Theory to Practical

"You're a failure." She scowled at me, eyes wide open, red, was it there natural color, or was it the color of my blood, who to tell. " you couldn't even follow simple instructions could you?" Her words echoed as I lost consciousness.

I woke up from a dream that morning or rather a nightmare, some would call it a memory, of "her". If it were up to me I would forget, but as the saying goes "You are what you've been through." And I'd gone through it.

I didn't dwell on it though. I got up, took a shower and brushed my teeth with a toothbrush that now had my name on it, it was quite convenient to say the least.

I walked to the kitchen and was greeted with a note and a salad. The note said the salad was mine and gave me precise instructions. I was to use the materials and specified equipment left in the lab to carry out an experiment. The instructions were to separate salt and oil from a mixture of salt, oil and water using alchemy and pyromancy, I was not allowed to create a heat source instead I was supposed to use raw fire. I was also not allowed to lose any of the components, a rather difficult task. I had until the end of the day to finish the task.

I ate the salad and went to the lab. I entered the lab and walked towards the table at its center. On there was a book called "Basic Magic and Its Colors, Mixtures, Circles and General Knowledge", it was the next in line to the books she already gave me.

The set up was simple, a tripod, a syringe, three beakers one with the mixture of oil, salt and water and a condenser it was the set up for basic filtration but missing a flame. There was also a pile of what looked like iron powder and a stick of purple chalk or what I later found out to be quiltite chalk .

I first observed the mixture and found something strange, what she considered "oil" was gasoline. This further complicated the experiment as gasoline naturally released flammable fumes that settled on surfaces. The mixture could have been there for hours. The other problem was the lid that surrounded the table. Its use was probably there to prevent spill hazards but now it was preventing the gasoline fumes from dissipating.

The task at hand now was to create a heat source, specifically fire with magic to boil out the water to get the salt but to not cause a fire. I delved deep in thought before consulting my mental expanse. As I entered my own mind I began to walk around looking at the various books suspended in mid air. As I looked at each book I realized that they were all the books I had ever read in my entire life, some were not even books I read but instead information I had acquired one way or another. I looked for a book I read called "A Beginners Guide to Magic and Mana" it was by an author known as Aldred D Gibson or as I would call him the Einstein of magic and mana. I wanted a refresher on how mana affected matter.

In the book there were many definitions of magic and mana but the most important of these being that mana/magic is a manipulator and not a creator. This was not well established or accepted at the time due to the norms and beliefs of people thinking that mana was, well magic, though they weren't far off the mark. This was eventually proven untrue as multiple tests were done and repeated for redundancy and reliability. "Though to every rule there is an exception", were the words quoted in the book, the words of a Primordial.

The next step was to now read the book I had gotten and apply all the theories as I was instructed. I read the book and acquired the basics of advanced and primal magic as well as basic magic circles and symbols. The colors for all the different types of primal magic were in the book and there uses and properties, even ways to use them more efficiently. It had colors for water all the way to lightning. One of the key things the book pointed out was mana affinity or rather nature.

It also said that every living thing was born with one or more dominant mana natures and a core or cores, which was gifted to them by one or more of the four Primordial spirits, that allowed for them the use of magic and the four basic elements and there mixtures . There was also the fact that a skill was given upon birth as well, this could range from literal telepathy to talking to birds. The book also made it clear that the skills of wild animals could readily be stolen and stockpiled to be sold or used. Though specific species were guaranteed a certain skill and among other species a rare skill could pop up and never be seen again for possibly thousands of years. The book then proceeded to state the many ways a skill could be obtained, from killing a creature with its own element to another skill or even a magic item and in rare cases a spell.

It also pointed out that one's nature affected the potency of a spell of the same nature. This however did not mean you could only cast spells from your affinity as mana was universal, it was just a little bit different for everybody, and it would most likely be weaker compared to someone who had the specific affinity. It turned out my nature was earth a dark green in color, I also had white which I came to realize was what the bull gave me, air.

The book also mentioned the gifting of affinities and natures, but this could only be done by lesser spirits and dragons. Spirits and creatures who roamed of their coalition, though having the ability to grant a person magic that was outside the basic four elements like darkness. These beings could be coerced into giving or lending their power at a cost or even free, it was dependent on the spirit.

