When Joseph woke up, only a few minutes later according to Stella, he could feel the autonomous magical calculation center, or AMCC. It was trying to finish FLAME JET. After only a moment of consideration, he swapped it over to PREPARE GAME. He wanted to do FLAME JET himself.
'Thank you ENACRA,' he thought.
(HE SAYS YOU ARE WELCOME.)
'Uhh, cool?' He wasn't sure about having a god actually talk to him, even if it was through the system.
Since his time was split up with having to be a king, or learning to be a king, this AMCC would more than double the speed he was advancing in magic. He was still half in disbelief that PURIFY FOOD actually worked. Intermediate level must be more impressive than he thought.
"Stella, I was given a blessing from the god of magic."
She made a somewhat troubled face, "Congratulations, Master."
"Thank you."
"What was his name?"
"ENACRA, though I think it's just arcane spelled backwards."
"Arcane means magic. Backwards names are interesting…"
He nodded and ducked his head as he thought.
"Stella, the mana here should return to normal soon. I want to stay until it does. I'm not sure when I'll have the opportunity to practice in an environment as rich as this one ever again. I really don't want to have to murder a whole bunch of people to create another one."
"That's reassuring, Master Joseph."
He started by practicing maintaining a small CREATE FIRE as he did other tasks. After only a few hours he could maintain it without effort. After a few more hours he could imbue runes with a lasting effect.
Instead of putting 10 points of mana into CREATE FIRE and making a giant fire, he learned to make it leak slowly so that it was a 2 point fire for five times as long.
After he let it go, the rune simply hung in the air and maintained the spell. It wouldn't work for instant spells, like IGNITE FIRE, or spells that have to change targets, but this was good enough to expand his abilities.
As soon as he got the new ability, mana control ate it and added time to the mana control skill. It was his only grand skill, and he had to admit it was very mysterious.
After all of that, he started practicing drawing the same rune with both hands at the same time, and then different runes at the same time. His success rate was really poor, but he was able to do it because of the high mana in the area. It allowed him to train two spells, mana control, inscribing, and work on the quests for ambidexterity and high manual dexterity all at once, so every hour was counting for a lot. Practicing both hands, drawing the same rune together, was odd. It didn't circulate if you started from the points together and go inscribing and end them together. It was a faster way to cast spells like a normal mage but he couldn't think of a use for it. Mana control allowed him to form the rune directly so he was inscribing this way just for the quests.
The fog had lifted by dawn, and the temperature was slowly recovering. He had stayed up all night to take advantage of the situation. FLAME JET was complete.
"Stella, stand back, I want to do something impressive."
He started to gather mana from the surroundings. Envisioning the rune slightly above his palm, he held out his hand and saw himself shooting something.
"Kame no … never mind." A stream of fire flew out of his hand without stopping. As he increased the mana going into it, the flame got longer and longer, until it was almost 20 feet out. Then he swung it.
"This is awesome!" he shouted. He had to try this with his other hand, too! "Woohoo!"
Joseph started making light sword sound effects from the movie with Luke Starkiller fighting his aunt. It hadn't been a very popular movie, but he had loved it in one of his lives.
Stella was looking at him like he had lost his mind.
"Um, do you want one too? Let me think for a moment…if I can make the rune maintain, and I probably need to make the flames more solid, maybe a handle, then…" It took him three minutes.
Inscribing the rune FLAME JET on his palm, he figured out how to do it. He was holding a handle of congealed fire, almost like a flame gel, in his hand without burning himself. Then he made the blade go about three feet, or one meter, and it worked.
The blade was so bright, it was hard to look at, but after a few test swings, he had a flame sword. Touching it to the ground caused a thin line to be burnt through it. It was ready, so he canceled the spell.
"Stella, come here."
For some reason, she wasn't very close, so he had to repeat himself, and speak louder for her to hear and respond.
"Give me your hand."
"Here, Master Joseph," she responded meekly. She held her hand out, palm down, so he took it.
"My enchanting lady," he said, kissing it.
She snatched her hand back blushing.
"Ok, now palm up," he said, grinning.
She took a breath, then held her hand out, this time palm up. He very carefully inscribed the new rune on her palm. As soon as he was done, he stepped back and activated it. Stella was now holding a long dagger made of bright blue flames.
"What do you think?" he asked, excitedly. "Is it a good length? I can make it longer or shorter. You can't throw it, but otherwise it should work. Oh, and you have to make the sound effects when you use it."
She looked at him, unsure if he was being serious, but he hid his grin.
"Whoosh," she said, and he broke out laughing. He had finally found something she wasn't good at.
(YOU HAVE RECEIVED 1 LIFE POINT FOR FLAME JET.)
(YOU HAVE RECEIVED 1 LIFE POINT FOR FLAME BLADE.)
Joseph grinned in delight. He shouldn't have gotten credit for a new spell, because it really should have required the ILLUSION/CREATION rune in order to be solid. The mana cost outside of this area would be ridiculous, but totally worth it!