World of Laws and Magic

While Jean's face was still pressed into the ground Ron Varrow looked up at everyone else and said:

"This is usually what happens in combat when there is too big a difference in, first, rank - I'm a Regular Magician and an Apprentice Magician simply can't defend themselves because of the sheer difference in our magical power, second, skill - in front of my eyes his magic spell was so basic and worthless that I 'broke' it by simply improvising a spell that would disrupt his spell's laws and therefore his spell shattered like glass. Look, I haven't even hit his body with a spell and he's bleeding from his orifices, see the blood coming from his ear. That's the backlash that happens when someone forcefully breaks your spell. Of course it helped that I knew the spell he was using. Listen up, I know some of you are up in age and might know a thing or two about magic but unless you work harder, increase your rank and make your magic and spells truly your own, you will likely be defeated everywhere you go."

With that said, Varrow got up from is low position and also raised Jean up. He tapped Jean on the forehead and all his injuries and the blood coming from his eyes, mouth and ears disappeared. Varrow who almost seemed to be in his late twenties patted middle aged Jean on his shoulders and said with a stern face:

"Work hard."

It was a comical sight to say the least. Nick finally saw combat magic in action and it was everything he hoped it would be.

(Hair raising and spectacular.)

Not the most objective description but it was close.

(One day, I'll make even better spells than the one Jean used. I wonder where he got that spell from, maybe he's from a Magician's family, then again, Varrow said that he knew the spell, maybe its one of the academy's)

"That will be the end of class for today. Remember, almost all mages will be faced with a combat situation in their lifetime. Being some what proficient in combat spells may just save your life someday, think about it"

With that Varrow ended class and he disappeared from where he was standing like he was never there. Nick didn't want to waste anytime so he rushed to the magical archives office. He saw the same beautiful woman sitting at her desk and asked:

"Do you sell a magic spell that creates a crimson figure of light that launches attacks?"

The woman looked at Nick, seemingly taking a few seconds to think and replied:

"I think you are referring to this spell."

A holographic screen with information appeared in front of Nick.

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Red Effigy:

This is an apprentice grade spell that has characteristics related to both fire and light magic. The spell involves creating a live effigy of the person who cast the spell out of a red light. The effigy is able to launch one laser like attack at a target and then the spell will unravel. This spell consumes 270 magical units per second.

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Nick had guessed that Jean had purchased the spell from the academy and he was correct. Varrow's demonstration might as well have been a warning not to place too much importance in the academy's apprentice level spells. Nick thought that it could be useful as a reference though.

"May I buy this spell?"

The woman asked for Nick's ID and after doing some checks she said:

"Your scholarship does not cover the buying of spells so you will have to pay for it yourself. The cost is 500,000 pounds sterling"

Nick was taken a back. That was what some doctors earned in a year, where would he get that much money? The woman saw the distress on Nick's face and said:

"Pardon my bluntness, are you not from an affluent family? Learning magic is costly and that is why the British Government even gives out scholarships, so that everyone has a chance to learn it. If you are unable to afford the spells here, you can always learn the spells that they give you in some of your introductory classes or you can take the initiative to join the spell creation club. Their members tend to have limited access to the spells that they possess. Be aware that generally, anything magic related has a high price tag and most persons who do not come from affluent families either seek out a 'mentor', becoming someone's disciple or learn how to create magic related things to sell in order to afford spells and similar magic related items."

Nick listened attentively and engraved every word into his mind.

"Thank you for the information."

Nick thanked the woman and left.

(Spell creation club, huh? That seems the only option since I'm just a poor boy with no background and I haven't even formed my mindscape yet, who would take me on as a disciple? Anyway, I'll look into the club tomorrow. I should get some food and get back to my room for now.)

