The setting sun cast its glow across the training field.
Holding their training wands and clad in highly spell-resistant sparring suits, the two girls stood facing each other a dozen meters apart.
Since this was merely to help correct Cecia's spellcasting technique, Scarlett naturally didn't intend to show off every spell in her repertoire.
This time...
She would only use 【Ice Bolt】.
For Rank Zero magic apprentices, this was actually very common.
The academy didn't encourage students to recklessly hoard spell models right at the start.
A person's mental power was ultimately limited.
The more spells one learned, the more complex the Mental Structure they had to memorize, understand, and maintain.
Rather than cramming a dozen half-baked spells into their heads all at once, it was better to truly master a few fully developed spell models first.
The academy usually recommended that:
Before making one's first attempt at Soul Reconstruction, one should make at least three spell models sufficiently stable.
As for one offensive, one defensive, and one support spell...
That was by no means an official advancement standard set in stone.
It was simply a highly practical setup compiled by countless mages after taking many beatings.
After all, you couldn't just attack when encountering an enemy.
You couldn't wait until someone slashed you across the face before wondering where to buy a defensive spell, could you?
Of course...
Noble students usually didn't have such worries.
Learning one or two extra spell models might mean months or even years of savings for an ordinary family.
For noble students, however, it was merely a matter of purchasing a few extra Skill Crystals.
One offensive spell.
One defensive spell.
One support spell.
And then preparing one or two trump cards for special situations.
The perks of being rich were simple and plain.
Scarlett clearly belonged to this category.
However, for this sparring match...
She didn't use those extra options.
“Shall we start?”
Scarlett raised her training wand.
“Bring it on.”
Cecia readied herself as well.
In the next instant...
Scarlett took the initiative.
Blue ice crystals gathered around her.
Compressing.
Shaping.
Whoosh!
An ice bolt tore through the air.
Facing the incoming attack, Cecia didn't step back.
Flames lit up at the tip of her wand.
【Fireball】.
Boom!
Ice and fire collided in midair.
White steam exploded instantly.
Yet Cecia's flame was noticeably different from any Fireball Scarlett had seen before.
It wasn't wild.
Nor did it deliberately pursue explosive power.
Instead, it was unusually bright.
Pliant.
The fire spread outward as if endowed with life.
One wisp.
Two wisps.
Constantly separating from the initial fireball.
Slowly pressing toward Scarlett's position.
Ice crystals steadily melted.
The water vapor grew thicker and thicker.
“...”
Scarlett frowned.
The clash was causing mass vaporization.
A thick mist instantly blanketed the training field.
For an ice-element mage...
The more water elements in the air, the easier the next spellcast would theoretically be.
Scarlett raised her wand.
Another ice bolt rapidly condensed.
Faster than before.
However, by the same token—
The dense fog also obscured Cecia.
The amber rays of the setting sun passed through the steam.
The entire training field seemed draped in a hazy, golden veil.
Scarlett narrowed her eyes slightly.
She kept several ice bolts floating around her.
Constantly searching for Cecia's location.
Nothing.
She was nowhere to be seen.
“Senior?”
She called out tentatively.
No response.
The next moment...
A scorching heat suddenly surged from the side.
Scarlett's pupils constricted.
Several ice bolts instantly changed direction.
Bang!
Fire slammed into ice crystals.
Thick white mist exploded almost right against Scarlett's body.
Not good.
Without hesitation...
She leapt backward immediately.
And at that very instant...
Cecia seized that brief opening.
The next wave of ice bolts had yet to form.
Mental control over the previous spell had already ended.
The new force had not yet risen.
While the old force was spent.
Three fireballs shot through the mist almost simultaneously.
Scarlett's eyes widened slightly.
So fast.
And—
It was completely different from any Fireball spell she had ever seen.
Ordinary magic apprentices usually sought the explosive power of Fireball.
Compressing the flames.
Raising the temperature.
Then unleashing it all in one breath.
Boom!
The power was indeed impressive.
But for Cecia...
There was no need.
Her fireballs were almost ridiculously ordinary.
No exaggerated explosions.
No terrifying momentum.
Just burning.
Spreading.
And leaving as much mana behind as possible.
One.
Two.
Three.
The flames flowed continuously.
As if they would never burn out.
In the past, Scarlett loved facing fire magic apprentices the most.
Because heavy mist often made young mages impatient.
Once they lost sight of their target...
They would instinctively use high-burst spells to blast the vapor away by force.
As a result, they not only lost accuracy...
...but also wasted a vast amount of mana in vain.
Only to be slowly dragged down and defeated by Scarlett.
But Cecia didn't do that.
Instead, the mist became a natural cover for her.
