The room Yir had made for him was once more the place Jake found himself. He didn’t enter the practicing space and kept to the study room. While he certainly was curious to learn about what Necromancy was, he needed to remain focused on the reason why he was here, again. Rock Magic. So far he had learned Water, Wind, and Fire. Water and Wind magic came easy even before he’d entered the Ravine. Now with Dragon’s Blood, using Fire magic was just as simple. Not only that- it was just as efficient as the other two. Using all three base elements came naturally and smoothly. It would take further practice to make it all instinctive and to truly bring out the power of the elements, but he would do that later.

Saving Chul was the priority.

Rock Magic, otherwise known as Earth Magic, Nature Magic, the Ground Element, and the Element of Life. It was the hardest of the elements to use because of the high mana requirement, but most Rock mages were born with high mana capacities in the first place. Almost as if Nature knew just what would be required for the element. Yet, even with those large mana capacities- most magicians failed to use the element properly. This resulted in the element having the highest rate of mana explosions. Even the Fire element was less dangerous in that regard.

The ground, however, would absorb as much mana as a mage fed it. Too much and the rock would become thin and brittle. Too little and nothing would happen. But, if a mage oversaturated a thin space with too much mana, the mana itself could potentially ignite and explode from the pressure.

Jake swallowed at the thought.

With that in mind, as long as the Magician maintained a steady, wide flow of mana equal to the amount the type of rock needed to achieve its “Molding” state, the Magician could utilize the rock for casting. Light dirt needed very little, while thick metals required a more substantial amount. Thus, the various density of rocks were categorized into a set of tiers and ranks within those tiers. Rocks and Ores with similar requirements were all grouped together. While one might expect a broad list with hundreds of different rocks and crystals and ores- the tier structure was actually very easy to read.

By using this tier system, not only could Magicians understand the baseline requirements needed for their spells, it also made ranking the Magician’s power very easy. Unlike the other Elements, testing the strength of an Rock Magician could be done by seeing up to what tier of rock they could handle. There were no flukes here or one-time events. Rock magic was unforgiving.

“I don’t like that…” Jake mumbled as his finger traced over the last page before the Rock magic spells began. The book made the element sound as if using it could kill him or something. While he didn’t doubt it, seeing as the danger level here was higher than the Fire magic which nearly sent him to the afterlife, he had faith in his mana control. Cultivating a lot in the beginning had helped him with that. Though if Rock magic really required so much, he probably would need to handle his casting even more diligently when utilizing the element.

“Tera…” He mumbled as he read over the first spell. Unlike Wind, Water, and Fire. There was no ‘Rock Ball’ spell. Rock casting allowed the user to mend the world, and thus the magic was focused on utilizing that aspect. Protective walls could be formed rapidly, platforms raised, and holes torn open. With accurate casting, one could even spike the floor to capture the enemy off guard. Projectiles could not be made out of nothing.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t make projectiles.

Jake hummed as he read over the first set of spells and found the commonality between them. The first spell was the Rock Wall. It was the defensive spell which caused the floor to sharply jut upwards and provide a physical barrier- Tera Wularus.

The second spell, Tera Casular, was the same, but would surround the magician in protective walls. Either square, or circular depending on the mana used. Reading between the lines told Jake he could manipulate the shape further, as the shape was based only off the mana pushed into the floor- not the spell itself.

Jake paused after reading the two spells. He eyed their incantations, staring at the words as he repeated them in his head. Something about them was familiar.

“Casular… Casular… Casu-” He paused. “Castle…?” He blinked. Wularus, Casular. Wall. Castle.

“These are…” Real things…

Jake left the spell book open and then walked over to the bookshelf. His eyes glazed over the various book names and he sought out a certain one- one with Magic History. He hadn’t seen a book explicitly named such so he looked for one close to what he needed. The closest he could find was one labeled ‘The Creation and Use of Mana’. That sounded the best out of the other options. Jake popped it open and sought out how the elements were formed.

