fifteen more of a similar level. Oh my god this is going to be such a boost to my stats. I could only read so much, though. I would be able to branch into other topics than anatomy after leveling up my anatomy skill sufficiently for my liking to read more though.
I paid my full attention to beacon when we got there. I asked Summer and it seems that only student teams in the top 5% of both GPA and combat rankings, which I should mention is the average calculated from all four of them, get to call a bullhead to their location to get back to beacon. Everybody else had to take a gondola up the cliff, drive up the road, or, for the lowest ten percent or those under a punishment, the stairs. I shuddered at Summer's dark tone as she mentioned the stairs.
We, of course, got a bullhead, being a magical super huntress with legendary and a wizard that plays with space and the souls of man like a kitten with a ball of string. I wonder how much destruction we could do if we went all out? Probably a lot.
Beacon was really impressive in person. In the show you could see that it was huge but it was always muted by being on a screen. In person? Beacon tower alone was already huge. The campus below, though, had a number of smaller towers pointing upwards to the sky and several large buildings below. When I say large I mean like the size of a costco store. Really huge. I suppose there were student dorms, a cafeteria, dust storage, weapons maintenance, classrooms, arenas… well they probably put all that space to good use.
"How many students does beacon have a school year?" I asked. "A hundred fifty students per year maximum. They always hit the maximum since, you know, beacon is awesome."
I had to admit that, yes, beacon was awesome. Really awesome. Ozpin was not as awesome though. Thinking of Ozpin shook me off of the majesty of beacon and see it in a different light.
Summer enthusiastically chatted about beacon's facilities and how awesome it was. I asked questions occasionally and looked around the campus with mage sight. I saw a lot of things happening around campus. Huntsmen in the arena was what I was most interested in for the moment. Glynda Goodwitch was actually already teaching a class in the morning.
I put her out of my mind and looked to the fight. The contestants clashed at high speeds and all and that was great but what I noticed most was how flashy their moves were. They weren't the efficient and deadly moves Summer had taught me. They were moves that put showmanship at the same level of deadliness. I turned my attentions elsewhere with a tinge of irritation at their priorities. I immediately got back into the fight when I saw just how my students were working out together alone on their beds. In one case a whole team. Damn teenagers. Damn Summer and Tai. Damn my lack of a body.
Summer and I went up the elevator with some more praising beacon and me ignoring Summer reading my book. Not that she knew. I just occasionally said "Oh really?" and short phrases like that to show that I was paying attention. I had mastered this skill with my parents in my old life. Every teenager learned it at some point.
Finally we came to the big moment. The elevator opened directly into Ozpin's office. It was almost exactly like the show except for Ozpin's desk, which had drawers under the desk and papers in neat piles on his desk.
Curious, I looked to the desk with mage sight and felt what I can only describe as a gentle slap with foreign mana. I recoiled and took away my mage sight. I looked through Summer's eyes and looked to Ozpin himself.
The man wasn't especially intimidating. He sat calmly at his desk with a soothing smile on his face. I felt less tense looking at it. I got more wary because of it. He looked only a little younger than in the show. His hair was a darker grey than his later years and he was a smidge shorter. Oh, and he didn't have those spectacles. Other than that, though, he was almost exactly the same. Green bandana, cane, coffee, and black and gold color scheme.
"Please don't attempt to spy on my papers, mister Mavros. I do enjoy my privacy." Ozpin spoke without any force. He sounded warm and welcoming.
"My apologies." I spoke formally through my wind whisper. "I do it by habit now." Just like it was habit to toss an observe at Ozpin.
Meridian Ozpin
Title: Immortal protector; teacher of heroes; headmaster; Wizard
Level – ?
HP – ?
AP – 1,546,160/1,546,160 (Freely shown by target)
MP - 3,092,320/3,092,320 (Freely shown by target)
STR - ?
VIT - ?
DEX - ?
INT - ?
WIS - ?
LUK - ?
Semblance: Eidetic - You remember everything you have ever seen.
