After a few days of meeting in the training yard, they had slowly improved their Wave technique.
Nova had trained his Torrential Rain Fist while sleeping to the point that his swordplay looked like a complete joke.
However… Reischneid adamantly refused to let Nova learn any other moves besides perfecting his True Gale.
So, Nova had spent the last few days perfecting the basics and his new Wave technique.
Thomas' cast speed was even more so insanely fast, but it seemed his mana speed was slowly increasing as well.
『Thomas! How the heck do you draw the circle so fast? I can't draw anywhere near your speed.』[Nova]
Thomas held his finger straight out while closing an eye to simulate him drawing a circle..
『You imagine your finger as a pen, then you take the image of the circle in your mind and trace it into the air.』[Thomas]
In an instant, his fingers had completed the movements to form the circle.
『Boom. Magic.』[Thomas]
Nova sighed at this explanation.
He was never an artist, and it seemed as if the only way he could improve was doing it himself.
Not to mention…
『Thomas.』[Jade]
Thomas looked over to her.
『Yeah, Jade?』[Thomas]
『Your explanations suck.』[Jade]
『Huh?!』[Thomas]
Not only Nova, the entire group had trouble with the magic circle drawing.
Anastasia had a low amount of control with her mana, so the circle drawing was definitely hard on her, but her mana speed triumphed even Nova.
Jade had a decent enough amount of mana speed along with a faster cast speed than Nova.
『Haah. Are we even progressing?』[Jade]
They sat down on a nearby bench while the caster group was training their mana shield.
『I'm sure we are. I cut down the time to cast it by more than half already.』[Nova]
『...So have I.』[Anastasia]
The person in the best situation there was Thomas.
His cast speed was ridiculously fast and the mana circle infusion process only took a few seconds.
『It's not useable in battle yet. Not at all!』[Thomas]
That brought down their morale a bit more.
『...He's right. If it takes us a few seconds to cast a Wave, that'd be enough for even a brownling to get us.』[Jade]
『...It takes me a whole 3 minutes to finish drawing it.. The first time was so sloppy, I didn't even have any of the small details on the circle.』[Nova]
There was a collective sigh that came over their group.
The casters seemed to have taken a break and were coming over.
『Hey guys! Any progress?』[Marn]
『Nope. How about you?』[Jade]
『We finally figured out mana shield just now! We're gonna rest for the rest of the afternoon class and let Reagan know tomorrow.』[Katherin]
Anastasia gave them a tired glare.
『...Eek?! What's that for?!』[Marn]
Recently, Anastasia seemed to be holding a grudge against Marn.
「Is it for the girl's dorm incident?」[Nova]
Eventually, they got up and got back to practicing the Wave training.
『...Wait.』[Nova]
Nova thought back on Thomas's words.
『You… imagine the circle?』[Nova]
The three others looked at Nova with a strange look.
『Yeah. You imagine the circle. Isn't that what I told you earlier?』[Thomas]
『...You have to imagine it in order to draw it, don't you?』[Jade]
That's when something finally clicked for Nova.
Reagan manages to instantly draw circles without even moving his hand.
『If… using your finger as a pen is how you imagine drawing a circle..』[Nova]
『I'm not sure how else you CAN imagine it.』[Thomas]
『But then, how does Reagan cast his spells?』[Nova]
The group all went into thought, but Jade was the first person to answer Nova.
『He just forms the entire circle at once. Isn't that impossible though?』[Jade]
『Impossible? He can do it, right?』[Nova]
『But, he's Reagan. He's way out of our league.』[Thomas]
『...He's at least five circles higher than us in terms of ranking as a mage.』[Anastasia]
『...But there is still a method, right?』[Nova]
Nova kept thinking of ways that he could improve the cast speed.
The way Reagan does it, he could materialize multiple at once if he wanted to.
『Since we're beginner mages, it only makes sense that we go slow and do one at a time.』[Thomas]
『...One at a time! You're a genius, Thomas!』[Nova]
Thomas was taken aback at Nova's sudden outburst.
『Huh?! Did you find out a better way to cast the circle?』[Thomas]
『I can only find out.』[Nova]
『...What do you have in mind?』[Anastasia]
Nova raised his hand up and showed it to them.
『So, imagine there is the magic circle on my hand, right?』[Nova]
『Right.』[Jade]
『Imagine it's made out of fresh ink, and will smear onto anything.』[Nova]
He then raised his other hand up and showed them.
『Okay? This is the basics of printing stuff, you know?』[Thomas]
Nova then brought over the first hand to the other hand.
『That's it! It prints!』[Nova]
『And?』[Jade]
『Imagine your mind and imagination as the first hand and the ink! 』[Nova]
『Uh.. Can you demonstrate, Nova?』[Thomas]
Nova wasn't quite confident yet, but he nodded his head.
He took a deep breath and consolidated the idea in his mind.
「Take a magical circle, and copy it into the real world.」[Nova]
Nova thought of the circle deep in his mind.
「Use your mana as the ink, and push it out onto the real world.」[Nova]
He closed his eyes and put his hand out, stretched wide open.
「Like using one hand, and putting the other one to it.」[Nova]
He imagined the magical circle smearing and inking itself to the other hand.
『..Nova? What are you..?』[Anastasia]
Suddenly, he felt his mana start to drain incredibly quickly.
「Steady…!」[Nova]
In an instant, their confused looks and gazes turned into gasps.
He dropped his hand and opened his eyes.
A brilliant blue light shined in his eyes.
There it was.
A perfect Wave magical circle.