Casual Heroing

I walk inside an empty room, and I fall on the bed right after.

No, I have no intention of actually sleeping if you are concerned about that. I have many more important things to do.

Namely, magic.

I open the—what’s it called again? Holding bag? The bottomless sack? Dimensional fanny pack?

Well, I fish out my book from the thingy. The—man, what’s up with the stupid name? What was the name of the book, now? Ok, I fish out the magic book. Whatever it’s called.

“Yo, book, watch this.”

[Advanced Mana Sense]

[Deep Focus]

I weave the spell matrixes, being careful to create the two anchor points to define the distance, and then I strike both [Lights] with an over imposed anti-matrix that’s polarized to make them spin.

Were they supposed to keep the same exact distance and speed?

Man, I need a memory tonic, I swear.

Well, the polarity part is a clone of each other; it should—

Two small but bright [Light] orbs materialize in front of me, and they start spinning at a sustained pace. But one is a bit faster compared to the other.

Goddammit.

I dispel the [Lights].

Come on, Joey, you have five hundred twenty-nine stupid Cantrips to go through, and you’re still working on the first one.

I start recreating the two spell matrixes in the air. This time, I let my instincts guide me, and when I create the two orbs—

There’s still some asynchrony.

For Pete’s sake!

I’m getting antsy.

I firmly believe that the book will zap me to death if I don’t manage this stupid homework.

Once again.

This time, as soon as I visualize the matrixes in the energy world, I breathe deeply, looking at the ever-moving squiggly lines.

The problem is that no two matrixes are the same, so I have to adapt each one’s polarity to the individual matrix. However, it presents the problem of multi-casting the two orbs simultaneously. It’s too much for a human mind. It’s like drawing with both left and right hands and expecting the same result.

“Stupid book, this is so—”

And I get zapped.

It’s only mild current, but the book hovers maliciously in front of me and opens to a page.

‘A future [Archmage]’s behavior and manners should fit his station.’

Yeah, yeah, whatever.

I look at two hovering matrixes.

Is there a workaround?

I start tracing the spell matrixes again, looking at how much energy they both contain.

There’s a faint pulsation while I trace the anti-matrix responsible for polarity.

And the two pulsing matrixes have a slightly different… rhythm.

Gotcha.

I dispel the two spell matrixes again.

While I start tracing the polarity anti-matrix, which is simply a matrix with angled starting points, there’s a faint pulsation. Now, there’s a good chance that that is what I’ve been looking for.

But how?

Mmmmh.

Well, let’s adjust the quantity, or basically how thick the lines I’m drawing are, based on this faint pulsation. And let’s try to make it follow the natural pulsation rhythm.

I don’t do a perfect job, but it’s much better than before.

I deactivate [Advanced Mana Sense] and [Deep Focus] to avoid draining myself too much.

Two [Lights] hover on top of my palm, perfectly synchronized with each other. They are equally distant, and their speed is exactly the same. Maybe not exactly the same, but to the human eye, it is. There might be an infinitesimal difference, but that’s pretty much it.

Well, that was a dreadful amount of work for two stupid spinning [Lights], wasn’t it?

I have to admit; they are beautiful. There is something hypnotic even in this tiny amount of magic, something that feels like swimming in the sky. It’s like the first time you dip your toes in the sea and realize you are part of something much, much bigger than yourself.

Magic puts you in a ruthless perspective. It’s unforgiving, but it’s also huge

. On Earth, there’s nothing that compares to it. People are in despair – many kill themselves every single day. Why? For many reasons that cannot be pinned down to one simple thing.

But many suffer the first crisis when they realize how insignificant they are, how insignificant the world is. Then comes anxiety, paranoia, depression. I wish they could grasp the same two stupid [Lights] that are now orbiting on top of my palm.

They are so beautiful.

They wandered out of the center, sort of in a spiral, before settling in their current orbit.

If those people who deem themselves worthless on Earth could grasp this magic, they would realize they are part of something much bigger, perhaps. Maybe they would start dreaming again, a simple Cantrip capable of dispelling the worst nightmares.

Am I talking about others, or am I talking about myself?

A sad smile is painted on my lips.

My connections and bonds have been severed.

There’s so much I have lost.

So many things that I will never get back.

I dispel the [Lights] and put my face in my hands.

I sigh.

I shake my head, straighten it up again, lick my lips, and smile.

“Whassup, book, how was that?”

‘Congratulations on completing the First Cantrip. Beware, the second one is much more difficult than the first.’

Well, isn’t that lovely?

More difficult? What’s it going to be? Do I have to slay a stupid Dr—

You know what, let’s not even think about that before Lady Luck places a giant fire-spitting reptile in Amorium.

‘For the Second Cantrip, Magister Mulligan wants you to make a [Light] spell spin on itself for ten seconds.’

Huh?

What?

You know, I’m stupid.

Like, I do seriously think there’s something wrong with my brain.

Like, stupidly wrong.

But I’ve also read enough books to see plots in advance, and I have a decent hunch about stuff. A decent… what’s the word? Instinct? Isn’t there a better word? Sixth sense? Whatever.

Well, I’m not sure you know what’s happening here, but it is pretty clear to me.

And it appears that I have messed up massively.