Forging a spell, as it turned out, was quite difficult. It was less forging, a muscley endeavor where you force your will on an object, and more just a puzzle.

Fireball was the first spell he forged, and it was mostly by instinct. After all, it was just a ball of Mana that you ignited. Add in a bit of stability in the form of making it explode on first impact instead of randomly, and boom. Fireball.

It was the simplest of spells. Practically a hopped-up cantrip. The main difficulty of using it came from its lack of efficiency. Simply put, it was expensive. Way more expensive than necessary. The Mana to damage ratio was awful. Sure, it was a big fuck off firebomb, and that was cool, but there were more elegant solutions out there.

Problem was, those required elegant construction, and all the stats in the world don’t make up for a lack of knowledge. He hadn’t gone to the Academy, and he hadn’t bothered really delving into the weeds of magical construct… Construction. Mouthful.

Anyway, he was planning to take the spellcraft elective, so he hadn’t bothered with trying to teach himself. Worse came to worse and he would just have to unlearn it when he got to the Academy. Well, that and the fact that books that covered the intricacies of spell matrixes were expensive.

Obviously, that wasn’t an issue anymore.

Or was it?

Sure, he couldn’t gain the Mage Path, but did that really mean anything, did it? The main thing that separated Sorcerers and Mages was the way they used their magic. Sorcery was inborn, instinctual, and/or System-assisted, most likely all three. Magecraft was just that. A craft.

You had to study for years just to earn a standard Mage Class, and even then you had a chance of getting what Vorn did. [Untalented Mage] was an aspirant's worst nightmare. The System was literally telling you that you were hopeless. Granted, you could always go the Systemless route, but that was for geniuses of Mana Manipulation, and if you got [Untalented Mage] it was unlikely you were a genius in much of anything. Unlikely, but not impossible. Still, the fact that both the System and a literal deity thought he wouldn’t amount to much as Mage…

That burned Vorn a little, but he just told himself to get over it. He was basically just a Mage but better now. Hell, [Spell Forge] was every Mage’s wet dream. Normally, they had to painfully manipulate their mana in twisted and convoluted ways, but all Vorn had to do was figure out how a spell was supposed to work. He didn’t actually have to do any of the really hard parts. Hell, if he gained access to a Research Tower he would damn near unstoppable.

All of those Spell Forms just sitting there in tomes. It was incredibly tempting to just leave the dungeon and go break into one, but as was repeatedly pointed out, Rowan was no stealth specialist. Not anymore. And if Rowan couldn’t do it, Vorn sure as hell couldn’t.

So, he got a little off-topic there, but the Academy. His class was basically a perfect blend of Sorcery and Magecraft, so he would still fit in for most of the lectures. But… Mages were, and Vorn hated to say this about his favorite Path, huge assholes. And petty. And jealous.

They were snobbish dickheads a lot of the time. It kinda came with the territory of gathering a bunch of rich, technically intelligent, aristocrats together. Sure, the odd peasant got in now and then, but they would just be raised to nobility if they were of any significance. Problem solved, no more peasants in the Mage Class.

Vorn was not dumb, quite the contrary in fact, but he was a dreamer. He knew that he probably wouldn’t have an easy time at such a rich institution, especially with how they felt about Sorcery, but he felt he owed it to himself and his mother to try.

Now that he had already chosen his Path, though? He didn’t really feel a need to put himself through that.

He heard a small knock at the door he had set up.

“Ark, come in! I don’t know why you keep knocking! We’re literally the only two people in this instance!” Vorn said, exasperated with her antics.

She walked into the small cave that Vorn had made and said, “Jeez, you sure know how to have a good time. No wonder Rowan doesn’t think you're funny.” She sniped at him.

“Hey! That’s a low blow!” He squawked

“I got the rest of the blood harvested, how is your "forging" going?” She asked.

“Hey, I heard those air quotes! And, it’s going well. Well, for most of the cantrips and simple elemental spells at least. Those weren’t very difficult to figure out. And I dug out this cave, didn't I?” Vorn indignantly pointed out.

“Divines above… you can move a lot of dirt….” She said with mock awe.

“Oh, get out and go collect more blood or whatever it is that those of mundane ancestry do.” He said snootily.

