John took the next morning to sleep in and relax, and didn’t log in until near noon. For the past two weeks he’d been pulling sixteen hour days and it was nice to finally not have anything that needed to be done right now. Logging in he first went and checked on his two plots. The wheat was up to his knees now and the corn was finger length. Satisfied that they were going well he walked over to his Mana Well and took the three filled earth stones out of the charge plate, and replaced them with another set of empties. He then took a fresh set of claim stakes out of his inventory.

He placed the first two stakes at the two southern corners of his claim and then paced off a new claim, trying to get the same dimensions as the first one. He had to reposition the flags three times but eventually he got the popup he was looking for.

[You have staked out an area of 270,400 feet, do you wish to add it to your existing claim?]

[Y/N]

“Yes,” John said with a quick nod of his head.

[Land Claim Expanded. Your new boarders have been registered.]

With a nod of satisfaction John took out his wand, slotting one of the newly filled earth stones. After his talk with Ex yesterday he’d done some forum digging, and found that intent seemed to matter a lot with spells. While there was still some debate, it seemed the clearer the image you could picture, the better your spell would perform as desired; though the more you wanted to impose on it, the more difficult it became. John had already experienced that when he created the quartz windows, and he was certain Mana Manipulation was the only reason he’d succeeded.

Raising his wand he focused firmly on what he wanted, visualizing the dirt rejecting non-earth substances. He pushed his will against the spell and felt once more that feeling of slippery, resistant mana. Concentrating he grasped it in mental fingers and forced it into the form he wanted. The ground he was working on trembled and he could see the deep roots of the grass violently eject from it. Grinning he grabbed at the patch of grass and pulled, finding that it was indeed freed from the earth, even if its roots were still tangled with the other, nearby grasses.

Nodding with approval he began walking the length and breadth of the new area using Move Earth to quickly push out all the roots. About a minute later he’d covered 3,750 feet and his stones were empty again. Doing a bit of math he determined he’d need around 180 full stones before he finished the area… well, 177 now. At a charging rate of three stones per six hours it’d take far, far too long. John ran a hand through his beard as he thought, his hand stopped abruptly as he brushed past the amulet he was wearing. Now that he thought about it, the charge plate only drew from the Mana Well’s recharge rate, it didn’t actually draw from the well itself. The well should actually be full, that was another 1,215,000 mana he could use, and if he stopped charging mana stones it would be fully recharged within 24 hours. With 1,215,000 mana every 24 hours it’d be only about five days to clear the entire area this way.

John walked back to the Mana Well and plucked the three earth stones from the charge plate, placing them quickly in his inventory. He then went back to work, first draining his own Mana dry and then drawing from the well via the amulet. Over the next ten minutes he cleared out about a fifth of the area.

John contemplated the now freed grass. He’d been doing some more reading and learned that proper composting required actually building compost piles and simply mixing the grass into the ground didn’t qualify. Fortunately he wasn’t having trouble with the grass growing back, but it could have and that would have invalidated days of work. This time he wanted to do it right, the only problem was how all the roots were matted together, making it difficult to separate the grass into piles.

Reaching down he grabbed a handful of grass and gave a powerful yank. To his surprise the roots tore easily and the clump came free. Thinking for a moment he called up his status.

[Name: Johnathan]

[Race: Basajuan]

[Level: 3]

[Mana: 300]

[MRegen: 10/minute]

[Leveling Points: 0]

[Attributes]

Strength: 22 Constitution: 22 Dexterity 10 Intelligence: 30 Wisdom: 30

[Skills]

Engineering – Novice Farming – Apprentice Light Armor – Novice Swordplay – Novice Meditation – Novice Mana Manipulation – Apprentice Mana Sight – Journeyman Enchanting – Apprentice

[Spells]

Move Earth – Apprentice Create Font – Apprentice Create Earth – Novice Move Water – Novice Hasten Decay – Apprentice

He eyed his strength stat for a few moments and then looked at the clump of grass in his hand. His strength had almost doubled since he started, those first days of constant labor had been good for both it and constitution. It seemed that now he could just tear apart the clumps of grass without need of the shovel to cut the roots first. Nodding to himself he got to work.

When he stopped for the night, several hours later, he’d made several distinct piles of grass, each about three feet high and wide (in both directions). Tomorrow he’d finish off the loose grass and then start decaying the piles. For the moment however, it was time to sleep.

The next day found him working at the grass again, a project that took the better part of the morning, but when he was finished all the grass was in piles. Given he still had several hours until the Mana Well was finished filling he took out his wand and slotted a Death stone into it. After moving to the first pile he began with a casting of Create Font right at its top using the barest trickle of mana to create a spreading dampness rather than a torrent of water. He’d read it was important that the compost pile be damp, and it’d been at least two weeks since it last rained.

