The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 34

Chapter 34 – Second Class

Another day, another lecture. I was happy to see that the auditorium was just as full as it had been last time. It seemed that I had not bored the academics to the point where they didn’t want to hear the rest of what I had to say.

Today, I was dressed in a simple women’s business suit, tailored for my human form. A bit of cosplay yesterday was appropriate, to set the tone for the belief discussion, but we were getting into the more mechanical parts of magic today. A more serious look conveys a more serious tone.

“Welcome back, students. And you, too, visitors. I am glad to see the seats just as full as last time. Yesterday, we talked about the fundamental principles of magic in the other world. Today, we will talk about the fundamental uses of magic.

“Now, I know some of you may be upset that I’m spending so much time on fundamentals, but I urge you to be patient. After all, you don’t go from basic arithmetic straight to three-dimensional calculus, do you? There are steps in between, which needs be addressed, or you simply won’t understand the more complicated lessons.”

I flicked my wrist, and opened a portal to my pocket dimension. Out walked three of my undead servants, who quickly set up a projector and screen behind me. A touch of my hand, and the projector turned on, displaying an image full of complex calculations from the laptop computer I’d set up on the podium. Then, the calculations began to scroll upwards, revealing more calculations, as the three servants went back into the pocket dimension, and it sealed behind them.

“What you see here are the calculations required for creating a pocket dimension that can be accessed at will. There are variables in all of this for the size of the dimension, what kind of environment, if any, there is, the flow of time in the dimension, whether life can exist in the dimension, and a few hundred other things, all of which determines the amount of magic needed to build the dimension in the first place, and how much magic is needed to upkeep or access it. Then, there are additional calculations, based on whether the dimension is anchored to a single place or object, or whether it follows a person around.

“This is why we start with the basics. Learning the fundamentals of magic is the same as learning the fundamentals of math. You need that foundation if you are to ascend to the highest levels. More importantly, making a mistake in the fundamentals of math can lead to disaster when you misplace a decimal point or forget to convert from Imperial to Metric. But consider how much more dangerous it is to make that kind of fundamental error when you are working with the forces of creation, of life and death, of reality itself. A miscast Magick can usher in the Apocalypse, if given enough power.”

I pressed a key, and the screen changed, to show a crude outline of a person, an orb of blue centered in its chest “So, fundamentals. You all know that magicules, the particles that make up magic, reside in the body of living things. The reservoir of magicules a person has is the limit of the magic they can use, given the understanding of Thaumaturgy.”

“The other world understood magicules as mana, and they recognized that mana did not exist solely in the living flesh, but in the world around them, suffusing everything. Mana is magic, and magic is mana. A person’s internal reservoir of mana is one indicator of their prowess, but, with training, anyone can access the mana in the world around them, pulling it through them, augmenting their own ability with the ambient magic.”

Now, the screen showed two people, both with their mouths open, and blue coming in to join the blue inside them. The one on the left used that blue energy to make a ball of fire in the hand. The other, however, sent the blue out to different parts of their bodies.

“Understand that, while everyone in the other world had magic, that did not mean that everyone was a mage. To be a proper mage, you need a significant internal pool of mana, as it takes too long to channel ambient mana for spellwork unless you have a lot of practice. However, this led to the two main forms of magic use in the other world: magecraft and cultivation.

“Magic, to put it simply, is like a muscle. The more you use it, and push your boundaries, the stronger you get. The three ways you improve are the speed at which you can draw in mana, the size of your pool, and the speed that you can channel mana at. In both magecraft and cultivation, these principles are the same. The difference is in how they are applied.

“A mage, one blessed with a naturally strong mana pool, or the ability to rapidly refill their pool, will push their growth into their pool. This is so that they can cast more spells, stronger, for longer. On the other hand, the cultivator, who does not have those advantages, pushes their growth out, into their own flesh, making them stronger, faster, more durable than a human’s natural state.

“This also has the effect of making them more resistant to outside magic, as well. A contest between a mage and a cultivator comes down to stamina. Will the cultivator’s physical stamina outlast the mage’s magical stamina? It is not as simple as you might think. A cultivator can move like a shounen anime protagonist, while a mage can cast spells that boggle the mind.”

I looked out at the audience. “This is basic information, I understand, but it is critical if you are to understand magic, as those of the other world did. To quote Lao Tsu, ‘The wise man is one who knows what he does not know.’

“So, let us get into how a spell is formed. As I said yesterday, there are three core parts of any spell: Knowledge, Perceptions, and Intent. You take the knowledge you have, such as how fire burns, focus your intent into making a fireball, and cast it at someplace you can perceive, yes? Well, what role does a CAD, or a Focus, have in this?

“The answer is, simply, that the CAD or Focus is simply a tool. The spells a CAD are loaded with contain the Knowledge needed, requiring only a few variables from your perceptions and focus with your intent. This allows you to do incredibly complex spells very quickly, because, in the moment, you only need to worry about perceptions and intent. This speeds your reaction time significantly, but only when casting spells already loaded upon the CAD.

