"Now I remember how tedious it is to learn a spell"
The wind hammer that I tried to cast in front of me disappeared for the fortieth time today.
But I do feel my mana gathering faster and faster with every attempt.
After I chanted the incantation, my mana began to flow to the palm of my hand once again.
"The spell being on a fixed direction that isn't forward actually makes it awkward to cast"
The mental image was ready, the mana was spent, and the wind began to form the head of a hammer in front of me.
I had set the spellbook to use it as a target.
... a target I had yet to hit even once.
"It's just trial and error until my mana gets used to this spell"
Forty-first attempt.
Forty-second attempt.
Forty-seventh attempt.
"The mana that spent on a failed spell gets refunded..."
I could only dream of being able to cast a spell forty plus times, but I feel how the mana comes back to me once the spell fails.
"I should try something with it later"
Forty-eight attempt.
Fifty-second attempt.
Fifty-sixth attempt.
I don't know if it's because of the nature of the spell being part of a set and my mana being used to that particular incantation, or of that's how it's supposed to work.
But the mana refunded by a failed spell also works with the reserves of my fake incantationless casting.
"Which means that learning the spell became just a tiny bit less tedious"
That trick helped me to speed up the process by a lot.
Without the need to chant the incantation every time, the time between tries shortened.
It shortened so much that my attempts began to increase faster.
From fifty plus attempts at learning the spell, I quickly got to the hundredth attempt in less time than it took me to get to fifty attempts.
"Is this something everyone knows and I was just too dumb to get?" I questioned why it took me this much to learn this.
"Magnus would have told me about it when I was first learning about magic"
"Maybe it's something instinctual that isn't even worth acknowledging... you only get refunded mana when the spell fails, and a spell only fails when you're manually casting it after all"
Outer mana, the mana refund from a failed spell, and fake incantationless casting.
Three things that have never been mentioned by anyone, no one studies them, and there're no mentions of these concepts on books.
"Only the final boss ever mentioned outer mana... but it was a brief comment about how dirty and messy it has become"
Magic classes are mostly about meditation, learning incantations, and the control of inner mana.
A part of me wants to tell Miss Goldenlaw and teacher Crowbell about my findings so that we can learn together as a group, maybe with Fran, Cecil, and Theo.
But another part of me wants to explore all these things alone. They are my secret weapons, the only reason I'm even alive today.
The only reason why I ended up on S class... and the only reason why Fran found me interesting enough in the first place.
Without this secret knowledge, I have nothing.
Just a mediocre body that takes more than one hundred and... eighty? Two hundred? I don't know... I lost count of how many times I've been trying to learn this spell.
These are the weapons that allow me to do things I wouldn't be able to do otherwise.
*Bam*
*Thud*
"Finally..."
I succeeded, and I felt the mana be spent and not be refunded.
I casted the spell, sending the spellbook flying to the side.
"One more"
I chanted the neutral version of the spell.
"[Wind Hammer]"
I successfully managed to cast the horizontal attack, and the mana memorized the spell.
I cast the spell a couple more times, also trying the vertical variation to improve speed.
"The magical combat classes are all about improving casting speed and power... and advancing on tiers, but that's not something I can do anymore"
And it's not something I should expect to learn.
I reached my peak.
Second circle, second tier of spells.
That's as far as game Alen got with his magic.
I'll try and see if I can get to other tiers, but if I truly can't...
...
I have other weapons to cheat my way up...
"I need to think positively..."
*knock, knock*
The door opened.
Four students entered the room, and I felt as if I could see in slow motion how their face changed from a somber expression to a surprised one, then to a happy one.
"Alen!"
They all yelled before running at me.
"You're a real man, Alen!" Eusta said as he gripped my left shoulder with his hand.
"I prayed so much for you that the gods probably hate me now" Vi said with a sigh as she wiped the tears that formed on her face.
"I'm sorry for not being able to protect you" Enrick said with a serious expression as he looked at the ground.
"We're really glad that you're finally awake" Agatha commented as she tried to hide her tears by looking to the side.