As expected, the only elements which were known about at first were the Wind, Water, and Fire elements. Light, Dark, Thunder, and Rock were all still not discovered until later. Thunder came after the original three, as magicians wanted to replicate Lightning and could use it to scare off predators. Light and Dark weren’t exactly “found” or used in the early stages of Magic’s history, but they first appeared in a text book where a researcher considered the idea of opposing magical elements. Where there was Good and Evil, there must have also been elements attuned to the two sides.

What they were would not be discovered for several centuries until the Seraphym, Myr, and Demons appeared on the continent. In the meantime, however, Magicians honed their crafts, practiced the core three elements, and fine tuned the limits and possibilities of them. Of course, once Magic became more widely used and easier to learn, it found a use in war. Magicians began to appear on the battlefields and in skirmishes all over the place. From wide open fields and large army battles, to the short battles in the backstreets between Thugs.

Magic, once a tool for research and limited to only those with discipline and intelligence, became a household skill used by the masses. Only, not everyone could use it effectively. Mana explosions in the early era of magic were frequent, deadly. Mana Poisoning ran rampant in the slums and smaller villages. Certain individuals in drug production even created a potion which would give a person a short boost to their mana, which generally led to addiction and ultimately- death, as the larger and unnatural mana pool in the addict’s body would eventually poison the individual.

Eventually, the reliance on Magic ran its course and most countries learned its dangers. Magic use became regulated, schools and academies were opened to teach people how to properly control and utilize Magic, and there were even Hunts conducted to eliminate those who used it for evil deeds. The drug trade of the Magic potions was snuffed out and those caught creating the potions put to death. This caused the potion’s recipe to eventually be lost and forgotten to time.

Thus, as the foot came down on the throat of the Magic Users, the number of people who continued to use Magic dwindled and fizzled out. While it was still possible for most people to use some form of magic, the dilution of genes and the lack of common use of Magic caused affinities to weaken over the centuries. The wide training of cultivation faded, and the Surface Walkers lost touch with their inner mana flows. Now, just being able to feel mana had become rare and considered to be a powerful trait. Casting basic spells led to individuals being considered skilled magicians, and those who could consistently use Magic were revered by certain cultures, and heavily feared and persecuted by others. The Era of Magic came to an end, replaced by the Era of Peace.

“Geh…” Jake frowned at the idea of stumbling into the wrong place and getting in trouble just for using magic. He’d have to be careful when traveling later on, lest he find himself locked up over something foolish. Then again, as long as he identified himself as an adventurer, he felt he would be fine. From what his father said, adventurers were almost expected to be different or odd compared to the average person.

“But where is… Ah, there.” Jake flipped a few pages, skipping a bit of the nonsense until he found what he was looking for- Rock magic. Even when magic was at its peak, Rock magic wasn’t ever used or discovered. It was too difficult to use, and most magicians at the time were focused solely on perfecting the other elements. Fire and Thunder were great for combat, Water and Wind were good for farming and everyday life.

Rock magic was only developed by a certain community of individuals who lived high up in the mountains, a community that relied on Rock magic to survive. They were known as the Ennuct. A reclusive and nomadic people who followed herds of Burrgadesh, which were large, furred animals. The Burrgadesh were very powerful and could defeat most of the monsters that resided up in the mountains, making them great protective assets. The Ennuct originally lived in the lowlands of Eutaria, but were run out of their lands by Goblins and Eldritch creatures. Rather than try and fight, the Ennuct dispersed into smaller tribes and used the Burrgadesh for protection. While the Burrgadesh could not be tamed, they were docile and did not attack the Ennuct.

Once they realized the Burrgadesh could not be domesticated, they converted to nomads and were forced to adapt to the new way of life. The mountains were a harsh place to live. In the rocky highlands, food was scarce, water sources were sporadic, and there weren’t exactly any warm places to use for shelter. Especially in the difficult winters. Thus, the Ennuct developed Rock magic. Rock magic allowed the Ennuct to quickly erect small huts and they could dig into the sides of the mountains, creating spaces where they could hide away from the rough weather and settle in for a few days. Whenever the Burrgadesh moved on, the Ennuct could return the earth to its natural state and quickly move on after them.

