The Magic Style Masters

A few weeks had passed since the Solstice Festival had finished up, and it was well past the start of the new year. Yoruhi sat outside the estate as he always did and was pondering about many things.

Over the few weeks he had been successful in using Enhancement Magic a few times, but still not enough to be able to consistently do it. He had also not been in the mana room ever since the day he realized Mizuki wasn’t showing up, and he was beginning to wonder what she was up to.

His question would be answered today however, for, for the first time, he saw people enter the estate who weren’t wearing a haori.

One was a boy who looked to be in his late teens. He had minty green hair and a pair of dog ears that flopped over his head—a beastkin. He wore a white lab coat and a pair of thick black glasses and held a clipboard and pen in his hand.

The second was an older girl with purple eyes and long blonde hair adorned with black ribbons. She wore a white collared shirt with a black midi skirt, and she held a long white staff with a blue gemstone at the tip. Her eyes looked very tired, but she carried herself in a regal way.

Lastly, was an old dwarf. His back was hunched and he had a gruff auburn beard. He wore a long white robe over his body and his skin was speckled with black spots that showed his old age. The way he carried himself looked like he was about to collapse at any moment.

As the three of them passed by, they each gave Yoruhi a short glance before whispering amongst themselves and entering inside the estate. He was used to receiving strange guests he didn’t know and had always assumed that it must be some political affair or old friends of the family, but he never saw a group that came in that paid such interest to him.

Curious, he decided to follow them inside, but before he could even enter, Mizuki’s voice called out to him.

“Yoruhi!” she shouted, “come meet our guests.”

I was just going to, he thought with slight annoyance as he made his way in.

Upon entering, he noticed the three people standing in the middle of the training hall staring at him with curiosity. Behind them was Mizuki, who carried an Attunement Crystal in her hands.

“So that’s the boy," the girl said with a sleepy voice.

“I told you so,” said the old man scratching his beard.

“He does look a bit young doesn’t he?” the boy with the glasses asked. “He’s the one that touched the Attunement Crystal?”

“Of course,” Mizuki said, “why don’t you show them Yoruhi?”

She walked over to Yoruhi, placing the orb in front of him expectantly. Yoruhi was hesitant, for he remembered how much it hurt the first time he touched it, and he would rather not do it again if he didn’t have to. Right now, however, it seemed like he had no choice.

He gently placed his palm on the orb and, to his surprise, it didn’t hurt as much as last time. His fingers clamped onto the orb and he felt his mana channeling through his body and flowing out, but unlike the first time, he was able to let go of the orb by himself.

The three guests watched in awed silence as the orb revealed the elements of Fire, Frost, and Life one by one. Yoruhi stared at his palm which burned red from where he had touched the orb, but it wasn’t sizzling and felt more like touching a hot heating pad rather than a piece of burning coal.

“You don’t feel dizzy?” the boy asked.

Yoruhi shook his head.

“So he doesn’t have mana fatigue… which means his mana capacity must already be at that level…” the girl trailed off.

Yoruhi stared at his legs, which had been the cause of a few incidents of mana fatigue when he managed to enhance his magicules there on accident a few times, but in the recent times he had been doing it, he came to realize he wasn’t fainting anymore.

“Interested now?” Mizuki asked.

“I’m just glad I didn’t come here for nothing,” the old dwarf said. “Although I’m still surprised you invited me here even though you have plenty of enhancers at this estate such as yourself.”

“Indeed, but I think it would be more interesting for him to learn from you,” she said.

The old dwarf smiled a crooked smile.

“That is my speciality after all.”

The beastkin boy began jotting down something on his clipboard while the girl let out a yawn.

“Now then, it’s about time I properly introduce you guys to him,” she said, turning to Yoruhi. “Yoruhi, these two people will be in charge of introducing you to their specialities in magic styles.”

The old dwarf walked up to him and bowed.

“My name is Ezekiel,” he said, “from the Korus region. My speciality as you’ve probably heard is Enhancement Magic.”

“And my name is Arien,” the girl said. “I’m a caster from the Elsend region. I suppose that puts me in charge of showing off my Casting skills.”

Yoruhi looked expectantly over to the beastkin boy who just gave him a little wave.

“Oh I’m not here to teach anything,” he said.

“He’s an assistant of one of my colleagues,” Mizuki explained. “Cedric is his name. He’s going to be here to record everything as a proof of record. After all, there hasn’t been a 5-year-old mage in centuries.”

“An infinite mana pool…” the girl murmured quietly, “that’s kind of scary to think about.”

“Infinite mana?” Yoruhi asked.

“The boy doesn’t know?” Ezekiel questioned.

“I may have left out a few details,” Mizuki said, “I didn’t want to give him expectations I wasn’t sure he was able to meet. But seeing how far he’s grown now, I see the potential in him. Wouldn’t you guys agree?”

They looked at each as if unsure, but nodded after a few seconds.

“Um... can someone explain this infinite mana thing to me?” Yoruhi asked.

Cedric raised his hands, offering to be the speaker.

“There’s a special formula that people have theorized about for how a person’s mana capacity increases,” he explained. “In short, when someone becomes able to use magic, their mana capacity begins to increase by a certain amount every year. This amount is respective to your current mana to the exponent of a certain number that’s dependent on your age, and the number is theorized to start at 9 and reduce by 1 every year until it stops at 1 when you’re about 8 years old. Which means, you as a 5-year-old, have a current exponent of 4, when most people when they start learning magic would start with an exponent of one or two. Theoretically, if we abuse this fact and increase your base mana by—”

A white staff bonked him on the head.

“That’s enough Cedric,” Arien said, “you’re explaining exponents to a 5-year-old. Do you really think he’d understand?”

She let out a sigh.

“What this idiot means to say is that when you start learning magic at 5, your mana will increase a lot faster than someone who learned it by the average age of 7 to 8. If we work hard to improve your mana capacity by a lot before you turn 6, the increase you get will make your mana capacity rival that of even adults. And when you turn 7, the increase will be even greater. At that point, you’ll have so much mana it’s pretty much considered infinite… in theory of course.”

Infinite mana… Yoruhi thought, wouldn’t that also mean an infinite mana barrier? At that point, I can’t die from a magical attack can’t I?

The gears started turning in his head, and he looked at his hands, realizing what sort of experiment Mizuki had been trying to pull off.

“Like you said earlier, Arien,” Ezekiel mumbled, “a terrifying concept indeed. Although the last 5-year-old who accomplished this didn’t make it very far… according to the story at least. We’ll take care to not let that happen of course. It would be very interesting to be a part of history right here.”

He walked over to Yoruhi and grabbed him by the arm.

“Now then young man,” he said. “I shall claim the title of being the first to train you. Care for an arm wrestling match?”