Ray

  The awkwardness returns to the room once more. Not even Raph, with his undying enthusiasm and morbid curiosity, manages to squeak a word.

  An air of silence hovers over us.

  To my surprise, it is Melony who first speaks up. She holds a stone in hand—one likely conjured with the [Inspect] skill—and stares at the air in front of her. For some reason, system notifications and status results are only visible to the user, and no one else.

  She lifts up a finger, hovering above some invisible numbers.

  “4,500? Four thousand, five hundred?” she mutters, clearly speaking to herself but a little too loudly. “But I trained so hard, and my stats barely border 4,000!” I read between the lines. “I worked so hard for this, but some nobody outranks me?!”

  Melony puts her hands on her head and tugs her hair in a frustrated manner.

  However, the dramatic reaction from Melony seems to be a cue for Matt, and he suddenly butts in to save us from the drama queen. “Really, Ray? 4,500? Raw stats, alongside equipment, push my stats up to 3,000.”

  “Same!” Raph exclaims, chirping in.

  “Maybe you are a true Hero?”

  The sudden, fifth voice startles me, but I regain composure after recognising the owner of the voice. The man who had reeled me in and shown me the ropes, nonetheless.

  “Kequak?” I stammer in composed surprise.

  Raph’s eyes go a bit wide, and he points a finger accusingly at Kequak. “R-Ray? You know that geezer? The big boss of the best mages in all five kingdoms? The top dog Court Mage? What about you, Sir God Almighty Lord King Conqueror Deity—” Raph gasps for breath, and continues “—Eternal All Powerful Emperor Kequak, do you know Ray? ”

  "Ho-ho-ho! No need for formalities, young Raph! Yes, I was the one who summoned Ray. I apologise for overhearing your conversation, but I bear no ill will. I had already planned to come here, and simply stumbled upon the discussion by pure chance. But back to the topic, I suspect Ray may be a true Hero. When I summoned Ray, something felt amiss. I had spoken to the other Court Mages who had summoned [Heroes]—My summoning took a massive 4,500 mana. Theirs, only 3,000 mana.”

  “W-wow! So wise! And smart! And cool!” praises Raph, before quietly muttering something about Kequak laughing like Santa Claus.

  I tilt my head in confusion. “Raph, why do you seem so… stiff, for lack of a better term?”

  However, my reaction just causes Matt to chuckle in response. “Heh heh… Back when Raph was first summoned with me, he started testing out his magic right off the bat, and ended up causing quite a… large ruckus. Then Mr. Kequak beat some sense into him.” Noticing my confused glance, Matt quickly elaborates “The Tasuta and Sonep Kingdoms are very close, so Court Mage Zari and Court Mage Quam had done the summoning spell together.”

  Makes sense, I suppose.

  However, this brings up two prominent questions.

  Firstly: “Kequak, you mean to say your mana stat exceeds 5,000?” Here I thought I was abnormally strong, and frankly, Melony’s reaction only strengthened that theory. Yet Kequak casually waves around his stats like nothing.

  “Ho-ho-ho! Yes, indeed, Young Ray! In fact, my mana attribute exceeds 7,000, if you wish to know. However, the rest of my stats are centred around a humble 5,000 each. But—do not be let down! The number of Mithril badges such as I can be counted on one palm, and yet all of you are so close to that already. Not just Young Ray, but also the rest f you.”

  Raph mutters again. Something along the lines of “What is this senile guy waffling about? Who cares? What does he mean by ‘rest of you’? Are we getting third wheeled?”

  Kequak gives Raph the side-eye, having evidently heard the silent complaint, and Raph salutes soldier style before letting out a war cry. “Ugh, this is getting nowhere. I’m leaving.”

  “Now, now, young Melony, no need to get impatient. And you, young Raph! Follow Young Ray’s example!”

