The boar was pork, I absently noted as I literally stuffed my face into the raw meat while my son continued to cry, without end. I almost didn't notice beyond the vomit-inducing experience that I was "sinning". I knew it didn't matter, but it was amusing to think about. The day I left for the states, I vowed never to wear another headscarf again.

Those were more innocent times, days where I would never have imagined that a small trip back home would waylay me so utterly and so thoroughly that I was on another planet entirely.

I used my Spell Point to learn Regenerate Wound. I took care of the fractured shoulder, cuts, my feet, and my son in case anything happened. That was when I began to dig in.

When I was full once more, I decided to try my hand at spellmaking again. I did best when I derived from existing spells, but I had a feeling that my Spell Point expenditure would pay its dividends in a moment.

Regenerate Wound worked on the principle of speeding up natural regeneration and providing the necessary building blocks if missing. The latter was a hypothesis, but I knew already that magic could create matter. The antibodies that Cure Disease created were too much for the average human. It had to come from elsewhere. Maybe it was magic made into matter, or maybe it was transmuted from body mass?

Regenerate Wound spoofed time to do something the body would already do, helping against bleeding and broken bones seemingly without physical cost.

Hasten Digestion, as it was called, spoofed time to do something the body would already do, helping me eat and retain more food at extreme speeds, and its creation earned me two additional Intelligence points as well. My skin stretched itself taut the more adipose tissue was added to it. By the time dawn was upon us, I had no doubt added at least twenty kilograms with no lasting damage to my liver.

I wagered the Charm attribute would probably have taken a hit. To my surprise, it did not.

I closed my eyes and focused on the creation of a new spell. It was a rather easy one, and borrowed from Purge Poison as well. I could use magic to remove the waste produced by my brain during waking hours, allowing me to simulate a night of rest.

Spell creation complete! You have successfully derived a new spell from existing ones, Rested Mind. 1+ Intelligence awarded. 1+ Spell Points awarded.

Level up!

I wasn't quite done yet, however. My mind was clear and my body healed, but more could be done. After all, my legs still ached for rest.

Spell creation complete! You have successfully derived a new spell from existing ones, Rested Body. 1+ Intelligence awarded.

And a final freebie. Shift Signature already worked well in its unintended use, but I could use something more specialized. I had, after all, been wanting a diagnostic tool.

With all my current knowledge in biomagic, recreating another foundational spell was trivial.

Spell creation complete! You have successfully recreated a foundational spell, Sense Life. 1+ Intelligence awarded. 1+ Spell Point awarded.

All in all, that put me at a comfortable twelve points in intelligence and eleven in wisdom, with one unspent point at level eight. The mental attributes were both almost exactly three times more than I started with yesterday, and now I had two spell points that I would only use once I hit a wall.

Quite the turnaround, from hating the ‘machine’ that this system was, to acquiescing to it fully, celebrating the fruits it granted me while not even feeling a single sting of pride to ‘regain’ the power that, in my madness-addled state, I rightfully believed was mine.

Wisdom and cowardice went hand-in-hand. Only by understanding the threat that something posed could you have the wherewithal to flee, or rather beg and scrape for table scraps as it were.

Magic cluster exhausted. All spells within cluster have been learned.

Congratulations, you have learned every spell within a cluster. As the first to have done so within your cluster of choice, choose a reward.

Rewards

Title: Magic Specialist 25% increase in intelligence +3 Spell Points Cluster Class [Journeyman]: [Select Name] +100% speed and power of evocation within the class's cluster. 25% slower evocation outside the cluster. Metamagic is not affected by this disadvantage.

This was… rather alarming. Was this really all there was to biomagic?

The system manifested a new screen, and my heart almost seized.

It was responding.

Q/A

Q: Why are the magic clusters so limited?

A: The spells displayed on each cluster have been invented and shared by other mages. Invent your own once you are at the limit and share them from your nearest World Obelisk.

That was it. That was the entire screen. My mind was swimming in things to unpack. Rather than an ineffable guide to power, the system was akin to a pair of training wheels that guided you there. It did no actual inventing of spells. It databased the ones already in existence and offered participants a chance to share their discoveries to the wider world, where they would no doubt be available on the system's displayed cluster sets.

In essence, the system was the internet, and I was writing documents offline. I had to share them for other people to see.

This was leverage. The system wasn’t all-powerful. It needed me.

That was its greatest mistake, revealing that in this juncture.

The fact that biomagic was this anemic told me more than enough about this new world I inhabited. If all people turned out to be as primitive as the Bokora, I almost wouldn't even be surprised.

