Devi sat in the clearing amidst the dimming light as the sun dipped behind the tree line. She had a small wooden disk that she was working on carving the same symbols as the metallic one that was resting in front of her. Next to her lay the two people she had only really met today, though she had seen them a few times before. Around her, the other people in the clearing were clumping up, getting ready to spend their first night in this alien forest they had been transported to.
The largest of these clumps was centered around the grey pillar in the center of the clearing. Devi could see a few figures walking around the group, apparently on guard. In the middle, she could see John talking with a few people, giving orders. And probably grifting everyone of anything he can, she thought scathingly as she picked absentmindedly at one of the scabbed-over cuts she had all across her arms.
Her companions and herself were situated fairly close to the edge of the clearing, far away from the large cluster of people. For some reason, Devi wasn’t all that afraid of monsters attacking them from outside of the barrier. She just had a gut feeling that the iridescent film would do something to stop the monsters. It didn’t come from anywhere, just an odd feeling. She was definitely still going to watch the forest. After her run-in with the squirrel she had gained a healthy fear of whatever lay out there, but she was more worried about what lay inside the clearing.
Besides the two people laying next to her, Devi didn’t quite trust anyone in the clearing, and she only somewhat trusted both Mars and Matt. They had been nice and friendly, and she didn’t think they’d do anything to her, but she was always wary.
And why did I agree to camp together with them? I barely know them. They could be serial killers for all I know. But as she thought about it, she became more confident that they were good people. Mars did come in to help me with John. And even if I did not need the help, they were willing to stand up for me, a total stranger. And Matt just seemed very excited about magic, just like me. She shrugged, figuring she would stay with them for now. But that does not mean I am going to drop my guard, yet.
She turned her attention back to the wooden disk she had been working on, finishing a few of the symbols that dotted its surface. It almost seemed that there was a pattern to how they were placed, but it was hard to pick out. I really need to figure out what exactly those symbols do. They have to be connected to how it produces the magical effects, right? She thought to herself as she chewed on the end of her knife. There is not much else that could be the reason these tools can take mana and turn it into magic.
Shrugging, she winced in pain as she infused the area around one of her recent cuts with her mana, and broke the scab on top. No sense in adding another cut. She quickly collected the blood and painted over all the symbols on the wooden disk. It had become routine to use her own blood, as macabre as it was, to paint the wooden carvings. I really need to figure out a better way to do this, she thought to herself. The blood loss is not terrible each time, but it does stack up. Maybe there are materials out in the forest that can conduct mana? I will have to look tomorrow when we go.
Congratulations
A new Magic Tool (G) (inferior) has been created
A new Magic Tool (G) (inferior) has been created
XP threshold reached
Novice Tinkerer (inferior) lvl 1 -> lvl 2
XP threshold reached
[Improvise Tool] (inferior) lvl 0 -> lvl 1
A flurry of message boxes appeared when she completed the disk, along with a wave of energy. She had anticipated a message awarding her XP for finishing the disk, but the one she got was slightly different than the previous messages. The words “A new” were strangely added. Maybe it is because this is a separate magic tool than the ones I was making before? She gave a mental shrug as she thought about it. Could be that making new things gives more XP, or these boxes just denote that it is in fact a different magic tool than the ones you have created beforehand.
The other two messages were a bit more of a surprise. Maybe I was already close to leveling up my Vocation before? Or does making a new type of magic tool award more XP? Why can’t the boxes just say how much XP I received? Everything would be so much easier then, but no, that would be far too nice. She growled in frustration, calming herself before getting too worked up, so as to not wake her sleeping companions. If I ever find the people who made these boxes, I am going to strangle them for not giving more information. Just a tad more would be nice.
She brushed away the thoughts of setting a nebulous figure alight as she cackled maniacally in the background, taunting them about the lack of information they had now. But the last message was interesting. One of my Skills leveled up. It was the Skill she had been using the most, almost constantly improving whatever tool she had on hand while she was shaping and carving the magic tools. So that makes sense. But I wonder why it only now improved.
After thinking for a few moments, she had no real answers as to why it leveled up, so she added it to her ever-growing list of questions that she would get to later. She dismissed all the notifications and turned her attention back to the finished magic tool. Now, to figure out what those symbols mean.
She took a few of the scraps of wood she had discarded while making the disk and started carving individual symbols on each one. It did not take her long to copy all the symbols from the disk onto their own piece of wood since there were only a handful of unique ones. A few looked similar to the ones on the fire starter magic tool she had currently sitting in her pocket, so she got it out and copied all the unique symbols from that one as well. She took special note of the few symbols that had been burnt when she had summoned a pillar of fire earlier, all of which were the same symbol. She then used the last bit of the mana-infused blood she had to coat the symbols.
