Savannah stepped back, ready to heal Sokram if anything went wrong, but her plans were shot down as Sokram fished out another scroll and handed the one he was writing on to her. “Here, you already felt the casting of the rune through my mana flow, so you’ll be able to understand what I’ve written there…”

“Boom!”

A fireball erupted a meter behind Sokram, sending a shockwave of heat through the air.

He didn’t flinch, not even a twitch.

Instead, a barely concealed smile played on his lips as he watched Savannah recoil, arms instinctively shielding her head as she stumbled back in surprise.

“And these are for you to practice on,” Sokram said, handing her a small pouch. “You only have twenty stones and a bottle of the infusion solution this time, so make good use of it. Next time, I’ll have more, all right? And after you finish, I’ll teach you how to siphon mana from someone.”

Sokram returned to where he had been seated earlier and started writing a new scroll while Lara and Nora swung their weapons at him.

Each strike was halted by the runic barrier.

They hesitated at first, wary of striking too hard.

But when their first blows bounced harmlessly off the barrier, they abandoned caution.

Steel clashed against the invisible shield, each strike more forceful than the last.

Yet no matter how much power they poured into their attacks, the runic barrier remained unyielding.

After ten full-power strikes each, their frustration boiled over; what had begun as a test now felt like an insult.

The reason was simple: no matter how much strength they used, the barrier created by the runestone remained intact.

Kan and Kiana joined in as well.

Kan’s fast, precise, and rhythmic attacks almost formed a melody, while Kiana’s raging strikes helped her vent her frustration.

Peng! Peng! Peng!”

Three arrows struck the barrier in rapid succession, their tips sparking against the runic shield before clattering to the ground.

Lucy, standing a few meters away, nocked another arrow, gleefully enjoying what was becoming a contest of strength.

It was only after five more minutes of consecutive attacks that Sokram finally spoke.

“All right! You can all stop!”

The team came to a halt, gasping for air.

It had been a good workout, though one they hadn’t really had the energy for.

Sokram held up the runestone for them to see.

“You can see the cracks on the runestone, right? Once it cracks, you’ll know the barrier will soon fall. So, be alert and withdraw if that happens while we’re hunting, all right?”

Seeing Sokram’s confident smile, they finally remembered the purpose of the test.

They had been too immersed in their attacks to think about it earlier.

But now, seeing the effectiveness of the runestone he could provide, they were confident his plan could work.

Sokram deactivated the runestone, which crumbled into dust as he did, and turned to Amber to hand her the other scroll he had been writing on. “Here, Amber. This spell is called Lightning Rain. It’s only a supporting spell that paralyzes whoever is hit by it for three seconds, but that will be more than enough.”

Sokram flicked his right hand toward the snowy ground, using Force to draw a small circle about two meters in radius a few meters away. “Your task is to limit the spell’s range to that circle while casting, using only a quarter of your mana.”

Amber looked doubtful, but as if Sokram could read her mind, he added, “The spell is simple, and the incantation is short. If you read the spell, you’ll see I added a brief explanation to open your mind.”

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He winked at her knowingly, and she realized he was referring to the spell formula.

“You’ll learn it fast, but we can’t make it too big because the spell lacks precision. To ensure its maximum efficiency, we’ll use it alongside the ritual spell I’ll teach Savannah. But first, you’ll need to be able to control it.”

Amber nodded and began reading the scroll.

Sokram returned to his seat to make more runes while guiding Savannah and answering her questions.

As Amber read, her brow furrowed deeper with each line. ‘A spell like this, so compact, so deceptively simple, shouldn’t be possible.’

Her fingers tightened around the scroll. Was she missing something?

But this time, instead of questioning, she chose to trust him and followed the instructions from the scroll to the best of her ability.

She cast the spell, doing her best to limit its range.

But as she chanted, the surge of mana became too fast, and she quickly lost control.

The air above the circle became a cloud charged with electricity, and the spell’s range expanded from two meters to four, then to eight.

When it continued to grow, she tried to cancel it, but it was too late.

“Crackle! Zzap! Crackle!”

“Wow! But how… The incantation is…” Amber muttered, her voice barely above a whisper as she stared at the crackling storm above the circle. Sokram appeared beside her, completing her sentence with a knowing smile. “It's short because I purposefully shortened it to answer your first question. You wanted to know how I cast spells by thought, right?”

