Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

For some reason, someone had decided to split one’s energy into more than ten whole parts, one’s talent was measured by how good those ten things were at a base, most of the orbs had been used to that end.

One could improve on each of those, but it did basically clearly point out the aspect in which one would always be weaker or stronger.

Milo had thought that lectures on reading and writing were brutal, but it was child’s play compared to the intricacies of the very basics of magic, he needed to understand what each of those ten things were, what they meant, how important they were in relation to one another, how important it was to have advantages in certain areas compared to others, and how disadvantageous it was to face off against someone with advantages.

"Alright Milo, we are gonna repeat what each of the categories is about, surely, you remember that? It is pretty much in the names" she put her hands on his shoulders, he shuddered, this sounded like a threat but it wasn’t fear that made him tremble.

’Oh crap’ he swallowed his saliva, they had just begun the lessons early in the morning, Helena had divided the day into various lessons, and the basics of magic had been running on for a while, longer than she had expected.

Unfortunately, Milo’s apparent smartness didn’t apply to any sort of academics, he was all about live practice, but one couldn’t just try shooting spells around without proper theoretical teachings and knowledge.

He felt his body heat up, doing his best to prevent himself from sweating like a pig being roasted, he put his all in focusing, the categories were easy.

’They are easy, I know that’ he told himself, trying to convince himself.

Helena breathed out heavily, her hands still holding Milo in place, he wasn’t going to go anywhere.

"Alright Milo, first, what are the two types of manipulation?" she calmly asked.

’I know this… Don’t say something stupid…’

"Inner and outer!" he stated with utter confidence, waiting for confirmation.

"Indeed, mind telling me more about each?" she pressed for more, pressing his shoulders tighter as well, she really had the hands of a farmer, he quite liked it but he couldn’t afford to be distracted right now, else those hands end up doing something else.

"Yes…"

"Inner manipulation of mana is the most basic, and most important, it is all about controlling one’s own mana inside of the body, most mages only focus on weaving mana from the inside, shaping it before constructing the spell and shooting it out…"

"Outer manipulation is more of a specialised category, generally reserved for higher tiered mages, or for people particularly gifted in it, it allows the usage of ambient mana to form spells, it is much simpler to form spells at other locations that way, and is a requirement for learning a zone spell" he recited what he had learned, even though he didn’t actually understand certain things.

Helena still found his memorisation to be satisfactory this time, he heaved a sigh of relief as he felt her grasp relaxing.

"Now, capacity?" she asked without waiting much at all, cutting his relief short.

Thankfully, this one spoke for itself, and didn’t have much to speak off, it was but the amount of mana one possessed, this one was hard to improve on its own, though the system had no problem improving that aspect, the system and its own intricacies was also on the list of things Milo would have to learn, and he wasn’t looking forward to it.

Efficiency, recuperation, output, speed and perception were also fairly obvious, Milo had to admit he had never seen things that way, having awful talent in one category could really cripple a mage with otherwise really good capabilities, one could be great in all categories, but if they had terrible efficiency, they would just use all of their mana on just a few simple spells.

It might not be enough to make one unable to become great, but it would very much be like trying to run but with someone hugging your leg.

Milo was lucky to not be below average in any category, his learning curve wouldn’t be impaired by these, though his poor learning abilities probably would.

Now, limit, transmutation, resistance, trait and internal or external were a bit less obvious, and Milo found himself unable to remember what the last three were referring to.

"Well, that’s better than before, good job" Helena praised him, slapping his shoulders.

"Trait is a very special category, having any sort of trait in one’s energy is rather rare, for example, it can be that someone’s mana is attuned to a certain element, or is of an element normally, it can also be any other specificities of one’s personal mana, you and I don’t have any, but recognising someone who does is apparently rather simple, but we would need to meet one to test that" she explained it again, sitting next to him.

"As for internal and external, I have been told that some consider having external mana is a trait, but just assume it isn’t, most people have internal mana, having external mana just means that it overflows from one’s body constantly, that’s all" she pushed a piece of paper and a pen to him.

"Now, write it all down, you have until tomorrow" Milo paled.

’It never ends!’ he didn’t feel so good.

"By the way Milo, where do you want to sleep? There are two rooms" she switched the subject, he turned to her thoughtfully.

"What’s the difference?"

"One is free, I sleep in the other" she, ever so casually, said.

Milo had a mild heart attack for a moment, not sure whether this was a very alluring offer or a very hilarious joke.

He had to use his full mental capacity to answer that one in a timely manner.

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"I would very much like to share the same bed as you"