Vol. 2 Ch. 43: Magic system types

Author's Note:
Disclaimer: Any resemblance to member names is purely coincidental. There is no way that I chose those names intentionally. No way.
P.S.: This chapter is a bit lore heavy, and might feel like an info dump. I tried to think of a better method to present it, but couldn't think of any, so you have been warned in advance.

Recurring characters:
Peter: The protag of this novel.

Recap:

Just before he was going to read the first chapter, he wondered how the saintness was doing currently.

...End of Author's note...

...

He shook his head while chuckling. Thinking about her would achieve nothing. I'd rather focus on ways to improve myself. There are plenty of people who can worry about her health.

He turned his attention back to the text written inside the book. The first chapter in the book covered fundamental magic concepts, such as types of magic systems and ways to acquire them. 

Direct skill casting was the first magic system listed in the book. The reason behind it was that it was the easiest magic system to use due to its heavy reliance on the System. People can either be born with a spell skill or acquire one using a skill scroll found in the dungeons as a rare reward. 

In this instance, the spell was no different from a skill. The book also gave examples to explain the system better. 

[

Jacob was born with a Fireball spell. Due to this, he never had to learn to use it or perform any weird actions that he had seen his wizard friend Atila perform whenever he cast the fireball. 

Sure, Jacob couldn't make the fireball spin or take a curve during its flight or overcharge it with more mana to increase the flame intensity and heat, as Atila could, but all he needed to do was take aim and have enough mana to support the skill. 

Atila had to practice for hours every day, just so he could cast the fireball a little faster than before, but Jacob had never had this problem. From the very beginning, Jacob could cast a fireball at a moment's notice because the skill handled all the work. 

]

Peter can easily discern what the example was trying to convey. Spell skills had both pros and cons. They were fast, efficient and didn't require any skill on the user's part to cast. The drawbacks were pretty glaring as well. 

The biggest problem was, of course, that each spell skill needed to occupy an entire skill slot. Beyond that, spell skills were rigid. Fireball spell skill cannot be overcharged or altered to curve along its path. It would perform as the skill was intended. The user cannot insert any input. 

Peter continued reading, noticing that the book was very thorough in providing knowledge. It even included side notes. One of those side notes said that a person with only spell skills wasn't considered a true magic user, and in noble society, if a house scion chose to go entirely on this path, they would receive a lot of scorn. 

Peter could somewhat understand the logic behind it. Having a build focused entirely on spell skills would limit the potential of a person and quite possibly end any hopes of tier advancements. Such a person would be lacking other skills that would be highly necessary in the path of ascension. That said, having one or two spell skills in a build would be a great choice for any warrior, a mage or any other class once they entered tier two. 

Peter, himself, had decided to have a spell skill once he was done creating a specialised magic system for himself. Inventory (Space, Time) was one of the utility spell skills. It was pretty rare and very hard to master as true magic. Peter couldn't help but think that it would be better to have it as a spell skill. He really needed a storage space that he could keep to himself. 

There were a lot of things that he would like to carry with him, without alerting others--monster carcasses that he defeated, a dozen weapons of various kinds, a bunch of useful equipment, lots of food rations, and so on. The list was big, and since he already had a large mana pool, he wouldn't be lacking mana to sustain the Inventory every moment. 

Sustainance was another plus point about spell skills. The cost of casting a spell skill was always the same, depending on the level, and was more often than not, less than a true spell. The cost of a true skill depended on the proficiency of the caster, but a spell skill was a highly efficient, already written skill that would be performed based on its parameters every single time. 

Inventory (space, time) was a spell from two ultra-rare elements, making the process of mastering it highly time-consuming. Peter already had a skill that consumed his mana in large amounts for every second he kept it active--IDE. Inventory (space, time) as a true spell, without enough proficiency, would consume mana at a similar rate, if not more, and unlike IDE, Peter needed to keep Inventory active all the time as long as he had something stored inside it. 

He turned the page and read further. This page talked about Intent Casting. It was the exact opposite of spell skill casting. Intent casting could be done without the need for a skill. 

[

As the name implies, if you had the intent, the necessary proficiency and stats, you can shape mana into a spell using your will and mastery of mana. 

]

That said, the book noted that most people tend to acquire some skills that make the process a lot easier. Some of these skills even come with certain classes if you haven't had them yet. Peter already had two of them--mana sense and mana manipulation. The one he didn't have yet was intent casting, but he had seen the skill when he checked the gang mage's status during the fight. 

[

Just as the spell skill system had its pros and cons, intent casting also had its advantages and disadvantages. Its biggest advantage was the fact that it was free form. One can shape a spell however they like. It was equally fast as spell skills if need be. No chant or catalyst was required to perform the spell.

