Spells

The sky was overcast, as if it might snow again. Weather like this was common here. Towering, straight trees blocked out the sky completely, and the thin mist drifting through the area made the place even darker.

This was where Jialan often practiced his spells. To become an outstanding spellcaster, morning practice every day was routine.

Diligence could make up for shortcomings. Practice more in one's spare time, and when real battle came, casting a spell one second faster than the opponent could change a person's fate. This was the phrase Jialan's mentor had repeated most often at the academy.

He drew his long black cloak tighter, revealing the exquisite cloth pouch tied at his waist. This was a benefit granted by the Longsheng Empire military to official mages who remained in service. Aside from advancement methods, it was the most valuable thing there was.

A Spatial Bag. Though it was only two cubic meters in size, it could still hold many things. Whatever casting material he needed in battle could appear in his hand with a thought, sparing him from frantically rummaging around for it.

On the continent, even a Spatial Bag with the smallest capacity of one cubic meter would never sell for less than two thousand Jintana. It was something with a price but no market.

Jialan steadied himself and began his daily spellcasting practice.

He reached into the tiny Spatial Bag and, when he withdrew his hand, pulled out a staff nearly a meter long.

It was made of walnut wood, as thick as a baby's arm. Dozens of strange symbols were carved into its shaft, with faint silvery-white light flickering within them.

Unlike the staffs issued by the Empire, which could only increase a spellcaster's spell power by five percent, Jialan had spent more than five hundred Jintana on this staff.

It had cost him more than half his savings, but it was worth the price. This staff could increase his spell damage by ten percent, and more importantly, it came with a life-saving skill that was extremely useful to Jialan: Ice Mirror Technique.

Once activated, it could automatically create a mirror to block fatal damage and even reflect attacks.

He had only managed to purchase it with his mentor's help. Without that help, even if he had added another one or two hundred Jintana, he might not have been able to buy it.

Jialan held the staff in one hand while forming one complex seal after another with the other, occasionally murmuring strange words under his breath.

The soft chants drifted through the surroundings, lending the place an eerie mystery and a fear of the unknown.

As the strange intonation came to an end, blue light flashed in the mage's eyes before slowly fading away.

Mental Revelation. This was the first spell many spellcasters cast when preparing for battle.

It could greatly expand a spellcaster's range of mental perception for a short time.

Assassins were always the nightmare of ordinary spellcasters. In sudden situations, assassins who closed in under stealth could inflict enormous damage on a spellcaster.

Mental Revelation could guard against that very effectively. Most assassins had nowhere to hide beneath it.

After pausing briefly, the mage continued chanting those strange syllables, and a faint glow suddenly enveloped his body.

Unless one had sharp eyesight, it was not easy to notice the additional layer of light around him.

Elemental Shield. This was the fastest defensive spell Jialan could cast.

It could effectively block some elemental damage, but it was not very useful against physical damage. After all, it was only an apprentice-level spell.

The only basic defensive spell Jialan could cast was Frost Shield, and it usually took seven or eight seconds to complete.

When faced with sudden danger, that was somewhat too slow. This was also the weakness of low-level spellcasters. On the battlefield, without guards to protect them, low-level spellcasters found it difficult to survive.

However, that was not absolute. After thousands or even tens of thousands of years of exploration, spellcasters had developed several methods to drastically shorten casting time.

The simplest was the spell Spell Focus, which was also the third spell Jialan was currently casting.

When this spell was applied to the body, it could effectively increase casting speed by around ten percent while making the caster less likely to have their spell interrupted.

Having a spell interrupted was a serious accident for a mage. In severe cases, it could rupture the mage's spiritual space, preventing advancement forever and even causing a loss of levels.

The second method was Dual-Hand Casting. This meant abandoning the staff and forming seals with both hands, using the hands to replace certain incantations. It could greatly shorten casting time, perhaps by around twenty percent.

But its drawback was that without the staff's amplification, the spell's power would decrease. Furthermore, forming seals with both hands required dividing one's attention while still chanting, making mistakes easy and leading to casting failure.

The third method was creating a Spellbook. This method was simply too extravagant for most mages; even great nobles and the imperial family found it somewhat difficult to afford.

It involved using the method for making scrolls to imprint the structure of every spell to be cast onto paper, then binding it into a book. During casting, one turned to the corresponding page, infused magic power into the spell structure, and then used mental guidance to cast the spell. It could reduce casting time by more than thirty percent.

It was somewhat like using a Magic Scroll, except Magic Scrolls were single-use items, while this could be used repeatedly without losing much power.

Unlike single-use Magic Scrolls, its materials were more precious, the spell structures inscribed on it were more complex and difficult, and different spells required different materials. As a result, ninety percent of spellcasters were deterred by it.

As the light appeared and gradually faded, the third auxiliary spell was also applied to Jialan.

He tightened his grip on the staff and began casting his first offensive spell of the day. The low, obscure incantation continued for nearly ten seconds.

A blue-white ice crystal formed above Jialan's constantly moving hands. It rapidly expanded from slow to fast, eventually forming a massive half-meter-long ice spike that hovered above his hand.

Then he suddenly swung it toward the target he had chosen beforehand. With sharp howls, the ice spike tore through the faint white mist and crashed heavily into the snow thirty meters away.

It punched a huge deep pit more than a meter wide into the ground. The surrounding vegetation was shredded to pieces, while the plants farther away were frozen into solid ice.

Jialan nodded in satisfaction. Casting ice spells in snowy weather was indeed around ten percent more powerful than usual.

After steadying his somewhat shaken spiritual space, he began chanting the incantation for the next spell...