"Why's his ball different?" Thomas asks as I give out the magic training balls for today's training session.

The wooden training balls I've been giving the three of them are made of a paler wood with a golden hue to them. The one I gave to Dylan this time is made of some of the arcane wood I obtained from the tree fiends in the Mistwood, and so is more of a medium-brown with a slight pink tint to it. As with the other training balls, it's a 3" sphere, but one which also has grooves along the surface.

"Because he's been doing this twice as often as you and has progressed a little further," I answer. "And has reached the stage where he can maintain putting around 0.3 MP into the orb per second for thirty seconds, the standard for making yours and Nolan's green. Dylan, your new orb will be green if you input 0.1 MP into it per second. Being able to do a smaller flow is essential for being able to cast spells. This orb requires much more precision as well – the other one will be green if you're within ten percent of its required amount, but this one requires exactly 0.1 MP per second to be green. If you're off of that by even a tiny bit, it'll shift to orange if you're under and red if you're over."

Moving on to requiring a more precise amount is important, not just being able to channel a lower amount consistently. Precise mana shaping leads to more efficient spellcasting. Putting in too much mana can result in the spell exploding or unleashing right in front of you. Too little, and it made fade away or come undone before it actually takes hold.

There are other things which can result from putting in too much or too little mana, though those are the main ones experienced by beginner mages.

That's why the colors for over and under are different – to make it easier for them to tell which direction they're off by.

"What about the grooves?" Curiosity has filled Dylan's mind.

"That's the step after you can make the orb green for thirty seconds," I tell him. "I combined them into the same sphere mostly because I forgot to make a sphere that only has the 0.1 MP per second requirement."

The other men snort while Nolan pokes at the grooves on his father's sphere.

"What're the grooves for?" Dylan asks.

"If you channel exactly 1 MP into the grooves and only the grooves," I say. "In under a second and at an even spread, they'll emit a green glow while the rest of the orb remains the same. If you maintain that flow, they'll continue to glow until you stop it. Once you can do that, you're ready to move on to casting spells. [Magic Arrow] costs 2 MP and [Magic Missile] costs 5 MP, and you need to be able to shape the spells in about 5 seconds or so to actually cast them properly. Any longer than that, and you're likely to lose hold over the spell's structure."

"Alright," he looks down at the orb.

"While you three do your training," I say. "I'm going to do some crafting, then clear out the space for the barn. Remember to come ask me if you have questions or need help with something."

Dylan and Thomas nod while Nolan immediately starts focusing on his orb, and I move over to my crafting zone and pull out a chunk of spatial mithril from the tenth floor of the mines. It's Tier 5 in quality and so is the best I have right now, though not the ore clump I let Ash take from.

I could return to town and commission more bracelets, but I am strong enough to do it now. This will just take me some extra effort.

A thin line of fire forms in the air as the clump floats up above my palm, and the wire of dense, liquid-like flame begins slicing through the metal. It takes me about three minutes to cut the amount off that I want, then I send the rest of it back into my storage as I generate a wind bubble around the floating orb. The flames fade away as the metal begins to heat up, first glowing orange before glowing yellow.

While I can't quite make it white-hot at my current magical strength due to raw mithril's natural resistance and high melting point, this is enough to start reshaping it. With a mixture of fire, force, and earth magics, I begin splitting the sectioned-off clump into three pieces and forging them into bracelets identical to the new spatial pocket bracelets. This takes me a bit of effort due to my current state and the fact that when mithril is forged properly, its strength and resistance increases immensely, but I manage to finish after about half an hour.

And a significant drain of my mana.

The trio of bracelets plop onto the table I'm at as I dismiss all of the magics I'm using, and I pull out a glass jar filled with deep blue mana potion. Ever since first transplanting mana potion reagents to my yard, I've made sure to keep a decent stock of it up. I've also made sure to use earth magic crystals in the soil to boost their growth and bounties.

Which, in turn, has helped me brew up quite the amount of mana potions, which are next to nothing compared to what I spend sometimes. After this, I'll need to hold off on using up a lot of mana in a short amount of time for a week or two. That will ensure I can replace all of the mana potions I used yesterday and today.

I should really find a way to boost the plants' qualities, if it's possible to do that quickly without causing other problems. This is especially true for the mushrooms and herbs, as I grow more than enough berries.

Enough that I can do other stuff with them and still have plenty for the mana potions based on the other two reagents' quantities.

With the bracelets ready for enchanting, I take out the spatial magic enchanting supplies I brewed up for the others, then enchant each of the three bracelets. Upon finishing the third, a notification appears in my vision.

