Advanced mage

"The path of least resistance involves recognizing how the mana circuit works together to form a spell and controlling it in that way to cast a spell without spelling the chant " Sabrina explained.

"For this, you'll be chanting spells in fragments and notice the change in mana circuits."

"The real challenge you will face is controlling it all together which you had been preparing for all this time. The sheer quantity of mana circuits a person has to manipulate to cast a spell is way too obscene for higher spells. Hence, the practicality is lost for higher spells."

"Few battle mages use this to cast the spells that they use the most but that's only because not everyone can remember the sequences for spells from the top of their head, which is the difference between apprentice and official mages. Official mages have muscle memory for spells."

"You're being taught this spell so that you can cast a few spells without much resistance."

So they began their training like that.

Sabrina taught him for the entire day sometimes, only letting him off during lunch. Her vacations came to an end after two months.

"You can do three spells now, Keep practising them and you might learn some way to better manage the tasks."His sister gave him a pat on the back and left for the academy.

'Well, that didn't take too long. It turns out this one is way easier for me since I'm used to controlling several parts as a unit when I morph. Although I wouldn't have gotten a feel for the mana circuits without the previous practice. I can't always silent cast if I want to be discrete. People tend to notice when an eight-year-old can use magic without chanting whereas spell song modification will help me to just act like a cheeky brat who learned how to do it from his mother.'

'I think my mother doesn't care which method I learned at the end of the day as long as I don't summon a dragon the next time I use magic and I can understand the sentiment but it's better not to attract any unwanted attention while I'm at it.'

He stood up and walked outside after a long time of being confined by his sister's lessons.

'Let's find a quiet place shall we?'

He picked a set of his dad's clothes and tucked them under his own. He was greeted by his mother when he walked out of the room, "Noah, Congratulations on completing your training, shall I cook something special for you or shall we visit the restaurant that we visited for your birthday?"

"Let's go to the restaurant, I liked the food there."

'I don't want to brag but I could cook better than her and I never learned.'

He walked out of his house and walked with the crowd conspicuously. He was just the right age to be not paid too much attention by random strangers. He circled the surroundings of a dark alley that stank of piss and a lot of other smells that cannot be defined through a human nostril.

Noah walked in after finding no prying eyes. And then walked out a man of average height with long brown hair and a deep beard.

'Let's go to the mountain, I haven't seen people carrying around any identification when leaving the town gates. Even if they do stop me I'll just say that I'm a lumberjack who just shifted into the village. Guards shift often, they won't mind not knowing about me if I keep this look for some time.'

The guards didn't suspect a thing and reminded him of the gates closing at dusk. Noah was on his own now after a long while, at least as a human.

'Let's take a walk, don't want to run into an actual lumberjack.'

He ran deep into the forest, treading away from the trail used by wagons and people alike.

He started chanting a spell not at beginner level. The embers lit up in the air all around him spiralling in and out of existence as Noah contracted the mana circuits and released them.

'Can't cause a fire in the forest, let's form a clearing first.'

His hand is contorted and several muscle fibres grew above his skin and penetrated back in where they were to be attached with bones. Next, his fingers lengthened and became spiny. They soon lost all resemblance to human fingers and formed a steel axe head attached directly to his bones.

He walked to a tree and stretched his hand back unnaturally, tension building up in all his new muscles. A whipping noise was followed by a sudden impact which tore the tree through the middle. The noise scared away any predators that were looking for a snack.

Noah walked around and formed a large area that only had stumps along with a ring of uprooted grass around the circumference.

'The fire will be contained as long as I don't use something too bright. Let's try summoning something other than a dragon this time.'

He remembered the throbbing of the mana pathway he felt before cancelling the spell for the past few months.

'I just need to replicate that.'

He took a deep breath and spread his control to the mana circuits, just like he did when morphing several parts at once. It went smoothly and a chasm formed in front of him, still larger than that of a wisp but at least not a dragon.

A creature walked out on four feet. It's body made of rocks with smaller rocks acting as joints and lava which flowed in its core spilling out as it walked.

Noah laughed at the monster he had called from hell,"A huge success."