As Goku finished the incantation, a speck of light flickered at the tip of the wand, but it extinguished almost immediately.
"Looks like... I failed!"
Goku blinked.
"No, it was not a failure!"
Dumbledore's expression relaxed.
"The trajectory of your wand wave was very standard, but there was a slight issue with your pronunciation of the incantation. You need to slow down the beginning and speed up at the end. Repeat after me: Lu... mos."
Goku's wand had lit up just now; even though it was only for a fleeting second, it proved that ki could indeed be used as a substitute for magic power. The reason it wasn't a total success was simply that Goku's casting process wasn't standard enough.
"Lu... mos!"
Following Dumbledore's guidance, Goku recited the incantation and waved the wand once more.
This time, a stable source of light successfully appeared at the tip of his wand, illuminating the surroundings.
"Wow, it's glowing! It's glowing!"
Goku waved the wand excitedly, and the light source at the tip moved along with it. When the duration of the Wand-Lighting Charm reached its end, he suddenly thought of something and asked Dumbledore:
"If I don't have this little stick, does that mean I won't be able to perform magic anymore?"
He felt it would be very inconvenient to carry a small wooden stick during combat. Moreover, if a close-quarters fight became intense, the small stick could easily be snapped. This little stick wasn't like his Power Pole; it wasn't that sturdy.
"For now, that is the case. However, once you master more magic and have an in-depth study of its principles, you can achieve wandless casting. It is just that the power of the magic will be slightly weaker—that is simply unavoidable."
Dumbledore nodded. For a wizard, a wand was not a burden but the best auxiliary tool for performing magic. In the Middle Ages, before wands became widespread, many wizards were caught and burned to death by Muggles because their casting speed was too slow and their power too small without the help of a wand.
Furthermore, wizards usually cast spells from a distance, so holding a wand wasn't too inconvenient.
However, given Goku's fist-to-flesh fighting style, it was indeed troublesome. One could only say he would have to slowly learn wandless magic later on. But just as Dumbledore finished speaking, his eyes suddenly widened.
"How is this possible!"
It turned out that while asking the question, Goku had already tried putting down the wand and using his finger instead to perform the Wand-Lighting Charm again.
As his incantation ended, a somewhat dim light source appeared on his finger. Though it wasn't as bright as the light produced by the wand, he had indeed successfully performed it.
"This way is much more convenient."
Goku shook the light source on his hand, a satisfied smile appearing on his face. Being able to perform magic without a wand would allow him to better integrate it with his fighting style.
"Goku, release it a few more times."
Dumbledore had Goku perform the Wand-Lighting Charm several more times, and he gradually found the reason why Goku could perform wandless magic.
The main role of a wand is to stabilize magic power output and amplify magical power. Many wizards cannot master wandless casting techniques precisely because they cannot control the magic power inside their bodies effectively.
A wizard's magic power is innate and unstable, and it is easily influenced by emotions. Many wizards born into pure-blood families, even if exposed to magic from a young age, can only start learning magic after entering school at age eleven.
This is because their internal magic power is quite unstable before then. Young wizards often release magic power involuntarily, causing many strange things to happen around them.
But Goku's ki was different; it was a power condensed through tempered cultivation. With Goku's talent, he could achieve almost perfect control over his ki, and unstable ki would not occur. Therefore, as long as he followed the standard casting method to provide a stable output of ki, he could successfully perform magic. It was just that the power was weaker compared to using a wand.
"Next, we shall learn the Levitation Charm. This spell is significantly more difficult, especially since the rhythm of the incantation is hard to grasp..."
Having figured out why Goku could perform wandless magic, Dumbledore stopped dwelling on it and continued to guide Goku in learning the most basic first-year magics. Goku's wandless casting belonged to an unrepeatable situation that only he could use.
Thus, with one teaching and the other learning, time quickly reached noon.
"Truly terrifying learning ability!"
Watching Goku eat a sumptuous lunch sent by the house-elves, Dumbledore couldn't help but sigh. In just half a day, Goku had learned all the spells required for the first year.
Although first-year spells are simple, without studying the principles, even a genius would need at least half a month of practice to master them. He himself had taken a week back then; Goku had only taken half a day.
He summarized two reasons for this. First, Goku had a very strong ability to control the ki inside his body, which greatly increased the success rate of releasing magic. Second, Goku had an extraordinarily high talent for the trajectory of wand waving; basically, if Dumbledore performed a movement once, Goku could precisely replicate it.
As for learning the incantations, it was slightly worse than the first two points, but still above standard.
In the afternoon, the magic lessons continued.
But this time, Dumbledore didn't teach any new spells. Instead, he began explaining the theoretical knowledge of magic. History of Magic, Potions, Herbology, Astronomy, and Care of Magical Creatures—he didn't intend to teach any of those.
In his view, they wouldn't be of much use for improving Goku's strength in a short time. But magic principles involved the learning and mastery of more advanced magic in the future, so they had to be studied well. If Goku became interested in those other courses later, it wouldn't be too late to teach them then.
A whole afternoon of teaching magic principles left Dumbledore feeling as if his head were as big as a cauldron.
"Slowly... take it slowly..."
After the afternoon session ended, Dumbledore could only comfort himself this way. Compared to the unprecedented magic talent Goku showed when learning spells in the morning, the magic theory in the afternoon was a total disaster.
It wasn't that Goku's learning ability was poor, but that his foundation was too weak. Goku had never gone to school since he was a child. Initially, he couldn't even count properly, thinking that fourteen came after eleven.
Later, after becoming Master Roshi's disciple, he learned a bit of academic knowledge. However, during that year of cultivation, most of the time was spent on martial arts training, and daily academic time was not long. Goku's level was at most that of a first-grade elementary student.
Crucially, because he had lived in the mountains before and was too pure, he lacked many common-sense facts. For someone at Goku's level to learn complex magic theory—even the magic theory of a first-year course—was extremely taxing.
Fortunately, as the most powerful and versatile wizard, Dumbledore had rich teaching experience. With his one-on-one guidance, he barely managed to help Goku get a foot in the door of magic theory.
***
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