Explorer of Edregon

"Before we begin, let me ask you this… What is magic?"

Vin stared at his new magic instructor, blinking at the familiar question and experiencing a sudden sense of déjà-vu to his very first lesson with Shia back in the Sacred Forest. Did all magic teachers start their lessons this way?

"Magic is chaos," Vin said, recalling his conversation with the Goddess. "It is endless power, for good and for bad, which we give order to via runic formations to carry out our simple whims."

Eithan blinked, staring at him like he'd suddenly grown a second head. Clearing his throat, the older man slowly nodded. "Well… That's certainly an answer I've not heard before. You're not exactly wrong, but it's a bit of a depressing viewpoint, don't you think?"

"I view magic as opportunity," he continued, waving his hand with a smile and summoning a stone out of thin air. Snatching it before it could hit the ground, he held the ordinary looking rock out to him, giving him a good look at it. "Just like how this stone could become just about anything in the hands of a skilled Carver, a skilled mage can take magic and do just about anything with it, given enough time and study."

Vin nodded, appreciating the Stone Mage's outlook on magic. He liked thinking of magic as an opportunity as opposed to an inevitable maelstrom of destruction held at bay solely by the colossal workings of the Gods.

"Now, I warned you of this last we spoke, but unless you want to risk giving your mana an earth affinity you shouldn't learn more than a handful of earth based spells for now," Eithan repeated. "It's not exact, but the safest rule is generally not to learn more spells than a tenth of your magic attribute plus one, rounded down. Meaning if you have twenty points in magic, you'd risk developing an affinity if you learned more than three spells."

"Makes sense," Vin nodded, checking his System interface despite knowing exactly what numbers it would show.

Vinnie Stone

Magical Explorer: Lvl 20

Titles: Human Vessel (Lesser)

Exp. 192,160/210,000

Strength: 13(10)

Dexterity: 20(6)

Endurance: 39(4)

Vigor: 20(4)

Focus: 25(2)

Magic: 30

Attribute Points: 0

Skill Points: 1

Passive Points: 0

Vows/Boons: Vow of Benevolence/Grace of Gods (Boon)

Capstone: Runic Recalibration

Passives: Mental Map, Polyglot, Distance Runner, Threat Detection, Iron Mind

Skills: Tracking lvl 6, Runecraft lvl 1, Meditation lvl 17, Dungeoneering lvl 1, Resistance lvl 7, Running lvl 8, Cartography lvl 6

Tier 0 Spells: Sense Stone (earth), Sense Life (life), Sense Magic (neutral)

Tier 1 Spells: Renewal (life), Entangle (nature), Replenish (nature), Light (light), Concealment (neutral)

After prestiging last night, he'd been surprised to find that the spell portion of his interface had been restructured under tiers and affinities. On top of that, he also had a few unexpected and brand new messages waiting for him.

New spell witnessed! Tier 1 Earth Spell (Summon Stone). 1,000 exp gained.

New magical affinity discovered! Earth affinity. 1,000 exp gained.

Well that's certainly new. Vin hadn't given too much thought to how prestiging would alter the inner workings of his standard Explorer class, but it looked like on top of his new bonuses and passive, the ways he went about gaining experience had changed. He'd have to do some experimenting later and see what else was different.

"My magic attribute is at thirty," he told Eithan, earning himself a surprised look.

"That's remarkably high for a non-spell focused class," the man said, clearly wanting to ask him some questions but managing to restrain himself. "Regardless, that means you shouldn't learn more than four earth based spells if you want to play it safe and keep your mana neutral. You might be fine at five, but there's always a chance you'll develop an affinity if you push it."

"I already know Stone Sense, so really only three new ones."

"Don't worry, Stone Sense would have been the first spell I taught you anyway, so you're not wasting a slot or anything," Eithan reassured him. "That runic formation is the starting point of just about all of our spells. In fact, there is another one you'll have to learn as well before we can get started."

"Summon Stone?" Vin guessed.

