Apprentice and Spells

The Demonic Mark Meditation Method belongs to the third generation of meditation methods. Both the Black Codex and the initiation inheritance mention it: in the age of the earliest, first-generation meditation methods, the threshold for entry was exceedingly high. Apprentice wizards had no ranks—there was only the single stage from apprentice to formal wizard. With the second generation, the whole climate of the wizarding world changed. Entry became noticeably easier, and apprentice wizards were divided into three clear, graded ranks before the formal wizard came, and depending on the school of meditation method, a third-rank apprentice would also develop a different innate spell. By the third generation, through the efforts of the great wizards, the mental power aptitude required for entry had dropped once again. Apprentice wizards were now split into five ranks; each stage flowed more smoothly into the next, mental power grew denser, and the difficulty of advancing to formal wizard had eased somewhat. Eased only in relative terms, of course—to halt and go no further is the ordinary fate of the countless masses on the path beyond the mortal. This third generation of meditation methods no longer granted the second generation's innate spells. Instead, every stage came with a temporary spell slot. Temporary spell slots, also called pseudo-spell slots, were the great wizards' answer to the problem of keeping low-rank apprentices alive. A fifth-rank apprentice wizard had five pseudo-spell slots. That meant that once he became a first-rank apprentice wizard, he would do best to prepare two different zero-ring spells: one indispensable spell to solidify, to accompany him for the rest of his life, and another to store in the temporary slot. As the name implied, after each use a temporary slot had to be recharged: he would have to wait until meditation, when he could once more empower a spell model and store it there. Every casting required preparation in advance. In the Demonic Mark Meditation Method, the temporary slots were the demonic marks themselves. A fifth-rank apprentice wizard had five demonic marks, and each mark could hold one zero-ring spell. Like a true spell slot, such a pseudo-slot allowed quick casting at low cost. Its drawback was that there was no chance to replenish it in the middle of fierce combat, and it could not help him grasp the true essence of a spell the way a true slot did. But it had one advantage: "temporary" meant the stored spell could change along with his own thinking and his circumstances. Luge looked over the resources at hand and thought back to the choices and confusions of that Kaliu in the diary. A large share of apprentice wizards chose Fire Bolt to solidify. Fire Bolt, a zero-ring spell, was far weaker than the first-ring Fireball, yet in some situations it was more practical. It was smaller—no bigger than an ordinary person's fist—and faster. As a zero-ring spell it naturally cost far less to cast than a first-ring spell, so even formal wizards sometimes threw one or two Fire Bolts—not for power, but simply to quickly set something ablaze in the distance. With Fire Bolt solidified in his spell slot, an apprentice wizard was transformed almost at once. The extremely low cost of a solidified spell let a first-rank apprentice handle a great deal of casting, like a fire-bolt-launching wizard device that had grown legs; and with long use he would gain deeper understanding of the solidified spell, lowering its cost even further. He thought for a moment, picked out the book on Fire Bolt, and set it on his left as a possibility. Then he looked at the remaining books and the six scrolls beside them. From the diary he had learned that these scrolls were Kaliu's own work; making and selling them had been Kaliu's main source of income. They were called inheritance scrolls, and were not meant for use in battle. They were meant for low-tier spells that one needed to learn but had no reason to spend time and effort studying. Of these six scrolls, for instance, two were inheritance scrolls of the arcane mark—presumably they sold well, so more had been made and kept in stock. The arcane mark was a zero-ring spell every wizard had to learn, but by common understanding there was no need to waste time studying it; a simple grasp was enough. One need only spend a few magic stones, buy an inheritance scroll, and unroll it gently, and the spell model would be guided into forming swiftly in the mind. Everything fell into place of its own accord. Besides the two arcane mark scrolls, four other inheritance scrolls remained. Hair Removal, a zero-ring spell. A trivial spell affecting hair that no one paid any mind—useful, perhaps, when one was too lazy to wash and groom. Many people thought learning this spell was less worthwhile than simply preparing a sharp razor. Fortunately, the world had that great invention, the inheritance scroll: this spell was mostly used for pranks among friends. For a few magic stones one could forever command the supreme secret art of making a friend bald—apply it regularly to promote mutual friendship. Bull's Strength, a zero-ring spell. Everyone knew Bull's Strength was slightly weaker than the Great Strength spell at boosting raw power, but it gave its recipient remarkable stamina, and in wilderness survival it performed better than the Great Strength spell. Fetid Skin, a zero-ring spell. Very foul, and very strong—it could even stun enemies. The price was that the caster had to endure it as well, but that price was also a virtue: the caster would gradually grow used to it, and the residue of repeated castings would slowly bring its effect close to the legendary permanent effect. A very peculiar zero-ring spell, used mainly by low-rank apprentice wizards to escape large underground beasts. Casting it might earn you a beating, but it would absolutely keep you out of a beast's jaws. Boiling Spirit, a zero-ring spell. After casting, it briefly made mental power more active and kept the mind clear, with a slight effect against mental confusion. All in all its use was not great, but it had one peculiarity that made it world-famous in the wizarding world: once solidified