Shades of the New World

Chapter 128: Gestures

Evin cast the newly constructed spell. A small pop sounded and a rather powerful forcefield hit the Test room's walls. A beeping sound came from the magical device with a display and a '12 P' alongside a '84%' appeared on it. The P stood for punch and 1 Punch was the average punching power that a normal adult male could exert on the measuring device. 12 P meant that Evin's forcefield hit the wall with the power of 12 punches. 

Evin did a little experiment and found that the strongest attack that he had was Enri's bite at 93 P at her biggest size. It was comparable to a motorbike hitting something at the speed of 50 km/h(~30mph). The fox-head also said that she became a bit stronger after turning from a maw into a proper head. Evin was really surprised at Big sis' biting power. 

Evin then tested his diving spear stab on the mat outside, which was a surprisingly solid 50 P. His punches and kicks with some added extra weight from the Heavy World would usually wary from 5 P to 25 P depending on the situation. For those interested, Arza's Life energy infused punches hit at around 30 P consistently. A proper little monster.

Anyway, 84% meant the efficiency of Evin's spell. This meant that 16% of the mana that Evin used was wasted. It seemed a bit shabby, but Evin was quite proud of this number.

"12 P, not too shabby. Now tell me, what problems did you feel?" Nasst asked.

"The spell seems simple, but it takes too much time to gather the air around myself and push it away. There's also the problem of making sure that the spell is strong enough. And just like the scroll explained, I can't be indiscriminate about pushing away the surrounding air around myself, or else I will end up suffocating myself for a few moments. That seems to be the gist of it," Evin listed the problems he found.

"Something like that. Now look carefully, I'm not going to hide the World colors I'm using and I'll be going to use a Channeling Artifact. Oh, and stay a bit further away and plug your ears," Nasst said.

The elder man then started constructing the same spell as Evin. In only six seconds, the complex spell that Evin was having trouble with was constructed from scratch and a loud pop resounded in Evin's ear. Strangely, even though there should have been a big shockwave of air in the room, Evin didn't feel a thing. Curiously, Evin glanced at the display and could see the numbers: 436 P with 96%. 

He wanted to spit blood when he saw this ridiculous number. 12 P wasn't lethal, but if someone took it to their body, it would be enough to break their nose or smash in a rib. 436 P was like getting slammed by a speeding truck. Not to mention that it would all be concentrated in a small area around Nasst. If Evin was standing there instead of the wall, his whole front side skeleton would have become crumbled fragments at this point. It was probably even worse than that. And the 96% was just an icing on the cake. 

Evin could also see that even the speed at which the old man absorbed the energy from the Channeling artifact was faster than him. A feeling of reverie appeared inside him. 

'This old man is a monster! The wall that could take the attack without issue is also a monster!'

"Well, don't be surprised. How long do you think I've been casting spells?" Nasst smiled and continued: "Now, look again. Here's the more interesting stuff"

Nasst then snapped his fingers and only half a second later, when Evin couldn't even understand what was happening, he heard a loud pop enter his ears before he managed to block it properly. A deep ringing sound filled his brain, as he struggled to get ahold of himself.

'What the hell was that? How did he cast so fast?' Evin couldn't help but be amazed. He realized that even before his mind was able to register what had happened, Nasst was able to snap his fingers, turn transparent in an instant, construct the spell and then set it free.

"Haha, are you surprised? That's the power of gestures!" Nasst laughed loudly.

"How did you do that?" Evin couldn't help but ask.

"It's nothing special, just a self-hypnotizing trick. I trained myself to absorb mana from my channeling artifact and cast this particular spell every time I snap my ring finger" Nasst explained. 

Evin looked at the display inside the room and saw 354 P, 95%. A bit weaker than the previous display, but it was still extremely powerful considering its speed.

"How come the effects are so exaggeratedly fast?" Evin wondered out loud.

"You underestimate the power of your mind and muscle memory. Or should I say brain-mass memory. After you practice thousands of times like me and then snap your fingers, even if you don't want it, your subconscious will cast the spell for you. You just have to give the command with the act of snapping your fingers and the spell will be ready in a second. Obviously, you could have different gestures. For example, if you frequently use a weapon, and it's a bit hard to snap your fingers, so you could lightly grip with either one of your fingers and a different spell will appear. One more popular way is to use chants, though do make sure you don't use commonly used words to cast spells," Nasst chuckled. 

Evin brought out his slim spear and held it in his hands. One by one, he exerted a bit of force with each of his fingers and found that it was plausible. 

"But don't be too impatient. It will likely take you a long time for the speed to reach my levels. As for how to train your mana-core and subconscious to act like this, just perform the desired gesture or chant and perform the spell. Try your best to do it subconsciously. As for how? That's for you to figure out, since every mage has their own special method. If you're really struggling, you can ask me and copy my way, but I don't really recommend it," Nasst said.

"Thank you!" Evin said enthusiastically.

"Do you have any questions?" Nasst said calmly.

"How come your spell is so much stronger than mine. I mean, the difference between 12 P and 400 P is enormous," Evin asked.

"Oh, that's mostly because the difference in our will is enormous," Nasst said it in such a matter-of-fact way, that Evin couldn't help but conclude that he was lacking in training. He looked down dejectedly and dreaded the idea of more practice. Looking at the boy's fears, Nasst laughed heartily.

"But I did use a small trick when casting. It's called Limiting. Basically, you just forcefully cast your spell in a smaller area-of-effect, where your spell is only effective in it. You didn't really feel the shockwaves from my spell falling on you right?"

"But isn't that less cost efficient?" Evin asked confusedly. Since you're pushing air particles away from yourself, it should be much easier to just leave it be after the initial push.

"Call it the will of the Empress, or whatever you want, but that's how spells work in this World," Nasst shrugged and then reminded: "Don't think about it too much, or else your proficiency with some magic might fall" 

Evin thought that the man was joking and tried it out himself. He constructed the spell as always, but also added a little order to keep the effects in a one step radius around himself.

Pop. The sound similar to a very large balloon bursting appeared again and Evin curiously looked at the measuring display: '20 P, 79%'

'What the fuck...? This... I don't like this'

'Wasn't casting magic in this World supposed to be dependent on the mage's imagination and general knowledge of the World? Then why does it do such illogical things randomly? And it isn't like the sound was blocked... I could definitely hear the sound that Nasst's spell made and it seems that he can hear mine too,' Evin grumbled in his head hatefully.

"Don't think too much about it. Just think of them as law of the World, even though I agree that it could be frustrating sometimes. More importantly, I have another thing to help out with your willpower problem. I suppose one could call it a method of boosting it, rather than simply strengthening it. I was going to teach it to you a bit later, but you can give it a read if you want to," Nasst said and brought out another book. Evin looked at the contents with a slight frown and found that it was a method to replicate the effects of the World Sprites! 

His previously fussy mood also disappeared like it never happened.