Next he brought up his wand and focused on the pile as he cast Hasten Decay. Since its last rank up the spell now caused things to decay at a rate of one week per second, a far, far better rate than its original day per second. After the first couple of seconds the pile collapsed, after the next two it turned into a black, slimy mess. John stared at it; this, he was sure, was not supposed to happen.

A quick google later and he’d found his problem, he was composting just grass. Grass, as it turns out, breaks down and releases a lot of moisture when composting, further it flattens and reduces airflow, which is apparently essential for the composting process. When this happens the result tends to be a black, slimy mess. Further, it turned out that composting grass smelled, and now the entire area reeked of ammonia. Finally, it had to be turned while composting, so as to let things like trapped gasses escape.

Looking at the pile John considered his options. How was he going to aerate, turn, and decay the pile all at the same time? He could use Move Water to stir the pile and remove excess moisture, but he couldn’t do that while he was decaying at the same time… could he? Holding his left hand out he concentrated on the Move Water spell, visualizing it grabbing the water in the pile and using it to shift and agitate the pile. The mana squirmed in his grip, but he kept a firm hold on it. Slowly the pile began to shift and move, and as his grip on the power became further the pile began to agitate quickly.

Looking at the stirring pile John brought to bear the wand and tried to call forth Hasten Decay. The mana bucked wildly in his grip, and it was all he could do to hold on to it. For a few moments he managed to hold both spells until the mana went spinning out of control. The Move Water spell broke free of his command and the stinking pile of slimy black grass exploded; covering the entire area, and himself, in the smelly substance.

John, now covered in rancid grass juice, merely stood there for a moment. He very carefully did not open his mouth in any way as he called up Create Font and targeted it directly above himself, releasing a good portion of his mana into the spell. A deluge of water ran over him as he furiously scrubbed at the hair on his face and head. When he let the spell lapse he was cleaner, but the disgusting goop had stained his simple tunic and pants. Worse, he could still smell it on them.

Sighing John reached to remove the stone from his wand, only to find that it had shattered in the backlash, all that was left were a few pieces stuck in the socket. With a shake of his head he cleaned it out and then slotted a water stone. Stone in place he called up Move Water once more, and visualized pulling it off (and out of) the ground around him. He was careful to visualize the water as being clean and having no particulates in it. Once more the mana bucked under his control, but it wasn’t nearly as strong as the thrashing that had caused the backlash.

The water floated into the air around him in rivulets just as he imagined, and he grimaced at what was about to happen next, but it was necessary. He began to move the water in a violent whirl around himself; then, after a deep breath, onto himself. As he was enveloped by the water he began to agitate it more violently until he could feel it yanking strongly at his hair and clothes, and felt it scouring the skin on his face. He held it like that until his lungs screamed for air, then he released it.

The water fell back to the ground from whence it had came and John gulped down a fresh lungful of air. His face felt raw, but the smell was gone from his hair and clothes, even if some dark stains remained. With a final effort of Water Control and will, John convinced the majority of the water to slide off himself. As he did so he wondered if maybe he couldn’t make water fast enough to cut. Something to consider for later perhaps.

Looking around at the now muddy ground at the other nearby piles John sighed. Compost, at least without some kind of filler material, was obviously off the table. That pretty much left burning, except he had no way to create or control fire. Shaking his head, he came to the conclusion that he’d have to wait until his next level up in order to deal with the grass piles. For now he’d just clear the land and pile it up. Hopefully his next level would come with the harvest; or, if he was lucky, while he was clearing.

Checking the time there were still several hours before the well was full again. He could of course use the mana now, but he currently wasn’t in a hurry, so waiting was fine. In the meantime he examined the broken fragments of death stone.

[Name: Death Mana Shard Fragment]

[Quality: Trash]

[Description: A small piece of shattered Death Mana Stone]

All of them were the same when inspected. It appeared they’d lost any mana that was stored when the stone shattered, which was unfortunate but not unexpected. Sighing he dropped the fragments to the ground.

Unsure of what to do next he walked across the property to his house. With an effort of Move Earth he shaped a seat into the nearby boulder and sat down. As he sat there he considered what he wanted to do. He needed to build a Portal, though he still had no idea how that worked. The system wasn’t giving him any hints, he assumed this meant it was above his ability to make. The thing he was sure of was that he’d need a lot more Mana Shards and Stones.