The three fireballs were almost right in front of Scarlett's face.
She rapidly swung her wand.
The mist vibrated violently.
Ice bolts condensed once more!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Fire and ice shattered simultaneously.
Scarlett blocked it.
However, this time...
She completely cast aside any lingering underestimation.
“I see.”
If the mist was Cecia's cover...
Then she would consume it all.
A surge of mental power spread outward.
The water elements in the air were frantically drawn in.
One ice bolt after another took shape.
In the blink of an eye...
The white mist originally blanketing the entire training field grew thinner and thinner...
Until—
It completely vanished.
Cecia's figure was exposed once more.
The corners of Scarlett's lips curled up.
“Got you.”
The dense array of ice bolts turned in unison.
In the next instant...
They poured down like a torrential rain!
Yet Cecia showed no hint of panic.
She simply raised her hand...
...and flicked it gently upward.
Rumble—
A wall of fire rose sharply from the ground.
The deluge of ice bolts slammed into the flames...
...rapidly melting...
...losing their structure...
...and ultimately falling limply away.
Scarlett froze for a moment.
A fire wall?
When did Senior learn a second fire spell?
No...
That wasn't right.
She quickly realized the truth.
That wasn't the Fire Wall spell.
At least, not an independent, standard spell model.
Cecia herself experienced the exact same realization at that very moment.
Fireball.
Why did it have to be a "ball"?
She could clearly feel it.
She hadn't constructed another spell from scratch just now.
From start to finish...
The structure operating in her mental world was still the very same 【Fireball】 model she knew all too well.
Condensing.
Maintaining.
Shaping.
Releasing.
Except that she had altered the final "shaping" step.
The flames that should have closed into a sphere were pulled apart.
Numerous small clusters of fire linked together...
...burning continuously upward along the ground.
Thus—
It formed a wall.
Cecia suddenly understood.
The standard spell models stored inside Skill Crystals were never unchangeable commands.
They were more like blueprints.
What those who bought Skill Crystals learned first was merely a stable method of construction, one that predecessors had already tested and proven.
Once truly mastered...
A mage could completely begin to understand it...
...dismantle it...
...or even modify it.
The absolute core of Fireball wasn't "you must create a sphere."
It was how to safely condense fire elements.
How to maintain the burning process.
And how to use mental power to stably control that mass of fire.
A sphere was simply the simplest, most stable manifestation chosen by those who came before.
If so—
Why couldn't it be a wall?
Why couldn't it be a blade?
Why couldn't it be a continuously spreading line of fire?
Cecia's eyes grew brighter and brighter.
So that was it.
This was what true "proficiency" meant.
It wasn't casting the exact same fireball ten thousand times.
It was making the spell model genuinely her own.
“So it can be done like this...”
She muttered unconsciously under her breath.
Scarlett had no time to wait for her revelation.
Ice bolts struck again.
Cecia manipulated the wall of fire to shift horizontally.
Raging flames and frigid ice repeatedly collided.
Sizzle—
Sizzle—
White steam billowed up once more.
Yet Cecia's thoughts were growing clearer and clearer.
In the past, her understanding of Fireball...
...had always focused on "explosion."
Compressing.
Heating.
Releasing.
But that was only one property of fire.
Fire burned.
It spread.
It clung.
It propagated along flammable materials.
It could even flow like the wind.
If so...
Why insist on a single, one-off burst?
Cecia began attempting to alter the fire.
Every small fire cluster making up the wall no longer pursued explosive power.
They simply burned continuously.
Sustained themselves.
And kept the dissipated mana lingering on the training field.
Bit by bit...
The fire began occupying more space.
Scarlett's maneuvering space shrank further and further.
A heatwave crashed against her.
Even through her spell-resistant sparring suit, she could feel the burning heat against her skin.
“Damn it...”
Scarlett finally realized she was in trouble.
Senior's Fireball was no longer just "throwing fireballs."
She had begun to understand why the spell model was constructed that way in the first place.
She was even modifying it on the fly.
This was still far from true mastery...
...yet she had already touched upon the direction one ought to head for LV4.
A direction unique to the spellcaster themselves.
“Then let's see who breaks first!”
Scarlett's competitive drive was ignited.
Ice bolts condensed once again.
However, this time...
She altered the structure as well.
An ice bolt was forcibly elongated.
The arrowhead vanished.
The shaft extended.
Ultimately turning into a slender ice sword.
Scarlett gripped the hilt.
She charged toward the wall of fire.
Swish!
The first strike.
The flames were sliced open.
The second strike.
Frost spread through the air...
...continuously lowering the ambient temperature.
The third strike!
Boom!
