The weekend. The days after Friday and before Monday. It felt like forever since Max had an actual weekend, but with classes being during the week his schedule felt incredibly similar to the average student from Earth. Sleeping in felt amazing and not having to rush through breakfast felt even more amazing. He could socialize with the fresh arrivals from the Mountain then transition into spell training when he was ready. It was really nice, the last few days of travel and monster killing was stressful and taking a step back was nigh blissful.

Max, while Emi hunted in the river of Lesterwood, worked alongside Celenia, Bishop, and Clammy in the underground training hall in the mansion. Reep and Belopi would join them later, but the household needed food and the mornings were the best time to go. Vel, well, who knows where Vel disappears to during the day. Max was currently showing Bishop his progress of the artificial arm spell. He could now move it incredibly similar to his actual arm. Before it moved in an almost robot-y way, quick sudden movement that overcorrected and snapped. But now, I moved along with his arm near flawlessly.

While the two talked, Max also practiced Mana Misting. Every now and then, a sheet of mana would raise above the mage and shatter into a plethora of shards. He also had made leaps and bounds in this regard. While before the mana shattered into massive shards, now he had hundreds of pebble sized fragments. Keeping both his water arm and the occasional Mana Mist was a difficult feat, but Bishop assured him that practicing two things at the same time was beneficial. As long as the two things were being progressed correctly, adding the strain on the trainee’s consciousness would only benefit them in the long run.

Beside them, Celenia worked on her roots. Belopi told Max when he arrived back the night prior with the caravan of villagers, Celenia had worked all day on her spells. Whether it was shear stubbornness or something else, the Elven mother didn’t know. But the apprentice [Druid]’s progress was definitive. Her roots were bolstered and thick and whipped around the patch of soil with frightening speed. She also quoted Max to be the inspiration for the successfulness of the spell. Stating that nutrients in the soil was a great steppingstone for what actually worked.

She had found out that adding her own mana to the soil then packing it together similar to how Max described ‘plant food’, instantly effected the roots in a positive way. From there she was able to lock-on to the boons and increase them many times over. Celenia was positively giddy thinking about her master’s reaction when she shows her the progress she’d made.

[Druid] Dreamstem had also taken her apprentice’s request and decided it would be wise to teach her offensive spells. Dreamstem couldn’t interfere when it came to paired battles with Celenia and Max, but if it ever happened again, she’d be dammed if Celenia wasn’t prepared. Regardless of if the Order agreed or not.

Now, Celenia was actively working on the basis of the domain portion of her finished spell. Bishop had a lot of advice in this regard, much more than Max could give. As the Drake described it, domains spells have to move along with the caster. Simply having a spell spin or rotate didn’t necessarily categorize it as a domain. The opposite could be said also, in that a domain spell didn’t have to spin at all. It was a common miss conception, one that even veteran mages fall victim to.

Clammy worked far away from the others, as her magic could easily damage unwarranted targets. Now that she wasn’t confined to a small tavern, she could let lose in training. Battle Trances mixed with active combat training mixed with Divination training put a lot of strain on her mental, and she didn’t want the others to get hurt. So, she pummeled training dummies while finding creative ways to manipulate gravity into spells, all the while focusing on her mana types.

Normally, this type of training would fall into the ‘too much to do correctly’ category, but this is exactly what Battle Trance’s exceled at. Pushing one’s mind to the absolute limits for short burst inexplicable skill and power. Currently Clammy was working on an attraction attack for enemies. The way she envisioned it was that when she swings her hammer, the spell will correct any potential miss by pulling the target to the hammer. She had already done similar attacks, but she had always done them the more complicated and less effective way of manually manipulating the gravity of the target into her strike. Hopefully the spell would do the calculations for her, and thus relieve some of her brainpower for other things.

All in all, the mansion was happy. It was the weekend, and everyone was home. Maybe they’d throw a party? Large amount of food, invite Iris and Domic? Mel? Maybe some others? Elliot for sure!

“Hey Celenia, Bishop.” Max suddenly said. “What do you think about having a big dinner party with all of our friends. Maybe tomorrow night?”

“Sure!” Celenia answered almost instantly. “I know a great Elven dish of charred vegetables and roots!”

“Righhht…” Max hesitantly said.

Bishop laughed.

“You want to pressurize a beam of water?” Vel asked.