in a spell slot and fused with the mental space, it raised an apprentice wizard's aptitude, increased meditation efficiency, and promoted the growth of mental power. True, the effect was weak—but seen another way, it was also very strong, because it lasted a lifetime, which other spells could hardly manage. Zero-ring spells like Fire Bolt would rarely see use once one became a formal wizard. But choosing to solidify Boiling Spirit in a spell slot meant saying farewell to any powerful means during one's apprentice years. He set down the scroll in his hand and withdrew the mental power he had been using to sense it. He thought the information in these scrolls should be taken with a grain of salt. Take the zero-ring spell Bull's Strength: the "remarkable stamina" it mentioned—the effect was certainly real and not faked, but it could be slightly exaggerated; "remarkable" might be no more than a figure of speech. These scrolls were merchandise, after all. Half-Man had said he expected Luge to learn one zero-ring spell before mastering six runes—though this stranger with half his head missing was not exactly accurate in his predictions. But the implication was that Half-Man guessed he would not take a liking to what was on these shortcut scrolls. As for the books, apart from the one on Fire Bolt, and the diary and the bestiary and other volumes meant for broadening one's knowledge, there were three more on zero-ring spells. These three were Demonskin, Ear Seed, and Ray of Frost. Presumably Half-Man expected him to pick one of these to try, and then spend some time mastering it. The diary noted that everyone had, in some inscrutable way, a different and peculiar compatibility with spells. Half-Man had given him so many options probably out of fear that he would find none that suited him and would be too dull to ever learn one. From among the odds and ends he took out something shaped like an hourglass. There was no sand inside; instead a single lozenge-shaped crystal was set there. Sensing it with mental power told him its use at once, and under the prompting of that power the crystal lit with a soft white glow. Half-Man had been quite thorough—giving him, in this sunless place, some notion of time. The lozenge crystal was more than a lamp. As time passed, its upper and lower ends glowed in turn, one end standing for day and the other for night, and a single cycle meant a day had gone by. Far more useful than counting time by one's stomach—at least in this underground world he now had a clear notion of how many days passed. He calculated against his food supply and decided to set aside two days to skim all four zero-ring spell books, and see whether he was compatible with any of them. The reason he placed such firm faith in this talk of compatibility was that it had already shown itself before his eyes. Reluctant as he was to admit it, when he sensed the inheritance scrolls for Hair Removal and Fetid Skin with his mental power, there arose in the depths of his heart a strange feeling he could not put into words. It was as though that feeling alone was the old friend he had been waiting for. Kaliu's diary had another oft-mentioned phrase: the Light of Spirituality. That inexplicable feeling was like a stirring of the Light of Spirituality. Some wizards, forced to face a momentous choice with no solid grounds for deciding, would follow the guidance of the Light of Spirituality in their hearts. A first reading, taken in without straining for full understanding, went faster than he had expected. When he put down the last one—the Fire Bolt book, more than half read—less than a day had passed. He laid the four books before him. He raised a hand and passed it over each of them in turn. He did not want to go on this way. Perhaps his mindset needed to change. He lifted his head and swept his gaze over the hollow in the cave wall, at the insect shells and beast hides laid out there. The habits he had carried all his life were still working on him. In that comfortable world of before, he had always liked to do things in one step and be done with it. He considered it more cost-effective and wiser, even if it meant a long wait, even if he had to endure some hardship and pain along the way, even if sometimes there was no need for it. But he had always done it that way, out of habit. This was no longer that world, and there was no comfort to be had. Perhaps making the choice that suited only the present moment, at the right time, was not so bad either. It was what he ought to do now; that was better. There was no need to pour too much energy into thinking about the future—in this place there might be no future. Now he could be sure that none of these four zero-ring spells was something he could learn in a short time. And he was only a little kobold with scarcely any ability to fight back—so weak that if he himself said Aisjin could knock him flat with two or three punches, that strong kobold girl would refuse to agree. "Maybe this really is a good choice after all..." He pushed the books aside and picked up the Fetid Skin scroll. Since he was going to use an inheritance scroll, the choice naturally lay between Fetid Skin and Bull's Strength. Bull's Strength, once cast, kept its enhancement going for a while—well suited to a temporary slot—whereas Fetid Skin required a constant drain of mental power to maintain after casting, which suited solidification into a true spell slot. Fetid Skin also suited a lone wanderer like him, raising the odds of survival for someone hunting and living alone in the wild. And he looked forward to solidifying this zero-ring spell, which was compatible with him, into his spell slot. The Black Codex said that a person of ordinary talent should, before becoming a first-rank apprentice wizard, build only one zero-ring spell model in his mental space, lest it interfere with the formation of the demonic mark. After the advancement was complete and he had rested back to full strength, he could use up all these inheritance scrolls, including the other spell he was compatible with, Hair Removal. He drew a deep breath and slowly unrolled the Fetid Skin inheritance scroll. His mental power resonated with it of its own accord.