"He wants us to do what?!" one of the spell casters shouted.

"We can't just make a new spell because he asked!"

"Honestly, I'm not expecting this to work either," Loran said. "But it's not like any of us will be doing much between now and the raid, so we may as well try."

After returning to the camp, Loran gathered the other casters and told them about Soze's plan. While everyone agreed that creating ledges would give them a huge advantage, they were all dismissive of the idea that they could create a new spell in just a few hours. None of their recent research had even approached the topic of earth magic, so they were basically starting from scratch, and they all felt like it would take a few days at least.

"Even if we could make something in time, we just spent the whole day marching, and the army could be here in just a few hours?" she shook her head. "We need to rest."

"Yeah, let's not waste our time on something that probably won't even work. We need to be at our best when the fighting starts."

"I'm certainly not risking a sleep deprivation debuff before a big battle."

Loran frowned but still agreed with their reasoning. Discovering a new type of spell wasn't guaranteed in the time they had, and [SLEEP DEPRIVATION] would be a major handicap to many of them. The debuff would reduce their total MP by 10% for every 2 hours of sleep they missed. It was already getting late, and if they stayed up until the raid starts, there was no telling how much of a reduction they would be facing.

"Actually, we might be able to help with ledge construction with mana blades," one of them said as they started to walk away.

"That..." he paused as he tried to think of an objection, but quickly gave up. "Oh alright, let's go help make ledges."

"You guys will be glad for it later," Loran said. "Get going."

"You're going to stay here?"

"I have a few ideas I want to test out." He shrugged. "I'll come by later."

"Okay, don't try too hard."

"I make no promises."

The other casters leave, either chuckling at Loran's response or cursing at Soze's request. Loran sat in the grass and pulled a piece of stone out of his inventory. He had grabbed several from the canyon for the others to experiment with, but it seemed like he would have them all to himself.

'Okay, so where do I start....'

Before, he and the other spell caster had failed to notice the concept of idea manipulation because they were too focused on shape manipulation. With that in mind, Loran decided to start by thinking of as many possible approaches as possible.

'Idea manipulation is probably useless, I'm not trying to turn mana into stone. I can't imagine shape manipulation being of much use either.'

The player's existing understanding of magic was focused on controlling mana exclusively. This would be the first time one of them tried to use magic through something else.

'I guess I'll try to infuse it with mana.'

Mana flowed from Loran's hands toward the stone. Wanting to restrict the variables as much as possible, he decided to go through the same steps as when he would make a mana construct.

He immediately noticed a few difficulties. Making the magic move through the stone was difficult. Mana wasn't entirely physical, so it wasn't being completely rejected, but it felt like he was trying to swim through syrup, except a thousand times worse. He supposed he could try altering the mana's properties first, but he chose to be stubborn and just forced his way through for this first attempt.

A few minutes passed, and the process was complete. The stone in his hands had been completely filled with mana. This didn't seem to be enough to shape the rock by controlling the mana it would just leave the rock behind. He was about to let the mana fade when he decided to try fully finishing the reinforcement process, like when making a construct.

A moment later, he released his control and the mana remained in the stone. Aside from radiating energy that he could detect with [MANA SENSE] it seemed completely unchanged.

*DING*

Loran's eyes widened. Whatever he did, it seemed like the game decided it counted as either a Skill or a spell. Nearly dropping the stone, he quickly opened the menu.

[ACTIVITY {Infuse an object with Mana} PERFORMED]

[RELEVANT STAT VALUE(S) {INT:20} SUFFICIENT]

[WOULD YOU LIKE TO GENERATE A NEW SPELL?]

[YES]/[NO]

He agreed and a moment later the spell was presented to him.

[_ _ _]

(Cost x) The caster infuses mana into an Item to strengthen it. The amount of mana required varies depending on the properties of the mana and the Item selected.

Loran couldn't stop himself from grinning. "Hell yeah! Enchanting unlocked!"

An extremely common feature of RPGs was the ability to strengthen your items. Often this was done through crafting or smithing, but if the game featured magic in some way, then granting those items magical properties through enchanting was almost guaranteed.

'Alright, so if we can get through this next battle, then it looks like everyone's equipment is going to be getting even stronger.' Loran was almost starting to feel sorry for the Iron Ants.

Wanting to see the results, Loran used [ANALYSE] on the newly enchanted stone.