"Right you are, lad!" Eithan grinned, clearly enjoying having a student that was on the ball. "The two of these spells make up the base of all our runic formations, so you won't be able to cast any of our more complicated earth magic without both of them under your belt. Just about all fields of magic have the same two bases; a tier 0 sense spell, and a tier 1 creation spell. Once you have Summon Stone down, then we can talk about what you want your final two spells to be."

"Alright, ready when you are!" Vin said, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet in anticipation. He couldn't wait to sink his teeth into a new type of magic, and he swore he could already taste it.

"Well then," Eithan said, standing proudly before him and giving him a wide smile. "Go find a rock!"

Vin stared at the mage in confusion, his enthusiasm quickly diminishing.

"Huh?"

"A rock, lad. Go find a rock!" Eithan repeated, shooing him with his hands.

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Slowly, looking quizzically at his mentor all the while, Vin bent down. The entire fragment consisted of dusty, rocky terrain, so Vin had no issues reaching out and grabbing one about the size of his hand without ever breaking eye contact with the grinning mage. Standing back up, he presented his find to his mentor.

"A rock," he said dumbly, wondering where they were going with this.

"Yes, indeed," Eithan said, stroking his messy beard. "Now, describe it to me."

"Uh… It's hard. Kinda cold, I guess. A bit dusty…" Vin stared at his new mentor, wondering if he'd made a poor choice. "…I'll be honest, I'm not sure what you're looking for here."

"It doesn't matter what I'm looking for," Eithan chuckled, gesturing toward Vin's rock. "What matters is what you are looking for. Tell me Vin, most of my students are starting from complete scratch, so I guess I forgot to check with you before starting this lesson. But do you have any spells that create a physical something out of nothing? Any creation based spells, I should say?"

Vin ran through his rather limited spell list in his mind, pondering the question. Most of his spells either let him detect something or emit something, but none created something from nothing. Although seeing as it didn't have a 'sense spell' base like the rest of his spells, he could only assume his newest spell Light counted as a creation base spell as far as magic was concerned. Entangle was also close, but that spell required preexisting vegetation to function, he just made it grow faster. He couldn't actually create plants out of thin air. And seeing as it was built off of Sense Life, it couldn't be a creation spell according to Eithan's definition.

"Maybe, but I'm not entirely sure," he admitted.

"Nothing to be ashamed of!" Eithan smiled. "The reason I'm asking you to describe your rock is because I'm about to let you in on a little secret most fledgling mages don't realize for quite some time."

Holding out his other hand, Eithan must have cast Summon Stone again, as a second rock appeared out of nowhere clutched between his fingers. Only unlike the first ordinary looking rock he'd summoned, this one was distinctly different. While the first one looked like a pale grey, this one was far darker and had much rougher edges.

"A question for you, Vin. How is it that I can use the identical runic formation in a second Summon Stone spell, and yet get a completely different rock?"

Vin stared at the mage's hands, his eyes flicking back and forth between the two clearly different rocks. Unless Eithan also had an ability like his own Runic Recalibration, he had no idea how the man had managed to adjust his spell.

"Some sort of passive?"

"A good guess, but no," Eithan said, shaking his head. "While I do have a few passives that aid me in my casting, they aren't why I was able to get two distinctly different rocks out of the same spell. The answer, is that many runes are not quite as definitive as you'd expect."

"Take my Summon Stone spell for example. Do you think the runic formation for such a simple spell includes individual runes for the rock's size, color, weight, and all the other details you or I could sit here listing about any given rock for hours?"

"I guess not," Vin said, starting to see where the mage was going with this.

"No, it doesn't. While all the factors that make spells so complicated still apply of course, such as positioning the runes correctly within your mana and angling them just so within the formation, the heart of the spell, the rune for rock, ironically, is rather flexible. Upon flooding the formation with mana and casting the spell, in that moment the rune checks in with the caster for their idea of what a rock is, and uses that as the template for its creation. By changing my mental image of a rock, I can use the same spell to get two entirely different results."

