Markets and Multiverses (A Serial Transmigration LitRPG) Chapter 85: Attunements

After the basic introduction to how the spellcasting system as a whole worked, Matt got started on forming magic circles, which needed to be created inside of the mind before one could cast any spells at all. Apart from that, he also gave so basic exercises to work on to help familiarize myself with fire. I was to spend several hours a day observing a candle fla, and observing fire in other related environnts. I suspected that I would also benefit from seeing any other form of fire, and I could probably take the sa thodology and apply it to any other magic symbol I wanted to familiarize myself with. Fire was a good start, but force and water would be just as useful in the future, and after I ford those, there were nurous other magic symbols I would also want to learn. However, at least for now, I was just focused on making a magic circle and learning my first symbol.

I didn’t manage to form my first magic circle in one session, unlike my incredibly fast successes with alteration essence. But I thought I could still form my first magic circle within a week.

Which made think about how useful the spellcasting system could be in future worlds, compared to the rune magic system. For runes, I needed to wait for my body to acclimate itself to each new rune before forming another one. Trying to form several in a row would seriously damage my body and hurt . This put a massive limitation on the rune magic system; one needed quite a bit of ti to get it working. Sallia managed to largely avoid this problem, since her extre affinity for the essence made the acclimation period much shorter. However, I didn’t have this advantage, which significantly reduced how useful the rune magic system was for .

By contrast, the spell circles of the spellcasting system didn’t need any acclimation period. One could be done forming them in a month or so, if one was particularly fast. This ant that spellcasting required much less setup ti before I regained mastery over the magic system.

Of course, there were also notable downsides. As far as I could tell, spellcasters of this world didn’t get any stat bonuses at all. Shapers seed like they could get so Stat bonuses if soone figured out how Orukthyri were made, but I had no idea if we would get that information before dying and leaving this world. anwhile, runes had the massive upside of giving us 3 extra grades in all our physical and ntal Attributes once we had 9 runes, making us faster, stronger, and harder to ambush. The rune system had massive upsides in addition to its massive downside.

As I thought about these problems and tried to figure out what I wanted in the future, my learning session with Matt finally ended. My master congratulated for a productive first day, before she took to another building in the city, where all of the children who were magically gifted could et up with each other and socialize.

Including Sallia, Felix, and Anise.

“Miria!” Said Sallia, the mont she saw . It had only been a few days since we last saw each other, but she imdiately tackle-hugged the mont she saw .

“I learned to do magic! I’m getting close to being a super witch!” Said Anise, who had been tagging along behind Sallia.

Felix was still a little bit behind the other two, but when he heard Anise’s words and saw how enthusiastic the girl was, he seed to be trying very hard to resist the urge to burst out laughing. I had a sneaking suspicion that when Anise got older, she would never, ever live down her enthusiasm for being a super witch. I felt my lips quirk upwards at the thought. Even if I fully intended to tease her rcilessly in a few years, it was also fun seeing what a real child looked like. Sallia, Felix and I had largely forgotten what it was like to think like a child, since the three of us were essentially adults cramd into children’s bodies. Sothing about Anise managed to brighten up my day, even if I was pretty sure she would die of embarrassnt when she was older and rembered this.

“That’s great to hear, Anise,” I said. “Are you enjoying learning so far?”

“I’m learning lots! Mister Lauren is really good at teaching how to do spellcasting, and while I haven’t learned any magic symbols yet, I’ve decided to work on a symbol for stone first! Mister Lauren says that the best way to survive as a spellcaster is to learn so good second-circle spells to keep you safe during fights and keep opponents from killing you, and then blast them down with a third or fourth circle spell once you’ve stopped them from hurting you. And stone is really good at hardening skin and tripping opponents in the caves!” said Anise, her four eyes blinking and glittering like jewels as she talked about magic.

“Is that so?” I said, giving Anise a lighter hug, before giving Felix a hug of his own. “I’m sure you’ll beco a super witch in no ti! You just need to practice lots and do your best to learn!”

“Mm-hmm!” said Anise, nodding happily.

“How’s Lauren as a teacher?” I asked Sallia and Felix after Anise finished gushing.

