Chapter 4. Casting my first spell

2 years passed in total.

My comprehensive practice naturally continued. Another full year of training.

"Shhh, Seraph is reading again."

"Mm, the young master is very fond of books."

"Let's not disturb him."

I heard Zenith and Lilia whispers as they were probably spying on me behind the door of the study room again.

I let out a silent sigh and returned to what I was doing with a small smile.

I waved my legs slightly as I laid down on the ground on my stomach. A book was displayed open in front of me.

There were five books at home in total.

<Traveling Around the World>, <Fitoa's Monsters, Ecology and Weaknesses>, <Perugius's Legend>, <Three Swordsmen and the Labyrinth> and finally <Guide to Magic>.

Apparently, books were expensive in this world. Although there was paper, there was no method for printing, so all books are written by hand like in the middle ages.

What I was reading right now was the Guide to Magic.

Zenith had read it to me many times in the past while explaining particular words.

She had skipped the Incantations, but I was not a stranger to this book.

I guess, the fact that this book contained spell formulas that I could use to accidently kill myself did not concern my parents.

It was good to have such happy-go-lucky parents!

They probably thought that I would not manage to cast any magic anyway.

At this time, I was revising the information I learned from the book after re-reading it on my own.

Firstly, magic is classified into three main categories.

They are: Attack Magic, Healing Magic and Summoning Magic.

Magic can be used in a variety of ways, but according to the book, it was originally developed as an instrument of war.

Similarly, the main use of the spells included in the guidebook is to defeat enemies or to slay monsters.

Next, there are seven difficulty ranks to magic.

Elementary, Intermediate, Advanced, Saint, King, Emperor and finally God.

It was said that an ordinary educated magician can improve his single specialized magic up to the Advanced rank, while the typical uneducated one is able to cast Elementary to Intermediate ranked spells.

The guidebook itself included spells for Fire, Water, Earth and Wind Magic.

The ranks of spells ranged from Elementary rank all the way to Advanced, so it is certainly quite comprehensive!

If I could reach Advanced rank in these 4 magic styles without a tutor just thanks to this book, wouldn't I be amazing?

I am not entirely sure yet if it is possible with just the information from the book though.

Using magic consumes Mana.

This world's language seemed to be using the words 'Magic Power' to describe Mana, but inside my mind I secretly still called it Mana.

There are two ways of using mana: to use mana within the body or to draw out mana from something that contains mana, the example given being a magic crystal.

At first glance, the first one was about using one's own reserves to cast magic, while the second one used an external mana source as a substitute, like a magical battery.

Due to the development of magic, those with lower amounts of mana are unable to use higher tiered magic. Thus, the use of magic crystals or magic tools that acted as batteries became more common.

There are two ways to activate magic.

The first one is through an Incantation, and the second is through the use of Magic Circles.

Incantations involve voicing out a magic spell's chant through one's mouth, while the use of magic circles required to draw a magic circle at a predetermined location or on a magical tool beforehand.

Magic circles were popular a very long time ago, but in the current times incantations are the mainstream way of casting magic.

In the distant past, the simplest incantation required about one to two minutes. It wasn't exceedingly long, but this method made magic very difficult to use in combat.

In contrast, once a magic circle is drawn, it can be used repeatedly.

The guidebook includes methods for using magic circles as well, but starting with Incantations was my goal.

I have a feeling that the magic circles included in the guide book will be quite useless if I can manage voiceless incantations instead.

In the end, I will probably only learn useful high-level magic circles in a Magic School, like in the Ranoa Magic University.

Interestingly, the book that I was reading was published by the Ranoa Magic University.

It was surprising that it even included Advanced rank spells.

Was it because the publishers thought that an average person would not be able to master them without attending their university anyway? And someone talented could get access to these spells second-hand regardless?

I think that should be the case.

Going back to the topic of incantations, there existed a certain magician who successfully reduced the incantation time. Thus, incantations became the norm.

These days the simplest incantations take about five seconds, so basic magic attacks could be used with an incantation.

Another point in the book - a person's mana is set when they are born.

I already knew that this point is false.

If a person trained during early childhood, it was possible to grow one's mana reserves.

Personally I have grown my mana reserves tremendously during the last two years.

I had no way to properly judge my mana capacity, but I felt that it should be well above that of an average adult magician.

