Chương 8: The Shape of Anger

Fortunately, Sieghart didn't have to worry about jinxing himself. No army of monsters attacked his new home. Nothing emerged from the irrigation channels, no hungry beasts charged out of the forest, and the farm wasn't suddenly surrounded by bandits. The following days were so peaceful that Sieghart began to suspect the world had temporarily forgotten about him. Before he could imagine anything that might make him regret that thought, he returned to training. He had been a failure in his previous life.

That was an unpleasant fact, but not an entirely useless one. Failure had taught him several lessons. The most important was that wanting to improve and actually improving were completely different things. He hadn't failed the entrance examination because he lacked books, time, or intelligence. He had failed because his studies had been inconsistent. He spent too much time reviewing subjects he already understood and not enough time confronting the ones that gave him trouble.

Sieghart wouldn't make the same mistake with magic. Casting a spell successfully was only the first step. Repeating the same comfortable action might improve his familiarity, but it wouldn't necessarily teach him anything new. He needed structured practice. He began by reducing the time required to access the emotion connected to each element. Fire remained the easiest. Anger was always close to the surface, fed by memories from both of his lives.

At first, Sieghart needed to recall his parents' disappointed expressions, his failed examination, or the bookshelves collapsing on top of him. Eventually, that became unnecessary. He learned to remember the shape of his anger without reliving its cause. A single thought was enough to stir the mana inside him. The power moved toward his hand and produced a black flame above his fingers. Water required him to clear his mind without becoming sleepy. Wind demanded a sense of freedom and movement.

Earth required patience, stability, and absolute certainty. In the beginning, switching from one element to another took almost ten seconds. He needed time to dismiss one emotion and create the next without allowing them to interfere with each other. After several weeks, Sieghart reduced that delay to five seconds. Then three. Every improvement reduced the strain placed upon his mind. The spells still demanded concentration, but he became accustomed to the sensation of controlling mana.

What had once exhausted him after a dozen casts became something he could practice for almost an hour before needing to rest. His mana remained infinite. His concentration did not, but concentration could be trained. That was progress, even if the system refused to reward him with a level. The real breakthrough began when Sieghart tried using fire and wind simultaneously. He had already discovered that Breeze could bend the direction of Flame. The interaction made sense based on what he remembered from Earth.

Wind supplied ordinary fire with oxygen, allowing it to burn faster and hotter. Magical fire might follow the same principle. Understanding the relationship didn't make the combination easy. Fire required controlled anger. Wind required freedom. Those mental states resisted each other. Anger demanded a purpose and a target, while wind rejected restraint. Whenever Sieghart concentrated too heavily on one element, the other spell collapsed. For several days, he couldn't maintain both for longer than a second.

Then he changed his approach. Instead of dividing his attention equally between the two elements, Sieghart treated Flame as the central spell and Breeze as a supporting effect. His anger created the fire, while his desire for movement gave the wind direction. Sieghart raised one hand behind the barn. A flame appeared above his palm. He called the wind. The flame stretched forward. Its dark surface rippled as air flowed into it, and the crimson traces moving through its center became brighter.

Heat washed over Sieghart's face, forcing him to narrow his eyes. The flame doubled in size. He lost control a second later. It collapsed with a quiet pop, leaving a black mark on the stone he used for practice. Sieghart grinned. The combination worked. It didn't unlock a new spell. Flame and Breeze both remained at Level 1, while the Fire and Wind paths showed no changes. That didn't matter. This was only a trick meant to give him ideas for his next step.

His magical tree recognized elemental paths and individual spells, but its structure didn't prevent those paths from interacting. If fire and wind affected each other, then the other elements should do the same. Sieghart began testing every possible pairing. Water and wind were the safest combination. By controlling the movement of the air around the water he produced, he accelerated evaporation and drew heat away from the remaining liquid. The change was minor at first. The water became cooler.

Sieghart couldn't create ice, but this was the first evidence that he could manipulate temperature without unlocking an entirely separate path. Fire and water produced steam. That experiment nearly burned his hand. Sieghart learned to conduct it from farther away by creating water first and then applying Flame. The resulting cloud was small, but it spread quickly and obscured his vision for several seconds. Earth and water formed mud.

The result wasn't particularly exciting, but Sieghart could alter its consistency. More water produced slippery sludge, while additional earth created a thick mass that became hard after drying. Wind could accelerate loose sand. The grains struck a wooden board with enough force to leave faint scratches. The attack wouldn't harm an armored warrior, but it could injure exposed skin or blind someone. Fire and earth produced the most interesting result.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Sieghart gathered sand above a flat stone before heating it with his black flame. He couldn't melt the grains, but they retained the heat after the spell ended. When he added wind, he could scatter the burning sand over a short distance. The first time he touched it accidentally, it stung badly enough to make him hiss and shake his hand. A handful of hot sand wasn't legendary magic. It would still feel unpleasant inside someone's armor.

Sieghart remembered every discovery. Keeping written notes would raise uncomfortable questions about why a toddler was conducting magical experiments, so he organized the information in his head. Fire increased heat. Water provided substance and changed form. Wind controlled movement. Earth provided weight and structure. By combining those qualities, Sieghart could create effects that none of his basic spells could produce alone. He still couldn't unlock advanced elements.

