After the class was over, Elena ordered her slave, Nick, to return to his room on his own. Without wasting any time, Nick began walking towards the room silently.
While he was walking towards his room, many thoughts and questions roamed his mind. Most of them were about how that slave was murdered by his master.
“There are so many messed-up things in this world.”
Thinking about the cruelty of this world, he couldn’t help but sigh.
“I should stop caring about issues like this and only focus on improving myself if I don’t want to end up like them.”
Nick entered his room, and about ten minutes later, a mage guard came. Like always, he silently put the bread-soup combo and left.
Nick first drank the red soup and then ate the black bread.
Making sure that no one was going to enter his room, he sat on the chair and began his daily thought-training routine.
He replayed today’s class in his mind and began thinking about the spell and the slave.
“In essence, Dark Alchemy Arm creates an artificial arm with the help of mana. From what I could understand from the teacher’s words, it seems like it’s an easy spell if you have good knowledge about magical energy and are proficient in controlling it.”
It was a dark spell and used dark mana, so Nick didn’t want to learn it. It was a great spell,
but one had to be a Dark Mage to use it.
Neither was he a dark mage, nor did he want to become one.
However, with what he had learned from the class, he was certain that he could imitate this spell without the help of dark mana. There was only one problem that was stopping him from doing so: the Dark Alchemy book.
It was the book that teacher Revire had mentioned in today’s class, and Nick had no means of obtaining that book.
Without the book, he had no idea how to maneuver the mana.
With a helpless smile on his face, he decided to feel his mana first. Seconds later, his mana began manifesting on his right hand. Nick visualized the mana in his head and molded the shapeless mana into a round ball.
Slowly, the formless mana on his hand began taking shape and soon resembled a mana ball.
Finally, he wanted to make it levitate, so he tried to visualize it, but it ended in failure, and the ball didn’t even move an inch.
After this series of experiments, he came to a conclusion.
“From this, I can see that there are two types of control. Abundant mana with abundant knowledge about mana can help a mage control mana like their own limb, like an extension of their body.
On the flip side, without enough mana or knowledge, a mage has to use manuals and books to help them control their own mana. Since Jonathan was lacking in mana, teacher Revire asked him to maneuver his mana according to the Dark Alchemy book.”
The moment Nick terminated this train of thoughts, he heard a resounding Ding in his head and the system interface jumped up.
[Name]: Nick
[Status]: Level 1 (Imper Level Mage)
[Strength]: 1.0
[Intelligence]: 1.9
[Magical Abilities]
Life Siphon (Proficiency: 15%)
Energy Bolt (Proficiency: 100%)
That Ding and system interface pop-up meant that his hypothesis was correct once again. This also meant that he couldn’t levitate the mana ball because he was lacking in mana and knowledge.
If he wanted to levitate the mana ball, he either required a book that showed him how to control his mana for that particular action, or he had to keep experimenting.
If he kept on experimenting, he would gain more knowledge with each small success and failure.
Nick once again closed his eyes and took a different approach. Instead of trying to levitate the mana ball, he visualized it as a small helium balloon in his right hand.
Seconds later, he released the string of the helium balloon, and the balloon began gaining altitude.
He opened his eyes and found that the mana ball in his hand was also levitating.
At the same time, he heard the familiar Ding in his head and knew that the system approved his method as his proficiency in Life siphon increased again.
Even though this imagine-a-balloon method worked this time, Nick knew that this wasn’t a permanent solution.
He couldn’t control or levitate everything by just imagining a balloon.
Happy with his success, he smiled.
“Imagination can be classified as a way of gaining knowledge about mana control. So, spells are like programs, and different ways of controlling mana are akin to algorithms. If I want to create a mana ball, levitate it, and then move it in the air or even shoot it at a target, the only thing I need to do is visualize algorithms.”
As Nick thought about this idea, the system’s approval came in the form of the familiar ding. Assured of his theory, he began creating basic formulas for spells inside his head.
“Formula for Sphere Bolt.”
“Control mana + Visualize a mana ball + Visualize a balloon + Visualize a gun.”
“Formula for Energy Bolt.”
“Control mana + Visualize a gun + Visualize a gunpowder equivalent.”
As Nick began forming formulas for spells, he felt a completely alien feeling coursing through his body.
Five seconds later, the feeling was gone, and the system panel popped up again.
[Name]: Nick
[Status]: Level 2 (Imper Level Mage)
[Strength]: 1.3
[Intelligence]: 2.0
[Magical Abilities]
Life Siphon (Proficiency: 20%)
Nick noticed that he became a Level 2 Imper Mage after creating just two formulas. With all his new ideas and theories, controlling mana became much easier.
He could even make as many spells as he wanted as long as he had enough mana. Even though he was bubbling with joy, his desire to become strong was nowhere near satisfied. Instead of stopping, he created another formula called the Energyhapter-11 Explosion Formula.
“Control mana + Visualize an injector filled with mana + Inject the mana towards the target and visualize an explosion.”
As Nick finished the formula, he again felt a breeze in his body and mind, showing that his thinking was completely true again.
