My Level Zero System

"Oh, that makes sense," Kain muttered, breaking out of his [Mind Disturbed] state.

Although Magus have expanded their spiritual limits many times over, making their spiritual wavelengths powerful and far harder to disrupt than those of ordinary people, coupled with passive spiritual defense and innate magic resistance, this makes a Magus a being very difficult to affect, even if their pure physical body strength doesn't change when they increase class.

But it's different if the user of [Mind Disturbed] is an equal Magus.

That's why [Spirit Magic] becomes increasingly dangerous and unpredictable at higher class levels.

At this point, Kain had achieved all the main goals he had set out for earlier: upgrading the three magic skills [Regeneration], [Mind Protection], and [Mind Disturbed]. Now that the main goals were complete, Kain needed another secondary objective.

[Level]: 0

[Ability]:

- [Thunder Magic ★★]:

- [Thunder Spear level 2] 0/200

- [Thunder Arrow level 2] 0/200

- [Thunder Descend level 1] 0/150

- [Thunder Flash level 2] 0/250

- [Thunder Control level 3] 0/350

- [Enhancement Magic ★★]:

- [Enhancement Magic level 2] 121/700

- [Fire Magic ★★]:

- [Fire Cannon level 1] 0/150

- [Fire Blade level 1] 0/150

- [Fire Storm level 1] 0/200

- [Fire Burst level 1] 0/200

- [Spirit Magic ★★]:

- [Mind Protection level 1] 0/500

- [Mind Disturbed level 1] 0/500

- [Life Magic ★★]:

- [Regeneration level 1] 0/400

Reviewing the system's magic skill list, Kain realized he was indeed missing one more thing:

The core magic skill of [Fire Magic ★★], [Fire Control].

Previously, in the Foggy Dungeon, due to the extremely urgent situation, Kain could only upgrade basic magic skills and temporarily forgo control. Later, returning to the academy, he hadn't had the opportunity to revisit it, and now was a perfect chance.

So why was [Fire Control] important? One only needs to look at how Kain uses and transforms [Thunder Magic] to understand; he can do so precisely because he has upgraded [Thunder Control] to level 3. Kain's current [Fire Magic] still relies on [Fire Navigation] from when he was a low-class Magus.

That's also why, compared to [Thunder Magic], Kain's [Fire Magic] attacks are usually very direct, because he cannot make them transform; doing so would cause the magic to break down and fail.

If [Fire Navigation] is like throwing a stone with bare hands, only able to aim and direct the stone at the pre-launch stage, then [Fire Control] means being able to control the trajectory of the thrown stone at will, from beginning to end. The difference between the two is clear without further explanation.

Thinking it, doing it. After about an hour of rest and eating, Kain set off for the second-to-last area of the second Dungeon floor: the Inverted Forest.

The Inverted Forest had trees growing both above and below, with almost no open space, making the entire area feel much more confined.

Even Kain had to admit, the atmosphere in the "Inverted Forest" was far more suffocating and eerie.

A dense forest setting easily made one imagine lurking monsters, and often, it wasn't just imagination, but reality.

Just imagine walking alone in a dark forest, and out of the corner of your eye, something human-like but not human peeking out from behind a tree to watch you.

Quite creepy, isn't it? It becomes even creepier when you distinctly feel like you're being watched, but can't pinpoint the source. And that unease just keeps growing and growing.

That's why Dungeons aren't truly "gold mines" to be exploited. They are a form of horror that humans are trying to delve into, merely to control their own fear—the fear of the unknown.

"Compared to the two previous areas, there's significantly less glowing moss here..." Kain looked around, making an assessment.

As a hunter, familiarity with forests, whether day or night, was part of him. This Inverted Forest area was terrifying precisely because the primary light source in the Dungeon—glowing moss—grew very sparsely here. And darkness easily led people to imagine things.

So, there would be no more darkness.