Lightning refused to appear no matter how he combined fire and wind. He could cool water, but he couldn't freeze it. Light, darkness, metal, and plants remained beyond his reach. That didn't discourage him as much as before. He had begun to understand the difference between elemental interaction and an actual magical path. Cold water wasn't ice magic, just as hot air wasn't a new element. To unlock something advanced, Sieghart would need to understand the intention and emotion behind it.

For now, the four basic elements gave him more than enough to study. The months passed. Sieghart's second birthday arrived with another small celebration at the farmhouse. Elara baked a honey cake, Edric carved him a new wooden lion, and several farm workers gave him simple gifts. This time, Sieghart didn't spend the entire party waiting for something terrible to happen. He still examined the cake carefully before eating it. Some habits were simply good survival instincts.

By the age of two, Sieghart could combine all four basic elements in pairs. He could create hot air, cold water, drifting steam, thick mud, and sand hot enough to sting exposed skin. His control remained limited, but the possibilities continued to grow. His magical tree, however, showed no progress.

BLACK MAGIC — LEVEL 1 ├── 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 The complete lack of level-ups irritated him. Sieghart had improved the strength, speed, range, and control of every spell. He had cast them thousands of times. He had even developed useful combinations. The system apparently wanted something more fundamental.

Sieghart focused on Flame. It could exist above his hand, burn whatever he touched, and grow stronger when fed with wind. Its greatest weakness was obvious. It had no independent shape. He couldn't send it toward a distant target because the spell remained connected to his finger or palm. The moment he pushed it away from his body, his control collapsed and the fire vanished. A fireball couldn't merely be a larger Flame. It needed a stable form capable of surviving after leaving his hand.

Sieghart spent several days considering the problem. His fire came from anger. The emotion ignited mana, but anger by itself was directional and uncontrolled. Whenever Sieghart thought about something that angered him, the feeling wanted to rush outward immediately. That created Flame. To form a fireball, he needed to contain that anger without extinguishing it. He needed to give the emotion shape and motion. The answer came during an evening practice session behind the barn.

Sieghart raised his right hand with his palm facing upward. Instead of allowing anger to rush directly toward his fingers, he imagined it collecting at the center of his palm. Mana answered. A flame appeared. Sieghart pictured his anger spiraling around itself. Not escaping. Not fading. Circling. The flame twisted. Crimson light moved through its center and formed a rotating ring. Sieghart continued feeding mana into the shape while imagining his anger expanding without losing its boundaries. The flame grew wider.

Heat washed over his face. His concentration strained almost immediately. Maintaining Flame was simple. Forcing it to rotate, contain itself, and expand demanded several simultaneous intentions. Sieghart clenched his teeth. The fire folded inward. For the first time, it separated from his skin. A sphere of fire hovered above his palm. It was only the size of an apple, but it remained stable. Crimson lines spiraled across its surface, and heat distorted the air around it. Sieghart stared at the fireball.

He had done it. His excitement nearly broke his concentration, but he forced himself to remain focused. Creating the fireball was only half of the spell. He needed to launch it. Sieghart turned toward a wooden target he had placed several meters away. It was nothing more than an old board leaning against a mound of dirt, but it would serve its purpose. He pushed his anger forward. The fireball left his palm. It crossed two meters before striking the ground short of the target. Fire burst across the dirt.

The dry grass surrounding the point of impact ignited immediately, forcing Sieghart to summon water and extinguish it before the flames spread. Then his knees gave out. Sieghart sat heavily on the ground. The world tilted around him, and his eyelids became impossibly heavy. He still possessed infinite mana, but shaping and launching the fireball had consumed nearly all his mental focus. Blue screens appeared before him. Through experimentation, you have created a new spell.

Fireball — Level 1 Compress fire into a stable sphere and launch it toward a target. Current Range: 2 meters Control: Poor Power: Low Mana Cost: Variable Fire Magic Path has reached Level 2. Your understanding of fire has advanced beyond simple ignition. Magic +1 Sieghart smiled. That was the missing requirement. Repetition wasn't enough. Increasing raw power wasn't enough. Even combining existing effects had failed to earn a level.

He needed to expand his understanding of an element and turn that understanding into something new. The system rewarded advancement, not mindless grinding. His status screen changed. Magic: 6 Fire Magic Path — Level 2 ├── Flame — Level 1 └── Fireball — Level 1 Sieghart tried to memorize every line, but his thoughts were already fading. The grass beneath him felt strangely comfortable. He had unlocked his first genuine combat spell.

It was weak, inaccurate, and so mentally exhausting that a single use left him helpless. That was fine. Tomorrow, he would cast it again. Then he would cast it the day after that. Eventually, forming a fireball would become as natural as creating Flame. Sieghart's eyes closed. He fell asleep behind the barn with a satisfied smile on his face, never noticing the figure standing silently at the farmhouse window. Elara lowered her hand from the curtain.

Her eyes remained fixed on the scorched patch of earth beside her sleeping grandson.