The Devil Does Not Need to Be Defeated

At this moment, Shien was just exiting the town and into a mostly deserted area. He even ended up entering the hills and found a somewhat empty sandlot.

“It should be fine here, right?”

Shien nervously looked around him before letting out a sigh of relief. He set aside the [Basic Magic] book that he had been holding onto and then headed to the center of the sandlot.

The reason he came all this was was naturally for testing out some magic.

Although he could try to test it at the inn as well and save himself the trip all the way out here, Shien hasn’t forgotten all the commotion from when he tried learning [Magic Sword] the previous time. Thus, just to be safe, Shien came all the way out here.

“It kind of gives the feeling of once burned, twice shy.”

Shien let out a bitter laugh.

From [Basic Magic], Shien had learned four beginner class spells. Those were also the only four beginner class spells that book contained.

“Based on what was in the book, the magic types that each person is good at also differs. Even if one has the talent to be a mage, they will still need to figure out what magic types that suit them the best.”

Some people are predisposed to attack type magic.

Some people are predisposed to defense type magic.

Some people are predisposed to recovery type magic.

Some people are predisposed to support type magic.

Just like with skills, where each person’s natural predispositions differ, mages also each have their own different paths. Some paths even differ down to the details. For example, some people are good at only fire magic within the attack magic systems. Some are good at ice magic instead. Everyone’s natural talent decides their upcoming paths, so it must be treated seriously.

“Due to magic training normally require a lot of time investment, if one ends up spending too much effort on the wrong thing, not only would it be a waste of their time, it would also be a waste of their talent.”

Thus, for a mage, besides the required skills [Meditation] and [Chanting], the first thing that they must do is to figure out just what they’re good at, so as to avoid wasted effort.

Take Melika for example. Even though she’s splitting her attention between fire and ice elemental magic, her talent with those two magic types are the highest. Thus, she’s concentrating on those two magic types without any intent of studying other kinds of magic.

For Leisha on the other hand, that young lady seems to be good at a lot of other kinds of magic besides space and gravity magic. It’s unknown whether that’s because she’s just that talented at magic, or if there were other reasons involved.

What [Basic Magic] has are the four most basic beginner class spells. The goal was to allow people to try each of those four out as a first step to figuring out what magic types they’re best at.

“There are many types of magic, as well as forms. However, within these myriad magic types, the spells that can best show one’s talents and dispositions are unquestionably the ones easiest to learn and understand.”

That was the explanation from [Basic Magic].

Thus even with all the spells available, elemental magic was the most suitable for letting beginners to get their feet wet with.

The elemental magic are the most common fire, ice, lightning, and wind type magics.

“Due to the magic has a clear element, it’s also the easiest for magic power to transform to them. Thus, elemental magic has the lowest talent requirements for a mage, and the difficulty curve for learning them are far lower than that of other kinds of magic.”

For that reason, the book recorded the beginner class spells for fire, ice, lightning, and wind type magics for beginners to learn.

When one has studied all four of them, they would also be able to know what kind of magic they’re the best at.

“After all, given the same amount of time studying those four kinds of magic, whichever one that ended up successfully cast first basically proves which kind of magic that person is the most talented with.”

Shien had come to this place specifically for testing those four beginner class spells out.

“Based on what the book said, so long as on has learned the [Meditation] and [Chanting] skills, then it could take anywhere between a day to a month to learn any one of these spells.”

Shien thought back to that content with a complicated feeling.

“A day to a month… Huh?”

Hmm, it’s probably best if he didn’t take that too seriously.

At the very least, he was definitely an exception.

Shien had enough reasons to believe that his own showing on this subject can definitely not be judged by normal standards.

“Let’s get started then.”

First, Shien tried out fire type magic.

“————Burn, oh crimson power of magic ——”

As he chanted the very short words for the beginner class spell, Shien’s magic power inside him underwent a transformation.

It first started to flow. Then it suddenly turned hot. Then it flowed to Shien’s hand, turned into something like a red vapor, and was then released from his palm.

“[Tinder].”

Thus, Shine had used magic for the first time in his life.

Then…

“Boom!”

In that empty sand lot, following a thunderous explosion, a scorching wave of flames blasted out from Shien’s palm and blasted into the sands in front of him, blowing up a bunch of dust.

Within that sandlot, a scorched pit appeared.

That pit was at least about 4 meters wide.

「Skill Gained – [Magic – Fire] – Would you like to learn?」

Within the next second, Shien successfully gained his first magic skill.

However, Shien just looked at the scorched pit in front of him while falling into an extended silence.

“… If I’m not wrong, this most basic level fire magic’s effect and power should be about the level where one could light up a tree or summon a flame about the size of one’s hand, right?”

Shien didn’t dare say anymore. He didn’t dare to think on it anymore. He just went ahead and learned the skill and then tried out the other three beginner class spells.

“Gather, oh blue power of magic, - [Freezing].”

“Flash, oh brilliant power of magic – [Lightning].”

“Stir, oh shapeless power of magic [ Breeze].”

With those very similar spell words, Shien released those three different elemental spells one after another.

Those were the four most basic, beginner level magic recorded in [Basic Magic].

Then…

「Skill Gained – [Magic – Ice] – Would you like to learn?」

「Skill Gained – [Magic – Lightning] – Would you like to learn?」

「Skill Gained – [Magic – Wind] – Would you like to learn?」

As expected, Shien successfully gained the magic skills.

However, what laid before Shien was a field of frost, or a huge pit, or an enormous cloud of sand still blown in the air. The sight of it all took Shien some time before he managed to get a hold of himself again.