After Granny Karom's little scene, Arando had no choice but to give in. Still, clever people were always good at finding excuses. There was nothing wrong with balancing work and rest, after all, and he didn't need a disciple who buried himself in books all day. It would do Solam good to spend some time around other people.
A Mage wasn't necessarily amazing just because he was high-level. Plenty of high-level Mages who stayed cooped up in their laboratories and magic towers couldn't necessarily fight. Casting spells in combat took quick reflexes, after all, and choosing the right spell at the right moment required real skill.
Arcane Knights were combat-oriented spellcasters to begin with; they learned magic for the sake of fighting. They had plenty of casting techniques that had evolved from those used by Battle Mages. (Battle Mages believed that spells existed solely for combat and destruction. They pursued spells that could be cast quickly and hit hard. Most specialized in the School of Evocation or the School of Transmutation. However, this school of thought was scorned by other Mages, who called its practitioners barbarians who knew magic.)
That was the only way Arando could console himself. What else could he do?
And so Solam settled into a life where he got one day off each week and spent the rest of his time as busy as a dog. Perhaps it was thanks to this intensive style of learning that Solam awakened another ability: "Focus."
In any case, Solam had begun his formal studies. After learning Netherese (an elegant and precise language, though rather difficult to pronounce) and Common, and becoming fluent in reading and writing them, he began studying magic in earnest. (The Netherese script was an elaborate cursive.)
First came the history of magic, a subject he had to learn.
In short, the Elves had used powerful magic to ruin their own world, then opened a passage to the Ancient Faerun Continent in the world of Toril. After their war with the dragons and several Crown Wars, they had blasted the continent into pieces and taught magic to humanity. When the Netherese discovered the Netherese Scrolls, a glorious age of modern magic began. Humans abandoned the magic the Elves had taught them and turned to the knowledge in the scrolls. Through their studies, they created the Mythallar and built Floating Cities. Magic later developed into the eight Schools of Magic, and almost all modern magical knowledge had been passed down from that era.
The eight Schools were: the School of Abjuration (all kinds of shields), the School of Conjuration (curses and spells like Power Word: Stun), the School of Divination (spells like Divination and Wish), the School of Enchantment (alchemy and buffing spells like Stoneskin), the School of Evocation (spells like Fireball), the School of Illusion (no need to explain), the School of Necromancy (death spells, with life-altering magic also belonging to this school), and the School of Transmutation (exactly what it sounds like).
After that came the principles of magic.
At first, Netherese Arcanists didn't need to prepare spells in advance. Most could cast magic using only incantations and gestures, without relying on the Weave. Unlike modern Mages, however, if they failed to learn a spell, they could never learn it again. Casting magic consumed something called Arcs, and the spells they knew were few in number. They could cast fewer times than modern Mages, too. But in the Netherese era, the Goddess of Magic had yet to sever the direct connection between Mages and the source of magic, so their most powerful spells were stronger than those of today.
Later Mages deciphered the secret behind "Arcs": the speed of the brain's calculations and its ability to concentrate. In the modern age, when the Weave was widespread, Mages mentally calculated the entire course of a spell, then guided it into the Weave with gestures and incantations. This was the spell model. Finally, they released the spell by focusing their minds.
Spell models were generally complex and precise. To protect the brain from being burned out, the Weave removed a spell's model from the caster's memory after each casting. That was why Mages had to prepare the spell model in their minds again after casting. The smarter someone was, the more spells they could master. (The Weave removed the spell model, not the memory of the spell itself.) In this sense, the Weave protected Mages' brains from overloading and killing them. Magic had become much easier and safer to learn since the age of the Weave, though that was all relative. There still weren't many Mages around.
At this point, Solam couldn't help marveling. Wouldn't Mages eventually become human computers? That was almost unimaginable in his previous world. The concept of biological computers had existed for years, but actually building one was pure fantasy.
