Chương 66: Playing with Water

Enzo flipped to a new page in his spellbook and got started. At the top, he wrote down the problem. For the Guide to codify a spell, the spell form requires some ratio of mana or concepts, perhaps even intent-based encapsulation, between a mage's natural affinities and mana types from another source, such as a battery. He reread it a few times. Everything they were doing with mana was experimental to them, and it was becoming increasingly important that they clearly define what they understood.

Over time, and looking critically at all the spells they'd created so far, it was obvious they were barely scratching the surface of what magic they could perform. In his case, Sumi was right. He leaned hard into arcane mana. On 'punching' his magic into a solution. Her own original spells, Bolster and Heal, relied on what the human body already did. She simply accelerated those functions. Signe's original spells were really just explosions of light and sound.

Mary's Armament spell was perhaps the most advanced bit of magic any of them had, but even that was still largely just an application of force, bound to the mage's flesh and intent.

"Hm." Mind mana. That was one type that he really wanted to figure out how to access. Flesh… maybe later. But the issue was figuring out what material mind mana would bind to for storage. Elemental being linked to color was a type of symbolic or abstract connection that, while it wasn't exactly scientific, at least made some sense. Body to blood also wasn't difficult to understand, even if it seemed a little arbitrary to his thinking. But he had no idea what medium might suit something like mind.

Which left him with what he already had for the time being. He split them into two columns. Natural: Arcane. Crystal. Metal. Light. Battery: Fire. Water. Wind. Earth. Body. Life. Then he ran the pen through body and life, crossing them out. Their nature was more abstract than the others, and while he would eventually begin experimenting with them, the goal right now was specific. Combat. First was fire as an addition to Bolt.

A ranged attack that delivers its force-impact, followed by an explosion of fire on the back of it. The standalone design he'd first attempted with pure fire mana hadn't worked, but adding the fire as a payload should. He sketched the original Bolt design. Arcane threads for the circular base and the parts that turned it into a projectile. Then he added two fire threads to the inside of the circle, creating a flat cross, and finally a third connecting the center of that cross to the tip of the projectile.

Three and three. Arcane for the containment and delivery, all force. Then, when the spell shattered on impact, fire would be unleashed. He studied it for a moment. Intuition said it would work as a spell form, but the question was whether or not the Guide would codify it. The design could be trimmed. It didn't need three fire threads. But he wanted to know if equal parts natural affinity mana with battery mana would codify. It would help him understand the limits.

Enzo reached into one of his pockets and pulled out the Superior Fire Mana Battery. If the glow was anything to go by, it wasn't completely charged even after sixteen or so hours. He turned it over in his hands, checking the crystal welded wiring. Admiring his work. It was a good start, but the next step was probably more important. Figuring out how to have permanent access to his various batteries, rather than needing to grab them by hand every time he needed typed mana. Enzo glanced at his cane.

"I wonder…" He rarely went far without the cane. The difficulty would be in creating a new one with mixed materials where he could also make contact with each battery component. Something for later. He reached into the fire battery and began drawing the mana into his mind reservoir. As always, the process was slow, but this time it was even harder. There might be a better way, but the method for drawing mana out of the battery required pulling on what was already leaking, which just seemed inefficient.

Perhaps that was the next improvement. Some sort of release valve that made drawing the mana out less of a battle that relied on the imperfections of his creation. Imperfections which he'd unthinkingly polished out of the design through Infusion and a better enchantment cage. A few minutes later, he slipped the fire battery back into a pocket and got to work. Arcane first. Quick and cooperative, each purple thread locked into place within a few seconds of the last.

Concepts layered, with the base functioning as containment, and the other two providing the vector that made it shoot. Then came fire, the threads igniting the moment they made contact with the air, fighting against his control. Each one took longer than the three arcane threads combined. Enzo added the concepts with each mana thread. Compression. Explosion. Then he hesitated. He hadn't really planned out each fire thread's purpose. The first two came to mind naturally. Stuff more fire into it.

Explode when the arcane construct failed. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. And… He released the last fire thread, letting the mana return to arcane and dissipate. Then he reached into another pocket and pulled out the citrine battery. Wind mana. Drawing from the battery while holding the partially completed spell construct together was a challenge.

Fixing the mana threads into place, while reciting the concepts in his mind, took considerable focus. But he'd worked on far more complex spells. Once he'd drawn enough for a single thread, he threaded wind and slotted it into the form as the final component, linking it between fire and arcane. Motion. Take the fire when the spell detonates and direct it entirely toward the target. Enzo examined the completed spell form, hanging in the air. Semi-transparent threads of purple shimmered in place.

