Chapter 37: The Foundations of a Great Mage
When Adam arrived at the Tower of Mages, he almost expected to see another explosion erupt from some random floor.
But this time, nothing exploded.
Which, strangely, made him even more suspicious.
"When a tower like this is too quiet, it can’t be a good sign..."
No one stopped him at the entrance.
The receptionist in the lobby simply glanced up at him, then calmly gestured toward the space transport circle.
"Mistress Vespera is waiting for you."
Adam sighed.
"Of course."
A few moments later, space folded around him again.
His body was propelled toward the top of the tower with the unpleasant sensation of having left his stomach several floors below.
When he reached the black door adorned with red runes, he took a short breath.
Then he entered.
The scene was almost identical to the previous day’s.
Documents floated in the air.
Several pens wrote on their own.
Scrolls unfurled, corrected themselves, and then automatically folded back up.
In the midst of this organized chaos, Vespera sat behind her desk, signing documents with almost supernatural speed.
She looked up.
Her red eyes met his.
"You’re on time."
Adam looked at the swirling piles of papers.
"And you, you’re always working on so many things at once."
"Only emergencies."
Adam stared at the dozens of documents swirling around her.
"I’d rather not see what you call a busy day."
Vespera smiled slightly.
"You’ll get used to it."
"I hear that phrase far too often." "
She stood up.
"Today, we’ll continue your mana control."
Adam nodded.
"Magic circles?"
"Later. Before constructing complex circles, your mana needs to become denser."
She gestured.
The door behind her desk opened again onto the large magical research room.
Adam followed her inside.
As the day before, the interior seemed far too vast to truly belong to the tower.
The rune-covered walls pulsed softly.
Sleeping magic circles lay on the floor.
Crystals suspended in the air cast a cold light.
But this time, Vespera didn’t lead him to the mannequins or the crystal plates.
She led him to the center of a black circle etched into the floor.
"Sit down."
Adam did so.
Vespera stood facing him.
"Yesterday, you learned how to create mana threads and form simple circles. Today, you’re going to learn how to compress your mana."
Adam frowned.
"Make it denser?"
"Exactly."
She raised a hand.
A small, dark red sphere of mana appeared above her palm.
At first, it was the size of an apple.
Then it contracted.
Again.
And again.
Until it became as small as a pearl.
Yet, the pressure it emanated had become much heavier.
Adam felt his skin shiver.
"The amount of mana hasn’t changed?"
"No. Only its density has changed."
Vespera made the sphere disappear.
"The denser your mana, the more powerful, stable, and effective your spells become. A flame fueled by scattered mana will burn weakly. The same flame fueled by dense mana will be able to pierce a barrier."
Adam understood immediately.
"So it’s not just about having more mana. It’s also about its quality."
"Yes."
She folded her arms.
"Many young mages only try to increase their mana supply. That’s a mistake. A large amount of poorly controlled mana only produces unstable spells and waste."
Adam thought of his own Mana Body.
It was already reducing losses.
But compressing mana was another step.
"And you have to learn that early?"
"As early as possible."
Vespera stared at him seriously.
"If your body gets into the habit of circulating weak and scattered mana, you will later have to correct years of bad practice. But if you learn from the beginning to naturally compress your mana, it will become an instinct."
Adam nodded slowly.
"Like bad posture. The longer you wait to correct it, the harder it becomes to change."
"Exactly."
She pointed to the center of his chest.
"Start by circulating your mana throughout your body. Slowly. Then gather it in your right hand."
Adam closed his eyes.
Thanks to Mana Body, the internal circulation already felt more natural than before.
His mana flowed through his arms, his torso, his legs, then up to his right hand.
A faint green glow appeared around his fingers.
"Now, reduce the volume without reducing the quantity."
Adam tried.
The glow contracted slightly.
Then it trembled.
Some of the mana immediately dispersed.
Vespera spoke immediately:
"Too fast. You’re crushing your mana instead of compressing it."
Adam opened his eyes again.
"Is there a difference?"
"A big difference."
She conjured two spheres.
One was compressed smoothly and became stable.
The other was brutally crushed.
It deformed, vibrated, then shattered into tiny sparks.
"If you crush your mana, it resists and disperses. If you compress it correctly, it accepts the pressure and becomes denser."
Adam watched intently.
"So you have to guide the pressure, not force it."
"Yes."
He tried again.
This time, he circulated his mana more slowly.
Instead of pushing it violently toward the center, he gradually reduced the space through which it circulated.
As if he were gently tightening a circuit.
The green glow contracted.
It still trembled, but less.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Boundary
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Limitation detected:
Unstable mana compression.
