Until now, Zaos never managed to land a clean hit on Drannor, but now he was finally getting the hand while fighting with a longsword, he decided to see the results. However, on the day after the princess party, he didn't show up. So, Zaos decided to ask his mother about an offensive magic spell useful for beginners.
Suddenly asking Lyra to teach him an offensive spell probably would make her think that Zaos was tired of support-type magic. However, he couldn't learn it alone either since his mother was most of the time training with him, and when she wasn't, one of the servants would stay nearby to help him in case something happened. So, she would discover the secret training in one way or the other.
"It can't be helped, I need to ask mom what offensive spells she knows and then select one for her to teach me," Zaos concluded. "According to the magic book, the power of a spell is determined by the caster's magic. So, even if a veteran wizard like Merking can't do all that much while using Earth Bullet, certainly learning the simplest ones won't help me when the time comes."
That day when they were going to the library, Zaos decided to ask his mom about the subject. Much to his surprise, she didn't look sad about it, but it was hard to be sure. Zaos had seen his mother sad only a few times, after all.
"Why are you suddenly interested in it?" Lyra asked.
"I just thought it is a waste that I only use a single training ground when the other is perfect to train my aim," Zaos replied.
"I guess that is just like you," Lyra said. "I was never good at hitting things far away from me, so I focused on learning spells that were hard to dodge. They are also more oriented to slow down possible enemies than causing real damage, do you want to learn them? If you want to learn something more practical, then…"
"It is fine, I want to learn it," Zaos said.
"Well, if you say so…" Lyra said while slightly frowning since that was a spell that most mages never are interested in learning. "Still, don't try to use it on a target, it will ruin the garden."
Zaos thought that the list of offensive spells his mother knew was fairly low, but that wasn't the case. Deep Mist, Wind Torrent, Heat Wave were just of the few that she knew. While Lyra wanted to demonstrate each of them, Zaos stopped her since he knew that her complexion grows more tired whenever she uses mana. Instead of seeing them, Zaos asked to hear all of those she knew and explain how they worked.
In the end, Zaos selected one that could be used to train his aim and wouldn't damage the garden all that much while he practices it. It was called Cold Whisper. By using the palm of one's hands, the caster could fire a constant gust of cold wind that could even freeze some targets if they are hit by the attacks for a few seconds.
"This isn't a popular spell; is there any reason you want to learn it?" Lyra asked.
"I don't think so, I just chose that since it seemed pretty cool, ice magic that is," Zaos replied. "Speaking of which, which class belongs to that spell?"
"It is an intermediary water spell," Lyra replied. "While wind magic is used to propel the attack, the real power behind comes from the cold."
As expected, there were many things Zaos didn't know about magic. However, it looked like foundations were pretty decent since his mother didn't stop from trying to learn an intermediate spell. Much to Zaos surprise, he managed to learn that spell in a single morning, the reason being the fact that the spell didn't have many symbols to draw. There were only fifteen of them. The only problem was that to keep the spell active, one had to draw the last symbol once every two seconds, and that the spell consumed ten points of mana per second. In any case, for some reason, the last symbol made Zaos recall a three-pointed spear.
Your sorcery has reached level 10.
Your sorcery has reached level 11.
Health: 72/72
Mana: 122/122
Stamina: 82/82
Strength: 36
Magic: 61
Endurance:41
Resistance: 51
Focus: 01+ 01
Sorcery Lv 11, Swordsmanship Lv 07, Shield Mastery Lv 06
Lesser Heal, Heal, Holy Light, Detoxification, Cold Whisper,
"This was easier than I expected…" Zaos frowned.
"That is because you have been drawing circles in your head for several years," Lyra also said while frowning since she was staring at the ice layer that was covering a part of the walls that protected the residence. "This level of power is pretty decent, but you shouldn't stop training this spell just because you succeeded on your first try. The cost is high and when it comes to offensive spells, unless you are able to use them in less than two seconds while you are moving, they are essentially useless."
For some reason, Lyra sounded as if Zaos wanted to use that in combat as soon as possible. When in truth, he wanted to have that, to keep him away from real-life combat. In any case, he assumed that was one of the first lessons one has to learn when they began to follow the path of offensive magic. Just knowing an offensive spell was useless. It was common sense that mages were weak physically, so they had to be fast when using spells, or they would never be able to fight for their lives by using them.
"Do you remember what Merkin did?" Lyra asked. "You should try to do the reverse here, use less mana when activating the spell."
"How can I do that?" Zaos asked.
"That is something you need to learn by yourself," Lyra shook her head.
That was unusual, but in the end, Zaos knew that his mother could be pretty strict when it comes to certain matters. Most likely, that was one of the things the students have to figure out by themselves when it comes to magic.