The hunger for knowledge and information never ends. It is a core part of the identity of each and every one of us, engraved into our souls. It is what sets us apart from simple animals, what took us to where we are today. The search for knowledge leads to more questions than answers, but the answers we find are instrumental to success, a cornerstone of our society.

- Yan Rentraf, former leader of the disbanded Librarian’s Guild

The rest of the school day passed in a blur, the lessons taught to his classmates passing over Lino’s head with irrelevance. Past instruction had been relevant to him with it’s general applications, but now the majority of what was taught held insights only in specific parts and methods of light mana usage. Each lesson was only relevant to a few of his peers, and there were incredibly few where he could stretch the teachings to apply to himself.

After leaving school, Lino found himself walking towards the library. Nerloth’s message and all of the strange things he had done kept nagging at him. As such, he decided to research all of the events that had happened to him. Entering the usual way this time, he found books on the theory of the exotic abilities he had witnessed, including the telepathy Lino had experienced a mere few hours ago.

The librarian checking out his books gave him a few strange looks, but nothing hostile. It wasn’t like he could plausibly learn how to do anything the books described. With the books tucked firmly away in his backpack, Lino commenced his journey home.

Every day, Lino was getting faster and faster. He was at a magical impasse, of course, but mundane methods still furthered his speed and strength. Lino could confidently say that he could make the trip from his school to his home in half the time that he had before beginning his life as a mage.

Reading up on the abilities he had seen Nerloth use, Lino came to the conclusion that he either used a different form of magic, or he was incredibly powerful, orders of magnitude more so than the best of what he had seen in the town. Few of the strange abilities were even possible in theory, and those that were required immense amounts of power.

This man was becoming increasingly odd.

After his brief reading of the books he had borrowed, Lino settled into his more permanent fixtures, the books he had be given by the very person he had been researching. This time he reached the section regarding organic mana manipulation. At the start of the first chapter on the topic, Lino found an in depth explanation of what mana was, going into more detail than he had ever been taught.

Mana was the primal force of energy throughout the world. It, or some application or alteration of it, was responsible for every movement, every change. Everything held mana. Even mountains moved, ever so slowly.

Life, however, was the only thing that generated mana. Life was constantly changing and evolving, and affecting the world around it. Living things were their own part of the world that did things for their own benefit, changing themselves to become better, and leaving footprints of change behind them. Living things generated and used mana, whereas objects simply stored and released it.

The different types of mana were different applications and uses of it. How it was used and cycled through the environment determined how it was manifested and what power it had.

All mana and types of mana could be grouped under two types — light and shadow. However these two categories didn’t simply mean brightness and darkness. They were two different ways that mana could react, two different ways of being.

Light was bright. It changed everything it touched, absorbing it into itself. But in order to do so, it needed to work. It required to effort to spread it out, to absorb anything else into itself. It was selfish, wishing to see the world under it’s order, as a part of itself. It was prideful, thinking it was the most important. It was righteous, seeking to change things to make them right. Light was active power that made impact on the world, whether for good or bad.

Shadow was dark. It was the default state of existence when nothing else lay claim to a vessel. It was always there, persistent at the edge, waiting patiently for an opportunity. But it never tried to steal anything that didn’t belong to it. Shadow never attacked. When it was attacked, it retreated, but then rushed back as soon as the forts of a newly conquered land were left empty. It was constantly changing by virtue of others, a chaos that sought stillness, but boiled and bubbled while it waited to get there.

All forms of mana fitted into one of these two categories, and took on some of their characteristics.

The book went into further detail on that in different chapters that discussed the differences in types of magic, dedicating many long chapters to describing the many variations. The chapters that Lino was currently reading, however, described different ways that mana could be manipulated for optimal efficiency.

Lino picked up on many little inefficiencies in the methods that he had been using, and fixed his technique to a better method that allowed for better absorption and usage of mana. Lino could now recover his mana faster, and would also be able to advance quicker once he decided to break through the barrier to Silver.

