Soul of the Warrior

"So, what is it that the mana weaves do?" Master Feld asked the second-year class. He walked back and forth in front of the class on the little raised dais.

Several hands shot up from the more enthusiastic students, shortly followed by the more restrained hand raising of the other students. Not everyone raised their hand, but almost everyone at least paid attention. Master Feld indicated for one of the female students to answer his question.

"They're the written language of magic," the girl said. Samantha, I think her name was, Reivyn thought as he listened to her answer. I don't know everyone's name, but she seems to volunteer answers frequently. "They describe the properties of the magic and apply them to the Spell. For instance, Fire Bolt Spells have a weave that describes the heat and combustibility of the fire, and it contains the properties of the generic Bolt Spell, as well. All of the Bolt Spells have a weave that describes how solid the bolt is, how fast it moves, and the other properties describing the projectile."

"A textbook answer," Master Feld said. "Thank you, Apprentice Samantha. The weaves of the Spells do exactly that: they describe the properties of the magic and apply them to the Spell. So, is there a limit to the number of weaves that can describe a particular Spell?"

Fewer hands went up this time, but the most enthusiastic ones still reached for the sky, hoping to be called upon. Master Feld indicated for a boy in the front row to answer the question.

"It's limited by several factors," the boy answered. I don't exactly recall his name, Reivyn thought. I think it's Terry? My social Skill is telling me that it's either Terry or close to it. "The fundamental laws of the world still apply, and only as many weaves as can fit inside the shell of the Spell can be placed there. One can increase this number by compressing the strings and placing the weaves strategically, like a puzzle, but that's not the only limiting factor.

"The Tier of the Spell and Affinities also restrict the number. For instance, a Tier 1 Spell can hold 20 weaves, 10 for the affinity and 10 for the Spell type. A higher Tier Affinity, though, counts as more than one weave. An Ice Bolt Spell, because it's made up of a Tier 2 Affinity, can hold 5 of the Affinity Weaves in a Tier 1 Spell. A Tier 3 Affinity would fill the shell with three weaves, and a Tier 4 fills up with just two."

"Very good, Apprentice Kerry," Master Feld acknowledged. Kerry, his name's Kerry, Reivyn mentally corrected himself. I was close. "And why is it that the Affinity Tier affects how many weaves can fill the space? They're not any larger than the lower Tier Affinities."

"It's not entirely based on the physical aspects of the Spell," Kerry replied. "The size is only one limiting factor. Higher Tier Affinities put more strain on the shell, so if you try to put just as many Tier 2 weaves into a Tier 1 Spell as the basic Elements, then the shell of the Spell can't handle the strain and will unravel."

"Yes, exactly," Master Feld nodded his head. "This is one of the reasons why higher Tier Spells are more powerful. They can contain more weaves and more of the higher Tier weaves, at that. It is possible to Cast a Tier 1 Spell as a higher Tier. Class Skills automatically match your own Class Tier, but how does one do so outside of the System assistance?"

Another round of hands went up, and Master Feld selected another random student to answer the question.

"It's a combination of increasing the mana used and compressing it to maintain the relative size and shape," the third student answered. "One can do so without compressing, but the Spells will quickly become much too large to be of practical use. The System does all the heavy lifting automatically for the Class Skills."

"And so," Master Feld nodded to the student to indicate he was correct as he spoke, "we get to the point of this lecture. The shells of Spells can hold a limited number of weaves, and those weaves describe the nature of the Spell. So far, we've only been using two weaves to describe our magic: the elemental weave and the Spell weave, but that's not the only way to Cast Spells.

"You can mix and match different weaves into your Spells. If you choose two diametrically opposed elements, like Fire and Ice, then the Spell is most likely to fail. There do exist Classes specializing in such Spells, like the Bluefayre family is known for having a talent in," Master Feld nodded to Larissa, who was seated with her friend circle on one side of the class. "And it's possible to Cast those Spells without the Class and System helping you, but it's very difficult. We won't be exploring those avenues in this Class."

Larissa was obviously in the same class as Reivyn, as she and her friends were in the Elite Class. Reivyn occasionally interacted with them in class, but for the most part, he kept to himself to pay attention and learn. They had plenty of time and opportunities to hang out and interact outside of the classroom, and they had their own social group outside of just the small circle Reivyn had made friends with.