I was on my own from now on, it seemed. My current spell points almost seemed useless, but I realized that I would probably find use for them in another cluster.

The Cluster Class, which I would probably name biomage, would be… a good choice considering my area of specialization, though the disadvantages almost put me off completely. I almost died to slow evocation the night before after all.

The fact that metamagic was left out of this rather Faustian bargain was relieving, but still, the commitment seemed almost too large for me to make at first.

The three additional Spell Points were an agreeable prospect but would be utterly useless in my current situation. The only thing I could think of was that I could clear out the metamagic class with it and maybe receive another system commendation, though I somewhat doubted it.

Metamagic only had three foundational spells and nothing else. The system would probably not award someone so handsomely for only three spells. I wasn't likely to be the first person to clear out the metamagic cluster.

I also had no guarantee that even with five Spell Points in total, I could clear out another cluster. Medicine was my area of study and the closest thing I would call a passion. I didn't compare in other fields. If I invested in the foundational spells of, for example, water magic, there was no guarantee that my grasp on physics and fluid dynamics was profound enough to let me clear it out with ease.

I had to get strong fast if I wanted us to survive. I couldn't afford to waste time on pursuits that didn't net me exactly what I wanted.

Finally, there was the title, Mage Specialist. A permanent 25% increase to my intelligence meant that for every four points I earned, I would have an extra one. The reward was entirely inoffensive, and even now, it would net me three full integers worth of Intelligence.

It was an inoffensive choice, but entirely too unexciting in the meanwhile. And if three Intelligence points was all that I got from passing up the biomage class with its associated boons, I might as well just pick the one that only cost me some commitment to a path I was already resolved to walk down years ago.

Nevertheless, I wasn't one to make decisions on imperfect knowledge. I looked over the Q/A screen, wondering who the A was and how they knew the question I had in mind.

Them having access to my mind shouldn't have been surprising. Then again, I hadn't made overt attempts to conceal the way I felt at the revelation of overly limited clusters. Perhaps the Q/A always came in response to the revelation. It gave me hints on my purpose, however.

If the system's designer pulled me into this world to enrich it with future knowledge and a more scientific approach to spellcasting, they were succeeding in that regard. That was, however, far beyond my paygrade and not my current concern.

"Q and A," I intoned. Nothing. "Frequently Asked Questions," I repeated. Nothing again. "System, I have questions I want answered." Nothing again.

Then only certain things triggered the Q/A, and it had nothing to do with what I was asking it, but what it anticipated I would be puzzled about. Either that, or I was just giving a rude bastard too much credit.

That was a bust.

The choice was rather obvious from there. I chose and named the cluster class. I was a biomage, now. I evoked Purge Poison and cast it.

It took barely a second for the magic to fly and hit its target. I hypothesized that, since Wisdom more or less controlled magic intensity, the class lent me a nice portion of Wisdom for biomagic, probably so I would have twice my current pool, and penalized me for unrelated spells. It sounded fair, as the system had so far been working on such a give and take arrangement, my recent spree of spell creation notwithstanding.

As always, it was my son that roused me from my incessant rumination. Though my Intelligence sat at a respectable value, my internal monologue was still not at the speed that I wanted it to be.

"Hush, my child," I whispered into his ear as I cradled him gently. "We're at the final stretch, now."

I fished my breast out from my shirt and the milk flowed freely and abundantly. I thanked all the gods I never believed in, grinning like an idiot all the while.

I only had a few more items on my to-do list. Figure out a way to cast even faster, possibly by using Magic Manipulation, a way to regulate and balance nutrients in the body, and finally, sustenance from magic.

With that all achieved, my subsequent escape from this forest would be all the easier.

As it turned out, Wisdom was more vital than I gave it credit for in the crafting of spells. In my bid to look for any method to speed up my evocation, I selected and added a spell-point to Magic Manipulation.

Magic was a concept as well as a resource, as Shift Signature proved. To manipulate it meant to tap into the ambient background radiation of magic in the world and move it to your desire rather than activate the spell the usual way, by coaxing the magic to flow through the evocation glyphs and activate them.

In a way, normally I would dig ditches for water to flow into, but now I could bottle that water and transport it directly to the end-result. Theoretically, at least.

With Magic Manipulation, Shift Signature and Purge Life used in tandem, it took me a good fifteen seconds to cast.

This would have marked my first major mistake in this new world, but being stubborn as I was, I refused to take the defeat lying down.

