The Art of Flame Magic (2)
Hwayoung sunbae's flame magic lecture continued for several more hours after that. She seemed genuinely pleased that I was absorbing her advice so well, so she poured her heart and soul into teaching me. I did my best to respond enthusiastically to her every word, determined not to let her efforts go to waste. Of course, advancing to advanced material in a single day was unrealistic, so most of our first session was spent breaking down the formulas for 1-circle and 2-circle spells.
"Heat generation consists of diffusion, ignition, and amplification. If you change the order, it becomes an entirely different spell, so pay attention."
"Yes, yes!"
"To turn Flame Burst into Fireball, you have to remove the cohesion and aiming components. If you combine five formulas, it becomes a 2-circle spell. Up to three formulas is 1-circle, up to five is 2-circle."
"Understood!"
As I listened to her lecture and adjusted the decomposition formulas in real time, I realized just how thoughtlessly I'd been using my magic abilities until now. To think I'd managed to pull off Fireball and Fire Arrow in actual combat with such half-baked skills. My goal of making flame magic my second main weapon after swordsmanship suddenly felt like nothing more than empty bravado.
"You understand now that blindly moving on to the next circle without properly understanding magic isn't growth at all, right?"
"Yes. I've realized that very clearly."
"Then here's a question to check if you've been paying attention to my lecture."
"……Yes."
"Between the 1-circle spell Flame Burst and the 2-circle spell Fireball, which one do you think is stronger?"
"Uh……"
Most people would naturally assume Fireball was stronger. After all, Fireball was just Flame Burst with added cohesion to increase its power and aiming to improve stability. But given the flow of our conversation, I had a feeling that simply saying Fireball was stronger would be the wrong answer. At the same time, I wasn't confident enough to guess that Flame Burst was stronger without being able to explain why.
So I answered honestly, admitting my ignorance.
"I think Fireball is the stronger spell, but something tells me that based on what you've been teaching, Flame Burst might actually be stronger."
"What are you talking about? Fireball has cohesion and acceleration added to it, so of course it's stronger. Where exactly have you been listening to my lecture?"
"……I'm sorry."
What the hell. I knew I'd given a stupid answer, yet somehow I felt like I'd been tricked. Still, it seemed my guess hadn't been completely off the mark, because Hwayoung sunbae continued with an explanation.
"Alright, another question. Suppose there's a mage who only uses Flame Burst in combat and another who only uses Fireball. Let's say they both have roughly the same total amount of mana to work with. Which one do you think would be more efficient?"
"Since Fireball is the stronger spell, the Fireball user would obviously be more efficient."
"It depends on the opponent, but in this case, the one using only Flame Burst would generally be more efficient."
……Why was she doing this to me? I nearly lost my mind at her teaching method of deliberately leading me into wrong answers, but I managed to pull myself together and asked for an explanation.
"Why is Flame Burst more efficient than Fireball in actual combat?"
"Because the mana consumption between 1-circle and 2-circle spells differs by a factor of two. Using one Fireball costs twice as much mana as one Flame Burst. So while Fireball is stronger as a single spell, it doesn't deal twice the destructive power of Flame Burst."
"……Aah!"
"Obviously, the mana inside a person's body isn't infinite. Once it's used up, you need proper rest and nutrition to replenish it. Mana potions aren't all-powerful either, so it's better not to rely on them too often. The same goes for stamina, not just mana."
Her explanations, drawn from years of real combat experience with flame magic, felt incredibly solid. Until now, I'd vaguely assumed that higher-circle magic simply meant greater power. But in actual battles where replenishing mana was limited, efficiency couldn't be ignored either. I'd nearly gotten into serious trouble during the Kraken fight after exhausting all my internal energy, after all.
"On top of that, if you use the mana you'd spend making a Fireball in a different way, you can do things like this."
As she spoke, a rather large mass of flame burst forth from Hwayoung sunbae's palm. Holding a fireball nearly twice the size of a normal one, she continued.
"Do you know what this is?"
"It's a flame mass… Did you increase the number of mana releases?"
"Exactly. I diverted the mana that would have gone into cohesion and aiming into more releases to increase its size. If you add acceleration to this, it becomes 'Superheat Burst.' I don't need to explain the pure power difference between Superheat Burst and Fireball, do I?"
"……No."
It would have slightly less stability compared to Fireball, but in terms of raw destructive power, Superheat Burst would probably overwhelm it.
"This is just a simple example. The important thing is how you can actually use this in combat. Can you really say with confidence that the magic you've learned so far is all there is up to the 5th circle?"
