"Holy shit! THAT WAS AWESOME! She didn't even stand a chance!" Kenji exclaimed, still a little wobbly on his feet from exhaustion due to the effectiveness of the stamina potion he took being reduced by his nascent soul body's resistances.
He and his fellow disciples had just watched their senior defeat the dragonewt that has been relentlessly pummeling him for several days now. Every day since they arrived in the Yang estate, Kenji has been made to fight with Ning in what more often than not turns into a one-sided beating, both inside the arena and outside as she often goes looking for him whenever she got bored. Hence, Kenji was very aware of how strong an opponent Ning was. His favorite part of the was when Alex managed to throw her to the ground, not just because he was impressed at the unexpected reversal the elf magician had pulled off in close quarters, but because seeing her face get stomped was very satisfying after basically being bullied by her.
"Hehe! I did okay, I guess! Ugh! Pretty sure master could have done the same without breaking a rib though. Anyways, I hope you guys learned something, because I am not doing that again!" Alex said clutching the side of his chest as he pulled out a healing potion from his spatial ring.
In spite of having won the fight, Alex had not got away completely unscathed. Despite having literally thrown Ning to the ground, he was far weaker physically than her. Though he had gritted his teeth and powered through the pain, every time Ning had landed a direct hit, something had either fractured or broken. Of course, part of the reason he was hit in the first place was due to his own recklessness.
In an effort to try and teach his juniors, Alex had limited himself by trying to fight in a way that his juniors could learn from. If he had gone all out and used everything at his disposal, the fight would have been much too short with very little for his juniors to analyze. Unfortunately, he had underestimated Ning a bit too much, resulting in injury.
"Hey senior Alex! What was that first spell you used?" Shinji asked.
"Hm?"
"You know! That big explosion at the start!" Shinji clarified.
"Oh, that! That was Wind Missile! You guys know about compound spells, right?"
"A compound what?" Kenji asked.
"No, we haven't! Could you explain it?" Shinji replied.
"Well, I might as well, since you're going to have to learn some soon anyways! So, as you know, there are 9 elements we can use for casting spells, fire, water, wind, earth and you know the rest! Normal spells are usually only powered with one of these element types, but a compound spell, is a spell that utilizes more than one element at a time!"
"What? That's possible?" Kenji asked, astonished.
"I've never heard of this before?" Shinji said in doubt.
"Yes, well, even though it's not technically classified as black magic, it's generally frowned upon by most of the magic society!"
"Why?"
"Because they are incredibly dangerous!"
"Huh?"
"Let's take Wind Missile as an example! By the way, you guys wouldn't happen to be familiar with the 5th tier spell Gale Burst?"
"Yes!" Shinji replied.
"Uh?! Are we?" Kenji asked Shinji.
"…? Kenji! You got crippled by it, remember? Black Beard! Walpurgis!"
"Oh yeah."
"Ehem, well if you know about it then it might make this easier to explain! I basically cast Gale Burst while creating a container for a small fire at its center separated with a temporary vacuum wall, turning it into a superfast timed explosive!"
"Uh, what?"
"He basically just threw fire into a Gale Burst to make it explode!" Shinji explained to the confused Kenji.
"Oh!"
"Right! Gale Burst creates a very volatile and flammable air projectile so even the tiniest spark thrown into the mix will create a massive explosion. So, as you can imagine, trying to work out the kinks of this spell could cause massive collateral damage if you mess up the spell! The thing that makes compound spells powerful is that these spells are designed to use multiple elements to amplify their effects! Take Gale Burst and Wind Missile for example. While they are both 5th tier spells, as far as 5th tier spells are concerned, the former is on the lower end of the spectrum while the latter is on the higher end, bordering the 6th tier. That's almost an entire tier difference, and all I did was incorporate the equivalent of a 1st tier fire spell!"
"So, it's kind of like fusing two spells into a single strong spell, right?" Shinji asked
"I guess you could say that!"
"That doesn't sound too complicated!" Kenji said.
"Well, it is! Because compound spells utilize multiple elements, they are a lot more unstable than your regular spells, making them harder to cast, worse to learn and a bitch to develop! Before, the only thing you really had to be careful with was getting the spell structure right! Everything else is pretty simple with a wide margin for errors! However, now you also have to carefully balance how much of each element you pour in where on the magic circle and if you mess up just a little, even if you do everything else perfectly, the whole thing will still just blow up in your face, and that's if you're lucky!"
