Zen’s First Magic

'A prodigy in magic…!'

This was all that Arthur could think as he witnessed Zen's mana barrier.

'His talent is insane!!!'

A grin unknowingly crept up on his lips, feeling as if he had hit the jackpot.

"Teacher? Why do you look like you're constipate-"

"Shut up."

Arthur's eye twitched as his feeling of amazement instantly vanished.

"You know what I think I have a better idea so I can etch my magic to your body better…"

His words gave Zen goosebumps, 'No matter how I thought about it, learning through etching magic to my body sounds anything but fu-!'

Toog— Toog—

"What!?" Before he could finish thinking, he felt something on both his feet.

He looked down and was dumbfounded to see two chains made of the earth that shackled both his feet to the ground.

"Lesson 1: Mana isn't just the ones in the air. As I said earlier, mana is omnipresent in the whole world. Thus, it could be found in the ground, the trees, and everywhere in the world."

Woosh! Woosh! Woosh!

Three spikes of earth immediately emerged from the ground.

Zen reacted instantly and tilted his body three times, narrowly dodging the earth spikes while still being held in place by the earth chains.

He looked at his teacher and shouted, "Are you really trying to kill m—"

Booosh!!!!

However, a fireball flew straight at his head before he could even finish shouting.

What's worse was the fact that it didn't stop.

Booosh!!!! Booosh!!!! Booosh!!!!

A barrage of fireballs were hurled towards him as Arthur explained, "There are four steps in casting magic namely Perceive, Infiltrate, Interfere, and Manifest."

Booosh!!!! Booosh!!!! Booosh!!!!

"Let's focus on the first step first. Perceive is the process in which you must see through the base mana structure of an element if you want to transform it to something like turning the ground to spikes. "

Then, he added, "But this can be omitted if you're using the mana in the air as it still doesn't have a fixed mana structure."

While continuously casting fireballs with his left hand, Arthur raised his right hand above his head.

Booosh!!!! Booosh!!!! Booosh!!!!

"Moving on to the next step. Infiltrate is injecting your mana to either a mana structure of an element or using your mana to influence the mana in the surroundings."

A weak vortex was created on Arthur's right hand as the mana in the surroundings began to gather towards it.

Booosh!!!! Booosh!!!! Booosh!!!!

"Now, this is where things get interesting."

Arthur smiled as he continuously hurled fireballs towards Zen.

"Interfere is where you use your mana in order to take control of the mana structure, or the mana that you have gathered."

The vortex of mana on his right hand calmed down and formed a magic circle.

Booosh!!!! Booosh!!!! Booosh!!!!

"And finally, Manifest. It is the step where the magic in your imagination is brought to reality. I also suggest chanting the name that best describes your magic in order for you to be able to fully visualize it."

Boogsh!!!! Crackle— Crackle—

The tranquil ball of mana on his right hand suddenly transformed into a blazing fireball.

"As I have stated earlier, mana encompasses the whole world. Mana is the world and the world is mana. Therefore, the essence of the world is in mana itself."

Crinkkkkk!!!!!

The blazing ball of fire on his right hand instantly transformed into a small icicle.

He then used his right hand and hurled the icicle towards Zen, "Have you learned anything?"

The torrent of fireballs also stopped.

"Huff… Huff… Huff…"

"Oh my, what happened to you?" Arthur asked innocently as he looked at his student.

Currently, Zen had a dissatisfied expression on his face as he sustained countless small burn wounds all over his body.

He was also in a strange position as the three earth spikes were still threatening to impale him.

Arthur smiled with a satisfied expression, "Oh, it seems that I have forgotten to hold back on my demonstration."

He waved his hand as the earth spikes and shackles dissolved instantly.

'Demonstration my ass! It was clear that you were torturing me!!!' Rage boiled in Zen's heart, but he wasn't able to express it.

"I hope that you have learned how to shoot out fireballs with magic…"

"Oh, so that's what it was…?"

"Pardon, what did you say, my precious student?"

"Oh nothing, nothing! I'm just glad that I learned alot from you, my magnanimous teacher!"

'You're clearly still affected by what I said earlier!' Zen felt dissatisfied towards his teacher's unfairness.

Nevertheless, it couldn't be denied that he had learned a lot from him.

Clap!

"Okay, since you're my favorite student…"

'Aren't I your only student?' Zen only retaliated through his mind.

"... I'll give you a reward if you impress me!"

