by Andrew Rowe
Testing that was a much riskier prospect. Even though I routinely converted a large amount of mana into transference or mental mana, that was in the process of expelling it from my body immediately into a spell. Keeping an abnormal amount of transference mana housed within my body wasn’t necessarily safe.
I skimmed my books about the idea. There were lots of spells that involved infusing your body with various types of mana, either to assist with healing, or to improve your movement, or that sort of thing. I didn’t see anything that referred to those spells changing the composition of the caster’s shroud, though — presumably because they just weren’t changing enough of it to have that effect.
Humans had a lot of gray mana, since that was our mana’s default state. I speculated that it would probably require converting at least half of my mana to change the composition of my shroud, and most spells weren’t designed to use up that much mana, both due to the dangers and the inefficiency.
Reading did remind me that Summoners ended up generating all sorts of mana inside their bodies from their contracts, though, and they didn’t generally suffer any ill effects. That helped me feel a little more comfortable with the idea of tinkering with my mana.
I decided it was worth trying, but in a controlled fashion. I converted some of the mana in my right hand into transference...and waited.
Nothing happened at first. I converted a bit more mana. Then a bit more.
I felt a slight pressure beginning to build, but I wasn’t sure if it was just in my head until the muscles in my hand began to tremble.
I held it just a little longer, watching my shroud...but I couldn’t see any change in the composition.
The pressure gave way to pain. That was a sign it was time to stop.
I released the transference mana from my hand into the air.
The resulting shockwave blasted outward and slammed into the nearest wall. I saw the flicker of protective sorcery — the entire interior of Derek’s house was warded — otherwise I might have put a hole in the wall.
I looked down at my hand, staring blankly.
I can work with this.
The blast was like a much stronger version of what I usually projected out of my gauntlet. Unfortunately, it also took up a vastly greater amount of my mana to use. Probably close to half.
Ordinary spells were designed to consume just a small fraction of the user’s mana, because you had to be able to discharge that amount of mana instantly.
But, logically, if I could have more time to convert the mana before discharging it... I could throw a lot more mana into a single spell.
This wasn’t a unique idea: it was how all Heart-Marked Attuned worked. The difference was that Heart Marks provided support to the body for that specific style of casting.
Without a Heart Mark, trying to practice this style had a clear downside. My hand was throbbing. I didn’t think I’d done any lasting damage, but it was clear my type of attunement wasn’t built to be used that way.
I’d never cared much for design intent, though. The important part was figuring out what I could do with the tools I had — and how I could make new, better tools.
I rested for a few minutes, then I tried again, releasing the mana before the pressure in my hand grew painful.
It had the same effect: a blast of kinetic energy. It was little bit weaker than the last one, but still far stronger than a blast from my gauntlet.
Testing, I could expel enough energy in an instant to push a book around on the floor, but not much more. With several seconds of holding the mana in, though, I could easily push over a chair.
At that point, Patrick came by to check on the noise. I got a little embarrassed, told him I was fine, and decided to find a better spot to practice.
The roof was the obvious choice, but it was occupied — Keras was giving Marissa another lesson. They offered me a chance to join them, but I wasn’t up for that degree of social contact.
I went to the enchantment testing grounds instead, where I’d first tested the gauntlet. I requested one with a shielded test dummy, which the facility had several of.
I spent the next hour or two blasting the test dummy around the tiny testing room. It was surprisingly cathartic.
And, more importantly, it taught me a few valuable pieces of information.
First, I couldn’t generate enough force to push a human back with just an instant of mana conversion. After some testing, I decided I need to store up my mana for about a second to get enough for that.
If I converted the mana in my hand for about five seconds, I could generate enough mana to slam the dummy into the wall hard enough to crack the shield. I had to recharge the dummy’s shields every time I practiced that, though, so I didn’t try it much.
Anything in between would have an intermediate result, and anything longer would result in too much pain for me to use the attacks consecutively.
I considered if I could apply it back to my original idea of converting my shroud, but it wasn’t currently practical. If I could send out a blast of force, I could generate enough energy to deflect a blade — but saving up that much transference mana took too long. It wasn’t practical as a defensive measure.
If I practiced enough, though, I’d get better at using transference mana in general, and it would be easier to convert my shroud when I had enough power to make it plausible.
I went home feeling exhausted, but satisfied with the results, even if they weren’t what I’d been trying to learn.
When I got back, I focused the rest of the evening on more transference mana research. I read a little more on the Juggernaut, as well as other attunements that used transference mana, like the Wavewalker and Shieldbreaker.
There were some types of general spells that anyone with the ability to use a certain type of magic could cast, but as an Enchanter, my classes weren’t focused on teaching those yet. We were expected to be dedicating ourselves to learning how to make magical items almost exclusively, since that was the primary function of our attunement.
