SSS Awakening: I am the First Legendary Mage

The structure was far more intricate than anything he had created himself. After understanding the Spell’s basic operation, Alex slowly increased its output. More mana flowed into the Spell, causing its effects to grow stronger with each passing second.

Soon, he reached the same level of focus he could achieve with his previous Spell. Yet the new Spell wasn’t at its limit. Alex could still feel room for improvement, so he continued feeding more mana into it.

The sensation gradually intensified until the entire world seemed to change around him. It wasn’t that his surroundings became slower or clearer. Instead, everything felt strangely suppressed, as though an invisible filter had been placed over reality.

The environment remained visible, but it faded into the background of his awareness. Then Alex looked down at the sword resting beside him.

The weapon immediately became more prominent in his perception, standing out against everything around it.

Curious, he turned toward Sarah and focused on the spear she was carrying. The result was the same.

The spear drew his attention almost automatically, as though his mind had instinctively identified it as something important.

A realization struck him. The Spell seemed capable of highlighting dangerous objects without requiring conscious effort.

He didn’t need to actively monitor weapons because Battle Instinct Spell was already doing part of the work for him.

That wasn’t the only thing he noticed. He could easily tell where everyone was looking, and subtle movements that normally escaped his notice suddenly became obvious.

Tiny shifts in posture and faint muscle contractions around the face stood out clearly.

The more he experienced the Spell, the more impressed he became. The qualitative difference was enormous.

Battle Instinct Spell felt so much more advanced that Alex found it difficult to believe it had evolved from Body Reinforcement Spell.

Its effects on his spinal cord were equally impressive. Signals seemed to travel through his body more efficiently, improving his reaction speed.

He was certain the Spell’s true value would become even more apparent once he entered another battle.

With his concentration enhanced, Alex decided to test Mana Thread Spell again. He raised a finger and began the familiar process. Mana flowed from his fingertip, then he compressed it, hardened it, and repeated the sequence over and over.

The thread steadily extended outward. Layer after layer formed as his improved focus allowed him to maintain greater precision than before. When he finally stopped, he stared at the result in surprise.

The Mana Thread was eight inches long.

Alex blinked several times before comparing it to his previous record. Before evolving his Spell, his maximum length had been roughly four and a half inches.

The increase was nearly one hundred percent.

A faint smile appeared on his face. He had expected some improvement, but not something this dramatic.

Battle Instinct Spell was proving even more valuable than he had initially assumed.

As he continued experimenting, Alex discovered another benefit. The Spell consumed less mana than his old Level 10 Body Reinforcement Spell.

That finding surprised him because he had already spent a lot of time refining the older Spell and believed he had removed every major inefficiency.

Clearly, he had been mistaken.

Battle Instinct Spell demonstrated mana pathways and movement patterns that were far more efficient than his own. The Spell wasn’t simply providing power.

It was showing him better ways to move mana through his body.

’I can improve Body Reinforcement Spell with this knowledge,’ Alex thought.

The realization immediately sparked his curiosity. He attempted to use Body Reinforcement Spell again, intending to compare it against Battle Instinct and identify areas that could be improved. The moment he tried, however, something felt wrong.

A strange sensation passed through him. It was as though he had been riding a bicycle with training wheels for months, only to discover that the training wheels had suddenly vanished. The technique still worked, but it felt noticeably more difficult to control.

Alex frowned and opened his Status screen. He summoned it mentally, and the familiar interface appeared before his eyes. His attention immediately shifted to the Spell section.

[Spells: Battle Instinct Spell, Mana Thread Spell]

Alex stared at the list for several seconds. Body Reinforcement Spell was gone. At first he was confused, but the answer quickly became obvious.

The Spell had evolved.

Battle Instinct Spell had completely replaced it. The connection between that fact and the sudden difficulty he experienced while using Body Reinforcement became immediately clear.

The System had been helping him.

As the realization settled in, several pieces of the puzzle clicked together. The System didn’t just show Spells on Status. It also provided assistance when using the Spells listed on a Mage’s Status.

Once Body Reinforcement Spell disappeared, that support vanished as well. Without the System’s help, Alex was relying entirely on his own understanding and skill. Naturally, the technique felt more difficult than before.

A theory regarding Mages formed in his head. Rogues like Emma seemed to receive almost complete support from the System when using Skills. Mages were different because they still needed to understand and control mana themselves.

Alex estimated that the System contributed somewhere between twenty and sixty percent of a Mage’s performance depending on the Spell, and innate mastery. Normally, losing that support should have been devastating.

Most Mages would likely need weeks or even months of practice to regain the same level of proficiency.

