「Yusdrolir: Aye? Ye want to spit at it... haha... HAVE YOU GONE BONKERS?」

The dwarf screamed at me, waving his hands madly. But I had never been more serious.

「Allen: No no, I got an idea, let's do it. Just spray the water as much as possible.」

I explained to him the plan in detail.

「Yusdrolir: I hope your plan works, mate. Just so ya know, wet sand chokes your nose and mouth better than dry sand. Just sayin'.」

He grunted without much enthusiasm.

We took a mouthful of water. I nodded at Yusdrolir. Gods, we looked ridiculous with our cheek full of water. We stepped forward to bait the elemental. After a few steps, the creature came at us with a jolt! But we were ready and jumped back spraying it back with water.

To my dismay, the elemental managed to avoid the most of the water jets.

What if...

「Allen: Again!」

The dwarf grunted in reply.

We did it again. This time I used Burn on the sprayed water to generate some vapor. Try to avoid that, bastard. After several attempts, thanks to the sprays and the vapor, it started to show some globs of wet sand sticking together, orbiting at a slower pace. I shook a fist, It's fucking working!

「Allen: Yes! Keep going!」

I cast freeze on a few globs and they fell down into the water. We can do this.

I got back into the waterfall and took another mouthful.

Spray! Heat! Freeze! Spray! Heat! Freeze! Spray! Heat! Freeze!

We slowly chipped away at the elemental. My face muscles and cheeks were hurting.

I took a little pause to recover my mana and resumed the strategy.

Spray! Heat! Freeze! Spray! Heat! Freeze! Spray! Heat! Freeze!

Finally, we could no longer discern any more floating piece of sand in the air.

「Allen: We... did it!」

I can't believe it actually worked!

「Yusdrolir: Gwahahaha... AYE!」

The dwarf was roaring with laughter.

As we got out of the waterfall, the dwarf grabbed my arm and looked at me with a serious expression.

「Yusdrolir: Oy... no words to anyone we killed a sand elemental with... spits... aye?」

No way, that would turn us into laughing stocks.

「Allen: If anyone asks, we washed it away with a giant splash of water... alright.」

We both nodded.

We dried our clothes with my heat magic and walked back to Valarest.

I broke the silence with some small talk.

「Allen: So, there's a desertic area at two days of distance from here?」

「Yusdrolir: Wha- no... I... huh... kinda jumped through a portal.」

A portal? That piqued my interest.

「Allen: Are there gate portals connecting to distant places? I haven't seen any yet, where could I find one?」

Yusdrolir looked away and began fidgeting with his hands.

「Yusdrolir: Maybe? I dunno... this one had been opened by... a high mage? Heck if I know, things were... kinda hazy... I was running and the portal was there... I jumped in.」

Jump through a random portal? That reminded me of the shenanigans my clan mates would pull. Ambushing other players by opening portal gates inside safe zones, and obliterating the poor fools stepping through them.

「Yusdrolir: ...」

Yeah... walking into a random portals doesn't sound exactly like a great idea. Unless you're a walking murder machine equipped with godly artifacts and looking for deadly excitement.

The dwarf read my stare and spoke.

「Yusdrolir: Okay, ya see... maybe I was a little drunk and didn't think things through, ay? But it all worked out in the end.」

Yusdrolir stopped. I stopped too and faced him with a questioning glance. He was scratching his beard while looking at the ground.

「Yusdrolir: Ehrrr... would ya mind omitting the part where I jumped into a random portal, aye? Thanks.」

I gave him a silent stare and resumed walking. I think I'm getting a picture of why his friends had left him behind last time.

This dwarf is trouble.

Once across Valarest's gates, Yusdrolir excused himself saying he had to find a way to contact his party. I walked back to my room and sat at the desk. Back to safety. I sighed in relief.

Well, my training excursion did not go exactly as planned, I suppose.

I did get some practice, though. That should count for something.

Defeated by spits. I smiled a little then returned serious.

Enough of that, let's get back to work. I wanted to work on my enchantment skills.

After all the practice I had, I had acquired a better feel of how enchanting worked. It was like expanding my will inside, and in doing so acquiring a three-dimensional feel of what was inside. Then I could build "circuits" of mana and spells, arranging them, unraveling them and so forth. It reminded me of the circuitry stuff we did at school back in the days. The notes I took from that nook about enchantments helped a great deal.

