We had set up camp in a large valley. I watched as the others laughed and joked by the fire. I couldn’t understand a word they were saying, but it was still wonderful to finally have companions.

My contentment slowly faded as the incomprehensible conversation continued on and on. I found myself feeling rather isolated after a while as I sat on the other side of the fire. The others paid no attention to my discomfort.

It took me a moment to realize they weren’t paying any attention to me at all.

I decided to start talking to myself, so as not to be so left out, yet the others didn’t seem to notice. Even as I raised my voice, I was ignored. I couldn’t catch their attention.

The world around me seemed to grow dim. After thinking that I had finally escaped my exile, its return left me feeling utterly crushed.

The others continued to laugh and jest as something flew overhead. Looking up, I saw the huge, horned beast looming above us. A sinister red light filled its mouth before a torrent of fire rained down upon our camp.

The last thing I saw was my companions still laughing with one another as they were consumed by fire.

----------------------------------------

I was quite relieved to find myself back in my tent as I opened my eyes. The sun had yet to rise, but I was certain that I wouldn’t be able to get any more sleep. Instead of fruitlessly pursuing more rest, I opened my interface.

Name: Kyo —-----

Class: Novice Mage

(9/92%)

Mana Pool: 175/175

Codex: 72.38%

MR:246

TPEL:36

Boons:

System Initiate: 10

Novice Mage: 9

Emergency augmentations: 2

Environmental Conditions:

Mana level: High

Danger present

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Limited resources

System Messages:

Update Available

Over the past two days of travel, my capstone boon had nearly finished integrating. I was certainly looking forward to having my magical capabilities improved further.

While traveling, I had continued puzzling out the mana forms all around me. I spent most of the previous two days trying to understand what sort of energy many of the natural mana forms produced.

Replicating the natural mana forms in the air had no noticeable effect. Trying to use them on dirt or stones was similarly uneventful. Each attempt still drained away some mana, but to no evident result.

I only started seeing effects after testing the mana forms on a plant. While using the mana forms with low amounts of mana didn’t cause any visible changes, it did cause some of the mana forms already in the plant to behave a little differently. Encouraged, I pushed more mana into the spell.

The extra mana accelerated the changes I had already noticed. As I continued pushing in more mana, the plant reached some sort of tipping point and died in a gruesome fashion. The entire area I had been forcing the unknown energy into practically melted away in a ruined slime.

Disturbed by the thought of what that would have looked like with an animal, I stopped experimenting with the strange energy. I didn’t want to risk accidentally causing such a dramatic effect in my own body.

While drawing sigils around the camp, I noticed something unexpected. A part of the sigil of concealment used the unknown energy. Having learned the sigil through repetition rather than understanding, I didn’t know what all of the mana forms were meant to do. Paying attention to the mana forms of the sigil, I found that it utilized two dimensions I couldn’t even identify, counting this natural energy. The second unknown dimension of the spell also worked with some sort of energy.

I had been a bit hesitant to experiment with it the night before, but I didn’t have much else to do while waiting for the sun to rise.

Using less than a single point of mana, I carefully wove together a few small mana forms utilizing this unidentified dimension of magic. I knew the spell I was crafting would produce some form of energy, I just didn’t know what kind.

Upon finishing the spell form, I failed to notice any changes in the area. Curious if the effect was only visible in living things, I opened the flap of my tent. I tried again with a small fern.

Using the same, tiny amount of mana as before didn’t produce any results. I continued slowly adding more mana. As I pushed a bit more than a point of mana into the spell, a tiny snap and a brief little flash of light emanated from my target.

Repeated casting of the spell caused more little sparks, like a tiny lightning storm. Pushing a bit more into the spell had little streams of light dancing between the leaves of the plant with every other casting.

As the light of the rising sun started filtering through the canopy, I decided to try a more potent test. Targeting a tree on the edge of the camp, I cast my spell with five points of mana behind it.

To my disappointment, sparks didn’t fly from the tree. I evidently didn’t have a strong enough understanding of this new energy.

As the others started to slowly make their way out of their tents, I sat and pondered. This energy looked just like lightning. The little sparks I conjured were nothing before the might of a storm, but that was to be expected with the minuscule amounts of mana I was using.

Excited though I was to experiment further with lightning based spells, I was left with a very confusing question. What did lightning have to do with remaining unseen? My sigils of concealment used tiny amounts of this energy, but I had no idea how.

Distracted by this oddity of magic, I barely noticed Norbert heading over to the tree at the edge of the camp. A sudden crack and a long string of furious cursing pulled me out of my thoughts.

As the others rushed over to the enraged giant, I decided that it would be a good idea to stay in my tent a little while longer.