Ves'ra woke on the next morning and felt better. She was still a little terrified that the other had killed so many people, but she didn't know any of them, and wouldn't miss a chance to try and learn just because of that.

While the idea of building huge magical constructs to do her bidding was appealing she didn't know if she’d be able to - the amount of energy needed for something like that was probably enormous.

The second spell reminded her of the spell to take care of the criminal’s guards, though it was both harder to avoid and detect. She’d have to do some tests later this day, when she went out to check on her heated traps littering the forest.

There was another thing to check - could she use the clouds filling the sky to summon water or ice down on her enemies? She’d say no at first, but the only problem seemed the distance between clouds and ground - she had never tried to originated her magic from anywhere but herself.

Perhaps that was wrong? She had limited her magic just because of a mental block before, there was no reason that didn't apply here too.

Definitely worth a try.

Ves'ra checked on Arvog - he was still sleeping peacefully - before leaving the hut. She looked at the sky, seeing it filled with huge clouds, and turned her attention inwards.

She was happy to notice the memories decreased ever so slightly again, before taking control over a good half of her energy.

She opened her eyes and imagined a bolt of lighting to strike a tree just at the edge of her vision, pumping the image full of the energy under her control. As the energy left her like a flood she concentrated on her target and waited.

Ves'ra was deafened and blinded as huge bolt of lightning came down in front of her, splitting the tree in half.

WHAT WAS THAT?

That bolt of lightning was a lot more powerful than it should have been. She retreated in her hut, something would have been attracted by that, and she didn't want to be out in the open when that happened.

---

She left the hut a few hours later, intend on checking on at least one of her traps. The easiest would be downstream of her home, a simple trap for rabbits and similar vermin. She heated the area around the trap, making it easier for all beings to drink water there.

The trap was occupied. A pack of six wolves seemed to have taking a like to the heat and claimed it - she could see them sleeping without a care in the world.

Well.

If they volunteered.

The humans took about seven minutes to die in the memory, and she didn't want to kill the wolves - that would be a waste. She took control over some more energy - about a fourth of her total - and imagined a slowly forming cloud of unbreathable air around the pack.

The energy left her core, and though she didn't see anything happen she knew her spell had taken effect. Ves'ra watched the the wolves’ breathing slowed down over the next few minutes, before she dispelled the spell with a strong gust of cold air.

The wolves didn't move, though she could see their breathing stabilize. She took control over some snow and formed two icicles, one stronger than it should be and a normal one.

She shot the normal one first. It shattered on the ground, but the wolves didn't wake.

She grinned - she’d have fresh wolf today.

The second icicle was shot the the biggest wolf's head. She approached the pack carefully, watching for any that showed signs of awakening.

None did, so she created a sled of ice underneath her prey, and legged it before the pack had a chance to wake up. She made good time thanks to her magic, dragging something as heavy as herself would be a real chore otherwise.

She strung the corpse up to bleed out when she returned, before retreating back into her hut. She’d have time for another memory before she had to get the wolf, so she prepared her tub and sat down.

Now, she wanted to know more about magic, so she concentrated on magic.

The king really was one pretentious asshole. First he kidnapped us from our home, manipulated us through mind magic and now thought we'd jump at the chance to commit genocide.

I didn't speak up - just like the others, though because of different reasons. Now we were to be given lessons in fighting - fighting! - were they stupid? None of us ever had to use a weapon! Being a hero didn't help learning!

As they led us towards the training yard I tried to use magic for the first time today - gathering mana seemed harder, restricted by the clothes I wore.

These assholes! They summoned us only to restrict our power.

Some of the others seemed genuinely excited to learn fighting - barbarians the lot of them - there was a reason we stopped using melee weapons, they were unwieldy, messy and so much more.

"Can't you teach us magic? I don't want to be anywhere near someone wanting to kill me." I whined.

"You'll have to learn, whimp, your enemies won't care when they run at you." Came the rude reply. Perhaps I could help myself with magic? They didn't know I could use it.

I started gathering mana and tried to improve myself, to significantly improve the rate at which my brain formed neurons.

Nope, I didn't seem to be able to influence my body - which made no sense, I could affect my mind, and that was a part of my body just like anything else.

It had to be more. Perhaps my soul? I had no idea how to affect that - and didn't want to mess with it to be honest.

No shortcut, pity. Well, I would use the time to increase my physical fitness as my prime escape plan just evaporated into thin air - if I couldn't use magic on my body I could teleport away.

Damn.

Ves'ra came to herself, coughing out water once again. That had not helped at all! What the hell was a neuron, and how could it help learning faster. She could also affect her body with magic, so that had all been useless!

She returned to her tub after helping herself to some wolf-meat and dragging the rest in her storage-room. Now, what should she search for - it would have to be more specific than magic. Water magic perhaps? Worth a try.

Building the moat around my keep had been a chore. Getting rid of my body had freed me of looming death, but I was now restricted by the laws of the universe too.

Sure, my new lich-body - a golem created when I was a hero still - was ridiculously sensitive to mana, and could hold and channel more than any mage I met, but it was a far cry from having unlimited mana.

It was a wonder of magic though - I added some serious magic to the normal water. Transforming it into a non-newtonian fluid was sure to fuck with anyone assaulting me.

I was sure I'd be attacked in time - this world was filled with murderous bastards out to kill anyone different. I was different, so someone would come.

She didn't need the tub this time, she had a good idea what she wanted, and could do it now that she surpassed her previous limits.

Ves'ra waited for the last of the water to drain into the tub, before filling it with her energy. She transformed the very essence of the water, making to impenetrable for fast moving objects while behaving like normal water for slow ones.

It took a ridiculous amount of her energy before the spell ran its course.

She formed her hand into a fist and slammed it into the water. Hitting the water felt like hitting solid ground. Perfect. She formed a knife of ice and stabbed down, the ice shattered, but penetrated a few centimeters before doing so.

Ves'ra laid her hand on the water and slowly pushed down, easily penetrating into the fluid. She grinned, water like this was perfect defense against blunt weapon, and had a decent defense against piercing ones.

She'd have to see how it worked at a weapon later on - she didn't want to try possibly dangerous attacks in her hut.