Chapter Three

It has been a month since Feeh has started to teach me the principles of nature. Right now, I have just finished learning all of them, or what Feeh knows, and I am about to use what I learned to quickly use chantless magic. Feeh has just started to teach me.

“To use chantless magic, because you have learned all the principles of nature, you will only have to link a principle of nature to the type of magic you want to use. For example, when you want to use the water magic, Heavenly Rainfall, all you have to think about is all the moisture in your surroundings going into the air, then turning into water droplets. Then the water droplets have to form clouds. The clouds get too much water and let out all of it. Another example, to use the fire magic, Fireball, all you must think about is how you start a little flame, then feed it oxygen. After that, feed it gas. Imagine that the flame is growing, the more you feed it oxygen and gas. After it is large enough, you imagine it turning into a ball of fire. Then aim and shoot it at your target. Oh, and also, the entire process doesn't happen. Only the end product is shown to others. Like if you used Heavenly Rainfall, only the rainfall would be shown. Now, try using chantless magic.”

Yes! I can finally use chantless magic! I am going to use the Holy magic, Ultimate Cure. It can cure all different types of abnormalities. It doesn’t just cure humans and animals; it also cures the sickness of plants. There is a wilted flower near me, so I will cure it.

First, I imagine the flower getting sunlight. Then it gets nourishment from the soil. Last but not least, it gets rainfall. 

I have a weird feeling after the process is done. When I opened my eyes again, the plant that was wilted was now flourishing in its place.

I gave myself a silent fist bump, in congratulations. Then I look at Feeh, to see if I had done well. What I found was an amazed Feeh. 

Upon seeing his amazed expression, I asked, ”Why are you so amazed, Feeh?”

“I am amazed because I thought that it would take at least half a year for you to be able to actually correctly use the magic that I had taught you. Interesting. Very interesting. Let’s see what other type of magic you can use.” 

Upon hearing Feeh say that, I think of another magic I want to use. Let’s see………….. How about the earth magic Growth?

“I am going to use Growth,” I say to Feeh. 

“Okay.”

Growth is a special magic. Most earth type magic can only work on plants and animals, but this can work on humans as well. Growth is magic that allows you to accelerate the growth of your target. For example, you can use Growth on plants to make them grow faster than nature wants them to. You can use growth on a sapling, and by the time you're done casting it, the sapling will have already grown to become a tree. 

Hmmmm……. I can use it on that flower over there. The one that has just started growing. I close my eyes. First, I think of the plant doing photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is what it is called when a plant uses air and water as matter to create sugar. Sugar is the food for a plant, if you don’t know. However, that is not all that it has to do to create sugar. It also has to use the energy from sunlight to turn the water and air into sugar. Then the plant spreads the sugar into all its body parts. The plant then grows. Now, the plant should have finished growing.

I slowly open my eyes, and the sight that greets me is a fully grown plant. The young plant is nowhere to be seen. Who could predict that the plant that was just planted a while ago, would have grown this fast? Chantless magic is such a good thing.

Once again, when I look at Feeh, he has an amazed expression. Really, what is so amazing about chantless magic. It is so easy to do that even a pathetic wizard who stumbles down the stairs, Feeh, can do it. Sometimes Feeh really amazes me. In a bad way. Sigh.

“Y-you actually managed to do another spell this quickly! It took me a whole decade to be able to cast a single spell chantless! How did you manage to do this so quickly?!”

I involuntarily jumped back as Feeh exclaimed, no longer having the cool and collected expression that he had before.

Whew! I thought I would almost have a heart attack! But anyway, what did he say? It took him almost a decade to be able to cast a single chantless spell? That can’t be right. It is so easy to cast a chantless spell, even a child would be able to do it.  I know that because I am only eight and I could use chantless magic. What a joker! However, what Feeh said next destroyed my theory about how a child would be able to cast spells.

“Let me be a bit clearer than I was before. You see, many, many years ago, I found the principles of nature. They were written in a book, in a language that I didn’t know. The book and its pages were made from something that was like parchment but was more flexible. I had never seen anything like them before. Back then, I was a fledgling wizard. I had just started my career and was exploring a few ruins that were told to have special artifacts. Some of history’s most famous wizards back then had gotten their fame and respect because they were strong. Their strength had all come from the artifacts they had gotten from the ruins that I was exploring.”

