Otherworld Adventure

Mana and Magic!

On Earth, there were various particles and elements in the air such as oxygen, CO2, light, UV rays, and various others. On Alterna, apart from those there was the addition of mana also being in the air. There was no evidence supporting whether mana was actually a particle or element that could be found in the planet's atmosphere, but this was only because of the limited technology present in this world.

If Alterna had a tool that could sense and prove the existence of mana in the air, maybe then, they could find evidence whether or not this was true. Of course, the people of this world didn't have this theory in place. This was only something that Cecil spouted out involuntarily when he was listening to Mrs. Anna's lecture.

After listening to what Cecil said, Mrs. Anna made him explain what these particles and elements were. After listening to the, somewhat, in-depth explanation, Mrs. Anna wore a very scary expression on her face.

She then headed towards her study and hadn't come out of the room until now. So Cecil had to learn about the basics of magic from Lucia. As for what mana and magic were exactly, first off, there were 7 Elements of mana in this world, meaning that there were also at least 7 different kinds of elemental magic spells which an individual could use.

The elements were fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, dark, and light. Mana was needed to use magic, so it was a given that magic was classified into different elements. So if there was more of one type of mana element in a location, the stronger the magic that was used with the said element.

For instance, near a volcano, there would be an abundant amount of fire element mana, so if someone was to use fire magic here, the efficiency of the magic spell would be better as well as the output and power but if you were to use other elemental attribute magic in this environment, there would be a visible decrease in output, efficiency, and power despite the spell still being able to be evoked.

Of course, when considering elemental attributes there was always that circle of rock-paper-scissors between each attribute.

Fire is weak to water but strong against wind, water is weak to earth but strong against fire, earth is weak to wind but strong against water, and lastly, wind is weak to fire but strong against earth.

Lightning had no weakness or strength against any other magic attribute. The only major flaw would be that earth elemental magic could nullify it to some extent, but it was an element that was characterized by its versatility, rarity, and uniqueness.

It was an element that was really effective if you wanted to crush an enemy without worrying about being countered by their opponent's elemental attributes or anything. Of course, users of lightning magic had to be wary of earth elemental spellcasters but most of the time, lightning element spellcasters could use the fire element as well because research has shown that there was some inexplicable connection between the fire and lightning elemental attributes.

Of course, the users of lightning magic are still pretty rare because it wasn't a part of the general modern magic system. Instead, it was categorized as a special type attribute, the same as the dark and light attributes.

The dark and light attributes are pretty common and not as rare as lightning. They are both weak and strong against each other. While the light attribute is mostly for healing and purifying, the dark attribute is used for cursing and siphoning. What is meant by siphoning is the siphoning of the mana and the life force of a target.

Light isn't needed to be mentioned as most healers use this attribute, but for the dark attribute, this was a little special since it's seen as something unholy in this world and only the vilest of villains and monsters actually use this attribute.

That was all for elemental mana and magic. Next would be non-elemental magic and mana. Non-elemental mana would be the mana that was innately found inside a human's body the moment they were born.

It was only until the person grew up and became accustomed to one of the elements of mana that the person's constitution would change to accommodate a more specific type of mana element. Naturally, there were exceptions to the people who were innately born with a specific mana constitution like the Ice Emperor. Only people born with specific mana constitutions would have their mana attributed from birth.

Non-elemental mana is also found in the air, but the amount was scarce. Non-elemental mana acted as a force that kept the mana in the air at a state of equilibrium so that it wouldn't cause a mana calamity because of an overabundance of a singular type of mana in one location.

The people who actually have non-elemental as their main attribute were even lower than the people who could wield lightning attribute magic to the point wherein a generation there might not even be more than 100 people on the planet that could wield it properly.

This was the condition with the other continents excluding the Non Continent. Since the people of the Non Continent grew up in an elemental-less environment, their bodies couldn't be attuned to any other mana element and they probably never had any contact with magic spells other than non-elemental ones.

Non-elemental magic spells were mostly spells that are used for body-enhancing, and of course, other elemental type spells had their own body strengthening spells, but only non-elemental spells took it to the extreme.

Since non-elemental mana was extremely malleable at a certain stage, the casters could shoot out mana from their bodies as if firing a flame lance from the fire magic system. Fly in the sky by using their enhanced bodies as if using flight magic from the wind magic system. Destroy or change the environment with their bare feet and hands as if using magic from the earth magic system and survive underwater or corrode objects with their fists as if using magic from the water magic system.

People who use non-elemental mana were inherently powerful and all-encompassing in their abilities, which made them a rarity and highly coveted talent on Alterna. Non-elemental users were one in a billion, but there were people out there who could almost rival this rarity.  Although not as rare as non-elemental users, there were the people who could use Extra Attribute magic.

There were two types of Extra attribute users. Inherent users and racial users. Racial users are those whose race gives them direct access to extra attributed magic due to their lineage, but there were categories to the extra attribute. Mainly, they were separated by the level of rarity and usefulness of the attribute.

For instance, the illusion extra attribute magic that Lucia could use was not all that rare since other races such as specters, demons, fairies, sirens and others can use it too. People who could use Space and time attribute magic were the rare ones. These people even throughout history could be counted on one's hands altogether. They were much rarer than the non-elemental users.

Nature attribute magic was inherent to the protectors of the world tree, meaning the elves. Some people may also have the blessing of nature and use it as well.

