City Of Sin

11-20

The First Spell

The next day’s lesson was still magic philosophy, but the lecturer was a level 17 great mage named Riley, the ‘certain fellow’ from Popovich’s lesson. The man was lean, wearing a pair of golden magic glasses and dressed meticulously from head to toe. His gaze was deep and wise, looking like he’d already seen beyond the facade of the world.

With him behind the lecture, the class was still as quiet as could be. A level 17 mage was on the verge of becoming a grand mage, and that advancement could take anywhere from an instant to eternity. One had to know that the extra grade 8 spell slot a level 17 mage possessed allowed them to be far superior in battle to a level 16 mage. This was something even a child would know.

The advantage extended to lower level spells as well. While grade 7 and below spells wouldn’t be as useful in that level of battle, they would still give the level 17 mage an advantage. This was why Riley perfected many aspects when he first advanced to level 17, unable to care less about the affairs of insignificant idiots, let alone talk about them.

Standing behind the lectern, Riley felt good. At least in that moment, in that classroom, he was the most superior; the one who had control over everything. It’d really be perfect if he wasn’t reminded of Sharon.

Riley’s voice was gentle but not soft, ringing in the ears of all the students at the same volume, “Everything has its foundation, like the world is built on origin force and planes and laws rely on each other. We and the other races are beings that live on the various planes, and though we’re minute we aren’t insignificant! There are no two similar souls in this world, not similar people. So then, what is the point of our existence? It is to comprehend the world, to become stronger and gain resources which in turn gives us freedom. We live in a world where might makes right, and the basic regulations of the world can decide most of our fates here. Try to break them, and you’ll be destroyed before you can even break any of the derived laws.”

Most students nodded in agreement, the point resonating even more so with the older ones.

Today’s lessons were much more interactive than the previous day’s, with spiritual force being pushed into their bodies. Riley smiled at their positive reactions, explaining without a hurry, “Grand mages can feel the derived laws of the plane, and those with legendary might will be able to understand the basic laws. How many of us here can actually reach such levels? Even geniuses fall.

“Yes, I can tell you what the world is made of, and what the laws of the planes are, but this is all irrelevant because anything is possible in this world of magic as long as you have great power. Where does this power come from, then? From your understanding of yourself, from exploiting the environment around you. Everyone is complicated, and it might take you your entire life to understand yourself. You have to be grounded, increasing your power with your self as the root. Start from the bottom, and move up to the top; go from yourself to the world. This is how you’ll control your destiny!”

Riley waved a hand, and a projection of a human body flashed in front of him. He pointed at various parts of the projection and began to explain the core content of the lesson, “Power isn’t something complex, but it’s not as simple as having more spell slots. Though we all know that three level 8 spell slots are definitely stronger than two, we have other factors to consider as well. Overall, a person’s power can be categorised into 4 major classes: Their attributes, their equipment, their abilities, and their bloodline.

“There’s also intelligence, but that varies from person to person and you’ll have to work on that yourself. I won’t go into that, so let’s start from your attributes.