Warlock Apprentice

“What’s the relationship between the spirit model and mana?” Sunders threw another question.

“Constructing a spirit model is for channeling mana circumfluence. Mana is an unstable energy, one must connect the energy using his or her spirit model inside the body to prevent mana from backfiring, thus establishing an inner mana flow and control mana itself,” answered Angor.

Sunders kept a neutral expression. When Angor was finished, he slowly said, “A fine answer. I see you’ve been working hard. However, whether this answer suits you remains to be seen on that very day.”

Sunders did not explain what that meant. He changed the topic, “We’ll reach Goman Kingdom in about ten days. It’s on the western frontier of Fey Continent, that’s where we’ll get ashore.

“Before that, I’ll give you a choice. A choice to pick a channeling method,” said Sunders. He then waved him off. “Come to me tomorrow evening.”

…

The next evening, Angor came as planned.

There were several stacks of booklets placed in front of Sunders. The man was quietly reading a leather scroll while tapping on the desk with a knuckle. When Angor moved to him, he put the scroll down and asked Angor to take a seat.

He then said, “As I said, I’ll give you a choice today. A choice that will determine your future. Once you’ve made up your mind, it won’t be easy to change it. That’s why you must think clearly. Think about the path you want to shape with your choice.

“Now, I’ll give you a simple explanation about spiritual model, mana flow and mana pool.” Sunders picked a booklet and tossed it towards Angor.

Angor checked the booklet. A line written in the universal language was on the front page: Triangle Channeling .

The book was exactly the one Mara gave Alan and Aleen the other day. The basic channeling method taught by White Coral Floating Island Academy.

“Is this… the channeling book from White Coral Floating Island Academy? Teacher has one too?” Angor spoke in his mind.

Sunders said, “Wondering why I possess this book? Simple. Perhaps it is commonly believed by wizards that this book is a secret of the academy, and is not allowed to be distributed to outsiders. However, this method is too moderate. The academy does not value it enough, so it easily got disclosed. It is so common and simple, even many apprentices would not use it. Having a copy here isn’t something serious.

“The reason I’m showing you the channeling method is to tell you that such a method is critically important to us wizards. Not learning Triangle Channeling on The Redbud was the right choice. It is only appropriate NOT to learn these garbage.”

Sunders reached out a hand and made a crumbling gesture.

The Triangle Channeling in Angor’s hand was torn into scraps and slowly landed on the floor.

“Meditation, or, channeling method, is a technique that helps a wizard calm the mind and construct a stable spiritual model inside. At the same time, it also allows apprentices to control their inner spiritual power in a simple manner.

“To construct the model, you must know what spiritual power is. It is essentially a power generated by your brainwave. You will learn about brainwave someday, so we can put that aside for now. Every individual possesses spiritual power. Using a universal measuring method created about ten thousand years ago, we determine the richness of one’s spiritual power using a certain number indicator.

“The spiritual power indicator for a mortal is between one and nine. A talent necessarily has an indicator beyond ten, since only a spiritual power stronger than ten can channel mana flow. A better indicator means a higher channeling efficiency. Moreover, if someone with a high spiritual power indicator finds a good destiny, he or she will be able to study special spells that combine the use of spiritual power. A mortal with an indicator of less than ten can still try to channel mana, with a hundred percent chance of getting backfired by the uncontrolled rampaging power that follows.”

Angor knew about mana backfiring. Those who experienced this usually had a terrible end. Even formal wizards could become eternally ill or disabled when careless while mortals would certainly die.

Sunders continued, “One’s spiritual power indicator can change. However, there is no efficient way of increasing it either. How to improve this trait has been a constant subject researched by wizards. Far from us, in the northern region, someone seems to have found a breakthrough. Of course, this is only a rumor. The northern region is simply too far for us to confirm the information.

“Also, it is a common sight for a wizard to have a weaker spiritual power indicator than an apprentice.”

Here, Sunders left a side note, “A young man called Easley on The Redbud was born with a spiritual power indicator beyond 23, which is a pretty rare case.”

Easley? Angor recalled the handsome young man with an extreme personality in his mind.

Then he shook his head to get rid of Easley’s image and asked, “Teacher, so a spiritual power indicator of ten or more means someone’s talented to become a wizard?”

“You can put it that way, yes,” answered Sunders.

Sunders said that this number could change. Angor was thinking whether it was possible to figure out something to increase this number, so he could allow Jon and his brother Leon to become supernaturals. However, this was another story.

“Continue on with spiritual power,” said Sunders. He said again, “As I said, it is essentially an energy of brainwave. Such energy is hidden deep inside your brain. This is where a channeling method comes in, to help ‘channel’ the energy out.

“Once you succeed, you can begin constructing your spiritual model. Every channeling method has its own way of achieving it. Take Triangle Channeling. For example, you build a virtual triangle shape in your mind to stabilize mana from backfiring. Then, channel the mana into an inner flow, and finally establish a mana pool inside your body.”

The “mana pool” Sunders mentioned was the source of energy for wizards, like how machines needed power sources to work. The immediate effect of the energy was that it could be used to change and interfere with the physical world. This was the root of spells.

Spiritual power was a wizard’s base while mana pool was a wizard’s fundamental.

There were other supernatural civilizations in general planes. Some of them were as mighty as legendary wizards. Even then, they still thirsted for the wizardry civilization because mana pool was supported by one’s inner spiritual power flow. Spiritual power was something naturally borne with a creature. Thus, wizards could travel to the other planes without being suppressed by the laws of those planes. On the contrary, mighty beings from the other planes could only display their prowess in their own planes. The world’s consciousness of another plane could easily tear them apart.

As for the relationship between spiritual power model, mana, and mana pool…

To put it simply: A channeling method constructed spiritual power model which determined the efficiency of mana flow while mana flow ultimately converged into mana pool in one’s body.

Another thing to mention was that a wizard’s breakthrough highly depended on mana pool.

A wizard’s breakthrough was actually a qualitative change in the wizard’s mana pool capacity. For instance, if we considered mana as water, an apprentice’s mana pool was a glass which could hold a limited amount of water while the mana pool of a wizard was a water tank. The improvement was significant.

Mana source was something extremely important to wizards. The basic condition to determine whether someone was a wizard was if his or her mana pool could support the cost of casting a level-1 spell. Generally speaking, if someone could cast a level-1 spell independently, the mana pool of that wizard should have already evolved into a “water tank”. Otherwise, the wizard could not sustain the spell at all.