Spell Weaver [Book 2 Complete]

The next two days passed unbearably slowly for Alex. With Sam using magic constantly and in larger quantities, several packs of monsters were drawn toward their hiding spot. Those few instances were small enough for Alex and the spinners to take care of them with relative ease and preparation.

Not wanting to add to the amount of mana-drawing creatures to their location, Alex practiced his magic very little, a drastic change from the previous weeks. Downtime was filled with scouting the surrounding area or working with Sarah on her training and game planning for her role on the team. It took two full days to awaken Maelis by sending small amounts of mana into the amulet while he was sure no monsters were around.

Can’t you just show me the overlay like you did in practice?

“No, brat. And I thought more of you than that. For your first one, you need to do it on your own. If you want to go by the System’s rules, you’re not a Journeyman until you complete your first full warding system.”

Didn’t I technically create one on that wooden barrier this morning?

Maelis’s deep voice grumbled expletives in Alex’s mind. “You know the answer to this. It’s the same as enchanting. One and two-link runes do not make a ward any more than they make an enchantment. It’s not a ward until you create your first warding net.”

Alex sighed and laid back down on his side at the entrance to the cave. He rolled his shoulder to get into a more comfortable position and let his threads of mana form back into the proper shape on the wall, creating a railing against the face of the stone.

Well, while I’m stuck here etching this rock with a smaller rock… You might as well tell me what else you know about the Planetary Title.

“I told you that I’d tell you when you either created your first enchantment or your first ward. You’re not there yet… and if you don’t fix the bottom side of that anchor, you’re not going to get there.”

Alex paused and looked at his rails of mana and saw the small section that Maelis was referring to.

Alex coughed.

Okay, that’s fair. Fine, what about the next runes then?

“Shouldn’t you be focusing on what you’re doing?”

He rolled his eyes as his hands continued to work, scraping the jagged black stone in his hand against the dark brown opening to the cave.

You know that I can let the other part of my mind focus on it. Come on, we need to keep the learning going.

Maelis grunted. “You’re only saying that because you can’t use your mana to train right now and want something to do.”

Well, maybe that’s part of it… But I also feel like we need to use this time. We weren’t able to charge the amulet nearly as much as it was when I siphoned the wards, so the charge won’t last that long. I really just don’t… I don’t want to keep thinking about what’s happening in the cave.

There was a pause. “What runes did you decide on?”

Well, I picked two that I think I could use in a lot of different ways. I want a Wind Rune and a Gravity Rune–

“Kid–”

Wait, wait, wait. Let me finish!

Alex couldn’t keep the grin off his face. He’d expected Maelis to get a bit worked up at the way he chose to word the request, which is why he’d done it.

I know that both of those are huge concepts. Especially gravity, but there has to be something of a connected, or lesser concept I could use, right? I mean, I’m not using a lightning rune right now, I’m using a spark rune.

“Good. At least you’re using that brain of yours. Yes, there are many lesser concepts for both of those. What do you plan to do with them? If you tell me your purpose, or the intent you think you might use when setting the rune, I’ll suggest one that your tiny Intelligence might handle.”

Ignoring the jab, Alex started with the rune he was most excited for.

One of the rituals that I’ve used the most, and since the beginning of the integration, has been the weight-increasing or weight-decreasing ritual. But each of those takes reagents to be placed in the ritual. In combat, that can be really challenging. If I can get something like that to use as an effect within my spell circle, it would be perfect.

“Hmm,” Maelis gave it some thought. “I don’t think you’re going to get both of those effects with a lesser concept. You will likely need to pick one or the other.”

Really? Why?

Their conversation was interrupted as Sarah walked from the cave. “Hey,” she said.

Alex half sat up, propping himself on an elbow to better look at her from around the corner of the cave entrance. “Hey.”

She stopped and crouched to get closer to his level. “Val is asking for a mana stone and started pouting when I offered him an E rank stone.” She gave him an apologetic smile, but accepted the purple stone that Alex held out for her.

“Tell him no more until tomorrow,” he said.

“Are you running low?”

“No, there are plenty. But I’m worried that he’s going to start going through a huge growth period again, like he did last time we were here. As he gained levels, he wanted more and more stones, and then had a huge growth spurt.”

Sarah's eyes grew wide as they both thought of a larger Valtherion.

“Once, I asked him how big he’d get,” Alex whispered, making sure that his companion wouldn’t overhear, “and in response, he sent me a mental image of a skyscraper. He only grew a few feet before his last evolution, but I have a feeling it will be a lot more this time around…”

“Well… I’ll be sure to let him know this is the last one for the day,” she answered with a shaky nod.

He lowered himself back to the ground and continued to scratch the rune into the left side of the cave entrance. Both the ones on the right side had been done, along with the higher one on the left.

Maelis picked up their conversation as he started working again. “As I was saying… Those rituals must be quite different, so it wouldn’t likely get the same effects from a single rune. Even if you focus on a certain intent.”

I guess that makes sense. The rituals are similar, but the catalysts that are used in them are very different. I’ve used them both a decent amount, but I’ve probably used the weight-increasing one the most. Since [Feather Step] naturally reduces my weight, I don’t use the weight-decreasing one on myself, and only occasionally use it to catch opponents off guard.

“Then I recommend you learn the anchor rune. This could have a similar effect to how I’ve seen you use and train with the weight increasing ritual. It has the added benefit of being used frequently in warding systems.”

That sounds perfect.

“What’s the other one? Wind?”