“Yes, I think I know what you are thinking. If something like those ruins were there, and had powerful artifacts, then why hadn’t the kingdoms fought and claimed the ruins yet? The reason was because the ruins had a catch. Only wizards with the Limestone Rank could enter because of a spell that was put on the ruins. Because of the spell, the kingdoms had to choose a specific few people to go in.“

“The way that the kingdoms chose which people could go in was by choosing from a ballot. To put your name in the ballot, you had to pay a certain amount of money. You had to pay at least 3 white gold coins. Remember, there are 4 different types of coins. Black Stone($0.01) Blue Stone($0.10), Green Stone($1.00), Copper($10), Silver($100), White Gold($1,000), Gold($10,000) Black Gold($100,000), Red Gem($1,000,000), Green Gem($10,000,000), Jade Gem($100,000,000), and Jade Coin($1,000,000,000). Each one is worth ten times more than the other. So, you see, the price was way too expensive. That is why the commoners went on a strike. (A/N: Assume that the average money that a commoner’s household made was one silver($100) each month. They also had to spend money on foods and necessities.).”

“The common people couldn’t afford the price and it made it so that only the children of wealthy nobles could be chosen to visit the ruins. Because the commoners went on strike, the Kings of all the countries came together and discussed the matter.”

“They couldn’t only allow the commoners to go into the ruins, because then the nobles would be dissatisfied, for nobles are arrogant people. Neither could they only let the nobles go, because then the entire talk would have been useless. That is why they made a compromise. The compromise was that you could enter the ruins two ways. One way was to put your name in the ballot, and the other way was to win in a competition. That way, it would be easier to send in people to the ruins. I got to go because I was the winner for the competition.”

“The amount of people that could go to the ruins was 10 people. Four could be chosen from the ballot, and 4 would be able to go if they at least got fourth place in the competition. The last two were reserved for the princes, princesses, soldiers, and other important people that may be there at the time. ’’ 

As I comprehended everything that Feeh just told me, I had a question. 

“What is a rank, Feeh?” I asked.

He replied," You see, in this world every occupation has a rank. A rank is something that can help others tell how good you are at the occupation. A rank is something that tells your strength, if you have a fighting occupation. It can also tell if you are a good craftsman, if you have an occupation that makes things. The ranks from weakest to strongest are: Limestone, Iron, Copper, Silver, Gold, Gemstone, Ruby, and Diamond. Each of those ranks have levels. The levels go from 1-10. After you have gotten to the tenth level of a rank, then you can be considered to have gone to the next rank. The difference between ranks is unimaginable. That also goes for levels. For example, a person that was Limestone Rank would be utterly annihilated if they tried to fight a Iron Rank person. Even if the Limestone Rank person was a sword master and the Iron Rank person was only a craftsman. The Iron Ranked person would just have to use a finger to defeat the Limestone Rank person. You can now tell that the ruins had a special enchantment to only let the weakest people go in. You see, even to this day, the enchantment that has been on the ruins has not been broken. Not even a Gemstone Rank wizard could overwrite the enchantment.”

As I was processing everything that Feeh just told me, I suddenly thought of something. 

“How do you find out what rank you are in?”

“Good question, Cadmar. To find out your rank, you can take a test at any school that teaches magic. The test is free because every country wants to have strong warriors and wizards. Just ask for a form and the people measuring your rank will ask you to do a few things and it’ll be done.”

“Now, let's get back to the topic, okay?”

Come to think of it, we had been talking about the principles of nature, right? We got sidetracked. 

I nodded my head at Feeh’s question. 
 
“Okay. Let us get back to the main topic---you being able to master something that took me decades to learn!” 

“You see, even after getting the book that had the principles of nature, it took me a full decade to interpret it. I looked everywhere for clues to translate the language that was in the book. However, I could never find it. I then gave up on the book for about three years. Then I found out another way to translate the language. I created a new type of magic. I call it ‘Transferendum’. Transferendum helped me understand the book. Then it took me a full decade to completely understand what the principles were. That is why I am very surprised at you.”

