RSTUM 84 (Patreon)

(84: Proper Learning (2))

Sorry, I published 85 instead of this at the start.

"So… you really learned it?"

"Yes."

"That's… that's impossible!"

"But I did."

"Show me then."

As Vadim showed him earlier, Leon retracted every step Vadim took and started muttering the words.

"Mana! Focus! Assemble! Swirl!" He spoke before muttering the last word, "Magic Bolt!"

Immediately, a bolt of pure energy was launched from his hands from where the Mana was gathering earlier and the bolt hit a large tree leaving a mark with the size of the soccer ball on it.

"By the Spirits!" Vadim bolted to where the spell landed and started investigating it with utmost interest.

He then looked back at Leon and bolted towards him checking out his hands.

"How did you do that? How did you learn it by only seeing me do it a couple of times?"

Leon took away his own hands and stepped back from Vadim.

"I told you once. I can read it."

"That's impossible. No one can simply just read Magic." Vadim completely rejected what Leon said.

"Well, someone kept telling me that Knowledge Magic is miraculous and has endless applications just the other night. I am now telling you that I can Read." Leon said.

"But that doesn't make any sense."

"Well, how am I supposed to know? Didn't that Erielle woman use Knowledge Magic as well?"

"Yes."

"Then she must have the spell called Identify."

"True but… that spell is very difficult and mainly deals with the System of the World. It is not something an amateur can use."

"Ouch!" Leon made a grumpy face.

"Don't get offended by that. You just learned the Magic Bolt now."

"Whatever, man. You asked me and I answered truthfully." Leon spoke and decided not to entertain Vadim anymore if it is going to be like that.

"Mountains collapse on my head!" Vadim spat out a sigh, "Fine. So that spell called Read is something like the Identify spell."

"It is much better from what I can tell." Leon said.

"How so?"

"When I used Read on the Identification Pillar of the Temple, I managed to learn the Identify spell but it was absorbed by Read which makes the absorber greater than the absorbed."

"STFU!" Vadim was completely baffled and out of words. If there was a table around, he would have immediately flipped it.

It was good progress between Vadim and Leon when the latter started opening up about his secret abilities. Leon seemed really secretive about them which was a good trait to have but he was having too many difficulties harnessing his own potential and with someone as knowledgeable and friendly as Vadim being around, the two could exchange some valuable information on one another.

Leon would reveal portions of his secrets (which is nothing close to the most part) in exchange for learning how to harness those secrets from the more experienced Vadim.

First and to set the record straight, Leon claimed that he has the ability to use all the Elemental Sorceries and thus has the ability to learn all the Arcane Arts. Just this much made Vadim fall off his wolf and start laughing.

That is simply impossible.

Each creature has a capacity embedded in its very essence. That capacity is dictated by their Talent. It is extremely rare for someone to reach his own capacity but it is completely impossible to exceed it.

Vadim explained that if Leon has an aptitude for the Seven Elements and the Seven Arts, he should at least have two different souls in his body which is completely absurd.

Leon only made a "Whoops!" and decided to keep Vadim in the dark about that.

"Listen, we need to identify your Status… your actual Status this time… in order to figure out both your talent and abilities." Vadim said.

"I can do that." Leon stated.

"With that spell called Read, right?"

"Ye…es."

Leon seemed a little bit skeptical but he decided to play along.

"So, let us hear it." Vadim joined his arms together waiting for Leon to come clean.

"Alright… Name is Leon Dark, Age 18, Race Human… Level 21…"

"Holy Mother Agartha!" Vadim widened his expressions, "That's better than most of your peers already. Definitely much better than Alice even… but you need to stop leveling up."

"Why?"

"So you can train. Leveling Up causes your Abilities to rise and the mundane training methods will be ineffective." Vadim said, "Think about it. You have the physical strength to defy an Assassin Bison but your body is scrawny like a twig. That's not natural, right."

"Yeah."

