The Smallest Fireball

In a single night, Seven Strokes coalesced his spirit, and then just half a month later, his Five Elements spiritual elements all surpassed a hundred. Donald's cultivation speed at this point would make even those legendary, once-in-a-generation geniuses feel ashamed of themselves if they saw it.

But now, the genius Donald had run into a thorny problem. He had plenty of spiritual elements but no idea how to build a Magic Model. Those students "upholding justice" had him completely in their sights, making it impossible for him to browse freely in the Library anymore. He could only slowly piece together clues by asking Wesley and Victor.

The knowledge gained this way was obviously not systematic, but at least he now had a general idea of the key points for building a Magic Model.

First was improving spiritual control—the ability to finely manipulate multiple spiritual elements. This depended on spiritual power. Even the simplest model required just three spiritual elements, but one still needed to advance to low-level Magic Apprentice to construct it.

Next was Magic Element perception. When attempting to build a model, one had to constantly sense the reactions of surrounding Magic Elements in order to find a stable model structure. Element perception also evolved as spiritual power grew.

Finally came proficiency. Repeatedly building the same model in the mind eventually formed a conditioned reflex, allowing one to quickly mobilize spiritual power to construct the model when needed. When not in use, all spiritual elements were in a free-floating state, so every spellcasting was a process of rebuilding the model. Increasing proficiency reduced construction time and sped up casting.

Late at night, in the second-floor bedroom of Professor Victor's house, Donald lay on the comfortable bed and began attempting to build the simplest Magic Model.

Among the Five Elements magic, his favorite was the Fire element. The very first story about a mage he'd heard on the island featured a fireball of unmatched power. The first spiritual element he'd condensed was a Fire Element. The first magic he'd ever witnessed was still a fireball.

So now, he arranged three Fire Elements into an equilateral triangle in his mind.

In principle, regular polygon models of each element's spiritual elements formed that element's basic attack magic—Ice Spear, Fireball, Flying Leaf, Wind Blade, and Stone Spike. The more vertices, the more powerful the magic. For example, Carl's fireball probably used over twenty spiritual elements as vertices, while Wesley's Wind Blade was likely just a triangle. Considering the balance between modeling difficulty and practicality, the first model a Magic Apprentice built was usually a hexagon. Most accumulated wisdom from predecessors also started with constructing a hexagonal Magic Array.

The difficulty in modeling lay in the fact that everyone's spiritual world had varying degrees of distortion, so the model wouldn't be a perfect regular polygon. Side lengths would differ slightly, and the vertices might not even lie on the same plane. Moreover, since the spiritual world was immeasurable, polygon side lengths couldn't be described—one had to rely on trial and error.

Donald had no reference materials at hand, so he had to start with the simplest three-element model. Before this, he'd already asked about all the key points.

He enlarged and shrank the equilateral triangle formed by three Fire Elements, finding the size that made the surrounding Magic Elements most active, then memorized it. Keeping the triangle's base fixed, he moved the vertex on the triangle's plane, continuing to sense element activity to pinpoint the best position. Finally, he moved the vertex back and forth along an arc perpendicular to the plane, again confirming the optimal spot.

Donald worked slowly. Every step was like tuning the most sensitive radio dial—first determining a rough range, then repeatedly fine-tuning back and forth until absolutely satisfied. In the end, a Triple Fireball Magic Model was completed in his mind. The whole process took only half an hour.

This was an unusually fast speed. With all five elemental spiritual elements exceeding a hundred, Donald's spiritual control and element perception were far beyond what any ordinary low-level Magic Apprentice could match.

"All that's left before I can cast magic is to learn the incantation," Donald thought, as he stretched his hands out from under the cotton quilt. He imagined releasing this model between his palms. It would be a very small fireball, probably a bit hot. How hot? Carl's fireball had been so close to his palm without burning him, so it couldn't be that hot. At least it should feel warm? Like the warmth his palms felt right now, warm, warm...

Warm? Donald suddenly realized that there really was a tiny fireball burning in his palms!

Excitement, doubt, panic—all kinds of intense emotions surged over him. The surroundings were full of expensive furniture and exquisite wallpaper. He couldn't release this fireball, so he could only watch it burn between his hands.

The fireball was only the size of an egg. Unlike the vivid red Fire Elements in Donald's mind, it was blue. If not for the flowing flame shape and the warmth in his hands, just by color alone, he couldn't even be sure it was a fireball. But Donald knew the blue meant its temperature had reached an extremely high level.

The blue fireball slowly turned white in his palms, then red, then yellow. Just as it was about to dissipate, Donald suddenly remembered the shower of sparks Carl's fireball had scattered when it vanished. In a panic, he clapped his hands together tightly, smothering the fireball between them. Thank goodness—it didn't burn the quilt.

Upstairs in the bedroom, Mr. Victor was sleeping soundly, unaware of the magical fluctuations downstairs.

The room fell back into complete darkness. In the blackness, the young Donald's heart surged with emotion. Just now, he had cast a spell—a real spell. Happiness had come too suddenly. He hadn't even learned the magic incantation yet.

"No, I didn't chant an incantation. How could I cast magic?" But the burning sensation on his palms from smothering the fireball reminded him that it had really happened.

He immediately thought of the possible answer. It was obvious: his spiritual power was different. The spiritual elements generated from tracing perfect function curves were equally perfect, without a trace of impurity. With such perfect spiritual elements, the Magic Model he built was pure and vibrant, responding to his will, needing no incantation as an aid.

In the following days, whenever he had free time, Donald kept repeating this practice: building the Triple Fireball model, letting it dissipate, building again, dissipating again. It wasn't because Donald was particularly fond of this Triple Fireball, but because he was completely at a loss with more complex Magic Models. Yet the result of this practice was that he could truly complete this model in an instant.

His question about magic incantations was confirmed by Victor: Magic Apprentices chanted incantations to first enhance the activity of surrounding Magic Elements. As long as one's spiritual power was strong enough, this step could be omitted. Mages above the first rank, except when casting large-scale magic, didn't need to chant incantations.

And there was a history behind the relationship between Magic Apprentices and incantations that Donald didn't yet know.