"Instead, we will be focusing on mixing complementary elements, like Fire and Plasma. There are many, many variations of the weaves that can be mixed into your Spells, and it only gets even more complicated and intricate once you start incorporating Tier 3 or 4 Affinities into your Spells, so you won't be graded on specific mixtures. I will simply give you the foundations, and then you can experiment on your own."

Reivyn had an epiphany as he listened to the lecture. Of course! That explains why I was so confused with the weaves for the Blast Spell variation of my Class Spells. I had been looking at the Spells as if they contained only one element. I should have viewed them neutrally in order to recognize them sooner. Not all of the Blast Spell elemental variations contained more than one element, but the Fire Blast Spell contains several weaves of the Air Affinity in it. It makes perfect sense.

Reivyn had run into a couple of hurdles with his own experimentation. He had gotten into the trap of thinking of every weave the System used for his Class Spells as being the Affinity of the dominant element for the Spell. He had noticed that the weaves greatly resembled the ones he had seen for the other elements, but he hadn't thought to make the connection that they actually were for those different elements.

Trying to use the Air weave as a Fire weave hadn't been the right approach, and his own free-hand Spell Casting of the Fire Blast Spell hadn't performed properly. It had worked, but it had lacked the intensity of the System assisted Class Spell.

It must have something to do with intent, Reivyn speculated. The mana weaves of the System Spells aren't infused with the element directly in a way that I can see with my current Skill Levels. Either I need to look deeper when examining the weaves in the future, or there's some trick to it.

"Based on everyone's facial expressions, it seems that you've all realized a few things about your own Class Spells," Master Feld chuckled. "The dominant element of your Spells permeates the aura that it gives off, which is why it's rare for students to discover this on their own. Once you know about it, it's not a big deal, just make the weave like you would normally with the right Affinity and it works.

"In order to to see the actual differences, one has to be able to parse through the aura of the dominant element. This happens around Mana Sight Level 50. Sense Mana doesn't help, unless you get it to Transcendent, because it doesn't do nearly as good a job of differentiating the different Elements unless there are other mitigating factors, like sensing mana from a different Realm.

"We don't expect the students to get their Mana Sight up to Level 50 and discover this on their own, which is why these classes exist in the first place," Master Feld concluded. "Now that you know about it, it should be easier for you to work on mixing and matching weaves in your Spells. Not all combinations will create a better Spell, but if you do discover a mix that works really well, you can work at it long enough to be able to override your existing Spell Matrix the System uses. It takes a lot of effort, though, but it is less than unlocking a Class Skill or Spell as a General Skill or Spell would be.

"Now, let's get to work."

Reivyn sat on his bed, both hands held out in front of him. Two different Spell shells hovered over his outstretched hands, and he manipulated the weaves of each independently. Creating simple Spells with Tier 1 Affinities in either hand wasn't too challenging, even before he gained the Dual Casting Skill; however, creating anything more complicated than the simple Tier 1 Spells was exponentially more difficult. Even adding more than one elemental weave to the Bolt Spell required considerably more concentration.

He had started off having to start and stop each weave one at a time. It wasn't true dual spell casting. He would make a weave, then maintain it as he worked on the other one. As his Skill Level increased, though, he was able to create all of the basic elemental weaves simultaneously, and he could even somewhat maintain progress on creating the weaves for the Tier 2 Affinities at the same time.

It had been three months of practicing mixing and matching the different weaves for each Spell, and Reivyn had not only learned the weaves to all of the Affinities he had unlocked, but he had experimented with countless combinations as well. There weren't too many differences when it came to the Tier 1 Spells, only marginal increases in power or efficiency when a good combination was found, but increasing the fundamental Level of the Spell to a higher Tier saw those marginal increases become powerful boosts.

Adding the Kinetic Affinity to the Bolt Spell increases the speed and impact tremendously, Reivyn mused. Adding three weaves to a Tier 2 version of the Fire Bolt Spell is the most efficient use of the weaves that I've found so far. That being said, it's not the same for each of the basic Elemental Bolt Spells. When making an Earth Bolt, a combination of one each of Kinetic, Mass, and either Bludgeon, Piercing, or Sharpness, depending on the nature of the shape of the Earth Bolt, really packs a punch.

