After winning the Silver Sea Tournament, I had finally acquired passage to the tier one continent. Unfortunately there was the Silver Sea between the Tapoka archipelago and Baros. So we would have to wait for a ship to get ready and travel there. The silver lining with this was that I had a lot of free time! So I did what any sensible child would do and locked myself into my room with the spellbook of the First Ones.

The beautiful leatherbound tome was heavy, and I had to use magic to wield it. Fortunately it seemed to be basically indestructible, so unlike the poor governor’s calendar, I could use kinetic magic on it without worry. It was actually great practice to flip the pages with kinetic magic, because of the intricate control required. Was it efficient studying to sometimes stop and try to finesse a page-flip with magic? Absolutely not. Did I care? Also nope.

The spellbook proved fruitful. I was mostly interested in just improving my current capacities. Stronger barriers, faster casting, more destructive water spells. That would require me to study the components of spells and see what I could strip for parts.

However, sometimes I would also dabble with engaging my new perk Keen Mind, which basically gave me an eidetic memory when it came to spell formulas. The System concentrating your Perks around your build was a wonderful thing!

I learned a few cute ones, I thought would be useful. There was Basic Light, which created the equivalent of a magical flashlight. Well, more like a torch at first, which just cast light everywhere. Naturally, I wasn’t satisfied with that, so I created a version that would direct a concentrated beam in front of me from the palm of my hand. So basically a flashlight.

Keen Mind let me learn the basic formula pretty much instantly after casting it. I could feel the Perk click something in place, the first time I successfully created the spell.

After that I didn’t need to reference the spellbook. The same thing happened after I finished the modified cantrip. There was clearly some strange System tomfoolery going on here. All I needed to do was to basically think of casting the spell, and the Perk would give me a strong image of the formula in my mind’s eye. Having mastered the flashlight-spell, I was also rewarded by the System. 

[Spellcrafting level 18!]

[+1 Mana Flow]

[+2 Magic Power]

I was inching close to a milestone with Spellcrafting. I was eager to see what kind of a Perk I would get. At level 10 I got Continuous Casting, which had been a tremendous help. I had the feeling I could affect my Perks in the way I trained my Skill, but it was just a vague notion. I should ask Veena if she knew anything about that. I had asked about Scholars and libraries containing Skills and build guides. There was a decent amount of public knowledge, but the juiciest stuff was kept under a lid by the noble houses. Damn gatekeeping rich people! Give me your build ideas!

Still, at the end of the day I would have to pioneer. I had a Mythic Skill that was rarer than a pale sailor. It had also made my Mana Manipulation Skill Unique and affected several of my Perks. Mother had mentioned a keystone Skill, which also Veena verified as being a thing. It wasn’t anything official that the System made notifications of, but it was commonly known build theory.

Mana Sight was definitely my keystone Skill, and it would create a build that was unique to my circumstances. This meant that any advice from a Scholar or any deep dive into a library wouldn’t solve my build. It would absolutely help and I couldn’t wait to get on Baros, but ultimately, I needed to figure things out on my own.

Days passed as I practiced with the spellbook. To my chagrin, mother sometimes dragged me out of my room to spend time with others. Danek was as busy as I was. He had reinvested all of his winnings from the bets, and had set up four stalls to sell different goods from. I also infused some potions for him, which made him very happy.

Alik and Veena were mostly training together, and sometimes they would come to practically poke me in the chest, proclaiming they had achieved a breakthrough and demanded a rematch. Well, that was mostly Veena, but only because Alik had more poise.

Unfortunately for them, their breakthroughs weren’t enough to break through my barriers.

Father was busy fishing, and the governor was taken by his ability to provide fresh, high quality fish to the household. Mostly he and mother were busy spending time together and being all lovey-dovey, taking walks and whatnot. That was perfect for me, because mother was fussing about me a lot less, now that I was safe indoors.

I also turned three years old during this time, which was exciting. Well mostly for my parents, but I enjoyed the time together, as well as the food and gifts.

My birthday was a fun affair, and everyone gave me gifts. Father had used a big portion of his earnings from fishing to get me one of those silky bags that could contain refined mana. It was basically an artifact that kept the mana in liquid form, so it would be super interesting to study. In fact, I was so engrossed with it that mother had to clear her throat to get me back and focus on the dinner. I thanked father, and he looked super happy for being able to get me a gift I liked.

Mother had baked me a trayful of sweet breadrolls. She had brushed up her cooking in her idle time, and it showed. I loved those breadrolls.

Alik gave me a new satchel, filled with small tools, such as bandages, a health potion and a pocket knife. Mother didn’t appreciate the last one.

“I’m not sure I am comfortable with my three-year-old boy having a knife,” mother said.

Everyone turned to her and gave her a flat stare.

“Ramona, love,” father said patiently. “Your son can throw fireballs.”

Technically true, but my dabbling with Basic Fire was still weak.

“Hmph,” mother said grumpily. “I’m just saying…”

We laughed and carried on.

