Chapter 139 138: Fundamentals Of Magic



A second after Corey spoke, a black book hovered over Corey's palm and the instant it appeared before him, Corey grabbed it.

He looked at the cover for a few seconds then he opened the book and read the first words on the first page.

[Before we, not I, delve into the fundamentals of magic. I have to ask you a question. What is magic?]

"What is magic?"

Corey muttered with his head tilted to the side slightly as he pondered on the question.

What did Corey believe magic was?

"Magic is the ability to perform supernatural feats. The ability to use powers that normal humans can't use or wish to use."

Corey spoke, explaining what he felt magic was in simple, short words. He looked at the book, then turned it to the next page and read the contents.

[Whatever you most likely said magic was, is most likely true. All of us have our own definitions of magic.

To some, it is the ability to control and summon fire, water, lightning etc.

While to some, it's the ability to do supernatural feats.

To some, it's the ability to destroy mountains, buildings and cars with a wave of their hands.

If your answers are these or similar to these, you're not wrong.

But what I would say is that for me, magic is the ability to use mana, all types of mana.]

"The ability to use mana."

Corey paused and mumbled. A thought came to his head but he decided to leave it and he continued reading.

[Let me tell you why I said that magic is the ability to use mana.]

[Look at the skill section of your status screen. Now some of you might not know, but all your skills, whether passive or active utilize mana, even if it's an extremely minute amount.]

[Now tell me, are your skills not feats that normal humans before the apocalypse could not perform? Aren't your skills magical? Aren't your skills a form of magic?]

As Corey read the words written by Pamela, he didn't know why but he could feel the zeal, the passion that the unknown Pamela had for magic related things.

With his interest in the leader of the Destroyers of Darkness and the book before him already piqued, Corey turned to the next page of the book, wanting to learn more.

[Magic doesn't have to be you summoning rain, thunder and lightning. It doesn't have to be you bringing a meteor from out of space, it also doesn't have to be you summoning demons or monsters from hell.]

[Magic can be in the form of unremarkable skills like night vision, causing a spark of fire from your fingers or controlling minute amounts of water. Magic can be anything and it's only your imagination that limits you and even me.]

With an interested and hooked expression, Corey turned to the next page.

[Now that we've discussed our views on what magic is, let's talk about the fundamentals of magic.]

[Now, my understanding on the fundamentals of magic is not absolute and is most likely not completely correct because as of now, I'm just tier 2 and I definitely don't understand much about magic compared to people at higher tiers. So please forgive me if what I'm currently saying is proved wrong in the future as you improve.]

[Moving away from that, let's talk about the fundamentals of magic.]

[I want to use your skills as an example. Assuming you have the fireball skill or let's say the wind slash skill, how do you increase your proficiency in those skills?]

[The answer to that question is what most of you already know, which is repeatedly using the skill.]

[Yes, repeatedly using the skill can improve your proficiency with the skill but I had a question at one point in time during the apocalypse.]

[How were these skills formed? How was fireball formed? Who created the skill fireball? Who created the skill that had the ability to use wind to slash objects? How are all these skills formed?]

[Were they formed, created by the Universal System? Or were they created by extremely powerful beings? Can we only get skills from skill crystals? Couldn't we create our own skills? Can't we create our own magic? Can't we figure out how skills work? How magic work?]

[So if you want to know my hypothesis on how magic works, on the fundamentals of magic, turn to the next page.]

"This is interesting."

Corey smiled as he read the words and without wasting time, he opened the next page.

[Now before I explain my hypothesis on how magic works. I want to speak about two things.]

[I want to say that magic did not start after the apocalypse but it started before the apocalypse.]

[Some of you might know and some might not know but there are have been people that actually practiced and performed magic successfully.]

[There have been witches and wizards in the past and these witches and wizards used magic with various methods.]

[Some used magic by killing animals and humans then offering either their blood or corpses to their so called 'gods. There are other witches and wizards that had to form a magic circle while using certain materials.]

[Now the thing is, was there mana in our world before the apocalypse started? How come some people could perform certain magic?]

