017 New Magic: The Power of Lightning

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If one looked closely at her eyes, one would notice how vacant the mentor’s gaze had become.

“Roland, how about we make a wager?” Catherine said with a half-smile. “You dislike that purse so much, don’t you? If you can learn the magic in this book before we reach our next destination, I’ll take the purse away.”

Roland raised his head. “And what will you wager?”

Catherine paused. She did indeed need to offer something. If Roland lost, after all, it meant he would have to keep carrying the purse.

After a moment, she said, “If you win, I’ll take away the purse and grant you one request.”

Roland muttered, “I hope you keep your word.”

His mentor sneered.

Catherine was not deliberately making things difficult for Roland. She knew there was something unusual about him, and believed that he ought to be able to meet her requirements—at least barely—before they reached the Ochre Fern Forest. They were about to enter the forest, so she had to force the boy to make an effort. Otherwise, he would never survive.

Roland had no idea what his mentor was thinking, nor did he know how long an ordinary apprentice needed to learn magic. He simply felt that the time should be sufficient, and studied the book with extraordinary seriousness.

After leafing through it for a while, Roland was surprised to discover that the authors of Arcana: A Few Insights into Chain Lightning and A Brief Discussion of Mental Magic seemed to be one and the same person. Both books had also been copied by Mentor Catherine herself.

The contents seemed to have been written casually, yet they were profound while remaining easy to understand—perfectly suited as textbooks for apprentices.

Roland felt that by the time the author had written these books, her thoughts and realm had already returned to simplicity and natural truth.

When he reached the tenth page, he suddenly realized that he might not need to read any further. After studying the incantation on that page, he gradually began to feel that he had more or less mastered it.

Catherine had once told him that most pure-blood witches possessed an affinity for only a single element. The more focused one’s elemental affinity, the better one’s talent. A mage with an affinity for only one element possessed first-rate talent and was known as a born emissary of magic.

Most Muggles possessed an affinity for five to seven elements, which was why they had no right to study magic. Roland himself possessed an affinity for all seven elements—the worst possible talent. But Catherine had also said that although those with an affinity for multiple elements found cultivation extremely difficult, they found the actual use of magic remarkably easy.

It seemed that this was indeed the case. If an ordinary person could somehow obtain magical power, would that mean that the Muggles and half-breeds scorned by pure-blood wizards might actually become stronger than them?

Roland suddenly realized something. Those wild mages looked down upon by wizards—the Muggle-born magic users who had no contact with the wizarding world—were mostly possessed of worthless talents ranked fifth or lower. Yet among them, there might be some truly exceptional individuals.

Anyone with an affinity for more than five elements found it exceedingly difficult to gain magical power through meditation. But if someone could obtain magic through an unorthodox path like Roland had, using something such as the Book of Alaya, then their potential would be immense.

Catherine had always believed that once an ordinary person like Roland acquired magical power, he would be better suited to the study of magic than pure-blood wizards. The many things now occurring to Roland seemed to prove her right.

Roland thought to himself, But when I studied magic before, I wasn’t nearly this fast. Is it because, during my advancement last night, I came into deeper contact with the structure of the lower world?

Roland did not know that his mentor intended to take him to the Ochre Fern Forest. He assumed that Catherine’s next destination was a town.

They were still halfway from the town, so he continued studying Chain Lightning.

The Chain Lightning in this book had been modified by its author and placed extremely high demands on the caster’s technique. A skilled caster could link several targets with a single spell. An unskilled one… would be lucky to strike even one person.

I’d better study this magic thoroughly, Roland thought, lest she give me trouble later.

He used the Book of Alaya to examine his current mastery of the spell:

[Modified Chain Lightning I (0/100)]

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[Description:

1. Call upon the power of thunder and release it from both hands, piercing one to three distant enemies at Level 1 and inflicting heavy damage of one to two units. The higher the spell level, the greater the number of enemies Chain Lightning can connect.

2. Each time it strikes an enemy, Chain Lightning’s damage is reduced by fifteen percent.

3. This magic was improved by a certain wizard, greatly reducing its consumption. When it strikes only one enemy, it inflicts double damage, from one to four units. However, this also increases the difficulty of learning it.]

[Effect: Level 1 Chain Lightning inflicts zero to four units of lightning damage upon the first enemy.]

“Before its modification, this spell dealt even less damage than Mind Blast. After its modification, however, its damage is quite impressive.”

“Although its damage fluctuates greatly, its consumption is extremely low. It has tremendous range, and it attacks over an area.”

