Blademaster Ascension

25- How To Use Your Spells

A colourful outline of a translucent twisted tube spun languidly in the centre of the dark room around a boy who seemed lost in meditation. It phased out sometimes, losing its form but being rebuilt again in a moment. Very slowly, a small change took place. A near transparent, azure liquid appeared inside the tube, at its very bottom. It was a negligible amount, not much more than a large drop smeared across the surface of the tube. The liquid bubbled and spread, as if alive.
It slowly inched forward, backward, and even upward, filling the bottom and increasing in amount. As time passed, it filled nearly one tenth of the twisted tube, its azure glow spreading outside, illuminating the darkness.

At this moment, the increasing volume of the liquid slowed down. All the movement inside decreased. A force from outside seemed to be pushing the liquid to continue, but it failed to do so in the end. The liquid froze and cracked, shattering the translucent tube and disappearing.

Rowan opened his eye that were filled with disappointment. It had been ten days since he had started trying to cast a spell. It was far more difficult than he had assumed. Simply trying again and again bore no fruit. He was like a blind man in a silent desert trying to find his way toward civilization, having no clue where to go and only guessing and depending on sheer luck.

Finally, yesterday, he had succeeded into dividing his concentration among the rune and the ether and transferred a drop of ether inside the rune. However, that was far from enough if he wanted to cast the spell. Bolstered by his success, he had repeatedly tried to copy his previous attempt and at the moment, he could fill up to one tenth of the rune. However, he realized that the further he filled the rune, the harder it was to manipulate the ether into entering it. Right now, one tenth was his limit.

He knew that he would have to fill at least half of the tube to activate the rune and cast the spell. That was the minimum requirement. The resulting spell would be the weakest of its level, but still, it was a magic spell !

His biggest problem was that he lacked the timespan regular mages had while practicing magic. His mutation compatibility had gotten stuck at 80% for a while now. According to Chip, a rapid and massive channelling of ether was needed to stimulate the cells in his body to go past this hurdle and move to 81%. Rowan suspected that this massive channelling of ether was probably referring to the only requirement to pass the seeker stage and reach collector stage, consecutively casting three level-0 spells.

Without completely filling the rune with ether, there was no way he'd be able to cast three spells consecutively. But hopes of filling the rune was far far away. Rowan felt as if his progress were a turtle crawling in a hundred meter sprint competition.

He tried to find shortcuts at every step. But the book warned the readers to never take shortcuts or do anything without an expert's guidance or it could result into a deadly disaster for the practitioner. This made him hesitant to put any of his rash ideas into practice.

As if sensing his currently rising anxiety, Chip offered a rather unorthodox solution.

[  Considering the nature of magic and the underlying principles known to us, I could try something that might be helpful to host in the long run. If it really succeeds, then host's speed of advancement will increase faster.  ]

"Tellmetellmetellme," Rowan gushed like a volcano in its active season, his eyes sparkling.

[  As host is aware, I am not a pure machine but partly biological as well. If any creature with talent or hereditary affinity toward the elements could use ether, Then how about I try to do the same? Even though I do not meet the requirements, I am currently attached to host in every way possible and perhaps my attempts to manipulate ether would be considered same as host's. The only thing I would have to do is use the biological part of my brain and stimulate the ether while mimicking the brain signals from host himself. It shouldn't be very difficult.  ]