[Author's Note: For bonus chapters, the goal every week is:
- 25 Power Stones
- 50 Power Stones]
Volume 2 Chapter 42: Buying Time
Since it would take a few more levels in Carmilla's blood magic skill to comfortably cast the blood slash spell, even with enough mana and the talent to do so.
She can only have a 50% chance of success, even with her high talent in blood magic, due to her pure vampire bloodline.
But even with this rule added, there is still a chance for Carmilla's clones to learn how to cast the blood slash spell, which would make the newly added rule useless.
During Vespera's turn, she simply cast a simple blood arrow spell. The reason she goes back to using a simple blood arrow is that she had already shown plenty of different elements and spells to Carmilla and her two clones.
She even showed a combination spell, which she shouldn't have shown yet to someone who is only starting out as a mage, since a combination spell involves combining two or more spells into a single spell.
Which will require precise mana control and a significant amount of mana. But the real hurdle for any mage is not the precise mana control or the large amount of mana needed, but rather the time, knowledge, and experience.
Combining two or more spells into a single spell is not easy, as a caster will need to precisely control the flow of mana to combine spells. It might sound easy, but it is not, since unlike a normal spell that has a consistent mana flow and can be easily learned from a book, combining spells requires a deeper understanding and mastery of magic spells.
But a combination spell's mana flow will vary, and it will have a different mana flow compared to individual spells. Finding two mages who have the same mana flow when casting the same combination spell is like finding a needle in a haystack, which is almost impossible.
So with this, a mage who wants to learn a combination spell will have no choice but to try every possible combination of mana flow. As mentioned earlier, every mage has a different mana flow when using a combination spell, so aspiring mages can't rely on learning a combination spell from a book or from another mage who knows one.
So, to learn a combination spell and its mana flow, mages will have to try casting different combinations of their mana flow one by one. Each try will cost a mage mana points comparable to successfully casting a combination spell. This is why a large mana pool is needed to cast and learn a combination spell.
Lastly, there is a chance of a combination spell exploding in the face of the caster, and there will also be a chance for it to cause a backlash to the caster when a mage fails to cast a combination spell.
So, you can typically see that only a long-lived races or extremely talented mages can easily learn and cast one or two combination spells.
Let's leave the discussion of combination spells behind and return to the current round.
Vespera's blood arrow easily hit the target's bullseye, even though she was 80 meters away from the target. As agreed upon earlier, Vespera's 100 points were multiplied by 4 times, making it 400 points, plus the 300 points from the initial 3 rounds, totaling it to 700 points.
To match Vespera's points, whoever is going to take the shot in the next round would need to shoot from the furthest point and hit the target's bullseye.
Carmilla and Eve have decided that Carmilla would take the next turn, as Carmilla's newly learned spell has a higher chance of hitting the target's bullseye than the blood arrow spell that they know.
She has also decided to teach Eve the process of how she cast the blood slash spell during the initial third round.
Then, after they confirmed that Pepper's shot had landed in the target's bullseye, Carmilla also shared her experience and the spellcasting process with Pepper during Vespera's turn.
She then walks toward the 80-meter mark. She deliberately slows down her walking speed so that both Eve and Pepper can have more time to study and simulate in their minds how Carmilla have successfully casted the blood slash spell and try to mimic it.
But there is a limit on how much time she can delay, since there is only a short distance between where she was standing with Eve and Pepper and where she has to stand.
Even though she has already slowed down her walking speed, she also decreases the distance of each of her steps, but it can only buy Eve and Pepper a couple of seconds more.
Upon standing in front of the target, she takes a short glance towards Eve and Pepper to check on their progress in learning the blood slash spell. However, she can only gather a small amount of information just by observing the two.
She could only ask the two of them personally or through their internal connection about their progress on casting the blood slash spell, but she decided not to, since it might interrupt their progress.
To give Eve and Pepper more time, Carmilla further slowed down the already slow casting of the blood slash spell due to her unfamiliarity with it.
Vespera, who was at the side, noticed that Carmilla was acting strangely and suspiciously by deliberately slowing down her casting speed. However, Vespera chose to ignore it since she had plenty of time to waste.
Since being a vampire who basically has an unlimited lifespan, time became meaningless and just a number, unlike for humans who have a limited lifespan.
So, anyone from a long-lived or immortal race lacks the urgency of having a limited and short life, which can lead to them eventually losing all drive to improve themselves and leave their name to be remembered throughout the ages.
Back to Vespera observing Carmilla and waiting for her turn, when suddenly she notices irregularities in Carmilla's spellcasting that could lead to the spell doing something it shouldn't or even being unable to cast the spell at all. However, there is still a slim chance that nothing bad will happen and the spell will be cast successfully.
Carmilla slowing down the casting process also helps in increasing that slim chance; however, the increase in chance was so low that it is negligible.
But regardless of how small a mosquito is, there is still meat to be eaten.
Vespera still can't help but be internally amazed at how Carmilla was attempting to cast a spell that she shouldn't have access to yet, even with a small mistake here and there and a huge chance of something bad happening in the end.