Equipped: Armory of Legends

Chapter 7: Lessons with Grandpa

The following day after breakfast, Adrian is inside the library with his grandpa to start his lessons. Adrian went to his studying table and prepared his quill and lots of parchment to note down the information.

“Before we start, let me tell you something. I will only teach you knowledge that only scratch the surface. Take it as hints. I’m not allowed to give any children special treatments but for you, I loosen up the rules a little. Show me see if you are a true genius or not.” Oscar states his stance.

“Yes grandpa, but I don’t call myself or accepted anyone calling me a genius. I only doing this so I can protect the one I care about.” Adrian responds.

“Humph” Oscar snorted

“This kid is different among normal ones in his age. His has a mentality of a grown adult but still too naïve. The kid did not know this world can’t be defy by only guts and words.” Oscar said in his thought, giving an evaluation of Adrian.

“Let’s begin, first let’s start with Laws of Magic. As you should know there are 10 elements in total, 8 basic elements and 2 special elements but truthfully there is only 4 that is flexible that is Fire, Water, Wind and Earth.” Oscar explains to Adrian.

Hearing this Adrian had a sudden thought.

“I understand now… Fire, Water, Wind and Earth is regarded as ‘Main’ elements. That means Lightning, Ice, Smoke and Plant are ‘Complimentary’ elements.” Adrian deduces base on the given information.

“Tch” Oscar clicks his tongue and thought “he instantly got the hint, what a scary kid.”

Adrian heard it but he just tilted his head playing dumb. A vein can be seen popped on Oscar’s head.

“Yes, that’s right. In mana awakening, it’s best to have affinity to one ‘main’ and one ‘complimentary’ element. It is already good to have affinity toward two ‘main’ elements or one ‘special’ element but remember there is no useless element.” Oscar explains further.

“Is there anyone that have affinity towards 2 special elements? What affinities do mom and dad have?” Adrian asked curiously

“When awakening mana, the information of the affinities is kept to one’s self. Anyone who scream out their affinities is a fool. Furthermore, in a battle between mages, only idiots use one element in a fight. Regarding your parents, why not ask them yourself?” Oscar commented while snorted with disdain.

Adrian is kind of surprise that the information about affinities were kept private. He thought that when awakening mana many people will see.

"Then that means the Magic Tower has a restriction towards people staying there for some periods of time?” Adrian concluded.

“Hum…” Oscar nodded an agreement. “Boy don’t ask me about the Magic Tower” Oscar added.

“Okay grandpa.”

“That is the only thing I can tell you about Law of Magics. If you want to know more, grow up and learn like other people. You should go play outside more. That’s all for today.” Oscar mocked Adrian but he is keeping to his promise and then left.

Adrian sat silently, staring at his written notes in deep thought. In about 10 minutes of silent thinking, Adrian takes a new piece of parchment and start writing the ‘main’ element Fire, Wind, Earth and Water in a ‘plus’ formation.

He then drew arrows, Fire pointing to Wind pointing to Earth pointing to Water pointing to Fire. Outside the formation, he wrote the ‘complimentary’ element in order Smoke, Lightning, Plant and Ice above Fire, Wind, Earth and Water respectively.

Light and Dark are written inside the diagram, arrows pointing against the two elements. Finally, Adrian encompasses the light and dark element is a circle and naming the circle ‘cancel zone’.

“So grandpa, must be using water or earth magic to cancel dad’s and Ralph’s fire tornado” Adrian come to a conclusion. Little did he know that he is fully correct on this.

Adrian closed his eyes and do some simulations in his mind to boost his understanding in a real situation.

“It seems like one can get an edge in battle is quick thinking and spirit weapon usage.” Adrian made his final deduction before leaving.

The next day, Adrian does the same as yesterday and look at his grandfather with fire in his eyes.

“Looks like you are ready to learn more. What? Yesterday’s teaching is not enough? I already warn you about the rules, you have to take what you can. Let’s proceed.” Oscar gave his remainder.

What Oscar didn’t know is that Adrian almost had completed Law of Magic by drawing a single diagram. Adrian just nodded and proceed with the lesson.

“Alright, today is about mage stages and magic formation. Mage stages are indication to the level of strength a mage had cultivated. It is divided to Star, Moon and Sun. Each of them had divided into smaller levels.”

“After a child awakened mana, the child will be at stage Star-1. The Star stage is divided into 10 stages. Namely, Star-1 until Star-10. Star level is based on your body adjusting to mana. The higher your control over mana, the higher the Star level.”

“Take this as a reward for calling me ‘Grandpa’, Star level is the most important level to your path of power. Many idiots thought with time they can escape the Star stage. That’s where they were wrong. In the Star stage what you need the most is ‘effort’.” Oscar explains while giving Adrian a freebie.

“I thought you can only scratch the surface of the subjects.” Adrian felt a bit awkward.

“Because the topic of Mage Stages is not a secret. Someone will tell you about the stages one day. Bwahahaha… the freebie is personally from me. It was my own findings. Some people must come to the same conclusion to me as well and keep it for their sons and daughters” Oscar responded.

“Thank you grandpa” Adrian thank his grandfather with a big cute smile.

“Ahem… carry on.” Oscar clears his throat. Holding back from pinching his almost 5 year old grandson’s cheeks. Right now, he is an educator. He must maintain a professional etiquette.

“Next is the Moon stage. It is divided to New Moon, Crescent Moon, Half Moon, Convex Moon and Full Moon. Moon stages are simply based upon power. Just power.”

“Finally, the Sun stage. The Sun stage is divided to simply, 1 Sun Power until 5 Sun Power. Not many people can reach Sun stage. In the Twilight Kingdom, the people that reached the Sun stage can only be counted with one hand.”

“Many mages stuck at Full Moon stage, unable to breakthrough the Sun stage. There is a famous Etterra saying and I quote “A star can become a moon, but a moon can never become a sun.”. To me, that quote is just hampering their growth.”

“That’s it for Mage stages. Moving on to Magic Formula. To cast magic, one need to conjure a magic formula. Magic formula comes in two forms, one is Magic Pattern and the other is Magic Circle. A Magic Pattern, you need one input and conjure it as the output.”

“As for the Magic Circle, it gets more complicated. To put it in simpler terms, you need lots of input to produce one output. I hope you get that. Magic Circle studies is a very complex subject.” Oscar said while scratching the back of his head.

“You can ask for magic books to get some examples. For someone that has not awaken mana, memorizing magic patterns and circles are useless. Magic formula is like an everchanging language to communicate with the elements. You need to feel the mana so you can properly cast magic.”

“As this is a final lesson between us today, I give you another freebie. Magic pattern is a pattern use to conjure magic while ‘Mana Pattern’ is a sequence of mana that created matter or creature. Alchemists studies a lot of mana patterns.” Oscar gave a wink to Adrian before disappearing.

“What? That’s it? How did he move like that? Sigh… although the lesson is a bit obscure, the information is enough for me to understand how Etterra works.” Adrian felt dissatisfy but full.

“I can’t be too greedy I’m not even 5 years old yet, but I still manage to gain so much. I can’t wait until I’m 10.”