Chapter 218 - Elven Spirit Magic
"......Is that your spirit, Aoi? No, spirits should never be visible to the eye..."
Langus said that with a puzzled look, and the female students standing around him also furrowed their brows. Lightly brushing off everyone's gazes, I raised one hand and moved the water dragon onto my palm.
The water dragon floated gently and moved its head left and right in front of my face.
"I do not hold the concept that spirits are invisible. Rather, I believe that if spirits exist, then seeing their forms is only natural. With that in mind, let me explain the advantages of having a spirit present."
As I spoke, I turned my palm forward. The water dragon then drifted through the air toward the students' seats. As everyone watched the spectacle with curious expressions, I activated my magic.
"...Breath of Ice, Radra-Cor."
The moment I murmured that, the water dragon opened its small mouth wide and exhaled white breath. Part of the desk surface turned pure white, and the area that the breath touched immediately froze over.
"Kyah!?"
A female student gasped in surprise as the desk in front of her froze. Feeling apologetic for startling her, I immediately chanted the next spell.
"...Small Fire, Bran."
The instant I spoke the spell name, a small ball of fire slowly flew from my outstretched hand. Seeing that, Strass—who was attending the lecture among the students—opened his mouth slightly.
"...Opposing magics, simultaneously at long range and short range?"
I was activating two opposing spells at the same time, one at long range and the other at close range. While not impossible even with ordinary spellcasting methods, doing so would require extremely precise mana control.
However, by creating this pseudo-spirit, I could activate them with remarkable ease. In a sense, it was like having an assistant. An assistant that could communicate instantly and help control the mana.
"In this way, I can deploy different spells simultaneously using the same mana source. Since my control over the spirit is still immature, I cannot extend the range any further than this at the moment. However, eventually I should be able to use magic anywhere within my line of sight."
As I announced that, murmurs of surprise rose from among the students. Performing multiple spells at once raised the difficulty by a level. Moreover, simultaneously activating two completely different spells was a difficulty that surpassed the advanced level.
And casting spells at different distances on top of that would likely be a difficulty of special class or above. Any mage should understand just how remarkable it was to accomplish that with such ease.
"Does that mean, for example, you could also cast two types of advanced spells simultaneously?"
Speyside asked with a serious expression. I nodded and answered.
"Yes, it is possible. In a sense, this spirit is like an extension of myself. If I give it minimum instructions, it can act autonomously to a certain degree. However, concentration inevitably becomes divided, so the power and precision are lower than when casting a single spell."
When I said that, Langus tilted his head with a difficult expression.
"...That is certainly an astonishing magic, but is it not fundamentally different from spirit magic?"
As Langus answered that, the female students surrounding him somehow looked relieved. While wondering why that was, I brought the water dragon back to my side.
The water dragon flew around my body as if swimming. Following its movement with my eyes, I continued explaining the magic.
"Upon analyzing the spirit magic that elves use, I found parts that appear to combine multiple complex spells simultaneously to enhance their effects. The magic used by the elder council members of the Elven Kingdom exemplifies this. The most notable example is magic that manipulates trees. I presume they constructed bridges by simultaneously casting spells that grow trees, change their shapes, and fix them in place. The same applies to elven fire as well."
After saying that, I created a small ball of fire in front of me.
I activated the fire to raise its temperature and accelerate molecular movement. Additionally, I fed it oxygen while controlling it so the fireball would not grow larger. Maintaining the fireball's size while making the flames burn fiercer required suppressing both the fire and oxygen trying to expand in a small space, so the pressure increased as the temperature rose.
As a result, the rapidly superheated fireball changed color from red to white.
This was likely the secret behind elven fire. The reason most people could not handle this spell well was probably because they could not imagine the existence of thermal energy generated by molecular movement.
In fact, when Langus saw the elven fire I had improvised, he widened his eyes in astonishment.
"...You actually reproduced elven fire? However, as I thought, your way of thinking seems somewhat different from our magic. Spirits do not obey commands so easily, and those without talent find even communication difficult. On the other hand, if one can become a friend to the spirits, the spirits will protect them no matter the situation."
"...No matter the situation? If you mean even when unconscious or asleep, then that is indeed different from the pseudo-spirit I created."
Hearing Langus's words, I realized my assumption might have been wrong and asked back. Upon hearing that, the female students crowding around Langus crossed their arms and smiled before he could respond.
"See?"
"Elven magic cannot possibly be that simple."
Watching the female students exchange such conversations, I nodded.
"I see. It appears my understanding of spirits was mistaken. I must study spirit magic anew from a different perspective."
When I answered that, the female students looked at each other in confusion. Then Langus gave a wry smile and shook his head left and right.
"No, I think you correctly grasped the strengths of spirit magic. It is simply different from spirit magic."
Langus seemed to be trying to offer a follow-up, but my discouraged feelings did not easily recover. I had thought I was grasping spirit magic, but it seemed I was mistaken.
"...No, if I think about it conversely, it means the depths of magic are still deep indeed. There are many spells that create something from nothing, but summoning a life form called a spirit rather than a pseudo-entity is... fascinating."
As I said that and raised the corner of my mouth, for some reason all the female students gathered around Langus let out a collective groan and pulled their chins back. Wondering what happened, I found them averting their gazes for some reason.
Had I said something I shouldn’t have?