Punk had already decided to become a mage. On the one hand, he liked the concept of Mage very much. On the other hand, this was also the best choice at this moment.
Punk could be considered very lucky in this aspect because, as a half-ancient elf, he was born with two classes: Mage and Ranger. Due to the specialty of the half-ancient elfs bloodline, he could be considered a level 2 Mage and Ranger apprentice after birth. However, Punk decided to specialize in the Mage class.
It might seem like a two-level upgrade was very low, but this step was a huge threshold that had stopped many youngsters with dreams of becoming a professional mage, Therefore, this provided a considerable boost to Punk's journey to become a Mage apprentice.
It was not too easy to become a professional; it demanded several qualifications, such as aptitude, the ability to comprehend, and even a touch of luck. The odds of possessing the talent to become a professional were one in a hundred thousand. That was why It was just too hard for ordinary peoples to become professional.
The reason why there was such a large number of professionals in the Universe, was entirely due to the vast and exaggerated presence of ordinary life forms. And the Pheren plane, as the biggest and most populated plane in the Universe, had an amazing number of professionals.
The high number of ordinary people in the Pheren plane made it almost impossible for proper development, which created an environment similar to that of the Middle Ages. This is why professionals were seen as legendary figures.
...
Punk realized that the amount of information he inherited was enough for him until he became an official-level professional. Moreover, he had a system.
And if he practices magic with the system's help, he can achieve twice the result with half the effort.
Punk was relieved, because now he would be able to learn one or two magic spells for self-defense. And he didn't have to worry about being eaten as breakfast by some beast just after his birth.
With a lot of pressure lifted, Punk began to concentrate on learning the information about magic!
The magic of this World entirely depended on the soul. The soul generated the elements and then manifested them into reality.
After that, a spell model was used to manipulate the elements and produce various magical effects. The elements were the fundamental constituents of this world, and all matter was composed of pure elemental energy. Elements were divided into ten types: Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Lightning, Light, Darkness, Life, Space, and Ether.
The first nine of the ten elements complemented and restrained with each other, but Ether was special. It could not only transform into any of the other elements but also convert other elements into different elements, including elemental energy. Most importantly, only Ether could be directly transformed into various non-elemental energies like magnetic force, gravity, kinetic energy, and so on. This had established Ether Element as the "Primary Element" with unparalleled flexibility and applicability.
But if someone wanted to transform elements into different types of elemental or non-elemental energy, it had to be transformed into Ether first. Also, the Ether element had a very gentle nature. Because of these, some energy would be lost during the transformation, so the etheric energy's attack power at the same level was not as powerful as the other elemental energy.
That's why those schools that directly used elemental energy were recognized as the most destructive among mages. Punk learned that there were eight schools of Magic (Note: the schools here only refer to the direction of cultivation):
Elemental (creating elements directly from the soul)
Incantation (creates Ether from the soul and then uses Ethereal energy)
Enchantment (giving attributes to an object)
Alchemy (merging and separating objects or elements)
Prophecy (using the soul's perception to obtain information)
Summoning (creating creatures or other things in the soul and materializing them in the Real World)
Advent/dream (Using the concepts in the soul to erode the real World)
Spirit (influencing reality with the help of absolute will and soul)
These schools each had their own advantages and disadvantages. Regardless of school or Element, Warrior's battle Qi or Mage's magic, these were all primary applications of the soul, and all these different routes had the same destination, "Legend." And when someone reached this level, the soul could directly grasp the higher-level power of the law, then it didn't matter whether it was a different faction or profession.
(Note: the spells below Legend use clever tricks to touch the rules).
But of course, in the early stages, the advantages and disadvantages of these various factions and professions were undeniable.
In the early stages, most Mages choose two factions as their major and two as their minor. This is to ensure they complement each other and reduce their shortcomings as much as possible.
Of course, this didn't mean that the knowledge of other factions didn't have any use. One should know that all spells were the application of the soul. So not only the knowledge of other schools gave enlightenment and inspiration, but it also helps one prepare against potential threats and, of course, nobody wanted to encounter an unknown enemy which they don't know anything about.
After careful consideration, Punk decided to choose Summoning and Incantation as his majors because these two covered both "crowd control" and "long-range" abilities, which would also give him an advantage as a half ancient elf.
Punk also chose Alchemy and Prophecy as his minors. Alchemy could provide him with funds in the early stages because, as the God of knowledge, Oghma, himself said, "knowledge is wealth." To acquire knowledge, one needed wealth. And normally, intelligent creatures had the bad habit of keeping secrets, so the knowledge of various spells and super Magic Skills was ridiculously expensive in this World, not to mention those heavenly materials and earthly treasures required for training. These resources were undeniably essential, at least in the early stages, but obtaining them demanded a large amount of wealth.
As for the prophecy class, it's needless to say how important intelligence is, countless wars on Earth have already fully proven that to Punk.
…..
Many spells of apprentice and trainee levels were left by the original body's parents, but there were very few spells of official level and above. So, at least before reaching the official level, these spells were enough for Punk.
For Punk, who had a system, apprentice-level spells were not a problem. He quickly learned a few magic spells. However, Punk noticed that as his knowledge and strength improved, the difficulty of learning increased significantly. Punk estimated that after reaching the official level, even with the system's help, his learning and cultivation efficiency would only be 30% to 40% higher than that of mages at the same level. But even this could lead to a bloody battle amongst ordinary mages, if it became known.
Generally speaking, when practicing a new spell, one needed to use incantations, hand gestures, and casting materials. These auxiliary means could deepen the Mage's understanding of the spell and reduce the difficulty of controlling an unfamiliar spell. To put it bluntly, one can prevent the spell from exploding in their hand before it was thrown out. And when a Mage was proficient enough with a particular spell, they could skip these time-consuming means and could directly use the soul power to cast a spell. Also, there was a super magic skill called "instant casting," which let someone cast a spell instantly, even a very high-level spell.
However, if there was a chance in a battle, Mages would still use the auxiliary methods as much as possible. After all, these supplementary methods could increase the effect and power of a spell to a certain extent.
These gestures and materials provide the greatest bonus when casting a high-level spell. Even a slight advantage in a spell battle could tip the balance toward victory.
However, the original body's cheap parents only had one or two sets of common hand gestures and spells. They didn't even leave any spell materials. Furthermore, there was no tutor available to guide and protect Punk. So, without any prior experience, Punk was very cautious. He also asked the system to set a reminder to prevent him from experimenting with spells that were too powerful.
After all, even if it was just an apprentice-level spell, there were significant differences in its power, characteristics, and other effects, as well as the difficulty of learning. Although while learning simple minor spells was easy, but if someone underestimated advanced spells, they might one day will be pitted to death by themselves
After studying for more than a month, Punk finally compiled the entire "memory inheritance." Because of this, he accumulated a solid magic foundation in theory, and he also learned several apprentice-level spells.
Now finally, Punk was ready for the day he would come out from his shell.
*Note: that an Element is not an atom. The Law of this Universe is different.