Chương 21

"What? How does any of this look like I'm over doing it?" I asked, looking up from my desk where I'd gone through basically all the ink in the house, and all the paper. I waved at the papers flung haphazardly over my room, which were just failures and I would totally pick them up later! Then at me, which maybe had a few too much ink on my hands, but it was messy, and I was working! Mama just lifted her eyebrow ever so slowly until I slumped pouting under her judging look.

"I guess… I'll clean it up?"

"Yes, and please return your fathers Ink, he was very confused where his supply went, you know that's for his work.

"I… Don't really remember taking it." I admitted, okay so maybe I'd over done it… By like a tiny margin. Barely noticeable!

"Uh-uh. If you are writing so much, why not use chalk?"

"I uh… Used it." I admitted, I had chalk for my glyphs after all.

"Dorah?"

"Yes?"

"I will get you some more chalk… Clean this up, and then rest the rest of the day. You look frazzled." Mama ordered and I simply nodded, unable to argue. Once she was gone I looked around… Yeah okay that was a bit of a whirlwind… But spells! Refining spells was a fairly intensive process. Every spell was different, and altering just a minor part could vastly alter the performance of the spell for the worst! Sure I could cast the altered Arcane Intellect, but five minutes was a massive downgrade.

Which is why I was trying to grind Spell Refinement. I needed to enhance my ability to alter spells, but yeah… I looked around the mess… Probably overboard. I got up and stretched, groaning a bit as my arms stretched out and then I walked through my room, taking in the moonlight flowing in, and my enchanted lights all being on. Jeeze how late was it? I walked over to the window and looked up, seeing the moon high overhead, "Elune." I whispered as I looked at her, before nodding.

If she was up it was definitely time for little elflings to go to sleep, but first I needed to clean up some of the papers at least on my bed. Walking over I picked up all of them, some I noticed at a glance were all wrong, mistakes I'd made, or even some I'd just flubbed while designing it. I wasn't an artist or anything. Eugh. I took them over and piled them up on my desk. I could only be thankful I was an elf and not a human. Pretty sure they didn't even have paper production yet.

Heh, to think my little pack of scribbles would be worth more than its weight in gold to the humans probably. It's a wonder we didn't trade with them more… Or did we? I mean, we probably could if we wanted… I shook it off, who knows. That was Capital business, and I had no interest in it. Instead I looked at what I had gained. [Spell Refinement Lv 4 5/40] Every level up had been a massive surge in my understanding of spells. I was growing stronger! Well if only I actually had an offensive spell.

Gonna have to actually ask for one aren't I? I finished ordering the paper and crawled into bed. Waving my hand and all the lights turned off leaving me in the moonlight streaming in from my window. It was peaceful here. —---"Good morning!"

"Sit, show me what you have worked on." El'Tela demanded and I smiled because yeah she was figuring me out. I placed four spell refinements on the table spread out and she looked them over as she elegantly cut into a pasty and took small bites.

"Rough."

"Yeah. These are the best I completed, but they aren't done, not by a long shot. Every time I do a new one, I figure out something else I need to change… I uh… Did a lot of them and sort of used all the ink in the house. Mama is gonna get me some more chalk for the future."

"Hmm. While chalk is acceptable for temporary things, these refinements are your history, your path to the future… You should retain them in Ink whenever possible. You used up all your Ink?"

"Yeah I even took Papa's supply apparently."

"Apparently?"

"I don't remember grabbing it, but I was hyperfocusing. It's not a good thing Papa needs his ink for his work. So I feel bad. I tried to give him some reagents to pay for it this morning, but I think he thought I was just being cute and told me not to worry about it." I complained, because I'd been serious about paying for it, I felt really bad.

"Hmm… Not all of these are worth saving, but some are… You have more?"

"Oh yeah page after page. I'm gonna have to do something with all the ones I wrote."

"I see… I have a solution. Come." She rose up, despite her breakfast being only half finished, and we headed up to the Glyph room, but instead she headed to the book shelves circling the room.

"Let's see… I believe that particular tome was…" I watched as she looked through the books and I watched avidly until she picked on.

"Ah, Temir's treatise on… Inkromancy."

"That… Is that how-?"

"No. The fool believed his focus on ink magic meant he had the right to create or alter words as he willed… He was just a horrible speller. Thankfully this version is an edited tome."

"Oh… That sounds kinda weird. Is Inkromancy-""Just call it Ink Magic."

"Ink Magic, powerful or something?"

