Once he was alone, Mark got down to his magic - full force. Heat and Cold, as he had discovered, were the easiest, but he quickly ran into the limits his body could handle, and he had no idea how to make the effects manifest outside of himself yet, so he moved on to electricity. It only took a few minutes until he could create sparks between his two hands, and another 20 minutes of playing around got him to the point of making sparks between thumb and forefinger of the same hand. He checked in with the App, and found he had made level 6 and gained 5 more points.
Mark found that any time he wasn't paying at least some active attention, the electric charge would just ground itself out through his body. Since electricity could go outwards from his body far more easily than thermal effects, his next efforts were to try to control it through objects he held in his hands, and be able to choose how far and in what direction it would jump. This proved MUCH more difficult, and he was worn out again in a half hour with only minor signs of success.
After a snack and a short nap, he decided to explore the "vibrations" he had felt earlier. This quickly got confusing, because there seemed to be different types, and each type felt complex. It felt much like differences between longitudinal and compressional wave he had studied in basic Physics class, but it seemed like something was going on with colors as well. After an hour of messing with it, he was tired again, and the only definite effect he had been able to achieve was a "destructive touch" that would cause whatever was in contact with his "vibrating" body part to quickly wear down and break apart. But it did get him to Mage 7 and another 6 points.
Since he knew he'd have to make the investment eventually, he spent the points and bought Interface, to free himself from the need for devices. But unlike Dan's "Internet" option, Mark had "Magic Diagnostics" as his next option - for a full 25 points. Looked like serious magic use was going to require a lot of leveling.
After resting up a while and pondering, Mark decided that the "vibrations" should be able to include "Light" magic, so he started to try for that. It was almost sunset by this time, with another hour or two until full dark, so Mark decided to try to get started using the crystal ball, and then continue his experiments outside when it would be dark enough to detect any small glow.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Mark quickly found the big problem with manifesting light, as opposed to the forces he'd worked with before - light didn't FEEL like anything. He couldn't get feedback from his crystal ball visualizations that would tell him when he was making progress. When he tried to go back to a "vibrations" base and work up from there, he DID get a result, though. Not what he was expecting, but he heard a low hum briefly come from his outstretched hand as he tried to manifest the magic. OK! New effect - sonic! And another level with it, that came as soon as he could reliably reproduce the effect. Mage 8, 7 points! He might be the weakest Mage he'd ever heard of, but at least he was becoming versatile.
By the time he felt fully recovered from his beginner sonic magic, it was dark enough to step outside and try for Light. As he had guessed, feedback was key. After only 10 minutes, he could produce occasional flickers of dim light in the darkness. Again, half the problem was that the light energy wanted to stay internal, rather than project outwards, but at least he didn't have to worry about a pain problem limiting the power - a bright light under the skin was harmless, unlike heat, cold, or electricity. Even the sonic had caused numbness to a bothersome degree.
The first, and easiest, changes he made to the light (once he could produce it reliably) were colors, and that seemed pretty easy - as long as he stayed with a single color. Trying to manifest more than one at a time never worked for more than a moment. Even creating two separate glowing parts at the same time involve far more concentration than one. It was somewhat easier to just extend a single illuminated part - making a whole hand, or even arm, glow. After getting to the point of being able to glow enough that he could navigate in the dark, Mark sat down and tried to manifest a glow OUTSIDE his body - working at it until he felt totally drained....with no result.
Somewhat irritated at the failure, and exhausted, Mark went back inside for a junk food dinner and rest. Checking his App, he saw he had made Mage 9 during his light play, with another 8 points. He checked over the rest of the info and was stunned by a new option: Powers now showed "Unlock Projection - 50 points". A long way off - but at least he knew it could be done. He could become a true caster of magic!
As Mark settled in for bed, it struck him that he hadn't checked in on mom all day. Well, he certainly wasn't going to try that 2-mile walk in the middle of the night, even with his new light power. He'd just try to get up early and head over in the morning. Getting to sleep was a long process - his mind kept wanting to play with magic. He was going to need some kind of calming or meditation skill, at this rate, just to let himself get rest. Eventually he managed to drift off, as exhaustion overcame curiosity.