“Very good! Add more mana to the spell structure, it should make the flames even hotter!”

  I called out tips to the mage-golems whenever I could to help them improve their magic and be better at their jobs. From the moment we first started this exercise, bursts of magic power could be seen all around the expanded clearing. In areas where it wasn’t seen, it could be felt.

  After what felt like days of practice, the first golem mage, the only one with a humanoid body, informed me that it had been 2 hours since we started. I thanked him and ordered everyone to stop practicing for the day. I really wanted to continue, but I was also worried that if we continued, the mana water tank would run dry.

  I briefly checked and saw that there was hardly a dent in the vast pool that lay beneath me. Okay, maybe we can keep going.

  “No, no. I still have other things to work on. Alright, you three, stop for now. Work in 1-hour shifts, rotating clockwise. Only one of you is allowed to practice at a time. If you spot an enemy, eliminate it. Otherwise, the rest of you stand guard.”

  I received a chorus of “Sir, yessir!” and left them to it.

  I moved a good distance away from my main body and created a secondary clearing by moving some of the trees in the area away. In fact, I was almost at the edge of my current territory, and I only acquired these specific trees recently. What I had in mind had the potential to be extremely dangerous, and I didn’t want to risk starting a wildfire that burned my whole body down.

  I was going to experiment with magic!

  So far, I have all the basic magics plus a couple of others. The one that I’ve been thinking of lately and got me excited to experiment some more was actually Metal Magic. So, I find it interesting that I can only use Metal Magic when I combine both Earth Magic and Fire Magic. If I try to imbue the metal with mana without first softening it with fire , then it becomes very brittle and will shatter. The important part is, though, what other magics am I missing from not combining two other magics?

  So far, the biggest other example of mixed magics came from my combination of Fire Magic and Air Magic. The fire was empowered to an extreme level when the two magics mixed, going so far as to upgrade the skills. But what would happen if I reverse the process and empower Air Magic with Fire Magic? The result I’m hoping for is… Well, let me just find out before I get my hopes up.

  I started by creating a circular breeze that continuously went around and around the clearing. I made it strong, but kept it to a reasonable level. It was just a localized tornado.

  I kept the tornado running for almost an hour, ensnared in the beauty and magnitude of what I was capable of, before I remembered what I was here to do. I checked my mana levels to make sure I still had enough to keep working on my experiment. I almost lost control of the spell when I saw that I was still at 100% mana. It fluctuated down to 99% every couple of seconds, but every time, it quickly went back up to 100%.

  “I guess that comes with the benefit of having such an enormous body. Alright, play time is over. Let’s get serious!”

  I steadily added more mana to the tornado, allowing it to slowly grow. When it was large enough that I started hearing creaking of the trees I was inhabiting, I decreased the intensity a good bit before holding it steady.

  As I commanded the winds whip around me, I imagined the particles in the air becoming energized. I didn’t want them to just burst into flame, though. No, I wanted them to take that energy and move it. To not just bounce against each other, but move the mana itself.

  The tornado caught on fire, and I put a quick end to that experiment. In rapid succession, I used Parasitic Takeover to ensure that the surrounding forest didn’t burn away. It was a good thing I did so, too, as a few embers had lit up. Once the plants were empowered by my Fire Resistance, though, it simmered down. At that point, I decided to take over a few hundred more feet of forest before trying again. With the area secured against fire, I was again free to experiment.

  After the third try to create my new magic, I decided to just watch the fire tornado burn for a while. It was such a beautiful sight, and it excited me to no end. The level of power I was able to wield was mind-boggling. The fact that I now had almost limitless mana on top of that felt almost like a cheat. And that was before I activated Mana Circulation. That would be monstrous.

  After a short while, I dismissed the burning tornado. While it was indeed beautiful, I didn’t want to draw away from the passive skills that relied on my excess mana production too much. The Mana Fog in the area had dissipated quite a bit from my destructive experiments, but it was still steady in the other areas. I could already see the fog coming back after having shut the tornado off only a few moments ago.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  I gave in to my internal demands and started pondering what exactly it was I was attempting to do.

  “What is lightning? And how would I recreate it with magic?”

  From what I remember of my old world, lightning occurred when there were two areas of opposite charge. One had a high charge, and the other had a low charge. Lightning was just a rectification of the two, balancing the charges out and creating an equilibrium in nature. So, how do I create areas of high and low charge?

  The first thing that came to mind was to use my Mana Condensation skill to create areas of high pressure and try to reverse that process to create areas of low pressure. If I do it right, then mix in a bit of Fire Magic to act as a frictional source, I might create some sort of spark.

