The next day came, and I woke up within my room. I was still thinking of what we had discussed yesterday, since I am not sure what is going to happen. I hope that I was just overthinking it, but in the worst case, we will have to leave the Forest of Calamity. While I was thinking of this, I was also doing my exercises. Since I had put my weights on, I was doing less than last time, but I still made sure to do enough to get me exhausted. This led to me doing 10 sets of 5 different exercises. I'm sure that I could have done more, but I felt that that would have just been detrimental to me. I definitely need to make heavier weights, because doing 1,000 different exercises just takes too long. Even though I have a lot of free time, I feel like it could be used in much better ways.
While making my weights heavier is a good thing, I don't think there is any feasible way to do so. The only things I can think of are making more stone weights, or making weights out of metal. Making more stone weights would make them bulky, and hard to take off quickly. The four stone weights I have at the moment seem to be the perfect amount to put on and take off quickly. In case I need to fight, I would like for my weights to be easily removable. As for making iron weights, I have no idea how I would even get the iron necessary to make them. Even if I somehow figured out how to get the iron, I would have no way to process it into weights.
Well, this isn't really that urgent, especially when compared to the things that we are facing, so I will just put it off for now. Also, if working out is taking too much time, I could always just skip it. Skipping my exercises for a couple of days won't really be that bad. While thinking like that, I went outside to the dining room. Astra was in the kitchen cooking, while Ana was already seated at the table. I went and joined Astra on the table, and waited for Astra to finish her cooking. It didn't take long for Astra to finish, and we were all served her food. We all immediately dug in and quickly finished the food.
"So we have 3 more years until the succession ceremony, right?" I ask once we are all done with our food.
"Yes," Astra replies. "Once this winter is over, the succession ceremony will be held in 3 years time."
"That is such a far way aways, yet it is going to be an important moment for us," Ana solemnly says.
"Even though we don't know what will happen, we should be prepared to leave at any time," I say. "We don't need to stay within the Forest of Calamity to survive. I feel like we can survive just fine in any other place."
"Yes," Astra says. "We will definitely be fine anywhere else."
"And we can always make new memories wherever we go," Ana chimes in.
"Don't forget this is only the worst case scenario," I say. "We still don't know what will happen in 3 years time."
"I'm sure we will be fine," Astra says as she grabs the dishes and heads to wash them, ending the conversation.
"Well, I'll be heading to my room," I say as I also leave the dining room. Once in my room I begin preparing to leave. Even though it is the worst case scenario, I still want to be adequately prepared for it. I honestly didn't have a lot of personal items that I really needed to take with me. The only things that I decided to pack were my flint and steel, pendant, and dagger. Despite not needing any of these items, they are precious mementos of my parents, so I was going to take them with me. Everything else in my room was something that could be easily crafted later, and not something of major importance. I put the pendant around my neck, so that it would be with me at all times. The broken dagger was placed within the sheath, which still held it securely, before the sheath was placed at my waist. Finally, the flint and steel was just placed within my pockets. With that, I was prepared to leave at any time.
With that all finished, I began to think over the problems in my to do list. If I could figure out any one of them, I would surely be able to increase my combat ability. I put major effort on analyzing magic circles, and trying to figure out chantless casting, because these were two things that would give me a noticeable increase in combat power. After all, both of them would allow me to forgo chanting, which will save me time when in battle. While the other two would also help me in combat, they wouldn't give me an immediate increase in power.
With that decided, I poured all my effort into resolving the problems. For the analysis of magic circles, I did it like I always did. I compared the spells with the magic circles associated with them. As for chantless casting, I tried to figure out why some of my spells couldn't be used by Astra and Ana, to see if I could find a link to chantless casting. Any ideas I had on magic circles would be instantly put into practice to see if they were correct. However, every time I thought I was onto something, the actual experiment would prove to be fruitless, as there would be an effect that was unintended.
I still don't even know why I was able to create these magic circles in the first place. The idea just came to me in my head, and when I actually put it into practice it worked. If anything, I should be thinking about why this happened, but this would definitely be fruitless. As for the chantless casting, I couldn't really think of many good ideas. The other problem with this is that I needed to go ask Ana and Astra about any questions I have, since they are the ones who can actually do chantless casting. However, when I went to ask, they were also busy with their own things. In their room, they were doing the same thing again, which I still believe is a way for them to practice their mana control. I didn't want to interrupt them, so I ended up keeping these ideas to myself.