Affinities: (Freely shown by target)
Time: 51876 (+300)
Order: 40684 (+300)
Shadow: 20498 (+300)
Earth: 19876 (+300)
Lunar: 18474 (+300)
Life: 17145 (+300)
Solar: 14970 (+200)
Death: 8785 (+200)
Space: 4604 (+200)
Perks: (Freely shown by target)
Curse of nemesis - You have been cursed eternally to fight against the entity called Salem. Should you fail to kill Salem your soul shall transfer to the aura of the one with the closest signature to yours. You may not gain the purity affinity.
Immortal soul - Your aura never dies. Never changes. Despite not being a higher soul your aura may travel briefly outside of your body.
-Growth to affinity growth takes 1000 times the effort it normally takes to grow the affinity.
-Aura growth takes 1000 times the effort to grow.
-Your soul will never degrade due to time.
Wisdom of ancients - You have seen nations rise and fall. Technology come and go. Lands change. Cultures die out. People live and die. Through one way or another, though, you still live. Millenia have passed and you live still. The knowledge of old and present are available to you and through this you have learned much.
-+1000% to INT and WIS
-2x mana capacity and regen.
Bio: [Blocked]
OH LORD THAT MANA! And that insane aura! My god that's so utterly out of my league… Summer and I combined don't touch him… That's insane. And that wisdom of the ancients perk… absurd… the affinities are just a small bit OP too. Just a tiny bit. Eidetic memory combined with immortality is also just a little absurd, don't you think? And what the hell is with those modifiers on his affinities?! His INT and WIS are in the double digits. Well… I've got some catching up to do.
Ozpin smiled at me. "What an interesting attempt at scrying. I don't believe I've seen such an attempt like that before. In olden times wizards used to freely show their capacities of mana and as you clearly show yours I'll follow suite. I am professor Ozpin. I'm headmaster of Beacon academy, which you've no doubt seen through the sight of yours. Crafty thing, by the way. More of interest to you, I believe, is that I am the only other wizard in Remnant. A pleasure to meet you."
I hope this isn't leading where I think it is but I'm damn well not going to be rude. "A pleasure on my part as well. I'm glad you found me-" no I'm not. "-but I assume there's a reason you brought me here?"
Ozpin smiled and took a sip of his coffee. "Indeed there is. First though… What exactly happened to you to… lose your physical form?"
"I happen to have my physical form in my inventory right here sir. I have no idea what it is you mean." I said cheekily. Ozpin's smile twitched to form a slight grin for a moment.
"That's good to know but I mean how you are an unbound soul at the moment. How that came to be. Summer informed me that you died in her soul space but survived as a soul. Normally that is impossible. Being in a soul space does not negate death. So would you enlighten me on what exactly happened?"
Ozpin looked to Summer for a moment and took a sip. "Also, my apologies if this seems an odd request to you but Summer informed me of your ability to create a sort of avatar. Could you make one? It is strange to converse with a voice and have no face to look towards."
I didn't particularly like this but I complied and made a remote clone. I appeared in a brief swirl of light coalescing into a form and Ozpin inspected me. "It's good to meet you in person Mister Mavros. Or as close as we are going to get. Now… how this came to be?"
I had come up with a lie for this already, luckily. "I was fine in Summer's soul with my physical body for some time, as Summer might have told you-" A pointed look to Summer from Ozpin and some awkward shuffling told me that she did not "- so I was already rather attuned to her aura. I transformed a small part of my aura into light attuned aura and did the same with Summer's aura. I then made a connection of light attuned aura between us using my privilege of controlling Summer's aura. The separation between my physical body and aura was rather… painful."
Ozpin sipped his cup and hummed. "I suppose that is possible. In all my years I have never heard of something like that succeeding but your developing aura as well as mutual exposure to each other's aura and the shared light affinity makes it possible. You should not have attempted something so risky, however."
"I know. I first tried to simply connect our auras but… after that succeeded I lost a lot of control over my aura and my aura's affinities changed and it just felt so different. I lost control of my spells due to this new aura and my body began suffocating. I hadn't put any backups in place, which I've more than learned my lesson for."
Ozpin sighed. "I'm sorry for the loss of your physical form. I believe I understand what happened somewhat so I'll get to the reason you're here for. What do you think of Beacon?" Oh god it's leading where I think it is.
"It's a very nice campus. I'm sure that it turns out some very fine hunters for Remnant."
