It was chilly outside the castle. Snow was falling heavily and formed a thin layer of frost on the ground. However, Merlin could not feel the cold at all. Instead, he felt overly warm. He even took off his thick coat, leaving only a thick shirt on.
The Spell Model of Fireball finally formed in his Awareness. What Merlin was about to do now was to test the strength of the Fireball.
Merlin scanned the room. His surrounding was not suitable for him to do the Fireball testing, so Merlin wore his coat and headed out.
He recalled there was a secret basement in Wilson Castle. It was very hidden and wide. Only Old Wilson, the butler and Merlin knew about this basement.
Merlin wanted to test the Fireball and the basement was the perfect place for him.
Recalling his memory, Merlin went straight to Old Wilson's room. He pressed a brick on the wall lightly. That was the switch that gave the way to the basement.
"Ka-chak."
With a creak, a wall in Old Wilson's room gradually pulled apart from two sides. Dust flew about and fell on the ground.
In a couple of moments, a dark tunnel stood before Merlin. He took a candlestick on Old Wilson's table and lit the candles. With the weak light, he walked into the opening.
The passage was extremely dark as no one had come in for a long time. There was a heavy and unbearable stench in it. Merlin proceeded cautiously without stopping.
This passage headed downward. A long stone staircase led him to a place a hundred meters below ground. At two sides of the passage, there were many candlesticks. Whenever Merlin met a candlestick, he would light the candles. Thus, the dark passage turned bright and clear as he walked further.
Walking on for a few minutes, the stone staircase had disappeared and Merlin had reached a wide basement.
This basement was just a hall. There were more than ten small rooms storing weapons, shield and armors.
Merlin could still recall the few times he was brought here by Old Wilson when he was ten years old. When Old Wilson was repairing the castle, he had referenced the structure of a few military fortresses. Thus, there was a basement which only allowed one person to enter. If there was any danger, one could simply hide in it.
If one had prepared way beforehand and stocked the basement, the supplies here would be enough to feed a few hundred people for a year.
However, many years had passed. Blackwater City was peaceful without many wars, so the basement was gradually neglected.
Albeit neglected, the basement provided enough space for Merlin to test the power of Fireball.
Thus, Merlin stood at the center of the underground hall and began to sense the Spell Model in his Awareness quietly.
The Spell Model in his Awareness was still rotating slowly. Even the slightest Fire Element underground was absorbed into the Spell Model.
The Fire Element that was absorbed by the Spell Model was the Magic Power of the Spell Caster itself! The longer the time Spell Model existed, the more the Magic Power it accumulated. So, once the Spell Model was created in the Awareness, one could just leave it alone. The Spell Model would automatically accumulate Magic Power.
Merlin read old man Etha's Spell Manual carefully and was clear about the method to cast a spell. It was easy where he would need to stimulate the Spell Model with Mind Power.
"Fireball!"
Merlin shouted. His Mind Power directly stimulated the Spell Model of Fireball. In the blink of an eye, a fireball which emitted scorching heat appeared from the empty space less than a meter away from Merlin.
Merlin was filled with elation but he was not able to control his Mind Power, so the fireball dissipated as quickly as it had been formed.
The fireball dissipated because Merlin had not controlled his Mind Power properly. Once the fireball was cast, the Spell Caster had to control it with his Mind Power.
Even though he failed the first time, Merlin did not give up. He concluded his experience and lesson and cast another fireball.
This time, he controlled the fireball well with his Mind Power and began to direct the fireball to fly around in the air.
"Boom!"
The fireball crashed into a stone wall. This fireball in the size of a fist seemed to contain a large amount of energy. It caused the tough wall to tremble and burned a half-inch hole in it.
That was not enough to show the true strength of Fireball. Merlin took a heavy armor from the storeroom in the basement. This was the standard equipment of a heavy-armored knight. Once he had this on, even the sharp knight's spear could not pierce his armor.
It was naturally just right for Merlin to use this armor to test the power of Fireball.
He hung the armor on the wall but he did not continue to cast Fireball. Instead, he sat down for a rest.
