Lord of Charm

Gale kept practicing his magic, and by the end of the third day, he could condense his fireball to 10 cm. Additionally, he didn't miss by more than a few cm anymore, which wasn't enough to miss the lines.

"Ok, good job. You still need to practice other types of mana maneuvering, learn to aim while moving, and improve your range, but this is enough mana control to start the strengthening process. Learning other spells without strengthening can prove to be dangerous."

"Then why did I practice the fireball spell?"

"Strengthening yourself with magic requires you to ask the mana to seep into your body, it would be dangerous if you don't have enough proficiency to even make a fireball successfully. Most experiments showed that the most basic spell that allows fire mages who master it to strengthen their bodies without danger is the fireball."

"I see, that makes sense. So how does strengthening one's body works?"

"Magicians normally only strengthen their skin and muscles. The more talented ones can slightly strengthen their bones, but not by much. Strengthening the body can be considered a natural process; as part of the world's recognition, it also strengthens our body and allows us to become closer to it and live longer. What you need to do is simply wish for the mana to strengthen your body once you understand the right way to make requests from it, and it would do it for you. The more recognition you have, the more it will strengthen you."

"How do I understand the right way?"

"Did your brain melt from too much fire training? What did you do those past 3 days?"

Gale kept his right to remain silent. He asked because he wanted easy and quick answers without having to think.

"Now, sit down, feel the mana around you, and wish it to make you stronger, live longer, and be more connected to the world."

Gale sat down and followed her instructions. He sensed the mana around him. After a few days of practicing magic, he already felt like he understood the way mana worked much better. He even anticipated the next time he gets to charm others and see again how it works.

He already made up his mind to learn to depth the way his charm abilities work instead of just letting it work on auto mode. He didn't believe the God of Charm would just give it to him as an eternal gift, and even if it was his intention, he could probably take it away anytime he wanted, which Gale didn't like at all.

Gale felt the mana swarming around him, moving in the space close to him, and some of it was even attracted to him. It was the fire mana that got attracted to him.

"All the elements make you stronger, faster, more durable, and more elastic. However, each element boosts those aspects to a different extent. Earth focuses on the durability and raw power, but gives only a minor boost to speed and elasticity. Wind focuses on speed and elasticity, but gives only a minor boost to the other two aspects. Fire and water follow the same logic; fire strengthens mainly your raw power and speed, and water strengthens mainly your elasticity and durability. You don't have to ask the mana to strengthen those aspects, it will just do so by itself because that's the meaning of being fire-type mana. The process should take a minimum of 3 hours; when I did it in your stage mana strengthened me for 2 hours in all elements, except for light-type mana which did it for 4 hours."

Gale listened to everything Lena said and focused on his wish. He channeled his wish to the mana around him, to become stronger and be closer to the world. Slowly, mana started seeping into his skin, burning it and renewing it. He felt his skin turns stronger and more elastic with every second passing.

"Now your skin will remain young longer. Probably the most important part of the strengthening process for a pretty boy."

It was a joke often used on female magicians. Lena would be lying if she said she wasn't even slightly jealous on the day she returned home when she saw he became more beautiful than her.

Gale ignored her and kept feeling the mana's movements. At the same time as the mana continued tempering his skin, it started seeping into the fibers of his skeletal muscles and reinforced them.

His muscles' constitution started changing, making them stronger and more explosive. It didn't hurt; On the contrary, it even felt comfortable, as mana improved the magicians to reward them for its acknowledgment.

Mana now was strengthening both his muscles and skin, and Gale waited excitedly to see whether it will get to his bones; if it does, he can be considered a genius, which he wanted to brag about to Nina later.

Slowly, mana started seeping into his bones just as expected and reinforced it. He remembered Lena saying it shouldn't get long once mana started to reinforce his bones as the mana wouldn't strengthen them by much, yet time passed and mana didn't stop seeping into his skin, muscles, and bones. The process which Lena described as three hours went on for 4 hours and a half, nearly as good as Lena's best element. Lena nodded in appreciation.

"It's not as good as my light element, but it's better than the rest of my elements. If you can do the same for the rest of your elements, you might get better results overall."

"Not as good as your light element? Didn't you say it was shorter by half an hour?"

"But yours started from nothing, while mine was already strengthened in the True Mage and Novice Mage stages. Combined, I was strengthened for 6 hours in light element and 3 in the rest."

Gale didn't mind having one element worse than Lena's strongest one, just like she said, overall, his results should be better eventually. Even if they weren't, Lena was on his side anyway. Besides, what even Lena didn't know was how long his bones were improved; the world which considered Gale a few days old, strengthened his body almost as much as it would do for beasts!

"All right, use those next 3 days to practice your aim, especially aiming while moving, and get used to your newly reinforced body. With 4 and a half hours' worth of fire mana strengthening, you should be approximately two times stronger and faster than before. 3 days from now I'll take you out hunting some first stage beasts. The beast's stages don't have names, but first stage beasts are equal to True Mages, second stage beasts are equal to Advanced Mages, and so on."

"Why can't I hunt second stage beasts then?"

"Don't underestimate them only because you're at a higher stage. It would prove difficult for you to defeat the first stage ones since you have no fighting experience and you've never been in life and death situations before. When you're able to defeat a few of the weaker beasts without any problem, you can try fighting one at your stage. Now go brag to Nina, I know you've been waiting for it. Tomorrow, we will start your training regime."

It was true, he really wanted to show off in front of Nina. She would be considered a top genius anywhere else other than by Lena and Gale's side, so he enjoyed bullying her. He already realized that while Lena spoke as if three hours weren't much, it was probably because of her outrageous standards.

Gale entered the dining room and found Nina waiting for him at the table. He sighed with a dejected face as he sat next to her.

"I can't believe it, my strengthening process was so short. It barely passed Lena's minimum requirements."

He sighed again, his face showing huge disappointment. Nina's face formed a frown; her judgment from what she knew about the way mana worked told her he should have had at least three hours of strengthening process. Why was he so upset?

"How long was your strengthening process?"

"4 and a half hours."

Flames fluctuated around Nina, burning the dinner she was just about to serve as she looked at Gale's crestfallen face.

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