Chapter 136: Better control over mana

"Zamia," Eldrian spoke aloud after realizing that she was not hearing him through telepathy. Finally realizing that he could not start a conversation. Which led to him wondering if it was a spell, skill, or special ability. Eldrian had never heard Dave talking of telepathy and it would definitely be an amazing tool in fights.

'Yes?' Zamia replied, creating the link for Eldrian.

'The others are all still unconscious and I don't think I should go alone. Heck, I won't be able to do much even if I did. I only have a few hours left with which I could stay here.' Eldrian started, still finding logging out difficult to talk about with NPCs. He kept thinking he might accidentally leak that he was a player. Especially when he was talking through telepathy, where it was actually easier to let such things slip.

'Since that is the case, I thought to start tomorrow. Maybe go to the edge of the forest and test when the goblins come out. If we could lure them or stuff like that.

'For today would you mind helping me try and improve on my magic?' Eldrian aksed.

'Certainly.' Zamia quickly agreed. She excused herself from the others she was previously talking to. After which she led Eldrian to an open space in the glade. Here no one was playing, or resting, or talking. It was simply a clean area in the glade and perfect for Eldrian to practice in. Even if he lost control of a spell, it would not hurt anyone.

This precaution was not really necessary since Tier 1 magic would not hurt anyone here other than the humans. But Zamia brought Eldrian here for his peace of mind, knowing he would be distracted if others were around.

'How do I skip the spell module?' Eldrian asked, after making sure that there was indeed no one nearby. He was planning to aim all his spells at the ground, even so, he wanted to make sure he would not cause any trouble. Feeling that he and the others had already brought enough of that to the forest.

'I can't tell you that since it is different for you and me. I simply control my mana, feeling the effect it would bring. Think about how you control your spells.'

'I feel the mana after the spell module changed it. Then I control it.' Eldrian replied, already feeling that this might be his problem.

'Why don't you just control the mana in its natural form?' Zamia asked.

'I have never succeeded in doing that. Well...' Eldrian thought back to what the Magic Crystal caused his mana to do, sharing this with Zamia.

'That is an interesting way, try imitating it.' Eldrian did, trying to focus on the feeling of pure mana in him. Concentrating on it to start moving.

It took him around an hour. Much faster than he would ever have been able to do alone. Zamia had helped him greatly, sharing how she controlled her mana. Unlike with words, she shared what she felt when she did it, what she thought and what happened due to her actions.

This helped Eldrian greatly, using the memories from his past training he quickly found common points which he had missed before. As well as discarding extra steps he had invented which now seemed to be useless.

At first, Eldrian tried to make his mana flow through him as the Magic Crystal forced it to. But he quickly found that this was not effective. Doing so simply tired him out, while it did not use any of his mana. It drew heavily on his concentration.

After resting and having realized this Eldrian instead tried to control the mana to leave his body. He failed the first few time, losing control of the mana once it left his body. But he quickly adapted, managing to slowly keep it from drifting.

Finally having managed to actually control pure mana, Eldrian felt he needed to move on to a spell. This led Eldrian to immediately think of Nidia. It was one of the spells he was most comfortable in and it was also one of the simplest.

Eldrian did not directly dive into casting it, instead, he tried to analyze the spell module. To figure out what the mana had to do to replace the nodes and pathways.

With Nidia it was truly simple. The pathways simply determined what form the spell would take, what the mana would draw to naturally. While the nodes were an inlet. Allowing mana to flow into the spell, Eldrian also suspected that they converted the pure mana into water. He did not quite know how this happened, nor what actually happened at this step.

Having come to this conclusion Eldrian focused the pure mana into a drop shape. Trying to form the spell module through mana. He failed at the first few tries, the pure mana refusing to stay in its shape. But after a few more tries he managed to actually keep it for a few seconds.

Eldrian realized at this stage that he needed to change the form of the pure mana. But he had no idea how.

'How do I change mana from one form to another?' Eldrian asked, sharing with Zamia what he had just done. Which he quickly learned was unnecessary since she had used Magic-Inspection to observe Eldrian's mana as he experimented.

She was surprised by the speed at which he adapted. Even so she quickly placed this behind her, knowing that such a thing was a must for the situation they were in.

'That is the trickiest part of everything. Normally the spell module itself would cause it to change.' Zamia replied.

Eldrian then thought and shared with her how he needed to know the end result the mana should turn into. Receiving unexpected good news.

'Well if you needed that then you certainly were not using human magic. But already a mix of human and elven. It also makes it far simpler, simply control the pure mana to form into the elemental mana you want.'

'But how?' Eldrian asked, failing to see how this was an answer to anything.

'Just like you have been doing before. You just weren't aware that you were controlling the mana's change.'

Eldrian took Zamia's words for it and tried. Quickly failing.

As the sky was darkening he was brought back to the nodes. A nagging feeling telling him that they were there for a reason. Else the spell module would simply be pathways, lines forming an image.

They have to be the key. So I have to remember how they work and try to emulate that.Eldrian told himself, having already tried to form the nodes through mana. That had done nothing.

Remember how Nidia felt after being cast. Eldrian told himself, quickly using his old method to refresh this feeling. Focusing on this Eldrian imagined what he felt needed to happen to the pure mana to reach this final stage.

He slowly tried to follow this feeling, wishing he could go into the magical abyss. It would allow him to manipulate the spell to form slower. Giving him more time to feel the mana change.

After around a hundred tries, Eldrian felt he was ready, forming the pure mana droplet again. He then focused on it changing, slowly. Becoming wetter, colder. Eldrian felt the mana change as his thoughts fluttered through everything he knew.

Finally, after two minutes, he managed to cast Nidia. The simplest spell he knew.

Well, that will be useless in combat.Was his first thought, but quickly he discarded this. Feeling the difference in, well the difference in a connection he had to his spell.

It was as if he had used tongs to maneuver his spells before, now he was directly holding it in his hand. This extra sensitive connection also informed Eldrian that there was still something missing,

It felt like he could feel the spell, but not through his skin. Like he had a glove that stopped him from truly feeling what it felt like.

As Eldrian came out of his enlightenment he received both a compliment from Zamia and a message from the system.

[Nidia unlocked to Rank 3]

[As a reward for being the first player to ever reach this level in magic, player has been awarded one level up.]

[As a reward for mastering a spell past the normal. Reaching the true state of magic, the player has been rewarded 5000 XP and the title of: One who controls mana]

[Titles are optional additions which player can choose to make visible. Doing so will allow others to see all your titles when using Observe on you.]

[Titles functions are simple, informing NPCs of your greatest accomplishments. There are also stains, which would show your failure. While the former can be hidden, the latter cannot.]

Eldrian quickly checked that his titles were not visible. He did not know enough to simply make them visible. He did not think it would be a problem, but he would prefer to seem normal.

He only shifted his attention to Zamia after making sure of this. Luckily she did not mind that he had been spacing out, believing he was still absorbing what he had just accomplished.

'Impressive, that was really fast.' Zamia commented as she looked at Eldrian. Shocked by his progress.