"Indeed. I'm sure Summer sung praises as soon as she came here. Have you considered attending it?" Straight to the point, huh?
"I have. It seemed a little appealing but devoting my life to fighting grimm isn't something I'm interested in. I don't care to become a huntsman or devote my life to helping others though I hold no ill intent towards humanity or likewise as a whole."
Ozpin's smile dimmed by just the smallest fraction and he looked down thoughtfully for a moment. "What is it you are looking for at the moment then, if not to kill grimm? There is not much else in the deserts of Vacuo."
"I was training my magic." I answered plainly. Not the whole truth but not a lie either. "After my parent's death-" A slight wince from Summer and a nod of sympathy from Ozpin "- I had nowhere to go but the gangs or the streets. I feared what would happen if my powers were found out so I left with what I cared to carry and survived in the desert. I eventually tired of being alone and went my way back to Vacuo. Then Summer tracked me down."
Ozpin nodded and sipped. "So you are after further mastery of magic?" I shook my head.
"Currently I'm working on an independant project. Runes and enchantments." Ozpin raised an eyebrow and waited for me to continue. I didn't.
"And what is this independent project, mister Mavros?"
"Private." I said shortly. Ozpin frowned a little in a concerned manner, like some sort of concerned grandpa.
"Mister Mavros I assure you that I have no intention to hijack your project or otherwise tamper with it so long as it is safe. I merely wish to assure that it isn't dangerous. I may be able to help you with it as well. I am an expert enchanter and I would consider myself rather adept at runes though I lack the creativity most runemasters had."
"I haven't begun the project yet. In addition to not being anywhere near as dangerous as my last… experiment, I have multiple failsafes waiting if it does somehow go wrong. Thank you for your concern but I would prefer to keep it private for now. In any case, I have a few other priorities as well as my private one. I've been working to increase my affinities and done good work. I've also been working on creating a long distance teleport spell."
"I see…" Ozpin murmured. He looked up to me intensely. "Mister Mavros there has not been another natural born wizard than myself in many thousands of years. I am not the only one who can detect your use of magic. I may not seem it to you but I am far more benevolent of the two able to sense your use of mana. I will not lie that I only mean the best for you. I can say easily, though, that I mean no ill will towards you. If it is mastery over magic I may be the best person to help you… Mister Mavros, if I may be so bold, it may be wise to apprentice yourself to me not just for magical excellence but protection."
Fat chance. "Thank you for the offer but I have to decline." Ozpin's eyes narrowed just a tiny bit. "You see, I am well capable of acquiring a new physical form should I choose to though I don't see the need to at the moment. I'm quite happy enjoying my private studies."
"You could be making greater." Ozpin said seriously. "I am competent at space magic at the level of an archmage as well as educated on all forms of magic and have mountains of experience in magic that you do not. Not to mention my experience in weaponry, though that is more of a hobby than magic to me. I am a huntsman, after all, and am considered the best in the world. I know miss Rose has been tutoring you. I can as well."
"... I believe I have an offer that benefits both of us." Ozpin didn't respond. "I am aware of Summer's condition." Summer stiffened a little.
"I have a condition?"
"Your core was artificially opened… or formed. I don't know the ritual done to unlock it but it performs at one fourth of it's capabilities. If I were to give you light attuned aura over time it would work at full capacity and you would be equal to a natural mage."
Summer was speechless and I continued. "I don't know if you're aware, Ozpin, but I passively augment Summer's soul with my own magical soul to a higher capacity as she does mine. Her mana is similarly expanded. If I were to stay in Summer and freely offer har my mana and aura she would be far stronger than she has been. When I eventually find out the teleport spell I will also be able to transport us away from any danger should Summer somehow encounter an enemy she can't face."
"I gain a safe soul space to perform my studies and you gain Summer more powerful than ever with the capability to teleport wherever you order her to. Should Summer somehow die I will bring her body back though I doubt that will happen with how powerful she would be. Is that acceptable?"
Ozpin stood there staring at me in my avatar. "I do agree that that is a fine compromise. However, I have one condition. In ten years and some months you will return here and attend beacon no matter Summer's condition. After the end of your education as a huntsman at Beacon you and I will create a new deal. In exchange for this I will provide you with a few books on space magic, runes, and enchanting as well as detailed notes on the teleport spell."
