Chapter 46 - Magical Items Creation Version II (Patreon)

The following day, I sank my awareness into my mana channels and examined every millimeter. They looked fine, and I really wanted the faster mana regeneration, but I still hesitated to cast the Absorb Mana spell again on myself. I was beginning to explore magic; I didn’t want to cripple myself and end this amazing thing.

I tried to create the spell around me, not by casting it, but by “coloring” the mana around my body with the “absorb” flavor. After half a day, I succeeded, but the result was that the mana around me became thicker and denser, and I was able to regenerate faster because of the density. Still, nowhere near the speed I regenerated when I cast a spell on myself.

Next, I tried to create the absorb aspect in one of the mana channels in my arm. My mana started to tick up faster, but my channel started to itch almost immediately, so I stopped.

Finally, I bit the bullet, sank my awareness into my mana channels to monitor them, and cast the spell on myself again. I could “see” my channels expanding, and the more they expanded, the more severe the itching became. I started to feel the pins and needles, but the spell ended before I got apprehensive. Yesterday, I had about half a minute of worry before the spell ended; today, maybe twenty seconds. Hmm, so it trains the channels to expand?

I was excited about the idea but wanted more control. The spell had a fixed duration; I wanted to control the duration. I decided to approach this from a different angle. For the next three days, I learned how to control the amount of mana that gets the “absorb” flavor, until I could control it perfectly up or down.

When I felt in perfect control of the amount, I colored a minute amount of the mana in my left hand with absorption and let it flow in; I slowly raised the amount until I felt a slight itching and kept it there.

After a while, the itching stopped, so I upped the amount but didn’t feel the mana go in. I was stumped. My channel looked fine, the flavor was correct, and I had no idea why it stopped. It bugged me the whole day, to the point that I didn’t do anything except stare at the view. In the evening, after dinner, I facepalmed and checked my mana: 7200/7200. Basically, I’m an idiot sometimes.

Ru approached me and said, “The two weeks you paid ended. It will take another four or five days to reach the location you want. Pay me for four days, and I’ll tell you if you need to pay more.”

“No problem. How much?”

He gave a strange look and answered, “One gold and eight silver.”

I gave him two gold and said, “Don’t give me change. If it takes another day, this will cover it. If not, the excess is a thank-you gift for good service.”

He thanked me and left.

I concluded that the strange look was because I said, “No problem.” It's probably an expression they are not familiar with. Oh, well, I’m John Rue, the exporter of Americanism.

The following day, I continued my barrel examination and experimentation. I started to learn the “release” part of the spell as a way to spend mana. It was much more complex than the “absorb” part and took me two full days to master. When I felt I had it 100%, I wet a towel and cast the spell on it - nothing happened. I was stumped for a few minutes and concluded that the flavor is not a simple ‘absorb’ or ‘release’ but ‘absorb mana’ and ‘release mana.’ It was the name of the spell, after all. Now, I had no idea how to test the spell. I definitely had no intention of casting it on myself. I liked my mana in me, thank you very much.

I decided to attempt a second time to create a Purifying Aluminum Blob. I removed my cast iron potjie pot, put the aluminum blob with the Purify spell inside, and re-melted it. When it melted, I cast the absorb and release mana on it repeatedly, with occasional Purify, just in case, until it cooled. While doing this, the red light started blinking, but I ignored it.

When the metal solidified, I scooped another bucket from the river and put the blob inside while monitoring the water with my mana. In two to three minutes, the water was pure. I was so concentrated on the blob that I felt the mana being absorbed, taking on the flavor of purification, and released with the spell.

YES!!

I created my first autonomous magical item. This time, I didn’t stop myself. I went into the tent and danced Gangnam Style.

I checked the red light:

You have learned the spell [Exude Mana]

I love progress!

I returned to the absorption experiment with my mana channels. I colored the mana again in my left arm and felt the mana get absorbed. When the itching stopped, I added another minute amount with the colored mana, and again and again. My mana was full in a bit under two days instead of three full days, and when I compared the channels in both arms, the one in my left arm was a bit wider. The difference was less than a millimeter, but there was a difference.

Ru informed me that we would reach our destination sometime tomorrow, so I decided to relax, play with Stretch, and learn a new song on my guitar.

While looking through the songbook, I came across the song “The Boxer” by Simon & Garfunkel. I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it as a teenager. I still remembered all the lyrics, and with my guitar-playing level, it took me ten minutes to learn the chords.

I started playing and singing it, Stretch joined me, and Jul and Rin drifted closer.

“I am just a poor boy
Though my story's seldom told..."

When I reached the final part of the song, which was only “Lie-la-lie,” I sang at the top of my lungs and felt pure joy.

I was happy with my accomplishments, my journey, my progress, and most of all, about being alive.