The day was fruitless. Controlling the gate to produce force was very difficult. It wasn't a question about how far my understanding about forces or speed, it was picturing how the force was added that was difficult.
I can picture the rock going inside the gate and having an increase of speed, but I can't define how the rock would go out, its speed and its direction and most importantly what made it increase its speed.
At the end of the day I looked at Chrestos and asked him:
"Master, how are you able to accomplish this feat?" "I can't tell you that Edward, you have to picture it out yourself. Everyone has his own way to imagine things. I'm sure you'll be able to accomplish it" That night I got home late, barely at the time for dinner. I was looking for a way to make the Gate with the added function. But still I had no luck.
Another week passed by and I was not progressing in the Gate spell. So I decided to focus on improving its casting time. I was able to make it in around 1 second but that was still bad, I have to be able to cast it instantly.
My training with dad was progressing. My dad increased the distance that I have to run; now I had to do 200 laps around the house and with 15kg of weights. I have to do 60 pushups, 80 squats and 80 lunges. I became able to lift the 20 kg stone but only 15 times, my goal was lifting it 20 times.
Today is the day I train with mister Chrestos and the weather was very bad, it was very windy, trees were almost uprooted from the violent wind. The rain was falling down making the backyard very muddy. I was hesitant about going out to train but dad told me that I had to.
I went out, wanting to complete the training as fast as possible. It was really cold.
I missed my previous life's comfort. When it was cold, we would put the heater on. When it's rainy we wouldn't have to go outside at all. If you wanted food, you can order it and it would be on your door step in no time, if you wanted to the gym for a work out you can take a car to the gym. Some people even had gyms at their own houses. I had a treadmill at home, and sometimes, when it was bad outside, I would use it a bit. I remember a time when my son was using it, actually playing on it while it was running at a great speed, he jumped on it and he was launched towards the wall. If I didn't step in that time, he would be gravely injured.
That's when I thought of something. A treadmill produces speed. Even a non moving object is launched at great speed if it was placed on a treadmill. The only way to avoid that is to move at a greater speed on the opposing direction.
What's more, you can control the work generated by the treadmill. Make it small or as big as you'd like.
I was really excited. If I can integrate that thought in the gate spell, I would be able to accomplish the second function of the gate.
I started running faster than before and completed my work out quickly. I had lunch and waited for mister Chrestos to come and pick me up. After some time, I couldn't wait any longer and decided to go ahead of him there. I am capable of using the gate spell myself too.
I got out in the forest and started picturing the treadmill working in head. I imagined a huge treadmill more than a km in length and width and its carpet was rolling very fast. The work from its movement was insane. I opened a gate behind me and the other was in front. I picked up a rock that was lying on the ground and was about to throw it out. But before I could do, I sensed a gate opening next to me and from it stepped mister Chrestos. I sighed when I found out and proceeded to throw the stone. It went into the gate behind me.
Suddenly a loud boom resounded from the exit gate that was pointed towards the forest. The stone went out of the gate and made a crack in the air itself. It broke the sound barrier. We couldn't even see the stone. It traveled forward and all we saw was the trees in its path being pierced and almost catching fire. The stone kept travelling until we couldn't see the destruction it was making.
But still, it was terrifying. The sound of the rock travelling ahead of sound itself was like thunder striking near our feet. I was really glad the weather was bad. If someone was near us, he would fortunately perceive the sound that of the thunder and not expect some kid trying a spell.
I looked at Chrestos who seemed a mix of emotions; shock, fear, amazement, doubt and pride.
He looked at me while rubbing his eyes:
"H-how d-did you do t-that?" He couldn't speak without stuttering. He was very shocked.
"I imagined a way to produce speed" "I told you to produce speed, not destruction. This is overkill." (Hmm, he has a point, I can't add this much force to something every time. I have to tune it down. Well, at least I know that it works.) "Yes master" I spent the evening testing the new spell's function, by trying different force outputs. I was able to get a good idea about how much force I wanted to attain a certain degree of speed.
I also discovered that the first time I activated took a huge amount of mana, nearly a quarter of it. Well, seeing the amount of destruction, I thought it was worth it.
But when I produced the spells with way less force than my mana expenditure would also be very small.
Something else I noticed was that, when making a Gate with the speeding function, it would take way less time until it spontaneously disappears.
Today's training was complete, and before I separated with mister Chrestos he looked at me and said:
"That power, Edward, don't use it unless you are in a very dire situation. Normal people fear those with great powers. You won't know who's going to be after you." "Okay master. I won't use it without proper reason." "The next week we won't be practicing together, instead I want you to create your own spell. We meet next week." He said as he opened a gate and disappeared.
I was left pondering, I haven't thought about creating my own spell this early. And most importantly why the sudden proposition? Well I let that thought alone and got back home.
I was wandering about many things. Space magic is cool and all, but I couldn't find any way to utilize it in combat. Aside from redirecting spells through a gate and fighting the same way mister Chrestos did with dad, I couldn't think of any other way.
But that would leave me with major flaws and disadvantages. If I fought someone who excelled at close combat with an affinity that boosted it greatly, I can't think of any way that would give me an upper hand.
Gate won't be useful in close quarter combat since I wouldn't be able to redirect spells. And most of all, the gate spell only works as a surprise attack, if I use it too much my opponent would very likely anticipate that and change his attack pattern.
I lay in bed after having a shower and a warm dinner and start thinking about it.
But no matter how hard I tried to figure something out, I couldn't find anything so I draft to sleep. Let's worry about that tomorrow.
I woke up early as usual and my morning routine. I finished my entire training schedule. And I began practicing the gate spell. I still wanted to be able to cast it instantaneously and I think that by the end of the week, it would be plausible.
I opened a gate with a speeding function.
Calling it that was kind of lame so I decided that I would find a cool name for it.
The sound breaking one would have its own name, one that is way cooler. But that had to wait for some time else.
The gate I opened was a weak speeding factor with a small work force. I bent down and picked some rocks from the ground and held them to my hand. I threw a single rock and it passed the gate appearing from the exit, it was heading towards a huge tree that was in the backyard. When it made contact, there was a scratch where the rock hit. I looked at the damage and wondered how much it would be when I increase the force just a little bit. But then an idea came to my mind.
What if I threw all the rocks at once?
I gaze at the tree and threw the rocks through the gate. When they got out they were like a machine gun bullets. They made contact with the tree and left more damage than last time.
I wondered: what if I make gates appear simultaneously from different place around the tree?