I stumbled through the next morning in a haze. Too little sleep, and the morning gruel just wasn’t enough to get me going. I was just glad that I didn’t have any important jobs to help out with. When we finally got on the road, I found two new occupants of our cart, as Carrigan had decided to join us and apparently brought a guard with him.

“Mornin’.” I nodded to both as I climbed in, settling down in as comfortable a position as I could.

“Good morning.” Both replied.

“You up to thinking?” Carrigan asked after a few seconds. “I think it’s time we start repaying some of your generosity.”

“Sure. What do you have?” I replied.

“First, this.” He pulled a small booklet out of his robes, handing it over. “I put together a small cantrip primer. They won’t ever show up as skills, but anyone can use them. They all cost less than 10 mana, and have no real limits on the number of uses. You just have to speak the words with intent.”

“Nice!” I said, excitedly thumbing through a few of the pages. “These look incredibly useful!” And indeed they would be. Light all wicks within three feet, start a campfire, remove dirt from person.

“I’m sure they will be. A lot of it was stuff I picked up while travelling, just useful doo dads to make camping a bit easier.”

“I really appreciate it.” I said.

“So that’s one bit, but we had a deal over some low level spells. Gareth here has volunteered to let you practice on his blade today for training. First, I’ll enchant the blade to its maximum, and I want you to feel it out, get to the point where you can recognize it on its own. Again you won’t get a skill, but it is necessary to upgrade your minor elemental imbue.”

True to his word, they handed me a sheathed blade and let me have a go at it. I gently extended a tendril of mana to the stone, just brushing across the facets of it. It had to be the weirdest stone I had ever felt, or at least paid attention to feeling. It was solid, yet I knew the mana could slide through there with the slightest pressure. The mana inside the stone, it was hard to describe. The best way I could think of would be as if the stone was a sponge. You can tell that at some point the sponge is saturated, and that no matter what you do will not take in any more water. Or if it has been slightly wrung out.

“I think I have it.” I said, handing the blade back. “Want to drain some of that mana out, and let me fill it back up to full?”

“If you think you’re ready for the test, then by all means.” He answered, placing a hand on the stone for a second before handing it back. This felt like a sponge that had been well wrung, but hadn’t been sitting out to dry yet. I slowly and consistently added mana, feeling for that sweet spot. Where just the gentlest pressure will cause water to bead at the surface of the sponge.

“Want to check?” I asked after a minute. It only took so long because I was being so cautious at the very end.

“Hmmm, not bad. Just a bit short, if I were to guess it hit at about 18 out of 20 maximum mana. That’s good for your first time for accuracy, and it’s much better that you were under than over. Let’s try it a few more times.”

Few more. Ha. Teacher Carrigan will accept nothing but perfection! It took a half hour to get my first perfect, and another half hour to get the enchantment time down to ten seconds while maintaining that same perfect level of enchantment. He only allowed me to stop when I got the update notification.

Skill increase!

Minor elemental imbue (5/5) -> Lesser elemental imbue (3/10)

Your imbued element does slightly more damage and uses slightly less mana per attack. Compatible novice tier spells can be imbued into weapons for a cost of 2x mana.

“Excellent! We can take a slight break for now, let your brain rest for a while.” He said, seeming a bit more excited than I was. “And the box sometimes gets a bit confusing, so here’s an example. Let’s take your gentle gust spell. Say it takes you 5 mana to cast it. In order to imbue it, it would take up 10 mana of the weapon. It seems wasteful, but eventually will get to a useable point.”

“Ok, I can see that happening. Is there a time limit to how long the spell will last? And can I eventually imbue multiple items at once?”

“Indefinitely on the first, and you wouldn’t want to do the second. Each item is going to have its own mana requirements, and trying to do multiple at a time will just increase the chances of an accident.” He answered, giving me a slight stare.

“Just asking.” I said with a grin.

“Alright. Now, I was thinking over your story last night, and I’m fairly sure I’ve got the three points you were trying to make. In order to make my fire better, it needs three things. Heat, food, and air. I already knew about air, that’s the secret to getting the blue flames. And my mana provides the food, I’m just getting stuck on heat. I don’t know how to represent that.”

Damn. The best way to describe heat is with molecular motion, but does this world even know what an atom is? “This might take a bit of otherworldly knowledge, I’m not sure so I’ll do my best. Do you know what atoms and molecules are?” I asked, and both the guard and Carrigan shook their head. I felt Elendria shift a bit next to me.

“Alright, at least I know where to start. Trees.”

“Trees?” Carrigan asked.

“Just a start. So picture a tree. We need to zoom in, so on that tree pick a limb. This still isn’t small enough, so down to a branch we go. Then to the leaf. Do you know what happens when we zoom in to the leaf?”

“Zoom in?”

