Bloodlines Online

Unlike skills however, spells could have multiple paths to choose from.

With the orb as the most basic form of magic it had mediocre damage and statistics but what it did have was the potential to become monstrous.

Realizing that he could not simply cast his spells randomly in the streets he returned to the practice range of the training hall where everyone was taught.

He took a position behind a line on the cobble path and began to cast, starting with the basic spell obtained through the system.

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Spell: Mana Orb lv1 (N)

Deal 100% of intelligence as magical damage with moderate range and speed.

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Since he had not leveled up he still had the base stats of a newly made character which were sadly five points in every stat.

He cast the spell aiming at the target, his hand held out as if he were firing the spell from his palm.

To his great shock and dismay he actually missed the target by an entire foot!

He groaned loudly in frustration before attempting to adjust his aim... and missing completely again.

Ezekiel could not understand what he was doing wrong so the next time he did so he actually chose to use his mana sense to observe how the mana flows through him.

He fired the spell out and missed for a third time but now he saw what was happening when he used the spell.

If he had to describe what he saw it would be like using a fan to blow a ball at a target.

Because his hand had more surface area the mana would actually flow out like the winds of a fan, no direction and only used as a way to force something.

He tried to make his spell flow properly but again it would just fire out randomly with the mana leaking from his palm.

After the fourth miss and with the knowledge of what caused the endliss misses he changed his approach.

Instead of an open palm he would use the tip of his index finger to focus the mana, that way the same force is applied to a smaller area.

With his mana control providing a safety net Ezekiel was able to do it quite easily.

The spell may still be fairly weak but he did in fact learn why mana control is so important to a spell casters.

\'Spells use a selection of three main components: the impact damage, the elemental damage and aoe damage.

For pure mana the components were aoe damage and impact, it had a damage over time effect as well which was mana burn.

Mana burn was a basic elemental dot, pure mana spells with no element could do nothing other than impact the target and apply the damage over time.

This time when he cast the spell it flew perfectly and nearly struck the target dummies head.

He began casting spell after spell by this point hoping for the spell to increase in tier.

Each time the spell struck it dealt minuscule damage but the mana burn at least created an extra power.

He was not satisfied, he did not know how long it would take to increase the spell tier but he suspected it would be faster if he farmed experience while doing so.

After casting enough with his spell he decided to try using his mana control skill while casting to see what he could accomplish.

The first spell that he tried to cast while using mana control actually resulted in a failure...

Focusing on chanting the spell while using mana control was actually quite difficult since he could misspeak which made the spell fail.

He saw the moment the mana was disrupted but couldn\'t figure out exactly why.

Just speaking the spell incorrectly wouldn\'t make the mana mive incorrectly if the invocation was what caused it.

This thought lead him down a different rabbit hole though as he began to question why the mana began to move before the spell was fully spoken.

He decided to try to study the spell even further and watch the exact process of it.

By using only his mana sense he was able to observe different moments of the spell casting and when he ran out of mana he simply replenished it by meditating with his mana core skill.

What he learned was that mana would naturally enter his body through his skin and by moving through the muscles the way water moves through the soil it would enter his mana core.

Mana that was already inside of the mana core was what was used for the spell, it traveled through the body like a stream until it reached the tip of his finger.

Because of his closer look at the process he actually noticed something odd.

When the spell was cast it took ten mana which created the stream through his arm but along the way the mana would flow strangely.

It did not follow a perfect path and on some moments it actually left his arm entirely with that mana being lost to the air around him.

The mana itself also left behind some of itself when it moved through the body.

If mana was water then his body was the land where it would be absorbed everywhere.

Yes the mana eventually returned to his core but it took some time and by that time the spell had actually lost more than half of its initial mana used to create it.

It was at this point he realized that he had lost focus on the chant.... and was casting the spell through memory and mana control.

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Skill Aquired: Spell Mastery passive (Experienced)

Through thorough practice and observation of spellcasting the user is able to master a spell.

Spell mastery does not increase in level or tier but has separate stages depending on how thoroughly a spell is mastered.

Stage 1: Spell can be cast through mana control.

Stage 2: Spell power is improved.

Stage 3: Spell\'s mana cost is reduced by 50%

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The skill gave no further explanation but he could at least understand how he had achieved stage 1 spell mastery with the mana orb.

By casting the spell so many times that he had begun to cast it using mana control almost reflexively he had learned that the chant was never even necessary.

He was very proud of this accomplishment but one more thing concerned him.

How was he going to stop his mana from leaking out of his body when he cast a spell?