They headed to the garden after finishing lunch. With Sofia leveling up she had third-tier spells to learn. Alice also had a lot of skills to test and Gracie needs to learn shadow magic from Cain.
“So let’s start with this,” Cain kicked the ground, [Earth wall] He created multiple barriers across the garden. “I will teach Gracie shadow magic And Alice some new spells. You teach Sofia third-tier magic, she should already know fireball.” He looked at Zaleria. “Selena you try and use this weird terrain to train.”
“Wait you want me to teach her magic? You know how valuable my spells are?” Zaleria cried. “I know, that’s why I want you to teach her,” Cain told her as he walked toward Gracie and Alice.
“Now just let me get ready for a few moments, Shadow magic is kinda tricky and I haven’t used it in ages.” Cain took out both his daggers and stood straight. Closing his eyes and remembered the concept of shadows.
‘Shadows are the absence of light, becoming one means to move within the pitch darkness without interacting with nothing as you become the nothing, the non-existence of light is shadow.’
Cain’s body started to get covered with a dark cloud and he suddenly disappeared.
[First-tire magic [Shadow cover] has been added to the system] With this magic Cain could jump inside a shadow and hide temporarily, It was a simple yet great spell for ambushing, especially at night when the whole world is covered in shadows. Not many people know but the night is the material plan’s shadow, it was discovered by Mauzzkyl Jaezred himself. Most people thought that darkness was different than shadows but they were the same thing.
Cain jumped back up immediately and cracked his neck, doing that was a bit uncomfortable.
[First-tier magic [Shadow creation] has been added to the system] By weaving his hand around Cain created a shadow on the ground that didn’t belong to anything. The spell was simple, it blocked light in the area to create a shadow. I can be useful when in certain scenarios.
[First-tier magic [Shadow read] has been added to the system] this spell was simple, it allow the caster to see details in a shadow. Like eyes, lips, and wrinkles. It was useful to determine to whom the shadow belongs without seeing the person.
[Second-tier magic [Shadow blade] has been added to the system] create a blade made of shadows. Even though it was called a shadow blade it was, in reality, a Mana blade covered in magically created shadows, the benefit was that the caster could summon it easily.
[Second-tier magic [Shadow mark] has been added to the system] Mark a target shadow so you can teleport to it when the need arises.
[Second-tier magic [Shadow pocket] has been added to the system] Created a cube-shaped pocket dimension with one foot in diameter inside a shadow. It will stay active until the place is lit up and then everything stored will spill out.
Cain stopped there as he didn’t know how much Gracie would be able to learn in one afternoon. He also wanted to teach her [Soundless] and [Short invisibility] to top everything up. His goal was to give her enough tools to be able to kill someone without them even realizing they have been killed.
BOOM! A massive explosion in the distance interrupted his thoughts, Sofia seem to have cast [Fireball] at Zaleria. The woman wasn’t even fazed and instead called the spell cold.
“It was a bit cold, it felt as if you weren’t putting you all into it. Like a punch, you have to punch with anger!” Being a bit annoyed, Sofia launched another fireball and Zaleria shrugged it off. Cain who was looking wondered what kind of fireball would make a dragon feel its heat? Cain could bet that Zaleria could even tank Sixth-tier fire magic and call it cold.
“Sofia, think the same way when you turned [Burning hands] into [Burning feet]!” Cain screamed at her and then turned toward Alice and Gracie. It was now up to her.
…
Sofia who has just heard his words looked toward Zaleria. How could she do that? She can’t just explode a fireball under her feet and expect it to go well. ‘What other spell I have, fire blade, firebolt, the rays…’ And then what came to her mind was her burning her room. Depending on what the maids said, her whole body burst into flames.
Sofia pushed a foot ahead and one behind and closed her eyes.
“I told you to keep a safe distance, flying toward your enemy as a human mage will only lead to your death,” Zaleria said as she saw Sofia’s stance is similar to that of when she used [Burning feet]
“Let me concentrate!” Sofa told her without changing her posture.
