Chapter 9: 09: Magic Theory II

Sitting at her desk, Erina was watching in anticipation as Rinte was quickly changing the video that was playing on the central screen in the room.

Finishing her set up, Rinte began her lecture, "The next topic we are going to cover today is the Types of Magic. So let's begin by defining the Magic types okay?"

Receiving a handout from Rinte, Erina replied, "En, sounds good!"

Moving back to the center of the room Rinte pointed at one of the diagrams and stated, "As you can see here, there are two main types of magic, offensive, and enchantment. Within offensive magic, the spells are mostly projectile, and serve the purpose of attacking the other party directly."

Shifting to the side slightly, Rinte pointed at another diagram, elaborating, "Over here you can see an example of enchantment magic. In enchantment magic, the spells are mostly internal or applied directly to the target. These spells mostly will improve the performance of said target, or in many cases, the user's body."

Writing down these definitions, Erina asked, "Well, you said that these were the two 'main' types of magic, so does that mean there are others?"

Smiling, Rinte responded, "Yes! In fact, there are many other types of magic, such as healing magic, defense magic, and seal magic to name a few."

Switching slides on her presentation, Rinte pointed out, "However, you will only be tested on the two main types of magic when you take the Magic test at 12 years old. This is because the other types are either considered sub-branches of the two main types, or just techniques passed within a few families."

Filling out some more of the worksheet, Erina asked, "During the test, how do they even measure all those things?"

Bringing up a different picture, Rinte answered, "I'm glad you asked Erina! During the test, there actually isn't much that goes on, you just put your hand on a machine that draws out your magic and scans it to find out information like that. If you're wondering about why 12 though, it's because by then even the latest of bloomers will have their magic stable enough to scan."

Nodding in understanding from what Rinte just said, Erina was then stunned when Rinte added, "For you though Erina it isn't that simple. That's because if you are part of the 17 pillar families, the Magic test is actually a very large event. On August 1st every year, it's a tradition for all of the 17 pillar families along with the royal family to get together and do all of their tests together. It is also usually broadcasted, allowing anyone in the country to tune in and watch. Additionally, it's actually one of the most viewed broadcasts that air all year."

Slack-jawed, Erina asked, "If it's so famous, and it's a tradition, why haven't I gone to it then?"

Expecting Erina to ask that question, Rinte replied, "Well actually your family has gone every year, however, either Garret or Miyuki have stayed at home every single time. They do this because they want to keep you out of the public eye, as well as off the radar from some of the other more unscrupulous families."

Drinking some water, Rinte continued, "Furthermore, many people don't know this, but before broadcasted test portion, there is a massive banquet which allows many of the children from the families to meet each other, or in other cases 'scout out' each other. In two years though you will be attending the event, because Suzuki will be tested that year, so all family members are required to attend."

Having accepted the fact that she'll be going to this event once she grows up, Erina told Rinte that she was ready to move on to the next part of the lesson.

Moving on, Rinte quickly steeled her attitude, and continued, "So the next part that we are going to talk about are the Magic affinities. Magic affinities are what types of elemental magic you can use when casting offensive spells, or spells that output something. There are a lot of different elements and each one is suited for different overall types of spells, so many mages will build their battle styles around their affinities in conjunction with their strengths within their element."

Changing the screen to a large diagram, Rinte began explaining the diagram, "So here we have a tree of all the different affinities that you can have. As you can see there are 2 tiers of elements, which are named, the base tier, and the complex tier. In the base tier, we have four elements, Fire, Air, Earth, and Water. When you take the Magic measurement test, you will get a grade of D- to S+ tier, and if you have a C- or above you are automatically enrolled into one of the 9 magic academy cities. They only take people with C- or better because everyone has a little magic, but below C- there isn't much magic they can do, no matter how hard they train."

Filling out the bottom layer of the pyramid, Erina nodded, showing that she was ready to move on.

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Seeing that Erina was ready, Rinte continued, "And here in this upper tier we have another four elements, they are Magma, Lightning, Metal, and Ice. During the Magic test, if you are found to have an affinity that is A- or higher, you will also have to take another test to determine the grade of your complex element. If you are wondering how they relate to each other, it's because each of the complex elements is just a higher-level version per-say of the base elements, Fire to Magma, Air to Lightning, Earth to Metal, and Water to Ice."

Giving some time to Erina to fill out the top layer of the pyramid, Rinte elaborated, "During the Magic Measurement test, if you have a complex element, it will be measured on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest."

Pausing for a second, Rinte warned, "Also I have two things that I want to warn you about, and I want you to remember them for the rest of your life okay?"

Surprised at the serious air that Rinte had around her, Erina quickly nodded in affirmation.

Pausing all of the background videos that were playing, Rinte explained, "So the first thing I want you to keep in mind is the more someone is attuned with one element, the more specialized they are, meaning if someone has a really good Lightning affinity, their other affinities aren't going to nearly as good. Secondly, the more in tune you are with an element, the more instinctual control you will have of it. This doesn't come up much, however, once someone has an affinity that is at least B+ level, they will be able to control their respective element to a degree more than a party trick so watch out for that."

Realizing that this was actually really important information, Erina hastily pulled out her notebook before jotting it down.

Letting Erina write it down, Rinte followed it up, "Furthermore, anyone who has a complex element will have 1. Very good control of their base element, and 2. At least a basic amount of control of their complex element, getting more and more control the higher the affinity."

"Another thing I should talk about is tiers of spells," Rinte explained, moving the presentation to the next slide, "Spells are categorized into tiers, each tier being a step in the previous one in complexity and power."

"However," Rinte warned, "don't think that you should always use a higher-tiered spell whenever possible. First of all, judge the situation and choose your spell wisely. Second of all, once you get to the higher tiers, the lines blur, as the spells branch farther and farther, becoming more specialized."

Writing down Rinte's explanation, Erina asked, "Rinte? What decides what tier a spell is in?"

"I'm glad you asked!" Rinte exclaimed, "You may not know, but at a base level, spells are cast with a spoken chant. A spell with a 1-word to 3-word chant is tier one, 4-6 is tier two, and so on."

"How many tiers of spells are there, Rinte?" Erina asked, making a small chart.

Stroking her chin, Rinte explained, "It's not actually known... Higher tiers are slowly getting discovered, last I heard, they had discovered all the way until tier 15, but they might have discovered more."

Dazzled, Erina murmured, "That's amazing... there's so many... I don't really have any other questions though!"

"That's great, just make sure to ask whenever they come up okay?" Rinte instructed, "Never be afraid to ask questions."

"Okay! I'll make sure to ask them right away!" Erina replied with a wide smile.

Looking at the clock, Rinte realized that they had gone slightly over the allotted time for Magic theory, "It seems that will be all for magic theory today, so now we will be moving onto our next topic, Arithmetic."