BrightMoon: Path of a Witch King

Chapter 15

The next day I walked out into the yard and built a target dummy out of stone, I summoned my grimoire and looked over the contents of the spell for a simple fireball spell.

It was similar to casting curses, with the fact I had to channel mana into my vocal cords, the difference was that I had to convert mana into fire. If I only converted mana into flames, the flames would be poorly shaped and would stay next to me. Using mana with my vocal cords didn't do much without having something to command, unless I wanted to curse someone.

My first attempt to make a true fireball spell ended about half a second into the exercise when I lost focus while doing both steps of mana manipulation. I kept at it for the next hour without much success.

I stared at the stone dummy, it seemed like it was staring back, mocking me. ‘Couldn't hit me even if I didn't move for days.’ it seemed to say with its silent cold face.

In a flare up of my anger I pushed my mana out of my body so that it hovered above me, I converted it to flames, and pushing my mana into my throat I yelled at the stone dummy. 

[Fireball!]

A small orb of fire broke away from the mass of flame above me and struck my stone dummy in the chest.

I looked up at the flames and let the mana that connected me to them stop, the flames ceased existing, I felt a tug from my grimoire and summoned it into my hands.

I quickly flipped the first page open knowing that something was off.

{Congratulations Master, through experimentation you have deviated from the traditional version of the basic fireball spell creating your own version.}

Well I hadn't expected that, I guess anger isn't as useless an emotion as I thought it was. I had essentially thought that if I couldn't form it from a smaller source, why not make it bigger.

Though if this method works for the fireball I wonder if the other elements will behave similarly, I had the grimoire show me the earth, water, and air spells and after a bit of studying I made the attempt with water first.

Converting mana into water and fire was quite easy, I just had to imagine my mana igniting or becoming a liquid, mental imagery seemed to be the deciding factor on how mana reacted and took form.

I had a large curtain of water above me, it was just like the fire I had made, like a protective coat almost draping around me. I focussed my mana into my throat and envisioned the water whip.

[Water whip]

The water reacted in a way I didn't expect, it rolled before thrashing out and snapping like a whip. I could tell the whip would hurt but the range was probably the length of a long spear, which given my strength and defense would be near useless.

Rethinking the spell as needing a ranged variant I thought about my fake stone arrow spell, I changed my image of the water whip into dozens of arrowheads.

[Water Arrow]

Tiny water projectiles disconnected from the water coat and raced towards the stone dummy. They pelted the dummy with loud smacks, it seemed rather non lethal, especially compared to the fire spells and earth spells.

The grimoire nudged me and gave me a similar message as my fireball spell, I shrugged and moved on unimpressed with water spells. 

Earth spells were next, the method was different then the first two spells, converting mana into rock and earth didn't seem to work very well, so I decided to try something else. I pushed my mana into the surrounding earth, once it felt saturated I used the spell form instead of using my will to shape the earth.

[Stone Arrow]

The earth around me shot out chunks of stone which slammed into the dummy, after the spell ended the dummy was covered in cracks.  I smiled, “Earth still reigns supreme.” I said to myself.

Next up was the wind blades, converting mana into gas felt odd, imagining an already ethereal mass of energy becoming something invisible like air did not make a lot of sense. 

I did manage to convert it, but it wasn't as easy as the other elements. I tried a few methods but I couldn't seem to get the air to become a blade. I did make an air current that was pretty strong, but after a while I gave up. Maybe air wasn't one of my strengths.

I threw in the towel for the day, my talents leaned more towards earth and fire and though I would try using water and air I wouldn't focus on them too much. 

A bit of clapping brought me out of my thoughts, to my left the girls were all watching me with wide eyes, after their excitement died down they came up to me with what appeared like a nice looking sandwich.

“Master, that was incredible!” they each bubbled up and started pelting me with questions.  I raised my hands and did my best to settle them down, but it seemed that the appeal of learning magic was just as addictive here as it was back on earth.

We sat down next to the fire pit and I answered their questions as best I could, which basically was when I could start teaching them, and when they would be able to cast spells.

I told them that first I would need to create their own grimoires so they could study. I lied a little and said I was developing my own version of spells, though it wasn't a full lie as I had accidentally made my own version of the basic spells already.

After a brief discussion over sandwiches they asked if they watched while I continued my practice, I agreed though I didn't think my defensive spell practice was going to be much of a show.

This time I was going to go in the order of least favorite to most favorite, so wind was first up, I was about to convert my mana into a gas again when I stopped. “Am I stupid or what.” I smacked my forehead, why did I need to convert my mana? There was air all around me, the same was true for water and heat was essentially fire it just needed a fuel source or mana in this case. So if I infused the air with mana instead of doing the conversion process, just like my earth spell I had created, wouldn't that be much more effective?

My thoughts turned into actions and my mana burst from my body and seeped into the air around me, I focused on my stone dummy and tried this again.

[Wind Blade]

The air stirred and I felt more then saw the disturbed air speed across the yard and make a “thwump” sound as it hit the dummy. Though they weren't blades it was a vast improvement.

[Wind Barrier]

I moved right into the defensive spell, a wall of wind circled me, but it wasn't disturbing the dirt or grass nor kicking up dust. It was nearly visible but it seemed like if anything tried to come into the barrier would be shredded, I let the spell go satisfied with my discovery.

I tried my technique with water next, the barrier of water was all around me, I wasn't sure how effective it would be so I let the spell drop. The same was for fire and earth, basically creating a dome or shield of the element wasn't so hard.

The girls clapped in excitement and I heard their excitement over getting to become witches. I was actually excited to teach them, though there was still plenty for me to learn before I could make their grimoires.

That night I finally made the girls and my rooms, though the beds were just large smoothed craters filled with animal furs, but they were comfortable craters which was all that mattered.

The sprites had only asked for me to make a very large room for all of them near the silver mine. I happily obliged and I asked if they wanted anything inside, but they said they wanted to do it themselves before they started working on their own homes.

Back in my own room I was reading through the grimoire on two spells I hadn't gotten to use yet, the first was binding a familiar, I had not thought much on it but now that I had I couldn't decide on what I wanted.

Something big and strong to tank for me, maybe something that could fly and bring me back information, maybe a dragon for best of both worlds? I sighed as I knew I shouldn't get my hopes up.

The other was the enchanted item spell, which could potentially become a large source of income replacing me having to hunt large beasts. I would need to research more about what beast to make my familiar, as for enchantments it seemed to rely on the materials I had to create them.

Of all my materials I could sell there was only one thing I could think of that might be attractive enough to sell, though I had no idea if it would even work. Looking down at my lap I had two items.

A simple ring with an indent for a stone, and a chunk of obsidian, I molded the obsidian to fit perfectly in the setting, next came the enchantment. I slowly pushed my mana into the ring, it slowly floated above my palm until it shimmered blue. With that step done it was time to cast a spell into the ring, I chose my fireball spell for the first try.

[FireBall]

As I cast the spell I imagined it soaking into the ring, flames leapt from my hand and wrapped around the ring before disappearing into the obsidian stone. The ring then fell into my hand, cool to the touch, I lifted it and inspected the ring.

Little symbols were inlaid along the band, they shimmered in the light, but it was the tiny red orb in the ring that was most eye-catching. 

My grimoire nudged my hand, looking down there was a mark on the page just big enough for my newly created ring to be placed in. I set it in and watched whatever the tome was up to.

{Enchanted silver ring- releases three fireballs in a burst, can be used twice daily before recharging. 12 hours for each charge.}

Well that is impressive work, looking down at the ring I smiled and said to myself, “Man it's great being a witch.”