Isekaied Into An Eroge, Time To Have Fun!-Chapter 50: Some More Practice
With that explosion I began to understand a little bit more, though whether I was putting these pieces of knowledge into the right spots or if I was completely wrong was yet to be determined, but that was all part of the trial and error that I was going to be learning through.
Casting spells was tied quite intimately with the mind of the mage using the mana to create things, so if you believed in rigid and cold logic then you needed to utilize that sort of iron clad thinking throughout your spells.
Becoming mechanical in their casting and hammering all any and all kinks to streamline them into perfect products of the resources inside of you being shaped to your will would yield better results for someone who followed logic above all else.
On the flip side someone like me would benefit the most from thinking of magic as a sort of... performance, like a piece of art or a dance; fluid, malleable and bound only to the emotions that each branch of magic instilled into you.
That was how the game had explained the various schools of thought and how they would affect what you were good at; if you enjoyed spells that followed rules and interacted in predictable, controllable ways you would need to set those rules yourself, but if you liked variety and creativity without limitations you must bend it to your will and perform with it.
Both schools had merit and both were immensely popular for a variety of reasons, but I had always seen magic through the lens of creativity and fluidity; something extraordinary like magic never seemed like something that should be confined to cold logic, so I always leaned into the freedom that came with it being completely ’chaotic’.
So if I was going to continue believing in the ’School of Chaos’ instead of the ’School of Order’ then I should start leaning into everything I believed to be ’chaotic’ about magic; treat it more like a piece of me instead of as a tool, like a limb instead of a sword.
Perhaps that was why the first and second Fireballs had been so weak and - frankly - uninspired in their execution; I was trying to just cast the spell and nothing more, which resulted in those small bursts of noise and light that did little damage.
Conversely the third cast was more ’chaotic’ with how I treated the Fireball like it was an actual ball; cradling it between my hands before throwing it like it was a real thing gave it more ’power’ as the mana responded better to me.
Then there was the fourth where I just added far too much mana for me to control, which was where the real explosion had happened; like I had taken a grenade, pulled the pin and tossed it away at the last possible second.
Very dangerous, very stupid, and now I knew better... but it was - admittedly - rather thrilling knowing how close it had been to harming me; it gave me a rush that really shouldn’t have been there, and I was a little confused on how I found any sort of enjoyment from that.
I suppose I was just learning more about myself in this world with all these crazy new rules and things for me to do... like how readily I had given myself up to two different futanari for intense raw sex or the wonders of magic actually being real.
Scrubbing my mind of the chiseled black abs on Kha’Miero or the giant pillar of cock that was designed to be worshipped springing up from the Sinner’s loins was difficult, but it also helped me reset myself.
No more meandering thoughts, no more lack of direction; I needed to focus on the magic here and now and nothing more, because I was running out of time slowly but surely.
The idea of being laughed at on the first real day of the Academy was a genuine fear that I believe everyone held, no matter how prepared or extroverted they might claim to be; that at least gave me a little moral boost to push forwards... who knew lying to yourself could feel that good~?
Anyways, magic... specifically how I could go about casting spells with some more creativity and what I might need to do to make it more efficient and powerful at the same time.
Summoning another ball of flames between my hands, I stared at the orange sphere of heat for a moment before looking back up at the target, which was slowly repairing itself after the previous explosion.
What did I want from this Fireball, and how could I get what I wanted from it without endangering myself or those around me..?
It was a ball of destruction that was meant to be lobbed at whatever enemy was in front of me, so there was always going to be a risk involved with its casting, but minimizing that risk was the priority for me, after successfully casting it of course.
Slowly spinning it between my hands, I just felt the heat and kept it simmering where it was before I repeated the motions of the third Fireball I had cast; bringing it down towards my right hip and twisting myself with it, I focused on the target before launching the Fireball forwards.
Pushing my hands back up in front of me and facing my palms at the target’s chest, I twisted my shoulders back over to their normal position and ’let’ the Fireball go, watching as it sailed through the air with a promising hiss.
That lazy spin I had given it made it fly straighter and somewhat faster, so when it collided with the target it did so with more power than the third but less power than the fourth; a healthy middle ground since I wasn’t as at risk as I had been before.
The instant it made contact the flames splashed across the surface of the target, releasing themselves from the spherical shape and instead washing over the target with a crisp boom, knocking it back a little while also burning it for a few seconds.
Actually burning it too this time instead of just singing it; the enchanted cloth blackened and ’burnt away’ to reveal the hardier wood beneath, which also began to char before the flames were finally extinguished as the mana ran out completely.
Progress was made, and it was a large step forwards for me in this journey of learning how to cast spells; my veins were humming too with adrenaline as I grinned from ear to ear because of something so simple, but I wasn’t going to downplay my happiness whatsoever.
I had cast a Goddess be praised Fireball, after all, and it came completely from ME!
It wasn’t some enchanted magical item, it wasn’t some piece of scientific technology, but an honest to Goddess spell cast using the mana inside of my own body!
That was so damn cool, and knowing that I could do it again and again until I began to feel a little lethargic almost had me spamming them at the target just because, but I reined myself in before I did something stupid again.
I wasn’t done with the Fireballs yet though, so I began to refine my technique little by little, feeling the mana flow out of my fingertips and into that sphere to create the spell itself before I focused on how I would ’cast’ the spell.
This was where the creativity needed to be displayed since that was where I was going to get the real power from; those from the School or Order would just shoot it forwards like a bullet and call it a day, focusing completely on the complexities needed to create the Fireball and nothing more.
That belief and acceptance that it was a potent weapon in their arsenal gave the spell power, so although their cast was simple that didn’t mean that the magic was lacking; it was just mechanical and honestly, quite bland.
What I wanted to do though was refine the casting itself like a baseball pitcher’s various stances and types of pitches, which would give me a wide range of variation in what I could do with this one spell.
Curving it, speeding it up, arcing it down onto a position... all sorts of things could be done with a little bit of finesse and a change of stance, and that was where I needed to spend my time right now, because the magic itself was technically ’finished’.
The Fireball was in my hands and I could just throw it forwards to hit something with a small yet potent explosion of flames that would burn for a few seconds; a nice attack and worthy enough to warrant the mana spent but nothing to really right home about... yet.
This was where I was really excited though since the various stances I could take and how I treated the Fireball could give me a wide amount of different attacks with the same spell, which would turn me into a more well rounded mage and hopefully make people take me a little more seriously.
Or at the very least not laugh at me and just write me off because of me being a Commoner Scholarship student...
