Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Flimsy wands
Dialogue "sample"
Thoughts 'Sample'
Techniques [sample]
Author notes -sample-
Chapter 39
Flimsy wands
"Let's see…it was something like this." Siegfried was in front of the target dummy, practicing the wand movement for the fire lance spell, the one used by Lucius Avery against him the other day.
"Let's give it a try." He concentrated on forming the mental image required for the spell, channeled his mana into the wand, and performed the appropriate movement.
"Fire lance!" He said while finishing the last wand movement that consisted of a stabbing motion.
Fire formed in front of his wand until it took an elongated shape, then, it shoot out toward the target dummy. The spell connected, making a fizzing noise and left the dummy with a small hole in its stomach.
"Not bad…but it felt a bit weak. I don't think that would be able to pierce any decent armor". Siegfried muttered to himself.
He tried again, this time pouring more mana into the wand before forming the spell.
"Fire lance!" He called again and once more a mass of fire, thrice bigger than before, formed into an elongated shape, but just as the spell finished forming, the crystal on the practice wooden wand, shattered into a thousand pieces. The spell fizzled and dissipated in the air.
"Damn!. This is the second wand I lose…"
'Maybe it was a mistake to give away that high-quality wand that father gave me…but then again, I don't like to fight with a wand. I don't really feel safe if I don't have my spear with me. Maybe I should try getting one of those magic rings. In the meantime, I can try something else.'
He held the broken wooden wand in his right hand. He then focused his mana and channeled it through his arm into the palm of his hand. A wave of fire came out of his hand and burned the wand.
During his time, Magus did not exist, but some long-range elemental attacks did exist already. They just didn't call it magic. The ones used by cultivators were called elemental arts while the ones used by priests were called sacred arts.
Siegfried focused more on close-range combat, but even He could use a couple of elemental arts based on his yang energy. However, those arts require him to be at the core formation stage, otherwise, his body will sustain serious damage. He already went through that when he used one of those techniques to deal with the blue eyes white gorillas, right after he gained his second chance.
'Those arts damage the body because they are too potent. In this era, those arts will probably be considered rank 1 spells, and a Magus apprentice would not even consider trying to use one of those, for it would be extremely dangerous. But, I should be able to perform some rank zero spells without causing any damage.'
"Let's try it like this." He created the mental image of the ball of fire, one of the most basic spells.
A small ball made of fire appeared on the palm of his hand. He could feel the heat from it, but barely. He moved his hand forward and commanded the ball to impact the dummy.
The dummy was enchanted to regenerate the damage caused, the hole previously made by the fire lance had disappeared and looked brand new again. The ball of fire impacted the dummy on its face, burning it badly.
"Success!...now, let's try the other one." He focused once more and poured a similar amount of mana to when he used the wand.
"Fire lance" He called as he held the palm of his hand forward. The spell formed and immediately shot forward, impacting the dummy in the same place as the previous fire lance and creating a similar hole. However, for Siegfried's trained eyes, it was obvious that this hole was slightly smaller than the one created while using the wand.
'The difference must be around ten percent, which is not much, but those practice wands aren't really designed to increase the potency of the magic, just to make it a bit easier to cast.'
And it was easier to cast with the wand. By performing the spell with his hand, it was a lot more difficult to form the spell correctly. But, it was still just a rank zero spell, even with an increase in difficulty, it wasn't much for him.
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After ending his practice session, Siegfried went to the academy supply shop and bought another practice wand, it was only five gold coins, but it did serve as a reminder that he has a limited amount of money left.
When he left his house, his father handed to him a bag with supplies, like pills and healing ointment, and a big bag with five hundred gold coins. He then handed two hundred of those coins to the maids before leaving. He had also spent some of the rest by buying some supplies he needed, leaving him with two hundred and fifty coins, more or less.
'The five hundred coins were supposed to last me at least a couple of years…I may need to find some way to make more money later on. I don't want to keep depending on my family for money.'
He finally arrived at his first class of the day. Combat class with Professor Garret. It looked like he was the last one to arrive at the site.
"Lancaster!, you are five minutes late! As punishment…you will be sparring with me today!" Professor Garret said with a wide smile.
The Professor seemed to have taken a liking to him. He asks him for a spar at every chance he gets.
The professor chuckled. "Let's get started!" He started to clank his gauntlets together and get pumped up.
"Professor, what about us? you haven't told us what to do!" Complained Iria Monet.
"Oh…right," The professor looked at them. "I almost forgot about you lot…just fight each other, thats good practice!"
"What kind of class is this?!. We are not learning anything!" Charles Artois was not amused.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone