Alright. Let's do this! I can control the spell, I'm sure of it! After, I don't really have a choice...
「User is attempting to control his essence. However, due to lack of understand over magic, user is about to ruin his magic core. Due to this, forced magic tutorial will be played.」
Suddenly, I feel a terrible headache. And I mean TERRIBLE. I can't even describe it; it was so bad the only thing I wanted to do at that moment was die. However, thankfully, it ended the next moment, leaving me with blood leaking out of my eyes. "AHH!" I scream in agony as I cast a great heal on myself. Ahhhh, much better. Since I no longer felt the pain, I started to process the information given to me by the system.
So the basics of magic are as follows: When you use a spell, you allow your essence to flow out of your body and shape it into a spell. So if it flows out of your body, it should be uncontrollable, right?
Wrong. Let me explain. Releasing your essence out of your body doesn't mean it completely leaves your body. There is a tiny thread of essence that connects you to your spell. When this thread breaks, the spell disappears. In fact, that's how many advanced level close quarter fighters deal with mages. But that's another topic for another day.
In order to control a spell, you need to carefully manipulate the tiny thread, making sure it doesn't break. If you carefully shift it, you can cause the spell to change direction, if one a little. Sadly, that's the most a noob mage can do unless they have unparalleled talent for magic, similar to my manifestation magic.
But even shifting this thread is extremely difficult, not because of magic talent of anything, no. The reason shifting it is hard is because of one's imagination. For one to shift the thread of essence, they need to imagine every detail about it. They need to determine every tiny movement the thread would make when they shift its direction. It's even harder when doing more intricate and subtle changes. This is the reason there are way more support mages than damaging mages. Or at least, that's what I got from the system.
But now isn't the time to be delving deeper into the information I was given. Why? BECAUSE THE FIRE IS SPREADING FASTER TOWARDS ME GODDAMNIT!
Panicking, I rush to imagine the string between me and my spell. However, I simply could not concentrate on it with the fire zooming to me. 'Come on Caden, CONCENTRATE!'
I use all the brain power I could to concentrate on the thread and only the thread. After all, if this fails, the whole forest will burn down. Who's to say a deity who lives in this forest doesn't get mad at me and comes to kill me for revenge? I can't let that happen. I need to concentrate on not burning down this forest.
Suddenly, I had an epiphany. What if I close my eyes an imagine?
Before you call me stupid, hear me out. Since I have the mana sense skill, I can concentrate on the mana filled water dragon spell I shot out, ignoring everything else. If the fire gets closer to me, I would feel the heat and react accordingly. At least, that's what I hope.
I close my eyes and focus on my mana sense. Slowly but surely, I got a clear picture of the water dragon...along with something I didn't expect to see. The thread! It contains mana! I can see it!
Suddenly, I understand why those stuck up people usually hate the main characters of novels. Especially the ones with the cheat system. Just imagining this thread would take people many years. But here I am, bypassing all of that!
However, I don't want to count my eggs before they hatch; I still can't just control the essence easily! Sense the thread is one thing, controlling it is a whole another matter.
In order to put my completely focus on the spell, I try to completely block out all the other tiny amounts mana around me as I concentrate on the high amounts of mana in the thread and the dragon. In my mind, all I see is a water dragon and an extremely thin string between me and the dragon.
I will my essence to slightly tilt; obviously, however, it didn't work. I need to concentrate harder.
I keep concentrating hard until I felt as if I was one with the water dragon. I could imagine the thread behind me, controlling the way I move. 'YES, YES! I'M ALMOST THERE!' I think, as I project myself onto the dragon. Think about what it sees, what it feels.
When I finally feel as if I'm one with the water dragon, I try tilting it. The result...Success!
I did it! Spell control! I can't believe it!
However, I did not have much time to celebrate this as all I did was a slight tilt. While this might have been huge for other people, I didn't have to time to think about that; I could feel the heat from flames getting near me.
"COME ON! I CAN DO THIS! I'M ALMOST THERE!" I yell as I try tilting the dragon more. However, I feel as if I hit a wall which is stopping me from progressing. I keep trying to tilt it past the wall, but alas, it's pointless; a total noob can't control essence. However, I can't just give up!
I keep pushing the dragon as far as I can until I saw a pop up in front of me.
「User is pushing his Magic core too far」
「Attempting to stop user...」
「...」
「...」
「Attempt failed; System authority is too low」
「In order to increase System authority, increasing difficulty」
「System difficulty has been changed from nightmare to hell」
「Attempting to stop user...」
「...」
「...」
「Attempt failed; System authority is too low」
「In order to increase System authority, increasing difficulty」
「System difficulty has been changed from hell to @#*@$」
「Error: Difficulty above hell does not exist」
「Creating new difficulty...」
「System is now set to [] difficulty」
「Attempting to stop user...」
「...」
「...」
「Attempt successful; stopping user...」
"Wa-wait what?!? No! Don't stop my spell! If you do, the forest will burn down! Dangerous beast will stomp all over me! System!" I cry out in distress after I read those prompts. However, that didn't stop the system. However, my spell didn't disappear, as I expected it would. Instead, the system distracted me with a slight headache, causing me to completely lose focus.
However, the system...might have just saved myself. As soon as I lost focus, the spell immediately exploded into a huge explosion. As if that wasn't bad enough, I didn't even have the capacity to worry about this as I felt an extremely sharp pain in my cheat, next to my heart. My magic core!
Unable to handle the pain, I curl up in pain. "OWWWW" I yelp, barely being able to hold down my consciousness. I was about to cast a great heal, but when I tried to, my core just pained more. Unable to handle the pain, I passed out.
Undenounced, however, the terrain around me suddenly shifted from a lush forest to a barren desert, almost as if it was never there. Along with it came a message from the system.
「Due to increase in difficulty, tutorial simulation will no longer continue」
「The Administrators can no longer view the user」