Out of Space

Blake looked at the plans for the gunpowder mill, it was to be powered by wind energy with the use of a wind turbine.

He leaned back in his chair and looked at the number of files in his computer he has to approve. Food, water, shelter, tools production to the war with the Empire.

He looked at the princess who laid on the table with her head over arms, her glossy hair spilled over the keyboard.

He got up from his chair as quietly as he could and draped his jacket over her shoulders just as his communicator beeped urgently, waking the princess up.

"Eh, I got to go," Blake said awkwardly and shuffled hurriedly out of the room.

Sherene pulls the jacket closer to her body and smiled sweetly at Blake's retreating back.

-----

Magister Thorn had a wonderful 5 day week. He had followed several hoomans around, learning their words and observing their 'tek-no-logee'. The study of the natural world is so fascinating! He absorbed the textbooks teaching about physics like a sponge.

Using what he learned about physics, he tried applying some principles to his magical spells, successfully creating new and more powerful spells!

And the thunder sticks used by the hoomans, are just basically using some alchemistic formula to propel a projectile out, similar to a crossbow but many times deadlier!

Thorn couldn't imagine the look on Joseph's face when he shows him his new spells. Thorn just couldn't wait to meet him later in the day. It will be priceless to see his expression!

But before that, Thorn was currently teaching a class of hoomans on the understanding of magic.

"Magic is formed from six basic elements. Fire, water, air, earth, light, and death. Each element draws power from their respective element." He explains in a mix of Engish and Common.

"Fire magic is mostly chaotic and destruction based spells, water magic is usually manipulating and control spells, air magic harness the power of natural power of wind and weather, earth magic is the control of nature and growth, light magic involves healing and restoration while last of all death magic controls the realm of the dead and decay." Thorn tried to explain in simple terms to the hoomans.

"To cast spells, we draw magic from inside our bodies or gather from the surrounding energy if there is plenty of magic around. Or we use a stone of power, a pure form of crystallized magic energy, which I believe, you hoomans named it as 'Mana stones'." Thorn held up a crooked staff capped with a green-brown crystal the size of a small chicken egg. "I searched the word 'Mana' in your 'com-puta' and found it meant 'Power' in some language of yours."

"Using these stones, we can draw upon more magical energies than what a normal people body can hold," Thorn displayed a sparkling burst of light and magic show. "Of course, there are some freaks who are born with more energy than ten people combined."

"Magister Thorn?" Dr. Sharon raised her hand up like a schoolgirl and asked, "Does the color of the stones represent anything? And how is it found?"

"Ahh..." Thorn stroked his beard, putting down the staff. "There are only four classes of magical stones found naturally, Fire, water and earth type of stones." Under fire type, the color is mostly red to orange, while water is mostly blue, air type stones are mostly translucent. And last of all earth type stones are either green, yellow or brownish in color." He displays his staff topped with the green-brown stone. "Of course, there are also different quality and clarity!"

"The stones are formed naturally in certain creatures with magic affinity to the elements. Like the wind wolves that you have encountered before," Thorn explains, "The wind wolves have a natural affinity to wind, granting them a layer of moving air around their bodies, which make arrows and bolts harder to penetrate their bodies!"

Exclamations of surprise and head nods could be seen around the classroom, as the hoomans started chatting among themselves. "That's why AP rounds don't really work on them!" He vaguely heard some hooman saying that. AP? What is that? He wondered.

"Some creatures, like dragons, can have their blood crystalize into what we called 'Bloodstones'. these 'bloodstones' contains a lot more magic power compared to a normal 'Manastone." Thorn, liked the way the hoomans named the stones of power as mana.

"How about light and death magic?" Dr. Sharon asked again. "Are there no mana stones formed naturally for those? And those green skins why they don't have stones on them?"

"Light and death magic is extremely rare, the magical energies are unable to crystallize due to the day and night!" Thorn explained excitedly, these hoomans are more excited to learn compared to his apprentices and those students in mage school! "There is no full day of light or darkness, that allows a creature with affinity to either one to form the stone."

"So you meant that as long as a creature with affinity to light, say gets exposed to sunlight all the time will slowly have a light stone created?" Dr. Sharon clarified her thoughts with Thorn. "So if the creature gets sunlight for weeks or months constantly, they will create a light stone if they have an affinity to light magic? Correct?"

"Yes YES!" Thorn hopped in excitement, "But it is impossible to do that! There is only so much sunlight per day! When the sun goes down, the gathered magic is consumed over the night, thus there is no leftover magic to crystallize! And light magic dispels death magic, so it is the same for creatures of death affinity!"

"As for green skins or goblins as you called them, they are similar to us, people who have what we called colorless affinity, meaning we can cast either element of magic. Like us, their magic is constantly being used and does not accumulate into stones."

"There were plenty of experimentations by the other countries to create light and death stones over the course of history, but they all failed." Thorn droned on. "Death magic is taboo by most if not all countries as they involved plenty of deaths to occur or live sacrifices."

Dr. Sharon frowned in deep thought, does that means we can artificially create light or death stones? "Hmmm..."

"Moving on!" Thorn excited rubbed his hands, loving the attention the class of hoomans is giving him. "Each person's body has a natural born storage of magic energy that is collected and stored. It gets replenish over time, but if you spend all the magic energy in your body, you get what we call 'Magic fatigue' which can cause extreme tiredness or in some cases, the person falls unconscious."

"Magic is classed in 10 levels, each level is identified by a magic circle and its color," He looks around the class, seeing everyone taking notes attentively. Oh, I love these students! Most of his previous years of teaching, the students mostly ignored him or sleeps in class!

"The power of the spells depends on the size of the circles, which is dependent on the caster's amount of magic power too. So if you want a more powerful spell, you need stones to help increase the amount of magic." He displays a level three spell, invoking three magic circles floating over his hand as he chanted.

The magic circles were the size of dinner plates and emitted a green glow, Thorn finished the spell and the whole room suddenly felt warm and cozy. Dr. Sharon immediately felt her tiredness disappear and strangely relaxed.

"This is a simple energy restorative spell. I did not spend much mana on it, it will only last a short time before disappearing." Thorn used the hooman word for power. "This spells creates an area of effect that anyone is inside is affected by its power. It helps restore stamina, but it cannot be used too often, as the body still requires rest to naturally recover. Too much Restoration, the user count break his own bones and suffer injuries still as they overtaxed their bodies."

"So this spell is just an illusion of the mind? Tricking it to think that their body is not exhausted?" Dr. Sharon asked again. "How about healing spells?"

"No, not an illusion, it just takes energy from the body!" Thorn explained. "Like it uses other energy from your body to give you stamina and strength!"

Wow? I think he means, stored energy like fats and stuff. Won't this be a great way to lose weight? If we could package this and sell on Earth, we will be rich! Dr. Sharon thought to herself. "How about the energies in the stone? Will they deplete?"

"Ahh, here's the interesting thing," Thorn grinned like a Cheshire cat. "The stones do run out of mana but it can slowly replenish the lost mana over time!"

"Wow is that some kind of solar powered magic casting wonder wand?" Someone in the back joked, causing some confusion to Thorn who did not really understand what solar means.

"Erm, it just recovers on it own over time," He explained again over the laughing class. "A stone like th-."

A sudden blare of alarm cuts into his lecture halfway, followed by a magical announcement coming from the ceilings, "All hands stand to, Condition Yellow! Repeat Condition Yellow!"