The days passed and the nights were restless, on account of me trying to use delayed Alertness spells in my attempts to lucid dream. I had yet to find the sweet spot of awareness to realize I was in a dream but not to wake from it.

Well, I have plenty of nights ahead of me to try. I had succeeded without magic, now I could only do better and faster.

I’ve also been using Resolve to motivate myself into doing physical exercises. One of the harsh lessons I had learned back in my world was that building muscles was much easier than it was to keep them from evaporating into thin air. It took too much time and dedication. I’m a programmer, I had better things to do. In the end, I abandoned the weights in a corner and let years of dust claim them.

The only drawback is that I have to keep casting Resolve continually, depleting my mana in the process.

Emotion magic is truly the key to grinding!

Anyway, I can finally use telekinesis on things up to a couple hectograms. Very slowly.

But I got better with lighter things.

My alchemy healing potions are now at about sixty percent effectiveness compared to commercial ones.

I gotta say, I keep feeling like an emo when I cut myself to test them. Disgraceful.

The trio brought me empty rings to enchant. I’ve been trying out a few ideas.

Since the cool stuff will have to wait, I resorted for more conventional things.

I was just enchanting one right now.

I expanded my consciousness inside the ring and began weaving the spells. Compared to when I began, now I can almost see a clear picture of the spellwork, the mana filaments connecting the spells with each other, the space between them. It’s like having a three-dimensional map inside my head.

I have to thank Grohm for making me improve so fast. I still want to break his stupid switch into infinitesimal pieces, though.

I weaved mana into a spell to regulate temperature against cold and heat. It should come handy against the winter and when facing the occasional fire breath.

Once that was done and working, I moved onto the next feature, radio communication.

Since mana could resonate just like normal matter, I fiddled with the concept and realized a very basic mana-radio transceiver.

I had chosen the programmer path, but in the first two years, we had done some electronics and even built a simple makeshift radio. I didn’t really remember much, so I struggled through many trials and errors, but I did it.

The good part is that the signal is not affected by physical matter, so it could even work underground. The bad part is that any magic will disrupt the signal.

So yeah, with magic around, the signal is pretty shitty.

But hey, it’s beta. There’s always room for improvement.

I had also tried to transfer the sound by using spell triggers, it worked fine but the range was poor. In the end, the mana-radio was the most sensible choice.

I used a basic mental interference spell to read the mental sound and transmit it, that way we can have private conversations.

I also added a cheap mana light since there was some available space.

That ought to be enough for my adventurer friends. I thought, putting the last ring down among the others.

I laid down on the bed to take a nap.

Suddenly, I felt myself falling down into the darkness.

「Allen: Wha- ufff!」

I landed on the floor of a long corridor that faded to black in both directions.

Something was coming from the darkness.

I felt a faint shiver. Oh boy.

Wait, this is a dream! I shook my fist in the gloomy air.

Typical, when you’re not trying the lucid dream comes forth, trolling your efforts.

While I was thinking that, a nightmarish figure approached closer. It was pretty scary but nothing I haven’t already experienced in my previous dreams.

I gave it an appraising look and said.

「Allen: Meh, I’ll give you a 7 out of 10. I’m sure you could do better.」

The being replied with a spectral voice.

「Nightmare: … You are a strange one.」

Well, when even my subconscious tells me that…

「Allen: Great! Can’t you turn into a pretty girl now?」

I said, eager to project my godly dream power unto the dream realm.

「Nightmare: I refuse.」

I scowled. Stupid dream characters being stubborn, I am the god here, suckers.

「Allen: Let me try.」

I tried willing it to transform into a pretty girl.

「Nightmare: What are you doing?!」

The nightmare character looked at itself as I tried molding its shape into a pretty girl.

I almost did it but like my crappy illusions the anatomy was disappointing and kept deforming as I looked at it.

「Allen: Meh, I really suck at this.」

I said, a little disappointed. But I did mess with its shape, so I have retained some skills from my previous lucid dreaming achievements.

「Nightmare: You should be cowering in terror.」

The thing said, refurbishing its horror capabilities.

「Allen: I do. Look, I almost feel alive!」

I said, raising my hands and smiling with excitement. Wait don’t get too excited or you’ll wake up! I calmed my mind with meditation.