With a mere flick of his hand, a wave of fire erupted and spread from Kain's position, incinerating the surrounding trees and illuminating the entire area.

However, Kain felt this wasn't enough. He continued to expand the burning area until no darkness remained within his sight.

Kain wasn't doing this out of fear of the dark; he was simply creating a beacon, inviting all monsters to attack him here.

And indeed, from within the burnt bushes, a Zombie charged out. Unlike ordinary Zombies, this was an evolved Zombie that had become leaner and one and a half times taller than a normal Zombie, and of course, many times stronger than a normal Zombie. However, as soon as this creature entered Kain's hunting ground, what it faced was a massive electrical network stretched across the entire surrounding area, and this horrifying-looking monster was like a small mouse that had just walked into a hunter's trap.

Immediately, [Thunder Bullet] fired from the network's intersections instantly killed this Zombie.

And it wasn't the only victim.

Zombies are strongly attracted to visual cues like sudden images, sounds, or light. So, when Kain burned down a large section of the forest like that, it was inevitable that hordes of Zombies would be drawn to it.

But what about the toxic smoke generated by the fire? Was Kain, standing in the center of the blaze, essentially killing himself? To understand this, one must delve into the very root of what magic is.

Elemental magic, while it can utilize objective physical elements as its basis for release, ultimately stems from the subjective—it is the Magus's own energy, their own ego. This is why magic skills that appear entirely "physical," such as [Thunder Magic] or [Fire Magic], can still be resisted by a Magus's magic resistance, even though a Magus doesn't possess physical resistance.

In essence, what appears to be purely objective physical magic actually still contains a subjective power from the Magus. This means that if a Magus dispels a magic skill, the magical root will vanish, and the remaining "physical" element will behave normally, its properties reverting to their natural state. For example, lightning will dissipate quickly because that is its inherent characteristic, or fire, having nothing to cling to like wood, will also quickly die out.

Not only that, but a Magus also has complete control over their magic. For instance, if Kain wished, he could extinguish all the fire he created before "withdrawing" the magical root that generated it. Simultaneously, Kain could also seal all the toxic gases produced by the burning fire within the fire itself, because he is the one controlling the fire, not allowing it to manifest all the spontaneous properties of natural fire.

This is the power of a Magus: through themselves, they impose their will upon the natural laws of the physical world.

However, from birth, Magus are also influenced by the objective physical world. This leads to them, in the early stages of their magic cultivation path, creating magic that adheres as closely as possible to "models" in the physical world, as these serve as the foundation for their imagination.

And that's also why elemental magic systems are the majority—because they have "models." Unlike more abstract magic systems such as [Spirit Magic] or [Life Magic], the number of Magus who awaken these types of magic is far rarer.

In short, it's a process that must be followed; one cannot simply leap to high-level magic. If they could, it would be a hollow "high-level magic," obscured by its destructive power simply by adding more brute force. It's like lifting a small rock requiring a certain amount of force, then lifting a rock ten times larger requiring ten times that force. But a true Magus might only use twice the force, or even the same amount of force, to lift the rock ten times heavier.

That is the difference.

And if anyone says, "Magus just need to imagine, anyone can do it," they are completely wrong. An ordinary person looking at a red apple will only see a red apple, no more, no less, no matter how many times they tell themselves it's not an apple, or it's not red. When they see a red apple, the only thing that registers in their perception is a red apple.

That is the limit of perception.

Magus, however, must continuously ascend and expand this limit, so their thoughts can dictate the physical world, so their magic can redefine reality. Not as described above.

But to achieve this, mere imagination is not enough—it's far too lacking. There must be a thought paradigm, a solid logical structure that allows a Magus to completely believe in what they can define. Otherwise, as Kain said before, if a Magus, from their very ego, believes their magic "cannot" do something, then that magic has already collapsed at its roots.

This is the essence of a Magus: idealism.

And the further they advance, the more idealistic they become. Fire is not simply fire, and lightning is not simply lightning.