“To me, gather my embers, to me

From shadows to embers

From embers to flame

From flame to inferno

Cast away the darkness, burn brightly, oh, dear flames

Arise inferno hellfire, engulf the world in a sea of flames

For that is my Decree!

Imperial Hellfire!”

…

Nothing. Not even a spark appeared when I finished my incantation. The magic circle that always appeared when I would cast a spell just vanished into thin air. The mana I invested into it? Wasted.

It was a bit of a hit to my pride as a mage, but I just had to bear with it. This was expected for somebody without formal magic education. I had to look at it as an adult and take it as a stepping stone towards my magical greatness! I had to stand tall and continue!

[“Taaaaassiaaannaaaaa. It didn’t work, again!”] However, instead of doing that, I began whining from my broken pride. I had to call my newest companion, Tasianna, for help.

[“Princess Hestia, you constructed the magic circle wrong again.”] From the cover of a giant boulder, Tasianna came flying to me, evaluating my execution. [“I can’t understand the words you spoke, but there seems to be no problem with “Incantation”. Your “Activation” requires more practice though.”]

[“I guess?”] Resting one hand on my hip, my whole body slouched in exasperation. [“Doing all of this without the help of the System is really hard.”]

Nodding to my complaints, Tasianna further added, [“It was also hard for me when I started, but this is how you start learning magic.”]

What I was currently doing was magic practice with Tasianna as my instructor. During breakfast, Tasianna gave a short lecture on magic theory for Saori, who needed it urgently. Tasianna, being a resident of this world, had more basic knowledge on the fundamentals and principles of magic casting.

She warned Saori she never really dabbled in it enough to be called an arcanist, the term mages used for experienced and learned magic practitioners. It was above an associate, apprentice, and journeyman, in that order. And Tasianna called herself at the level of an apprentice, a person who had dabbled in magic, but not enough to be called a full-fledged mage.

However, to Saori, Tasianna was a great instructor for her to understand the basics. And what about me? Well, it was the same. I was self-taught and only a better mage due to my status board. Tasianna, on the other hand, had learned magic from a master, so even if I couldn't improve prowess-wise under Tasianna, my knowledge would expand and this will help me grow even further.

After all, I’d only used magic for less than a year, and most of it was gained through the System with my cheat-like titles and skill points. I was essentially a newb who got lucky with her starting gifts. My ignorance of what magic really was, was baffling considering how often I’d been using it for six months now. My pride as a mage meant nothing if I wasn’t willing to improve. So, that was why Tasianna was helping me out.

Anyways, the summary of the training’s content was as followed:

When it came to magic, there were four parts to the whole process: Invocation, Incantation, Activation, and Release. This was how spells were cast.

Through my own trials and errors, I kinda had a basic idea of how magic worked but it was just a crude understanding. I didn’t know the details.

First things first, Invocation. This was what I referred to as the “imagination” phase. The formal explanation was “decide on a spell and visualize its appearance.” The more detailed the image, the better.

The second stage was called Incantation. As you could infer from the name, this was the one stage I had never, ever had to do. [Chant Revocation] from [Primal Magics] — now [Draconic Magics] — allowed me to skip this whole part. It was a given that I couldn't explain it in full to Saori when she needed me to.

Simply put, in this phase, the System transmitted a text into your head, which you must recite. The problem was that you required quite a bit of focus to fully chant the whole text, if you didn’t remember the chant. It was even more difficult if you had to do this while you were engaging an enemy. Timing your dodges, predicting your enemy, and making sure of your environment was already a ton of multitasking, so imagine having to do cast magic in between, too.

This issue can be partially mitigated with the [Concentration] skill, or you could just avoid it completely with my favorite multitasking skill, [Parallel Thoughts]. In either case, chanting the spell will be made easier as your mind can work more fluidly.

The third stage was Activation, the phase where you began using your mana to form the spell. By spending mana, the System would begin molding it into a magic circle, and from where it would change, order, or materialize the effects I wanted during the Invocation step.

Tasianna told me that the amount of mana needed to fully form the spell depends entirely on how detailed I was during the imagination phase. How large should it be? What should I heal? Be as specific as possible, essentially. That was how you can cast super cost-effective spells while maintaining the strength of them.

Of course, that only determined the base amount of mana you had to use to cast it. As I had done up until now, it was entirely possible to pour in my mana to make the spells even stronger.

