13 Basics of Magic

"Listen to me very carefully, if you go too far with this your body may be seriously and permanently damaged."

Lucas nodded his head as he focused and his expression turned serious.

"Normally over time as a demon matures they would have left over demonic power in their muscles from the time in which their muscle rebuilds, this would be the end of the growth if they did not have proper resources or methods of continuing their growth. In reality any demon could try to continue on their own but it would be akin to suicide due to the fact that the method of continued growth is to allow the raw demonic power to destroy ones body until the brink of death. At this point if one does not have enough will power they would not be able to focus enough to stop the demonic power from ravaging their body completely, resulting in a miserable death. Your case is slightly different due to the fact that your muscle should be infused with some left over mana instead of demonic energy so the first time you do this it will be different.

The method to controlling mana is significantly different from controlling demonic power but due to the fact that you were absorbing mana through physical training in place of meditation like a mage you should be able to force the mana to destroy your body as it is released with demonic power allowing the power to take the mana's place in your muscles before reforming. This will be many times more difficult as you need to sense the power of nature which mana comes from in your body and target those areas with precise control over demonic energy, so you will need to split your concentration, I will leave it up to you if you want to proceed today or if you would like to build up your mental strength first, either way you will need to maintain confidence in yourself. If you don't it will make concentrating on just one aspect many times harder let alone splitting your concentration between two things."

Lucas held his chin as he pondered for a moment before making a decision.

"I'm too weak to be able to wait, every second is another moment the fake emperor has to take over more of this world and to even figure out that your alive! Therefore even if there is a risk I still must still try, only after I'm powerful enough to hold my own can I slow down to establish a better foundation that while I can at least be useful while doing that."

Artemis looked at his soon carefully and meaningfully.

'He seems to be too kind hearted, if it's just me than he it is fine but I must keep a close eye on him in the future to make sure he isn't duped.'

After thinking for a moment Artemis exhaled deeply before nodding to Lucas's decision.

"If that is your choice then so be it, I will guide you the best I can but when it comes to mana I know the basics only, after all why would I study a power that I can't wield. Anyway lets go through the basics of detecting mana, unlike demonic energy mana comes purely from nature, it draws from the laws that governs the three realms but does not touch upon them directly. To feel mana is much easier than drawing on it but is still difficult as it relies on not only your understanding of certain aspects of nature but how you perceive them, for example one mage may see water as the bringer of all life as it nourishes us and all the other life around us, but another may see it as a force that has potential for great destruction and death as torrential rain and flooding destroy homes and drown unfortunate victims.

These two are only the two extremes though as there are those who also would see water as balance that cleanses where life is over crowding but nourishes where life is too sparse. These are the three biggest areas of magic people usually align with Life, Destruction, and Balance. There are of course many other rarer areas of magic but as I said I only know the basics which these are, so you must look around you and feel the forces of nature, the wind, earth, water, fire. To avoid any confusion I will also tell you this there are no differences in the mana that flows throw these elements it is all the same. A magician that is reaching the peak will be able to look past the fundamental differences we observe with our body and control all elements flawlessly before looking past all elements and controlling the element of mana itself therefore attaining the peak, all magicians know this when they start but of course it is much more difficult to put into practice than to hear.

The reason I have told you this is simply so you do not worry about different elements that might be in your muscles you can simply choose to focus on one and you will detect all the mana in your body."

Lucas stood in one spot in a daze as Artemis finished speaking.

'To avoid any confusion?? Although I do not have to worry about which element to focus on to detect mana anymore I still am confused about everything you just said! This is only the basics every magician knows about, and I'm expected to reach the peak of this confusing shit that is called magic?! How am I supposed to give two shits about balance, life and destruction with all the information you have just spewed at me!'

Seeing Lucas's confused face Artemis realized that he may have given too much information at once and laughed heartily before patting Lucas on the shoulder.

"Hahaha! Listen son do not worry about what I have just said, just focus on the wind blowing through the town right now feel the mana in it!"