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[ 5 ] Spellcasting
🕑 Added 2024-11-09 19:38:54 +0000 UTCSo, he’s already learned to hide his mana core, Daedrik mused, hunched over notes in his secret office. Not only that, but his mana is comparable to that of a gifted child over twice his age.
Sighing, Daedrik leaned back in his chair. He didn’t know what to do about his son. Regardless of what he was, the kid was a prodigy.
But his problem hadn’t been resolved. Kal had learned to hide his core but was too powerful for his age. Any mage worthy of their title would question how a toddler could have a mana potential like Kal.
“Curses,” Daedrik huffed quietly. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Shaking his head, he leaned forward, eyeing the tome he had spread across his table. It was a copy of a rare book about magical beings that he ordered from the capital—one of the few that made mention of Aeons. But none of the creatures mentioned were quite right. Kal, or whatever he was, was an enigma.
At least he wasn’t a demon, Daedrik reassured himself. It would devastate Yandi if they had to deal with him like that.
Count your blessings, you big idiot. At least Kal isn’t a monster. Maybe I’m overthinking this. Who knows, maybe he’ll grow up to be normal.
Daedrik knew he was being purposefully naive, but what other choice did he have?
**Kal**
At least Kal’s mom no longer checked up on him at night, which allowed him to get back to training quicker once his parents were asleep.
Having control over his mana core and understanding the basic principles for controlling that mana allowed Kal to move onto shaping it into spells.
Shaping spells wasn’t easy, though. The moment you pulled mana from your body, it started to dissipate. This meant that the faster you could cast a spell, the more efficient it was for your mana usage. Forming a spell was kind of like filling water balloons—except if the water was held in a colander.
Every time Kal tried, his mana was drained in seconds. Then again, he only had seven points of it, and Kal had read enough of Daedrik’s books to know that it was extremely hard for people to cast any spells before they had at least ten mana. Not that it couldn’t be done, but the combination of low mana and poor efficiency made it nearly impossible for most. In fact, many accomplished mages could cast basic spells for one or two mana points.
Trying again after his recovery, mana swirled in Kal’s palm for several seconds before dissipating, and he fell back against his pillow and sighed.
“Another failure.”
He held his hand up to the ceiling and looked at it. The book called the spell he was trying to use a “Wind Punch,” which was supposed to work exactly how it sounded.
You needed to turn your mana into wind energy to cast Wind Punch, or any basic wind magic for that matter. Since Kal had used wind naturally when playing with Ellie, he decided to start there.
So far, he had managed to create the wind and swirl it in his palm as the book described, but he couldn’t do it fast enough to create the pressure and power required to cast the spell.
Closing his eyes, Kal focused on his mana core and fluctuating the energy within. It was a basic technique taught in multiple books his father owned and was called Mage Meditating.
Minutes later, he had recovered his mana, thanks to his meditation. Without it, it would have taken hours. However, it wasn’t without cost. Meditating to recover your mana was exhausting, and Kal could already feel his little belly rumble in protest.
Exhaling, he sat back up. One more try, and then he would sneak into the kitchen for a late-night snack.
You can do this, Kal. Just make it go faster.
This time, instead of carefully weaving his mana into a stream that he swirled in his palm, Kal pushed the entirety of it out, mentally took hold of it, forced it into a whirlwind of power, and aimed it at his wall.
The ball of wind shot out, brushing against his wall and making an old academy flag of his father’s flail.
I did it. I really did it. Kal blinked. It wasn’t much, but he had cast a real spell.
Bloodline Trait Unlocked: Spellcaster +3 Wisdom +2 Intelligence +3 Mana.
And another Bloodline Trait! Freaking cool!
Excited to see his boosted stats, Kal delved into his mana core.
========================
Lesser–Demonic Mana Core
Mana 4/20
Mana Potential 128
Stage 1
Strength: 2
Agility: 2
Dexterity: 0
Charisma: 5
Wisdom: 5
Intelligence: 5
Endurance: 3
Toughness: 2
========================
Wait, 20 mana, what gives? He furrowed his brow. I should have 10, shouldn’t I?
Kal cocked his head as he read the stats. As far as he could tell, nothing else had changed—besides his new stats, of course.
Wait, maybe that’s it? Both his wisdom and intelligence had hit five. Maybe that’s what had given him the extra mana?
It was strange, though; he had been noticeably fitter when unlocking endurance and strength Bloodline Traits but didn’t feel any different with the intelligence. Shouldn’t his brain be thinking quicker or something, he wondered.
It looks like I need to get back to the library and learn more about stats and mana cores.
After sneaking a sandwich, Kal went to bed. It was already late, and the spellcasting had fatigued him too much, and he wanted a keen eye for studying.
***
Awoken by the clatter of bowls and dishes banging out from the kitchen, Kal rubbed at his eyes and began a zombie-like march to see what the fuss was all about.
Yandi was in a flustered state, mixing and combining ingredients for a cake.
Oh, right, I’m turning two soon, aren’t I?
His mother was completely distracted by the task. She had gone a little overboard since it was to be a shared party for both Kal and Ellie.
It was also the perfect distraction, and Kal snuck off for the library without a word.
There were multiple books about mana cores, but most of them were focused on awakening and controlling mana. What Kal wanted was to learn about the stats themselves.
Here we go. Understanding Mana Core Stats, Kal eyed the book title. Within minutes of reading, he realized that mana core stats were not what he thought they were.
Mana cores didn’t just provide a straight boon to you. They were more accurately described as the abilities or stats your core was capable of embuing on you at the cost of mana.
Kal wondered why he had gotten stronger and fitter from his stats but found a paragraph that explained how children and people who hadn’t awoken their cores often inadvertently used what little mana they had to empower their stat bonuses. It was basically their body naturally making the most of what they had.
