Entering the training room it was time to learn how to use the Self Enhancement Sigil and Small Physical Boost Sigils. The symbol for a Self Enhancement Sigil was simple enough as it was just a circle. After making the circle you would then carve a Sigil inside of it to activate a certain benefit. In this case, the book only offered the Small Physical Boost Sigil, granted it did give four different options. Depending on the variant you select it will increase a specific physical attribute by 25 points (Strength, Endurance, Agility, Perception). While the boost is active it will drain your mana over time.

Locke understood the concept on what was required to perform a Self Enhancement Sigil. The main problem was similar to learning how to sense mana in the fact that it was something nobody has done before. The book explained that there was a Core instead of his body similar to a Spell Core that stores mana. With the Second Brain assistance, he was supposed to be able to visualize the Core and carve the Sigils.

Sitting down on the floor with his legs crossed Locke began to meditate which was what the book recommended. Clearing the mind he began to control the mana inside his body. Locke's first goal was just to get more used to controlling the mana around his Internal Core before even attempting to carve a Sigil on it. After a day of practice, he was ready to begin, if it were not for the book mentioning there were not really any downsides for failure he would not try it yet. Once the spell or enhancement in this case fails to activate your Internal Core will return to normal.

After a few hours of attempting and failing he was getting more used to the process of carving the Sigils. It was a very odd sensation, one that would be impossible without the Second Brain's assistance. It was almost as if he could visualize the core with his mind and begin carving on it. The amount of focus required was very intense and he couldn't imagine being able to activate the physical attribute buff during combat. Though everything might change with practice, maybe someday he will be able to. The upside was that he didn't have to deal with the “shaky hands” problem because the mana was so close to his core. This made it much easier to control.

Locke continued to switch between creating custom spells and practicing making the Self Enhancement Sigil. It took him roughly a week and a half to finish carving both Sigils properly creating the spell called Small Physical Attribute Boost. He continued his practice until roughly a month of in game time passed since he started the game, about two days total in the real world. He did take another break in the real world during the training to relax his mind of course. Now fully rested Locke felt it was time to join the other players now that he had a good grasp on the fundamentals.

Going through his in game menus he felt very satisfied with his accomplishments. Granted the menu didn't really give you the full rundown on his actual progress. Locke didn't learn too many different spells, instead, he focused on being able to adjust the mana costs in many different ways on the fly. He decided to focus on mastering fewer spells rather than learning a whole bunch.

Also during his training, he received an upgrade to his mana control passively boosting his intelligence by 5 more for a total of 8. There was also a bonus when he created his first Self Enchancement Sigil. The prompt stated that Locke was the first person in the game to create one which gave him 5 additional wisdom. This was quite a huge benefit and was worth the effort. However, this also meant that most likely someone else beat him to the punch when creating the first spell as he did not receive any benefits for that.

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Custom Spell list

Firebolt – Fire Element/Long Range Projectile – 10 mana cost

Firebolt – Fire Element/Long Range Projectile – 10 base mana cost / maximum capacity 100

Ice Spear – Ice Element/Short Range Projectile – 8 base mana cost / maximum capacity 80

Ice Javelin – Ice Element/Long Range Projectile – 10 base mana cost / maximum capacity 100

Healing Touch – Holy Element/Touch – 5 base mana cost / maximum capacity 50

Shock Touch – Lightning Element/Touch – 5 base mana cost / maximum capacity 50

Earthen Fist – Earth Element/Touch – 5 base mana cost / maximum capacity 50

Small Physical Boost – Self Enhancement/Small Physical Attribute Boost – 4 mana per second

Looking deeper into the menus Locke went through the spells to review what he has learned so far.

Firebolt - Fire Element/Long range projectile - 10 mana cost – Conjures a small bolt of flame that impacts a target.

Firebolt - Fire Element/Long range Projectile - 10 base mana cost / maximum capacity 100 - Conjures a small bolt of flame that impacts a target.

The first glaring thing you might notice is why are there two firebolts listed, one is a custom spell and the other is not. Magic learned from a trainer cannot change the amount on mana used like custom spells can. For example, his custom firebolt mana cost could be increased to the maximum capacity which is 100 mana allowing for a much stronger spell. Locke noticed an "unlearn" option on the default firebolt and selected it, then selected yes and the confirmation box that popped up as well. He had no use for a spell learned from a trainer at this point.

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Ice Spear - Ice Element/Short Range Projectile - Base mana cost 8 / maximum capacity 80 - Conjures a small icicle spear that pierces the target.

