Arcane Tutoring

After ten minutes, they finally arrived at a large pair of exquisite doors. The doors were decorated with the colours of each different element in tiers around the centre. Moreover, they were elaborately decorated using books and scroll-like shapes engraved into the doors.

"If you go to the top floor of the library, you'll find books for your elements...after all, they are all divine," Ivo told Denac before opening the gargantuan doors of the library.

Inside the library, Denac could see that it was split into three floors. This was presumably so that elements of the same tier were on the same floor. Additionally, the shelves spanned from the floor to the ceiling of the next floor. Furthermore, the bottom floor was split into eighths with a wall between each section. The balcony of the upper floor and the walls of each section were in the colour of a specific basic element. Denac could guess that each of the upper floors were laid out similarly, except the second floor being in sixths and the third floor being in thirds.

"What are you going to do while I'm getting the books and scrolls?" Denac asked Ivo, as he started to walk to one of the two spiral staircases in the centre of the first floor.

"I'm going to get some stuff for myself. I will also be picking up a beginner manual and a book of each style for you." Ivo responded with a smile as he headed towards one of the two holes in the ground.

"What's down there?"

"Just miscellaneous magic books and scrolls that don't fit into any element, such as techniques, styles or general information."

"So what do you want me to get?"

"Get one book of support spells, one book of control spells and one of the offensive and defensive spells and a scroll that interests you for each of your elements. Oh, and the books and scrolls get more advanced the further along the shelf you go, so stay towards the front."

"Okay," Denac responded as he started to ascend the staircase to the third floor. "hmm...since I need three of each, maybe I should focus on one element first, and go for a more complicated one for each..." Denac trailed off as he saw just how many shelves/cases there were for each of his elements. "This is going to take a while, oh well."

Denac decided to go for kenomancy first. After an hour he had picked out three books and a scroll. The scrolls were as he'd assumed, were more complicated to learn, but were more powerful for the type of magic they were: support, control or offensive/defensive. An example of this was that the most complicated spell in the control type magic book he'd picked out for kenomancy was a spell called "Shift", which allowed one to target an enemy, causing a random part of their body to constantly teleport around their body. On the other hand, the control spell that was in the portal was called "Mirror" and it made up to 10 portals that only the user could use and would be able to change the trajectory of all of the user's spells, as well as creating an invisible one in front of the user that they could use to send their spells out of any other portals. As such, these two spells were vastly different in terms of power, but "Mirror" was a lot harder to learn and the number of portals "mirrors" made depended upon the user's proficiency and understanding of the spell. However, just because it was weaker didn't mean that "Shift" had no uses and couldn't save his life. He decided to focus on control spells for now, and as such chose a book of control from deeper along the shelf, as well as a scroll detailing the control spell "Mirror".

After looking through the kenomancy section of the library, Denac decided to look through the Gyromancy section. After another hour of searching, Denac had found the books and scroll he'd learn. This time he decided to go for more offensive/defensive spells. The scroll that he'd picked up detailed a spell called "Gravity Aura". This spell would allow him to increase or decrease the strength of gravity acting on his surrounding by an almost infinite amount depending on his understanding of the spell. This spell doubled as an offensive spell as well as a defensive one. Furthermore, due to the speed of increase being almost instant, most beings within its range of 30 metres around him would be caught and would need to adapt straight away or have their attack messed up, or even some broken bones.

After another 45 minutes of searching through the Chronomancy section, Denac was satisfied with what he'd chosen, he started to descend back to the lobby of the library.

This time, the spell scroll that he'd chosen was a support type spell called "Body Lock". This spell allows the user to freeze the targets body and everything within based on understanding. When one first learns it, they are only able to use it on a single hand, but as their proficiency grows, they can use it to lock more parts or multiple different people's bodies. This could be used both to hinder enemies, by locking a leg or a foot in time to stop movement, or on allies to stop the spread of disease and poison, or to stop them from bleeding.

When Denac finally reached the ground floor of the library, Ivo was standing there waiting with two boxes. One of the boxes was filled with books, while the other was empty.

"Here you go," Ivo said as he held out the empty box. "Put your books and scrolls in here."

"Okay," Denac responded as he followed Ivo's instruction.

After doing so, they headed back to the training room. The library was on the North Western side of the palace, while the training room was on the South Eastern side, so they had to walk for a while before reaching it again.

***

(20 minutes later, after returning to the training room)

"I've been meaning to ask you this, but how come there weren't any people in the food hall when we were there?" Denac asked Ivo while he opened the doors.

"Oh, simple, most people have food before or after their shift, barely in the middle," Ivo told Denac as he finished opening the doors. "also, it's better that way, saves you having to meet the rest of the guards when it's unnecessary for your training."

Upon entering, Denac could see that the disorderly pile of mana dolls from this morning was no more, now it was neat, all on their own rack.

"Okay, give me a minute to get it ready for you to practice," Ivo told Denac as he deposited the box of books he was carrying in the centre of the room. He then headed toward the wall on the Southside of the room to the doors where a transparent orb was inlaid in the wall. Upon reaching the orb, Ivo placed his hand on it and Denac could see a blue, gaseous substance appear within. After seeing the gaseous substance, Denac could hear the sound of the wall splitting apart, opening outward into another room just as big as the training room.

"What the?" Denac asked in surprise upon seeing this phenomenon.

"Shocking isn't it? I remember my first time seeing this happen as well," Ivo laughed at Denac's shock. "Did you know that only a few people have the authority to open this room? Come on, it's the best place to train magic...don't worry, we'll only go through the basics for today." Ivo told Denac as he grabbed the box that was in the centre of the training room.

"Got it," Denac responded, still unable to get rid of his shock at the sight that he'd just seen.

