The days that followed took on a pattern. Jun quickly improved as Shiori taught her more tricks for spell casting. The trick Jun had figured out for how to cast a spell turned out to be basic, and Shiori quickly taught her how to change aspects of the spell.
It turned out that evenly distributing the mana in a spell form wasn't required as long as the spell's symbols were powered with mana. By changing the amounts of mana in each symbol, Jun could change the effect of the spell. From changing the speed it flew, to how much power the spell used to pierce through things, and where the spell manifested. As a result of these lessons, Jun realized that much of the mana she had been using on her spells was wasted.
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"You put too much mana into making sure the spell pierces." Shiori had said one afternoon as Jun sat recovering her mana. "To pierce is to penetrate defenses, to challenge and overcome another's protections. Once you penetrate your prey's defenses, there is no need for further piercing. Watch."
A light purple orb appeared above, quickly forming into the familiar shape of a [Piercing Missile], before it flew into and through a large boulder. A fist sized hole appeared through the middle of the boulder as the spell flew through it before boring a matching hole in the cliff behind it. "I used 20 mana on that spell, focusing only the minimal amount of mana on guidance and impact, and evenly split between piercing and speed. The spell cleanly and quickly pierced through the target, and if there were another enemy behind the first, it would be effective. However for a single enemy, much of the mana spent on piercing would be wasted."
"But." A new spell appeared above Shiori's head, coalescing into something that only partially looked like the spell Jun had been practicing. The spell had the pointed tip of the normal spell, however that was where the similarities ended. Instead of a small tail behind the sharply pointed tip, the spell widened and narrowed again, looking like a spear head. "With less mana to pierce, just enough to penetrate just deep enough, and far more focused upon speed and impact..." Shiori's tail flicked and the spell launched, sending out a small shockwave of displaced air with its speed. The boulder suddenly exploded, raining shrapnel around the clearing, a purple barrier appearing to protect Shiori and an open mouthed Jun. "... you can have much more of an effect with the same amount of mana."
The image of the boulder exploding with a such a small amount of mana stuck with Jun. She wasn't sure how long she had simply sat and stared at the damage caused by a simple spell, only that it was long enough for Shiori to get impatient and force feed her more of that disgusting soup!
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In the days that followed Shiori's demonstration, Jun experimented with the spell, limiting herself to no more than 20 mana per cast in an attempt to recreate her master's version of the basic spell. She thought that with just 4 variables to adjust and such a limited amount of mana, it would be easy to do. She was wrong. It had taken her dozens of tries just to get the spell to cast without an even distribution of mana, and changing even a single variable to have any noticeable effect had taken her days to figure out. Whenever she asked her Master for help, her Master would simply tell her to keep practicing until she figured it out, and that she would never learn if someone just gave her all the answers.
Eventually, Jun figured it out. She had to power the spell in steps. She couldn't just grab a handful of mana and shove it into the spell form then rearrange it once it was inside. The trick was to grab as little mana as she could to direct into the spell, but hold it from coalescing while she grabbed even more mana and directed it to empower different symbols. Each small handful of mana could only be directed to do one of two things, either evenly distribute throughout the spell symbols, or only go into one. Once inside the spell form, the mana couldn't be directed to change without making the spell unstable. She learned what happened to unstable spells the hard way when on one of her attempts, the spell had coalesced and popped, knocking her down with a blinding flash that had her seeing spots for over an hour!
After four days of practice, she began to get the hang of modifications to her spell, able to do up to three modifications before it grew unstable, though it took her some time to craft each modified spell. Unlike her Master who could manifest the spell in a blink.
Five days of training passed in a blink before it was time for another hunting trip.
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She wasn't sure where Shiori had stored it, but they had had deer meat every morning and evening since the hunt. Her Master would summon her to the cave only to find another chunk of the raw meat sitting and waiting to be prepared, which she would do with the herbs that were also always provided. It always confused Jun where Shiori was storing these things as the meat always seemed freshly butchered, but she knew the cat wasn't going out to hunt during the day, and she doubted she was going out at night. Jun was certain she would be forced to wake up and butcher the deer for her Master if that was the case.
This morning however, there was no meat waiting to be cooked in the morning. Shiori instead woke her up with the disgusting smell of more of her mysterious soup that her Master seemed to have an unending supply of, though where it was stored Jun had no idea. As Jun had grumpily swallowed the vile, if filling, sludge, Shiori informed her that they'd eaten the last of the deer meat and would need to go hunting, unless Jun preferred the soup. She had a hard time believing that they ate several hundred pounds of meat in just a few days, but readily agreed to go hunting again, even if she was sure it would end with her needing another bath. Anything to avoid more of the soup.
