Then, what should I do? I shut my eyelids and started ruminating on how to learn magic… Lorelei’s ambiguous instructions aside, I recalled the RPG games I used to play. Even games didn’t have a concrete explanation about magic, but they did have a place where that made-up “knowledge” was stored… a manual.

“That’s it!” I opened the Dungeon Menu and browsed inside the Item Creation catalog. “As I thought, the menu does have a manual.” Within the book section, there were all kinds of magic books: grimoires, spell books, tomes, and what have you; one of the books called “Magic Fundamentals” caught my eye.

[Book of Magic Fundamentals (1000 CP)]

A book containing the most basic essence of magic — the knowledge compilation of all mages. Even a muffin-head can learn magic by reading this book.

Compared to other more advanced books available on the menu, this was one of the cheapest magic books there was. With our budget right now, maybe buying this wouldn’t be a bad idea.

“What do you think, Lorelei?”

She snorted lightly. “Learning magic does indeed require talent and effort. You have neither. But if it makes you stronger, I don’t have anything against it.”

“Um, you were supposed to sugarcoat your words a little there.” It pained me to hear her harsh comment, but I sucked it up and purchased the book anyway. My minuscule pride wasn’t worth mentioning compared to my passion for learning magic quickly. Modern people always wanted instant things…

Once I bought the book, our CP reserve went down to… a bit less than 3,000 CP. It was still enough to cover our expenses in further expanding the dungeon and replenishing the traps — a job I’d been neglecting for the past three days.

Lorelei had yet to convert the newly dug-out hallways into part of her dungeon, so I better save up some CP to be used in an emergency. It was a pity, but our earnings were now back to zero except the daily given by the mana vein. It appeared that brainwashed invaders no longer gave us CP, although if they were killed, they’d give the exact same amount as if they were an intruder.

Once brainwashed, any living being would no longer be able to produce CP. There was one exception to this, however, which was to take their brainwashed status and release them for a certain period of time into the wild (outside the dungeon). But that wouldn’t be an option for us since setting loose Rowan or any of the other two would just invite problems.

At any rate, learning magic was my focus here, so I pushed that thought aside for now and started reading the newly materialized book. By the way, the book was made from luxurious, blue-colored leather with a rugged magic circle as a cover that felt expensive to touch… as expected of a magic book.

“Let’s see, let’s see.” Before I even realized it, Lorelei was already sitting next to me and attentively reading the book.

I was already used to her sudden intrusion of my personal space; thus, I didn’t mind her and continued my perusal of the book.

The first part of the book explained how to sense magical power in the body. It explained more in detail than what Lorelei had informed me previously and assumed this magical power as string-like energy that existed in every part of the body which converged in the solar plexus as a heap area.

And yet, what surprised me was that the level of knowledge this book possessed was equal to university-level books that a college student like me used to skim ov— I mean, read. This caused me a headache even just reading a few lines of this book, especially without a mentor to guide me from word to word.

Especially this part that explained magical structure:

“To form a working magical structure, you must allocate the magical power necessary for activating magic from the heap area in the body to the dynamic storage area. Set and declare the parameters necessary to activate the magic in the structure. Next, declare and construct the function for calculating the amount of magical power. Don’t forget to add reference points for the reserved magical power and include the basic formulas for executing the structures and functions.

Then, calculate the amount of magical power required by the function and set in the structure, and the magical power of the reference point. Finally, trigger the spell by setting the reserved magical power structure to the output function that specifies whether to perform a ranged attack or a single attack and releasing it.”

“What is this? Am I reading the logic behind how a needlessly complicated program works or what?” I put my hand on my lips; this was beyond me — a novice in the way of magic.

“So that’s how it is,” Lorelei suddenly stated.

What? What did you get about these overly complicated words?! Am I, a programmer, too stupid to understand this? I grimaced, wrinkling my forehead in self-doubt.

“You may not understand what this is all about since you have yet to sense your own magical power. Look, this part here ought to fit with your criteria.” Lorelei pointed her finger to the few lines at the bottom of the page.

“Easier explanation (for dummies):

The first thing that people likely stumble upon in learning magic is that it’s difficult to imagine the flow of mana. But it’s easy when using an analogy.

Imagine a tub of water in front of you. That’s your magical power. Now imagine that you’re holding a bowl. With the bowl, you decide which part of the tub to take the water from. And from the water that you took in your bowl, magic can be activated.

A magic structure is full of commands for these actions. The more you study and understand what each sequence corresponds to, the easier it will be to deal with the applications.”

That was easier to understand. I thought that I finally got the gist behind it. Still… Looking at the first sentence, I felt that my heart was increasingly shrinking and my breath heavy from the accumulation of self-disappointment. What a life.

While still struck down by a sense of despondency, I went back to try sensing the magical power within me. This time, however, I sensed string-like energy coursing through my body and congregating in my solar plexus just like what the book had said. Gradually, I even felt the rich and thick intangible air… mana surrounding me, suffocating me even!

“Ngh! There’s waaay too much… of this airborne mana… around me.” My heart was racing hard; I felt like bursting at any moment. The feeling was akin to being inside a room filled with 100 percent of oxygen concentration — a feeling of intense and bursting euphoria.