“As you wish, milord.” She said, but instead grabbed a rock and pelted it at him.

It bounced off of a, previously invisible, transparent blue shield.

“Hmm. Guess it is going well after all.” She said simply.

“Hey, did you know that was there!”

“Totally.” Ark unconvincingly stated.

“Okay, okay, enough games. Did you really get the rest of the blood?” He asked, impressed.

“Yep, total pain in the ass. Don’t even ask me how I drained that fucking behemoth. That was a nightmare.” She shuddered.

“Yeah, I can imagine. Hey, did we ever ask if we were supposed to be gathering multiple vials of blood per Orc? What if they just want one from each? That would probably make more sense, right? I mean, why would they ask for small vials if they wanted a large amount of blood for each?” Vorn asked.

“Ah-” Ark just stood there a moment.

“Good thing I kept them labeled…” She muttered before saying, “...Make any cool spells?” Trying to change the subject very subtly.

“Well, I have a few combat capable spells, but they’re all simple and rely on pure volume of Mana for damage. Earthquake, Fireball, Gust, Tsunami, etc. Just elemental manipulation plus a boatload of Mana. A few basic wards as well, but those are just elemental manipulation, boatloads of Mana, and directing it to not kill me.” He summarized as best as he could.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

A lot of spells were shockingly simple, but even still, he would have struggled with them without [Discovery]. It pointed out when he was moving in the wrong direction, and simply eliminating the wrong options was a fantastic perk. Lowercase p, in this case.

Especially for those basic spells like Earthquake. At first, he thought it would be something like sending his mana into the ground and just rumbling it, but it was actually far more effective to set up a thin fault line and then just apply opposing force. That made it way more efficient, rather than just shaking the whole ground, setting up a situation for the ground to shake itself. Don’t ask him how he got to that from, ‘It bad to put shaky mana in ground, do something better’, which was basically what [Discovery] told him.

“So, you're up for your first kill, then?” She asked.

“I… I am mostly recovered. Still a few more hours until Rowan can bail me out if something goes wrong, though…” He pointed out.

“Pssh, don’t be a coward. We aren’t going to attack another full sized camp. Just a small one to get your bearings. Besides, you still have all his stats, right? Just run like you mean it and you should be fine.” Ark pointed out as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Running without restricting our Attributes sounds like a good way for me to kill myself before the Orcs ever get a chance too, but I see your point. I can’t always exclusively rely on Rowan, there might be more situations like this in the future. I mean, it’s clear that instant status effects only affect the person that was in control when they activate.” He mumbled to himself.

“What was that? How does that work?” Ark questioned.

“When we were fighting the behemoth it let out a crowd control stomp, but it only affected Rowan. My theory is that, since he was in control, and the effect was instant, only he was targeted. It must target the individual soul and not the whole spirit. Of course, if it was an ongoing effect and I switched in, it would target my soul.” Vorn explained.

“Huh, you really are a magic nerd.”

“That is like the third time you’ve said that! I get it!”

“Well, you keep proving it.” Ark said simply.

— — —

You couldn’t walk fifteen feet without stumbling onto an Orc campsite in this dungeon. They must be magically appearing, because he swore he scouted around his little underground base better, but just a few hundred feet away there was another base.

Well, it wouldn’t be there for long.

Arc used her plague beam – she hadn’t told him the actual name because she thought his name was funnier – and just like that the Orcs were on a ticking clock. She added a cough feature to this version which wasn’t present in the last Vitality plague, now it could spread without being eaten.

Arc and Vorn were a few hundred feet away from the Green Tide – like, fifteen Orcs – so that gave her plague a little time to spread around and weaken that pesky Tree Skin Perk.

Finally, when they were within fifty feet, he laid his hands on the ground and created a fault line.

A little force here and there…

The ground began to rumble, then truly quake. A few fell into large cracks in the cavern floor, but most just struggled to stay upright on the unstable flooring.

Now that they were relatively still, he did something that he was excited to try.

Combination Spells.

Gust was a simple spell. So was Inferno.

One was just a strong wind blast, the other? A continuous stream of fire.

Widen a variable… Carry the one… remove the acute angle limiter… and done.

He spread both of his hands out in front of him and released a wide River of Flame.