[Crafting] is now Level 14! +2 Strength +2 Dexterity

"Hey, Rowan?" Thomas calls over as I dismiss the notification.

"Yeah?" I look at him.

"When you were enchanting those," he says. "You did some sort of gesturing, then the runes glowed more before vanishing. You were casting a spell on them, weren't you?"

I suppose I am visible from the lessons zone, since my crafting zone isn't too far away from there. That was deliberate, as it makes it easier to keep an eye on them while they're training their magic.

Right now is about the end of their usual lesson time, and all three of them are drained of mana. Dylan and Thomas switched to watching me while Nolan's focusing on his ball still, intent concentration in his mind for some reason.

"Yeah," I answer. "There are two ways to enchant. One method is cheaper, but the items don't last as long. You use enchanting ink or some other medium to put in the full details of the enchantment, as well as all of the mana necessary for it. Depending on how much mana you put into it, they can last anywhere from minutes to several years.

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"The method I use is stronger," I continue. "What I do instead is I turn the item into an anchor – that is, it holds the spell that's cast, stabilizing it and allowing it to remain. So I create the enchantment on it but not the actual spell or spells, then cast them together onto it, into the anchoring enchantment. Since the enchantment isn't creating the magic, only holding it and keeping it active, it's able to last a long longer. Decades, even centuries, depending on the magic, the materials used, and the amount of mana that was used in the enchanting medium."

And there's no mana necessary to sustain many types of enchantments, such as strengthening ones or spatial pockets. Some need it, sure, and others might need to when aspects are activated, but not all do.

"So… you can use spatial magic?"

Well, crap. There goes hiding the fact that I'm a spatial mage. I really should have thought about my explanation before saying it. One of the downsides to being a magus: I'm more than willing to explain things I shouldn't.

Denying it won't make him believe me, either. I've gotten to know him well enough these past couple of months to know that he's too smart for that. Education doesn't always equate to reasoning and critical thinking skills, and he did just see me casting a spell.

"I can," I confirm. "But I don't talk about it much. Very few people are able to use spatial magics, which are one of the two highest types of magic, alongside temporal. The spells are rather costly, too. The version of [Spatial Pocket] I cast onto the bracelet is actually modified for the bracelet, reducing its cost massively. To make one that's one hundred twenty-five feet on each side – the largest one made of spatial mithril to this size of bracelet can hold – costs 11,250 MP. That's why I had to drink some mana potion between each."

The cuff, on the other hand, cost me almost 19,000 MP to enchant, due to the larger size of the [Spatial Pocket] cast onto it. These costs also don't factor in the strengthening enchantments I placed on them, though those aren't nearly as costly.

"However," I say. "To create one that large with my power alone would actually cost more than sixty-three million points of mana. For comparison, think of your current capacity as a single silver ciirvrios coin… and the cost of casting the spell that large without an anchor to be a little more than sixty-three diamond ones. Two tiers higher. And you can only improve your capacity by a silver at a time."

The cost for the spell when anchoring it is only 75 MP times the length of one side. When casting the spell directly, the cost is per cubic foot. So for the anchored spell, it's only 150 times 75, while for the raw spell, it's 150 times 421,875.

That's quite the difference, and why I prefer to have bracelets rather than creating a bunch of smaller pockets that I can access. Sure, the bracelets take up a little bit of real space, but it's better to have fewer of them than hundreds of [Spatial Pocket]s that take up no real space.

"Damn…" he says. "So if you can do that, can you warp as well? Why make the stones?"

The answer to that is pretty much the same as the one for why I prefer the bracelets.

"Being able to do one magic doesn't mean you can do all magics within a school of it," I say. "Though yes, I can cast the [Teleport] spell. And much like the [Spatial Pocket] spell, it's costly. It costs 1 MP per fifty feet traveled. Tempest Oak is around forty miles from here – it costs me more than 4,000 MP to [Teleport] there. Think of that as forty of you at full mana."

"Jeez," he says.

"Yeah," I say. "That's why I wanted to put waystones up around the village and area. It'll let me travel around without having to spend that, since the waystones draw on the mana in the air to power themselves and can store a large amount of it. Plus, it does help all of you as well. At least, so far as those going where the waystones are located can find use in them."

"Can you use time magic, too?" He asks. "Is that why you can fight the… what did you call them? The tempo golems?"

