Chapter 10: Chapter 10 – Basic Ice Magic Spell

Two hours has passed when Noah stretched as he and James left the Material Studies hall alongside Kevin and Mark. They crossed the other students, heading for the stairs. Their next class, Lukas’ course.

“Hey, at least Material Studies weren’t as boring as survival class earlier.” Kevin said.

Noah pondered for a moment before smiling. “Not really. I’m not that interested in material studies as much as survival class. I mean, sure, useful stuff like harvesting beast organs correctly is fine, but nothing beats knowing how to actually survive when you’re outside.”

“That's true, but you also need material studies when you’re outside as well.”

“Can’t deny that.”

The group stepped down the stairs, leaving the second floor. Alongside other students, they left the building and headed for another one three minutes away.

“Actually, you do guys mind teaching me how mana gathering formations work. I still don’t understand that from Aaron’s explanation.” James asked.

Mark patted him. “No worries, I’ll send you my notes.”

“Same with me.”

 

The group arrived at the Magic Theory class and saw Lukas staring at the monitor with his hands on the computer. Every once in a while, he'd grab a paper for reference.

Noah smiled as they sat on the uppermost table and waited for the class to start.

“Where did you get your elements?” Kevin asked.

“Oh. We got it here with Lukas’ help. He gave us this presentation of magic types, then had us choose three of them for when we awaken our elements.” James said.

“Yep.”

Kevin leaned on his seat and put a hand behind his head. “Must be nice. Lukas is really helpful. We got ours from a local high school in Canada. They weren’t as good as Lukas and pretty much just gave us basic facts about each element and then left us alone.” He paused before continuing in an irritated tone. “Can you imagine that? We had to search for the best combinations of magic on the internet by ourselves. Anyway, I am an offensive mage, while Mark is pure defensive.”

“Oh, nice. I wanted to be an offensive mage, while James wanted a scout role. He got lucky and awakened the right elements, while I didn’t.” Noah said.

“Awakening the Space element is pretty lucky to be honest.”

“Yeah, I think so too. Still, I didn’t get the elements I wanted. Oh, well.” He sighed. I’ll just have to make do. “Anyway, do you know what’s the topic is for today?”

“Probably magic practice. But sometimes, he doesn’t tell us…” He paused. “He likes mystery or whatever that is. All we know is the first two days of the week are magic theory, then the last two are magic combat and practice." He srugged. "Well, most of the time… Oh, he’s starting.”

They soon became quiet as Lukas pushed aside his keyboard and stood up. He looked around before he slid open a drawer and picked up the same magic guide he gave to Noah earlier. He said with a smile. “Today is combat and practice. Everyone gather your things and we’ll go to the practice area.”

Everybody grabbed their belongings before they hustled over to Lukas. He walked out of the theatre classroom and then the entire building. Following him was the class. Noah and James strode past people with an annoying, smug look on their faces. Finally, magic practice! The thought echoed in their mind in a loop.

Although, Noah assumed thay was in the minds of eighty or ninety percent of their class, as each one of them had that excited look. It didn’t take too long before they arrived.

Lukas stopped before the practice area. It was not empty as there were students who did not have classes or skipped their classes to exercise themselves. Thankfully, they kept on one spot after they saw Lukas’ class. But they still cast magic and talked among themselves.

Lukas nodded.

He turned around back to his class. “I’ll say it again. Left side is for practicing your outlines. Right side is for activating your magic. Also, do not aim your magic at your fellow student. Also, tell me if you’re doing a magic experiment so I can help you out. And as always, safety first… With that, do what you need to do.”

The group spread out. Many brought themselves near the testing wall to try out their spells, while others, like Noah and James, arrived on the other side. Some sat at the tables, conversing with each other. While others stood away, practicing their magic circles.

Trying to create their outlines and keep them steady, James and Noah stood adjacent to another table, each hed the magic guide on one hand. Kevin and Mark came with them and toiled around while they read the same book.

Why is this so hard? It’s not like I’m making a complicated spell. Circles to output. Pentagons to contain. Factuals to define behaviour. Noah’s head hurt. Just now, he failed drawing another factual. Circles to output. Pentagons to contain. Factuals to define behaviour. It's that easy.

Crack.

Still a failure. He grabbed his hair in frustration. “Man, this casting process is stupid.”

James said to him. “Yeah. I got to seventy percent before it broke down. I wonder if there’s an easier way for this.”

Kevin heard their complaints and let out air from his lungs. His laugh attracted their attention.

“There’s no easier way. If there’s one, just relax and let your mind draw it for you.” He said.

James shook his head and asked in a higher tone. “What does that even mean?”

Hearing them, Mark put his book down and joined the conversation. “Think of it like you’re typing something on your phone. Just think of the words. You don’t just sit there and look at the letters like some boomer. You just stare at the screen and see the words get typed by your hand. Another example is when you’re writing, you don’t look at how your pencil moves, you only focus on writing the sentences and the words you imagine.”