“What happens when you need a spell you don’t have loaded? What happens if you want to carve out a safe spot in the middle of an explosion for an ally? Using a CAD is great, for situations you have prepared for, but once you step into the unknown, unless you have a spell that is incredibly versatile, then you will find cases that you have not prepared for. And, if you do not know how to cast without your CAD, you will likely become a liability, rather than a help.”

I paused, to let that sink in. “And what of Foci? Well, they, too, are tools, though ones more basic in nature. While the CAD’s programs focus on the Knowledge required for a spell, a Focus is typically focused on the Intent. And this changes how the spells cast are used in many ways.”

I reached into my pocket dimension again, and pulled out my staff, as well as a shield focus. “These are both foci. If you picture your mana pool as the water running through your pipes, then the focus is a hose. This staff is just a simple hose, designed to make it exceedingly easy to channel spells based on necromancy. Using it for a fireball would be worse than not using a focus at all.”

Holding up the shield focus, I said, “This pendant is a specialized focus, dedicated to using the Shield spell. You pump mana into it, and it will create a shield. Since it is more specialized, this allows the focus to incorporate both the Intent and Knowledge into it. All that is required by the wearer is the perception of a threat and the thought to activate the shield. No pressing buttons on the CAD, or remembering the proper formulae. Just a shield, instantly. The strength and duration of the shield depends on how much power the user pumps into it, and how long they can keep it up.”

I chuckled, and said, “You should know, however, that, in the other world, only a very poor mage, or one facing a threat that used an element they were weak against, would carry a shield focus. Instead, these were common amongst the footsoldiers and cultivators of an army, giving them that little extra sliver of survivability in the face of enemy mages. A mage using one of these was considered a charlatan unless the shield was focused on an element that they were not proficient in, like a necromancer wishing to create a shield of water to ward off fire spells.

“Now, I can see some of you are confused. Sure, you’ve all heard of elements like Fire and Water, and I’m sure you’re confused as to what I mean about proficiency with the element. Simply put, your understanding of magic hasn’t developed to the point of truly using elements, yet.”

I was certain I had their attention, now. “Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Light, Dark, Life, and Death. These are the elements, each with an opposite. Above these, or below, depending on how you look at it, is raw, or untyped, mana. The people of the other world learned early on to discover one’s elemental affinities. However, this made it difficult for those of the other world to use untyped magic, requiring specialist training, or specially prepared foci to pull off.

“You Thaumaturges, on the other hand, with your belief structure, have approached things differently, starting with untyped mana. Because of this, it is harder for you to identify talents, but those talents tend to be more versatile than just using a single element. However, because of your generalized training, you lack the power of a specialist, someone who focuses on a single element.”

I looked out, over the audience, and said, “If one were to try and study magic, as the other world studied magic, then one of the first things they would need to do is to take up meditation. Yes, I know asking a bunch of scientists to take up meditation sounds counterintuitive. However, there are many reasons for it.

“First, since the other world’s magic does not revolve around the crutch of CADs as being necessary to do magic, that magic is easier to access. More to the point, it is easier to access accidentally. Remember, the cornerstones of magic are Knowledge, Perception, and Intent. Many young mages are found when they are children, because they get frightened, or angry, or excited, and their magic responds instinctively, fueled only by Perceptions and Intent.

“Thankfully, most children do not have the kind of power needed to cause true harm, minus a few accidental fires. However, as you grow older, and grow into your power, actually trying to expand your power? Then, yes, meditation, discipline, and control are all critical. Indeed, the more powerful you are, the more control is needed.

“According to tests done by the International Thaumaturgical Society, the most powerful thaumaturge in the world today is Urata Nobukazu, of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. Urata-san is noted for the prodigious amount of magic that he can channel and produce, and has shown a particular predilection for light-based spells, including laser and maser combat spells. If one were to take his CADs away, then it is possible, with enough effort, that he could manifest light spells that would be deadly. But they would not be as controlled, or as effortless as his normal spellwork. Instead of an industrial laser, you might instead get a microwave burst that cooks every living creature from the inside out, or worse, but the damage would likely be limited to a building or two, maybe a city block.

“Now, to you, the idea of someone getting upset, and being able to boil an entire city block’s worth of people to death on accident is horrific, and rightly so. However, when one is trained in one’s element, and not bound by the crutch of belief that a CAD is necessary for magic, then the need for meditation and self-control grows as one grows in power. For that reason, a lot of the wards placed on a powerful person’s home were designed not just to defend against spying and spellwork, but to contain uncontrolled mana, and keep it from affecting the outside world as much.”

I looked over the audience again. “I tell you this, not to frighten or dissuade you from studying magic, but to warn you of the dangers. Magic is a tool, same as any other. But it is a tool linked to one’s mind, and so an unbalanced mind may have disastrous results when unleashing their magic. Fortunately, most of those who cannot handle controlling themselves typically either destroy themselves early on in their careers, or they walk the path of the cultivator, and go on rampages, rather than unleashing sudden annihilation.”