– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 214, Season of the Setting Sun, Day 100 –
“Well, that was a shit idea.” Jorg washed the blood from his nose. His bloody beard stood in stark contrast to his wide grin. “Fun though.”
“You scared me for a bit there,” muttered Terry with lingering anxiety.
“Hey, we were supposed to practice,” stated Lori while looking back from the door. “Now Jorg has the chance to practice his Cure Wounds spell for real.”
“Shh. You stay silent and keep a lookout,” hissed Jorg. “We don’t know when Ma will come back.”
“Yeah, I am pretty sure that Ma would not follow your reasoning there, Lori,” warned Terry. After he had learned his spell, the three were given a new schedule that involved less time in the training grounds and more time for spellwork.
Technically, the twins were supposed to improve their own spell control and mastery while Terry familiarized himself with the Immovable Object spell.
In reality, however, it took all their discipline to not spend the time binge-reading the Veilbinder’s legend. Consequently, the teenagers came up short when confronted with some of the less cautious possibilities of the Immovable Object spell.
Long story short, a few side lessons were learned: It was possible to transfix a staff in midair. The staff carried any weight. A person could attach themselves to the staff with carabiners. Siblings of the person could spin the person quickly around the staff.
The most important lesson learned, however, was: Have a second “warning” staff imbued with the same amount of mana for the spell, and have its spell activated at least ten seconds earlier.
The alternative was to wait until the casting mage completely understood the mana amount to spell duration ratio, but what self-respecting teenage dwarf had time for that?
Luckily, Jorg’s face clash with the floor had looked worse than it was. Thank mana cultivation for that. Right now, their biggest worry was the possibility that their parents came home early. According to the twins, Ma Isille could smell blood even after it had been washed away. Terry was not sure if they meant that literally or metaphorically.
Of course, the three had not fooled around the entire time. Lori had completely mastered the Earth’s Nourishment spell and Jorg’s casting time for the Cure Wounds spell usually came in around thirty-five seconds.
Terry had spent his spellwork time divided across three tasks: Understanding the Immovable Object spell, testing the spell’s interaction with different materials, and brainstorming ideas for practical applications.
For the first task, he mostly stuck to the notebook provided to him by his uncle Samuel. Nevertheless, he always verified for himself whatever was written in the excerpts. Terry had to admit that the information was rather basic. He guessed that the spell’s ‘odd’ positioning prevented most mages from seriously considering it.
The most obvious application of the spell was in combination with a shield. However, any proper mage with master-level mana control could summon a powerful barrier out of thin air. Learning a spell for use with physical shields seemed somewhat redundant as well as less versatile.
Whatever the reason for the apparent practical neglect, it quickly became clear that nearly all excerpts were documenting the spell’s effects in a dry academic manner. Notes to fill up a compendium but little in practical applications. Nevertheless, it was sufficient to get a general idea.
The Immovable Object spell could be applied to any continuous surface. If an object was made of multiple parts, then a single spell invocation only affected a single part.
Terry could immediately verify this with his practice pen. While the pen hovered in the air, he could remove the cap. He could control which surface he wanted to impart with the effect by aiming the spell structure accordingly.
Terry guessed that there might be some density-based rule in place or another physical property that distinguished liquids from solids. He noted down that the spell worked on rocks, but not on blocks of loose earth. After his scribbling session, he planned to confirm his understanding with Samuel and Brynn.
Terry tested the spell on a rope and discovered two things. First, the spell did not work on the rope at all. Some excerpts actually explained why: Most of the spell structure had to fit within or be in contact with the object. Second, trying to compress the spell structure to objects as thin as a thread gave Terry a headache comparable to cluster migraines. For now, the diameter of the pen was pretty much his limit when compressing the spell structure.
Terry flipped through more of the research articles. The Immovable Object spell kept an object in place independent of the force applied to it. Apparently, ‘in place’ also included relative to itself. As long as the effect was active, the object became basically indestructible – no matter how fragile the object normally was.
Once again, the practice pen acted as the first test subject. The twins helped by smashing their practice weapons against the immovable pen with all their might. The pen as a whole did not budge, but part of an inlay – a separate surface – shattered. Terry instantly regretted this particular experiment design a bit.