Sallia frowned. “He kind of reminds of my tutors when I was a… special person, long ago. He’s very… structured in how he teaches. He has a certain way he thinks is optimal when it cos to teaching and learning, and he wants us to follow those ideas. Which isn’t a bad thing. But it’s also very rigid. I think it’s a good way to learn how to excel in this world, since he’s so specialized in counterspelling and improving his spellcasting with shaping. But it also doesn’t really lend itself to the skills we’ll need in future… areas we visit,” said Sallia, taking so effort to mind her words around Anise. Even if it was unlikely that any adults would take Anise seriously if she told them that we always talked about being from other worlds, or the Market, there was no reason to tempt fate. I made a small reminder to myself to also mind my words around the excitable young girl.

“It’s a really good thing that you got a different teacher. If you had learned under Lauren, it would have been a waste,” said Sallia, finishing up her thoughts as I thought about Anise’s presence in our group.

Felix nodded. “As for the man’s personality itself… he’s fine. A bit strict, since he’s very set on what he thinks is ideal, as Sallia ntioned. But I would say he’s a little more flexible than Sallia makes him out to be. When I was asking him about my attunent, and how to use it for shaping tools, he didn’t try to force to learn specifically how to combine spells and shaping essence, the way I was afraid he might. Which is good, honestly. I won’t have my passion buried under his teaching thods, which I’m grateful for.”

“Is that so?” said Sallia, giving Felix a curious glance. “I didn’t really get that impression. In my first… set of experiences, I had a really strict teacher that used to hit my hands with a ruler whenever I ssed up a question. He was responsible for teaching religion and history. He was awful about mistakes. I got a similar kind of impression from Lauren as a teacher.”

“I get the impression that he’s pretty strict about how shaping and spellcasting synergize, but I think it’s mostly limited to that field of study. It’s his field of expertise, and I think he’s extrely proud of it. But I also get the impression he’s just average in the field of regular shaping; he’s mostly a wizard that uses shaping on the side, rather than a specialist in both fields.”

“Well, attunents are pretty centered around your personal understanding,” I interjected. “It’s good that he’s only strict about his field of expertise; in that field of study, at least, he’s probably earned the right to claim that his thod is the best one, since as far as I know nobody else in the city is really specialized in changing how spells work on the fly.”

Sallia nodded, after thinking for a few monts. “I suppose you have a good point, Felix. He’s pretty strict when it cos to spellcasting, but he was much more open when he was teaching us how shaping works. I just wanted to see if I could try out a few new things when it ca to magic symbols. It feels so weird that manifestation doesn’t use our understanding of an idea, while shaping and runes work entirely off of our interpretation of sothing.”

Felix snorted. “You haven’t even learned one symbol yet. Leave the wacky experintation until you at least kind of know what you’re doing. There are way too many ways for spells to blow up in your face if you ss them up. And even if you’re much stronger than most people, you can still hurt yourself if you ss up. Miria and I would both be really sad if you hurt yourself, you know?”

Sallia’s expression shifted a bit, as she looked at Felix and I, before she sighed. “Fine. But I still want to ss with things once I get a solid idea what I’m doing.”

“As long as it’s only after you figure out spellcasting,” I said, giving Sallia another hug.

Then, I gave Sallia, Anise, and Felix curious glances. I thought about my first day with alteration essence, and my attunent, and grinned.

“So, what attunents are you guys going for?” I asked.

“Right now, I’m thinking I want to do sothing with flesh, or maybe bones.” said Sallia. “I figure that since I’m best with lee weapons, and I have a really strong body already, I could probably strengthen my body even further with so sort of body-related attunent. Turning my body into hardened flesh and bone in the middle of a fight should probably combine really well with my, uh… special spells,” said Sallia, glancing at her feet, where I knew she had also stuck her runic tattoos.

I nodded. “That could work really well with strengthening your body, yeah. I can see how it would work. How about your third… special spell?”

“Well, I already have healing and stealth. I’m thinking that I’ll do either flesh or bones with my attunent, and then whichever one I don’t form an attunent around, I’ll turn into my third special spell. Healing myself with shadows, hiding myself and my weapons with shadows, and then strengthening my body by layering my special spells on top of an attunent and regular spells should make incredibly hard to fight. Combine that with a few long-range abilities from spellcasting and a little bit of counterspelling, and I think I’ll be a nightmare to fight. Maybe I’ll be able to fight an Orukthyri after layering everything together!” Sallia said, grinning at the thought. “I don’t really know how strong they are as a species, but hopefully I can match them with everything concentrated towards my physical abilities.”