Abyssal and Radiant attribute magic were only usable by the people who were affiliated with a cult or church. But to Cecil, it only sounded more like an enhanced version of the dark and light system magic with the addition of being affiliated to a fanatic organization.

That was the simple run-down of the magic that could be used in Alterna. There were many other kinds of magic like Void, Ancient, Taboo, and Heavenly Magic, but there were no books about them in Lucia's house. Mrs. Anna had only given Cecil and Lucia the names of those magics and no explanations about them since she wasn't researching any of those types of magic.

Sometime later, Lucia had finally finished reading the book, How to Use Magic, and after he finished writing his notes, Cecil began to ponder about the contents he just learned.

"Hmmm…"

"Cel?"

"Hm..."

"…"

"It seems only live practice will actually be of any help."

"Of course, books are only there to guide us! If you want to do anything, you have to actually experiment and practice, you know?" Lucia replied a matter-of-factly.

Cecil nodded at her words in agreement before saying, "Okay, let's go to the back then!"

"R-right now?"

"The faster the better, I wanna try my hands on this magic thing!"

Coming to such a conclusion, Cecil enthusiastically grabbed Lucia's hand and dragged her out of the library. On their way to the backyard, Lucia poured cold water on Cecil's enthusiasm.

"You seem awfully hyped up. Don't get disappointed if you actually don't have an aptitude for it, okay?"

"Eh? What's that?"

"Don't tell me you weren't listening at all last time?"

"But, you said that everyone could use magic right?"

"No, I said everyone can use mana, magic is different."

"Wha???"

Hearing this, Cecil prompted Lucia to explain.

"Anyone can use mana, but if you don't have the aptitude, you can forget about ever casting a magic spell in your life."

"Uwaahh!!!"

Cecil immediately deflated and started worrying about the unsettling news.

'Oh no! Wh-what would happen if I don't have any aptitude for it??? Crap, I was all gung-ho about it that I didn't pay attention last time! This is bad, I hope that I have an aptitude for it, if I don't, that'd be a total let down. Especially since I've been so hyped up ever since I heard about it…'

He could only find out whether he had the aptitude for it if he took the test to measure his mana and find out his elemental attribute. Since he still wasn't tested, Cecil could only hope that things would work out in the end.

"Well, we can't figure out anything without at least trying, right?"

"Aren't you overly optimistic?"

"I wanna use magic!!!"

Cecil was optimistic to the point where he was just borderline desperate.

"O, okay… Wait a bit, let me go call Mama."

"Alright."

Lucia went towards the study that her Mom has been holed up in for the last week and knocked on the door. Mrs. Anna had the tools to test whether or not Cecil could use magic, but since she had holed herself up for an entire week, they couldn't proceed with the tests.

When the door to the study opened up, Lucia quickly walked in and closed the door behind her. Cecil waited patiently outside and after a while, Lucia came out holding some peculiar objects in her arms.

"Cel! Come to the backyard, Mama and Papa are already waiting!"

"Eh? Okay! Wait, what about your mom? She isn't inside?"

"Mama already used her magic and moved to the backyard with some of the larger aptitude testing equipment!"

"O-Okay..." 

Cecil walked up to Lucia and took all of the equipment she was holding. It was only proper etiquette to help a lady.

"Fufu, you're just like Papa."

"Am I?"

"Yeah, he wouldn't let me or Mama hold anything too heavy."

"It's just proper etiquette."

"Fufu~"

When they reached the backyard of the house, Cecil immediately saw Mrs. Anna instructing Mr. Zaki on setting up the various tools and objects scattered around the backyard.

'Was the test this complicated?' Cecil inwardly thought.

"Uhm, Mrs. Anna? Where should I put this?" Cecil called out to her after getting a little closer.

"Oh, just put those down over there, sweetie. We'll only be using that for the test anyway! The rest here is just for testing out the theory you told me yesterday!"

Hearing what Mrs. Anna said, Cecil was confused.

"Yesterday? But, it's already been a week…."

"Rea~lly~?"

Mrs. Anna responded by tilting her head and acted all cutesy. Cecil couldn't really complain when she looked like she was old enough to be his older sister.

'Wow, I didn't expect Mrs. Anna to be such an airhead. To think she'd even forget about time when she's doing her research. That's scary.'

Cecil started to wonder if she even had anything to eat or drink properly since then. 

'What about bathing or stuff like that?'

Although he did see Mr. Zaki going in and out of the research room with some food and a basin of water from time to time, he thought that Mrs. Anna was really well taken care of by Mr. Zaki. He also started to sympathize with Mr. Zaki a bit because he doubled as not only the village's chief but also his wife's caretaker.

'Man, she's pretty worrying. Must be hard for Mr. Zaki sometimes, no wonder he's so good with doing the house chores and cooking despite looking the way he is.'

Fortunately for him, the test wouldn't be too complicated since all those various unknown tools are actually only for Mrs. Anna's experiment. The tools that were going to be used for his test were the things that Lucia had retrieved earlier. After they finished setting up the testing tools, Cecil asked Mrs. Anna for her instructions.

"Okay… here we go. So now what do I do?"

"Well, now you just have to put your hand on top of that white sphere."

"Okay!"

Without any hesitation, Cecil placed his right hand on top of the white sphere and not long after, it slowly started to shine with a resplendent light!

'Hopefully, I won't be disappointed!'

On the side, Lucia and Silver cheered for him in their own way.