Food storage became easier, as the Ennuct were able to create stashes. Water sources were expanded and rivers created to connect some areas. The Ennuct even developed various weapons and battle tactics, which allowed them to aid the Burrgadesh in fighting the monsters they encountered. Eventually, the Ennuct were able to wall off large spaces within the mountains, trapping the Burrgadesh into more convenient routes and creating large passageways they could utilize for their travel. They cordoned off the harsher places within the highest peaks, keeping the Burrgadesh into the lower parts of the mountains that were safer and less treacherous.

There was always the possibility of creating villages and cities, and trapping the Burrgadesh to these areas- but the Ennuct found it sacrilegious to do so. After many generations of never settling, the nomadic way of life became a part of the people’s culture. They had endured so much hardship and had learned how to survive. Living with nature did not require one to conquer it. The Ennuct found comfort in their nomadic lifestyle, as every day was always different, always a challenge, and never boring.

As civilization developed in the lowlands, eventually merchants began to trek up into the mountains to trade with the Ennuct. It was here when Rock magic began to spread. A new type of element was found being used in the harsh environment, and this new race of people were ‘masters' of it. Magic researchers flocked to the Ennuct’s camps and sought out all the knowledge they could on the new element. The Ennuct were hesitant at first, but in exchange for food, supplies, and other small luxuries, the Ennuct spread the wealth of knowledge they had on Rock magic.

Due to the lack of the element being utilized by the rest of the population, affinity for the element was rare and hard to test for. Rock magic became considered very niche and heavily sought after. While the Ennuct could use the element naturally, others who didn’t live with the Ennuct needed to learn through trial, error, and painful effort. However, over time more Rock magicians began to appear as some of the Ennuct left their mountain tribes to integrate with the rest of society. The magicians born from these individuals further added to the spread of Rock magic until the number of mages practicing the element became plentiful.

Strong Rock Magicians became feared and well-known for their effectiveness in combat. Being able to materialize walls and large objects in any location at the snap of a finger was scary to most. Rock magicians could create any weapon they desired, as long as they were accurate and meticulous with their craft. And those born with more than one element affinity could increase their efficiency with the element even further.

The scariest combination? Wind and Rock.

“There’s always more to it,” Jake mumbled as he closed the book, having read enough of what he wanted to know. He tilted his head back and looked at all of the books in front of him. Truly, it was astounding just how much he could learn in the study room alone with just the books in front of him. From the history of magic, to how to cast spells with every element, and how to control those elements. While reading did not directly translate to skill and power, he had all of the tools he needed to make that transition himself. It would take a long, long time… but discipline and dedication would get him to where he dreamed of. Eventually.

“And I want Chul to see it...” He whispered, his eyes drifting back down to the book in his hand. He returned the book to the shelf where he had found it, and then returned to his spellbook. The introductory book explained how to leak his mana into the ground and how to mend the earth to his desire. The explanation itself was extremely vague and generic, but the concept was easy enough for him to understand.

He needed to use the mana like a hand, grasping for the stone or material he wanted to use for his spell. He needed to fill enough of the rock in the area with mana to turn it into a putty of sorts, then he would be able to pull and press it to the desired shape. With more intricate mana use, he could mend the rock to reflect more and more of his imagination. But such intricate use required denser mana, as he needed to apply the large amount to smaller spaces. If he wanted boulders, all he would need to do was dump mana into the floor over a large space.

But say he wanted to create an intricate and spectacularly designed staff or a set of stairs. Then careful and intricate cuts would need to be made into the rock, or he would risk shattering the material.

