Chapter 53: A little playtime
"There are three things you must be careful of when dealing with the Mana you channel from the environment."
Inside the Sungrade castle, in the same little garden where the two had met for the first time, today, Alex and Sam were playing together once again.
It was training in the eyes of the mothers who watched them from the side in their break time, but for the young girl, this was nothing less than playing.
"Mana is only one of the many types of energy we can find around us." Using a glove like item that he had created a while ago, he channeled the raw energy around them and it took the form of an orb of light.
"We see it in this translucent white form because it’s simply energy that does not have elements of its own. The moment you add the powers of different elements in it, you give unique properties to Mana."
As he continued teaching her with demonstration, Alex did her best to understand the things, even taking notes in her little blue book she received from her mother.
"You’ve felt the sensation when you ask the spirits for help, right? They use your body as a medium to channel the Mana with their unique elemental powers. They can’t use those powers by themselves without materialising in the physical world."
Mages use spells, and spells are a temporary medium created by the mind of the caster. The same is not true for the Spirit art users like Alex or Elder Ran.
Their bodies, by themselves, are so conductive that the spirits can use them to channel their powers if the caster wants it.
Their will still plays an important role here. But, for a normal spirit of a normal mage, to use their powers, they must materialise with a physical body that would work as a medium for them.
"All spirits can materialise with enough practice. However, there must be something else." He looked at her with eyes that were asking her a question, and the girl instantly raised her hand with the answer.
"Oh! The spirits must have a contract with someone!"
"Right."
Without a contract with a being of the physical world, they cannot materialise themselves. So, a spirit contract was very important for them.
"The normal mages need the right skills and training before they can materialise their spirits in a physical form. However, for a blessed individual like you, just your affection towards the spirits can allow them to partially materialise into the world and use their powers."
Alex wasn’t the one using those powers. They helped her by their own free will.
Spirits were very selective, but they did not define the true powers of a blessed individual.
"Do you understand the first point then?"
To use the energy of the environment was the first step towards using the powers that she already possessed the talent for.
"To use the energy, we have to understand the nature of Mana we want to use!" Alex answered with some hesitation, but her eyes were fixed on her big brother.
She had started learning more about her powers thanks to her big brother’s suggestion to their mothers.
Some older gramps were teaching her all kinds of things, but the most fun she had was when she was playing with her big brother.
"That’s right." He activated different features of the glove and different elements appeared on top of his palm.
"Lesson one: Mana is a basic resource that we can use for any internal and external function. The more pure the Mana, the more volatile it is. And the more volatile it is, the harder it becomes for the spirits and their masters to use that Mana."
One must be careful of the limitations of their body when using any kind of energy, but that wasn’t something anyone would understand through words.
One had to fail at least once to know where their limitations stood.
"Lesson two: the will of the caster will decide the effects of the powers the spirits use."
This wasn’t something he could demonstrate using any items or devices. He wasn’t a mage. He was not someone who could use the energies externally in the first place.
"Think of it like this." Sam used the [Expression] bond factor to attract one of the elemental birds from the trees.
"Chirp."
He attracted only one red bird, and only that one red bird came to him and sat down on the top of his shoulder.
"So?"
That was all.
That was all the demonstration he showed to the girl who had already learned [Expression] to a basic level.
"Wow..." And, she was amazed by his simple demonstration because she understood exactly what he wanted her to see.
"How did you do it, big brother?"
Since she had learned the [Expression], she knew just how difficult it was to express her emotions to the beings around her.
It took her a long time just to express one kind of emotion. But, as if to almost communicate with a specific creature, he invited only one particular bird to come and sit on his shoulder.
"You will have to learn some more to understand the ideal categorization, little one. However, just the fact that you understand this right now should be enough."
If she can learn how to express a certain thing to her spirit friends, they will be able to use more complex powers through her.
If she took up the energy channel process, the spirits wouldn’t even have to worry about ’using’ the powers themselves.
Just like how they were using her as an anchor to realise their powers at her request, she will be able to use their spirit bodies as a channel to realise her commands.
Still, she would not be able to use those powers without proper guidance.
Also, aside from the energy and the clear goal of what we want to do through the spirits, one more thing was crucial if one wanted to use the actual ...