After working through all the triple combinations of mud, sand, dirt, dust, and ash, I managed to get nine more fast levels, but each change in combination took a little longer than the previous one, I think because the method itself got stale. It took quite a while, even had to stop after the seventh one for lunch. But with all those levels I can try moving up to something harder, I turn on magic sense and start trying to grind that by expanding the range as far as feels comfortable. Then I start juggling again, switching between gripping, herding, and piercing with my magic as fast as I can which changes what the magic looks like and thus how the sense sees it changes and gains some experience.

The gains were low, compared to what I could currently earn from dirt control, but it was fast on a relative scale for it's current needs. After several minutes I gained a level and I felt a headache start, not an awful one but it was annoying. Magic sense had an issue of gaining more detail as it leveled without giving me more ability to process it. If I put up with it for a while my mind eventually seemed to catch up, I could be gaining some kind of passive skill, but if I am I can't feel it like I can the active ones. The problem is my catch up rate is really slow so I have to have a headache for a long time before it kicks in. The reason for this is probably because I am doing this ass backwards without realizing it since I don't have the class bonuses or a teacher.

It could also be that they do it like everything else and take it slow, meaning they only gain a level a month or so, and thus have plenty of time to learn how to handle it. But I refuse to do things the slow and easy way, doing things faster with the hard route is my speed. I ignored the headache and maintained speed, the improved detail has increased my xp/s for magic sense, so lowering the range to feel comfortable again would just lower it's speed. Several minutes later I gained another level, the headache goes from a dull ache to a slightly throbbing pain but the speed goes up again. I stop moving the earth orbs and just maintain focus, just feeling out the headache and waiting to catch the sensation of whatever makes the pain go down activating.

Nearly a half hour passes like that, the pressure in my skull slowly building with every pulse of pain, before it finally clicked into place. I barely managed to feel it behind the relief of the pain going away but it was there, something leveled up. That confirmed I was getting a sub skill that dealt with the problem, although, with how long it took to level compared to the skill that needed it to work, just sitting there with a magical headache is clearly not the best way to strengthen it. I have no idea what the skill is though, just knowing the name could help me find a better leveling method, let alone reading the description. Which is probably why non-class skills don't show up on the list, if you want something weird you have to work for it in the dark.

Now for the next skill on my list, enchanting, I first make a couple rings to make sure the last one wasn't a fluke. It both was and wasn't, I failed the next one but the one after that worked without getting a level in between. It was just minor flaws in the construction of a ring made of dirt that tripped the skill up if I was unlucky. After the fifth failure I gained one more level, showing me that this skill clearly gained more from failure than from success. Once that was done I was gaining only a pittance from each new one, so I collapsed most of them into a ball, pulled up some more dirt and turned it into a hat. The notes said this was the next one in difficulty, it looked kinda like a top hat and if the name is correct, makes it easier to think.

Moments after starting I find the reason it's harder, I need to draw parallel lines and I can't backtrack due to the way the enchantment burning works, the hesitation causes me to burn out the spot I was working on. I drop the burnt spot and reset the hat, this time I try to split the magic at the junction as soon as I get there, I fail and thus gained a burst of xp. With the comparison I see that you have to fail while doing your best in order for it to count, failing because I was stunned with indecision gave me almost nothing. Next attempt I try using two threads of magic at the same time, I start with having them overlapping and running at half power and switch to full power when I split them up instead of trying to split a single thread on the fly.

I fail again because I hit a bump with one thread but not the other, and while I burned through it just fine, it resulted in the lines no longer being in perfect sync so they burned wrong. It seems that I need to flux the threads to counter any problems as I run into them, upping the power to burn through hard spots and dropping it if there is a thin spot. It took about twenty more attempts at the hat and gaining three levels but I eventually made one. Putting it on I didn't feel different, so I opened my stat screen to see anything in there, and my Wis was up a point, I had ten point nine so getting even point one extra would have pushed it over the edge. I am assuming it is low powered because it is literally made of dirt, it could be giving me a whole point but I wouldn't be able to tell.

