Chapter 66 - Practice, Practice, Practice

"So, what did you think of the lessons? I certainly learned a few things." Lily asked Arakil.

[It was interesting, although the situation in the world was more alarming than I had imagined. To think that only humans can touch on every aspect of magic is a tragedy; as I've mentioned before—magic is for everyone. It's almost as if every other race has been forced into an affinity against their will; utterly diabolical.]

"Hmm… The story about the Phoenix was a bit worrying for me," Lily admitted. "He could only do fire magic and barely any wind. What does that mean for me?"

[Your Mana Core is capable of all forms of magic, and aligning it to Astal has only barred you from Curses, Necromancy, and Summoning. I wouldn't fret about such things.]

"But what if they expect me not to be able to use them?" Lily asked. "Wouldn't it be weird if I could use all forms of magic without any issue?"

[I see your point. You wish to remain humble despite your circumstances; you will already garner attention due to being a Lagia with magic, and being capable of everything only further puts you in the spotlight.]

"Exactly! So I'm a little concerned about what to do…"

[You've already demonstrated that you can use fire with your glyphs; you could feign ignorance for spells outside of Astral unless they are within glyphs. It would also be an ace you could keep up your sleeve if your opponents think you are only capable of Astral magic if, for example, you had run out of glyphs.]

"I really don't think I'll have so many opponents like you keep mentioning," Lily grumbled. "But that does sound like a nice idea. Plus, I wanted to focus more on my astral magic anyway."

[You are aligned to it, and it is granting you the most benefits. Astral is also convenient because it has various sub-categories, so it's not as limiting as if you only had fire magic, for example.]

"That's good… And I can just keep using glyphs for everything non-astral unless it's an emergency."

[It'll require a lot of practice in secret, or perhaps if you are performing in class, you can purposefully hinder the supplied Mana and feign weakness. Either way, I think you'll be up for the task.]

"I'll think about it… I'm not sure I want to lie like that, but on the other hand I don't want to be in the spotlight so much. When all those kids crowded around me after class… It was a little suffocating. I just want to be able to do magic in peace."

[A pity that your very nature will draw others to pay attention to you. Hopefully, when you reunite with Rose, she can drag most of the attention towards herself since she seems to enjoy it.]

"Yeah… She does," Lily sighed. "But enough about that, I wanted to ask about the Mana enhancements Instructor Richardus mentioned. Can I do that? Or is it a Mana blood thing only?"

[You are capable of doing it, but I'd advise against it for now. I didn't mention or teach you about it as I wanted to keep it until you were ready. As your teacher described, there are drawbacks to using it, and your frail constitution was on my mind. However, there is another side-effect he did not mention: excessive usage of it can stifle your body's development. I meant to keep it from you until then.]

"So I can't use it at all until I grow up?" Lily asked, sounding somewhat disappointed.

[Unless it's an emergency, yes. But you could Mana-enhance your eyes without too much issue if you really wanted to. You mostly want to avoid enhancing bones and muscle while you are still growing.]

"What about my skin? The teacher said you could reinforce the skin. Or my lungs?"

[Those… Might be acceptable. Although I'd prefer you reinforce something safer like your clothes or a shield. Better yet, learning some protection spells and glyphs would be much more fruitful.]

"Wait, you can use Mana to reinforce clothes ?" Lily asked, flabbergasted by the unexpected revelation.

[You can, although it is a relatively minor effect compared to the body itself. You could akin it to a poor man's enchanting, and physically, it does almost nothing but can dampen other magical effects. It would prevent your clothes from burning, for example. Although you could achieve the same effect with your Nebula Veil.]

"I know you're right; I just find the idea fascinating. I didn't know Mana could do these things. I thought it was only for casting spells."

[It effectively overloads the body, pushing it beyond its natural limits. It's akin to taking a drug to receive a temporary performance boost. You can also use it to artificially suppress fatigue and pain, but you'll be hit with double in return as backlash.]

"Oh wow… That sounds pretty bad."

[In an emergency, it can be lifesaving. Rather suffer for a few hours after the fact than perish or take a permanent injury. But it shouldn't be abused. As mentioned previously, if you wish to temporarily improve yourself, there are far safer options within sorcery. Why reinforce your skin and bones with Mana when you can use a shield spell?]

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"I guess for the surprise factor, like reinforcing your punch when someone doesn't expect it. But you're right; it sounds too risky for now. I just thought it might be good for learning to control my Mana like the teacher suggested."

[Quite frankly, you're already beyond his teaching of Mana control, as you've been going through the exercises to control your Starlight spell. Controlling Mana outside of your body is far more complicated than inside. I think he was merely providing a carrot to entice the kids to focus on his lessons, and I don't think he actually intends to teach them how to reinforce with Mana.]

