The next morning Luz got up early to continue reading another book. This time he reached for a different book. "Introduction to Fire Magic for Beginners." 'Well, fire magic can always be useful,' went through Luz's head as he opened the book.
The book contained only two magic spells intended for mage apprentices.
[Ignite] only makes something ignite. The other more complicated fire spell was [burn]. This is one of the most popular and most substantial spells among fire mages since it is the basis for many higher-ranked fire spells.
The reason for its popularity is that you can influence it at will.
One of the factors is the intensity of the flames or the size of it, or the type and shape of the flames make it very popular.
After reading it for a short while, he put it aside to take a different book called "the introduction to water magic."
That book also merely contained two water spells.
The water variant of [Ignite] would be [get wet] useful but nothing spectacular. There was still the spell called [water]. One could manipulate its shape with the least effort under any mage discipline. On the other hand, changing the intensity wasn't possible for mage apprentices.
Killing someone with a water spell can still be done without much effort since one could manifest a water bubble on someone's head. Such a spell does wonders in the early mage apprentice levels since all mage apprentices rely on reciting spells. Stopping one from reciting spells is the fastest way of winning against a mage.
The two books' focussed on manipulating their respective elements and how to fine-tune them into your needs. A higher-ranking magician can do that by only thinking about the spell they want to cast. But knowing how to fine-tune spells isn't worth knowing if you are still in the phase of learning spells.
Luz practiced in his room the two spells: [Ignite] and [Burn].
One of the most essential things a mage must do before casting a spell is to embrace the part on the body with a mana shell.
The reason for that is simple, spells won't differentiate between the caster and the enemy. It will hurt everyone.
With a spell such as [Ignite], one wouldn't get any big burn marks even if one forgets to wrap the body part with a mana membrane. On the other hand, however, if you were to cast the spell [spatial distortion], you're going to hurt yourself pretty badly.
After half an hour of failing in casting the spells, Luz finally got the hang of both of them. Unfortunately, doing all that build-up drained him of any mana he had, which is why he decided to continue with physical training.
His workout consisted mainly of squats, pushups, situps, and last but not least, 30 minutes of jogging. His endurance and physique still left a lot to be desired, but Luz would take care of that in the future.
'That should be enough,' went thought Luz head while changing his clothing.
After doing that, he left for the canteen to continue his needs. The parasites, as always, told him what he should eat, and as always, it seemed to be the snacks with the most calories and vitamins.
'I have never seen such dishes,' Luzu thought on his way back, looking for people he may know.
The only person he saw was Francis. He was winking from his place.
"Are you ready for today's work," Francis asked him eagerly.
"Not really, but it should help me with killing time," Luz replied with a smile.
Both of them talked about interesting topics, and before Luz knew, he agreed to go shopping with Francis on the weekend.
"By the way, you still haven't received any salary if I remember correctly. But be patient. It will be paid on the last day of the month, so don't worry."
After finishing their meal, the two of them walked to the fields, where it was so quiet that even Luz helped the workers out because there was nothing much to do.
"Isn't it unusually silent?" asked Luz Francis while harvesting the crop.
Francis nodded slowly and whispered, "Better take your crossbow out. I'm afraid something big might happen."
Luz nodded. It took less than 10 minutes before Francis was proven right. The ground began to tremble, and even though it wasn't particularly noticeable, it was enough for Francis to send all the workers away from the field. Francis also retrieved a device from his pocket to request reinforcements.
"What's going on?" asked Luz while loading his crossbow.
"It's probably a beast wave. But something like that shouldn't happen in this place," Francis stated with a serious face.
"Anyway, put the crossbow away. We will use a different one," Francis told Luz as he opened the box to take out a different one.
"What's the difference? They look identical," Luz wondered as he held the crossbow in his hand.
"See that crystal down there?" asked Francis.
"Yes, and what's the deal with it?" asked Luz.
"Focus your mana on it, and you can summon mana arrows. The more mana you fill into your crossbow, the mightier the arrow will become," Francis explained to him as he aimed his crossbow at the forest.
Luz followed his action and whispered something to Francis, "How long until the reinforcements will be here?"
"Probably five minutes since they have to pack their things. The city guard should be coming too," Francis replied.
Luz nodded, and the vibration of the ground grew stronger.
Before even the first animals could be seen, a roar echoed. Francis, however, was slowly putting his crossbow to the side and decided to cast a spell that was unknown to Luz. [Fire wave] could be heard while a slow but steady wave out of fire appeared in front of the place where the woods end.
One could hear the painful shrieks of animals and Luz's hands trembled out of nervosity as he aimed with his crossbow.
Francis, on the other hand, cast calmly [Tornado]. Sweat started to run down on his head.
"This probably should buy as some time," Francis told Luz while a blazing tornado appeared after the tornado got in contact with the wave of fire.
To their misfortune, the fire tornado wasn't strong enough, and many animals escaped. But at least it dealt some good fire damage to them before they were able to leave it.
The smell of burnt flesh also filled the air as enraged animals began running enraged and disoriented at them.
Luz and Francis started shooting at the animals that were unlucky to leave the blazing tornado first.
"Why the hell do herd animals emerge from the tornado," Francis screamed while shooting at the cow-like creature.
These creatures were more aggressive and had some crystals embedded into their chest and forehead. Francis's shots killed every animal leaving the tornado. Luz, however, was still an untrained crossbow user whose aim wasn't good. Aiming at the foreheads of such creatures was, therefore, pointless. He rather shot at their chest.
'Why are we so unlucky,' Luz sighed while continuing shooting animals.
Reloading their crossbow after every shot didn't make their task any easier.
