Training (1)
I made my way to Professor Lucas’s office after he called for me.
“Sit there.”
Professor Lucas gestured toward the sofa beside the low table in the center of his office. He soon left his desk and took a seat across from me.
“Did you check your grades?”
“Yes, I did.”
“I never expected you to place second in our class. You worked hard.”
Since Professor Lucas was usually stingy with praise, saying I had worked hard was his version of warm encouragement. It really was unusual for someone from the lower class to rank second overall in the first-year evaluation that everyone participated in.
“Have you learned any other spells in the meantime?”
“Not yet.”
“Hmm……”
At my answer, Professor Lucas let out a small sigh. It wasn’t that I hadn’t thought about it. From now on, relying solely on basic Magic Missile was going to get difficult. Following the academy curriculum would already be a challenge, and with the Cult starting to make moves for reasons I didn’t understand, I needed to get stronger if I wanted to stop whatever they were planning.
I had my multi-stacking Magic Missile, but I couldn’t exactly fire a mortar round at every single small fry. I needed other spells. Once I obtained a mana stone, I’d secure more mana and figure something out from there.
“You could always borrow one from the library.”
Professor Lucas stood up briefly, took a book from the shelf, and returned. It was titled Understanding Basic Magic. It was a textbook used by middle-class mages. The lower class used books one level below that—beginner level.
“Read it without worrying about the return deadline.”
He slid the book he had set on the table toward me.
“I’ve already read this book.”
“You’ve read it all……?”
Professor Lucas raised an eyebrow in suspicion and pushed up his slipping glasses.
“Yes. I read the whole thing at the library.”
It was a book I had finished reading shortly after entering the academy, back when I used to frequent the library. Thanks to the game system, reading books allowed me to gain insights into magic, so I had deliberately gone through it. Even though Kael’s magic power rank was so low and he had no talent for it, I had still read it diligently. Since I already knew the game’s magic settings inside and out, the principles weren’t hard to follow.
“Then do you understand the operating principle of Fireball?”
“Yes. You shape mana with the fire attribute into a projectile form for casting, then trigger an explosion upon activation. The target is space itself, and the cost is primarily the caster’s mana.”
The magic system at Golden Academy wasn’t complicated. It combined natural mana with the caster’s mana, then assigned concepts for the form at initial casting, the form at activation, and the target. That was magic.
For example, my Magic Missile worked on the same principle as Fireball, except the mana used was non-attribute. Since most spells operated this way, once you knew what kind of magic it was, you could roughly guess what attribute of mana was needed and what concepts the caster had to apply.
Of course, that was only possible because I had raised countless mage characters until I was sick of it.
Professor Lucas continued asking about the operating principles of several more spells. I didn’t have every single one memorized, but as long as I knew what the spell was, deducing the answer wasn’t difficult. He must have thought my answers were mostly correct, because he kept firing questions without stopping.
“So the theory wasn’t the problem……?”
“Pardon?”
“Ah, never mind.”
When Professor Lucas muttered to himself even though I was sitting right in front of him, I asked for clarification, but he brushed it off.
“Then this should be even better.”
This time, he went to his desk and brought back a crystal orb. It was the mana training crystal occasionally used during class. When you poured a small amount of mana into it, the orb would maintain that mana for a set time, making it perfect for practicing the act of imbuing mana with concepts.
Of course, since Kael had virtually no talent for magic, just handling it a few times during class hadn’t led to any real progress.
“I’ll lend it to you, so use it well. And be careful not to break it.”
Professor Lucas casually pushed the open case containing the crystal toward me. It was a valuable item, so it wouldn’t be strange if he worried I might actually shatter it, yet his attitude was surprisingly relaxed despite his usually stern expression.
Kael’s progress in learning magic had been so slow that I had considered using a training crystal before. But since it was so expensive, I figured that by the time I could afford one, I would already be strong enough that I wouldn’t need it. The timing was perfect. Once I absorbed the mana stone and secured more mana, the conditions for serious training would be ideal.
“Thank you. I’ll make good use of it.”
I accepted it without hesitation, bowing my head in genuine gratitude.
I found an empty magic practice room among the lower-class lecture halls. Since it had a barrier, even if I messed up while handling the crystal, there wouldn’t be any problems. Still, I had to be careful not to break the expensive crystal by handling it too roughly.
Just yesterday, Warren and I had each received a mana stone as compensation for our injuries during the dungeon practice. Warren had been overjoyed, saying he would commission the blacksmith uncle right this weekend. I immediately absorbed mine to secure more mana.
Kael had been so lacking in mana that absorbing just one stone nearly tripled his maximum mana capacity. Mana was something you were born with, so there was a limit to how much you could increase it with mana stones, but even one made a tremendous difference for this body.
With this much mana, I could not only learn new spells but also use them in actual combat. The first spell I was aiming for was Energy Pulse, the next step in offensive magic after Magic Missile.
My Magic Missile could be fired in rapid succession without stacking and each one was fairly powerful, but that was still within the realm of Magic Missile. Its true strength only appeared when stacked ten times or more. I couldn’t keep launching unlimited cannonballs, so I needed a main offensive spell. Energy Pulse seemed perfect for that.
It was identical to Magic Missile except that at the moment of activation, you only had to apply the concept of ‘penetration’ instead of ‘explosion.’ That made it relatively easier to learn. With its magic penetration property, it would be incredibly useful against monsters with high magic resistance or against the Cult members who used defensive spells.
Since I had a mythic-grade staff that allowed stacking up to five times on any spell, even learning it at level 1 would let me use it at a fairly high level. When facing enemies with high magic resistance, I could use it as an alternative instead of mindlessly firing nuclear missiles.
The thought that I could finally look like a proper mage made me genuinely excited for the first time in a while.
I poured mana into the crystal orb sitting on the desk. The mana energy that left my hand was drawn into the orb and visualized. It was a flow of non-attribute white mana. Even though it had left my control, the crystal’s function kept it from scattering and disappearing.
This much I could somehow manage just from what I had done in class. The real problem came next.
The activation concept for Magic Missile was explosion. Regardless of how I combined it with other concepts, the only activation concept I could currently apply was explosion. From my experience in class, whenever I tried to do anything to the mana preserved inside the crystal, it would start fluctuating as if it were about to explode.
It was a good thing Kael’s magic power was so weak. If it weren’t, I probably would have broken the crystal several times already, and Professor Lucas would have banned me from going anywhere near one during class or otherwise.
Even now, I had to be extremely careful. I focused as gently as possible, trying to imbue my will so the mana could penetrate and pass through a specific point.
As expected, just knowing the theory isn’t enough.
Of course, it didn’t go my way right from the start. The white mana that had begun gathering in one direction soon lost strength and crumbled away like smoke. If it had been this easy, I would have already learned other spells long ago.
Still, I decided not to get too impatient. Compared to just a short while ago when I had been a mana cripple with barely any mana to practice with, this was a much more hopeful situation.
“Are you practicing magic?”
“Ah, shit… what the—?”
I had been repeatedly draining the mana inside the crystal, injecting new mana, and practicing when a voice suddenly came from behind me. I nearly swore out loud in surprise. When I turned toward the sound, I saw a familiar but unwelcome head of red hair.
Sure enough, it was Haley. I had been so focused that I hadn’t even heard the lecture room door open. I hadn’t noticed her until she was right beside me.
“This looks fun. Can I watch? What are you practicing? Where did you get that?”
As always, the moment Haley appeared, she started chattering away without pause.
“Go away. You’re distracting me.”
“Okay, thanks! I’ll watch carefully.”
Haley completely ignored what I said, pulled up a chair, and sat down across the desk from me.