Ludwig closed the book while his head felt like it was throbbing from pain.
The whole thing was weird for him, the book was clearly describing handling mana with magic circles, but at the same time, it didn’t seem that it was bound to those very laws. Mana after all existed everywhere. And only humans were the ones who used magic circles to further advance their prowess. For Ludwig who had no heart to build his circles, he had Nephilium, which served as a more advanced, denser, and far higher conductive mana circuit. It could do all that a magic circle can do, but the majority of the ‘tips’ and help were focused on what magic and mana itself could do, not the circuits or circles themselves.
Another part was imagination, and emotion.
Emotion was something that Van Dijk had already explained, as it fuels the magic you want. For heat, it’s passion, and water is compassion, while the deeper and darker magic require more emotions to further fuel them such as rage and anger or even love.
Emotional discipline is needed to advance the usage of all types of magic.
The second part was something only the book spoke about and that was imagination.
Magic in its essence could be simplified to basically becoming a series of calculations that adjust the flow of the world itself. To calculate how fast atoms need to move for them to create heat is something that a mage should be able to do for example.
But it can be bypassed when one can ‘imagine’ and see the way that operation happens. For a flame, one can either use mana and imbue it with a passionate will which will change its form from normal mana to a flaming red mana. But if they add imagination to the mix, and imagine their mana spinning faster, the flame can become something like a [Flame Arrow] instead of a fireball.
The more one can afflict their mana with powerful imaginations and is able to sustain them the higher their tier of usable magic can become. That is of course if they’re still able to maintain calculations of all that is happening. After all it’s not hard to imagine a flaming tornado, but one needs three things to create it.
First and foremost, Mana has the capacity to create something that big.
Secondly, the passion and emotional stability to manifest it without it going haywire.
And lastly, the ability to calculate infer, and deduce all that is needed to create the flames from the smallest atom at the base of the tornado to the peak of this flaming cyclone.
It’s a lot of things that need to happen at once. Some are eased by doing chants that align one’s mind with the image they want to create. Some are able to use mediums such as wands or staffs that can ease the computable aspects of such a creation.
[Mana Control] The book itself seemed extremely basic for Ludwig, yet from it he understood that talent alone is not enough for anyone to be great at magic.
For him, however, magic capacity was something he didn’t need to care about. For a body of an undead that cares for no pain or agony of the circles, and has his own circuit of Nephilium he isn’t limited to what mana amounts he can produce, he is only limited by the quality and quantity of the Nephilium inside his body.
As for the imaginative and computable part, he boasts an incredible mind that was separated from the necessity of sleep and exhaustion due to him being an undead. A mind that literally has no limit but what he himself can comprehend.
As for emotion, that is something that Ludwig knows he lacks a lot and has yet to fully understand them. For someone who spent most of his days sheltered in a gilded cage. With barely a few interaction with friends he never met, Ludwig’s emotional growth was extremely stunted and that would serve as a great setback for the current him.
“True… I don’t know what love is, and I don’t know what could make one angry enough to reach the levels of rage and wrath. Even the death of my parents didn’t make my heart bleed as many say it does for them… not even when I killed someone did I feel anything… emotions are difficult…”
He sighed as he leaned back against his chair.
It was deep into the night, and he needed to do something to kill the time, he has another class the next morning.
Just as he was about to switch to training his swordsmanship, he heard a knock on his door.
Wary and slightly alerted, Ludwig asked, “Who is it?”
“It’s me, Hoyo,” the boy said.
Ludwig sighed as he opened the door. “What is it that you want?” he said through an annoyed looking face.
“Just wanted to talk to you about something,” Hoyo said as he placed his foot on the door.
“I’ll crush that foot if you don’t move it,” Ludwig replied in a serious tone.
The boy held both hands up, “Okay no feet on the door, but really, I need to talk to you about something serious…”
Ludwig sighed, “What is it this time? Surely not someone who wants me dead again?”
“Oh, no. well, the two minions of Thomas want to have their revenge but I doubt they’ll do anything overt. Regardless this is more about me…”
“You? What is it? Are you the one who want me dead?” Ludwig smirked.
“No, I just have a favor to ask you…”
“Is it about you being [Grafted]?”
“Y-yea… you haven’t said or talked to anyone about that, right?”
“And if I did what will you do?” Ludwig asked.
“…” the look of despair showed on Hoyo’s face was a clear indication that something was awfully wrong with this guy being found out as a Grafted.
“Get in,” Ludwig said.
Hoyo walked inside with a lowered head and sat on an empty chair.
“So, about this Grafted thing, tell me, why do you have the liver of a Harpy grafted on your body?” Ludwig asked while his eyes were shining blue unbeknownst and invisible to Hoyo’s stunned looking face.