Ether

Magic is god’s grace, while magic power is something exhibited through the consumption of something within living beings that is known as ether. For humans, they call it mana, for everyone else, they call it ether. Ether is something that belongs within the body of living things. As soon as it touches the air or the water, it will immediately disperse, and return to the body. Magic can be demonstrated as long as the ether hasn’t dispersed yet. Because ether disperses upon contact with foreign body, gathering power and casting powerful magic is not something common.

Ether is difficult to use inside the body.  For example, if one wishes to strengthen his muscles with ether, he would have to fill his body with ether, set a course for it, and manipulate it until one achieves his desired effect.

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Gi Za's lecture

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Today’s lesson:

[Ether and Class]
[The Use of Ether]
[The History of Ether]

[Ether and Class]

The sky was clear when I held a lecture on Ether and Classes. My audience was not limited only to my druid subordinates, but also included the other noble class and rare class goblins. It would’ve been nice if the king could make it as well, but unfortunately, he was busy.

As I opened the class, I started by asking Gi Do what he thought of classes and ether.

“The higher the class, the more ether one can use,” Gi Do said.

It wasn’t a complete answer, but correct nevertheless. As expected of one of my druids. Me praising Gi Do seemed to have provoked Gi Gi however.

“Lord Gi Gi, what’s the matter?”

“I’m hungry.”

“”

A wind clad in ether tore the air in front to stir up the dust around the unenlightened fool.

“Eat dust, why don’t you?” I glared at Gi Gi to silence him, and then I began explaining.

“From time to time, a goblin is born who can control ether. Such goblins are known as practitioners. And just as goblins evolve into rares and nobles, practitioners evolve into druids and shamans. This was proven a few days ago when I evolved.

When one evolves, the ether one can use seems to increase. But is this really due to an increase in ether? Or perhaps due to an increase in the types of ether?

The answer might vary from practitioner to practitioner, but it is probably the types of ether that one can use that increases.

“Can’t you finish in two words or something?” Gi Gi asked.

“Shut up.” I said as I hit his head with my staff.

“Shut up… that’s two words indeed. Enlightening…” Gi Gi nodded as if understanding something, but I ignored him and continued the lesson.

“To begin with, ether is something that all goblins have regardless of whether one is a practitioner or not. In fact, even the very air is laden with ether. By the way, that’s actually something I found out just a few days ago when I was fighting the ogre lord and I happened to sense the ether from the clouds of dust that stirred up.”

“Now you’re just boasting!” Gi Gu complained.

When he said that, I accidentally casted a small whirlwind toward him, sending him flying into the blue sky, but… more on that later.

[Use of Ether]

“One way to distinguish between the ether inside the body and the ether outside the body is with colors. We can say that the ether inside the body is colored, while the ether outside is colorless. When one’s ether makes contact with the air outside, the color of that goblin’s ether oozes out into the surroundings. Of course, the color is strongest near the source, growing weaker the farther it goes. Which is also to say that the effect is weaker.”

“Teacher, so wouldn’t that mean that ether casted at point blank is really strong?” Gi Do asked.

I nodded. “Exactly. But it is important to note that every practitioner has his own ideal range, which we can categorize into three types: long range, medium range, short range. Then there’s also the division of ether within the body. Gi Do, it’s extremely important to know your range. It’s a matter of life and death.”

“Indeed,” Gi Go solemnly agreed, “You can’t fight without knowing your range.”

The other rare and noble goblins also nodded at his words.

Why do they agree so easily when he’s the one talking?

“When speaking of long range, you can imagine it as the distance from here to another village.”

Right now, we were in front of the Fortress of the Abyss. It would take about a day’s worth of running to get to another village from here.

“Medium range is the range you can see with your eyes, and short range is the area around your body.”

“Teacher, can you do a long range attack?” Gi Gu asked.

“Well, eventually…” I said.

“You can’t? And you call yourself a teacher,” Gi Gu said before he was sent flying into outer space.

Why don’t I just get it over with and turn you into a bird, hmm? Not that I’d want to taste you or anything.

“What’s the point of having a category that no one can use?” The oldest of the chieftains, Aluhaliha, asked. Hal and Alashd nodded when he spoke.

