Training with Rebecca (Part 2)

After my prompting, James started to take the lead,

"Alright, time to get down to business. My Lady, stand about 100 feet from the training dummies and shoot a water stream at each dummy so we can see how accurate you are."

Becca started walking to the area James pointed at with a smile on her face.

"Ok, I'll show you what I am made of."

I was curious to see how accurate Becca was with her basic spell. Yesterday, I was missing the dummies more often than not, since it was my first time using magic, so she is most likely better than me.

However, if she really could only ever practice magic in her room, then I don't see how she could be too much better than a complete newbie.

Once Becca was in position, her smile faded. She took a deep breath and her face become focused. She was serious about showing her ability.

"Water stream. Water stream. Water stream."

She casted all three spells within a second. They shot through the air at the speed of a bullet. To my surprise, all three spells hit the dummy they aimed for square in the face.

Becca turned towards me and James with a triumphant look.

Her accuracy blew me out of the water,

"Becca, that was amazing! How did you get so good?"

Like Becca said earlier today, I didn't want to chalk up her outstanding accuracy to pure talent. I knew she worked tirelessly to obtain the skills she has today.

Becca's face lit up at my question.

"I had a really good idea back when I first was able to start using my basic spell. I never got to brag about my idea to anyone since no one was supposed to know I was training in secret.

So what I did was, I took a couple of square steel plates that my father had laying around. Since he works in the steel industry, we have so many of them all over the house that me taking a few would be impossible to notice.

Then, since my room was so big, I was able to hang up the steel squares at one side of the room and get a quality accuracy training.

The steel plates were strong enough that my spell did not destroy them right away and I left some buckets underneath them to catch as much water as possible.

I still had to throughly clean up the water after each session and I had to replace the steel plates every month since there was wear and tear from the force of the spell. But I did the best I could with what I had.

My accuracy is the thing I am most confident in!"

"Wow! The training method you came up with really shows off your ingenuity!" I teleported next to her to give her a quick high five.

"Thanks Nick, I am glad that I can share my ideas with someone now."

James also chimed in,

"The advantage for mages with high accuracy is that you can use up to 20 basic spells that simply shoot forward in the same time it would take to hit one basic spell that uses your added basic spell control from being an intermediate mage.

This is because you have to choose if the basic spell you are going to use will just shoot forward or will have control over it before you cast the spell. If you choose to have control over it, you need to focus your control on it for the full time that it is flying in the air until it hits something.

In the same time that you focus one basic spell 100 feet, you could instead use a basic spell that projects forward and the moment it leaves your palm, you can cast another one."

His explanation showed the advantage of each.

'So, the forward shots are like a machine gun and the controlled shots are like a homing snipe. It really depends on if you can hit your shots without needing to control them.'

Becca agreed, "yes, I have heard about it in one of the beginner magic books I read. I have timed myself and my personal best is 93 shoots in a minute. That is with me actually aiming of course."

James seemed impressed, "that is a solid number for a Royal mage, now let us see the same basic spell, but with control now. Have your spell get to the side of the dummy and then move it 90 degrees to hit it."

"No problem."

Becca was able to control her spell and hit the dummy after a 90 degree turn with no issues.

James continued on with the tests, "good, now make a water shield around yourself with your water control."

Becca started to scratch the back of her head as if she was embarrassed.

"This is the thing I have trouble with. For some reason, when I try to made a shape out of my water, I loss control."

James started to focus. "Ok, try it now and I will look to see if there is anything obviously wrong."

James was straining his eyes to take it all in. His brow was furrowed and he was leaning forward.

Becca nodded her head and chanted, "water stream!"

This time, the water weakly shot out of her hands and landed on the floor a few feet away with a splash.

Afterwards, Becca quickly turned to look at James, hoping that he would give her a solution to the problem that had been plaguing her for a long time.

James put his hand on his chin as he was thinking about what he saw.

"Hmmm…I think I know what the problem is. Why did you not take out the amount of water you needed first and have it float in front of you?"

Becca tilted her head in confusion, "what do you mean?"

James chanted, "Fireball."

Then, a large quantity of fire came out of his palms and he controlled it to float in front of him.

"If I want to make a wall made out of fire, then I first need to take out as much fire as I need to make the wall with my fire control. Once the fire is all out, now I am ready to shape it into anything I want."

As he spoke the fire that was before just floating freely in front of him moved to form a wall that blocked him from view.

Becca exclaimed, "Oh! So it wasn't working because, in my mind, I was trying to shape the water before it even came out of my hand?"

James nodded in agreement. He was proud that his demonstration was a success. "Exactly, it is a little annoying that you can't have your basic spell be conjured already in the shape that you want, but all mages have to deal with it, so it puts us on an equal playing field."