35 Chapter Thirty-Five: Siran (1/2)

Jack continues through the next two weeks trying to master the methods to using magic, while also balancing a job and avoiding social interaction. In the middle of the night one day, he's standing outside with Naris just outside of his house. He's practicing learning the mentality needed to use magic. After failing like usual, Jack turns to Naris and asks ”I don't get it. What exactly am I supposed to do?”.

”You're supposed to align your intentions, cognition and focus on the specific type of effect the magic would produce” Naris says. ”Your intentions have an effect on the material world that forms over time. The way you perceive the world molds the world. The way you want to perceive the world shapes how you act, which is where your cognition comes in. You have to align you cognition and be conscious of your own faults and strengths. Doing this will allow you to be more honest with yourself within your intentions, which then brings us to focus. If you can focus on what you want, while also focusing on the specific effect you will have on the world, you can shift that into magic with this charm you drew. The charm is like a tiny gateway that pulls Endoindustria from an internal dimension. This Endoindustria is the fuel for magic”.

”Where does it come from?” Jack asks.

”All in due time” Naris replies, ”for now, focus on the task at hand”.

”I can't do it though!” Jack proclaims, ”I can't comprehend how to do it!”.

”Are you afraid of something inside yourself?” Naris asks. ”Are you hiding something from yourself that you do not wish to face?”.

Jack fell silent for a moment, as he did not have the answer to that question. Finally, Jack says ”I don't know...”.

”You have to learn to face yourself” Naris says, ”if you wish to truly know yourself. You can't understand your own cognition if you don't know about yourself. Be more honest, Jack”.

”... Right” Jack replies.

”Let's take a break for now” Naris says, ”and pick up again tomorrow”.

Jack went to bed and woke up the next day. He had the day off of work, so he didn't have much to do. When he got hungry, he searched the house for food that he could cook, but he didn't find much. ”I shouldn't eat the last of the food” Jack says to himself, ”I should leave the rest of the food for mom, since she's the one who paid for it. I don't want to leave her hungry too”. Jack uses his cell phone to see how much money he has left in his bank from work, and after deciding he had enough to be able to spend a little money on some food, he left the house and took with him a skateboard and his headphones to listen to music from his phone. As he leaves the house, one of his neighbors is sitting on the front porch. The man sitting on his porch looks at Jack as he passes by.

”Still living with your mom?” The man asks. ”And you're how old?”.

Jack stops putting his headphones in his ears and looks at the man sitting on the porch. ”Do I know you?”.

”That doesn't matter” the man says, ”what matters is that you're burdening your poor mother by being lazy. You living with your mother at your age puts extra weight on her shoulders”.

”Why do you care?” Jack asks.

”Because” the man says, ”your laziness makes you a burden to people like your mother and therefor a burden to society. If you got a real job and moved out and stopped being so lazy, then-”

”Mind your own fucking business please?” Jack says as he puts his headphones on and starts selecting music on his phone. Before Jack starts listening to music, he can hear the man say ”you'll never amount to anything in this world”. After the music starts playing, Jack sighs to himself and continues walking down the road. When he exits the neighborhood, he drops his skateboard and rides on it for a couple miles to the store. As he's riding, Naris appears to his left. Jack takes his headphones out to hear what Naris has to say.

”Well that was quite a rude human” Naris says.

”I'm used to it” Jack replies. ”It's not that I refuse to get a better job or anything, it's just there is no better job that will accept me. I've already lost my previous home, which is why I moved back in with my mom... it's just that most humans are mean like that. It's why I don't socialize”.

”A pitiful, but perhaps wise decision” Naris replies. ”These roads don't seem busy even though there's human living nearby, why is that?”.

”These roads are the backroads” Jack replies. ”Backroads are secondary streets. The place we live in is rather rural since it's just outside of the city. Not many people travel down these roads”.

”Seems like a good place to clear your mind” Naris says, ”why don't you try taking your time and clearing your mind? It might help you with your cognition”.

”Perhaps” Jack replies.

Jack spends the rest of the trip trying to clear his mind as he goes to the store. On his way back, he spends his time reflecting about what the man had said and then reflecting on himself as a person. When he finally arrives back home, he says to Naris ”I think we should pick up from where we left off last night”.

