"If you get two Healing cards, one from a shop and one from the army, and they both provide a similar type of healing, for example healing superficial lacerations, does that mean they have the same spell models? What if one performs better than another? In that case, what is the difference between the two?" Marliyn asked.
Throughout the evening, her questions had not ceased. Even now that they had taken a break for the night, she kept asking him questions.
Across Kolar, wherever there were roads cutting through the wilderness, after every 50 kilometres (30 miles) there was an empty resthouse. The army would regularly come and cleanse the resthouse of all curses, so that any travellers may use it if need be. But that 'regularly' was only relatively speaking, since they may end up cleansing it once a year.
Most of the time, the resthouses were maintained by the actual travel groups and caravans using them.
The resthouse they had stopped at was built atop a large concrete platform, but it clearly hadn't been used in a while since there were bushes and vines covering the concrete. Fortunately, none of them seemed to be cursed, which is why Nero could participate in the cleaning process of the resthouse.
The process was simple. Nero was given an incinerator card, and he used it to burn all the vegetation on the concrete platform, leaving the resthouse which was in the centre free from all sides.
"Since the type of healing is similar, chances are that the spell model might be the same. If the spell model is the same, then the difference in performance can be due to one of the recipes being more effective than the other. Of course, the spell models don't have to be the same.
It's entirely possible that the spell models are different, in which case their performance cannot objectively be compared in terms of recipe."
Nero paused when something caused a small explosion in front of him. After a few moments, he used Air push to break through the flames and see what exploded. He could not tell what it was, but it looked like a half decayed corpse of some small animal. It was quite strange that it did not become cursed. Then again, there was no rule that said all corpses had to get cursed.
"Despite the fact that there are countless publicly known recipes, most successful artisans actually have their own inheritance of recipes which they keep secret. My question is, if everyone keeps their recipes secret, then how can people end up with the same spell models? Shouldn't they be even more closely held secrets? Even if you don't know the answer, take a guess."
"Well, according to what I've been taught, spell models are found in nature. That means spell models are not created by artisans, they're found. If that's the case, it's not impossible for two people to encounter the same spell model."
"So where do you think they're found? What do they look like? How are they transferred into the cards?"
Nero did not respond, and instead just tried to think of an answer. It was not that he hadn't asked these questions before, but that he'd never been answered. Not all knowledge was given freely. The fact that it had been held back from being provided to him meant that there had to be some reason why it wasn't so easily disclosed.
The simplest guess was that once people were told about how to find spell models, they went out into the wilderness to find some, and kept on getting killed.
"The only spell model I know where to find is the ones everyone unlocks when they synchronise. If I had to base it off that, I'd say all spell models come from other living beings, whether they be plants, animals, insects. It's the special abilities that they have unlocked that can be translated as a spell model."
It was a reasonable deduction. Since no one gave him a straight answer, he could only guess. The only flaw in this deduction was that he'd seen a lot of cards which had strange functions he just couldn't imagine animals having.
For example, one of the most commonly sold cards is not a combat card, but a utility one. It's for household cleaning, and simply cleans all the dust and light stains in the target area. What kind of animal would have such a spell model?
He'd used an Oath card to swear several oaths. What kind of plant or creature would have an ability to swear magical oaths?
"You are not wrong. That is one source of spell models," Marilyn said with an approving nod. "In fact, I cannot conclusively say that I know all sources of spell models because just like my family has a secret heritage for crafting, others too might have secret knowledge about how to get or maybe even create spell models. But I can tell you the most common sources.
"The first is naturally people. Getting someone to contribute the model for their innate ability is very common, though most people prefer to create cards with their own innate ability themselves. The second source, as you guessed, comes from animals, insects and plants. For example, look at this."
Marilyn held out a dagger and squatted near some grass, picking up an insect that Nero had missed in the dimming light of the evening. It looked like a worm, it had broken wings and an odd number of legs. It's carapace, too, looked quite a bit softer than other insects.
"Look at this insect. You could accidentally step on it and kill it, that's how weak it is. And it moves so slow, it has no chance of escape if it gets sighted by some prey animal. Yet, it has not gone extinct under the constant invasion of cursed vegetation.
In fact, did you know, according to the latest theories, insects are suspected to be one of the foremost reasons for why cursed vegetation has not just taken over the whole world. Many of them boast unique resistance to cursed energy, and can sometimes even eat drained curses.
"As a result, insects are often used to find spell models for shields and other generic defences against curses and cursed energies. They're also used to destroy cursed items that the army collects."
Nero looked at the insect with newfound interest, just in time to see his mother flick it into the distance.
"Of course, this is only a common insect. Much like us, insects and animals can absorb aether to grow stronger. Arcanist level insects are such a huge threat to humanity that as soon as they're spotted, they're killed regardless of their potential to destroy curses."
Nero knew about that. He'd heard about an insect tide that once struck Creta, nearly destroying most of the country.
"You will be, for the most part, working with spell models obtained from such sources. Tonight, I'm going to teach you how to extract those spell models and how to use them. But they're not the only sources of spell models. There are actually two other, relatively common sources of spell models.
"The first is actually nature itself. Sometimes, the flow of aether in certain areas gives birth to treasure, or perhaps turns mundane items into treasures which contain special spell models. In such cases, those spell models are unique, and most of the time can never be found again. This is one example."
Marilyn opened a small pouch that she carried, and pulled out a small berry, encased in a glass box.
"This is a natural occurrence. Much like how items can suddenly become cursed, they can also be blessed by aether, and gain magical properties. But in truth, those magical properties are a result of spell models which have formed inside of them.
This berry can be consumed, which will naturally trigger the spell model within, or it can be used to create a spell, which will also end up consuming the berry.
"Such treasures are called Aetherials, and can come in any shape and size. But most of the time, Aetherials are found in the form of crystals, gems or jewels. Aether shards or stones are also prone to turning into an Aetherial.
"Naturally, creating a card from spell models as unique as the ones found in Aetherials is an exceptionally difficult task, and is left to highly skilled and experienced artisans. After all, they usually only have one attempt. If they fail, then the Aetherial goes to waste.
"The final, and least common source of spell models are actually alternate dimensions. Much like how items gain magical properties due to exposure to aether, items in other dimensions suffer the possibility of gaining various magical properties related to that specific dimension. Such items are called Nexals, mostly because they are most often found at nexus points in various dimensions.
"Nexals are easier to work with, in the sense that the affinity of the spell model is easy to predict since it's linked to the dimension it came from. But they are incredibly rare, and not something most people even ever get to see."