Nick made his way back to the dorm, he decided to eat his meal in the cafeteria for a change since it was just midday. He bought a ham and cheese sandwich with orange juice. His meal was uneventful but watching the rest of the room, he saw that cliques were forming, at least within the dorm. He was kind of the odd one out since he was eating alone at his table. Nick didn't mind though, studying was more important to him than relationships, at least for now. Besides, Nick wasn't naive, the basis of most relationships was give and take. Nick didn't have anything to just give and if he wanted something from someone, who knows what they would ask for, that is, in this place. Putting those thoughts aside, Nick finished his meal and went back to his room; today is going to be a good day, if he pushed his math studying aside for today, he could definitely finish his book on Valteese. The time was now 12:43 pm, Nick sat at his desk and studied Valteese until 8 pm.

(Although I don't know it fluently, I should be able to start writing and speaking Valteese. The academy has a book store, I should invest in getting a dictionary on Valteese and I should copy the book I have now before returning it to the library. I should get a book on meditation next.)

(Valteese...in order to modify the laws I plan to carve into my mindscape, which from the book are apparently called foundation laws, I need to be able to encode concepts and ideas into Valteese. These ideas have to be coherent and meaningful for them to become laws. Haaah, this becoming an Apprentice Magician thing is going to take a while for me but at least at this point, it is probably the process of becoming that is the most important, the result of becoming an Apprentice Magician would be worthless without the right foundation.)

Thinking back to how easily Ron Varrow defeated Jean, Nick new that his thinking was correct.

After Nick thought through his next steps, he took an hour to rest before reading one of his math texts for about an hour and then he went to bed at around 10 pm.

Nick got up at 3 am like usual, did his push ups, read one of his math texts, showered, ate breakfast at the cafeteria and by the time he was in his next class, the time was 9 am. Today's class is 'Introduction to the Concept of Meditation', I should get some good insights.

Suddenly a flash of blue light appeared in front of the sitting class of almost sixty students. A woman appeared when the light disappeared; Nick recognized this woman.

"Hello, my Name is Rebecca Jones. I'm sure that at least some of you recognize me from the first day you came to the academy. I will be lecturing you on meditation."

Rebecca snapped her fingers and the room changed into a scenery like that of a starless sky. We all seemed to be floating with our seats in the sky but Nick could feel his feet touching the ground so all this was probably an illusion. Rebecca continued to speak:

"This scenery is infamously called 'empty skies'. This is what your mindscapes look like before you engrave your foundation laws into it, this is also what a mindscape looks like if the magician somehow loses his foundation laws and becomes crippled, so to speak. The largeness and profoundness of this space will greatly be determined by your meditation technique and since some of you have already used the meditation given by the school, you know what I am talking about. Along with your ability to carve better and better foundation laws into the mindscape, your meditation will determine much of the power and characteristics given to your magic. Let me show you."

Rebecca snapped her fingers again and the space was suddenly lit up with a white light, by the time the light disappeared, the environment changed into one with a black miasma all around, there were what looked like ghosts with indiscernible faces flying around as well. We were all surrounded by a black spiraling fog and it felt slightly suffocating to be here.

"This is a rendering of a mindscape that belonged to a dangerous criminal that was caught and executed about a decade ago in Italy. He was called a Death Magician because the nature of his magic stole the life force from whatever it touched and many of his spells made that characteristic apparent. He had once covered an entire city with and dense fog that turned everything living into a shriveled corpse. See how his mindscape gives off a feeling of dread and doom, although this is a special mindscape the idea is similar for all mindscapes. His meditation gave his mindscape this nature and appearance, warping it according to the laws in his meditation, after all laws are just a way to express our will, desires and beliefs in magical terms. The Death Magician was obsessed with negative energies and the end of life and that is what his mindscape represents and therefore that became the overall characteristic of the magic processed in his mindscape. You should now see the importance of using the right meditation technique, am I right?"

After hearing this, Nick looked around focusing on the feeling he was getting. This feeling is probably generated by Rebecca's illusion but he still felt enlightened.

(Will, desires and beliefs, huh....interesting.)

Nick thought.