He didn't see me fight one, so this is just him assuming it based on, I guess the type of monster it is. That, and he's probably thought about my stasis pocket bracelets. Those are a pretty clear use case of time magics since I did mention it's in them.

"I didn't use spatial magic to fight the warp golems," I remind him. "The best way to take on a tempo golem is to do more damage to it than it can handle before it's able to properly mount a counterattack. I know a spell that's extremely useful for breaking stone, though it's very expensive, which is why you didn't see me use it."

[Rend Space] does cost 1,000 MP, after all.

"Anyway," I shift the topic. "Crafting these bracelets took longer than I expected, so your magic training session is over. I'm going to head back to the harvest zone and collect the rest of the branches and bring them back here. Then, I'll work on clearing the space for the slime barn. The help you all gave earlier was more than enough for today, but if you want to join me, you can. And Dylan? I don't mind you and Nolan staying with me until your cabin is built. So if you want to bring your stuff up here, you can."

"Alright," Dylan says. "I should probably grab the rest of our stuff, then. We'll help collect the stuff once we finish."

"Alright," I say.

"Come on, Nol," Dylan picks his son up. "Let's go get the rest of our stuff."

Nolan feels confused, though I can make a guess why. From what I've learned since we met, they don't really have much. A single change of pants for each, Dylan's necklace, a fishing rod, some dishes, and just a few other items they've collected. The tyke being seen as cursed really made it difficult for them to get anything else.

"I'll head down to the docks and get started," Thomas says. "If I can get a few of the other men to help, we should have it done by tonight."

"Alright," I say. "I'll see you either tomorrow or with the next lesson, then."

Thomas nods, then leaves via the warpstone. I use it to head to the wood-harvesting area and begin collecting the branches, storing them in the new bracelets. When Dylan and Nolan arrive, they assist me as well. Dylan grabs actual branches, while Nolan gathers up as many sticks as he can carry and brings them over for us to put away. I don't really need those, but I don't want to make him feel useless.

Helping out like this makes him happy. If he were one to make noises, he'd probably be humming or singing as he helped, judging by the feel in his mind. A bit too happy, actually.

I take a peek and find that he's playing a game in his head, trying to see how many sticks he can hold at once. His counting is atrocious, but that doesn't matter to him. All that matters is that this armload is definitely the biggest.

That estimation is based on the size of the sticks he's got, not how many of them.

"What?" Dylan asks at my snort.

"Nothing," I tell him.

We finish up here and return to my home, then I lead them over to the area where I want to put the slime barn. Or at least… I start to. Arriving at the stream reminds me of one very important detail.

"I forgot there's no bridge," I tell Dylan. "And I don't think the little one wants to try and wade through. Do you, Nolan?"

Nolan looks at me with confusion in his mind, then at the stream, then at his dad.

"We'll have to build a bridge," Dylan says.

"Yeah…" I examine the stream. "Let's do that now."

I already have plenty of pieces of wood cut and treated, more than what could be used for the docks. We start work on constructing that, and I learn that Dylan helped out with rebuilding a small bridge when he was fourteen. It was him, Thomas, and the other guy in our age group from the area, the one who left before I came here.

They're not really sure where he went when he left, as all he'd said was that he was going to seek something more exciting and no one has heard from him since.

The type of bridge we're working on now is a little different from the more flat one the three of them built. We arch it a little in a design I've seen used during my travels. The arch design is a lot more stable and while it's probably not necessary to cross just forty feet, raising it up will also protect when the stream rises from the rains. For that reason, we also build it so that it's wider than the stream, secured into sturdy stones I place in the ground.

Nolan attempts to help us, but gets distracted by some of the spirits that want to play with him. That's a big relief for us, because there's not much he can help with for the construction work.

"There we go," I say once the bridge is complete.

"Got a question, if that's alright," Dylan says.

"Go ahead."

"How come you built it aligned with the cabin?" He asks. "Instead of further forward of it? Ain't it better to do it forward so you ain't gotta walk around the cabin a bit?"

"Maybe," I say. "But I'm building the new cabin with its back wall about fifty feet in front of the old one. There'll be a back door that can be exited through, and from there, it's just a slight angle to reach the bridge. And it doesn't really matter in the end. Anyway, the slime barn is going to be about fifty feet further back, but probably only a hundred from the stream. I'm going to go knock down the trees now. Once I'm done, do you and Nolan want to help me collect the wood?"

"We can do that," he looks at Nolan, who's currently chasing an air spirit in circles while dodging small water shots from water spirits, a massive grin on his face. "Well, I can definitely do that. He might not be able to."