Following the discovery of casting magic through the use of fingers instead of hands. The possible numbers of spells that can be launched at the same time just increased by 10, which is fairly advantageous compared magicians that can only cast 2 at a time.

However, can I really accomplish such a feat? Memorizing 10 different magical formulas at the same time would be impossible for an average person as the vast amount of information involved in it was enough to render the brain dysfunctional due to information overload.

But then, I’m not really an average person myself and the level of intelligence that I currently possess were on the same league with the world’s most renowned geniuses.

So I continued on practicing for the past 4 hours, not even wasting any time on resting as my new found passion for magic was currently at its peak.

After further experimenting with magical output, I successfully minimized the size of spells into marble sized orbs, further enhancing the control in multicasting. Currently, ten magical orbs floated at the tip of my fingers, each of them emitting a different spectra of light.

3 orbs of Intermediate Destruction Magic: Ice spear

3 orbs of Intermediate Destruction Magic: Fire ball

1 orb of Intermediate Destruction Magic: Lightning spark

1 orb of Intermediate Restoration Magic: Mana shield

2 orb of Intermediate Conjuration Magic: Summon Earth Golem

Even so, I think I’m at my limit as I couldn’t further increase the number of spells. Adding another magical formation will result in the overlapping of the images floating in my mind. Overwriting the other five in the process and ending up with a single type of spell on all fingers.

Rushing through with this wouldn’t get me anywhere since I’ve only learned magic a while ago. Well sooner or later, after earning more experience in using magic, casting 10 different spells at a time shouldn’t just be a pipe dream anymore.

By the way, I’m currently using voiceless magic incantations for all five of them as I can’t possibly recite 5 different magical incantation at the same time. I learned it easily thanks to the in depth explanation written on one of those magical books.

Well rapping isn’t really my type of hobby….

Postponing the original plan of practicing multicasting spells for now, I continued on learning new spells that may be useful to my upcoming journey.

You have successfully learned Intermediate Illusion Magic: Muffle Movement!

You have successfully learned Intermediate Restoration Magic: Greater Healing!

You have successfully learned Intermediate Alteration Magic: Detect Life!

You have successfully learned Advanced Destruction Magic: Lightning Burst!

***********************************************************************************************************************

Pitch black darkness soon enveloped the surrounding and the crescent moon illuminated the forest as I quickly traversed the narrow path leading to the abandoned warehouse. The monster population in this part of the woods seems to have risen substantially since I was immersing myself with all the knowledge that I could get my hands onto from the academic city of Sjogren for the past month.

*Gwaaah!*

*thud!*

Hellish screams and sounds of bodies hitting the ground echoed throughout forest. Corpses of orcs mercilessly killed either by incineration, impalement with ice spears or disintegration into a pile of dust, littered the surrounding area.

That’s right, I am currently practicing my newly learned spells on live targets, my sworn enemies the orcs.

Combining the destructive power of these three spells decimated the ranks of monsters, not even giving them a second to react. The one sided massacre continued for half an hour until the population of orcs had completely dwindled yet again.

“Heeh... what a bunch of weaklings”

An evil grin surfaced on my face as I was thoroughly enjoying the ruthless slaughtering of those puny monsters who couldn’t even launch a single counter attack at me. I could only see them as pitiable lab rats which were only useful in experiments.

Afterwards, I activated the magic “Detect Life” which allows the detection of life force, representing it as a faint blue light. Hoping to find more prey, I combed through the forest until I stumbled upon a weird reaction from the casted spell.

Multiple presences were detected with the magic Detect life. About ten human shaped light walking side by side can be seen through the thick vegetation inside the forest.

Eh? For real?

I approached the source of the signal with nimble movements and concealed my presence by hiding myself on thick bushes that could be seen all over the forest.

And there I saw a group of shackled people walking unsteadily through the forest. Led by 4 robed individuals that used Beginner Alteration magic: Illumination that served as their guiding light through the darkness.

People of all ages, male and female including little children, shackled together in a group. Tattered clothes and ragged shoes served as their only protection from the cold night. Signs of malnutrition were noticeable from their thin bodies and lifeless expressions could be seen from their faces as if they’ve abandoned all hope.

Confusion filled my mind as to what were they doing in this part of Aegoria. But one thing was for sure, they’re walking in the direction of Sjogren!

I eagerly followed them while Casting which silenced the sounds of my footsteps, further decreasing the chances of getting detected.

A deep irritated voice can be heard from one of the robed individuals.

[Let us hasten our pace, the master would be furious if we are even a second late!]

The one who seems to be the leader out of the four admonished the other three subordinates who then obediently responded with a nod.

Who am I kidding here? Of course I can’t understand a word of what they’re saying!

I have successfully learned the language in this world through reading written text but then understanding spoken words was an entirely different thing. Well enough of that, I’ve got to focus on following their tracks without being discovered.

The group soon reached the premises of Sjogren, and to my surprise they didn’t even paused their journey and continued to walk through the stone paved roads.

A mountain trail soon came into vision as the group immediately reached the far side of the city. This part of town was completely new to me as I focused solely on the houses and buildings located inside the premises of Sjogren. I reluctantly climbed the trail and after ascending the mountain for half an hour:

“Haah Haah! My feet are killing me!”

I desperately breathed in a large amount of air, as I reached the summit of the mountain. Because of my below normal physical capabilities, I soon lost track of the group that I was supposed to be following.

*Sigh* Mission Fail – Huh?

But then all signs of discontent immediately vanished when I saw a strange looking shrine situated on the top of the mountain. Numerous conspicuous statues adorned the exterior of the building and a huge metal door, with sophisticated engravings on it, served as the only entrance of the building.

I carefully peeked through gaps of the gigantic door, the interior was somewhat similar to a throne hall. Gigantic rows of pillars with torches on each dimly illuminated the hall. A throne could be seen at the end of the hall. I think someone was seated on it but I couldn’t see it well as the light didn’t seem to reach that part of the hall.

But one thing was seriously out of place and that was the large magic circle engraved on the middle of the floor with 4 robed individuals surrounding it.

The four began chanting a ridiculously long magical incantation.

Fearful looks surfaced on the faces of the prisoners located in the middle of the magic circle. The children started to cry and the elders tried to calm them down. But all of them couldn’t stop shaking from fear as certain death will soon fall upon them.

Is it some sort of sacrificing ritual?

The circle began to emit crimson light as the tempo of the chanting began to increase. And the prisoners began to panic as if death was right in front of them.

After that, the one seated at the throne suddenly stood up. A robed old man with wrinkled hands, white hair and sunken eyes. An appearance befitting of a grand mage if I may assume.

*tap* *tap* tap*

Footsteps resounded throughout the hall as the grand mage slowly approached the magic circle. Inaudible conversations were made between the grand mage and the robed priests.

With the ritual unexpectedly delayed, the four robed priests slowly turned their heads in my direction.

Did they notice me?

Cold sweat drenched my whole body as the grand mage slowly began to walk towards the front door. My feet were rooted into the ground and my heart rate increased as each footstep echoed throughout the large hall.

He then began to recite a familiar magical incantation with his palms aiming directly at me.

This is bad!

I immediately jumped back a considerable distance from the door to avoid the incoming spell then ….

*whoosh*

*BAAAAM!*

The released magic sliced through the metal door as if it was butter. A loud sound reverberated through the mountain top as the gigantic door, which was diagonally cut into two, collapsed onto the ground.