“Yes.” Max answered earnestly.

“I know the theory behind pressurization, but might I ask why you want to learn?”

“An idea for a spell. I think I’m hitting the damage limits of water magic that you talked about.”

“Heh.” Vel scoffed. “No, you’re not. Your attacks are just weak. Did you ever learn how to harden spells?”

“Sort of?” Max grumbled. “I’m not consistent.”

“I suggest you work on that over pressure. Attacks that use a constant stream of water are rather niche. You need a huge supply of water or else you would just…”

“Run out? Good thing my main hunting grounds are entirely underwater.”

“Good thing indeed…” Vel sighed. “I’ll teach you as long as you promised to continue to work on hardening your spells.”

“Deal.”

Vel sighed again. “Just be warned, I don’t actually know any pressurized water spells. I know the theory, but I never felt the need to learn them. My shadows bolster my offensive power enough.”

“I understand.” Max said. “I think I have an idea of how they could work, I just wanted to see if you knew.”

“Oh? How do you think they work, then?”

“By casting the spell into a smaller focus point?”

“More or less.”

“O-okay? But how do I do that?” Max asked.

“Just squeeze it like the tip of a hose.” Vel plainly said.

Max blinked a few times. “That might just be the worst explanation for something you have ever gave.”

“I told you. I know the theory, not the best way to go about creating the category of spells.”

Max just shook his head and gathered a large pool of water. I guess I should start with learning to cast Water Beam or something…

Water began to flow in a quick and constant stream, rushing across the room towards a target dummy. The stream wobbled and twisted as the mana that was powering the spell dwindled the further the current got away from its caster. He tried again, this time keeping his mana steady at the point he considered the focus. Water ripped past Max’s shoulder like a fireman’s hose, drenching the far side of the room. As the mist settled the target was perfectly fine other than being wet.

Vel rolled her eyes. “Use a burst of mana rather than a concentrated spread.”

“But I’m trying to keep a constant beam of water.”

“In that case, you need to maintain a constant point of mana rather than spreading through the whole beam.”

Max’s palm hit his forehead. “Because mana is less responsive the further away from the caster.”

“Exactly.”

He tried again, this time keeping the focus point above his shoulder stocked with an abundant supply of mana. Water pushed forward in a quick and precise stream, one that adhered to the forces of gravity and arced to the floor. He tried again and again using different levels of mana. The spell acted just as he figured it would, more mana equaled a stronger stream with the caveat of less control.

Congratulations you have learned the spell Water Beam (Common):

Hurl a controlled beam of water at a target.

Power and control vary with mana cost.

Constantly damage scaling with mana.

Minimum 3 damage per quarter of a second.

From achieving the system box, Max was easily able to amend his theory of changing focus point size to succeed in the creation of two more spells.

Congratulations you have learned the spell Water Cannon (Rare):

Hurl a controlled massive beam of water at a target.

Power and control vary with mana cost.

Constantly damage scaling with mana.

Minimum 12 damage per quarter of a second.

Congratulations you have learned the spell Water Jet (Rare):

Hurl a controlled jet of water at a target.

Power and control vary with mana cost.

Constantly damage scaling with mana.

Minimum 25 damage per three seconds.

Water Jet was rather disappointing, Max thought. Unless he could ensure that the target would be unmoving for three entire seconds, then the damage would not go through. He figured it was some sort of system interference. If the spell damaged similar to Water Beam or Cannon, then 100 damage a second would surely become his most powerful spell. His mind drifted to the ‘Review’ that new spells go through and figured something was changed when it was first created.

But there was still hope. Water Jet’s beam diameter was small, similar to Earth’s jet cutters. If he could raise the diameter while keeping the pressure, then hopefully the spell would take on the attributes of Water Beam and Cannon. After some discussion with Vel, he had a plan of action. In a stroke of inspiration, Max figured he could create some sort of mana tube, similar to space tunnels, to build pressure instead of using a single focus point.

The idea had some merit, but as testing progressed it was evident that it didn’t give the expect results. Next was tapering the tube to a smaller end point, but again the results weren’t correct. Pressurizing water while it’s flowing is not working… Could I pressurize the water before it’s cast? Max thought, causing his mind to drift to condensing water. No, no… That’s not going to work… What about steam? Pressure-cookers worked using steam…

Max began sketching out his idea in his journal. The idea was that if he captured steam within an orb of water, then eventually the pressure would rise enough to cause an explosion. But if he controlled the release, then he could launch a pressurized beam through the aforementioned mana tubes. After explaining his plan to Vel, who seemed genuinely impressed, he began to troubleshoot boiling water within water while not allowing the steam to escape.

