23 Methods of Spellcasting

Lucas woke up with a slightly sore feeling in his abdomen as he got out of bed. A girl had once again come to his room to deliver breakfast. Learning from his past mistakes Lucas got dressed before giving permission to enter. The girl opened the door very slowly, noticing this Lucas let her know he was properly decent this time.

The girl Heaved a sigh of a relief after she heard that. She finished opening the door before quickly serving the food and bowing as she left. Lucas relaxed as best he could as he ate breakfast and left the room. Lucas knocked on Barthiz's door and this time she opened and greeted Lucas with a smile on her face.

She asked if he needed something and Lucas explained that he was just checking up on her because he noticed that she was not in last night. Upon hearing this Barthiz stared a Lucas for a moment before smiling at him with a certain look in her eyes before thanking him and going back to sleep.

Lucas scratched the back of his head feeling slightly embarrassed as he walked to the third floor of the temple. Lucas had seen the student who had assaulted him yesterday and moved to avoid his line of sight as best he could. Lucas knew though that avoiding the student was only a temporary solution.

He would have to think of a way to keep the kid away until he was capable of defeating him using only magic power. Lucas pondered this before eventually moving it to the back of his head as he saw Azavius waiting for him in the training room. Lucas greeted and bowed as they started their discussions for the day.

Learning to be a mage was a very hands-on process where you relied primarily on yourself. The master could only teach or guide in a general direction. Success was determined by the apprentice alone. Lucas spent half the day trying to control the amount of mana that flowed towards him while spending the other half trying to use small amounts of it to create small spells.

When he was finally capable of this he would be able to start safely training his body to store increasingly high amounts of mana. Another day passed by in the training room as Lucas repeated yesterday. The only difference was he had dinner brought to his room to avoid being seen by the student from before.

Barthiz had once again disappeared for the night. Although Lucas was curious where she was heading off to, he figured he should give her privacy. Lucas laid down onto his bed but instead of heading directly to be he decided to meditate and train his mind.

As a result, the night passed by peacefully well at least for him. In the beginning, he controlled the amount of mana he attracted to himself but as time passed he began falling asleep while still maintaining his meditative state.

When he finally went to sleep the mana was still being attracted to him and went haywire. In different rooms in the grand magicians temple whether it was a student or a grand magician they all had their meditation or comprehension interrupted.

Mana was drawn away from everyone as experimental spells fizzled out and mana entering the body of a person who was meditating was drawn away. Everyone felt anxious as they felt their connection with mana was weakening.

The mana would no longer bend to their will is it rushed to a single area as if greeting its one true ruler. As such the entire night passed with a lack of mana in the entire capital city. Enchantments lost functionality as their mana was pulled away.

Whether it be the magic force field set up to protect the pope or the simple magic enchantments on one's robes they were all dispersing. The city went into near complete panic everyone ran about like headless chickens.

Everyone except the grand magicians along with a few bishops and the pope. The grand magicians were not worried as they knew what was happening. The bishops and pope on the other hand merely used magic as an additional layer of defense, not a primary one.

Although humans could not learn divine spells if one were to cut off all connection with mana they would be allowed to have divine force pass through them. When they prayed they could impart their need to the divine force.

The divine force was not guaranteed to do what they wanted but as long as they prayed it would act. As such the important members of the church still had protection against any potential threats. No one was able to use mana until Lucas woke up.

The only reason that there was not any force that could be potentially destructive as the last few times was because in his sleep he was not focused on any element. As such mana responded with its true purest form.

This caused the grand mages to be both awed and troubled. Such an untrained youth was not ready to wield such power. If he could not control his power while drawing on it the result would be catastrophic.

None of them knew what to do though if the person was weaker they could weaken their connection to magic similar to what was done to criminal mages, that was the problem though the person wasn't weaker and if he was there wouldn't even be the need for such measures.

Lucas woke up completely oblivious to everything that he caused over the night. The girl that came to usually give him food gave him a weird look as she did. Seeing this Lucas quickly examined his robes thinking that they may not be done properly but he found nothing wrong.

Lucas simply shrugged and moved the thought to the back of his head as he ate his breakfast. After breakfast, Lucas looked at Barthiz's door before sighing and walking away. Upon reaching the third floor of the temple as usual he found a few grand council magicians repairing the enchantment.

Lucas bowed in passing to the mages not thinking about the enchantment at all. He just assumed something had failed during a recharge and such. Upon reaching the training room Lucas noticed Azavius was not present.

Due to this, he decided to meditate as he waited. Three hours passed before Azavius finally showed up. Lucas was slightly frustrated at waiting for so long and immediately bowed hoping to start training so he could build his first wand.

The topic of the day was how to actually form spells effectively. Most magicians found it easier to see the spell designs and channel mana in them physically which was the reason they would draw symbols in the air before casting.

This was a huge weakness as if the enemy could recognize the spell you were casting they could react quickly and cast a counterspell rendering your effort completely ineffective. How spells were formed was based on one's self.

It was possible to use spells by concentrating on the structure in your head and channeling mana through it before leading it down to the wand to cast. This process was complicated though and required immense amounts of mental strength.

As such there were few mages in history capable of casting spells out of nowhere in battle. These mages were the most deadly as one could only guess what spell they would cast. Lucas decided to try this, as using his fingers to try and cast a small scale spell had not been effective for him thus far.

Lucas closed his eyes and imagined the spell structure in his head as he channeled small amounts of mana through it. In front of Lucas, a small light began shining. Although it was not as bright as any of the lights that lit the room it was still more than he had been able to do before.