When Lino put the book down once again and went to sleep, he was happy with his progress.

* * *

The next morning, Lino woke earlier than usual and rushed through his morning routine. He pushed himself further on his journey to school than he ever had before, and arrived outside the library with plenty of time to spare before school started, ready for his talk with Nerloth.

His early start held a double purpose — it maximised the time he could spend with Nerloth if permitted, whilst simultaneously avoiding any trap his more malicious classmates may have been setting up for him.

Looking around, he couldn’t see any sign of anyone, but he did notice that the hidden entrance he had found was boarded up. Not that it would stop anyone who really wanted to get in, but it would be rather obvious if they did. Lino wouldn’t be able to use it anymore, especially since such a quick fix was most likely just a temporary solution.

All of a sudden, Lino’s vision vision went dark and he felt like he was falling. He panicked, and started reaching out, trying to grasp something. Nonetheless, his efforts were futile and his hands came up empty. He didn’t know where he was, there was just an empty space with no end. Lino’s panic rose as it continued for longer, his endless falling in an empty, grey, void.

Until he wasn’t. Lino found his feet planted firmly on solid ground, and looked around to see a wild landscape. This must be the small patch of forest inside the walls, he concluded. It was beautiful, probably the most beautiful in the entire town. Birds tweeted, leaves rustled, sunlight shone through the roof of trees. It was a natural paradise.

“Yeesh, that had much bigger side effects than I thought.” A voice reached Lino’s ears, coming from behind him. It was surprisingly calm, given the circumstances.

“Wh— Who are you? What did you do?” asked Lino, still dazed from his experience.

“I teleported you. Well, about as close as you can get.” The voice seemed to ignore his first question, but was most definitely Nerloth’s, and Lino confirmed it by turning around to look at him. That was comforting. Sort of.

“What’s going on with all of this strange stuff you keep doing, why did you help me?” Lino blurted out. “Actually, forget that. How are you doing all of this?”

“Oho, a man’s got to have his secrets.” Nerloth half chuckled as he spoke. “Let’s just say that you’ve caught my interest.”

“That’s not much of an answer,” Lino said with an accusatory tone.

“Well, you’re not going to get a better one, so deal with it. I’m the one who’s helping you here.” Nerloth reached down into a box, and pulled out a bag full of… something.

“Right, um, sorry.” Lino shook his head, clearing the last lingering effects of the confusion. “So, what did you bring me here for?”

Nerloth pulled something out of the bag and popped it into his mouth. “To help you,” he said with his mouth full.

“What did you bring me here for?” Lino was beginning to get frustrated.

Nerloth continued chewing, seemingly finishing what he was eating before replying. “It was just where I happened to be.” He then proceeded to put another piece of the strange food in his mouth.

“And how are you going to help me?” Lino was now annoyed at the lack of answers he was getting.”

Nerloth paused munching to answer. “I can teach you about shadow magic and how you can advance quicker.” He made no effort to expand on his statement.

Lino attempted to move the conversation along. “So what are we doing now?”

This time Nerloth grabbed three of the little cubes that he must love, and shoved them through the gap between his lips. “I dunno, you tell me.”

Feeling stupid for having to say something so stupid, Lino spoke. “I’d like to start learning about shadow magic.”

Nerloth raised an eyebrow, giving Lino a calculating look. “Nothing more specific?”

While Lino eventually wanted to ask Nerloth to teach him about the breakthrough to Silver, Nerloth’s own abilities, how to advance further in his lifetime, and a cluster of other questions, he didn’t want to lead off with any of them. “Well… no.”

Nerloth stood up and yawned, then reached into the same bag he was eating from and chucked Lino a pad of paper and a pen. “In that case, start writing everything you know about shadow. I’ll meet you in the same place tomorrow, have it finished by then.” He grabbed a handful of the curious snacks and poured them down his throat, then started walking away.

Lino caught the paper and pen, then glanced back up to Nerloth’s retreating form, a confused expression on his face. “Where are you going?” he shouted after the already distant figure.

