"Hello everyone!" It's good to speak to you all again (^o^)／! "It's been quite a while since we've written a chapter, due to the fact that we cannot talk about anything that wouldn't be a spoiler." Yeah, like we said last time. Speaking of last time—good to see that no one was on my side. (Ｔ▽Ｔ)! "I mean, all you did was pretty much yell, so it shouldn't be surprising." Whatever! Let's just move on to the topic of this chapter. "Yes, quite right. Okay, today we'll be learning about Learnable Magic—or Spells, if you prefer." Yeah, like I said back in that one solo chapter, Learnable Magic is magic anyone with mana can use. Affinities? Completely unnecessary. "Before we begin, set the room, Mr. Narrator?"
Alright, ahem. We're sitting in a cozy wing of The Library today, tucked beneath the warm golden light of low-hanging lanterns. The walls curve softly inward, creating a quiet nook almost hidden from the rest of the Library's endless halls. The air smells faintly of polished monogamy wood—warm, rich, and just a little spicy, like cinnamon left in the sun. A long, plush sofa is stretched across one wall, its cushions deep enough that the second you sit, your legs go numb in the best way. You could doze off in it mid-conversation, easy. A low table sits in front of us, laden with inkpots, loose parchment, and a tea set no one remembers bringing in. From the nearest shelf, a scarlet-bound book floats gently into The Librarian's outstretched hand. Its cover gleams softly under the lantern light, the title stitched into the leather in looping silver thread: Spells Anyone Can Learn!
"Ah, much better. Now, let's discuss Learnable Magic." Which spell should we start with? "How about the first one to appear in the novel?" Divine Eyes? "Divine Eyes." The Librarian opened the book, fingers gliding across the pages as they turned themselves, each flip releasing a faint rustle like dry leaves in the wind, before stopping neatly on the section labeled Divine Eyes.
"So, you all remember what God Michael said about his older brother rip apart God? Well, he meant it literally. The eldest Archangel, in the most uncomfortably literal sense, ripped God to pieces—limb from limb, organ from organ—and, well, all those pieces had to end up somewhere." And so the eyes of God, still full of divine perception and insight, ended up latching themselves to a newborn human named Occum Helix.
"Which allowed him to see, well... everything. Nothing was hidden from his sight. Any form of Vision you could think of—clairvoyance, x-ray, soul-sight, future-sight, you name it—he had it," He was born during the 2nd Generation, by the way—right in the middle of the Era of Magic. When the blooming mage orders caught wind of what Occum could see, they wasted no time recruiting him into their ranks.
"Don't worry about who they were, they aren't all that important to the bigger picture. What matters is that under their guidance, Occum not only learned magic—he began creating it. Specifically, he started developing Spells that could let others borrow a sliver of his divine sight." Obviously, you can't just recreate the sight of literal God with a single Spell, so he broke it up into pieces—different lenses, different scopes of perception. Divine Eyes was one of the first.
"You already know what it does. It's the first real Spell you see in the novel, and its core function is pretty simple. You think of a person, place, or object—and you see it. Doesn't matter where it is, you get a mental overlay and boom, there it is." For the record, Divine Eyes is categorized as Old Magic, meaning modern mages tend to see it as outdated—too inefficient and mana-hungry for general use.
"But it's still taught sometimes in certain magic orders, mainly for its history. And, well, it does burn through mana like wildfire, which makes sense when you remember what it's mimicking." Alright, that's enough on that one. Let's keep things moving. The Librarian flipped through the book again, pages fluttering like they were being blown by a soft breeze, before coming to a halt on the section labeled: Spectral Steps.
"This is the most recent Spell that's been named and used by Ercale again," This one lets you turn into a ghost~ ooooo spooky~ "Not exactly, but I suppose that's what it looks like. Anyway, this Spell was developed by a supernatural hunter named Howler Phoenix." Which, let's be real, is one hell of a name. Howler Phoenix? That sounds like he burst out of a thunderstorm riding a flaming wolf or something. "I agree. And his Spell lives up to the name. He designed it specifically to hunt vampires and wraiths—more specifically, elder vampires and higher-tier wraiths."
See, elder vampires usually hole up in big-ass castles or strongholds loaded with defenses—walls, magic barriers, armies, the whole deal. And wraiths? They're slippery little bastards. Fully incorporeal, and the second they realize they're losing, they just vanish through walls and ceiling beams like smoke in a breeze. "So to deal with both problems, Howler developed Spectral Steps—a Spell that lets you ignore physical barriers entirely. You phase right through them like you're not even there."
How it works is, I think, you kind of step halfway out of your dimension and into a higher one—not fully, just enough to stop being here for a moment and pass through stuff. "That's basically correct. You partially shift into a higher spatial dimension—fourth or above—making your physical form intangible to the world around you. The problem is, reality doesn't like that. You're still a third-dimensional being, and the longer you stay misaligned like that, the harder the backlash hits. You've got about twelve seconds before reality notices and snaps you back into place. If you're still inside a wall when that happens… well, that's going to be messy."
That's it for today, right? "I suppose so. We'll have to wait until The Author name-drops more Spells before we can talk about them.[1]" Well, hurry up already! We wanna talk to the readers more! Anyway, let's roll the outro. "Goodbye everyone, and happy learning!"
[1] I'm working on it! Give me a bit of time you assholes!
-The Author.