He felt a warmth rising from his core, spreading to every part of his body.
He looked at where he wanted to go and chanted.
"Endless dunes that swallow all paths,
shift and yield beneath my will,
let distance be buried in sand,
All paths belong to me,
Dune passage."
The noise around his surroundings grew quiet. The air grew warmer, then hot and cold at the same time.
The magical energy flowed through his body as though following a unique pattern, similar to the one he had seen on the scroll.
Ding!
Aladdin felt it the moment the spell was completed.
Outside, grains of golden sand slowly gathered around Aladdin, spiralling like a tornado.
Suddenly, Aladdin felt a strong gust around him, and he felt as though he was being pulled through a narrow door.
Swisshh!!!
At that instant, the atmosphere collapsed around Aladdin as he vanished into thin air.
A spiral of golden sand appeared with a gust of wind before the blackboard, displacing the air.
Suddenly, the spiral of golden sand dispelled, revealing Aladdin within.
Aladdin felt the consumption of his magical energy from his core. Still, he knew that he had enough to continue casting the Dune Passage Teleportation spell.
An inspiration suddenly emerged in Aladdin's mind. Aladdin looked at one of the first upper floors closest to him and shortened the chant.
"Sand, swallow the distance,
Dune passage."
A familiar spiral of golden sand gathered around Aladdin's feet as he vanished into thin air and appeared on the top of the first upper floor closest to where he had been looking.
Golden sands gathered around his feet once more before dissipating into thin air.
"I can go again," Aladdin said to himself.
He didn't feel the dizziness, nausea, or fatigue that came with training the Dune Passage Teleportation spell, or folding one's body through space for the first time. Everything felt almost natural the more he cast the spell, like a flick of one's wrist.
This time around, Aladdin closed his eyes. He didn't look at where he wanted to go.
He simply thought about it.
If the magical energy circulating within his body, following the unique pattern, was like a swift cyclist the first time, this time, Aladdin felt as though he was like a high-speed jet cutting through the clouds and covering vast distances in an instant.
The moment he cast the spell, he vanished.
Swishh!!
He appeared before his desk, where Genie was seated, watching him quietly while touching his glasses.
Faint golden sands that were almost unnoticeable floated around Aladdin before quickly vanishing out of existence.
Aladdin was certain that he had mastered the spell and grasped the true essence of it, which was to create a high-speed movement spell capable of instantaneous travel, especially through the desert.
The faint golden sands were the manifestation of the spell that he had cast. When cast in a sandy area or in a desert, the efficiency of the spell increased, reducing magical energy depletion and increasing casting speed.
The golden sand could also be used to push away an attacker trying to catch or trap the caster. Once mastered, the intensity of the golden sand could be increased at will when teleporting and could be used perfectly well outside a sandy environment without any limitations.
However, there was an upgrade at that level which further increased the potency and efficiency of the spell. What could have taken another individual five years of continuous training to grasp had taken Aladdin only a few minutes to do so.
Aladdin turned to Genie with a smile. "I've mastered the spell. I need another one," he said, itching to try out another spell.
"Which one?" Genie asked curiously.
"Let me think. I've always wanted to catch lightning and thunder during a storm, to shoot fire out of the tips of my fingers, to cover the desert with water, to race through the skies, and shatter a boulder. I know what I want," Aladdin said thoughtfully.
"I need a spell that would help me control the elements."
Genie nodded, adjusted his glasses, and began looking at the pamphlet, turning it over up and down. "Unhaa… I see… Let me see if we have any of those here. Tunnel mole earth spell… nope! Carpel Water Stream… nope! Salt jet water… nope! Fire ring spell… nope! Fire disk spell… nope!! Float spell… nope!!"
He searched through the pamphlet for over a minute, even pulling two more pamphlets from within his pocket and going through them.
"Ahh… here is the treasure, 'Exotic Five Elemental Control,'" Genie pulled out a scroll, this time from the pamphlet. The scroll was bigger and thicker than the previous one, almost reaching the length of his torso.