I took out the silver cube and tried interfacing the magical microprocessor with hallucination magic.

It took me too many tries with trippy results, but in the end, I managed to get a stable picture directly operated by the processor. I smiled tiredly.

I swear if I am again just hallucinating about succeeding, I'm gonna smash my head on the table. I performed a few tests and confirmed the results.

It was actually working.

I had programmed my first magical "Hello world". The two words neatly displayed on the hallucinated screen. Words couldn't explain my satisfaction.

I would have shown my friends right then, but I doubt they'd have understood the underlying complexities and implications of my masterpiece. At least not with just a bland "Hello world" to show off.

No. I need something more dramatic, something that might be useful. I just knew the thing.

I got cranking.

The next morning I knocked at the trio's door.

「Ellin: Hi Allen! Huh... are you fine?」

She asked with worry.

「Allen: Of course I'm fine! Why wouldn't I be.」

I replied, fueled by my eagerness to show off.

「Ellin: Well... you have dark circles around the eyes and... you look very tired, didn't you sleep?」

She was being uselessly concerned.

「Allen: Sleep! Ahah... ha... who needs sleep, I'm a genius! Let me show you guys.」

Yes, let's focus on the important things. I wasn't dead tired. If I kept telling myself that, I would probably convince myself.

I walked in with the silver cube in my hands. Grastel and Namrick were yawning, still lying on their beds.

「Grastel: Good morning, Allen.」

「Ellin: What's that?」

She asked, gazing curiously at the silver cube in my hands.

I smiled patronizingly and held it to her.

「Allen: Take it and try to activate it.」

Ellin looked at me with uncertainty.

「Allen: Don't worry it's safe.」

She hesitated a little but took the silver cube and activated the magic inside.

「Ellin: Okay, now what?」

She asked while inspecting the cube.

「Allen: Try to pay attention to your upper right.」

She did.

「Ellin: Uh!」

She frowned for a second.

「Ellin: What is this? I see a circle... there are... dots inside?」

「Allen: Pay attention to it.」

I said before doing a stupid dance inside the room. Obviously with a stupid grin plastered on my face.

Namrick and Grastel started questioning my sanity through their sleepy eyes.

「Ellin: Ah!」

She exclaimed.

「Ellin: This is... these dots... are us?」

「Allen: Exactly!」

I said, crossing my arms and looking smug.

Grastel rose up and moved closer.

「Grastel: Uh, can I try it too?」

Ellin passed the box to Grastel. I was eager for praise.

I moved around the room so he could see it working.

「Grastel: Hmm... the range is pretty short, though. It's also draining my energy...」

Damn it Grastel! Always complaining. He's just like me.

「Allen: I know, but it's just a prototype. It'll take time for me to optimize and fit into a ring.」

Namrick finally stood up and joined us, but he looked like he was still sleeping.

「Ellin: How... how did you do that?」

She looked genuinely surprised.

「Allen: Magic!」

The three of them gave me a flat stare. I smiled and began explaining.

「Allen: Well, long story short, I used trigger spells and hallucination magic as building blocks. When the triggers detect a spiritual mass above a certain threshold they translate the information as a dot through self-hallucination, with positions relative to the wielder...」

I went on adding some technicalities to show off and sound cool.

「Allen: ...to make it safer I made sure the mini-map shows up only when you make an effort to see it. I can also add features! Like a chime when another dot comes into range or something like that... I can also make the range adjustable with the amount of mana consumed... and more!」

The three looked at each other in puzzlement.

「Namrick: Huh, I only understood a third of what you said, but... that sounds impressive.」

He yawned. He didn't look impressed at all! I couldn't stop from yawning as well.

Ellin was still fidgeting with the silver cube. Please don't break it.

「Ellin: Detection magics usually require a lot of practice, and that just to be able to get an approximate sense of numbers and positions... this... is something else. Where did you learn all that?」

I scratched my chin thinking how to respond.

Okay... how do I explain software engineering to kids that live in a low-tech fantasy world?

Nope. Forget that. I'm too tired to even stand.

I managed a few steps before letting my body fall on the closest bed.