Hopefully, I'm still far from reaching my maximum potential.

At the very least, I still seem to be improving. 

Last point - cutting the chant short or using silent incantations is only something that expert magicians can do.

Chantless magic isn't something that's expected from a newbie.

Hopefully, I will be able to bust that myth today.

'Alright, let's try it.'

I flipped the pages several times to the beginning.

The book contained the following Elementary rank Water spells:

-Water Ball: A water bullet that can be shot out.

-Water Shield: Water that rises from the ground to form a wall. 

-Water Arrow: A 20cm dart that's fired. 

-Ice Smash: Creates a column of ice to smite or freeze an enemy.

-Ice Blade: Forms a sword of ice.

I got up from the ground, getting to my knees and looked at the guidebook next to me while kneeling.

Throughout the year my reading ability and vocabulary improved considerably.

I wasn't yet able to understand the meaning of all of the words included in the Incantations, but I knew the alphabet and could read, so I could at least read out the chant.

I stretched out my hand, focused on the text, and started to carefully read the Incantation: "...Let the great protection of water be on the place thou seekest. I call a refreshing burbling stream here and now. Water Ball."

As my words finished, I felt the sudden sensation of a small amount of mana flowing through my body and gathering in my right hand.

Then a sphere of water materialized and formed to begin floating in front of my palm, the size of a handball.

'I did it!'

It was my first time casting magic, so it was impossible for me to not be excited.

I was mentally better prepared than Rudeus in the original, so I didn't immediately lose control of the spells.

As I maintained the water ball, I then willed to gradually reduce the size of the waterball, aiming to get rid of it this way.

However, as I exercised my imagination and will, nothing happened.

After a short moment, I suddenly lost control of the spell and the fist-sized water sphere dropped down to the ground with a splat, some of the water splashing onto my feet.

"Hm…"

I guess this kind of thing can't be done with a spell that came from an Incantation.

To manipulate a spell so freely, silent casting should be a must.

Let's go again.

I walked to the side and dragged out a wooden bucket that I prepared beforehand from a corner, then stretched out my hand over it.

I slowly closed my eyes and focused on relieving the feeling from earlier.

Water Ball, Water Ball, Water Ball… Water droplets gather…

As I tried to replicate the feeling from earlier, I could feel a faint warm current flow through my body, then small amounts of mana suddenly started gathering and being released through my palm.

At the same time, I heard some quiet burbling sounds.

I opened my eyes and saw a water ball that formed in the air, this time without me even uttering a single word.

Great!

I can do chantless magic!!!

And it was not even that hard.

Let's try the earlier experiment again.

'Become smaller, smaller...'

At my command, the water sphere gradually shrinks to the size of a chicken's egg.

I could do that much. It was not very difficult!

However, as I reached the size of an egg, I suddenly lost control of my spell and the small sphere of water dropped down to the bucket.

Well, alright.

I guess this was the limit of my control.

Feeling excited, I quickly formed another water ball. Doing it for the second time, it felt even more natural.

I directly dropped the ball into the bucket, then tried again.

And I succeeded in forming another water ball. Without a fuss, without a chant and without my eyes being closed.

It was not difficult at all!

A natural feeling.

I made it bigger, then smaller, then eventually dropped it into the bucket.

With each attempt it was becoming easier and more natural.

'Good!'

I felt extremely happy and excited.

Being able to do something magical like this simply with a thought was an indescribable feeling.

Just this ability to cast chantles magic was enough for me to dominate a small part of this world.

Soon enough, I'll try to test my current mana capacity.

…

For a while I continued experimenting with a few different Water, Ice and Wind spells that didn't have a chance of causing some kind of accident inside the house.

In front of me laid a wooden bucket, this time frozen solid with icicles shooting out of it, as well as an ice sword.

It was the result of my magic practice.

After I performed a new spell using an incantation just once, I could then cast it without a chant by replicating the feeling.

However, I haven't yet tried shooting out a spell.

After casting, my spells would automatically hover in the air.

'Well, let's see.'

I was still way too small to reach the window, but fortunately the chair was already there.

I slowly climbed up the chair, then looked through the window.

No witnesses in sight.

I then stretched out my hand toward the outside.

'It should be something like this…'

I exercised my imagination and moments later formed a blob of water in front of my hand just like before.

A few moments later, the water ball shot out.