"I'm also glad to see you guys are fine..." I struggled to say, as Eusta began to hug me with so much strength that I could barely breathe.
"Everyone in Aurum Academy is talking about you, man" the muscular guy finally let go of me.
"You're even outhsining us" Agatha added with a chuckle.
"A first year that got a dungeon pass way early and defeated a lich? No wonder even the third year are interested in you"
The current third year's are unknown to me.
The game introduces the third year students when Kaida is already in her second year. Agatha is introduced early as a second year student, but once the year passes, she becomes a third year.
So if they were alive in the game, they would've been third year students to reclute.
"I didn't expect that incident to put me in a spotlight"
I joked, although there was some truth in what I said.
In the game, this dungeon that changed difficulty was a secret to other students.
But Goldenlaw publicly announced it this time.
"Alen!" Enrick yelled, making us all look at him.
"I meant what I said... next time... if you want to come with us, I'll make sure to protect you" he had a determined expression on his face.
"If you ever want to explore another dungeon, we'd love it if you chose us as your partners" Vi said with a smile.
"Our dungeon explorations aren't as... chaotic... as this last one, so I'm sure you won't regret coming with us" Agatha explained with a confident smile.
"I will"
"I'll make sure to take care of our little friend" Eusta laughed as he hugged me with a single hand.
"Make sure to call us if you ever need help" Enrick gave me his word by holding out his fist.
"..." I felt the temperature on my face rise.
"And you guys call me if you need to be saved again" I bumped his fist.
"Now you're just getting cocky" Vi chuckled and shook her head.
"That's the kind of spirit we need" Eusta laughed as he placed his hands on his waist.
"We're the ones who'll help you" Agatha commented with a teasing tone.
_______
We spent a couple of hours talking about what happened, not only inside that dungeon, but on how their lives were throughout the week I've been unconscious.
Everyone asked them questions about the dungeon, and they had to talk a lot to the leader of the golden troupe.
They even got confronted by Fran, who was really angry at them for letting me get hurt.
Even my classmates from the dungeon exploration class came to visit me.
Goldenlaw told me that they all completed their first dungeon with teacher Iaves, and thanks to the incident, they were motivated, thinking that they were going through something way easier than what I had to deal with.
Right now, I'm on the rooftop of the S class male student house.
"The golden dragon house" I whispered the name that this house goes by.
I couldn't really fall asleep, so I decided to use this time to learn new tier one spells.
Feather dart, Feather Fall, Whisper current.
Feather dart are small feather-looking projectiles. They do no damage, but even the strong form incantation is short, which makes it an easy spell to spam.
Feather fall is self-explanatory.
Whisper current is really helpful with my fighting style. It carries a sound through the air.
It's a spell that wasn't on the game, so I'm not used to it. But my plan is to create sounds that confuse enemies while they're inside my sandstorm.
Something similar to what I did on the sparring test against teacher Tramer when I had to enter Aurum Academy.
"Now starts the learning process"
_______
The silent night at the house of the golden dragon got interrupted by the sounds of wind flowing through the air and a students incantations.
While the brown-haired student tried to be as careful and make as little noise as he could to not wake up any of the other sleeping students.
A single student was present on Alen's training.
"Isn't he on the third circle? What's he doing with tier one spells?"
The student, just like many others, believed a rumor that formed about Alen advancing to the third circle.
A rumor formed when he asked Tarian about how to advance.
"I need to learn everything I can"
With that, the student hiding on the shadows watched as Alen learned three new spells.
Three new spells that, to him, seemed useless.
One spell was situational, the other was an attack spell with little actual use in battle, and the last one is a useless spell that has never been used in battles.
Was there something he was missing? Is Alen crazy? Were the kinds of thoughts that ran through the students head.
But he simply watched as Alen learned those three spells.
Due to Alen's attempts at being as silent as he could, the student that was hiding never got to listen to him.
It was a shame to the student, as he wanted to learn about Alen's famous incantationless casting, an ability that only the director of Aurum Academy was thought of being able to do.
________