After about two hours, he put the book away and lay on his bed. In just a little over five hours, he had wholly read and remembered the mental formulas and casting instructions for Heal, Fireball, Shield, and Fly spells.
Each of those mental formulas was highly complicated. Those without excellent visual memory have no chance of casting any spell without the help of a magic wand or other helping devices. Fortunately, once Edric broke through, his mental capacities improved by leaps and bounds, and he was able to etch those complicated shapes into his memory. Though Edric's mage talent was Average, his soul power and memory were quite good.
"I should purchase a magic wand in the future," Edric thought; though his memory is not bad, casting spells using magic wands would still be faster.
Magic wands can save mental formulas and replicate them at will; mages who have magic wands no longer need to create the mental formula in their minds before casting them because the formula is etched on the wand itself.
Of course, wands have weaknesses. For one, they are expensive and need to be repaired frequently. Damage to magic wands could lead to severe consequences, even explosions. Furthermore, using magic wands would greatly decrease a magician's flexibility.
But overall, in a battle, a magic wand can be the difference between life and death; after all, speed is everything, and anything that can speed up spellcasting is heavily sought.
Unfortunately for Edric, he has never seen a magic wand except in books; he may only be able to get one once he arrives at the Flicker Empire.
Now, Edric has to do it the traditional way, learning mental formations and putting them into his memory.
Of course, learning mental formations didn't mean he could now skillfully cast these spells; he had to train them for a long time. But there was no doubt that he could indeed cast these spells, though for now, slowly and hesitantly.
Edric took out a knife and made a small cut on his finger; blood slowly flowed out.
He closed his eyes, imagined the Heal spell's mental formula, and started filling up the mental formula with mana.
With a bright white light, the wound on his finger started disappearing; in a few seconds, it completely disappeared.
Overall, it took him around 5 seconds to cast the spell. It has to be said that the Heal spell is one of the easiest to cast; it can only heal skin wounds.
In a fast-moving battle, a mage wouldn't have time to concentrate for five seconds to cast a spell; Edric is still far away from skillfully using spells; he has to try to cast it while fighting with a sword.
If Edric were to cast complicated spells, such as Cure Disease, it would have taken much longer and might have failed.
A simple Cure Disease spell works on all ordinary diseases; the only difference between high-level spells, such as a Legendary Cure Disease spell, and a lower-grade Silver-level Cure Disease spell is that a Silver-level spell doesn't have much effect on diseases that a Legendary source has caused.
Likewise, Average Heal spells won't work on wounds caused by Silver-level or higher sources.
If the sword of a Silver Knight slashes Edric, his Average Heal spell wouldn't be able to heal his skin at all.
However, for ordinary people who have nothing to do with high-level knights and mages, a simple Average-level Cure Disease spell is like the most fantastic miracle; it can be said that even at the level of an Average mage, Edric can already treat 99% of all diseases as long as he has mana.
"I should find a place for my spell training!" Edric thought. It would have been amazing if he could train by curing ordinary people's diseases; unfortunately, nobody can know about his mage breakthrough for the time being.
"Let's take a rest!" Even as a mage, after continuously reading a highly complex book for five hours, he had to sleep for a few hours to recover.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Average, Great, Silver and Golden knights and mages still required at least some sleep; only Legendary knights and mages were utterly devoid of mortal needs, such as sleep or food.
Edric fell asleep as soon as he closed his eyes.
...
Aelira Windwalker, the illegitimate daughter of Lyria and the half-sister of Edric, was born about 30 years ago as a result of Lyria's affair with a Silver Knight from the Stonefist family.
It was a scandal at that time. Still, it was gradually forgotten, given Lyria's amazing talent and the fact that illegitimate affairs weren't all that unusual, even for female members of noble families.
Her mother, Lyria, had amazing knight talent and combined with her father's remarkable talent, she should have had a high chance of inheriting an extraordinary knight talent. Unfortunately, once she was tested, it turned out she had no knight or mage talent, which greatly disappointed Lyria. After knowing Aelira's "uselessness," Lyria completely forgot about her for years.
