Right, so some kind of nutrition skill. But how do I even get that? It’s not like I can perform the action of digesting something. That all happens automatically. Which obviously doesn’t count for the System. After all, so far, I haven’t seen such a skill offered and I had a meal by now. Multiple times actually.

Maybe that’s a plan to put on the backburner for now.

Which is as good a time as any to stop for today, as it’s getting dark again. I lay down to sleep, which is when I realize that perhaps another crafting project is at hand. I certainly wouldn’t mind having something to sleep on that at least resembles a bed.

I wake up refreshed and ready to start the day. And the fresh morning air also brings a fresh bout of inspiration. Since I can do magic now, although the System refuses to acknowledge my spells, perhaps I could cast something to make my bark spaghetti taste better! It certainly wouldn’t hurt to try.

Now then, how should I go about this? My quick test yesterday with the fireball clearly demonstrated that what I want to happen isn’t necessarily what will happen. Actually, even my first spell showed that.

And I really don’t want to make the food worse because the spell didn’t have enough oomph behind it. So, I’d better prepare this properly.

While I gather some more bark and set water to boil, another part of my mind is diligently working on the amplifiers that I’m going to use. I have no idea how they work, but why mess with something when it works?

By the time the water is boiling I have a smaller ritual circle drawn around the bonfire, along with a prepared incantation and mental image.

I put the pasta bark inside and start chanting. This time, the phrase I’ve decided upon is much shorter, so I have to repeat myself much more often. I sound like a broken gramophone.

And so, I wait, keeping the image of a delicious plate of spaghetti in my mind, along with its wonderful taste and smell.

It doesn’t take long for the strange sensation that I’m beginning to associate with magic to appear again. Once again, it’s weaker than when it appeared during my first spell and actually even weaker than when I tried to cast a fireball, but at the same time there’s a certain depth to it. Strange.

I continue with this strange ceremony of mine for the whole time that the food is cooking, never pausing for even a second. And then, the misty feeling of magic stops flowing from me into the pot. I continue for a little while longer, but when it’s obvious that nothing more will happen, I stop too.

I don’t feel the distinct feel of exhausting my mana. Why did the spell stop then? Maybe it can’t augment the tasty anymore? Or is the food done? If that’s the case it would sure be handy to perfectly cook every time.

Deciding to risk it, I carefully take the pot away from the fire, letting it cool down. And then, the taste test is upon me.

A sense of trepidation presses down on me. Which is stupid. I’ve faced worse before. This has nothing on the existential events I have survived up till now.

And so, I take a bite. Flavour explodes in my mouth. Damn, this may very well be the best pasta I have ever eaten! Wow, so tasty! And no, this time there’s no sarcasm. It’s genuinely good.

Sure, the fact that I went hungry for a couple days followed by a week of bland food certainly hadn’t kept my tastebuds to a high standard, but still. I will not hate living here now thanks to this! Magic is truly miraculous.

A quick check of the System sours my mood though. Still no magic skills or spells on offer. This confirms it, the System is biased against magic. Maybe I’d understand restricting combat magic, but culinary magic? Why would you take such a joy away from the world!

Though there is the cooking skill. Maybe that would allow me to get better at these kinds of spells? Ah, but that probably just works similarly like using rituals and the magic movements, or speaking magical languages…

Languages! That’s why I wasn’t offered any skill like incantation! Whatever the System uses to level skills probably went into my languages skill. That makes much more sense. And imagination one likely got subsumed by visualization. God, it’s so obvious in hindsight!

Good, so. If I don’t want to use more skills to get better at amplifying techniques, I need to find a way to fit them into skills I already have.

Qigong. Well, I really only have one other physical skill and that one doesn’t look like a great fit. Except that maybe if I design the movement around being quiet and combine that with a higher level in the skill… maybe that’d work? Sure, another side-goal to work towards.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

And then there was the ritual one. I think it’s called ritualization or something. That also doesn’t have a perfect match in my current repertoire. Maybe I could do something similar to silent step, but with improvised implements, but somehow that feels just, meh. And besides, I’m not completely against the idea of taking that one eventually.

Right then, breakfast done! It’s time to make a proper sleeping spot for myself. Another thing that this magic thing will come in handy, I’m sure.

I gather some straighter pieces of wood and a bunch of leaves. I even manage to find a patch of nice bushy moss. That should be enough to make a comfy makeshift bed. And now for the magic to happen. Literally.

While I was gathering all that I hadn’t left the rest of my mind to just idly sit by and watch. No, I set it on a very important task. To create another magic ceremony, complete with movement and all, to make the actual crafting process easier on me. If not actually completely taking the burden off my shoulders.

