Del was sitting on the couch as usual. The breakfast was nice. Cole told Del to have a notebook so Del bought one from Pidma alongside a pen. While he was waiting for Cole to finish his preparation, Del was busy cramming 800 rounds of 7.62×51 NATO into his tactical rig.

Del was thinking about a further upgrade, “Maybe I should buy a hand grenade or a flashbang?”

[Ah, I agree with that]

“What makes you say that??” Del asked.

[Logically speaking, your lack of throwable weaponry is real and it actually can save you from multiple situations. For example, the situation where your head got the fragmentation from the fireball, it is actually preventable if you throw a grenade upstairs]

“I see,” Del nodded.

[Do you need any grenades?]

“Yup,” Del nodded.

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[Showing Grenades]

[Ammunition Level: 1] [Tech Level: 4] [Total Balance: 83502.5$]

[RGD-5 Grenade] [40$] [LOCKED]

[M67 Grenade] [50$] [LOCKED]

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“What is even the requirement of using a grenade?”

[You need to pass basic training course of throwing training grenades first]

“Why?”

[Grenades are deadly]

“What’s the course?” Del asked.

[You need to throw at the very least thirty training grenades succesfully]

“Emm, I think I’ll do it later then,” Del said.

[Understandable]

Cole walked to the living room. He didn’t bring his Uzi, but he wore his tactical rig and held a book with a pencil in his hand. He was most likely there to teach Del magic. Del stood up from his comfy couch and he picked up his M240 from the couch.

“So… today is the day, eh?” Del said.

“Yup, prepare yourself to write a lot, alright?” Cole asked.

“Sure, I’ll shoot my weapon as well,” Del said.

Del walked out of the house, followed by Cole and Wolfie. The M240 on Del’s back didn’t stand out as much as Del had previously expected, probably because of the black furniture that the M240 had or because there might be weirder weaponry that they had never seen before.

Both of them walked to the grassland located behind their house. Del wore his protective gear in case one of the magical spells that Cole taught blew upon his face. To be honest, he should have worn a balaclava or any ballistic visor, but well, it wasn’t available yet.

“Alright, first of all, in magical programming, you need to make the safety measurement program first. You can copy the program from my book,” Cole showed his book.

It was the same program like the one that Del saw when he was at Rina’s inn.

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If (Magical_Energy) < 100, Output=false

If (Magical_Energy) > 100, Output=true

If (Output=True), Initiate (Voice_Detection)

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“Remember, you actually can disable this spell, but I don’t recommend it. Heck, I don’t want you to do it, do you understand?” Cole asked.

“I understand, so, after this, what should I do?” Del asked.

“Well, you can copy the magical program that I wrote, but I have to explain it further now. You do notice that I always say “Magical Program” when I cast a spell, right? It’s actually an initiator,” Cole explained.

Cole explained that the phrase “Magical Program” was basically an initiator to use a spell under the category of “Magical Program”. For example, “Precise Strike Mode” was the phrase that Cassandra used for her precision offensive spell while Cole just generalized everything under the term “Magical Program”.

“Why are you generalizing your magical spell?” Del asked.

“It’s easier to remember, let me explain.”

Although simplifying everything under one category would make things way easier for him, it would also make a magical spell weaker. Although the margin wasn’t so far between simplifying and not simplifying, putting too many magical spells under one category would weaker the spell exponentially as more spell was added.

“So, it’s better to use category for each spell?” Del asked.

“Yeah, but most of my spells are for general usage, so the lack of power is not a huge problem. For example, I have an energy barrier spell, but it was only for protecting me from exploding shards of glasses, not an attack from a dragon. Adding too many spells will reduce the efficiency of a magical spell. The efficiency is reduced because the magical energy is taken to search for the program of the spell itself. One of the ways to counter this is to make a sub-specialization,” Cole added.

“Why did you generalize most of your spell then?” Del asked.

“For the sake of simplicity,” Cole said.

“I see,” Del said.

“Alright, I’ll give you the most basic spell, fireball, I will explain it one by one as you copy the spell from my book, alright?” Cole said as Del started copying the spell consequence.

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Name: Fireball

If (Voice_Detection) recognizes phrase (“Fireball”), initiate program.

Convert [300] (Magical_Energy) to (Thermal_Energy)

Compress (Thermal_Energy) to (Sphere)

Set (Sphere_Size) to [4]

Protect (Object_Hand) with (Magical_Energy)

Move (Sphere) to (Object_Hand)

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“What does this spell do?” Del asked.

“It will create fireball on your hand, and you’ll have to throw it. The fireball will appear right above your hand, and it will be hot. You better throw it soon,” Cole said.

“I see, where should I put the fireball spell then?” Del asked.

