A full week since they had left the Basin, the group came across a difference in scenery. It had been so long that Johan was actually a bit surprised. At some point he had just began to assume that the entire country they were walking through was a desert waste. So it genuinely did shock him for a second when he saw a tree off in the distance.
"Is that? Plants?" Johan said, while shielding his eyes, and squinting at the horizon.
"Yep. I don't know why you seem shocked Johan, no one had said that this place was only desert." Markus said from beside him. "Also, from now on we need to keep better watch at night. Unfortunately now that we can see plant life, that means that there is going to be other people. I won't lie, you may have to kill someone soon."
"Ah... The bandits that roam the land?" Anne asked.
"Yeah, that and those who cannot find food." Markus grimaced, "Some resort to cannibalism, after all, if it's your family or someone else... Well, most people eventually cave."
"Oh... Um, alright then." Johan said a bit unnerved at the thought.
-
The group then continued, eventually passing the first tree, and walking through the mix of yellowed, dead, grass and sand. Slowly as they walked the grass became greener and more vibrant, the trees more close together, until they had come into a forest where there was a nice thick layer of leaves mixed in with dirt and spots of grass.
"Alright, we'll camp here for the night." Markus said as they found a small clearing.
"Alright." Johan replied, pulling a few things out of the bag. Johan pulled a couple blankets out, as well as some already cooked meat and some of the black bread that had been stored.
"Ugh..." Pat groaned. "I hate this stuff."
"It's not so bad once you get used to it." Anne said in response.
"I don't think I ever will though." Pat sighed.
"I think it's fine." Jen added in.
"Either way, it's what we got. So eat, or don't." Johan said as he offered everyone some food.
They ate in relative silence, Pat and Anne talked a bit, with Jen saying a few things here and there, as well as Adv, but their conversations were much quieter than they had been for the last several nights before. Perhaps the word tense would be an apt description of it? It seemed to Johan that the girls may have been a bit concerned about what Markus had said earlier, regarding the thoughts of cannibals and bandits.
"So..." Johan said after finishing his food and taking a drink from a small metal cup, "Who is taking first watch?"
"I'll leave the first watch to one of you. I'll take third as it's usually the hardest." Markus replied.
"I can do it then." Johan said,
"I'll do second then." Anne added,
"I guess I can do forth." Jen spoke up,
"Then, I'll do the last watch. It's just a few hours earlier to wake up." Pat sighed. "Well, I guess I can at least talk to you, right Adv?" Pat looked at the device.
"Yeah, I guess so! I can help watch a little bit too!" Adv replied.
"Oh... Yeah, that's right, you don't sleep." Johan remembered.
"Yep! I can just be pointed towards a direction all night."
"Sweet. That makes this easier." Anne interjected.
"Alright then, I guess we should try to get some sleep. There is still a bit of light out right now, I assume you plan to work on magical training a bit?" Markus said, then turned to Johan.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
"Yeah, not too much. Though if things go well, I'd like to try to conjure a light spell tomorrow. That's what I've worked on for the past few days. It's actually less mana intensive too since it's not a permanent conjuring."
"That could be quite the useful spell. Alright, well, good luck on that." Markus said before pulling out a pelt blanket of his own that he set on top of the ground before laying on it.
Johan began to read once more, reviewing the things that he had read multiple times this week. His spear was next to him, and he heard the girls chatting as they prepared for bed.
'Chapter 12 - Light
Light is one of the elements that, although not considered a primary element, is one of the most important elements for a mage to have in their repertoire. Not only does this element have several powerful utility and healing spells, but it also has spells that allow for great power against spiritual type creatures and undead, which are well known to be made using dark elements and combinations of other schools of magic, such as blood, flesh, and bone.
Light is an odd element. It behaves like wind and water simultaneously. It feels like it is constantly trying to escape control, and is rather difficult to control as a result. The most popular method of controlling it is to simply not do so and just supply mana to it. This method has several issues, but as of yet it has still proven more effective than others. Other methods consist of using a lens like magical construct to focus the mana, but with the amount needed to make the construct it is more costly than just using the more popular methods.' Johan stopped there. He had a few ideas on this part of the text.
Similar to how he controlled what kind of mana he filtered, he wanted to try another idea with this. He remembered back in Ambevelance that when he was around 14 or so, the area he lived in started to get what was called fiber optic cables installed for better internet. If he remembered right, the way that worked was by putting a light in one end, where it would essentially refract its way through to the other side. He wasn't super clear on how it worked, he wasn't really too interested at the time, but he did think he could figure it out well enough to try it with light mana.
So far, he had gotten pretty close at it, but still struggled. It was less mana intensive than making a construct like a lens, and it did better on focusing it, but he struggled to make it work due to the complexity of it.
He estimated a need for 8 cables, but he could only form 6, which was more than he could originally as he started at 3. Johan had his goal of making 8 cable constructs to focus light mana into the middle between them. Even with 6 he could already somewhat do this, which was why he was so set on 8, and he knew that it would cost less than it would just pushing more mana into it indefinitely.
The only reason why constantly putting more mana in worked for light was because light was everywhere, and large amounts of mana tended to drag more mana closer, similar to the theory of how celestial bodies would be slowly dragged to a blackhole from far away due to the mass causing gravity to pull it closer.
Johan put all that away for now, and began to focus. He created 8 wire thin poles with the proper structure he needed, then he slowly twisted the poles around each other. After that he created a hollow cylinder that acted as a mana block and placed the cable inside. This was the structure he needed. after he completed that part, he made a sphere with a mana block and made a small spot for him to insert the cable. This would hold the light mana in the area he wanted it. Next he made several more cables.
He finished the sixth, and started on the seventh. He had made a total of 7 different constructs including the sphere to hold the light which was taking its toll on him. He managed to make the seventh cable and inserted it, this is where he broke even on the mana spent to construct all this. At this point he was able to cast if he wanted, but instead he decided to keep going. He got half way through the eighth cable before he lost hold of it, and the entire construct fell apart.
"Damn it." Johan cursed under his breath, he had gotten so close. The area around the camp was now saturated with light mana due to his construct releasing what had been in it, which was good, that proved that it did manage to hold the mana enough for it to become condensed in the area. Realistically, what Johan was trying to do would only be good for a couple of things, and that was to simply have a light source, aside from that it would also make light spells easier to cast.
Elemental magic and its various elements had special characteristics for each mana type. Water caused the area to cool when enough was gathered, fire did the opposite, heating the area, Wind caused a breeze to come through, and earth caused everything to feel heavy.
Light, when enough of it was gathered, glowed physically. Darkness became a light sink.
This being the case, if Johan managed to do what he wanted, so long as he managed to create the construct, he wouldn't need to supply any more mana to have a light source. Of course it would vanish once he stopped concentrating on it, but with training and working on it, he could get to the point that he wouldn't need to focus on it actively. It was like how a person didn't need to think after they got good at driving on the same road for long enough.
They wouldn't be thinking about it in the forefront of their mind, and could easily have a conversation while driving, maybe even listen to an audiobook. That was the level Johan wanted to get to with this construct.
Combined with the easier casting of light spells due to the saturation, if he were to learn a good amount of light elemental magics, it would only benefit him in the long run.