Jacob pulled up a stool as he sat in the warmth of the sun just outside the barn. He began to stare at the weathered wall while thinking about his current problem.
The magic I can do is nice, but it's too flimsy. Sure, I can push things around a little, but in a fight, like with the goblins, it's not enough to ensure that we can all make it out of an encounter alive.
He summoned a fireball. The small, flickering sphere formed at eye level, no larger than a stone he could throw.
He pushed a fresh surge of magic into the flame. Instead of growing larger, the edges of the sphere blurred and wobbled. The fire began to act like the choppy surface of a lake during a storm.
The problem is not my power. It looks like the more magic I try to push into it, the more I am trying to control it like a tool, which seems to be what destabilizes the entire process.
The size remained unchanged while the structure became more chaotic. Eventually, the ball could no longer hold its shape. It collapsed and dispersed in a rush of heat that sent small flames in every direction.
He was situated far enough from the barn, and the flames of his own magic never seemed to burn him, so there was no trouble with causing such an effect. But the lack of progress was always irritating.
Jacob considered the difference between the spell and a rune. He could etch a heat rune onto a surface and feed it as much power as he wanted until the material ignited.
To further his analysis, he picked up a stick and pulled out his mithril-tipped etching tool to inscribe a heating rune onto it.
With a push of power, he managed to overload the rune with his magic, but instead of exploding, the stick quickly caught on fire as the rune burned itself out.
Now, why is it that I can force the density of the magic to increase so much for a rune, but not with the fireball?
He picked up another stick, but this time, he only used enough power to make the stick warm with the rune.
While it started to heat up, he held it in his hands on his lap as he tried to feel for the magic within it.
He could feel the link he had with the rune, and he could sense what his own power was doing within the rune.
It seems to be cycling in a geometric pattern, but I can't really tell what the pattern is, just that it's not the same as the rune. But the actual energy to power the enchantment, that comes from the invisible energy of the world. I just can't sense it, no matter what I do.
Leaving the issue of sensing the surrounding energy aside, he summoned his fireball once more. It was the same small dark red flame that formed a near-perfect orb, just a bit pointed at the top, where the flame flickered a bit.
If I try to compress this flame with the power already within it, He thought, I wonder if it could act like the rune somehow.
He then suggested to the flame that it would be better to pull inward, as if it were a heavy blanket wrapping itself up for warmth.
At first, nothing happened, but as he sharpened his focus, the flame began to shrink. It grew hotter as it grew smaller.
The color shifted from red to a deep orange, then to a bright orange. By the time it was the size of a pebble, the flame had turned a brilliant yellow.
It is much hotter than before. I can see the heat rolling off this small flame. And, I can weirdly control how it moves now with much greater efficiency.
He started to will it to move up and down as well as to and from himself. The small flame moved quickly as it followed his direction, and soon it nearly felt like it was a part of himself.
Now, I just need to figure out how to invite the surrounding energy into this flame, ideally without snuffing the ball of fire out.
He pulled the flame to just above his hand and looked at it closely while feeling it with his magic. It seemed to be mostly dormant, besides the flow from the air warming near the small hot flame.
I was hoping it would form that geometric shape by itself. How the hell am I supposed to do this during combat?
Brushing off his own concerns with his magic, he tried to will the condensed flame to rotate clockwise. It responded much more quickly this time, and as it spun, it seemed to grow a bit bigger while maintaining the same heat and color.
Alright, so the movement itself seems to draw in the surrounding energy. It's kind of like fanning a flame, I guess.
The flame stopped growing quickly, so Jacob decided to mix up the rotation until it formed a simple loop with two ends flowing around each other instead of just rotating in one direction. With the integration of the loop, the flame nearly doubled in size without losing power.
After the double-sided loop stabilized and ran itself without Jacob having to will it to do so, he added another loop, forming a triple-headed rotational axis, causing the flame to double up again, reaching its original size before the compression.
With the much more powerful ball of flame that was the size of a throwing stone now responding directly to his will, he could finally cast a spell that could hurt his enemies.
Focusing on an old hitching post that seemed like it was a safe distance from the barn, he cast his fireball, which moved with a blur before hitting the post.
The ball exploded much more violently than it had before the compression, but it still sounded like a poof instead of a loud bang. The damage was what Jacob was most interested in, though.
He approached the smoldering post, which had charred at the point of impact and was currently burning with a flame rising from the top of it. Jacob summoned some water to douse the post to get a closer look.
He reached out and grabbed a piece of the charred wood, which easily snapped off. He formed a fist around it, and it easily crumbled in his hand.
Well, he thought to himself as he let the wind blow the carbon dust from his fingers, I suppose the issue of power is solved for now. Time to see if I can apply it to other forms of magic.
Using himself as the target, he first tried different forms of wind magic as he moved toward the seeder that they left out at the new fields for lunch. Shaping a wind spell was easy, but narrowing down the core of the magic was not as obvious as the flame.
He ended up pushing himself side to side and even backwards before he got the hang of producing the more powerful winds he needed to actually support his movement. The rest of the trip to his seeder was a breeze after that.
Once at the seeder, he wanted to see if his lightness enchantment would work with his new air spell to make moving large heavy objects a one-person job. He first had to make the proper visualization while pulling on the mechanism that was already running this particular spell as an enchantment.
He listened to the enchantment by feeling it with his magic and followed its lead, eventually producing a lightness spell that allowed him to lift the seeder as if it were a sack of feathers.
I bet it's because the weight-assist enchantment is already helping, but this is better than I expected. It almost wants to blow away in the breeze. Better be careful.
He then used his new air spell, careful to establish both spells on the mechanism. Once it was steady, he moved it in front of himself to make sure he didn't bump into anything while he moved it without having to have a hand on it any longer.
I think I know what I need to do for a flight spell.
As he was thinking, he walked over to the post and mindlessly cast out his sharpness spell while twisting the core of the spellform, generating a much more efficient slash in the wood of the post than he had ever managed with the goblins.
I guess I can add that to my list of effective combat spells.
Continuing from his previous thought, he reached down and layered the weight enhancement enchantment through his intent method by envisioning the magic leveraging itself to propel him in his intended direction.
It had the effect that manipulating the earth had previously, where it felt like there was a bit of a spring in his step. To ensure the boots stayed on, he also layered the linking enchantment to his pants while tightening his belt.
Here goes nothing.
He cast his weight-assist spell on himself while also casting the new wind spell for movement. Spinning up both cores at the same time was a chore, but he managed to do it without exploding.
Just before takeoff, he jumped to give himself the extra momentum. It proved to be slightly too much as he ended up jumping higher than the barn.
"Whewww! Oh shit!"
He nearly lost control, but managed to right himself in time to prevent crashing into the roof of the barn, then he caught an angle and flew back towards his original position.
That is when he actually lost control. The wind spell was not enough to slow him down anymore because he let himself get too fast during the descent.
Without abandoning his air spell that was actively slowing him down, he also cast a third spell on himself to act as an absorption buffer to redistribute the kinetic energy, like the armor he had enchanted previously.
With all of the lightness enchantments working for him, the crash was nothing spectacular. His kinetic absorption spell also held, preventing any real damage from occurring. It also helped that his clothes were enchanted with strengthening aspects.
As he is dusting himself off from the fall, he hears Sera call out from behind him.
"Jacob! I could see you in the air like you were flying! Did you crash? Are you ok?"
She seemed a bit worried for him, so Jacob quickly cleared the air.
"I'm fine," he said as he waved off the worry. "It was a short flight spell that I need to tweak for it to work for real flight, but the good news is that I can move any piece of the farm equipment with it!"