Bound and Broken: An Isekai Adventure Dark Fantasy (Melas Book 1) by V.A. Lewis (autobiographies to read .TXT) 📕

until you pass it before I’ll let you access the more advanced books and test you on those too. There’s no rush— read at your own leisure. We’ll only be meeting once every other day for me to track your progress. Just ensure you don’t go straight into casting powerful spells, because the failure to cast said spells could sometimes turn deadly."

And with that warning, that was how I found myself in this situation— sitting in a tent and reading.

Just… reading.

I closed the book, pushed my chair back, and stood up. I was finished reading that book; it was three hundred pages, but I was finally done. It was the third and final book in a series of basic introductory grimoires that contained more history than actual spellcasting in it.

I could’ve been done with it sooner if I was not meticulously studying by taking notes and the like. Plus, it was not in English, my true native language; I definitely would have completed it sooner if it was a book back in my former world. Or I’d have just listened to the audiobook. That way I could multitask and be more productive!

But that was not possible here; or if it was, I did not have access to such resources. So after doing a few basic stretches— while ensuring that no one would barge in on me this time— I reached for and opened the next book, The Thauma.

It was regarding one of the easiest school of magic to get into, yet one of the hardest to master: Thaumaturgy. It manipulated pure magical energy— which was magic in its simplest form; this was what made it so easy to pick up, and also what made it so complex later on.

The Thauma was written by the Demon Lord himself, back when he was trying to spread the concept of magic to other species’. It was dense, but relatively simple to understand as a result. In fact, the paper with directions on how to learn Magic Missile that Victor gave me as a test was from a page in this book.

I knew three spells in the field of Thaumaturgy at the moment. The first two I knew were, of course, Magic Bolt and Magic Missile, while the third was something I recently learned about despite casting it weeks ago— Dispel Magic.

Dispel Magic was considered a rather difficult spell to learn— not because it was complicated— but because it broke down the bonds of the mana particles in other spells to disperse it. To learn the spell required another person to cast magic for you to try and dispel, which made it quite difficult to learn… in the past.

It was far easier to learn now than back when this book was written. Victor wrote a note remarking how with the invention of mana tools, it was far easier to practice this spell on mundane items like a mana lamp or another simple mana tool. However, this thus also made people complacent.

Dispel Magic did not automatically dissipate an opposing spell— that was not how it worked. Instead, it was a struggle; you were trying to break someone else’s hold over their own magic. If their control over magic was better than yours, Dispel Magic would fail. But with practicing on mana tools, there was less resistance to the spell.

So practicing Dispel Magic on a mana lamp ten times was not as effective as practicing it on a Light spell once, because the mana lamp would turn off without anyone fighting back against you to keep it on, unlike a Light spell which has a caster that would.

Of course, there was some resistance for the former, but it was incomparable to struggling against another person's magic— at least, this was true in most cases; there were always anomalies which did not make it a hard law, but merely a general rule. As such, even if I could dispel the bindings created by Julian’s super-expensive mana tool, that did not necessarily mean I could dispel a Binding spell by Victor.

It just was not the same.

I turned another page, and continued reading. Thaumaturgy was not incredibly vast like Pyromancy or Aeromancy was; it started out easy, but became incredibly complex really quickly, making it a smaller field of study than the two— although it was still more studied than something like Shamanism. However, the Demon Lord, as the inventor of magic and all, accounted for the increasingly steep learning curve when it came to learning Thaumaturgy in his writings.

He outlined a step-by-step method to achieve intermediate proficiency in this school of magic. If followed properly and consistently, the average person would be able to learn everything in this book of mostly basic spells and a handful of advanced ones, within… a decade.

I slammed the book shut. Nope, I thought, standing up and heading out of the tent. That’s annoying. Why is magic so hard to learn?! Another two hours had passed since I started reading the Thauma and mental exhaustion was finally starting to catch up to me. Doing nothing but studying every day was tiring, especially without anything else to do to relax; I needed to find someone and just… chat for a bit.

I was not an extrovert— I didn’t need to be around other people to energize myself— but I was also not an introvert. I was your average ambivert: prolonged periods of both isolation as well as companionship drained me of energy. I had to strike a delicate balance between the two, which was not possible when all I ever talked to others about were the things I wanted to avoid when talking to them— studying.

I strolled around the encampment, searching for anyone to chat with; I passed by dozens of Goblins hurrying about in all directions and frowned. It wasn’t this busy the last time I went out. I waved my hand and called