“To differentiate what can be done and what cannot be done. For example, Lord Aluhaliha, your spear might not be able to kill a bird flying in the air, but Ganra’s archers certainly could. Inversely, Ganra’s archers might fail to kill a ferocious beast, but Paradua’s spears would surely succeed. Being able to understand what is possible and what is not is essential to understanding the battlefield.”

“…Of course,” Aluhaliha said. Hal and Alashd looked down when he said that.

Were you two just looking for an argument?

“Earlier I mentioned that ether becomes stronger the closer it is when casted. This in turn means that the optimal way of using ranged magic is by first forming the spell somewhere outside the body before letting it shoot. The better you are able to grasp the sensation of controlling ether outside your body, the farther you’ll be able to form the spell, and consequently, the more likely you’ll be able to succeed at fighting within the medium range.”

Gi Do’s eyes sparkled, while the muscle head, Rashka, snored.

“For example, like this!” In the next instant, a powerless wind cutter formed right in front of Rashka, shooting at him and waking him up.

“Hmm? Huh? Is it time to eat? Oh, are you hunting? Take me along!”

What the hell was this muscle head dreaming about?

“Erm, muscle… I mean, Lord Rashka, please come over here.”

“Oh.”

Not like I have any dignity left to protect.

“Lastly, is the use of ether within the body.”

I dusted off the muscular arm of the goblin.

“It would have been great if the king were with us, but… Muscle, I mean, Lord Rashka, can you show us your Ra Gilion?”

“Oh? You want to see my technique?”

“Yes, very.”

Rashka happily nodded before invoking Ra Gilion.

Black light compressed into Rashka’s hands.

I waited until it reached the peak before continuing. “What Lord Rashka is doing now is invoking the ether directly within his body. This is a very dangerous thing to do… You do know that, right?”

“Y-Yes…” Rashka said as he grit his teeth.

I knew he was in pain now, but I ignored him.

“Leaving invoked ether in your body is the same thing as leaving a blade inside your body. Such an act requires exquisite control. Our king used something similar back when he fought against the ogre lord, but even he, despite being our king, ended up losing his right arm. As much as possible, this method should be avoided.”

Veins started to bulge on Rashka’s head.

He can actually stop now though.

“Oh, that’s enough.”

“Right!”

The black light shot into the heavens.

[The History of Ether]

“Many consider ether as something that can influence the internal world, the body, or the external world, the world outside the body. But what exactly is ether? Many extol magic as the work of god. And they wouldn’t be wrong, as magic indeed is the manifestation of miracles. The power to heal wounds, to summon flames, or in my case, to summon winds to tear the enemy into pieces. Magic requires just two things: Ether and a chant.”

I’ll explain the history of ether next. The humans seem to refer to ether as mana, but that’s not of particular note.

“Though according to the legends, the gods have no need for chants. It’s just a little tidbit I heard from the old goblin, so I don’t know how true, but supposedly, 400 years ago during the great war, the gods could… with a flick of their arms call upon lightning to scorch the earth or winds to sunder fissures.”

Although it’s just something I heard from the old goblin, it should be fine.

“And supposedly, humans, demihumans, goblins, and all sorts of races learned those techniques. As for who remembers such techniques to this day… Well, there shouldn’t be any. But if there are, then they’d probably be the gods themselves or pawns of the gods. There are also those races that can use magic as if it were no different from breathing. And then, there’s always the possibility of some relic from long ago still living among us today through the use of some life-preserving magic.

As for the chants themselves, I believe they are some sort of ritual that allows one to borrow a small amount of power from the gods. Receiving the divine protection of a god and using magic, it’s almost like being turned into a puppet to play in the gods’ doll house.”

When you think about it that way, practitioners sure are sinful. Especially, in my case where I continuously research ether to make it my own. It’s almost seems as if we practitioners are stealing the power of the gods.

“In conclusion, the research on ether has just begun, so if you ever catch a human or an elf, bring them to me. Dismissed. Oh, next time, we’re studying the order of chants and the most basic process of ether.”

As the exhausted goblins screamed, I ended the class.

This sure was fun.