Afterwards, Terry tested his spell on a candle. The wax turned as invulnerable to kinetic force as the pen before, but what really fascinated the young mage was his finding when he lit the candle: The candle wax did not burn. The flame only lingered for a few seconds and then it died.
Terry immediately made plans for experiments with ice cubes, but for that he first had to secure the cooperation of a mage capable of casting ice spells. Technically, Jorg could use ice magic, but the dwarf had never bothered to learn any spells of this aspect.
According to the excerpts, the Immovable Object spell had a fixed mana cost that was independent of the targeted object’s size or mass. The key factor influencing mana consumption was duration.
As long as the casting mage managed to recreate and prime the spell structure, they could quicken the spell by harvesting and investing less mana, but this also shortened the spell’s duration. Similarly, a mage could invest more mana so that the spell stayed active for longer periods. However, the surface covering threshold still applied, which meant that both quickening and empowering required adequate spell control to compress the mana for the spell structure.
It was possible for the casting mage to extend the duration of an active spell by reinfusing it with more mana. However, the naturalization of the mana had to match. Another mage could not prolong an Immovable Object spell that had been cast by someone else. On the flip side, the caster could also interrupt the spell and choose to cancel it immediately.
An additional secondary factor that affected the mana requirements was the material itself. Different materials had different base consumption values for activating the spell. Aside from mana cost, some material also differed in what the authors called activation delay, which meant the time between ignition and the complete activation of the spell.
Terry had prepared several experiments for trying to verify the required mana consumption to keep specific materials in the air for a fixed amount of time. He took notes meticulously and scribbled his own estimates into his notebook.
The excerpts discussed a few ways to measure a baseline, but they had to be adjusted and normalized somehow. While mana concentration could be measured, it was much harder to measure the amount of mana put into a spell structure. A mana user could get a standardized mana-crafted item to get a feeling for how much mana he was using.
However, the interesting metric was not necessarily the absolute mana amount per se, but rather the time it took to cast the spell. That, unfortunately, depended on yet another variable: the caster’s mana throughput. That was the reason why Terry tried to get an idea of his casting time with different levels of bursts. In the future, he would have to add some more pages for measuring the impact of quickening or empowering the spell.
Unfortunately, all the personal numbers he measured were doomed to become outdated rather quickly, because the variables would change with his progress in training. Even so, he thought it was better to establish a baseline early.
The last facts of note were the limitations on objects on which Immovable Object could be activated. First, it did not work on any living material. Another limitation applied to interactions with mana and other spell structures. It was possible to cast the spell on mana-crafted items, but the caster had to overpower the imprinted spell structure. Alternatively, the spell structure for Immovable Object had to be properly shielded.
Here, Terry looked at his pen again. The pen was a mana-crafted item, and the tip had been imprinted with a spell for darkening or lightening non-living materials. He figured that his spell activation only worked, because he had not targeted the tip of the pen.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“How about that!” Jorg emerged from the little bathroom with a wide grin for siblings. “By my count, Cure Wounds took exactly thirty seconds to cast!”
“Great!” exclaimed Lori. “Then we only need to punch you in the face in order to clear Ma’s conditions!”
Jorg was not entirely sure if that was supposed to be sarcasm and subconsciously took a step back from the door.
Terry raised his gaze from his material box and gave Jorg an examining look that had previously been reserved for his practice pen. “We still have to narrow down his true motivating incentive. From what we have discerned so far, we can only conclude it to be either pain or fear of Ma. Maybe he would react better to blackmail than to pain?”
Lori pulled her sideburns in front of her chin before stroking them in a thoughtful pose. “True true, it cannot be ruled out. If he fails, should we tell Ma what happened to her grappling hook?”
“You wouldn’t!” gasped Jorg. “Would you?”
Lori tried to keep a straight face, but eventually had to giggle. “Nah. That would mean mutually assured destruction.”
Jorg nodded enthusiastically. “Right and if Ma grounds us both until the next era, then who would look after Whaka Terry?”
“I would like to point out that I am not the one with a bloody face at the moment,” interjected Terry drily. “It would get lonely though. And boring.”
***
“Alright, you have passed my conditions,” announced Isille. “Here is your first hunting mission for mana corrupted.”