  Although Kequak says all of this in a joking tone, he somehow alludes an aura of authority that makes me feel uneasy. Is this like those animes where one is so powerful that even their aura can be sensed?

  Melony snorts, but still stays on her seat.

  “I do admit, the sound of Mithril badge sounds promising.” Mat comments, “but what did you mean when you said Ray was a ‘true Hero?’ Not a [Hero], but a Hero?”

  Kequak pauses for a moment, seemingly regathering his thoughts and thinking of a simple way to explain it to us. “I will be with you briefly. This, as I’m sure you expect, is a complicated matter and I will need some time to deduce a manner in which explanation will be simple and easy to follow along.”

  The four [Heroes] idly sit around, waiting for Kequak to start.

  Not long after, Kequak clears his throat, and begins his explanation.

  “Hmmm… I suppose I should begin with the basics. The summoning spell, originally invented by the first Court Mage—Hero King Lam—sends a ‘hand’ from the material plane to the spiritual plane. Now, you should understand what the ‘spiritual plane’ exactly is. This spiritual plane is largely unknown and is still the victim of many mysteries, but one thing stands certain; the spiritual plane exists as a separate, non-physical dimension that connects different worlds together. Not only that, but it is home to the spirits that some unique skills are capable of contacting. Through this spiritual plane, the summoning spell connects with your ‘Earth’. I’m not sure why this specific planet, but the late Lam had mentioned something about it being the ‘purest’ planet. Do you all follow along so far?”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  We all passively nod our heads. Except for Melony. She grunts.

  “Well, this ‘spell’ is actually unstructured magic—magic without the use of skills.”

  “As in, the same magic that God taught the ancient elves?”

  “No, not exactly. God did not teach the ancient elves the summoning spell, but instead, the use of magic without skills. Though, I do suppose the two are more closely related after inspection. Since we humans are the children of God, we bear the closest connection with elves compared to all other humanoid races.”

  “That is, nothing at all” utters Melony

  Kequak ignores Melony and continues pacing around the room whilst explaining. “As you all know, elves are a solitary species who live in tribes in the northern forests. They rarely communicate with other species, yet the Alzanian kingdom has few records from the time. Apparently, God had taught the ancient elven tribe whom we now call Dryads two primary forms of unstructured magic: dimensional magic and mind magic. Two types of magics that cannot be found anywhere in the Skill Archives. Magic that is not within the system. This spell is a hybrid of structured [Summoning Magic] and unstructured dimensional magic.”

  “So, does having unstructured magic essentially mean more skills after the 3 skill cap? Can I learn some dimensional magic?” quips Raph as his hand darts up.

  “Next time, put your hand up before asking a question!” scolds an amused Kequak. “But to answer your question, no. To begin with, unstructured magic is impossibly difficult to master. Think of the system as a support beam. Trying unstructured magic at my level is already similar to walking a tightrope without that support. At your level, expect a raging storm and billowing winds. Even if you somehow learned unstructured magic, you would only be limited to the summoning spell. After all, all unstructured spells are baseless.”

  Raph, the enthusiasm draining out of him, slumps down on his chair. “All of them are baseless?” he questions in defeat. “Seriously? I’m already struggling to make an original spell with [Wind Magic], but you’re saying the spell is baseless and isn’t even linked to an actual skill?”

  Kequak nods affirmatively.

  Base…less?

  I meekly raise my voice. “Um, what do you mean by ‘baseless?” I ask.

  Kequak raises an eyebrow. “Oh? Young Ray, did you not finish all the books I had suggested to you?”

  “W-well knowing you, you probably gave Ray an entire twenty page legal document!”

  Awkward. Though, Raph is right. Kequak had given me a huge stack of suggestions. No—not the books. Just ten pages of book titles. Ten pages.

  I’m trying to get through all of them, but I’m only up to the seventh page right now.

