When Simon left for the territory of the harpies, Irene had barred Simon from using his magic even if he came to clash against the queen of the harpies. The reason for that was because she wanted him to realise how far he could go just by relying on his physical combat and skills.
"Now then, let us start your magic training. Create a basic fireball for now"
As Irene instructed, Simon create a basic fireball. However, due to his mana now being in a state of liquid, the fireball he created was the size of a boulder. This was not done intentionally but was instinctive.
"Alright, you can disperse that magic. Now, do you know why you are able to cast magic so easily? Something that came to humans and other races after years of training?" Irene asked looking at him with those crystal blue eyes of hers.
Now that she mentioned it, Simon had never thought about how he was able to use magic up until this moment. The moment he was reincarnated in this world, he was attacked by a direwolf.
To repel the monster away, Simon instinctively used magic without even thinking about how he did it.
Wait, there was something that he knew. At that time when death was staring into his eyes, he heard a fiery voice beckon to him to make the direwolf disappear.
If it was the previous Simon before he became a Demon Earl, he might not have understood it. However, the current him was different. After ranking up and grasping some of the essence of the mystical energy, many profundities that eluded him before, came to him naturally.
Thus he knew what that phenomenon was.
"It looks like you have arrived at an answer. That's right, what you heard when you used magic for the first time, was the voice of that magic itself. But have you wondered why you were able to hear that voice?" Irene questioned.
"Because I'm a Demon Noble…" The Demon Nobles were one of the race that were extremely adept in magic.
"That right, what would have otherwise taken other species years of practice, just came to you naturally. However, this also means that you have gone through no training. You might have a better understanding of magic than other species; however, your control and skill over the magic are still lacking".
"For example, the fireball magic that you just cast, how much mana did you use up for that?"
Hearing Irene's question Simon arched his brows. His MP was well over 300,000 now. And thanks to his skills and body's natural ability to recover, it didn't take him any time to recover the mana he expended casting the novice tier magic.
Nevertheless, he was still able to tell how much mana he had used to cast that fireball.
"Around 300 MP" Simon responded.
Irene nodded her head and added "That's a lot counting the fact that you possess the [Minimal Mana Consumption] and your [Mana Lines] evolved into [Superior Mana Lines]. In your current state, you should be able to cast a magic like fireball by expending less than 100 MP. Try it".
Simon did as he was told and cast a fireball. This time though the fire ball was a lot less big, about the size of a football. However, what was surprising was that it took him more than 300 MP to cast the same fireball he had cast a few seconds earlier.
"Do you see your lacking control in magic now? You cannot even cast the same magic using a fixed amount of mana every time. Not only that, there is too much mana wastage in your casting. For your magic training, we will start by focusing on your magic control"
Irene spoke in a strict tone. After training with her for ten months, Simon was already used to that side of her.
With Irene monitoring his progress, Simon started training. He was forced to repeatedly cast the novice tier fireball magic again and again. It was only after seeing the various size of the same fireball, did it dawn onto Simon how serious his lack ovver magic control was.
He had cast over a hundred fireballs however none of the fireballs was of the same size and mana output, not even one.
There was no mistake in casting, all of the fireball was the same magic. However, each of them had a random amount of mana bestowed into them. His magic control was so all over the place that it wasn't even funny anymore.
One fireball magic even took him more than 1000 MP to cast. That was simply wastage of mana.
"The only reason you were able to reach the Advance tier in some magic, is because of your race and the large Mana Pool that you possessed made up for your severe lack over magic control".
"You might have already realised it by now, but you have reached a bottleneck in magic. Your Amalgamation magic is not progressing further. Even though you have reached the advanced tier in some of the attributes of the mana, you can only use amalgamation magic up to the intermediate tier".
"You might have wondered about that too. If you want to progress further, than you will have to perfect your flaws, and magic control is just one of them".
With Irene throwing facts at his face, Simon could only nod his head. It was not like she said anything false, he had really been relying on his racial advantages to cast magic since the beginning.
It was not bad per se, but it would not take him much further. Its true that demon Nobles were one of the race much more proficient in magic. However, any weapon can become blunt if abused too much.
One needed to sharpen their weapon from time to time to make sure the weapon can perform its task. It was the same in this regard too, Simon might have been born with a sharp weapon that can slice through many things.
However, it meant nothing if he didn't continuously improve himself and just relied on that factor alone. Simon understood this point very well, and thus continued to train like a madman.
That said, change is a gradual process and not something that could be seen in one day. Unless one is a genius, it would take others a long time.
Irene had created a strict training routine for Simon. For as long as he trained, he would have to work just as much. The task of the dungeon master wasn't going to complete on its own.
Rest? That was a luxury, a demon noble's body was different than a human, it did not need much sleep or rest.
Currently, Simon was seated in a room inside the White Palace that he designated as his new office. with how boisterous the main hall had become, he could no longer work there. He needed a different room to attend to his work.
Even after assigning the valkyries and the twins their own rooms, the white palace was big enough to have plenty of spare rooms. Of course, in the near future with more and more subordinates joining him, even with these many rooms it might fall short.
At that time, he could just add more rooms. The palace was an item that was purchased from the [shop] and was the last defensive line that fortified and nourished the dungeon core. It can be upgraded with the dungeon points to not only be more fortified, but also more spacious.
Right now, after Simon upgraded the White Palace twice, the dungeon core that was sitting in the basement of the palace, was secured by three layers of arrays that was not any weaker than the one Irene had laid out in the Forest Spirit village.
Of course, the majority of the upgrade cost went into those arrays that was the most important part of the White Palace.
Fascinated by the arrays, Simon was also currently looking into that area. After his dungeon became an intermediate ranking dungeon, many items and elements in the [shop] now became available for purchase to him.
For example, it was possible for him to plant the Trees of Mana Crystals without he need of Cecilia mutating them from Mana Trees. Not only that, he could also install various types of Mineral Mountains and Mana Crystal Quarries to his dungeon.
The same was with the Arrays. Simon was now able to choose from a wide range of arrays to install in his dungeon. Of course, the higher grade ones which were the most powerful were still inaccessible to him. One could only buy those when their dungeon evolves to a high ranking dungeon.
That being said, there was still a lot of arrays to choose from for an intermediate tier dungeon.
For example, there were arrays that are strictly used for protection like the Grand Protection Array that Irene had created in the forest spirit village. The Flame Trance Array which increases the power of all types of flame magic while inside the formation.
Blizzard Array that increases the ice magic, Howling Wind Array and so on and so forth. Other than these Elemental types arrays, there were also the special types of arrays like Illusiory Mist Formation that produces mist and traps anyone that enters the array inside an illusion.
Then there was also the special arrays filled with the laws of space that sends anyone that enters that area into a special realm.
Of course, these arrays wasn't all powerful, there were various tricks and techniques to break these array. However, if used masterfully, these arrays can become some really annoying objects.