Nerloth didn’t stop or even slow, opting for a more convenient of communication.

“Powerful mages and their stupid magic” Lino grumbled, giving up on learning anything else for the moment.

The telepathic voice was less jarring than it had been in the past.

Defeated, Lino resigned to just letting out a sigh. Better than nothing I guess.

Lino lost track of the time he spent writing about shadow. It was difficult not to ramble, going into too much detail in areas that were barely relevant, or to go off track completely. He tried to present it in a logical order, and to include everything. It was difficult though.

The time stretched on much longer than it should have, and Lino began to worry that Nerloth had misjudged and he would miss school. He estimated that he had already completed about half of it before he received a rather sudden change of scenery.

Just as Lino was about to start a new sentence, he found himself falling through that grey void again. It was shorter this time, though, and within a matter of seconds he found himself seated at his regular desk.

The teacher was just standing up to instruct the rest of the class in a guided meditation, the type that didn’t help Lino. Cutting it close there Nerloth, he thought. Then he almost jumped in his seat, remembering what he had been working on. He had been holding it he paper before, but now it was no longer in his hands. Where was it?

Lino’s hands brushed against something new in his bag and he relaxed, knowing that his work was still there. He let his backpack drop to the ground again, then similarly dropped himself back comfortably into his chair, beginning his meditation. Eventually the teacher would look over and register his attendance, but that wouldn’t disturb him.

Lino used that session to further his progress with the disruptor spell. Picking up not quite where he left off, he managed to replicate the ‘alive’ state of the mana that he had discovered in the previous sitting. The book had said that it was the ideal state, and he needed to reach it to be able to use the spell with optimal efficiency. From then on, he worked on replicating that state in larger and larger portions of mana.

Eventually he reached the desired size. Lino could feel it, as it had been said he would. He could tell that it was just the right amount that it would have the right effect, muddling the spiritual organs of whoever he used it on. Soon, he was focused on wrapping a protective shell around it, so that it would make it to the destination. It was surprisingly difficult to make sure that the delicate structure didn’t fall apart in the air.

Lino ran out of time before he was able to make much progress on that, though. He was forced out of his meditation by the spiritual bell that signalled the end of school. He picked up his bag and began his run home, taking his new usual route. It was a straightforward journey without any hiccups.

That was a little strange, Lino thought. He couldn’t remember the last time he had travelled without interruption this many times in a row. Had his new route really thrown off his usual tormentors that much? He was only going to school at an unusual time, he still left at the usual time on most days. Maybe something else was holding them back.

Or worse, they’re planning something.

Lino was really hoping it wasn’t that last one, but the universe would probably make it so just to spite him.

He began the evening as he did every usual one, swinging by to refill his supplies from Tingrath, then climbing up to his loft in the barn. How it differed from the usual, however, was in that Lino finished off the writing project that Nerloth had given. It had been a long time since he had last done any homework. No one cared whether he did it after all, so why should he when it didn’t apply to him?

Having finished the first homework he’d done in many sun cycles, Lino moved on to his personal studies. He continued to read the first book he had gotten from Nerloth, nearing the end by the time he turned in for the night.

On this occasion, Lino read about the different qualities that light techniques had compared to shadow techniques.

In general, most abilities that came from shadow aligned elements were reactive. They were strongest when used in retaliation, so most counter-attacks had at least a touch of shadow in them. On offence, shadow abilities most often consisted of supporting and boosting allies — reacting to their attacks and strengthening them — or weakening opponents.

Shadow techniques also excelled in subtle effects. Stealth and espionage were areas of strength, as well as effects that spread a minor effect over a large area. Constant or repeated techniques meant to built up over time fell into this category as well.

In contrast, light aligned abilities were often powerful, one-off techniques. They were strongest when they were the spark, the instigator of a fight. They were powerful finishers, or a sudden burst that reflected strikes aimed at it’s user. They were quick dispels, or the instant boost that greatly multiplied an ally’s single attack.

