Chapter 403: Ring of Black

Slash!

Veloce Impetus with a second magic circle of its kind pressurized the mana and led to longer-term swings. It lasted up to nearly a minute.

Kazi’s current goal was to combine the extra speed and speed alongside Super Spark Strike. He thought with the System, he would be able to do it.

Bzzzchhht!

“Ngh!”

The System was not so generous.

The lightning ran up the play sword and into Kazi’s arm. The mana was far too much. He grit his teeth, stopped the trio of spells, and funneled his mana to counteract the potential explosion.

“Ha…”

He relaxed. He cooled down. “Phew.” A sigh. “The higher the level of a spell, the greater the risk and the worse the consequences if you mess up.”

Called the Risk-Reward Scale, it was a blanket statement on the growth of skills in the White Abyss. It didn’t matter if one was a cultivator or a wizard, the scale applied. The greater the scale, its damage, and complexity, the higher the risk.

If Kazi wasn’t Ascended and supremely skilled with controlling and tempering his mana, that mistake could have cost him burns. But due to his talent, he could keep practicing. He needed no mentor. He could improve on his own.

“Third time…”

Veloce Impetus for speed. Fortis Ventus for a tight grip and that invisible extra inch of reach. The green and red magic circles formed. Finally…

No incantation.

Super Spark Strike.

“…is the charm!”

Lightning crossed along the blade. Grinning, he hurled the blade and without actually making contact, the lightning-encoated blade struck and spread. Kazi felt like he had thrown a frisbee, his wrist and control of mana flickering towards the end for that extra explosive blast.

The brown dummy was electrocuted till it was burnt black.

“Phoo…”

A job well done. Kazi smiled. “An electric strike that has insane speed, extra reach for trickery, and an aftereffect too. Good stuff. If I can increase the intensity and use Super Spark Strike and stack some more magic circles…”

He imagined it. He thought of it. From his fingertips, he manifested the magic circles. Two of them, larger than his palm, with Veloce Impetus in Old French and Fortis Ventus in latin. Their compatibility was fine, nothing special.

So doing something special would cause issues. He studied the magic circles, mana flickering and testing on his index and pinkie fingers.

“Hrm, no. That would be overload. Too much stress on the magic circles and the effects will bounce off from the thick wall that Super Spark Strike created. I’ll need something better.”

He was starting to get a hand of this stuff. With one hand, he swung.

“Woah!”

Erupting from the swing was a gust of wind and, by sheer coincidence, Marta who experienced the wind. The power from his strike, despite being far behind him, nearly knocked her over.

“Marta, hey!” Wiping the sweat off his forehead, he smiled and stuck his blade into the ground. Marta was always allowed in his dimension. Whenever she needed anything, she could come here. “How are ya? Back from school?”

“Ah, yeah.” She looked worn out, her usual sharpness dulled, and there was a dejected slump in her shoulders. Her blonde hair pulled back tightly, her glasses slightly askew.

Kazj smiled kindly, hands resting on the hilt. “Long day?”

Marta sighed, her gaze dropping to the ground. “Yeah. Long day.” A sigh and an adjustment of her glasses. “Didn’t go well.”

“Want to vent?”

“Ugh, yes. It’s so damn annoying. It’s like…we were learning to draw magic circles. Thing is, with my fingers, it’s just not possible and I told my professor as much. She didn’t listen. She said all it took was focus.” Marta kicked the dirt. “Freaking…try losing your arm and drawing. It’s not easy.”

“Annoying, is she?”

“Super annoying.” Marta clicked her tongue. “It’s like she specifically picks exercises that are difficult for me and only me.”

The unspoken grumble of, “Such a bitch,” was spoken anyway.

“Come on. Stand beside me.”

Marta glanced at the training dummies that were in various stages of destruction. They were all repairing themselves. “Oh, the regen dummies. We have these too.”

Kazi gestured toward one of the still-standing dummies. “Perfect! So you know you don’t have to hesitate. I want you to hit it as hard as you can.”

