"My father pursued the dream of becoming a sorcerer his entire life, so he mastered the language very early on. As such, I've been learning it from him since I was a child." Melgor explained, "He started off by teaching me the grammar, but it was too slow to learn that way. I only managed to grasp the pronunciations after a year of studying."
"But later, he started conversing with me in the Magi's tongue. In our daily life, he would give me a beating if I ever spoke in the Central Plains' tongue. In just three months, I was actually able to communicate with him in that language." Melgor said, "So it's not difficult to learn it, especially when it's just speaking it. As for the casting of spells, you'll only need to recite the incantations. There's no need to learn how to write it."
Ren Xiaosu nodded seriously. "It's just like a child learning how to speak. Clearly, they don't know how to write the words down, but that doesn't stop them from communicating. Let's do it this way then. Melgor, you'll handle the teaching while I'll help to supervise the two of them."
Melgor was pondering the fact that the kid did not even address him with the honorific "lord" anymore. He questioned Ren Xiaosu impatiently, "Supervise them? You? How?"
"Didn't you say that your father used to give you a beating when you were young? I can give them a beating them too," Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness.
Liu Ting was enraged. "Are you taking advantage of the situation?"
"Aren't I just making an analogy?" Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, "If there's no one to pressure you to learn, how long would it take before you two actually become sorcerers?"
"Then what about you? Who'll supervise you?" Liu Ting raised his voice and said, "Don't you also want to become a sorcerer? If you speak in the Central Plains' tongue, we'll beat you up too!"
Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a sense of respect for him. "All things considered, at least you've got a backbone, sheep!"
Liu Ting felt offended. Was that supposed to be a compliment?
He wanted to retort, but when Li Chengguo tugged at him and pointed at the black eye on his face, Liu Ting was talked out of it.
Melgor spoke up. He said patiently to Ren Xiaosu, "You've got to correct your learning attitude too."
"Alright then." Ren Xiaosu said reluctantly, "I'll also stop speaking in the Central Plains' tongue. When do we start? Why not tomorrow?"
Melgor smiled and said, "Actually, the incantations are also plainly hidden within the phrases we use daily. Look at this campfire in front of us. In the Magi's tongue, it's known as a 'bonfire.' When the 'fire' part is used as an incantation, it becomes the spell for a Lesser Fireball."
"What about a Greater Fireball?" Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.
When Melgor saw that Ren Xiaosu was so enthusiastic, he said with a smile, "The incantation for a Greater Fireball is 'the fire is raging.'"
"I see," Ren Xiaosu said with a nod. He thought to himself how it took more than a second to recite the incantation before a fireball could be conjured, so it was no wonder the Rider defeated the author of the Introduction to Sorcery.
Any sorcerer who gave Ren Xiaosu even a second to react would definitely get killed three or four times over. If Ren Xiaosu were given any more time than that, he would probably even be able to bring down an entire castle.
Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, "Can you cast a Lesser Fireball for us to have a look?"
Ren Xiaosu was saying this because he wanted to see what a Lesser Fireball cast by Melgor looked like. Didn't the Introduction to Sorcery say that if a spell was cast nonverbally, it could cause the spellcaster to lose control and expend too much willpower?
Therefore, he had to first find out the magnitude of a Lesser Fireball before he could assess how out of control he was when casting his own fireball.
Melgor thought for a moment and demonstrated the spell to them. After he finished reciting the incantation with the Eye of True Sight, a fist-sized fireball floated out into the distance.
Li Chengguo and Liu Ting's eyes lit up as they looked in the direction the fireball flew off towards. They thought about how great it would be if they could also cast a similar spell someday.
However, something else went through Ren Xiaosu's mind. He had also felt the temperature of the fireball just now. To be honest, it would probably not be much of an issue if such a small fireball were to squarely hit him.
Moreover, the speed at which the fireball moved was a little too slow. It traveled at about the speed of a rock thrown by a normal person with all their might. Any decent superhuman in the Central Plains could dodge the spell. After all, everyone in the Central Plains measured the strength of a person by their ability to dodge bullets.
Of course, this was referring to avoiding the bullet's trajectory.
Wanting to see more, Ren Xiaosu asked, "How about a Greater Fireball?"
Sadly, Melgor shook his head and said, "I don't know how to cast that."
Ren Xiaosu was stunned. "Did you come in last in class? I saw in the Introduction to Sorcery that fireball spells are not particularly difficult to master. Why can't you do it?"
Melgor's face turned red, but he still explained earnestly, "Every sorcerer has to choose their own focus, so it's not necessary to learn all the spells."
Ren Xiaosu asked curiously, "What do you mean?"
"You have to know that I had to practice the Wind Bind and Earth Bind spells for an entire year before I could cast them." Melgor explained, "Do you know how many times I practiced casting those spells in the past year? Thousands of times! At first, I would get dizzy after practicing the casting twice a day. It wasn't until I meditated long enough that my condition gradually improved. So how many years of their life would a sorcerer have to waste if they learned every spell out there? When a person becomes a sorcerer, they have to make a choice. Whichever type of sorcerer you choose to become, you will have to continue down that path. Only then will you have a chance to become an archmage in your lifetime."
"Then what's the Earth Bind spell like after decades of practice?" Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.
"It's strong enough to restrain several dozen gladiators like you," Melgor said proudly.
Ren Xiaosu came to a realization. So it was not as simple as knowing the incantations and having the Eye of True Sight to be able to cast spells. He would still have to practice them.
It was no wonder he felt that Melgor's Earth Bind spell was a little weak. Ren Xiaosu had nearly fumbled his acting and broken free from the enchantment. So it turned out it was because Melgor had only become a sorcerer not long ago, so he had recently mastered this spell alone and did not have much practice with it yet.
Therefore, learning the art of sorcery required practicing spells more than a 1,000 times before they could be cast normally. Furthermore, the spells would get stronger the more one trained.
However, the willpower of a sorcerer was limited, so they would have to selectively practice the types of spells they wanted to specialize in. If you practiced ten different types of spells a 1,000 times, you would still be a weakling. But if you practiced a single spell 10,000 times, you would become an archmage.
Melgor explained patiently, "I chose to be a sorcerer of control. For similar types of enchantments, there's an interrelated effect that can help save time in training. For example, if I practice the Wind Bind spell a 1,000 times and successfully cast it, I can cast the Earth Bind spell after a 100 practice attempts. That's probably the best analogy I can give. If you all become sorcerers someday, you'll have to make a similar choice."
"There's a limit to one's lifetime. Many people in the magus order specialize in only one or two types of spells, but they are all extremely powerful sorcerers." Melgor continued, "In the words of you Central Plains people, it's called 'dominating the world with one skill!'"
Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought he roughly understood what the Proficiency Stones in the vending machine were for.