]

Reading all the pros, intent casting might seem like a perfect choice, but the downside to intent casting is that it is highly costly. The book even went as far as to say that intent casting was the most costly method of casting spells. If a fireball spell skill costs five mana points per cast, a fireball woven out of will would cost fifty mana points at the very least. The costs would increase exponentially if one started to add conditions like the fireball would curve on thought. 

Peter moved to the next casting type: Spell Casting. This offered a middle ground between intent casting and spell skill casting. Spell casting utilised tools to lower the mana consumption as well as to provide a nice amount of freedom during the casting. The tools generally included: chants, elemental objects, staff or wand, catalyst, sacrifice, and runic circles, and much more.

The only downside to this style was that the time needed to cast the spell was based on how proficient the caster was with the spell. The book listed some helpful skills that could decrease the casting time or make it as close to Intent casting without the drawbacks. Peter noted down their names in his IDE to investigate later on—silent casting, chant shortening, one-word invocation, gestureless casting, and multi-spell control. 

Peter moved on to the next style of casting: Manipulation-based Casting. The book went in-depth, explaining each element manipulation skill. It listed how to acquire them and at what level a specific spell skill knowledge becomes available. 

Peter was most familiar with this type of spell casting, as he had used shadow manipulation a lot during his transformation. From what he understood, manipulation-based skills were a better form of spell skills. Depending on the level of the manipulation skill, you would have access to a bunch of spell skills of that particular element. Not just that, you could also do intent casting of that particular element using a manipulation-based skill with guidance provided by the skill.

[

For example, a fire manipulation skill would provide access to fireball at level 15 and to flame lance at a higher level, but you could still manipulate fire in free form at any level, just with different costs. 

] - the book explained. 

The only disadvantage that the book mentioned was that the manipulation skill only allowed spell casting of the specified element. One cannot manipulate water using fire manipulation, for example. This meant that if you wanted to manipulate multiple elements, you needed to acquire multiple manipulation skills and thus fill up your skill slots. 

Peter noted that there were other restrictions as well. For example, despite having the skill Inventory (space, time), one cannot use it if they don't have both space manipulation and time manipulation at a specific level. 

Peter continued to make notes in his IDE as he flipped through the pages, reading every single sentence. One interesting tidbit that he learned was related to intelligence stat. The book mentioned in a footnote that once a person's intelligence exceeds fifty points, they become capable of subtle telekinesis and telepathy. This ability increased in strength the higher the stat number was. 

Peter decided to try it out later on and turned the pages again, arriving on a page that talked about the next style of casting: Runic Casting. This type was similar to Spell casting, with only a couple of differences. The requirement for using this magic system was to know the Runic language. 

Its downside was that casting time could be very long. But one special thing about this form of magic casting was that one could prepare spells in advance and just activate them when one needed them. 

Peter saw some merit in this style of casting, and he had a few ideas in mind that he wanted to test in the future. Once he was done reading about Runic Casting, he shifted his attention to the last form of the well-known style of magic that the book mentioned: spirit casting. 

According to the book, it was quite rare. The reason was pretty clear, too–the various dangers related to summoning. To cast magic, one needed a contracted spirit. If it's a fire spirit, they could cast fire magic, but the book made sure to mention that the rank of the spirit also mattered. 

Peter sighed, closing the book. It confirmed some of his theories and discoveries that he made using his IDE. Now that healing his mother wasn't his priority, he could put aside the development of an aura-based healing skill for a while. He decided to work on a magic skill first. 

One of the first skills that he wanted to develop was a multi-element manipulation skill based on the same principle as Weapons Mastery. Once he developed that skill, he decided to copy and create the Inventory(space, time) from the system library. 

He felt that making the inventory as early as possible would be a nice move. After that, he decided to create a hybrid skill which would be a combination of Intent Casting, Spell Casting and Runic Casting. 

He envisioned that if he could maybe use Runic Language to think of small one-time use programs in his mind and then use them as magic, it would be a revolutionary move. 

It would be fast, highly efficient, and give him a lot of freedom on how the spell should behave. 

He imagined aiming at a target and firing a ball of mana at it. The sphere of mana would be controllable with his thoughts and could shift into any element as per his requirements. 

It would introduce unpredictability in his attacks. The sphere could turn into a fireball, a water ball or a sphere of a compressed hurricane, and that was just one application that he could think of right now. 

He grinned, unable to contain his excitement about the prospects of such a system. He wondered if he could incorporate some utility skills, like silent casting, into the skill as well.

…End of chapter…