Chapter 73: Ars Magica

The brush flows over the canvas smoothly, the vision entrancing my mind with the motion. I didn’t worry about specifics, I just put paint to canvas. I find enjoyment in the process. I am not a great artist, but maybe a great copier. So, I don’t expect painting like this will result in anything good.

Yet, I don’t feel like caring. I use a combination of darker paints. It has lots of black, some white for highlights, and the whole thing had a red and orange background. Looking over the painting after I was done, I was surprised to see a sickly black forest with a dusty sunset in the background.

From a quality standpoint, it wasn’t very good. Yet, I think it’s perfect nonetheless. It is simply a memory painted onto canvas. Smiling lightly at the painting, I leave to let it dry.

Having enjoyed my painting session, I feel refreshed and ready for my day. Let’s play with some mods.

I think it’s time I play with a real magic mod – Ars Magica 2. It’s one of my favorite mods, although I have put it off since I have struggled to find the materials. I have a sneaking suspicion that the local forest will likely have them. And, I have spotted some sunstone in my nether trips, so I have no excuse.

I guess I should start with some sunstone. Preparing a large quantity of fire-resistant potions, I get ready to wade through lava. I make around a dozen just in case, you never know when you could fall into lava or a fire source.

Checking the recipe, I note it requires 4 sunstone fragments to make a block. I should ideally make a vengeance pickaxe for a fortune 10 enchantment, but I really… don’t want to mess with anything blood related for a while. Let’s call it a bloody holiday.

Fortune 5 is fine for now; I hardly need a lot. Stepping through the purple membrane separating the dimensions, I smell the dusty sulfur-rich air. ‘cough’ yeah, I shouldn’t have done that. Shaking my head as if it would remove the smell, I soldier on. Taking flight, I start heading down towards the lava lake.

Gliding along with it like a water skimmer, I start looking for my prize. It doesn’t take long for me to spot the startlingly common material. It’s the best possible material for spell crafting, yet it’s far easier to obtain than the second most powerful material; something I will never understand.

I drink the spicy fire resistant potion down before plunging into the thick lava. Finding it difficult to move, I soldier on. I place cobblestone above and below the vein of sunstone. I then rise to the surface and break each piece. They drop a hearty supply of sunstone each.

I continue this process until I have a large supply of the material. It's mostly used for preparing the spell crafter, but it is also an important ingredient in some late-game spell components.

Having a large quantity of the interesting material, I return home. Enjoying the fresh and crisp air. I noticed that, since erecting the shield, the air inside my island is so much cleaner than everywhere else. I think it’s a combination of lots of oxygen-producing plants and the shield blocking out foreign air. It just means the oxygen density is higher here and the air is a little cleaner. Although the plants are absolutely needed for when I increase my machine usage to counteract the fumes released.

Having gathered the only foreign dimension item I need that I don’t already have, it's time to get some current dimension items. Namely witchwood, more vinteum, some blue topaz, and chimerite.

The witchwood, I suspect, I can find within that forest. Now the ores, I am hoping, will be under said forest. The reason for my assumption? The density of magical energies within the forest. Having become more sensitive to magical energy, I can tell that the forest positively beams with power. In fact, all large collections of nature display lots of magical energy. Plants are power, I suppose.

Of course, I am sure other sources of magical energies exist. Abyssalcraft, for one, is likely to use quite the opposite energy source. As far as I can tell, though, the most common and readily available source of magical energies is forests. Excluding ambient mana, of course, the energy that weakly permeates the air. I don’t really have the ‘taste’ for that brand of magical energy yet. Mostly just natural energy, I suppose.

Holding my trusty chunk scanner, I begin flying over the forest. It’s a far cry from a magical forest, but those appear to be very rare.

Passing the Silverwood tree, I continue through the dense canopy looking for the distinct white leaves while occasionally glancing at the chunk scanner. On one such glance, I am so shocked that I fall from the sky into a tree. Shaking the shock from my mind, I check the scanner again. Blue topaz and chimerite, we must have hit a high enough density of energy.

Continuing on, I see more and more hits for chimerite and blue topaz. I even spotted a few other materials like dark gems… good to know. Having found a chunk positively riddled with the material, I take out my fancy new wyvern pick and start wrecking the earth. Creating a hole under the dirt, I immediately begin destroying large chunks of stone.

It didn’t take long for me to find my first blue topaz, then chimerite. After wrecking the earth with surprising ease, I manage to gather up a large amount of both materials. Happy with my haul, I continue on moving into the forest. I still need vinteum.

Flying through the lush canopy of leaves, I keep a close eye out for both witchwood and vinteum.

Spotting a white spot in the endless floor of leaves, I blink to make sure I’m not imagining it. It’s still there so I quickly head towards it before suddenly getting a ping on my chunk scanner… It’s vinteum. I guess they come as a package. It makes sense, they are very closely related.