"No, of course not."
"Spells like Flame Tornado or Scorching Earth are just well-known because they're efficient enough to be formalized. In reality, mages fight by using spells in far more varied ways. That includes plenty of unnamed spells that aren't widely known."
"It's true that combat requires that kind of versatility."
"Even spells that aren't good enough to be formalized can sometimes prove useful in unexpected situations, or even spells that would normally be a hindrance. And occasionally, selfish women keep their own personal spells hidden away as secret weapons. Memorizing and only using officially known spell formulas is basically declaring that you're not even going to try using any of these other spells."
"That was… incredibly educational."
Somehow, what started as a magic lecture had turned into a process of reshaping my entire mindset, but looking back, every single word had been correct. If I'd tried to grow on my own without her help, I probably would've wasted my life never knowing these things. It was a moment where I once again realized the need to grow through my own will rather than relying solely on the levels gained from my awakening ability.
Just as my head was starting to ache from all the new knowledge and mental training crammed into it, Hwayoung sunbae finally ended today's lesson.
"Let's stop here for today. If you try to learn too much at once, you'll just end up forgetting more."
"Understood."
"And I'll be giving you homework. Bring it by the week after next."
"…Homework?"
"Yeah, homework."
The word brought back memories of school days, though not particularly fond ones.
"By the week after next, create one 3-circle spell. Something that hasn't been formalized yet."
"……You want me to create one myself?"
"Just combining seven or eight formulas to make a 3-circle spell won't cut it. Make something that can actually be used in real combat. If you bring me something half-baked, you'll only end up suffering more later."
"……"
"No answer?"
"…Understood."
I'd barely started grasping the concepts of magic, and she was already telling me to create a 3-circle spell. This was a different kind of Spartan education from Eun-young noona's.
While I was organizing the flood of information in my head, I heard Hwayoung sunbae's voice.
"We decided on pizza for dinner, right? Any menu you want?"
"Anything's fine, really… Oh, do they have Hawaiian pizza?"
"Even if they did, I wouldn't order something like that, so don't worry."
"Huh? No, I was going to say that if they have Hawaiian, I'd like that…"
"What……?"
Hwayoung sunbae's expression twisted as if to say, "What kind of guy is this?"
"So the big man likes sweet and sour pizza? You look like you'd only eat chicken breast pizza."
"It's not because I'm a man that I like it, it's because it tastes good. When you bake fruit, the sweetness comes out more and makes it delicious."
"Then why do you need to taste that sweetness in pizza too?"
"And fruit is good for your health too. From what I know, it even makes semen a bit sweeter."
"……I'll order half and half. You can eat the pineapple part by yourself."
"Understood."
She reluctantly compromised on a half-and-half, clearly not wanting to eat pineapple pizza herself.
"…It'll take about an hour."
"It's the peak delivery time, after all. Let's just wait comfortably."
"Yeah. In the meantime, go through those pharmaceutical books over there and pick out what you need."
"……Yes?"
"You came all this way, so I can't send you back empty-handed. If you need anything, I'll give you some to take home tomorrow."
……Just how far was this teacher planning to spoil me?
"It's fine. You don't have to go that far."
"I want to take care of you. Don't refuse when you can accept it."
"…Understood."
Figuring that pushing back would just lead to the same exchange, I pulled out the pharmaceutical book she'd pointed to and opened it. I didn't really need anything right now, so I wasn't sure if there was anything worth taking. If nothing else, I was thinking of getting some stamina or mana potions to give to Hye-eun when I spotted a single pill among the regular potions that seemed to be used for a different purpose.
"Sunbae, what is this used for?"
"Let me see… What, it's just cold medicine."
"Is it really just regular cold medicine? No additional effects or anything?"
"What kind of additional effects would cold medicine have? Cold medicine is cold medicine."
……Well, even I had to admit it was a pretty dumb question. Still, the fact that it was cold medicine itself was quite appealing. After all, illnesses caused by bacteria or viruses weren't something my recovery skill could treat. Hye-eun and I had both suffered from colds this summer, too. Thinking it might be good to have at least one, I asked her for it.
"Can I take this?"
"…You want that? I do have some stock left, but I wouldn't particularly recommend it."
"Why not?"
"The effect is certain, but the method of ingestion is a bit…"
"The method of ingestion is a bit what?"
"……It's a suppository. You put it in your back hole."
"……"
The moment I heard her answer, a quiet smile formed on my lips. Because another way to use this medicine had naturally occurred to me.