  I gathered my mana and started condensing it. Just before it reached the point of becoming mana water, I released all control over it and watched as it rapidly expanded. Since there was no area of low density, it spread evenly in the air.

  “That’ll work for the area of high pressure. Now to try reversing it to create an area of low pressure.”

  I gathered my mana into a ball again, but instead of pressing in, I focused on pressing out from the middle, while maintaining the integrity of the wall I was pushing against. I focused on making it spherical, since that felt easiest. As I was expanding the ball, I unknowingly created a few thin spots in the wall, which created a gap that air rushed in from. It took two more tries before I achieved something I didn’t expect.

  Through repeated practice, you have learned the skill [Mana Barrier (U)].

  Mana Barrier (U): Active. Create a wall of dense mana, preventing whatever the user desires from crossing the barrier’s path.

  I could only guess that my trying to create a vacuum by not allowing air to pass through was what triggered it. But it’s a nice skill to have, nonetheless.

  Moving on, I went about creating my vacuum, now much easily than before. When I had what I thought was a large enough volume, I went about creating my area of high density. When both were ready, I completely released control and watched. And what a show it was!

  I created –

  Wind.

  I mean, it was a pretty strong gust, I guess. But that was all it was. The air just flowed from the high pressure to the low pressure, but really fast. There was also a sort of pop, which was interesting, but that was it.

  I created the vacuum a few more times, each time increasing the size. I focused mostly on the noise aspect of it and tried recreating it with just Air Magic. Pretty soon, I was able to make noises with just the vibrations in the air.

  Through repetition and understanding, you have learned [Sound Magic (R)].

  “Ooh, now that’s interesting. Is sound the higher expression of pure air, then?

  I went about playing with my new toy before getting back on target. I feel like I’m getting closer to understanding lightning, but I don’t quite know how to manifest it.

  I considered back in my younger human days when I would rub my socked feet on the fluffy carpet and use my finger to shock people. If I took that into consideration, then maybe I was looking at the relation of how Fire Magic fit in wrong.

  “What if I view it like…?”

  I created the tornado again and watched as the air particles moved. I strained my immense mind, focusing on the energy within, watching the mana move the very atoms in the air.

  Skill [Domain of Awareness (U+)] has been upgraded to skill [Domain of Awareness (R)].

  With the skill increase, it became much easier to see, by multiple magnitudes even.

  The mana bounces from molecule to molecule. With every bounce, a bit of energy is lost. I focused on gathering that energy and amplifying it. I then spread my focus to a larger area, gathering the amplified energy. As I kept going, I felt the connection to Fire Magic. I wasn’t necessarily using fire to do this, but the skill was basically a way to describe the excitement of atoms.

  Apparently, that bit of insight was what I was missing. All of a sudden, the energy became easier to grab, the mana moving faster through the air. Once I gathered a large portion of it, I could see the sparks flying through the tornado.

  I suddenly put a stop to the winds, and everything was eerily calm, except the ball of electricity in my metaphorical hands. I aimed the ball up into the air and released the energy.

  A bolt of lightning flew and arced far past my field of vision, and with it came a notification.

  Through extreme practice and powerful mana manipulation, you have learned the skill [Lightning Magic (R)].

  With how hard it was to get and how much mana it took to learn it, I was surprised it wasn’t a higher rarity. But that just meant I have that much farther to improve the skill, and I had nothing but time to do so.

  Loki watched in awe as the sky churned above him. He had been traveling with the adventuring group known as the Axe-a-lot-els for the last few days, and they had just reached their target destination as the sun was going down.

  In the forest ahead of them, he could already see the mysterious fog he was supposed to inspect. His magical senses were going off the charts as he watched the fog reach the road and suddenly disappear. It at least looked to be contained to the eastern side of the forest.

  “There’s a divot in the road up ahead. We can make camp there and check out the mist in the morning. ___, you’re on first watch.”

  The leader of the group ordered his gang, and Loki decided to follow. He hadn’t bothered to learn their names, as they had no magic users among them. The muscle brains focused strictly on the physical stats, completely ignoring the finer arts of magic.

  As the group finished setting their tents up, they were immediately attacked by a trio of orcs. Three of the five he was with grabbed their namesake axes and got to work. The other two went about gathering firewood and setting up the common area parts of the campground.

  “This is going to be a fun quest,” Loki muttered to himself. He still couldn’t shake the feeling of being next to the creepy fog, but he had work to be done.

  Discord Here!