Probably because of my personal goal more than anything else, my mother wanted me to spend 'half' of the day working with her in transmutation. She claimed that this need arose from the sudden loss of stock during the night. I secretly claimed that this was to keep me from developing my physical stats too quickly.
At first the work was tedious and boring as I flexed my magic muscles, doing all of the transmuting and inscribing by will to swiftly deplete my magic before recharging it almost liberally with a potion. I would inevitably be blessing these, so I wanted a presentable stack of crates to show my efforts of half a day's work.
I also wanted to show my mother I could turn even her work into a hellacious workout.
By the time I had filled three sets of three crates, one set for each shape, my mother decided that I had adequately compensated for the crates emptied by the scouts. I could tell she was getting tired of watching me push myself so hard for little reason, but she was probably also getting annoyed with my wisps. Two unearthly balls of darkness the size of round watermelons coming out of a giant child's body in the middle of a temple was not something the others could get used to seeing.
Every time Shade or Grimm would come out to investigate the raw energies being used, somebody would cry out in shock and one person even completely freaked out. Normally I would have kept them contained in my heart, but now that they were learning to manipulate their 'bodies' they would cause distortions in energy flow that cause the other to give them space.
Eventually I had no choice but to let them wander about because of the disturbances being created within my magic caused by their sudden rivalry. Even though wisps were a common sight paired with young mages, mine were concentrations of the two elements of darkness and I was supposed to be a five-year-old. It was no wonder I was shooed off to the next job.
My mom even only walked me to the door before returning to her work. Even though my overall magic had gone up a few 'percents' my actual stats had not even changed. A few more crates would have probably been enough to raise my Willpower. Luckily, I was about to start some hard labor which would raise my physical stats for sure.
Having already seen and heard of me the day before, most of the workers barely looked twice as I approached the slab. Until my wisps passed by like ethereal black suns randomly shrinking down to a tennis ball before blowing back up, then everybody started doing double takes as I headed toward where my father was hard at work. As much as I would have preferred not to stand out, it honestly felt pretty good to see the shock and even fear in the eyes of some adults.
Having long since known of their existence, my father barely spared my wisps an appraising glance when I walked up and said, "Those things were newborns about a week ago, right? They've gotten huge, especially for wisps."
"I can produce the exact energies they need and I have been 'flexing' them the past few days in my work," I explain cheerfully. "They cant use mana on their own, yet, so when I draw on them it has the same exercise effect as when I expend large quantities of mana. So, what do you need me to do?"
There's a hammer your size over on the next anvil and a box of rocks," my father explains simply. "Start smashing rocks. Dont worry about emptying your box because the slab itself will refill the boxes with more moonstone. However, the most important part is to constantly circulate mana through your hammer.
Not just push magic into it and start smashing, but to cycle in and out of the hammer and yourself consistently," he emphasizes quickly as I start walking to the next anvil, almost without pausing for breath. "Otherwise the stone bits get direct exposure which will muck up the process for your mother and the others transmuting. Direct exposure directly imbues the product, indirect exposure increases the object's potential for when directly exposed."
"So it's like magic stones and metals in the wild, we're just recreating the ambient magic that enriches them before they're actually imbued," I muse more to myself than to my father as my wisps float about high overhead feeding on the same ambient mana generated by such constant and numerous magical effort
This was pretty much what my stewed mash had done in my array, generate various energies to be concentrated by the array. However, instead of wisps we were basically synthesizing wild mana stones. I had always thought it would be possible to do things like this, but now it seemed like these things were just a higher tier magic than what I was usually exposed to.
I could consider myself a genius for stumbling upon the first steps to greater magic by myself, but now I knew that there was much more magic out there than I had originally thought. I was aware that most of what my mother taught me in magic and crafting was Guild standards, but it seemed like a public organization's standard for education was limited. Probably for multiple reasons.
[Wielding holy tool]
[Strength raised by 10]
[Mana conduction efficiency raised by 10%]
Ten percent might sound small, if it was on its own, but a ten percent gain on top of this short handled square-headed hammer's natural sixty-percent conductivity was a huge gain. Ten points in strength raised my strength-to-weight ratio by a hundred pounds, as well. However, the weight of the hammer itself was INSANE.
