Transcendental Misappropriation (Book One of the Pentacle Series)

by Roharp17

  They arrived at the dining hall and grabbed some food. Danny noticed David didn't purchase any of the food from the stands.

  "Hey, there's my friend Peter, come on," David said as he motioned Danny with his shoulder.

  Peter sat at the end of a table with a few free chairs around him. He was between David and Him in height, heavier, with black hair.

  "Hey Peter, I brought someone along with me, this is Danny Creek," David said.

  "Hey Danny, I'm Peter Frond."

  "Hey Peter, nice to meet you. So how long you been here for," David asked.

  "This is my second year," Peter replied.

  They began eating in the companionable silence that can only be shared between males when they begin inhaling large quantities of food. There was a real sense of shared determination. Eventually they began to slow down and Danny brought up a few more questions.

  "So where you two from," Danny asked, while looking between the two.

  "On the western edge of the outer wall," said David.

  "Outer wall, near the entrance to the inner wall," said Peter.

  "In the center of the outer wall near the Main Street," finished Danny.

  Continuing with the questions, Danny asked, “What is your families' occupations?"

  "Carpenter, logger, and mason. They build and repair homes for those that can't afford a civil wizard," answered David.

  "Merchant, trader, and investor. My family owns a few stores and invests in others," said Peter, without any hint of bragging.

  "Merchant, blacksmith, and leather crafter. My folks own a store that sells weapons and leather crafts," Danny finished.

  This time it was Peter who ask, "What's your affinity? Mine is earth, level 2."

  Danny didn't want to brag but he also didn't want to have multiple lies running at the same time. Eventually they would cancel each other out and he would get discovered or hurt someone’s feelings.

  "I actually have three affinities. Earth, Fire, and air," Danny replied.

  Peter's eyes grew twice their size as he yelled, "Wow, three!"

  David looked like had grown another head, "Seriously? You’re joking right..."

  "Shhhh, no, I am not joking. Yes, I have three affinities. How many do you have" Danny said trying to get Peter to calm down.

  David looked dumbfounded as he answered, "I just have air. Level 3."

  Danny smiled and said, "Great, we can work together and compare notes!"

  David looked confused, "Wait which affinity are you going to go for first? What level are your affinities at anyway?"

  Danny looked around and said, "If you can keep it a secret, I am going to try and go for two affinities at once."

  Peter looked at Danny like he had just pulled off his own pants and stared eating them. Peter started to shout, "YOU CAN'T TAKE... You can't take two elements at once! That's like double the work" Danny barely managed to get Peter to whisper at the end.

  "Well, I was going to go with fire and earth, but then I met two awesome guys who had earth and air. So I decided to switch," Danny explained.

  David looked over at Peter, who just shrugged.

  "Ok, but it is your funeral," David said uncertainly.

  "You never told us your levels," Peter reminded Danny.

  Danny looked around debating what to say but eventually decided to stick with his original story,” I am level one in fire affinity, level one in air affinity, and level two in earth affinity."

  Shaking his head, David explained, "Most do not attempt the exams until they are level 3. Some have been known to pass at level 2, but they were very clever. Maybe you should rethink this, Danny."

  Danny nodded, "It's already done so I guess I will have to be extra clever than..."

  Wanting a change to the current mood Danny excitedly asked, "Alright, do you two meet every morning?

  Peter replied, "Most mornings, except for half days."

  "I will see you both in the library tomorrow morning then," Danny said with a smile.

  The two nodded, and Danny left to start training.

  Shortly thereafter, Danny entered another generic training room and sat down again in the middle. He hadn't figured out the secret to dual casting yesterday. He wondered if Wizard August had sent him down a rabbit hole of his own making.

  Danny knew he could supposedly split his concentration in two easily now, but hadn't tried. He was being stubborn, trying to do it himself. He didn't have the time or luxury to figure it out on his own. Starting with something simple, something non-magical. Danny began trying to pat his head and rub his belly at the same time. Danny had been made fun of by his previous life's friends and girlfriends when asked to try this. In fact Danny was sure his old friends would contact his newer friends so they would know to ask him to do just that.

  He started patting his head, and when he switched to rubbing his belly, he was suddenly rubbing his head as well. While starting over he tried to activate this dual concentration ability. He tried focusing first on what he wanted one hand to do before switching to the other hand. Nothing. He even tried telling Cranny what to do while he would do the other. Nothing, and he might be going crazy...

  The little bell over the door chimed and Danny was dismayed to realize he had been at this for half a day. He tenderly checked his scalp to see if he had rubbed a bald spot into his hair. Breathing sigh of relief he collapsed to the ground and laid there for a while.

  Getting up he laughed at the absurdity of what he had just spent his time doing and in a mimic of self-deprivations, he started to rub his belly and pat his head. Danny's smile left his face to be replaced with one of confusion. Looking up his head was being patted. Looking down his stomach was being rubbed.

  Danny stopped his hands. Switching places he started again. This time he didn't think about it. Once again, his head was being patted and his stomach rubbed.

