My summon to another world was even weirder than I expected

Mana control level up +1

Zack closed the book he had in his hands and returned it to its original place.

It had been a week since Zack and the others had seen Albert’s demonstration. A few things have happened since then.

Status 

Name: Zack Mayima

Age: 18

Race: Human

Title: Bookworm

Class: Mage

Level: 8

Stats:

Strength: 9

Endurance: 9

Wisdom: 17

Luck: 10

Agility: 10

Intelligence: 22

Charm: 11

Mana: 20/20

Skills:

Fast Reading Level 4

Memory Level 2

Mana Control Level 3

Universal Translation

Zack’s reading was going well. Although he was still reading Tier 1 magic books and there was no sign that he would be advancing any time soon, his progress was remarkable.

While Zack was looking for another book of his level to read, his mind couldn’t help but wander back to the demonstration Albert had given them.

...

"Are you ready?!" Albert said as he stood in the middle of the room.

In front of him, about 20 meters away, there was a training dummy and several randomly scattered aiming targets.

At that moment, Zack and the others were focused on Albert’s movements, trying to capture each detail.

For a few moments, the room was silent as the students waited for their instructor to begin.

Then Albert moved.

That was it.

There was nothing else—no bright lights, no magical words. Albert simply raised his hand and…

BOOM.

The dummy exploded.

No, not just the dummy. The targets on the wall—all of them—exploded.

At that moment, Austin and the others realized just how little they knew about magic.

...

Since then, Austin, Shun, and Miyu had developed a renewed interest in magic, meditating every night. Austin, in particular, had been deeply impacted, cutting down on his time in the library to practice meditation in the morning as well.

Over the week, Zack had realized several important things.

First of all, although his Intelligence and Wisdom had increased during the week, the increase had been less than the previous week. This aligned with several books he had read, which stated that the difficulty of increasing stats grew as those stats became higher. No one knew for sure what the limits of an attribute were, but the cap would likely increase as one advanced in tiers.

It was theorized that the cap for Tier 1 classes was 100 points for each attribute. For Tier 2 classes, the cap was 200, and for Tier 3 classes, it was 250.

This showed that the higher the tier of your class, the harder it became to increase your stats.

The cap for Tier 4 classes was thought to be 300 points, but so few Tier 4 mages existed in history, and none had willingly revealed their stats, so there wasn't enough data to confirm that.

The second thing Zack noticed was that his Endurance had increased. He hadn't done anything special, and most of the time he was just reading, so nothing could explain the increase.

After careful consideration, Zack concluded that the mana in his body was passively strengthening him. The reason his Endurance increased while the others did not was that Endurance was his lowest attribute, and as such, it increased the fastest. As time passed, Zack believed that his other physical attributes would increase as well.

Yesterday, Albert had taught them the mana control method. For the others, this lesson was the first step toward becoming true mages. But for Zack, it held even greater value.

Zack had already learned mana control shortly after Albert’s demonstration and had been practicing all week. Unlike mana absorption, the conditions for practicing mana control were much more relaxed, allowing Zack to practice even when he wasn't fully focused on it.

For Zack, this lesson helped him appreciate the difference between traditional mages and combat mages.

While combat mages may have deficiencies in other areas, their mana control was clearly superior. Albert’s technique was fast and efficient, and he took advantage of every drop of mana in the best possible way, minimizing any waste.

In contrast, the mana control described in the books was not as refined.

Aside from the basic techniques, traditional mages passively improve their mana control through the continual use of spells throughout their lives. After all, even if a mage runs out of mana, they can simply meditate and wait for it to regenerate.

For a combat mage, every drop of mana can mean life or death.

The second thing Zack noticed was that his Mana Control skill had leveled up by three levels in just a week. In theory, this was impossible.

Skills—any skill—take a long time to master.

At the rate Zack was learning, it was as if a first-year medical student had somehow become a teacher with over ten years of experience in just six months.

That wasn’t an exaggeration. So far, the most skilled mage Zack had seen was his teacher, Albert, who was only Level 7 in Mana Control.

For a moment, Zack stopped what he was doing and began to think about Miss Kaede.

Although Zack felt that his time in the magic tower had been well spent, he couldn’t help but think of his teacher and the rest of his classmates.

He hadn’t received any news about what was happening to them, nor what was happening in the outside world. All the information they received was controlled, except for the kingdom’s recent victories against demons, which Zack overheard from other library patrons. But beyond that, he knew nothing.

Trying to distract himself from sinking into negative thoughts, Zack focused on the task at hand.

Despite the many spells hidden within the library, Zack had refrained from learning them so far. His mana and control weren’t yet sufficient for casting anything complex.

Spells were categorized by tiers. Tier 1 mages could only cast Tier 1 spells, Tier 2 mages could cast Tier 2 spells, and so on.

Due to their complexity and the time required to perform them, a simplified version of each spell had been created, with lower mana costs, for the most useful spells according to the magic community.

What Zack was about to try was not technically considered a spell by some. A few authors considered a lower tier than Tier 1, calling it Tier 0. Others simply saw them as practical applications of mana.

In fact, several books in the library were just compendiums of Tier 0 spells.

Finding them wasn’t hard. The wizards who created these versions had done so to make learning, or simply everyday life, easier for other mages. Wizards who wished to hide their knowledge didn’t consider these versions important enough to keep secret.

Zack was going to cast a Tier 0 spell.

The spell Zack wanted to learn was called Magic Hand. It created an invisible hand using magic to help carry things.

Zack had already memorized the structure of the spell. In this world, spells were made up of nodes, and the greater the number of nodes, the harder the spell. The nodes were connected by channels of mana in a specific order.

To cast a spell, a mage only needed to guide their mana to the nodes in the correct order.

Zack left the library and went to his room. His classmates had started spending less time in the library, so he was alone. After entering his room and ensuring no one would disturb him, he sat down in a chair and placed a pen on his table.

The maximum weight this spell could carry was around 2 kg, meaning it couldn’t lift anything heavier than a book. It was a simple, useful spell—ideal for beginners.

Zack closed his eyes and focused on directing his mana to form the spell’s structure. The pattern of the spell formed in his mind.

Eight solitary nodes were floating in the void, separated from each other. One by one, they began to glow. The first node illuminated, and a white line connected it to the next node, gradually lighting each one.

Crack.

Just as Zack was focusing on lighting up the seventh node, one of them exploded.

Zack opened his eyes, confused, his head pounding from the backlash.

Something had gone wrong.

When a mage fails to cast a spell correctly, the mana deviates from its path, and the mage suffers from the backlash.

Fortunately, Tier 0 spells didn’t result in serious consequences. In the worst cases, such failures could be fatal.

Zack reviewed his attempt and realized that the problem was that he hadn’t controlled the mana properly. He failed to keep the mana evenly distributed, and as soon as there wasn’t enough to maintain the nodes, one of them burst.

After a few minutes, the pain subsided, and Zack tried again.

Crack.

(This will take longer than I thought), Zack thought to himself, gritting his teeth against the pain once more.

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