Learning Spells
Ethan closed his eyes as he raised his staff. Soon, blue lines gradually appear at the end of his staff and a magic circle was formed.
"Magic Missile," he chants softly. In response, his staff lit up for a moment and fired three consecutive magic missiles.
Opening his eyes, Ethan saw the tree ahead of him having a faint trace of smoke on its stem. Exactly three small convexes were cleaved in its body.
Ding!
[You have manually learned the Basic Spell: Magic Missile.]
[Obtained 30 EXP!]
"Oh, that's one down."
Ethan uttered with slight delight. He knows he can learn the basic spell on his first try.
While manually learning a spell, the player must adhere to the law of Utopia. This kind of 'law' was not entirely clear at this time of the game. But Ethan, a regressor, already knows this information from reading the various research in his previous life.
In Utopia, a person practicing spell casting requires the following steps;
First, a spell caster must masterfully feel and gather the mana within their body to generate the foundation of magic constructs. This process includes proper gestures and breathing to control the flow of mana inside the body.
In the second step, a spell caster should create a mental image of the spell they wanted to cast to draw the magic formula from the constructs they had generated.
This is a necessary step to grasp the purpose, form, and type of the spell.
To achieve this, one must have a clear and calm mind just like an artist focusing on their work.
After the formula construction, the last step involves incantation to trigger the magic formula and release the spell. These include either chanting, somatic gestures, or other variables that can aid in the process.
At first thought, the whole method was short and easy. However, the difficulty increases depending on the type of the spell.
Artists can easily draw simple artwork while they took their time to craft complicated pieces. A spellcaster at the same time can easily cast a fireball than release a rain of flame.
Furthermore, manually learning the spell was far more burdensome than simply learning it by ripping the book page.
However, if the player already owns the spell, they can have the leisure to activate it. For instance, a player wouldn't longer need to painstakingly gather the mana inside their body.
The step of creating mental imagery and constructing magic formulas was also omitted in the process. If a player had enough mana, all they had to do was select the name of the spell and activate it.
After all, the players can use the system provided by the game while the people of Utopia cannot.
Remembering this information, Ethan was now enthusiastic to learn all the spell books. Owning five varying spells at a low level was considered a good starter pack.
After learning the first spell, Ethan chose the next basic spell while positioning his staff horizontally.
"Now then, let's try this next."
With his open palm attached to the one end of the staff, he closed his eyes as he calm down his breath. These were the necessary gestures listed in the book.
Ethan went to imagine black energy swirling around a person's silhouette. Since the training hall is high in mana density, it greatly helped him to achieve a calm and stabilized mind. This affects his thoughts to arrange fluidly.
"Bind."
A single chant escaped from Ethan's mouth. Soon, the black energy in his mind moves and coils around the person's silhouette like living chains. These chains strengthen their grip causing the silhouette to be rooted in place.
Opening his eyes again, Ethan saw that there are now four black chains coiling in the body of his target (the tree). Afterward, a notification sound rang in his head.
Ding!
[You have manually learned the Basic Spell: Bind.]
[Obtained 30 EXP!]
Ethan faintly smiled after hearing the notification, 'that's two,' he thought.
Drawing a clear image in his mind was necessary to get the correct formula of the spell. Ethan had already seen this spell in his previous life that's why he can picture it out perfectly, not needing a pointless rough imagination.
With that, Ethan quickly obtained two basic spells and gained 60 EXP in total.
Since time was gold, Ethan didn't waste any moment and proceeded to the next spell.
He calmed his breathing first, smoothly swiped his staff horizontally, and then pointed it down as if creating a number '7'.
"Earth Wall!" he chanted.
The tip of his staff dazzled in blue, soon a magic circle appeared in front of his feet.
The ground covered by the magic circle crumbled as it quickly raised, creating an earth wall in the next second.
The wall was wide enough to cover him from any attacks from the front. It was a perfect abrupt shield.
Ding!
[You have manually learned the Intermediate Spell: Earth Wall.]
[Obtained 50 EXP!]
A system notification resounded, telling him he had successfully learned the defensive spell.
"I also got it for the first try, huh. Not bad Ethan."
Ethan uttered praise to himself. He expected he would fail at least twice since the guide listed in the intermediate spellbook was quite vague. It only says the basic gesture and the short chant.
The only thing he could add was the image of the spell. This is not a problem for him since he had already seen this skill previously, a simple square wall made of earth.
