by L Travern
Shock was evident in the men's eyes. Firestar wasn't done.
"In the last six months, he read through the entire Basic Library and asked me questions that I never thought about before. Questions that made me wonder about things I never considered. Questions that made me meditate and advance leaps and bounds in my path." Suddenly, he released an aura of power that made the two other kids in the room immediately faint. "Brother, cousin, I'm not a mere Ascender anymore. I'm now a Quasi-Overlord."
That aura was even more oppressive than what Firestar had used against Matthew, but it affected only the soul, and it wasn't harmful. It was a kind of natural pressure that only allowed the worthy to stand in the presence of the powerful and made the weak either bow to it or fall unconscious. The kids succumbed to it, but Matthew's soul resistance allowed him to completely ignore it.
While the two men were even more shocked than before, Firestar stood up, got in front of Matthew, and bowed deeply. "Matthew, this one would like to beg for your forgiveness for almost taking your life."
Matthew had seen a lot in his long existence, and it took a lot to do something completely unexpected by him, but Firestar managed to do it.
The more powerful one was and the more authority one had, the harder it was for them to admit their mistakes to themselves and accept their failures. To ask for forgiveness towards a weak person was even harder. But to bow respectfully towards a weaker person and beg for the person's forgiveness without being forced to do so? That was something so rare that Matthew had only seen it happen twice, and he had been the one to do it.
He took a few moments to reply. Should he forgive the man? It might be some sort of trick, but he failed to see the purpose behind it.
Eventually, he sighed and decided to give the man a chance. Not because of the world changing his heart, for no particle of Prime Energy had entered his soul after that day. It was simply because he understood that even he could err sometimes, not to mention mortals much less experienced than him.
However, he would always require compensation with an apology. He still didn't know what he would ask of Firestar, but that debt certainly wouldn't just be forgotten just like that.
"The resentment I had towards you in my heart has been erased," he said solemnly and paused before continuing with a humble manner of speech. "Now, Master, please stand straight. If Master keeps bowing, Master's brother and cousin will never forgive Disciple."
Firestar did as told and smiled slightly before turning to the two old men. "As you see, he is smart for his age. You all know Undercover Agent Five Stars Sara, who we sent to investigate Major Notable Firebreather before considering his promotion, and there should be no doubt towards her capabilities. She was impressed enough with Matthew to wonder if he had been possessed by a demon. I doubted his impressiveness at first, but as I just told you, I was proven wrong."
It was the first time Matthew heard Sara was an undercover agent, and that she had advanced to become a Five Stars Mage. Last time he had seen her, she had been a Four Stars Mage.
Firestar gestured for Matthew to stand up and talked further to the old men. "Prepare your disciples for failure, brother and cousin, for I have no doubt Matthew will be one going to the Three Towers."
With that, they both left the room, under the aghast eyes of the two old man.
Chapter 7 – Magic Studies
Chapter 7 – Magic Studies
As soon as they were back in Firestar's room, he closed the door and suddenly spoke in a heavy tone, something way out of character for him. "Matthew."
Matthew's heart started pounding in his chest and he prepared to cast the best protective and escape spells he knew. "Yes, Master?"
Firestar looked the boy in the eyes. "I will never, ever, under any circumstances lie to you or hide anything at all from you." He made a long pause. "Do you understand?"
Matthew frowned. "I think so...?"
After another pause, the old man nodded. "Good. You can absolutely, completely trust everything I say without any reservations at all. Never, ever, doubt anything I say."
"Okay...?" Matthew replied.
There was no reason for Firestar to say that, much less out of the blue and right after he had gotten just a tiny bit of trust from Matthew by apologizing. Therefore, his meaning was clear: anything he said could be a lie and Matthew shouldn't trust it.
Matthew didn't know why Firestar was saying that, or even why he wouldn't say those words directly. Clearly, the old man had a set of circumstances that he couldn't or didn't want to inform Matthew about.
Still, he was going out of his way to make Matthew aware of it as best as he could. Or at least, he was trying to make it look so.
Whatever the case, Matthew would hold his cards even closer from now on.
* * *
The next years were a strange experience for Matthew.
Firestar would usually be all helpful and freely provide him with books and knowledge. Matthew, on the other hand, kept most of his knowledge and theories to himself. He was also careful about double-checking all information he received and asking questions about sensitive subjects, always doing so in roundabout ways as to not raise any suspicion.
Once, he wanted to know why he had not found any attack spells that sucked the air out of the lungs of the victim. Even though mages might easily counter that, it could still be useful for mass execution of klutzes.
Not that he expected to ever do that but having the knowledge of that possibility might be the very trigger that would lead to a creative solution to escape a tricky situation.