“Look closer. Focus in. What do you see if you focus in on that leaf?”

“I’ve no idea.” He answered, shaking his head.

“Well, if you had the ability, you would see what we call cells. These are the smallest units of life, and you can’t see them without help. But that’s still far too big for what we need. Even smaller than cells, we have molecules and atoms. I skipped a few zooms in there, but that’s just to avoid confusion. Atoms and molecules make up everything in the world. Just like cells are the smallest units of life, molecules are the smallest units of compounds. All molecules of a compound are identical, take water for an example. If you could look at every single molecule of water, you would find it to be made of two parts of an element called hydrogen and one part oxygen.” As I explained, I used magic hologram to create a water molecule. I went with the ball and stick model since it was easiest to show motions that way.

“That’s water?” Carrigan asked incredulously.

“When you get down small enough, yes. Now, the important part is motion. Heat is just a measure of how much motion that water has. It can be molecular motions like this.” As I spoke, the bonds started stretching back and forth. I even had the angle of the bonds flex slightly. “It can also move around.” I moved the view back, and created several more molecules of water. Each was vibrating slowly, but for the most part held in place.

“Why aren’t they moving around?” He asked.

“They don’t have enough heat to. This is ice. They can move slightly, but they are stuck in place. If we add heat to it, the ice melts into water.” The molecules started moving slowly, before breaking away and starting to move around more freely. I kept going until they were all in a decent motion.

“So if I add heat, I make these molecules move around faster? Or just have them shake more?”

“Exactly.” I nodded, and just let him stare at the hologram for a few minutes. I leaned back in my seat, holding the hologram easily and just resting for a bit. I wonder what I need to get gentle gust to maximize? Maybe the nozzle I’m using isn’t the right one?

“Is it ok if I drop this?” I asked after fifteen minutes.

“Hmm? Oh, yes. Thanks. I’ll have to think on that for a bit.” Carrigan nodded.

“No worries. I’m going to try getting this gentle gust mastered.” At his nod, I started with different sizes of nozzles. Smaller nozzles gave more pressure, but no matter what I tried I couldn’t get that last bit of experience to push it into the next tier. Frustrated, I started changing the nozzle shape. Instead of a round hole, I gave it a more oblate exit. Growling in frustration, I decided to go to the extreme. Instead of a nice, round opening, I made one that was narrow and wide. I really should have thought back to my childhood. If I had, then all that time playing with balloons would have prepared me for the outcome.

“SKREEEEEEeeeeeee!” A screech erupted from the narrow opening, startling everyone in the caravan. I tried to abort the spell, but it had to finish and took a good three seconds.

“SORRY! SORRY EVERYONE!” I shouted, as everyone started going back to whatever they were doing.

“Lucky that the oxen are fairly docile, otherwise they would have bolted at that.” Carrigan chided me.

“Yeah. Didn’t expect it to do that with a different nozzle.”

“Did you at least finish your spell?” Elendria asked.

“No. I did get a notification for a new spell though. Air screech. Another novice spell, it’s at 3 of 5 already.”

“You won’t be practicing that today!” She glared at me, covering her ears.

“I know.” I said, nodding at her. “I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong here.”

“Have you tried extending the life of the spell?” Carrigan asked with a knowing grin.

“Extending the, life. God, I’m an idiot.” I shook my head. A small puff of air wasn’t going to be worth much, even if cleaning. But if you were using a jet of air, that could be another story! Why make must a bubble, when I can keep adding mana to maintain the pressure? Palm forward, I made a half sphere flat against my palm. A small, round nozzle to prevent screeching was pointing to the side of the cart between Carrigan and Gareth. I started pouring mana into the sphere, getting to a pressure where the sphere could barely maintain it before opening the nozzle. As the air flew out, I struggled to maintain the pressure behind it for a few seconds. I undershot at first, then overcompensated and shattered the mana form.

“Damn, so close.” I muttered, trying again. And again. And again. Six tries and I had stopped overcompensating, but the pressure would eventually drop. The final fix was to weaken the nozzle barrier so that it erupted first, and maintaining the pressure behind it. That finally got me an extended gust of air, and the notification I had been waiting for.

Spells upgraded!

Gentle gust (5/5) -> Air jet (3/10)

Air screech (5/5) -> Directed air screech (3/10)

“That’s the look of success.” Carrigan chuckled. “And we aren’t even halfway through the day. Not bad.”

“Thanks for that final tip, I was starting to get mad at it.” I chuckled. “Not only that, but I mastered both gentle gust and air screech. Air jet seems to be a simple power increase, while air screech can now be directed with a mana cone on the end of the nozzle.”

“Oh? That’s two novice spells down, not bad at all. Three if you count elemental imbue. Hmmm, let’s see what else we can get you to learn. Featherlight is a great one for avoiding pressure plates, almost every adventurer needs someone to cast that in the party.”

