The Ascendant Wizard-Chapter 118 - Laying the Foundation

Morena read for as long as she could without forgetting why she was there.

She did not bother trying to memorize the exact wording of every page; instead, she let the AI absorb it all, while she focused on what mattered most to her.

Information, patterns, cause, and effects; she wanted to find out as much about Wizards as possible in a short time. Specifically, how to form her Matrix, and how to avoid past issues.

She refused to fall under any common mistakes she could avoid by reading.

The further she read, the more she realized something. Most apprentices who failed were not stupid, nor completely lacking in talent. They failed because they were impatient in the wrong way. They rushed the wrong things, or ignored warnings, or assumed that because they could endure pain, they could endure anything.

They treated magic like something that could be beaten into submission.

Morena knew better than that.

She had already seen what happened when people acted recklessly with power they did not understand. The Church. The orb of light. That Wizard in the forest who nearly lost his life because he seemed to rely too heavily on his own strength.

She was greedy, but not blind.

She closed the book after a while and exhaled, fingers pressed lightly against the cover as the AI finished recording.

[Full text captured. Cross-referencing with existing data. Warning flags have been tagged.]

'Good. Tag anything related to mental collapse, unstable Matrix formation, and long-term backlash. I want a separate file for those.'

[File created: "Apprentice Failure Risks".]

She stood from the desk and slid the book back onto the shelf.

There was still time left on her badge. She could feel it faintly, the connection ticking somewhere in the background, but she did not want to waste it by just reading everything randomly.

'Recommend the next book. Prioritize anything related to Matrix stability.'

[Recommendation: "Affinity Resonance and Adaptation" or "Meditation Form Variants, Edition Seven". First focuses on aligning mental structure to your affinities. Second explores layered breathing and positioning techniques.]

'Affinity Resonance.'

She moved along the shelf and pulled the book free.

This one was newer, cleaner, and clearly updated repeatedly. The ink was not faded, and the cover was reinforced, as if it had been used often. It seemed many people had tried to fix their shortcomings with this book.

She flipped it open and skimmed, letting the AI capture the contents.

This book did not waste time with gentle introductions.

Affinity was not just a color in a vision or a feeling. It was the way mana moved through your mind, the way your thoughts shaped the world around you.

Those with strong elemental affinities could shape their spells more easily, affect the elements around them, and refine their Matrix toward finer control of those spells. A weak affinity meant slower learning time, clumsy spells, and a lack of fine control.

The Black Affinity she saw, which the book called Dark Arts, was different.

It was about decay, not just of matter, but of structure. It broke things down, consumed, altered. It could be used on the body, objects, or mana itself.

It did not mean evil.

The book repeated that several times. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Dark Arts were simply dangerous because people misused them, and their nature made accidents more devastating.

Mental and Dark together were an odd pairing, according to one section. A person doesn't usually have two pairs that react similarly to each other.

Strong mental control could keep the instability of Dark Arts from turning inward, while Dark could amplify the deeper layers of mental spells.

But it also carried a risk.

If the mind broke, the destruction spread faster.

Morena read in silence, thinking back to the test. The pale pinkish black. The purple was so bright that she had lied to lower its supposed strength.

'I really went and picked the dangerous route, huh.'

[Affinities were not chosen.]

The AI corrected her, as if she were asking it a question; she wasn't.

'I know. Still annoying.'

She kept reading until the AI confirmed the book was fully recorded, then closed it and returned it as well.

Her time was nearly up.

[Remaining access time: 6 minutes.]

'Enough. Let's not get kicked out mid-sentence.'

As she turned to leave, she caught a glimpse of someone further down, half hidden between two shelves near the mist. A figure in dark robes, taller than most of the apprentices here, his presence heavier somehow.

He was not reading.

Just standing there, hand resting on the spine of a book he had not opened yet, eyes half closed.

Watching her.

Morena held his gaze for a moment, trying to gauge him, but his expression did not change. His badge glowed faintly, but from this distance, she could not see the number.

Wizard? Senior apprentice?

Either way, she did not approach.

She walked back toward the mist edge, and a faint pressure pushed gently at her back, escorting her to the entrance without force but with clear intention.

Her hour had ended.

She stepped past the threshold and back into the front section.