"No, it's a complete dud. A slight variance on some liquid based spells that frankly the originals are far more flexible, unfortunately, the boy was at least smart enough to have his book submitted and accepted by the Conclave. He is the creator of this version of the spell, so if you want to use it, you must buy a copy of his worthless tome." I blinked as she held it out to me.

"Find the chapter on moving Ink."

"Okay."

"The spell should be easy to spot, don't bother reading any of the rest, it's honestly nonsense. The boy believed he would be made a Magister for his work… Thankfully that never happened, but he did unfortunately make a fortune for this spell."

"Why? If it's not very good?"

"It is terrible for anything but one thing. Moving Ink, which makes the spell exceptional for printing presses, and libraries, even I keep a copy. You never know when some fool will spill ink on a book ruining it. Being able to remove the ink with a simple spell is quite literally worth the weight of the book in gold."

"Oh, I see. I found it."

"Good. Learn that, I will finish my breakfast."

"I will!" I said and she didn't tell me to sit in the barrier, so I just walked over to one of the chairs around the room and sat inside. Hmm.

"Yeah this spell is a bit of a mess but it is super hyperfocused… I never thought of something like that." I muttered, Spell Refinement… If I took a spell and hyperfocused it, what would come out? Probably a spell like this. A spell made to pick up spilled water, or juice, turned into a spell that could strip spilled ink from white paper and leave it pristine. Interesting. I happened to glance at some of the words on the page next to the spell and had to re-read the sentence a few times.

Edited or not, it was still nonsense. Made up words indeed. —-- [Inkromancy 1/10] I didn't have the heart to tell El'Tela that even the system accepted the silly name. But she was right, I could literally pull the ink right back out of the paper I had written on and reuse both. Excellent~ As I finished she returned looking at me for a moment before as always giving and order. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Come with me." To my surprise we weren't doing training in the Glyph again, instead heading up the flight of stairs to the next level. There with a wave of her hand, some furniture shifted. It wasn't magic so much as something else, animated furniture moving at her order until there was a desk and two chairs, one of them big and comfy looking set in the center of the room, and she walked over and carefully settled into the big comfy chair.

I took the one opposite her at her nod, and then paper and inkwells flowed over.

"Now. Alter your Ice spell, I want a version that will completely freeze a cup of tea." She demanded, and I looked at her, then looked down at the blank paper… Wait wait… That was… It clicked then, a mindset shift that I hadn't properly considered, and yet It filled in gaps I hadn't even known I was missing. Spell Refinement wasn't just altering numbers to make a spell more powerful or something, it was altering a spell to fulfill a function that I needed.

If I needed to free a cup of liquid, Generate Icecube wasn't going to do shit, but it had all the information in the spell structure to do that, I just needed to change the numbers around. My hand took a quill, and I started writing. I could do that. —--- El'Tela gave me a series of tests.

"Make your polishing spell scrape against wood, but not paper."

"Make Banish Dust, work on only snow."

"Turn your Mage Light into an area of darkness." The variants were completely different from what I was doing, and just working through them made my Spell Refinement skill rise. I worked and worked, and eventually El'Tela, long after she would have sent me home before, called for an end.

"You will continue to practice on your own, I am aware. Focus on your Mage Armor and Arcane Meditation tonight. I will see you in the morning."

"Yes! Thank you! Bye!" I called out, picking up the papers she had been collecting and handed to me and then racing away, grinning all the while. Was my head full of fluff? Yeah I was definitely mentally tired, but oh my! Anar'Alah Belore! Elven words! By the light of the sun! I'd learned so much! Heeheehehehe! I made it home and rushed up to my room plopping the papers on my desk and looking around everything.

I was tempted to pull the ink out of the mess of papers from last night and remake them, but I shoved that away. Instead I went down to see where everyone was. Mama was out ranging today, and Papa was in his workshop. But I could hear him from the door muttering to himself as he worked. Good, then I skipped to the kitchen, getting some lemon water from the fridge, but not the entire pitcher this time. Mama had given me a look at the far emptier pitcher the last time I'd done some grinding.

With a cup of yummy water I headed out to the enchanting area. I really did need to get more. I had half a dozen little Glyphs etched out, but only a few of them were full, and it was all flowers. I did still need dust, but I had so much stored up, it was probably just best to leave it. Maybe more flowers? Ugh.

Either way I checked them quickly, none of them were quite ready, and then headed over and flopped on one of the glyphs, the slightly increased Mana inside the glyph was noticeable and I took a breath as I started working. I cast Mage Armor on myself, feeling it flow over and instantly increase the mana brought in, although it balanced out a few moments later as the casting repulsion ended. A reminder, that this was all about altering my ability to cast so I wasn't pushing ambient mana away from me. Draw it in.

