“I need to learn how to throw the biggest fireball possible, pronto.”

  Stella froze momentarily as Marcus’ request reached her ears. For someone so disciplined and composed, he sounded more like a child asking for a new toy. He didn’t even sound like a strict officer anymore.

  “What?”

  “Big fireball,” Marcus said, leaning closer to Stella. “The type that makes monsters scatter. I’ve seen it a lot from all those tall-hat wizard people. They invoke this red magic circle, and boom—big fireball.”

  “...I mean, it’s not exactly a bad spell, but it's a bit dangerous for new beginners. Not to mention, it’s too flashy to be useful in actual combat.”

  “Teach. Me. How. Now.”

  “Alright, alright,” Stella sighed. “Just…start out with the smallest. Though, why are you even laser-focused on fire magic first?”

  “Don’t ask. I just want it.”

  She rolled her eyes before utilizing a system command unique to people who were capable of magecraft while possessing a repertoire of memorized spells.

  [Summon Grimoire].

  Immediately, a thick book materialized out of nowhere, landing on Stella’s hand. While she was no [Mage], Stella still had quite the massive repertoire of spells available to her. As a result, her [Grimoire] was somewhat thick.

  It contained information about a hundred various spells, mostly centered on [Light Magic], [Water Magic], and [Wind Magic]. Most of them, though, were weak utility spells that were rarely useful in actual combat, like [Cleaning Vortex] and [Small Flame].

  Some were more useful though, like the spells she used to disguise her face, [Light Refraction] and [Light Shift]. Others were utterly deadly, like [Sharp Gale] and [Ice Barrage].

  Marcus was therefore immediately captivated by it after she handed it to him. He began scrolling through the pages like a madman, checking out spell names and the invocation formulas for them.

  “I have to learn this. No, wait, this one’s cooler. What? But this is just a stronger version of the last one. Is the biggest fireball spell at the last page?”

  Stella snorted.

  “There’s no such thing as a spell named ‘big fireball’, Sir Marcus.”

  “Wait…[Cleaning Vortex]?” Marcus froze. His eyes stopped at that page, rapidly skimming through the spell description. Then he stared at the invocation circle, which was the formula that a magecraft user’s magic circle would create to cast a spell.

  He was staring at it for an uncomfortably long time, as if committing it to memory by just looking at it. Of course, Stella knew that he wouldn’t be able to do that. You had to learn the fundamental parts of an invocation circle first, then you needed to practice optimizing it until its shape and structure were perfect.

  He certainly wasn’t going to cast ‘big fireball’ or anything today. It was simply out of his grasp.

  “How do you invoke shit?” Marcus bluntly asked. Then, he raised his right hand and aimed it at the sky while his eyes remained locked on Stella’s grimoire. “Is it like this?”

  “Wait, what are you doing?”

  “Testing.”

  Suddenly, a bluish invocation circle appeared in front of Marcus’ palm. It was rough and ugly, and parts of it were wrong. It was like someone drew a dog but with a badly distorted body.

  Still, he was somehow invoking a spell. Just a few minutes after forming his first magic circle!

  “No way,” Stella muttered, mouth agape.

  [Cleaning Vortex].

  Right as Marcus chanted it, a pathetic gust of wind that carried water swirled into the direction where his right palm was aimed. As she expected, he was utter garbage with it.

  Still…

  He’s a natural at it.

  I took a few days just to practice invoking a simple spell for the first time!

  She pouted. Marcus was indeed quite a gifted individual. He was outshining her, the goddess chosen [Saint], so easily. It was no wonder he survived hell.

  “That isn’t going to clean my laundry,” Marcus snarled. “I have to get this right.”

  [Cleaning Vortex], [Cleaning Vortex], [Cleaning Vortex], [Cleaning Vortex].

  She almost forgot. He had a diamond mana core too, so unlike a normal level 1 [Mage], Marcus was capable of just blasting spells over and over again without much problem. That would definitely speed up his ability to grow his [Mage] class since he would be able to practice more.

  Unfortunately, each of his successive uses of [Cleaning Vortex] created effects that were progressively getting worse. She facepalmed. Just because there was ‘cleaning’ in the spell name, he was already impulsive.

  She decided that enough was enough and promptly stopped him by confiscating her grimoire.

  “Hey, wait! I'm so close to perfecting it!”

  “No, you're not. Sir Marcus, let’s start with the fundamentals and basics first, shall we?”

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  Marcus felt himself collapsing on the bed of his hotel room. It was so soft, and he was so tired, that he felt his body practically melting on the bed.

  He felt so, so heavy too. It turned out, forming a magic circle wasn’t something to be trifled with. The entire process of brute-forcing it was simply so draining that he remembered being unnaturally tired after it.

  Marcus had never been that tired, not for ages. Well, he did burn out at the end of the day because his body would demand sleep, as was usual with any person’s bodily needs. But he was rarely fatigued.

  Ever since he reached level fifty, or, to be honest, somewhere around gold rank—he wasn’t sure exactly—fatigue was extremely rare. His body simply had more stamina and durability to be affected by it.

  The only times he truly felt it were whenever he fought in heavy combat for way too long. Now, while the glorious expedition’s campaign in hell was brutal, it wasn’t like they were ever fighting hordes of demons 24/7.

  They still did have to do that, but hell was…it was like a world on its own, with biomes and terrain and everything else. There were places to maneuver in, areas to occupy and defend, and even regions where they could effectively hide from the demon horde.