Upon entering the new room, Denac could feel that the mana in the air was a lot purer than anywhere else he'd been in his life. Moreover, the new room was large and designed in a circular shape with a giant floating crystal of ice at the epicentre.

"What's that?" Denac asked Ivo after stopping due to feeling sickened by the amount of mana in the atmosphere.

"Ah, it's Frig's anomaly," Ivo responded "when someone reaches ruler rank, an anomaly appears in the spot wherever they ascended. These anomalies enrich their surrounding with large amounts of mana and generally take the shape of the being's most proficient element. Furthermore, they affect the land around them, this is the source of the Frozen kingdom and the eternal frost that prevails in this region."

"This one rock was the source of an entire country? How?" Denac questioned Ivo rhetorically. He could feel overwhelmed by the display of power from one rock, he couldn't even imagine how strong Frig was.

"Kid, I'm impressed that you've made it so far into the room. The mana oppresses one up to a certain point, the closer one is to the anomaly the more it affects you. You're newly awakened and yet you can make it as far as someone of knight rank can, you should feel proud of yourself." Ivo congratulated Denac on this accomplishment, before continuing to walk further into the room.

"So, how far can you reach?" Denac entreated Ivo.

"Oh, me? I can make it all the way to it...do you know what that means?" Ivo answered Denac with a question of his own.

"Why would I?"

"I guess you wouldn't, it means that if Frig ascends to become a Nomad, then I will be able to take her spot as the Ruler of the Frozen Kingdom. Truthfully though, Ignis is ready to become a Nomad, he just needs another Oni to be ready to become a Ruler."

"Why do you have to wait though? Why can't you just ascend now?"

"Simple, it'd shift the balance too much and the world would fall into chaos, or the Nomads would step in and stop it by wiping out all the Rulers and forcing seven beings to ascend to Rulers. There's a legend of this happening before, some crazy zealot who worshipped a dark god could use all the elements, he reached ruler rank, making there eight rulers, and the world began to implode, it took six of the other ruler's sacrificing themselves to stop him and the world from being destroyed. The one that put an end to it ascended to become a Nomad and is currently the oldest being in the world. Or so the story says."

"What are Nomads? I've never heard that term before today." Denac asked Ivo.

"Oh, they're the rank after Ruler, apparently there are tons of other worlds like this one, and Nomads are like the commoners of this world for the whole universe, allegedly."

"I see."

Now then, look at your bank...you're in for a surprise."

So Denac obliged, upon summoning and looking at his bank, he could see that the number that indicated his mana capacity was now at 85. He'd only been standing where he was for 10 minutes, this meant that by standing here his capacity would increase by one mana every minute.

"Now then, enough idle chatter, let's get started with the training. Do you know anything about how to use magic, at all, could be as small as the process required." Ivo told Denac, not expecting an answer.

"I think to use magic you have to have mana circulating your body?" Denac responded tentatively.

"Yup, and that's the hard part, once you've made the circuit it will always be active unless forcefully stopped. Now then, you need to make your own unique circuit by designating certain points on your body to supply mana to the circuit. As a newly awakened person at maximum, you should be able to choose five points. Remember this is permanent, so choose wisely." Ivo explained to Denac.

"Wait, how do I even make a point?"

"Ah, simple, focus your mana into a specific point of your body and it will make itself."

Denac then did as Ivo said, and after five seconds of concentrating on his right shoulder, he could feel his mana rush there. After another five seconds, he could sense that the mana had become denser and formed into a so-called point.

After seeing his success in creating a point, he checked his bank, which showed that he now had 75/86 mana. This meant that it cost 10 mana to make one point.

With this in mind, Denac decided to put another point at the centre of his forehead, then one on his left shoulder, then his left knee, and finally on in his right knee.

This resulted in him being at 35/87 mana by the time he'd finished his circuit.

"Okay, done," Denac said to Ivo upon finishing his circuit.

"Good, you're a natural at this, I'd expect it to take 20 seconds for a newly awakened person to create their circuit. Now then, never, and I mean never tell anyone where even a single point is. This is because a good strike to one of them can shut down your circuit temporarily, thus preventing you from being able to use your magic," Ivo ordered Denac. "although, you can strengthen your points, and after reaching the rank of Count your points can't be struck at all."

"Okay, so I should never allow anyone to know where they are...got it," Denac reaffirmed while speaking to himself "but surely there are ways to learn where other people's are?"

"Of course there are, but most of those techniques are either by guessing based on where people mostly put their points, being lucky and being blessed with eyes of mana, which allow you to see the mana in the air and within beings. There is a final way, but it's extremely dangerous, that is to accept their spells head-on while trying to sense where the spells pass through on their bodies." Ivo answered Denac's question.

"Now then, I want you to learn the most basic spells from the books and be able to use their most basic versions by the time you need to go back to your cell..." Ivo told Denac before checking his bank for the time "...you have one and a half hours, so good luck. Don't worry, I'm going to be training too."

Ivo took out a scroll and began reading through it while Denac tried to learn his spells.

***

(1.5 hours later)

"Heh, finally I can use it in combat," Ivo spoke to himself as he checked the time. It had been one and a half hours since he started to learn the cryomancy spell "Glacial Fist". This spell was a better version of "Frost Fist" which he already knew, so it didn't take too long for him to learn considering how complicated it was. "Now then, let's check on the kid."

Denac was about 10 metres into the room and was currently practising the easiest kenomancy spell from his book on offensive/defensive kenomancy spells. The spell he was learning was called "Spacial Pin". It was the final spell that he needed to learn, and all it did was fire a small pin like projectile that went through the defences of his opponent to strike at whatever part of their body he wanted.