“Calm your breathing. Release your control over your magical power.” Lorelei put her hands on my back and channeled her magical power into me.

Quickly, I did what she said and released my control. Before long, the mana was no longer suffocating me, and I could finally catch my breath.

“Phew. Thanks. I thought I was a goner there.” I patted Lorelei’s head in gratitude. Really, maybe because the Artificial Realm was inside a Dungeon Core, which was the chokepoint of the mana vein below, it was so rich — to the point of overflowing — in mana. “Now, what? I don’t feel like exploding—”

“N-Not necessarily.” Lorelei stood up and extended her hands in two opposite directions. “I have filtered the mana concentration in the radius of ten meters to that of the outside world. You should be able to practice magic. No problemo.”

There appeared to have been no change on my skin, but when I tried to sense my magical power again, I could feel the surrounding mana had become chill and so less concentrated that I barely perceived it. Moreover, albeit hazy, when I walked ten meters to the edge, a transparent, wall-like structure seemed to have divided and filtered down the mana.

After that, in accord with the book, once I could sense my magical power, I should start to manipulate it and begin controlling the mana around me to conjure up a spell. I tried to move and propel the magical strings around my body, but it seemed to not comply with my command. That was fine though since I tried multiple ideas and tips from the book.

My hard work wasn’t for naught. While barely perceptible, I could somewhat manipulate the magical strings. Extending them to several times their sizes or even shrinking them to the point that they condescended into a ball, all was possible. Even if it felt funny and giddy across my skin.

“Wow. You do have a knack for manipulating magical power within you, huh. I guess my initial assumption was wrong after all.” Her hands on her hips, Lorelei explained, “Controlling mana is the most crucial part in casting a magic spell; you must use your magical power to gather mana and channel it to specific parts of your body to cast magic, the easiest place is your hands.”

I see… If it’s like that... The book also clarified that hands were the most practical, which at the same time could be used for aiming. Though nothing was mentioned I couldn’t use any other parts of my body. Just imagined how awesome it would be to shoot magic from my back.

Anyway, I tried gathering the mana within my body and around me and channeling it in my right hand, my palm, and compressing it into a ball. Now the mana suddenly became visible and even tangible to touch… which I shot at a nearby boulder out of curiosity.

The boulder crackled as the ball of mana exploded and was left with a small hole. For one reason or another, the laws of physics in this Artificial Realm were illogical, and not a perfect place to test a magical attack.

“That’s good. Now let's go to the dungeon's entrance; I'll teach you about Elemental Magic.”

“Oooh! Wait, have you tried using it before?”

“Of course.” She puffed out her chest. “What do you think I’ve been doing these past two days, huh?”

Once we got into the ravine, I was stunned speechless at the aftermath of the invasion. The ground I was standing on was filled with holes, while the ground deeper in was charred black as the residue of the fire.

“As I see it, repairing the dungeon seems like a top priority, but let’s do that later. Now, now, show me your mighty power, Lorelei.” Like a child that just found a new toy, I clenched my fists and stared intensely at her.

“Fine. However, Vincent, the first magic spell that I’ll show you isn’t how I understand magic, but how those elementalists use magic.”

“I see. Your heads-up’s noted.”

In this world, magic had many different ways to be cast. And while it was previously described that this kingdom possessed the most advanced technology, it was lacking in terms of magic. I couldn’t fathom how someone practiced magic in a more developed magic kingdom.

“To cast magic, you have to first picture an image in your mind as well as calculate the mana used for this spell through your magical power and then chant the spell accordingly.”

Unexpectedly, Lorelei took out a magic staff with a light-brown gem on top previously used by the Geo elementalist. “Raise tall and wide, O wall of earth, tough and strong shall you be — {Earthen Wall},” Lorelei chanted, stabbing the staff into the ground. Shortly, a wall of earth about three meters in width and height emerged up from the ground in front of Lorelei.

“Nice.” I gave her a thumbs up.

“Don’t be too surprised. This is only the beginning. Watch carefully.” Lorelei stored back the magic staff and instead pointed at the ground with her index finger and cast {Earthen Wall}, whereas this time, she did that without a chant.

“How? How did you do it without any chant?” But then I remembered something and checked the recording of the invasion three days ago. When the Geo elementalist cast {Earthen Wall}, he did it with a shortened chant, on the other hand, what she did was without even uttering a single word.

While on the subject, there had been one additional function inside the Miscellaneous Functions: “Recordings” — finally fulfilling its plural name. But this made me wonder, where were those recordings stored? Was there some kind of cloud-based server or something?

“I ‘invented’ this based on your knowledge, Vincent. It’s called ‘chantless casting’ or ‘nonverbal casting.’ Naturally, you could’ve figured this out yourself given time.”

“Cool! Now teach me, will you?” My blood was practically boiling to learn what she had just shown me.

“Um… I dunno… I recall a chocolate cake from the men—”

“I’ll give you three—! No, five slices!! Just teach me!”

“My, oh my. Very well, then. If you so insist.”

With her desire satisfied, Lorelei began teaching me about casting magic. First, I learned to use magic with the long chant, then a shortened one, but soon I got the idea of how to do silent casting. The trick was just about understanding and imagination.

Magic was amazing!