Once Darius' thoughts reached here, he felt like he had solved a pressing issue. It seemed long-winded, but the truth was one could just imagine his fate if he cast his current Sparks around an actual mage.

They might just have their jaws lower so sharply that it might dislocate. To compare, it would be like seeing someone holding a toy pistol and then shooting a mini-nuke out of it.

How would you react?

Darius rubbed his hair and decided to take a break here. Portia was also reading up on her stuff and Darius had an idea pop up in his head.

"Portia, I've read about the power systems, but how do mages and non-mages acquire a 'Spark' artificially?" Darius asked.

Portia tilted her head in surprise. "For you to say that… Master Darius, does that mean you were naturally awakened?!"

Darius nodded pleasantly. "I am very talented as you can see Portia. What about my earlier question?"

Portia gazed at Darius with even more reverence. "Well, for people like my brother, they have to either ingest a potion or some naturally occurring fruits that can artificially create a Spark. Some even have specific talents they can create in a person."

Portia seemed downcast here. "As for us mages, it is very hard. Outside of natural awakening like yours, there is only one other way and it is by using a Scroll of Awakening written by an Adept mage."

Darius took out a blank sheet of paper and focused even as Portia continued to speak about the makings of a Scroll of Awakening.

[Would you like to change the blank paper into a Scroll of Awakening? This will cost 4 Conversion Points.]

Darius' lips twitched. Before he did anything else, he took out his Unused Spell manual and focused on it as well.

[Would you like to change the empty spell manual into a small recovery spell manual? This will cost 7 Conversion Points.]

Darius sighed. If he could create his own Awakening Scrolls, he could build his own faction of mages once he reached the city and had his identity secured.

[Heal Spell - Manual

Durability: 10/10

Description: Contained within is the required knowledge to cast the simplest spell of the healing element, Heal. Due to the high quality of the material and the penmanship, the success chance of learning the spell is increased by 100% while the effectiveness of the spell is increased by 500%.]

For now, he created the healing spell manual as Darius would always prioritize the most important things first. Darius had also learned something shocking while reading up info about magic.

That was the fact that mages couldn't just cast spells of any elements as they wished! Mages had elements they were attuned to at the point of awakening, and they would only gain affiliation with more either over time, or as they climbed the stages.

Obviously, the Magus class allowed Darius to learn all elements equally, though he was unsure if he could learn higher stage spells. Unfortunately, when he tried to make a fireball manual, the price had come to 30 CP back then.

Another fact was that as he expected, mages needed to chant to use spells. Actually, it was more complex than that. There were three types of casting methods propounded by notable Grandmaster mages over history.

The first was the easiest, through the act of invocation. By using words of power to assist spell formation, spells are formed much more stable and slightly more reliably than through other methods.

The second was through sigils and signs. By using the hands to move in certain patterns or by making certain body postures/movements, one could channel mana and elemental energy through the bodies' pathways. Spells formed this way were much faster and more powerful, but it was also harder to memorize and utilize in battle.

The third was through external assistance. In other words, mages could find materials that were attuned with the elements, imbue them with mana and use them to assist spell formation. So one could be holding something like the ashes of a phoenix and throw it out while attempting to cast an ultra fireball spell, and it would cast.

This method was relatively new and not really widely-tested, and it posed many stability issues. However, most magic schools were using this method to train apprentices since it was the most beneficial for society.

Whatever the case, Darius decided to learn his new spell that would perfect his early-stage repertoire.

[Detected spellbook. Would you like to learn its contents?

Warning: The spellbook will be destroyed upon using this method! Continue?]

The book melted into a whitish slush that crawled into his ears and assimilated with his brain, Portia again watching on in stupefaction.

Darius felt his mind grasp the new spell, going from someone who even wondered how the hell one could restore injuries without using medicine to someone who had cast a basic healing spell many times in his life to save others who were just shadows in his memory.

[Heal - Level 1 Spell

Cost: 10 MP

Description: Channel mana into the body of any living being to bring replenishment to their lifeforce. This restores 5% of a target's total HP.]

Darius noted that this spell had a higher cost, as it wasn't as weak as the other cantrips of the basic category. This spell should have healed 1% of a person's total HP normally, but even 1% could be the difference between life and death.

However, Darius had to wonder. If it objectively healed 5% of a target's HP, would that mean it would restore 100% HP at the maximum level of 20 for the skill, similar to Sparks?

That would be interesting assuming the cost for casting didn't increase too horribly. Sparks had gone up by 500%, so if this spell were to do the same, it would require 50 MP per cast.

But that for bringing an ally to full health was a great tradeoff any time.