If you wanted to only heal a bone, then your [Minor Heal] will only heal that bone, ignoring any other parts like the nerves and flesh. Magic wasn’t some kinda party trick in this world.

Not only was magic casting a practice available even before the Origin God’s advent, but it was now governed by an entire sub-system of the Divine System. If you had the skills and knowledge, the System was smart enough to accommodate you here.

Admittedly, I never went into detail about how my spells should behave. I always thought “heal me” or “burn that.” This meant the System always had to accommodate my vagueness, resulting in using unnecessary amounts of mana. And the more mana you used, the more arcane corruption would be accumulated.

Honestly, it was embarrassing how pitiful my usage had been up until now; it was so bad I actually got affected by [Arcane Fever (Minor)] once, despite how resilient I was to it.

I liked to consider I was a pretty decent mage. However, having this fact pushed into my face was making me both angry and sad, similar to if somebody were to tell me my singing sucked.

The last part was Release. This was the easiest part. You simply just had to let your spell work.

During three out of four phases, focus was a prime resource. Having skills which helped you concentrate like [Battle Mind] and [Concentration] allowed you to perform more effectively in combat.

It made sense, right? Just like in a video game, mages weren’t supposed to be in the thick of a brawl, and instead should be relaxing on the sides. Bad focus meant more mana would be used, leading to needlessly generated arcane corruption.

Looking back, I really had been blessed by a wonderfully perfect skill set. My parallel minds helped me cast spells, [Battle Mind] kept me focused on the battle, and [Absolute Pain Tolerance] prevented my action from being dulled by pain. Calmness was invaluable for a mage, and panic was a fierce enemy.

Anyways, that was about it for magical theory.

Now, came the part about “custom spells” — the creation of spells without the help of the System. [Imperial Hellfire], [Create Water], and all spells not gained through leveling your magic skills were ones created by the people of this world.

Compared to the System-made spells, these ones had to be learned through studying. It was normal for a person to first learn a basic custom spell like [Create Crack] or [Create Water], gaining acquisition progress towards their first System magic. With this method, as long as you could control your mana and expel it from your body, any person could become a mage.

And the mark of a true mage was their ability to not only use System-based spells but also their own custom spells. Once created, these spells would be integrated into the System, allowing it to be boosted by skills and your Intelligence stat. The System showed its adaptability here.

However, there seemed to be a problem with my [Imperial Hellfire]. Tasianna mentioned she had never heard of a spell like this before, which meant it was my very own custom spell. Only problem was that while the System recognized it as a spell right now, it wasn’t “fully integrated” as Tasianna mentioned.

I was essentially just throwing a large flame onto the ground. There was no finesse nor technique. It lacked an Incantation and Activation phase. Tasianna even called it was more similar to an Ability, instead of a spell, but the System probably included it into the Spell List section ‘cause I thought it was a spell.

Since it wasn’t finished, Tasianna urged me to complete it. [“You won’t be able to fully use its power without finishing it. My lady, you can turn your ball of fire into whirlpools or tornadoes of flames. Artillery fire coming from the skies, and so much more. I have seen elves cast such fire spells. You, my lady, will be able to do it, too.”]

How could I say no to such a proposal? And that was why I was doing this magic practice.

It also helped that during the creation of the incantation, I also had some language lessons from Tasianna. Creating the chant was easy, it was as simple as writing song lyrics to me. However, the problem laid with the magic circle. The letters, or runes, were written in the lingua franca of this world “Common tongue.” However, I couldn’t speak nor could I read a single word.

["Yes, learning how to speak, write, and read is something that you must do, post-haste."] Tasianna’s words were indisputable.

For example, the books I found in that one elven shack in the Belzac forest. I wanted to read. I showed them to Tasianna and asked her to teach me and Saori how to read and write. Regardless of my troubles with magic, learning the language of this world was not only important but essential.

I was planning to debut as an idol in this world and the last thing I needed was for people to think I was uneducated. It would be too embarrassing. Besides, I needed people to understand me singing, right? Learning my ABC was a necessary preparation before we reached civilization.

It shouldn’t be a problem for me if I put my mind into it. I knew how to speak four languages fluently on Earth — English, German, Japanese, and Korean. The former three were due to living in America and having parents of those ethnicities, but I learned Korean for the sole purpose of singing their songs properly. I sadly didn’t care much about Spanish, though. Four languages were enough.

