Jack looked at Victor in anticipation.
Victor began his chant.
"I, Lehatot.
With myself as reference at the moment of casting, define a point offset one meter upward and one meter to my right.
Fix this point in space, independent of my movement.
From that point, establish a spherical boundary with a radius of five centimeters, forming a separating membrane.
Upon any contact with structured solid matter, collapse the entire spell immediately while preventing all internal effects from resolving outwards.
Within this boundary, sustain a uniform, visible combustion at three hundred degrees Celsius, filling the entire enclosed volume.
Maintain for five minutes."
Victor revealed the silver chain bracelet and continued.
"Using Grisha as the energy source."
At that moment, a sphere of dull red flame appeared floating one meter left of Jack, just a little in front of the desk; it barely lit up the area surrounding it.
This is completely different from the charm I made! And it's much simpler than I expected it to be.
...He also said that chanting eases the burden.
Jack spoke. "You said that chanting is optional but it eases the burden?"
Victor responded, "Yes."
Jack looked at the floating flame and continued, "What would the train of thought need to be to cast it inside my head?"
Victor lifted his finger and spoke, "Now that's a good question. I will answer with this spell in mind."
"Novices usually cast it in their heads by thinking the entire chant. This is the worst possible way of casting the spell."
Jack spoke. "Is it because thinking has less willpower than speaking?"
Victor smiled. "Yes, but also thinking while chanting is also good for the spell."
"Inside my head, I visualized the entire spell, the location in space, the sphere's invisible membrane, and how the flame should look."
Jack spoke again. "Magic is much simpler than I thought it would be."
Victor snapped his fingers in approval. "It is, but it is simple for the beginning. The more complex the spells, the longer the chant, and the longer the chant, the more prone it is to failure."
Victor pointed to the sphere. "That is not to say that simple is not good. It honestly is the best." He then showed the bracelet. "Let's say that I make a spell that has the same properties minus the safety and have multiple of them all over the place, and use an artifact to fuel it perpetually."
"What do you think will happen then?"
Jack was shocked at the idea. It's like a minefield.
"It will be impossible to move through?"
Victor answered, "Well yes, but only after you specify that it only activates to specific things."
"Of course, there is also the problem of energy capacity."
I'd be completely drained... Jack remembered how he made the first charm.
Victor continued, "Most people don't have access to such energy as to cast such spells anyway."
He scratched his beard. "They are dependent on birth Mana Rank, and most people with low ranks never reach the point where they learn that they could use other forms of energy."
"If they do, they have to either find someone such as us that can control instability to make an artifact for them or join a church and hope you reach a high enough rank to receive such divine artifacts."
"The ones with high ranks never bother to look for alternatives."
"There are also the ones airships use; they use enchanting to store large amounts of mana, but it doesn't compress it, and it dissipates fast."
"And it needs the wealth of a nation to maintain one."
Jack asked another question, "So why is it that people don't use magic all the time?"
Actually, now that I think about it, last time I practiced it, I felt completely drained... Is it the energy problem?
Victor began to answer the question. "First of all, there are laws preventing the usage of magic in non-designated areas, such as personal homes."
"Second is energy. You need to actively drain yourself of usable energy that most people need to use to work, so you need to be well off to practice magic."
"Third is lack of resources."
The ball of flame dissipated as Victor continued. "As a matter of fact, the Church of Salvation has this Academy up north to solve all those problems."
"They use it as a means to recruit talented people and give them the title of Braves, while providing the general populace with the education and resources."
"It's nothing more than a disguised military training facility from my perspective."
I think I read about it from the notice board. But now the real question is how does this Instability tie to magic.
"So what exactly is instability?" —Jack
"Before I answer that, did you see any problem with the spell earlier?" —Victor
"Not really. Was there something wrong with it?" —Jack
"A fire needs three things to work; that spell sidestepped all of them." —Victor
"For a spell to work, all you need is the willpower to cast it as well as the energy." —Victor
"But that is exactly the problem. Magic can make impossible things happen in exchange for energy." —Victor
"And to accomplish that, it skips steps needed for the effect to occur, things such as heat, fuel, air."
—Victor
"In that process of skipping steps, the world becomes unstable. It's usually solved for lower spells like the fire I just cast, but for example, summoning in general."
—Victor
"The process gets complicated."—Victor