Chapter 5

“That seemed to go well.”, said Medes when I returned to the real world.

“It did, didn’t it. What do we do now?”

“You, nothing. You can take a holiday.”

“Your soul, though, he’s going to be very busy. Your soul will have to refill it’s mana pool with Spirit Mana. The Spirit Mana is going to transform your soul from an average guy into Hercules. Once that’s done, and not before, can we actually start practicing magic.”

“And while he is busy with that, you and I need to have a long, serious talk. Now we get to talk about the magic”

“I’ll just give you an overview for now and we can talk more over time.”

“As you probably know through cultural references, there are many different schools in magic. There are warlocks, who work mainly with summoned Spirits. There are Elementalists, who deal mainly with the five elements of Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Spirit. There are necromancers who fuel their magic with the the energy of the dead and the dying. They are a very unpleasant lot. I hope you don’t choose to be one of them. There are enchanters, who put their energy into various object to achieve different outcomes, such as enchanting a ring or pendant to ward themselves against magical attack. The list of choices available to you is practically endless.

It’s up to you to decide what shape your magic will take. You can mix and match at will, though, I would suggest you choose one as your main field of study and use the rest to broaden your horizons.”

“The part that probably interests you the most right now is, how do you actually use the magic? The answer to that question is both ridiculously simple, and ridiculously hard.”

“Most magic is done by using intention and will. You figure out what you want done, how big you want the effect to be, and then you send out a measured packet of your Spirit Mana and will it to do what you want it to do.”

“The hard part is that doing magic properly requires a lot of concentration and focus. You need to shut everything else out of your mind except the effect you are trying to achieve. Imagine you are trying to cast a fireball and and you start thinking about dinner. That energy you gathered has to go somewhere. You could end up casting a fireball on yourself.”

“Then there are spells. Spells come in two different forms. The first are the spells used by the beginner to help them focus. These types of spells quickly become unnecessary as the magician soon outgrows their need.

The second type of spells are those used in the more complex rituals such as warding a house. The magician breaks the ritual up into sections and uses spells to keep control of things. Or perhaps two or three magicians may join together temporarily for some specific purpose. This is unusual though. Magicians are by nature a solitary lot.

We continued the conversation long into the night, and it continued the next day. I doubt this particular conversation would ever end. I would always be coming back to Medes for advice and knowledge.

Now I had a choice to make. How did I want to fashion my magic. Did I want to be a jack of all trades, or did I want to focus on one particular form of magic. I thought about it over the next few days and was constantly coming back to Medes with an endless amount of questions about the various schools of magic. Then I made my decision.

“You know, Medes. I think I want to be an elemental magician.”

“Good choice. It’s always good to be the biggest gun around. To be a true grounded elementalist, though, is a long and and difficult endeavor that can take years in some cases.’

‘The first thing you’ll need to do is to get in contact with the different Elemental Realms, in the correct elemental order, and hope they send a representative to talk with you.”

“You’ll need to create a circle and fill it with spirit energy and change it into the energy of the particular element you are dealing with at that moment. I’ll give you a spell to turn your pure Spirit Mana into the correct elemental form for each of the elements at the appropriate time.”