[“Anyways, I got a question for you.”] Having practiced enough for today, I decided to take a break and ask Tasianna a question I had been longing to ask. [“How does it feel to be made out of mana?”]

Hearing my out-of-nowhere question, Tasianna’s quizzical face wanted to know why I was interested in this. I told her about two of my evolution options when I was evolving into a C rank monster. These two dragons were called [Young Mana Dragon] and [Young Arcane Corruptor Dragon], both options would turn my body into one composed completely out of mana if I were to believe the description.

I was already uninterested in [Young Arcane Corrupter Dragon] as it would prevent me from casting spells, something that I could never give up on. I was a mage, end of the story. I’d invested too much SP and training into this combat style so losing it would be a horror.

However, [Young Mana Dragon], on the other hand, sounded like an interesting choice. I could only die when my mana dropped to zero, and considering it was triple the amount of my Health, I will essentially be harder to kill.

[“Hmm, I understand.”] Tasianna thought for a moment before speaking again. [“Well, it’s not as different as you believe it will be, Princess Hestia. Yes, your mana will become your new ‘Health.’”]

I gave a small nod. [“My mana is quite large, so I thought it would be a great way to help my survivability? Especially, when I don’t have to deal with stuff like bleeding, decapitations, and other stuff that would cripple my current body.”]

However, contrary to my expectations, Tasianna just shook her head. [“Mana will be your body; bleeding means leaking mana from your body, for example. If you were to lose your head, you might not die, but it would be as hard to heal such a wound as having a flesh body. At least, that is what I learned.”]

She held up three fingers, each one an argument against a mana body. [“Mana is our life, so you can’t heal yourself using healing spells anymore. The miraculous spells of the Goddess of Light, Aurena, can only heal Health. It doesn’t affect Mana, sadly.”]

Alright, that was a bit of a bummer. That would kill my heal tank strategy, but it still wasn't a deal-breaker. I could simply have my mana regenerate through skills. There had to be more mana regeneration skills in the shop, and I might be able to gain some evolution bonuses after evolving.

[“Secondly, our lives are threatened by inventions that drain mana, like that mana battery those trolls were using. Not to mention, as you lose mana, you also lose some of your stats. You become weaker the more spells you use, instead of being susceptible to [Arcane Fever] and [Mana Stress].”]

[“However, can’t you protect yourself with [Mana Leak Resistance]?”] I rebuked her point. ["With access to the skill shop, we can both buy and upgrade the skill to its max level. Maybe at level ten, it will completely prevent mana leakage?"]

[“I see!”] Tasianna was in awe once she realized using SP could possibly remove her biggest weakness. [“I’m not a very good fighter, but I will do as much as I can.”]

Clenching her hands together, Tasianna seemed to have made a goal for herself. My cheeks couldn’t help but loosen up, silently cheering for her success.

[“Oh! My apologies.”] She looked embarrassed after realizing her sudden elation.

A cackle escaped my mouth as I waved her concerns away. [“Don’t worry about it. So, what’s the third point?”]

[“Ah, yes! The last point would be how it would work with [Humanize].”] I tilted my head at this point, not knowing what she was trying to point out. [“I know that the royal family Iggdrasyl, the royalty of us fairies, are capable of transforming into elves using the skill [Elvenize], the elven version of [Humanize].”]

I looked through my skill shop, but the skill couldn’t be found. Maybe I locked myself out by buying [Humanize]?

Tasianna continued, [“You lose a certain amount of your stats whenever you humanize, don’t you, Princess Hestia?”] I nodded to this question. [“When smaller creatures, like Faefolk, use [Humanize], we grow in size and our stats adapt to our new body. The only exception would be for mana. The amount will stay the same, but it spreads around our transformed body.”]

In other words, fairies who use [Humanize] will, instead of losing a percentage amount, gain stats. Fairies, being made of mana, will also keep this trait in their humanized form. The only difference was that the condensed mana will be spread around the body.

[“Wait, doesn’t that mean that you don’t have to pay mana to sustain your humanized form?!”] Tasianna gave an affirming nod, confirming my suspicion. A mana dragon would follow this exact same rule, which meant I could keep all my mana in human form.