Light aligned efforts also shone at distraction and drawing attention. A flash of light could easily draw an enemy away from vulnerable areas into the well defended domain of a more powerful mage.

After reading further about what made a light technique and what made one of shadow, as well as the grey areas in between, Lino had a much better idea of how to approach learning new abilities and which ones to pick. Looking back at it, the disruptor spell he had chosen wasn’t the best thematic fit for him, as single projectile spell — but it did fit somewhat, with it’s usual use in a reactive setting as a defence to other’s effects.

It was something for him to think about for the future, though.

* * *

The next morning Lino found himself arriving behind the library even earlier than before. He wanted to test if Nerloth would teach him for longer if he arrived sooner. What if he ‘arrived’ the evening before?

He did wonder why he needed to do this at all. Nerloth had never pretended that he couldn’t teleport someone else while being absent, so why did he insist on Lino coming here. Maybe he was just using it as a signal that he was ready? Whatever the case, Lino planned on questioning him on it.

Shortly enough, he was in that telltale grey void again, and this time he came out of it to see a slightly different landscape than he had before.

It must be a different part of the same park I was in yesterday.

“So, what have you got for me?” Nerloth’s familiar voice came from Lino’s side rather than behind him, as it had last time. Strange.

Lino managed to shake off the confusion much quicker this time, and swiftly replied. “I’m pretty sure I’ve got everything I know here.” He handed the stack of paper forward.

“Hm,” Nerloth grunted. He sat down on a log, grabbing another bag of the same food he had been eating the day before. The box he had grabbed it from was also next to him again, but he had nothing that he might have carried it in.

Nerloth flicked through Lino’s compiled information. It really didn’t look like he was reading it at all. “Considering your circumstances, you’ve got a pretty good understanding. I can see you’ve started reading one of those books I gave you as well.”

Lino nodded, knowing that there was something bad coming next. No one ever offered praise alone.

“… but there’s one key thing that you’re missing. When you think of shadow what do you think of? I mean actual shadow or darkness, not the mana.”

Aaand I knew it. Lino paused to think about the question. “Well, shadow, it’s… it’s just darkness, the absence of light.”

Nerloth nodded. “Right, as I thought you would say. Rather than thinking of shadow as the absence of light, think of light as the absence of shadow. You’re putting yourself at a severe disadvantage by thinking of your power as the absence of something else. You should think of it as having it’s own source, it’s own independent power. That gives more persistence and strength to your magic.”

“You don’t want to be defined by someone or something else. Think of yourself as the most powerful, the origin of everything else, and you have a much better chance of actually getting there. Half of being able to do something is believing that you can.”

Lino took a moment to digest the message. It was a good point. He needed to think of shadow as an equal or superior to light. He supposed that in a whole town of light mages, it was fine to just say that shadow was the absence of light. No one would be harmed without the full explanation.

I guess that’s why whenever I tried directly fighting anyone I always failed.

“Thanks. That’s something I never really thought about, huh.” He was surprised at how helpful Nerloth was being.

Lino thought about questioning Nerloth’s method of bringing him here, but he decided against it. It wasn’t the right time. He decided to ask a more relevant question instead. “Is there any way I can practice expressing that?”

Nerloth stopped chewing for a second, cocking his head to the side. “So you know how you said the only major individual ability that you noticed you have is to make a room or environment darker?”

Lino was hesitant, unsure where Nerloth was going. “Yeah.”

“Well, try that here.”

Lino closed his eyes and concentrated on the one ability he had almost always been able to do. He felt his mana pool drain, then opened his eyes.

It wasn’t really much darker at all.

“Good, good.” Nerloth seemed to acknowledge his efforts despite the fact that Lino could barely notice any difference. “Now, try doing that but just in a small area. Maybe try a line extending out from your core in front of you, about a meter long and a couple centimetres wide.”

