Advanced Fire Magic

"Fire thou rage and burn. Focus thine fury and smite thy enemy. Let naught stand in thine way and pierce through the darkness. Scorching Ray!"

Rudeus felt the mana within him respond roughly halfway through the incantation without a need for any intervention from him. He committed his mind to remembering the movement of his mana.

After having casted various spells throughout the one year he has been learning magic, he found that most spells had similar but at the same time subtle differences during the process of spell activation.

This mostly related to the movement of mana within the caster's body, how it shaped and created the elemental nature of the spell and finally the key activation guidelines that led to a successful casting.

Rudeus wasn't smart or meticulous enough to dissect these differences, so he could only rely on intuition to instinctively feel the movement of mana for each spell.

As a result he didn't have any results from these observations yet, but perhaps in the future when he managed to grasp earth and wind magics as well.

As Rudeus completed his incantation, he felt mana coursing through his veins before being directed out of his extended index and middle finger that pointed at the sky.

A small globule of light formed an inch from his fingertips, which suddenly glowed brighter while expanding in size before a brilliant but thin column of fiery orange light shot out of the luminous globe that very quickly rocketed towards the white clouds.

Its effects did not last as long as Roxy's, since Rudeus was still unfamiliar how much mana he needed to put in an Advanced rank magic spell. He only put in roughly double the mana of an Intermediate rank spell.

Rudeus observed the aftermath of his spell, which had left a streak of scorched air not dissimilar to Roxy's spell.

"Well, I guess that can be considered a success."

"Rudeus! Do not cast a spell without my permission! Why would you do that in the middle of my lecture!?" Roxy stomped up towards him and glowered.

The young child gulped and lowered his head, "S-Sorry, I was just excited to try out an Advanced rank magic since I've never seen one before..."

Roxy glared at the apologetic boy but the next moment she let go of her anger. She had forgotten that she was dealing with a 4 year old child when she saw an Advanced rank magic being cast.

Not being allowed to cast spells without the lecturer's permission was one of the rules of Ranoa Magic Academy where she had just graduated. Which is why she was already familiar with this rule, and that was also the reason why Rudeus' spell had elicited such a severe reaction from her as well.

But if she was being honest, she was actually a little glad Rudeus had such a mischievous side to him. It assured her that Rudeus wasn't a biological anomaly or perhaps a century old monster in disguise.

Seeing how cute he looked while apologetic dampened any lingering traces of annoyance within Roxy as she sighed, "Its fine. Just remember this rule from now on. During our lessons, you're not allowed to cast spells if you have not received my permission. And especially midway through my lecture."

"But why?" Rudeus asked with the typical inquisitiveness of a child.

"Because spellcasting can be dangerous to both the caster as well as those around them. If for some reason I had jumped up at that point without realising you were casting a spell, I would have been severely hurt by you. Well, I would have had my own methods to block it but the point stands."

Rudeus nodded sagely, "I see. But why would it be dangerous to the caster as well"

"Because most times a young and inexperienced magician like yourself will take time getting used to the incantations, the mana expenditure of the spell, and precautions will also be put in place in case of catastrophic spell failure." She explained matter-of-factly with surprising fluency.

Rudeus rubbed his chin, "Turns out there's so much that goes into casting a spell for the first time huh? Mom always just let me cast the spell right away and it always works out fine though."

Roxy felt a vein on her temple bulge in annoyance. 'That's because you're the one that's abnormal!'

"Safety measures and risk management is important. There's no point taking meaningless risk just because the student wants to be in a hurry. Slow and steady wins the race - that's the philosophy of the Ranoa Magic Academy I came from."

Rudeus gave an interested hum, 'So they have that saying even in the Central Continent huh...'

"I understand Instructor Roxy, it won't happen again!" No matter how comfortable he felt performing Advanced rank magic, it wasn't appropriate to show disrespect to his tutor who was even a Saint-rank magician herself.

'She has probably forgotten more about magic than what I've learned...'

Roxy nodded in satisfaction. She initially thought Rudeus would be a lot more conceited as a precocious genius. She had been worried the child would refuse to listen to her instructions. But she was glad Rudeus turned out to be a good boy and listened to instructions well.

"Now, putting that aside, how does your mana capacity feel after casting an Advanced rank magic? Do you feel tired? Any aches in weird places or lethargy?"

Rudeus shook his head in the negative, "Nope. I feel fine. I don't feel tired at all."

"Uuu... really?" Roxy felt her stomach tie up a knot. Has she really encountered a Miko of some sort? One with the blessing of immense mana capacity?

"How much do you think your total mana has depleted after casting that spell?"

"Mm... a conservative estimate would be around 5 percent?"

"Uuu..." The knot in her stomach tightened. 'If he's not wrong, then I only have abit more total mana than him...'

"Uhm Instructor Roxy, can I ask for your permission to cast Scorching Ray again?"

"Hm...? I don't mind but why?"

"I don't think the last time I cast it was perfectly done, so I want to get the hang of it before our lesson ends."

"Wanting to master an Advanced rank spell in a day... am I going crazy?" Roxy muttered to herself but regained her composure instantly, "That's fine but like I mentioned, there are precautions that need to be set up. Firstly, an Advanced spell like Scorching Ray is very dangerous, I'm sure you don't need me to explain to you how deadly spells can be to people who can't defend themselves from it. Something like Scorching Ray can cut through a dozen farmers and not lose much power..."

Roxy warned forebodingly, her tone darkening trying to scare Rudeus which was successful judging by his pale face.

"T-then what do we need to do for the preventative measures?"

Roxy was satisfied with her new disciple's willingness to follow her rule. Not many young apprentices eager to learn magic would have the patience for that.

"First we have to make sure there is nobody who can potentially get hurt in the vicinity where you are targeting the spell. In Ranoa magic academy, there are usually training rooms designed specifically to test high level spells, but since we lack the facilities for that we will do what we did before and aim at the sky instead."

Rudeus nodded along with her explanation.

"Secondly, since the risk is still relatively higher without magic circles guarding against the possibility of a misfire, I will be preparing a counter spell to minimise the collateral damage in case you lose control of the spell. As you are testing out an Advanced Fire magic, I will use a defensive Advanced water magic as a precautionary measure."

"That's for the risk management to safeguard against collateral damage. We also need to make sure to minimise any chance of you making a mistake and losing control of the spell. In this regard, we will be practicing the incantation of the spell until I'm confident there are no mistakes. But even before that, I will first go through the magic theory behind advanced level spells, more specifically the theoretical structure of Fire magic and Scorching Ray arrays in particular."

Rudeus felt his eyebrow twitch, suddenly not feeling super keen on all these preventative measures anymore. He had been experimenting with both Beginner and Intermediate spells without any issue, so would Advanced ranked spells be any different? However, upon imagining a dozen farmers, or even worse his family members, with a cauterised hole in their chest as a result of his mistake, Rudeus suddenly felt it wasn't that big of a compromise anymore.

"I understand. Please, Instructor Roxy."

Surprisingly mature, Roxy observed before she started elaborating on magic theory. To which Rudeus pulled out a loose stack of blank paper and started writing down notes from Roxy's lecture. Don't underestimate Rudeus' ability to study; he was forced to maintain good grades when he was in college while having daily soccer practice at the same time!