Vol 2 Chapter 13

"You shall not... ugh...!"

This was precisely the problem.

Even before he could finish uttering that short incantation, magical power was being drained to an extent he had never experienced before, making it impossible to complete the spell. Other spells occasionally had this issue, but Dispel was extreme, far too extreme.

Boom boom boom boom boom!

Damn it, it felt like all the strength in his body was being sucked away...!

In the end, Kapros pulled his hands out of the circle, canceling the spell. However, the magical power he had already used didn't return just because of that.

In Mist, players generally gauged their remaining health and mana through their body condition while playing. To see exact numbers, one had to open a separate information window, which divided opinions, but Kapros quite liked this system as it made this place feel like another reality. However, this time he decided to open the information window to see how much mana was consumed in using Dispel.

"Open information window."

Ignoring strength, vitality, luck, and other attributes below, he looked only at the health and mana values. He saw that his mana had dropped to nearly half in an instant, and his health had also slightly decreased along with it.

As the proficiency of a spell increases, the required mana gradually decreases. Conversely, this meant that the lower the proficiency, the more mana it consumed. It seemed natural that mana would drain endlessly if one couldn't even materialize the spell.

He had grasped the image, but what exactly was the problem? Sitting down to recover mana, Kapros slowly began to recall the scene of Berman the mage using Dispel before. He clearly remembered trying to use Fireball then, but as soon as Berman shouted something, the spell disappeared with a poof in an instant. And then...

"..."

Come to think of it, he had seen it clearly, but there was nothing helpful.

For now, Kapros decided to go back to square one and think carefully. The reason for Dispel's short incantation was probably to use it effectively in urgent situations. If it was a spell with a short incantation that could be used in emergencies, it would naturally have an activation time so short it might not even take a second.

Ah, wait a minute.

"A short spell..."

Until now, when learning a new spell, Kapros had always tried to grasp the image in his mind only after reciting the incantation first. That's why he was doing the same with Dispel, but...

Could that have been the problem?

'But if that's the case, how should I grasp the image and activate the spell?'

At that moment, there was a sound of the door swinging open. Yu-wan had gone out to avoid interfering with each other's training, had he already returned?

"I'm back... Are you training?"

Ah. It was Kran.

"No. I'm taking a break."

As Kapros stopped his thoughts and answered, Kran sat down next to him, scratching his faded blonde hair.

"I went to the temple in Tolang, but there wasn't much that could be a clue."

"Really?"

That's a big problem for him too.

"I think we'll have to go to the next city to do anything more. How about you?"

"Well, just..."

Kapros was about to give a vague answer, but suddenly thought it might not be a bad idea to ask Kran, and quickly turned his gaze.

"Actually, the training isn't going well."

"Huh?"

Momentarily puzzled by the sudden change in attitude, Kran then smiled brightly.

"Even Kap has things he can't do?"

Feeling his insides being painfully scratched by that expression, Kapros continued.

"Um... I was wondering if there might be a problem with the way I've been learning magic until now."

Seeing Kran's interested expression, Kapros realized that he had rarely had such a one-on-one conversation with him. He had accepted Yu-wan's reticence as that was just how he was, but it was strange that there hadn't been many opportunities with Kran, who wasn't like that.

"How have you been doing it until now?"

"First, I read the incantation, and then while trying to grasp the image in my mind through that incantation, I kept attempting to cast the spell. Until I succeeded."

"Until you succeeded? How long does that usually take?"

"Well... In difficult cases, I kept at it for days."

"For days? Really?"

Kran made an expression of disbelief. Come to think of it, he hadn't watched Kapros learning magic much, so he wouldn't have known. Yu-wan seemed to have already categorized Kapros as someone obsessed with magic. Of course, Kapros had no intention of denying that.

"Wow... So being a mage is a grind job too. I thought it was only difficult because mages had to do three things simultaneously. ...Oh, but what were those three things again?"

"Reciting the incantation, grasping the image, and drawing the circle to designate the range..."

'Ah...!'

Kapros suddenly stopped speaking and opened his mouth as something flashed through his mind like lightning.

He had thought he had already mastered the process of drawing circles. But thinking about it, he had been using lower circle spells that could be cast with just activation words much more frequently and abundantly.

When he first learned Fireball, what did the hologram say?

'First, draw the circle, and then spread your thumb and index finger to grasp the image at the desired position on the formula line to the extent you want.'

The reason for spreading the thumb and index finger inside the circle was to accurately grasp the size of the Fireball. Even after that, when using Ice Spear, he made a motion of holding a spear with both hands, and for Chain Lightning, he brought both hands together as if gathering electricity.

Why did he do that?

It was to grasp the image 'faster' and 'more concretely'!

The motion taken by the hands inside the circle is the core of that spell. If the circle was the keyhole, then the key to insert was his hands. It made sense that the spell was automatically canceled when he removed his hands from the circle, just like taking a key out of a keyhole. Not only the mind and magical power were needed to cast spells, but also the hands, which Kapros had somehow overlooked.

The old mage who was the job change assistant in Asgar used the Warp spell by making a simple motion with his hands inside the circle as if 'leaping across space and space.' Even someone who could use Warp so easily, which was presumed to be a high-level spell that users couldn't even use currently, used his hands. What had Kapros been doing all this time?