Time to test them out.
The first one she tried to inject mana into was the symbol that had been burnt out on her fire starter magic tool since she had a hunch as to what it might be used for. When she tried to guide her mana into it from her arm, it felt as if she was trying to squeeze the last bit of toothpaste from the tube. It was hard, the mana seemingly did not want to go into the symbol, but it did, slowly. Maybe this one is a limiter perhaps, Devi reasoned to herself. It could control the flow of magic. It would make sense for this one to be the one that got damaged when I sent as much mana as I could through the magic tool. It got overloaded, and could not limit the mana anymore, so it broke. Much like a resistor.
She set that symbol aside, fairly certain of its purpose now, and focused on the next one. This was the other symbol that showed up on both the fire starter and the water purifier. When she directed her mana to it, the symbol eagerly absorbed it, pulling the mana in as fast as she could move it. She quickly stopped sending mana to it, but it took a bit of mental effort to stop the flow. Well, that sure was something, she thought as she took a few ragged breaths. Guess that’s how the magic tools pull in mana. Very good to know.
The symbol glowed dimly in the dark clearing, not shedding that much light, but enough that it was visible. Devi had been forced to squint to make out anything, but thankfully there was a bit of illumination from the moons that had risen above. Two silvery orbs floated in the sky, neither one marred by craters like the one back home, but two perfect spheres above, giving enough light to see a little bit.
After only a few moments, the symbol’s glow faded, small whisps of multi-colored light faded into view before melding into the air. Looks like the symbols can only hold mana for some amount of time, so no mana batteries it looks like. She frowned and pulled out the water purifier. She had sunk a fair bit of mana into the tool, but nothing had happened. Now, in the moonlight, a few of the symbols were glowing faintly. They all were the same symbol, a different one from the two she had already tested, and none of the others were glowing. Now that is interesting, she hummed to herself. So it appears that you can have a mana battery. Her mind was already spinning up ways she could use that. That is very handy.
The next symbol on her list was one she was very interested in, it was the last one left from the three that appeared on the fire starter, so Devi reasoned that it must be the one that converted mana to fire. There is a symbol for mana intake, one for limiting how much mana gets brought in, so the last one must be for the ignition. She paused, let’s not get ahead of ourselves though. It that could be the way the symbols are all put together, not this last symbol, that makes the fire.
She had struggled with getting her hopes up for things, only to have them be dashed, so she wasn’t going to do that again. Probably. It is not going to be like taking E, getting excited that I would start growing boobs the next day. I am going to temper my expectations.
With her expectations reigned in, Devi sent mana through the symbol. It was harder to get the mana flowing than the first two symbols like the mana did not know exactly what to do. She closed her eyes and mentally grappled with the slippery energy to try and force it to go into the odd symbol she had etched into the wood. For some reason, moving her mana had been a whole lot easier recently, but she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. With a final mental grunt, she threaded a small stream of mana into the symbol and opened her eyes.
A burst of flame met her eyes, not nearly as large as when she had used it to fend off the squirrel, but more than the candle flame the fire starter usually produced. Curious, Devi guided a thicker stream of mana into the symbol, and the flame grew in size. When she decreased how much she was sending, the opposite happened. She could shrink the flame until it was no more than just a few wisps of smoke. Nice! Looks like you can control the size of the flame. Kind of what I had expected, but always nice to have things confirmed, because who knows with everything here. It is literal magic, can not expect it to follow the same logic as you would expect.
Watching the flame burn in front of her, a grin slowly spread across her face as she had an idea for something she could make. That is, until the piece of wood she had been using to test the fire symbol caught on fire and she hurriedly dropped it, stamping it out with her foot.
Fucking idiot, wood burns, she mentally berated herself. The magic tool had all of the symbols clustered around the tip. That seems like a good idea. She had another great idea. Unless I want the wood to burn. She grinned at the thought. Before she could start working on her idea, she needed to know what the other symbols did.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
She was testing the symbol that she believed to be a sort of mana battery was, when she heard the clank of metal behind her. Shit, I was supposed to be on guard.
“Hey there, did I see fire over here just barely?” A voice called out behind her.
Devi turned around and saw a looming figure striding up to her. Moonlight glinted off the metal breastplate they were wearing, while shadows covered their face. They stood far taller than Devi, even if she was standing, but even more so since she had been sitting cross-legged on the grass.
“Possibly, what is it to you?” She questioned back.
