Chapter 11: Chapter 11 – Practice

Recalling earlier, Noah saw the icicles skirt through the air. The wind split as they flew towards the silver wall. Soon, the spikes touched their target, and his heart broke. Most of the icicles shattered upon impact, while some embedded themselves only a few inches thick. Still, all of them didn’t pierce through, which somewhat disappointed him.

Not bad. He glanced at Lukas, who watched the attack with a raised brow.

“How is it?” He asked.

Giving him a thumbs up, Lukas said with a smile. “Congratulations. You’re now a certified mage.”

“Thank you. But my spell isn’t as strong as everyone here. I gotta work harder.” Noah said.

“Don’t worry. It’s normal that your attack was weak.” Lukas patted him and spoke. “Besides, this is your first time, and you clearly haven’t started on modifying the basic spell.”

He lifted his hand off of Noah and turned around, walking away to guide another student. “Plus, the magic circles in the guide are barebones of magic spells we use in daily life. It’s easy to see why your spell was weak. Keep practicing.”

Makes sense. Noah wondered how a normal ice spell would appear.

Faster icicles? Bigger ones? He paused and pondered for a moment. He turned away from the practice wall and headed towards his group’s table.

“You did it?” James asked him as he arrived. An incomplete magic outline danced on his right hand, while a page of the magic guide show a picture of the outline rested on his left.

Noah grabbed a chair next to Kevin’s side, and pulled it closer to James, before sitting on it.

“Yeah. I’ll wait for you to finish so we can go practice together.” He said with a grin.

“Okay.” James gave a slight smile as he lowered his head. His eyes became stern as he focused. In his hand, the outline resumed forming. When it only needed a quarter of progress, its contents scrambled, dispersing the magic circle into nothingness.

“Don’t worry about it. Keep creating it. You will eventually succeed.” Noah said to him with a smile.

James nodded and raised his hand. This time, he took a deep breath. Another magic circle appeared on his palm, hollow and ready to be filled. Various shapes formed, and an intertwining of helixes followed, sticking into the magic spell. Mixing into a pattern Noah didn’t recognize.

Curious, he opened his magic guide and looked into the table of contents. He flipped the pages and stopped when he reached the basic spell for the wind magic type.

Wind slash. He read its magic instructions. The magic spell was like its ice version. First, one needed to gather air. Second, they mould it into a horizontal shape. Third, push it forward.

Noah switched his attention back to James. He’s about ninety percent done. Now, he just needed to define the pushing behaviour.

Crack.

Oh, so close. James bit his lip. He glanced beside him and saw Noah, who gave him a thumbs up.

“Almost there.” He spoke.

“Yes.” The corner of James’ lips raised.

He created another pale outline in his hand. This time, he knew. That he would succeed. He imagined the spell one more time. Pentagon to gather. Helix, triple helix, double helix to propel. James concentrated on the mental picture.

Time passed and many shapes and helixes later, the outline only needed a tenth of progress to complete. He silently took a deep breath. The propel factual.

He began drawing the behaviour. Three types of helixes intertwined and intersected.

Click.

Hahaha, I did it! James became elated as he felt coolness spread across his body. The magic circle is complete. Now, he needed to connect the circle to his star system and feed it mana.

He raised his head to see Noah smiling.

“Hehe. Look at this.” He brought his wrinkled hands to his chest. Then, Noah met the glittering light of the newly completed spell.

“Let’s go to the practice wall.” James said energetically as the outline dimmed and disappeared.

“Alright.”

Suddenly, Kevin and Mark raised themselves like they had found something interesting and called out to the two. Kevin yawned, his eyes bored, and Mark stretched his knees as they approached them.

“We’ll come with you guys. I read too much that I’m about to sleep.” Kevin said, as he patted James. Mark agreed by humming.

The group sauntered towards the other side. After they settled on an unoccupied space, James went ahead, and the trio watched their friend cast magic.

The outline slowly filled up with thin threads and shapes

Crack.

James tried again. He succeeded after two more tries. He quickly inspected his soul sea, found the icy star system, and grabbed it. After another strange connection, he willed it and the magic circle to connect.

Click.

It’s time. His eyes and the icy-coloured magic circle shone together. James glanced at Noah, who nodded, before placing the magic circle inches ahead of his stretched hand, aiming for the silver wall. It slowly lost its momentum and stopped, the output plane a few feet ahead of its target.

He activated it.

Fwoosh.

Wind howled, and James’s hair moved. His eyes stopped blinking as strands of air moved and competed near his hand, sending the persistent grass between the ground cracks into motion. Eventually, it combined into a strip. Gaining speed, it bent on its sides. Soon, it shaped itself into a crescent, slicing into its brethren as it touched the wall.

Fisst.

The wind slash split the metal into two, embedding itself before the spell could lose its cohesion and let the contained wind spread. A shallow gash appeared on the wall. Afterward, the magic formation ticked, repairing the wall back to its original look. Still, that was enough for him. A smile slowly crept up James’ face. He had done it. Now, he is now a true mage.

Flipping the magic guide to the air, he bobbed his head as he looked at the three.

“I did it.” James said. They clapped. “Congrats.”

His elated feeling disappeared. When he raised his head, he saw Kevin split off from the group.

With his exaggerated walking, the man garnered the attention of the crowd other than his group. Kevin said with a smirk. “Now it’s time for us to show off.”

“Pff.”

Ignoring Mark’s snicker, he stretched out his hand and created a pale reddish magic circle. Noah raised his brow.

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Show off. What’s unique about a fireball? Icicles are clearly better.