  Danny held out his hands and focused a small fireball spell on one hand. It took the same amount time as usual and right before it did, a small sphere of wind was cast from his other hand. They both hit the wall to leave behind a scorch mark and abrasive cuts into the stone. Danny walked over to where they hit and almost reverently touched the wall.

  "Ouch!"

  Danny forgot the wall would still be hot so soon after hitting it with the fireball. Touching another part of the wall, he pushed his mana out to surround and repair the area. He had the stone wall absorb the scorch marks.

  Too tired and emotionally exhausted from the afternoon’s efforts, Danny left for dinner. After eating with Peter and David, Danny confirmed their plans for the next day.

  A note from Roharp17

  Edited: Fixed Danny/David mixups and use of secrete instead of secret... gross. Added discussion on levels. Thanks dutchmega.

  Chapter 21

  Danny didn't see his two new friends at breakfast and he later found out why, when he discovered them already studying in a corner of the library.

  "Hey guys," Danny greeted them.

  "Hey Danny,"

  "Danny"

  Danny had already read the initiate level books and didn't see why he shouldn't start on the adept books. He asked his friends to watch his bag and headed over to the front desk to wait in line. The initiate at the front desk looked skeptical at Danny's question, while looking at Danny's brown vest, but he pointed out the adept bookshelves. Danny wandered over and discovered the adept level books took up just one bookshelf, but there were not as many copies as the initiate. There was no way he was going to be able to compare notes with Peter and David, and read through these at the same time. Grabbing a few books he went back to the table.

  Peter and David were reading in a couple of books, when Danny sat down. Seeing they weren't going to start discussions, Danny picked up one of the adept books and started reading. This one was purely different runes to use with healing spells. Instantly fascinated he continued reading. He finished the book, a lot of the runes used could go into applications for other elements
as well. He suspected the other books would have repeated runes. If you were just going for one element, there was no need to read about of runes you couldn't use.

  Looking up he noticed his two new friends staring at him confused.

  "What...," Danny said equally confused.

  David turned to Peter as if to say, it's your turn. Peter sighed and nodded his head.

  "Danny, that book was for adept healing spells, you know that right," Peter said with controlled patients.

  "Yeah, so," Danny replied.

  "First, you are still an initiate. Second, your affinities are fire, earth, and air. So, why are you reading an adept book on healing runes?"

  Danny looked at the book then looked back at Peter and said, "Why not?"

  Peter stared at Danny a few seconds, then turned to David as if to say, I did all I could.

  "Alright, if you two are done staring at each other, could one of you explain why you are reading if there are so few initiate level books? You both have been here over a year. You have had more than enough time to get through them all," Danny asked.

  "Danny, we are reading books on theories about our elements. Practicing the spells and understanding the element you are working toward are the two ways to increase your affinity. There is one shelf for initiate spells and one shelf for adept spells, the rest are elemental theory," David explained.

  Danny blinked a few times and said, "Elemental theory?" At their combined nods Danny continued, "Well that's easy. David, did you know that air is similar in nature to water except thinner? So if you were to watch how water moved around your hand or other objects you could get a pretty good idea of how air would move around those same objects. There are a lot of other subtle nuances to it than that but that should be a good start for you."

  David sat there a moment before saying, "Umm, thanks, I will look into that."

  Danny turned to his other friend, "Peter, the earth is made of many different layers, and it is much more complex than air. I would pick a different element."

  Peter's eyes opened wide, as he screeched, "Seriously!"

  "Nah, I'm just joking. Let's see, there are a few types of rock, and I only remember two of them... The first comes from cooled lava, which is superheated rock once it comes from below ground. The second is formed from other types of rock being broken down into tiny pieces. Then those tiny pieces end up collecting in a location, where they are compressed by... oceans, if I remember correctly. Rivers or lakes wouldn't probably have enough weight to do it. Sorry I think there is one more type, but I can't remember it."

  Peter said, "Thanks Danny, I haven't read that in any of my books yet."

  Peter and David asked a few more questions before going back to their book. Danny picked up the second book he had grabbed and started to read. This one was on fire affinity. Between answering questions from his friends and reading through the fire affinity book the lunch bell soon rang. Nothing really surprising came up in the new book. There was a lot of repetition on the runes he had already seen in the healing book. It didn't appear that there were that many runes. The good ones were either saved until wizard level or they hadn't found them yet.

  They went and had lunch together before breaking up for the rest of the day.

  Danny went and checked into a generic training room and donned his casting gloves. Today he was going to continue dual casting and find out what his limits were. Starting with simply casting two spells at once, Danny cast fireball and water blast without any issues. Next he attempted to create a stone spike while using air sense on the area. He successfully started to use his mana for the two tasks, independently, but since the mana he was using was occupying the same space at the same time, it merged. Changing tactics he started creating stone spikes while throwing out blades of wind. Without the area affect getting in the way, he successfully created both with mana manipulation.

