Chapter 29 - Grounded II

After trying to use float for a bit and I kept failing with no improvement, I moved onto windy steps. This spell would help me move as fast as the wind or at least a little faster than my current speed.

It was already the second day of me trying to use these two steps but my determination didn't falter due to me remembering how many years it took me to simply fid a way to spells. 2 days was nothing, plus, I hadn't hit the age of 6 yet so it didn't matter so much if I could use magic well yet, everything to this point was a head start. This is what I thought anyway.

While trying to use windy steps and remembering how my sister used it in her spar, I realised her way of using the spell simply used the air elemental particles in the area to simply push her in any direction she wanted. to float, I'll need the upward push of my magic to have same power as the gravity that is pushing me down. I can think of it like water. if I am denser than the water I will sink while being the same or less dense will make me stationary or float. If I'm correct, with the fusion of both fire magic to give the air particles energy in the form of heat, use water to increase the humidity of the air and finally air magic to make he air around me dense, I should be able to become weightless. Wait no, that makes no sense. If it was that simple, giving people the ability to fly would be an easy game back on earth... I must think! how can I reverse the gravity or make it neutral?

I can create a centripetal force if I spin my self? with enough momentum, anyone can defy gravity, but such method isn't very practical. Using the wind to blow from underneath isn't very practical either unless its on a rune or something. Wait! From what I know....

I pulled out the knife my father had given me to look at it carefully. The particles that i saw coming from it left me shocked.

I hadn't really looked at the knife properly since I had gotten it. I first saw earth and air particles coming from it but that was just when I hadn't really focused. In the rune, you can see the earth and air particles coursing within, But that wasn't the main thing. The reason no one can actually create anti-gravity in this world through just air magic or on earth through the technology we had was simply because it doesn't work like that. You need a crap ton of energy to even create something similar to gravity to even walk on walls. This world doesn't use a variation of air magic to make people float, but rather, they use a completely different element all together.

The element is akin to breaking every rule of physics I know. It repulses Fire and earth Particles While attracting Water and Earth particles. Then when they are trapped within a rune they are forced to circulate making them work together to make the effect of anti-gravity. I honestly don't know how it works but it clearly does. If I'm able to replicate the same circulation within my body i should be able to do it.

Then, something clicked within my head. I slammed the bottom of my fist onto my open palm before thinking out loud and saying "since I have those particles within my body, I can easily circulate them. This mean I can use the particles that had submerged with my nutrients to enhance this circulation. This should also mean most other enhancement spells should be easy for me. I can negate the weight of my own body with the circulation of the what the gravity particles would do normally.

Since I have full control over the particles within my body, it means I can replicate what the silvery particle within the run was doing. The particle isn't the cause but rather the symptom of forcefully circulating a bunch of different particles together. They eventually create a force between them strong enough to either repel or attract them and this is the silver particle. If I take away the silver particle from the rune it would simply break it since it would make all the elements disperse.

The rune smith simply had to put the elements together and close enough for long enough to create the gravity particle which then allowed them, my father in this case, to create a rune over it to keep them from just moving in random directions, but also to keep the gravity particle there. A rune makes it so the particles will course in a certain way which is communicated through how the rune is engraved. The elemental particles never work well together with a few exceptions.

For example, my stone sniper bullet uses both air and earth magic but rather than infusing them together to create a spell, I'm using multiple spells at the same time separately. this is why you never have a spell that has more than two Elemental particles because they would either cancel each other out or react violently. When putting 4 together, they all react together and create a gravity particle that forces them to work together without lashing out and reacting violently. With a gravity particle gone, the rune would simply break and disperse the energies within.

For my body however, I should just try to to replicate the coursing of the rune, either through my entire body by creating multiple gravity particles near my center of gravity or by creating a gravity particle at every joint in my body. On paper, they should both work but practically they are both hard to replicate and even harder to keep after even succeeding.

While making a gravity particle in all my primary joints (wrist, elbow, knee, ankle etc.) I have to split my focus equally throughout my entire body but I will be replicating the same method on every joint rather than using a clump of gravity particles and trying to circulate the elemental particles equally throughout every fibre and tissue within my body.

Wait, how the hell does anyone else fly then? I'm pretty sure this will work for me, but for any other mage it would be impossible to fly or even float at that... Maybe hand signs are a way to engrave temporary runes into their body to allow them to control a certain element or two to then create spells?

Well, that's a problem for future me, right now all I want to do is find a way to make myself float. So far I have tried out making a particle on every joint within my body to no avail, I simply cannot split my focus that much. The whole Gravity clump thing didn't work either due to the fact when two gravity particles touch, they repel rather than attract like I hoped.

For the next five days I would try the same thing over and over again to be able to split my focus into so many different places until I can get used to it. I wanted to make it akin to breathing and a reflex rather than something I had to think of doing. Of course, I have to crawl before thinking of running marathons so instead of trying to make multiple gravity particles through my entire body. ill simply do it across my arm, then two arms, then maybe even my legs. I would increase the challenge every time I succeeded 10 out of 10 times. I easily went like that for the rest of the week before I finally had an idea.

Between the morning and night, I technically had around 14 hours to do anything since it was winter and the nights were longer than the days. My tutor would only come for an hour or two before leaving due to it become dark so quickly. Everyone in my family would sleep pretty early these days while I felt the most lively during the nights.

I was usually spending time with either my father or Aroura if not both of them at the same time. My mother would visit me for a few minutes before leaving again. I would simply spend the rest of the time training.

It was the middle of the night when I was looking at the starry sky above me when I had gotten an idea. What if I don't have to create a gravity particle ,which I probably should name to the 'particle of balance' instead, at every primary joint but rather at every primary limb. Technically, the more elemental particles that are use to make the gravity particle, the stronger the gravity particle will be meaning instead of having many small ones I can just create a few of big ones.

I had already done this before but it was on my center of gravity and when it didn't work I just thought of it as a failed experiment. When I had finally gotten some time to think of it a little bit more it gave me some enlightenment. I can replicate the small particles by clumping a bunch of particles of the same element together and using the same circulation technique.

Through my constant constant practice, my magic manipulation had become second nature to me in small clumps. Controlling clumps that were just a little larger than the tip of my finger didn't do anything but increase the strain a little. The demand for focus would barely increase since its the same motion.

As I tried to for the first time I coursed bigger clumps both within and outside my body. This made it so not only my body would float but my equipment and clothes too. this was simply to not cause a drag effect especially in the future in case I wear heavy armour. I first did it on my arm, them my shoulder. A few minutes later when I got used to making them I did the same with my other arm while keeping the first two active. Throughout the night I did the same thing over and over again until I had a basic mastery of creating gravity particles within my body. They were 9 in total, one on my center of gravity, one in my chest. one on each leg, one on each shoulder and arm and finally one dangerously near my brain but closer to my neck.

I didn't really know how to control the weight of any of them so that was what I practiced for the next week of me being grounded.. In the limited day I would try to keep them active while speaking to people while at night I would try to find a way to both increase and decrease my own weight and the gravitational potential energy around me.