As soon as I see the notification, the invisible pressure holding me in place lessens, allowing me to move. But the message is still there.
WARNING!
You have attracted the attention of Magic. Thanks to the System, the opportunity to create your magical foundation was given to you. Cast a spell to base your magical journey upon.
You have 0:59:54.
And the second tick by. Uh, System? Some clarification would be really appreciated here right now!
But once again, no reply comes. Shit, you can’t just drop this bombshell on me and then go back to ignoring me. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!
Ok, no matter. Surely, I can manage whatever this is, right? In my panic, even my internal voice is tinged with anxiousness. Shit, this really isn’t good.
Okay Ra, just relax. You can do this. And you have a bunch of processing power to help you through it. So, let’s get to it, okay?
Magical foundation… what is that? Fuck, this is really out of the norm. And apparently, I wouldn’t even have the option no choose if it weren’t for the System. Actually, what happens when I don’t manage this withing the hour?
Upon failure, the System will no longer be able to hold off Magic, which will decide your foundation based on your prior accomplishments in magic.
And now you talk to me?! I really have to figure out how to get answers from the System.
And also, another shit. Are you kidding me! Magic, will decide it based on how much I already know of magic? Ignoring the fact that Magic has the same capitalization as System, I don’t know any magic! Are you telling me that if I fail the path to casting spells will be forever barred to me?
I cannot allow that to happen. Now that I know for sure that magic (or Magic?) exists, it is my best bet to get out of this world.
Fine then, let’s leave that for later, for now I have to cast a spell. Did I at least unlock the skills that I wanted?
System access blocked for 0:59:43.
Fuck, this can’t be happening to me!
Fine, I’ll figure this out on my own. A spell, I need a spell to cast. How about a classic, fireball?
Wait, no. The message said something about basic my magic path on this spell. Damn, this is really bad. What if that locks me out of any other type of spell? In the case of fireball into only fire related ones. I can’t allow that.
While slinging fireballs would be cool and all that, it wouldn’t help me escape, at least not directly. Maybe there is a super advanced spell that’d allow me to ‘burn’ a tunnel between two worlds, but I’d rather not take a risk in this scenario.
No, I’m going to have to cast something related to space or dimensions as my very first spell. Which is very difficult if my stories are to be believed, which they so far have been.
So, this is going to suck.
There’s no time to properly ponder anything, I’ll just have to trust that the authors on Earth somehow managed to connect to a cosmic truth and write it into their fictions.
And just as a safety measure, I’ll do as much as I can to improve my chances of this working. I won’t pick and choose between different techniques. Whether it be words of power or the manipulation of mana through hand signs, I’ll combine them all and see what sticks.
Right then, what spell? Something space related, preferably movement if my other spells are to be based around it.
Teleportation or blink as it’s often referred to? No, too dangerous. I’d rather be stuck here than dead due to a failed teleportation attempt.
No, a safer method of spatial travel is needed. Portals.
If they fail, at most an explosion will occur.
Okay, now how would a theoretical portal work? A classic wormhole or a folding of space? Ah, what the hell, might as well combine both. I do after all have parallel processing.
Good, next. While my language isn’t nearly finished and won’t have much power, if that is indeed how this works, I feel it’d still be better that simple English. Okay, let’s leave another part of my brain to figure out the words to describe my two ideas of spatial travel.
What’s next? Hand gestures. Or actually, I can lump this in with the martial arts style casting. In whatever way it works, I’ll need some movements that represent the portal I wish to create. Right limbs for wormhole and left for space folding. Or upper limbs and lower ones? Doesn’t matter, I’ll figure it out alongside the movements.
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Anything else? I have the image to keep in my mind, some words of (hopefully) power and gestures to represent the magic. Am I missing anything? Some magic ritual circles!
Ok, let’s hope that that will be enough. Now I only have to figure this out. God, I love parallel processing!
Sometime later, I check the timer.
WARNING!
You have attracted the attention of Magic. Thanks to the System, the opportunity to create your magical foundation was given to you. Cast a spell to base your magical journey upon.
You have 0:12:26.
Ok, twelve minutes left. I can do this.
By now I have more or less thought about every step, so I get to work.
Grabbing a larger stick from the nearby pile of future firewood, I start carving a circle into the ground around me. Inside of which I add another concentric one, maybe twenty centimetres difference in radius. In the small line created by the two circles I start scribbling words. I had to quickly come up with a sort of proto-script for my language. I hope that doesn’t bite me in the ass later.
Once completely surrounded by the writing, I move on to the inside of the ritual diagram. I fill it with mostly geometric designs, some lines here and there and I’m done.