"That's because you're borrowing strength from the System of the World. You need to have your own power as well and in order to do so, you should build up your Abilities by increasing your Base ability scores. Started dedicating the number of your level from each ability score and you'll know your actual Base score. Leveling up increasing everything by 1 so it makes you very strong on higher levels but without a good base, you will have no balance."

"I… I see."

Everything Vadim said just now made absolute sense to Leon who noted it all down like crazy. He knew about those things as a rough idea before but Vadim's insight made sense for the most part.

He understood that the source of this Strength, Agility, etc is the Mana which enters the body every time it levels up. However, training and putting in effort draws in more energy and increases the stats drastically as well as enhancing the actual abilities of the body.

While being the polar opposites, Strength and Intelligence are really similar in that part since whenever someone levels up, they don't grow muscles or get smarter. However, if they utilize their Strength and Intelligence in training to gain base stats, they start growing muscles and getting smarter.

"So, keep reading…"

After a short while, Leon went through his status but of course he didn't reveal anything regarding his reincarnation or hidden trump cards such as the "Ring of Relife", the Dual Classes, or the "Unrestrained Magic".

"This doesn't make any sense." Vadim said.

What Leon told him about his talents was that his Talent is called EX and his Magic spans over all the elements which is the truth.

But it didn't make any sense.

"For now, I think there is something wrong with that Read spell." Vadim said.

Vadim didn't ask about the skills or the other details which Leon can certainly preview. This proved that even Vadim isn't able to imagine how accurate the Read spell can really be.

And it also means that only Leon has such an ability.

It is weird but if you compare it to his reincarnation, it is not that strange.

Even though Leon could provide his Magic Plate as proof of what Vadim disbelieves, he kept things like that in order to draw more information from the Dwarf. Still, it left some bad taste as Vadim was fully cooperating with him.

On the other hand, Vadim was at a loss for both words and ideas. He can't resort to either Eleanor or Erielle at the moment since each of them is distracting the enemies on different fronts. Also, Leon's strange abilities seemed even weirder and he has no idea what to do.

Leon can read Magic and replicate it. Vadim was certain this some sort of a feature that Leon possesses but these strange abilities kept bothering him. At least it is all within what he expected, definitely an ability that gave the talentless Leon some power.

The question remains whether it is permanent or temporary… this will be left for the others to judge. For now, he will have to see what limits does it have.

"Alright, I'll treat your ability like normal magic casters. I don't mind that you keep using it either." Vadim said.

"Alright."

"Now, what were we saying?"

"Spirits are the foundation and the source of Mana. Through the universal laws, their Aura flow through all things and through thousands of years of circulation, it became Mana. The Breath of the Spirits." Leon said what Vadim taught him.

"Indeed. The Humans and their Light Temple may tell you that the Mana comes from the Sun and the Stars which is not false but not the whole truth. The Sun is the Major Spirit of the Light…"

"Hold up!" Leon raised his hand, "I always considered them to be ignited spheres of gases millions of miles away."

"What kind of liquor were you drinking, lad?"

"Never mind." Leon suppressed his laughter, "So, those spirits in the sky… they send us Mana."

"Their Light Aura is processed through the Universe to become Mana. The Wind currents leave behind traces of energy that dissolve and become Mana. The Fire burns things and releases the Mana. The Earth and the Water produce Mana as well through their hidden motions."

"Interesting."

"Now, can you imagine what the Mana is?" Vadim asked Leon to test his understanding.

"You said Fire burns things and produces Mana. I imagine the Mana to be immaterial so it is not the Carbon-based burn wastes which means we are talking about the heat. You said that it is the Breath of the Spirits and the secret motions in the Sea, Earth, and Wind. My imagination can only serve that much but it is definitely some sort of mystical byproduct generated by the law of Cause and Effect. There's no point in sciencifying it though since I am not qualified enough to do so."

"…" Vadim remained silent for a minute while stroking his beard, "You started to speak like Erielle for a second there… I think you understand."

