Chapter 31 - Coming of Age Ceremony (3)

He had been able to use smoke formulas for quite some time. Over the past 8 years, he had occasionally observed Irina's formulas and tried a few, all of which worked well. However, it was impossible to finely adjust the smoke as she did.

This was due to a lack of understanding of smoke formulas. Just as anyone could swing a sword, but proper handling required learning swordsmanship, he could manifest the magic but was hindered in its application. Unlike handling lightning, shape transformation required controlling magical power at the particle level.

While this would have been too much for an ordinary mage's brain to handle, it wasn't that difficult for Acel.

He held the smoke that had changed to a sharp point in one hand, spinning it while looking at Irina.

"Lightning formulas feel more like handling energy than a medium, but smoke feels like delicately adjusting each particle that makes up the gas, so it's a bit unfamiliar. That's why I'd like some advice."

"...I don't quite understand the concept of adjusting particles. How does that work?" Irina muttered this and carefully examined the smoke spear Acel had created.

Then she understood.

Smoke formulas belong to a type of magic with a quite complex process of constructing spells. Even just creating a spear shape required using a lot of characters in the spell. However, the spear Acel made had no such spell. He simply used a formula to control smoke, and created the shape by moving each particle of tobacco smoke individually.

It was an unbelievable feat. Irina rubbed her temples, feeling as if the magic she had been with all her life was being denied.

"There's a limit to things, but you keep doing more amazing things as time passes."...