Many weeks passed since I received the book. Within that time I brought my Control and Sensitivity to greater heights while also refining my Core.
It was strange, the more my sensitivity to Mana improved, the sharper my focus and other senses developed as well, like a passive effect. This resulted in my sword training progressing even more smoothly lately.
I was especially thankful for this as Mr. Ridge finally judged us ready to move on to a next phase, so being able to see clear and hear sharper came in handy.
Concerning my magic aspect, It was kind of on hold at the moment. I had sacrificed numerous sleepless nights and continuously faced the risks of getting caught during some of my night parades, yet I felt no particular improvement, that I was beginning to feel a little depressed.
So far, my knowledge of magic was roughly at the basic level at best. I knew about the existence of my Core, I could sense Mana, and I could actively control the flow of it inside my body. Yet that was mostly it, no spells or anything else.
All I was left to do was to continuously refine my core like a mad man and raise my sensitivity and control without end. The other good side of it is that, I could also raise my experience in Conjuring, and my efficiency in the Magic Bullet spell. That being the only spell I had access to, I thoroughly raised my mastery of it with nights spent casually spamming the spell all over.
My improvement in Conjuring and the single spell ultimately could be attributed to my increasing Mana sensitivity and control, and my experience doubled substantially.
Eventually, I even began to recreate some of the spells I had watched the villagers use among the fields so many times at this point. With my improving mastery of Control and Sensitivity, I could cast the wind vortex spell with a casual flick of my wrist and manipulate the output and size of the sphere of water spell.
Eventually, I even began to study the spell work. I learned and mastered the spell aria or cast, and from numerous close observation and my increasing attunement with Mana, I discovered some similarities between an actual Spell and a common Conjuring.
I was still far from being capable of creating and tailoring my own spells, my knowledge of magic was just that shallow, but a new and different idea was brewing inside of me.
Why couldn't I just turn Conjurings into spells?
No, to better phrase the idea, why can't I make a Conjuring equivalent of Spells?
Conjurings required no complex or intricate sensitivity or a Cast, you could summon a small gale or a small tongue of fire in your palms with but a thought. The only downside was, to maintain a conjuring, one needed a constant influx and flow of Mana. But this downside was only on paper, as Conjurings fundamentally never required unnecessary amounts of Mana, but the bare minimum.
Unlike Spells which focus on a set amount of Mana to consume to weave, and an Aria (A/N: An aria is also known as a Spell cast or incantation of a spell) to cast. Once the spell has been made, it doesn't require anymore additional Mana to maintain and is complete.
But this as a result means a spell consumes far more Mana to cast than a Conjuring which requires the minimum amount of Mana, but a consistent flow of it to maintain.
The two were different yet, ultimately similar.
If I could imitate a spell following the same concepts of a Conjuring, this could save me a lot of time from having to cast an Incantation, like I couldn't already omit the whole thing and head straight right to the spell.
And if I succeeded, this could also help, at the moment, solve my current problem of a limited arsenal of spells available to me at my current stage.
The concept was so simple it sounded almost lazy. Just give conjurings the grand effects of spells.
Alas, as I continued to ponder this idea over the course of the weeks, I hadn't made my first move to put it into practical. I was on a break from my magical experiments to let the dark clouds of almost continuously getting caught blow over.
I had even stopped from translating the book and was more focused in sword practice with the gang and other activities.
That was until I transcribed an actual Spell description on a single page.
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It was one of my rare free days, and I was up in my room meditating, practicing and modifying my breathing techniques to refine my core before heading out to hang out with my friends for the day.
I felt the Mana flow inside of my body and controlled lumps of it through my Mana veins and spreading it to each and every part of my system then back to my Mana Core. With each breath I took, I felt my senses grow clearer and my consciousness fainter.
The breathing exercises allowed me to actively absorb atmospheric Mana and create a rhythm.
By the time I was done, before I left, I had a strange impulse dawn on me. I wasn't sure what it was, but as I stood right before my door, my hand placed grasping the handle, I had the urge to pull out the old book and just take a tiny little pick at it.
I had been on a break from studying magic since I had yet not another substantial breakthrough ever since learning how to cast spells. So it was kind of strange that I suddenly had the urge to study the old book once again.
Perhaps it was precisely because I had spent days without the book that I suddenly feel this way.
Regardless, something inside was nagging me to just take a peek.
And as a human child, I had to give in to my curiousity.
I wasn't sure what the feeling I was having meant, but it also wouldn't hurt to just take a look, probably.
So with that, I walked back towards my bed and pulled out a small hidden wooden box from underneath, inside of it, I had carefully hidden the book.
But for some reason, I struggled to open the box by taking of its lid.
"Huh?" Feeling my frustration intensely multiplying for some reason, I rigged harder at the wooden box with all my strength, and instantly the box became a crushed mess of splinters.
Unable to withstand my full strength, I unintentionally destroyed the box by crushing it, and watched with blank eyes as the content of the container scattered before my eyes into pieces of scattering paper.
Then I panicked and shuffled to quickly gather the pieces of the old book scattered around the floor of my room before someone could walk into my room and discover what I was doing.
It was from there, a single unfamiliar small and thickly wrapped piece of paper...or was it an envelope?...caught my attention among the many.
"I haven't seen this before...?" Thinking so, I momentarily ignored the rest and reached for the piece. The folded piece was dirty and sullied just like the others, but yet this seemed to be the most intact page of the book I had yet seen.
Slowly I unraveled the folded piece and discovered the reason for such it's thickness was due to four other pieces of paper folded within.
On some of them were strange diagrams, characters and even circles. Calling on my last life memories, I uttered curiously,
"... runes?"
And as I stared at one such particular 'rune', I felt my eyes burn and my mind grow heavier with such painfully intensity I let out a wretched cry as if my head was forcefully split open.
"Aaarrgh!!"