Chapter 12 - Experiments

My eyes opened and my body was exhausted. There was some slight regret over exercising too much despite having injuries, but there was no helping it at this point.

There were light knocks on the door that had caused me to wake up. For a second my body laid there, unable to resist the fatigue that had built up. However, my legs forced me up while my mind was trying to ignore the pain spreading across my body.

"Coming!"

My hand pushed open the door while my finger was still rubbing my eyes. Mildred was there while Alyx, Erin, and Ned were standing behind her.

"Ela has something to discuss with you all, freshen up and come down to the dining room ok?"

My head listlessly nodded. Looking behind Mildred an awkward laugh escaped from me.

"Seems I'm the last one, sorry for making you guys wait."

Ned chuckled.

"It's not a problem, don't sweat it."

After a shower and new clothes, while my hair was still wet, my hand opened the door. With that we went to the dining room. Ela was visibly anxious.

"Please take a seat and eat something."

After we finished our food Ela proceeded to ask us about whether or not we wished to go to magic school, we expressed our willingness, to which Ela quickly left shortly after.

Ned asked Mildred if he could use the kitchen and this time my decision was to join him along with Alyx and Erin. There was an invitation to join, from me to Mildred but she declined because she had to make preparations.

When we reached the kitchen there was a chef wearing an apron along with a hat that was tight around his head. He seemed to be organizing various ingredients, segmenting them, and putting them in different locations. Upon hearing our footsteps he turned around and bowed.

"Hello, Sirs and Madams."

Ned casually responded.

"Hey, what's your name? Mine is Ned."

The chef looked confused.

"My name? Oh, it isn't important..."

Ned rolled his eyes.

"Oh come on, how can it not be important?"

The chef was hesitant.

"Well... if you insist, it is Robert. I was told that you may have a desire to cook?"

Ned nodded.

"Yes, do you mind if we try it out?"

The chef nodded.

"Alright, do you need help with the fire?"

Ned was puzzled.

"What do you mean help with the fire?"

The chef stuttered.

"U-Uh well in proper cooking you usually need a fire mage to start to fire right?"

Ned pondered for a moment then seemed to come to a realization.

"Ah, then I will have to trouble you."

There was a pile of wood with some metal thing above it so that food could be placed on it. Ned had Robert use his fire magic to light a fire, after telling the chef to make it less hot a couple of times he was satisfied.

Ned asked for ingredients he could use and Robert gave him a decent amount. Erin slowly became more excited, almost as if she forgot she was a shy person. Alyx helped Erin reach the things she couldn't and helped Erin up so that she could do some of her own preparations.

Ned asked me to try cooking but my head shook, my knowledge of cooking was nil so my hands busied themselves with miscellaneous.

Though my hands were performing miscellaneous tasks, my eyes were watching Ned and Erin go about, trying to remember things such as the temperature of the flame, to the utensil they used to stir the pasta.

By the end, a nice smell filled the air. Erin had a bright smile and Alyx seemed to be happy that Erin was enjoying herself. Robert was given quite the shock and had to ask if his nose was deceiving him. We went back to the dining room and we all ate responsibly... mostly.

We soon met up with Mildred who gave us the messenger stones and walked us to the school. Nothing was much different from how the school day went before.

Though, there was still a sudden shock when Ned was being appraised. The painful experience earlier slipped my mind and my body experienced it again in full.

Expecting to have no talent, the fact did not bother me much, though it still felt nice when Ned comforted me. Harlow once again rushed out of the classroom leaving time for us to talk. Reyna joined us like she did last time and we were welcoming of her.

There wasn't any significant difference that happened during lunch and the time for class came quickly.

The time to memorize spells came and my eyes landed on the ice spell. After refreshing my memory on the earth, fire, and water spell and my mind proceeded to memorize the ice spell.

Thinking of when my mind cast the two earth spells, a new question was conjured up.

What difference would there be if the ice and water spells were cast at the same time?

Time went by and Reyna nervously spoke up.

"Should we... go?"

I confidently nodded.

"I'm finished, if you guys are ready we can go now."

Ned had his hands on his chin as he nodded.

"Yeah, I'm basically done memorizing the fire diagram."

Alyx and Erin had no objections so we went outside. Kaiden was casting the water spell, mana was gathered above his hands.

Why was the amount of water he produced was so low compared to the amount of fire Ned made last time?

My eyes closely watched Kaiden as he weaved the spell. His control on his mana was weak, and it seemed he was putting just enough mana to activate the spell.

My mind drew in mana as Erin was already on her way to casting the earth spell.

