Chapter 14 - The Invisibilty spell

Mogranius positions his legs wide apart from each other, to the point where he almost looks like he is squatting. Rather interesting to see if you are up for a laugh! He straightens his right arm forward and his left arm straightened down towards the ground. On both of his hands he posed his fingers much like the peace sign but the two fingers were connected to each other.

The light smoke that was just randomly spreading above the fire, suddenly started maneuvering towards Mogranius. As if he was a smoke magnet. The smoke started twirling around Mogranius and started off with thin grey smoke, and turned thick black once it reached him and started surrounding him, surrounding him much like a "TitanoBoa."

From a small snake like form, the smoke that surrounded Mogranius kept expanding by the second. After a few moments, it looked like an upside down Tornado of Smoke appeared and Mogranius was in the middle of it. Which made Eric feel uncomfortable even though he technically has experience with Tornados himself. But how dangerous could a Smoke Tornado be? He could not predict so he indeed felt uncomfortable about it just a little bit. But he kept calming himself down by remembering that this spell is being cast by a level 4 Fire Wizard who trained his abilities his entire life. And even after seeing what Mogranius us up to, he still couldn't see how he will turn invisible by doing that.

The Tornado like smoke of course did cause light effects that a normal Tornado would doo. Such as drag Eric towards it, cause the dirt in the cave to cause a small fog and of course it shut down the Campfire. Imagine how Eric felt when his grip to the ground became tighter and tighter out of accelerating fear.

Just before Eric felt that the effects this Tornado is causing would be to much to handle, the Smoke Tornado started deforming, spreading unpredictably in all directions but of course being harmless at the same time and eventually disappeared. But Mogranius did too Disappear. The most interesting fact about this, is that Eric can't even see smoke anymore. The slight disruption the Tornado caused in the cave almost disappeared as well. The dust formed in the Cave felt like it was forced out by a superior source, claiming this territory as their own.

You would expect a dark smoke cloud just floating around "hiding" Mogranius, but no. There wasn't anything to be seen apart from the cave and the two other people sleeping as if nothing happened. BlackWind would be here too, but he went outside a bit earlier to chew on a bush. But most importantly, Mogranius is completely invisible.

Not able to hold in his laughter due to Eric's massively bewildered and slightly terrified facial expression, his was heard and a sentence after. "You see Eric, smoke has different forms. From Large impossible to miss smoke, smoke commonly seen on big fires, or buildings being burned down to smoke so light to the part where it's impossible to see. Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean that its not there. Tiny slim bits of smoke are there which just rise towards the sky if left unsupervised." Mogranius of course was describing this spell by using a lot of hands and even feet gestures to portray the best image possible. But who was there to see them? He is currently invisible. 

But apart from all of that knowledge Eric received, he couldn't resist asking a question which was no doubt less important but also portrayed what Eric looked forward to the most, doing things that appear to be more interesting for him as a 15 year old. You can put two and two together! He likes things that look "cooler". "So can you actually make the smoke more visible if you wanted too?"

Letting out a big 15 second sigh and palming his forehead, Mogranius barely even found the energy to answer to such question. But he still found a way to answer the question, and make this kid a bit smarter. "Yes. When performing this spell, you are the source of smoke after it is successfully casted. You can toggle how visible the smoke is. From Tiny impossible to see smoke to this."

After finishing his sentence, the crystal clear air in the cave, turned so foggy that you would think a village is set on fire inside the cave. It was impossible to even see your fingers even if you place them an inch in front of your eyes, if you can open your eyes that is! "I wonder how much Stamina this would consume." He thought to himself for a second before he started coughing from the bottom of his lungs in such a force that you would think he can close a door with his cough.

The Smoke all came from one source of course, Mogranius. But is it physically possible for Mogranious to spread himself that wide? Or was he serious when he pointed out that "The Caster Connects with the smoke and becomes the source and guider of smoke himself/herself. Rather interesting and yet big to take in and understand completely. It no doubt needed further explanation, especially considering the lack of attention Eric gave in the first few moments.

You know normally, thick black smoke would put a person furthermore into sleep. But was that the case today? No. Hell no! They saw Stefan running out of the cave shouting under his breath with his arm covering his eyes. "FIRE FIRE. THE CAVE IS ON FIRE."

