Chapter 80 : Chapter 80

Chapter 80. A New Spell

That night, after returning home, Fulan immediately gathered all her things and went down to the basement.

The table she had once used as a dissection platform had already been thrown into the furnace and burned to ashes. The corpse had been sealed inside a body bag.

She could not help but sigh in admiration. A full mage truly was different. Even after so many days, the corpse remained largely unchanged. There was no sign of rot—only certain areas of skin had begun to dissolve.

Of course, she had not come down here tonight to deal with the corpse.

She had come to practice spells.

Aside from the first day—when she had spent nearly all her time crafting Fireball spell rings and had not obtained many spells—the following days had been far more productive. Apprentices from various schools had come to commission rings from her.

Although many of the spells were duplicates, Fulan had still managed to acquire a large number of new spells through this process.

Her plan was to first train all of them to the Beginner level and then focus on raising the most useful ones to Mastery.

This was her current skill panel.

【Skills】

Fireball (Beginner) (Proficiency: 12/100): Condenses fire elements into a sphere and throws it forward. When the sphere touches a target, the fire elements explode and deal damage.

Earth Spike (Beginner) (Proficiency: 1/100): Condenses earth elements within the ground to form a spike that attacks the target. (Note: Can only be used where earth elements exist.)

Life-Destruction Ray (Beginner) (Proficiency: 3/100): Fires a ray. If it strikes a living substance, the target receives additional damage.

Cloud Mist (Beginner) (Proficiency: 3/100): Creates a cloud of mist that obstructs vision, centered on the caster.

Brittle Armor (Beginner) (Proficiency: 10/100): Creates a sphere of light. If the sphere strikes a hard object, the object's hardness is reduced.

Create Soul (Not Learned) (Proficiency: 3/100): Used on a corpse. There is a chance that the corpse will produce a spirit. The success rate depends on how long the corpse has been dead—the shorter the time, the higher the probability. The spirit retains a portion of the corpse’s memories.

… (omitted)

These were the gains Fulan had accumulated over the past few days. Not only had she earned a large amount of gold coins, but she had also learned many spells from schools she had long dreamed of studying.

Some spells, however, were rather disturbing to cast.

Fulan still remembered how a member of the Necromancy School had brought a corpse directly into her workshop and used it to cast Create Soul.

The three points of proficiency she currently had for that spell came from secretly casting it once on the corpse with a hidden ring.

Now she had no idea how to continue practicing it. She could not exactly find more corpses lying around.

As for Belori’s corpse… she decided to forget about it. Creating the spirit of an enemy would only bring herself trouble.

Fulan then took out two rings from her pocket.

Today she had only acquired two new spells, but she liked both of them very much.

One was the Sword Dance spell ring she had practically begged Bella to help her make.

Sword Dance was the foundational skill of the Sword Chant School and also its signature technique. Both apprentices and full mages frequently used it.

However, her efforts had apparently been unnecessary.

Later that day, another member of the Sword Chant School had also come to commission a Sword Dance ring.

The other spell was Poison Mist from the Nature School.

This spell was extremely sinister.

As the name suggested, it produced a cloud of poisonous mist.

Yes—literally sprayed directly into the opponent’s face.

The area of effect was large, and if used immediately at the start of battle, it could disgust and overwhelm an opponent. At the apprentice level, there were few effective ways to resist it.

If someone inhaled the mist and could not defeat the caster quickly, they were essentially doomed.

As the glow of magic gathered and then faded, the light on the two rings dimmed.

【Sword Dance (Not Learned) (Proficiency: 3/10): Channels mental power throughout the body, allowing the sword in your hand to become an extension of your mind, increasing mastery of sword techniques.】

【Poison Mist (Not Learned) (Proficiency: 3/10): Sprays a cloud of poisonous mist forward. Targets who inhale it gradually suffer damage. Antidotes can remove the effect.】

She had engraved cooldown reduction runes on both rings. Now each ring could be used again after roughly one hour.

While waiting for the cooldown, she decided to continue writing her book.

She was only a small step away from finishing it.

Some time later, when she wrote the final symbol, nothing happened.

She frowned in confusion and began organizing the manuscript.

After stacking the pages neatly in order, a sudden realization dawned upon her.

She felt as if she had been climbing a staircase of three steps.

And now she had just stepped onto the first one.

“So this is what my mentor meant when he said you would naturally understand once you reached it?”

Now she truly understood that feeling.

Moreover, she sensed that the second step was actually very close.

【Attributes】

Physique: 3.0

Mental Power: 3.3

These were her current attributes.

Her Physique had increased because her Elven Swordsmanship had finally reached the Proficient level after persistent practice, granting her an additional 0.2 Physique.

As for the increase in Mental Power, she believed it came from continuously learning and mastering spells.

Ordinary apprentices typically learned only about five spells. Learning more had little practical value.

But Fulan relied on her panel and the large number of spells she obtained through crafting spell rings. As she gradually mastered spell after spell, her mental power continued to grow.

She estimated that if she mastered three more spells, her Mental Power would reach 3.5.

According to her current understanding, 3.5 was the mental threshold required to advance to a full mage.

Once she crossed that line, she would effectively reach the second step.

And if she completed that requirement, she would not need to compete for ranking in the academy assessments to fulfill the final condition. She could advance to a full mage far earlier than expected.

As for the spell she intended to create, she already had an idea. She would soon be able to use it.

Now the question was whether she should create a single spell and immediately advance to a full mage…

Or create two or three spells to form a complete system first.

Doing so would allow her to obtain a specialization when she advanced.

That specialization would likely be a mechanical-type specialization, something that had never existed in previous mage advancements.

Fulan was inclined toward building a complete system before advancing.

First, she already had concepts for it. She had ideas for two spells and believed they could form a coherent system that would grant her a specialization upon advancement.

Second, she had heard that in higher-tier mage advancements, possessing talent for creating new spells could save an enormous amount of effort.

She had already tested something remarkable.

Through Astrology, she could recreate books she had seen in her previous life—even if she had only glimpsed the cover, she could reproduce the entire content.

If she gained a specialization and continued researching mechanical spells, then the knowledge from Earth would provide her with endless “inspiration.”

That meant she would never need to worry about creating spells again.

It would allow her to progress far more quickly in future advancements to higher tiers.