Exploring the Gateway

It had been an extremely unusual day for John, and he had assumed getting home would be the end to that strangeness. He was wrong, however, and by his own doing, as it was the first time he was home with his powers.

Looking through the house, both his parents were nowhere to be found, so he went up to his room as he usually did. He didn’t go to his room to begin his afternoon in the normal way, by pulling a game off his shelf or launching one on Steam, however. Instead, he began it with a task to which he had ascribed himself earlier. It was imperative he got some way to defend himself. To that end, he had gone to his shelf, and pulled out a D&D book. Its cover clearly identifying it as the latest edition’s player's handbook.

John didn’t take that book because he thought it would give him a spell nor because he wanted to study up for a campaign. He took that book because he sought inspiration, inspiration on what spell he might be able to create and add to his severely lacking arsenal. In order to find what he was looking for he browsed the spell list provided in the book, and a few spells caught his eye. First, he saw a classic, Magic Missile. A ranged spell that could probably be classified as arcane, and if not too costly to his MP, would be extremely useful. Second, he noticed another classic spell, Light. One he might need to alter slightly but could be incredibly handy nonetheless. A light source is always good to have when exploring unknown and possibly dangerous environments. Thirdly, he saw two spells which interested him. The first was Shield, a spell allowing him to create a magical barrier that acted like a real shield. Mage Armor was second, a spell that would allow him to use a similar magic barrier that would act as a suit of armor. John thought to combine those two, though apart from their similarity as they both applied magic barriers, he wasn't sure how he to do it yet. After he had found three spells he might be able to create, he decided to attempt to add all three of them to his arsenal.

John started with Magic Missile. He left his house and went to the backyard, standing against its fence which hid him from the rest of the neighborhood. Unsure how exactly he could create something like that, he attempted to imagine darts of Mana forming behind his head. When he opened his eyes hoping to find the darts there, he couldn’t find them, but a slight whoosh sound could be heard each time he moved his head. It seemed that his attempt to form them with his mind had worked, though John didn’t know exactly why. The whoosh sound told John that they were behind him, where he had imagined them forming, so he focused on them moving forward and into his peripheral vision. Once he went to look for them again he could see the darts sitting at the edges of his vision. They were transparent, and seemed to be made of some unknown material that was shimmering and blue in color. Their thin forms resembled darts, but reflected the area around them in a way no dart could.

New skill: Arcane Bolts

John examined the popup, and it told him much about the skill he had just gotten. For one thing, it seemed to do very little damage, each bolt only hitting for about 3 HP if his calculations were correct. John assumed that the damage would increase once he had levelled it up and that the number of bolts he would eventually be able to create would also compensate. Plus, the MP cost was quite a bit cheaper than he had expected. He wanted to create the spell in order for him to have some offensive capability, and that is exactly what he now had. As limited as it may be. The popup also called them bolts, unlike the original spell, so John decided it would be more appropriate to call them that. Now that the first spell was created, he decided to move onto the second one.

John thought for a bit on how he could modify the light spell to suit his needs then he remembered how much the bolts had glowed. Seemingly only from their source as Arcane magic. That led him to believe that if he formed a sort of light source out of Mana, it would glow naturally. When he thought of a shape for said light source, a floating ball seemed simplest. To start, he simply imagined the orb forming, as he did with the darts. After doing so for a moment, John opened his eyes and to his surprise, the orb was there. It was both glowing, and also emitting a light so strongly that John needed to avert his gaze. He attempted to move the orb behind him to allow him to look around, and quickly did so by imagining it floating towards the back of his head. When he opened his eyes again, he could still see the light of the orb flooding his backyard, but he could no longer see the ball itself. A moment later, John attempted to dispel the spell and succeeded. Doing so simply by thinking of the sphere once more, but this time attempting to break it in his mind. The sphere disappeared quickly, and a popup took its place.

New skill: Orb of Light

John could now guess as to what breaking the sphere had done, it had severed its ability to take more Mana as upkeep and thus made it unable to function. He also reasoned that’s what the popup meant by being able to dispel the orb, though he wasn't sure. Now done with the second spell, John moved onto the third, thoroughly excited by the tremendous progress he had made in just a few minutes.

Just like the second spell, John began the third by planning how to modify the two spells he had taken inspiration from for his needs. Both spells had a common element that he had identified earlier, their use of magical barriers as protection. He required some spell that could be used that way, a spell allowing him to have defensive capabilities that would serve as both backup and insurance. It took him a long time to think about how exactly he could use the same methods he had before to create something like that, but he had an idea a few minutes later.

’Force fields. I might be able to create something that works that way if it used magical force fields. Perhaps I can manifest Mana in a physical way and allow it to work as a force field.’ John decided. He proceeded to imagine something new forming in his mind once again, a sort of wall but an invisible one, one that could only be seen by its shimmer. When John looked around to find the wall, he could barely see it, and when he moved forwards, he did not hit it. When he held his hand out, however, it struck something, broke through it, and left a part of it as empty as before John had created the wall. John could feel the Mana pouring out of his body to refill the hole he had created in the wall, it felt like blood pouring out of an open wound, but it wasn’t painful. Like he had done with the sphere he went to break the wall, but this time it was different. Even after he had broken it in his mind it did not disappear. John assumed that it meant that unlike the orb the wall didn’t require an upkeep cost, so he reached out to the wall in his mind once more. This time instead of attempting to break it, he focused on the wall fading away. Just like the wall in his mind, the wall crumbled away into dust, and just like the darts, that dust disappeared almost as soon as it touched the ground. It was then quickly replaced by another popup.

New skill: Arcane Barrier

When John saw that popup he knew that he now finally had defensive capabilities. Now, he was able to say he had reached his goal.

He had gotten his insurance