“This stuff just keeps repeating, doesn’t it…?” Jake sighed as he read the text. Over and over, the same thing- meticulous, accurate, precise. And if not- boom, crack, fail, nothing. Wasted mana. No wonder Rock magic was so difficult. Either a mage succeeded in what they were trying to make, or it would fail. Failure would result in either an explosion, or the manna would fizzle away and be lost. There was no inbetween there, and the risk for failure was extremely high. That failure rate only increased with the higher tiered rocks, ores, and metals. Anything beyond the Third Tier was practically impossible to mend without years of practice. Even the lower tiered materials were dangerous if improper precautions were taken.

Jake sighed at the excessive warnings plastered in the text and he decided to just close the book. He learned what he needed, the basics, and he had read enough of the author telling him “don’t mess up or you might die”. Yes, he got it. Fully aware. Fire magic was just as dangerous but here he was, using it against the Maedra. He nearly died again because of how many had rushed him, but he’d come out fine. In actuality, he actually became more accustomed to the burden of the element. If Rock magic was anything similar in terms of difficulty and learning how to use it, then Jake would eventually get the hang of it. Practice was all he would need. It was all anyone needed. He would just need to put more effort into this to match the element’s difficulty level, and plenty more focus to go with it.

With that in mind, he headed into the practice room and sat down on the raised platform. He began to cultivate and drew out the thick mana within his body. He took a few minutes to reassess his ability, as well as how much mana he could hold. There was quite a bit and he found that his own natural mana was leaking out again like it had before. It wasn’t as much, but it brought a smile to his face. He had worried that he would never be able to use magic again. He thought that his brief glimpse at being an Adventurer would remain that- a glimpse. Instead, he had been given a second chance.

His second chance came in the form of the new mana. The thicker Dragon’s Blood had integrated into his mana flow and was easy to pull forth to his finger tips. However, when he tried to create tails- they were only made up of his own mana. The Dragon’s Blood remained strictly within his body and refused to leave. If he forced it out, it simply dissipated into the air and he lost touch with it. There was no controlling it once it was beyond his own body.

A shame, as creating a tail formed entirely from Dragon’s Blood for a reserve would have made things a lot easier. Rock magic was going to take a lot of fuel, he assumed, so having that excess on standby would ease his mind if something were to go wrong. Thankfully his ability to create Dragon’s Blood from his own mana had sharpened and performing the task felt more natural. Thus, as long as he had mana, he could quickly compress it into Dragon’s Blood. Over time the process would become even easier and he would become more efficient with it. Patience. He needed patience.

Placing his hands onto the floor, Jake closed off the leaking mana and directed it all to his fingertips and palms. The excess which his body could not hold instead stretched out like thin tendrils into the dense floor. He shut his eyes and let the mana pour into the floor around his body. He formed it all into a disk beneath him, encircling himself as he stabilized the flow. Once it was set, he thought of what he wanted the mana to do. He wanted to lift himself- to raise the floor and create a slightly lifted platform. Circular. Maybe three feet high. Just enough for him to sit on with his feet still on the floor.

“Tera…” He whispered. As he did- his mana reacted. But nothing happened. He thought for a brief moment of what else he needed and then remembered he needed the second half.

“What would be the word for raise…?” He opened his eyes, and saw a surprising sight. A thin blue line traced a circle in the floor around him- the exact same size and radius of the mana he was pushing into the ground. The mana had triggered and was already staged, but just awaiting the activation portion of the spell.

Except, he didn’t know it. Wularus, Casular. Wall and Castle. But neither had a similar rhythm to the words… or did they?

Jake bit his bottom lip and lifted his hands from the floor. This cut the flow of mana and the blue line vanished. The mana he had pushed into the floor dissipated. A waste. All because he couldn’t think of the word he needed. However, Rock Magic didn’t seem so different from the other elements. Mana was the fuel and when he added it to the floor, the floor reacted just as he wanted it to. The only problem was the activation. The floor didn’t change, move, or shift just because of a feeling. It was waiting for something else.

