Multiversal Ascension-Chapter 72: Intent Casting

"One question at a time, please," he said, not at all offended by her enthusiasm. In fact, he found her excitement cute in a nerdy way. Her reaction surprised him, though. Normally, she was composed and reserved, but she clearly couldn't contain herself when new knowledge was involved. It occurred to him that while she loved reading, what truly captivated her was learning new things. Her reaction at the library and now in the training room only reinforced this realization.

"The explosions are created using fire—" he began, patiently explaining the process. Lyra took diligent notes, her expression becoming more impressed with each detail. The technique was not only incredibly difficult to perform, requiring precise control over both the strength of the explosion and one's own body—without which, one might stumble instead of moving faster—but the unorthodox ideas behind it were also remarkably innovative and expertly crafted.

The conversation naturally shifted from Explosive Style to a broader discussion about magic. Even though Mikael didn't have Lyra's depth of knowledge—she had studied magic much longer—his unconventional approach and unique ideas added fresh perspectives.

Both of them gained something from the exchange. Mikael learned valuable insights about magical theory, while Lyra discovered new concepts and creative applications she hadn't considered before. Their conversation lasted longer than expected. Despite sitting on the ground, which wasn't the most comfortable, neither seemed to mind.

Their time together was both pleasant and productive, a win-win for them. Eventually, they decided to wrap up the discussion but agreed to meet again outside the library to continue their conversations. They realized that the library wasn't the best place for extended discussions, and renting private training rooms just to chat felt wasteful.

As they went their separate ways, Mikael suddenly realized that their planned future "meetings" bore a striking resemblance to dates. Lyra, however, didn't come to the same realization at the time. It would only hit her later, in the quiet of her dormitory, when she was more composed and reflective.

After parting ways with Lyra, Mikael returned to his dormitory. He headed straight for the training room, his thoughts racing. 'These past few days have been enjoyable, but I feel like I haven't progressed much. Of course, it's just an illusion—my knowledge of magic has grown a lot during this time.'

'But now, I think I'm good enough at magic to be considered at least a decent mage. I can start addressing the issue of spell diversity that I noticed during the ship protection military mission.'

With that thought, he picked up the book on the Heal spell, a second-circle light magic spell. Skimming through the sections on the spell's history, he quickly reached the part that interested him: the spellcasting process.

Spellcasting, as the book explained, could be broken down into several stages. First was converting one's mana into the necessary element; in this case it was the light element, as the Heal spell was a light-based spell. This step wasn't necessary for neutral spells.

The second stage involved manipulating the mana to achieve the desired effect, in this case, healing either the caster or another person. The book also described the intent required for the spell to work properly.

Finally, there was the chant. For Heal, the chant was:

"Radiant light of the divine, shine forth with endless grace. Mend what is broken, renew what is torn, and banish the shadow of pain. Restore the flesh, strengthen the spirit, and let vitality flow anew!"

As Mikael read the chant, he cursed inwardly. 'What the fuck is this? It's like a fucking poem! How are you supposed to use this in battle if you need to recite an entire paragraph just to cast a spell?'

'I hope the other spells aren't like this, because if they are... Higher-circle spells will be completely impractical unless you have minutes to prepare. If higher-circle spells require even longer chants, it will be even worse; they'll be totally useless in combat—unless, of course, you're skilled enough to cast spells using only intent.'

'But the solution is simple, isn't it?' he wondered. 'I just need to become good enough to cast all my spells using intent. Easy, right? No, clearly not. Even now, I can't cast a single spell purely with intent. The spell I find easiest to cast is Clean, and even then, I have to mentally chant half of its incantation to make it work. So, being able to cast harder spells using intent only? That's a whole other challenge.'

'It'll be hard, but it's a worthwhile objective to work toward,' he thought, shaking himself out of his musings. Realizing he'd been lost in thought, he refocused on learning the Heal spell.

He followed the first step: changing the element of his mana. He released mana from his core in a quantity he estimated would be sufficient to cast the spell, then transformed this mana into light-element mana within his body.

This part was relatively easy for him, as the difficulty of transforming mana didn't increase significantly from first-circle to second-circle spells. With the transformation complete, he began chanting while directing his mana according to the instructions in the book. At the same time, he focused his intent on what he wanted the spell to achieve—in this case, healing himself.

