A Little Death never hurt anyone.

"Alright Doric, we are going to take what you know now and add to it." Welsher spoke with a bit of excitement in his voice. "I now know the full extent of your current abilities let's see how you grow as a mage."

Touching Doric he quickly spawned a monocle over his eye removing the one on Doric's.

"How did you do that?" Doric asked surprised that his spell was gone all of a sudden.

"It's pretty simple. My ability is called "Stealer. I can take a spell that someone has and steal it from them. It's always fun when they don't expect it!" Welsher laughed and continued his training.

"Alright so I know you can use the monocle spell, that is good and you know a few tags. I think your main symbol is fire from its looks. That is good. It means you have a desire whether realized or not."

Doric was not certain at all if he had desires or goals in life he knew though that he was not going to let this life go to waste. Perhaps that was his desire. He continued listening to see if there was anything new he could learn.

"Before we continue is it your ability that allowed you to learn those tags? I am not sure what your ability would be called except suicide Ha, Ha." He cleared his throat and went back to a serious tone.

"That ability you have to call on symbols and tags without knowing them is interesting indeed. I wonder what it does to tags you do know."

He moved away from Doric and stroked his short, grey beard. "You know Cumulative and Investment. Those are good ones to know. You are missing a few for them to be useful. Perhaps that is where we can start."

He used his fingers to carve magic into the air.

Symbol- Mana

Tags- Absorption, Area of Effect, Cumulative, Self, Storage, Investment.

Doric cast his monocle spell once again and saw the spell that was being woven. He nodded his head. "Alright, so the spell you are casting takes mana from around you, and adds it to yourself in a storage that grows over time?"

Welsher nodded. "For someone who is new to all of this, you pick up on the understanding of magic very quickly." He stopped weaving and after a moment he started glowing a light blue hue.

Doric could see blue dots all around the room begin slowly moving towards Welsher. He looked at Welsher's Magic Power Level and was not surprised to see it was in the tens of thousands. He noticed that it was not going up with this spell though.

"You're not gaining any Magic Power Level. Why is that?" He pointed above his head.

"Ah, you are perceptive. Why would that be?" Welsher waved to Doric to contemplate.

 He pondered the question and reminded himself of the spell. What was it that he was missing to gain the magic power level? He was stumped it seemed to use him as a vessel to absorb mana but that should be it. 

"Hmm, it's using you as a storage container but not giving it to you," Doric said slowly.

Welsher nodded.

"But it's not giving it to you." 

Welsher smiled. "Why, is that?"

It took Doric a moment but he finally figured it out "Oh, its because its storing the mana in a storage container inside you not inside you itself! So you either need to remove storage from the spell or find a way to open the storage container."

Welsher clapped his hands in excitement. "Very good Doric, So what would happen if I removed the Storage tag?"

Doric responded quickly. "You would become the point of contact for the mana accumulation and increase your Magic Power Level." 

"Correct but what would happen if you kept doing this without turning it off?" Welsher put a finger up.

Doric looked a little confused. "Well, you would keep gaining mana, but is that a bad thing?"

Circling slowly in the room Welsher grinned. "Let's find out, shall we? Cast the spell I just showed you."

Doric nodded and then stopped right away. "I uh, don't know how to write tags and symbols."

Welsher shook his head. "Well let's try your ability this time then. Try imagining the Symbol and Tags and then cast the spell."

Doric shook his head back at Welsher. "But won't that kill me?"

Welsher responded even quicker. "Well it might but it's a spell to obtain mana not use it so perhaps it will not and even if it does. I will bring you back Ha, Ha."

Doric did not feel confident that it was going to work but he sighed and began the process. Removing the storage from the spell he started thinking.

Symbol- Mana

Tags- Absorption, Area of Effect, Cumulative, Self, Investment.

The tags and Symbols felt hot in his mind as he thought of each one of them. Only Cumulation and Investment felt cold and refreshing to him. He finished imagining the spell and finally cast it.

Right away he felt his power increasing. It was slow at first but kept getting faster. He laughed a little at the dopamine that was caused from this.

"Woah it's working." He exclaimed as he started feeling dizzy. "Woah, wait, what's happening?"

Welsher took a step back and made a spell of his own.

Symbol- Mana, Fire

Tags- Explosion, Dampen, Protection, Amplify.

Doric saw the spell he was weaving and felt a sudden pit in his soul.

"No, no, no, no…" He felt sick and he could tell his body was getting hotter. "Please don't make me go through this again!" 

Welsher's spell went off mear seconds before Doric exploded. Doric felt intense pain soar through his very being and when he gained consciousness again he saw Welsher sipping tea and watching him.

"Oh you're awake, That's good. So what did we learn?"

Doric groaned and shook his head. "Too much mana inside someone causes them to explode."

"Correct but, your body can now take in more after that. Most people aren't so lucky to build up their power like that. Usually, it takes them many, many years but you have now opened up your mana pathways in your soul."

Welsher continued with a huge grin on his face. "You should be able to absorb mana much easier now. All it took was a little dying. Onto the next lesson!"