15 Magic

Pt1

[Early December]

A few months have passed since Alizée and I had told each other about our past, and, in reality, our conversations during the day had not changed much, however, I felt that something had changed between us, talking to each other was easier, and she often told me about her days, which was quite rare before.

The entrance test for the School of Magic was getting closer and closer, and I was beginning to feel some anxiety about it.

I had to start taking this seriously.

Al had told me what to study for the theoretical part of the test, however, it was the practical test that really scared me.

The practical test consisted of two parts, in the first you had to show your level of circulation and your ability in magic, in the second you had to fight with professors, who evaluated your level.

But I didn't know any other spells besides mana circulation, and Al didn't have time to teach me.

I decided to ask Amos. He knew magic, from what he had told me, many of their group knew it and knew how to use it, even if in a limited way compared to the great magicians of the ranks of the nobles.

On December 10th we met at the bar "The Wanderer", the same bar where the "Crescent Moon" presented itself to me.

"Hi, Tom"

Amos was waiting for me sitting at a table in a corner of the Bar. The Bar was almost empty.

'I wonder if everyone here is part of the Moon...'

"Hello..."

I sat at the same table as him, he ordered a beer for him and a pear juice for me. Which I did not refuse.

He had in front of him a transparent glass cube, which seemed to have an empty spherical space inside.

"Oh, you may be wondering what this is, right?"

I nodded curiously.

"This is to see which category of magic you are more akin to"

"Hmm, and how does it work?"

He smiled.

" It's actually very simple, just pour your mana into it. "

In fact, it was quite simple, all magical devices are turned on by pouring some of their mana through the power button.

In the meantime, our drinks arrived. Amos took a long sip.

"Ahh, always good beer of this place ... well do you want to try to use it?"

He gave me the cube in my hands.

I concentrated and ran some of my mana through it.

It took a few seconds, and on all sides of the cube magical circles engraved with runes lit up. The sphere of emptiness inside the cube glowed gray.

"..."

Amos had a face that was nothing short of surprised. He looked at me wide-eyed, confused and a little agitated. Which left me confused.

'What does that mean...?'

"Ha-ha... Tom... you never told me you had elven origins..." His voice was a little shaky.

'Huh?!'

Now I understood, magic that can be traced back to gray, or rather, to silver ...

'Silver Magic... the magic of the elves'

"But how..." It also stunned me. After all, I was just a quarter Elf, wasn't I?

"Well ... this could be a problem ... of course, silver magic is very good, but ..."

"I can't use it, can I?"

"Yes ... elves would instantly put you to sleep if you know what I mean. "

"..."

However, being able to use this magic made me happy, it meant that my mother was indeed of elven descent, she hadn't lied about that. Besides, it was something that somehow tied me to her.

" So, what can I do? "

" Well, as I told you, this contraption only tells you which magic you are most akin to, that doesn't mean you are only able to use this one. "

He pulled out from the beige shoulder bag he had hung on his chair, a book, not too big but made up of very large pages.

He placed it on the table.

"Well, luckily I brought this book ... this will allow us to understand which types of magic you are most akin to and which you are not at all."

He opened the book on the first page. There were two magic circles per page with the type of magic each circle corresponded to written on the side.

The way you could see the affinity for each type of magic was similar to that of the cube.

I had to pour my mana into each magic circle, the more a circle lit up, the more akin I was to the magic that that circle corresponded to.

It took about half an hour to try all the circles.

"Well, aside from silver magic, you're not very much akin to any other kind of magic ... except this one."

Amos pointed his finger at a magic circle: the magic of crystals.

"It's ... good?"

" Hmm, it's not bad as magic ... but it's not the best either. "

"That is... it's one of the slowest magic and it's not very good in one-on-one fights."

"And unfortunately, the practical test also consists of a one-on-one fight with a professor ..."

"Well, that's not the real problem... the professor you will have against will take into account your magic, the problem is that I have never heard of a crystal magician who ranked in the top ten of his year."

"Do you have any ideas?"

"Eh... not now... I will try to ask other members of the "Crescent Moon" more experienced than me in magic..."

We finished our drinks and said goodbye.

Pt2

This of crystal magic was a more serious problem than I thought, even talking about it with Al, I realized how this magic was used more as defensive than offensive magic, and usually the strongest defensive wizards are those who know how to use the magic of metals, faster and more ductile magic.

In the months that followed, I immersed myself in the study and practice of magic.

I learned that all categories of magic, for example, water, fire, silver magic, crystal magic, etc. were in turn divided into four levels, I, being a beginner, could aspire to level one spells, the simplest ones.

As for crystal magic, there were only two level one magic that could be used in combat: crystal wall and small spike.

Both spells were based on sliding one's mana on the ground and bringing it to the desired point, to then mentally imagine the runic formula of the magic concerned and then imagine what to want to create; so, for example, to create a crystal wall you had to first imagine the rune of such magic and that is "Σηκώστε έναν κρυστάλλινο τοίχο" and then imagine raising a wall.

Although it was a level one spell, casting it was much more difficult than I imagined, it took me two weeks to learn this spell, which, after all, was a fairly short amount of time. However, at first, I spent too much mana to do this spell, in fact it took me a month to actually learn this spell usable in a fight.

Learning to cast a spell excellently was necessary for the first part of the practical exam. This had always left me dumbfounded, having to know a spell to get into a school that taught spells. This was done so that only children from families rich enough to afford a private teacher could enroll in this school. As a matter of fact, the school was open to everyone.

Amos and I had thought of a strategy to use in combat, to use the crystal wall more as a misdirection than as a defense, thus exploiting my best qualities, namely agility and physical explosiveness.

(For the runes I have used and will use Greek. I've always liked Greek letters and they've always given me the feeling of magical, runic).

Pt3

In a square room, lightly lit by a candelabrum with purple magic candles, with a huge circular table of dark wood in the center, eight masked people had gathered. They were all dressed in a long purple hooded gothic tunic, some with silk or leather gloves, but all with a creepy mask, each one different from the other.

The masks had only one thing in common, they represented an animal, or rather the "face" of an animal.

Fox, blue jay, wolf, cat, lion, golden eagle, koi carp and snake. These were the animals represented.

"Well, let's start the meeting," said the man in the lion mask.

Everyone sat around the circular table.