"I agree." I said solemnly. Ozpin nodded and flicked his wrist and a few books appeared on his hand. Inventory. "Here." He said as he passed the books to my avatar. I put them into my inventory easily. He repeated the flick and handed me another stack. Finally he brought out a sort of small booklet from his inventory and passed it to me as well. "There are several types of teleport spell. That booklet has all that I know of. Different forms are needed for different purposes, after all." He explained. "The rest are a primer for all magicians and in depth spells for several of what I believe are your most promising affinities."
"Now… I hope you have a pleasant day mister Mavros. I'll see you in nine years."
[|||| == ||||]
"You're not mad at me for not unlocking your core?" I asked incredulously.
"Nope. I understand why you did it. I know you would have had my back. Besides, it helped you bargain with Ozpin. I don't know why you didn't accept his apprenticeship though. It seemed like a good deal for you."
"Thank you Summer. Want to merge our auras and stuff for real now?"
"... I suppose this is as good a place as any. Nothing bad will happen, right?"
"Not that I know of. Almost certainly nothing but you might feel somewhat offbeat for a while. Our affinities don't quite add up, as you know. Your soul space will get bigger at least."
Summer shrugged and walked off the forest path near her house. She walked for a minute and sat down on a cut tree trunk. "Okay. ready?" I asked.
"Ready." She said confidently. I slowly opened our souls up to each other freely. Summer gasped and her vision blurred. I kept opening our souls up and they blurred together.
They appeared as a white aura with a number of red tendrils spreading through it like a spiderweb and a red and white core. It kind of hurt but in a strangely good way. I could feel Summer's senses even without trying as they bled onto my consciousness.
*Ding!* Purity affinity acquired!
*Ding!* Motion affinity acquired!
*Ding!* Nature affinity acquired!
*Ding!* Life affinity acquired!
*Ding!* Light affinity increased by one!
*Ding!* One point in each affinity will be gained for each day inhabiting Summer Rose's soul until the amount of affinities have been completely shared.
*Ding!* A semblance has been detected. Overwrite your semblance with the foreign semblance, reject the semblance, merge the semblance with your own, or copy it as a skill?
*Ding!* As your semblance is locked it cannot be shared
*Ding!* Summer Rose's Artificial mage trait has regressed to rank 3! Will regress to rank 2 in thirty four days of exposure.
*Ding!*Soul is shared. Senses are merged for so long as the soul is merged.
Oh holy hell the weird feeling kicked in for me now. I can completely feel the emotions Summer has now and the sensory information is sort of in the back of my mind unless I focus on it. I can't hide my own or block out Summer's anymore. I can, however hide my thoughts and Summer can hide hers.
I can feel her discomfort at having a foreign aura, her confidence at my assurance that everything will go alright, and her happiness that she gets to feel more time with me.
I look further into that last emotion and see that Summer sees me as a sort of stepson but with a really weak link to family. Her own children come first but she feels motherly towards me.
Besides that Summer also considers me almost like a best friend. Qrow is a friend as well but she doesn't see him often and Tai is her husband. She feels that her private life being open to me is fine. Her home is her fortress. She feels that only family and the closest of friends are allowed in it.
"Well this is… invasive." Summer thought.
"I have to feel your pleasure when you have sex now by the way. I literally can't not now." I said.
"Pervert." Summer said halfheartedly. I sent a shrug. "You don't even mind." Summer sighed. I looked closely at Summer for any disgust at that or uncomfortable feelings at the idea and… there weren't any. Well, some discomfort but nothing like anger or repulse.
"Wait, you don't mind either." I said confusedly. I looked closely and… whoa! That… Makes a strange sense.
"Well yeah. I mean you're a super close friend and I know you're not actually a pervert. Tai and I have had a threesome before with Raven-"
I saw a glimpse of a memory from Summer. Nothing specific but just sort of proof that it happened. Bodies and the feeling of kissing soft lips and heated red eyes. I felt that it was for Raven's privacy and got a feeling of confirmation.
