Spell vs Skill

'Nothing? Even after that? Damn it…'

Disheartened, he stored the corpse and prepared for the next attempt.

Having proven to himself that his guided arrow was reliable, he turned his attention back to more normal magic. If he could create fire, he wouldn’t have to keep wasting his precious wood. Unlike his earlier, classless attempts, this time the technique came easily. With little more than focused images and instinct combined with a little trial and error, a small flame flickered to life in his palm.

Experimenting, he shifted its heat, size, and shape until, within an hour, he was balancing a basketball-sized fireball in the air before him. Despite the blazing orb hanging only a short distance away, he wasn’t burned. The heat was still real, though, radiating faintly against his skin.

Aiming at one of the corpses he had set up, he threw it with all his might. The ball deformed as the air pushed against it, turning more oval as the weightless orb of fire shot forth. Feeling a slight drain from his magic in the process, it carried a fair amount of momentum as it shot out.

Bwafoom!

The fireball burst into a wash of flames, scorching the outer hide lightly before fading into sparks. The damage wasn’t fatal-level, but it was real damage at least—and it had only cost a small portion of his mana, perhaps one-tenth.

Relief turned quickly to tension as heavy footsteps thundered. An orc appeared randomly, sniffing the blood that was slowly being absorbed by the stone floor. With quick thinking, he loosed an arrow not even controlling the ratios of power. The creature collapsed before it could react, as a deep cylindrical hole bored its way fully through its chest.

Exhaling a sharp breath, he berated himself. 'Idiot. Letting my guard down over a spell test could’ve ended badly. I’d been so good all this time… magic is dangerous.'

Leaving the corpse for later, he waited in silence until he felt secure again. Then, heart steadied, he returned to his experiments.

This time, instead of imagining a simple flame sustained equally by heat, fuel, and oxygen, he shifted the balance. Rather than his mana doing all the work in equal thirds, he pushed it into a ratio—fuel provided by mana, oxygen pulled directly from the air and heat self-sustained after the initial combustion.

A translucent sphere of pale blue formed on his palm. He inhaled, then exhaled slowly, focusing his will as the sphere began pulling in surrounding air, swirling like a tiny vacuum. With a spark of heat from his mana and a flood of fuel, the mixture ignited. Fire roared to life inside the orb, spiraling as the sphere fed on the drawn-in oxygen, while also rapidly draining his magic reserve.

The flames grew denser, hotter, until the outer shell of magic strained to contain them. He stopped the intake of air, holding in his hand a tennis-ball-sized vortex of fire.

The magic drained from him faster than ever before, but the spell’s power and cast speed were leagues ahead. Larger versions would take longer to charge with air, but the principle was sound.

Enthralled by its glow, Joseph let the orb drop off the scaffolding.

Hitting the corpse below, the shell ruptured, releasing the spiraling inferno in a violent bloom. For a few seconds the swirling fire expanded, pushed out by its inner density, the swirling flames tore at flesh and stone alike before bursting apart in a final flare as flames flew across the room.

With no more fuel, the flames nearly immediately died down. Only newly created fire on the orc’s corpse remained. However, the body bore the proof of its carnage: a cratered chest, hide scorched through, flesh charred deep within. Heat still wafted faintly from it in the form of steam as the stench of putrid, charred meat filled his nose.

Grinning more manically than ever before, he clenched his fist in delight.

'Now that’s a fireball. Even from here, I can feel the heat—and that was only tennis ball-sized. I can’t imagine a larger one… though I’ll need a lot more magic. Keeping that much energy contained and fueled was nearly beyond me—but I managed. Barely.'

Jotting notes on the wall, he glanced at his status. He wasn’t expecting much, but after killing the last orc it was worth checking.