Metamagic was supposed to be applicable to every cluster. After all, they were casting aids. Why should Magic Manipulation make me drastically slower in casting? The biomage class already exempted it from the 25% slower evocation disadvantage. There had to be a use for it.

I began to look inwards for faults. Chances were that it was me. Experimentally, I added the unspent point into wisdom and tried again. The difference was small but substantial. Almost an entire second shaved from the total.

Though it worked, it did not do so enough. I could cast several times faster without the Magic Manipulation. With Shift Signature and Purge Life, I could cast in two and a half seconds.

Absently, I tried to use Magic Manipulation while I thought. Maybe I needed to build an affinity for the spell before I could use it? Magic Manipulation was already a rather strange spell to begin with. It didn't fit the paradigm of spells so far at all. All spells seemed specialized and fulfilled a single purpose. Magic Manipulation could be viewed as such, but it was also too general and aimless, controlled mostly by force of will. Perhaps it was this lack of focus that made it weaker?

Or perhaps my willpower was lacking?

That was a laughable notion.

When the sun reached its zenith and I had officially been stranded for twenty-four hours, I cast using Magic Manipulation again. There was a difference, a minuscule reduction in time. To someone superhumanly perceptive like me, I could sense it clear as day. The difference was far from substantial, but it was there.

I cast several times just to be sure, and the result came out constantly every time. I needed more practice in Magic Manipulation.

A herd of beasts breached a faraway tree line, fifty metres away. They were like nothing I had ever seen, quadrupedal with tall backs and drooping heads like rams, large, floppy ears and flaring nostrils. Their snouts were short, giving them an almost primate-like visage. They would easily be the size of small elephants as well.

Before I could even move, one spotted me and froze. Even from this distance, it was locked on me.

I backed away and it stepped forward empathically before stopping. I continued to back away, looking behind me every other second. I had already cast Sense Life in case something else would blindside me as well.

When I was finally out of danger, I decided to stop to feed my child. I continued practicing Magic Manipulation, wondering if I could instead streamline the process during spells rather than just overload it with an immediate supply of it.

It was like pressuring a small measure of water through a narrow pipe as opposed to funnelling a bucket of water through the pipe and letting gravity do its job.

Luckily, the rationale was sound, though my mastery of the skill was the weakest link. Though the Shift Signatured Purge Life and Magic Manipulation usually took a bit less than fifteen seconds, this time it took eight. Four attempts later, I managed to shave it down to six and a half.

My ideal goal was to shave it down to a fraction of a second in order to facilitate rapid-fire attacks against large groups that didn't have to result in omnicide within a large sphere. This time, Wisdom would probably not save me if I tried the same stunt again. I was disproportionately more in tune with magic than Wisdom gave me a resistance to it. It took me four points to save me from madness, but at my current Wisdom level, it could take me ten or more points if I used pure magic again. My weakness saved me, but I could no longer depend on that.

For now, I only had to practice. I would get it within the week for sure.

When my son was finally sated, I got up and had us walking again, my mind shifting to the unique spell I had to create to ensure my son's survival from starvation.

The first spell I had to create was Regulate Nutrients. With Life Sense, I would need to gauge biological parameters regarding needs and balance them by shorting one and adding to the other. That way, I created no new matter at all, thereby easing the pressure on Wisdom.

After all, this wouldn't be the usual Cure Disease spell that conjured antibodies ad hoc. A full satiation spell would need to create water and nutrients enough to have someone perform optimally for a day, and would need a curse-like cling to it as well. On the bright side, it only needed the nutritionally beneficial compounds, eliminating the need to defecate entirely.

There was no guarantee that such a thing could even exist. Who was to say that Cure Disease didn't get the building blocks to create the antibodies from the target's body? Though I had found no evidence to suggest this, that could be chalked down to my unreliable Sense Life spell. After all, it didn't initially show me the full nutritional profile of a lifeform. I had to toggle that on my own.

Whatever the case, Regulate Nutrients would be a feasible candidate for a spell, for sure.

Taking deep breaths and making sure that I was out of danger by using Sense Life, I meditated on the syntax of magic. I appeared in the same starscape as before, and instead of letting the shimmering ceiling suck me in completely, I poked my head through it, looking into the otherness for more clues.

I endured the onslaught of alien figments and trusted in my Wisdom to protect me for just a little while longer. Though I recognized a certain futility in measuring your own sanity, I knew that mine was where it always was, albeit only a little frayed.

It was nothing some rest and a little excellence wouldn't fix.

When I was done, I returned, my understanding of the underlying mechanics of magic advanced by a leap. I would have to subject myself to this every ten or so wisdom points if I wanted to create more powerful spells.

