Day 9

--- Jon ---

Today his ma decided to take it easy on training, -by Whitaker standards at least- and so both he and his ma found themselves in the forest just outside of town, playing hide and seek. Extreme hide and seek.

Which is why he found himself holding his breath, as he hid sixteen feet in the air on a tree branch, watching as his ma passed underneath him. A jaunty little tune whistling through the air, as his ma decided to add psych warfare to what was originally a children’s game.

“I know you’re here kiddo.” His mother called. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

(Nope.) Hiding from her was bad enough but having her purposefully jump scare him before disappearing back into the foliage was significantly worse than when he simply had to hide himself.

At least then he had some semblance of control for their game, which is why even though he knew he’d lose and have to play seeker, he was more concerned with making sure his mother spent as little time as possible as the ‘hider.’

Something shifted next to him, and slowly looked over to find his ma sitting on the branch next to him.

“Boo.”

“Wah!”

“Looks like you’re it, Jon.” His ma called, as he laid in the bush that had broken his fall.

“Ouchies…”

Scene Consequences

-Thanks to Ma Whitaker gained 1XP to Awareness and Stealth.

--Currently: Awareness Lv. 8 (4/18) and Stealth Lv. 6 (3/14)

---

(Okay, so this is just like enchanting, just a… different language.) He told himself, as he continued to draw out the various geometric shapes that made up the spell script he was working on.

Both spell-crafts revolved around creating spell circuits -the ‘professional’ term for a magic circle- filled with a number of complex and overlapping geometric shapes and symbols that possessed an odd mix of mathematical and conceptual meanings. The majority of which were admittedly lost on him at his current level, beyond the simple fact that they worked as intended.

The paper he was on sparked, before incinerating as he tested with magic.

(Well, it’ll work eventually…) He thought with a sigh as he got to work on his fifth attempt at cracking this spell script.

From what he could piece together, the fact that the page was incinerating was proof that the spell was activating, but beyond that there wasn’t really anything telling him what the script was doing.

“Okay, so I know I’ve infused the script with ‘Defender’ meaning whatever it’s doing has to be something defensive… but what?” He knew the script was supposed to be stronger than his enchantments, in exchange for only lasting a few minutes, but that didn’t mean he knew what that meant.

“Alright, let’s take a step back.” He told himself, taking a deep breath. “What do I know about the Defender concept?”

(It defends, and when I enchant something with it, it reduces the amount of damage that object takes… So, if it’s doing that times ten then…)

He looked at the script sitting on his desk before looking at the desk itself.

Tilting his head to one side and then the other, he eventually pulled it out before giving it a considering look. “Well, if worse comes to worst, I’m sure I can bribe Pix into fixing my desk.”

With that thought in mind, he once more activated the script, this time directing the effect into the desk rather than himself. Once the script turned itself to ash, he shifted the grip on his knife before stabbing it into the desk, or rather trying to stab it.

“Yes!” He cheered as he stood in success.

Pix looked up from where she was playing with Brutus, before giving him a curious trill.

“I finally cracked the Defender Script I was working on.” He explained, tossing his knife into the air before catching it as he stabbed his desk.

(Wait what?)

His eyes widened in panic as he realized he drove his knife a good inch into his desk.

What’s worse, he could just feel Pix’s unimpressed gaze burning into his back.

“Um, that wasn’t supposed to happen…”

Scene Consequences

-Unlocked Shield-Script: When script is used for the next (Script-craft + Occult Rank) minutes, the next hit taken by the target is nullified. (Note: This spell can be overwhelmed if damage is greater than (Script-craft + Occult Level) or if multiple hits are taken at once.)

A/N: The first time we try a script we’ll get the recipe, if we craft that recipe we’ll get a number of Script Pieces equal to our current Script Craft Level. (This excludes assist bonuses.)

-Prove Your Magic: Script Craft ranked F+.

---

Seeing as he was already dabbling with his spell ink, he decided to try and knock out another one of his skills for the test Ms. Delacroix had given him, by practicing his enchanting.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Namely by practicing it on the very object testing him.

(Okay, so since the object is already enchanted let’s try infusing something easy like… Moonlight.) Even if this backfired horrifically -as enchanting already enchanted objects tended to- moonlight itself was relatively harmless. The concept needing to be refined into something else to do any real damage, let alone something Pix couldn’t heal in under a minute.

That said, despite knowing there was a certain… risk to enchanting an already enchanted object, he felt it was worth it due to the fact that the arcane ring had scored his contracting skill so high.

Now normally this wouldn’t mean much, but given how he’d only been contracting for, well, the one time. He felt scoring that high was an oddity of sorts, unless the ring was taking into account the fact that he hadn’t exactly done things by the book, and instead had experimented with his own method.

Which given what he knew about Arcane culture’s learning-based meritocracy, fit dangerously well. And while it was dangerous enough to concern him about Arcane culture in general, it was also something he felt he could exploit to his advantage.

Because like his ma always said, (‘The world ‘s already stacked against you, so there’s no harm in stacking your own deck when you can.’ As long as it doesn’t hurt anyone anyway.)

He liked to think his ma just forgot to tell him that last bit.

(She didn’t.)

He shook his head, as he drew the final line of his spell circuit, before placing the Arcane Ring in the middle of the intricately drawn magic circle.

