"This—might hurt." Syn grasped Aleister's forearm as black light erupted from her body. The light infiltrated his hand and etched itself into his skin.

"Fuck!" Aleister couldn't help but swear. He tried to clench his other hand, but found himself unable to move. The light acted as if millions of needles stabbed and punctured his arm at the same time.

Soon, the light dissipated, as his entire arm up to his elbow that transformed into a pitch black had its colour returned. However, his mind was still in the middle of processing all the information he received.

Syn opened her eyes and said nothing.

After a few moments of silence, Aleister said, "So all spells have levels attached to them? And not just arcane ones?"

"Yes. If anything, I thought arcane spells might not have levels attached to them, but it makes sense they do, as they utilize the power from the world themselves."

"Well, now I understand why you wanted me to use such a heavy spear."

"Are you going to try to summon it now?"

"Obviously."

Splash!

The anima no longer affected the water he bent earlier, causing it to turn back into its original clear color and form, dropping back into the lake. He ignored it for now.

Spectral Weapon, a level one evocation spell. I don't use my own anima when casting this spell, instead I use Syn's. Upon success, she should transform into a floating weapon that takes upon whatever form of my choosing. Only I'm able to hold on to it, however when I use it to strike another object, person, or creature, they take force damage. Interesting. So it appears that spells can deal different types of damage.

"How exactly do damage types work?"

"Everyone's anima is different, including monsters. So some people are naturally resistent against certain types of damage. This is where different magic items or potions can provide protection," Syn explained. She tapped her lips and added. "Force damage is also one of the more unique types of damage as it can even attack incorporeal enemies like ghosts."

"So if someone uses a spell that deals force damage, it could even injure you?"

"Yup. But, you shouldn't try to cast that or any first level spell right now. Force anima is one of the more advanced and unique types of anima. Its on the same tier as radiant and necrotic anima and thus naturally more difficult to control. And first levels spells are on a much higher casting difficulty than level zero ones. You won't even be able to cast them using the anima you have now."

"Hm? Why not? And for the Spectral Weapon, am I not using your anima?"

"Yes, but you still need control, my anima, or else you'll injure the both of us. And for the why not, the answer is because as the level of a spell increases, you also need to increase the stage of your anima."

"Let me guess. To increase the stage of that anima I need to refine even more? And because of how long that should take, it means it will take even longer to cast a level one spell compared to a level zero spell?"

"You're correct, but, your soul rank limits the level to which you can refine your anima."

"So being a Rank One Weaver, I can only refine up to level one anima? And once I hit Rank Two, I'm able to refine stage two anima?"

"Not exactly. You won't be able to refine anima to stage two until Rank Three."

"So I need to be one rank higher before I can refine to the next anima stage?"

Syn shook her head. "You didn't let me finish. You can't refine anima to stage three until you hit Rank Five. Then at Rank Seven you can refine anima to stage four. And so on and so forth."

"So on and so forth? You mean you can ascend past Rank Seven?"

"Yes."

"Then, how far can you go?"

Syn tapped her lips again. "I'm not sure. The more I think about it, the denser my brain fog gets. But yes, Rank Seven is not the limit."

"And to my knowledge, the Empress has been Rank Seven for quite some time. It already took me forever to become a Weaver. I can't imagine how long it will take me to even reach Rank Two, let alone Rank Eight and beyond."

"It will take you decades to reach that point, but as it should. The more you increase your soul's rank, the longer your lifespan becomes. In fact, just from becoming a Rank One Weaver, it tacked ten to twenty years on to you. With your partial elven and fey blood, that brings your total lifespan to what, almost two-hundred years? So yes, it will take you time, but you have plenty of it."

"You don't need to add any more years. I already couldn't even comprehend that amount of time I already had to live."

"Me either." Syn chuckled. "Anyway, you can think about such lengthy concepts later. Right now, you have another force anima spell that is at level zero. Why don't you try that out instead."

Aleister nodded. Macabre Blast. The name was quite grim, but its effects were quite simply. Upon success, the attack would cause an explosion of force damage, and all it required was force anima and evocation anima.

He converted some of his anima and brought together the two types of anima in his hand. He used that same relaxed posture and mindset to combine them.

"Are you trying to merge the anima types externally?" Syn asked. "Doing so means that you're fighting against the natural anima in the environment while letting your own leak."

"Uh..." Aleister stuttered and made strange noises as he stretched his mouth in different directions. He just realized how dumb he was for not thinking that on his own.

Syn crossed her arms and shook her head. "Good thing you have me, or else who knows what would have happened to you."

"Thanks for the tip."

"Actually, I don't even know how you're managing to combine anima externally. I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing. Must have something to do with the fact you can absorb anima from the environment in the first place."

Aleister combined the force anima and evocation anima within his soul. The process occurred without a single hitch. However, upon completion, the newly created anima morphed into a card.

He summoned upon the card and brought it into his left hand—which now turned black. But a copy of it remained within his soul. This also activated his Fool Arcana. He now understood that he could consume the Fool Arcana card for the day and amplify a spell with it to either increase its duration by twofold, or the distance it could travel and effect twofold as well.

"Hm?" Syn peered past his shoulder. "Is that Macabre Blast as a tarot card?"