He removed the seal, threw it aside, and explained, The Exotic Five Elemental Control is capable of enabling a person to gain control over the elements - fire, water, earth, wind, and lightning. Each element has its own incarnation and a connecting unique pattern layered upon one another, allowing the caster to switch between each element easily."
"The only downside is that because this connecting unique pattern is so complex, it takes a master who has trained in the arts for several decades to even attempt casting this spell and use it efficiently. The only way to combat this downside is to learn the lesser version, ''Four Elemental Control.' Huh, I guess the lightning control is the reason for the name 'Exotic,'" he added, handing the scroll over to Aladdin.
"But it shouldn't cause any problems for you, right?"
Aladdin nodded and collected the scroll. He walked over to the chair and gestured for Genie to get up before unfolding the scroll on the table.
The connecting patterns were layered upon each other, making them more unique and complex than the Dune Passage Teleportation spell. Nonetheless, Aladdin quickly grasped their essence. He memorised the incantations for each element.
For the fire element:
From the breath of the desert sun, and the wrath of the burning skies,
Embodiment of destruction and rebirth,
Answer my will and consume all before me—
Flame… Ignite!
For the water element:
From the endless rivers and depths of the abyss,
Flow through form and shatter restraint,
Bend to my will and drown all resistance—
Tide… Flow!
For the earth element:
O ancient bones that bear the weight of all,
Rise from slumber and answer my dominion,
Let the mountain kneel and land obey,
Earth… Rise!
For the wind element:
O wandering winds that roam the heavens,
Swift and boundless, break all chains,
Gather and rend all that stand before me,
Boundless Gale, descend!
And lastly, for the lightning element:
O lightning that splits the sky asunder,
Speed and wrath of the heavens,
Strike at my command and erase all opposition,
Judgment of the Skies… Fall!
After that, Aladdin began channelling magical energy through the proper channels according to the unique pattern on the scroll. He didn't make a single mistake, as his body automatically followed the layered patterns.
If something went wrong, it wouldn't be him who made the mistake, but the one who created the scroll. Even if the instructions were flawed, Aladdin felt that as long as the spell was possible, he could instantly correct and perfect it.
Even now, Aladdin could draw out the five different unique patterns, along with their respective incantations, which could be learned separately without needing to master the 'Exotic Five Elemental Control' itself.
After ensuring that he had memorised each incantation and the connecting unique patterns down to the smallest detail, Aladdin stood up and said, "Let's head to an open space."
He turned around and walked out of the library. He had seen an open area resembling a training ground outside the Royal Magic Court library when he arrived with Carpet.
Genie nodded and quietly followed beside him.
As they walked out of the library, the Royal Magic Court's disciples standing at the entrance quickly spotted them. They bowed respectfully.
"Your Highness, is there anything you need?" one of them asked.
"I'm simply heading over to the open space over there to train," Aladdin shook his head and replied.
"Train?" the magic court disciple repeated in confusion.
"Yes. I studied a new spell that I want to try out," Aladdin nodded as he responded.
"What are your names?" He asked.
Upon learning that their Prince was practising magic, the Royal Magic Court's disciples were immediately astounded.
They hadn't thought that he had come here to learn how to cast magic, but instead to get a glimpse of the history of his ancestors, the former royal family, or the Empire of Ababwa. Because the former was much more difficult, it required days, weeks, or even months of diligent practice before any results could be seen.
However, Aladdin had only been in the library for at most twenty minutes, and he was already coming out to train.
What had he learned in such a short time that he wanted to test out?
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I just realised that Aladdin's training made his second wish look weaker than it's supposed to be. That was not my initial intention. My aim was to make Aladdin overpowered, with the limitations of having to grow into it. However, the wish I thought was just 'alright' was too powerful, and turned him into an overpowered being like Genie.
I was thinking about how to fix this before being hit by decision paralysis.
So I had three choices to fix this.
1. Ignore the second wish and pretend as though it's all going as planned.
2. Rectify the chapters to remain consistent with the wish.
3. Change the second wish to match what I had planned for the story.
I can't pick number 1. We all know how number 2 will end up. So that leaves me with number 3… that's what I picked.
I apologise for the late update.
What do you guys think?
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