Wait there was something I was supposed to do… right, astral projection. Why is it so hard to keep focusing inside dreams?

「Allen: Come on, you’re my subconscious, you should know better than me. How about doing some astral projecting… for science?」

I talked to the scary dream character hoping to gain some consensus from my subconscious.

「Nightmare: Am I? Science?」

The nightmare played dumb. I shook my head, as usual, my subconscious is only good at being unhelpful.

「Allen: Fine then, I guess I’ll figure it out myself.」

Who needs the subconscious anyway?

I needed a change of scenery, so I walked through the corridor walls… and ended up in a sunny green forest. There was no one around.

Good.

Okay, what now? According to the internet forums, you’re supposed to imagine your awareness leaving your body or climbing an imaginary rope. But that’s supposed to be before you get into the dream. Can’t hurt to try anyway.

I tried to will myself out the body.

Sure… and how in the fucking hell am I supposed to do that?

「Allen: I need a rope.」

I mused out loud, hoping the dream would provide. Expectations had a way to make things happen in lucid dreams.

「Nightmare: You want to hang yourself?」

A spectral voice spoke from behind me.

「Allen: Uh… you’re still around?」

I looked around but did not see the spook.

Is it scared by the big bad cheerful forest?

「Nightmare: How about I lend you a hand?」

I caught a hint of maliciousness in that voice.

Suddenly I felt something wrapping around my neck. A noose.

「Allen: I think I’m supposed to climb it, not hang myself.」

I interjected as the rope lifted me up and strangled me.

Good enough.

I grabbed at the rope and started climbing, ignoring the dream noose tightening around my neck. It’s just a dream noose anyway.

Spiders appeared from nowhere crawling all around the rope, hands, and face. Oh come on.

「Allen: Hmmghrpf!」

I tried to curse while simultaneously spitting out spiders.

Fucking subconscious! I wish I could fucking club it to death!

I kept climbing stubbornly.

「Allend: I’m trying * spit * to do SCIENCE * spit * for fucks sak- gaah!」

My hands slipped and I fell down.

The dream collapsed and I woke up.

「Allen: Fuck…」

I quickly rebranded the dream as a great success.

I didn’t even lose lucidity or started roaming around like a sex craved monkey in search of females.

Yes, definitely a great success. I straightened my back a smiled proudly at my achievements.

Astral projection, if it’s actually possible, is just a few steps away.

I just needed to get my subconscious to cooperate.

Someone knocked at my door.

「Allen: Yes?」

I asked yawning.

「Ellin: It’s us.」

Ah, my friends had come to visit me. Good, I’ll give them the enchanted rings.

「Allen: Come in.」

I got up from the bed and greeted the trio.

「Grastel: So, what are you up to? Are our rings ready?」

Grastel asked eagerly.

「Allen: I was investigating astral projection.」

「Grastel: Astral what?」

He asked while picking his teeth.

「Allen: Projecting the spirit out of the body. Something like that.」

「Ellin: You mean spirit walking? That’s a rare talent.」

Ellin leaned forward with curiousness painted on her face, she seemed interested in the topic.

「Allen: Talent is just a word to discredit people who work hard to hone their skills. Anyway, I’m trying to become aware that I’m dreaming while I’m dreaming. Hopefully, that will lead to this spirit walking stuff.」

I said confidently. Ellin frowned a little and spoke.

「Ellin: Allen… aren’t you already too busy with other stuff? Trying to do too much will only burn you out.」

I waved a hand dismissively.

「Allen: Pffft, I’ll just use emotion magic to renew my resolve.」

She made a concerned face.

「Ellin: Isn’t that what the teachers expressly warn us not to do?」

She said in reprimand.

「Allen: That’s the mindset of lesser beings! I’ll only take a rest when I crash and burn. Besides, this is stuff that you can do while sleeping. Literally.」

I said with a confident smile. She rolled her eyes and looked at Namrick for support, who shrugged his shoulders in return. He obviously knew I could handle my stuff.

「Ellin: Ooookay… anyway, now that you mention it I too have conscious dreams once or twice a month.」

She looked at the ceiling, seemingly lost in thought. Grastel looked at her and then at me.