  Danny probably couldn't use mana manipulation in the adept exams, and it go unnoticed. On the other hand, he didn't want to stop gaining levels in mana manipulation. He was also pretty sure he wouldn't gain affinity levels as quickly with just spells. He decided to split his training times evenly between the two. This would help him not get bored from a full half day of spells.

  Danny took his customary position in the middle of the floor and tried to decide what he wanted to do with mana manipulation. He had previously wanted to try and create spinning mana. Maybe it could make attacks more powerful.

  Creating a ball of mana above his hand, Danny tried a few things to get it spinning. He tried willing it to spin. He tried waving his hand in a circle. He tried adding more mana to one side, like shooting a ball on the edge with a water hose.

  Coming up with a new theory, Danny tried activating air rune while continuing to pump mana into the ball. With the addition of the new mana he willed to spin. The ball of air began to spin before the air could fully burst forth, as it would if he had just cast air without the new mana. The spinning ball of air got faster the more mana he added to it. He then changed the order for the new mana from spin to launch. The spinning ball of air flew towards the wall he was focusing on. Rock exploded from the wall, jagged pieces of stone flew everywhere. Including into Danny's head, arms, and body. Luckily, Danny had the wherewithal to cover his head at the last second.

  With pieces of stone in his body, Danny started to cast the healing spell, when he realized this was a good mana manipulation opportunity. He knew how to manipulate mana in his body, but he never tried using just the healing rune to heal from within. At first he started to try and ignore the pain in order to focus, but instead he focused on it and used that pain to locate problem areas. Danny tried isolated the mana lines and mana stored in the flesh, but he would have to empty his body of mana. He had no way to remove mana stored in specific places in his body. He gave up on healing from within using mana manipulation, for now. Casting a healing spell with the method rune for self, he could feel his cuts, and wounds heal. Like mana manipulation, healing himself with spells still used all the mana in his body and tried to heal everything at once. There was a sound like sand falling, as bits of stone fell out of the healing flesh.

  Having felt like he had reached the halfway point, Danny switched to casting spells. He needed to familiarize himself with how long it took to cast these spells. Going through the list of initiate level spells he cast them one at a time. The current method spells he knew consisted of four types. Cast on self, cast on target, cast on touch, cast in shape. Air for example would have, cast carry voice on self, cast wind blade on target, cast carry voice on touch, and cast wind in cone. Carry voice allows one to project one voice as far as the wind you create can carry it. Range depends on the amount of mana you put into the spell. Cast wind blade where you were focused on when it was cast. Now if the target is moving it will not follow them. Carry voice on touch does the same as on self but for someone else. Lastly, cast wind in cone, creates a concentrated cone of wind, intended to knock a target down.

  Powering spells was pretty straight forward. In order to use some of the method runes, one would require a minimum power level. When casting a single spell multiple times using the power runes, Danny discovered that the levels increased the time needed to cast a spell by a factor of two. Having no way to determine damage output he could only assume they did the same amount of damage per second of mana output. Considering all things equal, the only reason Danny would use a higher power level would be if a spell required it. That being said, Danny's current mana flow rate was not the highest and it would take him too long to cast some of the higher level spells to be effective.

  A note from Roharp17

  Edited

  Chapter 22

  Danny met up with his friends again the next day at the library. They both had more questions about the things he had said the day before, about the nature of their elements. He answered them both the best he could. It had been a long time since he had looked into geology or aerodynamics. It seemed his understanding of th
em hadn't left him, but the gory details had.

  Danny was able to get through the adept books on earth and air before lunch. Once again, besides a few specialty spells, like carry voice, there wasn't a lot of new information. After lunch Danny practiced mana manipulation trying to get create different objects out of earth. Having the spell always connected with the ground resulted in unintentional shapes. The last thing he did was create a miniature house about 1/10th the size he could fit in. He was able to fit little chairs, a table, and slab for a bed. If he had made it actual size it would have taken most of the day, not counting getting rid of the evidence afterwards.

  Danny was going through his spells one more time when he realized that he might have to be moving while casting during the exam. He might not have the luxury of stopping just to cast before moving again. Danny used an air spell meant for drying out or cooling things off, as this would not cause massive repercussions if it backfired. Quite a while later Danny stood there casting wind on himself for about the hundredth time. Focusing while running sideways, backwards, or anyways but forward was not easy. He was able to maintain his casting almost half the time while running around. Running forward was the easiest.

  Danny continued this pattern of training for the next three weeks. In the mornings he started reading elemental theory books, looking for hidden gems into the mana side of the elements. Most of the theories were duds.

  Danny looked up from another book that should have been labeled as ‘Waste of Time: Volume 2’, “Hey David, I get the feeling a lot of these elemental theory books are full of incorrect theories. I found more than one case where they were contradicting each other.”

  David only nodded while Peter scoffed, “Danny, all the really good theories are stored in the libraries of the nobility. Most of the nobility wrote the best ones, but if they find a peasant wizard with a book detailing new ideas or understandings, they get them under a contract immediately. These contracts enforce crazy penalties should the wizard spread this knowledge or write any more books. Though you won’t hear the wizards complain because they have it made for the rest of their lives.”