Chương 7: The Limits of Infinite Mana

The increase in Sieghart's Magic attribute produced immediate results. His spells didn't level up, but they became stronger. At one point of Magic, Flame had been barely larger than a match. It had struggled to burn anything more resistant than dry paper, and maintaining it for longer than several seconds required Sieghart's full concentration. At five points, the difference was obvious. The black flame now rose several centimeters above his finger.

It produced enough heat to ignite dry straw almost instantly, and Sieghart could maintain it while moving his hand. He still couldn't throw it, expand it into a fireball, or control it at any meaningful distance, but it was no longer purely decorative. Water Creation improved even more noticeably. His first attempt had produced a thin stream that lasted only a few seconds. Now he could fill an entire cup before his focus began to weaken.

The water emerged with greater pressure as well, though it still wasn't strong enough to injure anything. Breeze could push several sheets of paper across the floor. Sand Control could manipulate a handful of loose soil. The improvements confirmed that his Magic attribute affected every spell he possessed. Increasing it strengthened his output even when the individual spell levels remained unchanged. That was useful. It was also frustrating.

Sieghart spent several days casting the four spells repeatedly whenever he could practice without being discovered. He ignited and extinguished Flame hundreds of times. He filled cups with Water Creation, poured them into a basin, and began again. He moved sand back and forth across his bedroom floor until he had formed a tiny hill. Nothing leveled up.

Fire Magic Path — Level 1 └── Flame — Level 1 Water Magic Path — Level 1 └── Water Creation — Level 1 Wind Magic Path — Level 1 └── Breeze — Level 1 Earth Magic Path — Level 1 └── Sand Control — Level 1 Every number stubbornly remained at one. Apparently, making the spells stronger through his Magic attribute wasn't enough to advance them. The system expected something else. Perhaps spells needed meaningful accomplishments rather than mindless repetition.

Creating a thousand flames inside a safe bedroom wasn't impressive when none of them accomplished anything. Maybe he needed to use them in combat. Killing monsters would probably qualify. Sieghart had never seen a monster up close, but the travelers on the road carried weapons for a reason. Workers occasionally mentioned wolves with elemental abilities, crop-eating beasts, and slimes that gathered near stagnant pools. Slimes sounded appropriate. They were usually the weakest monsters in fantasy stories.

Their bodies were slow, soft, and conveniently designed to be attacked by beginners. If Sieghart couldn't defeat a slime, he had no business considering anything more dangerous. It might take a while with his current spells. His black flame could burn straw, but a slime's body would presumably contain a great deal of liquid. Water Creation would only make it larger. Breeze might annoy it, and Sand Control could perhaps make it slightly dirty. Sieghart could combine them. Earth could absorb moisture.

Fire could evaporate it. Wind could strengthen the flame. The process would probably be less like an exciting battle and more like slowly cooking an aggressive ball of jelly. Still, a victory was a victory. Sieghart would worry about finding a slime after he learned to walk without occasionally falling on his face. For the moment, he turned his attention toward expanding his magic tree. Four elemental paths were useful. More would be better. Sieghart became greedy. That was inevitable.

The system had shown him a tree filled with dark branches, so naturally he wanted to unlock all of them. He possessed infinite mana and had already awakened four elements in less than two days. Why stop there? His first target was ice. Water and cold were closely connected, so he expected that path to be easy. Sieghart created water above his palm, emptied his mind, and focused on stillness. He imagined the heat leaving the liquid and its surface freezing. The water became slightly colder.

Then it fell onto his lap. No notification appeared. He tried again with a stronger intention, but the second attempt only gave him a cold, wet hand. Lightning produced worse results. Sieghart combined the intensity of fire with the movement of wind. He imagined electrical current rushing between his fingers, accompanied by thunder and a suitably impressive flash of light. Nothing happened. He attempted to create light, darkness, metal, plants, mist, and even gravity. None of them produced so much as a spark.