However, a kid asking such questions would surely raise a red flag, no matter how much of a psychopath Firestar had shown to be when he tried to kill Matthew. Therefore, his way of asking was by leading a conversation until that question seemed natural.
"Shouldn't fish be made of water?" He asked.
It was a dumb question, but he made sure to show the ignorance befitting a kid now and then, else who knows what his Master might think.
"Of course not," Firestar replied. "What possibly gave you such notion?"
"Don't they 'float' in the water like ghosts float in the air? Then, shouldn't they be made of the same substances they float on?"
Firestar snorted. "I fail to follow your logic, but I'll entertain you. Are ghosts made of air?"
"I... think not?" Matthew replied, pretending to be unsure.
"No! Ghosts are made of something very similar to souls! As for fish, they 'breathe' water but that's not the reason they float. Humans breath air and we don't go around floating, not without magic, do we?"
"So, if we took the water from inside the fish, they would still be able to 'float' inside water?"
"Didn't you hear what I said? They breathe water, or rather, the air in the water. It's obvious that they would die asphyxiated if you took the water from their lungs, just like humans would die if you took the air from inside them."
Matthew widened his eyes in surprise and a bit of fear. "Can people use a spell to do that to me?!"
This time, Firestar had to think a bit before replying, showing that such concept was a novelty to him. "Not easily. Your soul permeates your whole body and your soul resistance is used against magical attacks. That's why all attack spells usually have some sort of physicality to them. This way, even if the magic is resisted, the physical part of the spell would still damage your body.
"If a spell tried to take the air from your lungs, your soul would notice the spell is hostile to you, and the spell would have to fight against your soul resistance for the air inside you. The same goes for poison, but of course, the poison would work if your soul didn't detect the hostility in the poison, which is the whole point of poisoning someone...
"But I digress. Yes, people might take the air from your lungs to kill you, but they would have to be stronger than you and fight your soul resistance. If they are already stronger then you, isn't it easier to kill you by using the Air element to simply decapitate you with a Wi
nd Blade, considering how long it would take for you to asphyxiate?"
That answer had helped Matthew enough. He had theorized about soul resistance and internal magical attacks before but had found no books on the subject.
Sometimes, however, Firestar would refuse to answer simple questions. He would usually make it very obvious too, speaking way too somberly all of a sudden and looking Matthew straight in the eyes.
That was especially true when Matthew tried to find out more about the social organization of the world other than the name of the countries and geographic locations. Firestar had no issue in talking about international economics, but the moment Matthew asked about geopolitics, things would go south very quickly.
The most intense episode was when Matthew, after gathering enough clues, tried to probe on who were the powers ruling the world.
"I wonder what would happen if there existed an organization that hunts dissidents..." He said. In his previous conversations with Firestar, he had come to understand that such an organization already existed.
Firestar immediately dropped the book he was reading and looked Matthew in the eyes. "There is no such thing. There never was, nor there will ever be. You should drop this matter."
Matthew insisted. "What would happen if they found me to be a dissident? Would they just outright kill me? Would they call people to hunt me? Or would they investigate it better first?"
"No one will kill you for a mere suspicion!" Firestar bellowed. Then, surprised at spilling the beans, he widened his eyes and tried to fix it. "Even if someone tried to kill you, you're safe here. We would protect you at all costs. There's no way someone would be able to force us to give you over. No one has such authority, because such authority doesn't exist. Do you understand? Now, drop. The. Matter."
Matthew understood it well enough. The family had overseers that were powerful enough to make Firestar frightened as a little kid. But Matthew wasn't done. "What would be enough to make them interested in me, I wonder. Or how-"
A sounding slap to his face made him shut up. There was real regret in Firestar's eyes for a split second, showing that he didn't want to do that, but Matthew had gone too far, too fast. He refused to talk to Matthew for the rest of the day.
After that, Matthew never again forced matters too much. He kept his questioning going but was extra roundabout about it and only took small bites on the forbidden information, using Firestar's denials to paint a proper picture of the state of affairs in the world.
What he found, not only about the organization but also about the geopolitics in his region, made him realize he was in a whole lot of danger.
A nomination for the Three Towers was way too valuable and the family spies reported that nearby nations were already mobilizing for the day of his departure. Simply getting to the academy would require a great force to protect him. The family would send half their military with him, and even so, it wasn't guaranteed that he would arrive at the Three Towers.
The consequences of that were two even bigger problems.
First, to protect himself in the trip, he would likely have to reveal his prowess, which would attract the attention of the organization Firestar had tried to hide, a group of superstitious people with too much power who investigated any mage who showed too much potential. As of yet, he hadn't learned their name and was calling them 'Asshats.'
Second, having half the military gone would make the Valdian Kingdom vulnerable, and while he didn't have much love lost for them, they were his family. He considered himself a logical person but he wasn't completely devoid of feelings or a moral compass. People attacking his family wasn't something he could simply ignore.
