Chapter 225.1: Mira's Summoning Skills Lecture (Part 1)

「Let's see what you can do first. Why don't you try summoning it?」

When Mira said that, Leyla let out a confused 「Huh..?」 She had just asked for help with learning how to summon it, but Mira's response had been to do it. It felt like a rather obvious contradiction.

But Mira was trying to accomplish something else.

「I want to see how you perform the summoning ceremony. I'm sure I'll be able to point out what you're missing by seeing that.」

Mira said that with a defiant voice, her confidence rooted in something quite palpable.

It was hard to say that Mira was good at teaching people, but when it came to summoning, it was essentially the one thing she was an expert at.

Not to mention that as one of the Nine Wisemen, having surpassed all other summoners in ability, many others had come to her for advice in the past, giving her plenty of experience with how to pass on knowledge. That also helped Mira know how to pin-point Leyla's issue as quickly as possible.

「Umm, alright...」

They had seen Mira's Ashen Knights and the spirit mansion earlier, so they knew her skill was the real deal. It was better to trust the master, so Leyla decided to do as told, and tried to activate the Summoning Skill she had learned from Bruce.

Soon Leyla's mana began to spread, but it quickly vanished before a magic circle could take shape.

「Ugh...why does that always happen?」

Leyla looked disappointed, seeing no improvement no matter how many times she tried it. Mira watched that carefully, then looked at the rest of Leyla's group. Their three frontliners looked like a knight, a warrior, and a samurai. The middle guard was a hunter, and the rear line was Leyla and a saint.

Saints were the most popular class of spellcasters, while summoners were the least. Seeing that, Mira arrived at a certain conclusion.

「Leyla, was it? You're really used to Concept Magic, aren't you?」

Seeing her group, and the way she failed at summoning, Mira asked that question to Leyla.

「How did you know?! But yes, I'm actually quite confident about my Concept Magic!」

Leyla seemed to be quite pleased with her mastery of Concept Magic, so her face lit up as she replied. The rest of the group also chimed in to say how Leyla's Concept Magic was indispensable to their work as adventurers, and how they were blessed to have her with them.

(So that was the case after all.)

Hearing that, Mira was certain she knew exactly why Leyla was failing.

Before that though, the reason why Mira knew that Leyla was good at Concept Magic was her position.

Concept Magic was slightly different from other branches of spells, being usable by any spellcaster with mana. That meant that the saint of the group should also be able to use Concept Magic.

Any spellcaster could use Concept Magic as long as they learned how, and those spells could have all sorts of useful effects, so it was always useful to know some.

But seeing the group's lineup, they had a saint who could heal and offer a lot of support in combat, and a summoner who lacked even the most basic summons. It was clear which of them would have the mana to spare for Concept Magic.

Mira believed that being in that position made Leyla fail at summoning now.

「As a spellcaster I'm sure you're already aware that there's a lot of steps to activating a spell, even if it's usually considered a single action.」

Mira asked just to be sure, and Leyla nodded in response, while also saying that Bruce had properly taught her all the steps, but somehow she could not get it to work.

「That's because you're only thinking of the steps and nothing else.」

Leyla had started to doubt whether Bruce's instructions had been wrong, or if she was misremembering something. But Mira pointed out exactly what the issue was, summoning did not revolve purely on following a checklist of steps.

Mira had met many summoners who were in a similar situation back in the game days. The majority of them had started off with a different class, before being converted to summoning after seeing Danbulf in action.

But that was back in the game days, so Leyla could not belong to them.

Now that this world was reality, one's class was determined by their magic affinity, something like an established occupation. Some spellcasters had a stronger affinity for magic, others for monk skills, and some others for summoning. People usually had a few open choices at first, but once they picked one class, their affinity would be locked, making it impossible for them to learn spells from a different class, except for Concept Magic.

There was a way to awaken an once locked class though, something called Innate Sense. Doing that would allow a spellcaster to possess both classes at the same time, but to a lesser extent than someone focusing purely on one. That disadvantage often became insignificant when contrasted against the situational benefits having access to two classes had though.

This world had not been very favorable towards summoners, so basically no spellcaster would willingly become one if they had other choices.

As much as Mira lamented it, that was the state of the world. That likely also meant that Leyla's only affinity was for summoning.

That made Mira feel even more invested in Leyla though.

「Concept Magic and Summoning Skills don't only differ in the steps used to carry them out, but also in the nature of one's mana when using them.」

Leyla had never been part of a different class in the past, and yet she was failing just like the converts Mira had met in the past. The reason for that, according to Mira, was Leyla's familiarity with Concept Magic.

Casting a spell involved various steps. Going from selecting a spell and a target, channeling mana, controlling its speed and course, its range, and various others depending on the specific spell one chose.

That much was common knowledge for all spellcasters. But Mira said there was one specific step that was the issue here, one that was shared between all ranges of spells.

「A step shared between all spells... Hmm...that's... Ah, channeling mana!」

Leyla took the question seriously, like a teacher was making a question during a lesson. Mira replied with a 「That's exactly it,」 looking pleased with Leyla's disposition to learn.

Then Mira continued explaining. Channeling mana meant reserving the mana necessary to activate a spell, but it also could prime it to take the correct shape.

Altering that was something seasoned spellcasters did almost instinctively.

When casting a fire spell, mana was primed to combust and spread. When using a healing spell, mana was primed to become more revitalizing. Each spell had a corresponding type of mana. But generally spellcasters did not have to stress out about that too much. If their mana was left in a neutral state, it would usually be enough to launch a spell as long as there was enough of it.

It only became a factor when a spellcaster gained enough experience to really attune oneself with the natural flow of mana, becoming keenly aware of its finer texture. Then they would be able to modify their mana to reflect the desired effect from a given spell.

Many would say a spellcaster had overcome their limits when they reached that point, but in reality it simply meant they understood mana better and knew how to mold it to their advantage. Mira explained that while puffing her chest with pride, as it was something she had researched herself.

Leyla and the other spellcaster girl looked shocked hearing that, still a bit overwhelmed by Mira's explanation of her research into how mana behaved, and everything spellcasters did subconsciously.

「The state of mana? How is that related?」

Sara was also listening to the conversation and asked that. Since she did not know much about spells, she could not really grasp the magnitude of what Mira was explaining.

Leyla was still a beginner summoner and did not have enough experience as a spellcaster to really understand how to modify her own mana, so Sara was simply a bit confused as to how that would cause Leyla to fail constantly.

The same went for Leyla herself, she was still a bit unsure as to how Mira's lesson was related to her predicament.

「It's simple really, it's Concept Magic.」