The Path to Mastery

"Before we begin learning, let's start with introductions. I am Julius," the mage said.

"I'm Justin," Justin responded.

After the brief introduction, Julius calmly spoke again, "First, let me clarify something. I said I'd teach you magic, but that doesn't mean I'm going to teach you the actual theories behind magic."

"I understand that. You mean you're going to teach me magic skills, right?" Justin replied.

Julius smiled and said, "Exactly as you said."

Julius waved his hand in the air, and suddenly, a window filled with various kinds of magic appeared in front of him. The window displayed a wide range of high-level offensive spells, defensive buffs, healing, and even curses. This list was incredibly flashy compared to Justin's own skills window, which had only one spell: Magic Missile.

"What I'm going to teach you isn't complicated theory, but rather how to effectively use magic skills. Things like usage limits, how to recharge, and examples of applications," Julius explained.

Justin asked, "Does that mean there are other, more complex magic theories?"

Julius nodded, "Yes, but they're not important. Since you can already use magic easily through the system, why bother learning the theories?"

Julius shook his head, expressing that it was a waste of time.

"For example, to learn Magic Missile, the spell you've already learned, it would take at least a year unless you were a genius. Do you still want to learn the magic theories?" Julius asked.

Justin sighed and said, "... It's probably best I don't."

"Good choice. Honestly, what's the point of a fish trying to learn how to swim like a cat? As long as you know how to use your gills and fins properly, you're good to go," Julius said with a grin.

"I get what you're saying," Justin responded.

Justin thought that learning magic theories was like physical training, while learning magic through skills was like raising physical stats. Since the system was available, it only made sense to choose the latter. If he could spend time defeating monsters and leveling up, he'd become far stronger that way.

Julius asked, "How much do you know about your skills and stats?"

Justin replied, "I understand the theory perfectly, but I haven't been able to apply it in real practice."

Julius inquired, "What do you mean exactly?"

"I know I need to meditate to recharge magic uses, but I don't know how to meditate," Justin explained.

Justin hadn't reached the top of the rankings for nothing. If it was part of the game system, he had mastered even the smallest details. In fact, he felt like he probably knew more about the game than the developers of World Breaker themselves.

Julius nodded with a satisfied smile. "That's very good."

"What?" Justin asked.

Julius explained, "My main job here is to help you apply the theory in real-world situations."

While Julius could teach him the theories if he wanted, learning things that could be gained elsewhere would be a waste of time. Thus, learning things that could only be acquired here was the best use of time.

Julius smiled lightly and said, "Let's start by teaching you how to meditate."

A day and a half had passed since Justin began learning skill applications from Julius. He sat down straight and closed his eyes. He wasn't trying to do anything in particular, just focusing on his posture. After a few seconds, he heard the system message in his ear:

"Ding!Meditation begins. Recharging depleted magic uses."

"Ding!If you open your eyes or lose your posture, meditation will be forcibly canceled."

After hearing this from Julius, Justin realized that meditating was incredibly simple. All he needed to do was sit in the proper position, close his eyes, and wait for a moment. When he first learned this fact, he was so shocked that he had to ask again.

"—Just sit and close my eyes for a few seconds, and that's it?" Justin asked, bewildered.

"—Yes, that's all you need," Julius replied calmly.

"—But it's meditation! Shouldn't I be thinking special thoughts or breathing in a certain way?" Justin questioned, puzzled.

Julius shook his head, saying, "—Nothing like that. In reality, it's not you who's recovering. The system is checking your posture and recharging you. Just maintain your posture, and that's all you need."

Meditation, as it was called, was basically like ringing a bell to ask the system to recharge him. Even though it seemed absurd, Justin found the system incredibly convenient. As long as he sat in the correct posture, magic would be recharged automatically, without any additional effort.

"The only problem is that it would be hard to defend myself if I got attacked while meditating," Justin thought.

The basics of meditation required him to sit and close his eyes. While he could stop meditating and get up at any time, being ambushed from behind without hearing footsteps would leave him defenseless. Additionally, recharging one Magic Missile took about a minute. If he completely ran out of magic, he'd need to spend around 10 minutes meditating to fully recharge everything.

"But I've already prepared for situations like that," Justin reassured himself.

"Ding!All Magic Missile uses have been fully recharged."

When Justin heard the system message announcing that his magic had been fully recharged, he got up and immediately headed toward the passage on the opposite side. Julius watched his movements quietly, as this was an action he had repeated countless times already.

"Karik!" a goblin shrieked.

"Kirik!" another goblin echoed.

At the end of the passage stood three goblins. Although Justin had already taken care of them in a previous quest, it seemed they reappeared after some time. Justin pointed at each of their heads in turn and muttered under his breath.

"Magic Missile, Magic Missile, Magic Missile," Justin chanted.

Boom, boom, boom!

"Keeeeek...!" the goblins screamed in pain.

The goblins fell without even being able to let out a proper death cry, taken down by the rapid fire of Justin's spells. Magic Missile, now boosted by his increased magic power stats, packed enough punch to be compared to a crossbow bolt. Even if the spell hit their chests, unlike before, they wouldn't be able to survive.

Justin walked over to the goblin corpses and examined the wounds.

"Was I too imprecise? My accuracy still seems a bit off," Justin muttered to himself.

While accuracy wouldn't be a problem at close range, it would be easy to miss from afar. It seemed like slowing down the casting speed slightly to improve accuracy would be a better strategy.

"Anyway, by now, I should be leveling up soon," Justin thought.

Killing goblins wasn't just about practicing magic applications. According to Julius, it was possible to level up to level 3 in this tutorial dungeon. Level 3 was when he could finally specialize into a proper job and move past the basic one. Even though the experience gain in the tutorial dungeon was slow, the benefits were clear, and there was no reason not to grind.

Just as he was thinking about heading back to wait for the goblins to respawn, he finally heard the system message he had been eagerly awaiting.

"Ding!Your level has increased. You have gained 1 stat point."

"Ding!You have reached level 3. Meet the job instructor to advance to a higher class."

"Finally!" Justin shouted with excitement and immediately ran towards Julius, yelling, "I've reached level 3! Please advance my job!"

"Wow, what an impressive young man," Julius thought as he observed Justin.

Julius marveled at Justin's actions time and time again. Among all the beta testers, Justin stood out the most. It wasn't just because of his extensive knowledge of theories, which he was proud of. It was his quick adaptability and proactive drive. In both these areas, Justin wasn't just remarkable—he was unique.

"Even now, there are so many beta testers who still don't know what they're doing," Julius thought.

Julius was simultaneously present in multiple locations, guiding and leading the beta testers who had chosen the path of the mage.