"I want to learn."
A statement filled with pure longing.
As a girl with a ruler of magic, her expression was full of enthusiasm.
"Shall we give it a try?"
"Yes!"
It was partly for teaching Rosaria, but the main goal was, of course, to learn magic himself.
A Tower Master who cannot use magic.
It's absurd.
It's like a farmer who doesn't know how to farm, a knight who doesn't know honor, or a king without territory or an army. It doesn't make sense.
'I have a status window and everything, but... just no magic skill window.'
The skill window that characters in <Disaster 7> should have.
There was no such window now, where skills would activate automatically by just pressing a button registered with a shortcut key.
So, even with the ability, he was practically at zero.
'If I had known this, I would have put more effort into playing a magician character.'
A magician character was difficult to nurture and didn't have many highlighted aspects, so he only played it once out of five times.
Reed lowered his head slightly.
Sparkling.
Her expression was as full of desire for knowledge as when she first read an encyclopedia.
Reed began to search the library with Rosaria, who was following him closely.
To a magician, a library is a kind of footprint and a place containing their information.
Like a robe that wraps around the body to keep secrets, the Tower Master's library is only accessible to the Tower Master, and outsiders are practically forbidden to enter.
As it was isolated from the outside world, it was a more comfortable place to lower authoritative aspects and was the most optimized place to educate Rosaria.
'Will I find what I'm looking for in this high-class library?'
Such worries disappeared shortly after.
He finally found it while searching the spacious library like a national library.
It was a hardcover with traces of dirt that couldn't be removed even by magic.
Reed picked up the book.
[Understanding Basic Magic]
In the corner, he saw the name 'Reed Adeleheights' written with a mana pen.
'There are so many traces of studying.'
Colorful labels attached.
It wasn't just that book.
[A Quick and Easy Guide for Elemental Affinity]
[Elementary Theory]
The lower part was filled with major textbooks that made him feel dizzy just by looking at them.
'I didn't expect all the basic magic books to be here.'
Books with traces of Reed's studying were seen in a secluded place worthy of leaving memories.
'I thought he was pathetic, but he is actually helpful.'
Reed was sincerely grateful.
He opened the book.
-This textbook will be used for only one semester in a basic education course that is a simple liberal arts subject. However, it contains content that everyone who walks the path of magic must know. 20% of the atmosphere in the Cloud Continent is composed of mana, and depending on how we draw in and use this mana, we...
What a pain...'
He was greeted with a sentence containing sleep magic and cognitive inhibition magic from the beginning.
'I thought I would never see such a professional book again after college...'
"Is that a magic book?"
At Rosaria's question, Reed nodded.
"Yeah, but I think Dad should read this first. Can you wait for a little?"
"Okay!"
Rosaria continued reading the book she had been reading.
Reed began to read the magic books slowly.
As he read through the boring chunks of text mixed with foreign words, Reed realized one thing.
How much effort Reed had put into studying.
Notes and parts that were not understood.
And the explanations that were written to solve those misunderstandings.
Each page was meticulously decorated.
The more he had learnt, the deeper the despair would have been.
After two hours of reading, Reed was able to grasp the method of manifesting mana.
The book was difficult, but following the traces of Reed's study, he could understand and grasp it well enough.
"Let's give it a try."
Reed closed the book.
The way a magician senses mana is complicated.
The best way among them is to feel your own heartbeat.
"Feel the heartbeat."
Upon hearing that, Reed closed his eyes and his mouth, focusing all his senses on his heart and hears,
Thump- thump- thump-.
The faint sensation of beating against his flesh.
The sound of his heart seemed to echo in the distance, pounding his eardrums.
"Try breathing to that sound."
Inhale- exhale. Inhale- exhale.
Soon after, Reed felt something swirling in his body as if it were a lie.
The moment mana started to circulate in the body, even if he opened his eyes and let go of his consciousness, he could feel it swimming throughout his entire body for a while.
The sea called the body.
Thousands of fish swimming within it.
Free yet controlled by consciousness.
They moved as Reed desired like a school of fishdrawn to feed by the lakeside.
"It's not usually described as this free..."
The moment, when mana could be felt, was <Mana Sensitivity Lv. 1>
And from the moment you can control the mana circulating in your body, it corresponds to <Mana Sensitivity Lv. 2>.
Reed was in the middle of stepping into Lv. 2 at once.
The reason Reed could do this so skillfully was undoubtedly because <Magic> and <Mana Sensitivity> had already reached level 4.
Considering the traces of Reed's frustration, he must have tried and failed a few times.
"Hmm..."
He easily reached step 2.
Could he do the next step too?
"Lv. 3."
Reed focused the sensation on his hand.
Billions of fish swam towards his hand and gathered.
"Blow it out."
He let it out.
Blue mana burst forth from Reed's hands, like an overfilled vessel bursting.
But it was not just a simple burst.
He condensed the released mana around his hands again.
It happened as naturally as a series of actions connecting from 1 to 10.
Control it.
The mana floating in the air feels the force and is drawn in.
Reed seemed to be holding an invisible ball with both hands in midair.
In the middle of that, blue mana began swirling and forming into a spherical shape.
The size was that of a baseball, and it was spinning at an incredibly fast speed.
It was an amazing and beautiful sight.
"Gasp!"
Feeling the limits of his mental strength, Reed stopped concentrating.
The mana that had been gathered scattered all around the room.
The light of the chandelier, which had been moving with mana, flickered for a moment before returning to its original state.
Reid placed his hand on his chest.
His heart was pounding as if protesting against the strain.
It was a moment so difficult that he wondered if he might have fainted if he had concentrated just a bit more.
'This is the stage that someone who has reached <Mana Reaction Lv. 4> can accomplish...'
Lv. 1: Feel it inside the body.
Lv. 2: Control it inside the body.
Lv. 3: Emit it outside the body.
Lv. 4: Control the mana emitted outside the body.
If one reaches <Mana Reaction Lv. 5>, they can absorb the mana sphere back into their body.
Since Reid was stuck at level 4, where he could create the sphere, absorption was impossible.
Reid checked his remaining mana.
[Mana: 3,982/4,982]
'It took 1,000 mana to create this sphere.'
The most basic magic attack without an attribute is 'Mana Arrow,' which consumes about 50 mana.
The sphere that Reid created consumed the equivalent of 20 Mana Arrows.
'That could've been quite dangerous.'
Even if it was pure mana, if it had exploded instead of evaporating, both Reid and Rosaria would have been in danger.