Marta blinked, confused. “What?”

Kazi pointed more insistently at the dummy. “Just hit it. However you want. Use magic, use your hands, it doesn’t matter. Just release whatever you’re bottling up.”

“Uh…”

“Trust me,” Kazi interrupted again, more gently this time. “You’ll feel better afterward.” Kazi himself pointed a palm and uttered, “Fire Ball!”

Boom! The dummy survived the attack head-on.

“Er…” She glanced at the dummy and back at Kazi. His eyes were steady, warm, full of the quiet confidence that always managed to make her feel like everything would be okay.

Just do it.

She let out a long breath and stepped forward, turning her attention to the dummy. Her hands clenched into fists, then relaxed. After a moment, she lifted her hands, fingers outstretched. She concentrated, letting her mana flow to her fingertips. A dark purple magic circle etched itself into the air.

’Oooh, this is new. I bet she saw it in class and was aching to copy it.’

“The professor did it as an example. Said us students shouldn’t be able to do it and that we will be working towards it.”

“And?”

“Fuck her.”

What a long, drawn out magic circle. In battle, Marta would have been struck a thousand times over. A whole two minutes passed. Kazi said nothing and smiled.

’Look at her go. That focus…that’s the Marta I remember.’

The magic circle was quite thick. Her ability to maintain her mana was highly adept, courtesy of the training they had been doing before.

“Ring of Black…”

The inky black lines spun lazily. The circle pulsed with dark energy, twisting and shifting and then—

“Almighty Lightning!”

The darkness spell burst from her fingertips and into the magic circle, shooting toward the dummy in a straight line. But just before it hit, the spell stopped, hanging in the air for a split second as if gathering energy. Then, with a sudden jolt, it surged forward again, exploding into the dummy.

The dummy splintered as the dark energy enveloped it, leaving a deep, charred mark where the spell had struck.

“Woah! That was amazing! You stopped it and then somehow added more momentum? How does that work?”

“Haa…” Deep breathes. “Well, its not my spell. I just copied it,” she muttered, almost to herself. “I didn’t know it’d be that strong.”

Her self-confidence was getting to her. Not good.

“It was amazing!” Kazi exclaimed, walking over to the ruined dummy and tapping it lightly. “That stop you added in? It’s brilliant. Throws off your opponent’s timing, makes them second-guess the attack. You should work on adding to that.”

“Adding?”

“You said your professor wanted this spell to be the goal of the class. Well, congrats, you’ve done it! But I bet what she really wants is someone to add to it. To surpass what the curriculum says. It’s how professors find good talent. Quiet little tests like these can tell them everything.”

Marta’s brow furrowed, thinking it over. “Adding to it, huh? I was thinking of a homing attack,” she said, feeling a little more energized now. “And maybe increase the power during any stops. You know…” With her fingers, she zig-zagged. “Bam, bam, bam, blitzing through the air and being confusing and—most importantly—charging up with more mana with each stop. Then boom! It hits with more power than ever.”

“Tracking, stopping, gathering, and explosive. That’s a lot of attributes to juggle for a single spell. But more importantly…you’ll need a name for it.”

“H-huh? Already?”

“It’ll give you that strength and balance. Incantations are amazing for creating a foundation.”

“Incorporating incantations into our spells isn’t something we’ve been taught,” Marta admitted.

“You’ve been studying so much. I’m sure you can do it.”

“…Ring of Black…hm…”

“You play Dungeons and Dragons, I’m sure you can rip off a couple names.”

“Penumbra, the partial shadow.”

“If there’s a partial, then there’s a full.”

Marta was thinking to herself, her eyes losing grip on reality. “Yeah…yeah…”

“Uh-huh.”

“Yeah…”

Okay, now she was sounding crazy. The wheels in her head were turning and it looked like she was—

“Yeah! I think I got it!”

About to reach a breakthrough. Huh. Marta smiled and waved. “Sorry, Kazi, it’s just—I have an idea and I have to read some stuff and I think I’llforgetifIdon’tgonow! Bye!”

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