“I’ve been told to make sure everything is safe here in the clearing,” came the response. “And that includes checking out random fires.”
“If there was a fire, it is not here anymore, so your presence is not needed.”
“Hey man, I get it. It’s been a crazy day. I’m here to help. Mr. McCalister picked me to watch out for everyone. He even got me up to level one.” The figure stepped closer, and Devi got a good look at them, or at least, as good of a look as she could get with only moonlight to illuminate them.
They were built like a mountain, at least 180 cm tall with broad shoulders. Their long hair was done up in a brain that lay over their shoulder. One hand rested on the pommel of a sheathed sword on their waist, while the other was outstretched in a greeting.
“I’m Cassandra, one of the Protectors just appointed today.”
“Devi, she/her,” Devi said, quickly rising to her feet and shaking the proffered hand. “What exactly is a protector, and who appointed you?”
“The Protectors are a group of people who are here to help defend everyone who was displaced by what has happened. We’ll be going into the forest tomorrow to scout it out and bring back supplies.”
So Mr. McCalister went and got a bunch of people to act as security for him. Probably so he did not have to do all the work himself. At least they will be somewhat helping everyone.
“Sounds like you have your work cut out for you then. The forest is dangerous. Goodnight.”
With that, Devi gave a nod and sat back down, focusing on the symbol in front of her. Cassandra waited awkwardly for a bit, before clanking off into the night.
Might have a bit of company tomorrow then, when we go and explore the forest. Hopefully, we do not run into them. Anyways, back to magic.
She quickly went through the next four symbols, one by one, figuring out what they all did. The one she suspected of being a sort of mana battery let her channel mana into it for a long while before it stopped accepting any, continuing to glow faintly after she had stopped. It did not let out any multi-colored whisps like the other symbols had but just glowed gently in her palm.
Would be nice if I knew how to get the mana out, but at least I know you can store mana.
Setting that aside, the next one she channeled mana into didn’t do anything. Just allowing the mana to flow freely through. No matter what she did, it refused to do anything except let mana go through it, not even holding any of it.
The next symbol was a bit more interesting. When she guided her mana to it, small droplets of water started to form all around the symbol. It wasn’t much, more like small beads of dew, she definitely had water.
I wonder if it is creating the water, or just pulling it out of the air, Devi wounded as she fed more mana into the symbol and watched the moonlight be refracted in the small beads of water. But either way, this is so cool.
She spent a few moments playing around with the symbol before going to the last one she had drawn out. When she channeled her man into the symbol, a small little puff of white light escaped. It quickly faded, but the skin of her fingertips where the light had brushed over was free from dirt and grime.
Now that is interesting. Some sort of cleaning symbol? She mused to herself. It was on the water purification disk, so that does make sense. Does clean everything that is around it? Maybe the way the symbols are put together makes it so the disk only cleans water.
Her mind trailed off, going down a rabbit hole of possibilities, none of which she could actually test. Eventually, her mind landed on the plans she had for new magic tools.
Right, that is what I was going to do.
She grabbed one of the spare pieces of wood she had collected and started a simple prototype of the tool she wanted to make. Devi didn’t know if her design was even feasible, or if it would work as she wanted, but she had plenty of materials to work with, so she was going to get it to work. Eventually.
The idea was pretty simple, a magic tool that would store mana and then convert it into fire at a moment's notice.
A lot of fire, all at once, exploding out in all directions.
A bomb some might even say
To start, she began carving the symbol she had mentally dubbed the mana grabber and connected it to one of the symbols that had been able to store mana. To finish off the small prototype, she added the symbol for fire.
Once everything has been painted with mana-infused blood, she sat back, expecting a notification for making a new magic tool, but none came.
Well fuck, did I do something wrong? This should be working.
She guided a bit of mana into the freshly carved symbol. Maybe I carved something wrong. It is fairly dark, so that would not be a surprise.
All of a sudden, a large flame flashed into existence for a brief moment right next to her face. She let out a yelp of surprise, but the flames had already faded from view, leaving only white spots in her eyes. And the smell of singed hair.
Well, that certainly did something, she thought to herself as she blinked clear her vision. I made something, a magic something, but did not get any notifications for it.
Devi looked around to see if she had set anything on fire, but thankfully the area surrounding her remained flame free. An image of a disappointed bear playing in her mind, scolding her for being reckless as she checked to see if she had woken up with Mars or Matt with her scream.
They do not need to know about that mishap, I will just keep it a secret for now.
Both of her companions seemed to be sleeping soundly, but that wasn't her only worry. She spotted the large figure of who she assumed to be Cassandra come towards her.