Brought to my mind Mage Armor. I'd worked on some variants last night, and one of them was what I brought up now. Vastly reduced mana consumption for a vastly reduced time. It would only last about thirty seconds. Perfect for testing. Then I realized, I could alter the spell to increase the mana regeneration couldn't I? And if I did that then, I'd have an even better understanding of what I needed to do with my own magic to suck in more mana while casting.

El'Tela did say to focus on the spell and Meditation, but I think this was an acceptable quick aside. I rose up and rushed inside, a few minutes later I had some paper and some ink back in the circle. Then I started again. Okay, first off, I wrote down Mage Armor onto the paper. The swirls, and harsh lines mixed together to create a rather beautiful diagram. The spell laid out was one of the better looking spells. Makes sense, since it was so complex. Then I focused on the important part.

"That's the part of the spell that fights against my Mana Repulsion while casting." I whispered, looking it over, and seeing it laid out, so I just needed to alter it, and figure out what the alterations were that would help, and which ones would ruin the spell. And the best part? With Inkromancy I could just remove the incorrect choices and re-write it! —--"Dooooorah!"

"Huh-Oof!" I wasn't paying attention and couldn't avoid the Dorah seeking ballistic Kimi Missile!

"Dorah!"

"Hey Kimi." I responded, smiling up at the bigger girl as she rose up to her full height.

"Where have you beeeen!? You don't come to class anymore!"

"I've been getting tutored by El'Tela."

"Oooh. She's scary! Are you okay?" She asked, actually sounding a bit frightened.

"She's not scary… She's just very strict." I replied, and even then it was less strict in action and more strict in personality. She was actually pretty nice.

"Buuut Doraaaah! Why are you going somewhere else? Come to class with meeeee!"

"Sorry Kimi, this is important, and it's super fun! I'm learning lots of crazy magic."

"Oh, that does sound fun for you." She decided, and I frowned, for me? Learning magic was fun for everyone! Who wouldn't want to learn magic!?

"But you are gone all day!" She whined again and I laughed.

"Not all day! She usually only keeps me until lunch."

"Then! Then! You should play with me!" I nodded, already knowing I couldn't refuse.

"Okay, I'll come find you after your class and we can play all afternoon, okay?"

"Yessss!" She hissed, pumping her arm.

"I'll hold you to that!"

"I'll be there." Kimi ran off laughing and I smiled. Despite being two years older than me, and more mature looking she had the personality of a girl a few years younger still. Which was fairly normal. Elves did tend to develop slower than humans. So I turned back towards El'Tela's home walking along a path I seemed to walk more often than not. Training with El'Tela had continued for a while, and every day I was getting stronger. And today? Today was the day. I just knew it. I've done so much studying!

And all the grinding had produced results! Alah'Dorah High Elf Level 3 [10/300 XP] Strength 19 +5 Agility 18 +1 Stamina 20 +2 Intellect 12 +55 Spirit 13 +7 I'd gained a point in Intellect, and Spirit, but most importantly? [Mage Armor Lv 9 83/90] [Arcane Intellect Lv 9 75/90] I'd balanced between both spells as my main focus while hammering away at Arcane Meditation as that seemed to be El'Tela's main focus for me. Of course Spell Refinement had gotten a lot of work as well.

[Arcane Meditation Lv 8 67/80] [Spell Refinement Lv 9 64/90] I was very much looking forward to what happened to Mage Armor when I hit level 10. Not even touching on Spell Refinement, as a skill what would happen? Would it unlock new skills like Swords had? Or more stats? Or something else? I found myself skipping as I headed towards El'Tela's home once more. A nice break this afternoon to play games with Kimi did sound like a lot of fun as well. I'd been grinding really hard for weeks now.

I entered and headed into the breakfast nook and as always she was there. El'Tela was a woman of routine, and she didn't like disruptions to that routine. I took a seat without being asked, and pulled out my latest spell refinements. They were starting to get really good, at least that's what I thought. I'd been working on Mage Armor to try and figure out that last bit to properly get Arcane Meditation figured out.

The papers were fanned out and El'Tela looked them over as she cut into her scone with a knife and fork, her hands never leaving the silverware.

"And you are satisfied with this?" She asked, her tone slightly on the scathing side, but I knew the truth. She wasn't actually disappointed, these were solid improvements since yesterday, I'd actually had a minor breakthrough while working on the Mana pressure numbers for Mage Armor. But I grinned and gave the only right answer. The answer I agreed with entirely.

