"No, the Equilateral Rune goes on top of the Trinominal Rune," Callen said as he pointed at two Runes inside a Magic Circle between Shang and him.
Shang rubbed the bridge of his nose in stress and started from the beginning again.
There was so much to remember and look out for!
It was like Shang had to do a complex equation while talking with someone and leading them to complete a yet unknown part of the equation.
He had to keep so many different things in mind.
He had to draw the Rune correctly, transform his Mana into just the kind of Mana he needed, precisely control the shape of his Mana, and even had to evoke certain emotions sometimes.
It took Shang several minutes to do the calculations for the Magic Circle every time, and when he finally started to draw it, some part of the equation always slipped his mind, vanishing into the aether.
It was so hard to keep all the information ready and finished while then doing something completely different.
It was like Shang had to play an instrument with his left hand and fight someone with his right while solving math equations in his head.
There was just too much different stuff at the same time.
They had already been at this for two weeks, and Shang hadn't even managed to finish one Magic Circle.
One had to remember that the Magic Circles Shang needed to draw would be different every time. One Magic Circle only corresponded to one specific change in one specific location in one specific Mana pathway.
If anything changed, the entire Magic Circle would change.
The more Shang learned about spellcasting, the more impressed he became.
The Mages were doing the same thing for their Spells, just in a different manner.
They created the Magic Circle in their mind, infused it with the right Mana and the right shape, and then had to actualize it.
And even when he managed to finish one, he would need several minutes to cast the next one.
Shang was essentially learning how to cast a Spell for the True Mage Realm, and in comparison to him, a True Mage could do all of that in less than a second.
It was brutal.
However, he was making progress.
He was practicing one of the Magic Circles over and over again, and he eventually managed to finish it three weeks after he started learning.
"Well, you might be a complete newbie when it comes to Spellcasting, but your progress is still quite impressive, considering your starting position," Callen said with a smile.
Shang rubbed the side of his forehead in exhaustion.
This was more exhausting than fighting a Mid High Mage.
Yet, Shang still felt pride when he saw the finished Magic Circle.
For the first time while looking at a Magic Circle, Shang actually understood what was happening and how it worked.
Shang looked at the Magic Circle for a couple of seconds before dispersing it.
This was just the first step.
"I need a ten-minute break," Shang said.
Callen nodded. "You deserve it. In fact, I'm shocked that a newbie like you managed to practice Spellcasting without a single break in three weeks. Even True Mages take more breaks than you since it is so straining on our concentration."
Shang only nodded half-heartedly. "Thank you for also not taking a break."
"No thanks necessary. After all, you paid me," Callen said.
Shang absentmindedly nodded again and stood up. "I need to go out for a while. I will come back in ten minutes."
"Sure, I'll be waiting," Callen said.
Shang left the room, but as soon as the door behind him closed, his exhausted demeanor vanished, and his right eye narrowed.
'I got careless,' Shang thought.
Shang jumped on top of Sword and flew into the wilderness.
After around eight kilometers, Shang landed and sat down.
After that, he started to draw several lines in the air.
During practice, Shang had accidentally gone a bit too far one time, which resulted in the Mana in his mind completely emptying.
That meant that Humanity had deactivated, and Shang needed to activate it again.
'This is so much easier compared to Callen's Spell,' Shang thought as he drew the lines with practiced ease.
He had no idea what the different lines were doing or why they were there, but he could easily draw them.
'Equilateral Rune next- wait!'
Suddenly, Shang stopped.
Lucius' Spell had never even mentioned an Equilateral Rune.
Yet, Shang could see it right there.
For just a moment, Shang imagined the completed Magic Circle for Humanity and inspected it.
Most of it was still unknown to him, but about 2% of the Runes were now familiar to him.
He had learned these Runes during Callen's lesson.
These Runes were at the very edge of the Magic Circle and rather small, which meant that they were the most unimportant Runes in the entire Spell, but they were there.
'How did the book describe this passageway? Three goats happily jumping over a mountain and meeting up with an ancient tree,' Shang thought.
Shang was essentially casting Humanity by reciting a story in his mind.
Shang thought about how the book described the Runes Shang now knew and found some of the methods Lucius used to make this Spell so easy to cast.
Every noun, verb, and adjective described one specific part of the Rune.
Even more, the adjectives that described emotions also made Shang subconsciously draw these Runes with a certain emotion associated with them.
'Can I make use of that?'
"Callen, I might need two hours," Shang transmitted to Callen.
At that moment, Callen's eyes opened wide in shock, and he looked around his office.
"I'm talking to you with my Spirit Sense. I'm still outside," Shang said. "You can simply talk. I can hear you."
"Oh, okay," Callen said with a bit of embarrassment. "Sure, I will deal with a couple of things then. We resume in two hours, okay?"
"Sure, thanks," Shang said.
Then, Shang focused on Humanity again.
At the same time, Shang was analyzing how Lucius used different words to make Shang draw different Runes with different Mana and different emotions.
After several minutes, Shang had finally created something like a framework, which he then used to simplify the equations for the Runes he needed for Callen's Spell.
"I resumed practicing, and I feel like I'm onto something. I will contact you when we can continue with the lesson. It might take a couple of days, though," Shang told Callen, who was going through documents.
Callen only furrowed his brows. "Sure," he said.
'I hope he isn't using this as an excuse to laze around,' Callen thought. 'As long as he can't cast the Spells, my time and freedom are severely restricted.'
Several days passed.
"Okay, we can continue," Shang transmitted to Callen.
"Sure thing," Callen said, trying to smile politely.
However, deep inside, he was annoyed.
Yes, Duke Sword was paying him a lot, but he was also wasting his time by not continuing to practice diligently. That was very disrespectful.
Shang returned to the room a couple of seconds later.
After that, they resumed practicing.
However, when Shang got the instructions for his next Magic Circle, he asked for a moment of peace and closed his eyes.
Callen furrowed his brows, but he didn't say anything.
Several minutes passed.
Callen grew more and more frustrated by the second.
"Okay, I think I got it," Shang said.
Then, Shang started to draw lines, and he was several times faster than he usually was.
When Callen saw that, all his suspicions immediately flew out of the window.
The lines were mostly accurate!
However, the Magic Circle collapsed after only 50% was done.
Yet, Callen almost couldn't move.
Shang had finished 50% of the Magic Circle in barely 45 seconds on his first try!
That was beyond shocking!
Callen had expected that they would need another two weeks until Shang could finish that Magic Circle, but by the looks of things, he would be done by the end of the day!
What the hell happened?!
"Where was my mistake?" Shang asked.
"Oh, yeah, right," Callen said as he recovered.
Then, Callen explained where Shang had made a mistake, and Shang corrected it.
In just six hours, Shang managed to finish the Magic Circle.
Callen could scarcely believe that this was real.
