Today was a rare day of clear skies, and paired with the low snowfall last night, the grounds were mostly cleared of snow. Still, as I neared the training grounds, I heard the distinct crunching of feet moving over packed snow.
Though I have my reservations on the uncouth behavior of my siblings, the atmosphere of hard work that permeates not just the Nemetz estate, but the entirety of the duchy and its land is quite pleasant. The fact that our knights train throughout the year while still having to embark on regular excursions to eradicate monsters is commendable if nothing else.
When I passed the threshold into the North training grounds, all heads turned towards me. "Young Master Johan? What brings you here?"
A young knight, I believe his name was James, was resting closest to the door, thus it fell on his shoulders to ask me the question I presume was plaguing the other knights' minds.
"I'm here to begin my martial arts training," I said, pointing towards Friedrich, "Sir Friedrich will be handling this."
As if his vehement denial to teach me had never happened, Friedrich was calmly smiling across the training grounds with his hands folded behind his back. Did he expect me to ask Father? No, maybe he just doesn't mind either way.
"As you were," I said, waving away the knights' attention. Their training mattered more than any attention they were giving me right now.
"How was breakfast, Young Master Johan?"
"Productive, Sir Friedrich."
His smile grew, but he forced it down– replacing it with a more serious expression. "Young Master Johan, though I understand your conviction to learn is unwavering, learning martial arts is an extremely time-consuming process. I will only ask this once: Are you sure you want to do this? Even if it would take away time learning magic?"
I needed no hesitation, "Yes sir."
He stared at me for a moment, and then shook his head with an exasperated expression. "As expected."
Ignoring the comment, I led us towards a more secluded section of the training grounds.
.
.
.
"-have their own advantages and disadvantages that you must consider when choosing a path. Tomorrow I expect a well thought out explanation on your thoughts of each build, as well as a decision of which you will use."
Friedrich just finished a long winded explanation of the different knight builds. I'm not really in any need of more theoretical knowledge on the subject, as the novel had information he might not even know about martial arts. What I really need is guidance on the implementation of the knowledge I already have.
This assignment was already something I had put much thought into, and as he left me to contemplate, I too wandered out of the training grounds.
What should I do? All three general builds I am currently considering (speed, strength-speed, sense) all have sound arguments for and against them, each I have put a lot of thought into. All I need now is to figure out which one my magic can supplement the best.
Before I knew it, my feet had dragged me back into the library. Its near perfect silence and the subtle smell of old paper and pine calmed my thoughts. Maybe here I'll find an answer. For hours on end, I scoured the daunting library for answers, but my perfunctory skimming of topics yielded more questions than answers.
What I need now is an expert.
As if willed into existence, the next corner I turned I saw Lady Umbra calmly sipping a cup of tea. "Johan dear, come join me for tea~" she said, patting the seat next to her as if she had predicted my arrival hours before.
I needed her help, so I obliged.
Sssiiip~ as expected, Lady Umbra's tea was sublime, as far as tea went. Finishing my courtesy sip, I began to speak-
-She cut off my thoughts- "Is there something on your mind, dear?"
"...yes, Lady Umbra. I am to begin learning martial arts soon, and I am having trouble selecting the build I am to pursue. I need more in-depth knowledge on both of my elemental affinities before I am to choose. I require your magical knowledge to make the most informed decision."
She didn't respond immediately, instead taking another sip of her tea. "Ara~ I was wondering when you would finally convince little Friedrich to teach you," she said with a coy smile. "Still, dear, are you sure you can handle learning magic and martial arts at the same time? With how much you throw yourself into magical studies, will you have time for anything else?"
"Father forced me to take a break one day a week, so I should have far more than enough time for 'anything else'," I said.
She let out a sharp exhale from her nose that resembled a laugh, "Forced…" She took another sip, and finally placed the entire porcelain cup down. "Well, my knowledge on the subject of elemental void magic is spotty, but I should still be of some assistance."
Her knowledge on the subject of elemental darkness went without saying.
"Let's start with what you know. Elemental darkness' aspects are 'Shadow' and 'Concealment'; shadow deals with the manifestation and manipulation of shadows and darkness itself, while concealment deals with the interaction that the energy has with mana as a whole." As she was doing this, visual diagrams made of darkness manifested just above each of her hands.
I couldn't even see the magic circles.
"The shadow aspect has two core concepts, first: The Solid Shadow. Solid shadow describes shadows brought into the physical world. Here, they take on quite intriguing properties. Would you like to take a look?"