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“Oh, okay.” James said.

Noah also nodded. Right. So, I just have to imagine the overall form of the magic circle. Simple and easy. He raised his hand up once more. His eyes closed, Noah imagined the groups of abstracts and factuals as sentences, with each shape as words. Then his mind as the pencil or keyboard to write. The shapes and helixes flowed as he wrote in a cursive for-

Crack.

Noah knitted his brows. He felt weird trying to mentally type shapes, like grabbing your head and forcing your mind to think of something. Something the human mind had always done, but felt like a fresh experience to him. But more importantly, it was better, smoother than his first method. He also didn’t need to strain himself which made the process convenient.

Of course, he still failed. However, that was because he was not familiar with drawing the magic circle this way.

But it’s just the first time. So, let’s do it again.

This time, he let the process complete itself. Sure, he still needed to keep slight attention on controlling his authority and creating the outline. But most of it, he spent on creating a mental picture of the entire spell and watching the creation process.

Click.

And it worked. Noah smiled. After over forty tries, he had done it. Now, he needed to connect his star system to his magic circle. Then once he activated the magic circle, he'd be a full fledge wizard.

But, shit. He didn't know how to connect them.

Noah dropped the connection, and he watched as the pale magic outline in his mind faint into nothingness, all his work lost. He lowered his arm and looked at the two sitting behind him. “How do you connect your mana to the magic circle?”

“I can answer that.” A loud voice said. Noah was about to turn when Lukas silently appeared from the side, surprising everyone. “You need to grasp your star system in your soul sea. First, touch it.” He said.

"Okay." Noah closed his eyes and focused on the soul sea in his chest.

After finding the icy star, he tried touching it. Suddenly, Noah had a strange feeling like he had grown himself a third hand. Weird, but not his first time. He had already done it once when he awakened his elements. He opened his eyes and faced Lukas. “I did it. What’s next?”

“Now, let’s go to the practice wall. Once you connect the star system with the magic circle, it’s practically a loaded gun, and placing the magic circle means pulling the trigger.” Lukas said as he walked towards the silver wall. Noah stared at James, who was concentrating on making the magic circle. By now, he should be around eighty percent done.

“Don’t worry about me. Go ahead.” James said without opening his eyes.

Noah nodded and made a beeline toward Lukas. Along the way, he’d look at his fellow students. Some loitered around and laughed at their own jokes, not learning anything. Others stared at their booklet, trying to rack up whatever sense they could find. There were those who did their work diligently and didn’t need any help, and then there were those who kept pestering others for help. Last, students like him who were coming towards the practice wall or were already there, casting magic and failing altogether.

The cacophony of sounds and the environment became harmonious as he remembered his friends arguing over a simple decision.

Noah smiled and stared far away, reminiscent of his time as a university student. Good times.

...

Arriving on the other side, Noah started forming a new basic ice magic spell. Lukas stood behind him. Once again, he created an outline of the magic circle. Crack. A failure, but that wouldn’t stop him from conjuring ice. He would try again and again until he succeeds. And sure enough, after two more tries, he triumphed.

The magic circle clicked inside his head. He stared at it for a moment before he moved on.

He inspected his star systems and quickly found the bluish-white colored star. Not hesitating any further, he formed a connection with it. Keeping hold of both the connection and the magic circle, he called Lukas. “How to connect them?”

“‘Will’ it just like how you cooled the air earlier today. Think of it as forming a connection between the star system and the magic circle.” Lukas said.

“Okay.” Noah checked the two items, making sure they’re intact. Afterward, he took a deep breath. Connect.

CLICK.

In his mind, a feeling of completeness permeated. Noah removed his grasp from the star system and focused on the shining, spinning bluish-white-coloured magic circle in his hand. A hand touched his shoulder, then Lukas’ voice rang from behind. “Good job. Now, you only need to place the magic circle somewhere.” He grabbed Noah’s right hand and stretched it, with the palm facing the silver wall.

“Set the magic circle in your hand. Make sure the output plane doesn’t face us, though.” Lukas said.

Noah nodded, and he set the magic spell inches away from his palm, the output plane opposite him and Lukas. Otherwise, they’d get impaled by the conjured icicles once the spell activates. Once the circle aligned itself, Noah triggered the activation sequence, which is a mental command from him.

Activate!

His eyebrows rose, eyes wide as the once shining magic circle became dim. What replaced it was a blur of ice particles that suddenly materialized from nowhere. His right hand cooled, and it confirmed that it was actual snow or ice. Truly magical ice he created from nothing. He stared at the ice particles move. They crossed and bumped into each other until the ice dusts gathered into small fragments. Then the ice fragments turned finger-sized ice spikes. Afterward, they hovered in the air.

Then he knew. Noah knew what was coming next, so he looked at the wall with great expectations. The mini ice spears advanced and raced towards their target.

Ding. Ding.

Coherent sounds of glass shattering rang out—and Noah's face sunk as he stared at the aftermath of the collision.

 

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