Bloodlines Online

The day turned into night with Lucretia teaching Ezekiel about skills that were necessary for a mage.

”I assume you have begun to learn about how mana density affects your spells?”

*’somewhat, I’ve noticed that adding more mana doesnt affect the damage but it does make it possible for spells to do more damage.”

She nods and shows him a ball of mana in her hand.

”The mana you provide for a spell does not affect its damage but it can cause a spell to have more effects.”

She proceeded to show him by throwing a ball of mana filled with fire at a target.

The ball burst and the fire began to consume the target before sputtering out.

”Now the mana within that orb was enough to create the damage of it and with higher mana control one can use the excess to make the fire mana cause additional burns.”

She showed him another fire orb and through his ability to see the mana he could tell that it was the same amount as his own orbs.

”This orb has a form fueld by mana but since the body naturally releases more mana than necessary to create a spell there is some unused mana left behind that must go somewhere once you have perfected your mana control.”

He nods as she explains but he suddenly had a question he couldn’t quite shake.

”Why can’t we just train the body use less mana to make the spells?”

She smiled at his question and laughed a bit.

”Because spells that use less mana are refined but they are also weaker.”

She casts the spell once again, and this time when he saw the orb strike it caused an even larger flood of flame across the target.

”By using the power of mana we can make even the weakest of spells do many things we desire. Your own spell is designed to cause damage with each needle and then cause another burst of damage yes?”

He nods at her question.

”Using the mana in your spell so well is surprising but there are obviously flaws. What we must help you to learn is proper mana construct techniques.”

She started by giving him shapes to create, very basic shapes.

”When a mage is learning these skills they actually learn this process by using clay, it also shows mages what their talent woth magic actually is.”

She watches as he creates the shapes perfectly, basic shapes though did not get praise.

”A mage with low talent is still useful as the ability to manipulate mana like a mage is beyond what a martial could accomplish so for creation of spell circles and other tasks that require complex mana manipulation a mage will always be needed.”

She then made him begin making more complex shapes in three dimensions, with the three dimensional shapes he had to make them evenly and they could not have any defects.

With the sphere he made it slightly off at first as she showed him the slightest of imbalances in the shape, she was surprised by how easily he had made the walls.

The shape itself may not be perfect but the walls that kept its shape were made so perfectly she was actually checking if he used a skill to make them.

”How did you do that so easily? It takes years to make constructs with the right thickness of the structure at the snap of a finger.”

He shrugged and felt some pride now.

”It’s a skill I got, I think it’s a more advanced version of mana sense and I had a lot of practice using it to reforge my mana veins.”

He began to create more spheres and even created two at once, then three and four and five.

He created them from the center outward to make sure they were evenly shaped and had even density.

When he could create ten at once with perfect form she was satisfied and told him the next shape would be cubes.

”To create a cube many will start with different methods but the point is to construct the cube from mana with perfect dimensions.”

He nodded and the first idea he had was to make them from the walls but he realized that it would not work well since making the walls from the center made it harder to focus on the right dimensions when he reached the corners.

He continued by trying with the edges this time, making the edges worked better but this time he had length flaws.

The only point where he succeeded was when he started with the corners.

By starting with the corners he could make sure the shapes were even in dimensions as well as making it easier to shape it at the end since he went from making eight points to filling the edges in with mana as squares.

His talents with mana made it so easy that he didn’t even notice how difficult it should be.

The queen admired his skills each time and every object he had to make was eventually perfect.

”Now we can begin the advanced side, adding detail.”

”Detail?”

”When you can make a projectile so perfectly that even millions are not a problem is just the standard for an archmage but the next step is to make these projectiles stronger by adding more to them.”

He nods and begins to think about it, then he created a bolt with a serrated edge like a knife.

”Like this?”

”Indeed but you are also able to add runes for more effects, think about it in this way, if you could created a spell circle that would make a foe start to bleed internally from mana constructs would you not try it?”

’Oh damn... that does sound helpful.’

”Yeah I can imagine a spell that does that would be powerful with shadow mana.”

”That’s the spirit darling... now I want to teach you spell circles and to do that i must teach you the arcane language.”

When he heard this he was simultaneously excited and dreading it because learning a language was tedious work.

~

”Now this rune is the rune for fire but it can also be used for other effects.”

Turns out the arcane language was a set of runes that were used in writing and other acts like spell circle construction. Writing in the arcane language was common as the words could be used quite well and were perfectly harmless without mana as the basis of the writing.

Since he was doing well she was teaching him a spell circle already to help him learn.

”Now if this rune is fire what do you suppose the alternate meanings could be?”

”Well... fire can be used for a lot of things like warmth and light.”

”You are correct but you must think in a broader way, what are some other things associated with fire?”

”Explosions?”

”Exactly. A fire rune can be used in spell circles that would have an explosive effect.”

She smiled with pride for her beloved and he felt his heart flutter again, he loved her smile now that he had seen her genuinely trying to care about him.

He started to draw the spell circle but he really could not get past one problem.

Each time he made the spell circle in the way she showed him it felt like something was missing.

When he completed his spell circle he activated it which pulled in surrounding mana to create a mana bomb.

Since he had used a basic circle all it did was create this but he knew from experience that spell circles could be used to turn simple doors into weapons of torment.

He began trying to replicate the spell he had seen on the door in the dungeon but he couldn’t quite remember every detail.

Instead he began to try his own spell circle.

He used the runes for fire, blade, and shadow to create this spell circle to try to replicate his frenzy bomb.

When he activated the spell he saw that the mana was pulled into shape... the shape of a spear with violent mana inside if it.

”Dammit.”

”Don’t be discouraged, you simply need to learn to put the runes in the right order.”

When he heard this he looked at her with genuine worry.

’Order?... Wait are spell circles just like coding?!’

With a new problem on his mind he began to try again.

~

In the city of Raylock the clan known as Valhalla was working with new players to help them level up and gain gear.

Layla had begun to move on to the next city with Hope and Shade by her side.

Thanatos had gone to another city as apparently he had some quest to complete but he had promised to meet them again later on.

They were fighting their way through monsters from a sudden horde attack and it was clear they had grown much stronger.

Hope was adorned in green armor made of life mana that she had infused with wind affinity so that she could push enemies away while Layla was cleaving through these foes like they were nothing.

Shade was shining even more as each strike he made was higher than any damage the two could make as his agility made his crit damage quite terrifying.

The trio were approaching a brand new city, one that they doubted anyone had been to as they saw the notification when a t4 was found so this t3 must be the same.

After all no notifications had been given about a t3 city being found.