Fire, water, wind, and earth were the basic elements. Their emotional foundations were easy to understand because he had watched his grandparents demonstrate them repeatedly. Advanced elements were different. Ice wasn't merely colder water. Lightning wasn't simply energetic wind. Knowing the physical relationship between natural phenomena did not teach him the magical intention required to create them. His knowledge from Earth could show him what an element did. It couldn't show him how magic interpreted it.

Sieghart would need time, observation, and probably actual instruction. He didn't particularly like that answer, but repeatedly staring at his hand wasn't going to produce lightning. He closed the Black Magic tree.

"One step at a time." He already had more magic than anyone believed possible. Complaining because he hadn't unlocked every element before his second birthday would be excessively greedy. Even by his standards. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Sieghart also began thinking about aura. The servants at the Emberhart estate had said that his channels had never formed.

They had mentioned that Lord Alaric was one of the strongest Aura Knights in the province, which suggested aura was the source of his father's abilities. Could Sieghart learn it despite lacking the necessary affinity? His infinite mana bypassed the absence of magical channels when he cast spells. Perhaps it could do the same thing for aura. The problem was that Sieghart didn't know what aura was. He suspected it involved strengthening the body with mana.

His father's absurd physique could have been the result of years of physical training enhanced by magical energy. If warriors circulated mana through their muscles, bones, and weapons, they could become far stronger than ordinary humans without needing to stop and form spells. Sieghart attempted to reproduce that effect. He sat on the floor, summoned the feeling he associated with mana, and tried to spread the energy through his body.

Instead of directing it toward a finger to produce an element, he imagined it surrounding his arms, legs, and chest. Nothing happened. He tried focusing the energy into his fist. Still nothing. Raw mana remained beyond his control. Sieghart could access the infinite ocean inside him only through elemental intentions. Anger created fire. Serenity produced water. Freedom called wind, while certainty moved earth. Without an element to give the mana shape, it refused to obey.

Perhaps aura required a different kind of foundation. Perhaps his missing channels truly made it impossible. Sieghart didn't allow that possibility to trouble him for long. He already had four paths to develop. Chasing an ability designed for warriors while his body was still learning how to climb stairs seemed unnecessary. One step at a time. The following six months passed in the blink of an eye. Having magic made the days much shorter. Sieghart practiced whenever he was alone.

He cast spells in his bedroom after his grandparents went to sleep, experimented behind the barn when the workers were occupied, and studied every magical action Elara and Edric performed in the fields. He learned to hide his progress. A small ceramic basin beneath his bed collected the water he created at night. Sieghart poured it out through the window every morning.

He practiced Flame over a flat stone to avoid burning the floor, used Breeze to dry anything he accidentally soaked, and returned displaced sand to its original position before anyone could notice. The secrecy became easier as his body developed. At eighteen months, Sieghart could walk with reasonable confidence. He still stumbled when he moved too quickly, but he no longer needed to crawl between rooms. His vocabulary had expanded enough that speaking in short phrases no longer seemed unusual.

His status had changed as well. Name: Sieghart Race: Human Age: 1 Level: 1 Health: 40/40 Mana: ∞/∞ Stamina: 40/40 Strength: 4 Endurance: 4 Vitality: 4 Dexterity: 4 Magic: 5 Mentality: 15 Resistance: 4 Perception: 1 Class: None Skills: Black Magic — Level 1 His physical attributes increased naturally as he grew. Mentality rose after months of magical practice, though Sieghart couldn't tell whether the improvement came from age or training. Magic remained at five. None of his paths or spells had leveled.

Despite that lack of progression, his control improved considerably. Sieghart could summon each basic element more quickly than before. He no longer needed several minutes to construct the proper emotional state. A thought, a breath, and a focused intention were usually enough. That improvement taught him why magic was looked down upon. The system wasn't the problem. The casting method was.