I set the stick next to each other so that they form a rectangle. Almost looks like a raft. Interspersed in the gaps are leaves which soon also form a thin layer on top of this wooden base. And atop all of that is the piece of soft moss.

While I’m sure that this could be considered done, and certainly would be better than sleeping on the ground, I’m not done yet. Now it’s truly time for the magic.

Drawing a circle of considerable size around the soon to be bed, I create the foundation for the upcoming ritual. A couple minutes later, it’s full of crisscrossing patterns and I’m ready for the active part.

I start to move around the ritual circle in a circle. I suppose that I’d almost look like I’m dancing. Except that I take great care to make as little sound as possible. I think I feel my silent steps activate, but I’m not sure.

Then, I start chanting. Not the short incantation as I did this morning, but a proper standard-length chant. Which is what I decided the length of my first chant is.

Soon, magic starts pouring out of me into the improvised construction. Unlike all the other times that I tried to cast spells; it actually resembles my first casting.

Not in its intensity, not at all. It’s nowhere near that strength. But unlike the other times, the mist is only a small stream at first and slowly ramps up. Hopefully that’s a good sign.

Still focusing on the casting, I take a peek at what the magic is actually doing.

At first, nothing much. Once the stream of mist-like sensations becomes a river though, I notice that it wasn’t nothing at all. The moss that I had collected, which I presumed killed it, starts growing over the top of my bed, slowly covering the entire surface.

At the same time, the mixture of branches and leaves beneath it is shifting. It almost looks like they are merging together, forming a homogenous mass with less bumps to poke me in the back when I sleep.

Excitedly, I watch on, thrilled to see what happens next. But I never get to see it.

A coldness sweeps through my being and I fall to the ground suddenly very tired. Damn mana exhaustion!

It’s even worse this time. I’m not just tired, but also cold. So very cold. Have I made a mistake somewhere? Is running out of mana repeatedly worse? Ah, but perhaps it has something to do with the aborted ritual. That also couldn’t have been good thing to do.

Though I wonder… would the magic-phobic System give me a skill to deal with this magical exhaustion? It isn’t technically magic, so there’s a possibility.

After a little while I regain enough strength to drag myself to my new and improved bed. Ah, that’s better. Much better than recovering on the ground. Might as well check my skills while I recover, that’ll cheer me up in no time, I’m sure.

Level Up!

Silent step – level 31 -> 32

Fortified mind – level 37 -> 39

Languages – level 15 -> 18

General knowledge – level 27 -> 30

Visualize – level 34 -> 35

Parallel processing – level 37 -> 40

Improvised implements – level 22 -> 24

See, I knew that’d be better. Though no meditation levels. Better fix that. And who knows, it may even speed up my recovery. After all, both are magic related.

Sinking deep into meditation, I find myself once again surrounded by only my thoughts. Except that no breeze arrives to whisk me away. I wonder why that is?

Either way, I decide that I might as well do something with my time here. And if the magic won’t come to me, I’ll come to it. Mostly I just want to find a way to tell how much many more spells I have in me before succumbing to the exhaustion.

I search and I search, but don’t find anything. Maybe the faintest of feelings, though I may very well have been imagining that.

And perhaps it is thanks to the meditation, or the meditation made time pass by much quicker, but I’m soon up and running, no trace of my earlier mishap left.

More magic training? Yes, more magic it is.

But I won’t be experimenting with freeform casting today anymore. It’s become clear to me that it isn’t just slower, needing many amplifiers to reach acceptable levels of power, but it’s also more dangerous in terms of mana usage. I feel like I could cancel the distortion spell at any moment, but these rituals seem completely uncompromising.

So, distort space it is. Or rather, distort spacetime, but that’s such a mouthful.

Activating the spell, the distortion appears. And I already see a difference to other spells. Well, other than the fact that I don’t need the supplemental techniques when using it. Whenever I cast is, I feel… something, shift deep inside me. Maybe it’s my soul or maybe something else, but perhaps if I learn to replicate it, I’ll be able to add other spells to my status. Maybe even level them.

Anyway, that done with I get back to spell testing. While the base effect is cool and all, I fail to find a situation where it’d be useful. So, enter experiment number one.

Can I move it? If I can, it’d provide me a sort of unwieldy form of telekinesis. Which is one of the better powers out there. Sure, it would also attract other objects than the one I want to move, but I’m sure there are some workarounds to that.

Casting the spell again, I try to shift its position to the right a bit. And nothing happens. Okay, maybe visualizing it will help? After I have the picture embedded in my mind, the small collection of items that made it to the centre of the distortion make a small move to the right.

Yes, success! Now I only need to master it so as to do it without the aid of visualization.