Merlin rubbed his head with both hands. Since he had cast Fireball for two times, he realized the Magic Power accumulated in the Spell Model had been emptied. If he wanted to cast it again, he would need to wait for his Magic Power to recover.
Looking at the Spell Model in his Awareness which absorbed the Fire Element from outside slowly, Merlin thought to himself as he murmured, "It seems like the time is too short since the creation of the Spell Model. I can only cast Fireball for two times."
As for lack of Magic Power, Merlin could not do anything. The accumulation of Magic Power could only rely on the time the Spell Model was given to accumulate. There was no shortcut to it.
After an hour, the Spell Model slowly recovered. Merlin could cast Fireball once again.
"Go!"
Merlin cast it again. This time, he was already familiar with the casting of Fireball, so he could do it swiftly. He controlled the fireball in front of him and smashed it into the armor on the wall.
"Ssss."
There was no huge noise as he had imagined. A fist-like hole burnt through the protection of the armor that covered the front chest by the small fireball. The hole was still hissing smoke.
Even Merlin had broken into a cold sweat. He was aghast. Even though he had assumed the strength of the Fireball would be remarkable, he did not expect it to be this powerful.
This was a heavy armor made from iron. Its defense was top notch among other armor – even the knight's spear could not pierce it.
However, the Fireball could easily burn a hole in an armor of such defense. The small fireball Merlin cast contained a terrifying power and temperature.
"Hmm? What's this?"
Merlin came back to his senses. When he was checking the Spell Model in his Awareness, he found something new. In his Awareness, there was a grey horizontal frame beside the slowly rotating Spell Model.
Merlin was worried about the appearance of this grey frame in his Awareness, especially near his Spell Model.
"When does this appear?"
Merlin furrowed his eyebrows. He remembered clearly that this grey frame was not there when he built the Spell Model. It must had appeared lately.
Thus, he observed it more closely. He realized half of this grey frame was slightly bright while the other part remained dull.
Merlin observed for a long time but he still did not know what this frame was nor did he know when it had appeared in his Awareness. However, he did not plan to waste his time studying this frame. He needed to spend a long time trying to familiarize the process of casting the Fireball.
Thus, Merlin released the fireball again. His Mind Power guided the fireball and crashed it into the heavy armor.
"Boom!"
This time, the whole fireball exploded and flew all over the place. Even the armor with high defense strength was blown into pieces.
This was the effect of Mind Power. Not only could it guide the direction of the spell but also made many changes to it. For example, he could let the fireball explode when it approached the enemy. If he needed to deal with hard objects, he would not let it explode and instead, he would burn a hole through it due to the heat.
These were all techniques used in casting spells. It required long practices and battle experiences to gradually discover all effects of spells.
Since Merlin had just built his Spell Model, he would usually empty his Magic Power after casting two Fireballs. He must rest during this time to wait for his Magic Power to recover.
If he forcefully stimulated the Spell Model, he could cause the Spell Model to fall apart and caused a detrimental effect on the Spell Caster indirectly.
These taboos during the process of casting spells were recorded in detail in old man Etha's Spell Manual. Merlin had memorized all by heart.
When he was resting, Merlin found that grey frame again in his Awareness. However, the strange thing was that the frame was no longer grey. It had become red.
Looking at the red frame, Merlin had a strange feeling so he tried to touch it with his Mind Power.
"Woom."
After being stimulated by Merlin's Mind Power, the red frame shone a bright light. The static Spell Model which was slowly recovering suddenly spun in a fast movement.
At the same time, the Magic Power that had recovered was rapidly emptied by Spell Model. Before Merlin even understood what was going on, a large fireball immediately appeared in front of him. It slowly hovered in the air and its internal part seemed greatly unstable. It seemed it was about to explode anytime.
Merlin gawked at the large fireball in shock. If his previous fireballs were the size of a fist, then this fireball was almost the size of three to four fists.
"Not good."
The fireball was not guided by Merlin's Mind Power. Moreover, its internal part seemed greatly unstable and seemed as if it might explode anytime. Merlin felt a sense of danger and immediately directed the fireball with his Mind Power to collide with the ground.