Jorg was nearly doing tippy taps when he received the mission pamphlet. To his chagrin, his excitement did not survive the pamphlet’s contents. It was replaced by indignation. “Cloud badgers? Seriously?”
“What? You thought we would start you on shadow panthers?” snarked Isille. “Or maybe even some terror grizzlies? Yeah, they’re outright cuddly if you’re a greenhorn.”
“No, but come on,” whined Jorgen. “Wasted badgers? We are already hunting bears!”
“Non-magic bears, yes,” stressed Isille sternly. “You think the separate classification is just for fun? A corrupted, cursed, or magic-wielding creature is an entirely different beast.”
“But we already took part in the intermediate introduction class.” Florine pointed out.
“A class that had an instructor spoon-feeding you information and calling the shots,” reminded Isille. “This time, you have to make the decisions on your own.”
At this point, Lori just shrugged with a sigh. Somewhat begrudgingly, she had made her peace with the mission.
“But a badger?” Jorgen remained unwilling. “I mean, I get why we pick a minor corrupted and low-rank creature, but a badger?”
“Jorg, it is just the first mission.” Terry spoke up in an attempt to mediate. “Right?”
“Depends on your performance,” snarled Isille, while keeping her eyes on Jorgen. “You must never conflate a creature with its ancestor. The most dangerous corrupted hunt open at the moment is for a vortex hamster. That overgrown space rodent considers a sleuth of terror bears as nothing more than a light snack.”
After Isille saw the persistent look of resentment on Jorgen’s face, she made an offer. “Tell you what, you are always talking about wanting to join the Guild, so let’s play by Guild rules. I’ll give you a side mission. If you finish the hunt without so much as a nick on your equipment, you will have succeeded. I will put the reward at six hundred coins.”
Jorgen looked a lot less unwilling and was about to agree.
“BUT you are a rookie and this would be considered an upranking or rank-crossing mission,” warned Isille. “If you fail, you’ll owe me three hundred coins or the equivalent in contribution points.”
Jorgen’s agreement got stuck in his throat. He paused and swallowed hard. There was a moment of silence before he had finally mustered the resolve for defiance. “Deal.”
Isille only raised an eyebrow and inclined her head as acknowledgement. “Any other takers?”
Terry shook his head immediately.
Lori was tempted, but looked warily at her mother. In the end, she decided that this smelled too much like a setup. “Nah, I’m good.”
“Hmph.” Jorgen was miffed that his siblings did not back him up.
“Great. Since you were so happy with the basic outline, I have one more requirement,” announced Isille. “Your pa is going to accompany you.”
This time, it was Florine who spoke up with indignation. “We’re not little kids anymore! What kind of Guardian has their parents babysitting them during missions?” She hissed: “Will we have to hold his hand so that we do not get lost in the woods?”
Isille was becoming irritated and nearly got into another snappy argument with her daughter. However, she resisted the temptation and decided against taking the bait. After all, this was not some squabble over chores or clothes. As the adult party, it was on her to keep things professional. Therefore, Isille limited her temper to a disapproving glare and a sigh.
“Your pa is not there to hold your hand during the mission,” stressed Isille. “He will not interfere, nor will he give you advice. His role is not to show you the way, but to remind you of not getting lost.” She shrugged. “He can act as a witness for the side mission, I guess. Although, I do not believe that will be necessary.”
Florine only rolled her eyes while Jorgen gave an acknowledging grunt.
“Can I still ask Pa something since he will be there, anyway?” inquired Terry innocently.
That question earned him some reproachful looks from the twins.
“Hey, whose side are you on, Whaka Terry?”
“The side that has questions, duh.” Terry rolled his eyes.
Before the kids could get really into it, Isille interrupted. “Sure you can, Terry. Anyway, you three still have training scheduled for today. Tomorrow, take the time to prepare.”
***
In the evening, the whole family – including Brynn and Samuel – was sitting together at the dinner table again.
“More lasagna?” Bjorln looked expectantly at Terry.
“Thanks, I’m full,” replied Terry. He tried hard to avoid the expectant look in the eyes of the dwarven cooking enthusiast.
“So just a bit of lasagne, then?” Bjorln was still holding out the tray to his accepted son.