With what I learned, I was finally ready to tackle Regulate Nutrients. Glyphs danced and morphed in my mind's eye as I constructed an entirely new arrangement for it, hitherto undocumented by the system.

Things soon devolved from in control to, well, not. Uncertainty and fear gripped me as I went through a particular patch with a rule that I inferred from context clues and past experience. I fucked up on the way, and immediately set to correcting the mistake, a patchwork job at best.

In the end, I avoided a miscast and insanity, but on the other hand, the spell collapsed on its own inbuilt logic and the magic itself disappeared completely.

I wouldn't call this a failure at all, actually. I was still alive to try again. This time, the logic was coherent and flawless.

I cast the spell on a shrub, and marvelled as the leaves seemed to fill out just a tiny bit and the stalks stiffened somewhat, enough to make the whole plant lurch a little.

Spell creation complete! You have invented an entirely new spell! You are awarded +5 Wisdom, +4 Intelligence, and the opportunity to name this spell. Remember to share your findings in a World Obelisk for additional rewards.

Spell name:

Level up!

Level up!

My entire brain simply lurched at once. Everything about my mind was so much… more, from the crisp clarity of my memories and the heartstopping speed of my thoughts to the feeling of all-knowing confidence only someone with my mind could match.

I was ready for anything, now.

Spell name: Regulate Nutrients has been added to local cluster.

You have earned a title! Due to achieving excellence in a particular field, you have been awarded a title to help you along the way.

Title: Spellmaking Pioneer - Reduces mental strain of spellmaking by 15%

I wondered how the system quantified the mental strain reduction, but I knew I would not find any answers by just asking it.

I had a title and a class, now. I always just assumed that it was either one or the other on account of the choices I had been made to commit to earlier, but that was a bit silly of me.

With all these boons, I decided that I was ready as ever to create a Satiation spell.

Things went well for the first second or so. The remaining thirty was a living hell. Failure upon failure cascaded until my life was in real, actual danger, not just my mind.

Why, oh why, did I try to reach beyond my station once more? Food was already a non-issue as long as I took the time to hunt, so why would I try to circumvent that using magic?

“Because, my sister,” I heard myself say. No, not myself, a self. “You desire to learn. That is what you are.”

I released the spell, managing to just barely preserve my own life in the process.

My mind dove straight into the sea of that fourth dimension, warping and bending under its otherworldly pressure.

No, not warping. Adapting.

Adapting to a reality that didn’t apply to my current one, a transient reality that I didn’t have the tools to fully parse.

I would be sane if I was in that other place, mired in that alien logic and able to understand it, but alas, my boy and I were mere mortals. We could do no such thing as we were.

Spell creation complete! You have invented an entirely new spell! You are awarded +5 Wisdom, +4 Intelligence, and the opportunity to name this spell. Remember to share your findings in a World Obelisk for additional rewards.

Spell name:

Level up!

Level up!

Right. A ‘brand new spell’. Of course this so-called system would be ignorant of my true depths, of course it knew nothing of what I could bring to it.

Say, for example, the tree that had suddenly transmuted into a bouqet of enormous, soft, suction-less tentacles, still putting up some token twitches despite being quite dead.

“No, not dead,” I muttered as I walked towards it, crouched and smelled the twitching appendages. “Dead would imply a cessation of life, though this creature could not be said to have ever been alive. Inherent sodium contents stimulating nerves made of protein, surrounded by layers of fat and protein.”

I took a bite.

This was filling. Satiation.

I had succeeded.

“Summon seafood,” I announced imperiously.

“How long will you continue these games?” I asked.

No. Not me. A self. Important distinction.

I turned around. “Who goes there?!” I raised a hand and evoked Purge Life as well as Shift Signature. There was no signature to be found that I could shift towards.

A chin rested on my shoulder, a chin with no magic signature. A figment?

Was I maddened?

That… should have been more obvious.

“I’m glad we’re finally in touch, sister.”

I turned around slowly to face the person resting their chin on my shoulder, and found a mirror image of myself, wrong in ways I simply couldn’t describe.

Otherness suffused her. It was her. This was a timeless being, and being timeless made no sense to a being with time. She had more lesses than just time that I could detect with my regretfully limited ken. Spaceless. Lifeless. Deathless.

Like one couldn’t see the wind, but knew it was there based on the rustling of leaves, I could only identify her otherness based on the effects it had on her.

Namely the things it took from her. The things she was not.

There was one thing I was positive she was, though. She was a self. A self of mine. My self.

Myself.