The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 195

Chapter 195 – Arcanists

Of course, when setting my Arcanists to cultivate, I had an appropriate place for them. Namely, my library. Well, one of my libraries. I had conquered half a continent in the other world, and some of the treasures I stole were the contents of every library I captured unburnt. Admittedly, that was fewer than I had hoped for, but there was only so much one could do in a siege to limit collateral damage.

Still, I had managed some acquisitions. After establishing Risen Athelia in this world, I created a massive library on Guam, where scholars were going through the painstaking process of digitizing and translating a veritable dragon’s hoard of letters, scrolls, diagrams, and tomes. However, those were all personal letters, architectural blueprints, maps, histories, religious texts, works of fiction, and so on. All important, certainly, and worth preserving, just like the works of art in the Royal Museum on Hawai’i, but not exactly what my students would need.

The Royal Library of Athelas, as well as the one for the Athelian Spire, and similar hoards from across Onerth all provided me with a veritable treasure trove of arcane texts. Naturally, the reborn Spire had its library, with some additions captured from fallen kingdoms during the war, but my personal library was no less impressive, and I made sure to keep any of the truly dangerous texts where I could personally restrict who could see them. There were some, like the Naming of Demons or the Atlas of the Nine Hells, that were too dangerous for common consumption. Some magical tomes had a will of their own, and could prove a corrupting influence to those who did not properly shield their minds, which was difficult if you were set upon studying a work and learning all it had to offer.

Not everything in my personal library was physical text, of course. I also had reference books from this world, primarily dealing with geography, chemistry, physics, biology, and so on, as well as computers that could access different scientific databases as well as the aethernet. That last bit was both blessing and curse, in my opinion, since the internet had not improved greatly as it was remade into the aethernet. As evidenced by the rather extensive catalogue of pornography featuring me. What was worse was that some of it, especially the fanfiction, was actually good!

The Chief Librarian was a ghost who had been in charge of the Royal Library for forty years before she died, and then had continued running it for another century before my class was summoned. After I took over the ruins of Athelia-that-was, and established Risen Athelia, she continued running the Library. At this point, there were none, either living or undead, who remembered her name as anything other than Chief Librarian. Even she had forgotten it!

As I stepped into the room, and felt the wards settle over me, I smiled. The Chief Librarian’s wards prevented fires, made it impossible for anyone (even me) to take a book from the library without permission, and muffled all conversations to a whisper. Even if someone shouted, the sound would still be but a whisper.

As expected, Almir Lobo and Tabia Nassar were both making good use of the library. Both of them were wearing Translating Spectacles, simple enchanted items that translated (most) written languages into a language the wearer knew. Like all translation spells, they had some issues when it came to idioms, measurements, and words that did not have clear translations, or meant different things in different contexts. There were some scripts it did not work on, but those were primarily dead tongues where not even the spells could glean the true meaning. Things like the Linear A of ancient Crete, or, more rarely, the Helthicar Glyphs of Onerth, which was a magically encrypted script that could only be read if someone had been given the magical ‘key’ to unlock it.

The enchantment also failed on basic code ciphers, since even a simple substitution code where you substituted 1 for A, 2 for E, 3 for I, 4 for O, and 5 for U, and left the rest as plain English would be too much for it. And if the code was a cipher where certain letters or symbols in certain positions were they key to discovering the secret? Then the translation enchantment actually made it nearly impossible to decipher without knowing the language.

Fortunately, neither of my students were foolish enough to believe that they could handle the more advanced works yet. Almir was studying a copy of the Elemental Primer: Wind, a basic textbook for young Aeromancers, and comparing it to a science textbook he had open on a laptop. Tabia, on the other hand, had a necromancer’s grimoire open in front of her, and she was taking notes with pencil and paper on the spells written there.

“Well, I am glad to see that you have both been making good use of your time. Tabia, I will ask you to check with me before you go trying to cast any of the more advanced spells in that grimoire. The early spells are simple enough, but you do not yet have the power, control, and knowledge necessary for the later ones. Depending on the spell, you might find yourself accidentally mutilating your soul.”

Tabia stiffened slightly at the warning, but nodded. “Yes, Mistress. I was just looking to compare the spells in this grimoire to the ones that Huntmaster Duskblade taught me, and seeing how they were different.”

I nodded once. “That is a good enough place for us to start, then. What spells do the two of you already know? Amir?”

Amir took a breath, and said, “Not many, Mistress. The Mana Bullet and Mana Shield spells from the training materials Phantomline produced, plus the Wind version. I am working on the other elemental versions of the spell, but the best of those I’ve gotten were the Water ones, and I struggle most with Earth.”

I looked over to Tabia, and she said, not without some pride, “I can reliably cast all nine versions of the ‘bullet’ and ‘shield’ spells, and I have the Sterilize spell, for purifying water or treating wounds.”

“Very good, both of you. Since you’ve practiced enough to know those spells, you should understand what I mean when I say that the main difference between a Sorcerer, Witch, and Arcanist is that the Sorcerer compels mana to follow their will, the Witch guides mana to do what they want, and the Arcanist builds channels for mana to accomplish their goals. However, can you tell me what the difference between an Arcanist and a Thaumaturge is?”

The two frowned, and thought for a moment, before Amir hesitantly spoke. “They both focus on the processes, right? Is there more to it than that?”