Seeing that the situation got a bit out of control, completely forgetting about the other two people in the cave when he started demonstrating this spell to Eric, Mogranius made the smoke completely disappear in a matter of seconds in order to stop this nonsense. Seeing the smoke completely disappear in front of him right before he was about to exit the cave(being only a few feet away from the entrance/exit)he stopped on his spot and swiftly turned around in shock, absorbing this rather "unique" situation, the moment he turned around, he only saw Eric Giggling, Woldemir sleeping stiff as a rock and eventually Mogranius who caused a bit of smoke before reappearing. The smoke was of course to make the entrance more dramatic. As he could of easily reappeared without it. But it was no doubt worth the time and stamina. The smoke looks like a giant mushroom before it deformed into smaller uncontrolled particles.

Not knowing what to think about this whole situation in the middle of the morning, the best response he could think of, is clearing his own name! "Before you say anything. No i didn't smoke tree root again. I saw smoke coming out of the cave."

"What's the deal with him and tree rots?" Mogranius thought but refused to ask about it. He heard Woldemir mention it too when they were in Stefan's bookshop back at Crutal Kingdom but was both too confused and slightly disturbed to ask. "Yes yes we believe you, don't worry about that. I caused the smoke to demonstrate a spell for Eric. I was teaching Eric a spell but i forgot you were here." "Sorry" He sarcastically whispered and with a normal tone continued "But i see Woldemir didn't mind it."

They heard Woldemir snore, kind off loudly right before Mogranius was even about to finish his sentence. But it proves how sleep matters to some people more than running for their own life. Or could it be that Woldemir has more experience when it comes to sleeping around smoke? Who knows how many spells went wrong if Isabel had to train her Fire Controlling abilities inside of their wooden house. 

"Well. Next time you cause a giant smoke fog, can you give me a heads up?" Replied Stefan in both irritation and embarrassment as he walked towards his bed made from branches and big leaves. It will take a while to live down today's scene.

"Maybe Eric should use the bear claw spell to transport you somewhere else before we cause smoke fogs." Mogranius cracked a joke with light giggling in his tone and a big long smile on his face. Of course he meant no threat. They are friends after all, what's the point or friendship if they don't crack possibly traumatic jokes between each other?

But still being mostly irritated of being woken up for nothing, he didn't have the energy or concentration to think of a comeback joke, so he stuck to complaining. He knows how to complain very well! "That won't be necessary. I can walk by myself. Or at least BlackWind can give me a ride. I do not want to become a victim to a BearClaw again no matter what you want to test." He dropped quickly on his bed and focused all of his concentration on going back to sleep. It's the break of dawn and a kid plus an elderly with a mind of a kid are not letting him sleep. Not the best first night experience here in Lan Zhe.

After Stefan layed on his bed, Eric and Mogranius saw BlackWind rushing in the cave, with a branch in his mouth and chewing on the leaves, coming to the rescue, looking for Woldemir. Imagine how a horse felt after seeing that large smoke just simply disappear. He must of felt more confused than Stefan.

"I see BlackWind saw the smoke and got worried. As far as I recall, he wouldn't stop eating for anyone." pointed out Eric as he gave a gentle smile and went ahead to try and calm Black Wind down with a few belly rubs.

Being face down on the bed, stefan gave out a partially thought out reply, already being half asleep. "Well i can find a way to appreciate the concern. But i can not find a way to appreciate how you interrupted my beauty sleep."

"If beauty is linked with sleep, you should sleep until dusk." Sarcastically replied Mogranius which got Eric to laugh from the top of his lungs.

"Mihihihihihihihi." Looks like BlackWind found it funny too. It is considerably a great morning for everyone but Stefan and Woldemir who slept through the whole thing but would most definitely laugh as well.

"Ha Ha Ha very funny." Replied Stefan sarcastically with a sleepy tone and added. "Now don't cause anymore smoke fogs before i wake up."

"Of course. You take your much much needed beauty sleep. We will practice as quiet as possible." Replied Mogranius, but for once throughout the entire time he knew these people, he lied.

"Thank you!"

Mogranius started to get another campfire going. But how? He blasted a four foot across FireBall on the Campfire spot, which made a irritatedly loud sound which made Stefan jump off of his bed but no doubt failing to stand on his feet. 