Well, my thought was to start learning another element. Wind seemed like it would be really useful and already fits with some of the rest of my kit.

“Hmm, I’ll at least give you a bit of credit for not choosing fire like most air-headed, young enchanters. I’ve never understood the appeal of wands or staves that shoot fire.”

Alex gave a soft snort, which shifted some dirt on the ground near his shoulder.

I see wind giving me the option to knock people off balance, change directions with my [Feather Step], and some potential to work well with the Spark Rune I’ve been using.

“Yes, I agree. These are two choices I can agree to.”

Well, what do you suggest instead of wind?

“Wind’s a powerful element. There aren’t many lesser concepts associated with it. The one that I think would fit your purpose the most would be the Breeze Rune.” Maelis said with confidence.

Alex felt his excitement building at the spirit's approval of his choices. With two runes decided on, it was only a matter of time before he could begin to craft new spell circles and expand his available spell options.

He let the conversation die down and focused on finishing the final rune in the ward setup. When he was complete, he sat up and let out a breath.

“All right, I think I’m ready to activate it.” He slid his butt across the ground to cross the threshold and sat Infront of the control stone anchor he’d etched into the stone floor. Leaning down, he blew any dirt remnants from it and looked at the rune.

“No, you’re not.” The spirit's gravelly voice stopped him.

He paused. “What do you mean I’m not?”

“I mean, you’re not ready. If you activate it like this, it would likely backfire. Either an explosion or, at the very least, a mana wave would be caused to disperse the power.”

Explosion?!

Alex switched to thinking the conversation to avoid causing Sarah or Sam any panic.

What do you mean, explosion? I thought you said that runes don’t explode!

“No, I said enchantments don’t normally explode. But warding is very different. Since they take more power to set and activate, they tend to respond more dramatically to faulty setups.”

Stolen story; please report.

Alex groaned and put his head in his hands.

Fine… at least show me where I went wrong?

Maelis didn’t respond, but various blue and red lines appeared in Alex’s vision. His eyes roamed over them and noted very small discrepancies in the runes. All of his mistakes dealt with the depth or angle of the runes as they were carved into the surface. He tried to give himself some grace, as he’d only spent time so far writing the runes in the air with his threads, not creating them in a three-dimensional space.

“You don’t seem disappointed. Failure should bother you more,” Maelis grumbled.

I’m only disappointed you’re making me wait to learn more about the planetary title. I don’t mind working on this. Each time I fail, I’m only going to get closer. It’s only a matter of time before I get it.

“Humph. More young brats should have that attitude. Anyway, you don’t need to know about it right now. It’s not meant to be used this early anyway.”

The tidbits of information he had gotten from the spirit only drove him to want to know more. Pushing the thoughts from his mind, Alex focused instead on the warding structure.

Other than the structure of the runes, how is the placement? Would it form a ward netting across the opening like this?

“Barely,” he said simply.

It was enough confirmation for Alex to know he was on the right track. “Okay, well, I’ll keep working on the depth of these and try again soon. For now, I want to check on Sam. Can you work with my other mind to learn the new runes' patterns?”

When the less-grumpy spirit agreed, Alex pushed himself up and stretched. He scanned the surrounding landscape before heading back into the cave.

Sam sat in the same position he’d been in for over a day. His crossed legs, straight back, and outstretched hands made him look like a meditating monk. If someone could see mana like Alex could, they’d see him surrounded in mana and controlling it expertly. There was a verdant circle of mana around him and streams of green mana that constantly swirled around the hands he held over his patients. However, the largest change to Alex’s mana sight was the gradually solidifying hexagonal shapes that formed over the healer like a dome. It took Alex some time to realize that it must be an aspect of the turtle spirit manifesting around Sam, resembling a shell.

To anyone seeing these things, Alex was sure that Sam would appear to be a benevolent, wise, and powerful mage. Only his dirty appearance, scuffed green hoodie, and ruffled hair grounded him in reality.

He walked to the left side of the cave, where a small, ash-filled fire pit had been created, and several bedrolls had been laid out. Sarah sat beside hers, writing in a notebook with Valtherion in her lap.

“Hey, how’s he doing?” Alex asked quietly.

“Good,” she said while looking up. “I replaced the stones an hour ago, and Val gave him his mana too.”

Looking at Sam again, Alex’s eyes drifted to Olivia and Mark before closing his eyes. “How’s your training going?”

“It’s going,” she answered. “Just taking some more notes. You should probably do the same.”

He nodded, knowing why she said it. “Yeah, I probably should.”

“At least it’ll help take your mind off things.”

Letting the empty leather book drop into his hand, he sat beside her and opened it to a fresh page. They gave each other tired smiles before returning to their projects. Alex spent time ordering his thoughts and trying to record what he knew about his creation and the use of spell circles.

Hours passed as he tried to explain how each of the three major components played into its creation. He tried to stress the importance of his high Willpower stat without letting them know how high it truly was, and expressed his worry that others likely wouldn’t be able to repeat the magic system for some time.

It wasn’t until he heard a weak cough from his left that his pen jerked to a stop. His head came up, and he stowed his materials in a heartbeat before rushing to Olivia’s side.

“I’m done,” Sam said.

His voice sounded hoarse and exhausted. Alex gave him a waterskin, checked on him, and helped him walk to the bedroll they’d prepared for him. Sam smiled up at Alex and shared a System screen with him. The healer’s sleepy smile stayed on his face even as he fell asleep so fast that Alex worried he’d passed out.