Outside Grayrock Town, in an open clearing.
Gauss tightened his grip on his staff and closed his eyes, focusing his mind.
He repeatedly communed with the new spell etched into his will: Mage Armor.
One advantage of the spells granted by the Adventurer's Handbook was that, compared with other apprentices learning skills, they saved him a great deal of time getting started.
It was as if he already knew the skill and was simply picking up experience from the past.
According to the information Gauss had gathered from the other members of the Night Owl Squad, even if someone acquired a skill book, starting from scratch and practicing until they reached the beginner level—just barely able to produce the skill's effect—would normally take at least several months.
As for becoming proficient, ordinary apprentices like them would need years.
But Gauss didn't need much time to go from beginner to proficient. He had a head start.
Thanks to the effects of the Adventurer's Handbook, it hadn't taken him long to raise his first two spells, Mage Hand and Magic Missile, from Level 1 to Level 2.
With his eyes closed and his mind focused, he reviewed what he knew about Mage Armor several times.
Gauss began recalling some of the knowledge in Andeni's notes, which he'd read a while ago.
Each spell was a magical effect in its own right.
Such an effect could create convenient tools or weapons, deal damage, form protective barriers, and produce other results. Spells were generally divided into eight schools.
Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation.
The spells Gauss had already mastered, Mage Hand and Magic Missile, belonged to the schools of Conjuration and Evocation, respectively.
The spell he was about to practice, Mage Armor, belonged to the School of Abjuration.
The spell