Kinetic also has almost zero effect on the Beam Spell. There is a small increase in the velocity of the Beam Spell, but the weave of the Beam Spell itself seems to hold some of the characteristics of the Kinetic weave. There's really no reason to pursue adding the Kinetic weaves to such a Spell. As Master Feld said, the right weaves for the right Spell.

Switching in Gravity instead of Bludgeon or the other two also has some interesting effects. Depending on the resistance of the target, it can be drawn to the projectile, and it's much harder to avoid, even if the trajectory is slightly off. I just recently acquired some more Tier 3 Affinities, like the Bludgeon Affinity, and they're still not quite as easy to use as the ones I've had for a while.

Reivyn pulled up his Affinities tab to check out the progress he had made while he was thinking about it.

Affinities:

Tier 1:

Air (55), Earth (55), Fire (55), Water (55)

Tier 2:

Ice (30), Lightning (24), Magma (30), Metal (30), Mist (24), Mud (24), Plasma (30), Wood (30)

Tier 3:

Bludgeon (4), Darkness (49), Durability (15), Friction (4), Gravity (15), Kinetic (15), Light (49), Mass (4), Piercing (15), Sharpness (15), Weight (4)

Tier 4:

Eternal (4)

Tier 5:

Abyss (1), Veridical (1)

Gravity, Mass, and Weight all have very similar characteristics, but there are some subtle differences. So far, with the low Tier Spells I'm using, there isn't much variation in using Weight or Mass, but I'm sure the higher Tier Spells will be able to showcase their individual strengths.

My Tier 4 Affinity has increased a couple of Levels, and it's easy to see the difference in might for each Level. The lower Tier Affinities are much easier to advance, but the increase in power is much less than an increase in power for a higher Tier. Level 4 Eternal has about the same effectiveness as Level 30 in the Tier 1 Affinities from what I've seen.

Reivyn dismissed his contemplations on the Affinities and their weaves and resumed his concentration on the ones he was making. He wasn't too concerned with the exact makeup of the Spells he was experimenting with, he was just randomly combining weaves to practice. He had recently completed the task of being able to compress a double weave to the size of a single weave, and he was using his new mastery to stuff his Tier 1 Spells with more weaves.

The semester only has 1 more month left, and most of the last month is dedicated to preparing for and taking the final exams. The final test for the second-year weaves class is a comprehensive analysis of our ability to compress mana, and how well we can mix and match the weaves for various Spells.

Master Feld has told us that there will be several base Spells he will select that inherently have different elemental weaves in them, and there will be some from the higher Tier Spells that the students most likely haven't gained access to, yet. The point is to show that we can recognize the different elemental weaves in an unknown Spell in order to deduce how to create it. The final portion of the test is to demonstrate our range of mixing and understanding of the combinations by displaying some of our own experiments.

Reivyn had long decided that he would show his combinations with Kinetic and Gravity. As far as he knew, almost all of the other students were going to choose to use Tier 2 Affinity combinations, and he was confident he would be able to get full marks through his Tier 3 Affinity usage. He had worked on those Spells consistently until he could make them at a moment's notice, but there was still a long way to go to master the intricacies of magic.

He continued to experiment with random combinations to further his ability and understanding.

"Well, it seems like everyone here has made tremendous progress in their magical prowess over the semester," Reivyn said to the study group. "Everyone has fully mastered the weaves of the base Elements, and most of you have a solid foundation in several of the Tier 2 affinities. The final exam is coming up really quickly, so I would recommend putting a pause on learning any brand new elemental weaves that you haven't already experimented with until the start of next semester.

"That being said, as far as I know, none of the previous years had nearly as many students master all of the Tier 1 weaves before the end of the first semester. I'm glad I could help all of you, but I can't take credit for your own hard work. I'll continue to offer my assistance next semester, but everyone should be prepared that I'll have less time to do so."

The students in the study group had all grown pretty close to each other, including Reivyn and his roommates. Some of them frowned at the revelation that Reivyn would be spending less time with the group, but most people seemed to understand what he was getting at.

"The Cobbled Ruins Dungeon is the only Dungeon open to first semester Novices," Reivyn continued. "I plan on going to all of the Dungeons nearby that become available to explore for Novices next semester, and I'll also be accepting some of the quests from the Adventurer's Guild. Everyone here should work hard to increase and maintain their Rank so they can also devote more time to real-world experience, as well.

