A New World, an immersive game experience

Chapter 282: Diving into magic

Typing messages with the system was extremely fast, it converted your thoughts into words. It was certainly not easy at first, much like telepathy, one had to actually think the words. But after a few tries, most everyone had managed, as almost everyone could think with words.

Though there were a few players who were unable and a speech conversion was added for them. The developers had acted quickly to take care of this, as such it never really made any headlines. Even though it had confirmed beyond a doubt that some people can't create words in their heads.

Due to the method of typing, by the time Eldrian finished sending his messages the spell was still going on, more importantly he could feel it continually taking his mana. Much like other spells which he could keep active after their normal time. Floga for example was supposed to just last a minute at most.

Not fighting this, Eldrian let the spell freely feed on his mana. As he did he also sent out his thoughts to follow along and try to figure out how the spell actually worked. A massive advantage of static magic was that he didn't have to understand a thing.

Yet Eldrian knew that continuing in such a manner would cause him to be limited to static magic. With practice he could get the ranks up of his spells. These ranks he had learned basically just indicated how well he could control his spell, and hence if he was capable of dynamically casting it.

Even Floga was still only Rank 3, and while Eldrian didn't know what was the limit to ranks, he felt quite certain that Rank 3 was not it. Though he had no proof for this other than what Zamia had shared with him. He knew he was not yet truly there, the spells weren't his own.

The form and usage of his spells were controlled by the type of spell it was. This sounded normal, but from what Zamia had shared with him Eldrian knew that it was not true dynamic casting. She had also told him that, and it was why she was incapable of teaching him more. And most likely everyone else would be incapable, his way was different from what was known.

In any case, Eldrian only slightly thought of this before his focus returned to Ischyros Anemos, the cause of these cold winds that were currently chilling him to the bone.

Ignoring the cold and following his own mana, Eldrian was surprised to find it splitting. Not only that, the mana changed. He had sent out simple wind elemental mana, which on its own simply felt like a spring breeze. It was refreshing and freeing, quite a comfortable feeling to lock onto.

Yet now he could tell that the properties of his mana were changing, he didn't know how, nor into what. Continuing to try and follow along Eldrian felt like one part became more energetic, while the other had the opposite effect. Become what he could only describe as cold and distant.

What is going on?? Eldrian wondered, however he failed to feel anything else. It was already hard enough to keep his focus on mana outside of his body. Adding the complexity and speed at which things were flowing, it made it nearly impossible for him to tell more than just the general feeling.

I need a better way to observe mana.? Eldrian quickly realized, knowing that if he could see mana flow as he could inside his body, then it would all become much much easier.

Finally canceling the flow of mana, the winds quickly grew weaker and weaker. Eldrian keenly noticing that the mana he was still feeling reverted back to normal, before being whisked away by the very winds they created.

"Interesting," He mumbled, this revelation informing him of quite an important factor. "While I'm here I might as well test out Volida too," Eldrian said while rubbing his arms, actually just wanting to get some heat after those chilling winds.

Moving to one of the dirt roads, Eldrian made sure that there were no flammable things where he was aiming. Sending out the fireball it quickly became bright as it exploded on the dirt, the heatwaves fully conquering over the cold.

For a few seconds Eldrian simply enjoyed the heat, as if the flames were a campfire. After getting rid of the chills he started focusing. Within seconds Eldrian found a massive difference between wind and fire, feeling incredibly dumb that he had missed it before.

Instead of continuing to focus on the flames he quickly stopped his connection to it, letting the flames die after they exhausted the mana which had brought them to life. Forming another, Eldrian struggled to keep it from directly firing off. In the end he failed, but the few seconds of struggle had allowed him to confirm his suspicion.

Unlike wind, where his mana took on different forms. Forms he didn't know. The fireball spell simply took his mana, converting it into flames. Even now, the flames on the road were all directly created by his mana.

The wind wasn't created, it was just manipulated.? That must be the pressure part of things, and why wind magic is so much weaker. Mana doesn't turn into it, but how does fire and water work then?? Eldrian was quickly stumped by this.

It made no sense that some elements could simply be summoned and others not,? Wait! Earth magic also requires actual materials. Nature magic too, if you tried to do anything other than direct energy manipulation.

Eldrian couldn't stop the smile from growing on his face as he realized this, quickly looking into his inventory for a book or note on earth magic. It was a category he had yet to touch on, luckily one of the books Myropsis had given him had some earth spells.

In his haste and excitement, Eldrian completely forgot that he had learned a Tier 0 earth spell, Gi. Instead he picked a Tier 1 spell and learned it from scratch, it was basically the same as Frost Needle. Only it needed a piece of dirt, or preferably pebble to be cast.

Picking up a nearby pebble Eldrian quickly tried to use Vrachos, the spell he had just learned, on it. It took him a couple of tries, but finally he managed to see results. The first few pebbles crumbled into dust, the next changing into grotesque objects.

Finally, after twenty minutes of trying, Eldrian managed to get the hang of the mana output needed for the spell. The pebble turning into a sharpened spike. Which suddenly flew from his hand and into the dirt.

"Shit!" Eldrian quickly pulled his hand back and looked at the cut. The spell didn't seem to care that he was holding the rock, as soon as it managed to work it sent the now spike-like rock flying off.

Having been caught off guard Eldrian had failed to learn anything, so he quickly repeated the spell. This time making sure to not keep the pebble in his hand, and also to aim the spell itself at the ground. Once it succeeded in changing it would simply dig a few centimeters into the ground from the force of it trying to fly off.

Thanks to the similarity to Frost Needle Eldrian needed but an hour of practice to get a better grip on the spell. Bringing it up to Rank 1, where he could at least keep it from flying out without his say-so.

In the process Eldrian had confirmed even more that mana was not just about elements. While the elemental mana had been necessary to form the pebble into a spike, it was also the mana that gave it a terrifying velocity.

Eldrian didn't quite get how the latter worked, even casting Frost Needle a few times to try and get a better grasp on it. He needed far less focus on keeping the ice spike from flying off, still, he failed in figuring out what happened to some of his mana.

Around half of it worked on actually forming the spell, the rest simply seemed to disappear when he let it fly. This wasn't entirely true, it was still there. Manipulating this mana was what allowed him to control the spell. But Eldrian couldn't tell how, he always focused on the part that had formed. Never on the mana that hadn't been used.

What is going on. Wait, maybe...? Eldrian paused as he changed his mindset, instead of continuing to toil blindly he turned to Magic Inspection. It was mostly a spell used to observe others, with many people using it to basically spy out their opponent's next action/spell.

Using it a few times Eldrian, encapsulated the spell module he formed with his concrete thoughts, with mageia. Finally, after ten minutes of trying, Eldrian managed to enter the magic abyss. Here he found himself slightly off guard as there was no mana flowing through the spell module.

This made sense, the spell was extremely cheap to cast, only costing 4 mana. It also had no upkeep, other than needing to focus to keep it active. One had to keep this spell module in their minds, which was completely different from other spells.

With others Eldrian could focus on what he had summoned, forgetting about the spell module once the fire/water/wind or whatever he had summoned was there. Nature magic was the only one that was weird, as there he had to focus on the energy entering his target. But it still wasn't a spell module.