Chapter 335 – Quad Casting
Damion was brave enough to explore the edges of Red Zones as a B Rank mage, but he knew going further into Red Zones was dangerous. Hearing Mage Veers, a peak A Rank mage warn him that Black Zones were too strong even for all of humanity’s S Rank mages together was disheartening. The S Rank Ferocious Beasts and Demonic Beasts in the Black Zones were likely thousands of years old and could quite possibly even have surpassed S Rank.
When Damion was tested to have S+ talent and affinity, every powerful mage rejoiced, believing him to be the dawn of a new era for mages. The first of a new generation of mages with the potential to surpass the old guard. However, when Damion was tested, he was 18. That meant either all the other S+ Rank talents of his generation went unnoticed, or he was a generation early.
As more and more children were tested and no one was found to have the potential Damion had, it was clear that he was unique, and it became even more important for them to nurture him.
It was no doubt to the dismay of many, that Damion was the student of Helga Teft. A woman who had butted heads with the Mage Association and noble families for years. They held out hope of roping Damion in while Helga was just an A Rank mage, but when she advanced to S Rank, that hope vanished. Now they just hoped that the young Ice mage would not follow too closely in the footsteps of his teacher.
“There it is,” Mage Veers said, pointing to a large boulder in front of them.
“Did you find the dungeon core?” Mage Strand, the Wood mage of their group asked.
“Yes. It should be underneath that boulder,” Veers confirmed.
“I’ll move it,” Mage Galindo said.
Damion was quite eager for Mage Galindo to take action. Aside from a few members of the Blanche family, Mage Galindo was the only Ice mage he had ever met. He was excited to see what spells this mage might have that he did not.
Mage Galindo stretched out both hands and from the ground on either side of the boulder arose four pillars of Ice. Damion recognized the spell as Ice Wall, but Mage Galindo was not creating a wall, just the pillars underneath the edges of the boulder, raising it up. The boulder rose up to about a meter off the ground revealing the dungeon’s fake core underneath, waiting to be destroyed.
In theory Damion understood what Mage Galindo had done. Having Ice Wall form pillars instead of a wall was the easy part. The hard part was casting and controlling four spells at once. He had dual casted plenty of spells, even spells of different affinities, but quad casting, that was something new.
“How did you do that?” Damion asked.
“It is just Ice Wall,” Mage Galindo said innocently.
“You know what I meant. You quad casted Ice Wall.”
“Did I?”
Damion narrowed his eyes at the Ice mage trying to determine if Mage Galindo was toying with him, or if he was implying that he had done something else. Replaying the scene in his head, there was no indication of anything other than quad casting, but still, Damion could not see how it was done.
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“Don’t be a prick,” Mage Veers cut in. “Just explain what you did, so we can move on.”
“Fine. How do you dual cast?”
“Summon a different magic seal to each hand and cast two different spells.”
“And did I cast two different spells?”
“You cast the same spell, but multiple times.”
“No, I cast the same spell twice and willed each of them to split.”
Damion thought for a moment on Mage Galindo’s assertion. In principle, dual casting was simple enough, as was splitting a spell, though it did require concentration and a larger than normal mana draw. He had done each action separately before, but never had he tried to combine the tasks. Now it seemed he had a new target to aim for in his daily magic practice. After all, the harder and more intensive his training, the more progress he would make.
“I see. I suppose I will have to try such a technique,” Damion told the Ice mage.
“What spells can a Spatial mage split? Certainly not Blink. Or are you going to maybe split Portal. Would be interesting to see if your head ended up in one place and your legs in another.”
“Telekinesis will be a good spell to practice with,” Damion told him, ignoring the A Rank mage’s condensation. “Once I have that, then I get start experimenting with Exile. If I can cast four Exiles at once, then it won’t matter if my target is stronger or faster than me.”
Mage Galindo gulped hard when he heard that. Exile was a terrifying spell in and of itself. If this Spatial mage could actually manage to cast four at once, then he could likely kill anything. Maybe even an S Rank.
“I wouldn’t count your eggs before they hatch,” Mage Veers told Damion. “Dual casting and spell splitting are not easy to do when you have a low Rank affinity. Even people with A Rank affinities and talent don’t use it often since it is a pain. Most people are satisfied with casting the spell a few times, especially when you consider it is more taxing to do it all at once. Mage Galindo was just trying to show off with his casting.”
“Oh. Is split casting easier on static spells?” Damion asked.
Static spells were ones that when cast did nothing on their own except spring into existence as the caster willed. Ice Wall and Ice Shield were prime examples. The spells were cast and depending on how the caster willed their mana, they could manipulate the size and shape of the wall or shield created. Spells like Ice Shard, Fireball or Ice Breath on the other hand, possessed a movement quality, where part of casting required the spell to be shot out and expelled from the caster.
“That’s right. Since Ice Walls usually just sits there, all he had to do was split the initial dual cast, so he had four Wall anchor points and then he simply fed the spells mana, growing each spell the same way with one will.”
“Don’t reveal my secrets,” Mage Galindo pleaded.
“Your secrets? I recall you learning this trick from Mage Forlani a few months back.”
The Ice mage paled when Mage Veers revealed he was just copying what someone else had taught him. The image of the aloof Ice mage he had been trying to cultivate in front of Damion was falling apart.
“So what? I can still do it. That’s more than you can do.”
“Void magic is too dangerous to attempt tricks like that. Or do you want me to accidently create a wasteland when I lose control?”
Mage Galindo did not answer. He simply turned away and pretended not to hear Mage Veers’ question.
“How about I destroy the core,” Damion said. He cast Telekinesis and pulled the core to him, which let Mage Galindo release his Ice Walls, causing the boulder to hit the ground with a crash.
A Rank core in hand, Damion tried to crush it, but just as he could not easily destroy a B Rank core as a C Rank mage, he was having difficulty breaking the A Rank core as a B rank mage.
“Cores are strong, but once damaged, become much easier to destroy. Hit the edge of it with Exile,” Mage Veers told him.
Damion carefully cast Exile for a split second, focusing on making just a small opening that would not allow the entire core through. When the core was touched to the edge of the opening, it broke off a small portion of the dungeon core. Once that was accomplished, he squeezed down on the core again and it shattered. Sending everyone out of the dungeon at that same moment.