I decided to rest for a while before going out again. I planned to use three Earth hours for levelling today, which would give me eighteen hours here. I had twelve more hours to go. It might be difficult to search for monsters at night so I planned to use the time either resting or training my magic skills.

The evening brought with it a chill in the air and despite all my exertion, I was starting to feel cold. Putting on the jacket I brought, I gazed at the empty living room. The doors and windows of this old mansion were still in working order, and since Feyril had kindly cleared away all the dust for me, I could just sleep on the wooden floor. It wouldn't be very comfortable though. If only I had a soft mattress to sleep on. ...Wait, could I create one? There was the Creation aspect of Conjuration magic which I hadn't succeeded yet because I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted to make. Now that I wished for a soft, fluffy mattress to sleep on, maybe I could create one on the spot?

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and imagined my dream mattress on the wooden floor. It was thick and white, with springs inside and covered with a light green bed sheet like the one at my home. When I opened my eyes, lo and behold, the exact mattress I imagined was right there before me! I gleefully pounced onto it right away. It felt great, exactly as I had anticipated as well. While I was at it, I created a pillow and a quilt as well. Perfect! Now I was all set for a good long sleep once I had taken a bath.

Fortunately, this mansion somehow still had running water piped in from somewhere and I was able to take a shower, albeit a very cold one. I hadn't brought a towel or extra clothes since I had originally planned to go back home for that, but since I could just create some, I probably didn't need to pack those even in the future. This creation aspect was handy, but the catch was that one had to have a very clear idea of what they wanted to create, and it wouldn't work once they were distracted by something. In fact, failing to invoke the magic used up twice as much mana than successfully casting it.

After experimenting a bit more, I managed to unlock the other aspects of Conjuration as well. Multiplication let me make copies of things I already had and when I wanted to get rid of the extras, I simply used Uncreation. The confusing Conjuring aspect turned out to be fetching already existing items from elsewhere. All that casting, especially the failed attempts, left me even more tired than I already was, and I settled down on my new mattress for a well deserved rest.

~*~

The morning light shining through the mansion's windows woke me up. For a moment I wondered where I was, but then it came to me and I sat upright. I must have had a better sleep than I expected. Yawning, I stretched and then ate a light breakfast of the biscuits I packed. Hmm. It wasn't quite enough, so I had better pack more stuff next time. Maybe I could get the butler to secretly buy granola bars in bulk for me. I would have to pay him out of my own allowance though. One thing that was lacking here were monster drops. The monsters I hunted didn't provide me with any loot. No money, raw materials, nothing! They just disappeared into black smoke and left me with experience points.

Well, even if they left materials, there was no place for me to sell them and they would only take up space in my Void, so maybe it was for the best? Or maybe this was only a "starter" area and didn't have monsters with drops? Belatedly, I realised that I could have multiplied my biscuits to have more. Wait a minute, could I just create or conjure food then? What were the limits to this magic, apart from the amount of mana required? I decided to spend some time experimenting before I went out to hunt monsters again.

The results of my experiments were varied. I found out that I could not create food even though I had a very clear mental image. I was able to create the plastic packaging with no biscuit inside though. Was that because food came from plants, which were alive? It seemed the Creation aspect could only work with non-living things. On the other hand, I was able to multiply a leaf I had plucked off a plant, but not the living plant itself. That meant that I could probably multiply food as well. That was good news, since I wouldn't have to spend all my allowance on food.

As for the Conjuring aspect, it worked like Multiplication. I could grab some fallen leaves from a distance but couldn't move a plant rooted in soil. Also, I could only uncreate things I had created or multiplied. Well, that made sense. Conjurers would be far too overpowered if they could create or uncreate anything they wanted otherwise. Conjuration wasn't a very flashy affinity, but I had to admit that it was useful.

Now that I was done with experimenting, I rested for a while to recover my mana before heading out to hunt monsters again. If things went well, I was hoping to be able to hit Level 20 before I went back home for dinner. It felt slightly strange to think of dinner when I had just slept through a whole night, but I was certainly looking forward to having a proper meal again. I probably had to come up with a way to cook my own meals here as well.