I still remember their explanation on chantless casting, but it doesn't help me one bit. While it does give me insight into how it works, it just can't work for me, since mana can't travel to the head. I'm just hoping that I can integrate some of the principles into my own spells, or help Ana and Astra use their spells to their fullest. However, it seems like I can't do any of that, because I can't even understand these spells. I wasn't expecting to solve anything soon, but it is just really frustrating when no progress is made. I know I can't rush these things, but I hope that the answer will just come to me sooner.
After a while of thinking and failing to come up with anything, I decided to have a change of pace. I began to focus on the other things within my to do list. While they won't directly help with combat, they will still be of a big help to me. Also who knows, maybe thinking of these two things will help me think of new ideas for my other problems. Going in with this light hearted optimism, I began to think of ways to increase my mental training efficiency, and what my mothers original space spell was.
It took me some time, but I began to narrow down what kind of spell my mother used. Despite having little information, I was able to reasonably assume that she had used some kind of restrictive spell on them. After all, they became super weak to her, and her spells grew much stronger in power. Instead of thinking that the spell she cast increased her power, it would be safer to think that it decreased her opponents power. However, while I was able to think this far, I couldn't go any farther. I just didn't have enough information to assume anything more. However, thanks to that thought, I was able to get another good idea.
"Sylvain, lunch is ready," Astra suddenly called, interrupting me from my thoughts.
"Okay," I yelled back as I went to the dining room table. Once there I sat down and waited for Astra to come with the food. Ana was already there waiting for us in her fox form. It didn't take long before Astra, in her human form, brought over a pot full of soup. She gently placed it down in the middle of the table, before bringing out the bowls and spoons. Once all that was done, she poured each of us a bowl of soup.
"I guess I am not going to be serving everyone," I say in jest.
"No, because you dismantled all of the rabbit-type demonic beasts," Astra said. "So today you are taking a break."
"That wasn't that bad," I say, trying to soothe over what I feel is her anger. "They were small, so it wasn't that hard to dismantle all of them."
"But you also went out and hunted the demonic beasts," Astra said. "You also went out to check on Diego and his crew, and then also dismantled all the rabbit-type demonic beats. You should have at least let me help."
"Sorry," I say feeling regretful at her sad tone near the end of her speech.
"Just eat for now," she says in reply. "I will take care of the rest of the demonic beasts."
"Okay, thanks for that," I say. After talking, I watch her expression to see if she is still angry. However, it doesn't seem to be so as she began to eat the food she prepared with a smile on her face. Upon seeing that scene, I calmed down and began to eat the soup that had been served. We all ate our food in a comfortable silence like usual. However, surprisingly, Ana finished her food first. I assumed that she was eating her food while Astra was berating me for dismantling all the rabbit-type demonic beasts alone.
"So anything we need to talk about," I say before Astra takes the dirty dishes to be washed.
"I have nothing to say," Astra says as she grabs all the dishes.
"I also don't have anything to say," Ana also adds.
"I just wanted to see how your packing ws going," I say after hearing that they have no concerns.
"The only item that we have to worry about is the magic bag," Astra says.
"That is something we will definitely carry when we leave," Ana continued.
"So everything else is unimportant to you?" I ask just to clarify.
"Well, it is not something that we desperately need to take with us."
"Yeah, Sylvi," Ana says. "Everything we really need can just be remade."
"Okay," I reply. "Just make sure that you guys are prepared to leave at a moment's notice."
"Don't worry, we will be." They reply in unison. That being their final statements, Astra goes to wash the dishes she has gathered while Ana goes back to my room. I also head back to my room after all that. I went back to thinking about my new idea. It was to place restrictive spells on myself. This might help me with both my mental and physical training. After all, using restrictive spells would occupy some of my tasks, and would also put more of a burden on me. I might even be able to create a restrictive spell that works on my mind, but I should think about that later. I don't want to mess around with my mind after all.