Lino pondered the request. Normally when using that ability he drew shadow mana from his core and spread it out through the environment. It worked better the smaller the room he used it in. He saw what Nerloth was trying to get him to do. He would be able to make it much darker in such a small area. The problem was that he had always relied on natural barriers, walls and ceilings. He doubted he could contain that shadow to a small area without a cast of some sort.

He tried it anyway, and the result was better than he had expected. There was a patch of dim light, centred around the area he had tried to darken. It wasn’t confined very well though, and as such it wasn’t fully dark as it should have been, with some of the energy wasted, leaking out into the world.

“Better!” Nerloth’s voice shocked Lino and caused him to lose the effect. “Now, it seems you’re having trouble with confining the shadow. Rather than making barriers, imagine that you are fixing millions of tiny little pieces a piece of shadow mana to a point in spa…”

* * *

Throughout the course of that lesson, Lino learnt how to selectively form small areas of shadow, resulting in stronger effects in larger environments. He could now fully darken any space smaller than about two cubic meters.

Nerloth’s tutoring ended abruptly as he was informed that it was time for his school to start, and suddenly teleported back in the same fashion as the previous time. During the school day, Lino decided to work on the disruptor spell again. He managed to build up a thicker protective case around the spell and even got his construct to move.

It dissipated pretty quickly, moving through the ambient mana and the mana of his body on the way out, but it was better than it had been before. Pretty soon he would be able move it around quite a bit, and begin using it as an actual spell, but only in close range to start with.

All too soon the daylight hours were almost over, and Lino was once again curled up in the loft reading the book he had got from Nerloth. He had really settled into a new routine since the strange foreigner had first shown up. Lino would wake up, receive a lesson from Nerloth, go to school and practice a spell, then go home and read the book, learning various things about magic.

That night he picked some more tips and tricks that the book offered that allowed him to improve his efficiency in his usage of magic. Paired with the new mentality that Nerloth had taught him, he felt that he had almost twice the efficiency that he had had previously.

The following day, Lino’s luck finally ran dry. Although he was early, he was still caught on his way to school.

Lino’s aggressor must have seen him before he saw them. He recognised them as Telfyr, one of the girls who most looked down on him. Although, if he remembered correctly she had a sister who was quite good friends with Tingrath’s children.

Telfyr surprised him, firing a bolt of light out of a hidden position to his left. Lino managed to duck at the last second, narrowly avoiding an injury to the head.

Lino proceeded to pick up his pace, almost breaking into a sprint. He wanted to use the nature of his ambush to his advantage, getting away before they could get out of their hiding place in the greenery. As an afterthought, he darkened the general area underneath the trees of the orchard. That would hopefully make it harder for them to cast spells. Then, Lino accelerated out of that stretch of the road, putting distance between himself and his attacker.

Lino spotted Telfyr breaking out into a sprint a couple hundred metres behind him, before turning around again and seeing that she had given up. Lino heaved a sigh of relief and exhaustion, slowing to a more manageable pace for the rest of his journey.

Lino arrived at his meeting place with Nerloth thoroughly out of breath. After Lino emerged from the in-between space that was a trademark of teleportation, Nerloth was still constantly chewing on those wretched snacks of his, but the infuriating casual attitude that he had had was largely gone. He seemed more engaged when Lino gave more direction of what he wanted to learn.

Near the start of the session, Lino found an opportunity to ask the question that had been bugging at him for the past day.

Lino spoke up with an inquisitive tone. “Nerloth?”

“Yeah.” The reply that Lino received was short and sharp.

“Why do you need me to go behind the library to bring me here? Can’t you teleport me from anywhere?”

“It’s complicated. I’m not going to bother explaining to you, it’ll take too long.” His answer left no room for argument or further questioning.

“Now, what I’m working towards here with you is for you to form shadow tendrils. Since you can form small patches of darkness in an open environment, you need to try to solidify them into tendrils. These will burn like acid to our light wielding friends in town, but be comforting for you. And you can imagine how useful manifesting solid shadows can be.”