Normally, we’d start learning those more general spells next year...but now that I’d been practicing transference mana, I was itching to learn more.
I was thinking about spells that involved infusing the body with transference mana when I remembered one of my previous ideas. I wanted to learn to move like Keras did — too quickly for enemies to react.
I already knew I could blast myself around with transference mana, like I was doing with the ring, but I wanted to find a way to move faster for a sustained period of time.
I found multiple ways of approaching that.
Haste spells are designed to increase the target’s speed. They require tremendous practice to use, however, because they do not increase their target’s mental processing speed — only the speed at which their body moves.
Even minor speed increases require a period of acclimation, because if your body moves more quickly than your mind expects, this can throw off your balance. More powerful spells grow progressively more difficult to control.
Thus, it is advised that you train with incrementally more powerful Haste spells over a long period of time, and do not attempt to use them in a combat environment until you have substantial practice moving at that speed.
The highest level of Haste spells are generally only possible to use while supported by an attunement that can enhance the user’s perception abilities, such as the Spellsinger or Shapeshifter. This means they are often unused, however, as these spells rely on either having two attunements yourself or a second attuned with an emphasis on support magic.
There is no known attunement that generates both transference mana and perception mana. It is possible that these mana types simply do not mix naturally with one another. It is sometimes speculated that the type of attunement that generates this pairing was the Chronomancer, a legendary attunement that supposedly originated from the Spider Spire.
Because of the difficulty of learning to use Haste spells, the opposi
te type — spells designed to slow enemies — are considerably more popular. These spells do not actually slow the flow of time, but rather constrict enemies with a field of pressure which resists their movements. More powerful Slow spells can slow motions to a crawl or even paralyze them entirely.
Both of those categories of magic sounded extremely useful.
Also, I immediately wanted a Chronomancer attunement more than I’d ever wanted an individual attunement before. Time magic? That sounded incredible.
I read a little more just to try to find more about Chronomancers, but sadly, most books indicated they were nothing more than a myth.
Now that I knew Necromancers were real, though, Chronomancers sounded like they were within the realm of possibility. If they were another restricted attunement, maybe Sheridan would know.
Picking up a third attunement was probably a long way off for me either way; most people never even earned a second. If I wanted to take another Judgment in a different spire, I could do that...but Judgments grew more difficult the more Judgments you’d taken.
Since I already had two attunements, but I’d only taken one Judgment, I wasn’t sure if the tests would consider me to have completed two already. If so, taking another one would probably be impossible for many years. I’d heard of people getting a second attunement at around Sunstone level, but getting a third would probably require at least a Citrine level in both, and that was extremely difficult to achieve.
I pushed that to the side and spent the rest of the evening trying to practice a basic Haste spell.
The first step was very similar to what I’d been doing to try to influence my shroud; just converting some of my gray mana into transference.
There were two differences.
One, I was using a much smaller amount — only five mana worth, rather than the thirty or forty I’d been blasting outward.
Two, I wasn’t releasing it outward. I had to learn to take that mana and spread it out throughout my body, then infuse it into my skin, muscles, and bone. That mana would then naturally dissipate over time, since it was being actively used to enhance my body.
The process was, surprisingly, not that difficult. I had a Mind Mark, and that style of mark was specifically tailored toward easily sensing and moving around the mana inside my body.
It had never felt like much of a benefit compared to what some of the other marks were capable of, but I didn’t have the personal experience to form much of a basis for comparison. Maybe if Sera had my style of mark, she’d have found it easier to cast spells with something other than her lungs.
While I hadn’t had a chance to do much with it yet, having an attunement that improved general mana control meant that I was in an ideal position to experiment with other methods of casting spells. That was a potentially huge advantage in the long term.
My muscles tingled from the infusion of energy, but aside from that, I didn’t really feel any different. Not until I took a step.
That single motion catapulted me forward, sending me into a stumble that turned into a tumble. When I hit the floor, my body bounced.
When I finally stopped bouncing and rolling, I burst into laughter.
That was amazing.
The mana itself had been cushioning my impacts. I still felt them, but only barely. I did feel a little nauseated, though, from the rapid movement.
I tried it again. And again. And again.
I was a little bruised in the aftermath, but I started to get the hang of walking.
After about five minutes of stumbling around the room and running into things, I understood why these spells weren’t more popular. The novelty had mostly worn off, and it was incredibly difficult to move.
Still, I kept practicing.
By the end of the evening, I could perform basic movements with the weakest, Quartz-ranked Haste spell active. Sadly, I was still clumsier with the spell active than without. I had to deliberately move slowly to avoid hurting myself, and that defeated the entire point of the spell.
But progress was progress, and I wasn’t giving up easily.