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Shiori guided Jun through the forest, her presence a ghost as her fur blended perfectly into the shadows under the trees. Jun's presence was more like a drunk trying to sneak through the house at three in the morning.
A loud crack echoed through the forest, causing Jun to wince as she felt yet another twig snap beneath her feet. At least the splinters didn't hurt since she wasn't barefooted this time, having fashioned a pair of crude foot wraps out of the deer hide from their first hunt in the evenings after training while waiting for their dinner to cook. She was glad to have taken the effort as the path Shiori took them on had crossed several rockfalls along the ridge line that seemed to border the forest. The rocks had been sharp enough through the thick wraps of hide. She wouldn't want to try walking on them with her bare feet, no matter how thick her calluses.
As the morning passed into midday, Shiori led them through the forest before finally stopping at a hidden gully full of thick vegetation with only a game trail leading the way through.
"Wait here." Without waiting for a reply, Master Shiori quietly sped off into the brush without disturbing so much as a branch as Jun watched, nervously looking around and squeezing the not-spear in her hands at her sudden abandonment in the middle of the forest.
Sighing, Jun set in to wait for Master Shiori to return. Her Master was... weird. It was already strange enough that she was a magical talking black cat, though Jun had gotten used to the talking and the magic quickly enough. It was just something else about her Master that was strange. Her sudden adoption at the hands of the cat didn't surprise her, as that just seemed like something a cat would do, even a super powerful, talking cat. What was weird was how nonchalant her Master acted all the time despite always calling Jun her kitten, and how she seemed to bounce between the stereotypical ambivalence of a cat, an obviously capable and caring individual, and an expectation that Jun do tasks the cat was clearly far more capable of doing.
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Jun couldn't help but wonder if that was simply how cats on Merinthia were, or if there was something else going on. The thought of a planet ruled by super powered cats sent a shiver down her spine. Though, it seemed like Earth had been ruled by cats, at least based on what she would often see on her feeds, so maybe Merinthia wouldn't be that different?
A cool breeze gusted over the forest and sent the leaves rustling. A few hairs, escaped from Jun's inexpertly secured ponytail, fluttered about Jun's head and tickling against her face. Idly, she swiped a stray hair out of her eyes as she watched the spot where her Master had disappeared into the brush. What she wouldn't give for a simple pack of elastic hair ties right now. It'd taken her several attempts to tie her hair up for this trip using a thin slice of the deer hide that she'd braided into a thin but strong cord.
The thicket in the gully began to shake as a loud squeal pierced the forest air, shaking Jun from her thoughts. She saw a black blur streaking down the game trail that flashed past her as her Master's voice tinged with amusement reached her ears. "Your turn kitten!" Jun instinctively turned to follow the black blur that was her master, only to see that the cat had climbed up a tall tree and already laid out on a branch, her tail swaying back and forth lazily as she stared down at her. The ground rumbled and Jun turned back around to see a demon charging at her!
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Jun screamed, barely diving out of the way of the monstrous boar's charge. Her weapon went flying as she tumbled out of the way of the charge. It was so close that she had felt the brush of the boar's wiry fur against her foot wraps and the wind of its passage carried the boar's stench to her nose. Scrambling to her feet, Jun ran to put some distance between her and the boar whose charge had carried it far past her to crash through a stand of bushes. A squeal of rage and the sound of plants being violently ripped and torn apart was the only warning Jun received as the boar charged at her again, launching itself through the thick undergrowth of the forest!
"Fuck fuck fuck fuckity fuck!" Jun dodged around a tree, only to keep running as the boar grazed the tree with its tusks, shaking the tree and sending splinters flying through the air! A hiss of pain escaped her lips as she felt a stab of pain in her side from a piece of the wooden shrapnel.
Copying her Master, Jun rushed to a tall, thick tree and desperately jumped up, her fingers barely wrapping around the bottommost branch as the boar screamed again, announcing its attack. Her muscles strained as she pulled herself up onto the thick branch and hugged the trunk, her chest heaving as she gasped for air.
A sudden impact accompanied by the sound of cracking wood shook the tree, nearly spilling Jun from her leafy perch! Jun dug her nails into the drunk, splinters biting deep into the tender flesh under her nails as she desperately held on. The boar circled around Jun's tree below, shaking its head as it brushed off its headlong charge into the thick trunk! How tough was this thing?! It's head must be harder than stone!
Jun hurriedly began casting [Piercing Missile] and immediately launched it unmodified at the monstrous boar's head. Her vision was briefly obscured as the spell coalesced, and in that moment the boar darted to the side, the missed spell drilling a hole into the forest floor below. The boar turned to glare up at her with hate filled eyes that promised death as it pawed the ground. With a snort, the boar rushed at the tree again, shaking it as the beast's large tusks tore a new gash in the trunk below.