Jake placed his hand onto the floor again before pumping just enough mana to create a square around his fingers. Small and contained. He focused enough to create a cube. He could see the blue line outlining where his mana was and the square pulsed faintly with power. He mumbled the elemental identifier, Tera, which caused the pulsing blue to instead glow strongly. His hand felt stuck to the floor. There was suction there and he could feel the ground loosen.

With a soft tug, the floor lifted. Jake’s eyes opened as he pulled out the small cube from the floor. Leaving behind a gap. The cube was the exact shape his mana had cut out and it remained glued to his fingertips as he continued to feed a faint amount of mana into it. When he cut the connection, the cube fell to the floor. It maintained its shape and landed with a thunk. Jake picked it up normally and confirmed it was real. Then, he returned it to the hole he’d yanked it from. The cube slid back into place, but the seam remained.

“If I can cut it, can I return it?” He mumbled, placing his hand down on top of the square. He fed a bit of mana into the cut and then coated the outside of the cube. He closed his eyes and focused on melding his mana with the walls around the cube, combining the two and pulling them together. But just as he attached his mana to the floor in order to create the connection, he lost touch. The mana cut from his fingertips and he lost all sense of the square.

“Wha-” His eyes opened and he looked at the floor.

The seam was gone. He blinked, and then smiled.

“No wonder,” he mumbled.

The floor didn’t rise due to a lack of the activation. It didn’t rise because he didn’t cut the shape. Rock Magic required the Magician to apply mana to the shape they desired, and then manipulate the material itself. The first word in the spell was to trigger the mana to act as the knife to carve out the shape. The Magician was essentially telling their mana, “this is a Rock spell”. Then, the second word would manipulate the material into the desired shape. Just like with the other elements, he needed to connect his mana with the element and then instruct it on how to execute.

But, if he didn’t have the second word for the manipulation piece- then he could use his mana to manually create the shape. It would take longer but the result would be the same. The downside? The shapes would be limited only to his imagination. The upside? The shapes could be generated based on the situation he might find himself in, just like when Yir created the model of the library. She didn’t cast any spell. She used her mana as the knife and moulded the shape from the table. Though, her method was far more advanced. She essentially used the table like a mound of clay.

Jake just needed to replicate that.

His hands returned to the floor and he dumped mana once more into the disk. After making the shape, he sent mana deeper to create the cylinder in the floor. But once he had the shape of the platform, he once more was at a loss. He couldn’t just lift the floor while kneeling on it. He needed to push the floor up from beneath it, or pull it. The ground wouldn’t just lift on its own. And with him kneeling on top of the shape, it wasn’t going anywhere soon. If he could just cut out a disk in the floor and make it float, then people would be flying all over the place using Rock Magic.

For the other elements, the secondary word wasn’t fully necessary. As long as the spell’s requirements were fulfilled and the mana fed into the spells manipulated properly, there was no additional push necessary. The Ball spells would shoot off once the triggering mana was pushed into the spell. The Wall spells ignited with the desired thickness, height, and strength depending on how much mana was provided. And as long as a connection was created- he could use other objects and things to fire off ball spells.

A push… He needed to give the spell some kind of push.

Jake pushed more mana into the floor and collected it beneath the slab he knelt on. Then, in an instant, he triggered a Wind spell- Wind Wall. Filling the gap with pressure, the floor suddenly jerked upwards and was shoved out from the hole it sat in. Jake’s eyes opened wide as he lifted along with the floor. He let out a squeak in fright and his hands popped off the ground, disconnecting him from the mana flow. The Wind Wall dispersed and the disk dropped back into its slot.

“O...kay.” He got his bearings and eased off the top of the disk. It wasn’t set right in the hole anymore, as it hadn’t landed perfectly. But, the clean cut of the shape was clear. Jake placed his hands onto the floor and fed mana into the space beneath the disk. This time, he controlled the strength of the Wind Wall and slowly applied pressure to the base of the disk. It lifted in a more controlled manner this time, straightening out and sliding upwards until the bottom of the disk was flush with the floor.

