"How the hell did I end up here...!?"
Linnie bit his nail, watching Aliza sneak up behind a monk, bat in hand and raised above her head. Suddenly, she stepped on a twig, causing Linnie to wince and cover his eyes.
"We're screwed..."
- - - - - - - - - - - -
After Aliza had told Linnie and Alwyn everything, there was only one thing left to do: actually, you know, cure Alwyn.
But, of course, Aliza wasn't able to treat him. Not by normal means, at least, since that would mean crippling his livelihood as a wizard for life. No, Alwyn would rather die than let that happen.
Aliza explained that, since it was technically a spiritual affliction rather than a physical disease, an exorcism ritual should work.
The only problem was, the only artifact in the city that had enough spiritual energy to exorcise something so strong—something placed by a god—was under lock and key in the monastery right outside of the city walls.
Breaking into a monastery would be quite the trivial task, normally. Normally being when Alwyn wasn't incapacitated on an operating table.
"I hate to have to rely on a kid, but Alwyn better have taught you well."
"...Huh?"
There seemed to be a misunderstanding.
"You don't mean...?"
"I haven't learned any spells yet. I mean, I'm pretty sure I cast a spell once, but that was on accident."
For the two magic-less participants remaining, the monks trained in hand-to-hand combat would be far too great to take on.
Well, directly.
"Alright, dude. I'm actually pretty good at hand-to-hand combat, so we're just gonna sneak in there and take out each monk, one at a time. Sound good?"
"Sounds like a plan...?" Linnie said, giving a double thumbs up.
"This doesn't sound like a plan at all! Damn, why am I weak to beautiful women! Wait, hell no I'm not!"
"Actually, I really think we should think about this a little—where did she just go...?"
- - - - - - - - - - - -
That's how they ended up in this situation.
Linnie, cringing at Aliza's imminent capture, leapt out from the bush and called out to the monk. "Hello? Sir?" he said.
"Huh? What is it, child?" he asked, concerned.
Suddenly, the metal bat swung through the air, making a cracking sound as it collided with his head. The man collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.
"Phew, that was close. Nice work, Linnie," she grinned. "Let's go inside."
Linnie nodded. "That was kinda... cool. It's like we're secret spies infiltrating the king's palace or something...!"
They continued into the monastery, which was a lot larger on the inside than they expected. The hallways were endlessly sprawling and quiet, and the two were both getting more nervous as the time went on.
"How've we only seen one guy so far?" Linnie whispered.
"I don't know. Maybe they're all asleep?"
"I thought monks didn't sleep, though."
"...Where'd you hear that?"
"I don't know. I made it up."
Finally, they came across two large doors. Light crept through the cracks, and Aliza nodded at Linnie. She pushed open the door slowly and the two of them peered through.
"They aren't asleep, they're all in a meeting!" Linnie whispered. "How're we supposed to steal that thing while they're all praying to it?"
"Tch, I didn't expect this. Damn."
At least twenty monks were all kneeling, facing the large altar while listening to the abbot's teachings.
"Alright, Linnie, you're gonna have to light those curtains on fire."
"Huh!? And how am I supposed to do that?"
"Magic. I'll teach you."
"How? You can't even cast spells..."
"I'm, like, an expert in theoretical magic. I always got perfect scores. I'll just explain it to you."
"I don't know... I've been told that I'm a visual learner."
"Well, too bad. We don't have any other option. Not unless you want to take all these guys at once."
"That sounded dirty," Linnie snickered.
"What?"
"Never mind. Okay, how do I do it? How do I make fire?"
"You said you've cast a spell before, right? What was it like?"
"Uh, it was hot."
"It was a fire spell?"
"I think so. I remember it being super bright, and everyone disappeared after I used it. I'm not too sure, though."
"Disappeared? What the hell... well, you remember how it felt inside your chest, right?"
"Hot, sure, but how's that supposed to help me?"
"Alwyn didn't even teach you this? Magic is all about your mind, to put it simply. If you think you can do it, you can. Well, given you've got the resources, of course."
"Resources?"
"It won't be an issue for you any time soon. Or ever, maybe, like Alwyn. It's just your mana. Magic is really a formula made up of two things: mana and creativity. Your available mana can't really be improved, so most wizards focus on building their creativity."
"Oh man, I'm not creative at all!" Linnie thought to himself, sweating.
"Why're you making that face? It's fine, this type of creativity isn't related to how well you can draw a picture or anything. It's really just what you can imagine forming with your mana. Every property of a spell is thought up by the caster.
For example, a fire spell doesn't necessarily need to be hot. If a wizard has the creativity to imagine a flame that's cold to the touch instead of hot, then they'd be able to cast it."
"You're losing me..."
"...That's my bad, you don't have to worry about any of this yet. At first, creativity is most easily built through real experience. This is why most young apprentices' cores are activated by a wizard, since it can be hard to use mana for the first time without prior experience.
Luckily for us, you've already cast a spell. Even luckier is that it was a fire spell. Basically, it's exactly what we need. So, it should be no problem for you. Understand?"
"I feel like you didn't clear anything up at all... I actually might be more confused, now."
"Just hold out your hand! Okay, now close your eyes and try and recall that heat you felt in your chest. Do you feel it stirring?"
"Uh, I think?"
"Good, now try and imagine that feeling flowing out from your chest and down your arm into your hand."
"I feel it... it's—" Linnie let out a burp. "Whoops, it was just heartburn."
"We're screwed..." she sighed, facepalming.