"- and I can trust you especially. I don't know that Tai would mind much either. Do you really expect me to abstain? Hell no. Just be decent about it, which I know you will be. Stay quiet, don't talk about it, and don't make me feel dirty for it. I've always been a really, REALLY open person according to Tai, Raven, and Qrow. It actually got me in trouble a lot. I have a hard time lying with my openness too… You really can't just block out the thoughts?"
I thought about it for a moment. "No ." I said. "I can sort of suppress it but it's like you're in another room being really loud but instead of hearing it I see it, smell it, feel it, and every other sense too."
Summer felt a trace of disappointment. "I can probably magic up a sensory spell to make it better." I thought of it as a sort of compensation for shoving this onto her. I felt a feeling of immense excitement.
"I've been trying to magic up the bedroom for years! I just can't keep the concentration for it so I'm totally up for it! Aura sense enhancement only works for so long. I got some results from life so try that."
I tapped into my mana and aligned it towards life, which I could do now! I did the same thing as I did with aura enhancement then. I had tried to do this before but it didn't work that way. Mana wasn't aura but if it was affecting the body than life affinity gave me control over the body.
*Ding!*A new spell has been created! - Focused sensory enhancement
"Undoubtedly the best house magic for any married woman anywhere. Cleaning magic is a second. Sadly there isn't a cooking magic. Golems are crappy cooks. Oh, yes, it works for sensing things better as well but we just use mage sight or aura sensing for that."
-Selena Bureau, adept life mage
I had used the spell on Summer's eyesight and saw through her eyes as her vision grew practically telescopic. That didn't really matter though. Summer and I both agreed on that. There was a better use for it according to her and that Selena person in the skill quote.
I turned the spell off and Summer practically pranced home. I checked my parallel and found it halfway through the anatomy book. Two more WIS and INT in the bank! Hell yeah!
"What are you so happy about?" Summer asked amusedly.
"I made a sort of dummie me with magic awhile ago. It's really expensive and I can only do one but it's halfway through a book on anatomy and I'm just glad about that. I wanted to get through the book before tomorrow so I can get started on the teleport spells. It'll be able to finish the book tonight by itself I think. I wanted it to start on my teleporting spells tomorrow with me."
Summer just sent a feeling of happy acceptance and continued her way home. It didn't take long. I just watched the path with her. We came up to the house pretty soon. "I'm back!" Summer called happily.
"Hi mom!" Ruby chirped from the second floor.
"Cool!" Yang called down as well.
"Welcome back honey! Did you get the groceries?" Tai said normally from the couch with a novel in his hands.
"Yup! And I've got a sort of surprise for you later!" Summer said mischievously.
"And I can't know now?" Tai gave a puppy dog look and Summer rolled her eyes.
"Later tonight. Definitely not now." Summer winked and Tai smiled happily.
"Ah, I'll just have to wait then… sadly." Summer laughed and walked up to Tai and leaned down to kiss him. I got to do so at the same time as Summer, being in her soul and using her body, so I felt it as well. Tai's lips were rough and strangely pleasing. I can see why people like the sensation… No I'm not kissing a dude… this is going to be a weird time. I should get my old body quick.
"So how did the meeting with Abyss and Ozpin go?" Tai asked.
"It went well. Ozpin wanted to apprentice Abyss to him but Abyss came up with a compromise. He'll open up his aura entirely." Tai looked a little concerned.
"That sounds like it has some side effects." Summer nodded.
"We share emotions to an extent. We can't hide them so he knows I see him as a sort of stepson slash bestie and I know he sees me as a great friend. He doesn't see me as a mother figure like I expected. Besides that we share our aura."
"Actually I can do some stuff with your semblance and my own. I can merge yours with mine, overwrite yours over mine, not do anything with it, or copy it as a far weaker version of your semblance and retain my own. I can probably mess with yours somehow. Like expand the amount of space the field takes up or make every action inside it near silent to the outside."
Summer looked surprised. Uhm… he can also change my semblance a bit and he can do some stuff with mine to his as well. Take mine over his, merge them, or copy it as a weaker version. If he wants to do anything at all."
Tai blinked. "... That's a little ridiculous. I wouldn't want anybody messing with my semblance though. Bestie or not that's a really delicate matter."
"I agree. I still don't know my semblance so I should unlock it first and then decide." I dismissed the message about semblances for now.