Without waiting for my answer, a sheet of solid shadow manifested between her hands. Leaning in closer, I strained my eyes to pick up on the slightest of details within the substance. It was… extremely difficult to pick up on anything. Most if not all light was absorbed by it, making any texture or depth nearly invisible to the naked eye. After a bit, I did begin to see some things.
Strangely, solid shadow looked almost like exposed muscle fibers mixed with sewn fabric. Intrigued, I reached out to touch it.
Softly, I brushed the tips of my fingers across its surface. The feeling sent shivers down my spine. Unlike other inanimate objects, this stuff felt like it was something dead. Not something that was inanimate, but something that had once been alive and was now experiencing rigor mortis.
Pressing harder, the rigid structure began to warp slightly.
This… this feels strange. It's elastic and bouncy like muscles, but dead as a corpse. "It feels like exposed muscle," I observed.
She smiled, "Correct. Solid shadow is so great at restricting movement precisely due to this property. A spell like [Shadow Bind] was inspired by constricting snakes once this was discovered. It also means that solid shadows are relatively good at blocking blunt impacts, but worse off when it comes to defending against sharp attacks."
"Distinguishing it from the defensive capabilities of earth or ice."
"Precisely," she said with a smile. "Second is 'Shade'. The intricacies of this lie not in some physical property, but in the sheer fact that it links the material realm to the realm of shadows. Whether or not a shadow is a shade, any interaction a shade makes to a shadow will affect the origin point of said shadow no matter the distance.
"The peak strength of the shade's influence is weaker than solid shadow's, but that is made up for by how difficult it is to defend against. Normal shadows are completely helpless against shades, while the only thing capable of truly affecting one is another shade, or light magic."
Of course, this I already knew. Solid shadows were something that wasn't possible to bring out until the more complex 2-star spells (ones which I have not even cast yet), while shade was usable from 1-star.
She paused, probably understanding that this information was something I needed to think over.
So, how can this information supplement the weaknesses of any of the builds I would like to use? For speed… I guess solid shadows could be used to enhance the lacking defensive capabilities, but not enough for that to be a main-
Wait… the properties of solid shadows…
"Lady Umbra, is there a spell that…" I thought about how to explain it. The only words that came to my mind were in another language entirely, and even then I'd have to explain far more technologically advanced concepts than I was comfortable doing.
"Yes, dear?"
"Never mind. I think I figured out something."
Exoskeleton. Well, in this case, exomuscles. If what I was imagining is possible, I could theoretically create an exoskeleton of solid shadow that could potentially act as muscles comparable to a knight of equivalent star level.
Maybe it's far-fetched, maybe it's impossible, but the idea alone is enough for me to forgo any doubt, or need any further explanation. I stood up and bowed my head, "Thank you, Lady Umbra, your guidance has given me great insight into my path moving forward."
"Ohoh~" she placed her hand over her mouth. I looked up, only to meet her all-black eyes staring at me with a different kind of intrigue and maturity than I had seen out of her so far. "Would you be interested in sharing your revelation?"
I shook my head, "I can't do that now, Lady Umbra. Currently, my understanding of magic, science, and martial arts are not at a point where I can properly voice my thoughts. I do, however, have a question about solid shadow."
She looked a little disappointed, but still intrigued at the fact that I seemed to come up with something that couldn't be explained in the terms she had taught me so far. "Go on~"
"Yesterday, when you chased me with your shadows, your version of [Shadow Clone] didn't look anything like the solid shadow you just showed me. I was curious during your absence here, so I read a few spells I was interested in the 3-star elemental darkness spell book, but nowhere in the description of the spell indicated it would have color."
"Ah, that. It's just a little… modification… I made. Tell me, Johan, if you needed a distraction using a [Shadow Clone], how would you solve the issue that they all look like shadows?"
I thought for a second, but the answer came quickly, "Personally, I would make myself look like a shadow."
…
"...actually, that's probably more efficient…"
H-huh? She didn't try that first, and instead found a way to give shadow color?
"Ahem~," she coughed, "Well, my solution was to make the shadows look like me. I guess I overcomplicated things… but it did lead to a nice discovery!
"I'll explain the concept, dear. Darkness, specifically the color black, is simply the absence of visible light. The reason something appears green for example is simply because everything but that color is being absorbed by the object, reflecting only the colors that make up what you see. Through an instruction set I devised, shadows are able to accomplish the same thing."
This… this is amazing! If shadows can do something so complex, then that gives me hope that my idea is, at the very least, plausible.
That settles it.
I will become a Sense Knight.