It was Vel who figured this one out. As she explained it, visualizing separate layers of mana allows her to easily control different aspects of water within the same pool of water. It was the same concept as her Shadow Water and why she had greater control over it than normal water. A few hours later Max could successfully boil water in a protective layer of water. But, it exploded, drenching the surrounding area in scalding water.

After a quick round of healing, Max was ready to try again. For a first real attempt, the potential spell showed a lot of promise. The water fired off in the correct direction with high speeds, but there was no constant beam of water. Instead, the outcome was more similar to a heated bullet, which was an interesting idea for a spell but not the one he had envisioned. Steam had some potential, but just not the kind the [Water Mage] was looking for.

That sent Max back to drawing board. In his 22, close to 23, years of life, he had seemed countless shows and works of fiction that used water like he was imagining. From pocket monsters blasting each other in stadiums full of fans to mythological gods banishing their enemies with mass tidal waves, he had viewed magic his whole life. But why couldn’t he recreate some of the more iconic attacks when he actually had magic and mana at his fingertips.

What was the difference between the two, Max asked himself? The obvious answer was that one was real, and the other was not. One had physics and science to back it up while the other could entertain for generations. Maybe that was the issue, maybe there was entire fields of science he didn’t know of. Branches of physics that relate to spells and mana. Laws and rules that worked on Earth but not on Nava.

Water is incredibly hard to condense practically. But maybe not with mana? Could that be the answer? He thought.

“What happens if I try to condense water?” Max asked his teacher.

“You can hold more water in an area of space. But that avenue of spell work has long been researched.” Vel explained. “Unfortunately, there is no feasible way to house a lot of water for a mage to carry. The weight of the condensed water is still there, meaning it would take a massive number of levels and skill to move any real amount of water.”

Max shook his head. “Maybe condense isn’t the right word… Or- Or maybe it is. How do I condense water like you described?”

“Max, have you ever toyed with mana?”

“Vel, I’ve only been on this planet for a few months, and you know what my schedule has been like.”

Vel grumbled. “The easiest way is you expand your mana into the body of water then constrict it inwards.”

He nodded and did exactly that. The water pushed against him, but after breaking through the normal volume it easily folded against his mana. The weight of the water along with some added strain were all that stood in the way of a beach ball sized glob of water being transformed into a tennis ball sized glob.

“Be careful with that, if you constrict it too far, your hold over it will break.” Vel warned.

Carefully, Max poked it with a stick, causing his mentor to visibly cringe. The stick entered with a soft tactile pop, before being crushed by the added interior weight. The [Water Mage] smiled. This has potential.

But his mind drifted to his Leviathan blessing. ‘The crushing depths do not affect you.’ With all caution throw to the side, he shoved his hand into the orb of pressurized and condensed water. Vel yelled for him to stop, but her outraged was silenced by unexpected, or expected outcome. Max stood with his only hand flexing slightly, smug as could be.

“I knew it would be fine, and I don’t think there was any real danger. I didn’t constrict that much water.” Max explained.

“Going to give me a heart attack…” Vel mumbled.

With a shift of his mana, a small hole was created in the mana mask similar to a puncture wound in a balloon. Water shot out with surprising speed, reaching the far end of the room. Max tried again, this time increasing the squeeze while the water was launched out allowing a constant high-speed stream. He laughed at what came next.

Congratulations you have learned the spell technique Pressurize (Rare):

Condense water into a smaller space.

Mana cost is dictated by amount of water and reduced size.

Congratulations you have learned the spell Geyser Jet (Rare):

Pressurize and release a controlled jet of water at a target.

Power and control vary with mana cost.

Constantly damage scaling with mana.

Minimum 16 damage per quarter of a seconds.

“Nice, I got the spell box.” Max said.

A familiar jet of water shot across the room. “As did I.” Vel said.

Max gave her a tired look. “I guess this is a good stopping point. I have to dispose of the Eldritch bodies with Domic soon.”

“Take the Elf with you.”