Enigma of Sin

Magic Bullet at a foundational level was simple. Move the mana from the core, form a ball of your element, and fire it off. Most spells that were learned through books would teach the mage how to move the mana and utilize the spell. A few words to help visualize were used, but most would just say it in their head rather than speaking out loud.

Kayn, however, had realized that the way he cast spells was quite different compared to most people. He could cast spells normally, which was how he "mastered" the tier 1 and 2 spells he was supposed to before he left to Myrem. But Kayn would usually alter spells to cast them according to his own mana flow.

Spells learned from books followed specific pathways that every individual with a core would form, but Kayn had formed more unique and complex pathways as his mana wasn't just limited to one or two elements.

The way Kayn had found to utilize mana didn't exactly conform to what this world had as rules. It was so much so that Kayn was starting to think that the "rules" were only in place to make things easier for people, but there were actually multiple ways people could actually go about magic.

However, since everything was laid out in simple formats, taught the same way, and no other alternative was offered, not many would actually explore other ways that mana could be used. His Master Lydia would go off the beaten path on occasion, but only really started to after including Kayn's ideas into her own spells.

Kayn's main goal for his return journey was to truly master the basics of the elements and mana flow as this would lead to bigger and better things for him in the future. His secondary goal though, was to learn how to activate and utilize the black flames and lightning he had displayed before without being in a berserk state.

He knew that during the times he had previously activated them that he wasn't really in control of himself. In order to figure out how they were cast and to be able to actually feel it, Kayn felt that it was important to find situations where his anger could be brought out.

He wasn't exactly excited about the prospect of putting himself into situations where his anger was triggered, but it would be a powerful boon if he could learn to control it, for protecting his family and himself.

He also needed to know more about his transformed state, such as if it was his body changing to that form, or if it was just a spell manifesting physical parts.

For now though, Kayn had to concentrate on his main goal. Triggering his rage induced state and learning the flow of Extinction Flames and Extinction Lightning, as he decided to name them, would come as he traveled.

While those two elements' power was unquestionable, he had to focus on what he could control. Thinking along these lines, Kayn started his long walk of a journey back home.

…

The first month of travel passed without anything exciting happening. As Kayn wasn't traveling along roads, he encountered many individual and packs of rune beasts. If the beasts weren't near any towns and posed no threat to people, he would leave them alone as long as they left him alone. If they were near a town and posed a potential threat or attacked him, unfortunately for those beasts, they became his target practice.

Kayn had purchased a much larger backpack for his return travel as he expected to collect a lot of loot between towns. He wouldn't be able to haul along the entire beasts with him, but with a larger bag, he was able to collect the important parts for selling, including the rune beast core stones.

During the last month Kayn had collected a total of 13 D-class core stones out of the hundred or so beasts he killed and only one C-class core stone. The C-class core stone came from an Ice Antler Elk. As it was a core attuned with ice, it should sell for a higher rate in the capital where the rich that could use deviant elements would gather.

Getting rune beast cores and practicing his control were the only benefits to this first month though. He had found no bandit camps, no slaver camps, and no goblin nests that he so dearly wished to find to slaughter.

His Magic Bullet training was progressing smoothly. After two weeks, Kayn moved on from the earth element and switched to fire. Earth Magic Bullets were great for piercing tough hides or piercing straight through things.

The original spell would form a ball of earth, essentially a rock, and launch it forward at a predetermined speed. Kayn practiced controlling every aspect of this process from the density, the shape, initial velocity, rotation, and so on. By now Kayn could blow up an entire bolder with a small rock, but the amount of mana he needed to put that single pebble was astronomical.

One thing that he discovered while practicing with this first element was that he could pour large amounts of mana into this originally tier 1 spell to bring out great effects, but that took time and it didn't seem very efficient to use in the middle of battle. Kayn was just happy that he was learning and understanding more about mana as a whole though.

When it came to the fire element, Kayn was having a lot more fun for one reason only. Explosions! Kayn had learned rather than just creating a fire and launching it similar to a fire ball, it was better to compress more and more fire into a tiny ball before launching. This tiny ball then acted like a rocket, exploding upon contact.

The only downside to this was that while a mage could typically cast a fireball and if they somehow hit themselves it wouldn't affect them, but Kayn's would. The explosion that resulted from all the compressed fire elemental mana and the debris had injured him multiple times when he was initially trying it out. Only after much trial and error did Kayn calibrate the spell to be effective and not dangerous to himself.