"I see… That's a little sad and tricky of him."

[I did something similar myself when I showed you that illusory galaxy. It certainly put a spring in your step, even though it was entirely fabricated. Now, I no longer need to do such things, as you've devoted yourself to developing your magical capabilities.]

Lily frowned but didn't say anything. She supposed that it was true that she had been lured in by that magical display and the promise of performing sorcery herself.

Although, unlike Richardus, Arakil kept his word. He taught me glyphs and even granted me a Mana Core. Sure, that little display was only an illusion, but it was real to me.

Lily smiled and nodded with renewed determination.

"Alright, let's continue my practice! My Starlight spell is basically done; next is Nebula Veil, and then we can look at Starcluster."

[Wonderful. Then we can start looking at further Astral spells, perhaps one of the support spells or another offensive attack. I'd love for you to start touching on the void aspect, but I fear you don't have the Mana quite yet.]

"How is my Mana looking? It feels so much bigger than when I first got my Core, but it's a little hard to judge myself only going on feeling alone."

[Judging by how much you donated last time, you're making considerable progress. You will have no issue with these raw capacity tests; thus, we focus on your proficiency.]

Lily nodded and began her practice. Her habit when going through the training was to first cast the spell as usual, taking no shortcuts, to give herself a fresh reminder of the spell itself and a clear visualization.

Her beloved Nebula Veil apparated into a billowing cloak that covered her, and Lily couldn't help but give a little twirl, causing the magical fabric to shimmer and wave as it spread outward.

With her mind refamiliarized with the image of the spell, she dismissed it and began casting it again by leaving out and skipping over a few syllables while retaining the visualization of what she wanted to accomplish.

She repeated this process repeatedly until eventually finding her wall of when the spell would fail. Too many words were skipped without enough mental control over the desired effect, and she would need to take a step back and focus on it.

The way Arakil had described it to her was that the chant was, in some ways, a crutch, and it was like verbal instructions given to the Mana to draw a "glyph" inside her to form the spell. Silent casting was like drawing the entire "glyph" manually, without any aid, while shortcasting was like connecting the dots in an almost completed picture.

The other avenue that Lily had to develop and explore was somatic casting, the magical gestures that had a similar effect to the magic chant. If the chant was shouting instructions to the Mana, then gestures were like using a conductor's baton to direct it like an ensemble.

The best part was that it was interchangeable, and if Lily couldn't cast a spell entirely chantless, she could bridge the gap with a few of the correct gestures. The only struggle was a lot of trial and error, which was very personal to each magician.

Arakil once said that everyone's imagination and mind process things almost entirely uniquely, and no two magicians would have the same shortfalls. Lily could be failing to understand a geometric shape correctly enough, while Arakil could be failing to visualize the feeling behind the nebula correctly.

Practice, practice, practice. I swear I will master this spell!

After nearly tiring herself out with repeated castings, Lily ate dinner, washed up, and then settled down to a quiet evening of meditating on the Mana gathering array. She still couldn't believe how she'd grown so used to sitting on the piece of wood so silently and still for extended periods of time.

Once her Mana core was feeling energized, she did her last activity before bed by donating her Mana to Arakil. She nearly did her old method, but seeing the diminished book size reminded her at the last minute that they were still working on revitalizing the size-altering function entirely.

Once that's done, we gotta fix his eye! Then Arakil can tell me where my gestures are going wrong. He also mentioned that his eye could see Mana, so maybe we could find a good spot for me to meditate or possibly some other resources to replenish our stock.

Lily sighed happily as she felt her Mana trickling into the tome's cover. While she had done a significant upgrade in revitalizing its appearance the first time, she still noted minor improvements with the more Mana she gave it.

Detailed engravings along the cover were more apparent, and she could almost see the vague outline of the darkened eye. She gently traced the eye and wondered what it would look like when fully restored.

Turning the book to the rear, she could also see the other function that Arakil had mentioned. There was an intricate spiral more complex than she had ever seen before. She found her fingers absentmindedly following along with the spiral.

Arakil said this one could eat books. That might be very useful when we get to school. Assuming we have textbooks, imagine if I can just have Arakil eat all of them for me. I won't have to carry around tons of heavy books; just one universal one.

With her Mana bottoming out, Lily stopped, not wanting to hit empty. She still remembered how horrible and weak her body felt when she first woke up, nearly depleted of all Mana due to her coma and lack of nutrients or active meditation.

She carefully placed Arakil's book away and tucked herself into bed, feeling very excited for what was to come.

I wonder when the next batch of tests is, and I can't wait to see what happens in the advanced classes. Things have definitely gotten a lot more exciting. I just wish Rose was here to enjoy them with me. But it's okay. When we reunite at Regarth, I'll show her just how much I've grown and improved! I'll be a whole new bunny!