“Featherlight? Wouldn’t that be a gravity spell?” I asked, confused.

“Oh, no. That’s far too complex for novices. Here, the best way is to show you.” He pulled out a cup, and placed a rock in the bottom before filling it with water from his canteen. “Watch.” He ordered, before touching a finger to the rock. It was enveloped in a green glow, and then started floating to the top of the water.

“Wait, are you changing the density of the rock?” I asked, appalled.

“Pretty much.” He chuckled. “At the low levels, you get one minute of mass 1/5 of normal. Gravity is the same.”

I was flabbergasted. How was that a wind spell? You were fundamentally changing the properties of an object! This was absolutely ridiculous!

“I figured that would impress you. It’s a bit tricky to get going, if you want I can try and implant the knowledge.”

“That’s ok, let me give it a go first. Is there another spell you could describe? Even with featherlight, I would only have four air spells.” I replied.

“You’ve already got a magic missile. Have you tried the air version?”

“Yeah, it wouldn’t hold the shape.” I said.

“So you just gave up?” Carrigan asked incredulously. “Listen, if you try hard enough, there is a magic missile version of each element. Sometimes you fire off a burst of that element. Elendria would launch a missile of pure ice, not a big deal. There is another way, for those that you just can’t launch pure missiles of. That’s all the hint I’ll give you though.”

Damnit. Figures that he would throw a challenge like that. So. What do I know, and what do I need? Using the mana to encompass air just wasn’t working. That would deform to a sphere almost every time. That, and I couldn’t launch it. So think outside the box Sean. How do you give it an air flavor? Pointing straight up, I summoned my magic missile, though I didn’t launch it. Trivial at this point with my abilities with mana control.

I’m an idiot. Seriously. Instead of trying to just use the element, why not use elemental mana? I slowly added wind element mana to the skill, and it changed slightly. It took on a greenish hue, and developed a few trailing streamers of mana. I shot it straight up, not surprised to get the subskill bonus. As the main skill was already maximum, the subskill got a great boost. I played a bit with the ratio, eventually getting that system boosted feeling when I reached 75% air mana. This was confirmed by the maximized skill level.

“Not bad, not bad at all.” Carrigan chuckled. “Now you just need to figure out the featherlight spell. Good luck with that.”

“I got ten copper that says he’ll have it by the end of the day.” Gareth spoke up.

“Before or after we stop?” Carrigan clarified.

“After the stop, before bed.”

“I’ll take that.” Carrigan answered. “He won’t have it unless he sleeps on it a night.”

“May I take them up on their bet master?” Elendria asked.

“Sure. I’ll cover your bet.” I answered, distracted by the spell.

“Then I bet that master will have it by the time we stop.”

Ignoring them, I went back to the nature of magic in this world. Originally I thought it was just a way to manipulate the elements. That featherlight spell was something else though. It wasn’t transmutation, though that might actually be possible if you were strong enough. Carrigan had shown that it wasn’t gravity altering, because the rock dropped the same as one that wasn’t under the spell. So. They didn’t change the volume, and the only way to alter density is to actually remove mass. Wait, that’s not going to work either. You can’t just remove mass.

It had to be another property of mana. It could be converted into energy, as that was all that light was. If part of it could enhance a property like heat, could it make something act like it had a different mass? I touched the rock, and though long and hard on how it needed to be. It couldn’t be air. If I made the rock as dense as air, then it would have floated under currents. I needed something slightly denser than pure air, but less dense than water.

Childhood science experiments to the rescue! I think it was third grade, when the teacher had a candle lit on her desk. In a cup she had baking soda, to which she added vinegar. After all the bubbling was done, she poured out the contents of the cup over the candle, making sure that it wasn’t liquid she was pouring. The carbon dioxide produced by the reaction snuffed out the candle, and that’s what I would need. Something dense enough that you wouldn’t float away in that dungeon, but wouldn’t set off a pressure plate.

I focused on the effect this mana was going to produce. Produce and maintain. Then let it flow. The rock took on a green glow, and to my grin followed my finger to float on top of the water.

“By Ariana, he actually did it!” Carrigan laughed, slapping Gareth on the shoulder. “And less than an hour to go until we stop. Not bad there Sean, not bad at all.” He chuckled, but I was ignoring him for the moment. I had one last notification for the night.

New spell acquired!

Featherlight (3/10)

Apprentice

Due to previous knowledge, you have already mastered the novice tier of this spell. That required modulating the density so that it was denser than air, but less dense than liquids.

Class completed!

You have completed the requirements for Novice Aeromancer! +1 Int, +50 mana

This is your second finished novice class. You have currently finished 4 classes of 50 and have 4 of 10 unfinished classes.