Hessian Does A Thing - Volume 1 Chapter 3 Magic Is Cool
Within an ordinary bas.e.m.e.nt filled with a large amount of lightbulbs and glowing rocks because the protagonist is freakin terrified of dark bas.e.m.e.nts. Hessian sat cross-legged as he focused on his body. Within seconds, his body just blew up. Chunks and pieces of him were sent flying around the room. A second later, Hessian reappeared from thin air.
“Sigh, I need to go find a proper teacher” He said out loud
It had been 2 years since the disappearance of his new grandfather. Since then he had been attempting to teach himself magecraft to no avail. He didn’t know the first thing about opening his circuits or any other basic spells. All he had been trying to do was flood his body with prana that he already had from being a true magician of the third magic. But every time he did that in an attempt to reinforce his body, he ‘died’.
Fortunately his soul was immortal and he just made a new body for himself each time he did it. He also took the liberty to change a few things when switching to another body. Like his eye color and other minor things. He doesn’t look that different from before though, besides losing all the fat off his body.
He finished cleaning the destroyed limbs littering his bas.e.m.e.nt and walked back upstairs.
“Welp, time to go get a tutor.” And with that, the fourteen year old left his house in search of a magic tutor.
Rin Tohsaka wasn’t sure of what to think when a random boy showed up at her door in the evening asking for her to teach him the basics of magecraft. She had doubts when he claimed he would pay her for the tutoring, but when he pulled out a bag of jewels out of nowhere she had to admit that she was tempted. She inspected the jewels and found them to be perfect for her jewelcraft.
Acquiring jewels was always difficult for the young girl as they were always expensive. Not only that she didn’t have the funds to buy them herself because a certain stupid phony priest spent her damn inheritance on god knows what! She was incredibly irritated that day when she found out.
So with a smile, she took the bag of jewels and spoke to the aspiring magus.
“I think this should be enough to cover for about 6 months”
The boy looked like he understood what she was getting at. So he pulled another bag out of nowhere only for her to quickly swipe it and check it’s contents. Confirming it to be the same as the other bag she happily gave a genuine smile. “One year of tutoring it is!”
It was an odd experience for Hessian to be tutored by a girl his age. But he wasn’t the type to judge someone based on age.
“Magecraft is the artificial reenactment of a mystery. Invoking the mystery is powered by your prana and belief in it” He’s noticed that despite being a tsundere, she is a pretty damn good teacher.
“Why do we call it prana?” he asked with his hand raised like normal kids his age. Then again he is older than he looks.
“Mana is the magical energy that surrounds us, Od is the energy that we produce in our body. You can think of Prana as the refined version of those two that you use to enact your magic”
She was incredibly good at dumbing down things for him.
When it came to opening his circuits, he discovered he had only 21 average circuits. He didn’t mind the small amount as he already had infinite mana. It was just the fact that opening his circuits was undoubtedly the most pain he had ever experienced in his two lives. The next year passed with Rin holding her end of the bargain in teaching Hessian the fundamentals. While Hessian wasn’t a slow learner; he insisted that he spend more time to master the basics, which annoyed his teacher but they were both patient enough to keep going.
Hessian finally figured out why his bodies were blowing up when he flooded himself with prana. Reinforcement was the act of filling in the imperfections of an object and enhancing it. The fact that he didn’t structurally grasp his own body made it so that he overflooded his body with prana all over the place.
6 months were spent on the basics such as structural grasp, gradation air(projection), alteration, self hypnotism, and reinforcement. He would work with basic materials such as glass and work his way up to other materials. 3 months were spent on learning to erect a bounded field which Rin taught him to do at his house to his surprise. Mainly because he wasn’t sure how she found out where he lived. And to his surprise, with the last 3 months she threw in some healing magecraft as well. Hessian actually picked up each lesson quickly, but due to his insistence on mastering them. He spent extra time on each lesson.
During the year, in his free time. Hessian would try to replicate tapping into the speed force from DC. However the speed force as he remembered was a sort of extra dimensional energy that existed outside space and time within the DC universe. Even if he were to create it in his current world, he wouldn’t be able to access it if he were to go to another part of the multiverse. So he did something incredibly stupid, yet ingenious. With the BS abilities of magic and author powers, he created it within his own soul as the source of his speed force. It was an incredibly strange experience where Hessian was honestly wondering if he would permanently die. Luckily his experiment was a success. Even if he didn’t have a physical body, he could still access the speed force.
Hessian was honestly having fun learning something new to him. It was like playing a new game, except he could get himself killed in the process.
And like that, one year quickly passed for Hessian
“…How?”
The Tohsaka heir just pointedly looked to the side as Hessian attempted to process the scene before him. He had tried to be friendly and offer to teach his sensei Rin about the wonders of gaming and technology. He didn’t expect her to somehow short circuit the game system, break the controller, and set the flat screen on fire. He had underestimated her incompatibility with technology.
“I-It’s not my fault! The thing must have been defective” she attempted to deflect the blame to the stupefied magician.
“… Well, aslong as the router is fine. Replacing everything else is simple enough.” he admitted as it would actually take him time to make another router that connected to the multiverse.
“Nevermind, so what are you here for anyway?” he asked taking a seat on his bean bag.
The young magus recomposed herself and stood in front of the young magician who was her student for the past year. Surprisingly their relationship was completely friendship. Even with Hessian being a pervert, he was the type of guy that would like s.e.x friends instead of serious relationsh.i.p.s. He could never look at the young Tohsaka as more than a friend/teacher. It was an odd experience for him, but he enjoyed their relationship that way.
Clearing her throat, Rin presented a small box in front of Hessian. “You’re one year apprenticeship is over, so I wanted to congratulate you.” she said as Hessian took the item from her.
“Uhh, thanks. You didn’t have to.” He said as he lifted the lid. Inside was a ceremonial dagger that made Hessian feel an incredible amount of irony.
“That is an Azoth dagger. When I finished my magi training, I was also given it by my teacher. He was also given it by my father when he finished his own apprenticeship.” she explained as Hessian felt the aura of irony surrounding the dagger.
“Thank you.” was all he said
“Yell out ‘lt’ while channeling mana through it and it should activate. It’s not as powerful as my jewels, but I still used it from time to time” she waved her hand and turned around.
“Never forget the first thing I told you” she said as she began to leave
“To be a magus is to walk with death, right?” he replied. He never actually told her that he was a true magician. And also essentially immortal.
“By the way, do you mind if I hang this up on the wall in my room?” he called out to her
“Do whatever you want with it.” she yelled back before closing the front door.
He took another look at the blade and decided to find a use for it in the future, perhaps as part of his bounded field. Hessian was always the sentimental type.