Probable causes:
*Irregular pressure
*Internal flow too dispersed
*Lack of breathing rhythm
Suggested correction:
Synchronize breathing and compression.
Reduce the contraction speed.
Stabilize the flow before densification.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Adam inhaled slowly.
Then he exhaled.
He understood.
His mana followed his body.
If his breath was irregular, so was the compression.
He tried again.
Inhale.
Circulate.
Exhale.
Compress.
The glow around his fingers became smaller.
More stable.
Denser.
Vespera watched without interrupting.
After several minutes, she nodded slightly.
"Better."
Adam maintained his concentration.
"It’s harder than I thought."
"Because you’re trying to control something that should eventually become natural."
She placed two fingers on her own wrist.
"When I was young, my master made me hold a compressed sphere for hours. If it burst, I started again. If it trembled, I started again. If I lost consciousness, he waited until I woke up, then I started again."
Adam opened one eye.
"Your master seemed as pleasant as Selene."
Vespera smiled.
"He was worse."
"I don’t know whether to pity you or be afraid of what you consider normal."
" Both. »
Adam sighed, then resumed the exercise.
For almost an hour, Vespera only made him do that.
Gather mana.
Stabilize it.
Compress it.
Release him.
Then start again.
Again.
And again.
Sometimes the sphere would burst.
Sometimes she would disperse.
Sometimes it would get too dense too quickly and cause a sharp pain in his palm.
Vespera corrected every mistake with cold precision.
"Too abrupt. »
"Unsteady breathing. »
"You concentrate too much in your fingers. Also use the wrist. »
"Don’t block the flow. Spin it. »
"Static compression is more fragile. Circular compression is more stable. »
Adam followed.
Little by little, he understood that mana should not only be tight.
He had to move around in a smaller space.
Like water passing through a narrower pipe.
Or like a better guided electric current.
Or as a program optimized to do more with less.
An image formed in his mind.
A core.
A circuit.
A flow.
His mana swirled in his hand, gradually tightening.
The sphere became smaller.
Brighter.
Heavier.
Vespera narrowed her eyes slightly.
" So. »
Adam opened his eyes.
The sphere above his palm was not perfect.
She was still shaking.
But it was clearly denser than before.
He could feel it.
The same amount of mana took up less space.
But produced more pressure.
"I think I figured out the trick. »
"You understood the entrance. Not yet art. "
" Obviously. »
Vespera raised a hand and conjured a simple magic circle.
"Now use this compressed mana to fuel a Minimal Flame. »
Adam concentrated.
He formed the circle.
Then he circulated a small amount of compressed mana through it.
The flame appeared.
Smaller than the day before.
But more intense.
More lively.
More stable.
Adam immediately felt the difference.
"She consumes less? »
Vespera nodded.
"If the compression is correct, yes. The spell receives denser energy, so it needs a narrower flow to produce a similar or even greater effect. »
Adam observed the small flame.
"So at a high level, an experienced mage can cast a discreet, but very powerful spell. "
" Exactly. »
She smiles.
"Beginners make big flames to impress. Masters make small flames that pass through armor. »
Adam looked at the flame with new respect.
Then Vespera made him repeat the exercise with Light, Weak Barrier and Heal.
Each spell reacted differently.
The Light became purer.
The more resistant Barrier.
The treatment is more precise, but also more difficult to stabilize.
Adam failed several times on the latter.
"Healing magic doesn’t like harsh compressions," Vespera explained. "It requires a soft density. Too much pressure and you risk attacking the body you want to treat. »
Adam memorized the information immediately.
"So each type of magic has its own way of accepting dense mana. "
" Yes. »
She crossed her arms.
"This is why compression must become instinctive. You don’t have to think every time. Your body must know what density to give according to the spell. »
The two hours passed almost too quickly.
In the end, Adam had managed to hold a small sphere of compressed mana for thirty seconds.
Nothing extraordinary for Vespera.
But for him, it was a huge step forward.
A notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Learning Complete
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Domain: Mana Compression
Duration: 2 hours
Results:
*Initial mana compression acquired
*Mana density slightly improved
*Internal flow control strengthened
*Application to simple spells started
*Mana Body Lv. 2: Improved synchronization
*Delimiter Lv. 1: Density error detection Enhanced
*Eyes of the World Lv. 1: Improved Magical Flow Reading
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Adam read the notification with satisfaction.
"Initial Compression Acquired."
Vespera nodded.
"Good. From now on, you will practice this every day. Even just for a few minutes."
Adam massaged his right hand.
"I can already tell my palm is going to hate this exercise."
"Your palm doesn’t need to like it. It needs to learn."
