It was not easy.

I had been trying for a few days, but I still couldn’t even come close to moving my mana outside of my body. I had tried every trick I could think of, but nothing worked. No matter what I did I just couldn’t do it! I had spent so much time looking at my mana that my mana perception skill had risen to level five!

At this point I was starting to get a little worried that I was doing something wrong. Everything else had come pretty easily, some parts had taken longer than others, but I was always making some kind of progress. But for the past few days I hadn’t progressed at all!

Despite my worries I kept at it, trying to push some mana out of myself and into the surrounding air. I could move my mana all around my body with ease at this point, but the mana stubbornly refused to move past my scales. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing wrong.

On the first day I tried every idea I had come up with beforehand, from imagining the spell I wanted to cast, to forcefully moving my mana. Over the next few days, I tried all sorts of new things but not one had worked. I still couldn’t move my mana outside of me.

I gave it a few more tries before I gave up. I stood up from the sitting position I was in and went to go find a rabbit to eat. Ever since I had decided to start learning magic, I hadn’t set foot in the dungeon except to eat, and today was no different.

I spread my wings and with a mighty flap I took flight. I scanned the grassland for any signs of mono-horned rabbits. I quickly spotted one wandering around in the grass and I dove on it, claws outstretched. The moment it was in my grasp I stabbed it through the head. The rabbit’s body vanished, leaving behind a pelt and a nice piece of meat for me.

Being in a sea of grass I decided against burning the meat here and instead picked it up, flying back to the entrance to the dungeon. I walked back into the main room and got a drink of water before I started charring the rabbit.

As I ate the meat, I began thinking about magic again.

“There must be something I’m doing wrong. But I have no idea what it could be!”

“WHAT AM I MISSING!” I roared.

I was upset. Failing for so long had dampened my spirits, and while shouting didn’t change anything it did make me feel better.

After shouting I finished my meal and got up. I decided to try checking Innate Magic again. I activated the skill for what felt like the millionth time and began reading over the information it gave me.

I had read over it dozens of times in the past few days so I doubted it would give me much, but I wanted to check again all the same. As I read through the information provided, I noticed something in the section about incantations that I hadn’t given much thought during my previous readings. Innate Magic stated that incantations are like orders that the mana listens to. They are blueprints that the mana follows, and they tell the mana everything it needs to do.

As I read this, I had an epiphany. Perhaps the reason I couldn’t cast any spells was not that I hadn’t found the trick but was instead because there wasn’t just one trick! Every time I had tried casting a spell, I had either forced the mana to move, or imagined the spell being cast, but I needed to do both of those at the same time!

With this new knowledge I got to work trying to cast a spell again. I decided on trying to create a fireball, so I began imagining a ball of fire in my head, and then tried to move my mana outwards. But it didn’t work, the mana still wouldn’t move outside my body! WHY!

I let out a roar to let off some steam, before returning to the problem. I was doing the two things at once, so why did it not work? I went over what I was trying to do again. I was trying to create a fireball, and in order to do that I was imaging a fireball and trying to move my mana outwards. I knew I must be missing something, so I began trying to figure out what it was.

“’I’ve got the blueprint of the fireball, and I’ve got the mana, so what else do I need? … OH! I’m not telling my mana where to go!”

I had completely forgotten that moving my mana outside my body was not the end of it, I also had to move it to where I wanted to summon the fireball.

With that I returned again to casting the fireball. This time I did not just imagine the ball of fire, but I imagined the ball of fire floating right next to me. I then began moving my mana towards the location I wanted to summon the fireball… AND IT WORKED! My mana moved out of my body and flowed in a straight line to the location I wanted.

As my mana reached the location it began forming into an orb. My mana kept coming making the orb larger and larger. As my mana kept coming, I began to get worried, I was running low on mana, and the ball was only half done!

As the last of my mana exited my body and went into the orb, I began to get drowsy. With my concentration lost the orb fell apart, having never become a fireball. I then passed out.

I woke up a few hours later, having passed out from mana exhaustion. I now knew what Innate Magic meant when it said that using only your own mana isn’t worth it. I couldn’t call what I had done a success as I had passed out and not even created a fireball, but I was still pretty happy. I had cracked the code! Now all I had to do was learn how to control outside mana.