With a gesture and an effort of will he opened his blueprints. A mostly empty screen appeared before him, it had a single entry labeled ‘Basic Mana Well’. He clicked on it and it showed a 3d rendition of the maze of lines and runes that made up a mana well. Looking at it he tried to imagine it spanning multiple megaliths. The blueprint suddenly changed and expanded, showing what he’d conceived in his mind’s eye. He hadn’t expected the blueprint to be interactive, but he supposed that with structure that could be placed on almost anything it’d need to be.

He closed the Mana Well blueprint and focused on creating a new one. A blank bar appeared asking for a title, and he entered ‘Portal Henge’. Name accepted, he was greeted with a blank screen. He began by imagining a circle with a diameter of 520 feet. A large, flat circle appeared and he began imagining the changes he wanted to make to it. First he created a ditch, ten feet wide with sides the sloped down at a 60 degree angle until they met the flat bottom of the trench five feet down.

Here he hesitated. He wanted a Mana Well for each Element, so far as he knew there were only ten, but perhaps there were more? “Help, what are the elements used in magic?”

[Answer: There are six Major elements (Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Light, and Darkness) and four Minor elements (Life, Death, Time, and Space). All magic uses one or more of these elements.]

John read the text and then dismissed it. He populated the inner rim of his ditch with 11 trilithons (a pair of large standing stones with a third across the top). Each one was labeled for an element and positioned across from its opposing element. The final megalith was simply labeled ‘Raw Mana’ and positioned across from an open space labeled ‘Entrance’. With a mental effort he oriented it so that the entrance was facing west.

As he looked at it, he played with a few idle fancies, imagining different materials he’d like to use for the construction. In the end, however, he knew he’d be using Create Earth, which meant local materials. “It’s a good thing quartz is local to everywhere,” he muttered to himself. That of course made him wonder what kinds of quartz he could make.

With a thought he opened the browser in a new tab and brought up a list (with pictures) of different types of quartz. “Let’s see…” he muttered to himself. “Color coded quartz maybe? Clear quartz for air, deep brown for earth, red and orange for fire, deep blue for water. Dark is just black quartz, light is milky quartz. Life, what’s the colors of life? Green, shades of green. What about death? Ah, I’ve got it, transparent smokey quartz for dark, and black quartz for death. Space is transparent smokey quartz with little dots of milky quarts inside… is there a way to make the quartz sparkle? I’ll have to look into that… Time… what the hell does time look like?”

John scrolled through the pictures as he pondered. Eventually he found himself going down a rabbit hole that ended with him looking at various gems and their chemical compositions. As he scrolled down the list, he came to one that caught his attention. He sat up straighter and stared at it. “There’s no way that’d work…” he muttered to himself. “It’s definitely not common… I mean all the materials are common, but part of those materials is water… maybe if I made a new spell?”

John saved his blueprint and then pushed both windows off to the side. First he called up Create Earth, then he released it calling up instead Create Font. Dismissing the spell he ran his fingers through his beard. He knew that the ‘earth’ rune was a conjunctive rune of ‘stone’ and ‘dirt’, and while those two things were very broad he could create different types of stone (and presumably dirt, sand, or gravel) by imposing his will on the spell. Perhaps if he created a new conjunctive rune…

Taking a breath John focused on manipulating his mana, pulling it out of himself. He began by drawing the ‘create’ rune. It wasn’t quite as hard as he remembered, no doubt because he’d ranked up Mana Manipulation, but he still lost the rune twice before it stabilized. Nodding to himself, he began to draw a new rune, ‘stone/dirt/water’. He broke the rune a dozen times, two dozen, and on the 25th try it stabilized.

[Spell Gained: Create Mud]

[Name: Create Mud]

[Description: Create a patch of waterlogged earth.]

[Current Rank: Novice]

[Current Amount: V = (1*L)3 ft3]

[Mana Cost: 15/CF/second]

John released his grip on the mana and looked around. It was well into evening now, the well was probably full, but… But this really couldn’t wait. Standing up he held his hand out in front of him and focused. He needed three common elements, Silicon, Oxygen, and Hydrogen. He needed them in a specific pattern, silicon bonds with oxygen, hydrogen bonds with oxygen, and then the two bonded together create… He cast the spell, channeling the smallest amount of magic he could. The mana bucked and he clamped down on it, forcing his will as it struggled with him like a bull. He nearly lost the spell but he wasn’t going to let this get away from him. He felt a smooth, solid weight appear in his palm and he cut off the spell.

He was surprised to find he was both panting and sweating hard. But one look at the rock in his hand told him it’d been worth it. It was a muddy brown thing, almost ugly, except for the small flares of internal fire picked out by the fading daylight. Taking a deep breath John laughed, until a slow clap from behind him caused him to abruptly spin about.