I quickly harvest the witchwood tree, gathering several saplings. To preserve the environment, I replant 2 witchwood trees. I then very quickly start quarrying out the ground to gather large amounts of vinteum. I suppose that I could make an actual quarry, but I am not that bored yet.

Happy with my haul, it’s time to head home and get started. I teleport myself home to save time. I look around to see if I have an arcane compendium. I can't find one. I could have sworn I made one, but I must not have.

Gathering a small amount of etherium, I bathe a book in it, and start watching as it slowly morphs into the familiar thick blue book. I wonder who wrote this particular book? I carefully reached in and removed the book. Not a drop of liquid clings to its surface as it leaves the pool.

Sitting back on a chair, I begin to read it. Looking over it, I see undecipherable symbols throughout all the pages – odd. Looking over all the pages, I suddenly get an intense headache. Leaning forward, I heavily massage my temples, hoping the pain will go away.

Suddenly, I start to see blue encroaching around the edge of my vision. I see blue sparks coming from the book before one strikes me. The sudden headache becomes a full-on migraine as my body writhes in pain.

An undetermined time later, the pain disappears like it never happened. Shaking my head in confusion, I suddenly get an epiphany. I can feel an energy source in my body. Just behind the navel, I feel a foreign existence. I assume it's energy because it's very similar to the natural energy I felt from the world. It just has a different taste, it tastes blue. It’s the only way I can describe it.

Closing my eyes and focusing inwards, I can visualize the energy. It’s a spinning blue ball of energy. Slightly larger than the size of a pinhead, it rests just behind my belly button. How odd.

Looking over to the book, I see that the symbols are suddenly readable. It's still full of odd symbols, but now I can now read them like they are my mother tongue. Freaky. I hope this new energy doesn’t mess with the natural energy I have to focus through my body to use witchery.

Sitting comfortably, I slowly go through the book. It's different from most other books. It doesn’t feel like it's written by a group or one person. It just reads like an unnaturally clear scientific document, made by an undetermined writer with a fundamental grasp on the complete aspects of the mod.

Reading through, it goes into great detail about mana and its life cycle, an interesting process. Whenever a spell is cast, the mana used to create the phenomena is dispersed back into the environment. You would think it would result in null or the loss of some energy but it, in fact, gains some. The process of casting spells creates microfractures in reality around where it's cast, allowing some mana to seep into the world. A very, very small amount, but some nonetheless. So, the mana you use is recycled, and an imperceptibly small amount is added to the ‘pool’ of mana in the world.

The whole book is fascinating. I look forward to reading it in-depth, but for now, I look for the important stuff. As expected, it has construction instructions for everything I will need.

I already had the recipes, but having a blueprint for the multi-block structures will help a lot. They require everything to be exact to work.

I immediately create an occulus, an item that allows you to learn spell components, shapes, and other aspects of spells. Placing it down, I see a void suspended in-between a strangely shaped stone chalice. Peering into the deep void, I feel a slight suction. Continuing to gaze, I suddenly feel my world go black. Suppressing my rising anxiety, I look around. I notice a large array of stars.

They are connected by thin lines. Separated into 4 different trees, the offense, defense, and utility trees. The final tree is special, a talent tree that I don’t need to worry about for now.

Focusing inwards, I feel 3 blue stars within myself, my blue points. Looking over, I see each star has a slight hue, blue, green, and red. Most are faded, but the ones at the top of the tree are bright and shining. Focusing on the offense and utility tree, I will the blue points towards their respective stars. Touch and dig, a spell component and shape for the most basic and useful starter spells. As the blue orb touches the star, I feel a sudden pain in my mind.

Strange images of dirt and texture pass my consciousness. It’s a bizarre sensation that leaves me feeling… more whole.

Willing myself to leave, I feel myself suddenly warp back to reality. Stumbling at the quick switch of the environment, I quickly steady myself. Checking my arcane compendium, I see that I have 2 more pages at the back. They are the details of touch and dig, the spell components; both in extreme detail about the mana reaction and how attunement affects each of the spell components.

Realizing I forgot something, I returned to the occulus. I go back to the offense tree, see more stars brightly shining than before, then immediately buy projectile. I feel the rush of images. Wind, a ball moving through the air.

Next up, I create an inscription table. I can't be bothered to upgrade it for now, nor do I need to, so for now the basic table is fine. It’s a simple wooden structure that I place a writing book and ink within. As I place the items down, they snap into place. Sitting down, I open the book which now has slots like the original UI from the game. I drag and drop the spell shapes touch and dig into their respective slots. I also add projectile into a secondary casting mode.

Closing the book, it suddenly shifts into a thinner slightly shinier book. Opening it up, I see the spell structure along,the effect, component break downs, and spell ingredients. My first spell. Let's make it.