The swelling mass of flames had developed its own gravitational pull, as if it were a sun itself.
The other mages had started drawing closer to it against their will while they planted their feet to the ground in a bid to stop getting pulled towards it
"...Aiden! Aiden!" Instructor Morgan yelled.
The voice of the instructor finally reached him, which instantly jolted him back into reality and caused him to open his eyes to see that his spell had swelled to a size so large that it threatened to cause damage to the hall’s structure if he didn’t stop right that moment.
He immediately made the mass of flames dissipate as he looked with remorseful eyes at the mages who stared right back at him.
They all had their faces sweating profusely, and Morgan walked toward Aiden with an angry look. "You have not been here for more than five minutes and you intend to bring it down?"
"Accept my apologies," Aiden said, bowing his head slightly.
Frankly, when he closed his eyes and channeled huge amounts of mana continuously into that ball of flames, he wanted to test his limits; just how much he could go into making the spell stronger.
Morgan shook his head and sighed. "But that was a really powerful spell. Doesn’t feel like the doing of an Academy mage, I might add."
"Heh," Aiden smiled but offered nothing more in reaction.
Morgan looked at him for a moment and then turned away once more, while most of the other mages had started leaving the training hall.
Being in the presence of that fire spell had massively dehydrated them, and as such, they needed to take water.
Then a new screen appeared in front of Aiden:
[What shall you name your first spell?]
"How about Exploding Sun?" he said with a contemplative look.
[Given how much mana was gathered into it and the effect that came right after, Exploding Sun seems right]
"Then we have one more spell to go," Aiden replied with a grin on his face, as he had just completed the formation of one spell.
[Host has created a new spell: Exploding Sun]
"Now, how to go about the second technique," he said to himself, giving it thought until the idea hit him.
"If she can make light into weapons, I should be able to do so with flames as well," he said to himself.
He was referring to their first lesson overview with Thamoryn when she showed some demonstration with her light magic and made constructs with them.
Then he closed his eyes once more to envision the technique and afterward cast it into fruition.
It only took him a moment, and immediately after, he opened his eyes to see the flames slowly taking the form of a long broadsword, with the hilt of the flame blade in his right palm.
He looked at his weapon made out of flames with genuine appreciation of how good he had become with magic.
A screen appeared before him:
[What shall you name your second spell?]
"Let’s just go with Flame Sword for now," Aiden said, though frankly, he didn’t have a special name to come up with for that one.
[Host has created a new spell: Flame Sword]
Then another screen appeared:
[Side Quest: Create Two Techniques → Complete]
[+5 Available Stats Points]
[You have gained +2000xp]
[Bonus Reward granted: +1000xp]
With that, Aiden had completed all pending quests. With a thought, he made his experience points balance appear on a screen before him.
[Exp Balance: 13,950]
He nodded his head, rather pleased with the amount of experience.
With that, he took his leave from the training halls. While he walked away, the rest of the mages who didn’t move away all stared at him, still in amazement at the earlier displayed magic power.
Morgan, however, had a disturbed look on his face.
....
Aiden arrived back at the dorms not long after, and given that it was approaching sundown already, most of the other mages had started returning to the dorms as well.
Even though Kayden had earlier left for the dorms, he wasn’t in the room currently; and this was a much more preferred circumstance for Aiden.
He made a screen containing his experience requirements appear:
[Exp Requirements]:
-[1600xp required to go up to Level 5 Hatchling]
-[2,500xp required for Dragon’s Sight Lv.3]
-[2,500xp required for Dragon Transformation Lv.3]
-[1500xp required for Dragon’s Fear Lv.2]
-[5000 XP required to raise Host Magic to SSS]
-[15000 XP required to raise Destruction Authority to Ex-Rank]
-[15000 XP required to raise Replication Authority to Ex-Rank]
-[15000 XP required to raise Space Authority to Ex-Rank]
[Exp Balance: 13,950]
"Okay, let’s go with leveling up," Aiden said.
[You have Leveled Up]
[You have gained +1 to each stat]
Now leveling up to the next hatchling stage required 3,200 experience points.
Then he assigned 2500 experience points to leveling up his Dragon’s Sight. This was his most useful skill and he somehow always found use for it.
[Dragon’s Sight (Lv.2) → Dragon’s Sight (Lv.3)]
[Full Rotational View: 75 meters → 100 meters]
[Focused View: 750 meters → 1000 meters]
[Dragon’s Sight can now see Ethereal Material within maximum range]
"Ethereal Material? Ghosts and the like?"
[Additionally, yes. Things that cannot be seen by the human eye]
"That would probably come in handy at some point," Aiden said.
He looked at his experience balance; it was at 9,850. Then he sampled through the list of things he had to level up.
Taking the authorities to the next level was still far beyond his reach, but it seemed he had just enough for his Host Magic.
He decided to go for that, then assigned 5000 experience points to leveling up his fire magic.
[Host’s innate magic has been raised to SSS]
[12000 XP is now required to raise Host Magic to EX-Rank]
"Oh, it can get all the way there?" he asked, looking rather intrigued at the current situation.
[Yes, and all the way to Deity Rank. Then the host’s magic may compete with even the gods]
"Gods? The gods are real?" Aiden asked, although he felt silly asking this.
[Yes. They are] the system replied.
Everyone was a believer in something, that much he knew, and he grew up under the belief of the gods as well.
The Knights of Dragonhold preferred to pray to Prathos, whom they referred to as the god of war.
Some prayed to Xerxes, the god of money and wealth.
Some to Riordan, the blacksmith god.
"So is it also real? The stories that gods were once mages?" Aiden asked.
This was a children’s story in a way; one that parents told their children, especially those who were born with magic.
However, if that was truly the case, no one really knew. They were mostly only seen as bedtime stories passed on over time.
[Yes, the stories of mages who have reached the status of Deity are real]
Aiden had an intrigued expression while nodding his head to this fact in acknowledgment.
However, he moved on from it and decided to continue his leveling. With his experience balance now at 4,850, he scanned through the requirements list again.
Then he made the decision to assign 3,200 experience points to increasing his hatchling stage.
[You have Leveled Up]
[You have gained +1 to each stat]
His experience balance had dropped significantly to 1,650, but right now he was somewhat satisfied with the progress thus far.
All that was left was to distribute his available stat points among his host statistics.
With a thought, he made the system highlight the available stat points to him.
[Stats Points Available: 24]
"Hmm..." Aiden muttered as he contemplated the right way to distribute his numbers.
So far, his Intelligence stat had been his most used, and the Strength stat right after.
Those stats took priority naturally. He assigned 7 stat points to Intelligence and 7 to Strength.
Then he shared 5 each to both Agility and Endurance.
[Intelligence 23 → 30]
[Strength 20 → 27]
[Agility 16 → 21]
[Endurance 14 → 19]
The work was done, and now it was time to review his status window.