Lino could, in fact, imagine how useful manifesting solid shadows could be. He could use them for all sorts of utilitarian purposes. He could essentially just spontaneously manifest another limb, whenever he needed an extra hand or he was just feeling a little lazy. Or, say, if he broke his arm.

There were also countless combat applications. He could swat projectiles out of the air, and if his tendrils touched any light users — which was basically anyone — they would be burned. It was one of the most versatile abilities that he had heard of.

“Yeah, I can imagine. How do I do it?” Lino was eager to learn a new ability.

“The first step is to make a small patch of pure darkness, like you’ve been doing. To make it solid though, you need to oversaturate it. Imagine the blackest black, darker than the night sky. That’s what you need to create in the shadows.

“Fill up the space with mana, until it’s full. Then fill it up even more, your end goal will be filling it until the mana condenses into a solid, making solid shadow. But that will require a lot of mana, and a lot of will holding the mana in place, like I taught you last time.”

Lino closed out distractions and entered a inward trance. He focused on holding the mana in place then slowly saturated it more and more. He didn’t have much of a problem with it falling out of formation and collapsing, but he couldn’t get enough mana in to make it into a solid. The excess kept leaking out, and eventually he exhausted his mana reserves.

Opening his eyes, he saw the result of his efforts. The patch of darkness was significantly darker than before, if that was possible. Lino thought that it might have looked like a blind spot in anyone else who didn’t have enhanced vision as he did.

“A good first attempt. You must have a pretty strong will. Try again, we should have time for one more attempt.”

“But… I can’t, I don’t have any more ma—” Lino abruptly cut off his sentence as he felt a trickle of mana leaking into his reserves. Then, a trickle became a stream and within moments his mana was full again. “How did you— never mind.”

Lino tried again, this time making it marginally further before running out of mana. He managed to make the patch of shadow just marginally darker than before. Before he could examine it further, though, he was falling in that familiar void again.

It might have been just slightly concerning that he called that weird in-between familiar.

* * *

His time spent at school that day was basically useless. Being Sebaheru — the sixth day of the week — the day was entirely taken up with lessons and lectures, which were wasted on him, of course. In the evening he read about breakthroughs, with a focus on how he would get to Silver.

He learned something new, there. Just before you broke through, it was a good idea to put yourself under a lot of stress. It was best to be in a situation that you couldn’t maintain, to be under too much stress to handle, whether spiritual or physical. Then, when you broke through to Silver, you would adapt to be able to deal with the situation. For example, holding up a stone that would eventually crush you would give extra strength.

The breakthrough to Silver was especially important, because it was a new realm, not just a new stage of advancement. Whatever effect Lino chose to give himself would have a greater impact than any other breakthrough — except for the breakthrough from Platinum to the fabled Diamond, which was also a new realm.

Lino wasn’t quite ready to think about that yet, but it was something to keep at the back of his mind.

He brought up the matter to Nerloth the next morning as well, and he confirmed what the book had said, as well as agreeing with Lino’s assessment. During that session, Lino managing to make further progress towards manifesting shadow tendrils. He still wasn’t there yet though. He wanted to improve his other abilities first.

As such, he managed to successfully cast the disruptor spell during his school meditation. The spell was still fragile and couldn’t go far, but he was pretty sure it would work, at a range of about five meters. Further enhancement would only lead to greater efficiency and range.

After school Lino picked up the second book that he had received on the first day he had met Nerloth. It was called A Collection of Various Abilities, and it turned out that it was a book with a list of different abilities that could by used by shadow mages. A good portion were sub-types of shadow, or combination of different elements, but there still many that were pure shadow.

Lino spent that night looking through them, finding interesting abilities and ones he thought would synergies well with others. He couldn’t use all of them, whether it be because they were too powerful and required a higher stage of advancement, or whether they were intended for people who already had other specific abilities.

Lino still read all of them though. It was interesting.

It was also a massive time sink, and reading the first part of the book took the rest of the night, before Lino reluctantly put it down and went to sleep.