Silent Casting

Finally, after training relentlessly, Leus was ready to start silent casting ...

He went out of the house and took a deep breath

'Here goes nothing'

He closed his eyes and concentrated on the Mana inside him and the feeling the spells invoked within him ...

With all his focus, he tried to mimic what the spells did with his imagination ...

But it wasn't easy ...

First, he started with the spell Boost; he tried to cast it without chanting, just by willing the Mana to do what he wants

' ... Something like converting energy from one form to another' That's how he imagined it at least.

At first, Leus tried to delicately control the Mana and convert it, but after doing it for a while without success, he decided to change his strategy ...

'I'll brute force my way to it'

As soon as he started that, it worked, although only to an extent.

'That's not Boost ...'

'This is just wind'

'It's literally just random wind in every direction ...'

Leus chuckled

'I'm creating air but with no control whatsoever'

This wasn't what he expected at all

'But regardless ... it's something'

Determined, Lues kept repeating the process, spending his Mana to transform the Mana around him to Wind Mana ...

'I just need to get better control over both my Mana and the World Mana around me'

'I'm sure that if I keep trying, I'll eventually succeed'

Time passed quickly, and eventually, his Mana Pool was almost depleted, so he went back inside ...

On the way to his room, Leus started keeping mental notes of everything he felt

'I can sense the Mana around me clearer if I focus hard enough'

'For now, I have to learn how to properly transform the Mana around me to what I want, and at the same time, I have to increase my Mana Pool'

He sighed

'Well, my progress is slow ...'

He tried to motivate himself

'At least training is somewhat fun, I enjoy it'

For days, Leus kept training non-stop in the same way ...

Quickly, days turned into weeks, and as he trained more, Leus came to realize something ...

'There are differences between spells'

'For example, Sal's spells are too weak to be even considered Magic; they're just too simple'

'Also, Remedy's spells, Mana Vision and Examination, are different from the spells Boost and Flame'

But Leus didn't know exactly what was the difference.

He knew there was something, but he didn't know what was it

'I only feel it, but I don't understand it ...'

Apart from that, something else was annoying him; he was very disappointed about the speed of his progress ...

'I thought it'd be so much easier ...'

'I don't understand why it's so hard to advance'

'I didn't imagine it'd be this complex ...'

But despite his emotions, Leus persisted and intensified his training ...

And finally, after two months, he achieved a breakthrough!

'FINALLY!'

'I can now create Wind Mana without brute forcing it'

His control over the Mana was subtle, but it was there!

That was the first time he felt a noticeable progress for a long time, but he wasn't very happy about it ...

'Already four months of the two years have passed, and all I've learned is to silently cast a single spell'

He sighed ...

'At least I can take solace in the fact that my Mana Pool has increased a lot'

'Soon enough, my Mana Pool will no longer hinder my training'

'... That's what I hope at least'

After another month of training, Leus was finally able to fully control Boost silently!

Finally, he was able to activate the spell with his mere thoughts!

'Silent casting takes a lot more Mana than chanting ... but it's so much better'

'Activating spells by just thinking about them feels like a superpower'

Right now, he was able to silently cast Boost only 4 times before his Mana Pool depleted, but he didn't mind

'Over time, my Mana Pool will increase even more'

He clenched his fist

'I'll make sure to increase it until I no longer even consider it ...'

Now that he mastered Boost, it was time to start casting another spell

'This time I'll choose Flame'

But when he first tried to silently cast it, he noticed a pattern

'It's not just about the spell ...'

He started to understand something ...

'There are two stages of training'

'First, I have to learn how to convert my Mana to the Mana of the Element I want. After that, I have to learn exactly how to control the newly made Elemental Mana to become what I want it to be'

When Leus was silently casting Boost, he didn't know many things, but now he understood ...

'Chanting a spell is like giving a direct order to the Mana, which makes things easy and straightforward, but without room for maneuvering'

'However, when I cast a spell silently, I'm essentially recreating the spell'

' ... This requires me to keep trying until I achieve perfect control over the spell. And I have to repeat that for each spell.'

'On top of all this, I'm transforming the state of Mana from Neutral to Elemental, making it a two-step process.'

After trying both ways so many times, Leus came to know the pros and cons of each way ...

'When I chant a spell, I turn my brain off and repeat the words, which is both easier and consumes less mana'

'On the other hand, silent casting is hard at first, but once mastered, it's even easier than chanting'

'It makes the spell ready instantly. It basically turns my thoughts into reality'

'However, the only downside is that it needs a lot more mana'

But Leus didn't see this as a problem

'I'm planning to solve this issue by making my mana pool much bigger, so things should be okay'

As Leus gained more and more experience with magic, he began to understand how things worked on a fundamental level

'It's much better to understand what I'm doing rather than just doing it'

Sadly, this didn't make things any easier

'But it's useful nonetheless'

Right now, Leus was two years and five months old, and at this point, he decided to start training on converting Neutral Mana to Elemental Fire Mana

'It took me two months to master converting Mana to Wind Mana'

'I'm curious if it'll take the same time for Fire'

However, just a bit after he started, he noticed another difference

The process felt much clearer, and not only that ...

'Transforming Neutral Mana to Fire Mana is not only easier, but it also consumes less Mana than transforming it into Wind Mana ...'

His progress was noticeably faster

'I feel like I'm progressing at twice the speed'

'I wonder what's the reason for that ...'

He pondered about it for a while, but only one thing came to his mind

'Perhaps it's because of my Affinity?

' ... I will find out more about this as I try more Elements'

This new discovery improved his mood

'Things are getting exciting ...'

But he quickly pushed all these thoughts away

'I need to get back to training ...'