[SD:M/H] Learning A Spell - Chapter 5

Gem was sweating, which sucked with fur. Good news was that they could mostly ignore that as the pain took center stage. To be honest, it wasn’t even that intense of a pain, if they made sense? Rather, it was an all-consuming pain.

The air Mana was forcing itself into their body from every angle. Each bit of power finding a new and unmarked section to pierce. Worse, it didn’t stop at the skin. The pain continued inward and bounced around, rebounding whenever the Mana reached the skin.

Gem had read a little bit about this, because why play a fantasy game if you weren’t going to use magic? Anyway, the guides had said that the instructor should be feeding a small stream of un-aspected Mana into a hand, while keeping it from leaving said hand. Crystal apparently didn’t believe in such soft methods, which made this harder because you can’t just pick one bit of Mana and push it out.

To successfully do this, you need to push against it all at once. The suggested method online is to start at the wrist and push outward. Which was totally useless for Gem!

They instead figured that if they didn’t have a place to start, begin with the head and work your way down. After all, it would be a lot easier to think without both a literal aching head and a headache going on. So they focused on the crown of their head and shoved with intent.

Nothing happened.

They focused on their head and using a mental construct of a wall, pushed downward.

Nothing happened.

They focused on the foreign air Mana at the crown of their head and attempted to use it to push the rest of the foreign Mana down.

Nothing happened.

They focused on the miniscule amount of personal Mana in their head and pushed down.

Nothing–

Wait! Gem almost stops, but manages to keep the pressure up. This wasn’t anything like how other people described it online, but screw them. It was working for them and that’s all that matters.

The foreign air Mana is no longer bouncing off the skin on top of their head, instead being repulsed a bit lower down. They had almost missed it as the top of their head still felt tingly like when a limb goes to sleep and is just getting the blood flow back.

Gem focuses all their attention on their own Mana and gathers it, filling up the space, shoving downward, and slowly gaining ground. Their ears are the first bits free of Crystal’s Mana. Then it is down to below their nose and speeding up.

At the neck, though, the process slows down as the space being pushed multiplies. Though it isn’t like the arms help any. In fact, pushing down the arms seems to only condense the air Mana. The Mana isn’t being pushed out, but pushed around.

Gem doesn’t care though and simply allows the foreign Mana to escape back into their body, allowing their Mana to fill their arms. Then they repeat this for their legs and tail as well. And while they can’t see it, their fur becomes a vibrant green, the tighter they compress the air Mana.

Tighter and tighter, until they have compressed the foreign Mana into a marble sized sphere around the bottom of their ribcage. Gem pushes the Mana towards the surface until it is touching the skin. With that, they open a small hole in their hold on the Mana where the sphere is touching the skin and squeezes.

At first, the Mana hits the skin and rebounds, but the barrier keeping the foreign Mana in is weaker than their hold on their own Mana. So as Gem puts more pressure on it, something eventually gives and it isn’t their control.

‘Damn, that hurt’, Gem blinks. If you could compare the previous pain to a full body sunburn, that last burst was like someone was using a blowtorch on them. Then a background noise comes into focus. Crystal was laughing!

“Hahahahaha!”, Crystal slaps her knee, “Deities dandruff! Been forever since I saw someone actually manage it.”

From somewhere else in the room, one of the trainer yells over, “It’s been forever because the benefits of that method don’t make up for the pain!”

Crystal holds up her hand and treats it like a sock puppet, moving the ‘mouth’, “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All I’m hearing is that you’re all afraid of a little pain. They agreed to it.”

Another instructor yells over, “Yeah, they agreed without knowing what to. Besides, they should have gotten the skill way before they forced out your Mana. You could have stopped when they managed to clear out their head.”

“Yeah, and they would have failed the full awakening.” Crystal shakes her head, “I trusted they could handle the pain. They’re a deity damned full on natural Chaotic. It would be a crying shame if I didn’t make sure they had the best starting point for their magic. It is literally their birthright!”

Hands on her hips, Crystal stares the rest of the room down, but no one else speaks up. “That’s what I thought.”

She turns back to Gem, “So they aren’t wrong. You unlock Minor Magic Use once you can force another person’s Mana out of a single extremity. Hades, you probably would have achieved Lesser Magic Use because you did it with your head.

“Now don’t tell me, but with you having pushed my Mana completely out of your body on your own? I’m guessing you got Minor Mana Control skill. Let’s you be more free form with your magic.”

Gem raises an eyebrow, though has to blink when a drop of sweat takes that as a chance to get in their eye. “So, does it strengthen me?”

Crystal laughs, “Boy, that would be nice! But nah, what you get out of it is in control. Let’s say a wind blade only had speed and damage. Normal spells are going to have the Mana evenly split. With Mana control, you can shift the Mana around. Most use that to make faster, if weaker, wind blades. After all, what good is an attack that hits like a lightning bolt if it moves like a snail?”

Gem, “You can trick your enemy into hitting the spell, but yeah, I get it. So, how do I use magic now?”

Crystal gestures at the flames on her shoulders, “Well, like I said, you’re still going to be limited by using pre-existing air. Which being air, isn’t going to be the biggest problem.

“And of course I didn’t mention wind blade just to use as an example. That will be the free spell you get. Quite versatile for you and a good balance of speed and damage for everyone else.”

Gem nods, “So how do I cast it?”

