Mark Vol 1 Chapter 6

It had been over two days since Mark was staying at the inn.
During that time, he had paid a little more money so he could move to a room with windows. Mark had spent his time reading the magic tome with the help of sunlight. Since he couldn’t read, instead he had tried memorizing the shape of the written words and the drawings of magic seal movements.

When his eyes hurt, he practiced Magic Arrow. Whenever he used magic, he cast it through the open window, facing the sky. He also practiced making the magic seals with both of his hands.
Mark had eaten lunch in the hallroom and returned to his room to continue reading the magic tome, when someone came knocking on his door.

“Who is it?”

“I’ve come from the mercenary guild.”

It was the voice of a young girl. Opening the door, Mark saw that it was indeed a young girl, but with a childlike face.

“You are Mr. Mark?”

“Yes, I am.”

Opening the door, he let the girl into his room. Sitting on the floor, they talked.
The name of the girl was Julie, and said that she was 17 years old. Apparently, from a young age she had a vested interest in magic.

She was born in a rather wealthy family, and so she was given an expensive education. But some years ago, her father was attacked and killed by monsters while on business trip, and after that, the family shop was ruined. And so Mark was told, that was the reason why she was now working at a grain store.

“If you’re capable of using magic, why don’t you teach magic for a living instead?”

“I do know of various magic, but the ones I can actually use are only Light and Wind. I can’t quite use the other magic well…”

Mark asked her to show him her magic.
Complying, Julie closed her eyes, concentrating as she chanted the spell and slowly drew the magic seal with her hand. The moment she cried out the final words of the spell, a white light formed near her chest. The light gently floated upwards, stopping above her head. Amazed, Mark kept staring into the light. It disappeared after about 5 minutes.

Once more she began chanting a spell, and this time she produced a slight blowing wind. It was straightforward. Light magic was a magic that created light, and Wind magic, was one that blew wind. Mark committed it to his memories.
But the wind cast by Julie didn’t last very long.

“Does the wind usually disappear so quickly?”

“It’s not like that. It depends on the caster.”

Through the conversations he had with her, Mark concluded that Julie was well-qualified to teach him to read. Due to her work at the grain store in the day, she said she could teach him how to read and write in the night. But learning at night would incur extra expenses from having to use candles, so in return, Mark requested that she answer any questions regarding magic that she knew about. She readily agreed.

From then on, Mark learned to recognize written words.
The first night, he had to learn in a stooped position on the floor while the room was lit with a candle. Finding it too uncomfortable, Mark paid the inn owner to borrow a table for the times he spent learning at night. But again, he found it too inconvenient to learn just by sight, so he bought a tool meant for learning to write from the nearby tool shop.

The item he bought was a light-weight square wooden board with raised edges so as to contain dirt. For pens, he broke off two twigs from the tree near the inn, which would be used to draw characters in the dirt.

Each learning session, two hours was spent on reading and writing, while the remaining 1 hour was used to ask Julie questions about magic. They were using the book on basic magic theory to learn reading, so the questions on magic popped up in Mark’s head then and there during the lessons.

“Does mana reside in the blood?”

“That theory is the most well known.”

“Was it proven with certain evidence?”

“I’ve heard that one magician had experimented on it. That person had slowly let out his blood while using magic.”

“So what happened then?”

“The magician became dizzy from bleeding too much and couldn’t use any more magic. And in the end, that person wasn’t sure of whether he couldn’t use magic from the dizziness of blood loss, or because the amount of mana was reduced along with the blood.”

“What do you think about it Julie?”

“I think that mana is definitely in the blood.”

“Why do you think so?”

“Did you know that when there’s no magic powder to use on magic circles, blood is used as replacement? The fact that blood can subst.i.tute magic powder is proof in itself.”

Nodding in agreement, Mark thought that Julie was much smarter than that experimenting magician.

“Is mana generated from the moon?”

“Yes. It’s the reason why at night, the surrounding mana overflows.”

“I can’t really feel it though.”

“I can’t sense the difference either. But it’s certain that magic is much easier to use when night falls.”

Julie used Alarm magic as an example.

“As a matter of fact, the difficulty and mana consumption of Alarm magic is on the level of cla.s.s 2 magic. But because the magic has a distinct use for night times, it is known to have high success rates. That’s why I believe it is cla.s.sified as a cla.s.s 1 magic. Try using magic in the day and then at night, and you will clearly feel the difference. Of course, if that doesn’t work, then you might as well forget about it.”

Mark quickly wanted to learn other magic. The kind of magic you could practice inside his room. Some kinds of offensive magic would require a certain amount of s.p.a.ce to practice.

While reading the book on magic theory, Mark came to know a new truth. When using magic, the incantation and magic seal wasn’t something absolutely necessary. It was written that spell incantations are meant to a.s.sist in defining a clearer image of the magic, while drawing magic seals is an action to help move the mana within the body.

“Julie.”

“Yes, Mark.”

“There’s something I’m curious about spells and magic seals.”

“What is it you want to know?”

“It’s written in this book that incantations are meant to help form an image of the magic in your mind. Then if you were able to clearly imagine the magic by yourself, would the incantation become unnecessary?”

“That’s right. Incantations aren’t absolute. But there probably aren’t many magicians who are capable of doing that. Imagination is extremely important in the art of magic. A certain magician said this. A magician envisions, and mana brings that visualization to life. Indeed, incantations are meant to help your imagination.”

