A wizard's control over their own magical energy was, essentially, a reflection of their strength and level of attainment.
The accidental magic young wizards experienced before starting school was a rare opportunity to get a taste of the legendary realm. That freedom to make things happen with a word or a whim was not truly legendary, yet it could surpass it.
Afterward, young wizards began learning magic. Whether they studied charms or brewed potions, they were really learning to organize and explore their magical energy.
It was much like blood: blood was part of the human body, yet people could not control its flow. Magical energy was much the same.
Learning charms and studying the essence of magic meant learning to control magical energy. The greater the control, the more powerful the magic.
Put simply, spells from level one to level five involved continually learning and strengthening the construction of specific magical energy circuits.
For example, suppose the entire structure of magical energy was divided into a hundred components.
For spells below level five, the Disarming Charm's magical energy structure included components one through ten, while the Killing Curse's included components two through twenty.
Following that logic, learning enough level-five spells to cover all hundred components was another crude way to approach the legendary realm.
Once in the legendary realm, a wizard used the magical energy within their body, which they could control at will, to draw upon the external heaven and earth elements.
The fundamental reason Shawn had never entered the legendary realm was that he had not completely mastered the magical energy within his body.
Although he had taken a shortcut through the system and his elemental talent, allowing him to cast spells with legendary power, strictly speaking, he still had not reached that realm.
The reason Shawn's