  Even the Death God’s omnipotence didn’t mean that Marcus had to fight for his life every living hour. But yes, during intense bursts of violence whenever a major battle happened, he did feel fatigue.

  That was what he was feeling right now. It was as if he had just finished a day wherein they battled an entire division worth of demons, all because he formed his first magic circle. In addition to that, Stella took the time to drag him into a local library.

  There, they stayed in a private room surrounded by stacks of spellbooks and textbooks that Stella determined were necessary for teaching him. So, Marcus had to spend hours studying with someone who knew more about magecraft than him.

  It was exhausting, that was all Marcus could say. He imagined the next days would be equally exhausting if he insisted on studying magic while they travelled to Sordale.

  But it sure was fun.

  Marcus rolled on his bed and looked at the ceiling. He may not have been able to cast [Cleaning Vortex] properly today, which was his newfound obsession, but still, his childhood dream somehow happened.

  He was a [Mage] now. A shitty one, yes, a clueless one even, but a [Mage] nonetheless. Best of all, he had the literal ordained [Saint] by his side, ready to guide him through becoming a proper [Mage].

  Marcus laughed at the irony of it. Here he was, training and strengthening Stella to become a proper [Saint], while she was teaching him how to become a [Mage]. He never imagined this would be possible back when he returned to this world.

  “I really thought I’d just fight endlessly again,” Marcus murmured. “This time, alone.”

  But nope.

  I have an ally.

  Somehow.

  It was a nice thing to have. He certainly valued his relationship with Stella more and more every passing day. She wasn’t a helpless underling after all. No, she was an equal partner who was capable of helping Marcus out, almost equally.

  With that in mind, Marcus drifted to sleep, still extremely grateful for Stella’s help today.

  [Cleaning Vortex].

  A bluish invocation circle glowed in front of Marcus’ wand. He acquired it earlier from a shop that Stella vetted, and then he attuned himself to it.

  It should act as Marcus’ spellcasting foci, similar to Stella’s wand. Invoking a spell with one’s gate was so much easier if you channeled your magic circle’s instructions and internal mana using a focus.

  Not only did it improve control and accuracy, but it also meant that there would be less mana lost. It also reduced the visibility of ‘activated mana’ for other mage users. It was why combat casters generally used wands and staves.

  It helped with spellcasting, and it also reduced one’s visibility to an opponent who had [Mana Detect] skills. With that kind of combat utility, it didn’t take much convincing on Stella's part for Marcus to take her advice and practice with a wand.

  Not that he was using magic for combat for now, though. No, he had a more pressing concern that would be fixed by his magic—his goddamned laundry.

  Come on, work!

  After invoking the spell, two seconds later, the invocation circle finished etching itself in thin air. Marcus mentally compared it to the invocation circle on Stella’s grimoire.

  He saw errors and imperfect lines on his creation.

  Still, he forced it onward.

  Once it activated, it fired a vortex of wind and water at Marcus’ dirty clothes, all flying because he used his [Levitation] skill. He watched as his spell did his work…

  And all it did for now was wet his clothes.

  “Damn it,” Marcus’ shoulders sagged. “There are still stains on them.”

  Stella walked close by to check Marcus’ work, nodding to herself after finishing her inspection.

  “I see, I see. While you still haven’t reached a hundred percent effect efficiency with this spell, you’re somewhere at forty percent already.”

  “How do you even calculate that?” Marcus asked as he recovered his clothes, bewildered.

  “I’ll teach you later,” Stella smugly said while Marcus stowed his clothes away. “Anyway, Sir Marcus, for two days of practice, this is certainly good progress.”

  “Is that so?”

  “You’ve now started studying and perfecting four spells. You should be proud of yourself. I believe at this rate, in a month, you’ll reach the capability of the average caster.”

  “I seriously doubt that.”

  Marcus looked at a tree in front of them. He then aimed his wand at it to test the spells he was studying at the moment.

  [Ignite].

  [Blow].

  [Rock Throw].

  [Cleaning Vortex].

  All four had extremely minor effects. Marcus sighed. At the moment, he was only a level 3 [Mage], which granted him a few extra base stat attribute points for his [Magic] and [Dexterity] stats.

  It was mostly because those were the stats that he was training for. Improving those two would strengthen his magic and make spell invocation time faster.

  But, well, he was just starting out. He felt like he was back in the old days when he was just a lowly [Scout], when he struggled against slimes.

  Slimes!

  If not for the fact that he was a level 100 [Hell Ranger], he would definitely feel weak and embarrassed of himself.

  Whatever, I just need to keep practicing and studying.

  [Light Mage], here I come. Or maybe I should be a [Barrier Mage]? Or an [Enchanter]?

  He should also definitely figure out his specialization route. Of course, he could just remain a generalist [Mage], but it was almost always better to get extremely good at one specific area of expertise. It was how he survived hell after all—by abusing the [Hell Ranger] class.

  “Anyway,” Marcus tucked his wand away. “Let’s go. I think we still have time to continue gathering intelligence.”

  “It’s still three hours before sundown,” Stella nodded. “I believe I’ve heard rumors earlier at Pinkerton about cultist activity up north.”

  “Find me the best restaurant with the most loose mouths then,” Marcus requested. “Our friend Archbishop Selena might be on the move again, after all.”