“Up to you, you can generalize it or you can make it specific.”

“I see.”

“And, don’t forget to add the indexer,” Del commented.

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Category: Offensive Spell

Name: Fireball

If Indexer searches for (Offensive Spell), search for phrase (Offensive Spell: [X])

If (Voice_Detection) recognizes phrase (“Fireball”), initiate program.

Convert [300] (Magical_Energy) to (Thermal_Energy)

Compress (Thermal_Energy) to (Sphere)

Set (Sphere_Size) to [4]

Protect (Object_Left Hand) with (Magical_Energy)

Move (Sphere) to (Object_Left Hand)

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“Yup, this will do, so, what should I do?” Del asked.

“Just use the magical program,” Cole said.

“Really? [Offensive Spell: Fireball]!” A fireball appeared on Del’s left hand. It didn’t feel hot although the fireball was so close into his skin, “How to throw it?”

“Just throw it!” Cole shouted.

Del threw the fireball like he threw a baseball with his hand. The fireball flew at an arc and it landed at the grassland. It made a trap of flame, but it didn’t really burn the grass. Maybe because the grass was still covered in morning dew.

“Damn, that’s quite versatile,” Del said.

“Look at your status plate,” Cole told him.

Del grabbed his status plate from his back.

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[Del Moore] [Level: 31]

Strength: 95

Agility: 82

Vitality: 85

Aptitude: 12

Perception: 80

Skills: Language Comprehension | Marksmanship LVL.25 | Firearms Comprehension LVL.21 | Flame Manipulation LVL.1 |

Magical Energy: 1100/1488

Health Point: 26000/26350

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The spell consumed 388 magical energy instead of 300. Del couldn’t figure out why at first, but he had a clue afterward. It seemed that 88 magical energy was taken to protect his hand from the blaze of that fireball.

It seemed that the matter of magic in this world was more sophisticated than expected. It was also likely that only the demons had access to this way of using a magical spell. Anyway, as long as Del had a functional magical spell, Del would be able to increase his strength in combat.

“Anyway, there is one remaining spell that I wanted to teach to you. This one is for defensive purposes. This spell is used to defend yourself from arrows, this is called energy shield,” Cole explained as he showed two types of magical programs, energy, and material field.

The difference between both was quite simple. Energy spell could protect against any projectile fired at the user of the spell. However, Cole explained that the downside of this spell was that the spell only could protect as much as the energy being poured into the spell itself.

The other type of shield was a material field spell. This one worked differently. Cole said that this type of spell could protect as much as four times better than the energy field. However, one of the downsides of this spell was described by Cole as how the API penetrated the shield of the magician in Firma’s mansion.

Basically, even though the bullet’s energy was less than what the shield was able to protect, the bullet would still penetrate the shield although the copper jacket was probably shredded. It worked in a more similar way to conventional armor. [Material Field] basically sacrificed its ability to block all projectiles with extra durability.

“Hmm, it seems that the spell is more convenient than I expected,” Del commented.

“Yup, do you know how to use it?” Cole asked.

“Yeah, I think I know how to use it, I’ll just put it under Defensive Spell category,” Del said.

“Alright, good, I think you got all of the basics, I think. Why don’t you try one of the defensive spells?” Cole asked.

“Alright, [Defensive Spell: Energy Field].”

Del didn’t feel anything. However, there was an extra membrane seemingly made of light surrounding his entire body. It might be the energy field. However, Del didn’t specify how much energy the field consumed.

“By default, this spell takes around 1,000 magical energy and will stay active for three hours or after all of the magical energy had run out from blocking the attacks,” Cole commented, “Still, you can add or remove the amount of magical energy stacked inside of your body.”

“How to do that?” Del asked.

“Well, write this,” Cole showed Del a magical spell add-on.

Del wrote the magical program in his notebook.

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Category: Defensive Spell

Name: Force Field Modifier

If (Voice_Detection) recognizes phrase (“Force Field Modifier”), initiate program.

Identify value of [X] in {Force Field Modifier [x]}

If (X) < 0, Take (Magical_Energy) from (Field)

If (X) > 0, Give (Magical_Energy) from (Field)

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“Basically, you use it by saying [Force Field Modifier -10], but it won’t work for me,” Cole commented.

“Ok, I’ll use it [Force Field Modifier -1000],” Del said.

The field disappeared from Del’s body.

Del thought for a while about the usage of the spells. Theoretically, Del could dress as a juggernaut using the spell itself. He could dress in very heavy armor to mitigate the downside of [Material Field]. He also could have concealable armor that could protect him from anything by using [Energy Field].

“Why are you giggling like that?” Cole wondered.

“Nothing,” Del giggled, “Anyway…..” He looked at his M240 on his back.