[“However,…”] But, like a wrecking ball, Tasianna interrupted my daydreaming. [“I don’t know what would happen if somebody with huge amounts of mana would turn into a smaller being. It might be dangerous.”]

Wait, what? That’s the reason? That’s stupid!

[“Wait, Tasianna, that sounds like you’re just trying to find a reason so I wouldn’t turn into a mana dragon. That’s not a real reason!”] My assertion forced Tasianna to make a wry smile, while she kept flying in front of me.

[“I have no knowledge about it, so it might be dangerous, Princess Hestia. That is all I have to say.”]

["Mana dragons should exist in this world,"] I argued. [“I think it would be weird if they had these problems in the first place. There has to be a way.”]

[“Maybe, but I haven’t seen a mana dragon in my life before. You will walk into the unknown if you choose to switch to a mana composed body. I just wished to inform you of this, not dissuade you.”]

[“… Well, I guess.”] I gave a sigh in resignation while massaging my temple. [“I guess there is time until my next evolution. Thanks for your insight, Tasianna. It’ll help me make a decision in the future.”]

[“I am in your service, Princess Hestia.”] She bowed, hiding a smile which formed after I thanked her.

[“Well, I guess this is enough for today. We need to start being productive.”]

Turning my whole body around, my eyes caught the sight of a giant rock cube constantly moving up and down. Looking under its shadow, a giant monster was lying there. That was Saori and she was currently doing a reverse push up using the rock as her training partner. She wanted to push herself with her new body and asked me if I could create something heavy, which was simple.

She has been doing it for a while now, so she must be enjoying it. Just in case, I set up a trap using [Trap Creation] which would automatically activate when the rock fell to a certain distance to stop its fall. Didn’t want my friend to get squashed, right?

Using [Telepathy], I spoke with her. [“Hey, Saori. I’m finished. How much longer do you still need to train?”]

No answer came from my wolf friend. It was likely she didn’t have any concentration to spare for any pleasantries.

[“Uhm, this is a surreal sight. I hope Madam Saori will be alright,”] Tasianna said worriedly.

[“She’ll be fine ~”]

I hope she’s enjoying it.

“Wruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh!”

…I hope she doesn’t spend the whole day on it.

<Multiple proficiency requirements fulfilled. [Draconic Barrier Lv. 4] [Poison Creation Lv. 4] [Noble Aura Lv. 4]  [Mental Stability Lv. 4] [Mental Warfare Lv. 4] [Probability Correction Lv. 4]  [Terrain Maneuvering Lv. 4] [Draconic Fangs Lv. 4] [Piercing Enhancement Lv. 4] [Leadership Lv. 4] [Enhanced Vitality Enforcement Lv. 4] [Enhanced Wisdom Enforcement Lv. 4] gained. 9750 SP remaining>

<Multiple proficiency requirements fulfilled. [Prediction Lv. 8] [Presence Killer Lv. 8] [Enhanced Intelligence Growth Lv. 8] [Enhanced Agility Growth Lv. 8] gained. 8950 SP remaining>

<Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Parallel Thoughts Lv. 7] evolved into [Parallel Thoughts Lv. 8] gained. 8650 SP remaining>

<Multiple proficiency requirements fulfilled. [Enhanced Mana Growth Lv. 10] [Enhanced Mana Capacity Lv. 10] [Enhanced Intelligence Growth Lv. 10] [Enhanced Intelligence Enforcement Lv. 10] [Enhanced Agility Growth Lv. 10] [Enhanced Agility Enforcement Lv. 10] gained. 3550 SP remaining>

<Skill requirement fulfilled. [Enhanced Mana Growth Lv. 10], [Enhanced Mana Capacity Lv. 10] merged into [Arcane Conduit Lv. 1]>

<Skill requirement fulfilled. [Enhanced Intelligence Growth Lv. 10], [Enhanced Intelligence Enforcement Lv. 10] merged into [Sorcerer’s Power Lv. 1]>

<Skill requirement fulfilled. [Enhanced Agility Growth Lv. 10], [Enhanced Agility Enforcement Lv. 10] merged into [Speed of Sound Lv. 1]>

<You have bought [Mana Leak Resistance Lv. 1]. Your current SP is 3300>

<You have bought [Dark Resistance Lv. 1]. Your current SP is 300>

< Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Humanize Lv. 7] evolved into [Humanize Lv. 8] gained. 0 SP remaining>