“Uhh…” Terry accidentally looked into the dwarven man’s eyes.
“Just saying, you are still growing and all,” prodded Bjorln again.
“A bit then.” Terry gave in. He had trouble telling if the warm and fuzzy feeling in his stomach was from the kindness surrounding him or from plain overeating. “Thank you.”
Before Bjorln could continue to the next seat, Jorg already exhaled happily while patting his belly. “Don’t look at me. I can’t eat another bite.”
“Me neither,” added Lori preemptively.
“So, are you done with your preparations for the mana corrupted hunt?” asked Brynn, while quickly hiding her own plate before the dwarven cook could threaten her with another serving. No matter how delicious it was, she wasn’t a vortex hamster. There was a limit to what she could put in her stomach.
The twins were quick to answer their aunt’s question in the affirmative. “Yup.” “Sure.”
“Not yet,” said Terry. “I still wanted some advice.”
“If you need help in picking out mana-crafted items, we could join you,” interjected Jorg with a grin.
“Actually, I wanted to buy some healing balms and recovery medicine,” said Terry. “Among the three of us, I am the only one who cannot cast any healing spells. I don’t think I like that.”
“Good thinking,” praised Bjorln. “I am supposed to stock up for the Guardians soon, anyway. I can prepone it and you can join me tomorrow. Sounds good?”
“Great!” Terry grinned. “Also, I thought about buying items made from some of the materials in the sample box, but I have no idea if they are even used for crafting items or how expensive they are.”
“I can get you a copy of the crafter’s reference, which tells you the common uses, as well as the base price and difficulty of using it in forging or mana crafting,” stated Brynn.
“However, for specifics regarding the usage in weapons or where you can find them…” Brynn glanced at Isille.
“I can have a look,” said Isille.
“Thanks to all of you!” Terry was sure that the warm feelings for his new family more than matched the warmness of lasagna in his belly.
“Have you made up your mind on how to incorporate the Immovable Object spell?” inquired Samuel.
“Somewhat…” muttered Terry with an unsatisfied expression. “But mostly I have a list of things that won’t work properly until I can cast hands-free or have enough spell control to significantly reduce the casting time.”
“Patience then,” reminded Samuel.
“There are some fun uses already,” interjected Lori.
“Yeah, I like the double jump,” said Jorg.
“What’s that?” asked Brynn.
Terry explained: “Prepare the primed spell structure. Jump and activate the spell on an object in the air so that you can use it as a jump-off point again.”
“Sometimes, we even prepared a third jump point,” bragged Lori.
“Uh-huh? And where did that happen?” questioned Isille with narrowed eyes. Her tone immediately rang the alarm bells in the teenagers’ heads.
“Uh, on the lake, of course,” replied Lori with a deadpan expression.
“Of course,” concurred Jorg. “Anything else would be way too reckless, Ma. Perish the thought!”
“Uh-huh.” Isille’s face was an open display of skepticism.
“Maybe you could bridge the time until the casting speed is sufficient by preparing mana-crafted items?” suggested Brynn. “Since you can cast the spell, you should be able to imprint it. I wanted to introduce Lori to construct crafting, anyway.”
That woke up Lori from her food-induced drowsiness. “Nice!”
Terry nodded as well.
“How about you, Jorg? Up for some mana crafting?”
Jorgen seemed less than enthusiastic.
“You know it can pay quite well if you put in the time.” Brynn pointed out. “Even with an average ability, it helps pay for itself and may save expenses.”
Jorgen seemed a bit more conflicted, but ended up refusing anyway. “Thanks Auntie, but I do not want to lose my focus.”
That statement caused a few raised eyebrows at the table. It also inspired a laughing snort from Lori.
“If I spread myself too thin, how would I ever become a proper mana cultivator?” Jorgen tried his best to sound sincere.
“Suit yourselves.” Brynn smiled. “Just let me know if you ever change your mind.”
“And until then.” Bjorln smirked. “I will try my best to support you in achieving your high ambitions in mana cultivation, my son. I will remember them during our next training session.”
Jorgen’s eyes widened. His mouth opened in order to protest, but he failed to find a valid objection.
Isille and Lori chuckled heartily.
“My condolences,” muttered Terry from Jorg’s side.
***