After receiving the initial velocity, the water sphere's shape became slightly flattened and then it flew out in a small arc, landing on a patch of grass in the garden.

A success.

After that I formed another water ball and sent it out again, this time ramping up the speed a notch higher.

My aim was the stone fence in the distance.

As a result, my water ball flew over the fence, missing it.

I lightly smiled back.

This required practice, but it was not bad.

Not bad at all!

I managed to send a water ball flying without any problems.

I remember that it took Rudeus quite some time to figure out the method to do it. Something like 2 weeks or 2 months?

I didn't feel overly proud thanks to it, since I mostly relied on Rudeus's experiences and what I remembered from the novel.

Once I kept all that I remembered in mind and focused, it wasn't hard to pull it off.

There are certain steps to the use of Incantations.

Creation >> Setting of size >> Setting of firing speed >> Activation.

Within this, the magic spell is done once the user determines the size and speed.

Which means after voicing out the chant:

1) The spell automatically takes shape.

2) After this, within a fixed time frame, increase the mana input to adjust the size.

3) After the size adjustment, during a fixed time frame with extra mana input, was the adjustment of the speed setting.

4) Once the preparation period's over, the magic spell leaves the caster's hand, and automatically flies towards its target.

This is the sequence of the entire thing.

The trick is that after chanting, you need to add more mana twice.

If there's no second adjustment to the firing speed, once the spell is released, it will not go flying.

And to add on, when doing casting without an incantation, you have to process all of these by yourself.

Still, the benefits of casting magic silently are enormous!

Firstly, it allows you to skip the long and bothersome incantation, making the cast time several times faster than with an incantation.

Secondly, it gives you an unlimited amount of time to adjust the size and speed of your spell.

In other words, when cast chantlessly, a lower ranked spell can be 'overloaded' by pouring more mana into it, and over a period of long enough time it can reach the power of a much higher ranked spell.

In comparison, when casting magic using an incantation, you only have about one second to set the size and speed of the spell, practically making each magic spell have a predetermined power level.

Also, modifications can be done during the creation phase of chantless magic, allowing the caster to change the spell's shape, structure and characteristics - for example, adjusting the shape of an earth wall or an ice sword.

In conclusion, incantations are like cookie cutter spells that you cannot modify, with mostly predetermined strength, while chantless magic gives the caster far more freedom.

Then I tried casting a spell using my mouth instead of my hands.

And…

As I tried, nothing happened.

I didn't even know how to properly go about it.

'Aaah…'

I let out a sigh of disappointment.

Something that I kind of expected before happened.

Chantless magic is about replicating the mana flow that I experienced while casting a spell with an Incantation.

But that mana flow pattern leads toward my hands!

Because of this it's simply impossible for me to replicate the same mana flow by using my mouth, since then the pattern would change.

I continued making attempts for a good while, but I simply had no idea how to go about modifying the mana flow to make it work.

I frowned.

My worry became real.

At that moment I felt that casting spells from the Incantation school through my mouth as a surprise attack or in an emergency is simply a bust. 

Casting chantless magic was all about replicating the flow of mana.

And the smallest modifications I tried made it simply not work!

The difficulty of modifying a spell was so high, it seemed impossible.

It's possible I would need to develop a completely new Incantations or spell for it to finally work.

It seemed like all of my training by expelling mana through my mouth was mostly a waste of time.

A failure.

I let out a sigh.

I wasted a considerable amount of time and effort into releasing mana through my mouth, wasted effort that I could have spent elsewhere.

If I spent that time mindfully meditating, it would have been more productive.

I felt regret creeping into my heart.

But after a while I shook my head.

My training was already extremely efficient and effective.

So what If I run into a little blunder? So what if I wasted some of my time?

'Who would not experience failure? Verdant Sun died regretfully. Start over again and proclaim oneself as King,' I recited the words of my God, then swallowed the feelings of regret and moved past it.

I didn't completely give up on 'mouth magic' just yet.

I exercised the mana pathways leading toward my mouth for almost 2 years now, but it should not have been a complete waste of time.

It might still help me to be better at 'Voice Magic', the so-called Howling Magic of the beast race!

My talent at manipulating pure mana should be rather unique among the people of this world.

Perhaps there was still potential in me imitating the Howling Magic and developing a related move.

'Something like Dragon Shouts? Fus-Ro-Dah?' My heart thought.