In an unremarkable little courtyard, Soren practiced with his scimitar, move by move. He had returned to White Horse City two days ago, and the past few days had been peaceful. During the day, he practiced White Raven Swordplay; at night, he continued studying Spell Formulas. He had now mastered ten 0-level Spells. There were hundreds of the lowest-level Cantrips, so he could only pick the useful ones to learn first. His progress in studying the 1st-level Spell Magic Missile had also reached around eighty percent. If all went well, he would master his first proper Spell tonight. As his research progressed faster and faster, his understanding of Spell Formulas gradually deepened.
Many Spell Formulas were similar. Higher-level Spells often contained the Spell Formulas of lower-level Spells.
For example, the 2nd-level Spell "Melf's Acid Arrow" had an extremely complex Spell Formula, perhaps containing hundreds or even thousands of spell nodes, yet much of its internal structure overlapped with the 0-level Spell "Acid Splash." The same was true for the Magic Missile Soren was currently studying. If he learned the 4th-level Lesser Missile Storm in the future, he could incorporate Magic Missile's Spell Formula into it, greatly reducing the time needed to learn the Spell.
Magic Missile launched up to five energy missiles at once, while Lesser Missile Storm launched fifteen to twenty-five energy missiles at once. The more he studied the principles behind many Spell Formulas, the easier they seemed.
However, his progress in learning White Raven Swordplay could not be called fast. This sort of mid- to high-level Combat Skill required a long time to master. Under normal circumstances, training in White Raven Swordplay took three to five years just to achieve modest results. Thus, although Soren was talented, he had only recovered some of his old techniques over