Chapter 223: Finally Getting His Hands on a Spellbook

Magna wanted to demonstrate how he could cast spells by casting Water Sapphire, but when he raised his hand, he briefly hesitated.

The last time he had cast Glacial Calamity, the spell had gone out of control, burning through 11% of his mana because he couldn’t cancel it.

Looking at the expectant as well as suspicious eyes around him, he decided to try it anyway.

He had to experiment with his spellcasting to get better at it, after all.

He chanted neither the words for Water Sapphire nor any honorific names, only whistling as he manipulated the mana inside him.

Thin notes of whistling, first low and then high, echoed in everyone’s ears as Magna’s mana moved within him in time with the sound. Water began to form above his palm, starting with a few drops before more gathered, quickly growing into a large ball of water.

Yet it began shrinking again shortly afterward. The same thing that had happened to Renna’s spell was happening to his spell as well, leaving him unable to sustain more than a few drops.

However, that was enough to leave everyone dumbfounded.

"This..." Renna stared wide-eyed at the water gathered above his palm.

The other Witches reacted much the same way, although they looked more suspicious.

They all looked around, thinking there had to be a Witch nearby messing with them.

Magna chuckled at their reactions, exactly what he had wanted to see, as he silently gave Gaia a command.

’Gaia, cancel active spellcasting.’

The next second, just as he had hoped, the flow of mana through his mana channels abruptly stopped, and the water above his palm fell into his hand and quickly disappeared.

"That’s impossible." One of the Witches stared at his palm in disbelief.

"You didn’t even chant any honorific names," another added.

They looked ready to turn on him and accuse him of being a fraud.

Magna kept smiling. "Oh, is it?" He was thoroughly enjoying this as he began whistling again, and this time, a flame appeared above his palm instead of water.

The flame quickly took the shape of an arrow and began spinning, giving off intense heat.

It was the Fire Missile spell the Witches had used to attack the Devoring Desolution earlier.

Since Magna had been quite far away from them, he hadn’t been able to see the golden mana pattern inside their bodies clearly enough to copy it exactly, but he had been working on completing the pattern in the back of his mind for a while.

Even the spinning effect was his own addition, something he had improvised just now while forming the spell pattern, since the spell hadn’t spun when the Witches cast it.

’Damn, this spell costs too much mana.’ Seeing his mana reserves suddenly drop to 4%, Magna immediately canceled the spell.

He had just learned that showing off wasn’t cheap.

"That spell... Did you just copy it?" Renna knew more than anyone about Magna’s eyes, so she guessed right away.

After all, she had been there when Magna first gained that trait, his golden eyes.

"Yeah. It’s not perfect, though." Magna felt rather bitter about his first attempt being flawed and the huge amount of mana he had lost, but it had been worth it.

Of course, he hadn’t been showing them his spell casting solely to show off. That was only his 2nd reason.

As for his main reason, he looked at Renna and asked directly, "Do you have any books on that spell so I can study the pattern?"

Now that he had revealed his biggest secret, that he could cast spells using his own mana, he could finally study spells openly and even ask for spellbooks and resources.

That had been his biggest limitation until now, since he had never been able to ask Celeste for any spellbooks.

Renna was still in shock, staring into his eyes and remaining frozen for a while.

She was finally beginning to understand why the Grand Witches were so interested in Magna.

It wasn’t only that he had mana reserves despite being male, or that he could instantly copy a complex spell just by looking at it, one Renna had spent a lifetime working on and had even earned a golden line on her hat for.

Hell, he had even modified the spell by adding a spinning effect.

But among them, the most shocking part was that he hadn’t chanted anything while casting it.

He was an anomaly that shouldn’t have been able to exist at all.

"Hello?" Magna waved a hand in front of her face, trying to get her attention.

"Ah... Yes..." Finally coming to her senses, Renna reached inside her robe and pulled out a rather thick book with a red cover.

"Here are all the fire spells I’ve studied so far," she said, holding it out to him.

The book looked rather worn, showing how much it had been used.

When Magna took it and opened the cover, he was surprised by the first line he saw. "Written by Renna Cinder." The following pages were filled with handwritten notes, chanting words, and musical notation for many spells.

It wasn’t hard to guess that this was the book Renna had used throughout her life as a Witch to study and take notes on spells and mana.

The shock on the other Witches’ faces was enough to tell him how important it was.

"Thank you," Magna said sincerely, understanding the trust she was placing in him.

He didn’t know much about a Witch’s life, but he understood enough to realize that their books were probably their most valuable possessions.

Renna only smiled bitterly in response.

What Magna had given her so far, even unintentionally, was worth far more than anything written in that book. The method he had shown her to activate her Bloodline Trait alone had helped her grow this much over the years.

On top of that, he had risked his own life to save her from the Faceless Witch. That alone was something she had always thought she could never repay.