"I'm not going to mess with my semblance either. There's plenty of other stuff Abyss can do to help. I like my soul just the way it is."
Tai smiled. "Well that's good then. He'll be going with you on missions?"
"Yup! I can get a lot more done with him around and I can visit much more often." Summer leaned in close. "He's really close to being able to teleport like Rae." She whispered. Tai's eyes widened.
"Yes! Great!" He whispered back excitedly. He leaned in to kiss Summer again.
"Mmm, he tastes like sunflowers in a good way." I thought.
"I know!" Summer thought. I wondered for a moment if it was weird that I was kissing another guy even if it was indirectly but… whatever. I'm not into guys but I'm not going to say no to the sort of threesome.
Summer glanced at the clock and we saw that it was only four o'clock. From what I remember Ruby and Yang didn't go to sleep until about nine. "Do you mind if I go do my own thing?" I asked.
"Sure. Just help out when dinner's ready." I sent a feeling of confirmation. Before I left Summer thought another question.
"Hey Abyss? You mentioned something about affinities, right?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Can you teach me some magic from the other types?" I laughed at her mentally and sent an affirmative. Summer was happy and I left to start on the skills.
[|||| == ||||]
(AN: This is sort of a technical info dump. Sorry, but it's happening. I'll put a summary at the bottom.)
Out of the nine books Ozpin had given me all but one of them were skill books. There was also the tiny book. I thought about just absorbing them and getting to absorbing them after but I decided to get to that after reading them.
They weren't thick books like the college textbooks. They were thin as a short novel and had thick pages. I counted the page numbers on the largest and I flipped through one hundred ten pages in all with pictures on some pages. Really short. I could get through all that in two hours with speed reading. Probably three to be safe and get all the information.
Ozpin had given me one book for each element but light. The last one was the general primer and the only one not a skillbook. I decided to start on the primer first while Summer was relaxing.
I learned quite a lot from the primer. There were two hundred eighty two affinities discovered at the time the book was written.
The book started on general information on mana. Mana, as the book said, was the blood of the world. It had the power to alter the world through the force of willpower. Many likened it to a more spiritual factor of aura.
I came to the startling explanation that dust was crystallized mana. Mana of an affinity in such high concentration that it takes on a physical form and stabilizes.
There was a whole chapter on making your mana into dust and the uses of it and a more in depth overview on affities further on in the introduction. I almost tried it myself but I held myself back. Besides, the book mentioned that some types of dust were forbidden because they were too dangerous or something of the like.
Next was an introduction to what spells were and how to make them. Spells were a web of mana formed in a specific fashion to cause a specific effect as well as specific techniques different from standard manipulation, which was mentioned as taking less and less mana as your affinity grew.
Specific techniques were a spell because they weren't using raw mana and they couldn't be applied universally. This was why doing something like bending light into an enemy's eyes wasn't a spell. Making the light stop moving, however, would be a specific manipulation and thus a spell.
Still winds was similar to that. Fire, however, couldn't be stilled since it was energy. The same goes to something like space or lightning.
Spells had three different parts. Convert, where you made elemental mana to be formed, draw, where you got a grip on the mana and separated just enough to form a spell, form, where you formed the web which was the spell, and release, where you directed the spell in a direction and released it.
Raw mana manipulation spells like project mana weren't spells because they had no convert spells. Thus they were grouped with the general category of magics like controlling mana, imbuing elements, and some other things.
Next were affinities. There were two hundred and eight affinities discovered when the book was written. Affinities were a state of mana where the mana takes the properties from a concept or element or a combination of some sort and uses the property to various effects.
There were higher energies like space, nature, and time, energies like fire and lightning, and elements like air, earth, crystal, and water. All affinities could be classified as simple or complex based on whether they were a homogenous mix of affinities binded together or just one simple affinity. Earth would be simple because it was just earth, for example, but crystal would be compound because it contained order, earth, and hardness affinities mixed into one.
The reason mana could do this was because mana was SUPER malleable. It was a blank slate to be processed. Unless given a treatment mana had a property. A personal property. To be precise, the mana had an affinity for YOU.
