Darius was excited by the rate at which he was patching the holes in his knowledge and the filling of his Database. To others, what he was doing might seem tedious and boring, but this was the action that separated a genius pragmatist from the average bloke.
Besides, Darius was past the age of his youth where he was in a hurry to see things develop. He had gone through old age, where the lesson every elderly learned was patience and to take life slowly.
The next day, Darius spoke to Portia slowly. "Today will be the last day I follow you to the library. After I read up on magical theory, I will have to return to my experiments as they are of paramount importance."
Portia's excited demeanor as she walked with Darius shriveled, but she mustered an understanding smile and nodded. "If that is what Master Darius must do, then I support you."
Darius chuckled and patted the young lady on the head, which was quite strange since they were about the same height and age. However, Portia responded positively to his pampering, mistaking it for a different kind of affection.
Darius entered the library with her and began reading up on the magical theory that was actually the most prevalent type of book here. It seems Shanks had hopes that his little girl could spark and become a mage.
Whatever the case, he found himself engrossed in the many books about magical theory, learning how the magical profession worked, how mages ranked their power, and how they progressed.
Surprisingly, a lot of it was what Darius predicted when he first unlocked the Magus class and began using spells.
Firstly, spells were separated into their own ranks. Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Master, and Grandmaster. Seeing as his Lancer Arts were also prefixed with 'basic', it seemed as if this criterion held true for all skills as well.
In the list of known spells mentioned, Sparks was present, and so was Ember. He also saw Ice Lance, Water Shot, Wind Blade, and Earth Spike among others for the basic spells.
It seemed that each element only had one basic spell, but their numbers ballooned above that Rank with many versatile combinations. The books here did not teach the spells, as that would require a spell manual.
They just had general knowledge regarding how magic worked. Mages created spells through a process called the magical method. Most spells were not given to them by deities or were a heritage from an old era.
Minus the basic spells that existed as a sort of law of the universe, everything above that was created by the hands of various mages over the years. The lower the rank of the spell, the easier it was to create, but it required great talent still.
Darius did not pursue this, but rather checked more on basic spells as he wore a deep frown. Something had been bothering him ever since he acquired Sparks, and it became even more serious as he created Ember.
This was the power and growth of basic spells or spells in general. As far as Darius could read, spells were locked to the stage of the mage. An Adept mage cannot cast a Grandmaster spell and an Amateur mage certainly cannot cast an Intermediate one.
Basic spells were only used to guide Amateurs and help them raise their magic and mental power. Apparently, they had extremely horrible utility in battle, with Ember only being able to singe foes while Sparks only acted like a taser at best.
In fact, the basic spells had a more unofficial name that many who were into fantasy magic like Darius on Earth would know: cantrips.
They were just a form of simplistic magic, on the same level as party tricks. That naturally begot the question, why were Darius' Sparks and Ember so potent in comparison?
Darius formulated three possible answers:
The first was that the Magus class, as a Supreme class, passively increased the power of all spells.
The second was that Sparks had been enhanced to the Supreme rank by the system as it came as a freebie when he first got it. Ember was meant to be average, yet got boosted by the effects of the transmuted spell manual.
The third was that the system passively enhanced all his skills and spells to the level they were at.
Despite the first answer seeming the most sensible and reasonable, Darius was inclined to believe the second. Not because he enjoyed being oblique and contrarian, but because of what had been bothering him about Ember's creation.
The Unused Spell Manuals created by his Transmutation ability were not average. Under the hands of the elitist ability, they were raised to the highest possible quality, and inspecting them through the system told him that the spell had an extra 100% chance of being learned as well as having its power boosted by 500%.
Yet when he learned the spell, it had the description of dealing 5% fire damage. So exactly where did that 500% boost for the spell disappear to?
Darius' theory was that Ember - and the original Sparks - were supposed to deal 1% damage when learned by a normal mage, yet his spell manual had raised Ember to 5%. One might miss this detail because Sparks and Ember seemed to start off with the same power, but it was not so!
More importantly, Darius believed that it was strange for Sparks and Ember to grow by 5% damage per skill point allocated. He had been positively surprised when he first leveled up Sparks and it went from 5% to 20%, but that was when his doubts also deepened.
After all, just look! Sparks at level 20 did 100% damage! If a basic spell was able to become so powerful when maxed out, then mages should be invincible within their stages.
50 damage per cast was amazing at the Amateur stage if Darius was to use himself as a gauge. He currently had 150 HP even with 15 Strength and 10 Endurance, meaning that should a clone of him appear, he could be killed in three casts!
