[Rock Barrage].

  Siris calmly watched from the sidelines as the young soldier began firing his newfound magecraft with extreme enthusiasm. It was a bit of an amusing sight for the kitsune. Marcus’s ways of using magecraft could be described in just a few words—rough and overwhelming.

  That was both an insult and a compliment. As a great spirit from the Great Wen Empire, a nation ruled by kitsunes and vampiric nobility, magecraft to Siris was supposed to be an elegant art.

  Spell casting designs were supposed to be intricate, poetic, their execution both a display of majesty and power. This philosophy was something that Stella adhered to, and it was why usually folks who saw her using magic would be awed by the beauty of it.

  Marcus was essentially using the same spell circle formulas that Stella was using. Except, his designs were a rough copy. What was curious though was which glyphs and runes Marcus seemed to prioritize.

  While he wasn’t anywhere close to fully mastering it, it seemed that Marcus was only copying runes and glyphs he understood from textbooks that he read. Glyphs that created flashier effects, or glyphs that created extra function and utility seemed to be cut down in Marcus’s designs.

  An example was his [Rock Barrage] spell. The spell that Siris imparted to Stella, and copied by Marcus was supposed to be extremely versatile. It had room that allowed it to quickly activate glyphs that would change the size and speed of the rock spikes being sent.

  But Marcus’s spell circle was devoid of that. Almost all of the glyphs that allowed him to customize the power and size of the rocks he was flinging were gone, creating obvious voids on his spell circle. Instead, all he created was the commands to create a single size of rock, and all of them were being fired at the same speed.

  It was rigid, uncontrollable, ugly, and quite frankly, boring. It was an absolute bastardization of the philosophy in magecraft that Siris adhered to.

  But, somehow, it was working well. His spell should be working worse right now due to his bad spell mastery. Yet to Siris’s eyes, it was as if his [Rock Barrage] spell was at 70% mastery de facto.

  Why? It was both inefficient yet more efficient than what it should be. He was flinging out more rocks downrange. His accuracy wasn’t as bad as it should be.

  It seemed that his utilitarian choices paid off.

  And as a result, Siris watched as his [Rock Barrage] tore through her golems rapidly. She had created eight of them, all of them given the height of an average human, with a bulkier build because they looked cooler that way.

  Normally, the best way to dispatch them was to melt them down with [Fire] elemental spells. Her golems after all were essentially just water that she froze and puppeteered, similar to golems created with earth magic.

  But, Marcus was using a different strategy. Using [Rock Barrage], he just threw as much rocks at them at great speed that their bodies were being systematically and violently dismantled by sheer kinetics. It was a truly amusing sight.

  “My, my, my,” Siris flew close to Marcus. “You’re only level 15, right?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Hmm. Quite impressive. Though, you’re using up way too much mana for this spell.”

  “I know.”

  Marcus didn’t seem to be ignorant about the downsides of what he was doing. Siris thought that he only chose this spell because it was easier, but it seemed like he was making a calculated decision.

  “If I can master this, I can wipe out the average cultist without getting close in a matter of a few seconds,” Marcus smiled. “This is a worthy spell to be mastered.”

  “Hmm…I see, I thought you would be the type to prefer [Fireball].”

  “...I don’t want to burn people accidentally. I’ll use it once I get better.”

  “Hmph. Fair, but that method can still lead to collateral casualties.”

  As Marcus finished his work, he lowered his wand. In front of them, the golems were nothing but a ugly ice pieces on the ground, their beautiful designs peppered with holes and cracks.

  That somewhat caused Siris to wince a bit.

  She flew close to Stella, who was watching Marcus’s work with a proud smile.

  “Hey…I think your partner is a tad bit violent.”

  Siris was a bit of a strict teacher, Marcus though. After their little test earlier, the great spirit proceeded to school Marcus’s little imperfections at spellcasting intensively.

  Mostly, she focused on teaching him how to properly cast [Cleaning Vortex], [Rock Barrage], and [Fireball]. Apparently, Marcus was committing a grave sin by reducing into their barebones function. Somewhat, she probably did have a point in that.

  Marcus had less control over his spells. Essentially, he cast it, and then that was it. He wouldn’t be able to change it to suit whatever was happening in front of him. He couldn’t use [Rock Barrage] to instead fire a burst of three long sharp rocks.

  Instead, all he could when he invoked his spell was fire them at whatever he was pointing at, by throwing rock spikes that were around the same size of a crossbow. It was crude, inflexible…

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  And he thought it was effective. Siris did agree with Marcus’s conclusion, with the caveat of her warning that Marcus was right now, mostly using spells just for combat.

  His path at cultivating magic was ‘way too soldiery’ in the great spirit’s words. Outside of [Cleaning Vortex], his spells were essentially only useful in head-to-head combat. That might be a problem one day, but, well that was that.

  He wanted to focus on increasing spell mastery fast, at the expense of having a deeper understanding of a spell. And so, for the past few hours, they worked on that path for now.

  Siris helped Marcus at improving his spell circle invocations, gave him advice, before grading him for improvement. She told him that should he be able to gain 85% mastery on at least six intermediate spells, he would grant him an extra special spell.

