Chapter 148: Knowledge Is Magic

"This place isn't the best in town but he'd be willing to talk to you without much whining," she said.

It took a lot of guts and mental prep for me to take a step. I couldn't even begin to wonder what she meant but we entered anyway

With an audible gulp I entered the shop but it wasn't dark inside. There were lights- rather candles.

I didn't walk into a horror scene did I?

"Welcome, lady Lianne. But who is that beside you?" an eerie voice whispered.

I could barely hear that but I knew this shop wasn't normal. I sharpened my eyes and prepared myself. 

Don't tell me she lured me into a trap!

"He's my guest. He wants to know more about magic, so I brought-" Lianne took off her hood.

"So you brought an outsider into our sanctuary? You are aware that we have rules-"

"Yes," She said.

I couldn't see much but from what I could tell, the two elves stood there in silence. One was Lianne and the other, I still didn't know.

"Sigh! Very well," the voice suddenly became manlier.

He came out. Wrapped in bright clothes, he looked too fat to be an elf. Was he camouflaged all this time or something?

Wait, why is does he look like that, and what's with his clothes?

We stared each other down for a moment and then he initiated the conversation.

"So, what did you want to know boy?"

That voice does not go well with that body!

I didn't let down my guard but for the moment I trusted Lianne. At the very least this wasn't a trap.

"I want to know about the elements," I said.

There were various things I wanted to ask about. But I needed to understand the basics first.

"It seems you're well informed. There are various elements. So much so, that we don't know all of them. However the most prominent are Wind, Earth, Water, and Fire."

"What about Light and Dark?"

"Where did you hear about them?" He looked at me with more than just curiosity. 

"I'm asking the questions here."

"And I ain't answering if you don't answer me." 

I sighed. I was the one being done favors so I tried to open up. "I saw someone use holy magic." 

"Really? That's rare!" Lianne said.

"What you saw was a very rare occurrence. You don't usually see holy magic at least not among living beings, even elves…. However, many angels and gods were said to have holy magic. Personally, I only ever saw one." He glared at me. If he was that suspicious just by hearing I saw someone use it, I couldn't imagine what he'd do if he learned about me using it. So I kept quiet.

"What about dark and the relations between elements?"

"Dark magic or shadow element is even rarer and only three beings in existence have said to process that element. The lord of all Terortra- although he was said to have been the god of light, the God of Underworld Ashirnae- also known as Jamsau the eradicator, and the emperor of Galbatia, Namcha Millianese- the devourer of worlds. As for their relation, they are weak against each other: holy and shadow that is. And as you'd expect fire is weak against water and wind is weak against fire. But earth and water don't have any terrible drawbacks. "

Holy hot chuckles! What's with the names!

Were people in this world really crazy, or was I going mad? Both!? 

"I did saw someone use ice-"

More like something.

"That's a culmination of wind and water. In rare cases, people could have multiple affinities. And those people could conjure up stuff like that." The guy was dishing out facts like he was lord googl* himself. 

I was learning a lot of things. But how much of it was credible was still to be seen.

"I see. But I didn't know Terortra possessed shadow element as well," I said.

It was kind of surprising as he was supposed to be the god of light. I always had high opinion of Trerotra. So I felt kind of proud.

"He possessed all known and unknown elements. It is said that he was the strongest because of that," Lianne said. 

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"I didn't know that." I did know he was the strongest but even so, it was new to me.

"Is that all?" The man wanted to wrap this up.

"Oh no, not even close. I haven't even started yet," I said.

The man sighed. Lianne sat down on a nearby chair. "And I was hoping to get some sleep now. Very well boy. Lay them on me," he said.

He sounded a little weird but I went with the flow.

"That I will!"

Now we're on the same page.

"I'm not following this conversation," Lianne said looking awkward.

I thought for a moment, cleared my mind, and composed my questions. "First, how do you cast a spell? Second, how do you imbue your own body with magic and last," My voice became as serious as it could sound," How do you kill something that's transparent?"

"I'd assume the last one gave you quite the trouble, huh? But that's the easiest. If you possess either holy or water element you can stab through something like that, if you can channel your magic through the weapon; or you can even surround the thing in your magic aura, but that's a little tough. However, if you're normal and don't possess exceptional magic like holy you can just cast spells like fire or thunder and stuff. That works too: it's not very efficient and the thing might still be alive. Not that you'd be able to do it. Chuckle*

"That brings us to the second question, and the answer is you don't. It happens naturally when you're ready. In fact, everything about magic is natural."

How the hell is magic natural?

I was not impressed so he continued. "Anyway, to cast a spell you must first possess magic. So you won't understand even if I told you. Now get lost." He shrugged his coat and turned his back on me. 

"I see. So you don't know either." I was pissed and wanted to piss him off as well.

If you're not going to tell me, then the least I can do is provoke you. 

It was a fun tactic. I always found that reverse psychology worked best under some extreme circumstances.

"Say, what?" I could hear his grunts and frustration. He must have really wanted to get some sleep. But I wasn't going to let him go just yet.

"If you knew, you'd tell me, right?"

Let's see how much your desire to save face is. 

It was awfully rude of me and I was definitely being a jerk. I knew that. But to live in such a world, you'd really have to be a jerk. Otherwise, you'd end up dead.

"Daarc that's very rude," Lianne whispered.

"Tch! Smart brat! Assuming you possess magic, the only way to cast a spell would be to focus. Suppose you have ice magic, to throw a block of ice to your enemy, you'd have to cool water with wind, as your extra detachable arm and then throw it after materializing it," he said in annoyance.

"Wh-what?" I knew magic was weird and stuff. But this stuff he said was even weirder. Suddenly I fell into a sea of weirdness.

"This is what I meant boy! In short, it's all about visualization!"

Surprisingly it made sense. Never thought he'd be actually useful. "Ah, is that so. Thanks, old man!"

Thinking back on it, the stuff science couldn't explain was always said to be magic. If condensing water with wind could produce ice, then I could understand how things could have been possible. But just because I could understand it, didn't mean I could do much with it.

"Who are you calling old? I'm only two hundred and seven years old: brat!"

"And I'm only 20!"

"Oh!" He stared at me as I said something unbelievable.

Lianne stared at me as well. Did I say something that shocking?

"Alright last question-"

"I wonder how many last questions I have to answer tonight…." The guy mumbled.

I smiled bitterly and finally addressed my existence. "What about summoning magic?"

His eyes narrowed. "There are some other types of magic which we call special magic. These cannot be obtained just by training or having natural aptitude. You can get them only if something like a god gifts them to you. But someone can regift that magic and you can obtain it from them. But the quality would be terrible. Summoning magic is special magic too, but it also requires vast sacrifices to work."

It didn't answer the questions I had but this guy was definitely informative. His attitude might have been a little crude but at least he tried. I smiled. "Anyway, really appreciate the help."

Lianne headed out first. 

"What about chanting?" I stood by the door.

He sighed, he sighed hard. "Didn't you say last question?" He sighed again. "It just helps with the visualization. Now get lost." But when I was about to pass through the door, he came close and whispered something in my ears. "I'd stay away from the lady if I were you.. It's better for humans to not get involved in our business. Especially humans who reek of mana…"

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