"You really have the same teaching style as Selene, but the magical version."
"I’ll take that as a compliment."
"I thought so."
They left the research room.
Like the day before, Vespera didn’t return to her desk.
She simply took her black coat.
Adam watched her.
"Are you coming to the manor again?"
"Yes."
"I suppose asking why would be pointless."
"Not pointless. But you already know the answer."
Adam thought for a moment.
Then he sighed.
"Because you have a room there."
"Exactly."
They left the tower together.
This time, the walk was less silent than the day before.
Perhaps because Adam was beginning to get used to Vespera’s presence.
Or perhaps because, after a full day of training, his mind was too tired to dread every word.
As he walked, he thought back to what she had said about magic circles.
"Vespera."
"Yes?"
"Does all magic belong to an element? Fire, water, wind, earth, light, darkness... that sort of thing?"
"No."
The answer was immediate.
Adam turned his head toward her.
"No?"
"The elements are the easiest forms of magic to classify, but not the only ones. There are non-elemental spells. They are harder to learn, rarer, and often more specialized."
Adam immediately became interested in the subject.
"Specialized how?"
Vespera raised a hand.
A small piece of stone suddenly floated above her palm.
"For example, the Modeling spell."
The stone slowly deformed.
It became a sphere.
Then a cube.
Then a small blade.
Then a crude figurine.
Adam almost stopped walking.
"You just altered the shape of matter without using an element?"
"Yes."
"It’s not earth?"
"No. If I were using earth magic, I would be manipulating the earth element through its affinity. Shaping acts on the shape of pre-existing matter. Its purpose is specific: to reshape."
Adam observed the stone.
"So it’s magic defined by its function, not by its element."
Vespera seemed satisfied.
"Exactly."
The stone returned to normal.
"Non-elemental spells are often like that. They have a specific purpose. Shaping. Reinforcement. Sealing. Binding. Detection. Teleportation. Spatial Storage. Stabilization. Purification."
Adam felt his mind open to a new realm.
"So the circles of these spells must be different."
"Very different."
Vespera resumed her walk.
"Elemental magic relies on natural affinities. It’s easier to visualize. Fire burns. Water flows. Wind pushes. Earth supports. But a non-elemental spell requires a direct understanding of its principle."
Adam thought for a moment.
"For Modeling, you have to understand the structure, the shape, the resistance of the material, perhaps even its physical limits."
"Yes. That’s why many mages fail. They want to alter the form without understanding what they’re altering."
Adam immediately thought of Elaria.
Of the forge.
Of alchemy.
Of engineering.
"So my lessons with Elaria can help with certain non-elemental spells."
"Many."
Vespera glanced sideways at him.
"That’s also why I wanted you to learn crafting. A mage who doesn’t understand matter casts spells that manipulate it incorrectly."
Adam remained silent.
Everything was connected.
Combat.
Crafting.
Trade.
Magic.
Even the games he had suggested to Shiora could become a cultural weapon.
Nothing was separate.
"This world is much more logical than I initially thought," he murmured.
Vespera smiled slightly.
"The world is still logical. The problem is that most people only see one part of the system."
Adam turned his head toward her.
"You sound like a programmer."
"I still don’t know exactly what a programmer is, but I’ll take that as a compliment."
"You should."
They continued walking toward the mansion.
The evening light enveloped Valoria.
The magical streetlights began to flicker on.
The streets emptied slowly.
Adam felt fatigue weigh heavily on his shoulders.
But deep inside, something still burned.
Curiosity.
Impatience.
He wanted to understand.
To understand everything.
The circles.
Mana.
Non-elemental spells.
Runes.
The barrier.
Nocthar.
And perhaps, one day, the very laws of this world.
Vespera seemed to guess his thoughts.
"Don’t try to learn everything in a week."
Adam smiled slightly.
"I wasn’t going to try."
She looked at him.
He looked away.
"Not seriously."
"Liar."
He didn’t reply.
Because she was right.
When they finally arrived at the manor, Adam looked up at the building illuminated by the evening lamps.
Another day had just ended.
A day of pain, alchemy, trade, and magic.
But he had made further progress.
And tomorrow, it would all begin again.
Vespera walked through the manor doors beside him.
Then she said calmly,
"Tonight, I’ll talk to Elaria about your idea for Modeling applied to crafting."
Adam froze.
"My idea? I didn’t say it was an idea."
"You thought it up."
He looked at her.
"You can really read minds?"
Vespera smiled.
"No. Your face is always easy to read."
Adam sighed.
"I really need to work on this."
"Yes."
And, as on the previous day, they entered the manor together.
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