Maybe if I had more time, I’d fill the groove I created with some special material, but alas.
Then, using visualization and parallel processing, I picture what I want to happen. While I know that my mental picture isn’t correct, it’s still useful to imagine spacetime as a grid with matter distorting it.
There, my mental image splits in two. In one, space starts distorting until it forms a deep enough hole, which I then connect to a different spot, creating a tunnel. A wormhole.
In the other, a fold appears in spacetime, causing to places to briefly connect.
Mental image in place, I move on to the last two steps. Which I’ll have to perform simultaneously. Luckily, I’m build for that.
Still in the centre of the magic circle I start to move my hands, and shortly after legs. Then, I start chanting the words I thought up just minutes prior. First quietly, then louder and louder.
Slowly, I also speed up the ‘martial art’ I’m performing, which should probably be called magic art or something like that. At this speed, it’s rather obvious that the arms are moving according to a different rhythm than the legs.
All the while I’m repeating these words. Keep in mind that this is a translation and my language barely has things like grammar. Most of that stuff I just came up with now.
“The time is now and now’s the time,
to show the world a different rhyme.
A different point in space and time,
I call thee here, to redefine.
A hole in space now opens here,
to make an object disappear.
But it’s not gone for long you see,
a tunnel forms for it to flee.
A map of space now folds in half,
transporting things on my behalf.
Two points so vastly far apart,
connected for once, now depart.”
Over and over, louder and louder. I must’ve spoken it hundreds of times, and yet nothing happens. I risk a glance at the timer, all the while not stopping my efforts.
WARNING!
You have attracted the attention of Magic. Thanks to the System, the opportunity to create your magical foundation was given to you. Cast a spell to base your magical journey upon.
You have 0:01:13.
Fuck.
Okay, one last push. If this doesn’t work then I can truly say that I tried my best.
I flex my mind and put everything I have into pushing my desire into reality. Similarly, to when I attempted to threaten the System with turning it off, I feel like I actually brush upon something with my mind.
So, I push harder. With all the might of my superhuman mind, with all the skills that I’ve accrued in my short time here, I push. And something gives.
The slight progress invigorates me, causing me to bulldoze ahead. Slowly, whatever is obstructing me gives more and more ground. I get farther and farther until suddenly…
Time left 10 seconds.
With the threat of failure right in front of me, I give one final, mighty push, and manage to break past whatever barred me the way.
A couple metres in front of me, something shifts. But it’s no portal.
The faint misty feeling that accompanied me all this time shifts into the spot and does… something. But no portal appears.
What does happen is that I feel a fain pull towards that spot. Which slowly becomes stronger. So strong in fact, that it causes some of the sticks and pots I have lying nearby to move in its direction. And me. The pull becomes too strong and interrupts my strange, hopefully magical, dance.
And it stops getting stronger.
In fact, it only lasts a couple more seconds before it completely disappears as if it was never there. But the mist, which I’m still feeling and not seeing, remains.
And after a couple more seconds, it shifts in my direction. It rushes at me at speed I can barely comprehend.
I don’t even manage to put up my hands in defence before it’s upon me. But the crash I expected doesn’t come. In fact, at first nothing happens. So, I try my status but…
System access blocked for 0:00:00.
Huh? The timer’s run out but I still don’t have access?
I sit down, a little sweaty from the stressful ritual I just completed. Sitting there, staring into the fire, I wait. Minutes pass.
Should I have gone for fireball after all? Maybe the System was only talking about a foundation as in spell that would be easier for me to cast, not that I’d bar me the other stuff completely. Then I’d only need to get the spell accepted as a skill and until its level is high enough.
I really hope I haven’t made a mistake. Seriously Ra, a portal spell as your first one? You should have known that this was going to happen.
A couple more minutes pass.
Then, unprompted by anything, I feel something shift deep inside the core of my being. And also unprompted, a System screen pops out.
Congratulations Ra!
You have taken your first step in your path into the greater universal mysteries. Your foundational spell is: Distort Spacetime!
As you’ve completed this feat under unfavourable conditions and with multiple amplifiers, it’ll progress faster! Discover the Truths and continue on you path to power!
A new section has been added to your status sheet.
Ha. Hahah. Hahahahahahahahaha!
This is complete bullshit!
No matter, I’ll deal with that later. This is a truly great feat. Something to be remembered for eternities to come! Something that needs to be set in stone. And at the same time, I’ve become so much more.
It is therefore high time for me to no longer be simply know as Ra. I have outgrown the simplicity of that name. Magic needs to be added.
As such, from this day forth, until I become more, I shall be known as Ra’mon.