Train Some More!

Magnus had been at TJ's back yard before, but he'd forgotten how big it was. It was enough to build a small pool on one side and have an entire barbeque area on the other, while still able to fit in a space for an herb garden. None of those were present, though. Well, except for the pool. It was amazing how such a land size for a house was available in the middle of the city. The yard was fenced, so that was also a sweet bonus.

"Man, this will be perfect for next year," Magnus mumbled while standing on the center of the yard, his hands rested on his waist.

"Next year?" asked TJ, moving a stray lawn mower to the corner.

Magnus got down on one knee, preparing to cast [Unbreakable] again. The anti-god membrane had been activated once more the moment they'd entered TJ's house. "The Prolog. I've told you about it, right?"

"Right. So that's next year?"

"Uh-huh."

TJ then observed as the blue barrier got erected around his yard, close to the fence. Except this time, the barrier remained visible as it formed a full dome. "Why use the barrier again? There's nobody here. You're wasting mana."

Magnus stared at TJ as if he was dumb. "Didn't you say you were gonna learn an offensive spell? You wouldn't want to destroy the entire property, would you?"

"Ah, right. But I thought this dome kept things out and not in. Wouldn't the spell just pass through it?"

"No? What makes you think that? I can add and remove the solid attribute whenever I want, but obviously I like keeping it solid if nothing or nobody wanted to go outside of the dome. So your spells would just collide with the barrier."

"Huh, good to know," said TJ. "By the way, I earned twenty XP after learning the two skills, just so you know."

"No yeah, I know," replied Magnus. He'd already learned about it during their walk to his friend's house. "Anyway, what would you like to learn first? Like I told you before, I've only ever learned [Ignite], so you might have to learn another fire spell on your own."

'Though, I'm almost sure this monster wouldn't have any trouble doing that,' added Magnus mentally.

Tilting his head for a moment, TJ was quiet as he tried to come up with an idea. "I just thought of one. But can you give me a bit of a demonstration? I figure it would be easier having seen an offensive spell with my own eyes first."

Magnus shrugged. "Sure thing." He then faced a direction away from his friend, raised his right hand with index and middle fingers pointed forward and the rest folded, before flicking his wrist upward. That movement produced an upright crescent-shaped mass of water that shot forward in a speed that surpassed TJ's eye movement. All the guy could see was a blur of an object crossing the yard that suddenly crashed into the blue barrier to his right, creating a violent draft in its wake.

Swiping his hair that had been messed by the wind, TJ stared as the object was reduced to a mere puddle of water in the face of the sturdy barrier. "Holy shit. What was that?" he muttered.

Flashing a stupid grin, Magnus answered, "That, my friend, is a super high-pressure water cann—I mean water crescent called [Riptide]. It can even cut through steel like hot knife through butter."

Still partly in awe, TJ then said, "I mean, it was awesome and all. And I understand you wanted to show off. But I couldn't see shit, and therefore didn't learn anything. You're a terrible teacher."

'What? I never even taught him anything! He's been learning everything on his own!' Magnus tried to justify himself.

"Fine. I'll turn down the speed for you." Magnus then did the same wrist flick, but this time the water crescent's speed was reduced to about a fourth of the previous one. The way he did it was by decreasing the mana consumption and pressure, therefore drastically slowing down the acceleration.

Finally, TJ could see the water crescent about thirty centimeters in height that was shot forward from his friend's hand, and his eyes were able to follow it as it once again crashed into the barrier. After that, the gears in his head started turning. "You created high pressure of water mana in your hand before you release it through your two fingers," he surmised.

"You're close. There's a small phase inbetween that you missed. As I shot the mana out of my fingers, it transformed the air into water first, because it carried the liquid attribute of water. But the process was so fast it was already done before you finished blinking your eyes."

"Got you. But why crescent?"

Magnus shrugged. "Beats me. I guess Atlantis thought it looked cool or something."

TJ then understood it was a skill gifted to his friend by the god, not something he'd learned by himself. Nevertheless, he had grasped the concept behind it, somewhat. All he had to do now was do the same thing with fire mana. 'Definitely not crescent-shaped,' he thought. 'And I can't even hope to reach such high speed for now.'

Before Magnus' demonstration, TJ had actually got a simple idea of what kind of spell he would learn. Therefore, that was exactly what he was going to try out now. With ease, he casted [Ignite] using as much mana as he could, and found that he was only able to expend no more than six mana points at once. Perhaps it was the limit of level two of [Ignite]. Still, the fire ball managed to grow into the size of a soccer ball and lasted for about eight seconds before dissipating. Once again he casted the spell, but this time he tried to move the mana that made up the ball forward. The result was quite underwhelming; the ball moved for just about a few centimeters, very slowly, before the fire lost power.

'Well, even a monster can't always get it right the first time,' Magnus remarked.

"How the fuck do you propel it forward?" asked TJ.

"Don't use too much mana. Make a small ball and use some more mana to—" Magnus shut his eyes tight before correcting himself. "Sorry, I mean you have to first prepare more mana before using it at all. Then, use a little of that mana to make the small ball and the rest to create pressure which you can then expand to shoot the ball out of your hand. Also, it might help if you faced your palm forward."

"You said you never learned another fire spell."

"Dude, I'm using the same principle behind [Riptide]."

TJ sighed and then prepared to cast [Ignite] again. This time, he made sure to spare only two mana points for the skill itself, and about three to make a pressure behind it. Before he sent the skill mana out, he rapidly expanded the pressurized mana that propelled the skill mana out of his palm. Within less than a second, [Ignite] was formed, but the fire ball didn't stay in place. With TJ's palm facing forward, the ball immediately shot forward a millisecond after it finished forming. However, it traveled a bit slower than expected and dissipated just before it reached two-meter mark. TJ also noticed he didn't receive any message for learning a skill. "This one's hard."

"Keep trying dude," encouraged Magnus, who was now comfortably sitting on a wooden chair at a small patio. "Take more time pressurizing the mana, maybe? It might increase the propulsion force, who knows."

Taking his friend's suggestion into account, TJ took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and did the same thing by preparing mana with two purposes. One was to form a small fire ball while the other was to act as the driving force. This time, he tried to focus more on the pressurized mana, as he was already able to make a fire ball almost subconsciously. He took a couple more seconds to increase the pressure, before suddenly expanding it, propelling the fire ball mana out of his palm in the blink of an eye.

TJ snapped his eyes open. The fire ball was instantly created before it shot forward with a bit more speed than before, traveling for almost three meters before it lost power. Immediately, TJ received a notification from the system.

[Congratulations! You just learned a skill!

Skill Name: Flamethrower (Lv. 1)

Description: The caster uses pressurized mana to shoot a fire ball

Mana Cost: 5 points

Cooldown: None.]

"Awesome!" shouted Magnus from the patio, watching in glee as his DP jumped up by 620 points. "How many XP did you get?"

"Twenty," answered TJ absent-mindedly, still trying to wrap his head around the workings of the skill.

"Ooh, neat! How many XP have you got in total now? Forty, is it?"

"Mhm."

"Right then," Magnus said, getting up and moving to a nearby lounger. He then lied down on it, crossing his legs and putting his hands under the back of his head. "Notify me if you need more inspiration. Now go and train some more! Try to be creative and learn more skills!"

'And give me more DP!'