There was also the possibility of contracts, binding the signers together for life or for a short period of time allowing the person unlimited access to the spirits powers as long as they paid their part of the contract, whether long term, or upfront. One of the more interesting payments was time, allowing the spirit to use your body in exchange for its power. I thought to myself for a brief time that maybe I was unlucky getting air, but seeing as I only had earth, I humbled myself and realized how rare a gift I got, not to mention meeting a lesser spirit, even if I didn't know.

As I continued to read the book told me everything had something known as a gate, and a mana expanse or the core gifted at birth by the Primordial spirits. The gate was actually two gates one that syphoned mana from the surroundings and one that released said mana after converting it to your nature in your mana expanse or core. The mana expanse was the place mana got stored and converted after being collected. It was theorized that mana was stored in the fourth dimension and later confirmed by a Primordial that it in fact was, as the lower three dimensions cannot contain it alone. It also mentioned that everybody had the same amount of space but a different mana density that could be measured and trained to be condensed even more. The same was true for certain metals.

Nevertheless I got what I needed after finishing the book, magic circles that is. I began creating the small flame I would need, drawing a magic circle to start, which was literally just a circle having lines running through it from one end to the other. The lines being known as sequences.

It turned out magic could be more like technology and science or supernatural depending on the methods employed. Seeing as I was lacking in experience I choose the easy way out and went with the science route. It had rules for writing circles and sequences just like code. What I needed was a flame one hundred degrees Celsius or two hundred degrees Fahrenheit, a stovetop flame. It was easy in theory but more difficult in practicality.

I started with the symbol for input/information (*)asterisk, after which I wrote absorb(Abs) (M)mana 12Mj/h(twelve Megajoules per hour), S1Mm(surroundings one millimeter), in the next line, a (○)small circle which meant output or expected output (M)mana/fuel (+)plus (O₂)Oxygen (=)equal (CO₂)Carbon dioxide plus (H₂O)water vapor then the distance away from the circle which was DX+1mm(distance in front or rather on top one millimeter). This was also one of the easiest basic circles for a controlled flame or a basic circle in general, my future with the science side of magic seemed bleak and painful at that point.

*Author's Note

It would look something like this.

DX+ This stands for distance on x axis up.

*Abs M 12Mj/H S1m ○M + O₂ = CO₂ + H₂O(g) DX+1mm

*Fin

I finished the circle and immediately the flame began to burn. I forgot that I had to cover the flame and immediately broke the outer edge of the circle stopping the closed circuit reaction made possible by the quiltite in the chalk. A metal that when given mana created a closed circuit and even recorded the nature and quantity of mana making it useful in measuring and recording mana information.

I then took the metal dust and used alchemy to bind the particles together using mana to create polarity between them creating a tube of sorts, though strong I'd have to hurry as alchemy at this level wasn't permanent and would soon wear off.

I then used the syringe to remove the gasoline or as much of it as I could, placing it in another beaker. The last step was separating the salt and water that proved easy after I put the tube over the circle preventing any hazards. In a few minutes I had all the components in different beakers, the metal tube collapsing soon after, breaking the circle for me.

Finishing my task in only a few hours I now had the rest of the day to myself. Taking advantage of my new found freedom I started to read more advanced books about magic types and mana committing them to memory.

Having finished my daily dose of constructive reading I opted to do some more niche and curiosity based reading. I choose a small selection of books including books about enchantment, artifacts, the history of magic and scrolls. They were all interesting topics and I learnt a lot, one of the more important things being the limitation of respect.

The book was vey informative at some points and vague at others as it indirectly explained the reason I couldn't cast magic in the forest the first time I tried. It read "The spirits from which our power is borrowed will not tolerate any disrespect". It told me where magic came from but nothing else, the age of the books most likely played a role in the accuracy of the information, I took this into consideration.

Upon completion of the books I was greeted with a loud bang that echoed through the town accompanied by screams. I went outside and to my surprise I saw a large pillar of smoke rising from the block the house was on. I didn't know what was happening, so I went towards the chaos, sticking close to the buildings.

I didn't want to get too close, seeing as I was an outsider and might have been blamed, but my curiosity got the better of me and I leaped into a spiral of bad decisions, that led to even worse consequences.

***End Of Arc 1 A New World***