"Why would that be lucky?" Kenji asked.
"Well, the more types of energy you utilize, not only does the spell become drastically harder to cast, but the backlash should you fail become more and more unpredictable! You could be incased in ice while your insides burn, swap heads with a chicken, or you suddenly just die randomly in the future with no clear cause! Because of this, most magicians will actively avoid these spells if they can help it, leaving this section of the arcane arts has remained mostly unexplored!"
"If they're, oh never mind!" Shinji said.
"What?" Kenji asked.
"Well, I was going to ask why senior learned a compound spell if they are that dangerous, but then I remembered what kind of person the boss is!" Shinji explained.
"Oh yeah! You know, it's been so long I sometimes forget, but the body enchantments I learned from the boss are kind of in the same boat with compound spells aren't they! Taboo, but not technically black magic! Speaking of! Senior, what kind of body enchantments do you have? I know some of them, but I don't recognize the lightning enchantments! What do they do?" Kenji asked Alex.
"Hm? Oh, you're talking about these ones! They speed up the nerve signals to improve reaction speed! They're good to have in a pinch! They are a bit taxing on the nerve endings though, so best not to overuse them!" Alex said as he rolled up his sleeve to display the yellow lines stretching up his arm.
"Could you maybe teach me those?" Kenji asked.
"Maybe if I have time later! Right now, I need to focus my attention on helping Shinji, so why don't you go thaw out Ning over there and spar some more in the meantime!"
"Come on, give me a break! I'm gettin tired of being beaten up! You've only focused on teaching stuff to Aiko and Shinji this whole time! I'm a disciple of the boss too, so how come I get left out?" Kenji complained.
"Because master told you to focus on strengthening your body and cultivating, which is either something I can't help with, or something you can manage on your own. Meanwhile, Shinji and Aiko have tasks they need my help with, the former of who's got me freaking out because and if any of you don't finish on time, she is gonna think it's because I'm slacking off and beat me with the pain stick as punishment!"
"...! Okay fair enough, but can I at least do something else! There is only so many beatings a man can take!"
"What are you complaining about? It hurts way less to fight with her, than sparring with the boss!" Shinji said.
"You're only saying that cuz you can use your homework as an excuse to shoo her away every time she comes to pick a fight! The boss might break every bone in my body when we spar, but at least she leaves me alone afterwards! That monster frozen over there never runs out of energy and always wants to fight! Wherever I go, she keeps popping up out of nowhere and clock me for no reason! Then I spend the rest of the day, either recovering from the beatings, or trying to hide before she realizes I've recovered! I'm losing sleep cuz I'm scared she'll suddenly come punching through the walls, floor, or ceiling! I desperately need a rest from all the violence already! So please, just give me something!" Kenji begged.
"Come on! It can't be that bad?" Shinji said.
"I literally woke up today with her fist in my face!" Kenji said.
"Okay, fine! If you just need an excuse not to fight her then could you go take over Aiko's training while I focus on Shinji for a bit! I left her up in the stands practicing soul sensing! She seems close to figuring it all out, so all you need to do is give her some tips!"
"Yes! Thank you! You're the best senior ever!" Kenji said, as he flew up to the spectator seats where Aiko was.
"By the way, shouldn't we maybe free her now? I feel like we might have spent a little too long talking while glossing over the fact that we've left her inside a block of ice the entire time we've been speaking!" Shinji asked as he looked at the giant mass of ice Ning was trapped inside of.
"Nah! This much ice can only hold her temporarily anyways, so she'll break out on her own eventually if you give her some time! Now, back to the lesson on compound spells?" Alex said.
"Right! You don't need to worry! I promise I'll stay clear of it!" Shinji promised.
"Sorry, but that's not going to be possible!" Alex said awkwardly.
"Shit! You're right! The Boss is a nut case! She is going to make me learn some eventually, isn't she? How many elements can she use anyways?" Shinji said.
"She can go all the way up to Nona!"
"No-Wha?" Shinji said in confusion.
"Right! Sorry, I forgot to explain that earlier! There is this numbering system based off an ancient language used to denote how many elements are used in a spell! In order, they are Mono-, Di-, Tri-, Tetra-, Penta-, Hexa-, Hepta-, Octa-, and Nona-spells, with Mono being 1, and Nona being 9!"
"I see! Wait, that means-!" Shinji said.
"Yeah! *Sigh* I'm sorry!"