It was Vadim who fell short at understanding what Leon was thinking about just now but he had to maintain a dignified image.

"Alright, I taught you a spell called Magic Bolt earlier. You splendidly copied it."

"Yes. Spirit Magic, Magic Bolt."

"That spell is the first spell anyone learns before even learning how to Manipulate the Elements. It is extremely vital." Vadim said, "Normally, I would teach you how to Manipulate Mana first but you already know that and your ability lets you learn fast. Now, I'll show you more advanced techniques."

"Yes, sir."

Vadim put his arms ahead and hummed slowly as the Mana around him started to swell and take the form of a sphere around him.

"Now, try to hit me with your Magic Bolt." Vadim said.

Leon didn't hesitate and immediately pulled up his hand launching a Magic Bolt in extreme precision. The Bolt torched the Sphere around Vadim and immediately disappeared.

"Hah!" Vadim smiled, "That spell is called Shield. Don't try to Read it or whatever, I want you to try doing it first all by yourself."

"Alright."

"Good. First, you need to muster more Mana than usual, Gather it into a very fine fabric, Spread it equally, Harden it so it can be stronger, Release it so it can protect you." Vadim explained, "Can you do it all by yourself?"

"I'll try." Leon nodded as he kept muttering some words.

"Go easy on yourself. I'll give you till tomorrow in order to recreate it according to… to… to…"

Vadim witnessed something bizarre.

"Mana! Gather! Spread! Harden! Release!" Leon muttered before saying the casting word, "Shield!"

The magic gathered into the exact same image Vadim made from a while ago almost resembling it perfectly. It was as if…

*Snap*

"Tsk! It failed." Leon said with a disheartened face, "Reading spells is surely more convenient. I'll try again."

From the first try! Leon recreated a spell from the first try almost successfully! Vadim was frozen.

If it was his Reading ability then it is understandable but that… that was something as if the Mana can't disobey him.

Leon was using magic without restrictions at all.

"Success!"

What's even more bizarre is that after a few more tries, Leon completed the spell. Around him was a perfect sphere of Mana covering all angles like a mighty shield. Even Vadim was impressed by how stable the shield turned out to be.

"I should apologize though." Leon said.

"Huh?" Vadim's pale face and dry lips couldn't keep up with what absurdity he was about to hear.

For a second there, he thought that Leon will apologize for secretly Reading the spell. Actually, that isn't possible since the Reading makes its target feel as if someone is crawling under their skin and Vadim didn't feel that at all. So why is Leon apologizing?

"I changed the spell a bit." He said, "The lady command was Release. It didn't make sense to me so I changed it with Maintain."

Magic tends to get very verbal since one must draw the magic from their imagination and the Magic itself needs thoughts and wills. Changing a spell solely relies on the caster's Imagination but sometimes, the outcome and the imagination vary if the magic isn't greatly established in one's mind first. Just now, Leon changed a spell and improved on it to suit him better.

Vadim had no words to say.

He laughed, he just laughed.

He laughed so hard that the forest around him shook with his mighty Aura.

"The Spirits have finally smiled upon you, Leon." He said, "The Spirits has smiled on the East, Lad."

***

Not too far from where this was happening, a little girl was running in the forest. She was scared, crying, bloodied, and cold.

The girl was no longer able to maintain all this agony as her life could be taken at any moment now.

The barking of the hunting hounds chased her, as tender prey as she is, she refused to give up and ran towards the light. Hearing a burst of strong laughter, she ran towards it. Be it bandits or evildoers, her fate shouldn't be any worse than what it is if she gets caught.

As she broke through the rough branches which left her arms injured with their thorns, she landed near a campfire where two individuals were sitting. Behind the two were two beasts that looked like a wolf and a buffalo.

The girls lost her power at last and fainted.

"Leon." Vadim spoke as he saw the kid collapse.

"Someone's coming." On the other hand, Leon felt the presence of a few approaching hostiles.

"Get the girl." Vadim said and took up his large hammer, "And be ready to apply what you just learned."