Chương 7

It turned out, my understanding of magic matched basic theory rather accurately. By definition, magic was the art of shaping mana into physical forms using patterns, or sometimes called runes. Patterns were specific instructions to tell mana its effect. Combining a string of patterns to achieve a desired function created what was known as a spell. Patterns could be drawn on the ground, which was the method used for rituals and magitech, or directly inside the mana core, which was how mages used it.

The terminology I'd used was completely incorrect. The word for magic itself was different. Enir. While magic referred to supernatural powers that achieved impossible things, enir was a more specific term to describe the phenomenon of shaping mana from an imaginary energy that only existed in the sixth realm into an actual physical effect. Enirus was their word for mage, translating to "user of enir." But I'd used my own terms for ten years, and I saw no reason to suddenly make changes.

I continued using the English words as my unofficial translations. Magic and mana core were clear enough. If any of my terms proved insufficient, I could adjust them later. Beyond increasing my basic understanding, my three main questions for today were: how could I increase the capacity of my mana core, how could I obtain more spell patterns, and who was the absolute best mage in this world, and was it possible to meet them. The last one was perhaps the most important.

I needed to know whether the magic used to transmigrate my mana core out of my body could be done by humans, or if I was dealing with actual gods. The first few books I tried were bogus, but the third one kept me curious for two hours straight. It was named, " The Soul Container of Mana — by Trev Durian"." Mana cores, despite containing no physical mass, are still obtainable objects,"it read." After a mage dies, their mana core is free to be obtained and collected, to bond with a new user.

Every mana core in rotation today has existed for millions upon millions of years, and aspiring mages all over the world still fight for their turns to utilize the ancient power of magic." Obtaining a mana core is the single largest roadblock preventing magic from becoming mainstream outside simple magitech. A limited number of adept cores exist in the world, and the number of core upgrades decreases further with each improvement.

An aspiring mage must spend astounding sums of money to obtain the smallest of cores, and even more for core upgrades. Historically, people fought and killed to steal cores from their fellow mages. Sadly, this practice still exists today, though the culture is not as blatantly violent as it once was." An uncollected soul of a dead mage eventually, slowly, travels south as a wandering mana core.

In rare circumstances, these souls may encounter a human in their path, forming an involuntary bond: a phenomenon known as The Gift of Mage War. If you do wake up with a mana core, know that you've likely obtained the core of a fallen soldier, who died so far from his allies that the core became solitary, drifting to its origin of the south pole." Very interesting, I thought. This was quite far from what I'd expected to read.

Was it possible that Trina and I had bonded to drifting mana core that had escaped the planet itself, finding us somehow on earth? As for increasing the size of my core… I didn't like what I read. I would have loved to learn that some technique existed to improve the size of my core instantly, but the truth was much harsher. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

The only way to increase the capacity of my core and the power of my spells was by obtaining what was called a core upgrade. Just like mana cores were a limited resource, so were core upgrades. My options were to pay an undisclosed large sum of money to buy an unbonded core upgrade, which were always in high demand, or I needed to kill another mage with a larger core than me and steal their core. I frowned at that. Was this why magic was feared?

This design sounded like it caused problems on its own, causing mages to fight each other to steal their more powerful cores. That wasn't all. If I were to obtain a core upgrade, I had to confirm it matched my core's color, or core type as the book called it. Six different core types existed, each color coded: blue, purple, yellow, green, pink, and red. My magic was red. I had the crimson core, which specialized in mind attacks and nightmare spells, and I was unable to cast most healing spells.

Trina's green core, the nature core, was the exact opposite. She specialized in healing but couldn't perform complicated mind magic. That explains a lot, I thought. I had suspected something similar on earth, but had no way to confirm it. Now that I already had a crimson core, the book strongly suggested that I stuck with it. Trying to use a yellow spell upgrade, for example, could cause damage to my core.

Switching was technically possible before the first spell upgrade, but after I obtained that, my path was 100% locked. The book mentioned that spell upgrades went all the way to level ten. I was about to start searching for info on just how powerful a tenth level core could get, when I felt the amount of mana in the building increase, getting closer. A similar feeling to when my dad had walked in, though my sixth sense had longer reach in the library with less walls blocking the open space.

The core was walking in my direction. I quickly cast Core Concealment just to be safe. This was probably nothing and I was overthinking, but my core was recovered enough now that I could spare the mana. Good thing I did. The core headed straight to the magic section. A man turned the corner, wearing a dark grey woolen sweater with a librarian's card pinned to his outfit. He seemed to have a level one core, the same size as mine, but not quite as practiced.

He eyed me from a distance, and very clearly, I felt his attention on my mana core, as he specifically pushed mana toward me, around my body. My body filled with pressure from the surprise. It wasn't a violent attack. More so, he seemed to be examining me. The uncomfortable presence lingered around me, examining me closely. His eyes on me were just as suspicious. Until the presence disappeared, as if nothing odd had just happened. He walked up to me and smiled.

"Good day," he said.

"You interested in magic, young man?" Had my concealment fooled him? Or did he know I was a mage?

"I'm writing a project about it," I said.

"It's an interesting subject."

"That it is," the librarian said.

"Good luck, and apologies for bothering you." With his happy smile, he turned around and walked back the way he came. I stared after him. What the fuck was that? Then my head perked up, a piece of information appearing. Not something that was hidden, just something I'd missed by not paying attention to a detail. Magic was illegal in Asterra. And I mean strictly illegal, to the point that mages often went missing.

Having a mana core was already quite bad; casting mana was immediate jail time even if nobody was harmed. House Ellaris and the mage officers were the exception, as they were in charge of making sure no foreign magic users caused trouble in the city. I blinked in surprise at that. Right now, I was surrounded by books with very specific instructions on how magic was cast. I was soon about to get to the spellbooks on how to cast better spells. Yet, magic was illegal? That made no sense. Why? Then again…

guns were banned in a lot of places in the world, yet books about guns were readily available. Without mana cores, the average Asterran wouldn't be able to cast mana anyway. Curious. So that's why there weren't any magic schools here, and why Ellaris was the only ones authorized to use magic. Technically, my use of Core Concealment just now had been a crime as well. I sensed the librarian's mana core downstairs. He was now joined by two more mana cores—one of which was a size larger than the other two.

Together, they began making their way upstairs, back toward me. Shit.