ushernet Chapter 362: Eldurian Spellcasting
Chapter 362: Eldurian Spellcasting
“The first thing we should do is go over your options,” said Veridian, as she turned towards Anise. “Wait… actually, I have an idea. Normally, I would just teach Anise the Hylian magic system, and teach you the Alyndian magic system. But, while I haven’t discussed this one with the others yet, I think they’d love it. And it might let you really make a difference. Are you interested?”
I blinked in surprise. Elder Veridian had sounded pretty disappointed earlier, but I could see a spark of excitement in her face again. I turned towards Anise, who hesitantly nodded.
“We’ll at least hear you out,” I said.
“All right. What I’m thinking is related to your nature as heroes, as well as your ability to test things out. As I’m sure you’ve already learned, our access to older magic systems is quite restricted. A big part of this is because we lost a lot when we fled to the sanctuaries… but a lot of it is also due to our incredibly restricted Essence production. When we still had access to the planets, we had a lot of ‘essence vents’ scattered across the continent. All of these produced lots of essence-rich soil, which we could use to at least maintain a reasonably large quantity of essence-crops. Back in those days, limitations on magic were nowhere near as bad as they were today. The limitations on a country’s magical potential were based on how many people were born with the right potential, rather than today, where we can’t even afford to train every potential magic user. As a result, back in the old days, people also have the essence to actually try re
Every other source of light in this dimension was also hot. The two seemed to be the same thing in some sort of twisted, incomprehensible way. Why was this light different?
“It’s an illusion. That’s why the light doesn’t make things hotter,” said Veridian. “I’m surprised you figured it out so quickly. It’s the weirdest thing ever. Light that isn’t hot.” She snorted dismissively.
“Interesting,” I said. “What limits are there to abilities or objects that can be manifested?’
“Well, we aren’t too sure,” said the elder. “Too many of our records regarding what happens when you make an object or ability ‘real’ are missing, and some of what we have left seems to contradict other bits of information we have. But we do know for sure that most things are possible. Stopping time, creating swords that can cut through almost anything… all of these are possible. But, a few things aren’t possible, such as time travel. Also, ‘absolute’ abilities can’t be created. You can’t make yourself invincible to all physical attacks, or anything like that - even temporarily. You can make yourself highly resistant, but just like with every other magic system, there are limits. Finally, artifacts created through this magic system are temporary. Once the artifact runs out of fuel, it disappears. Beyond that… well, hopefully Anise will be able to tell us what the limitations are. We haven’t had a working example of a ‘real’ illusion in over seven thousand years.”
“Is the magic system cheaper if more people believe in it, or something like that?” asked Anise.
The old lady cracked a grin. “Good! You’re thinking seriously about it. Yes, things do get cheaper the more people know about an ability. They don’t have to believe in it, though. They just have to understand what something is. Nobody believes that the characters from a fictional story or play are real, but they can still understand the magic and artifacts in that story or play. This magic system needs cultural recognition, not belief.”
Anise nodded.
“Does that answer your last questions?” asked Veridian. After a few seconds of silence, the old lady grinned.
“Then let’s get started. Anise, I want you to start out with a star as well, because it’s well-known and easy to verify the success of. The very first step is to form a sort of extra eyeball, but one made entirely out of manifestation essence. Most records say that this eyeball could be placed anywhere on your body, although the forehead tended to be the most common spot for it. This eyeball will let you see people’s beliefs. This should appear to you as a giant network of beliefs, ideas, and images, cascading through the air around you. You will then need to take a belief and pull it out of this network of images. Things that more people are familiar with will appear bigger, and feel more solid when you try to reach out for them. The eyeball is a bit hard to create, but I will walk you through how I created my illusory eyeball first…”
I sat and watched as Anise and elder Veridian went over the basics of how to use this magic system. Even though the old lady was focusing on Anise first, I felt a rush of hope as she went over the magic system with Anise.
It might not be enough to cut off this world’s reliance on heroes, but we were finally making some kind of progress. If we could find a way to improve the self-defense abilities of our flying island, that would make this world’s lack of heroes better… and also net us a huge amount of Influence Achievement. I couldn’t even imagine how much achievement we would get for reviving a long-dead magic system, especially if it was useful.
I just hoped that these long-forgotten magic systems would be enough to clue us into what I really wanted - a way to truly make this dimension self-sufficient.