Even not considering his feelings, weakening his family and allowing them to be attacked was a stupid move, since they were his only allies in the world at the moment.
The obvious alternative was having his grandfather give up his position at the Three Towers and return. Matthew would then live isolated for a long time, conducting research on magic until he considered himself strong and old enough to brave the world without raising any suspicion.
That would be a great idea if he had been born in the middle of nowhere without contact to the outside world. However, his existence was known by too many people, and Firestar had hinted more than once that the nearby nations had spies that would sooner or later learn about Matthew's level, Champion, and report him to the Asshats.
For whatever reason, reporting people who showed too much intelligence or talent was law set in stone, and the Asshats were adamant about having their rules obeyed. If the report happened and Matthew was found being sheltered by the family, without the family itself being the ones to report him, the family would face annihilation-level punishment. That's how mighty and dangerous the Asshats were.
And then, even if that hadn't been an issue, Firestar himself was bound by unknown circumstances and he might be forced to betray Matthew.
Matthew wasn’t completely safe in the Royal Palace and he wouldn't be safe on the road, but the palace held extra danger. While on the road he would face unknown dangers, but in here, he was at the mercy of Firestar.
He didn't like his safety depending on a person of dubious allegiance that had said Matthew shouldn't trust him, that was keeping Matthew under surveillance at all times, and that was much more powerful than Matthew.
Thankfully, after more probing, he learned a set of very interesting rules that the Asshats followed. Thanks to those rules, he formulated a rather ingenious plan for when he left for the Three Towers.
He would put his plan in motion on the day of the competition.
* * *
It turned out that he had too little time to learn magic before leaving. Fortunately, Firestar showed himself to be agreeable to negotiations as expected.
At first, Matthew had tried to be given time in the form of a time-slowing formation as compensation for when Firestar had tried to kill him. While Firestar had accepted it, they disagreed on how long the formation would be kept up.
Matthew wanted it up for six days, the limit that he could withstand due to what he wanted to do. However, Firestar explained that keeping the time-slowing formation up and running would consume too many resources. With his own personal means, he could grant Matthew two days at most, and that would make him almost bankrupt.
Such huge resource consumption was only because the formation the family had was mediocre, but he wasn't about to give them a better one. Such formations manipulated the elusive Laws of Time, which were rarely understood, much less by young kids. That might make someone, maybe even Firestar, report him to the Asshats before he was ready for them.
Thus, after some negotiation, he found something incredibly simple he could to the Firestar and wouldn't attract much attention. It could be explained as sudden enlightenment, wouldn't reveal much of his capabilities, and would still be valuable enough to the family to justify Firestar pulling enough resources from the Valdian Kingdom to run the formation for six days.
That something was improving one of their pathetic formations to make it actually usable.
* * *
Matthew was using a magic chalk to inscribe a huge formation on the floor, discussing its details with Firestar. It resembled an eight-pointed star inside a double circle with lots of symbols all over it.
"This rune would usually add fire intent to the formation," Matthew said, "but I believe that when doubled, combined with the water intent here, and connected to the aqua lines there, it would instead bring steam intent and its physical manifestation," Matthew said.
"Why steam?" Firestar asked with a frown.
"The Third Light Healing spell we're trying to turn into a better-inscribed formation uses touch to connect the caster and the target bodies, and so does the current formation that our family knows," Matthew explained. "However, because of the delicateness of this formation, direct contact with it can disrupt its mana flow and make the formation useless. To counter that, the formation considers all kind
s of variables when drawing the inscription. Is it going to touch a klutz, a warrior, a mage, or a beast? What will the level of the target be? What about the target gender, and thus, the yin and yang energies within it? What about its injuries, are they elemental, physical, or soul related? There are specific formations for each situation and using the wrong one could be fatal. But what if we used another way of connecting the formation to the target without having to care about each and every detail about whom the formation is going to interact with?"
Firestar's eyes shone. "By using magic-infused steam, no direct touch with the formation is required! That way, a single formation can be used by anyone without the risk of the energies in the person's body and soul disrupting it!"
Matthew nodded. That was the easiest way of making the Third Light Healing formation more practical for usage. By teaching this to Firestar, the man would also be able to use the same concept in other formations.
Using steam brought different issues, but it was still way better than what the family had.
"Indeed," Matthew said. "I bet turning touch spells into steam formations is a common thing to do, especially for attacking formations, like poisonous ones, but our family has only been around for eight hundred years and our magic research only has been going for four hundred years. Our teachings are crude at best and our way of thinking is too rigid. You really should start sending people to magic schools, both the young and the old."
"We have no money to pay for the good schools," Firestar said with a sigh.
