[Alice POV]
I was pulled away from my mother and Brian by Brian’s summon. She and Brian said, she would teach me dark magic. I really want to go grab my notebook, but she doesn’t give me a chance.
“Teacher, I need my notebook.” I said to her.
“Oh, I see.” She responded. “Aports.”
She said something like an activation word and in her hand was my notebook and pencil.
“Take notes then,” She began. “That spell was aports. It can be used to pull small objects to you.” She told me.
“Can anything be pulled?” I asked.
“As long as it’s not too large or too far away. You also need to know where it is and what you are trying to pull.” She told me. I opened my notebook and wrote it down. I also made a quick note about the ‘dark press’ spell.
“Well then, I’ll be teaching you the basic dark magic attack spell ‘dark bullet’.” She said to me. Attack magic? Already?
“Teacher, are you sure attack magic is the best idea?” I asked her. My last spell was too powerful and I might hurt someone with an attack spell.
“Don’t worry.” She said. “It’ll be fine. Also you can call me Mana.”
“But teacher…”
“MANA.”
“Yes, teacher Mana.”
“Just Mana.” She insisted.
“Yes, Mana.” I surrendered.
“Good girl.” She said to me and tried to give me a head pat. I dodged her hand. I’m not a little kid. “I need to educate you on receiving praise apparently.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Good girls take their head pats.” She said teasing.
“I’m not a little kid.” I argued back.
“Fine, fine.” She said.
“I’ll show you the spell first, then you will try to replicate it.” Mana said to me. “Now look closely. Dark bullet”
Mana casted a spell and fired it into the air. A small lump of darkness was shot forward at high speed.
“Now you try.” She said to me. How am I supposed to cast that? She didn’t chant or anything. I know with ‘quick cast’ you can chant with only the activation word, but you can only do that with spells you are familiar with.
“But, you didn’t chant the spell or anything.” I said to her. “I don’t know how to use a new spell like that.”
“Why not?” She asked. “You just do as I did.”
“But, I’ve never used attack spells before, so to demand me to do it without a full chant is too much.” I argued back.
“But the chants don’t matter.” She said to me. “As long as you have a clear picture of what you want to do, you can do it.”
“...I still don’t understand.” She said something that makes no sense. Everyone knows chants matter. And you can only quick cast if you know the spell very well. Most cast a spell thousands of times before even attempting to quick cast it.
“Just try it and you’ll see.” She said. “Point your hand or finger to the sky, imagine a ball of darkness and then make it move.”
She makes it sound so simple. But I just don’t think I can do it.
She realizes my hesitation and moves to behind me. She takes a hold of my right hand and points it to the sky.
“Now, imagine it and say ‘dark bullet’.” She said to me.
Imagine. I try to picture in my head the spell she just used. I think I can do it. But, what if…
“Dark bullet.” I try to launch the spell. A small clump of darkness appears, but it’s not flying where I wanted it to fly. It’s going to crash into the outer wall.
“Dark shield.” Mana cast a spell behind me. A wall of darkness appeared in the path of my spell and stopped it. The wall vanished afterwards.
“See, you could do it if you just try.” Mana told me.
“But… the spell failed. It flew in the wrong direction.” I said back.
“That’s fine for your first attack spell.” She said. “My first spells would just blow up in my face.”
She made mistakes like that? But, she is so skilled.
“If you never fail, you will never learn.” She said. “That’s what my teacher always said to me.”
“I would like to meet your teacher now.” I said back. I’m sure it’s impossible though.
“Sure you can.” She said to me. “Master Brian can summon him.”
“What?” Brian can summon someone even more powerful and skilled than her? But she is already on the level of court mages. What would that make her teacher? A great sage?
“Yes he can.” Mana told me again. Brian is so powerful. National treasure level golem. And two court level magicians.
“Did you collect your thoughts enough to try again?” Mana asked.
“I think so.” I answered.
“Good. This time I won’t be holding your hand.” Mana told me. But, it’s the only reason I could do it.
“But, I need you to.” I told her.
“Or you just want a hug.” She teased.
“I…” Well it did feel nice. But, I’m not ready to do this alone.
“Let’s make a deal. If you can do it, I’ll give you an actual hug.”
“... I’m not a little kid.” I told her.
“Fine, then no deal.”
