Chương 115: Seeing Is Believing

After leaving the amphitheater Damion and Arica made their way back to Damion's home where he changed his clothing and then prepared to head out to practice magic. Mage Teft met them near the east gate where they were allowed by the guards to exit the city. Despite the beast wave having been over for several days, the city guards were still on high alert.

Even with the hunting crews that went out to kill the Demonic Beasts left over from the beast wave, there were still a higher-than-normal number of Ferocious Beasts and Demonic Beasts in the area. It would be some time before things returned to normal. Outside the city walls, Damion found that the landscape had been nearly restored to normal. Damion guessed it was the work of an Earth Mage. The craters from the magic cannons had been filled in.

Other than the destroyed farms, which were rapidly being rebuilt, the only sign of distress in the landscape, were the barren sections caused by fire or other magic spells that killed the grass or where the craters had been filled. Once they were away from the walls and in an open field Mage Teft produced from her spatial artifact a test dummy for Damion to practice on. Damion moved back about ten meters and cast his first spell, Ice Shard.

From Damion's palm leapt a small icicle that flew across the distance in a split second hitting the test dummy. After his attack struck, Damion waited for Mage Teft to advise him of the results.

"That attack contained just over 3, 000 magic power," Mage Teft told Damion while she looked at her tablet.

"I know you have more magic power than that. Make sure you are fully focusing on the magic seal and powering the spell properly." Raising his palm to try again, Damion focused on the magic seal and channeled his mana into it. The magic seal flared to life in front of Damion's outstretched palm. The magic seal glowed for a moment in a dim icy light blue similar to Damion's hair and then his spell went off sending out another shard of ice.

If someone, like Mage Teft, had a quick enough eye, they would see that this shard of ice was far superior compared to Damion's first spell. The shard of ice Damion just sent out was shaped like a long crystal, was razor sharp and as hard as steel. Damion had managed to perfectly cast the spell and when Mage Teft saw the result on impact on the test dummy she was quite satisfied.

"Excellent. That spell had close to 4, 800 magic power behind it. That is very close to C Rank. As you might have noticed, when you properly activate a spell the magic seal will form at the casting point."

"Is there a way to disguise that?" Damion asked. Sure, he was glad he had perfectly cast the spell, but if he was trying to surprise someone he was afraid the magic seal appearing would alert his target a split second before his spell went off.

"You can always not properly cast that spell," Mage Teft told him.

"However, once you truly master the spell, the appearance of the magic seal and the casting of the spell will be instantaneous." This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"My channeling is too slow?" Damion asked guessing at what Mage Teft was implying.

"Precisely. Continue to work on the spell. Once you have truly mastered it, you will find that unless you continuously cast, the magic seal will appear and disappear in the same instant your Ice Shard is sent out." Damion did as Mage Teft instructed and continued to cast Ice Shard. With each cast, Damion felt his understanding of the spell was growing. He was not sure if he was nearing mastery, or just realizing how much more to a magic spell there was, but Damion knew he was making progress.

After close to an hour Damion's channeling and cast time for the spell had fallen to a fraction of a second and the magic seal only remained visible for that brief instant when the shard of ice flew from his palm. Arica and Mage Teft watched with a mixture of disbelief and envy as they saw Damion's skill with the spell visibly increase. What took most mages years of practice, Damion was able to accomplish in an hour. The other element of Damion's spell casting that they envied was his stamina.

Ice Shard required 20 mana with each spell cast. Damion was casting three and even four of the spells every minute. Both Arica and Mage Teft knew Damion either had abnormal mana capacity or mana regeneration, given his use of the fire glyph on his sword in the past, but seeing him accomplish the same with a real magic spell was entirely different.

"Why don't you try a different spell?" Mage Teft suggested. She was feeling Damion was becoming bored with pelting the test dummy with Ice Shard. Damion thought this was a decent idea and moved within grasping distance of the test dummy. This time he focused on the magic seal for Icy Grasp. Reaching out Damion grabbed the arm of the test dummy and let the spell do its work. Icy Grasp required 15 mana per second, but was also a deadly spell.

The test dummy would not die from Damion's mana being forced into its body, but any human or beast would suffer immensely. After a few moments of grasping the test dummy ice began to form on its surface and Damion released his hold. In total Damion only channeled the spell for no more than 30 seconds, but the amount of mana Damion used was staggering. Despite Damion's high mana and high regeneration, he felt the drain from using the spell.

"Icy Grasp has an accumulative effect on its target. The longer you hold on the more mana is pumped into your target. If you held onto a human as long as you did to the test dummy any person below C Rank would be dead."

"I'll make sure I am careful then," Damion told Mage Teft. He did not want to accidently kill someone in a spar, but it was good to know he had a spell that could incapacitate someone. Damion could not help but think if he walked up behind someone and covered their mouth with his hand as he cast the spell, they would be dead before they knew what hit them.

"Ice Shield is difficult to judge its effectiveness since it is not an attack. You can practice that one safely enough at home. Go ahead and try Ice Breath."

"Wait," Arica said suddenly.

"You know four tier 1 spells already?"

"I read their magic seals when I was a kid. I could not use the magic, but I remembered the seals. When the seal on my magic core lifted I knew I could use them and was even able to use them right away against the Deinosuchus I was fighting."

"Unbelievable," Arica muttered.

"If the other academies had any real inkling of what you are capable of they never would have given you such poor offers."

"I tried to convey it to them honestly," Mage Teft shrugged.

"I don't think they believed me though."

"No, seeing is needed for believing in this case. Don't worry, I won't reveal your talents to Mage Bianco or anyone else. But you have to know, once you get tested at the Adventurer Association word is going to get out."