37 Jackpot

Half an hour later, the Mages entered a tall wide building. Jim stayed outside and used detection to check the interior. 'Oh? Just like I thought.' It was some sort of magic academy, classes were being held within. The discussions on chanting and mana control weren't of much interest to Jim, what he wanted was the books.

Using Distant Reading, he hungrily absorbed all the knowledge. The recorded theories were interesting, but what got Jim extremely excited was the hundreds of spells, ice magic, dark magic, new barrier spells, even healing magic. 'Jackpot!'

Jim took some distance before deactivating stealth, he headed to the gate and quickly left town. He couldn't hold it in, he needed to use these spells right away, learn the functions they use.

Heading deep into the forest, he constructed another earthen hut. Testing several spells, he decided to focus on studying Paralysis. It appears to form the spell at the point the caster is looking at. Recalling the battle with the monster back on earth, several of his spells were blocked midway by the creature's guard. If he could simply form projectiles immediately in front of the monster's face, the battle would have been far easier.

*Zzzt* Repeatedly casting Paralysis to get a feel for the spell, he began studying the circle and comparing it to Spark. 'Is it this point? No...'

About 7 hours passed, Jim figured out the targeting function. 'Now I just need to apply it to other spells.' Another 4 hours passed, he successfully applied sight targeting to Water Shot. A ball of water instantly formed next to the wall and slammed into it. Jim spent the rest of the day applying the function to other spells, Flame, Soil Shot, Spark. His magic projectiles became more useful.

'Well, let's try that out now' Jim attempted using Minor Teleportation, his body was suddenly shift ahead by a few meters. 'Whoa!' An entire day was spent playing-ahem-testing out this new form of movement.

[Magic Knowledge Has Reached Level 4]

[Lightning Magic Has Reached Level 3]

[Space Magic Skill Obtained]

'What the hell is this?' Studying the circle, it was completely different from all the magic circles before. Not only was it far more complex, he couldn't find any similarities in functions to the other spells he had studied. He needed more space magic as reference.

Searching the new spells, he found two space magic spells. Displacement and Magic Sense. Testing them out, Magic Sense places a marker on specific coordinates, which then transmits data of the surroundings to the caster's mind. 'This feels similar to Detection, but anchored.' It didn't seem to have a limit for distance it could transmit, but the area the spell monitored was only a few meters wide. He found only three markers could be placed at a time, attempting a fourth caused the spell to fail.

Displacement worked similarly to Minor Teleport except it applied to a nearby object. He identified a safety function in both spells to prevent objects from transporting into other objects, seems it still displaces surrounding air though.

Tinkering around, Jim found the distance limiter and targeting function for Minor Teleport. He fiddled with it until he could teleport using mental map. Teleporting to point of the trail where he met Armand, he felt a massive loss of Mana. 'I can only do that 2, maybe 3 times a day.'

Jim decided to test out the Blink power he had obtained quite a while back. It functioned similarly to Minor Teleport with the limiters still in place, but didn't seem to use up Mana or Qi. Practicing for a few hours, Jim suddenly felt hungry and drained of stamina. 'Does it use the body's energy as fuel?'

Jim preferred Minor Teleport, he could modify it and could still fight using his body when it ran out. Unfortunately, this was the limit he could study Space Magic for now, he needed more materials to reference.

[Space Magic Has Reached Level 5]

[Mana Efficiency Level Max]

[Mana Efficiency Derivation Skill - Extreme Mana Efficiency Obtained]

[Mana Battery Has Reached Level 9]

'Whew...' After pulling out a mattress he had crafted before and taking a nap, Jim decided to work on his resistances. He still felt his defenses were lacking, that monster from before was able to pierce his chest, if there was an even stronger magic fired at him, wouldn't he die instantly?

Casting the new spell Fire Arrow, he aimed it at his arm. *Sizzle* 'Ugh, hurts like hell!'

[Fire Resistance Skill Obtained]

[Heat Resistance Skill Obtained]

Chanelling Reiki, he cast Minor Heal.

[Healing Magic Skill Obtained]

A week passed, Jim had gone through another round of hellish training. Ice Bolt, Dark Needle, Stone Arrow, Wind Claw, these were just a handful of the spells he had cast on himself. Memorizing their usage and training his resistance skills at the same time.

Jim started wondering about status effects. even with an incredibly powerful body, if he couldn't move at all it would all be useless. He began using weak spells to cause petrification, curses, stun, paralysis. Another week was spent torturing himself.

When he wanted to raise resistance to Light element, he was shocked to find there were no light spells in the entire mage library. Pondering for a while, he took the Fire Arrow and Light Orb spells and began fusing their functions. Three days passed as he used trial and error to make a spell that condensed Light into arrow form, shot it out, and actually had destructive power. Finally, Light Arrow was completed.

[Magic Resistance Level Max]

[Fire Magic Level Max]

[Fire Resistance Level Max]

[Heat Resistance Level Max]

[Water Magic Level Max]

[Water Resistance Level Max]

[Ice Resistance Level Max]

[Cold Resistance Level Max]

[Earth Magic Level Max]

[Earth Resistance Level Max]

[Petrification Resistance Level Max]

[Wind Magic Level Max]

[Wind Resistance Level Max]

[Sleep Resistance Obtained]

[Sleep Resistance Level Max]

[Lightning Magic Level Max]

[Lightning Resistance Level Max]

[Stun Resistance Level Max]

[Paralysis Resistance Level Max]

[Dark Magic Skill Obtained]

[Dark Magic Level Max]

[Curse Resistance Level Max]

[Light Magic Level Max]

[Light Resistance Skill Obtained]

[Light Resistance Level Max]

[Healing Magic Level Max]

[Mana Battery Level Max]

[Sleep Deprivation Resistance Obtained]

[Sleep Deprivation Level Max]

Emerging from the earthen hut, Jim's eyes were bloodshot, his entire appearance was ragged and terrible. Most of his clothing was burnt or tattered. His eyes hurt looking at the brightness of the sunlight. His muscles popped as he moved them, 'Ugh...' He felt completely exhausted.

Barrier Magic, Space Magic, and Force Magic hadn't been increased to their max due to having no offensive spells, but Jim felt confident in his magic prowess now.

'Well, that's over now, time to rest.'