"I know that everyone here has attained a decent enough rank that they can spend most of the summer months off campus exploring Dungeons and whatnot, but that's no reason to waste the opportunity next semester to knock out the closest Dungeons and quests. Remember, practical and Life Experience are much more important at this stage now that you all have solid foundations."

"Do you plan on accepting any more teammates?" Carri asked with a hopeful look. Reivyn looked at the girl who had previously had ulterior motives in asking for tutoring. After he had made it clear that he wasn't interested in pursuing anything beyond a friendship, she had buckled down and made great efforts in participating in the study group. It seems that she hasn't fully given up hope, though, Reivyn thought.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible," Reivyn shook his head and gently let her down. Carri's face fell, and Reivyn could see some other hopeful faces fall in the crowd, as well. "My roommates and I have already developed a rapport, and I have a couple of friends from the Knight Academy that are going to go with us, too. It's not that I'm unwilling to go with any of you, you've all shown that you're willing to work hard, but our group is already formed.

"You guys have all been working well with each other in the study group, so I'm sure you can form your own groups to tackle the Dungeons." The other students looked around at each other, and Reivyn saw many of them nod to each other and set their intent to form their own groups. "With that, we'll call it a day. We'll still hold the study group all the way until the end of the semester, so I'll see you guys next time."

Reivyn and his roommates turned and walked back towards their dormitory.

"I understand why you want to help your friends at the Knight Academy, but why are you moving at such a breakneck speed?" Trick asked as they walked.

"What do you mean?" Reivyn asked, puzzled. "I'm moving at a normal pace." Trick snorted at the answer.

"He's right," Vane said. "A normal pace would be one or two Dungeons in the second semester, and then a leisurely 'adventure' during the summer months. You said you intend to take us to all of the Dungeons open in the second semester, plus some additional quests from the Adventurer's Guild. That's definitely not a 'normal pace.'" Reivyn shrugged.

"Well, to me it seems normal," Reivyn replied. "I don't feel like I'm rushing. I just feel like I'm always advancing and not sitting still. I don't see any reason to stay on campus when we've mastered the subject material being taught. Why do nothing when we could be gaining School Credits and Life Experience?

"And speaking of 'leisurely adventure,' that's where I met Melissa and Larissa. They didn't seem like they were taking things 'leisurely."

"They're an exception," Trick answered. "Melissa was good enough to secure the quota in both her first and second year, but she and her sister are part of a larger family with roots in Eldiar. They have a mission to recruit new talents to the family, so they're not allowed to accept a quota until their third year unless they do something so great that their entire family can go back to Eldiar."

"Oh, that answers a lot of questions I had about that, actually," Reivyn said. "I had wondered why Melissa and Larissa were still hanging around this kingdom."

"Also, most people don't have the same view on life as you do," Tom said. "To us, not doing anything doesn't mean that we're 'sitting still' or 'wasting time.' It's just a part of life. We don't feel the need to fill every single moment with purpose."

"Well, I'm not particularly trying to fill every moment with purpose, as you say," Reivyn said. "I like being busy and training. I also like getting out there and exploring the world and Dungeons. I don't really know how to explain it, but to me, it seems perfectly normal. You guys don't have to follow me to every Dungeon if you don't want to."

"That's not what we're saying," Trick said. "Honestly, we don't mind it. I just wanted to know what was motivating you to move so fast, but if you feel like it's perfectly normal, then I guess that also answers my question."

"Yeah, we might be used to a more sedate lifestyle with much more downtime," Vane said, "but that doesn't mean we're not willing to do the work to accomplish our goals. We had only ever imagined obtaining one of the quotas for the Tier 2 Academy with a 'let's see what happens' attitude. Now that we've been entangled with you, all three of us have a real opportunity to snatch one of the spots."

"The other students in the top 10 Ranking are going to be working just as hard to keep their positions and move up to the next Tier Region," Tom said. "I doubt any of them will go to the extremes that we'll be going through, and that's because we're with you. If you hadn't joined our group, we might have had to wait for a chance to compete for a spot next year or the following. Our luck in meeting you was even more than I originally thought."

"Don't get all sappy on me," Reivyn chuckled, shoving Tom playfully in the shoulder. "I'm not going to ease up on my schedule, or go easy on what I expect from you guys as my Party members."

"We wouldn't dream of it," Vane said.