Crystal, “Well, you wait here and I go grab a Skill Book. We could spend hours training you to pick it up the hard way, but I’m not some backwards idiot like the others would claim. The system has assured us that using a skill book for basic skills like this has no negative effect on the eventual power of said skill. Also, the system provides them for free.”

Gem, “If the system provides them, why do you have to go get it? Can’t the system just pop one into your hand?”

Crystal shrugs, “Something about protecting against potential abuse. Now wait a second.” Then she walks over to an empty cabinet, closes the cabinet doors, and when she opens them back up, there is a book.

“Okay, here it is. Just open the book, you’ll know what to do”, And Crystal hands the book over.

Gem turns the book over a couple times to get a look at it. For a Skill Book, it was quite boring. The book had a simple blank cover with the spell name embossed on the spine in black. With a shrug, they open the book, only to find that the pages aren’t pages, but two solid blocks.

{

Learn Wind Blade (Yes/No)

}

Gem rolls their eyes and selects “Yes”.

Ding

System, ‘Skill Wind Blade acquired.’

And to Gem’s disappointment, no special effects happen. They just suddenly know the basics of the skill. “Wait, why didn’t I get a notification about the control skill?”

Crystal, “Not going to ask about how boring Skill Books are?”

Gem gives her a deadpan look and flicks their ear, “Is that a fly buzzing around?”

Crystal places her hand over her chest, “Oh, you wound me! Anyway, the system doesn’t interrupt you during important situations. You know, no alerts in the middle of a stealth mission or while fighting. You can get a summary later, though sadly you’re limited to visuals. A lot of people have complained about it, but the whole ‘blue screens being visible to everyone’ is sort of a central design of the system.”

Gem nods, “I can live with that. Now you may tell me about the boring Skill Books.”

Crystal makes a sour face, “What if I don’t–

“Oh, who am I kidding? Anyway, not all skill books are that boring. In fact, they’re more of the exception than the rule. Making things visual wasn’t only for blue screens. These basic Skill Books are boring because they’re such a known quantity. Wind Blade, Water Blast, Earth Bullet, and Fire Dart are the basic elemental spells.

“There are also some non-aligned basic spells if you’re boring and want to buff instead of blast. You can look them up yourself if you care too. Then beginner healing magic, which is all divine magic, or in other words, magic except you get your Mana and Spells from something many magnitudes stronger than you.

“Once you get past the beginner Skill Books, though? Illusions out the wazoo! Want to learn Fireball? Tiny fireballs will fly out of the book and circle you, diving into your head one by one as the information gets imparted onto you. Also, this isn’t a Sunday morning magical girl anime so you don’t get invincibility frames while it happens.

“Don’t try to use a skill book if you aren’t in a safe place. The book isn’t used up until the entire process is complete and will drop to the ground if you die. Don’t go and get ganked because you decided to use one out in the open.”

Gem nodded, “There you go! Now, do I get my newb gear or do I have to wait through another info dump?”

Crystal snorts, “You asked for it! Anyway, yeah, you get your gear now. I noticed the shorts, is that your preferred? We also have cargo skirts and a bunch of other pocket heavy nonsense.”

Gem’s eyes go wide, “Oooh! Cargo skirt? Skirt go spinny?”

Crystal shrugs, “Ehh? This isn’t a non-com skirt. We’re talking leather plates and metal mesh. There isn’t anything stopping you besides your own weakness. Oh, and as long as you keep your pockets empty of anything too heavy. Which you know, kind of defeats the purpose of it being a cargo skirt.”

Gem sighs, “Meh, I guess for combat I’m probably better off wearing shorts or honestly? Pants, but I can only be so practical. I’ll get a nice skirt for my down time.”

Crystal nods, “Practical is the enemy of fashion.”

After that, they head back into the building, and over to another room packed full of gear. Crystal glances around before putting together a decent selection of gear. Then tosses a blue screen at Gem with the list of equipment, not including stuff like rations.

{

Backpack 1D

Armored jacket 1D

Armored cargo shorts 1D

[Random] magic ring 1D+

Scroll of Recall (City of a Thousand Fountains) [30 days] ★S+

}

Crystal points at the ring, “The system hides the type until you wear it for the first time. The only guarantee is that the ring won’t be cursed. Also, don’t expect stuff to be identified magically when you get it, you’ll have to magically identify items yourself.

Gem nods, “Yeah, yeah, no putting random magical loot on while in a cursed tomb. Or anywhere, really. Now let me see that ring.”

Crystal grabs it out of the backpack she is still putting mundane consumables into and tosses it over.

Gem lets the ring slap into their chest and slap their hand over it.

Crystal pouts, “Not even going to attempt to catch it?”

Gem pauses as they’re about to put it on, “I caught. Didn’t fall on the floor, did it?” And they slides the ring home on their right thumb, the ring expanding in size from smaller than their pinky to exactly the right size. Once seated properly on their thumb, a screen pops up.

{

Ring of the Frog [3/3] 1D+

}

Gem frowns, “Well, that’s descriptive.”

Crystal looks over, “Oh, that’s a common enough one. For a charge, it gives you a decent boost to a single jump. Oh, and since it doesn’t mention the recharge rate, they’ll come back in full every dawn.”

Gem, “So why doesn’t it say that?”

Crystal shrugs, “You’d need to take that up with the system. Remember, I only said it would reveal the type. You’ll have to get the ring properly identified to get the description. Oh, and take a second look at the ring now that you’ve revealed the type.”

I'm Evil, Not Pointlessly Cruel - Chapter 4

Getting Out - Chapter 6