Chapter 17: Mage Association

'Back when I tried to cast magic in the World of Storms, I couldn't achieve anything, mostly because I was distracted with the strong desire to be free, and also because I employed the simplest form of imagination possible'

He thought about a gust of wind appearing in the room, and that was it.

He wondered if it would be easier to channel magic with this new perk, so he entered the World of Storms and tried his best to emulate exactly what he did previously. He gathered the mana in the air and imagined the same thing.

Just like he expected, nothing substantial happened. Although it was much easier this time, since there was not much emotional interference from the World.

Since the previous actions did not bear any fruit, Evin decided to change his approach a little.

'The scientifically correct definition of wind is the replacement of hot air with cold air, because one is heavier than the other'

But the much easier way to understand it, was that it was just the movement of air.

Evin's first attempt was to imagine the concept of wind. This time, he would envision the detailed process of the movement of air.

There wasn't much to think deeply about here, he simply had to imagine air particles moving from one spot to another. To make it easier to grasp, he decided to use a measurement system and thought about moving 1000 liters of air from the corner of the room to his face. He did not want to imagine a number smaller than that, since he imagined that forcefully moving small amounts of air in high speeds was the primary way of attacking as an elemental mage of the World of Storms.

He entered the World as before and then offered the small amount of mana that had regathered in the air. The World filtered mana that Evin offered to it and then gave back some of its unique energy back to Evin.

He exited the World and then got into the job of envisioning the movement of air. The energy of the World of Storms that Evin gathered in his body was all used, and he could feel most of it simply disappear into the atmosphere and get absorbed back into the other mass of mana in the air. Very soon, a miniscule amount of air gently brushed past his face.

'Success,'

Its power was much smaller than he expected and Evin knew that he wasted practically 80 percent of the mana he absorbed… But even so, it was his first success in the field of magic.

This fact motivated him greatly, thus he went on to try out many other things, before he ran out of energy again.

He was able to confirm two things with his tests.

First of all, the complexity of his imagination was essential in successfully casting magic. And second, his willpower was also irreplaceably vital in the control of a World's energy.

Complexity, because the more concrete Evin's imagination, the better the outcome of his magic. After his initial achievement, Evin tried lowering his imagination levels, only thinking of moving air to himself, not bothering with the amount, speed and distance to travel. As he expected, the outcome was much worse than the first try.

He then imagined the scientific process of wind, imagining that his side of the room was a filled with hot air, while he filled the other side with cold air. Surprisingly, this outcome was the most energy efficient one. He only wasted about a third of the Storm energy he absorbed.

The result was also very interesting. Since he was able to influence the area of the entire room, naturally, all the air in the room underwent a shift in mass and a sudden natural wind formed inside the room. Arza was also a delighted with the sudden wind and fell into a fit of giggles. It gave him that familiar calming feeling natural wind gives, but Evin found it a bit hard to utilize in practice.

The reason being, it was just wind. Nothing special. Perhaps he could forcefully make huge amounts of hot and cold air crash, effectively making a tornado. But he decided that controlling small amounts of air quickly and explosively was the proper way to go with this World. Perhaps the Heavy Mages of the kingdom would prefer to create a Tornado, but Evin felt that he wouldn't become a Heavy Mage that soon.

Moving such a huge amount of air would take a massive amount of mana, which Evin's core simply could not handle.

The other crucial topic was the importance of willpower. Evin couldn't explain how exactly it worked, but to achieve his desired 'quickness and explosiveness,' he had to put a lot of emotions and will into his imagination. Whenever he tried to casually imagine a wind or some kind of air blade, the effect would always be very low and inefficient.

He then tried to add a target to aim at and found that really wishing to destroy or hurt the target would have better effects.

Evin thought about teaching the arts of dodging invisible air to Arza, but decided against it. The time will soon come.

Instead, his target became a piece of clothing that Arza ripped off at some point.

As always, Evin tried many things. He willed air towards that piece of cloth a few dozen times with increasing hatred towards it.

He never used more than 10 percent of the mana in the room, so it was never used up. And his theoretical maximum limit was a lodestone the size of a pinky, so although he was tired, he could still go on. Moreover, since the pressure from Worlds was reduced many times thanks to Two Tales, the mental pressure on him was much more bearable.

As for the piece of clothing, it never expected to receive so much hate so suddenly. Evin's objective was to cut the thing in half, but obviously the best he could do was push it away for a few meters.

He also tried making the air projectiles curve or make boomerang movements, but he lacked sufficient control to achieve such things. He decided to try a few times to see if there's progress, but, naturally, he couldn't see air, so he couldn't see if the thing was curving or not. He could only lament his foolishness.

He decided that the World of Storms was a very powerful World, due to the fact that the primary way of attacking was invisible. He wasn't sure how other mages dealt with such a way of attacking, but he definitely knew that there was a way. If not, Aran would only talk about the World of Storms with him.

After finishing his round of tests, Evin was thoroughly tired. The fatigue of using magic for the first time in his life, cycling through the Worlds, living through his trauma, all of it were a bit too much to digest for one day.

He went out of Arza's room and asked Liza if he could contact Aran once more.

Liza explained that the black box could only be used once in two weeks, so they had to wait for quite a long time. If Evin could somehow make sure of the Cosmics' reliability, he could probably solve most of the problems his family was facing in one fell swoop.

