The scene still played back in his head, devoid of color.
Flesh and bone contorted in a way they never should, encumbered by the exertion of a force far greater than they were ever intended to experience. His hands moved freely, weaving the expansive cosmic energies to his will. Without ever intending to inflict great suffering, he had reduced two adult wolves to puddles of liquid, crushed and congealed matter, and fur. He resisted the urge to vomit that washed over him in waves. This was the power he had chosen, and for its beauty.
The burden fell on him alone to learn to control it. In this empty grove of Eastern Brisshal, any number of small and non-threatening objects offered him a perfect and safe target for his manipulations. He began his testing by toggling off the auto-assist and mimicking the gestures and verbalized cues that victimized the first pair of wolves. Lacking an enemy, the spell failed to recognize a target, and subsequently refused to activate.
"Oh, I see," he pondered aloud. "So the spells differentiate between what can be used on a soft target and what is combat oriented. That's good to know." Erick gestured with his hand and opened the palm HUD to scroll through what tools and options he had available through his Astramancy, and successfully determined there were a handful of options in the vein of Gravitic magic that would suit his purposes here. In addition to those, there were Divination types of magic, and even the vaguest of spatial magics that he mentally noted he needed to thumb through at a later time.
Focus on what's important right now, he reminded himself. With a quick tap of his finger against one of the many fallen twigs from the trees above, he decided on the spell he wanted to cast, and he asserted his will on the object. Unlike the more involved combat cast, the effects were instantaneous, and decidedly less drastic. "So, the magic that you use for menial tasks is standardized, while conflict centered magic is more volatile. I guess that means it's capable of scoring critical hits, while this kind of magic doesn't have a metric for ineffective and extremely effective...?"
His mind mulled over the different things he read about in the RPG forums, all in an attempt to understand combat systems and how things worked in a world like this one. Granted, something about Terrasphere would have been infinitely more useful, but what he learned was not altogether unhelpful. "I see," he scratched at his chin as he leaned over to tap at another twig. "So, in the same way as combat magic, this type of support magic can extend to multiple targets as well? That's very useful..."
Erick's voice trailed off with his thoughts as he experimented and became more familiar with his chosen mastery.
Flesh and bone contorted in a way they never should, encumbered by the exertion of a force far greater than they were ever intended to experience. His hands moved freely, weaving the expansive cosmic energies to his will. Without ever intending to inflict great suffering, he had reduced two adult wolves to puddles of liquid, crushed and congealed matter, and fur. He resisted the urge to vomit that washed over him in waves. This was the power he had chosen, and for its beauty.
The burden fell on him alone to learn to control it. In this empty grove of Eastern Brisshal, any number of small and non-threatening objects offered him a perfect and safe target for his manipulations. He began his testing by toggling off the auto-assist and mimicking the gestures and verbalized cues that victimized the first pair of wolves. Lacking an enemy, the spell failed to recognize a target, and subsequently refused to activate.
"Oh, I see," he pondered aloud. "So the spells differentiate between what can be used on a soft target and what is combat oriented. That's good to know." Erick gestured with his hand and opened the palm HUD to scroll through what tools and options he had available through his Astramancy, and successfully determined there were a handful of options in the vein of Gravitic magic that would suit his purposes here. In addition to those, there were Divination types of magic, and even the vaguest of spatial magics that he mentally noted he needed to thumb through at a later time.
Focus on what's important right now, he reminded himself. With a quick tap of his finger against one of the many fallen twigs from the trees above, he decided on the spell he wanted to cast, and he asserted his will on the object. Unlike the more involved combat cast, the effects were instantaneous, and decidedly less drastic. "So, the magic that you use for menial tasks is standardized, while conflict centered magic is more volatile. I guess that means it's capable of scoring critical hits, while this kind of magic doesn't have a metric for ineffective and extremely effective...?"
His mind mulled over the different things he read about in the RPG forums, all in an attempt to understand combat systems and how things worked in a world like this one. Granted, something about Terrasphere would have been infinitely more useful, but what he learned was not altogether unhelpful. "I see," he scratched at his chin as he leaned over to tap at another twig. "So, in the same way as combat magic, this type of support magic can extend to multiple targets as well? That's very useful..."
Erick's voice trailed off with his thoughts as he experimented and became more familiar with his chosen mastery.