NOVEL NEXT Chapter 115
Back in her own body, Argul quickly busied herself as a mobile magical heater to enable Luna to cook, both figuratively and physically, and, since keeping a spell up and running wasn’t that difficult for her, also mulled over her updated status.
Nothing much had changed there since she last looked. She had grown a bit stronger, but the divide between her system determined maximum potential and the potential she actually used had grown again thanks to her level up.
Argul didn’t create any new spells either, shame on her. In all seriousness though, that didn’t mean much as the improvements she made to the spells she had already weren’t represented in the system.
Perhaps Alyra would include those one day in some form of mastery percentage or something, but Argul seriously doubted that. Her daughter was already taking on a massive amount of data that would only increase as more and more of Erod was inside of mana, which brought into question whether there was a mana sphere around the planet. Maybe the mana stuck to the gravity or the magnetic field of Erod just enough that it wasn’t left behind in space as the planet moved, because she was pretty sure that the majority of mana stayed here on the planet.
Anyway, her daughter was already doing a lot with the system and even though a mastery system would only be a small addition in workload right now, it was still more work, work that wasn’t strictly necessary and would massively increase in the future when there were more living beings and more knowledge around.
It wasn’t Alyra’s job to rate people, but to support their growth and make them reach new heights after all. Knowing where one stood wasn’t important for that and something other institutions could do themselves.
Argul closed her status and listened to Luna through the open kitchen window as the woman, Argul really wanted to call her girl but Luna was actually a bit older than her, hummed to herself. A few minutes later Luna came outside with a pot full of hot soup in her covered hands. She had to put the pot down next to the ladder and awkwardly make her way down before she could pick it back up to carry it to the table that stood next to the camper.
Luna put the pot down on the table and then sat on the closest chair with a massive sigh. “You know, this would be so much easier with some kind of telekinesis?”
Argul nodded absentmindedly to that. “I can see what you mean.”
Going up and down the camper was a bit cumbersome for everyone, but Luna had it especially hard, because of her hoofs. Not only did she have a lifetime of experience for walking with human feet, meaning she had to relearn everything, but ladders also weren’t made for hoofs, seeing as each step was right below the other. This forced her to lean backwards everytime she had to move up and down or otherwise she wasn’t able to connect to the steps of the wooden ladder. Because of this, Luna always had to fight against her habits and each trip up and down required her active focus.
Telekinesis wouldn’t help her with moving around though, but it would make it much easier for her to carry things around.
Argul pondered for a bit about how she would do such a thing, ignoring everything else that was going on around her.
One method she could think of, would be to offset the gravitational force of the object she wanted to move and then induce said object with kinetic energy to make it go where she wanted it. This could be done either by feeling, which would require a bit of training but should be enough as long as she communicated her desire to the mana with a clear mental picture, or it could be done with math, using equations to tell mana what she wanted. The latter was clearly more annoying, but it also promised to be cheaper mana wise as there wasn’t much left for interpretation which, from her experience, reduced the amount of wasted mana.
A second, much different method would be to tie the movement of the target object to her will by encasing it in her mana while also leaving a clear connection to her mana soul. This would allow her to continuously move the object without having to refresh her spell, meaning the spell should be much more intuitive after it has been cast. On the other hand though, the spell would require a large initial investment of mana, a constant upkeep cost depending on the quality of the connection and it would put the strain of movement on the mind.
Nevertheless, the second method should be much easier to learn, which was important in this case. The spell wasn’t meant for her, but for Luna and she wasn’t as adept at mana manipulation as Mia.
Done with all the theory, Argul stared at one of the forks that had appeared on the table during her thinking and encased it in her mana, all the while she refined the connection between herself and her mana cloud. Since she had quite a bit of experience with mana connections thanks to her [fate contract] magic, this was much easier for her than it would be for others.
A quick look at her mana, made her wince. This alone had taken her 43.56 mana, a cost that would only increase the larger the target object was and the worse the spell construct was. Luna would probably need around 80 or even 90 mana for this. The upkeep seemed to be manageable at around two mana per minute at least.