The tree groaned and creaked and a feeling of dread gripped Jun's heart. The boar was smart and angry. It was going to knock down the tree to get at her, and then she'd be dead. She lost her weapon at the very start, and all she had was a single spell that the boar dodged like it was nothing!
Gritting her teeth, Jun cast the spell again, modifying it for speed. The glowing blue missile coalesced as a small dart that sped off, easily moving three times faster than the base spell as it closed in on the boar!
Jun let out a cheer as the spell collided, but her celebration was quickly strangled as the boar merely grunted, the spell failing to even break through the boar's thick skin!
She needed to pierce the monster's defenses and speed to hit it, and power to make sure her spell hurt! Biting back a scream as the tree shook again, she concentrated on moving her mana into her spell form. The first wave of mana was spread evenly, to create a stable spell. The second she concentrated into enhancing the spell's piercing ability. A third, larger wave of mana was put into the spell's impact, hoping it would be enough to put the boar down. Holding the spell began to hurt as each second passed by. Images of her numerous failed spells flashed through her head, each blowing up in her face when she tried to push her limits. Three was her max. Any more modifications to the spell and she feared she would lose control, coalescing another unstable spell that would blow up in her face, and then she would die to angry bacon!
Another impact shook the tree accompanied by a squeal of rage and an ominous cracking and popping. "No choice but to do it." Jun growled to herself, gritting her teeth against the pain of holding and modifying the spell as she gathered a fourth wave of mana and brought it to the spell form. Her head pounded as the mental construct began to shudder, threatening to collapse. Willing the spell to remain stable, Jun pushed the the fourth wave into the spell's symbol for speed, willing it to strike fast. A mental image of the spell as speeding bullet crashing into and shattering the boar's head filled her mind, and she shoved that image into the spell, willing it to form and cast.
The spell rapidly formed before her eyes, a blindingly bright blue orb that immediately fired off with a loud crack and woosh as it screamed towards the boar's head, promising destruction!
The spell missed it's target.
The boar darted forward at the last moment and the spell crashed through its neck, penetrating the thick fur before violently exploding! The scent of blood and burnt hair filled the air as the boar's head was severed, its shoulders disintegrating from the force of the spell.
Jun felt woozy as she clutched the trunk of the tree, her mana near empty from her last desperate spell. A black shape coming out from under the brush caught her attention as her Master padded into view. "Master, I did it! I used four waves in my spell!" Jun pumped a fist in the air and nearly fell, only her hasty hug against the trunk stopping her from falling. The sudden movement caused the tree to crack and groan as it threatened to fall. An invisible force plucked her from the tree and held her in the air like a kitten being held up by its mother. Her lost weapon floated up to hover near her, just out of reach.
"Very good Jun, you did well." Jun felt a glow of pride in her chest and flushed at the compliment. "But you overdid it a bit and wasted some fine meat." The oversized head and back half of the boar floated up in the air next to Jun, leaking gore and smelling of blood, burnt hair, and the boar's stench. "No matter, we'll just hunt again sooner."
Embarrassed, Jun meekly hung in the air without complaint as they headed back to the cave, her Master dragging her along like a naughty kitten. Jun couldn't help but blush with embarrassment at the situation. She really was a kitten wasn't she?!
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The following weeks passed in much the same way as Jun explored her magic with Shiori guiding and teaching her new tricks and techniques. She learned how to manifest her spells in places other than in front of her eyes and was soon able to manifest spells anywhere within a few inches of her body, though the further away from her skin she tried, the harder it became.
Jun began to learn how to fight, though her Master said she knew no "human martial arts," which at least confirmed to her that humans still existed in the world somewhere. Instead, she honed her instincts as her Master forced her to fight against golems made of water and stone. She never got seriously injured, though her pride was grievously wounded every time she was thrown into the water, buried up to her head in the dirt, or tossed over the side of a cliff, only to be snatched out of the air like a kitten and gently set back down on the ground.
Shiori revealed that multiple thought processes working together was the trick to casting complex spells faster and began drilling her to split her focus and concentrate on multiple things at the same time. She was forced to carry on conversations, lift weights, run, spar against constructs, cook, and clean all while casting multi-aspect spells as quickly as she could. Her master would randomly distract her during these exercises, sometimes throwing something at her with her telekinesis, sometimes flashing bright lights or sounds in her ears.
Every failed spelled was rewarded with a bowl of her Master's bitter soup "to better motivate you and build your foundation kitten," her Master said when Jun questioned her about the soup. As to what was actually in the disgusting thing, her Master refused to say, only that it was nutritious and "good for a still growing kitten."
So the days passed as Jun learned and grew under the tutelage of her Master.
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Thirty-four days after she first appeared in this world, Jun woke with a pained gasp to a stabbing pain in her stomach and the floor of the cave covered in blood.