Aelira, as the daughter of a countess, should have had a good life, but she didn't. Her mother didn't like her, and her father wasn't even present; he had returned to Stonefist territory decades ago.
That said, she wasn't entirely left to rot; she was given the opportunity to attend school to learn reading and mathematics.
Once in school, it was discovered that she had a talent for accounting; eventually, her relationship with her mother improved. A few years ago, Lyria appointed her as the treasurer, responsible for budgeting the available money for the territory's various needs.
...
A middle-aged woman with blonde hair and black eyes was reading through papers; she was Aelira, the treasurer.
"This year's total tax revenue is 3,046,400 silver coins; Mom takes 33% for herself, so I have 2,041,088 to work with!" Aelira thought.
The fiscal year starts from the 4th month of the year, meaning she had to decide the budget in the next 15 days. Fortunately, most of the job was already done; she only had to make some adjustments. The total tax money available for this fiscal year couldn't be accurately projected until the third month simply because not all taxes come in before that date. She had a budget based on projected revenues but had to make some adjustments because the tax revenue would be a little less than she expected.
"A 3% fall in the revenues from last year can be attributed to the increased conflict with the Darkwind family," she wrote in her notes; nobody like her could see how these conflicts harmed the territory's finances.
"The biggest burden is the pay of the standing army, which I cannot even touch; it looks like I have to cut from healthcare spending again!" Aelira was unwilling to cut the healthcare budget anymore, but she had little choice; she couldn't cut military spending because her mother would never agree.
The healthcare in the territory was already at the most basic level; if someone were bleeding to death, the government would take care of them for a few days until they got better. As for more complicated situations and diseases, the most the government would do is give them some painkiller drugs and some food assistance for them to die in peace. The Church of the Wind god used to help with healthcare, but unfortunately, they were banned more than a decade ago.
"4,500 troops, each paid 40 silver a year, 600 Elites, each paid 95 silver, 85 knights, each paid 1,000 silver, and 12 Great Knights, each paid 5,000 silver, all adds up to 382,000 silver; these are just the salaries."
"Military supplies, budget, maintenance costs, equipment, etc., all add up to 350,000 silver; there's also the secret department, responsible for spying and other secret tasks I don’t know about, which takes a whopping 250,000 silver; overall military spending is 982,000 silver," she thought.
"The military spending is untouchable; that leaves 1,059,088 for everything else," Aelira sighed. The fixed military spending meant the budget shortfall would disproportionately affect other areas.
"The palace workers, tax collectors, inspectors, and all other government workers, and all other government upkeep and costs another 475,000; education costs 125,000; healthcare cost 450,000 last year, and it would be even more this year with the increased prices for some drugs as a result of obstacles in trade and tariffs imposed to retaliate against the Darkwinds; all other miscellaneous costs add up to no more than 80,000; the cost of repayment of the debt incurred to fund the war more than a decade ago still takes 50,000 silver each year; that all adds up to 1,180,000, leaving me with a deficit of 120,000 silver!" Aelira calculated everything and had a headache. Everything was already stretched thin, so cutting 120,000 silver was easier said than done.
"If only Mom could have taken a little less!" Aelria thought; her mother took 33% outright, using it to fund her noble lifestyle, like buying jewelry, participating in auctions, sending gifts to other nobles, and covering numerous other costs. Had it not been for that, Aelria could have improved the healthcare and education situation by leaps and bounds.
The education was extremely poor; one teacher per 50 children was the norm, and most children came out without learning to read, let alone anything else. After all, there were only 125,000 silver available, while there were more than 300,000 children; this came to less than 1 silver per child. Aelria had already cut the school year to 120 days and only up to the age of 10, but it still wasn't enough; the cost of buildings, maintenance, books, management, etc., all added up.
To improve education, she considered cutting healthcare, but every time, she decided against it; the drugs were expensive, and if she lowered it any further, it would cause disasters.
Aelria was young, but her face had many wrinkles; the stress and pain of budgeting had taken a toll on her.
At this time, a knock came.