Ice Javelin - Ice Element/Long Range Projectile - Base mana cost 10 / maximum capacity 100 - Conjures a slightly longer icicle spear that can traverse a longer distance to pierce its target.

The Ice Spear and Ice Javelin look very similar visually when the spell is cast, its just basically an icicle with two pointy ends, the Javelin is slightly thinner and longer than the spear though.

Healing Touch - Holy Element/Touch - Base mana cost 5 / maximum capacity 50 - Your hand radiates with soothing holy energy that can heal wounds with a touch, This spell will dissipate once used.

The holy element was not compatible with the short or long range projectile sigils, also there was nothing in the basic magic book for Dark Elemental Sigils so he couldn't test those. Is dark magic frowned upon or something? Locke was not in a hurry to ask about it though since he has plenty of magic to learn even without knowing about it.

Shocking Touch - Lighting Element/Touch - Base mana cost 5 / maximum capacity 50 - With your electrified hand coated with the lightning element you can cause lighting damage when you touch the enemy, This spell will dissipate once discharged.

Earthen Fist - Earth Element/Touch - Base mana cost 5 / maximum capacity 50 - Surround your hand with rock and punch your target causing blunt damage, This spell will dissipate once used.

While shocking touch causes damage as long as your electrified hand physically touches the target to discharge the spell, earthen fist requires the caster to punch the target. What's interesting is you could just as easily punch something with shocking touch to discharge it, why would someone do this you might ask? Punching hurts a lot more. Punching something with shocking touch would do both the damage of the shock touch and the actual physical act of hitting the target. It was hard to tell if earthen fist did less or more damage than a shocking punch as there were no numbers displayed on the spell itself or the enemies you are hitting thus far.

Small Physical Attribute Boost – Self Enhancement/Small Physical Attribute Boost – 4 mana cost per second – Choose an attribute to enhance, while active increase the attributes of the chosen stat by 25. Limited to Strength/Endurance/Agility/Perception.

The Small Physical Attribute Boost spell had the potential to be strong if not for its glaring limitations. Being able to enhance an attribute by an amount equal to five levels worth of allocated points adds a lot of flexibility and depending on how hard it is to level this can be strong or weak. Also, Locke had to keep in mind that this is only the first boost he has learned, they will get better. However, it was impossible to cast Small Physical Attribute Boost during combat. Even after all his training it still took him around a minute of meditation to cast the spell. This means he would have to cast this before combat which removed the ability to switch back and forth between the attributes he needed on the fly.

For example, enhancing his endurance attribute before an enemy landed a hit on him then switching back to strength while performing the counter attack. The other drawback was the mana cost. With the spell costing 240 mana per minute compared to his 72 mana regeneration per minute meant he could only maintain the spell for a short time. Locke understood that he will need to invest more points into the wisdom attribute to make this work.

Going over what Locke had tested so far he found a couple of general guidelines on what Sigils can create successful spells and what cannot. The simple rule seemed to be that Sigils that don't sound like they would make sense generally won't create a spell. For example, the water element was not compatible with touch, it makes sense punching or touching something with a fist surrounded by water wouldn't really be that dangerous or helpful. He was still confused as to why the holy element wasn't compatible with the projectile Sigils though.

Is the holy element not meant for offense or something? Guess I will find out more in time.

During training, he also tried to create spells in other ways. For example, trying to activate shocking touch or earthen fist using his feet. This way he would have been able to kick his enemy with a spell which would probably be pretty surprising. The main reason these attempts failed was that he could not get his mana to flow towards his feet. The only place his mana would flow reliably was towards the palms of his hands. It's possible this could be due to a lack of training towards controlling mana which could be solved with practice or more points in the intelligence attribute. There could be another reason, but he couldn't think of any that made sense on the spot.

The tutorial book never got into this aspect of creating spells. Even if he had the option of asking Claire about it Locke probably would not have done so. It was a lot of fun experimenting on his own in this scenario. The magic systems in previous VR games were pretty bland, It was very refreshing to immerse himself in the aspect of learning something from scratch. The feeling of getting stronger through his own effort was something Locke enjoyed. This is why he hated the magic systems that rely on just learning it from a trainer to get stronger.

To be honest he would have continued his training and learned every custom spell combination possible but chose not to for two main reasons. First, off it takes a lot of focus to create these custom spells, and the amount of failures while doing so is demoralizing. The second reason is time, there is more to the game than just this and he really wanted to get moving. Being technically a month behind he must have missed out on enough fun. Granted he considered this training fun in its own way.

Locke was satisfied with his training results and began to make his way to the merchant district to purchase the necessary supplies to enter the dungeon tutorial.