「Grastel: What about the rings?」

He said impatiently. Chill down, kid.

「Allen: Yes, the rings. Here.」

I pointed at the rings on the table.

Grastel eyes sparkled greedily as he took one and inspected it.

「Grastel: So… huh. What do they do?」

He asked after putting it on. I smiled and replied.

「Allen: They can summon a magic light, let you walk into blazing fire or a freezing blizzard or communicate with each other.」

I distributed the rings to everyone and quickly explained the features and how to use them.

Namrick and Grastel had some trouble at first in activating the desired functions and so started emitting intermittent lights, burning and freezing themselves, and transmitting stuttering swearings via the mana-radio.

I and Ellin had a good laugh.

Grastel scowled at me, brushing the brine off his face. Namrick looked at me bewildered.

「Namrick: Are you trying to kill us?」

I shook my head, grinning.

「Allen: No. Don’t worry, there’s a safety measure to the temperature adjustment. You won’t be able to hurt yourselves. In any case, to avoid mishaps, you have to think clearly which effect you want to activate. I thought I had been clear about that.」

Having multiple spells in a single ring is indeed a complication when it comes to activating specific effects. I solved the problem by reading the intent while the spells are being activated. The two boys were probably thinking of all the stuff at once, making a huge mess of things.

Ellin was a magician so she had fared much better. We magicians have more focused minds as a result of our training.

「Allen: Thanks to Grohm’s lessons the mana consumption should be reasonable. When I get better I’ll have you test more interesting stuff. Let me know how they perform.」

My young guinea pigs. Heheheh.

Ellin, who was staring at her ring, caught my attention with a question.

「Ellin: Hmmm, this is not like the communication rings I know about… why is it so noisy?」

Here comes the criticism.

「Allen: Well, I don’t know how those work. I’m just testing out a theory.」

I said defensively.

「Allen: Try them out, the more mana you use the longer a distance they can cover. The sound is transmitted via hallucination magic, so no one beside us should hear it.」

It’s also unlikely that anyone knows about radio transmission in this world, so the chances of eavesdroppers are low.

「Ellin: The sound is noisy… but it’s immediate, normal communication rings are much slower…」

She said and smiled at me.

Are they? Interesting. They must be using some other way to transmit the sound.

「Ellin: Thank you, Allen.」

She bowed slightly. So polite.

I scratched my head, receiving thanks and praises always make me feel a little embarrassed.

I’m more used to insults and sarcastic remarks.

「Allen: No need to thank me. It’s good to have someone try out my magic items. I do need the practice after all.」

「Namrick: Allen… what’s this?」

I turned to face Namrick.

He was holding something he had picked from my desk while Grastel was giving it doubtful stares. Ah.

「Allen: That’s a dynamo.」

I said.

「Namrick: Hmmm, what does it do?」

He turned the bulky contraption in his hands, wondering what mysteries it held.

「Allen: It produces an electrical current, which is the same energy as lightning. Look.」

I took it from his hands and attached the rudimentary light bulb I had an artisan make. Then I started loudly moving the crank.

The light bulb became incandescent. Not like the real thing but enough to see it was working.

「Grastel: That looks… bulky and loud. It doesn’t look terribly useful.」

No shit Sherlock. Grastel stated the obvious.

「Allen: You might say that since magic makes a lot of these things obsolete, but back in my world you wouldn’t believe the kind of stuff we managed to pull with this kind of energy.」

I let the light bulb cool off and put it back. It was true, magic lights were much more efficient in terms of energy to light.

「Allen: That said, my knowledge of this field is very limited, so it’s unlikely I’ll ever show you anything cool coming from it.」

I’m not an engineer after all.

But who knows, mixing magic with mechanics and electronics could become a thing in the future. It would be nice to drive a car instead of those blasted horses.

「Namrick: The power of lightning without magic? Interesting.」

Namrick mused out loud.

「Grastel: Well, thanks for these magic rings. We’ll be sure to put them to use!」

Grastel said grinning and turned on full freeze.

「Grastel: They are p-pretty c-cool.」

We burst out laughing.

After giving their thanks the trio left, playing around with their new toys.

Heh, kids.

I opened the drawer on my desk and took a look at the adamantium ring I had bought from Vargas.

Soon.