“If Mind Blast is my ultimate spell, then this can serve as my basic skill. It’s an excellent choice.”

If the other apprentices had heard Roland call Chain Lightning low-cost and regard it as a basic skill, they would certainly have shouted, “Stop bragging, you seventh-grade waste!”

After all, the spell’s maximum damage reached four points.

And it was an area-of-effect offensive spell. Once mastered, a single cast could kill a whole crowd.

Imagine a low-level apprentice surrounded by three or five other low-level apprentices, trapped in a situation where death was inevitable. Then one chain of lightning swept through, and every enemy fell…

How could that not be considered a devastating technique?

Of course, this required the caster to have cultivated the spell to perfection—to be able to strike multiple targets every time and ensure that each bolt inflicted its maximum damage.

Even so, it remained a devastating technique.

If one mastered this spell, one could dominate the ranks of low-level apprentices with this single move.

However, arcane magic had always consumed a terrifying amount of power. Before Catherine modified the spell, low-level apprentices could not use it at all. Even after her improvements, an ordinary low-level apprentice would be doing well to cast it once a day.

But Roland was different. When he advanced, his magical power had increased by three hundred percent. Releasing Chain Lightning three or five times in a single battle would be no problem.

“I should be able to cast this spell instantly… But striking multiple enemies at once, while ensuring that every cast reaches maximum damage, will still require repeated practice.”

Roland vaguely sensed that he could practice the spell over and over at an extremely low cost, but he could not grasp the method.

He scratched his head and once again turned to Arcana: A Few Insights into Chain Lightning.

The second half of the book suddenly illuminated his thoughts. Its author had specifically created a minor cantrip for Chain Lightning called Arc.

Cantrips were spells commonly used among apprentices.

They were simple to cast, consumed little power, and caused no damage. Since they were merely auxiliary forms of magic, wizards classified them under the categories of cantrips and minor magic.

Yet these cantrips allowed wizard apprentices to gain a better understanding of formal spells.

The author of Arcana: A Few Insights into Chain Lightning had designed Arc specifically so that students could practice it in order to familiarize themselves with the casting process of Chain Lightning.

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Put simply, once one learned the cantrip Arc, every successful casting of Arc would also increase one’s experience with Chain Lightning.

“The ancestor in my mentor’s family, the witch named Alexandra, was simply a genius!”

Roland felt tremendous admiration for that witch.

When he had previously studied Chain Lightning, he had also experienced flashes of inspiration, but he had been unable to design a cantrip like Arc. That witch, however, had possessed a commanding grasp of the whole subject.

Roland could not help but feel as though he were looking up to her from below.

In truth, Roland was being somewhat too modest.

Although he was not skilled at designing magic, his comprehension was terrifying. All kinds of inspiration constantly erupted within him. His thoughts, however, were too erratic and chaotic. When inspiration came in excessive quantities, it became difficult to organize.

Thus, if one asked Roland to produce inspiration, he could produce a hundred ideas. But he found it extremely difficult to arrange those ideas systematically and refine them into a single, pure, and complete system.

The witch Alexandra was the exact opposite of Roland.

Her experience was too rich, and had already formed a fixed mode of thought. The established patterns in her magical thinking were difficult to break, making it hard for her to produce strange and unconventional ideas.

But she was exceptionally skilled at perfecting systems. As long as someone provided her with the framework of an idea, she could fill in the entire structure with an all-encompassing understanding.

By then, the carriage had entered the town at the foot of the mountain.

The witch raised her head and asked, “How is your progress?”

With that question, the mentor intended to put pressure on Roland. She had not specified where their next destination would be, had she? So their next destination could be the Ochre Fern Forest—or the town of Valeria. Correct?

She planned to suppress the boy deliberately, berate him as a useless wretch, and then tell him that he had another two hours.

But just as Catherine finished asking how things were going, Roland raised two fingers. An arc of electricity appeared between them.

At the sight of this, his mentor opened her mouth wide.

An instantaneous cast!

But that was not all.

Roland raised three fingers and released another arc. It sprang from his thumb to his index finger, then leaped from the index finger toward the middle finger. But when the arc attempted to jump to the third finger, something went wrong midway, and the spell failed.

An embarrassed expression appeared on Roland’s face. He coughed and looked toward Catherine.

“Mentor, I should count as having fulfilled your requirements, shouldn’t I?”

Catherine’s expression darkened. Pretending not to have heard him, she merely continued leafing through the spellbook in silence.

Roland said nothing either.

He had remembered one thing: Catherine owed him a request.

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