"Man! I miss the internet so freaking much!" Gerald groaned. "I could just sort through a few thousand pages in a day and get spells for every occasion if it was possible to use magic on Earth."
The crazy things people did in search of knowledge and entertainment could be found in the darkest corners of the internet. Gerald was convinced that there would be millions, if not billions of conversations and new ideas on this topic every year.
With the amount of brainpower just a small fraction of humanity had, they would be enough to figure out in a year what these people on this new planet needed millennia to do. And with the help of modern supercomputers and advanced molecular scanners, the advancements in technology would erupt like a supervolcano!
"It would have been so awesome! But now I'm here all alone...sigh!"
Gerald took the Earth Spike spell scroll and went to test it outside.
He sent a pulse of Mana and overloaded brittle trigger rune. The entire paper in his hand was suddenly activated and it disintegrated in a flash of light and flames.
Gerald then felt as if the hand that held the spell scroll gained control over the position of the spell, so he pointed at the ground not far away.
With a slight rumble, a spike rose from the ground as he expected. Nothing unusual happened. The feeling of control also disappeared.
"Hmm, yeah, well, at least I confirmed that it works…" He scratched his beard and mumbled, "I can probably just modify it a little to get a better understanding of how these Runes work."
For the next few hours, he proceeded to change and modify the shape of the spell. He made many different modifications to test them out. One of them made the Earth Spike split and grow small thorns along its body like a blackberry bush.
Another made it slimmer and longer, for more piercing power. Then there was the opposite, a chubby spike, made more for pushing and lifting stuff than skewering.
'I do like this thorn design… Hmm...' Gerald mused. He gathered his Mana and made a pushing motion with his hands.
Rumble!
Stone spikes grew out of the ground with finger-length thorns all over them. It looked dangerous, but Gerald was not quite satisfied with it yet. "Maybe if I make it look more organic…"
He waved his hands in the air and the spikes and thorns started moving like snakes, they elongated and bent in an arc, slithering across each other and creating a proper thorn field.
"Thorns! It's a good spell, I like it!" He took out a notebook and recorded his insights in detail. He also described how to make the spell.
After subsequently wiping out all evidence of magic, he returned to his lab and continued brainstorming for ideas about spell scrolls.
Potion of Focus really worked wonders for learning. In the past week, the girls advanced by leaps and bounds, especially Sera. She went from barely being able to use magic, to a talented Spellcaster with near mastery over her Ice spells.
She trained with Xilia every day, and they went through many Earth and Water Cores constantly. Although they had to rest often, Sera was determined to push herself and become strong. Even though she was forced to relive and face her worst nightmare because of Gerald, she didn't resent him at all. It was just the opposite.
She felt grateful for pushing her to the edge and dealing with the trauma that she couldn't face by herself. Now, granted, he didn't help her recover from it, but she had her other friends for that. And then he even helped her learn Ice magic. It was really cool!
She playfully fought with Xilia during the last few days and her control over magic increased exponentially. Having unlimited access to the Potion of Focus helped a ton, of course.
Now came the time when Gerald tested their advancements and knowledge of magic. They had a short written test to see how well they understood his teachings.
It went surprisingly well. It was a real eye-opener for Gerald who was expecting mediocre results. But then thinking about it, he realized that they didn't have many distractions as he and his peers had back on Earth, so they could focus on their studies wholeheartedly.
Although their understandings varied slightly from each other, their base of knowledge was solid. They could continue building higher.
"Alright, I have here a few things for you…" Gerald took a few vials and gave them to Elly and Sera. It was the Mana Elixir he just made recently. "Drink only one potion each day and do not speak of it to anyone! If you do, you will only bring trouble to yourself," he warned.
He decided to make them stronger so their usefulness would increase. In any case, having more Mana was always good, and having the option to fight without external energy sources was always preferred.
The Dark Elves didn't need it since they could already grow their Ether Cores naturally.
"What is this?" Sera asked doubtfully. She held the vial in her hand and observed the peculiar potion she couldn't recognize.
"It's a Mana Elixir, it's going to permanently increase the Mana inside your body," Gerald simply explained.
"What?!" All of them shouted at the same time. "Are you saying that you can make something the entire continent tried, and failed to make, for a millennium?"
Gerald chuckled, "How else do you think I can use so much Magic without external Mana sources?"
Gasp!
The girls sucked in a cold breath.
"Holy shit!"
"Are you serious?!"
The ones that gave the strongest reactions were, of course, Xilia and Sera. Although they knew Gerald's Mana usage was wildly different than the rest of the people, they were still shocked when he admitted it.
"So… How much Mana do you have?" Sera questioned with a burning gaze. Her mind was working overtime, giving her all sorts of crazy thoughts.
"Hmm," Gerald thought for a second, "It should be close to five hundred after I finish another round of this potion…"
"Five-!" Sera almost started to choke on air. The world around her started spinning and she felt weak in her knees.
"-hundred?!" Xilia finished her sentence. She caught her friend from falling and looked at Gerald with a flabbergasted expression. "You monster!"
She then bit her lip and looked at the floor, "Do you have any more of that potion? And, can I have some?" she shamelessly asked.
Shaking his head Gerald replied, "Sorry, the ingredients are quite hard to get and I didn't make many. But no worries, after those two consume these Mana Elixirs they will probably be around your level. You got around 50 MP, right?"
"It's…more like 60 MP I think…" Xilia answered truthfully.
Gerald nodded his head. It was about what he expected. The atmosphere became somewhat stale so he had to break the awkward silence.
"Anyway, I got a few more books for you here. I put a lot of effort into making them, so make sure to study hard! I'll probably be leaving for a few days soon, so if you have any questions, now is the time to speak up!"