But that world wasn't without its miracles. Some people could make their brains rival computers: people with supernatural abilities. People had never stopped researching these abilities. They found that such powers came from physical mutations, which could also be called evolution. They divided them into physical-enhancement abilities and psychic abilities. All such abilities came from mutations in some part of the body. Physical-enhancement abilities could come from mutations in any part of the body, but psychic abilities had only one source: the brain. Research showed that people with psychic abilities had far more developed brains than ordinary people. The average person's brain was only about 10 percent developed, and those with psychic abilities were generally quite intelligent.
Some especially powerful psychics could make their brains' processing power rival that of a computer.
So Solam wondered: if he could make his brain retain those spells firmly, preventing the Weave from erasing them, wouldn't he be able to cast magic without preparing it in advance? He would still have the limitation of Spell Slots, but he could freely cast the spells he needed. That would make him more flexible than other Mages and completely offset the disadvantage of having fewer Spell Slots than most.
Solam hurried over to Arando and told him his idea, though he didn't mention his supernatural ability.
Arando burst out laughing when he heard Solam's plan, then told him that almost every Mage apprentice had come up with the same idea, but no one had ever succeeded.
He had tried it himself when he was young, but the restriction wasn't so easy to overcome. It had been possible in the Netherese era because spell structures weren't as complex as they were now.
Besides, the Weave's ability to erase spell models was no simple matter. The higher a Mage's level, the more deeply he was connected to the Weave, and the stronger its erasure became. Only Legendary Mages could bypass the Weave and cast spells once they reached the higher Legendary ranks, when they could understand and control raw magical energy without the Weave's filtering. Even then, there was a limit: they simply couldn't remember that many spell models.
Still, Arando couldn't be bothered to discourage this sudden burst of imagination. It wasn't bad for young people to try things out. It would help Solam understand magic's greatness and rigor more deeply.
Seeing that Arando didn't believe he could succeed, Solam said nothing. He had mentioned it in advance, so Arando wouldn't make a fuss later.
Solam was confident because of his new ability, "Focus." It didn't seem particularly powerful, but Solam knew that even in his previous life, it was an exceptionally rare and useful ability.
It let a person learn anything faster, much like photographic memory. More importantly, it was one of the rare abilities that could make use of undeveloped parts of the brain. It could store what a person learned directly in those undeveloped areas without affecting the normal functioning of the brain.
Would spell models learned through Focus be erased? Honestly, Solam didn't know. He had never studied the brains of this world, and he had no idea whether the Weave could erase memories stored in undeveloped areas of the brain.
Still, he suspected it couldn't. Undeveloped brain regions were practically nonexistent, weren't they? Hadn't there been cases in his previous life of people living perfectly well despite missing a chunk of their brains? They had simply been lucky enough to lose parts that hadn't been developed. Solam didn't believe the Goddess of the Weave would go out of her way to erase memories that didn't even exist.
Besides, there was no harm in trying. Why not?
He got started right away, using a few of the magical tricks he had just learned. Solam wasn't qualified to study real magic yet, so he could only learn a few magical tricks. The models for these cantrips were simple enough that anyone even a little clever could learn them. They also required no Mage levels to cast; all you needed was a connection to the shallow Weave. As a result, many Mage apprentices who couldn't make ends meet relied on these cantrips to work as street performers. But simple as they were, they were still cast through the Weave, and their models would still be erased.
Solam took out several scrolls that recorded cantrips (the spell models were drawn on the scrolls), then used Focus to memorize the spell models. They were simple enough that it took him only half an hour to memorize them all. They were Create Water, Flare, Mage Hand, Hypnotism, and Resistance.
Then he drew the spell models out of his undeveloped brain and cast two cantrips. Afterward, he carefully tried to recall the spells he had just cast. The result was that the models for both cantrips were still sitting in his mind, safe and sound!
Solam was overjoyed and immediately told Arando about his discovery.
At first, Arando thought Solam was pulling his leg. But when Solam thumped his chest and swore he wasn't bluffing, Arando began to believe him—just a little.
If it was true, Arando figured he was about to make a fortune.
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