Yet that wasn’t what happened to Alex.

After only a few minutes of practice, he was already approaching the same level of mastery he had possessed before.

This was without fully applying the new mana-control insights he had gained from Battle Instinct Spell.

Alex quickly realized why.

When he had been trying to push Body Reinforcement Spell from Level 9 to Level 10, he had been faced with two options.

One was to learn how to rapidly swap his boosts between different body parts, while the other was to learn how to reinforce his entire body at once. Both methods would have increased the Spell’s level and allowed him to evolve it.

However, something had felt wrong about the first option. At the time, Alex hadn’t understood the reason, but he had trusted that instinct and chosen the second path instead.

Now, after eliminating the Body Reinforcement Spell from his Status, he finally understood why that feeling had appeared.

If he had reached Level 10 through the first method, much of his mastery would have been dependent on the System.

Alex estimated that the System might have been contributing around forty percent of the Spell’s effectiveness. Losing the Spell from his Status would have severely damaged his ability to use it.

The second method was different.

By forcing himself to learn how to reinforce his entire body simultaneously, he had developed a deeper understanding of the Spell itself.

The System was probably contributing only around ten percent of the final result, which was why his mastery remained largely intact after the evolution.

A realization slowly formed in his mind. Simply increasing a Spell’s level wasn’t enough. ’How’ the Spell was leveled also mattered because it determined how much of that power truly belonged to the Mage and how much belonged to the System.

Alex found that conclusion fascinating. Two Mages could possess the same Spell at the same level, yet one might have vastly greater innate mastery than the other.

The Status showed levels, but it didn’t necessarily reveal true understanding.

Then another question appeared in his mind.

Did any of this actually matter for normal Mages?

Unlike Alex, most Mages wouldn’t evolve their Spells. After mastering Body Reinforcement Spell, they would simply learn another Spell such as Battle Instinct Spell.

In that situation, both Spells would remain on their Status, and the System would continue supporting them.

If that was true, then dependence on System assistance wouldn’t really matter. The support would never disappear, so there would be no downside to relying on it.

The thought seemed reasonable at first.

Then Alex suddenly frowned.

’This doesn’t affect the other Mages... unless the spells can’t remain on the Status forever.’

The possibility immediately caught his attention. Alex recalled that whenever he or Emma obtained a new ability, the System always asked whether they wanted to learn it.

At first, he had thought it was a strange question because there seemed to be no reason to refuse.

Now he believed he understood.

"The slots are limited," Alex muttered quietly.

The more he thought about it, the more logical the idea became. There had to be a limit to how many Spells, or Skills a person could keep on their Status. Otherwise, there would be no reason for the System to ask whether they wanted to learn a new ability.

Another possibility followed immediately after. If there were limited slots, then it should also be possible to remove abilities from the Status. Otherwise, people would eventually fill all available slots and become permanently unable to learn anything new.

Alex decided to test the theory. He focused on Mana Thread Spell and imagined removing it from his Status. A notification immediately appeared before him.

[Would you like to remove Mana Thread Spell?]

[Yes/No]

Alex stared at the screen for a moment before dismissing it. The notification confirmed his suspicion almost perfectly. Not only were abilities stored on the Status, but they could also be removed from it.

Interestingly, that wasn’t necessarily a problem for Mages. As long as they truly understood a Spell, they could continue using it even after removing it from their Status. They would lose the System’s assistance, but the Spell itself would remain theirs.

For Rogues, however, the situation seemed very different. Skills appeared to rely heavily on System support.

If a Rogue removed a Skill, there was a good chance they would lose access to it completely.

Alex found that distinction interesting. It proved that each Class had advantages and disadvantages that balanced one another. Mages struggled with concentration and mana control, but they could permanently retain their abilities through mastery.

Rogues enjoyed the opposite advantage. Skills were easier to use and easier to level because the System handled much of the complexity.

The downside was that those Skills appeared to belong to the Status rather than the individual.

Every Class seemed to pay a price for its strengths.

Of course, Alex held both strengths with no drawbacks. His Talent and Constitution made sure he could level up his Spells easily, and evolve them.

He could also retain their abilities through mastery.

Another thought soon followed.

What was the limit of those slots?

More importantly, could the number of slots be increased?

For Alex, the answer was extremely important. His Talent gave him opportunities to obtain and evolve different Spells.

If he was restricted to only a small number of slots, that limitation could eventually become a major obstacle.

’I need to find if we can increase the slots, and if we can, how to do it,’ he thought.

He believed there must be a way to increase the slots.

..

Author’s Note: Add the novel to library, and send support if you like it!