The apprentice at the desk glanced at her badge as it dimmed.

"Finished already?"

"For now."

He shrugged and returned to his scroll, already losing interest.

Morena left the Library and started back toward the dorm floor.

As she walked, she reviewed everything mentally, letting the AI bring the main points to the front of her mind in a neat, organized flow.

Affinity resonance. Structural stability. Common mental fractures.

It was a lot.

But it was also exactly what she needed.

By the time she reached her room again, she had a plan.

She shut the door quietly behind her and sat on the bed again, straight-backed.

'AI, based on what we learned today, how risky is method two now?'

[Recalculating. Integrating new data.]

A brief pause.

[Predicted risk of long-term instability reduced by 12%. Remaining risk factors primarily stem from overuse in early stages and potential conflict with higher-tier meditation methods not yet known.]

'So the more I learn, the safer it becomes.'

[Correct. The method relies heavily on structured mental resilience and proper energy pacing. It is not inherently fatal, but unforgiving if misused.]

She smiled faintly.

"Unforgiving is fine."

She had already lived most of her life under systems that were unforgiving; the difference was that this time, she had more control.

She set aside the badge and lay down briefly, just to rest her eyes.

She didn't plan to sleep as she had much she still wanted to get done today.

The rest of that day and the next two passed in a blur, but not the same kind of blur as the plains.

This time, the blur was movement.

Her days settled into a rhythm quickly; classes when they were offered, meditation every free moment she had alone.

Occasional study sessions with Ren, Elara, and Liri, who seemed to cling to her presence even though she was never very friendly with them.

She didn't mind it, so she did not push them away either.

The first evening they gathered again, Liri managed to sense elemental energy and even absorb a bit of it for the first time, even if it was only for a fleeting moment.

Her eyes had opened wide, and her hands trembled slightly.

"I felt it. Just a little... like a breeze."

Ren looked like he might cry from jealousy and joy at the same time.

"I still feel nothing..."

Morena gave him the same advice she had before.

"Consistency, just keep trying. You are too tense. The more you panic, the harder it will be to notice it."

Elara had made some progress, too. Not as much as Liri, but she could at least sense a slight change in the air when she sat still long enough.

"I do feel something. Just not... clearly. It is like trying to see through fog."

"That is normal."

Morena told her.

Things were progressing for them, and for her, progress was even more.

Each meditation cycle left her mind strained, but the energy she drew in no longer felt as wild as before. Where once it fought against her grip, now it only resisted.

For the first time on the third night, she felt something change in the void within her mind.

The scattered specks of light that floated around like dust began to tilt, drifting toward a central point.

A kind of pull formed; it was weak, but it was there.

The earliest shape of a Matrix.

She stopped immediately the moment she felt any strain beyond the threshold her method described, forcing herself not to be greedy even though she wanted nothing more than to keep going until something formed.

'Stability first.'

She wiped sweat from her forehead and lay down again, letting the soft ache in her mind fade.

By the fourth day, her headache no longer lasted as long after each meditation session, and her tolerance expanded little by little.

By the fifth, she could feel elemental energy enter more easily when she reached out for it, especially when she focused toward the sensations that matched that purple light.

It came to her more naturally.

She did not try to pull in anything aligned with black yet.

That would come later, once her foundation was more solid. Dark Arts was not something she planned to touch without understanding it better.

On the sixth day, Ren finally shouted in the middle of the lounge.

"I felt it!"

Everyone nearby turned their heads.

Elara shushed him in embarrassment, but even she could not hide the way her lips twitched upward.

"What did it feel like?"

Morena asked.

Ren took a breath, his eyes bright.

"Like... buzzing. Like the air was full of tiny things brushing against my skin. It only lasted a second, but I am sure that was it."

"It will be easier next time."

She assured him.

Liri had already begun to sense energy more often, though she still lacked control. Elara could pick up faint flows now as well, but her progress lagged behind Liri's significantly.

The prince did not appear much in their days, though they saw him strutting through the hall once, loudly declaring to his lackey that he would 'master spellcasting before the year ended.'

Morena ignored him entirely.

She had better things to do.

On the seventh morning, the day of the next class with Varra, Morena woke with a strangely clear head.