“Alright, well let’s see if this works…”

Placing his hand to either side of the circle, he began to pull on the magic stored in his amulet and push it into the circuit.

Just as it did with the contract he’d established between him and Pix, blue lightning began to dance and spiral along the lines drawn into the paper, the magic visibly gaining power as it gathered and processed the information he’d given it, and charging the air with a supernatural force he could just feel.

Once the lightning had traced the circuit several times over it followed several lines inward, before wrapping around the empty circle he’d drawn around the Arcane ring and forming a crackling ring that grew ever smaller as his magic saturated the ring, until-

A blast of pale light flared out from the circle as a wave of something threw him back, sending him crashing into the mattress he’d flipped off his bed just in case this happened.

“Ow…” He groaned, from the floor. “Should’ve known the ring was filled with as much magic as it can handle.”

It was something he’d only experience once or twice, -and only because Miss Edna thought it’d be a good lesson for him- but a magical backlash was never fun. While there were a number of ways to trigger the phenomenon, the one he was familiar with was when one tried to force more magic into an enchanted object than it could naturally handle.

Something that would typically deep fry the object in question if Miss Edna hadn’t also made sure he understood how to redirect said backlash, just in case the object in question was too valuable or unstable to risk exposing to an uncontrolled burst of magic.

Though while this meant the ring was perfectly fine at the expense of some extra magic, it meant absolutely nothing for his aching body, or the fact that Pix was poking him to make sure he hadn’t killed himself with his own stupidity.

Scene Consequences

-Skill Level is too low to accomplish this task.

--Backlash cost 5 MP to preserve ‘Basic Arcane Ring’.

--Object remains unenchanted. (Or just as enchanted as the case may be.)

-Prove Your Magic: Enchanting judged at Rank F+.

--Points lost for failing to enchant but gained for redirecting the backlash. (These bonus points will be retained should you retake this test.)

--Can try a different enchantment for a higher score.

---

Having failed his second experiment of the day, he decided to play it safe and try something that he’d actually developed a decent amount of experience for.

To this endeavor he gathered several of his stored materials and made his way towards the kitchen, with Pix following him curiously.

Given his familiarity with the kitchen, and the similarities between cooking and potion making, it didn’t take long for him to set up a basic brew comprised of a few magically infused plants, and healing herbs.

“Alright, now we have the hard part.” He told Pix, as he gripped his amulet with one hand. “Okay, so I need you to infuse some of your magic into the brew. Preferably the raw stuff, without any concepts infusing it.”

Pix nodded before circling the pot of bubbling brew, as he used his own magic to try and distill the two magics into the liquid.

The whole reason both of their magic was needed for this was, something about how multiple magics tended to blend in a manner similar to light or sound, meaning if you used more than one at a time you could get something closer to ‘pure’ magic rather than the fragment most people used. Or that was theory as he understood it anyway. (We’ll find out if I’m right, at the end of all of this.)

As they continued to apply a steady stream of magic to the pot, the liquid inside began to change color, slowly taking on a greenish blue color as it began to set.

After a minute without the potion turning any bluer, he decided it was as distilled as it was going to get and turned the burner off so that the potion could cool enough to bottle away.

The actual bottling process was relatively easy, given how it was mostly just bottling out the potions in the dozen or so reusable vials Miss Edna had given him back when he’d first started helping her with potions. That said, thanks to the fact that Miss Edna was making a living selling potions, she’d taught him a few tricks for making sure you bottled the exact amount necessary to trigger a potion.

No more, no less. Or rather, there were more doses, for far less work. As the three extra vials of green blue potion on the counter proved, in comparison to the five or six he would’ve gotten prior to Miss Edna’s teaching. (Because as kind as she was Miss Edna would strangle Washington until he called himself Benjamin.)

Shaking his head with a chuckle, he held up the ninth vial before nodding to himself.

“Alright, now if these work the way they’re supposed to, they should allow you to up your magic generation by a fair amount.” He told Pix handing the potions over, despite the fact that the potion vial was roughly equal to the size of the little fariy’s torso.

Pix gave the vial a considering look, before sticking a finger into it and giving it a taste test. One that left her with a very visible grimace of disgust.

“Yeah, I figured it wouldn’t taste all that good.” He admitted with a grimace of his own. “What’s worst is that since magic potions are more of a conceptual science than a physical one, you’re going to have to drink the entire thing if you want it to really take effect.”

Pix made a whimpering trill, before visibly steeling herself, and chugging the entire vial in a single go.

“Uh…” (Still not entirely sure how fairy stomachs can fit their own size in volume without expanding…) He wanted to say spatial magic, but he couldn’t really prove it.

As the little fairy drank the last of the vial, she let it fall from her hands before gasping as she fell on her back.

“You, uh, you do know you could’ve spread that out through the day instead of just chugging it, right?”

Pix’s response was another whimpering trill.

Scene Consequences

-Crafted (Potions Level * 1.5 =) 9 (E-Rank) Basic MP Regen Potions. (+ 2MP Regen for 3 Days)

-Pix Consumed 1 vial and will continue to do so every three days. (This has been added to Events.)

-Prove Your Magic:

--Potions Skill Judged at D-

---Potion Skill Rank is E+ but we get bonus points for making a potion that required a magical creature’s help.