“Stop spacing out, rlin Tyrrell!” Nora voiced, hands on her waist and her expression bearing a frown. “What’s up with you suddenly? Don’t tell you really got the jitters for that lady?”
rlin wouldn’t deny that he did, but that was not what was bothering him at this mont. It was the System floating before his eyes.
It did not take a genius to realize that the mind and soul completely differed from the body. And, as such, it was one thing to strengthen the body, and a completely different ball ga to cleanse the mind.
His mind wasn’t even filthy to begin with. It was not like he was a degenerate, so he was unsure as to why the System was asking him to cleanse it.
It’s already hard enough for to get into exercising, and now I have to start seeking ditation lessons? What do you take for? A hermit?
rlin was pissed that he had to go through this when Kieran had not, and the protagonist had actually almost beco a hermit once in the story.
Honestly, he felt like he would have been just fine with the ordinary version of the System; this modified one seed like it would pile absurd quests upon absurd quests onto him very, very soon, and plunge him into a world of pain and frustration.
On the other hand, a Deficient Mage shouldn’t be complaining, right? This was for his own good—all things considered.
rlin was shaken out of his thoughts by a shove from behind. He turned around to see Nora extrely furious. She must have been calling out to him all this while.
“What’s the problem?” she asked, not exactly concerned, just curious.
rlin had told her about the whole ‘strengthen your body, rlin Tyrrell’ thing, so he saw no reason as to why he should have to hide his newest quest.
“I received another,” he said. She tilted her head. “A Quest I an.”
Her furrowed brows loosened. “Oh. What’s it this ti?”
“It says I should be clear of mind and spirit,” he said. “I should ditate, basically.”
Nora’s head jerked back slightly. She glanced at the door of the Mage gym, and back at rlin, then grinned. “You naughty boy.”
rlin flushed. “No! That’s not it!”
“Like hell it isn’t.” She turned around, arms folded, and walked towards the sparring area. rlin chased after her, trying his best to clear the misunderstanding, but he failed woefully, his attempts crashing against a brick wall until he could do nothing but sigh in defeat.
Nora took off her cross bag now that they were in the sparring area, and placed it to the side. She then grabbed her Grimoire and walked onto the large square mat that spanned nearly the whole center of the room.
“So? Where do we start?” she asked.
“That depends,” said rlin, standing on the opposite side from where she was. “Can you cast any spells?”
Nora downturned her lips with a shrug. “You know I can’t, rlin. And we were not taught anything about casting spells during our lessons. But, I was thinking, maybe if I channel enough Mana, sothing may co to and of it.”
rlin recoiled as though he had heard the most vile statent in his seventeen years of life. “For soone so smart, that was a dumb thing to say.”
Nora reddened. “Hey! What else did you expect to hear? I just got the Grimoire today; it’s not like I know anything about casting Air spells yet. You know each spell is cast differently.” rlin just stared at her plaintively, causing her to bite her lower lip in annoyance. “If you’ve got a better idea, then let’s hear it!”
He did have a better idea.
“I can teach you,” he said without a hint of jeer in his voice.
Nora’s expression blanked. She blinked owlishly for a couple of seconds, silence in the air, then she snorted, and burst into a laugh.
“You can’t be serious,” she said.
“I am,” rlin replied, not particularly bothered by her reaction. He had been expecting it.
For one, they had both attended the sa lessons, so if she had no idea how to cast spells, there was no way he could. And, to make matters worse, he was a Deficient Mage. His mana was so little that even if he did have a bit of an inkling on what to do, he couldn’t channel enough to put it into practice. So how could he teach her anything?
Well, she probably wouldn't have reacted this way if she had not waved away his obsession with Singularity Mage as nonsense. That novel would most likely be her saving grace now. That was if all the things written in it made use of real world knowledge.
“Are you going to keep laughing, or should we get right into it?” rlin added, and Nora paused, looking at him with narrowed eyes.
“You really an it?” she asked. He nodded. “Where did you even learn anything about spell casting?”
“Novels, and a bit of research,” answered rlin.
Nora put a hand on her waist. “Novels or that novel?”
“That novel.”
She took a mont to reflect. “Alright, then. Let’s give it a try.”
Nora suddenly being on terms with him teaching her spell casting was not surprising to rlin. It was simply because of the mystery surrounding that favorite web novel of his. After all, if its System was able to co to life, then maybe the way magic worked within it shared more than just re similarities to the way it did in real life. Which was exactly the sa train of thought he’d had.
It never hurts to give sothing a try; that way, one won’t look back and regret later on.
On that note, rlin fell into his head, sourcing through the library of magic he had built within it.
What exactly did he know about Air magic to begin with?
From what he recalled of the chanics in Singularity Mage, Air spells were cast by linking mana with the currents generated from the rotation of the Earth—at least a certain portion that the Mage could control—and reverse engineering its motion to differ from that of the Earth’s rotation.
In other words, it was simply forcing air to move in the opposite direction of the Earth’s rotation, creating visible spirals that could be tampered with to form any Air spell imaginable.
Of course, spells were restricted to the Mage’s imagination. But rlin was sure his sister had no shortage of imagination.
“Since you already know how to channel mana, then this should be fairly easy for you,” rlin began.
“How so?” said Nora
“Well, because, if what I know turns out to be correct, then Air magic is the easiest form of magic,” he replied. Nora tilted her head at that. Had he struck a nerve? “I’m not trying to say you’re a weak Mage or anything like that. Air magic is actually the best magic anyone could wish for. It’s just that the concept behind its spells isn’t that complicated.” Nora did not reply. “Ugh…Nora…”
“What?” She shrugged. “I’m just listening to you.”
“Why do you have that expression on your face then?”
“What expression?”
“Fine. Have it your way.” rlin clicked his tongue.
She always did this when she was pissed—the whole silent treatnt with just a tiny bit of a frown. He did not have the energy to deal with this now, so he just went on with his explanation, hoping that she would co off it sooner than later. Because if what he was teaching her turned out to work, he might get blasted with magic if he was unable to deconstruct it.
He had not prepared his mind for being hurt, and he probably never will.
“So, what I’m saying is, air is made up of various currents that move together with the sa motion.” Since he was not in the possession of a book or pen, and could not sketch, he tried his best to give visual aids with his hands instead, becoming very animated. “What you have to do is channel mana into one of those currents, and take control of it. But that is not the end. If you take control of it and just keep moving it in the sa direction as it was already moving in, nothing will change. To cast a spell, you have to move the current in a different direction than it is already moving in. Clockwise to counterclockwise, or vice versa. Understood?”
Nora bobbed her head up and down with a hmmm. Then her Grimoire flipped open on its own and left her palm to hover just beside her head.
They were not surprised by this—rlin and Nora, both—after all, it was written in the Grimoire’s manual that Grimoires acted this way when enough mana to cast a spell was channeled by their user. It had been otherwise back at their apartnt, because the mana Nora had channeled was too little—just like she had been instructed to.
rlin didn’t know much about Grimoires, they had not been present in Singularity Mage, and he and Nora hadn’t been taught much about them during their lessons—besides the fact that they were made from the hides of monsters, that was. Why they were really needed for spell casting was alien to him.
They were a fascinating piece of artifact, that, but what was even more fascinating was the prowess of his twin sister.
“Like this?” Nora said with a soft grin, a powerful, high-speed sphere of rotating air visibly seated upon her palm.
She had not exploded.
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