Taking a few seconds to comprehend what happened, he managed to put two and two together and didn't say a word but just kept a very irritated look on his face, he finally did realize that Mogranius was being sarcastic.

He realized it a bit too late obviously.

"Well Eric. Are you ready to try the spell." Asked Mogranius in a comforting tone. Eric needs all the encouragement he can get to further progress with his powers even though he can technically outmatch Mogranius in a man to man fight if he knew a few more spells. "You are already a level four Fire Wizard.

This shouldn't be too hard for you." Praise of course is another form of encouragement. Mogranius recalls using it a lot on Magic schools he taught at, he also recalls a lot of teachers using it on him when he was just a Hatchling.

"I'm always ready." He replied rather over confidently with a slight smirk on his lips. "So I should pretend like I'm sitting on a chair for the spell to work?" The fact that Eric didn't mean this as a joke, makes the whole situation a lot more interesting.

"Ha!" Shouted Stefan of course in aims to tease Mogranius. It was little revenge compared to how much they irritated him today.

Slightly irritated, he yells. "No you Goblin. The stance represents a source that sucks down energy. In your case, a source that sucks down smoke. The way you position your hands represents the way you direct the smoke." Yelled Mogranius while flapping his arms around like a bird, trying his best to describe what he meant. Fair to say he was irritated. He lost the sense of encouragement and was loud talking.

"So just by doing the stance, the smoke will come towards me?" This however was meant as a joke. Eric saw how irritated Mogranius gets when a spell is misunderstood. So why not have some fun with it?

"Almost. But No. In order for the smoke to come towards you, you need to drag it towards you. Drag it without moving a muscle that is." Interesting isn't it. If he can't drag it with constant hand movements breaking their way through air and aiming to drag the smoke, then how can he? With his mind?

"But how would I do that? Do i yell at the smoke to come to me?" Yes the joking was getting a bit overdone, but it was no doubt fun!

Stefan just kept yelling. "HA!" After every question Eric finished asking.

Trying his best to ignore both Stefan and Eric when he finally caught up, realizing what they tried to do. He answered with more reasonable methods. "You will find out. Now position yourself."

"Alright, I'm seated at the imaginary chair. What do I do now?"

"You mock this position but you were the one who couldn't shoot down one man back at Crutal Kingdom. And you won't be able too unless you stop talking and concentrate." Such sentences coming out of Mogranius' mouth made Eric skip a heartbeat. He tried his best to temporarily forget that invincible man, but Mogranius had to bring the topic up again. What a great Mentor.

"Alright. Enough with the puns. What shall I do now?" Trying his best to push away fear from his mind, he replaced it with concentration. He felt ready.

"Breathe and concentrate. When you breathe in, imagine the smoke coming towards you and when you breathe out, imagine you took stronger control of the smoke."

"Sounds simple enough. Let me try."

Eric breathes in and the fire moves around a bit, nothing that would cause damage but indeed interesting to witness due to Fire moving in such a way, being rather unnatural. He is managing to drag the fire a little bit towards him but not the smoke, at all.

"Good progress but focus on the smoke, not on the fire." Guided Mogranius gently. Eric is trying to progress now, the best thing Mogranius can do is encourage.

Eric breathes in again, strengthens his concentration, focusing on the smoke. The smoke looks hypnotic once focused on it for a while. He breathes in a few times until he actually manages to maneuver the smoke towards him a little bit. But the control he had on the smoke was short lasting. The smoke dragged towards him a bit, spread randomly and disappeared. While the smoke above the Fire kept doing what it is supposed to do.

Seeing how displeased Eric became due to this failure, he tried to encourage Eric even more. He can't have him quit mid lesson. That would never lead to progress. "Not to worry. This is all part of the process. No one got this at first shot. Try breathing in deeper. The deeper you breathe in the better. And when you breathe out, let it out all at once. Not slowly but all at once."

Eric of course tries again but with a little bit less willpower. And throughout deeper breathing, this time he actually managed to maneuver the smoke halfway to where he was standing without passing himself out due to the interesting form of breathing.

When Eric breathes out his deeply taken breath out all at once, the smoke stays in one place. Like it froze. It just floated in mid air as if it were waiting for Eric's next command. Seeing how much breath matters at this case, he was dumbfounded. He wouldn't have ever expected it.