However, it still cost mana, and walking around with boosted stats would exhaust most people quickly.
So, I’ve already been using my mana? Focusing on his core’s stats, he felt his mind sharpen, his muscles tighten, and one mana flickered away as he watched his stats.
So, it’s true, Kal’s nodded thoughtfully.
This changed everything. His stats had grown quickly, and while he might not be normal, it was a wonder why superhumans weren’t marching about. After all, he could barely cast a single, weak spell in his current shape. He could only imagine what the most powerful were capable of. However, if the benefits provided from the core required mana to be used, that was different. Even if mages could turn themselves into hulks, they might have to choose between that and casting spells.
Even though Kal was fairly sure he understood it, he took advantage of his freedom to read as many books as possible before his mother finished cooking the cakes.
Bloodline Trait Unlocked: Studious +3 Wisdom.
Okay, that’s welcome. But it’s still going to take forever to increase my mana at this rate. I really need to come up with a fast way of increasing it.
“Hey, this is where you got off to,” Yandi said, wiping her hands on her apron. “Come on then, Beetle, help me mix the icing. We better hurry; your daddy wouldn’t want me coming in here with all this muck on me,” she added, placing a hand beside her mouth.
“Coming,” Kal droned.
“Hey, sound at least a little excited. I’ll let you try a little icing.”
“Yippee,” Kal cheered, trying to feign excitement.
“You sound like an old man,” Yandi slumped as she held the door open with her foot to let Kal out.
“I’m just not much of a sweet tooth,” Kal shrugged.
“You’re making it worse.”
**Birthday Party**
Raising his hand into the sky, Daedrik made a stream of rainbow colors fly up and burst into a round of quick-sequence crackles, eliciting an eruption of cheers from the birthday attendants.
Two tables were set up, covered in various dishes, one for adults and one for children. However, most of the smallest children were playing around on the perfectly green grass that surrounded Jakari home.
“It must be amazing to have a successful mage as a husband,” one of the women gowned in an oversized white brim hat said, hungrily eyeing Daedrik before her gaze melted into dissatisfaction at the sight of her beer-bellied husband helping himself to seconds.
“Oh, it has its perks,” Yandi blushed, brushing away a streak of her light brown hair.
“There you are, my beautiful wife,” Daedrik said, swooping in to wrap his arms around her.
“And so romantic, what a catch.”
“Honey, would you give me a hand over here?” The husband of the woman in the white hat said, struggling to pull his fly zipper up. “It’s stuck!”
“Just a moment, the child needs help,” she said, excusing herself from the group of parents sitting at the table.
Wouldn’t mind running one through her if I still had my old body, Kal thought, watching the woman in the tight white dress rise to help her husband.
“Dig?” Ellie said at Kal’s side, holding out a tiny shovel.
“Yeah, why not,” he sighed and took the shovel. “Where are we digging?”
“Here,” Ellie said, shoveling out a patch of perfect grass.
“Wait—no, never mind,” he shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not like the lawn was perfect or anything. Oh, and now you’re eating it, charming.”
“Huh?” Ellie turned to Kal with a crooked head as she munched on the dirt. “Yucky!” She spat, splattering his face.
“I guess we’re even of the other day now,” Kal groaned, wiping the dirt from his face.
“Time for candles,” Yandi said, clapping to herself softly as she came and picked Kal up, with Tammy only a second behind.
The two toddlers were plunked down beside one another next to the cake, and Daedrik lit the four candles—two each—with a flame he produced from the tip of his index finger.
“Okay, now blow,” Yandi clapped.
With a bored expression, Kal blew his candles out while Ellie huffed and huffed.
Is anything even coming out of her mouth? Wait, is blowing a skill you learn? I never really thought about that. All right, this has officially taken too long.
Stealthy raising a hand just above the tabletop, Kal pointed two fingers at the cake and summoned his mana. Just like before, he cast Wind Punch, but a smaller version of the spell. Unfortunately, he had somehow improved, and an inch-sized ball of high-pressure gas shot toward the cake, blasting the candles and a handful of icing off of its top and into the shocked faces of several onlookers.
“Sorry,” Ellie said with a wide expression.
“An evil spirit!” One man exclaimed, wiping the icing from his face.
“Get the kids inside.”
“Calm down, everyone,” Daedrik shouted above the commotion as he clapped loudly. “There’s no demon. Just a little magical anomaly. Nothing to worry about.”
“Oh my, thank the gods we have you, Daedrik,” one panicked woman said, wiping her brow.
“It’s not a problem, really,” Daedrik smiled and then soured as he turned to Kal. “You, with me.”
***
“So, you’ve already learned to cast spells. When exactly were you intending to tell me about this?” Daedrik said, scolding Kal in the library.
“I thought you would figure it out,” Kal shrugged.
“Well, I have now. What in the nine realms were you doing using it at your birthday party?”
“I just thought I could help… the last time I did that, I barely managed to make one of your old flags flap,” Kal said, looking down at his feet.
“It doesn’t matter. That was unbelievably reckless. You’ve got the talents of a genius; you best start behaving like you have the brains of one, too,” Daedrik facepalmed.
“Sorry, Dad.”
“I don’t want to see any more magic out of you when guests are around. You keep everything magic-related restricted to your private life and within this house, understood?”
“Yes, Dad.”
“I’m serious, Kal. I’m not sure what you think of me after what’s happened between us, but I’m doing this to protect the family. If the authorities learn that you are the greatest magical prodigy known to man—or perhaps something else… it won’t end well, do you understand?”
“Yes, Dad.”
“Good. Now, go pretend to be a normal kid. And for the love of the gods, stop ogling Mrs. Landers; she’s a grown woman. It’s beyond creepy.
I guess I wasn’t as inconspicuous as I thought, Kal reddened.
