With a broad grin on his face, Stahl spent the next hour or two simply creating different magic circles, playing around with different mechanics as he did so. He even figured out a few neat ways to use it together with his other skills, by simply strengthening those exact skills in itself and some weapons. There was a certain type of sorcery called 'area sorcery', which would, for a short time, change an area into something else.
It wouldn't actually change the physical appearance of anything, but it was something of a position-based boost-magic. You could create healing effects in the area, or you could create skill-boost effects in a certain area, so that was something that Stahl was really concentrating on while practicing sorcery.
The base effects were quite similar to his Grandfather's 'Crafting Space' skill, after all, although that was still a good bit more potent and far, far easier to use. Eisen just had to think of the activation and what skill to activate it for, while Stahl had to spend a good time to actually draw the magic circle required to cover the whole room, which was basically just an array of multiple magic circles placed at each 'boundary' of the effect range.
But either way, Stahl soon managed to finish learning sorcery, before he opened his Status and noticed that his Mana Manipulation skill was already at Level 90, meaning that it wouldn't take all that long for him to Rank it up to 2 now, which was the point at which he would gain his element!
Before then, though, Stahl wanted to make sure he had learned all the skills that he really could, so he swiftly moved to Xenia again. "What comes next? Just ranked my Sorcery skill up!" He exclaimed with a smile, before Xenia stood up from the chair next to Koro's, who the High-Elf was still teaching about proper useage of Magi-craft-skills.
"Next is about the 'Exchange' Magic that I talked about. The most notable ones being Shamanism, Witchcraft, and Praying." She explained, before starting to talk about each one in a little bit more detail.
"Shamanism exchanges mana for 'Spirit Energy' to create Curses and Blessings. Witchcraft, as mentioned before, exchanges mana for 'World Energy' to create all kinds of effects, often bound toward specific items or people, instead of a stand-alone effect. And then Praying is a skill that changes depending on your Deity, so we'll have to look into that when we go to get you the skill." She explained, and then stepped over to the door.
"We're going back outside now, Shamanism and Witchcraft is easiest when done in natural environments." Xenia said and stepped out of the room, and then back up to the area on top of the meeting room, before handing Stahl a knife.
"For shamanism, using ingredients coming from the dead or the living is quite normal. So, we're using your blood. Cut your finger, and then drag it over the wood to draw a small circle. Oh, and place your mana over the cut to keep blood coming." She told him, so Stahl quietly sighed before inevitably nodding his head.
"Fine…" He answered with a wry smile and took the knife he was given into his hand, before dragging it over the surface of his finger to create a shallow cut.
With his mana then covering the small opening, the mana simply dripped out as if through a just-so-slightly opened tap. And then, he squatted down onto the ground and drew the small circle just as he was told, before looking back up at Xenia.
"That's it, you can stop now. But keep the mana inside of the cut, just don't bleed inside the circle." She said with a smile and then handed Stahl a few items, while he stuck his finger into his mouth so that he wouldn't bleed all over the place.
He was given a small bundle of different herbs, finely ground down white powder, and a bowl filled with water.
"First things first, cover the whole area that you just created with your blood in your mana, like a half-sphere so that you can cover everything that happens next. Then, place the bowl into the center of the circle, and pour the ground-down bones inside of it. After that, you have to mix it around with one end of the bundle of herbs, until it becomes thick enough to hold the herbs without them touching the bottom of the bowl. And then, you need to put a few drops of blood at the top of the bundle of herbs, and then ignite that end." She explained step by step, before Stahl slowly began to do as he was told.
He first created the small mana-area, then poured the white powder into the bowl, mixed it around with the herbs that he then stuck inside of it vertically and then drenched in his blood, before grabbing a 'fire starter', which was simply a long mana crystal that would create fire at the end of it.
"And now, repeat what I say." Xenia said, as slowly black smoke was starting to rise from the herbs, before Stahl nodded his head and listened, and repeated her words as soon as he could.
"Oh spirits of the other realm, take this offering of mine and show me your power." With this, relatively short, chant, the black smoke that was rising so far started moving as if in reverse, as if being 'pulled back' into the fire. And when all the smoke that rose before disappeared back inside of it, the flame itself turned pitch black, while Stahl noticed that the mana that he covered the small circle in disappeared the more the flame burned.
[Shamanism Skill Learned]
[You created a Black Flame]
[Black Flame]
[Quality – High][Rank – 0]
[Description] A Flame blessed by the spirits. Even without any fuel, it will now forever continue burning if not obstructed. It is a basic item needed for many Shamanistic Rituals.