After just a few seconds, he was exhausted. That was really saying something, as he had – quite frankly – a ridiculous amount of Mana. But staring in front of him, he could see why… it may have been inefficient, but he couldn’t say it was ineffective. All that remained in front of him was ash. For hundreds of feet, there was nothing but destruction, even the crystal trees had melted.

Suddenly, he felt a hand smack him upside the head.

“Dumbass! We’re collecting their blood!” Ark shouted, but she wasn’t serious. She was just as impressed as he was.

This is what he could do with the control he had now…? He was so inefficient. He had basically no idea what he was doing.

He had so much room to grow!

— — —

After that exciting excursion, he decided to rest for the rest of the day. Blasting five full Mages' worth of Mana was tiring.

He spent a few hours learning how to make a mattress out of air and water and ended up liking it so much that he decided to try to keep it permanently memorized.

— — —

When he woke up the next day, he was already moving. It appeared that Rowan was back to his usual self.

“How are you feeling buddy?”

“Better. Sorry for worrying you. And thank you for saving us.”

“No problem. That Last Stand Title is nasty business, but it did save us, so you have nothing to apologize for. You did your part and I did mine. Though, I gotta admit that your role was more impressive!”

“Thank you. Your role was no less vital though. We would have died without your intervention. Remember that.”

“Of course. Thank you as well. So… are you still down to fight some Orcs?”

“I didn’t expect you to be the one asking that. The answer to that question is of course! That fight was the most fun I’ve ever had.”

“Glad one of us enjoyed it.” Vorn thought with an internally raised eyebrow. Soulbrow?

“Did you pick your skill yet?”

“No, I waited for you to wake up. You were out for a solid twelve hours, though I only woke up a few hours ago.”

“Cool. Get to it, then! I want to see what you get!”

Rowan pulled up his selection menu

Skill Selection:

[Ground Pound - Common]

Release a devastating smash into the ground, stunning those around you for a few seconds. Scales with STR

[Regeneration - Rare]

Your body has learned to use Vitality more effectively. Increase the speed of your regeneration. Scales with CON.

[Channel Vitality - Common]

Channel your vital energy into your attacks, making them stronger. Be careful you don’t drain yourself dry mid-fight, however.

That wasn’t a hard choice for Rowan given what he had just gone through. He still consulted Vorn first before picking, his Soulmate was the smartest guy Rowan knew.

“Well, yeah, [Ground Pound] and [Channel Vitality] are less impressive, but they aren’t bad choices at all! Common skills like those are the foundation of many legendary warrior’s Paths. Remember, when we evolve, all our skills evolve with us. Pick what sounds most useful. Granted, in this case, I agree that [Regeneration] is better. Though, [Channel Vitality] is a crazy good skill later on… It falls to you. Do you want more damage or more survivability?”

“Considering [Regeneration] will keep both of us alive, I’ll go ahead and pick that.”

“Thanks for actively choosing to prolong our continued survival, I guess there’s a first for everything.” Vorn said dryly.

There was a short pause for a few moments before Rowan asked, “So what did you mean by ‘Evolve’?”

“…”

“I forgot to tell you about that, didn’t I?” Vorn asked rhetorically.

“Yes.” Rowan answered, the bane of all rhetorical and sarcastic questions striking once more.

“So, there are a few major levels. Those being, level fifty, one hundred, three hundred, five hundred, and one thousand. At each threshold, your age is reset to your prime, and you begin to age slower. This makes leveling to one thousand possible at all, given it would take hundreds of years. At each threshold, you evolve. The System looks at your past achievements, actions, and interactions, and offers you a few choices. You're allowed to refuse them all and keep working at the threshold until you get a result you like, but you cannot level past the threshold until you evolve. However, and this is where a lot of people get stuck, most of the time the System won’t offer you any options. This is basically saying that it doesn’t think you are ready or deserving of the next step. Most people in the Cradle don’t make it past the second threshold. They are simply not sure or determined enough in their Path to progress.”

Vorn took a moment to catch his breath, then asked, “Does that answer your question?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“No problem. I really should have told you that sooner. I just keep forgetting that you're new and from a Systemless Dead Zone.”

“I could see how that could slip your mind.”

“Was… was that sarcasm?”

“I have no idea what you could possibly be referring to.” Rowan said simply.