"So spells aren't just rigid things after all… But how does that work? Gemstones are technically rocks, aren't they? Couldn't you use that spell just to summon gems then?"

"First off, I'm impressed you're aware that some gems are technically a type of rock," Eithan said, raising an eyebrow. "Normally it takes a few lessons to get my students to accept that fact. But to answer your question, no, that wouldn't work. Not because your idea isn't sound, but because there already exists a rune for gem. Whatever strange intelligence governs the language of magic apparently decided that the two concepts of rock and gem are different enough to warrant different runes. If I tried to picture a rock as a diamond for example, the mana would somehow cross check other runes to see if one existed that better fit my mental model. If that was the case, my spell would fail."

"I think I need a minute," Vin said, holding a hand to his head as his world view was forcibly expanded yet again. His mind whirled with this new understanding of how magic worked. The way Eithan described it, he almost made it sound as though mana was alive. How else was it able to tell what mental construct fit into what rune? Was it just the Gods making these decisions behind the scenes like he'd been told? Or did the mana spread throughout countless worlds truly have some sort of deep, underlying awareness that the Gods were simply building on top of?

"Don't worry, I had my own existential crisis when my mentor revealed all this to me when I was a mere apprentice," Eithan chuckled, giving him a sympathetic smile. With barely a rumble, two perfectly crafted stone stools rose out of the ground, their legs still merged perfectly with the hard earth. Taking a seat, the Mage motioned for Vin to do the same.

Wary of any more mind blowing secrets being dropped on him the moment he let his guard down, Vin complied. Practically collapsing on the offered stool, he glanced at his newest notification.

New spell witnessed! Tier 2 Earth Spell (Stone Furniture). 2,000 exp gained.

I guess there's a rune for furniture, and he was imagining stools then?

Vin slowly shook his head, his mind awash with possibilities. He'd already viewed magic as some sort of incredible force only limited by the caster's focus and mana, but Eithan's revelation made him wonder just how much more there was to learn. It felt like every answer he discovered regarding magic just brought him more questions, and he was beginning to suspect no one mage truly had all the answers.

Eithan clearly had experience dropping this world shattering revelation on students prior to Vin, as the man seemed content to simply sit there and watch the far off villagers go about their days as he waited patiently for Vin to digest everything. They'd picked a spot not too far from the village to practice, and Vin couldn't help but notice the occasional dirty look he seemed to be getting from some of the older looking villagers in dusty robes.

Evidently he wasn't the only one, as after a few minutes Eithan sighed, frowning back toward the village.

"Please let me apologize on behalf of the Stone Mages in our village. I have something of a reputation as a good teacher, and because of our current situation, many of the older Stone Mages want me to stop teaching entirely lest the apprentices grow strong enough to pass the elder's new test."

"They actually asked you to stop helping people grow stronger?" Vin asked, shocked to hear anyone would actually have the gall to make such a request. "I feel like with all the craziness of the Great Migration they would want to help people grow in power as quickly as possible."

"We've been fortunate that prior to yesterday, almost no threats have come from any of the surrounding fragments. Other than some straggler monsters from that large wave you warned us about the other day," Eithan shrugged, summoning a small stone to his hand and turning it this way and that, examining it. "Not only that, but we've even had fewer regular monster attacks now than before we were transported here. With peace grows carelessness, and most of our older Stone Mages are more concerned about losing their free helpers than they are about empowering our future mages."

"Well, if it helps… I can tell you in good faith that the number of monsters spawning is probably going to increase over the coming days," Vin said, trying not to sound guilty. The memory of him and his friends getting thrown across the holy district when the Grand Artifact of Qiatha blew up flicked through his head for a moment, but he quickly squashed it down.

"Really?" Eithan asked, giving him another curious look. After waiting a few seconds for an explanation that wasn't coming, he chuckled. "The elder seems to hold you in rather high regard, so I suppose I'll just have to take your warning at face value."

"Now, enough chatting about old fogeys that only care about having someone wash their clothes for them," Eithan said, standing up and holding up a glowing finger.

"Let's learn some magic!"