Taryeon and Maura sank into deep thought at Alec's words. As fellow mages, they understood what he was talking about. They also understood that he had put a lot of thought into his condition.

They had kind of brushed over it, thinking that formless mana was simply magic without an attribute. But that would mean that elemental magic was simply magic with an attribute.

Could they honestly say that that was all their magic was? No, they couldn't.

Lightning magic wasn't just magic with a coat of lightning painted over it. It was lightning itself.

Elemental magic was magic, and magic was elemental magic.

But what did that make non-elemental magic?

They didn't know.

They understood why Alec was struggling. This wasn't even what he was struggling with that much anymore, since he had already started figuring it out.

But the problem with Maura's suggestion remained. How was he supposed to find a catalyst of something that didn't exist in nature in nature?

He just had to figure it out without external supplements.

"My mana changed quite significantly while I condensed it. Maybe you need to do something similar." Taryeon's mana had gone from light blue lightning-infused mana with a few streaks of lightning in it to a bundled swirling mass of sparks and lightning bolts of all sizes.

Alec tilted his head in acknowledgment. It was a good suggestion. Formless mana meant it was ever-changing. Maybe he needed to make that a point by changing his mana while condensing it.

He compared it to the instructions in the Hollow Gale manual.

The manual seemed to imply that the process should come naturally once the user was satisfied with the amount of mana they had condensed. The magic circle condensation part should match the nature of the condensed mana.

Since a mage used their will to condense mana, their mental image of what the mana was supposed to look like could alter the appearance of the condensed mana. Mages who used the same manual could end up with different-looking mana.

It was a conclusion Alec had drawn after studying a bunch of texts and different reviews of different condensation methods. It probably didn't matter for fledglings like him and his friends, but it was very likely it would have a huge impact in the future.

He could also confirm that this was probably even more true for formless mana. There weren't many non-attribute magic circle condensation methods in the library, but the few he found mostly had similar conclusions to creating a circle.

It matched the nature of the mana the mage ended up condensing.

But that didn't quite match with Taryeon's suggestion of changing his mana's appearance while condensing a circle.

'I mean, my mana looks like one big bubble. How am I supposed to change it?'

Alec couldn't change the bubble into something that felt natural.

'Do I need to incorporate the 'Gale' part of the manual, maybe?' So far, it hadn't seemed like the second part of his manual's name mattered to the condensation of his mana. Why was it called Hollow Gale instead of just Hollow or Hollowness?

It could be the author's naming convention.

It could also be related to the condensation method.

'A hollow gale…An empty breeze? A gust of nothingness? A vacuum? Suction? No…The movement of nothingness? Is that it?' Alec asked himself, too deep in concentration to care about the others around him.

The others, while still not used to it, had seen Alec sink deep into concentration before and decided not to bother him. Erio and Isidore continued sparring, and Taryeon and Maura moved a little to the side to discuss magic and what Alec had mentioned.

His words that formless magic was the opposite of magic had stirred their brains.

They couldn't immediately say that they agreed or disagreed, but it was worth thinking about.

If Alec were right, what did that mean for their magic? Was their magic just two dots on the same side of a coin, while his was the entire other side?

If he were wrong, was all magic the same, just with different outer layers? Did that mean that fire and water magic were more alike than they looked? But then why did changing some elements into others take much more energy and concentration than other elements?

There were differences between elements, but also similarities.

It shouldn't be possible to fit them all into one category while putting Alec's formless magic in a separate one. But they also couldn't put Alec's formless magic in the same category as elemental magic.

While they lost themselves in that discussion, Alec was starting to feel like he finally had a lead to follow.

He had thought that his formless and empty bubble fit decently enough into his understanding of a Hollow Gale. But now, he was starting to think that he was wrong.

His bubble mana might be hollow, but it could hardly be called a gale. It wasn't fast or fierce enough, and it certainly couldn't make so much as a sheet hanging to dry flap in the wind.

He had the hollowness part down, but not the Gale part.

He wanted to blame the manual's lacking instruction, but it was also a matter of comprehension.

Besides, his bubble wasn't entirely hollow.

As a multi-dimensional, metaphysical gathering of energy, he could count the inside of his mana's bubble layer a part of the inside of the bubble itself. Since one half of the bubble was inside the bubble, it wasn't entirely hollow.

It had a border that prevented it from reaching its full potential. It was a set of training wheels that had helped Alec grasp and control his mana.

But it was also a set of shackles that limited the extent to which he could push his mana.

After all, his mana wasn't the skin of the bubble. It was the entirety of the bubble, but specifically, the hollowness inside.

He had to pop his bubble and set his mana free.

'Not yet, though.'

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