  Kequak considerately considers for a second. “Well, Young Ray, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt me to inform you what a baseless spell is, no? After acquiring a magic skill, some simple spells correlating to that magic automatically register into your brain. These spells require no training to use, and are essentially intrinsic. Intrinsic skills such as these are ‘based’, meaning that they have a solid foundation and can be used by anyone with the skill. For example, if you acquire [Wind Magic], you can cast sharp winds on the spot. However, apart from that one wind spell, everything else is baseless—meaning that they do not come naturally and require training.”

  Raph follows along Kequak, looking smug as he brandishes his knowledge like a sword. “Magic, by default, is baseless. I mean, you can’t exactly say you have an arsenal of spells if all you can do is shoot wind, right? But, that’s only thinking about it as a technical term. If only one spell was based, and everything else was baseless, it would just be kind of stupid.”

  “Precisely,” praises Kequak. “You see, many generations of mages have perfected certain spells to the point that they can be considered based if executed correctly. So now, the common definition of a based spell is: a spell that optimises mana efficiency. Although these spells are not learned on instinct, they can be taught reliably to others, meaning that with the right training, these spells can be mastered. Hence, they are also based, as they can be taught and passed through generations, and are not mana-excessive like many baseless spells.”

  Interesting. So, I assume a ‘baseless’ spell would be an ‘original spell’ like Raph had mentioned before? A spell that has been created solely by an individual, and is exclusive only to them.

  No wonder why Raph seemed so let-down. Although I was originally enticed by the promise of ‘limitless’ magic, I realise that is only in theory. In practice, it is much more difficult to conjure infinite amounts of spells. Creating such a baseless spell is likely much harder than it seems. After all, you must begin from scratch with nothing to build upon. Even if the baseless spell is created, it will probably be imperfect and rather wasteful on mana.

  “Then, Kequak, is the spell you showed me before also baseless? The one where you used [Wind Magic] to control the pen to write?”

  “Affirmative, Young Ray. I had made that spell up myself. My body is far too old for all the paperwork Braiher gives me! Ho-ho-ho!”

  “Yeesh, what a power freak… creating a damn baseless spell just cause you were lazy?!” Raph whispers to me.

  If based spells were like walking into a test with a formula sheet, then baseless spells are probably like walking into a test only knowing that 1+1=2.

  Kequak draws the attention back to himself with some flashy yet controlled [Fire Magic]. “As I said before I got carried off, the summoning spell is a mixture of [Summoning Magic] and dimensional magic. Essentially, the spell uses the spiritual plane as a portal of sorts, and searches for suitable candidates within the White Rooms of Earth.” My gaze shifts to my fellow [Heroes]. White Rooms, huh? I vaguely remember such a place, which would mean… all of us had died? “However, as the spell cannot function indefinitely to search for the perfect candidate, a user must before the mage runs out of mana. The spell grabs onto the largest soul with the best affinities—hence, your selection. This means that if the spell cannot locate a perfect candidate, it will settle for the second best. However, Ray is a perfect candidate. His wavelength matched perfectly with the spell criterias. Because of this, more mana was required to summon him.”

  “How so?” asks a curious Matt.

  “As Ray’s wavelength was identical to that of the spell, it drew out more of the spell's latent power, meaning more mana was required to pull him out from the soul pool.”

  “Is that why his armour has higher stats than Raph and I? Because part of the spell’s inner power was used to boost Ray even further, since he’s a perfect candidate?”

  “Exactly so,” confirms Kequak.

  “Whoa! Do I need to call you Mr. [Hero] now?” Raph asks teasingly.

  “No… No, I’d rather not be so formal. Ray should be fine,” counters Matt.

  I’m about to open my mouth to support Matt, but Melony gives Kequak a comment that, once again, brings the room to a deathly quiet. “The largest soul with the best affinity to the system, huh? And how exactly does this ‘summoning spell’ differentiate between virtuous and unrighteous? What if one of you Court Mages accidentally summoned someone evil?”

  Kequak’s eyes instantly narrow.