Chapter 11

Magic Missile

“It is a very unusual skill. Hearing about it, knowing nothing else, I would suspect that you were a metamage. But Dario told me you have had this skill since you were a child. I can see that you’re an [Enhancer] now, regardless.” Tsula sipped from a small teacup. Janus hadn’t noticed it amongst the clutter on her desk.

“Dario told me that if I manipulated mana correctly, I could even replicate other magic skills.”

“That is true. Magic skills simply utilize mana to create their desired effect. Only powerful mages can usually see mana directly.” Tsula explained. “But the System drives those skills. Your skill is more like rune magic or artifact crafting. You can interact with the System on a deeper level to create unprecedented effects.”

“I also have a [Mana Reinforcement] skill. It lets me turn mana into a tangible material. Dario hadn’t seen anything like it.”

Janus demonstrated by creating a small pearl of mana. He placed it on the desk.

“I have seen some magic capable of doing this. I am not sure if it is the exact same method, but barrier skills commonly harden mana to defend their users.” Tsula said. “Perhaps once your [Mana Manipulation] skill evolves you would have been able to mimic that effect. I am curious about the difference between barrier magic and [Mana Reinforcement].”

Tsula shuffled around some papers on her desk and snatched one from the resulting pile.

She scanned the paper before continuing, “I have some notes on your skill, here. There was something I wanted to try. I have a very simple skill to create a light. This light can pierce illusions and even reveal enemies hidden by skills.”

She lifted her hand, opening it towards Janus. Above her palm, a small point of light formed and grew stronger. Slowly, the light spread throughout Tsula’s small home.

Tsula began speaking again as the light grew, “Look at how the mana moves, what it is doing. If you can replicate the mana pattern, you may be able to replicate the skill.”

Janus was staring intently at the mana in her hand. It was difficult to discern much over the bright light. He closed his eyes and it was almost like he could feel the mana moving nearby.

He formed another ball of mana in front of him and began manipulating it to mimic the mana above Tsula’s palm. It differed greatly from what he usually did with mana. The mana compressed in some places, but dissipated in others. It was like a system that pulled in new mana and exhausted old mana.

Janus opened his eyes and the mana in his own hand nearly unraveled. His ball of light was shining a bright blue, as opposed to Tsula’s white. But, other than the color, it appeared identical.

Tsula’s expression was intense and she poke eagerly, “I will dispel my skill. I have an artifact that is enchanted to hide itself from any sight but my own. If your copy of my skill works, it should allow you to see the artifact.”

She reached below her desk and grabbed something. Janus could see a slender piece of wood in her hand as she raised it. It was covered in small stylized runes, each faintly glowing different colors.

“I can see it. It’s like a stick with runes on it.” Janus said.

Tsula nearly dropped the artifact in surprise. She scrutinized the light in Janus’ palm. Suddenly she forced a finger into the ball of mana. It unraveled with a pop!

“It appears to be less stable than my own skill, but perhaps that will come with practice and levels.” Tsula said. “I am uncertain if you understand how incredible this is.”

Janus had an inkling from his talks with Dario. The man made sure to let Janus know that [Mana Manipulation] held an incredible amount of potential.

Tsula continued speaking, “You have the ability to create nearly any magical effect. The weakness of most mages is that they have a limited set of options to choose from. Once an opponent knows their capabilities, they can be prepared for. You, on the other hand, may have an endless library of spells.”

“I, uh, hadn’t really considered the skill slots, or even copying other peoples skills.” Janus responded.

He really hadn’t considered just copying someone else’s skills. It seemed so obvious in hindsight. He could skip weeks of tireless trial and error but just seeing how other skills accomplished their effects.

“Thank you, Tsula. I’ve learned a lot.” Janus said. He was eager to try copying another skill.

“Of course. If you need anything else, I should be here.” Tsula said, inclining her head.

Janus stood, giving a half wave to Tsula as he turned towards the exit. He crouched through the doorway and stepped outside.

Only Dario was standing outside the building. It appeared that Pella and Devon had already left.

“You were a bit longer than the others.” Dario said.

Janus recalled his conversation with Tsula. It had seemed like little time passed. How long did he spend trying to replicate her skill?

“I guess I wasn’t keeping track of the time.” Janus replied.

“Don’t worry about it. She had important lessons for all of you, even if a lot of it was review. I’m going to head back to the guild. You’re good to head home for the day if you want.”

Dario had already started walking. Janus was busy thinking about where he could examine magic skills. Tsula’s skill was easy because it was static. It stayed in one spot for a long time. Janus was sure it would be more difficult to copy a skill that was executed quickly.

Maybe Dario can help me out with this. I’ll ask him tomorrow.

-

Janus planned to ask around the Delver’s guild for mages who would be willing to show him their skills.

In the morning, after returning to the Delver’s Guild, Janus approached Dario with the plan.

