"Domain Ruler, It will be impossible for a normal Mortal warrior to kill a Second Rank creature with their strength, no matter how talented they are, because of the massive strength difference, but you are different."
"You struggled against the panther because of her superior agility, and with your current capabilities, you will experience the same situation against any second Rank creature," Darrien said, standing before Alex.
'You are supposed to give me a solution to my problem, not point out the obvious.' Alex thought.
"As I said, you are different, and you have the means to kill a second Rank creature, albeit with some effort."
"Domain Ruler, your biggest advantage is not your unusually high strength and other stats for a mortal but your large reserve of mana that is even higher than a peak Second Rank magician."
"You just need to utilize your mana correctly, and then any second Rank creature will pose you no threat, and handling them will be easy," Darrien said.
"I might have more mana than a Second Rank magician, but I don't have any good spell to utilize it on," Alex replied, pointing out the obvious problem.
Alex was conscious about his huge mana reserve, but he also understood that to use it, he needed strong spells, but with his current strength, he couldn't learn anything above the Mortal Rank without wasting a lot of time.
"You just need to learn higher Rank Spells," Darrien said with a blank face.
pαπdα Йᴏνê|,ｃòΜ "Domain Ruler, you know that you can learn any Rank of magic spell manually without the help of your system," Darrien said.
"I know I can learn spells and skills manually, but the learning process will require a lot of time, and then the even bigger problem is being able to utilize it subconsciously in the heat of a battle," Alex said.
If a player wanted to learn spells or skills of a higher Rank than his own, he needed to do them manually, and the system would be no help.'
After learning a spell/skill, the player needed to utilize it manually without any help from the system, and learning to do that subconsciously was an arduous and time-consuming task.
"Domain Ruler, The biggest problem you immortal adventurers has is that you depend on the System given by Watcher too much, which has many advantages, but it also has a few drawbacks, and those drawbacks are enough to never let you reach your full potential."
"You have only one choice if you want to clear your legacy promotion quest with the best possible result, and that is to learn to utilize your mana, but you can always choose the easy route," Darrien said calmly like choice did affect him in the least.
'In my previous life, it took me forty days to learn and master a basic Ice element Third Rank spell, but with my talent in darkness element and the help from these two behemoths, I should be able to learn new skills in a much faster time.'
'But the question is how fast? as I can't waste months learning new skills that will become useless in the near future after I reach higher Ranks of strength.' Alex thought, weighing the pros and cons of his decision.
"Domain Ruler, I believe with your talent, you should be able to learn three Second Rank spells with a few first Rank spells and master them for battle in one month." Lady Margaret said, like knowing what Alex had on his mind.
"Lady Margaret, I appreciate your encouraging words," Alex said, knowing achieving such results would be impossible, or so he thought.
"Your choice?" Lady Margaret asked."Lady Margaret, When and how do you want me to start training," Alex asked as he cracked his neck, ready to do some hardcore training.
"You should first return to the city and rent the best available training chamber." Lady Margaret said with a smile.
---------------------
After leaving the forest, Alex rented the best training chamber available for him by using his noble authority at the price of 1500 gold coins an hour.
"Domain Ruler, You should start by reading the basics of mana and detailed theories on magic spells." Lady Margaret said as she handed Alex a book.
'I already know about the basics of mana and spells, but all my knowledge comes from the public libraries and forums, so this book may have more valuable knowledge than I know. Alex thought as he took the book, sat on the ground, and started reading it.
Alex spent the next six-hour reading the book, and even though most of the things written in the book were known to him, the detail and clarity they were explained were just mind-blowing.
'This should be classified as highly advanced knowledge for mana and spells in the Mortal or even in the Elementals Rank.' Alex thought as he read every word with complete focus, worrying he would miss something important.
Alex had the understanding that Mana is a universal form of energy that could be used as fuel for magic spells, skills, and ultimately controlling the worldly law that keeps the balance of the universe.
Alex's understanding of Mana was correct but in a very primitive and crude way because, In the book, there was a much different and better explanation.
The Mana was the energy that could be used as fuel, but that was just a straightforward use of it, but in reality, the mana was a universal energy that could be converted into any form of existing energy.
This was the reason why pure neutral Mana could be used to create any type of spell or ability and be given any elemental attribute.
The spells and abilities used different methods to convert Mana into elemental energies ranging from small force attacks to apocalyptic horror strong enough to destroy giant continents.
The Mana was the base of everything and could be manipulated and converted into anything, so the better a person has control over it, the easier it will be for him to learn and utilize its different use cases.
Alex gained a lot of amazing and beneficial knowledge from just reading the book, and now he was even more excited to learn new spells, as even the impossible felt possible to him.
"Domain Ruler, You have any questions." Lady Margaret asked, seeing Alex close the book.
Alex asked a few questions that he didn't understand clearly, and after an hour of question answers, he had all his doubts cleared as Lady Margaret explained things to him in detail and by showing him practical examples.
-------------------
"Domain Ruler, You should start by learning a few Mortal Rank spells that will help you get the hang of the experience helping you with higher Rank spells."
"These are a few of the Darkness element Mortal Rank spells I have in my possession, so choose one you like, and we can start the practice." Lady Margaret said as she handed Alex a few white parchments.
'I should choose the spells with high utility.' Alex thought as he skimmed through all the available twenty or so spells and selected two skills he felt were the best.
"These should do for now," Alex said as he looked at the system information of the two spells.
--------------
Name: Darkness Bind.
Category: Darkness Spell
Quality: Rare
Grade: Mortal Rank
Requirement: 90 Intelligence Stat
Description: Allow the user to create solid binds to immobilize his enemy.
-------
Name: Darkness Beam
Category: Darkness Spell
Quality: Rare
Grade: Mortal Rank
Requirement: 140 Intelligence Stat
Description: Allow the user to shoot a condensed beam of darkness that does much damage.
--------------
The parchments Lady Margaret gave were physical copies of the magic spell, with the precise drawings of magic circles required to cast the spell and basic instructions on each step.
The intelligence stat requirement was what an individual needed to learn the skill, but even without meeting it, an individual can still learn the skill, albeit the process of learning the skill will be more difficult.
"Now that you have decided let's start the training."
"Domain Ruler, Do you know how to control your Mana." Lady Margaret asked, and Alex instantly created a ball of mana above his hand that he split into two, which turned into big rings and then stars while not losing any of their volumes.
'My control over my mana felt too smooth compared to when I tried it with Death attributed Mana.' Alex thought, surprised by his ability to manipulate mana into any shape by just thinking about it.
"Domain Ruler, You need to memorize the magic circle drawn on the parchments and then create it in reality by using your Mana." Lady Margaret said, not asking Alex any questions about his mana control.
Alex did as he was told and started memorizing the magic circles drawn on the parchments, and as mortal Rank spells have a very basic-looking magic circle, he memorized the Darkness Bind sell in less than five minutes.
Alex tried creating the magic circle by imagining what he remembered, and on his first try, he successfully made the magic circle structure.
As instructed, Alex tried to use a precise amount of (70) mana points, and even though the illusionary circle brightened for a moment, but it quickly crumbled into practice resulting in the first attempt being a failure.