Danek had found me a bona fide wizard’s hat! I couldn’t help but to grin when I put it on. It was blue and had some white markings that made it look like a starry sky. It was not an artifact, but it was fancy. It was way too big for me, but that was fine. I could now call myself a fully fledged wizard!

Finally Veena blushed and shoved her wrapped package in my arms. I unwrapped it and found a wooden fan. It had a handle and four little blades made from hard leather. Veena instructed me to pour mana into it, and the blades started spinning, creating an air current.

“Oh, that’s nice sweetie,” mother said to Veena. “Luka will like that for hot days.”

Veena looked down and fidgeted with her fingers. “That too. But mostly because he—”

“What is this wonderful enchantment?” I burst out and inspected the beautiful artifact with my Mana Sight. It had a pretty simple design, but using mana to create a mechanical effect like this was something new to me. Was this a kinetic component? Perhaps I could—

Mother pinched my cheek. “Luka.”

“Owwwww, yes mom, sorry.”

*

I learned several more spells from the tome. Basic Fire, with which I was unfortunately not very adept. I was much more comfortable with Basic Air, because it resembled Basic Kinetic so much. I also seemed to just have a better knack for it than Basic Fire. Why? Who could say. Someone on Baros, I guessed.

I also learned some nifty cantrips like a cleaning spell and a repair spell, although they were minor effects for now. Mother had a pretty high Crafting and would repair my clothes when they frayed. However, the repair spell was good when I singed my clothes when practicing fire magic. All this concentrated learning did wonders for my progression.

[Spellcrafting level 19!]

[+1 Mana Flow]

[+2 Magic Power]

[Mana Sight level 21!]

[+4 Perception]

[+2 Mana Flow]

After learning a handful of spells over the passing days, I turned my attention to the artifact given by Veena. I played around with the little fan and set it on my nightstand to blow fresh air on my face. I had still not achieved my goal of an autonomous 360-barrier around me at all times. I could create a continuous effect, but that still required me to actively keep the spell going, by feeding mana into it. I believed my ultimate version of the spell was to somehow integrate the very Skill Mana Absorption with Spellcrafting, but for now that was just a theory. I couldn’t even conceive of how I could make that work.

I studied the little fan with my Mana Sight and Arcane Deconstruction. It was a simple inscription. In fact it had the simplest inscription I had ever seen, because this was basically a toy. That was just absolutely perfect for me. I could fully comprehend the structure used to create the magical effect.

Which meant I could attempt to transfer the structure into my Spellcrafting. By now I had learned that the symbols and structure weren’t directly transferable, but the principles were much the same. Which meant that if an effect was inscribed into an artifact, it could be replicated in a spell!

The way this artifact used mana was very straight forward. There was a space within the artifact that would hold the mana that it was infused with.

Could I do that with a spell? Could I create a formula that would store mana into the spell, basically creating a fire-and-forget effect?

Naturally, I had to try it. I threw myself into studying the artifact, sometime referencing the spellbook as I started creating the Kinetic Barrier from scratch. At this point, I was so adept at casting the barrier at this point, that it wasn’t that much work, but I needed to learn how to build around the mana-storing effect. 

It took some trial-and-error, and substantial amounts of my mother’s sweet tea and bread buns. Sometimes I idly wondered if the great wizards of the world were as avid snackers as I was.

[Magical Trance level 26!]

[+2 Perception]

[+2 Focus]

[Arcane Convergence strengthened!]

[Mana Precision: +24%]

[Mana Efficiency: +24%]

Nice! Having experienced a Skill Evolution with my old Meditation, had increased the Skill’s rarity, and I was now getting an extra Attribute point. Slowly but surely, my advantages were stacking up. Arcane Convergence was coming along too, and I couldn’t wait to become a scaling monster. But the System gave me another notification, that was sweeter than any breadroll.

[Spellcrafting level 20!]

[+1 Mana Flow]

[+2 Magic Power]

[New Perk Available: Lingering Casting]

Description: You may apply a lingering function to compatible spell formations without constructing its full formula. Completed spells retain an allocated reserve of mana to sustain their established structure and effect without your continued attention. Once released, these formations cannot be adjusted. Duration depends on the mana allocated, the complexity of the spell, and the demands placed upon it.

Excellent! My study of artifacts and spell structures had paid off big time. I could tell this would be a substantial upgrade to my ability to cast spells in high-speed combat. 

I could now fire-and-forget spells! It worked with the exact same logic as Continuous Casting had. I could basically weave specialized symbols that worked like hotkeys. They didn’t follow the proper structural requirements of the effect. It was like a personalized shortcut, I could just slap into the spell and it worked. For Continuous Casting, it had been this symbol of an arrow passing through a gate. These needed to go on the edges of the magic circle containing the formula. This saved me so much time and focus while casting.

Naturally I had to test the effect immediately. The symbol I would have to include in my spells for the Lingering Casting effect would be a star inside a circle. This particular symbol needed to be in the middle of the formula, from where it would flood the rest of the structure. All of this was intuitively given knowledge by the Perks. The System was truly wonderful.

Now then… I just absolutely had to find Veena to workshop my new barrier. Oh, she was going to be so pissed.