Once Darius' thoughts reached here, he felt like he had solved a pressing issue. It seemed long-winded, but the truth was one could just imagine his fate if he cast his current Sparks around an actual mage.
They might just have their jaws lower so sharply that it might dislocate. To compare, it would be like seeing someone holding a toy pistol and then shooting a mini-nuke out of it.
How would you react?
Darius rubbed his hair and decided to take a break here. Portia was also reading up on her stuff and Darius had an idea pop up in his head.
"Portia, I've read about the power systems, but how do mages and non-mages acquire a 'Spark' artificially?" Darius asked.
Portia tilted her head in surprise. "For you to say that… Master Darius, does that mean you were naturally awakened?!"
Darius nodded pleasantly. "I am very talented as you can see Portia. What about my earlier question?"
Portia gazed at Darius with even more reverence. "Well, for people like my brother, they have to either ingest a potion or some naturally occurring fruits that can artificially create a Spark. Some even have specific talents they can create in a person."
Portia seemed downcast here. "As for us mages, it is very hard. Outside of natural awakening like yours, there is only one other way and it is by using a Scroll of Awakening written by an Adept mage."
Darius took out a blank sheet of paper and focused even as Portia continued to speak about the makings of a Scroll of Awakening.
[Would you like to change the blank paper into a Scroll of Awakening? This will cost 4 Conversion Points.]
Darius' lips twitched. Before he did anything else, he took out his Unused Spell manual and focused on it as well.
[Would you like to change the empty spell manual into a small recovery spell manual? This will cost 7 Conversion Points.]
Darius sighed. If he could create his own Awakening Scrolls, he could build his own faction of mages once he reached the city and had his identity secured.
[Heal Spell - Manual
Durability: 10/10
Description: Contained within is the required knowledge to cast the simplest spell of the healing element, Heal. Due to the high quality of the material and the penmanship, the success chance of learning the spell is increased by 100% while the effectiveness of the spell is increased by 500%.]
For now, he created the healing spell manual as Darius would always prioritize the most important things first. Darius had also learned something shocking while reading up info about magic.
That was the fact that mages couldn't just cast spells of any elements as they wished! Mages had elements they were attuned to at the point of awakening, and they would only gain affiliation with more either over time, or as they climbed the stages.
Obviously, the Magus class allowed Darius to learn all elements equally, though he was unsure if he could learn higher stage spells. Unfortunately, when he tried to make a fireball manual, the price had come to 30 CP back then.
Another fact was that as he expected, mages needed to chant to use spells. Actually, it was more complex than that. There were three types of casting methods propounded by notable Grandmaster mages over history.
The first was the easiest, through the act of invocation. By using words of power to assist spell formation, spells are formed much more stable and slightly more reliably than through other methods.
The second was through sigils and signs. By using the hands to move in certain patterns or by making certain body postures/movements, one could channel mana and elemental energy through the bodies' pathways. Spells formed this way were much faster and more powerful, but it was also harder to memorize and utilize in battle.
The third was through external assistance. In other words, mages could find materials that were attuned with the elements, imbue them with mana and use them to assist spell formation. So one could be holding something like the ashes of a phoenix and throw it out while attempting to cast an ultra fireball spell, and it would cast.
This method was relatively new and not really widely-tested, and it posed many stability issues. However, most magic schools were using this method to train apprentices since it was the most beneficial for society.
Whatever the case, Darius decided to learn his new spell that would perfect his early-stage repertoire.
[Detected spellbook. Would you like to learn its contents?
Warning: The spellbook will be destroyed upon using this method! Continue?]
The book melted into a whitish slush that crawled into his ears and assimilated with his brain, Portia again watching on in stupefaction.
Darius felt his mind grasp the new spell, going from someone who even wondered how the hell one could restore injuries without using medicine to someone who had cast a basic healing spell many times in his life to save others who were just shadows in his memory.
[Heal - Level 1 Spell
Cost: 10 MP
Description: Channel mana into the body of any living being to bring replenishment to their lifeforce. This restores 5% of a target's total HP.]
Darius noted that this spell had a higher cost, as it wasn't as weak as the other cantrips of the basic category. This spell should have healed 1% of a person's total HP normally, but even 1% could be the difference between life and death.
However, Darius had to wonder. If it objectively healed 5% of a target's HP, would that mean it would restore 100% HP at the maximum level of 20 for the skill, similar to Sparks?
That would be interesting assuming the cost for casting didn't increase too horribly. Sparks had gone up by 500%, so if this spell were to do the same, it would require 50 MP per cast.
But that for bringing an ally to full health was a great tradeoff any time.
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