  That was a good motivation to keep getting good, so Marcus tried his best.

  By the end of the day, he increased his level by two. That was enough to improve his [Dexterity] and [Magic] stats for a bit, and most importantly, he formed a second magic circle, allowing him the possibility to cast two spells at once.

  It was great progress, enough that Marcus and Stella went out of the academy and went straight to a good restaurant to celebrate. Once done, they calmly walked back home, with Stella munching on a ‘donut’ on the way.

  “Is Siris out there?” Marcus asked, as the great spirit retreated to Stela’s pendant earlier to rest.

  “Hmm?” Stella looked up at Marcus, before clearing her throat. “She should take another hour or so before she can come back out. Why?”

  “Nothing, I just wanted to ask her a question.”

  She shoved him lightly on the side with a small laugh.

  “You should have asked her earlier.”

  “She was too focused on helping me out on my…less than stellar magic.”

  “Oh come on, you shouldn’t really feel bad about it,” Stella’s voice was cheery and singsong, which lifted Marcus’s mood up all the time. “The thing is, mages take literal decades just to hone their skills. Even I took more than ten years!”

  “Really?”

  “Yep! I started out when I was a child.”

  “Interesting…”

  “Then again, back then, I never really fought monsters or other people to gain XP and level up quickly.”

  “So far, most of my gains were from combat.”

  Marcus touched his chin, thinking deeply.

  “Hmm…maybe crashing into another cultist base will help me nicely.”

  “I wouldn’t mind if we do that. But didn’t you tell me that we have a problem with Archbishop Selena?”

  “Yes, that's why I want to ask Siris.” Marcus placed hands on his pockets, grumbling a bit. “I just thought it’d be a bit rude to jump straight to that after meeting her for the first time.”

  Stella tilted her head as she looked at Marcus, her lips flat yet curious.

  “...The first time we met, you flew me roughly straight into Almarche while I was screaming.”

  “I…learned, I guess.”

  “Oh, wow. That’s good to hear! Quite frankly, I thought you’ll be quite crass once you meet Lady Siris. So far, the only sin you committed was forgetting her name.”

  Marcus laughed lightly as he patted his hair.

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “I’ll try to call on Lady Siris. Or should I do it once we’re at the hotel?”

  “Yeah, I’d like to talk to her in your suite. It’s getting late anyway.”

  “Mhm. Sounds like a good plan. Can we check out a nearby tailor shop though? I saw something nice earlier…it’s not really on par with the quality in the palace, but…”

  Marcus snorted a bit. Recently, she’s been a bit too active at spending her money when they arrived in this city. Well, she’s always been that way, and Marcus never really stepped in.

  Though, he did feel a little bit concerned about it. She was using her bank details after all.

  Marcus suddenly stopped.

  Oh.

  Stella turned to him, a bit confused.

  “Sir Marcus?”

  The throne room of the King of Sordale was filled with four attendants. They were the closest advisors to His Majesty, all of them standing on the side of the grand hall.

  The warm lights filtered through the windows, casting a golden glow on the elven king’s form. Down below, kneeling below his elevated throne, was none other than War Minister Himmel vi Esser.

  King Aolis Folre vi Sordale still seemed disturbed and irritated. The previous operation’s failure at finding her daughter gravely disappointed the king, enough that Himmel feared the possibility of being fired from his post outright.

  Fortunately, so far, no shakeup of the War Ministry occurred. Himmel and his staff officers remained, still running the kingdom’s military and defense, all while trying to desperately find the elven king’s lost daughter.

  And they found her.

  “You say that her bank account is still alive?” King Aolis grumbled. “Stand up, War Minister. Continue your report.”

  Respectfully, Himmel rose up. Then, he began speaking.

  “Your Majesty, I apologize for our grave oversight. Unfortunately, the last time that Her Highness withdrew cash from her account was more than a month ago, and she did so from the branch of the Continental Astrea Bank in Almarche, a city in Valeon.”

  Gasps came from the king’s close advisors, their hushed voice reaching Himmel’s slightly nervous ears.

  “Why? Did those Valeonese fools hide this from us?”

  “This is concerning. What if she’s lost there?”

  “No, I’ve heard that she’s active in Sordalel.”

  “Confirm that, will you?” King Aolis said after one of his advisors spoke. Himmel nodded. “So why only now did we know of this?”

  “Almarche suffered an attack before the bank’s branch could report its business details to their HQ. The crisis was only resolved yesterday, right when Her Highness once again took out money from her account in Branburg.”

  “Branburg?” King Aolis leaned forward, his tone now slightly raised, as if he suddenly found a shred of hope that he quickly grasped desperately.

  “We’re not sure if it’s her,” Himmel said. “For all we know, this is the cultists using her bank details. But, that would be doubtful. If that was the case, she would be taking out suspicious amounts of cash. Instead, it seems that her current behavior matches her weekly financial activity records back when she was studying.”

  “...Then why isn’t she here yet?” King Aolis sounded like he was dismissing Himmel’s words, but, on the inside, it was clear that he was probably desperately trying to figure out if this was true.

  “We’ll find out, Your Majesty. Tomorrow, the 101st Wyvern Air Wing will be sent to Branburg to investigate.”