Noah thought about their uses. A fireball burns those around it, which is entirely barbaric. What about icicles? They puncture through their target, clean and efficient. Yes. Ice is better.

The young man only needed to fill quarter of the factuals, so Noah was pulled out of his reverie. Soon, it—broke. Noah closed his mouth like he was blowing a balloon and his eyes almost teared up.

“Pfff.”

“HAHAHA!” Mark slapped his thigh and spoke so loudly that it erupted into a series of laughter from the others who held back theirs earlier.

“Shut up! That was clearly a one in a billion chance… I was just unlucky.” Kevin said as he closed his eyes once again to make another magic circle. Unable to retort, he could only focus on making one, to not embarrass himself any further.

The hollow outline turned into a complete magic circle, clicking inside his mind. Kevin turned his head toward them and said with a smile. “Told you so.” Of course, he didn’t forget to give everyone else a smug look.

Next, he added the spell with mana from his star system, and the magic circle lit up in a red tone.

Kevin puffed up his chest as he spoke in a high and loud voice. “Watch my power. Aaaahhh!”

Despite his silly captions, the magic activated. The bright red magic circle dimmed, and glowing motes of red light appeared above his hand. They fell down, subject to gravity. Almost horizontally aligned with Kevin’s hand, the motes suddenly turned, arcing towards his palm as they merged. Soon, a fiery ball spun in his hand. Its flames licked anything that came close; however, it didn’t burn his hand. It just… hovered there, waiting for orders.

“What do you think?” Kevin said as he spun and presented the fire spell in his hand. “I changed this thing to only propel when I threw it. Watch.”

“It’s gonna explode.” Mark replied amusedly, and he earned a tsk from the man.

Kevin leaned to his back as he sent it out with his right hand. The ball flew before it speeding up midway, rushing towards the wall while leaving behind small flames as they extinguished.

Bam!

The fiery ball erupted the part of the wall it touched, turning it into flames. Then it exploded. Spreading heat while blasting air outwards that messed their hairstyle and clothing. The flames also touched the ground, burning plants and weeds.

When the flames subsided, Noah’s awe dampened and bit his lip as he saw a hole twice the size of a fist dug out.

Darn, that’s strong.

He wondered whether his ice element could achieve the same firepower as well. It probably could. But it'll take some time to reach Kevin's level.

I should get started with modifying spells. He sighed.

Kevin’s voice rang out ahead slowly, becoming clearer as he came closer. “How is it? Aren’t I awesome?”

Noah and James nodded while Mark retorted. “And how much mana did it cost?”

“We don’t talk about that.” He waved his hands and shook his head. “I’ve only used about a third of my mana. It’s no big deal.” Mark gave him a scoff.

He continued. “Besides, it doesn’t hurt to have one heavy hitting spell. Right?” He looked at the two for confirmation. Thankfully, both of them agreed with him.

Noah pondered about Kevin’s words. Mainly, the need for a heavy hitting spell and using more mana for his spells. The first one? He knew that as a Transported; they had a duty to protect people and kill monsters. Isabelle told him that was the reason for their circumstance. So, the need for such magick made sense. And as for the second one, he could just search it on the internet. He couldn’t rely too much on them, whether it be Lukas, Casa, or his friends. However, something still irked his curious self.

Thankfully, he had a chance to ask Kevin about it. “How do you know how much mana you’ve used up?”

“Oh, that. Just like how you can grab you star system and use its mana for spells, you can also ask it how much it has left.” He said.

Weird, but not too strange. Noah thought. When he asked how it works, Kevin just shrugged and went back to practicing his spells. Noah closed his eyes and focused. He entered his soul sea and found the icy star. He grabbed it and asked how much mana he currently had.

Feedback came.

Fifty percent.

His eyes went wide in confusion. What? I only made one spell, unless…

Walking towards the wall, he made another magic circle. It broke when it was halfway finished. Then, he looked back to his star system and asked for the mana cost.

Forty-eight percent.

“Damn.” He muttered. Making the outline actually cost mana itself. No wonder he and James became tired after their practice with Lukas earlier. It was not only mental exhaustion, but mana exhaustion as well.

Now, what about a complete spell? Noah wondered. Soon, he raised his hand and began creating a new spell. It broke afterward, and he checked the star system just in case.

Forty-seven percent.

Huh? He raised a brow. Turns out, the mana cost varies as well.

Noah created another outline. This time, he succeeded. He gave it mana and started its activation sequence. The ice crystals formed into tiny, pointed icicles before sending themselves towards the wall. They cracked and turned into dust, while some punctured a few inches, just as he expected.

He checked the star system’s mana and bulged his eyes when it reported…

Twenty-two percent.

His mind raced, and he furrowed his brows.

“…” A single spell cost a quarter of his overall mana. TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT!

That’s close to how much Kevin used for his heavy attack. What the fuck? How did he do it? Did he have more mana than me? Noah thought of many excuses when he realized he could just ask the man himself.

Looking at the fist-sized hole in the wall, Kevin lowered his hand, took a deep breath, and exhaled. He needed to work on his concentration. Otherwise, he’d be laughed at again. Another hollow outline appeared in his hand while he noticed Noah coming over towards him.

“I have something to ask.” He said.

“What is it?” Kevin replied with a smile.

“How do you get more mana?”

Kevin raised a brow as a bulb lit up inside his head. “Oh, that.” He curled his right arm like a bodybuilder. Then he flexed. Noah stared at him weirdly.

“I am a Rank 3 beginner mage.” He said with a smirk.

Noah visibly recoiled. "What is that?"

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