“Now that you have learned to activate the enchantment, lets head outside the city walls so you can practice. Unless you want to set another part of my garden on fire,” Ms. Teft said after the fire Damion had accidently started was put out by her spell.
This was the first time Damion had seen Ms. Teft use magic. From the spell she used Damion guessed she had an affinity for the Water element. There was no telling if Ms. Teft would use more magic while he was trying to learn to control his sword, but Damion was eager to find out. He had never seen a mage in action before.
A short time later Damion and Ms. Teft were standing before the city gates talking with the guards. Damion and Ms. Teft handed over their identification cards. Ordinary people were not allowed outside the city without a good reason. Luckily, now that Damion had his knight adventurer license, he was no longer considered an ordinary person and the duo was quickly allowed through the gates.
The world outside the city was quite different from what Damion had imagined. In his mind Damion had pictured outside the safety of the city walls as a wild place, filled with Ferocious Beasts and dangers around every corner.
The reality though, was that surrounding the city for more than a kilometer were automated farms. Magic machines tended and harvested the fields. This had a multitude of benefits, the first being that farmers did not have to risk their lives to tend their fields. Even though they lived in a Green Zone, wandering beasts still appeared from time to time and it would be dangerous and costly for ordinary people to be outside the city on a regular basis.
The next benefit was that it kept the area around the city mostly clear so the lookouts on the walls could more easily spot trouble before it reached the city walls. The farms outside the city also freed up space inside the city for residences, parks, and other city infrastructure. There were still a few farms in the city, but they were mostly ranches. It would not be good to lose all food production in the event of a siege, and having the livestock inside the walls protected them from wandering Ferocious Beasts looking for a quick meal. Crops were, after all, easier to replace than herds of livestock.
Beyond the farms were empty fields and rolling hills. A few scattered trees dotted the landscape in the distance, but otherwise the countryside was unremarkable. Damion was not sure where the dark forests that hid the hordes of Ferocious and Demonic Beasts were, but it was not anywhere that he could see. For a moment, if Damion did not know any better, he would think he was in Kansas.
“I thought outside the city walls would be different,” Damion said as he and Ms. Teft walked towards an open field.
“There is a reason this is a Green Zone. Beasts are a rarity, which is good. The closest Yellow Zone is about two hours away by ground car. Once you finish your training, I’m sure a mission from the Adventurer Association will take you that way before long.”
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“So where are we going to do this training?”
“Here is as good a place as any,” Ms. Teft said stopping at the edge of the field.
Ms. Teft extended her arm and then from nowhere a test dummy appeared in front of the pair. Despite having seen her use her spatial artifact in the past, Damion was still amazed by it and wondered if he would ever have one of his own.
“From a distance of ten meters I want you to strike the test dummy with your sword’s fire attack. When you can successfully hit the dummy and it registers an attack power of at least 100 then I’ll consider you ready to go on a mission.”
Damion paced off the distance and faced the dummy with his sword in hand. He channeled his mana into the blade to charge it up and then into the glyph. With a slashing motion he tried to send the fire attack from his sword towards the test dummy. Unfortunately, the attack went wide. Damion’s attack started a small fire, but after Ms. Teft put it out, only a burn mark was left in the grass as a sign of his first failure.
“Again,” Ms. Teft told Damion.
Charging up the blade again, Damion made another attempt. This time the attack fell short of the test dummy. On his third attempt his attack fizzled out before reaching the test dummy. Before Damion could make a fourth attempt Ms. Teft stopped him.
“Don’t just charge your mana and swing. You have to focus on your target. The ancient language is magic. Think of it as being alive and to get the best results you need to tell your magic what you want it to do.”
“Tell my magic what to do?” Damion asked confused.
Sure, he talked to the Magic System. But the Magic System was, as far as he had understood, not part of this world, so Damion did not think talking to it was the same as what Ms. Teft was alluding to.
“Magic responds to your will. Stating your intentions makes it easier to perform magic the way you want. It is why mages and knights often shout their spells. The name of the spell helps connect the mind to the magic seal or glyph to cast the spell.”
The thought of shouting out his attack in advance like an anime character made Damion frown. Not only did he find the idea idiotic, he knew that doing so gave an advantage to opponents. Even if he was fighting a monster, just the act of shouting would alert it to his presence.
“You didn’t shout your spell when you put out my fire,” Damion said back.
“Nor did you when you activated the enchantment on your sword.”
Ms. Teft’s words left Damion stunned for a moment. It was as she said, he had not shouted when using the spell enchanted on his sword, though he did not even know the proper name of the attack. Did that mean he did not need shout to cast magic? Or was it just due to the fact that he was focused on the glyph to activate the spell?
“Using spells nonverbally is a goal of most, knights and mages alike,” Ms. Teft explained. “It takes a focus of mind. You are clearly capable of nonverbal casting, but you need better focus to truly succeed. In the meantime, trying using the spell name as a focus so you can at least hit your target.”
Damion flushed at Ms. Teft’s comment, but he quickly put that aside to focus on the task at hand. The idea of shouting out his attacks was ridiculous to him and even if doing so made it easier to use magic Damion was not going to settle for it.
Readying his sword again, Damion channeled his mana into the blade and then activated the glyph. This time, instead of just slashing his sword towards the test dummy, Damion focused his mind on his target and when he did swing his sword Damion consciously shouted in his mind his own name for the fire attack to strike the dummy.