Name: Joseph

Class: Spirit Ranger [E+] (+3 Spirit, +2 Dexterity, +2 Agility, +1 Magic)

Title: Survivor of the Unsurvivable

Level: 11

Vitality: 5
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 32
Agility: 17
Magic: 26
Spirit: 18

Available Stat Points: 0

Active Skills: Channel Spirits (E), Spirit Sight (E), Magic-Spirit Communion (E), Condensed Fireball (E)

Passive Skills: Survivor (E), Spirits Affection (E), Exploit Weak Point (F), Mana Control (F)

Condensed Fireball (E) – Create a compact fireball that draws in surrounding air and detonates with high heat.
Mana Control (F) – Minuscule improvement to control over internal mana.

'Wow, I actually gained skills from that. So, it isn’t only combat-specific situations which result in a skill. Condensed Fireball… hopefully it’s the same as what I made. It’ll be a good test of how the system translates a custom spell into a skill. Surprised it’s only E-rank though. The version I created felt incredibly powerful—maybe skills have limits, or maybe in the grand scheme of things it’s only as powerful as an E-ranked skill?

As for Mana Control, F-rank is a bit underwhelming, but better than nothing. This also pretty much confirms my suspicion that mana exists. I already assumed so since usually mana and magic go hand in hand, but this confirms that while magic is the spell/use case, mana is the fuel.

Still, how does the system even determine rank? And how does a skill like this even function—directly boosting my brain’s ability to handle mana? Does it change how my mana works? Does it only work on skills, or overall mana even outside of skills?'

He shook his head.

'Sigh. No point puzzling over cosmic mysteries. If it works, it works, and I can do what tests I can to get at least the basic answers.'

Having drained much of his mana, he ate, rested, and playfully theorycrafted all the magic he wanted to try next. When recovered, he activated Condensed Fireball for a proper test. Simply thinking the skill name made a glowing orb of fire appear before him, its size and intensity shifting as he willed it, consuming more or less mana as it scaled.

For comparison, he matched it to his earlier tennis ball–sized flame. The orb pulled oxygen from the air, spinning furiously as he poured mana in, the same as before. He even managed to load nearly a third of his pool before meeting a hard limit—the skill refused more.

Meanwhile his previous self-made ball could handle more, not very well as the outer shell threatened to break, but it was possible at least. Meaning the skill lacked flexibility, but made up for it with ease of use and consistency.

He dropped it onto the charred corpse left down below. The condensed ball detonated with a burst of searing fire, shredding and scorching through flesh and hide. A vortex of flames roared outward before scattering into embers as the mana drained away. Nearly identical to last time.

When the blaze cleared, the body was blackened, chest burned through, smoke curling upward.

'As I thought. The skill is instant and easier to control—less mental strain. But weaker. With my manual version I could add as much fuel as I dared, even alter its shape or element. The skill is fixed. Flexible to an extent but bound by hard limits likely only increased by advancements in its skill rank.

In game terms, it’s a variable cost skill, maybe 5–40 mana per cast. My spell has no ceiling or minimum however—limited only by control. That means skills are safer, but raw magic offers limitless opportunities.'

He sighed, running a hand down his face.

'Which means I’ll need guidance eventually. A teacher, or maybe an academy. I could try inventing everything myself, but the resource cost would be brutal, in time alone, at the very least.'

When the chamber was quiet, Joseph cleaned up. He let the dungeon absorb most of the organic and smaller matter, leaving only the larger remains to be manually cleared.

Once things settled, he lowered another corpse and cast again, this time with a slight difference. Instead of pouring pure mana, he used a tenth of his pool, then layered spirit energy into it through Magic-Spirit Communion.

The fireball glowed red, streaked with grey as nearby spirits infused it. He let it drop.

The result was immediate and violent.

The orb struck and erupted, not only in flame but with an explosive, concussive-like force. Magic and spirit clashed, triggering a blast that ripped the corpse apart and hurled charred fragments across the chamber.

The shockwave scorched the stone floor in a five-meter radius, leaving it cracked and blackened. At the center of the blast, a small crater marked where the body had been.

Joseph stared at the destruction, wide-eyed.