Focusing back on the fork, Argul willed it to move up into the air and hover there, making sure to impress the need for it to move slowly to the mana. Better safe than sorry and all that.
The fork shuddered a bit and then moved upwards as if in slow motion, leaving a few traces of her mana behind. A quick look at her status confirmed that movement increased the upkeep cost, though not by much.
Argul’s focus was interrupted by clapping and a system message, leaving the fork to fall down. Argul didn’t care though, grinning happily at herself. Magic was just that awesome.
[Skill created]
Telekinesis
Envelop an object in mana and will it to do your bidding. Let your mind be your hand and rejoice! Now you never have to touch filth *cough* grass *cough* again!
Argul ignored the screen pointedly, she knew what her new spell did, and looked around instead.
Everyone had apparently gathered while she was lost in thought and they were waiting for her. Going by Luna’s slightly disapproving frown Argul had maybe taken a bit long and the soup was getting cold. Mia and Alyra on the other hand were smiling brightly, the former looking just about ready to explode in her eagerness to ask how Argul got the fork to levitate. Arthur, though, Arthur had the glinting eyes of a man who discovered a new promising method to take away the shiny stuff of others without getting caught.
Argul squinted at him and he quickly looked away, guilty as charged.
Not wanting to leave the others waiting any longer, she chose to forgo explaining [telekinesis] to Mia for a moment and changed into her humanoid form. Halfway through however, Argul realized that she would be naked once the change finished and quickly added [invisibility] on top of herself. It didn’t stop her embarrassment though, as she now had to go into the camper to cloth herself.
She came back outside a few minutes later with disheveled hair and very hot cheeks and sat down on her chair, trying not to look at anyone else. “Bon appetit?”
Argul pressed herself into the chair, focusing on the soup in front of her and trying to avoid thinking about the smirks of the others. She wasn’t successful and dinner started very awkwardly.
Halfway into the meal, Mia finally came to Argul's rescue by asking her about her new spell, which she gladly did. This did much to dispel the weird atmosphere and a few minutes later, Argul encouraged everyone, but especially Luna, to try themselves.
Luna was shy about it at first, but caved in after she had to stop Mia from stealing meat out of the soup pot with a levitating fork. They all watched her as she tried and failed a few times until Argul helped her out. Thankfully, Luna was able to reclaim some of the mana so that they didn’t have to wait for hours until she could try again.
With Argul’s help though, Luna managed to pick up her spoon with her mind. The result was shaky, but a success nonetheless and everyone congratulated her enthusiastically.
While everyone was distracted with this, Arthur attempted to steal some of Mia’s meat. Both Alyra and Argul noticed however and retaliated. From there dinner quickly devolved into a spoon fight of epic proportions. Alliances were created, sisters in arms betrayed and foes ambushed. It didn’t matter that there was no more meat anymore three minutes into the fight as there was still soup to fight over. That was probably the point where their surroundings became a big mess of things covered in soup. Nobody cared though, they were having way too much fun and MAGIC and Aina had the time of her life, hunting around for more soup.
Sadly, the mana pools of the mostly normal members of the group weren’t endless and they ultimately had to stop. Argul blasted her surroundings with a bit of [cleaning].
Somewhat exhausted, everyone calmed down and helped clearing the table. They gathered around the table again a few minutes later and played games until the last vestiges of sunlight disappeared behind the horizon.
As everyone but Argul got up to go to bed, Luna lingered behind for a moment.
“Magical stove, enchanted oven, refrigerator, mana powered freezer.” she whispered before she hurriedly fled into the camper.
Argul blinked befuddled as she looked after Luna. A moment later she connected the dots and couldn’t help but laugh.
“Just mention something next to Argul, plant the seed of an idea and your wish shall come true. Very funny.” She thought to herself with a smile.
Luna wasn’t wrong either. The thought was now there and Argul couldn’t help but think about it. First though, she changed back into her fox form.