Soon after, Henner and Weasley retreated to the the former's laboratory and began working on their new, albeit severely rushed project.
Henner walked up to an oak wood shelf on the far right of the room. A pile of materials piled haphazardly across its racks. She carefully scanned each rack individually before coming to a halt on the second one closest to the floor.
Henner's hand shot out and plunged itself into the mess. After several seconds of rummaging, Henner's hand reappeared holding on tightly to a piece of paper that had turned yellow around its edges. Her usually porcelain white skin was also plastered by a greyish substance.
Henner flailed her arm about, kicking the greyish substance on her arm into the air.
It was dust!
Weasley's assessment of his teacher fell significantly and he struggled to hold back a grimace of disgust.
' You live in this room! Take better care of it and yourself woman!'
Henner didn't even notice her pupil's questioning gaze as she walled back and sat across him.
Placing the piece of paper on the floor, Weasley could see an intricately designed magic circle drawn on the paper's surface. While the rest of the paper was discoloured, the circle alone looked as if it had been freshly drawn in black ink.
Henner beamed happily.
" You'd better be grateful I still have this around! With this, we can help you change your casting technique much faster!"
Weasley prompted her to explain.
" This is know as a circle of beginning."
" It is one of the rarer novice level magic artifacts. It's not that hard to get by any chance but it's not something the average peasant family can afford either."
Henner continued." Its erases the astral and physical imprint that techniques leave on out body. Basically, it can be said to be an artifact that can reverse our bad habits!"
Weasley looked at the piece of paper in new light.
'Way to not judge a book by its cover! This piece of paper was amazing!'
If the paper could, it would have smiled.
" Okay, let's not waste anymore time. Place your casting hand onto the circle." Henner ordered,
Weasley complied and placed his right hand onto the circle. By modern standards, the paper was probably A5 size and the circle was hence even smaller but Weasley's hand fit nicely into the circle due to its small size.
Henner closed her eyes and began chanting. Particles of blue light congregated around her fingertips and swirled about, as if carried by a torrent or whirlpool of some sort.
As the chant progressed, the particles lit up even brighter and eventually, Weasley began having a hard time looking at them.
" … With this chant I reclaim my power, to shape my life each passing hour!l
" Dispel!"
A bright flash of light followed by a ticklish feeling all over his body overwhelmed Weasley's senses.
As the glow subsided, Weasley blinked several times involuntarily. He was slightly disoriented his body's natural response was taking effect to try to regain control of his senses.
Eventually, everything stabilised.
" Ok, try to cast a spell now."
Weasley raised his hand and assumed his casting position with practiced ease. Everything felt as natural as breathing as muscle memory kicked in.
Weasley felt the familiar feeling of mana flowing through his mana pathways followed by the warm and empowering feeling of releasing mana in his right hand.
Sensing the the mana release, Weasley immediately willed the mana to convert into wind mana and prepared himself to recite the chant when a shocked expression appeared on his face and he froze in place.
His mana wouldn't convert!
Or rather, it had become so much harder to convert!
Before, he had had to push with his full strength to make the mana change form but now, it was as if even if he had pushed with double the strength, the mana would remain intractable anyway.
He had started back at ground zero!
Henner smirked knowingly. He would have her genius to thank for this!
" Now, that we have deleted your flawed Mana conversion technique, we're going to have to create a new one for you."
" Do you have any particular thing in mind?"
Weasley nodded.
What he had wanted was a technique that could fulfil two criterias. The first was that it would helped him effectively convert mana. The second was that it would be done without conscious thought.
What does this mean?
In the past, Weasley's approach to mana conversion had been to force it through sheer willpower. While it was a feasible method, it was clunky and difficult to integrate into the rest of the steps.
However, it could be improved over time by simply practicing. If it is awkward, then simply train hard enough until the body no longer rejects the technique. That had been Weasley's line of thought.
