Creating new magic spells wasn't easy. Terem soon found that having a solid mental image and decent mana control weren't the only prerequisites to spellcasting. What he also needed was a mana signature on the spell that was being cast. And for the water pixie spell, Terem had managed to replicate the mana signature from Tom's spell.
In this way, the mana signature was like a blueprint or serial number for spells. Now though, Terem had to figure out how to properly shape the spell and pair the mana signature with the proper mental image, all for the spell to not fail. In other words, the difficulty jump from learning spells to creating spells was astronomical.
So, instead of focusing on new spell formulas, Terem focused on the one spell he knew. He figured that this way he could at least try to find mana patterns that helped shape the spell, similar to a programming code. Or, if this failed, he could just resort to a trial and error approach.
Another matter that Terem busied himself with was mana absorption. The black core had just evolved into a slightly stronger red core; however, this would be far from enough if Terem wanted an indomitable power that could triumph over all adversities. Or, at least, the adversities that plagued his own life.
Fortunately, this process was fairly easy to replicate; Tom had done the same thing, after all. And, now that Terem's core wasn't static, inserting and refining mana within his core didn't hurt at all. This procedure that Terem grew to call core refinement took up one hour of each day to conduct, at which point he would be too mentally exhausted to continue. After a small rest, though, he could begin his magic casting, learning how to decode mana imprints and associate each symbol to an image.
Another month passed while Terem practiced. Occasionally, he would meet up with members of the Blue Lightning adventurer party. Every time this happened, he would exchange a few words with Ron while Lucy hid behind his back, and Terem consistently ignored Vanessa earning much ire from the irate teenage drama queen.
More often than not, Terem would also visit Tom and chat about idle topics like the weather and the state of the kingdom. At first, Terem would try to weasel out information on magic, but Tom was adamant in his decision to not corrupt Terem's unique learning. Unknownst to Terem, however, Tom didn't have a single clue about what Terem was asking for, and, even if he did, he wouldn't be able to help due to his unique situation. Tom had learned magic the traditional way, through a prestigious magic university, while Terem was blabbering about imaginary spell formulas and core colors that Tom didn't know about.
Eventually, when Terem realized that Tom wouldn't offer him any more information, the two settled into their comfortable routine of dad talks and complaints.
Tom's favorite topic was how unfair the tax system was towards local peaceful guilds. It seemed to target the facilities focused on collection requests in comparison to the high income and low taxes offered to hunter guilds that prioritized extermination requests within dangerous areas. He was fine with the pay discrepancy, but he took the clear bias in tax write-offs as an affront to the foundation of all adventurers. After all, every single one of them had to start from somewhere, and they certainly weren't slaying monsters as they left the womb.
Over time, the season changed as the month ended, and Terem had made a few breakthroughs in his magical abilities. First and foremost, he had figured out how to manipulate a wide range of water-based spells, much to Tom's approval.
The trick to this was, as expected, hidden within the spell formula.
One day, while inspecting the spherical spell formula, Terem noticed that the shape, looking from the top, reminded him of a stream but with various structural bonds made from mana that shaped it into a sphere. However, the basic shape still tugged at the back of his mind.
Curious, Terem decided to strip away the excess mana bonds and leave the basic mana structure behind. Strip after strip, the spell formula was disassembled. Alas, after pulling the 20th mana strand away from the spell, the ball of mana dispersed.
This was interesting to Terem because he had stripped away less than half of the mana threads constituting the spell formula, but it still disintegrated as soon as he touched the last thread. With this in mind, he reconstructed the spell and started over, this time removing the same threads until he found the one that compromised the spell's structure. At this point, the spell still looked like a convoluted mess of mana strands with half of its top missing.
Terem loathed the fact that he had to work in the third dimension now. If it was on paper, he could use a birds-eye view rather than inspect every angle of the complex contraption. This would allow him to search for simple patterns more easily. However, with only 25 or so strands left, he could safely resort to guess and check.
Reverting his focus to disassembling each thread from the spell formula, Terem prepared for more failure. But then he stopped.
Thinking back, an image of the original structure surfaced in the forefront of Terem's mind. Comparing it to the disassembled formula, he could tell that he had removed all of the mana strands on the top half of the sphere.
At this point, Terem came up with a theory. And to test this theory, he removed every string of mana that lay below the halfway point until only a 2D diagram of three discontinuous threads remained. After some thought, he plucked away one of the mana strands in the small diagram, and sure enough, every iota of mana dispersed from the spell.
He smiled. Finally, Terem had discovered the basis of magic casting. His theory was proven correct.
As one final assurance to his belief, Terem cast his only water spell once more and stripped it until he was left with the 2D diagram again. It looked like three parallel drifting lines that sort of mimicked or represented flowing water, albeit loosely.
He infused more mana into the three wavy lines and brought forth a picture of flowing water. Activating the spell, he watched in anticipation as the mana-infused tendrils drifted from his palm. As each tendril left his hand, they each converted into water, proving Terem's theory correct once again.
He had discovered the basic blueprint of water magic: three simple wavy lines.
It was underwhelming, but Terem was exuberant anyway.
The next couple of weeks, Terem delved into uncovering more rules about water magic. Now that he understood the basis of casting the basic arcane spell, he just had to add structure around the lines, sort of like building a sturdy house, weaving various mana strands onto the basic form before feeling its effect.
Some were anticlimactic as only small droplets of water formed before dribbling off his palm. Other spell formulas had more impactful effects such as creating a levitating ball of water that, with a few manipulations to the spell, could fly at speeds fast enough to cut through stone. However, these spells took up more threads and demanded more of Terem's limited mana supply to cast. They also took weeks to perfect due to Terem's limited mana capacity.
But, progress was progress.
Aside from spell building, the other important discovery Terem made involved his mana core. As he continued to compress mana and feed it to his core, the small sphere gradually adopted a more vibrant shade of red. Although the process was slow, he could feel that his mana capacity was steadily improving.
Within months and with a rapidly thinning wallet, Terem managed to amass a small arsenal of water-based spells that could assist him in various situations. From everyday spells to movement spells to combat spells, Terem had developed enough to suit his needs.
The only regret that Terem had was not being able to learn the foundation for the other three elemental magics. This shortcoming was easy to overlook, though, since Terem had created at least one spell that was suitable for every purpose he could think of.
To say the least, Terem was confident that if he encountered a monster, he would be able to kill it with his magical abilities alone.
While Terem was conjuring new spell ideas and discarding them at the fire rate of an AK-47, a sudden ringing noise echoed from a far-off corner of the city. It sounded like a massive bell. It kept ringing frantically under the bright night sky.
As the sound woke up more and more of the city's residents, an uproar surged through the town. Although Terem couldn't make out words from the confinement of his room, he knew that something was wrong. The people were too riled up for the alarm to be unimportant.
Suddenly, his door burst open, shaking the room as it slammed into the adjacent wall. A short young man stood on the other side of the door, panting with frantic eyes darting around the cozy room.
Two lines left this boy's mouth.
"If you can fight, head to the western side of town. If not, evacuate the town and head for Amstel in the northeast." With that, the boy left to break into another room.