A mage needed to adopt the correct mental state for an element, direct mana toward an intended result, and maintain enough focus to control the spell. Each step took time and concentration. That was manageable on a peaceful farm. It would be a nightmare in battle. Imagine attempting to become calm and serene while a wolf was biting into your leg. Imagine trying to embody freedom while an armored warrior charged toward you with a sword.

Even anger, the easiest emotion to summon in a fight, could become dangerous if it overwhelmed the precision needed to shape a spell. Sieghart became accustomed to separating his emotions from the rest of his thoughts. He learned how to touch anger without letting it control him, quiet his mind without losing awareness, and hold multiple intentions close enough to switch between them. That helped. It didn't remove the fundamental weakness. Stronger spells required more focus. They also required more mana.

The second limitation was meaningless to Sieghart, but it crippled ordinary mages. A person might possess the knowledge needed to create a large flame yet lack the mana to maintain it. Magical tools bypassed that weakness by using blue stones, but those resources were apparently too expensive for casual use. Aura seemed more practical for combat. If Aura Knights used mana only to reinforce their bodies, they could activate a single technique and then rely on strength, reflexes, and weapons.

They wouldn't need to shape a new spell for every attack. Sieghart imagined his father rushing across a battlefield while covered in red energy. No complicated emotional changes. No need to stop and visualize an effect. Just speed, armor, and a sword. That was probably why warriors dominated this world. Magic could perform many tasks, but versatility demanded time. In a difficult battle, wasting even a second on concentration could be fatal. Sieghart's infinite mana removed only half the disadvantage.

He still possessed one mind. That meant he needed to become faster. He practiced changing between elements without hesitation. Fire to water. Water to wind. Wind to earth. He learned to extinguish Flame instantly and summon Breeze before the last trace of heat vanished. Combining spells remained difficult. Using Flame and Breeze at the same time required him to maintain two different intentions. Anger pushed his mind in one direction while the freedom of wind pulled it another way.

At first, one spell always collapsed. After several months, he learned to overlap them for a few seconds. The results were modest, but useful. Breeze strengthened Flame and pushed it away from his fingers. Sand could be mixed with Water Creation to form mud. Wind could accelerate loose sand enough to sting exposed skin. Sieghart also learned to increase the amount of mana invested in a spell. He couldn't measure the exact cost because his total never decreased, but he could feel the difference.

A normal Flame required only a tiny opening into the power inside him. Creating a stronger version meant widening that connection while maintaining the spell's shape. The effort strained his concentration. The flame grew larger. Water Creation benefited the most from that discovery. On a quiet afternoon, Sieghart stood behind the barn and pointed one hand toward an empty wooden bucket. He calmed his thoughts, connected with the infinite reservoir inside him, and pushed more power into the spell than ever before.

Water erupted from his fingers. It no longer emerged as a weak stream. A narrow jet crossed three meters before striking the side of the bucket. The impact knocked it over and sent it rolling across the dirt. Sieghart dismissed the spell immediately. He stared at the fallen bucket. Three meters. The jet wasn't strong enough to break bones, but it could strike someone in the eyes, disturb their balance, or push away something small. More importantly, its range gave him his first real offensive option.

He could attack without standing within arm's reach. Sieghart summoned his magical tree. Water Magic Path — Level 1 └── Water Creation — Level 1 Still Level 1. The spell was several times stronger than when he first unlocked it, yet the system refused to acknowledge his progress. His improved control and increased mana input had changed the result without changing the skill itself. That confirmed his theory. Levels required more than strength. They required achievement. Sieghart needed an actual target.

Something alive. Something recognized by the system as an enemy. He looked toward the distant tree line bordering the farm. Slimes occasionally appeared near stagnant water after heavy rain. Sieghart had learned that from listening to the workers. They considered the creatures pests rather than serious monsters, though large ones could contaminate wells or suffocate small animals. A slime would be perfect. Unfortunately, the farmhands killed them whenever they found them.

Sieghart couldn't exactly ask the adults to save the next monster for the one-and-a-half-year-old child. He would have to wait for an opportunity.