Sadly, he couldn't make the decision before then, so he could only wait patiently. But after he became a pseudo 1st grade citizen, his problems should get solved automatically as well, with the help of the additional guards.

'But more money never hurts and I don't think that having a connection with the Cosmics would be detrimental in any way…'

'But that's all for tomorrow's me to solve,' Evin declared and went to sleep.

…

The next day, Liza made him take a bath and started methodically cleaning the boy.

Evin was a bit ashamed of the treatment, but he was too surprised at the modern feel that Aran's bathroom had to care. There wasn't tap water or anything like that, but there was a magical device that spurted out warm water and a drainage pipe that was seemingly connected to some sewage system.

After Liza cleaned Evin to her satisfaction, she gave him some of the better clothes that Arza had and carried him in her arms to the Mage association building.

This time, he wasn't refused at the gate, since the guards here knew of Liza and let them in without a problem.

The Mage Association's building looked like a university of some sorts from outside. It didn't look too fancy, but Evin guessed that there were many magical devices inside for the convenience of its residents.

As Evin looked around, he could see that many of the mages inside had what seemed to be an emblem, or a stamp of some sorts, with one half made of a silvery metal and the other half made of what seemed to be a perpetually glittering lodestone. But these lodestones didn't really seem all that useful in Evin's eyes. It did look pretty, but Evin was sure that if he tried to absorb the mana inside it, nothing would happen.

At any rate, as far as he could tell, most of the mages wore these things on their bodies. Some flaunted them, dangling them from the center of chests, while others simply had them dangling from their sides. 

'I'm guessing that the rest are hiding them inside their bodies somewhere. I suppose Aran is one of the latter cases,' Evin thought and put the matter of the emblems out of his head.

He could also notice that some of the other residents of the building seemed to avoid Liza somewhat after noticing her. It almost felt like how some animals would avoid colorful reptiles, since they knew that eating such an animal would be painful for them.

Liza, on the other hand, did not pay these mind and confidently walked through the corridors.

"You seem like you've been here a lot," Evin commented.

"Well, I come here quite a lot, since Aran's usually away doing one thing or another at the kingdom's beckoning," Liza answered sourly.

"Are all mages like Aran? Having to work perpetually for the kingdom?" Evin asked.

"Not really, Aran says that it's some kind of a debt, or an obligation of some sorts, he couldn't explain it to me in detail. I hate that part of his life," Liza sighed and then added: "If you ever marry, I suggest you marry a mage. Women don't like it when their husband has to hide everything from them. Even if they understand the reasons," Liza smiled ambiguously.

Evin wasn't worried since he had no plans to marry any time soon. But who knows what would happen. He fell in love with quite a few women during his time as a spirit and he didn't have any problem admitting those kinds of feelings. Perhaps he would see a woman here on Alvox and fall in love like he always did.

'Well, I didn't face any risk of rejection or anything of the sort back then, so I would just silently observe them and they wouldn't even know I was there. Who knows what would happen when real feelings come into play?' Evin commented self-depreciatingly.

The two approached a fancy looking door and Liza knocked on the door.

"Come in," a man's voice sounded from behind the door and Liza entered, holding Evin in her arms.

Evin could see a prim and proper man, who was checking a stack of papers behind a desk. Evin could see that everything in the room was spotlessly clean. The pile of paper on the man's desk was stacked up so perfectly, giving Evin a feeling that the man suffered from OCD or something similar.

'Guess this is why Liza cleaned me up so meticulously in the morning,' Evin thought.

"Mage Kens," Liza greeted the man politely.

"Ah, Liza, what matter have you come for? Did Aran send word?" the man asked, a slight frown at the mention of Aran's name. Evin also felt that the man seemed slightly hostile to Liza. Was he like this to everyone he met, or did only Aran receive this kind of special treatment, Evin couldn't know.

The mage then looked at Evin with a look that tried to be neutral, but Evin felt like there was something wrong with it.

"Yes, he asked me to deliver this to you, it's related to this boy here, Eviendra… Evin for short," Liza said and gave him Aran's declaration.

Mage Kens glanced through the paper and gazed at Evin with a rather... forced scrutinizing gaze?

'What the hell's his problem?' Evin wondered.

"Aran's disciple… huh," the man muttered and his pupils seemed to turn into needles. Evin felt that the man showed slight fear at the concept.

"When have you learned magic?" he started asking Evin some questions.

"Only yesterday,"

"What were you able to achieve during that time?"

"I only checked out the various Worlds yesterday, but I managed to create a slight breeze in a room," Evin answered curtly.

"Show me," Kens said and Evin proceeded to replicate his achievements.

"Not bad. I'll send word to the relevant people. Now go if you don't have any other business," Kens said.

"Thank you. Can I ask for one more thing?"

"What is it?"

"I wish to request some guards to protect me and my family. They're 2nd grade citizens," Evin said.

"Could you tell me the reasoning?"

Evin explained his situation to Kens and the latter nodded thoughtfully.

"I'm afraid it won't be possible to assign your family guards, as they're only reserved for proper disciples. And that should only be when Aran comes back and finalizes the process. As of now, I can't see the citizenship bureau approving to spend manpower on a half-disciple," Kens said.