The Rules of Magic

It was midnight on my 200th year when I had a strange dream. I saw a man blossoming flowers wherever he stepped and the hills called for him to just walk by. However, this was no common man. In one hand he had a Gauntlet of Dead Ice, and on the other he had Inferno's Claw relic. What I witnessed in my own mind was much deeper than a powerful god: it was the advanced use of magic, not only separately but to relate them at an intimate level, working together, molding each other, without nullifying one another.

When I woke up I started to work on it. The first thing to understand was the conduits by which we claim and control magic. For me, it's on the tip of my fingers, but for the common practitioner, it becomes a challenge. The conduit can be a relic, an item or even an arcane focus and it needs to contain the spells in question. Of course you, my reader, might know that, by drawing higher pockets of raw stamina, endurance and even magic essence (present in everything as we have discussed in Chapter 1), you can further solidify spellcasting, but what if we could combine them somehow?

(...)

From several experiments I tried, I have reached three conclusions:

1. Together with another practitioner it is possible to sync up spellcasting, infusing the premises with magical essence that dilute into one another and create something different. Of course, it is easier said than done. You would need compatible magical essences as well as a 10th of a second precision in the casting. This method only works with spells that are instantaneously cast;
2. The second way to combine or fortify spells is through ritualistic concentration. This is a much deeper and stronger combination than the first, but also a more dangerous one. First of all, this only applies to ritualistic or spells that take longer than 6 seconds to cast. Second of all, it needs active full concentration to maintain this connection and both casters need to be at least 10ft from one another. Their auras will need to combine and struggle with one another until reaching a complete stable status. After that, both spells create a merge of both of them with unknown effects that can last at least a week (exciting!). However, any break on concentration or unwanted movement causes a catactlystic effect that can severely endanger both practitioners and their surroundings.
3. The third way is an extreme one that puts a struggle on one caster, and that can be done single-handedly. Imagine you have the typical Fireball spell ready to go, but you want to expand on said spell by devastating everything between the caster and the target, like a Firebolt spell would do. By combining both essences a spellcastings you can create a Fireball Bolt (my invention!). I have observed several setbacks that incrementally endanger a caster in a fight. For starters, you could lose the ability to cast spells for an unknown period. My biggest range was an entire month. Secondly, the casting might fail. The precision of this ability has a 10-20% chance of succeeding. Thirdly, unless you know exactly what essences you are combining, I do not recommend this or any way of advanced casting. The entire West wing of the academy still remembers my Sleep spell mishap.

To conclude, we have introduced some ways that qwe can make use of magic and its essences for advanced casting. But as the word "advanced" might hint at, you need more than just the basics of Magic in order to perform any of these methods. Try them at your own risk with my concerned warning that, if you need to perform this type of combinations, then Humanity might be at risk of Mullistus itself. Do not use magic lightly. Do not kill yourself for power.