Time passed and season shifted and in a blink of an eye, many moons had passed and it was once more winter. A youth, no older than 13, was sitting in a chair in his personal yard reading a rather thick tome. The boy had the long red air which was a signature of the Moonfyre clan, and grey eyes that glinted with intellect and focus. This was Kieran Moonfyre. After thirteen years of life, the boy showed a calm and serene personality. Every action, every word and gesture economical and controlled. The other children found him to be odd, and the adults knew not what to think. Scions of the Moonfyre clan tended to have fiery, explosive tempers thanks to the many millennia of ancestors almost exclusively cultivating fire magic. While it wasn't to the extent of a bloodline inheritance, time had still changed the very nature of the Moonfyre blood. So this reserved boy, often contemplative, was a mystery to the older generations.
Some might have tried using his mother's blood as an explanation. That is if they didn't know Karina the Storm Caller. A title earned by levelling an entire forest in a fit of rage many decades ago.
Footsteps sounded just as the boy had become completely engrossed. Putting a finger in place to remember where he stopped, he turned his head with an eyebrow raised only to find his mother standing there smiling softly at him.
"How many times have I told you not to pilfer books from my study? Sometimes I regret having tutored you into the Formation Arts. Now you're like a ravenous wolf, going through my books like rabidly. " She scolded, while a smile twitched the corner of her mouth.
"I can't help it mother, formations are fascinating! It truly can be seen how it was thanks to its development that modern cultivation could exist!" Rare excitement could be seen in Kieran eyes, as he almost vibrated on his seat.
"Indeed, the dawn of the spell matrix changed everything for the mortal races. In the past, practitioners depended on comprehension of the principles of magic and force of will alone to bend the elements to their will, as such it could take decades for someone to go from apprentice to novice and then adept, where most would find their paths forward severed." Despite having already told this story many times, she always smiled when Kieran showed such an interesting look of avid attention.
"After that unknown individual first postulated the idea of the runic script by observing that Magic beasts could cast their innate abilities without any understanding about the intricacies of magic, observations proved that each of the creature's abilities was engraved in their magicite core, in the form of a spell matrix. With each rune representing either an element or an aspect of an element. Thus the 108 basic elemental runes were discovered, corresponding to the four elements plus light and darkness." Stopping here, Karina gestured for Kieran to pick up the explanation from where she left off.
In his still immature voice, Kieran seriously intoned.
"This discovery revolutionized the world of magic. Practitioners now understood that when they summoned magic, what they activated were the natural runes present in the world, assembling them by force of will and imagination. Now, practitioners only need to assemble the proper runic script corresponding to spells and then study them avidly in order to condense them in their own cores."
Taking a deep breath before continuing, Kieran once more became excited.
"No longer did practitioners need to actually comprehend the fundamental principles of a spell before being able to cast it and in fact, by studying the spell matrixes and practising the spells, their understanding of magic and the principles that formed the specific spell actually grew. So now they could deepen their comprehension of the elements after already being able to use them, instead of the other way around."
Indeed, after the earthshaking changes that occurred, apprentices simply needed to study apprentice-level spells in order to achieve a basic understanding of them and thus condense the spell matrixes above the mana sea inside their cores. Through constant use, and practice they could master the basic principles behind the spell and once having learned and mastered enough spells, their comprehension would naturally reach acolyte level, where they could then learn their first acolyte level spell and use the condensed spell matrix as a catalyst to break through into the acolyte level.
The process would then repeat during the Acolyte level until they reach the adept level. Once there, things would no longer be as simple, the 108 basic runes would no longer be enough, Adept level practitioners need to study intermediate level runes which were a product of the fusion of several basic runes, sometimes even from different elements. So while they could still cast magic by simply condensing the spell matrixes on top of their mana seas, they now need to comprehend how the fusion of the basic runes occurred and what laws were at work, something that only profound comprehension talent and time could ensure.
Of course, it was still easier than in the ancient times, after all the spell matrixes could still be used as reference points, and individuals were reaching the Adept level several decades earlier than in the past so most had enough lifespan left to break through the first major hurdle of magic cultivation, achieving the Master rank.
"Indeed, the first usage of the runic script was not in the form of spell matrixes but instead, in the form of spell formations. Our understanding was too shallow to condense and simplify the complex rune scripts, after all they were based on the matrixes present in magical beasts magicite crystals and as such were a product of nature itself, and since magical beasts had no need to actually understand anything, they could be as complex as required."
Sitting in the chair beside Kieran, Karina finished her explanation with a satisfied groan.
"Understanding such complex matrixes without the corresponding magic comprehension would prove impossible, however, since even magical abilities with apprentice-level power had complexities comparable with some simpler Adept level modern spells. Spell formations, however, could be big and complex, made up of several interconnected parts and through study, we could discover the interaction between each rune and achieve great power with large scale formations. Our understandings then allowed us to simplify them, shrink them into much weaker but correspondingly easier to understand spell matrixes."
" Now, the moon has been in the sky for several hours young man, and you have a full day ahead tomorrow. Unless you've forgotten that tomorrow will be the test to determine what your elemental affinity is? Will you inherit the pedestrian affinity for fire of the Moonfyre clan or my much more graceful and elegant affinity for wind, I wonder?" With a mischievous look in her eyes, she chuckled like a teen who had just played a prank.
Rolling his eyes at his mother's antics, he gave her the book he was holding and kissed her in the cheek as a goodbye before running off to his chambers, unable to hide the excitement at the events of tomorrow.