Most people using this method would take up to a year or more to fully integrate with the technique. In his arrogance, Weasley thought that he would be able to do it in 3 months. That had cost him dearly.
With a mere 3 days left on the clock, Weasley no longer had the time to entertain such a method.
He wanted to avoid making this mistake again. So, he figured that if he was able to convert the mana unconsciously and in a way, link the second and third steps of spell casting into a single step, the sequence would flow much more naturally and allow him to break through.
" Master, is there a way to train myself to be able to convert mana without having to consciously think about it?"
Henner frowned as she heard her pupil's request. What he was asking for was quite troublesome.
" Well….it's not impossible. But it's quite bothersome to try. Not to mention difficult as well." She said with much reluctance.
" Teacher, what we're doing is probably as impossible as it gets already. I don't think some added difficulty would make much of a difference." Weasley shot back.
" ….True."
" Right?"
Henner's shoulders slumped in defeat.
'Why was this kid so smart? 'She found herself asking.
" The technique your are looking for is called checkpointing. It's a technique that is quite recently developed and has not been used very widely in the magic community."
Henner paused and looked at Weasley. Greeted only by his inquisitive eyes that essentially screamed at her to continue, henner carried on with her explanation.
" The technique has a lot of advantages. Firstly, it allows one to cast spells at a much faster speed. As the action will be almost reflexive, one would be able to seemingly connect the Mana Release and Mana Conversion steps. "
Hearing this, Weasley was elated! This fitted the bill almost to the letter!
" However!" Came Henner's voice and interrupted his train of happy thoughts.
Weasley's shoulders slumped ever so slightly and he prepared himself for what was Ti come.
' Knew it. There's got to be a catch. If not everyone would be using it already.'
" because the technique bypasses decision making and deliberation, the user has no active control over his mana conversion."
Weasley didn't understand.
' Wasn't that why the technique was so powerful? Why would it's strength be it's weakness?'
" The reason why this is a drawback, is that it can be deliberately used against the user." Henner explained.
" Many techniques in magic include feint-like movements. We trick our opponents into thinking we are going to use a spell by releasing our mana into the surroundings. Most opponents would be then forced to use defensive countermeasures, during which time we can either make our escape or use some other move."
" By subscribing to this method of mana conversion, you essentially limit yourself to a very predictable manner of fighting."
It was like a switched had flipped inside him.
'That's really bad. It would almost be as if I am nerfing myself if I do this.
' Looks like it's a give and take. While I gain increased casting speed, I also limit myself severely in terms of being unpredictable…being unpredictable…UNPREDICTABLE!'
'That's it!'
It was like Weasley had a revelation.
" Mrs Henner, are there any famous mages that use this method of spell conversion?" He asked excitedly. His voice was brimming with so much anticipation and animation that it was hard not to notice.
Henner didn't know what had gotten into her pupil but she answered his question anyway.
" Well.. yes there are a number of them. Why do you ask?"
Weasley immediately followed up with his question. He had to know if his hunch was right!
" Why are they so strong? If they're famous they must be strong right? That means that they must have some way to deal with the drawback of the method right?"
Henner was pleasantly surprised but it was not a first for her. Her astoundingly young student had a habit of catching on quickly.
" Yes indeed they do. If we were to talk about combat magicians, one of our country's best generals use this method of spell casting as well. "
" It is said that he casts spells so quickly that the enemies have no time to react or counter with spells of their own. Other times, he can also vary the speed of the attacks to an unusual rhythm to catch the enemy off guard."
While the latter tactic had yet to occur to Weasley, the former had been exactly what he had in mind. And there was a living example to prove that it could work!
' I KNEW IT!!' Weasley wanted to scream but he restrained himself to a giant, obnoxious grin.
" Looks like you've made your choice, shall we begin then?" Henner asked with a smile of her own. Nothing made the red haired woman happier than seeing her pupil excited about studying her craft.
" Yes!!"