Strands of fire flickered, wisps reaching for the other mana types. And one thread he couldn't even see without Mana Sense, though he knew it was there. He released the construct, but without triggering the spell. He didn't want to set the forest on fire. The form collapsed in on itself and flashed out of existence without activating. Then a notification pinged at the corner of his awareness. He pulled it up.

— Spell Updated: Bolt (Level 14) Type: Arcane, Fire, Wind Modifiers: Power-, Piercing-, Charged-, Fire- Description: Projects concentrated mana as a damaging projectile. Modifiers may incorporate secondary effects on impact. — Bolt was the third spell he'd created, and the description hadn't changed even after adding the first set of modifiers at level 10. In a way, it made sense. The changes improved on the original function, but it remained a damaging projectile.

Of course, the real question was whether he could combine the fire and power modifiers. The spell forms were considerably different, so at first it seemed unlikely. But the Guide had kept his original Bolt design, allowing him to invoke it even after updating it. He'd have to test it later, when he wasn't surrounded by flammable forest. And now that he knew the Guide would codify a spell equal parts signature mana and battery mana, it was time to test the limits. The idea he had in mind was simple.

Probably even useless. But he didn't even need to sketch it, because the design was nothing more than a few modifications on the shower enchantment. Enzo drew a single arcane thread, shaped it into a circle, and locked it in place. He added the concept of containment. Geometric Replication instantly produced a second circular thread, rotated horizontally. This one carried the concept of release. He pulled the large blue topaz from another pocket, then drew on the mana within, adding it to his reservoir.

A minute later, he added three threads of water to the new spell form. Compress. Explode. Rain. There was a second experiment hidden in the simple spell. Compressing water was no easy task, but before the spell was cast, it was just mana. Not actually water. If it worked, there might be some interesting options for future spells. He released the form without casting. The spell collapsed in on itself, successful. Another notification pinged.

— Spell Codified: Water Bomb (Level 1) Type: Arcane, Water Description: Conjures an orb of compressed water that explodes, raining water down on the area before vanishing. — Two and three. That meant at least sixty percent of a spell form could be mana without his signature, though it didn't prove that it was purely an issue with the ratio. Enzo stretched out his hand, index and middle finger pointing into the air, away from himself.

"Water Bomb." A blue and purple point appeared seventeen meters away, rapidly ballooned in size, then exploded, showering water onto the clearing. He watched it rain until the spell ran its course. Studying the blue topaz in his hand, he continued drawing mana. Natural blue topaz was extremely rare. Most blue topaz was actually colorless, treated with irradiation and heat. Including the one in his hand. But the water mana didn't seem to care that it wasn't natural. Only that it was blue.

Enzo shook his head and began the final test. He wove three long water threads together in a spiral, pointing away from him. Then he took a single thread of arcane and wrapped it around the base. The goal was a geyser of water, erupting from his palm. Nothing fancy. Simple spells like this were becoming almost routine. He considered the concepts he wanted for a moment. The arcane thread was simple. Force. Propulsion, to be precise. Compression had worked for Water Bomb, so that earned a place.

Enzo layered both concepts over the appropriate threads. Then, mostly out of curiosity, he added compression to the other two water threads. He let the spell form go, once again not immediately unleashing it. Nothing happened. No notification pinged. Enzo nodded to himself, then carefully rebuilt the spell form, aiming it at the far end of the clearing as he did. When it was complete, he fired the spell. Water erupted from the air in front of him with a sudden roar.

It sprayed across the clearing hard, flattening grass and flowers and a distant fern, tearing branches and leaves from trees. Then it stopped. Enzo blinked. That had not quite gone as he intended. The ground leading up the slope had been partially dug up by the water, clumps of dirt sent in every direction. It was an odd sight. Part of his mind expected to see the ground soaked through, water dripping from leaves, running back down the clearing. But the water had vanished with the mana.

Enzo grabbed his spellbook and added a note. For the Guide to codify a spell, it required that the spell form be composed of somewhere between twenty-five and forty percent of a mage's natural mana types. Then he added another one. Manually casting the spell still worked. He underlined it. It still took far too long to manually thread a spell for it to be viable in combat, but he could now form and cast the basic Bolt spell in roughly nine seconds.

That was a huge improvement over what had originally taken more than half a minute. Whatever the Guide was doing by tracking levels and helping a mage keep track of spell variations was valuable, he couldn't deny that. It had kept him and many others alive. But manual casting would be an essential skill one day. He was certain of it. Enzo glanced up at the sun. He really needed to get back home and find out what the scouts had discovered, but he could spare another couple of hours at least.

He began sketching the next set of spells he wanted to create.