Into the Unknown World

Chapter 9. Learning magic | Part III

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"I am alright." I said while removing dirt on my knees and added, "can I at least sell it?"

"No!" she instantly replied with her arms crossed.

I continued walking by the riverside still feeling heavy and about to burst while she's flying around me on our way to the forest. She reiterated that although the barrier extends to the edge of the forest, the restriction is only inside the Kingdom.

In some way, I am grateful that her former playful attitude is returning. The goal why we are now heading to the forest is we need more supply of food since I am running out of meat jerky and I am also thrilled to see the artefact again, knowing that it holds great benefits toward such goal. I can't help but think that if I can't sell it then how can I even use it to realize my plans and how can I even escape carrying that around?

Before we embarked the wilderness, Sprigg told me to practise my magic once again and recommended me to unlock the link for transmission. Connecting both of us where we can use to exchange words without saying anything like what she's been doing before. She also said that it is imperative to never sever the link between us again. Although she sounds overbearing, I kind of feel that this is her way of securing our connection. Regardless, detecting such beasts is not enough if we want to escape from here alive.

"Alright then, master. I have completed scanning your body and I found out that your body is still learning to adapt to her majesty's Origin Magic. So, we'll work with something else instead. You will be using elemental magic and...." she informed me while flying in front of me.

"...I can't use magic as of the moment," she added.

"W.. What?" I panicked.

Here I thought she'll be helping me slay the beasts inside the wilderness. So establishing the link of communication is to be certain I can understand her instructions and what's with using the elemental magic instead? Isn't that using the magic from nature, the mana?

"Alright, calm your emotions, master." she touched my face with the worried look then flew away.

I have been wondering why Sprigg is not teaching me any offensive enchantments or any spells for attacking before, perhaps she is only limited to defensive or detection enchantments. I thought, aside from the fact that it is the only magic I learned so far, this magic that I am using is depleting my energy, thus it is exhausting. Now I will be learning a new kind of magic, the elemental magic.

"Seriously, Sprigg. What you are trying to say now is that we are consuming the magic from the forest?" I furrowed my eyebrows, showing that I am not agreeing to the idea since this might not work out and exhaust my energy. And though I need to hunt for food I still don't want to kill them all. I am not as savage as I look.

"Not if we don't use it," she answered while we both checked the beautiful flower that appeared at the back of my hand as I raised it. I almost forgot about this grey-brown flower scar. She then explained the elemental magic that I will use. She said that it is a basic spell, and every magic wielder can use it as a form of any offensive or defensive manoeuvre.

"Isn't that the same thing?" confused about what she's attempting to tell me I asked her again.

"Yes, and No, Master." she quickly responded with a light thud on my shoulder. I can see her gracefully thin wings moving up and down.

"Please remember that I regulate the primordial magic flow from within you which is also the reason why you are feeling uncomfortable..." She drifted looking for a boulder to sit on.

"...and what we are going to do this time is for you to use the mana that surrounds you, not the original magic from Queen Kalpea. It's the same thing in using magic, you can still use the detection spell I taught you but you are using the mana without it. Also, we can't use the abundant magic of nature before because we are inside King Agar's barrier." she added.

I now understand that the justification of why I feel so exhausted before was because of the barrier constraining me from using mana inside the castle. The barrier acts as a double edge blade to all mages and magic wielders alike. However, that's different with higher magic, though. Having her not giving me any warning means that she's also not able to utter such words within the city walls. How futile. I mean, why would you deter such magnificent magic even without people wielding it? I don't feel the need for it anyway aside from fending off the beasts from the forest.

"Alright, let's start with the same stance. Feel the mana and gather them inside you."

As soon as she said that, I started feeling the dense magic flowing within me and the magic wafting around me, I am now able to discern and describe how light the mana feels. It felt like my body is pulling the mana that surrounds me and is gathering inside my abdomen and is spreading all throughout my body as if it became one with my magic.

"Make sure not to incorporate the mana with your magic before it gets to your hand so you can only use the mana. On the other hand, I will make sure to assist you not depleting the mana around this area." she urgently added.

You should have said it beforehand, Sprigg. It's a very tough task. I paid attention to every little thing I could feel and didn't move a flesh. The sooner the mana reaches my body, the faster it combines with my magic since I am comfortable using it now, distinguishing it is really difficult. It's like my body treats this unfamiliar magic as mine. My magic, huh? That gooey magic which almost filled the golden goblet from the castle. How about using the idea of the barrier? I asked myself. I know this is not a clever idea as I thought but...

"Disintegrating the origin magic into mana particles to stabilize it while supplying mana to nature. That's not bad at all, Master!" with one hand crossed supporting the elbow and the other touching her chin, nonchalantly added, "however, you need to work with the principle of the barrier and disintegration altogether. Hmm."

"Please explain further!" I rebuked.

She said that it's basically changing the direction of the original magic inward which will then create an invisible force as a vessel to repel it from going out, she said that it will then form and act like an untamed beast as my core and will gradually escape from its cage spewing deadly debris to the surrounding since Origin Magic is not meant for containing. Although it's the same idea of providing magic to nature, we're incapacitating it due to its volatile nature and my weak body. My job is to tame the beast inside while Sprigg will be disintegrating the debris into mana at the same time. That sounds like a very tough task indeed.

Doing what I was being told in broad daylight near the riverside, I withdrew all the connections pushing it inward to disable the origin magic from making contact with mana and then trapping every magic while she disintegrates the magic erupting from the enclosed origin magic. I started focusing on using the mana particles in distributing within my body after that. After a couple of hours I got the hang of it, Sprigg calls me a prodigy but the truth is because I am earnestly doing what she is asking me to accomplish and I am peeking at her mind. I was wondering how she is able to do it but I guess it's vice versa, perhaps she can't feel me peeking at her thoughts.

After a long while of learning and controlling the magic at the same time I began the next phase of using the elemental magic. I gathered every mana all throughout my body and it then gathers within my fists as I want to form the fire on it. Yes, I am trying the fire element first since I am near the river and Sprigg said that it's okay to use any elements. Of course, I would choose fire first. I imagined it as hot as a chunk of burning coal as it can also be used to cook creatures later.

My hand began to surge a warm and subtle feeling, I can see the large dark red fire wildly burning like a ravaging fire on a pile of haystacks. Sprigg began instructing me things like decreasing and increasing the amount of fire and to shoot it on the river if I could. The moment I shoot the fire with a decreased amount of mana, it scatters. She said to try to imagine it like a solid rock. Honestly, Sprigg how can you compare a rock to a fire? I asked her using the link that I am still using to orient the feeling.

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