“Then if incantations purpose is to help create an image, is there a need to always stick to the same one? The way that people picture magic in their minds must all be different.”

“As you say, there are more than one variation of incantations. But it’s said that there are a few set rules to them. Like how certain words must be included in the chant. And the spells that are universally used have had their incantations standardized through the collective research of many magicians. There is a good reason for why so many people would use the same incantation for a spell.”

Julie’s explanation was convincing to Mark.

“What kind of role do magic seals have?”

“History tells us that the magicians of the past had remarkable imaginative abilities, as well as a great affinity towards mana. Those magicians were able to use magic just by thinking of the spell.”

“That’s amazing.”

“Isn’t it? But there’s a limit to how much you can direct mana with just your thoughts. Because it wasn’t easy for the magicians of the past to manipulate their mana with only their thoughts, it took them longer to cast their magic. That’s why they invented the magic seals from observing the movements of mana. These magic seals are what help you to smoothly direct your mana.”

Mark was curious as to how magic seals helped to guide mana. He asked Julie, but she replied that she also didn’t know. She continued speaking.

“In reality, there is more than one form to magic. Do you remember the Light magic I showed you? Didn’t the ball of light slowly float to above my head after appearing?”

“Yes, I remember.”

“There are actually more ways to use that magic. One way is to create a light that slowly moves forward, and another is to create it right by that wall over there. All these methods require a different movement of the mana.”

“If that’s true…then does it mean that the magic seal changes according to the usage of magic?”

“Naturally. That’s why it takes a long time to learn one type of magic.”

To think that you needed to remember all those complex hand signs for each different way of using magic! Mark suddenly felt his head ache.

“As of the present, is there no way of using magic without making the magic seals?”

“I’ve heard that some high ranked magicians are capable of casting magic with only the name of the spell, omitting the incantations and magic seals.”

“Is it only possible for those high ranked magicians?”

“I don’t really know further than that.”

Seeing Julie answer all his questions so well, Mark had momentarily thought that she would know everything.

“The section about magic variations will come out near the end of the book, so when the time comes I’ll teach you all about it in detail.”

“Yes, Julie.”

After Julie left at the end of his lesson, Mark set about to practice casting Magic Arrow. He thought to himself, that if incantations and magic seals weren’t absolute, then activating magic without either one should be possible.

Right after opening the window in his room, he began using his magic. Chanting the spell as slowly as possible, he tried sensing the movements of mana.

“The mana dwelling within me, respond to my calling and destroy my enemy with the force of a hammer, faster than wind.”

It was faint, but he could definitely feel the mana shifting.

“Magic Arrow!”

Mark had shouted out the spell name, but it didn’t activate. He continued practicing several more times before giving up.
This time, he decided to try it the opposite way. He would omit the incantation and only make the magic seals.

Closing his eyes, Mark imagined the form of Magic Arrow in his mind. Slowly, he moved his hands to draw the seals. This time, he could feel the mana stirring around him more clearly.

“Magic Arrow!”

To his surprise, a Magic Arrow burst out flying towards the sky. It was a success!
Afterwards, he tried other ways of casting the magic, such as slowly drawing the magic seals with his eyes open, and quickly drawing the seals with his eyes closed. At times, he failed, and in others, he succeeded. More practice was needed.
Practicing deep into the night, it was a while before Mark fell asleep.

Having used Magic Arrow too many times, Mark became bored of it and wanted to try other magic. He quickly wanted to learn to read so as to start reading from the cla.s.s 1 magic tome. That was why, even outside of his lessons with Julie, he spent effort into memorizing the characters in the book.

In this way, a month had pa.s.sed and Mark completely learned every character. He already knew the words, so now that he knew the characters, the books were easy to read.
Mark didn’t expect that he would learning to read so quickly. There was still 2 months left for Julie to teach, and it seemed problematic to end the lessons right now.

So he made a suggestion to Julie. Since he had learned to read, why not spend the remaining 2 months on learning magic? There was still over half of the magic theory book to go through, and the book itself contained quite the vague explanations.

That is why Mark asked her to help by explaining to him the things he couldn’t figure out while reading, and with practicing magic as well. Although Julie only knew how to use Wind and Light magic, but she was undeniably well-informed in regards to magic theory.
Laughing happily, Julie agreed.

Now that he could read, Mark earnestly began advancing his knowledge of magic. He spread open the cla.s.s 1 magic tome. It contained the following magic: Light, Armor, Magic Arrow, Wind, Fire, Cold, Sharp, Daze, Alarm, Cat’s Ear, Warm, Compa.s.s. A total of 12.

He chose to first learn Alarm. The reason was because of the conversations he had with Robert on the way to this village. When Robert told him about his mercenary days, he had also told Mark a few things about the magicians he came across. The roles given to magicians, and the kind of magic they would use.

The most commonly used was Alarm magic. It was a magic that would sound an alarm in response to intruders. Magicians were eagerly welcomed because Alarm magic could rid the need of a night watch.

It was something he had considered before, but learning magic did indeed cost alot of money. Mark didn’t know how much a cla.s.s 2 magic tome would be, but it would surely cost more than 20 silvers.
He decided, it would be a good idea to earn more money by becoming a mercenary.
Now that he was a magician, he wanted to make money by making use of his magic.