[NAME]: Mana-Infused Stone

[QUALITY]: Poor

[TYPE]: Ammo/Weapon

[STATS]: 15 Bludgeoning Damage

[AFFINITY/REQUIREMENTS]

STR: C/10

DEX: C/10

[DESCRIPTION]

A common stone that has been artificially reinforced with mana. When used as a weapon or projectile, the magical properties of the stone increase the amount of force delivered to the target.

'A base damage of 15!?'

Gathered items like rocks normally didn't have a listed damage value, so it was generally believed that such items had a base damage value of 1. If this was truly the case, it meant that the most basic enchantment gave a damage boost of around 14 points.

'And this is just a Poor quality enchantment,' Loran thought excitedly. 'A Common enchantment might be an extra 30 damage, and then there's Uncommon quality...'

Loran's mind began to wander as he imagined the potential of this new spell, but after a moment he reminded himself of the task at hand. As much as he wanted to continue experimenting with enchanting, he needed to make a spell to manipulate stone.

'Just filling the stone does nothing, and a full infusion will just strengthen it...I'll have to try changing the mana's properties, but using what idea?'

He started by imbuing the mana with the idea of 'softness' in the hopes that it would make the stone less rigid, but even after multiple attempts, all it did was make the outermost part of the rock soft like foam. He could compress it slightly, but it wouldn't change its shape.

Next he tried to use the idea of 'moldablity,' but this idea was even less effective as it didn't even seem to do anything. The ideas of 'fluiditity' and 'formlessness' were equally useless.

He tried out several other concepts, but while a few did have effects, none of them would let him change the shape of the stone in the way he needed.

"I guess I'll have to try an elemental idea," he sighed.

Loran tried to infuse the mana with the idea of 'earth' and immediately felt resistance.

This was the reason it took them multiple days to create fire magic. Overall, idea manipulation was a relatively simple process, you just have to imagine the properties you want the mana to have. But imagining fire had been so much more difficult than it seemed. The problem seemed to be that fire held more than just one quality. It was warm, it was dangerous, it flowed, it exploded. In order to cast fire magic you needed to keep all of these things and more in your mind at the same time, and it was incredibly difficult. The only reason Loran was able to use fire magic without relying on the system was because he trained until he was ready to pass out every day until they left the village for the raid. Even now, Loran wasn't confident that he could perform the spell properly if he were to ever get surrounded.

Earth magic was no different. In order to cast it like this, Loran would need to envision everything that encompassed the concept of 'earth' and hold it all in his mind while casting the spell.

"Okay," he sighed. "Let's give this a shot."

Loran began imagining all the different ways he could define 'earth.' He imagined the soft soil under his feet. He imagined a smooth stone on the banks of the river. He imagined the towering mountains encompassing the valley. He imagined every scrap of information he could recall about rocks from his public school science classes. He imagined all the physical properties of earth and stone.

The mana flowed from his hands into the stone. Although it was still a slow process, Loran felt much less resistance this time.

'Does that mean I got it right?' he thought excitedly. 'Did I give the right properties?'

Once the stone was filled to the brim with mana, Loran tried to move it.

And for his efforts!

...

...the stone wobbled slightly.

"Goddamn it!"

It was proof that he had the right ideas, but implementing them all at once was pushing his mind and stats to their limits.

'Alright, I have the right ideas, I just need to focus some more.'

He tried again.

And again.

And again.

Soon almost an hour had passed and while he was making progress, it still felt like the ideas were slipping from his mental grip at the very last second. He was concentrating so hard that cold sweat was starting to drip down his face. Every time it felt like the stone was about to bend to his will, but then he lost control of the spell again.

"Come on...just work already!" he said through grit teeth. He held the stone between his hands, as if trying to mold it with strength rather than magic. "Come on...It's the final hour..."

He gathered up the mana.

"...before the big battle..."

He envisioned the concept of 'earth.'

"...we can't afford to lose here..."

He concentrated on the spell. He concentrated with such intensity that his hearing became fuzzy and the edges of his vision started to darken.

"...so just give me the damn power-up!"

...He felt the stone give under his hands. The suddenness of the situation broke his concentration, causing his fingers to be locked inside the now-hardened stone.

"...GOD DAMN IT! GIVE ME MY FINGERS BACK!"