She grabbed me from behind and held my hand again.
“Now cast it again.”
I focus on the image and let mana flow through my arm, up to my hand.
“Dark Bullet.” I casted the spell. Again a small lump of darkness appeared and shot off. This time it went where I wanted it to. Well the sky is a large target after all. I think having a standing target would be better.
“Good. It flew nicely.” Mana complimented me.
“Thank you.” I said back. “But I still think we are moving too quickly.”
“It’s fine, let’s cast it a few more times and we can go show it to your mother and Master.”
—
After another 10 successful casts of ‘dark bullet, Mana said I was ready to show it to mother and Brian. I only casted an over powered one, once. I feel like I needed more training, but Mana said she had a limited time she could stay summoned, so we had to do it now.
“Will I be able to see you again?” I asked Mana.
“Of course you will. Master can summon me again later. You could even ask him permission to summon me yourself.” Mana answered. Could I really summon her? But I know nothing of summoning magic. I did gain that extra skill at the dungeon and Brian told us it would allow us to use his cards to summon monsters. I really hope I can.
“Now let’s go!” Mana said with enthusiasm. I wish I could be as easy going as she is.
Brian, I promise I will show you I can use the gift you gave me.
receiving prace apparently.
Is the word you tried using praise?
I do believe so, and now I am using it.
Mana Bullet?
Oh she has a time limit, I thought she could remain summoned after she is killed or returned, now that she was a top loaded card.
All summoned monsters have a time limit on how long they can stay summoned and how often they can be summoned. For a sleeved card, they can (like all others) stay summoned for 2 hours and they have a cooldown of 10 times. So if you have a sleeved monster summoned for 2 hours, you'll have to wait 20 hours before you can summon it again.
For the toploader ones, the cooldown is equal, so after keeping something summoned for 2 hours, there is a 2 hour cooldown until it can be summoned again.
And if a toploader monster dies while summoned, it will have a 24 hour cooldown before it becomes usable again.
@nro_8 if he were to summon multiple copies of sentient monsters, like DMG, will they feel each a different set of memories? Since I think that if he were to obtain multiple copies of DMG, he may summon the next one after two hours are up to still keep a DMG on board, even if it is a differemt one? Will she remember what the previous copy did?
Or maybe he will just unlock something to fuse the same copies of cards to reduce their cooldown, like a DMG has two hours on a Top Loader, but if he were to fuse two copies of her, it will be reduced to one hour cooldown and then a third copy to remove the cool down, maybe?
@Ruiso Of memories, no but also yes. They don't directly share memories, but they can do a partial memory sync trough Laura. Basically the first one would send some memories to Laura during the unsummoning and Laura would give them to the next one during the summoning. This is not exactly memory sharing, but more like giving the big points. After Laura evolves more she can do all memories, but at the moment just the big things.
Also sense I know you are going to ask: The same monster summoned from different copies of the same card are not the same monster. More like an alternative version. Kind of like Yugi's Dark Magician vs Arkana's Dark Magician.
Also for the fusing of multiple copies. That might cause a problem because fusion summoning is already a thing. If 3 Blue-Eyes make a Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, wouldn't 3 DMG make something like Super Dark Magician Girl? Or five would just make Quintet Magician.
@nro_8 I meant they fusing because a system mechanic rather than using Poly or a diffetent fusion card effect. Like how in some gachas you can use extra copies of the same character to make them of a higher rarity with higher stats or abilities.
@Ruiso He probably could do it with install. But he would need to make something like a sufficiently powerful (or durable) homunculus body to install or 'fuse' monster cards into.
But with just the cards, it cannot be done. It simply comes down to how much mana goes trough the cards as they are used. That's also why the cards vanish after use. Without a sleeve to protect them, the cards will 'burn up' do to the mana surge. This is even worse with spells and traps that release all that power at once, hence why they need toploaders to be reused.
I guess the last way is, he could make a 'card' out of something better mana sustaining than cardboard and try to move a monster spirit over to that. That should allow them to be summoned for longer and more often.
At the end of the day, I'm at least trying to keep Brian's overpowered cards in some sort of check, so that he doesn't become a god too quickly. Or at all.
@nro_8 ooohhh, that is nice, and also like how you made the ancient duels and their giant stone cards made some sense as they could use Papyrus probably.