Amber’s head snapped to the side as she looked at Sokram in fright, having failed to sense his approach.

Sokram chuckled softly at her reaction before continuing. “In the scroll, I didn’t give you the theory for the spell. I broke it down, chewed it up, and shared my understanding of it, along with a very simplified formula. Once you absorbed that knowledge, the short chant became enough to ignite your imagination. It’s like giving you the key to a door you didn’t even know existed...”

But Sokram was still surprised she managed to cast it so quickly; his eyes narrowed as he glanced at her deep blue eyes, a thought crossing his mind.

‘Could it be she’s…’ Sokram’s thoughts trailed off as he studied Amber’s deep blue eyes, a flicker of recognition crossing his mind. ‘No way to know without testing it. I should also invite her family for a visit to be sure...’

Her confused expression snapped him out of his daze, and he refocused on the task at hand.

Sokram moved his right hand, filled with mana, “Magi isn’t just about chanting words or channeling energy,” Sokram began, his voice even and measured. “To truly bend reality, you need three things: knowledge, cognition, and imagination. Without all three, you’re just going through the motions.”

Seeing Amber nod, his right hand lit up with fire.

Then he lifted his left hand, filled with mana, and quickly the mana converted into water.

“But most people think that the words we chant when casting have a direct connection with Magi. That’s a misconception.”

Sokram flicked both hands, and the fire and water coating them turned into spheres.

By then, his small demonstration had already captured the attention of everyone in the camp.

“The reason most magicians chant is because it inspires their imagination and helps them focus on what they’re trying to create.”

The fire and water spheres began colliding as if trying to fuse, but only vapor emerged.

“But if you can maintain your imagination focused and have the ingrained knowledge to back it, chanting becomes obsolete.”

The vapor grew denser, and suddenly, wind began blowing from Sokram’s hands, pushing the dense cloud toward the circle he had drawn for Amber to practice. “If you understand how lightning is formed, you can recreate the process just using your mind, or, to be precise, cognition and imagination.”

The winds picked up, causing the temperature to drop.

The dense cloud began forming microscopic pieces of ice, which collided millions of times per second, creating energy and charging the cloud until it could no longer contain it.

“Crackle!”

Sokram looked at Amber, who was watching the miniature storm before them.

Breaking her out of her daze, he asked, “As for why the electricity paralyzes instead of frying the target, it’s because of the voltage. You know what voltage is, right?”

Amber nodded, her eyes still fixed on the cloud as countless sharp bolts of lightning struck the ground inside the circle, never once straying outside it.

Sokram nodded and said, “You also need to measure how much mana to convert into each element, understand their roles, and how they interact to achieve your desired result. That’s how I do it. Consider this first lesson a gift, but remember, the deeper you dive into Magi, the more it will demand of you. I’ll guide you as far as I can, but the path you choose will be your own.”

Sokram walked away, leaving the team in stunned silence.

Kan stirred the stew absently, his brow furrowed in thought. Nora sat beside him, her usual sharpness replaced by a dazed expression.

Lucy’s eyes glinted with ambition, her heart racing as she considered her next steps.

Lara shared Lucy’s ambition but remained far more reserved.

And Kiana, now noticeably calmer, couldn’t hide the flicker of respect in her eyes as she watched Sokram retreat.

But one thing lingered in their thoughts: if Sokram could give away spells and magic items to ensure the success of a simple hunt, how far wouldn’t he go for an alliance? Or a friendship? Or, in the girls’ cases, a lover?

And the ancient being inside the teenager, Sokram’s true self, grinned inwardly at their reactions.

After tomorrow, he would have gained the trust of the team he would soon lead.

But that wasn’t his only objective.

With the potential his team had, he could shape them into a beacon, a force strong enough to protect Eversnow for generations to come.

‘They don’t realize it yet,’ he thought, ‘but their potential is endless...’

Sokram got lost in thought for a moment, but then he turned back to the task at hand.

Before he could build the future he envisioned, he needed to finish making the runestones for tomorrow’s hunt.

So, he sat beside Savannah, who was struggling slightly to replicate what Sokram had shown her.

From time to time, she would ask him to demonstrate again, and he did so patiently, reassuring her at every step.