Once he had a breakthrough point, everything else became much easier. After hundreds, thousands, and even tens of thousands of experiments with different ratios, Belial roughly figured out the effects of combining certain runes and shapes. Runes were the key, shapes were the framework, and only together did they form a magic array.
A complete spell was actually made of many small arrays with different effects. They controlled the flow and direction of Magic and elements, and only the final result counted as a full spell. "Circles are one of the most basic shapes, and just from testing, combining them with runes gives effects like circulation, dispersion, and gathering."
"Triangles seem to be for stability, and if they combine into a six-pointed star…" "Most lines can guide or block flow, but I still don't know why runes have these effects." Using his current understanding and small arrays, Belial tried to create a classic spell, the most basic and common fireball.
This was not difficult. First he built a stable framework, then gathering, and finally set a direction for launch. Full of anticipation, Belial threw out the fireball in his hand.
The small fireball wobbled through the air and did not last long before a simple gust of wind blew it apart. "...It failed."
"There is no way? With my world-shaking wisdom, how could I lose so easily?"
Belial lifted a claw and scratched his huge head, starting to use his shocking wisdom to look for the problem. He cast Fireball again, and this time the issue was obvious at a glance. The fire element gathered by Fireball did shoot out exactly in the planned direction.
However, it only shot out. Fireball kept a spherical form only while it stayed inside the Magic Array, and once it left that framework, it lost restraint and became no different from ordinary fire. In theory, Fireball should go through three stages: launch, keep a sphere, then explode on contact, but after all this work, he had only solved the first step.
In other words, he needed Fireball to remain a complete spell with a stable framework until it hit the enemy, not just a ball of fire. The key problem was how to let Magic Array keep operating on its own after leaving his direct control. Within the range of Energy Field, he could do this.
Obviously, he did not want all his abilities to be limited to working only under Energy Field. "Next I need to research this. Hm, the paper in this book is almost gone. Should I go get some leather?" Belial thought it over for a moment.
In the end, he did not use leather. Thanks to compulsory education, he found some plants high in fiber and, after some trial and error, actually made something close to paper. As for the pen, he did not bother being picky and just used charcoal made by roasting wood with fire.
Given his size, a pen he could comfortably use would probably require cutting down an entire tree, and the paper would need to be enormous as well. In the end, he made a fairly large sheet of paper, while the pen was not even half the size of his fingertip, but that was fine. Belial forcibly controlled the tiny charcoal pen with Gravity Tornado and wrote anyway.
He treated it as training for control and precision, and once he got used to it, it was no big deal. What Belial needed was simply the clear process of using paper and pen to organize his thoughts. At the same time, he remembered the Crystal Ball he had thrown into some unknown corner and only now recalled it.
That old man who looked like a mage had used this thing to cast spells. Belial stared at the Crystal Ball in his hand, which was not even as big as his fingernail. His eyesight was excellent, and he could see that the Crystal Ball was actually made of countless extremely thin slices stacked together.
On each slice were tiny engraved patterns made from unknown materials, layered until they formed a complex spell structure. The material of the Crystal Ball itself was also special, allowing many elements to pass through smoothly, especially fire, and it even had a gradual attraction to fire elements. "So how exactly do you use this thing to cast spells?"
He still could not figure it out, but being able to see the complete spell structure was already enough. He quickly memorized the structure engraved inside the Crystal Ball and then reproduced one with ease. To his surprise, this structure absorbed fire elements much more efficiently, clearly repelled water, and had some compatibility with wind.
However, a large part of the overall structure was still blank, so it was clearly incomplete. He could not tell what it was supposed to be, and it obviously could not form the fire chains that had bound him before. Clearly, the external magic system was something he had only grasped fragments of, and the rest was beyond what a self-taught dragon could understand.
Still, what he relied on was not deep formal knowledge. It was the mindset shaped by growing up in an age of information overload, where a phone could access endless views and data. Besides, he was just passing time anyway, since half of the remaining Magic vein had already been absorbed, and as Energy Field expanded, the absorption rate kept increasing.
It would probably be fully absorbed soon. Using this framework and filling in parts of the remaining Magic Array diagrams from the books, he did achieve some results. Although things exploded several times, at least for now, he could successfully launch a Fireball.
As for other classic spells like wind blades, water balls, and earth spikes, he could produce them with ease. The hardest one was the ice arrow spell, which required a very large spell framework and many overlapping Magic Array, consuming far more Magic than other spells of the same type. It was not about power, but about gathering ice elements inside the Magic Array and shaping them into an arrow before firing, which was extremely troublesome.
And honestly, if the goal was just to stab someone with something sharp, why did it have to be shaped like an arrow? For other spells, as long as he had time and a general idea, he could make something workable, since the hardest first step was already done. As for composite spells, he had come up with quite a few interesting ideas, though most were basic, like creating a high-temperature steam environment.
One idea, however, gave him a very different kind of inspiration. Fire elements could be gathered continuously, then the restraining framework could be removed all at once, leaving a fixed outlet to create powerful thrust. In front of that, a simple hard pellet shaped from earth elements could be placed.
He could even add a rifled tube in the middle, prepare ammunition, and possibly fire continuously. Of all spells, this was the so-called American-style quick-draw technique. In just a short time, his thinking jumped from a simple handgun spell all the way to a Gatling spell, showing how human habits worked in very specific ways.
With more refinement, maybe even semi-auto spells, RPG spells, armor-piercing fin-stabilized spells, aerial bomb spells, or even big mushroom spells could be made, as long as he kept stuffing in Magic and increased the yield. Range was justice, caliber was truth, and the instinct to make big explosions and boil water to throw rocks could not be suppressed.
For a moment, Belial was having too much fun. With the basics of magic figured out, he could basically play a real-life sandbox world. As long as his output and Magic were enough, the world was just clay to him, to shape however he wanted.
As long as his precision and Magic supply were sufficient, he could not even think of anything he could not do. "Wait, I am getting carried away again. Remember how the seniors died, and those ruthless people from memory." Belial shivered and silently reminded himself to stay cautious, not rush things, and not forget that he was not even eight years old yet.
Seeing that there was not much Magic left, Belial casually put a shiny crystal into his ring as a keepsake. Then his gaze suddenly turned fierce. For the first time, he fully expanded Energy Field, precisely covering all the remaining Magic veins and activating the maximum absorption rate.
A low hum echoed through the area. Collapsing sounds followed as rock structures failed due to the loss of Magic, causing tremors and cave-ins. In the underground cavern, lit so brightly by Magic that it was almost blinding, a river of pure Magic nearly condensed into solid form and was swallowed whole by the tall black dragon with glowing back spines and horns.
Countless points of Magic flowed in from all directions into his body. His wings spread, shining with flowing light, and brilliant radiance nearly spilled from his mouth and nose, while his back spines shone brighter than ever. Though it was only the remainder of the vein, that was still enormous, and most humans or monsters would have exploded from it, while even he felt slightly overfilled.
"Burp…"