“Yes, and no. You are correct that both the Arcanist and the Thaumaturge focus on processes to make magic happen. However, a Thaumaturge focuses on the ‘real-world’ processes, while the Arcanist focuses on the magical processes. A simple example would be with the Fireball spell.

“To cast a Fireball, a Thaumaturge creates a sphere of concentrated oxygen and hydrogen under pressure, launches it to the target, and adds enough energy to cause a spark, and then boom. You get an explosion of fire. The greater or smaller the concentration of gasses in the sphere the larger or smaller the fireball becomes.

“On the other hand, an Arcanist casting a Fireball would instead concentrate Fire mana in an orb, and launch it at their target, where it explodes. They will typically include a limiter in the spell, concentrating the explosion in a set radius, increasing the destructive power and reducing waste. The strength of the explosion is determined by how much mana they pump into the spell.”

I paused to make sure the two were still following along. “Now, as I am sure you have heard me say in interviews, there are strengths and weaknesses to both styles. The reason a thaumaturgist relies on their CAD is because the number of variables involved is too much for a mortal mind to handle for anything but the simplest of spells, which limits them to whatever spells are loaded into their CAD. However, with that CAD, they can do extremely precise work with far less magical output than a Mage could do, and execute the spell faster, since the CAD is running the calculations for them.

“Of course, scientific knowledge is not useless to an Arcanist,” I continued, nodding towards Amir’s laptop. “The more they can make the magical processes work with, instead of against, natural processes, the less Mana their spells will take, and the more control they will have. For instance, Tabia, the base form of the Sterilize spell kills all microbes or impurities in a vessel. That is all well and good, but you cannot use it to clean out someone’s wound without either limiting it to the surface, or accounting for the helpful microbes and such in a person’s digestive tract. It is why mages will typically ‘kill’ a specific disease with their spell when treating an illness, rather than offering a panacea.”

“Because they don’t have the scientific knowledge to separate the beneficial microbes from the harmful ones?”

“Correct. And for you, Amir, it is obviously easier to create a bubble of vacuum, a wall of solid air, or a strong wind to blow away effects than to create a filter that separates noxious or poisonous fumes from breathable air. It is also why most people prefer to get a Water Breathing enchantment, rather than working a spell allowing them to breathe underwater. Working out the mechanics of keeping water out of the lungs and giving the user breathable air, without causing additional problems, like a bubble of air interfering with their senses or causing buoyancy issues, is something best left to an enchantment.”

Amir nodded slowly. “Even thaumaturges mostly just use scuba gear, or one of those fancy ‘artificial gills’ they made about ten years ago, where the mask filters enough oxygen from the water for you to breathe. Although that only allows you to go to depths of seven meters or so. I’ve heard that the spell formula for a sustained casting allowing breathable air to encompass someone is incredibly complex, especially if they’re going to be moving. Supposedly, the same version is used above and below water.”

“For thaumaturgists, you’d be correct,” I nodded. “The spell they use basically involves creating a barrier and filling it with breathable air, with subsequent casts reinforcing the barrier and replenishing the air. The reason for the complexity comes from making the barrier mobile without having a separate cast, or having it be an actual physical shield. However, that then interferes with things like swimming, since the barrier would have buoyancy, and someone wholly within the barrier wouldn’t be touching water to swim. However, if the barrier is more like a helmet, then you have to tailor it for the clothes, and ensure the person’s hair doesn’t poke through, etc.

“For a mage, and especially an arcanist, the spell is not as complex, but because it is a continuous effect, lapses in concentration or disruptions in someone’s mana flow can cause the spell to fluctuate, or fail entirely. Which is why it is much better left to an enchantment, much like how flight spells are better left as short duration affairs, or as enchantments. And, just so you know, before I will allow you to try flying magic for yourself, you’re going to learn how to cast the Slow Fall spell before you hit the ground from a second story fall. Until then, you’ll have to content yourself with enchantments or flying creatures.”

Tabia raised a hand. When I nodded to her, she asked, “Um, Mistress, is flying a Wind element spell? Or are there versions for other elements?”

“Good question, Tabia. The truth is that it depends on the style you are using. The ‘true’ Flight magic is non-elemental. However, each element has some version of flight magic. The specifics change based on the element, obviously.

“Wind is the simplest, with the Personal Windstorm spell, but it is hell on long hair or outfits that blow about. Fire’s Flameflight is basically a jet booster attached to your feet. Water has the Iceslide, which conjures ice that someone can slide along, like they were ice skating in the air. Earth has Floating Platform, which manipulates a section stone or metal and allows you to direct its flight. The nonphysical elements, Light, Shadow, Life, and Death, all have some version of a ‘Wings’ spell, like Death’s Skeleton Wings, which conjure wings of bone with energy lacing between them, which allows one to fly.”

I looked at the two, and said, “However, if you’re going to use flight magic in battle, then, unless you have a form that flies naturally, it is best that you use a mount or enchantment to handle the flying. That will make it much harder for someone to disrupt your flight. Of course, flying in battle also makes you a prime target for anyone with a ranged weapon or spells that can reach you, and the reflexes and skills needed for dodging are different from those used in fighting on the ground. There is a reason I’ve kept my feet firmly on the ground for most of the battles I’ve had since returning to this world.”