Seeing the enemy that was engulfed in flames right before my very eyes, I wasn't able to contain my happiness. So this is magic! It really is as amazing as I imagined it to be!
Eventually the fire stopped burning, and when it did it became evident that it wasn't as strong as my attacks with Durandal, because even when it was set ablaze, the Needlewood was still standing. With its entire body covered with cinders and clouds of heavy black smoke, it slowly made it's way towards us. But I wasn't disappointed with that a result, not in the slightest. Moreover, I guess you could say that such a result was what I was expecting. After all, Durandal is an uber OP weapon obtained from investing my Bonus Points into Bonus Weapons Skill all the way to Lv.6 and most of my stat points have been allocated into STR to make sure that it will always kill enemies with one blow no matter what. On the other hand, I only just got my hands on the Mage Job so it was still at its default, lowest level, Lv.1, and Fireball was a part of Beginner Fire Magic Skill, meaning that it's inherent damage likely won't be all that high, and my rather low INT stat probably won't do anything to change that fact either. Anyway, maybe it was because it only had a tiny sliver of its HP left, but the burning Needlewood was exceptionally sluggish, which made disposing of him easier than taking the candy from a little kid. I didn't even have to put any strength in my next slash to turn it into a cloud of green smoke.
Okay, so now that we know how the Orb, or rather Ball type of magic works, let's try taking the Wall-type magic for a spin, shall we?
Hmm, let's go with the most obvious one first: Fire Wall!
When I thought of those words in my mind, a literal wall of flames appeared before me. Both it's width and height were about two meters, making them quite reasonable measurements for that type of spell, but I bet that on higher levels both of those parameters could be sufficiently increased, so I have to keep that in mind as I continue to level the Mage Job and obtain new spells from it. The flames continued to rage of for a dozen seconds. And that takes care of the Fire Wall test. I guess in conclusion it could be said that it more of a defensive than an offensive spell that sets everyone who tries to walk through it on fire. My guess is that it would be at its most useful when there would be a lot of enemies in a small, confined space… like the entrance to the trap room, for example! Oh baby, you can be sure I am going to be using that then!
Alright, now that both Ball and Wall-type spells have been tested, all that is left is to see with my own eyes how the Multi-target, or perhaps I should simply call them AoE spells work in comparison to the previous two. But first thing's first, what would the name of such a spell be? Hell Flame? Burn Attack? Volcano Eruption? Nah, none of those option sound like the right pick. If the previous ones to hit the jackpot were Fireball and Fire Wall, then there is a high probability that in order for the AoE to work, the combination containing the word 「Fire」 would also have to be used. Hmm… Fire Slash? Fire Explosion? Fire Storm?
「...!」
When I used the words Fire Storm, I felt the sensation of my MP decreasing, but nothing noticeable happened around us. So apparently I got the words right, but maybe there was no visible effects because there was no enemies around? Well, given how magic works, I shouldn't be surprised that there exists those kinds of spells that must have a target first. If that's how it's going to be, then I guess off to the second floor we go!
Dungeon Walker!
「Roxanne, we're going to the second floor. As usual, show us the shortest way to a group of monsters. Specifically a group this time.」
「Roger!」
Once we reached the second floor and found a sufficiently large group of monsters (for the record: they were all Needlewoods) I chanted the Fire Storm again, targeting it towards them. When I did that, the air around them has been filled with a myriad of red sparks which illuminated the cave's walls with a shade of red in much the same fashion like Fireball and Fire Wall did before them. Maybe it's going to sound a little bit too poetic, but it was kinda sorta as if I was watching fireflies gather… only to explode in a fiery all-consuming blaze that swallowed everything in its vicinity, burning everything to ashes. The Needlewoods just burned and burned and burned until there was nothing left of them… or at least that's how I envisioned it, because once more the spell itself was not enough to one-shot the enemies, leaving me to finish them off with Durandal, which I promptly proceeded to do, leaving Roxanne to collect any items that dropped out of them in the process of turning the stragglers into the puffs of green smoke.
My thoughts on Fire Storm? Unlike Fireball and Fire Wall, it is a spell which works best when targeted in the middle of a group of enemies, since you cannot specify the direction where it should be going. The only question that is left unanswered for now is whether or not it can distinguish friend from foe, or is it that kind of spell which works on everything in its range indiscriminately?
I wanted to go an and test the rest of the spells from the other branches of Beginner Magic that I unlocked, but for now I decided to go out of the Labyrinth and have a short rest after everything we have been though today. Just let me say one thing in advance:
Magic is absolutely the best!