Assimilate All Talents-Chapter 384 - 383: Learning Advanced Fire Magic

While the Kingdom of Crestelia was undergoing massive changes, deep in the west within the Great Forest, a small camp had been set up in a secluded clearing. The dense canopy above was so thick it blotted out the sun, casting the area into a perpetual twilight. Within this shadowed enclave, Sol stood a good distance from the camp, arms extended, breath steady, eyes narrowed in absolute focus.

His voice rang low as he carefully chanted, "...with this first spark that will cascade into an endless wave of fiery explosions, burn forever onwards, [Ignition Wave]."

The air around him trembled as a single radiant spark formed at his fingertips, suspended in the stillness like a fragment of the sun. Then, it ignited.

A thunderous boom erupted from that first spark, followed instantly by a chain reaction of detonations that surged outward in all directions. Each new explosion created more sparks, which burst into even larger blasts, rippling outward in a terrifying cascade of fire and force. The spell seemed almost alive, feeding on itself, building power exponentially with every pulse. The explosions were blinding, each one significantly stronger than the intermediate spell [Explosion] in both heat and destructive force.

The earth cracked and caved under the assault. Craters formed wherever the explosions occurred, sending chunks of rock and soil into the air like shrapnel.

Having successfully cast the spell, Sol didn't let it linger longer than necessary. He cut off his mana from the mana pathway.

Instantly, the spell began to falter. With no mana to sustain it, the sparks flickered violently, then fizzled out. All that remained was the destruction it left behind.

If the spell had continued for even a few more seconds, the treeline would've been annihilated entirely.

Sol slowly exhaled, lowering his hands. His heart still pounded from the sheer scale of the spell.

"I only cast it for a second and it was as if I'd cast dozens of [Explosion] spells… This is insane."

Compared to the entry level advanced spell [Grim Flames], which was designed to work in tandem with skills like [Loop Casting] or [Multicasting], [Ignition Wave] easily surpassed them in raw destructive power. But it also contained the same flaw as its beginner spell predecessor.

'That one second cost 100 mana, and that's with [Superior Mana Control]… Even then, I can only maintain it for a little over a minute.'

[Fire Wave] had a similar issue: extremely mana-costly, but undeniably effective. If he were to take that barrage head-on, he doubted he could last more than thirty seconds. Realistically though, he'd never stay put, he'd just turn into shadows or use [Ethereal Traversal] to escape its range of effects.

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'It also took too long to cast to be practical in a real fight… But with a bit more time, I can definitely cut that down. It took me three days to learn the spell, which is longer than I'd like, but with two more days in the white room, I think I can bring it up to par with my other spells.' Sol mused, imagining all the ways a competent mage might interrupt his casting.

If any decent mage knew what Sol was thinking, they'd probably smack him upside the head, then proceed to cast their most painful spell at him just so he could feel a fraction of the pain they'd endured. Learning spells was by no means easy. Each one was practically its own skill. Sure, it got easier over time as one learned more spells and refined their manipulation of mana, and a skilled B-Rank mage could learn a basic spell in half a day, but to successfully cast an advanced spell after only three days of practice? That was outright absurd.

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It wasn't just difficult, it was dangerous. One mistake and the spell might fizzle, if you were lucky. More often, it would explode in your face. Ironically, some of the most dangerous spells were discovered through such accidents… but only if the caster survived.

But Sol didn't have to worry about that. In the white room, with infinite mana and no real risk of death, he brute forced his way through the learning process. He could even perform in-depth analysis on failed attempts to figure out what went wrong. The only drawback was that he often had to learn from scratch, including avoiding well known pitfalls that more most mages were warned about early on. Still, since he couldn't die in there, it didn't matter and he bulldozed his way through.

Satisfied with the spell's results, Sol returned to the camp, where he found Amber practicing her pseudo law technique.

Her hands blurred as she swung, causing faint distortions as the slash went toward her target.

As for her target…

"Hyu! Grr! (Hey! That one really almost hit me!)"

Thorwyn yelped as one of those distortions appeared exactly where he'd been standing moments earlier. Thankfully, his instincts kicked in, and he dodged just in time.

"Good. Go faster."

"Awooo! (I'm already going as fast as I can!)" Thorwyn complained, diving aside as another slash tore into the ground near him. He was already doing his best without using his law technique.

Amber and Thorwyn were training each other, but with different goals. Amber was focused on refining her pseudo law technique to eventually become an A-Ranker like Sol and Thorwyn. Thorwyn, on the other hand, was purposefully restricting the use of his law technique to focus on learning and improving his much needed basic skills.

So far, both had made solid progress. Thorwyn's was more visibly measurable, thanks to the system messages he received whenever he learned or leveled up a skill. Amber's progress was harder to track, but Sol could see her tether for [Distort Weapon] had nearly reached the point where his own skill, [Aggregate], had branched off and become a law technique. The difference was, where his tether had split off to form a new skill, Amber's skill appeared to be a direct upgrade, with loose strands of the tether swirling around itself, as if waiting for one final step.

'I wonder how long they'll go at it…' Sol thought as he strolled over to the Fireflow Cooking Plate and began pulling out ingredients to cook. He knew Amber was a better cook, but he liked to pitch in occasionally, even if it always resulted in her critiquing his food.

"Hyuuun! (Slow down!)"

"No."

As Sol grilled some slices of meat, he glanced at Amber and smiled faintly. 'I still can't believe she chose that skill out of all the ones Thorwyn and I had available.'

He'd given Amber the Mimic Eye of Learning not long after they left Kerman. He'd gone through a lot of trouble to erase the skill it had previously copied, [Commune with Beasts] ,only for her to choose that exact skill for herself. When he asked why she didn't choose something that would drastically improve her combat ability, like [Overpower], [Weapon Empowerment (Variant)], [Silent Execution (Variant)], or even [Umbral Domain] for access to a whole new element, she simply said she didn't need them.

After she explained it, in her uniquely Amber way, he kind of understood. She didn't want a skills that she wouldn't be able to develop. The ones she could improve? She could learn them naturally with time. Only something like [Commune with Beasts] fulfilled an immediate need she couldn't learn on her own. Being able to directly talk to Thorwyn was crucial if he was going to keep traveling with them, and relying on Sol as a middleman wouldn't always be viable.

As he flipped a slice of meat, Sol shook his head with a sheepish smile. 'I'm really glad I didn't tell her I erased that exact skill beforehand… That would've been embarrassing. And as silly as it was to erase the skill only to copy it again, it wasn't a complete waste of time.'

In erasing it, he believed he had discovered a method to remove skills without hurting the target. While there weren't many practical applications for this technique, it still improved his understanding of tether manipulation.

By the time the meat was nearly done, Amber and Thorwyn had finished training for the day.

Amber walked over and glanced at the food. Without a second's hesitation, she said, "Needs more seasoning."

"How could you tell at a glance?!"