With Alaric now knowing four new powerful skills it was time for him to put them to the test.
“If you are up for it go ahead and try out the skills you just obtained.” Marcus suggested.
Still a bit flabbergasted by the fact that he had just learned four powerful skills in a few moments, it took Alaric nearly a dozen seconds to come back to himself. Though when he did, he smiled and nodded his head gleefully.
The first one he was going to try out was obvious. There was simply no way he would not begin with silent cast.
Focusing on the new skill and picturing a spell he had cast dozens of times, Alaric held out his hand and manifested his magic.
In an instant a bullet of ice went flying off from his hand and impacted a nearby tree with a heavy thud.
“It worked!” Alaric said in excitement.
The tier one spell he had just cast went off without a hitch and he had not even said a single word.
However, with his silent cast skill at only level one, it could only be used on tier one spells currently.
He would need to work with it and get the skill up higher before it would work on higher tier spells.
Nevertheless, being able to cast even tier one spells with no time lag or need to focus on chanting was a huge boon and would make him far stronger in combat.
‘Wow my mana has already fully recovered.’ Alaric thought with a surprised expression
Along with his test of silent cast he was also able to see the effects of his mana regeneration skill.
Normally it would have taken him a little over a minute to recover the mana expended from casting a tier one spell, but now it only took a few second.
Truly this was astounding and would allow him to fight for much longer and harder without exhausting all of his mana.
Reveling in the excitement of his new powers, Alaric went on a casting spree. He tested out each of his tier one spells using silent cast.
“Are you not going to use the new death magic spell you obtained?” Marcus asked once Alaric had been casting his other magic spells for around ten minutes.
His eyes going wide in realization, Alaric had practically forgotten about his new magic skill because he was so caught up in using silent cast and mana regeneration.
Looking around for a moment, he searched for a suitable target and saw a fairly large branch that he had knocked down earlier with his tier one spell barrage.
Picking it up, he held it in his hands for a few moments before casting his newly learned death magic spell.
‘Necrotic grasp.’
As he pictured the spell activating a translucent black glow formed in his right hand and began spreading out over the branch he was holding.
Quickly the green leaves on the branched shriveled up and turned to dust. Followed by the branch going black and cracking all over.
Any life left in the recently broken branch was sapped away in an instant and all that was left was what looked to be a long dead piece of wood.
Looking at what he had just done, for a few seconds Alaric was utterly terrified.
He had watched the living branch of a tree shrivel up and loss all semblance of life.
This was a power he had. One that could turn something from living to dead with just a touch.
“It is frightening, isn’t it?” Marcus said when he noticed how shaken Alaric was.
His life drain specter power was quite similar. Though instead of just destroying the target’s life he actually absorbed it as energy.
Turning around Alaric shook his head, and he looked even paler than normal.
“I can understand. Your other magic may be able to cause death, but it is not inherently meant to. And watching the life be drained out of something from your own hands is quite terrifying. But still, a weapon, or in this case magic, is not something to fear just for its existence. Every ability has its uses, and it is how you apply it that matters. If you wish to walk the path to gaining power, you will inevitably come into more and more conflict. Neglecting any tool simply because you are afraid of it could lead you to have regrets later. One day you may need the power of death magic to protect someone you care about. But if you really do not wish to use it, I will understand. Even I have a certain skill that I keep locked away unless the situation is beyond dire.” Marcus said with an incredibly serious face.
Looking down at his hands where the dead branch still lay, Alaric pondered what he wanted to do. And when he came to a decision, he looked up resolutely at Marcus.
“I will keep practicing this new magic. It might be a bit scary, but it is as you say. It is how I use the power not what it inherently is. I know if the day came, and Lilia got hurt when I might have been able to stop it with this magic, I would never forgive myself.”
Smiling, Marcus was happy to see that this was the answer that Alaric had come to and encouraged him to try out his new spell a few more times.
“Good I believe you are getting the hang of it. From tomorrow onward we will practice your new skills to get their levels raised up so that they are more in line with the others you have.”
After saying this Marcus urged Alaric to get some sleep while he finished cleaning up the kitchen area.
Yet before he left, Alaric had one more thing to say.
“Irene, what about the magic resistance skill I got? I do not really have anyway to test that out or training it up.” Alaric said with a confused look on his face.
At this, Marcus turned around and held up his hand.
“That is easy. We simply do this.”
In the next instance a fire shot spell appeared in the palm of Marcus’ hand and launched towards Alaric.
The attack was so surprising that it completely caught him off guard.
In the next instance the fire shot spell smashed against his body and he was covered in flames.
He held his hands up in front of him and prepared for the searing pain of being burned. But nothing happened.
He certainly felt and uncomfortable warmth of the fire bursting on his skin. but there was barely any damage to him other than very light burns on his hands that he used to protect his face.
“Looks like you managed to get through that pretty well. Though that fire shot only had about the power you would expect from the average level twelve or so.” Marcus said with a contemplative look.
Alaric for his part was still stunned that the person training him, who he had put his trust in had just attacked him out of nowhere.
“Oh, I guess I should heal you. That did do a bit of damage.”