Touch of Fate

Chapter 110: Playing with Fire

Staring up at the draconic creature, Mike spoke to Madeline out of the side of his mouth. "So what should we do about this, ma'am?"

She regarded him with a smile. "Please, call me Madeline. Anyway, we need to announce this! Your discovery could revolutionize the field of summoning magic. Do you remember the exact chant you used?" A pad of paper and a quill appeared in hand, ready to write down whatever he said.

[Well, this is a bit awkward. I don't know enough about how chants are managed in this world. Would being able to manipulate an existing one be an issue?]

Deciding that discretion was the better option, he answered while rubbing the back of his head. "Truth be told, I kinda just bit my tongue when I was casting. I don't know why it did this."

"Hmm..." Madeline stared at him intensely. "I'm not sure if I believe you..."

"I'm not lying, I promise. I don't think I could repeat that spell if I tried."

Sighing, Madeline put her notepad away. "Fine, but we have some experimenting yet to do before I'm fully satisfied." She turned back to look at the dragon. "I'm not sure how it's staying around this long. Conjured things are supposed to have a set lifespan. Once they expend the mana used in their creation, they vanish.....Hey, does it feel like your mana is being drained by any chance?"

Mike looked inwardly, and noticed that his mana recovery had slowed by about 25%. If he hadn't been focusing on it, he would have missed the change. "Yeah, it looks like there is some kind of effect drawing on my reserves."

Killian looked over sharply, and Madeline's eyes gleamed. "Really? Could you do me a favor and try to conjure an object?"

Suspecting that he was being used for some of that 'experimentation,' Mike nonetheless started casting, making sure to use the standard chant this time.

"...[Conjure Object]"

Mike felt a small portion of his mana attempt to take the shape of a stool, but dissipate before it had a chance to do so. "Huh, that's odd. It didn't work."

Rather than be disappointed in the failure, Madeline jumped excitedly. "This is great! I think you might have accidentally rediscovered long term summoning!"

He was slightly distracted by Killian's intense gaze, but had enough presence of mind to ask a followup question. "So what does that mean, exactly?"

She fell back into her lecturer mode, "Well, normally Conjuration spells require a set amount of mana up front, with more required for longer durations. However, there are some old records that suggest ancient mages were able to conjure creatures for days or even weeks at a time. Most magic historians believed that these mages simply had much larger pools of mana than we are used to, but some theorized that there might be an alternative version of Conjuration that allows for indefinite summoning."

Motioning to the dragon, she continued, "In theory, so long as they provided a constant stream of mana, the conjured creature or object would remain. However, in exchange, the summoner would not be able to conjure anything else so long as he or she was maintaining the original spell. Supposedly, the overlap between the first and the second casting would cause the second to destabilize."

"Well, that sounds like what is going on at the moment. Still doesn't solve the actual problem, though. And now I can't practice my conjuration spells so long as its here. Should I try and cut off its mana supply?"

"No! We need to study it! I know a summoned creature of this size probably demands a large amount of your mana, but the longer you can maintain it, the better the chance I can make a breakthrough! Please, help me out. With this kind of discovery I can finally make it to a gold ranked instructor." She gave him the puppy dog eyes.

[Is she misunderstanding something? Should I correct her...no, I suppose I can use this to prevent future requests. Its hard to say no to someone who has control of your grades.]

Sighing, Mike relented. "Fine, but only until tomorrow. I don't think I can maintain it longer than that."

"That's more than enough! Thank you! I'll keep it here for the night, and if anyone asks, I'll tell them its all part of my experiment." She spoke rapidly while running over to the conjured creature in question, and gleefully started poking and prodding it, completely forgetting about the rest of her class.

The dragon gave Mike a long suffering glance, as if it resented being subjected to the instructor's experimentation, but couldn't really argue against it.

[Conjured creatures aren't really alive, right?] Feeling slightly guilty, he nevertheless averted his eyes from its humiliation.

He felt a nudge against his shoulder. Killian stood there with an unreadable expression on his face. They simply stared at one another for a moment, before the larger student gestured to Carol, who was still unconscious.

"Should probably help her." Was all the man said, while motioning for Mike to grab one of her arms, and lift her up.

Carrying the stricken beastman between the two of them, they moved her to the department's clinic, where she could rest until she was feeling better. As soon as she was settled, Killian departed without saying a word.

[Huh, strange guy.]

Shrugging, he decided to put off worrying about it until tomorrow. He was starting to feel a bit mentally fatigued by the events of the day, and he still had two more classes left to attend.

Hoping that this period would be an uneventful one, he casually made his way to the classroom for Initiate Chanting Practicum. It was designed in the same manner as the one he attended Introductory Magic Theory in.

He found himself a seat near the back, and made himself comfortable. There was still a fair amount of time until the seventh bell, so Mike took a moment to scan through his [Status] again, making sure he hadn't missed anything. Sure enough, he'd overlooked a new addition to his titles.