Well fuck.
“Hey now, this time I definitely saw some fire over here. What the hell are you doing?” Cassandra said as she stomped up to her.
“Magic,” Devi replied succinctly, not bothering to get up. Now, where did I go wrong? She started tracing the flow of mana through her carving. The mana came through these symbols, and then-
“Are you even listing to me?” Cassandra’s voice broke through her thoughts. “You can’t just go around using magic like that, you could hurt someone.”
“Everything was under control. No need to panic.” Devi turned back to her carvings. Now, it goes into the mana battery, and then once that fills, right to the fire symbol. She hit herself upside the head. Idiot, of course, it would just shoot fire the first second it got. There was no trigger.
She had completely forgotten about Cassandra as Devi went back to thinking about a new design.
I put mana into the water purifier, and that did not immediately start purifying. There must be a trigger or something on that magic tool.
“Are you even listening to me?” Cassandra demanded. “You were engaging in reckless behavior, you need to be aware of everyone else.”
“I am well aware of everyone, and what I was doing was completely controlled,” Devi retorted, trying to stem the lecture she felt was coming. “Besides, there is not any other place that is well suited for this. Outside the barrier are monsters.”
Devi could feel Cassandra glowering at her, but she just started guiding her mana into the symbol she believed was the trigger on the water purifier.
“Well, just make sure you’re careful,” came Cassandra’s reply as she stomped off.
Devi just shrugged. Pretty sure this won't do anything dangerous, she thought to herself and sent her mana into the symbol. It only took a small trickle of mana until something happened. A gentle light started emanating from the edge of the disk, before fading from view after only a brief moment.
She sent her mana into the symbol again, but nothing happened. Now that was odd, did it just do one massive blast of purifying? Checking the symbols, she saw that the mana would have to go through a limiter symbol before getting to the purifying and water symbols, so it definitely did not let off one massive purifying blast. Unless she was misreading the symbols, but that wasn’t likely.
Maybe it only purifies water?
Devi grabbed the water symbol and sent some mana into it, and watched the small droplets form along the edges. As she did, a small gentle glow enveloped them for a brief moment before subsiding.
Well, that answers that. Looks like the disk only purifies water and nothing else. Must be how the two symbols are connected? She let out a growl of frustration. Why did these things not come with an instruction booklet? Another thing to add to my ever-growing to-do list I guess.
She visualized a few of the different ways she could add the trigger symbol to her magic item, turning her now charge and then use item to one that could store a charge and be used later, until settling on one that looked promising.
It didn’t take her that long before she had carved the symbols and painted over them with mana-infused blood. The moment she put the final touches on the item, a blue box popped up.
Congratulations
A new Magic Tool (G) (inferior) has been created
XP has been awarded
She had not known if whatever she had made would count as a magic tool, but evidently, it did. What she absolutely did not expect was the next message.
XP threshold reached
Human (G) lvl 1 -> lvl 2
+1 All
Devi blinked in surprise as the rush of tingles faded, her body glowing faintly for a few moments in the dim light. So that confirms I can level up my Race by doing other things than combat, good to know. I was worried that it was tied to fighting things.
She got up and stretched, her body a bit sore after sitting in one place for so long, and her stomach choose that time to make itself known as well. This usually happened when she was focused on a project, she’d neglect to eat until she was done, sometimes going a full day on just coffee in the morning, until she finished whatever she was working on and suddenly realize she was extraordinarily hungry.
This time though, she didn’t have access to her hoard of mac and cheese meals in her freezer.
The apocalypse better not disrupt supply chains so they stop making my meals. I do not know what I will do if I can not buy them anymore.
She spent the next little while keeping an eye on the cluster of people sleeping around the pillar, thinking about how she could get production started again on manufacturing frozen meals so she could have her mac and cheese if they ever got back to Earth. Nothing much happened, though she did see the series of people who patrolled the edges of the makeshift camp change every so often. A few times she heard haunting howls from beyond the barrier, with others returning the call from different locations.
Thankfully, nothing came into the clearing or even approached the multicolored barrier throughout the whole time Devi was keeping watch. She had checked her mana pool during that time, and realized she did not have all that much left. Her crafting sessions, in addition to her excursion with the squirrel, and left her all but empty. Not wanting to drop close too zero, she had refrained from crafting anything else. As much as she was itching to start messing around with more combinations of symbols, she fought off the urge. She stopped herself from testing the magic tool she had just barely created, figuring that doing so would also probably be a bad idea, since her mana pool was sitting at 7.
And besides, would not want Cassandra stomping over here again. Twice was enough.