”You're eager to practice today” Naris says, sounding impressed.

”I just want to keep going until I can accomplish at least something” Jack says. ”I won't let that man be right about me: never amounting to anything”.

”Sounds like the proper motivation” Naris replies, ”now hold this paper charm in your hand. We're going to practice creating fire. Focus on the air molecules moving around faster and faster, as if you were creating energy between the oxygen molecules”.

Jack focuses for a few minutes in silence, and after a long wait, a small fire appears hovering over Jack's right hand. Jack looks down, excited and happy that he had finally done it. His excitement caused him to lose control, and he dropped the fire on the carpeted floor of his mother's house. The carpet began burning, and Jack leaped into action to put the fire out. The fire easily went out, since it was only a small fire, and Jack's panic turns into laughter.

”I did it!” Jack says, ignoring the fact that he almost burned down the house.

”Good job” Naris says, ”now we move onto the next step. You're going to learn more types of elemental magic until you get the hand of casting magic. Then you'll begin learning many other forms of magic”.

”How many forms of magic are there?” Jack asks.

”Countless forms” Naris replies, ”and it'll be impossible to learn them all, but it would be possible for you to create a new type of magic”.

Days had passed, then weeks, then months. Jack spent most of his free time with Naris. The two of them grew close, as Naris teaches Jack all about magic. After elemental magic, Jack learned buff and debuff magic. Then he began to learn things like digital magic and illusion magic. Before long, Jack started trying to teach himself magic while he wasn't with Naris, at times like on break at work. Other times when Naris didn't seem to be around, Jack would try to create new forms of magic. He had hoped to learn the art of magic really fast, and he had hoped to create a magic all of his own. Maybe then, someone somewhere would be proud of him. Although, tried as he might, he had so far failed to create his own form of magic.

After many months, at the start of autumn, Naris had come up with a test for Jack. ”It's about time you start using stronger magic” Naris says, ”but to do that, you'll need stronger access to Endoindustria. To compensate, I'll have you try to open these sort of non-material rifts to the endo realm. There are several different types of charms, much bigger charms and you'll have to channel energy through it. Doing so will test your ability at handling Endoindustria, as well as bringing the relationship between your world and the endo realm closer. When the two realms become closer, there will be more Endoindustria in your world, so you can depend on me less for channeling Endoindustria. Eventually, you'll be able to perform magic a lot easier”.

”Where should we draw the giant charms?” Jack asks eagerly.

”They'll need to be somewhere that won't be disturbed” Naris says. ”These charms aren't normal charms. They're akin to summoning charms, in the sense that it essentially brings another dimension into your reality, but not enough so that the world itself will change in any noticeable way. Disturbing it will cancel out the effort, and you'll have to start all over again”.

”Sounds easy enough” Jack replies ”I can find a few good places. There's several forests around here”.

”That'd be adequate” Naris says.

And so, Jack and Naris go to the nearest forest just outside of the neighborhood. Jack draws the charm on an open piece of land and spends four hours channeling Endoindustria. After four hours, the charm begins to glow with a bright light. The light then turns into heat, and the charm is then burned into the ground.

”The first one is done” Naris says, ”feel any different?”.

”Not really” Jack replies.

”Good, you're not supposed to” Naris replies.

”This is our world colliding with another realm?” Jack asks.

”Did you think it'd be scarier?” Naris asks.

”No, I just... didn't know what to expect” Jack says.

More days pass as Jack practiced more magic with Naris. After a few days, Jack spent the day alone and decided to continue practice. He sat at the edge of a pond, and focused on feeling the Endoindustria radiating from the large summoning charm. After a while, he could feel a pull on his body, as if the Endoindustria was pulling on his soul. When he opened his eyes, he noticed that he was in fact pulling Endoindustria out of the surrounding environment. The endo realm slowing coming together with the real world was bringing lots of Endoindustria into existence. Because of this, he was now surrounded by this energy, and he learned how to absorb it. Later that night, he met with Naris again and told him about his new discovery.

”That's absorption magic” Naris says, ”and I forbid you from further practicing it”.

”What? Why?” Jack asks.

”It's too dangerous” Naris replies. ”If you get too greedy, you'll take more than you can handle. The Endoindustria will kill you”.