A gap was finally hacked open through the fire wall.
Yet Cecia was having an equally tough time.
The so-called "fire wall"...
...was essentially a multitude of tiny fire structures she was maintaining simultaneously.
The greater the quantity...
...the heavier the strain on her mental power.
Sweat was already forming on her forehead.
Strands of silver-gray hair stuck to the side of her face.
Her head began to throb faintly.
If this continued...
She might be the first to collapse.
Ice and fire collided once more.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—
Plumes of steam billowed out.
After cutting through the fire wall with her ice sword, Scarlett didn't stop.
Instead, she continued constructing ice bolts while swinging her sword.
Melee.
Ranged.
Launched simultaneously.
“Senior!”
“I won't let you dodge this time!”
She took a forceful step forward.
A wave of chilling frost spread from beneath her feet.
The water vapor that had just formed in the air was instantly harnessed.
Ice bolts appeared once more.
However—
They were completely different from before.
Faster.
More numerous.
And their structure was far more complex.
“Go!”
A storm of ice bolts poured down.
Cecia raised her fire wall.
Numerous projectiles melted within the flames.
Yet she quickly noticed...
...one of them was different.
That ice bolt was extraordinarily delicate.
Fine magic runes could even be seen etched across its shaft.
What is that?
Whoosh!
Cecia dodged sideways.
The ice bolt grazed past her.
A miss.
Yet the instant it struck the ground—
Boom!
A surge of ice crystals rapidly sprouted from the earth.
Frigid air expanded in all directions.
Cecia's eyelids twitched.
That wasn't just a regular ice bolt anymore!
Sacrificing accuracy...
...in exchange for a large-area freeze where it landed?
Before she could process it further...
The second wave of attacks was already upon her.
Scarlett's mana reserves seemed virtually bottomless.
A dense volley of ice bolts continuously breached the fire wall.
One of them hadn't even fully condensed into a solid form.
It was closer to a high-speed clump of ice elements.
Passing through the fire caused minimal dissipation.
Until the very moment it struck Cecia—
Crack!
Freeze.
Cecia's left joints were instantly coated in ice.
Her movements stiffened.
Immediately following was another bolt.
This time, the arrowhead was exceptionally blunt and heavy.
Bang!
The massive impact force knocked Cecia flying backward.
Her back struck the ice crystals created by that previous special bolt.
A trap.
From the moment that first bolt went wide...
...Scarlett had been waiting for this exact moment.
“Got you!”
The young girl charged forward fiercely.
The slender ice sword in her hand sliced through the steam.
Breached the fire wall.
And pressed straight toward Cecia.
Cecia raised her head...
...and smiled.
Scarlett's footsteps faltered.
Why was she smiling?
In the next second...
She felt it.
Mana.
Throughout the entire training field...
Fire mana was everywhere.
From the very first collision between fireball and ice bolt...
From the moment the flames were first extinguished by water vapor...
Cecia had never truly let that energy go to waste.
Even after the flames died down...
Residual mana remained dispersed in the air.
Even when the fire wall was sliced open...
The fire elements composing it had not completely vanished either.
Once.
Twice.
A dozen times over.
The fire mana accumulated throughout the battle had long since scattered across every single corner of the training field.
In the past, such residual mana would have been useless...
...because an ordinary magic apprentice could hardly regain control over scattered mana that had escaped the spell model.
But Cecia was different.
Fire Element Affinity.
Ensured that these flames had never truly left her.
Cecia lightly raised her hand.
The sparks around her that had previously dimmed...
One point.
Two points.
Dozens of points.
...suddenly lit up all at once.
Glowing firelight filled the entire training field.
Scarlett froze in place.
She finally realized.
If Cecia so desired right now...
Every inch of this place could instantly ignite once more.
She hadn't broken through the fire wall at all...
...she had charged straight into the very heart of the inferno.
Cecia was on the verge of exhausting her mental power.
Her face was somewhat pale.
Yet she still beamed a brilliant, radiant smile.
“Junior~”
“You lose.”
“...”
The ice sword in Scarlett's hand stopped midair.
Less than half a meter from Cecia.
Neither of them moved.
After a few seconds...
Scarlett finally dispersed her ice sword.
She bent over...
...resting her hands on her knees...
...panting heavily.
“Senior...”
“In the past...”
“Did you really only know a standard Fireball spell?”
Cecia glanced across the training field.
The residual sparks were still flickering.
She was actually a bit surprised herself.
Then, she chuckled.
“In the past, yes.”
“Just now, I seem to have suddenly learned something new.”
“What?”
Cecia thought for a moment.
“How to make Fireball—”
“—not look like Fireball anymore.”
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