"A Black Flame?" Stahl asked confused, and Xenia nodded her head with a smile, before pointing at the bowl. "Here. Better try to keep that flame safe. You can only do this ritual once a week." Xenia said as she handed him a small mana-crystal container, which he was able to close with something like a 'lid'. Carefully, he opened the container up and simply placed it over the fire that had consumed everything inside of the bowl, even the water, before swiftly moving the container as if 'scraping' the flames out of it, before closing the lid up.
"Good. The Black flame is one of the more basic tools that you will need for Shamism. There's an equivalent for the three other physical base elements. Black water, black wind, and black earth." She explained to Stahl, who slowly nodded his head as he looked at the black flame inside of the crystal container, which was somewhat acting like liquid, simply filling out every part of it, without burning or dirtying the insides.
Although then, he noticed something in what Xenia just told him. "Wait, Black wind? How does that work?" He asked confused, and Xenia just shrugged. "It's like a small Whirlwind that's just pitch-black. Like a 'Tornado in a bottle'." She explained, and Stahl scratched the back of his neck.
"Right… Well, are the others also as simple?"
"Basically, yes. You're going to need a few different materials, but they all work with the same small, circular blood-base. Oh, and you can't use that one now, the blood basically lost all its 'Power'… You can blow it off pretty easily without leaving a trace, and then you just have to remake the circle. Should we get started?" Xenia inquired, before Stahl nodded his head, slowly continuing to draw on the ground with his own blood. This really was not something for squirmish people.
---
"And now?" Stahl asked, sitting in the center of a large circle of blood with a cross inside of it, each portion having one of the four 'Black Elements' inside of it. There were other materials, apparently representing the four seasons, inside of each portion. Fire represented summer, wind autumn, earth winter, and water represented spring.
These were all represented through simple fruits or herbs, some of which had to be grown by Stahl himself so that they could all actually exist at the same time.
"Now the chant. And remember to properly move to each side, okay?" Xenia asked him, before Stahl nodded with a deep sigh. "Sure, so let just start. The order starts with Fire and Earth, turned to Wind, and then Wind and Water, turned to Fire, right?" He inquired once more before Xenia nodded her head.
"Yes, and then back to Fire and Earth while facing wind, and then to Wind and Water while facing Earth, and then back." She answered, while Stahl nodded his head and extended his hands so that he could just barely reach the containers filled with the Black Fire and the Black Earth with his fingertips.
"Oh spirits of the other realm, take these blessings and the power within me to awaken your virtue. Move through the minutes, through the hours, through the days, and let me acquire the power of the circle of nature." Xenia swiftly said, and Stahl simply repeated the chant, twisting his body to change his position every second, while Xenia continued. "By the fire, earth, wind, and water blessed by you, I swear to treat this gift with honor."
And so, after this chant was finished, Stahl ended in the position he started in, before he felt his body heat up and cool down at the same time, before a notification appeared in front of him.
[Your Body has been blessed by the Changing Seasons. You now have access to season-specific rituals]
"Yes! Success!" Stahl exclaimed, before standing up and stretching a bit, looking excitedly at the notification informing him that the ritual worked, before he noticed the one behind it.
"And I ranked the skill up as well!" He exclaimed, so Xenia looked at him with a smile.
"Good job. There are some other important rituals you need to do, I wrote them down for you. They are so that you can better connect with the four physical elements, which increases the chance of a successful ritual involving that element. And then, I also wrote down the 'upgrade' rituals for the elements, which you can do in a week from now. But make sure to follow them correctly, because if you fail, you have to start again with the flames at Rank 0." Xenia told him before she handed him a few sheets of paper, which the young man gratefully took.
"Thanks! Now… Witchcraft and Praying?" Stahl asked, starting to clean up the mess that everything created after falling to dust, excluding the four elements and their containers, while Xenia nodded her head with a light smile. She was feeling surprisingly calm like this, and she was really glad that Stahl didn't seem to be mad at her over what had happened. She didn't understand why, as she herself hated her for it, but at the very least Stahl didn't seem to have an issue.
"So, Witchcraft is pretty similar, but it's more of an 'Item Skill', because you pair different materials together in different, specific ways to cause an effect when the item is used, consumed, or simply held even. Sometimes it needs a chant, sometimes it doesn't. Depending on what you do exactly, it is a good idea to call upon the help of different deities within those chants. Although you shouldn't switch all the time, because there's also something like a 'familiarity' with gods. For different rough tasks, choose a different deity. And you will most likely need to build a shrine for them as well, which can come in many different forms." Xenia explained, and Stahl slowly nodded his head as he scratched the back of his neck with a bright laugh.
"Gotcha… So more random pairings of materials I need to remember."