I resolved to ask Keras for advice the next day. It was likely he could help me with making the learning process more efficient.
I still had a smile when I went to sleep.
***
“Haste spells?” Keras gave me a quizzical look. “I don’t use them.”
I stared back at him with a similar expression. “...Really?”
“Yeah. I know some people who do, but transference mana isn’t really my specialty.”
I frowned. “I’ve seen you move much more rapidly in short bursts, though. How are you accomplishing that?”
“Oh, that? Hm. Nothing I could really teach, unfortunately.”
I’d been afraid of that. “Why? Because I don’t have access to the dominions that you do?”
“Precisely. I can infuse my body with energy from that dominion, and that vastly increases both my strength and my speed. It has a high cost, so I use it sparingly.”
“How do you cope with the loss of balance and coordination?”
He shook his head. “It’s not an issue for me. When I use it, everything around me seems to slow down. I don’t feel like I’m moving any faster, just that everything else is moving slower.”
“...Are you a Chronomancer?”
Keras actually laughed. “No, I’m not using time magic. I’ve seen a lot of strange things over the years, but that’s still one that I haven’t learned.”
“What dominion is it that you’re using then?”
He shifted his stance, looking uncharacteristically nervous. “I’d rather not say.”
I shrugged a shoulder. It didn’t really matter, as long as he was right that it wasn’t something I could use. “Is there any way I could do something similar, even if it’s not the same as yours?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve seen people here use similar abilities, like those Haste spells you talked about, but I’m no expert on the local magic. Derek would be a better person to ask.”
That was a good point, so I bid Keras goodbye and went to ask Derek.
“I don’t use Haste spells, either. One of my bound items enhances my movement, but that’s with air magic, not transference, so it works differently. Haste spells add additional energy to all of your movements, so you get pushed further every time you take a step, or that sort of thing. When I use air magic to increase my speed, it’s more like the wind is carrying me in the direction I want to go.”
That made sense, and it was good to know there were different types of movement magic available. It also meant that any training exercises that Derek used would be different from training with Haste spells, so he couldn’t help teach me, either.
I either needed to focus on practicing more myself, or find someone who actually had trained directly with Haste spells. Preferably both, eventually.
I spent just a little bit more time practicing with Haste that morning, but I didn’t make much progress. Hopefully, if I spent a bit of time on it every day, I’d both learn to master it eventually and increase my overall proficiency with transference magic.
I had breakfast after that, then headed to Magic Theory class.
We had to take a written exam — one of the first I’d taken that semester. Fortunately, I’d always been good with written exams, even if I wasn’t particularly good at studying what I was supposed to.
I didn’t get my results that day, but we apparently would be getting reports on our current grades for each class right before winter vacation, which was just a few weeks away.
After that, I had lunch, and then Mana Manipulation class.
Professor Edlyn was looking unusually serious. Maybe a little concerned?
She had a large box on her lectern, and she put her hands on top of it as class began.
“I’m afraid today is your final exam.”
That was...not good news. I hadn’t been too surprised when Teft had run his final exam early, but I hadn’t expecte
d someone like Professor Edlyn to do the same.
I could see the other students tense, and heard a few confused whispers.
“Please be quiet, everyone.” The professor began to open the box. “While normally we would wait until the week before winter vacation for the test, we’ve needed to adjust the class schedule due to an unforeseen incident.”
What incident? Was she talking about when Mizuchi went on her rampage?
Or maybe that attack on the grand cathedral in Dalenos?
I wasn’t sure how the latter would have impacted the class schedule, but maybe the professor had family nearby that had been injured?
The professor didn’t elaborate. Instead, she simply continued with, “I apologize for the inconvenience. The test will be a simple one. I hope you have all adequately prepared.”
She reached into the box and retrieved an object I recognized — a practice shell for making mana crystals.
“Your objective is to take one of these shells and to focus your mana inside, creating a basic gray mana crystal. You will have one hour to complete this test. I realize this may be too difficult for some of you, since we haven’t practiced doing this in the class yet. I will do my best to grade leniently because the test is being run earlier than usual.”
...I had been nervous about nothing.
I almost laughed, but I managed to restrain myself.
“Please form a line. You may each take one case to practice with. If you are capable of filling one in less than the required hour, you can return for another after you’re done filling the first one.”
I didn’t stand up immediately. I ignored the nervous whispers and complaints around me, waiting to get at the very back of the line.
When I finally reached Professor Edlyn, she handed a case to me.
I held it in my right hand, closed my eyes for a few moments, and then handed it back to her.
“Is something wrong with the case?” She blinked. “Oh, this one is already full. Let me get you another one.”
I couldn’t help myself from chuckling that time. “It wasn’t already full.”
“What do you mean?” She dug another case out of the box, then handed it to me.