That was pretty easy to imagine, but the spellbook was considered intermediate and Ethan assumed he needed to grasp the correct size, width, and height length.
But in the end, it was all pointless since the spell manifested without a hitch.
"I got worried for nothing. I even use my math skills to get the area of this wall." Ethan said while tapping the earth wall.
After a short scan of the wall, Ethan moves on and reads the description of the second intermediate spellbook in his inventory.
—
Upon casting, the user would instantaneously teleport to any place.
—
Written after the spell description was the execution guide. The book also says the caster must have a good perception to vividly paint the place they wanted to displace.
Ethan needs to focus and memorize the image location. The information, the details of the place, what about its landmark? Even small signs can be helpful.
Without delay, Ethan sweeps his gaze into his surroundings. He won't use the tree he was using as a target even though he has already memorized every part of it.
In his previous life, several mages, especially Warlock, can be seen practicing
If one would use a tree as a displacement point, the system would recognize it as flat land.
And how could a player replace a tree? Naturally, the results were similar to where a car crashed in the trunk...and that was considerably painful.
A few seconds passed and Ethan managed to find a single plot in the distance. A small part of it has no grass. It was a perfect lot for the displacement point.
He focuses on that plot to grasp a clear image of it. Several small rocks, the grass around the area, and the trees that are posted on each side.
Feeling that it was already enough, Ethan tapped the ground using his staff and muttered "displace" at the same time.
Suddenly, his figure vanished from the spot but appeared again on the location he was planning to displace.
"Whoa!"
Ethan yelps in slight surprise as he loses his balance and falls to the ground. Luckily, he managed to twist his body on time to save his face.
"Haha, I missed this feeling."
But instead of complaining about the pain, Ethan let a soft chuckle as he remembered the feeling of being teleported.
He was a Swordsman in the past. Even though it was a melee profession, it still had a blink spell like the other profession. Ethan missed this feeling of vertigo.
Ding!
[You have manually learned the Intermediate Spell: Flicker.]
[Obtained 50 EXP!]
A notification rang. He got the spell again on his first try!
"Alright. Then, for the final book!"
Ethan stands up and goes back to his previous spot. With the same tree as a target, he took a deep breath before raising his staff.
"Oh Archon of Fire, let my burning desire be manifest. The fiery flames in my heart are now enraged, devouring fire—Ignis Accendium!"
At that moment, after Ethan finished his chant, the surrounding air became heavy, and leaves fluttered around the tree.
A red magic circle materializes on its foot then a whipping flame invokes from nowhere.
The flame immediately forms into a cyclone of fire, quickly engulfing the whole tree.
"Whoaaa?!"
"Wh-What's going on?! Is there an enemy attack?"
"What's happening out there?"
Several people rushed out of the training hall because of the sudden flame that erupted in the backyard. It was a big flame that they could even feel the heat inside the training hall.
"What a sight... Who cast it?"
"That guy in the fancy hat!"
Answered the man who was holding a spear. Besides him was a Beastman who was holding a sword.
"It's my first time seeing such a large spell."
'Is that an advance spell from the gifted books?'
The Beastman thought for a moment.
He never saw this spell unless it was from the advanced spellbook that the unknown entity gave to every player of the game.
'No, it can't be...even guild leader could not successfully learn an advanced spell. Who is this person?'
The Beastman wondered about the mage's identity.
On the other hand, the man in question doesn't know the commotion behind him. Ethan was still checking the notifications lined up before his eyes.
[You have manually learned the Advance Spell: Ignis Accendium.]
[Obtained 100 EXP!]
[You have level up!]
[You are the first person to manually learn all the beginner spellbooks. You have earned the title
[You have triggered a Unique Quest;
"Oh, I've never expected I could get a title just by learning these spells."
Ethan was a bit surprised by the results. In his previous life, he only learned two basic spells out of the five gifted books hence this is his first time seeing these notifications.
'So the first person who got this title never revealed this information, huh.'
After contemplating the cause, Ethan shifted his attention to his target, the now incinerated tree.
It was burned. Only the trunk of the tree remained standing though in a burned-up state.
Luckily, Ethan was more isolated in the backyard. It was the only tree standing on that spot so the fire didn't spread around.
Suppose the situation was different; who on Utopia knows what possibly could happen? Maybe a forest fire in the middle of the tutorial area.
"As expected, it was scary enough even if it's just a level 1."