"Wait, Erin, you need to create the sphere by circling your mana clockwise, creating a sphere that is a bit bigger than what was shown in the diagram, and then compress the sphere."

Erin looked at me and tilted her head. She started to ponder for a while.

"Ok!"

Erin then started casting the spell, though she made the sphere too large, causing it to fail. It was hard to not notice the gales surrounding Ned.

My eyes closely followed Ned's cast of the fire spell.

Ned was putting in so much mana that he had to compress it, just so that it would stay in shape, while Kaiden could just barely cast it.

It seemed that part of the reason he casts so fast is because of how much mana he was putting into the spell. Soon a fireball appeared on top of Ned's hand.

With the mana in my body right now, my mind began to condense the ice and water spells. My hands were below me, ready to brace myself. Just before finishing the ice spell, my face almost slammed into the ground, but my hands held me up. Erin started to jump around on the mound.

"I did it, I did it!"

A laugh broke out of me. As expected, many people were surprised, including Alyx and Ned. Reyna seemed to be in the middle of casting the ice spell but had it canceled.

As for me the ice spell almost canceled, but it was easier than my initial judgement to hold spells inside me. It was like my body was maintaining it by itself, even while my mind wasn't directly focusing on it. The last bits of the ice spell were finished, except for condensing mana around it completely. Ned looked at Reyna who was still in disbelief.

"Hey Reyna, could you teach me the ice spell?"

Reyna shook her head.

"Um... yeah, ok."

Reyna explained the ice spell methodically and did not miss or gloss over any of the details. A short while later an ice cube appeared in Ned's hand and he smiled.

"Well guess who can cook and freeze the food now."

The rest of us laughed. My focus went to the water spell. The spell wasn't too hard to make and soon there were two spells in my body.

My hand reached out and magic started to coalesce. The ice spell was condensing and water was forming at the same time. Some of the water froze but some also formed after the ice spell ended.

The end result was an ice cube that was smaller than Ned's and had various protrusions. There was cold water sliding down my hand, so my hand let it go making it fall on the dirt mound. My body felt dizzy and numb but my mind tried its best to shake it off.

Reyna was in the process of casting the ice spell and seeing the misshapen ice cube, she cancelled it again.

"Eh? What is this? Did you cast a spell to make this?"

My hand scratched the back of my head.

"I guess I casted the spell wrong."

Ned was curious.

"Did you cast both the water spell and ice spell? That is a pretty good idea."

My hand rubbed my chin for a few seconds.

"Maybe I should cast the water spell first and then the ice spell you think?"

Ned nodded.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense."

It was probably a bad idea to cast another two spells considering my body already hurt, but my curiosity was killing me.

"Hey Ned, if I overdo it after casting these spells could you help me walk back?"

Ned was surprised.

"What? Casting a few spells would make you unable to move?"

A laugh escaped me.

"That is why nobody wants to be a constitution mage."

Ned shook his head with a smile.

"Well alright, just don't break something."

After I nodded, my mind proceeded to prepare both the ice and water spell. The water spell was cast first, after which my vision got blurry and the ice spell came soon after. Through my blurry vision, it made out that water condensed. Then, more water was also being drawn in and the whole thing was frozen, making an ice cube even bigger than Ned's.

My mind was still hanging onto consciousness while my back just laid on the mound. Erin was excited.

"Wow, that is so cool! You combined spells!"

Ned looked at me lying on the mound.

"We probably should've gotten off the mound first huh?"

That reminded me, I had to get off of here...

"Ah well, I guess I'll just have to lay here for a bit."

Alyx seemed distressed. My eyes glazed over to her.

"Those spells you are working on seem hard huh?"

Alyx smiled bitterly.

"I guess, yeah."

The others became curious and started to look at the book. Ned in particular was quite shocked.

"Wow that... I don't think I can cast a spell like that yet."

Alyx laughed with a sad smile.

"How do you think I feel?"

A chuckle came from me.

"Well, it is definitely harder but later on you will probably surprise all of us when you cast this spell right?"

Renya nodded in agreement.

"That is only natural."

Alyx ended up getting sick trying to practice her spell.

What could reassure her to not take it so hard?

"I don't think you have to be worried that you are taking longer to learn your spell, if it really is that hard it is probably an impactful spell, unlike me just making an ice cube."

Alyx looked at me and seemed to relax a bit. A small smile appeared on my face.

"I mean, what am I going to do? Throw this thing at someone?"

Alyx laughed along with the others. After calming down she nodded and brushed her hair back.

"Yeah, I guess I shouldn't worry about it too much."