The entire thing was solid metal of some dark silvery steel and must have weighed at least fifty pounds on its own. However, once I started focusing my body's mana into the hammer the tool seemed to both grow heavier and heavier while balancing itself. The weight stopped increasing once the hammer was loaded and I could start circulating the mana back into myself, but the 'balance' of the tool suddenly seemed much less precarious.
It felt as if the hammer wanted to be raised and then eagerly smashed down on some helpless entity, and that urge to be smashed down once lifted lessened with the circulation of mana. Using my mind energy through telekinesis, I not only prepare a line of rocks for smashing but also augment the force of my blows with my base Strength.
The first rock to be so much as grazed by my hammer was pulverized into a thick cloud of dust that spurt out to the side.
I was no stranger to using tools both in this life and back home on Earth, but never had I used a tool like this for a job such as this and it was an almost scary experience. The tool was awkward to use at first, causing fluctuations in the circulation every now and then, but once I got used to controlling the 'smash reflex' it was easier to aim my blows. A solid hit to a single rock was enough to break it down into dust and pebbles, but hitting it at angles or grazing it would send whole rocks or large chunks shooting out in random directions.
I was almost hit by one, but then some unseen force reduced and redirected the missile-like rock aimed at my gut down and to the side around me. After a short survey of the rest of the slab, I quickly realized everybody was also protect from flying debris. With the confidence inspired by security, I was able to relax into my work which allowed me to pick up a little more speed and accuracy.
After only an hour of smashing with either my left or right hand, I finally received a notification that my Strength had been increased. However, I had already been using healing magic to refresh my body for perpetual working. If I forced myself to continue in this fashion, I would fatigue myself even worse than using magic to stay awake. I could will myself to regenerate, but this would decrease my likelihood of gaining Endurance and slow down the process of gaining Strength.
If I gained one Strength in one hour with actual healing spells, willful regeneration would probably take twice as long to raise my stats. In the next hour I worked I would probably gain an Endurance point as well. That was not likely to happen but once or miraculously twice in a full day of labor with regeneration.
With the use of physical potions I could have kept going until I got that Endurance point, but the only potions I had on me were for mana and nobody else seemed to even need potions. These were all adults with bodies condition by their years and practices, I was still a five-year-old with what was likely not even a half developed body. The uses of my stats in such an arduous labor were vastly different from those of the adults.
Their Endurance was probably a measurement of time spent swinging these hammers, mine was much more of a measurement of how many times I could swing the hammer in general.
I might can swing the hammer a few hundred times by switching hands and then keep going with a quick spell, but I was severely disadvantaged in the grand scheme of things. If I had to look at this in combat standard, anyone who could endure my physical attacks could take me down in minutes. Against lesser beasts, I was untouchable, but a magic warrior of any class could probably teach me a thing or two.
After twenty minutes of resting my body, I felt ready to get back to work. This time, though, I counted my swings up to one hundred with either arm before taking a short break in which I stimulate my body with healing magic. This basic self-healing 'healing energy' technique was what every mage learned at some point and was fairly slow even for minor injuries.
The time spent healing, though, was time spent resting the body which made it better for continued application. Where a spell used x amount of mana at once with varying cast times, healing energy used less than a percent every second or so until the body was restored. For heavy working out, most magic warriors would use this method and exercise multiple times throughout a day.
An hour and a half was how much longer I got to work, during which I acquired a second Strength stat and an Endurance stat, before the head priest arrived. The sun was only a few hours passed its zenith by now and I would have been more than happy to continue working, but everybody else seemed almost grateful to stop in their tasks. I had to admit, though, that the wind that announced Old Man's arrival felt like a god breathing life back into my worn body.
I had really only been working for about two hours and resting for more than half of one, but once the tool left my hand and I finally stopped circulating mana my body almost gave out.
From the shifting of my weight and stance, my legs felt like jelly that caused me to wobble awkwardly as I move forward. My arms that I tried and failed to raise for balance were simply dead and limp limbs. They even swung a bit whenever I would lose balance.
After a few staggering steps like this, I had no choice but to circulate healing energy through my body just to keep myself moving. My father was laughing almost hysterically as he watched me to struggle half of the way across the slab, but eventually he came along and placed a hand on my shoulder to balance me. After that we once again had a heavy snack at the temple with the other work crews once the head priest and I blessed today's stocks.
Even though I did not get to read any prayer books today, I was content with the light increases in my stats and whatever pay I had accumulated. All I wanted to do was go home.
*