“I’m going into tal,” said Felix. “Since this city has a pretty robust blacksmithing community, I figure it’s a good way to train my tool-making abilities for the future. And tal conversion and manipulation will obviously work really well with tool creation. Don’t worry; I’ll still develop so proper combat spells to help during fights, as well. I’ll probably have a low number of maximum magic symbols per day, but I should be able to manage at least a couple third-circle spells every day. And I’ll have archery, too. Even if I’ll definitely struggle with fighting, I won’t be useless in a fight. And, of course, long-term I’m hoping to rediscover how to make magic items, since Lauren ntioned them a few tis. We’ll have to look into that later though.”

“I’m doing magic symbols for my attunent!” Said Anise, and I widened my eyes in surprise. I hadn’t…. actually realized that was possible, honestly. It was a very clever use of the shaping magic system. “I want to be a super witch!” She frowned. “I don’t think it’ll work until I can make magic symbols, though. So even if I make my attunent tomorrow, I’ll probably need to wait before I can use it. But once I have both magic symbols and my attunent, I’m going to be the strongest witch in the city!”

I chuckled.

“How about you? It’s your big affinity, after all,” said Sallia, grinning at . She seed to know that I was eager to talk about my own shaping experiences, and she seed more than happy to bring up the topic for .

“I’ve already ford my attunent. Look at this,” I said, before I pointed out a patch of moss.

“Extinguish!” I said, incredibly dramatically, before visualizing the life of the moss as a small, flickering candle. A mont later, a single droplet of water ford near my finger, before flicking through the air like a raindrop of death. A mont later, my drop of water hit the moss.

Instantly, the moss died. I giggled, incredibly satisfied with seeing my ability work again.

Sallia and Felix’s eyes widened. “What did you make for your attunent? Is that… death or sothing?” asked Sallia. “That’s really cool!”

“It’s the ocean!” I said, grinning. “I figured I should stick with my ocean the, since it helps activate my other stuff.”

“The ocean? What does the ocean have to do with…. ah. Drowning? I can actually see how the ocean and death relate to each other quite a bit,” said Felix, his initial surprise being replaced by curiosity.

“Take a closer look at the water,” said Sallia, as she took a closer look at the patch of dead moss. “I didn’t notice it at first either, but it’s not a normal ocean.”

Felix inspected the drop of water lying on top of the moss for a mont, and then his eyes grew as wide as saucers. “Did you…”

I grinned madly. “Yes.”

Felix started cackling. “I guess we know who’s responsible for long range sniping when we get to the surface. To actually turn that into a weapon… and it just… instantly kills things, too. How much essence does it cost?”

I winced. “Right now, the cost is completely absurd. It’s prohibitively expensive. But a lot of that is just because I don’t have much practice yet. It’ll be usable when I get better with it. I’m hoping that later, I can just dump a cloud of rain on an Orukthyri warband and kill them instantly. We’ll see how far I can take this ability though. I’ll need to practice much more.”

Sallia looked at the drop of water again curiously. “I wonder if I can do sothing similar with my special affinity? Suddenly, I wonder if I’m severely underutilizing my extre affinity.” Then, she sighed, and chuckled. “Sothing to think about for my final… special spell, I guess. Either way, when we journey to the surface we’ll be unstoppable together.”

I grinned, and then wrapped the two of them in a hug. “As a team, we’ll make sure to send the Orukthyri running for the hills and scour the surface for ancient spells and item crafting information.”

Sallia’s eyes glinted. “Together.”

Anise gave the three of us curious, slightly hopeful glances, and I chuckled and wrapped her into the group hug. “You can co too, if you decide you want to when you’re older. It’ll be the four of us against the surface. But only if you really want to, all right?” Unlike the three of us, Anise was actually a kid. I didn’t want her to throw away her life, but I also didn’t want to restrict her freedom to choose her own path. We would just have to see what she wanted in a few decades.

Anise’s eyes brightened up, and she nodded enthusiastically.