Practice

According to the arcane knowledge the skill books had transmitted to him. Magic Skill Trees were divided into Three Tiers based upon the difficulty of casting them.

Casting the 1st or low tier of magic skills (Lv. 1-3) was rather easy, they only required the caster to chant the name of the skill.

The 2nd or mid tier (Lv. 4-6) raised the casting difficult by adding the additional requirement of chanting a spell along with the skills name.

Finally the 3rd or high tier (Lv. 7-9) had the highest casting difficulty, requiring the combination of various hand signs along with complex lengthy spells which required precise coordination and timing. Beyond [Lv. 9] he was uninformed since the books had only transmitted information pertaining from (Lv. 1-9).

Also depending on the tier, incorrectly casting the skills would result in varying degrees of a casting penalty.

Tier 1 skills had the lightest penalty, incorrect pronunciation would simply result with no activation.

Tier 2 Skills would not only fail to activate but would expend twice the amount of MP require for casting for each failed attempt.

The worst penalties were reserved for Tier 3 Skills. The slightest mistake during casting would result in a serious backlash which would not only deal damage to the caster but would also negate MP regeneration and prevent any further casting for a set period of time.

Rising from the ground armed with his newly acquired Magic Skills Salvatore was eager to test their full capabilities.

"First I'll try some fire magic."

Extending his hand, with his index finger slightly raised, he boldly chanted the name of the seemingly least dangerous of the fire magic skills.

"[Candlelight]!"

Instantly a small orange flame appeared slightly above his finger no bigger than the size of a lighters flame. As the skill activated he noticed the black bar decrease slightly as he sensed a sliver of unseen energy start to flow continuously outward from the center of his body, seemingly in the direction of the tiny flame.

Concentrating on the unfamiliar sensation of flowing energy he realized he was sensing the emission of his magic in order to fuel the [Candlelight] magic skill.

Dismissing the skill, he paused for a moment before he went on to the next skill, the attack magic [Fire Bullet].

Extending his hand, he aimed at the ground roughly 10ft away from him before chanting "[FIRE BULLET]!!!" successfully casting the skill. Instantly his black bar noticeably decreased again as he felt a large amount of energy surged towards his palm then outward as a small bullet shaped ball of fire shot out from his palm with a high pitch "BANG" hurtling through the air like a tiny orange spiraling comet in a straight line that pierced the ground with a sharp "PING".

Examining were the [Fire Bullet] had hit the ground, the area of impact appeared burnt and cracked in a roughly 2 foot diameter. Examining the center of the circle closely he discovered a tiny black crater approximately three inches deep were the [Fire Bullet] had penetrated the ground.

"Hmm.... [Fire Bullet] is basically a magical flame bullet. With practice I should be able to fire it with pinpoint accuracy. If I focus on leveling up this skill I should be able to cast hundreds of [Fire Bullets] within the span of a few seconds. I wonder what would happen if I focus the strand of magic towards my finger instead of my palm."

Raising his hand, he arranged his fingers in the shape of a gun and aimed at the ground roughly 5 feet away from his last shot, then once more chanted.

"[Fire Bullet]!"

This time as he felt the strand of magic flow towards his hand he exerted all of his will, barely redirecting the flow of energy towards his extended finger. As the energy flowed into the smaller space of his finger he felt it begin to build in pressure like water in a garden hose as it condensed before with a even louder "BANG" then the previous shot an even faster [Fire Bullet] hurtled through the air striking the ground with a distinctive "PING" sound.

Examining the ground were the second [Fire Bullet] was aimed he discovered the impact diameter had been reduced to 1ft however the area were the [Fire Bullet] had pierced the ground had increased to a depth of approximately 15 inches.

"Excellent" he excitedly contemplated "by controlling the flow of magic and focusing it into my finger I was able to increase the [Fire Bullets] piercing power."

Intrigued by his discovery he continued experimenting with the [Fire Bullet] skill in order to accurately determine how the effects of manipulating the magic flow in different manners effected the [Fire Bullets] performance.

After a few more experiments he established that at present he was able to alter the [Fire Bullets] trajectory in midflight slightly and that by causing the magic to rotate like a drill as it left his finger he could increase the [Fire Bullets] piercing capabilities even further reaching a final depth of 3 feet, also by using even more MP than was required to cast [Fire Bullet] he was able to overcharge the skill.

Satisfied with the results of his [Fire Bullet] research he began to examine his other Skills. After half an hour of cautious experimentation he confirmed that most of his Skill did exactly as stated in their descriptions.

[Shockwave] caused his body to exude a Omni-directional outward pushing force, and seemed designed mainly for the purpose of expelling any and all enemies who attempted to approach the caster, while on the other hand [Blink] was a excellent skill especially suited for dodging enemy attacks, since it enabled him to instantly move 1 foot in any direction 3 times in a row.

[Spatial Storage] caused the space near his hand to ripple like water once he activated the skill. He could then easily insert his hand into the viscous space, to reach a small unseen cubical pocket. To test it he placed a few rocks inside then closed it, surprisingly discovering that even when it was closed he was still able to sense the unseen dimensional pockets contents.

[Heal] would caused his hand to constantly exuded a soothing, faint white aura but seemed to be currently ineffective due to him having full health.

[Cure] was currently useless and [Purify] required water so he saved practicing with them for later.