"Radiant light of the divine, shine forth with endless grace. Mend what is broken, renew what is torn, and banish the shadow of pain. Restore the flesh, strengthen the spirit, and let vitality flow anew!"

As he finished the chant, light wrapped around him, bringing a warm and soothing sensation. His eyebrows rose in surprise. He had successfully cast a second-circle spell on his first attempt. While the results weren't perfect, the spell had worked.

This success was undoubtedly due to his rapidly growing foundation and knowledge of magic, which had been of tremendous help.

Encouraged, he continued casting the spell, chanting the paragraph each time and making small adjustments after each cast. His progress was swift, and by the ninth attempt, he had fully learned the spell.

He checked the time and noted that only 15 minutes had passed. His mana reserves were still at 70%, and despite casting a second-circle spell multiple times, he felt capable of continuing. His mana reserves were also regenerating steadily while slowly growing stronger.

At the beginning of his journey, his mana and aura cores only grew when he completely emptied them and meditated to absorb mana or aura from the air. Now, with better control, he could grow his cores without emptying them. By absorbing mana and aura from the air even as his core filled, a small portion became permanently infused into the core, gradually increasing its capacity. The rate of growth depended on his talent and the density of mana or aura in the environment.

With the Heal spell mastered, he decided to continue his mage training, pleased with his progress. This time, he aimed to cast spells using only intent. He started with the Clean spell, a first-circle spell that he could already silent cast and which required little mana, allowing him to practice repeatedly for faster progress.

He began casting the spell, focusing on understanding its underlying mechanics. He quickly reduced the silent cast to three words, but progress stalled after that. Despite nearly an hour of effort, he made no further headway.

'Maybe I'm doing something wrong?' he thought, frustrated. He began analyzing his approach to find a solution. 'Intent... intent. Maybe I need to abandon the chant entirely, even in my mind, and move straight to casting through pure intent? It's worth a try.'

With this new strategy, he resumed casting. This time, progress was noticeable, which pleased him and confirmed his decision.

Time passed as he repeatedly cast the spell, making minor adjustments after each attempt. Finally, he succeeded. 'Clean'

(A/N: When I put a spell like this, it doesn't mean he needs to think of the spell name to cast it—it's simply to indicate which spell was cast!)

As the Clean spell activated, he felt himself becoming "cleaner," though at this point the effect was redundant. Casting the spell so many times in quick succession had already left him spotless. Still, the point wasn't cleanliness—it was mastering intent casting. Satisfied with his progress, he continued training.

Next, he worked on other first-circle spells he had learned. He quickly noticed that his progress was much faster than with Clean, likely due to his improved understanding of intent casting. Soon, he mastered intent casting for another first-circle spell, then another, and continued to improve at an accelerating pace.

By 4 a.m., he had achieved intent casting for all the first-circle spells he knew. His mana core had grown noticeably from the strain of continuous training.

With the first-circle spells mastered, he turned his focus to the only second-circle spell he knew: Heal. Progress was slower this time, as the spell was significantly more complex. It was also his first second-circle spell, so he wasn't yet accustomed to their intricacies. Additionally, the higher mana consumption required regular breaks for meditation.

His training continued until it was time for his aura style class. By then, he had made solid progress; he could now silent cast Heal with only half the chant recited mentally.

He attended the aura style class, where a burly instructor led the session. The lesson sparked ideas for creating a giant aura sword, addressing a weakness he had noticed during his fight with the kraken. Filing these ideas away for later, he headed to the Main Library.

There, he found Lyra at the counter again. Surprisingly, she seemed more bashful than during their previous conversation. After a brief chat, they agreed to meet the next day. Mikael then wandered through the library aisles, formulating a new plan.

His goal was to learn multiple first-circle and possibly second-circle spells from all elements except space. Space spells were notoriously difficult to master, so he decided to reserve them for later, focusing instead on increasing his elemental diversity. For now, he aimed to study spells across the eight elements: fire, water, wind, earth, lightning, light, shadow, and neutral.

The only problem was the five-book rental limit, but he devised a solution. Using his enhanced mind, he could memorize the relevant sections of spellbooks while in the library, then practice the spells later in his training room. This way, he could effectively study dozens of spells without needing to make multiple trips.

As he moved through the aisles, he selected spellbooks and began reading them at an impressive speed. While a normal person might take four minutes per page when reading academic texts, he needed only about 20 seconds and retained the information perfectly.

Author Note:

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