When you used mana in it's raw form you were manipulating mana with a you affinity. When you attuned mana it was incapable of being attuned to something else. It couldn't be attuned to more than one thing at once except for compound elements like nature, magma, mud, unity, and things like that. Compound elements would apparently be explained in detail later.
When something or someone was attuned to something that something was a part of it's personal affinity. To make an Abyss (I mean Abyss as in me. Not the affinity, which is a thing apparently) affinity, for example, you needed some space, light, water, and all the other stuff that made up my affinity page as a compound element. Then you could manipulate my type of mana in theory. But then it got complicated… and that was the reason it was just theory.
You could manipulate elementally attuned mana because the mana would listen to objects with willpower, mana, and an affinity for it's main property. Technically a rock could make Remnant to dust given an infinite amount of mana and the will to do so. Humans and magical creatures were the only creatures capable to manipulating mana though.
By this same manipulation topic some elements would refuse to do certain things if the commanding entity didn't have enough affinity. Among higher elements and energies this was more common than physical affinities.
There was technically no maximum to an element but there was a maximum to the amount of an element human souls could handle. Past that there was no way to make an affinity greater. You could always gain more affinities though. You could gain more affinities through continuously using that type of mana… and yes, you could technically use any element… and that hurt my head.
You see, this reason was that a soul is composed of ALL affinities. The soul isn't an affinity because it was uniquely composed of every affinity in existence. And yes, every soul was unique because they had varying levels of affinity for every element. This was why my affinity sheet had the elements in such a weird manner. I had less than zero affinity but my affinities are rounded down.
You weren't considered as having an affinity until you could convert mana into an affinity aligned mana though. To continue on gaining affinities, though, you needed to have one of your greater attuned elements take the bulk of some work and have the rest of the work be done by another affinity. When I made my water to ice I was unwittingly using water with some heat affinity as well. My heat affinity grew because of this and eventually developed enough to form fully.
Some affinities took longer to grow than others, though. Motion, for example, was notoriously hard to grow (thank you Summer!) and higher elements were basically off limits unless you already had a higher element, which was rare. Purity, a higher simple element (and complicated enough to require a whole four pages devoted to it) was incredibly rare (dust Summer you're a savior!) and immensely hard to cultivate (SUMMER THANK YOU!).
Around there the overview finished and I stopped and read it again to really let the knowledge sink in.
(AN: Infodump over. Summary now. Mana is only affiliated to one thing at a time. Your composition of affinities gives a 'you' affinity and that impresses on mana allowing you to control it. Affinities are super complicated but you technically have a teeny amount of every affinity because the soul is composed of mostly a few elements and a slim amount of every other element. Motion and purity are really hard to level and Summer is handing them to Abyss. Summer is awesome.)
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I read a bit more and was snapped out of it by Summer calling me to help with dinner. I finished my paragraph quickly and got started on helping out. We made some mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, and chicken thighs wrapped in bacon. Tai did the asparagus on a grill in the backyard while Summer got the thighs ready and I did the potatoes and gravy.
Dinner passed quickly. I chimed in from time to time and I could feel the rest of the family get more used to my presence as Summer broke down the situation simply to Ruby and Yang. They weren't happy with it but Summer pretended not to notice and fibbed that with my aura helping her and the both of us focusing she could use her semblance to teleport all the way back home most days. The kids were almost to tears they were so happy. Then there was an amazing group hug. Especially since I could feel Summer's happiness from our auras and feel through her body.
Finally Everybody watched some TV, which sort of reminded me of a more mature version of adventure time from when I was alive. Then the kids went to bed. "Tai?" Summer asked.
"Hm?"
"I felt like I should tell you that there's a little more to that bonded aura thing than extra home time and me being super mom. See, Abyss can share my body whenever I want him to but we HAVE to share emotions. "
Tai's eyes were wide. "A sort-of threesome?" Summer smirked, mostly trying to make it seem like everything wasn't going to be super awkward. I really hope I don't ruin Summer's sex life. She brought him in for a deep kiss on the couch. Wow that feels so weird. "You told him I was sort of nineteen, right? Well more like twenty now."
"Mmmmm… yeah."
"I'm… huh? It's not really different for me anyways." Tai said with a little confusion.
And that was the weirdest night of my life. So that's why Raven fell for Tai.
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