Chapter 5: First Spell

Leon saw someone practicing magic.

A young girl no more than fourteen stood in the training ground. She had beautiful white hair, pale skin that seemed flawless. She was dressed in a simple black gown. She had a wand in her hand, twisted black wood with a purple crystal at the tip.

She muttered something under her breath, and then the crystal on her wand glowed. Two magical circles formed beside her, all purple and filled with intricate patterns. Two balls of ice formed at the circles and then fired at the training doll that was ahead. Each one smashed into the doll with enough force to knock down a human.

Leon’s eyes widened. This was it, his opportunity had showed itself in the form of a young girl.

’I have to get closer and see how she uses some of her spells. That’s the only way that I can dissect and understand it.’

With that thought in his mind, he stretched in her direction and then followed up with a cry, because in this body, any complaints he had were in the form of tears and shouting.

"Wahhhhhhhhhhh!"

His mother was stunned when he started crying. She quickly tried to comfort him.

"What’s wrong, Leon?" She tried to get his attention and stop his crying, but Leon ignored her, looking right at the girl that was there and stretching his hands towards her. His mother raised her head and looked over there, her eyes widened.

"You want to go there?" She asked, seeing how keen he was to get close. She decided to go closer. She stepped into the training yard and approached the girl. The moment the girl sensed her presence, she turned around and bowed.

"Greetings, my lady."

"No need for you to keep greeting me, Ash. You are the student of Lady Amber, not one of my servants," Lily spoke with a soft smile.

"I know, my lady, but you are deserving of respect," Ash replied. Her eyes drifted to the baby that was there, and her eyes widened in shock. She drew close and looked right at Leon.

"Awww, the young master is so cute," she spoke with the certain glee that only a child could have.

"Thank you, Ash. He kept crying to come over here. It seems your magic has intrigued him. Do you mind showing some to him?" She asked.

"That’s not an issue, my lady," Ash said and stepped back, getting ready to put on a performance.

’Ouuuu, I’m finally going to get to see magic. I need to use this opportunity to the max. System, tell me, how do I use the types of magic steals?’ Leon asked to be clear before she started.

[To steal the perfect form of a person’s magic, Host must first tank the spell attack or be in close proximity to the spell to steal it. Host must also have more willpower and mana in that moment.]

[To steal a simple base form of a spell, Host only has to use Magic Dissection to understand it and then steal it with no spell book.]

"You are quite helpful, System. I thought you would be a snub like most stories. It’s good to know you have my back."

The system did not reply to that. It seemed to only reply to questions which it had answers to stored. Leon did not mind, though. It was helpful when it counted.

He looked at Ash as she took a few steps back and then proceeded to swing her wand in the air a few times. The crystal glowed, and a stream of water began to form and flow. The water continued to grow in size till it started surrounding them in a blue glow that she controlled like some sort of high-level art exhibition.

’She is good, really good.’ Leon thought. He very quickly locked in and got ready to use it for the first time.

"Magic Dissection," he called out, and the system responded. A magical formation appeared right on the pupils of each eye, and in an instant, the entire surrounding changed.

He was in a void, floating and watching the water spell flow around him.

"Whoa, what is this?" He stretched out one of his baby hands and touched the water. It immediately scattered into singular droplets and then reorganized into a flow.

The knowledge of the spell began to unravel itself to him. It was a simple spell that worked based on controlling nature. The mana changed itself to take the form of water and then flow like one.

It was not a hard spell because he did not need to attack, simply control his mana that had now become water. Leon spent a while there looking at it, understanding how exactly to output his mana and have it take on the properties of water.

When he had finally learned all that the spell had to offer, the system rang out with a notification.

[You have gained Basic Water Manipulation Spell]

[You have unlocked Water Affinity]