Array Talent?
After being led to the back room, the man sat down at a table taking his hood off. If Michael was there at this moment, he would know that this man was Mr. Carl from the awakening ceremony.
"I'm looking for The Master." Carl told the bartender.
Hearing this name, the bartender's eyes widened for but a moment, before he calmed down and went back to normal.
This happened quickly enough that a normal person may not be able to see it, but Carl saw it.
"Yes, I will bring him right away." The bartender walked out of the room before heading to get the man nicknamed The Master.
After a while, a large figure appeared in the doorway of the room. He sat in the seat opposite Carl.
"For you to come to me, why, you must have found a talent." The man said to Carl. This man was none other than the headmaster of the Royal Magic Academy, Arthur Magspires.
"Yes, during a recent awakening ceremony I was in charge of." Carl confirms what Arthur said.
Looking at Carl's serious face, Arthur sighs.
He then called in some liquors and the bartender brought them in. After taking a big chug, Arthur looked back at Carl.
"For you to find this person to be a talent, they must be special in some way. Tell me about it." He had grown interested.
Michael woke up early morning ready to head out. After getting ready, packing everything he thought he would need, and making sure to grab the book and arrays, He went to his little clearing in the forest.
After arriving there, he took out the large book and prepared to study it in detail.
Turning to the first page, Michael read the words.
'What are arrays? This is the question most people ask upon first learning about arrays. To answer this question, we need you to think about spells. What are spells?'
Michael had not thought about this before. What are spells? They take mana to be used, but how do they work? Thinking about this, he continues to read the book.
'Spells are the outcome of the way we use our mana. To cast a spell, the first thing we do is to shape the mana into runes. These runes are believed to be the language of magic itself, and that by pushing mana through these runes, we create spells.'
Reading on, Michael's mind is blown by this information. He had never thought about any of this before. To think that magic is a language.
Thinking about this, he has an exciting thought. What would happen if someone were to master the language of magic? Could they cast any magic they could think of, and of any element?
Maybe through this, he could create his own spells! Thinking of this, Michael reads on.
'Long ago, a scientist by the name of Arlo tried to learn the language of magic. Although he was not successful, he did create the first array. This shocked the world and led to him being one of the most famous magicians in history. To answer the question, what is an array, an array is an organized group of runes used to create magic using mana from the atmosphere or from mana cores.'
Putting down the book for a moment, Michael lets the knowledge he just gained really sink into his head.
This information was really surprising to Michael. Now he really wanted to learn more about arrays. He starts to read the book more.
Now on the next page of the book, it wants him to test his own talent in runes by memorizing some runes and their meaning. It then lists of hundreds of small runes in throughout the page.
Michael decides to test his talent in runes. He thinks it will help get the hang of arrays better.
According to the book he is supposed to time himself for thirty minutes and memorize as many of the runes on the page as best as he can.
However, it says that he will need to memorize them enough to be able to draw them out himself for it to count as memorizing one.
In every single Tome, there is a very small set of numbers that are always changing. This is the time, and the tome tells hours, minutes, and seconds.
Michael watches the time, opens the book to the page with the runes on it, and prepares himself without looking at any of the runes themselves so as not to cheat on the test.
Michael waits until the seconds in the tome reach zero and starts again before finally starting the test.
He scrutinizes every detail of the runes making absolutely sure that he memorizes them before moving on.
He takes in the knowledge at a very fast pace, moving through the runes at a decent pace in his mind.
This goes on for twenty minutes, before he stops, having memorized all of the runes on the page. Memorizing all those in such a short period of time had given him a splitting headache.
Upon finishing, he immediately takes a look at the time, realizing that he managed to do it in a little over twenty-one minutes.
Michael takes a small break, enjoying the silence in his own little area for a moment. After listening to the sounds of the birds for a while, he opens the book again and decides to check his score.
In the book, it says that those who read and memorize less than one hundred out of the 500 total runes on the page are not suited to arrays and should give up now.
For the rest, the score was something like this:
100-199 = Average talent
200-299 = Good talent
300-499 = excellent talent
500 = Godly talent in runes
Reading through this information, Michael is surprised to learn that he didn't actually have to memorize them all to be scored.
Seeing that his talent is considered divine, he is less surprised than he was when he discovered his tome grade.
Now that he has been tested and knows that he has the best talent he can for arrays, Michael can't wait to start learning.
The first thing he needs to do is to learn a basic array, the tier 0 breeze array. According to the book, arrays are organized into tiers, from 0 through 10.
Tier 0 arrays are basic arrays that don't do much, while tier 10 arrays are godly arrays that have been lost with time.
To make an array, Michael has to take a small bronze grade mana core and use its mana using a special pen to write the array out on any surface, typically paper.
Reading through this, Michael sees that there are more materials that he needs and does not have.
He knows that he does not have the money to buy the special pen that he needs, nor does he currently have any paper at home. However, Michael knows just how to solve this problem.
Living in a small village can be dangerous due to monsters in the surrounding forest. Due to this, there is a small Hunter's Guild in his village run by the men in the village.
Thankfully, not many monsters come around their village because it is a little ways off from the forest. The monsters that the Hunter's Guild fights are the weakest of the weak that don't even have mana cores.
However, the pay in the Hunter's Guild is pretty good for every hunt.
Michael decides to join the Hunter's Guild starting tomorrow and use his expertise in the forest to hunt monsters. He has spent a lot of time exploring the forest when he was bored.
Gathering his stuff, Michael heads back through the forest, heading toward his home.
Having done this many times before, it does not take long before he arrives home. Walking in, his mother is in the kitchen cooking.
After eating and making some small talk with his mother, he heads off to his room to go to sleep.
However, before he does so, he goes through the array book once more and makes a list in his mind of everything he is going to need.
Finishing this, he lays down, drifting off to the dream world peacefully.