Chapter 1482: The Path To The Next Tier
I sat at the front of the class as Professor Igria started the lesson proper.
Back in the branch academy, most of the lessons were basically focused on practical lessons where we got used to learning to cast the magic in questions until we were proficient at it.
But it seems like here, they also make you learn about the theoretical aspects of the magic itself as well.
We were treated to a lesson where the professor explained about the different kinds of fire magic and what the effects of each of the specific magic spells were.
He would do something like cast [Fire Lance] and showcase the magic to us before showing what applications of the magic and the effects of it were.
I was worried that after learning I could just cast magic without chanting would kind of make it difficult for me to see a point in these lessons, but this showed me my fears were unfounded.
The professor explained in detail about things like how different fire spells could have slightly different effects depending on how you might chant them even if it was technically the same type of spell.
That was something I already knew since you could shorten the chant if you were more proficient at the magic and understood it well enough to substitute words for the spell.
But apparently you could even add secondary effects to the spell like adding certain words to make a specific spell fly faster or spin towards a certain direction and even combining different spells together into a single spell.
Not only that, he also taught us in using magic circles to cast our spells too, making us learn the runes that could help us create magic circles to cast Pyromancy type magic.
I definitely had an easy time with that since I could quite literally read the runes itself for what they were while the other students had to memorise the runes themselves.
Not only that, it seems like I could even use my understanding of the runes to create my own runes as well to match what I was trying to do without needing to worry about learning them.
I wonder if there was a class specific for magic circle crafting? I’m pretty sure it’s a subject that has its own class being taught in the Academy but I couldn’t find it when I was signing up for classes so... I’m going to assume that it’s probably only reserved for senior students and not first year students.
Oh well... I could probably either get Chancellor Vastraea to teach me or just look for the magic circle professor or something to ask for personal lessons.
There seems to be a lot of applications you could use for magic circles and I can’t believe I’ve been sleeping on this skill all this while.
Anyway, I’ve also learned part of the reason why my elemental magic has been having a hard time advancing was also because of how I viewed the magic itself.
The magic in this World wasn’t something that just stopped at ’use mana, make magic’ to function.
I had believed that you basically just needed to know the spell for it to function since... You know... The spell quite literally pops into your head if you think about it and have the proficiency for using said spell.
Apparently it’s a common misconception in this World to begin with so I’m not alone in this.
According to the teacher, the spells that were given to us through Isre was not meant to be something that we just fall on and use as it is. It was meant to be a guide for us to research and improve on to craft our own spells.
In fact, the spells that we have been using have always been guides for us to craft our own spells and not a limit on what the magic could do.
Only if you are able to do something like that could you even reach the next tier in your magic proficiency.
No wonder my elemental proficiencies have been stuck there for so long...
The professor then guided us on trying to craft our own spells during the lesson where we would take the spells we already knew and try to make our own original spells.
And it doesn’t work by having someone else teach you their own original spell either because apparently the condition was for you to really make your own magic to cast it so using someone else’s spell is similar to just getting it through Isre.
I wonder why my girls didn’t tell me this before?
I turned to Katsuki, "Did you know about this, Katsuki?"
She shook her head, "I did not, Mistress."
Hmm... If I remember... Lisa’s at least in the third tier in her Lumenmancy proficiency, which means she’s definitely aware that you have to craft your own original spell in order to get to that next tier...
I guess the reason why she never really taught me that was because I just never asked... Or she already assumed I knew because of my Shadow Guards.
That wasn’t really an original spell since it was more of a mutation of an existing spell I suppose...
And it seems like originally made chantless magic doesn’t count either and you actually need to create it through a spell incantation for it or it won’t work.
I’m not really sure what the exact criteria are anyway.
The rest of the class was spent listening to the professor break down existing spells and explaining how the spell is constructed for it to work.
It was almost like learning a new language so it was quite interesting to me as I took in everything that I could about the lesson since I already had ideas about what kind of magic I would want to craft.
Like making a fireball that won’t explode on impact but will bounce around like a grenade before exploding after a set amount of time or something~
Someone hiding behind a wall to avoid your fireball? Roll that ball of fire over to them and let it explode right at their feet~
That would be a pretty fun spell I think.
The professor did caution us not to recklessly try to create a new spell on our own and only attempt to do so under supervision and gave us examples of how mages had accidentally made spells that they were unable to control and ended up killing themselves in the process.
We then ended the lesson there and it certainly felt like I already learned quite a bit despite this only being the first lesson.
"That was interesting," I admitted to Katsuki, storing my own notes into my Bangle of Folding.
Katsuki nodded beside me, "It really was, Mistress. I had been prepared to not learn anything while we were here."
I understand her feelings.
After all, we have been diving into dangerous Dungeons and fighting monsters that could probably take out half of our class easily so we should have the experience to back it up and at least understand the more practical applications of magic compared to someone who only stays in a classroom.
I guess now I’m reminded that these professors actually stand above the normal people in terms of these skills and could even be considered the best in their area of studies so there’s definitely something to be learned from them.
"What’s your next class after this, Katsuki?"
"Mathematics, Mistress," She answered without looking at her own handbook.
I took out mine and saw that I had Martial classes next so we went our separate ways.
I stepped onto a teleportation array and teleported myself to the colosseum looking building that I had passed by a few times since enrolling here, the building being located between the dorms and the market district.
This was where theoretical classes for Martial skills were held and if this had been my first lesson, I would have been questioning why you would even need a theory class for Martial skills since it should really just be practical classes.
But after that Pyromancy class, I believed there must be a meaning behind that so I squashed my own reservations about that and went on to find my own class.
For the Martial skill in question, it was split up to different classes based on weapons so I specifically took the unarmed and sword classes since those two were my main focus in that particular skill.
For this class, I was starting out with the sword first while I would attend an unarmed class on another day.
I found my classroom easily enough since there’s apparently a lot of students who also study the sword and it’s one of the bigger classrooms in the building.
As I was going to enter the class however, a trio of first year students suddenly stood in my way, using their bodies to block the door with the leader sneering down at me.
What now?