Eric takes a last deep breath and  concentrated twice as hard. The smoke reaches him this time and started surrounding him all over.

Like it did with Mogranius a bit earlier, the smoke surrounds Eric like a snake. The smoke just keeps getting thicker and thicker until to the point where Eric is surrounded completely from it, forming an upside down smoke Tornado like Mogranius did Earlier.

Seeing that Eric is one more step away from successfully casting this spell, he shouts. "Alright Eric now clap your hands to interrupt the Tornado. Or else you will be standing there all day."

Barely hearing what Mogranius yelled due to the smoke making it rather hard to hear, he did hear one word that would help him put two and two together. "CLAP.". He proceeds to  clap his hands and the smoke Tornado gets disrupted and just bursts out on aimless random directions. The smoke that surrounded Eric wasn't there anymore. But guess who else wasn't there anymore either!

Eric wasn't there anymore Either. Invisible, unseen, but most importantly, he managed to tap into the spell. The spell itself appears very puzzling, and it is! Who would think that a living being can literally connect with smoke and control it with such immense accuracy.

"Congratulations Eric." Smirked Mogranius in satisfaction, standing in a posture where his hands are behind him, tied together(not with a rope or anything similar, it's just a posture one uses when his or her hands feel heavy).

"You managed to tap into the spell. See how things workout when you stop running your mouth and concentrate?" No doubt aiming to take a shot at Eric with sarcasm, it was another way of Mogranius showing care or in this case, a different type of Congratulation but in a way, a step forward towards a better mentor mentee relationship.

On thin air, Eric's voice was to be heard. It is rather unsettling to talk to a person who is invisible. What exactly should the visible person look at. I mean even for people who avoid eye contact in conversations(social anxiety), they still know which specific direction to turn too and hold a conversation. But to talk to someone invisible? Simply uncomfortable the first few times. But Mogranius was sure used to it due to studying his skill for decades which led to seeing a lot of other people do this.

"Ha ha, you are very funny." Replied Eric with dazzlingly obvious sarcasm. But it's rather harmless. What harm could come from it? "I do like this though. I can approach an enemy and strike! Boom!"

"That won't be so easy, keep in mind that you need to be constantly focused on the spell to maintain your invisibility. Fear, joy, confusion, adrenaline, or basically any emotion that would lead you to focusing less on the spell, will lead to the spell breaking. Meaning you will be visible again when you don't want too, which can be disastrous in enemy territory.

"Focus. I just need to focus. It's like i'm allergic to focusing. But i will try my best. How can I maintain the spell if any emotion can break it?" Still being invisible, he was basically answering his own question but of course not at all realizing it due to mainly focusing at his invisibility.

"Do what you are doing right now. A person's mind is far to perplexed to focus just on one thing. Other thoughts will always pop up, but you should always focus on the big picture and put less energy to irrelevant thoughts." For an old man that is almost constantly sarcastic, that was some great advice. A quote to be taken into consideration. Why not listen to a partially insane Fire Blaster? It is unreasonable.

"I'm focusing... but this will take a lot of practice. I do have a question best asked while this spell is active, so we need to be swift. Because I clearly don't do concentration." Speed talked Eric his part, even though Mogranious couldn't see him, he heard that Eric is running out of breath when he noticed the end of his sentences getting less loud. Stamina doesn't have part at this, Eric was just in a slight panic.

"Alright. Calm down first and then ask. Don't let any other emotion overcome your main focus or you won't be able to keep this spell going! Breathe." Explained Mogranius under a low tone while raising his hand almost above his chest and gesturing his hands flatley downwards. Trying to calm Eric down.

"Um. Okay. I'm breathing." Breathes in, breathes out. Repeats.* "This feels better." He said while letting out a deep long sigh. Alright my question is, If i shoot a Fireball while i'm invisible, would it be invisible too."

Hearing a lot of questions similar to this one throughout his years of teaching, it wasn't something he didn't expect. And considering Eric who can't focus on a conversation either, this question was highly expected. "As a matter a fact, you can't even shoot Fireballs once you are invisible, not to mention invisible ones."

"Well that sounds disadvantageous. Why can't I?" Still not understanding the concept of becoming one with the smoke, and obviously not able to start focusing long enough around what Mogranius explained earlier due to his current main focus, Mogranius was prepared for this question as well. And at this scene, he is showing patience and understanding. He wasn't better at Focusing when he was as young as Eric.

