"Magic Missile proficiency +1"
1st Circle Spell: Magic Missile lv1 (4/10)
"I'm exhausted."
He successfully cast the spell once.
This time was slightly better than when he had completely drained his mana last time. At least he hadn't ended up unable to move, but he was still mentally exhausted.
If the fatigue from repeatedly failing to cast spells was 1, then the fatigue caused by successfully casting a spell and consuming a large amount of mana was 5.
He lay down to rest.
This time, he rested for nearly half an hour before he finally felt the muddled exhaustion in his mind recede.
His 7 points of Intelligence were still proving useful.
His mental recovery ability was beyond what ordinary people could match. With symptoms like his, an ordinary person might need to sleep to fully recover, whereas he only needed to doze for a while.
Moreover, his mana was also growing little by little every day. It wasn't particularly fast, but it was steady.
A tiny increase each day was deeply reassuring.
Unfortunately, even though his mana continued to grow, it was still far too little for a 1st Circle Magic Missile at this stage.
He had only awakened his mana a short time ago—exactly one week, at most. He needed more time to fully capitalize on the advantages brought by his mental attributes.
"Is there any way to reduce Magic Missile's consumption?"
Unable to rapidly increase his mana income for now, Gauss could only consider cutting expenses.
In truth, he felt that the full power of his current Magic Missile was somewhat excessive. Much of the mana was being wasted.
Take goblins, for example. Not to mention killing ordinary goblins—even against that Large Goblin, Magic Missile's power was excessive.
Gauss suspected that a Magic Missile at 30–50% power would have been more than enough to kill that Large Goblin.
As for an ordinary goblin, perhaps 10% power would be enough to kill it.
Of course, this was merely a judgment based on his instincts. He had no idea what the actual result would be.
Why not try and see whether it was possible?
Let alone limiting the mana output "power" to 10%, even 80% or 90% would be good. At the very least, it would lessen the fatigue and emptiness caused by consuming a large amount of mana in a short time, allowing him to begin the next round of practice sooner.
Otherwise, his current practice cycle was simply too long.
He rested for quite a while longer.
Once the mana in his body had slowly recovered, Gauss began to act.
He continued to close his eyes and focus his mind.
Since he had succeeded only a short while ago, he smoothly found the feeling of casting the spell this time.
However, he did not rush to follow that instinct and complete the entire casting sequence. Instead, the moment his mana began to flow, he deliberately cut the process short.
It sounded easy, but in practice, interrupting it was far more complicated than it seemed.
Once spellcasting began, the flow of magic seemed to move according to a certain inertia. Interrupting that process required extremely strong control.
Fortunately, his mental attributes came through once again, and he succeeded in interrupting it on his first attempt.
Next, he needed to control it precisely.
To put it crudely, a spell was like a program that had already been designed. Normal spellcasting only required finding the correct casting sensation—in other words, inputting the correct command—and the program would automatically start running.
The difficult part of magic was following the books and lessons left behind by those who came before, using their "instructions" to construct the spell "program" within one's consciousness.
However, this also created a problem. If a mage relied entirely on the magical "black box" itself, they could not finely control the spell.
"I need to retain some of the mana at the instant I prepare to cast the spell."
Gauss had a sudden insight.
Just as he could interrupt the flow of mana, he could naturally retain some of it as well.
The difficulty lay in how much to retain, whether he acted at the right moment, and whether he could do so without interfering with the spell's normal operation.
Continue!
After that, Gauss continued the process of failing, trying again, resting, recovering his mana, and continuing his practice.
By the time the sun was setting and the afterglow had dyed the grassland, he had barely managed to limit Magic Missile's "output power" to around 95%.
For now, he could retain only 5% of the mana.
If he retained even slightly more, the mana could no longer flow smoothly.
Though 5% might not seem like much, it was actually a huge improvement. He had started at only 1%, and had slowly reached this level through repeated attempts. This also proved that he was on the right track.
His idea was feasible. From here on, he only needed to keep working in this direction.
He rubbed his empty stomach, packed up his belongings, and turned toward the town.
Before he knew it, five days and nights had passed.
Gauss left early and returned late every day.
He patiently practiced his spell in silence.
Under his diligent training, Magic Missile's proficiency also rose steadily.
Magic Missile lv2 (1/20).
Aside from Magic Missile's proficiency increasing, the mana within his body had also grown substantially.
If the amount of mana consumed by a Magic Missile at full power in the beginning was taken as one standard unit, then his previous mana reserves had been roughly one standard unit.
Now, his mana reserves had quietly reached 1.5 standard units—a full 50% increase.
Of course, this was merely a descriptive expression. It was a rough unit of measurement he had devised himself, based only on his personal sensations. It might not be perfectly accurate and could contain some minor deviations, but broadly speaking, there was no major problem with it.
As for his training to limit Magic Missile's power, he could currently only cast it at 60% power. He called this a 0.6-standard-unit Magic Missile.
With his mana reserves, he could probably cast two 0.6-standard-unit Magic Missiles, with 0.3 standard units of mana remaining.
The further he progressed, the more difficult it became to limit the power.
That was because casting Magic Missile itself required a certain amount of mana.
Using knowledge from his previous life as an analogy, it was like a gasoline-powered car. No matter how much an engineer optimized its engine and reduced its fuel consumption, it would always need to consume a certain amount of fuel. Moreover, the further the optimization went, the more difficult it became.
"Let's bring the practice to a temporary end."
Having finished this short training period, which was like secluded cultivation, Gauss breathed a sigh of relief.
These five days of training had passed quickly, but they had also been extremely arduous.
Every day, he continuously consumed mana, exhausted his mind, recovered, and then continued consuming it again. It was practically repeated torment for his mind.
He had clearly promised himself that he would rest for a while after completing the commission in Birch Village.
Yet in the end, he had only made himself even more tired.
Gauss couldn't help but laugh helplessly.
Fortunately, the training during this period had produced excellent results. His suffering had not been in vain.
Though Gauss complained verbally, he knew perfectly well that this exhaustion was worthwhile. When he encountered a crisis in the future, every drop of sweat he shed now would be transformed into assistance.
At present, through his training, he had already gained a certain ability to inflict damage on powerful enemies.
A 0.6-standard-unit Magic Missile was more than enough to easily kill the Large Goblin from before, and he could use this attack twice.
If he could return to that night now, he definitely would not be in such a sorry state again.
With a certain degree of self-protection, Gauss felt much less pressure.
In fact, ever since he had transmigrated to this world, he had constantly been pushed forward by a faint sense of urgency.
It was precisely because of this unease that he had been so eager to master various forms of magic, as well as swords and blades, to arm and protect himself.
Now, the Magic Missile he had kept as a trump card was enough to give him a certain sense of security.
Thanks to Magic Missile's powerful destructive force, at least in terms of offensive ability, he should be in a class of his own among bottom-tier adventurers who had yet to advance into a profession.
After assessing his combat strength and peacefully practicing magic for several days, Gauss felt an unbearable itch to put his skills to use.
How about finding a few goblins to practice against? He could test the results of his training.
Thanks for the tip, "New Chubby A-Feng"! Thank you for your support!
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