“Sounds like a great idea to me. You’ve been gettin’ better at sparring, but your skills aren’t keeping up with you.” Dario said. “Give me a few minutes.”

Dario entered the guild and left Janus outside. Devon and Pella were already hammering away at each other.

It was crazy to watch. Devon still won more often than not, but Pella seemed to have an endless supply of tricks. She was no longer only using a short sword. Janus had seen her with nearly every training weapon, and she was skilled with all of them.

If only it were that easy for me. All this time and I still haven’t even gotten a skill with quarter staffs.

After a few minutes, Janus heard the door behind him open.

Dario stepped outside, followed by a few people Janus had seen a few times at the guild.

“I’ve got a guy here, his name’s Atohi. He’s willing to show you some skills. The others wanted to watch.” Dario said, motioning towards a man in a dark red cotton robe. A bandage mostly obscured his face, but Janus could see spiky black hair sticking out from beneath.

Janus identified him.

[Magus - Level 43]

“I heard from the Tinebrand that you have some wild skill and you need mages to help you out.” Said Atohi.

Dario had already stepped away, he was giving tips to Devon and Pella in between one of their rounds.

“Tinebrand? What do you mean?” Janus asked.

“Your teacher. He is the Tinebrand, man. I heard he took on dozens of nut jobs before they made the stations. It’s like, a title. Not sure what it means though. Someone told me it had to do with fire.”

“Ah, I didn’t know. Did Dario tell you about my skill?”

“No, but I saw you spar a few days ago. Is it the one that explodes? I’m, like, pretty good with explosions.” Atohi looked amused.

“Not really. I wanted to see you use one of your magic skills. That should be enough.”

“For real? I guess that’s easy enough, man.” Atohi said and started walking towards a sparring platform. “The platforms are reinforced, so I’ll show you some stuff over here.”

Janus followed along until they arrived at a platform. He watched Atohi step up. He stood towards one end and muttered something under his breath.

Janus could immediately feel the mana expelled from Atohi. It was a massive amount. A glowing circle appeared in front of Atohi, several runes radiating from its edge.

It was a strange experience. Janus could feel the runes doing something to the mana, but he wasn’t exactly sure what was going on. Only a few moments passed before mana began to coalesce within the circle. It was being formed into jagged projectiles. The projectiles seemed to hover in the air a moment before flying forward, striking the platform.

“You catch that, man?” called Atohi.

“Uh, yeah. Could you possibly do it again, though?”

Janus could see the confusion on Atohi’s face from where he was standing. The red robed man began muttering again. Slowly, the same skill from before manifested itself.

This time, Janus closed his eyes. He focused intently on the mana and what exactly it was doing. He shifted his own mana into the same configuration. The mysterious part was still the runes, but Janus simply conformed his mana to the same shaped. Exerting this much fine control was difficult, but he was managing it.

He could feel mana slowly coalescing in the middle of the array he had created. It was slowly being shaped into thin, sharp segments. The segments were unstable, and leaking mana. But, after a few more moments, mana exploded out of each of the segments, and they went flying in half a dozen different directions.

“Woah! What the fuck, man?!” Janus hear Atohi shout.

He opened his eyes to see Atohi storming towards him.

“What did you just do? One of those things nearly took my head off!” Atohi shouted.

Janus had aimed at the platform, but his array must have been too unstable. The projectiles he created were leaking too much mana, and it affected their trajectories.

“Oh, I didn’t mean to. Uh, I was aiming at the platform.” Janus stammered.

“How did you even do that? That skill is unique to the [Magus] class!”

Janus hurriedly answered, “It’s my skill. It lets me work with mana directly. I just watched what you did and attempted to shape my own mana in the same way. I didn’t expect that it would work at all.”

Janus hadn’t even noticed Dario approaching and nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Is there something wrong, here?” Dario asked.

“No man- I mean, of course not, Tinebrand.” Atohi was the one stammering now.

“Good, you should keep showing your skills to Janus here.” Dario replied, his voice like iron.

Janus didn’t feel comfortable with the situation, but didn’t speak up. He wasn’t sure what to think about Dario forcing Atohi to work with him through intimidation.

He had little time to think, though. Atohi was already preparing his next skill.

Janus was nearly running out of mana and patience. Other than the first skill Atohi had shown him, he could barely even begin to recreate any of the others. He had asked Atohi if the could continue tomorrow, and the [Magus] agreed.

Atohi had several offensive magic skills. One even cause mana to erupt as spikes from the ground. The mana array for that skill gave Janus a headache just looking at it. Attempting to recreate it himself was nearly impossible.

Although the first skill he was shown was very promising. He decided to refine that one before trying anything more complex. Janus decided he would ask Atohi to cast that one until he had finally mastered recreating it.

He was missing some element to prevent mana from leaking out of the created projectiles. He fell asleep that night, wracking his brain for solutions.