However, his teacher's next words caused Zen to widen his eyes.

'Reward!?'

He knew that even though his teacher was extremely petty, he didn't hold back when it came to giving rewards!

Therefore, Zen excitedly asked, "What's the reward, Teacher?"

"That's a secret. Just know that its grade is above Legendary." Arthur placed his index finger over his lips.

"Above Legendary!?" Zen's eyes widened with surprise.

Just imagining all sorts of things that he might receive made him overwhelmed with excitement.

"What do I have to do, Teacher?"

"It's simple: just impress me with your magic."

Hearing this, Zen's expression turned serious as he placed his hand on his chin.

"I only have an hour because I need to do some errands, are you going to accept my offer?" Arthur asked.

'Tsk, not letting me think first, huh?'

Zen gritted his teeth and said, "I accept!"

"Okay. I'm waiting."

"What!? I need to do it now!?"

"You have 59 minutes left."

"Argh!" Zen groaned in frustration.

'I just learned of magic now! Even if I reference the other shows I watched and books that I read, the system of mana is different!'

Zen began racking his brains, trying to think of something that could possibly impress his teacher.

At this moment, Arthur spoke, "Even though you can form a mana barrier, I still suggest you to use chants."

"Do you have any examples of chants?"

"No, there are no fixed chants of anything. You only have to find out what works best for you."

Arthur then explained further, "You just need to incorporate the four steps of casting into those chants."

"And as I have said earlier, mana is the essence of the world. It is in everything and it is everything. The magic that you can manifest is only limited by your imagination."

Hearing his words, an idea appeared in Zen's mind, 'Only limited by my imagination, huh?'

In the next second, he breathed rhythmically as his concentration reached its peak.

"Oho?"

Arthur watched in interest.

'Since you keep surprising me with your talent, let's see just how talented you are.'

One of the reasons why he proposed this deal was because he wanted to see just how truly talented his monster of a student was.

Zen raised his index finger in front of him, pointing at his teacher as he closed his eyes.

This action of his made Arthur more intrigued.

'He told me that magic doesn't exist in their homeworld, so I wonder what kind of magic he can come up with.'

'Surely it isn't outrageous, right? After all, he had literally just learned a few seconds ago…'

'But still, I'm disappointed. To think that he won't even go and try transmuting the basic mana structure of the ground like what I did earlier…'

Thoughts filled Arthur's mind as he saw that his student was only trying to manipulate the neutral mana in the atmosphere.

Zen was currently thinking of a suitable chant for himself, 'For this to work, I need to start at the Infiltrate step…'

Soon enough, his lips parted.

"Mana, I implore you."

"Pffft!" Arthur cringed at the words that came out of Zen.

Nevertheless, Zen didn't mind him.

He only felt the mana gathering on his finger.

His focus was still at an all time high, 'Now, for the Intervene…'

"Become my blade…"

"...and cleave through…"

"...the basic building block of matter and chemistry."

"Eh?"

Hearing the unfamiliar words, Arthur stopped giggling as his brow rose in confusion.

'Please work! My reward that is above Legendary grade is on the line!'

'I just need to cut one! Just one!'

'Teacher said earlier that using the name that best describes my magic heightens the chance of my manifestation, right?'

'Let's see… I think this one should be fine.'

Arthur saw his student's lips parted as he heard unfamiliar words once again.

"Atomic Rend"

Woosh!

Zen swiped his finger downwards as he chanted.

However, nothing happened.

"Ehh? Where's your magic?" Arthur asked in confusion.

Due to his student's monstrous talent, he had expected him to at the very least be able to cast his own magic.

No matter how weak or pitiful it was, he had only learned of magic right now after all.

'But to think that he wouldn't even be able to-'

Mmm—

Before he could finish thinking, Arthur sensed a small fluctuation in the area where Zen swiped.

'Did it not work?' Zen felt disappointed, 'I just needed to cut one atom. Just one. But I think even that is impossible for the current m-'

HUMMMMMM—

A loud humming sound was heard as its volume continued to increase.

It became deafening not long after.

Seeing the light that was slowly emerging from the place that Zen swiped with his finger, Arthur's eyes widened in shock.

'What is this feeling…? This power…?'

Arthur felt a feeling of dread that seemed to gradually increase along with the shining light.

Unbeknownst to him, Zen had chosen something he was familiar with to be his first magic.

The strongest weapon of humanity.

Nuclear Power.