I close my eyes and focus on that sensation of warmth bubbling up and then flowing to my hand. I envision magic as a kind of particle I can't see, and I imagine it taking shape as a sphere in front of my palm and trapping and accelerating the air molecules within it. I imagine more magic flowing into this process to intensify the air heating. I open my eyes.
An intense yellow orb the size of a baseball is hovering in front of my palm. Trying not to lose focus, I will a small surge of magic toward my palm and imagining it forcing the yellow orb away. My muscles contract, and I feel a light recoil against my palm, then the fireball screeches forward at an incredible pace and impacts the boulder. On impact, a small explosion ensues, and I feel a wave of heat, then red-yellow 'flames' spread across the rock for a few seconds.
I'm in shock. I was hoping I'd be able to replicate the book's spell, but this was obviously something different – it didn't look like a flame, and I couldn't feel its heat until after I launched it.
In retrospect, that makes sense. Normal fire requires combusting carbon-based material, and I just heated air. I probably didn't feel intense heat near my palm, because the fireball was insulated by trapping the air molecules until it was cast.
I'd say that my theory about using detailed visualization to bypass incantations has been tentatively confirmed. That raises quite a few possibilities that I'm eager to investigate, but I should refine this spell first until it's more instinctive.
I spend the next couple hours or so practicing the custom fireball spell until I can instinctively cast it. In addition, I discover that I can tweak the size and intensity of the fireball depending on how much air and magic I add to it. I can easily get the fireball heated to the point of blue incandescence. Overall, I'm quite pleased, so I move on to my final exam.
I smile at the thought of being able to push the spell to its absolute limits of intense air molecule heating. I take a deep breath, and place both hands out in front of my body. I begin the spell as though I'll be making a blue fireball, until it gets to the size of a golf ball. Then, I imagine the air being pulled in and compressed, and I focus on pouring as much magic into the superheated orb as I can without expanding it.
More…more…more…at this point my whole body is straining, trying to superheat the air without letting it expand. I also imagine my magic sphere reflecting any radiation from the spell that's outside the visible spectrum, so I don't die.
I persevere with superheating the air in a confined space with my magic, and then the air in the fireball begins to swirl together – plasma.
A strained smile spreads across my face. It's taking all my effort to hold, but I managed to produce a golf ball-sized plasma ball. Gathering my resolve, I focus on launching the plasma ball at the boulder across the large clearing. Now!
The plasma ball races off and impacts the boulder. A brilliant light and heat spill out from the impact, and a shockwave from the rapidly decompressed air knocks me onto my back.
When I come to my senses and sit up to look at the boulder, a basketball-sized hole has been burned most of the way though the rock. The rock itself is still superheated and appears to be dripping, while flames burn around the impact site.
Yup, that is lethal. In retrospect, that blowing up in my face was a real possibility.
I lie back on the ground in exhaustion, and I'm breathing heavily. That obviously took quite a lot out of me. I'll need to practice making that more efficient. For now, though, I think it's time to take a break and try other basic magic.
I'm feeling thirsty, so maybe this is a good time to try water magic? I wonder if I can do it without the incantation as a template, now that I've at least managed other magic. Hmm…what would be the simplest way to produce water? Maybe pulling it from the air and concentrating it? That's worth a shot.
I get my empty canteen from my bag at the ready, then hold my hand out and focus. I once again will my magic to flow towards my palm to form a sphere, then I imagine it trapping and condensing water molecules from the air.
It doesn't seem to work at first, but after a few more moments I see a small drop of water floating above my palm. As I continue investing magic, it slowly grows until it's about the size of a baseball and then stops.
I move my canteen under it and imagine my magic funneling it into the canteen. It's a little messy at first and I lose some water, but eventually I get the hang of shaping the water into the canteen opening.
I take a sip of the water from my canteen cautiously. Yup, it seems fine to me! I wonder why it stopped growing after a while though. Maybe I pulled in all the water vapor from the surrounding air? If there is an incantation that conjures water in a different way, it might be worth learning to bypass that limitation.
Okay, time to try some other spell classes! It's safe to say I can use elemental class. Sooo…what about alteration class next? I'm not sure what spell to try first, though. What would be most useful?
Looking at the sky through the opening in the tree canopy, at this rate I'd say I have time to practice maybe three more spells. Then, I'll need to head back before it gets dark. I think slime hunting will have to wait until tomorrow.
Hmm…I'm sure it's only a matter of time until I get injured, and I don't know how expensive those healing potions are. I nod to myself, confident I made the right choice, and mutter aloud.
"Yup, time for healing magic." (Mizuki)