- Conjurer of the Draconic Bloodline -

Your powerful connection to draconic creatures has colored your Summoning Magic. Moderate increase to Draconic Summoning Affinity. Minor increase to the mana efficiency and duration of Conjuration spells used to summon draconic creatures, and beings carrying a draconic bloodline.

[I guess that will come in handy, but once again I'm left with more questions than answers.]

Mike noticed that the trickle of students in the classroom had now become a minor flood, and seating was beginning to fill up. He was absentmindedly scanning the crowd as it arrived, when he saw a familiar burst of red hair.

Aine and Rebecca from his Basic Elemental Magic class entered the room together. The red head spotted him, and, dragging her compatriot with her, sat down in the chair next to his.

"Ah! I finally caught you." She exclaimed once she was seated. "You won't get away this time."

Mike was slightly confused, "Did you need something from me?"

"I know solid flames when I see them. Tell me! How are you already a Tier 2 Mage? What is your secret?"

[This is going to be troublesome.] Mike thought to himself. He noticed that a severe looking bald man had entered the room, and was taking a place near the chalkboard in front.

"I don't know what to tell you. I just practiced." This wasn't even a lie. He really didn't do anything out of the ordinary if you didn't include his cheat class or titles.

Aine stood up angrily, "Nonsense! There is no way you're more talented than my....no way you're that talented! You must have some kind of secret method!"

The sound of a loudly cleared voice interrupted the discussion. Both of them turned back towards the board, where the stern-faced instructor was staring at them.

"I will be starting class now. If you must continue your conversation, do so outside."

Grimacing the red head sat down, and muttered out of the side of her mouth. "I'm not finished with you, yet."

Rebecca leaned forward in her seat, and mouthed 'I'm sorry,' while wincing with embarrassment.

Sighing again, Mike settled in for a long class. The instructor, who introduced himself as Kendrick, went on to describe the origins of Chanting during the early Second Age, as well as the reasoning behind using High Elven as the basis for modern spellcasting. He had just begun explaining how the language evolved into a method of interacting with the System, when a male student raised their hand.

"Does that mean we will be learning High Elven?"

Kendrick shook his head. "The language fell out of common use long before the Fall. Our current knowledge of its linguistic structure is spotty at best."

"Wouldn't the elves know it. They did descend from them, didn't they?"

"While that is correct, you must keep in mind that the languages spoken by modern elves are not related to High Elven. At the height of their imperial period, and for reasons we don't completely understand, the High Elves created a new language, separate from the System. It is from this invention that the dialects of the modern elves descend."

The student lowered his hand, looking unhappy.

"Virtually all knowledge of High Elven chants stem from a handful of sources dating back to the beginning of the Third Age. The most famous, of course, is the Gramorgan Von Taldinos, or Grimoire of Chants. It details more than one thousand chants in High Elven, covering almost every known form and tier of magic. While there are no known surviving copies of the original work, a version translated into Old Pyrathien, made it through the First Unification Wars. It has since become the basis of our modern chanting system."

Kendrick began writing on the chalkboard in an elegant script, a series of symbols began to appear. "In the millennia since the Fall, some researchers have succeed in developing new chants using the Grimoire as a source material. While some of the resulting spells are of questionable value, we have nevertheless quintupled the number of known chants."

The same student raised his hand again, "Instructor, if we have been working on this for thousands of years, shouldn't there be more?"

Still writing on the board, Kendrick answered his question without looking. "An excellent question, and one that has two answers to it. First, experimenting with chants is both difficult and dangerous. Change one of the words, or pronounce something in a different manner, and any number of things could happen. Chant research is therefore best done in a highly controlled environment by mages with excellent mana control, and even then there is a risk. Quite frankly, the rewards of developing a new chant rarely outweigh the risk of injury or death incurred through the process, so few take it upon themselves to pursue it."

He finished what he was working on and turned to face the class. "Second, knowledge is power, a fact mages are taught early on. Without a great deal of incentive, most mages hoard new discoveries, only passing them on to favorite students or family members. Other chants have likely died out with their practitioners. It is practically guaranteed that the number of chants known by the world at large dwarfs those in common circulation, but there is no way of knowing for certain. One simply has to look at the Mage's Guild to see this principle in action."

Kendrick clapped his hands, creating a small cloud of dust, "Please direct your attention to the board. I have written down the 97 known consonant and vowel sounds of High Elven. We will spend the first week practicing your pronunciation of these sounds before moving onto speaking whole syllables. It will be slow going unless you have a Chanting skill, but accurate pronunciation is critical to successful spellcasting. Now, repeat after me, FA...."

Already able to read, understand, and perfectly mimic the sounds displayed, Mike immediately grew bored with the class.

[I wonder if attendance is mandatory.] He thought while staring out the window at the slowly moving clouds.