…

Yet another month passed by uneventfully. Kayn had been able to stop by a few towns for rest and to sell off his goods, but that was it. He was quite ahead of his original schedule as he expected to have to spend a few days each month scouting out enemy camps and taking them out, but he hadn't come across a single one.

In order to better utilize his time, he deciding to spend a few days at a time just swinging his sword around or going through the martial forms his mother had taught him all those years back. One of the things she had required of him during his time away was to practice these every day no matter what.

Kayn had slacked off on this requirement and he knew it, so he could only spend days at a time now as he journeyed back to make up for the lost experience. He wanted to prove to his mother that he could perform all the forms to perfection and in quick succession.

He also didn't forget to take time to practice the Void Star technique in order to strengthen his core. Kayn needed to find a safe place for this practice though, as both during the process and after he was vulnerable. Most of the time he ended up finding a spot high up in a tree that he wouldn't be spotted from below.

During this second month, Kayn had finished with fire and water, and was now practicing with wind elemental Magic Bullets.

Water Magic Bullets ended up becoming a major boon to Kayn as it was during this experimentation, he made a major discovery. Rather than just using the mana to form the element out of the air, it was possible to utilize already formed sources!

What this meant, was that Kayn could form Magic Bullets of the water element using healing potions or even liquid poison. This was essentially a long-range healing spell if used correctly! And while he wasn't planning on doing it, long range deliver of poison for assassinations was also a possibility.

Controlling the Magic Bullet to feel like a splash of water or like a shot at a doctor's office was difficult. Not to mention each individual race would have different skin and tissue toughness, so the pinpoint changes that needed to be made were quite extreme. Kayn was able to narrow down how to adjust the spell by practicing on both himself and helpless rune beasts that had no chance against him.

Wind Magic Bullets ended up surpassing Kayn's expectations and he found that they were far more useful than both fire and earth when it came to single target attacks. A normal wind Magic Bullet was quick and mostly silent, but had terrible penetration power, which explained why most wind mages would move on quickly from the spell.

Kayn had learned to increase the speed, as well as penetrating power by incorporating what he had learned with earth and fire. The velocity of Kayn's wind bullets was astronomical compared to the original, and even several fold faster than both of his earth and fire bullets. The victims hit by these spells wouldn't even have an inkling they were being attacked before dying.

When Kayn targeted the alpha beast of a pack of rune beasts, the pack wouldn't even notice anything had happened until the alpha collapsed out of nowhere and ceased its movements. The pack would then look around the area, but could never find the source of the attack or why the alpha died.

Earth and fire always made noise from the direction they were launched from and water wasn't able to penetrate most hides unless he loaded it with mana or changed it to ice. Wind Magic Bullets made Kayn feel as if he was using a sniper rifle that was completely silent. For targeted killing missions in the future on specified rune beasts, this would surely be a go to for him.

…

With Kayn finishing the four major elements after the start of the third month, he wanted to apply his knowledge to the spells he had created on a whim back when he saved Kinzie, Sense Extension.

He couldn't figure out how to apply dark and light to being Magic Bullets and they weren't included in the original spell as a possibility of use. So instead, for light magic he utilized it on his eyes.

Kayn would fuse the light element into his eyes to increase and focus the light that was entering into his pupils. It was kind of like placing binoculars to his eyes if he was honest. Naming this particular spell Eagle Eye, he was able to kill prey at twice the distance that he originally could, as his targeting was far more precise. The strain it caused to his eyes if maintained was immense though, so he would need to address this issue before he attempted long term usage.

On the days Kayn practiced his martial forms and swung his sword, he would also practice with the other aspects of Sense Extension he had come up with. Using the wind element to increase his hearing, the earth element to feel the vibrations through the ground, and the shadow element to help visualize his surroundings, these became a daily practice for him.

…

The third month passed by quicker than the first two as Kayn immersed himself more into his training than focusing on hunting beasts or looking for bandit camps. He was able to somewhat grasp everything happening around him within a range of 25m (82ft) for a period of time, but if he sustained that state for more than 10 minutes, he would be completely exhausted. Not to mention that his senses would start to feel overwhelmed at that point and when he returned back to normal it was like isolating himself inside of a small room with how little he felt comparatively.

His new goal was to adjust these spells to reduce consumption and reduce the negative after effects. It would become a great windfall if he could fight while using all of the aspects of Sense Extension, but currently he would run out of mana too quickly to be truly viable against dangerous enemies.

At the start of the fourth month, Kayn finally found what he was looking for.

Bandits.