The Sound Of Despair

The business went on unimpeded for two years straight. No one caused them any troubles, and the Thunder Merchant Shop was already considered a local specialty. Even mercenaries and pirates from neighboring islands came over to procure a few whetstones. Business flourished, and Sturm advanced a lot in his arcane studies.

Two months after the shop opening, Sturm finally developed a more efficient method of isolating mana cells. One day, when he had been thinking about the comparison of mana cells to slippery fish, something clicked in his mind. How did a fisherman catch fish? With a net! If he used his will to make a net of just the perfect size, the mental strain could be reduced by up to 40%.

With practice, his efficiency rose even more, and another month later, he began tackling the mana cell expulsion. Just like most mages, Sturm found it much easier to discharge the cells through his hands and fingers. At first, it was already taxing to push a single mana cell out, let alone ten, but practice makes perfect. There was no rush. How many jabs would one have to throw to perfect it? Some would argue even a million would not be enough.

The first month Sturm repeated the action of expelling a single mana cell through his fingers and converting it into lightning attributed mana matter again and again. Not just in the morning, before and after he practiced the Art of the Nine Pillars. But even when he worked in the shop during the day. At that time, though, for the sake of secrecy, the mana matter conversion was left out.

Conversion of mana cells was nothing more than using the mana cells' energy to give will a form. Sturm chose the lightning attribute for one simple reason, the only spell Edgar owned was the 'lightning bolt.' When the process turned fluent and felt natural, Sturm upped the number of mana cells to two and converted those into lightning mana matter as well.

A year later, the expulsion and conversion of ten mana cells felt as easy as breathing. There were always slight nuances one would only discover with experience, no matter how much of a genius one was. Even if the months of repetition followed the law of diminishing returns, Sturm believed that the moment someone stopped getting better, they stopped being good.

Noble arcane disciples would get scolded for wasting their time and would have progressed to mana construct creation months ago. Still, they could allow themselves to treat less carefully, as they had guidance and supervision. Sturm could only consult Edgar, who, at this point, was already not really that much ahead of him.

For seven months now, Sturm had been trying to create the mana construct for the 'lightning bolt.' Whole families of furniture had to lament the departure of their brethren because of the young slave's countless experiments. Even though a lot of progress was made, and Sturm had completely memorized the pattern for the lightning bolt spell, the mana construct would fall apart for some reason after his chant.

"The lightning bolt strikes twice northeast, once southeast, repeat three times, and you shall punish crimes." Sturm chanted.

With every word, Sturm's will started forming a mold, which was then filled with the lightning-attributed mana matter, but when he reached the last five words, the spell collapsed like in all previous tries.

The lightning bolt, fire bolt, and other variations were some of the easiest spells a mage could master, only requiring ten mana cells and the simplest mana construct. Most mages would create their own languages and translate complicated personal arcane chants into them to prevent other mages from stealing the chants. This was unnecessary for basic and well-known chants, though.

Sturm thought about translating the spell into his mother tongue for a completely different reason.

<<This is just embarrassing. No way I will say that out loud every time I cast a lightning bolt. And what is up with "you shall punish crimes"? God! In what way is that even necessary for the mana construct? F***k it, let's just give it a try if it works in my mother tongue. >>

"Der Blitz schlägt zweimal Nordosten, und einmal Südosten ein. Wiederhole drei Mal, der Rest ist mir egal."

As Sturm finished the chant in german, the lightning matter above his hand started taking the shape of a lightning bolt. Finally! After months of experimentation, he had done it! Now the last step was being able to launch the lightning bolt, and the first spell in his life would be mastered.

Sturm took aim at an innocent chair, the next victim of his furniture genocide. The only thing he needed to do was use the will to mentally push the spell towards the chair. For some reason, Sturm drew his arm back and physically tried to launch the magic attack instead. A second before the motion was completed, the mana construct destabilized and fell apart. The mana matter dissipated after scorching a nearby table.

<<Nooo! I was so close!>> Sturm fell onto his knees and raised his arms up in the air. Most failures did not really faze him, but failing at the last possible moment was incredibly frustrating after months of trying.

After calming down, Sturm realized the core of the problem. As stupid as it sounded, the reason he failed was because of his embarrassment. An arcane chant served to concentrate and guide the will. A mage had to be meticulous and emotionally detached during the creation of mana constructions.

While chanting in german had reduced the outburst of emotions in the form of embarrassment, it did not completely remove it. There were two ways to approach this problem: either he could enter a similar state to when he activated the [Black Room] or skipped the chant altogether.

<<There is no way I will chant this. This is just a crutch for beginners anyways. Won't I be able to create my own spells if I master chantless casting? This way, we won't depend on that single arcane chant either. >>

Of course, if the situation demanded it, he could still cast the spell through the arcane chant. Sturm entered an empty state of mind to test it out, leading to his next spell successfully disintegrating the chair. Throwing the mana construct was the easiest step for him, accomplishing it on the first try.

What Sturm did not know was that this was a characteristic of mana matter in non-solid forms. A lightning bolt required sturdier mana constructs to contain the mana matter but was, in turn, easy to launch. An earth wall, on the other hand, due to the solid nature of the mana matter, mostly needed a mana construct to dictate the shape, as the energy leakage was significantly lower. In turn, it required massive amounts of will to move.

After trying it out a few more times and disintegrating two more chairs successively, Sturm finally had an ace he could use as a last resort. In the end, deciding to learn chantless casting was not only the correct decision but only the other way forward if Edgar did not find any more tomes or scrolls with arcane charts. Chantless casting was just a matter of practice and time.

Successfully casting the lightning bolt was a momentous achievement. Even as a slave, he would now be able to threaten nobles. This was incredible, and if nobles found out, they would stop at nothing to eliminate him. There was a reason they suppressed commoners and slaves, controlling how many celestial steps they could take. Like this, no one would ever be a threat to their supremacy.

Even a thousand slaves could not defeat a single noble, as they were nothing more than chickens in front of a butcher for them. Now, this single, adolescent slave could kill a noble by himself in a direct confrontation. Sturm knew no one could ever find out about this.

A sigh escaped from Sturm. He could not believe how far he had come. From a poor, little, insignificant slave that would work in the quarry until he died to the assistant of a very successful merchant. On top of that, reaching the level of an official arcane disciple and being the closest combat slave to being promoted to a gladiator were achievements few could boast about.

That's right. The day Sturm turned 15 years old, Reinhardt took him to Dagger's Rock Island's fighting arena. If Tier 3 bronze beasts could not stop the young boy, then what could a few combat slaves achieve? Sturm literally wiped the floor with each and every one of them. Reinhardt even won a few handsome sums betting during the first few fights until no one would ever bet against the young combat slave again.

For ordinary slaves, this was a legendary achievement, something to remember for ages. For Sturm, it was nothing more than a little bit of effort to further raise Edgar's prestige. Initially, being a gladiator was simply a plan B if things did not work out with Edgar; now, he would never leave his benefactor no matter what happened.

<<Our business is expanding, our personal power is growing. Soon, Edgar will achieve his dreams of growing a business empire, and I will be able to fight to my heart's content. It has been a long time since we went hunting, and the beast territories stopped migrating and supposedly stabilized. I can't wait to fight beasts again.. I wonder if there are some magic beast boars? Cooking myself some bacon with the lightning bolt doesn't sound too bad either.>>