Anyways, to make sure this idea comes to fruition, I will have to first make a restrictive spell of my own. I am not really sure how I would create it using only my wind affinity. Even though the wind affinity is known for its versatility, I have never really made any restrictive spells, and there's only one thing I can think of at the moment, which is to use the wind to inhibit my movement. I am not even sure if this will work, but it is the only idea I have at the moment, so it is what I will work with.
We already know that the element we want is wind. The direction should be around me, since I want it to affect myself. I don't know what shape it should take. I know it should be like a breeze, but I definitely want it to be stronger. Something stronger than a breeze would be a gale, but that just seems like overkill. I think I will just go for a middle ground with the shape and just use gust. Of course the action will be restricting my movements. Now that I have everything about the spell figured out, I just have to chant it and see if it works.
"O spell of wind follow me as a gust of wind to restrict my movements."
The spell I created worked, but it honestly wasn't that strong. While it would restrict my movements, and made me put in more effort, it just wasn't enough. Comparatively, it would be like I was back to using wooden weights. While it does still help me with it's intended purpose, it isn't as good as what I had. I mean it is better than doing nothing, but I would hope that I can create a more powerful spell, so that way my training will be as effective as it could be. With that thought in mind, I began to modify my spell. Improving on things that I felt could be improved upon, and taking out others that might have been useless. The final product was actually kept very similar to the original, only with a small change to the direction part of the spell
"O spell of wind form around me as a gust of wind to restrict my movements."
I honestly don't know why this spell setup is more effective than my other one. My only guess is that when a spell forms around me, it uses less mana than when it follows me. Because of this, more of the mana can go into the intended purpose of the spell. While this explanation is forced, it is still a possible explanation. I also won't know if this is true or not without experimentation. I'll have to put that off until later, if I ever get around to doing it. I probably won't get around to doing it anytime soon though, since I feel like it will be a massive time sink, that won't really be helpful. It is definitely interesting, but it is something that should be done when I have more time to spare.
Anyways, the spell I created will force me to put more effort into my movements, which in turn will make my exercises shorter. It is also a continuous spell, but it only uses a small amount of mana. It uses such a small amount, that it is like I am not even using mana. I will try to keep it active at all times, which isn't something that will be hard. After all, I was able to keep my hiding spell active for the entire day, even when I slept, and it has such a low mana cost. As such, keeping this spell active all the time will not be a problem. I will only take it off when I need to use all of my strength. With that decided I kept channeling the spell, keeping another portion of my mind occupied. I'm sure I will be using this spell a lot.
This combined with my stone weights will increase my work greatly. I can also always chant more spells in case I need to limit myself more. As a final case, I can also change gust to gale. That will definitely increase the power of my spell, but that is something that I can't handle at the moment. It is just nice to know that I have options for the future.
"Dinner is ready," Astra yelled.
"Coming," I call out. I had been so absorbed in my spell work that I had forgotten what time it was. I was lucky that I finished my spell at the same time she had finished cooking. While thinking that, I walk out and head to the dining room table. I tried to walk as normally as I could, because I didn't want to worry them. I also felt that explaining this would be a pain. I think I did a good job walking normally. It also wasn't all that hard, since I had taken off my weights, so I could get adjusted faster to the spell.
Astra and Ana were already seated, and the food was already on the table. I feel like she used some of the demonic beasts that she had just dismantled in her cooking. The food just tasted fresh, and nothing like what we have been eating. I am not a hundred percent sure though, and I don't think I should ask. Either way, I ate the food with relish, and soon finished my portion.
"Is everything already dismantled?" I asked once I was done eating.
"Yeah, there wasn't a lot left that needed to be dismantled," Astra says.
"Sorry about that," I say, thinking that she is still angry over me doing the bulk of the dismantling work.
"It's fine," she replies as she continues to eat her food. Soon enough the both of them finish their food. Astra once again takes all the dishes and heads to wash them. Ana also gets up from her seat and heads back to the room. I can only assume that this means they have nothing to talk about. As such I also get up and head to my room.
"Good night," I say to both of them before I am out of their sight.
"See you in the morning." "Have a good rest." They both say at practically the same time. With that, I head to my room and head to sleep.