When I woke up the next day I was pleased to see that I could, well, see. I must have gained a resistance level or the headache went away on it's own while I slept, either way it was fixed. I tried to sit up but quickly realized Victoria was laying on top of me and was still asleep, since we did stuff last night at least I didn't have a morning poking problem. I just laid back down and expanded my senses to check how it was shaping up, being careful to not burn myself out again. My expanding cloud of magic sense filled up the hallway and eventually reached some workers sleeping in the next chamber over, I couldn't really see them but i could see the magic inside of them, it looked like a vaguely worker shaped mist.

My field of view kept expanding, it seemed that being underground with lifeless rock that had very little magic, there was little pressure being added despite the range I was reaching. Eventually I hit some active workers, the magic inside of them was still misty, but it was softly swirling about instead of being still. One of them pulled a chunk of rock from the wall and then used compression on it while holding it, and it shrunk about a centimeter, before she placed it on a nearby pile of other shrunken rocks. I could tell because they all had a faint glow about them that showed they recently had magic used on them. After a few moments of watching I realized something that should have been obvious, their compression wasn't cast instantly, they had to chant.

Last time I watched them compress stuff in person they didn't say anything but I forgot that psychic words needed to be said to someone they couldn't just be broadcast into the air for anyone to hear. The workers must be saying the chant at the rock they are compressing, which means I can't hear them say it in spite of being right next to them. I expand my awareness down the other tunnel to the second working group, I simply watch them work for a while, seeing how the level one compressors and the level two's used the spell slightly different, the level two's seemed to need a moment longer for it to kick in. After a bit of watching I gained a level in a brand new thing that I have no idea what it is, it's like every skill has the same base leveling sensation but it is then modulated for each skill.

I think it's a sort of magic reading skill, while I still can't really read what the workers are doing when they cast, I have an odd sense of once remembering it, like knowing that I forgot something. Now that I have it I can keep track of the experience sorta, sadly it is being drip fed like this, so I clearly need something better somehow. Soon Victoria woke up and while I was watching as she sat up and moved away I was suddenly struck by a revelation, our mana is perfectly identical, I didn't even notice her's while she was right on top of me because it just looked and felt like more of mine. It must be because of the stat link and stuff, we are one, body and soul, type of deal. For a moment I try to think of ways to use this information to help me help her help the colony, before I pull it down and relax, I can think it over later, right now I need to say good morning.

"Good morning, honeybunch."  

She turned and looked at me like I said something crazy"uhh, good morning? What is a honeybunch?" 

"It's an affectionate nickname, people call eachother by nicknames when they like them, with several being reserved for people that are in love. Basically, I love you, so I want to use nicknames on you." I gave her smile and felt myself blushing slightly from having to explain something so embarrassing.

"That seems silly, but also fun, let me try" her eyes dart rapidly as she flips through her mental dictionary "uhhh, babe, no wait that one is usually said to women, um, cutie, no no that one is too childish, hmm, darling."

"Relax, it doesn't need to be perfect, it also doesn't need to make sense or be an official definition of the word. Just think of a word that sounds affectionate and roughly applies to me." I explained again, "just think it over for a while and try what you come up with on me later."

She gave a quick nod and smiled "sure, sounds like a plan, see you later, and don't blow yourself up this time."

"I'll try, love you, and see you later" I gave her a quick kiss before heading out.

 First stop today was the workers, I needed to see if I can make them teach me their spell. As I reached the tunneling team I called out for whoever had level one in compression to finish what they were doing and approach me. A couple more seconds of work pass before one stops and walks over to me. I turned on magic sense and tell her to use compression but also to say the spell so I can hear, ether  with words or mentally project it at me. She tried a few times but every one resulted in her simply saying the spell at the rock with her wigglers, so I decided to use the slightly dangerous method instead. I told her to target me with it so she can chant it at me, she was extremely reluctant to do such a thing and I had to change it into an order before she would.