Before I returned to practicing, I checked my mana level to make sure I could. My status board told me that I was currently at 25/30 MP, so I was probably fine.

Knowing I was okay to continue I got back to work. I wasn’t sure it would work, but when I had done it before my mana had just moved in a straight line, so this time I decided I would imagine it first collecting outside mana.

I began imagining the fireball right next to me, and my mana becoming a hollow ball that collected the outside mana before moving to the location. I then pushed my mana outwards.

Some of my mana exited my body and formed into a hollow orb the size of the fireball I was imagining. It then opened into a net as it moved towards the location I wanted it, collecting outside mana as it went. When it reached the location it reformed into a ball, but now it wasn’t hollow. It had enough mana to become a fireball, and it began to catch fire!

I turned off mana perception, and what I saw was a fireball! It looked just like I had imagined it! Once I got over my initial excitement, I tried to shoot it at the nearest wall. With just a thought the fireball flew towards the wall and exploded against it, leaving a few scorch marks on the rock.

“YEEEEEES!” I shouted.

After the fireball disappeared, I celebrated in full. I jumped up and down, and even took flight, swooping around the cave. I was absolutely delighted! After probably a week of trying I had succeeded! I had cast a spell! Just then I got a notification.

“You have gained new Primary Skill – Fireball lvl 1.”

I was so excited I flew around the cavern again after I read that.

After I calmed down a little bit, I opened my status board to check on my mana level.

Name: Nuriel

Species: Red Dragon

Level: 4

XP: 23/30

HP: 25/25

MP: 22/30

Str: 12

Agi: 10

Con: 10

Mag: 12

Racial Skills:

Fire Breath

Flight

Language recognition

Innate Magic

Primary Skills:

Mana Perception lvl 2

Perfect Inner Mana Control lvl 1

Fireball lvl 1

It seemed that casting the fireball had only cost 3 MP! With the knowledge that I could easily cast another one I tried doing it with the skill.

I thought about activating the skill and I felt some of my mana leave me. A few moments later a fireball appeared beside me. I then launched it at the wall again. And I jumped for joy again. The skill made things a whole lot easier. I didn’t have to imagine everything, I just had to activate the skill.

Knowing that casting the magic once was enough to get the skill I began trying to get other spells. I decided to stick with fire for now, and so began trying to create a firebolt.

I imagined a fire arrow and how my mana would create it. I then pushed out some of my mana. The mana moved out of my body, collecting outside mana to form the arrow, before igniting. I then shot it at the same wall.

“You have gained new Primary Skill – Firebolt lvl 1.”

After I got my second skill my motivation went through the roof, and I kept at it. I created a flaming spear, a bunch of little candleflames, and even a dragon made of fire! But as time flew by, I began to run low on magic. As I created a wall of fire, I knew I wouldn’t be able to cast anymore magic without waiting for my mana to recharge. As I checked over the notification about getting the Fire Wall skill, I got another notification.

“You have completed the prerequisites, Gained Skill – Fire Magic lvl 1.”

My jaw hit the floor as I read the notification, I had no idea what it meant, so I opened my status board to check it out.

Name: Nuriel

Species: Red Dragon

Level: 4

XP: 23/30

HP: 25/25

MP: 30/30

Str: 12

Agi: 10

Con: 10

Mag: 12

Racial Skills:

Fire Breath

Flight

Language recognition

Innate Magic

Primary Skills:

Mana Perception lvl 2

Perfect Inner Mana Control lvl 1

Fire Magic lvl 1

I had lost all of the fire spells but in their place was the Fire Magic skill. I instantly opened the description of the skill to see what it did.

“Fire Magic: A skill that allows the user to manipulate fire with just a thought.”

It seemed that the skill was basically just all of the spells smashed into one, and it might let me do some other things too. I was excited to try it out, and maybe also to try and get the same kind of skill for other magics, but for now my mana was nearly gone, and I also needed sleep.

As much as I wanted to continue, I knew I couldn’t, so I decided to go to sleep and pick up where I left off in the morning. I wandered over to the waterfall, got a drink, then curled up in a ball and went to sleep.