Chapter 5: Charmed, I'm Sure

Ivar didn't get back until around noon the next day.

Although the night ended around 8 in the morning, he could barely move his body after battling all night. Thankfully, all the girls were expensive and he had given a generous tip so no one bothered them while they spent time together in the room relaxing. One of the women had even cooked breakfast for everyone. 

When he had finally recovered, he bid the ladies farewell and left 100 Dreams, not even saying a word to Wei Jing. She had work to do and so did he.

He wanted to start practicing magic. 

Most nobles learned a spell or two before they entered the academy but besides that, they focused on learning the basics of their magic eyes.

Ivar's eyes were powerful and their abilities were pretty straightforward, so he didn't need to train with them. His knowledge of the story also helped him master his eyes in less than a week so he wanted to switch over his training to spells. 

Magic in When Our Eyes Meet was divided into 3 schools that covered a wide variety of magic. These were Evocation, Abjuration, and Transmutation. At the academy, one would choose one type of magic to be their major and they needed to master a certain number of spells at different levels in order to be able to pass. 

Spells were composed of two parts, physical and mental. The first portion were hand signs. One needed to put their hands in the correct positions in order to be able to cast spells. There were about 50 hand signs and spells required anywhere from one single hand sign to a combination that could end up with over a 100 movements with their hands. 

The 2nd factor was knowledge, imagination, and molding mana. A person needed to properly picture what they were casting in order to use the spell. This allowed for some variation between spells but they had upper limits to them. They also needed to mold their mana in a particular way to be able to properly cast their spells.

Evocation were the spells that used magic to transform raw mana into physical energy, and usually for attack purposes. It also usually added elements to the magic to give them different effects. This was the school that most nobles majored in since it was the most flashy and considered the most powerful. 

Abjuration was similar to Evocation in that it transformed raw mana into physical energy but they were usually barriers. Abjuration spells also covered healing spells, transportation magic, and spells that increased physical properties of people or objects. Most knights who had some magical ability and healers choose this route. 

Transmutation was the last of the three schools and generally considered the weakest by most. Its spells used mana to alter what was around the user or user but not the mana in the air itself. It could also use mana to create something from nothing but the requirements for doing so were extremely high as one had to be knowledgeable about what one was creating, the mana requirement was huge, and the object only lasted a short amount of time. 

Since transmutation had few spells that could be used directly in combat like Evocation or reinforced as well as Abjuration, it was the major that the fewest students specialized in. 

There were also a few spells that fell into the general category that either did not belong to any of the three schools or fit well into multiple of them.

Ivar was originally planning on being an Evocation major but with his new knowledge, he knew that Abjuration suited him better with Transmutation losing out by a small margin. 

Since he was planning on becoming a Magic Knight, spells that enhanced his body and defenses were perfect. The fact that Abjuration also covered teleportation spells that would allow him to move around unexpectedly and healing spells that could allow him to fight longer is what made it win out over Transmutation. 

But before he chose his major in a few months, he had to learn some basic spells. 

Ivar went to the family library and grabbed several books before returning to his room to read them. Each of these books were Charms that were relatively easy to learn. 

Spells were divided between 7 levels. Charms were the most basic and the easiest to learn. After that, spells were ordered from 1st to 6th tier depending on how powerful and difficult they were to use. 

Each book he got had charms for the 3 schools of magic and one of general charms. These were not cheap, however. Each book cost around 10 gold while the average commoner only made 10 silver per year. 

When he opened the first book, Ivar felt his head spin. 

"This is for the charms of Evocation? No wonder people spend their whole lives just to learn a single 6th tier spell," Ivar thought while flipping through the book before opening the other books and looking over them. 

The Abjuration was about the same level of difficulty as the Evocation book but the Transmutation was much harder. Even their most basic charms could compare to 1st Tier spells in difficulties. The general spells were much easier so Ivar decided to go with those first.

The first Charm he learned was Light. It was a pretty simple spell that created a ball of white light that could follow next to the user or be placed in a single location.

Ivar cast the spell and a fist-sized ball of light appeared above his palm. He moved his palm around as the light followed it before moving his palm over to the candle next to his bed. He placed the ball over the string of the candle and thought of trying to anchor it. 

When his hand moved away, the light was still there, shining brightly. 

'That spell really is easy. Let's try the next one then,' Ivar thought as he turned the page to the next Charm in the general book. 

This one was called Will-o-wisp. It was pretty similar to Light but it created up to 5 orbs of light that could move around freely in a 5-meter radius of the user. 

This one wasn't able to be used on his first try but after practicing the hand seal a few times, he was able to cast the spell without trouble.

Several balls of white light appeared in his room, floating in the air around Ivar.

'Nice!' Ivar thought while imagining the balls moving around. He made them move in circles around his body, moving them faster and faster until the 5 balls looked like one ring of light that surrounded him. 

He continued on to the next spell, ready to learn as many charms as he could before school started.