Putting on the ring I see it gives me an extra Int, which makes sense when I think about how these stats effect my dirt magic. I tried out my various skills while wearing them and can tell it helpped, I could see further with magic sense before I got a headache. As I pushed the range further and my headache hit dull ache territory the hat failed spectacularly, it just burst into bits with a magical light show. Of course since I had magic sense on at the time it was also spectacularly painful to look at, I had to let out a hiss of pain as I dropped my magic and had to lay down and put my hand over my eyes to block out the light. I laid there for a while in agony until I pinged a level in that headache reducing skill, it didn't work fully but it let me get up and see the damage.

My hair was still fine, the burst didn't cause any physical damage, so I gathered up the chunks of hat I could find, manually. I'll check it out later, for now I just need to go home and relax until this headache decides it's done with me. As I walk I can't help but rub my head, trying to soothe the pain out of it, this is the longest lasting headache I have had with magic so far, usually it just hurts as long as the magic is on and goes away shortly after I stopped using it. I must have pulled something, magically speaking, and so it needs to heal up now, instead of the normal pain which is like soreness from working out. I reach the cave and head down, as I headed down I suddenly realized I couldn't see through the darkness like I could before.

I flipped open mr blue and checked my traits, darkvision and telepathy had an exclamation mark next to both of them. Both said the same thing, 'temporarily disabled due to extreme magical feedback', and I couldn't help but smirk while reading it, I managed to get the name of the skill after all. The headache reducing skill must help negate magical feedback, meaning if I can find the other side effects magical feedback can cause I can give myself a low level of all of them instead of an acute case of just one. Turning, I told the guard, physically, to find a worker to help me because I managed to injure myself. I hear her head off before two sets of feet come back and the worker taps me on the shoulder, so I had her to lead me down to the main chamber.

Entering the chamber I called out "Victoria, I kinda hurt myself with a magical experiment, it isn't serious but at the moment I can't see in the dark or mind talk."

I hear her get up and rush over to me, and I hear a woosh "okay, I faked like I was gonna slap you and nothing, so you aren't pretending, so really now, what the hell did you do this time?"

"I accidentally blew up a magical item while my magic sense was at full blast so it overloaded and I am now suffering from magical feedback, you heard of that?" I explained and then asked.

"No, I know the words by themselves but not sure how they link in this context. So where did you get the magical item to blow up?" I could hear her huff after asking that.

"I made it, I told you before I got some enchanting basics, it probably exploded because it was literally made of dirt, while real ones are made with sturdier materials" I told her.

"You are sure this is temporary? It is still a bit before I can make any celestials to light this place up." Seems that now that she was getting less angry, she was starting to get worried instead.

"Yes, even if it doesn't wear off by itself I am gaining levels in a kind of feedback negating skill, pretty sure one more level will break it down." I reassured her.

"SIGH, you are both aggravating and amazing, I just wish the path to power was less dangerous. So what are you going to do while waiting for this skill to do it's thing?" She grumbled at me.

"Well, I was just going to sit and meditate for a while, but if you want me to do something else I'll do that instead, to make up for worrying you." I offered.

I hear a quiet and repetitive clacking sound, after a second I figured it was her tapping one of her fingers on another part of armor while she thought. "You can meditate, but I want to also sit in your lap while I work on a carving, if you are a good seat until I am done, I'll forgive you."

"Deal, just sit me down in front of your work spot" I smile at her, I couldn't see her but she could still see me.

Not too much time passed before I realized just how much of a punishment this really was, every time I started to relax she wiggled a little. I can't say anything because I'm 'supposed to be meditating', so I can only put up with it until she is done with whatever it is she is doing. I do my best to ignore her as I feel out the headache and try soothe it from the inside, I am careful to not do anything that could make it worse, as in I am trying to use other parts of my brain to fix the hurt part. It didn't work, but eventually Victoria announced she was done and it was time to reward me for being a good chair. I would have preferred being able to see, but having the lights off was still interesting in it's own way.