"Your body is connected to the smoke. All you can control is smoking after casting this spell. Unless you saw smoke which can shoot Fireballs before, you are able to put two and two together and understand why it doesn't work."

"Oh. Well i can still make this work. I can just appear, strike and disappear again." Tried Eric to shed more light to this spell. He tried his best to have a positive approach, his adrenaline was still a bit high due to the fact that he tapped into this spell.

"You can appear, yes. But you can't disappear equally as quick. You need a few seconds, but you can disappear quicker after a few years of practice, nothing too hard." For a Man who spend all of his life and is still at level Four(out of 6) on his Fire Controlling abilities. Patience has grown to his side long ago, a few years of practice to master one thing has become the usual to him, but to Eric. No, not at all. Lucky for Eric, he is progressing extraordinarily fast.

"Wow, just a few years, that will pass quick." Obviously focusing on sarcasm a lot this time, he almost reappeared. The little particles of smoke giving him the possibility to appear invisible, became thicker and more visible. Noticing that, Mogranius  swiftly pointed it out.

"Focus, focus!"

"Right. Sorry." The only way for Eric to master this spell fast, is for him to spend more time in this smoke form. So he will remain like this as long as he can, or at least until Mogranius advises him to stop(because passing out due to using all of his stamina in this spell isn't a good idea either).

"But what about that man in Crutal Kingdom? He disappeared right away." Feeling perplexed, Eric couldn't help but asking this question that has confused him ever since he witnessed it with his own eyes.

"Indeed he did. But that is a spell neither me or you tapped into.

Although you might in the near future, i don't know about me though."

"I hope I don't see him again before I reach level six. He would slice me in two." Being aware of the enemy instead of getting over confident to the point of underestimation, is indeed a smart move. Eric is aware that the enemy is stronger, which is the first step he has taken in the goal of defeating him one day.

But now! It is time to have some fun with this spell. Eric approaches Stefan who is surprisingly sound asleep after that entire embarrassing scene he experienced, astonishing. But this will just make it funnier. "Watch this."

Afterwards, Eric places his hand underneath Stefan's bed made out of big leaves and branches, near the middle of it and starts releasing smoke. Apart from being one with the smoke, he is able to concentrate the smoke and unleash it through his hand as considerably pure natural smoke. No doubt amazing but still a basic move compared to what other Fire Controllers used to achieve.

Putting his hand underneath that specific spot ane unleashing smoke, it Made it look a lot like Stefan's bed caught on fire! Trying his best to yell enough to wake Stefan up without breaking his own concentration, rather difficult. "Stefan! Wake up! Wake up! Your bed is on fire!"

"Whhh what? Uhh smkk... tree ro... Fire! I'm on Fire!"

"Quick! Roll on the ground to stop the fire." Added Mogranius from the background. It is very easy to fool a person who just woke up, their concentration is so low that they would do what they are told easily, even if they mishear or do it the wrong way.

Stefan starts rolling on the dirty ground like a playful dog(but at this case, Stefan is terrified), while yelling. "AAAAAA AAAAAAA. Put it out, put it out, put it out. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

And he kept rolling and rolling in panic several times. But after getting a couple glances at his bed, and himself. He was able to realize that his bed wasn't at all on fire, and neither is he. He came into conclusion of reality when he realized that he isn't feeling any burns on him.

And after he stopped his loud screaming (which still didn't wake Woldemir up), he was able to hear Eric and Mogranius giggling and of course BlackWind going "Mehehehe." again. Imagine a horse laughing at how gullible you are. Embarrassing, isn't it?

"Ha Ha. How original." Murmured Stefan in anger but containing his rage and no doubt about to start complaining big time. "All i asked for is a good long sleep. But you two ruined that as well with your weird Fire blasting."

"Actually it's Fire Controlling but both terms are acceptable I suppose." Swiftly explained Mogranius, trying to make a point. He has a problem with non straight facts, he has to straighten them up, or else anxiety would kill him(not literally).

"Not my point. Now let me sleep will ya!"

"Alright alright. That's enough messing around for one morning." Clapped Mogranius which completely broke Eric's concentration, making him unintentionally re appear.