As the days passed, Wynn became more accustomed to her new life. She would wake up, wash dishes, train, and go to bed. Gerdo would check up on her every few days, but mostly she trained by herself. Wynn would read books on mana usage, spellbooks, lore, and whatever else Gerdo thought she should learn. While reading, she would [Levitate] the book instead of holding it, and she soon found she no longer needed to concentrate as hard on maintaining the spell.
One of her favourite books was one on the origin of spells. In it, there was a diagram of ‘the spell tree’, almost like a family tree but spells. At the top was purely pouring out mana in no structure, then it slowly worked down, splitting into new spells as they were altered. Wynn examined the diagram for nearly an hour, looking at groups of spells she never new existed. She even discovered that [Disinfect] was actually an alteration of [Levitate]. Wynn figured that [Disinfect] was probably lifting up all the dirt and bugs, but they still seemed like entirely different spells!
Another thing Wynn found was that it was getting easier and easier to case [Disinfect]. After casting [Disinfect] on literally every dish in the inn, she could now keep her eyes open while casting, and didn’t even have to think so hard on the object - she could probably keep up a conversation with someone while doing it, but she didn’t really know any of the staff except for Gerdo.
She knew a few by name, such as Maia, a gentle cleaner in her thirties, or Greta, an older woman who would shout at the other cooks, but not well enough that she’d ever actually talked to them. Wynn mostly kept to herself, casting [Disinfect] and observing.
With Gerdo’s help, Wynn had also learned to pull up descriptions of the spells she’d learned. Gerdo claimed that she would be able to do the same thing to get her statistic sheet, once she’d earned a class. Wynn pulled up all the spells she knew, examining their descriptions yet again.
Levitate
Level: 0
Description: Allows an object to float in the air for as long as the caster continues the spell.
Disinfect
Level: 0
Description: Lifts dirt and other undesired material off a particular object, cleaning it.
Glow
Level: 0
Description: Pours mana into a small area, creating an ‘orb’ that lights up the caster’s surroundings. At higher levels, the orb can be shaped or coloured.
Separate
Level: 0
Description: Separates a particular item from a pile of others, as long as the caster has a clear image of what this item is and a vague idea of where it is.
Wynn was particularly bad at the third spell. Gerdo claimed it was ‘excellent for a beginner’, however Wynn had doubts. For one thing, the orb was nearly invisible in anything but a very dark room, and had to be right next to something for it to be seen clearly. This was a challenge as Wynn didn’t know how to move the orb around, but she was learning. Wynn’s orb, even in a dark room, didn’t look particularly impressive either. It mostly looked like a blobby mass, completely different to Gerdo’s bright, perfectly spherical orb. Gerdo had said that she needed to be able to cast this spell, as it was the spell taught to every young [Mage], both because of it’s usefulness and it could be altered in almost nearly any way imaginable, providing the caster something to practise on that wasn’t expensive.
Wynn sighed and stretched out on her bed, realising that she couldn’t remember anything on the last page of the book floating above her. She let it down, grabbing it and putting it on the growing pile of books next to her bed. How Gerdo got them all, she didn’t know.
Deciding to give up on reading for a while, Wynn picked up her alarm clock and began to examine it. Her project that she’d given to herself turned out to be much harder than she’d thought, but she didn’t want to ask Gerdo for help - he would just laugh at her anyway. Wynn had challenged herself to get rid of the [Levitate] spell on her alarm clock, and replace it with [Glow]. Wynn had broken it down for herself, and then realised the difficulty of the task.
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First, she would have to figure out how to take it apart without breaking it, then find the part that made her sheets fly up. Then she would have to learn to disable it, then cast a new spell that would make it glow - not just once, but at the same time each day, before stopping. Finally, Wynn would have to put it all together without breaking anything.
Wynn could do none of the above.
After examining it for several minutes, Wynn deduced that it was not made out of several parts that she would have to take apart. It was one simple cube that had some more complicated spells on it. Closing her eyes, Wynn channeled her mana and let it flow along her pathways. Gerdo had corrected her on this, showing her to let the mana flow rather than pushing it along. Pushing the mana would likely disrupt her pathways after a few years.
Wynn let the mana flow out of her hands, making it spread out into a little cloud. She moved the cloud around the alarm clock, which let her see the spells on it - the mana in the other spells would interact with her own, providing Wynn with information that she wouldn’t have otherwise known. She wasn’t very good at sensing spells yet, but she could see that there were three main functions. The first one was the voice, responding to voices and responding. That one consisted of several spells, which were completely unfamiliar to Wynn. The second one was some kind of nullify spell, which Wynn guessed turned the spell off when it wasn’t in action. And the third was [Levitate].
Wynn sighed and let her mana diffuse into the air. Sensing spells used a lot of mana. She wouldn’t be able to use her mana until the lunch shift - she needed it for [Disinfecting] the dishes. Wynn decided she couldn’t be bothered doing anything now, so she went downstairs and left the inn. Wynn decided to explore the town a bit, since she hadn’t gotten to know all of the shops yet, although she knew the main ones.
Shivering, Wynn decided to look for a jumper or something warm. It would only get colder, and all of her jumpers were back at the farm. Jumpers were relatively cheap this time of year, and it wouldn’t take much out of her savings.
After a little wandering, Wynn finally managed to find a decent shop. The previous one was full of overpriced clothes, with the shopkeeper, a little man with a thick accent, trying to talk to her about fashion and style, which went right over Wynn’s head.
Racks of clothes filled the cheaper shop, most of which were made out of wool or linen. Perfect for Wynn’s needs. After browsing through the clothes, she managed to find a thick woolen jumper, dyed a light blue, which the shopkeeper claimed went perfectly with Wynn’s long reddish-brown hair. She purchased the jumper anyway, despite rolling her eyes at the shopkeeper’s obvious lie. Her ‘long reddish-brown hair’ desperately needed a cut, and was messy and knotted, no matter how much time Wynn spend combing it every night. If Wynn had it her way, she would instantly trade it for darker and shorter hair.
Pleased with her purchase, Wynn made her way back to the Silver Bell, wearing her new jumper. It did its job well; Wynn wasn’t cold, despite shivering on the way there. Wynn did her normal rinse, [Disinfect], stack, pleased to see the pile of dirty dishes was getting shorter. Her constant spellcasting seemed to be paying off. It had been a good day so far. Finishing off the pile, Wynn began to leave, but found herself subject to Greta’s yelling.
”You there! Win! It is Win, right?” Wynn began to tell her no, it’s Wynn, but the old woman carried on without waiting. “You don’t leave before anyone else! What can you do? Chop those carrots, that’s what! Then you finish that broth!”
Grumbling, Wynn went over to the massive pile of vegetables in the corner. She recognised the way the tops of the carrots were cut off; her father cut the tops as close to the ends as possible, to get more produce to the inn. Fortunately, Wynn could cook quite well for someone her age, as she would prepare the meals when her parents were busy on the farm. She quickly cut them into neat slices, before depositing them in the massive pot of broth bubbling away close by. Once the broth was finished, she quietly slipped away, giving Greta a dirty look.
That woman annoyed her.