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I needn't have worried, the spell crashed against me like a wave against a rock, bouncing off harmlessly. Maybe if I had a ton of workers all try to use it on my in sync it could overpower whatever resistance I had, most likely it's because I am not a rock that it failed to gain a hold. As for the chant, it was a... thing, I heard the words but they instantly started slipping from my mind after hearing them. I had the worker continuously cast at me while I grabbed a rock and tried chanting along with her, saying the words as she said them. Each round I would forget the spell's words and have to try fresh, learning a spell you don't get from your class is clearly supposed to difficult, if not impossible. 

After chanting for the hundredth time at a rock I gained something, it must be a memory related skill because I was suddenly able to almost remember the chant between repeats. It felt like I knew the words a long long time ago and they were just on the tip of my tongue. It was very disconcerting to feel like that every time I tried the chant, my accuracy with it went up but it was not enough. Around attempt one hundred and eighty the worker requested stopping due to being magically exhausted, doing it rapid fire like this was wearing her out. I agreed and let her head back to the dorm room, and then asked if the other tunnelers on this team had what I was looking for and they denied it.

As I headed over to the other work area I pondered how hard this wass to do, I had a gut feeling this was the fastest way to learn it but also the hardest. On the other hand I had no idea what the easier and slower method could even be since class books are outlawed so books that teach you how to learn magic wouldn't exist. Spell books would be fine since they are probably words by themselves with no hints on how to even begin to read it. Once on the other side I asked the team over there for what I wanted and had a new worker primed and ready to try to teach me. We entered the same rhythm as before of me repeating the spell as soon as she said the words.

It's about attempt two hundred and fifty when I gained another level in... I'll call it magic memory, meaning a fifty percent increase in the number of times to gain a level. Hopefully it's a flat fifty more per level rather then some scary compounding formula that needs millions per level eventually, or maybe it only takes so much because it's a low level spell? Anyway, I can now sorta remember the spell, like I heard someone say it offhand last week. Finally, at attempt three hundred and five I said the whole thing perfectly, and while it didn't actually cast I instantly gained another level in magic memory. Pondering on it I realized my mistake right away, I wasn't sending any magic out at my target, just chanting at it.

This time I target the rock and make sure my magic is ready to flow out "gre kal por nuk mek zel jat" I chant while flowing magic out my hands and into a rock, at first it sputters and starts, so I chant again and again before suddenly it catches hold and twists into the proper spell I see the workers using. Sadly, just like other non class related skills, it isn't added to any of my lists even though I know it now. Quite suddenly my head feels like it is filled with angry bees and I know if I didn't have my feedback resistance so high it would have been way worse. It buzzes for several minutes and i have to hold myself up against the wall as it rages, then it suddenly stops like it started.

I hoped that was a one time thing and it didn't happen every time I used the spell, only one way to test that. I get a new rock and cast it once more, the rock perfectly shrinking slightly, then I waited for a few minutes but no bees. After helping the workers for a while by being a dedicated compressor as they break off chunks of rock from the wall I figured it out, my memory of all the times the workers chanted at me had flooded back in a bee feeling torrent, each word in the times I heard the spell being another bee passing through my head. I guessed that since I know the spell now, hiding the memory of the words wasn't needed any more. But I needed to be wary of trying to learn a much longer spell using this method, at least until I get some insanely high level with feedback resist.

I also gained a few levels in it as I worked, now that I was using it I saw why the workers that got it to a higher level take a moment longer for it to take effect. When you cast the spell it coats the target in energy and then once it hits critical mass the entire magic coating shrinks, crushing whatever is inside. As you gain levels this coating can get thicker and denser before critical mass so it takes longer to hit that point. Once I got it to what I think is level five in it I bid the workers a good day and left them to their task, before heading outside to try some stuff.  

Once topside I first see how the wall is doing, and it looked like it was going well, didn't see any gaps or anything that could hint to a weak area. I sat a little off to the side and made a dirt ring as normal, but while holding it I then compressed it into rock, the whole thing shrunk into a size that non humanoid ants could wear it. I made an oversized one next, four times as big as what fits, still ended up way too small. Guess I am going to have to try this for longer then I thought it would take to turn a dirt ring into a stone ring that would fit me.