‘I usually move the Mana from the middle of my chest toward my hands to cast magic. It then exits through my nails’ Sofia thought gathering Mana in her chest.
If I can’t fight up close I just need to make it so people want to get away from me. She started to distribute all that Mana through her body and finally let it exit from her hands and feet. VWOSH! Sofia’s body burst into flames just like how she was at night.
Zaleria got taken aback by the sudden change and she almost snuffed Sofia’s flames. “What are you doing?” She asked.
“Trying to make a hotter flame, I don’t think that standard spells would work on you so I trying something,” Sofia said as she started to condense more Mana into her chest. [Fireball] The flame covering her body suddenly exploded into a massive inferno, “Hoo, won’t you burn yourself doing that?” Zaleria commented.
Sofia wasn’t done, all that Mana that was building up in her chest now wanted to exit, a slight tingling formed in her lungs and she wanted to cough it up. The moment she opened her mouth, a flash of fire emerged in a cone with a horrifying roar.
Cain who was busy with Alice and Gracie turned around quickly at the sudden roar.
Zaleria’s eye opened wide, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing to the point she stood still and took the hit head-on. The flames splashed all over the place as they bounced from her body. Cain could hear a maid scream in the background, “MY PLANTS!”
[Burning feet] Sofia launched herself directly after the fire hit Zaleria, “How could it be? I’m Still Alive!” Zaleria screamed as she took a kick to the face from Sofia.[Burning feet] VROOM! Sofia spun her body and delivered a back kick to the temples and followed it with a [Firebolt].
“Stop for a second!” Zaleria said as she grabbed Sofia from the collar and pushed her to the ground. Sofia opened her mouth and another burst of flames washed over Zaleria’s face. “I’m telling you…” She noticed that Sofia had passed out, she had run out of MP and fallen unconscious.
Cain rushed toward them and checked on her, “She seems to have run of MP, was that what I think it was?” Cain asked.
“I’m not sure, it looked like a dragon’s breath but felt different. It can’t be one as I’m still alive!” it was true, usually for a person to access their draconic ancestor power, that dragon must be dead. So what Sofia used wasn’t a true dragon breath but a weak imitation.
“We have to wait for her to wake up and ask,” Cain said Carrying her to the house and asking one of the maids to take her to bed.
“She will be alright, Zaleria you can now train with Selena. Just make sure her moves are all set!” Said Cain who returned to training Alice and Gracie, The maid seemed to be making slow progress with magic. She was struggling with learning the first spell.
Alice on the other hand was standing with her eyes closed, a ball of Holy magic in her right and Another of cursed magic in her left. Cain was calling it shadow magic for anyone watching.
“How I’m doing?” Alice asked, “You’re doing great, keep it up!”
Cain then turned toward Gracie, She was closing her eyes and trying to conjure the magic but failing. “Listen it’s just [Shadow cover], just focus.”
“I’m doing that but the magic isn’t working,” Gracie said as if not even trying.
Cain walked toward her and put his hand on her shoulder. “Listen, you must think you’re a shadow. Imagine darkness all around your body.” Cain told her with passion, “It doesn’t matter how much you fail, what matters is trying again.”
“I’m doing that!” She replied.
“You made me do this, it’s just a single first-tier spell. If you failed to learn it by tonight I will have you dance naked for me, if you failed before tomorrow, you’re dancing to the girls. On the third day and you will dance for the other maids. Are you alright with that?” Cain whispered to her.
“I don’t want that.” She said, “Then get the spell done!” The spell wasn’t even complicated.
By the evening, Gracie had only managed to partially hide in the shadows. “You still have some time until bedtime, try to get it done before that!” Cain wasn’t going to count her out yet, he didn’t want her to get naked but it was the only thing he know for sure she hate, and to use it as motivation.