Beginning to learn Magic

After I screamed myself to exhaustion I collapsed on the ground. I woke up 18 hours later to find animals all around the village. Wolves here, Crows there, picking scraps off the bones of the dead. I nearly broke after seeing the scene again. I had hoped it was all just a nightmare but I was greatly disappointed.

I decided to get up and sneak around and see if there was any food left over. I went cottage by cottage slowly checking to see if there was anything while avoiding the animals. Thankfully in the third house I found some bread wrapped in a cloth. I hurriedly ate the bread to fill my empty stomach and continued sneaking around to see if I could find anything else. I ended up finding a few more pieces of bread and some fruits so I gathered it all in a single half collapsed house.

I barricaded the door to block any animals from sneaking in. The food I've gathered is enough for a week and a half so I need to spend this time wisely. I decided to pull out the book I got and read through it. As long as I am able to master this magic then I'll be able to get my revenge… revenge on the ones who slaughtered my village. Judging by the scale of the attack it must be the berserk brothers. They are the only group around here that has the manpower to do this.

In order to take them on I'm going to have to be strong… Very Strong. "I swear I'm never going to be this weak ever again." I swore to myself that I would never again be this tiny weak boy.

I looked through the book and discovered something called the realm of the soul, It is a metaphysical realm only accessible by the one who owns it or by those who possess the power to invade the realms of those who are weaker than themselves.

Inside I find a small wisp of mana, according to the book the more I meditate the more this mana will grow. As the mana grows I will have to remove the impurities. Impurities come from the nature of an environment. A place full of sin and greed like many towns and cites will have lots of impurities in the natural mana. This is why Mages tend to have their towers in the middle of nowhere with few inhabitants, it makes it much easier to progress.

I exited the realm and began to read some more. I see the section on spells and decide to skip over it for now. There are also some writings on runes, carvings in a special language which are still being discovered. These runes can be supplied with mana to create different effects. (AN: I am going to use Skyrim dragon language for Runes and spells.) After that it explains the different levels of mages. Each level is set at the size of the mana wisp, 0-200 is stage one and so on so forth until you reach stage 8 which is 1401-1600. At that point you have to condense your mana into a liquid and that is all it states about that. Apparently there is only one mage who has reached that far and the vast majority get stuck on stages 3 and 4. At the end of the book there is a theory, It states that those who have a higher physical capability will find it easier for mana to enter their body and it will also filter out the impurities.

So I decided to sit down and meditate. As I started feeling for the mana in the air and slowly pulled it in, I noticed that every tiny detail mattered. If I had rough quick breaths then the mana would be harder to pull. However if I had slow deep breaths it would be easier. If my heart rate was erratic then it would disrupt the mana, However if it was steady and calm then it would be easier. The more I meditated the more I felt and the more I pulled and I slowly got deeper and deeper into my meditation until….

"SNAP"

I immediately opened my eyes to the sound of an animal walking around the cottage. I was scared, I had never fought a magic beast before. I heard it creeping around the cabin so I slowly went through the book, turning page by page until I found a list of some basic spells. This was my only hope, I had to be able to cast a spell to defeat it. The amount of Mana I had was pitiful, I had only meditated for a day so there were very few spells I could use and I could only use one. I had to trust my high learning capabilities to be able to get this on the first try. I didn't want to make a lot of noise so I looked through the book as fast as possible until I found it. I watched as I could see through the holes inside of the house as something passed by.

"Sniff" "Sniff"

I heard it pass by the door before it walked to the opposite side. I needed to scare it off so I slowly peeked out the window looking at it from the back and noticed it was a large wolf. They tended to travel in packs so I knew killing it was not an option. If it died here then the rest of the pack would swarm me and break through the sides of the house. So I went with my only option.

I aimed my hand toward the hole in the side of the house where the wolf would pass by and I concentrated on the measly mana I could feel in my body. I slowly pushed it to my hand and started to concentrate on it to form the spell I had in mind. Just as the wolf went into my view I released it.

"Faas" I whispered as an ethereal gray glow shot towards the wolf. It hit the side of the wolf just barely and then I heard it.

"Yelp" The wolf froze in terror before running off. I heard lots of scurrying until I saw 6 more wolves chase after it to see what was wrong before I collapsed in exhaustion. I decided to cross my legs and meditate to try to distract myself from the exhaustion of my body. I noticed that it was easier to pull in mana this time, Just a little. I assume it is because my body has used a spell. Perhaps this means that it is best for me to exhaust my mana every time before I meditate

After I replenished my mana I tried to spread the mana throughout my body to try and ease the exhaustion before I finally was able to relax. I decided to grab an apple off the table near me and sit against the wall before eating it and falling asleep.