[My guess to those questions is that there was probably an extremely small amount of mana in the planet before the apocalypse started. I don't know and I'm not sure.]

[Now why did I tell you about the past? It's cause I want you to know that magic has existed for a very long time and if I'm right, it needs a medium.]

[The witches and wizards that sacrificed living beings to their 'gods' to perform magic used the dead humans and animals as the medium.

While the witches and wizards that used magic circles and different materials to perform magic, made the magic circles and the materials to be the medium for their magical abilities.]

[The sorcerers of old needed a sort of medium to perform magic, but what about us? What is our medium? How do we use skills like fireball, lightning blast, wind slash and so on?]

[Is it because of mana? Is it because of the skill crystal? Is mana the medium?]

[No!]

[Mana is definitely not the medium for our magical abilities. Mana is the energy source.]

[So if mana is not the medium, then what is the medium?]

[Turn to the next page to find out.]

Reading the last words on the page he was reading, Corey raised his brows.

"I have feeling the leader of the darkness destroyers likes or used to watch anime like Anna."

Corey mumbled and a small smile formed on his lips as he remembered Anna.

'I miss her.'

Corey sighed then he pushed back his thoughts and memories regarding Anna to the back of his mind and turned to the next page of the book.

[The medium of our magical skills are two things]

Corey somewhat expecting a long winded story before Pamela got to the point, was surprised that Pamela got to the point immediately.

[The first thing is something that all of us possesses, mana circuits. Mana circuits is something that most wouldn't know about until tier probably tier 4.]

[What are mana circuits?]

[Mana circuits are particular veins and arteries in our bodies that are compatible for mana and allows our mana to run through our body like blood.]

[Although everybody has their own mana circuits, if you want to know and see your mana circuits, then you have to wait until you're tier 4.]

[As for how I know that you'll have to wait till tier 4 to see your mana circuit?]

[It's none of your business.]

[If you want to know why you have to wait till tier 4?]

[Reach tier 4 first then you'll understand.]

[Although I said that you'll have to wait till tier 4 to feel or see your mana circuits, you can still feel your mana circuits before tier 4.]

[If you want to know or feel your mana circuits on your own and before tier 4, then it requires luck, patience and a calm mind. That is if you don't have a special skill or means that can see through your body.]

[To feel your mana circuits, you'll have to meditate and enter an extreme state of calmness while moving the mana in your body.]

[Another way is by you using a particular skill like fireball repeatedly but as you use it, you try to feel how the mana moves in your body before the fireball is formed.]

[Mana circuits according to me, is one medium. The other medium is something that most cannot see and to explain it, I would need to speak about one of my skills.]

[Some might say me speaking about one of my skills is stupid but my passion and desire to speak about this knowledge is much more than me worrying about the consequences of me speaking about my skill.]

[Some might not know but mana is everywhere in the air and I can see it due to a particular skill.]

"She can see mana?"

Corey spoke with slightly raised brows reading that and he remembered the colorless transparent particles he saw when he activated Eyes of Omniscience.

'Could the colorless and transparent particles be mana?'

Corey thought but decided not to delve too deep into it now so as to continue reading the book before him. Corey then opened the next page of the book.

[Due to my ability to see mana, I noticed something. Whenever we use certain magical skills, the invisible mana in the air, moves and turns into certain invisible symbols in the air.]

[From what I know, for every magical skill, the invisible symbols are always different and the higher the proficiency of the skill, the faster the invisible symbols form.]

[Most of you would probably not understand what I mean, so in the next pages, I drew certain symbols of some basic skills and I also explained more about the fundamentals of the magic.]

[This page and the previous pages just briefly explained what I feel are the fundamentals of magic. I hope you have the same flair and excitement I have for magic as you read the further pages.]

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[A/N: Sorry you guys for not posting yesterday. Writing this chapter was actually not easy for me. Also, I was tired both physically and mentally.

Hopefully, I'm not too tired in the coming days so that I can continue to post at a constant rate.]