"I'm not sure whether to be terrified or amazed your even alive?"
"It's probably not as bad as you're imagining! She mostly only taught me Di- and Tri-spells, then let me skip the rest so long as I at least memorized the spell structures and theory behind them! However, speaking from experience, even just a Di-spell takes a lot of guts! I can't tell you how many times I nearly died trying to learn Air Missile, and that was with safety measures put in place! And that was just learning an existing one! Could you imagine trying to develop a new compound spell? It takes a special kind of deranged maniac to attempt an original compound spell! That being said, going forwards, I'll mostly be teaching you compound spells!"
"Huh? Wait, what?!"
"Well, most of the spells I know are master's original ones, and, well, you know her! Never satisfied with just being a deranged maniac! She always got to be 'the' deranged maniac!"
"Yeah, but she must have taught you Mono-spells too! Just teach me those!"
"Uh! That wouldn't really work!"
"Why the hell not!"
"*Sigh* Okay, I'm gonna be honest with you! At the rate you're going, learning 100 spells in a month is never gonna happen! I'm not even sure you could do it in a year! But if I can at least make you a 4th tier spellcaster, I might stand a chance at negotiating my way out of getting punished!"
"Okay, but there are two problems! First of all, that doesn't explain why I'll have to learn compound spells! Second of all, I can't become a 4th tier spellcaster, I lack the aptitude for it!"
"Well, that's not entirely true!"
"What?"
"Spell circles are immaterial containers formed through our will to hold the elemental energy we pour into it! That said, they are not perfectly sealed containers, if they were, we wouldn't be able to pour our elemental energy inside it to begin with! Hence, it will constantly leak out energy at a steady rate while your casting it, and the higher the tier of a spell, the bigger the spell circle, and the bigger the spell circle, the bigger the leakage, and the bigger the leakage, the higher rate of energy production you need to compensate. Your aptitude decides the rate at which you can convert your mana into elemental energy, and yes, with your aptitude, your standard 4th tier spells will empty out faster than you could fill it up, but that's not to say there aren't any way you can become a 4th tier spellcaster!"
"What?"
"In the past, because of her special physique, master did a lot of research on ways to make up for a person's lack of aptitude! Artifacts to produce elemental energy, magic stone implants, ways to cultivate an existing aptitude, and so on until she eventually landed on spirit magic! So, since I'm not a professional surgeon, we're short on time, and your spriggans aren't here right now, the only way left is compound magic!"
"How does compound magic change anything?"
"One of the upsides with compound magic is that the aptitude requirements tend to be lowered the more elements you utilize!"
"Huh?"
"With compound spells, though the ratio can vary, the total rate of energy loss gets distributed across the different elements that goes into the spell! Meaning that the required rate of production needed for the individual energy types gets lowered. Additionally, by not limiting yourself to making one energy type at a time while casting, you can effectively increase your total energy output. So basically, while it is true you may lack the aptitude to power a regular 4th tier Mono-spell, that is not necessarily the case if we are talking about higher order spells of the same tier! Do you understand?"
"I think so! Since I don't have a good enough aptitude for any single element, by using compound spells, I can make up for it by stacking my aptitudes! That's more or less it, right?"
"That's the idea!"
"Can I really become a 4th tier spellcaster like this?"
"Well, it's how master became an arch-mage, so it would be weird if it wasn't!"
"What really?"
"You know that magic gun she has!"
"Yeah! I once saw her one-shot a dragon with it, but that was an artifact though!"
"Yes, but its enchantments were based off her original 6th tier Tetra-spell, 'Incineration'! I don't have a death wish, so I never tried casting it by hand, but if I remember right, the spell circle itself was the size of a small building and the laser that came out was even bigger! She developed the magic gun to make it easier to use inside human settlements, after she accidentally created a giant bottomless pit inside a capital city!"
"That couldn't have ended well!"
"You'd think, but weirdly enough she-!"
"Hey guys! Do any of you know what that is?"
Suddenly interrupting Alex's words, shouting from the stands, Kenji directed the two's attention towards a massive pillar of darkness shooting up into the sky.
"What is that?"
…
Meanwhile, somewhere in straw city, a cloaked individual in a mask was looking out a window facing the direction of the Yang estate. Seeing the pillar of darkness sprouting from it his hands holding onto the windowsill clenched so hard he crushed it into splinters.
"I didn't want it to come to this, but you left me with no other choice."