The Wind filled the space beneath the disk, keeping it lifted even as Jake pulled his hands free. He added additional mana into the ground to continue feeding the wind wall a source of strength, and then stepped up onto the disk. It dropped slightly from the additional weight. However it did not fall and supported him as he reestablished the connection with the Wind Wall through his feet. He shut his eyes and sent a second strand of mana into the ground, stretching it through the Wind Wall and into the rock beneath it. He filled the space with mana until the ground became more malleable. Then, he drew it upwards and connected it to the base of the disk.

Once the raised earth met the disk, he melded the two together. Once the mana acting as the glue was absorbed, Jake cut the Wind Wall.

The ground didn’t fall. It didn’t tilt. It didn’t crack. Jake focused on the support pillar he had created and used his mana to test its strength, looking for any weak points. Seeing none, he stepped off the disk.

His goal had been achieved. It had taken several steps, but he had created a circular platform he could step up onto. The circular shape had been cut neatly from the floor and a pillar supported the raised platform from beneath. He couldn’t see it, as the bottom of the platform was lower than the floor itself, but it certainly was there. No wonder Rock Magic was considered difficult. The sheer number of steps and mana required to do just one basic task were both far more than any of the other elements. And he had to use his head. While the other elements were prime examples of unnatural occurrences made real by mana- Rock Magic was the practical side. Everything was real with Rock Magic, and as such Rock Magic was limited.

Kneeling back to the floor, Jake fed mana into the ground and cut the pillar beneath the raised platform. He eased the platform back down into the gap and returned the material to its original state. The cut vanished and the floor looked untouched. However, after gathering the extra mana back into his hands, he immediately pushed it back out. He created a small square in front of himself, gave it depth to form a cube, and then pushed mana into the rock beneath the cube. He pushed the cube upwards and raised it from the floor up to just in front of his face. The higher he pushed the cube, the more mana he needed to spend to gather material. While there was plenty of it, he could feel the rock getting weaker as it was stretched upwards.

The amount of rock available was finite. Stretch it too far and the support beam would become brittle, thin, and unlikely to hold the weight of the object on top. Like a tree- the top of the support was a lot smaller than the base. However, once he had the set height, Jake redistributed the material and pushed it upwards, evening out the two sides. Rather than look as if it were seated atop a spike. Now the cube was on a sturdy cylinder pillar.

Jake nodded, comfortable with his progress, and then returned all of the material back to the floor. It was still imperfect and his creation skills needed sharpening, but it would do. Next, he needed to learn how to climb.

Which didn’t take much thought. If Jake could pull the rock up, then he applied mana to soften the floor until his fingers sank into the material. Little handholds were melted into the floor where he pressed. The rock seemed to become more gooey to the touch and spread out like clay as he softened it. When the mana was sapped back out of the material, it hardened again just as quickly. He could pull out his fingers, too. Thankfully.

With this, Jake was confident he could get back to Chul. It would take time and a lot of rest, but he could cross the water safely now, somewhat. The Maedra in the way would cause problems, no doubt, and those Warriors would likely try to get in his way, too. But nothing was ever easy and he had come to terms with that. Magic had introduced him to plenty of troubles so far and patience was always a necessary thing. As a child, all Jake had to worry about was being back in the tent by certain times for food. The games he played never required much thought and the other children never asked a lot of questions, so life had been easy.

However, Jake’s father had always made sure the boy understood that life wouldn’t stay easy forever. Things would get hard. He would face problems. He would need to be creative. And he would need to be tough. Especially as an adventurer. In this kind of world, life was so easily snuffed out, and many adventurers met their ends being unprepared and lazy. If he could help it, Jake would always make sure to keep himself sharp. The foundations were important, so he would be slow and methodical with learning them.

“Need to stay focused,” he mumbled as he closed his books. He returned the study tools to the shelf, cleaned up his workspace, and dusted himself off. He returned to the sigil in the entryway and took in a deep breath.

In through his nose. Out through his mouth. In through his nose…

His eyes closed and he felt his stomach flip as he triggered the sigil.