"Never." That was the secret to magic. You were never done. You were never complete. There were always ways to adjust a spell, whether because of atmospheric conditions, or personal ones. Mage Armor was still armor, protecting against magical effects, and part of the spell was the form it took. The height of the user could impact the spell drastically. Everything was connected, and everything could be altered! Even if I maxed out Spell Refinement, it wasn't like I would alter a spell and be done.

I'd be altering spells forever! And nothing in the world could make me happier. She nodded a ghost of a smile on her lips as she continued to eat, looking over my work. She never really critiqued my refinements. Sometimes she'd demand a spell variation, opening my mind to something I'd missed, but there was really never a moment where she said something was wrong, or something was good. It sometimes made me a bit self conscious, but she was right.

If she did that wouldn't make me a better spell refiner, because the spell wasn't for her, it was for me. She finished her meal and as always the plates were taken away by a floating tray and she said nothing, but I followed her back up the stairs and into the Glyph room.

"Today?" She asked, and I grinned.

"I'm almost at a breakthrough with Mage Armor. My work last night refining it was to try and get another step up with the Mana repulsion, without increasing the cost too much. I'll be testing it." She said nothing as she took a seat, and just watched as I slipped into the Glyph. The pressure inside was barely noticeable now. Arcane Meditation allowed me to adjust to the different Mana levels nearly instinctively, how else could I properly adjust my internal mana resonance to absorb or repulse Mana as needed?

I sat down cross legged and got to work. Mage Armor, Mage Armor, Mage Armor. I cast the spell each time pausing, letting my mana rebalance, and feeling out the spell. I could just hammer away at it, like I would for normal spells, but I wasn't just training Mage Armor, the slight variances I was making was helping me learn my Arcane Meditation as well, and that skill was leveling a good bit slower. I was still able to absorb more than half my usual regeneration while casting now though.

Which was a lot compared to zero. I had to stop, three casts were all I could handle with this version, and already a decanter of super awesome tasty clear water was resting next to me. One of these days I'm going to ask her about improving my Conjure Refreshment spell. Either way I noted how the Mage Armor interacted with the mana while casting, of the three variants, the second was the most likely to improve further. I drank the water as I pulled out the paper and looked it over.

What was it that made it slightly better? I looked it over, and felt my eyes narrow. A small shift, a degree difference at best? A quick spell, and I pulled the ink from that section, and then dropped it down, Inkromancy might be a flubby sort of incomplete alteration, but it was fucking useful. I understand why the guy made a fortune. As the ink layered back on the paper the slightest shift again was there.

"Mhmm."

"Oh right. Sorry." I reached over for a fresh page and made an exact copy of the last alteration and then stored it away. El'Tela was really big about keeping a record of improvements over time. She argued it was in case I needed to backtrack or something, but I think she just liked to see the growth. Like a grandmother putting their grandchildren's art on the fridge. I mean I hadn't seen any of my work on her fridge, and I wasn't going to touch the grandmother thing right now. Focus.

I was restored, and I tested out the new variant. Hmmm. No, this was wrong, the opposite way. A new page and I copied and then updated the alteration, this time a degree in the other direction for that particular swirl. Then I cast it again. Mage Armor! No…. Yes? Potentially need to test a few more variances. I pulled out some more paper and once more spread three variants out. Another drink of water, and I tested the first one… Closer, but not quite, it was off slightly, like the Mana suction was chugging.

I'll just do the next one Mage Armor- I hissed as I wasn't paying attention. Mage armor had hit a level up. [Mage Armor Lv 10 1/100] [Apprentice Mastery] [Mastery Benefit +5 Spirit]"A problem?"

"Yes! I was going about this all wrong!" I cursed as I looked at everything, taking it all in. Mage Armor could go beyond level 10. Awesome. More grind. Actually Dorah very happy, gimme more numbers, and I got a stat upgrade anyways too. This was excellent, but… I looked over my work. I'd completely misunderstood. I'd focused utterly on the aspect of Mage Armor to cancel the Mana repulsion, but that was only a part of the spell!

Resistances, there was an entire section of the spell I'd basically left alone, because I had just treated it as something in the way, but it wasn't. The resistance was an integral part of the entire spell!

"This is going to take me a while." I whispered, looking over the work I'd done. Because if I was right, I could enhance the entire spell by reinforcing the resistance section instead of ignoring it. A whole new world had just opened up.

"Heeheehehehehe!"