After a month of headaches and somewhat cursed spells like ‘Consume move’ which somehow made whoever I’m touching at that time slower and me faster, ‘Consume corrupt’ which somehow took whatever kind of impurities were in an object and filled my body with it and ‘Infect consume’ which gave whoever it was cast on an impressive range of digestive issues, ‘Consume projectile’ and ‘Consume gather’ were the ones most suited for my goal.

The first disintegrated things thrown at me and filled my body with the nutrients and other things it had, something that almost killed me once I cast it on an arrow for research purposes.

‘Consume gather’ worked only in tandem with ‘Gather consume’ and seemed to be the absolute counter spell to it. It weakened the black hole effect and transferred any new mass into me, which made it basically as nutritious as Uranium, filling my stomach but destroying my body in the process.

One good thing that came of my research was the ‘Projectile gather’, which created a projectile that simply gathered whatever it came across.

My teacher had a lot of fun watching me do these experiments, from the way she shouted at me and cursed every other minute, sudden healing and a weird spell that made me sweat anything that didn’t belong in my body saving me at least twice a day.

When I asked her to help me with the effect, she asked me whether I was comfortable spending one of my tier one slots on a spell that made me do something I could do as soon as I got teeth.

Now, I hadn’t noticed any slot limits, and when I informed my teacher about that, she nearly got a heart attack.

“Your spell list must be a mess by now. At least organize it in tier zero and tier one spells, will you?”

Tier 0 spells

Arcana

Spell list

Notes

Necros

Purify (Decay infection)

Weakens or destroys debuff and illness.

Necros

Afflict (Infect decay)

Infuses a creature with insidious Necros, weakening their immune system and natural regeneration.

Spatium

Slow (Decay movement)

Decrease the target’s speed, as long as concentration is maintained.

Necros

Seizure (Infect movement)

Causes the targets external muscles to twitch uncontrollably,

Spatium

Clean (Move decay)

Expel substances of the decay category from the target

Necros

Spread (Move infection)

Force the target to release infected breath, creating a small area in which the rate of infection is increased.

Necros

Protect (Decay projectile)

Destroys a Projectile

Spatium

Evade (Move Projectile)

Moves a projectile in a random direction.

Necros

Eldritch lance (Projectile corruption)

Forms a dart sized construct of necrotic energy, prevents healing.

Spatium

Force projectile (Projectile move)

Forms a dart sized projectile that pushes the target away.

Null

Redraw (Gather projectile)

Pulls any projectile nearby into the hand used to channel the Spell.

Lumen

Disco (Corrupt bright)

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Chaotically change the coloration and brightness of something.

Lumen

Flare (Bright projectile)

Create a bright projectile without any effect.

Necros

Rad (Bright decay)

Causes radioactive light. Do not cast.

Necros

Sacrifice (Consume decay)

Consume another decay to return the body to a better condition.

Necros

Sip miasma (Consume infection)

Drains another creature of diseases.

Necros

Black hole (Gather consume)

Creates a spell structure that consumes everything, increasing it’s own mass indefinitely.

Necros

Speed steal (Consume move)

Increases the casters speed at the cost of a different creature.

Necros

Drain impurity (Consume corrupt)

Drains a material of impurities and funnels them into the caster.

Necros

Diarrhea (Infect consume)

Causes severe digestive issues in the target.

Necros

Thrown digestion (Consume projectile)

Consume a thrown object close to the caster.

Necros

Hyper consumption (Consume gather)

Consumes a highly concentrated target within close range.

Spatium

Collect (Projectile gather)

Throws a projectile that gathers loose objects in it’s way.

Tier 1 Spells 2/4

Necros

Fester (Infect corrupt decay) (1)

Create a curse that turns soft tissue into puss, before expelling it and spreading the curse further.

Lumen

Disco flare (Corrupt bright projectile) (1)

Create a burst of ever changing color.

That day, I gave up on my pursuit of food, and fell into a bit of a depressive phase for the remaining part of winter, getting better with the spells I already had, rather than constantly creating new ones.

The entire winter was spend learning when to cast which of my spells, throwing the occasional flare into peoples faces when they grow especially annoying.

It was the second week of Temparum that I finally woke up from my slow trodd.

Soon, would be the end of year festival, and though it had snowed since the third week of Geos, it took me a while to realize the implication. Hannibal had not waited a bit, playing in the snow every day, even as I cast my weirdest spells on stuff.

Only when I realized that the collect spell made for a great snowball did I start actually enjoying the winter.

No one worked during this time, and when I started throwing magical snowballs, most of the other kids quickly joined in on the fun, throwing stuff at me.

Voices became much clearer now, as my teacher informed me that my ears were close to complete, her magic working actively to counter my development stunting traits, which would have made me take twenty five weeks to this point, and a total of thirty years until my body would reach full maturity. Something I did not want in the slightest.

The snowball fights taught me a lot, though the others decided quickly which of my spells were unfair, which restricted me to only casting my collect spell, though that quickly became problematic once we realized what happened when the range was too big.

After about four seconds of traveling, the ball was made of ice, the fast spinning and constant gathering turning it into a projectile, though the one it hit simply went to sleep it off.

From then on, my days were filled with joy once more, my slowly growing baby fat keeping me warm, though I had little problems with the cold anyway.

It was a great winter once I got over my failure, and the other kids loved watching me cast flare.

Another thing I noticed during that season was the six second rule for all my tier zero spells.

Most only lasted six seconds, others became harder to focus on every six seconds, and black hole stayed in tier zero for exactly six seconds, when there was nothing hindering its expansion.

Two spells took me a little longer to apply the six second rule to.

Afflict and diarrhea both had a longer effect without me having to concentrate.

The answer to my question was found, as they always are, in Hannibal.

With the hag monitoring his body and displaying it before me and my personal connection to him, I watched in amazement as both spells took hold.

Afflict was easy once I observed it, basically hitting his body an only attacking the immune system, allowing other diseases to spread and further weaken the target.

Diarrhea worked the same, but indiscriminately slaughtered bacteria all along the digestive tract.

Both only worked for six seconds, but the effect would last much longer on anything that wasn’t a lab pig cultivator familiar.

Slowly though, the month of leisure came to an end, even as everyone moved slower to preserve energy, everyone among the children was excited for the end of year ceremony, families forbidding their children from leaving the house during the years last week, the nights growing longer until the last day, which was almost completely dark.

I heard steps on the outside, meditating and watching through Hannibal's eyes, who saw some of the creepiest monsters ever.

My parents and I hid under a blanket, even as I felt the darkness outside resonate with the one inside.

Then, the system counted down to 0, and all of a sudden every light in the village was lit at once.

Overwhelming radiance descended from the skies and purged everything on the outside, even burning me to some degree as I the lichs memories informed me of the ritual.

It was a greater cleansing, and from the power of it, probably the worldwide version.

The cathedral resounded with the priests calls, and everyone joined in.

It probably felt liberating to everyone else, but my body was almost torn apart during it, only a lot of breathing techniques and going into a fetal position allowed me to survive, my body probably rotten when it was over, though my parents were too focused on the ritual to notice me eating some of the side dishes they had prepared, my body once again looking like before by the time they opened their eyes, the urge to keep up the act of a normal baby just enough to not shrink back from anything.

I hated feeling powerless, especially as those beasts on the outside would probably have been a great thing for me to experiment on.

As we ate, my parents simply smiled at me, my thrown consumption skill allowing me to eat despite my toothless mouth.

The new year was upon us, and it started with a nightmare I would remember for years to come.