I now understood. It took Feeh a few decades to understand about the principles of nature, but I understood them in one month. However, aren’t they easy to understand? I won’t really think about it that much.

“Hmmmm. I will see what rank you are right now, okay?” asked Feeh.

“You can do that? I thought that I needed to go to a school that specializes in magic to do that? You said it yourself a few moments ago.”

“Well, did you think of HOW they find your rank? They have to use a special magic artifact to find out your rank. However, you are still correct. The magic schools are the only place that you can find those magic artifacts. The artifacts are hard to create and each one costs thousands of Black Gold to make. That is why the Imperial Monarch Palace, the royal family who governs over all the countries in Malbix, only gives them out to magic schools. Those schools have countless mages to protect it. But there are some exceptions. Though this rarely happens, some people can get access to those artifacts and keep them.”

“I am one of those people. I did a few contributions here and there and I was given one of those things. The item is called a Ganter. It is created by a few thousand Gold Ranks. However, just one Gemstone rank would’ve been enough.”

Saying that, Feeh pulled out a hand shaped thing made of silver. The hand looked so lifelike that it was a bit scary. On the palm of the hand an ‘e’ was written. On one of the fingernails, there was an ‘a’ written. On the backhand, there was an ‘L’ written. Out of the trio of letters, only the ‘L’ was capitalized.

“I checked out how this was created and found out how to create it. I could easily improve the item, but I am too lazy to do it. The letters used are special engravings. These engravings were crafted by the most skilled of blacksmithing experts. Each one stands for a magic word. Each letter took the full strength of the engraver to be engraved. The letter ‘e’ stands for ‘eternity’. ‘Eternity’ is the magic word that helps preserve things. If a person with a large amount of magic power used the word, then the item it was casted on would be able to face the attacks of a few thousand experts.”

“The letter ‘a’ stands for ‘ahuang’. That magic word causes all the mana in the area to be attracted to the item. ‘eternity’ uses up a lot of magic power to work, so ‘ahuang’ is needed to have the magic engravings do their full effect.”

“Last, there is the letter ‘L’. Notice that it is the only letter capitalized. Although it may not seem that different, the lowercase letter and capitalized letter have a huge chasm between them. ‘L’ stands for ‘Luan’. ‘Luan’ is a very special magic word, and by special, I mean powerful. ‘Luan’ takes the life force of a person to be said or engraved. That already shows that it is dangerous. Furthermore, the engraver shortened the name. Know that just saying the name of a magic word can take up magic. Actually shortening it can multiply how much mana is used to say or engrave the word by over a 100 times. Of course, there is a benefit as well.”

“The benefit of shortening the word is that the effect will multiply by a thousand times. ‘Luan’ uses life force to be used. Just losing one 1/1000 of your life force can cause harm to you. It can cause your magic to become weaker and be unable to strengthen the soul.”

“The person that engraved this probably died long, long, long, ago. Let’s not get caught up in the past, okay? We still have to see what rank you are at.”

However, ”Can you tell me more about magic words and how to engrave them, later?”

I don’t know why I asked, but I did. It felt as if something in me was telling me to learn about it. It was a weird thing, all of a sudden, I asked that question without thinking. My mind didn’t have a say in the matter. I just did.

Feeh looked surprised for a moment, then thoughtful, and finally replied back, ”Sure. I was going to tell you about magic words anyway, so it really doesn’t matter that I’ll also be talking about engraving them.”

I felt very happy knowing that. Now, we were going to measure my rank, right? I hope I get a good one.
……………………………………………….

While Cadmar was thinking that, Feeh had his own thoughts.

‘He’s really growing up like you, isn’t he? He had the same excitement in his eyes as you did when asking about magic engravings.’

A/N: To those people that think that just learning the principles of nature would take Cadmar 2 years...... you're wrong. When Feeh talked about 2 subjects, he means to say that Cadmar will try to master Magic overall in 2 years and Martial Arts....... 

Sorry if that confused you.