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Right now I am playing as a level 1 (Almost level 2) female, Imperial (Race, not side of the war) that is a mage, and I wanted to join the College of Winterhold as soon as possible. However, after purchasing the Fear Illusion spell from the lady at the entrance, I am not leveled up enough as a Mage to be able to perform it. (It requires me to be an Apprentice Mage) What is a good way to level up as a mage quickly to become an Apprentice?

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Your requirement is actually not your skill level with the Illusion skill tree.

Studoku mentioned it in passing, but your main issue is that the Fear spell, at your level of magical training, takes more than your maximum Magicka to cast. Higher skill level, perks, and Fortify Magic School equipment all reduce Magicka cost of spells.

You can bypass this initial limitation by stacking as many bonus Magicka items as possible. The starter Hood and Mage Cloak should make it a little closer, then drink a potion of fortify magicka and you should be good to cast it once.

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  • Thanks. Do you know where I could find/buy a fortify magicka potion?
    – Leah E.
    Commented Jan 12, 2018 at 14:55
  • The effort needed to specifically buy those potions you could've just leveled up and increase your Magicka stat. Go make some potions and craft some stuff or something. If this is your first playthrough, I do NOT recommend playing a pure mage. Combat wise you will find it to be very frustrating as you do not have remotely enough magic to kill most things.
    – Nelson
    Commented Jan 13, 2018 at 8:32
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The easiest way to level up your Illusion skill is the Courage spell (available from most court mages' stores). The Courage spell gives you xp when cast on any friendly target, even outside combat, so you can level up by casting it on every NPC you see. Do this every time you explore a town and you'll have 25 Illusion in no time.

You could also look for potions or items that fortify your Magicka, such as the hoods from mage robes. As long as you have enough magicka to cast the spell once, that will work.

Alternatively, if you still have a save from before you talked to Faralda, you could reload that. The spell she asks for is randomised when you first talk to her and three of them are cheap enough to cast even at level 1.

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You can become a mage as soon as you start. All you need is 617 gold.

Start the game by being a Altmer (High Elf) which grants you a bonus to your magicka levels (+5 in all skills except Illusion which is +10) which grants you bonus magicka to use. Equip the Novice Robes and Hood from the introduction.

Make your way to Whiterun selling all the armor and swords collected from "Unbound". You MUST have 617 gold to speed run this next section:

For 267 gold buy the Spell Book: Muffle.

For 304 gold buy the Spell Book: Fury.

Buy the carriage to Winterhold for 50 gold.

While you are walking cast Muffle (a total of 16 times) to receive your first 2 main levels. Upgrade the Novice and Apprentice Illusion traits to reduce the cost of "Muffle" by 50% (should cost 49-43 Magicka to cast now). You'll already have 25 illusion as you start the game with that.

With Muffle you can go from level 1-10 in about 15-20 minutes.

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