[CYA] Chapter 106: New Uses of Old Skills

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gLjB_-YvP4GjOvXUxl9SJ28VcVn36sg5H4iBR6YH9SY/edit?usp=sharing

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<Alex, Real - Endure, High School Classroom>

Alex was practically cackling to himself.

His head still hurt, but he didn’t really care. This. Was. AWESOME!

He was able to superimpose his Inventory granted view of the strengthen symbol from the book directly onto the wood shingles, shifting and orienting it however he wished before simply tracing it with his finger, the Basic Force Blade cutting first one side, then the other before he could lift out the v-cut bit of wood.

Honestly, having to trace the symbol twice was a bit annoying, and that had suddenly become the greatest limiter on what he could do. Even filling the symbol with power was becoming trivial, his far more practiced Basic Mana Manipulation making it rather easy.

But he wouldn’t neglect just how awesome it was that he could just trace now!

Besides, adding the mana was mostly just directing the mana into the form he’d carved, and smoothing it out. The mana didn’t want to enter the wood, and while he was sure he could force it in, he didn’t need to. That very resistance made his job essentially trivial. He barely even had to utilize his insultingly named Crude Magical Symbol Facilitation skill. Though, it did seem to aid in his magic’s tendency to settle into the symbol and remain until he was finished so he was still glad that he’d accepted it.

Not that the results are very strong… He had tested one of the newest shingles, the symbol more perfect than ever with his ability to essentially just trace. The wooden shingle was significantly more resistant to breaking after being so carved and empowered, but it was only a doubling? Maybe a bit more.

“Yeah, my magical enhancement only makes the material twice as strong. How horrible for me.” He muttered sarcastically to himself before tsking. “Come on, Alex, be grateful. If your bones were twice as strong, you’d be a lot more resilient…”

His eyes widened, and he looked from the shingle he’d just finished to his arm, then back.

“Could I?” He felt a growing idea… well, the idea was obvious, but he was feeling a growing tug toward it.

The Flesh Golems symbols carved into its bones, at least some of them had.

“Yeah, Alex, and they are magical. They don’t need their bones.” He shook his head. “I’m also not going to carve up my own bones on a whim.”

That was the real hesitation. He knew that he was getting better, and he would continue to do so, likely for a long time. If he botched carving in something as difficult to replace as his own skeleton, he’d be in a bad way.

He laughed a bit at that thought. He now just considered his skeleton as difficult to replace. From his finger disaster, he knew he could regrow bones.

There was some movement from the other side of the room at Alex’s laughter, but he ignored the room’s other occupant.

Instead, he pulled the finished shingle into his Inventory before grabbing another.

Maybe it was useless practice, but he felt like it helped with a lot of varied skills, and he didn’t really know what else to do. The more complex symbols he’d tried hadn’t seemed to work, even when he’d tried to copy the simple shape from his Force Burst spell.

The mana had filled them, but then after a moment of nothing, the power just drained away. He was clearly missing something critical, and his basic book on Symbols didn’t seem to hold the key.

As such, he was looking eagerly toward his next opportunity to use the Shop, or if he was really lucky, he’d find a non-Initiate who knew about magical symbology, and he could learn from him or her.

But he was still being held back from his admittedly basic practice by having to trace twice.

He had a building idea for dealing with that, but he’d wanted to get a few shingles knocked out before trying it.

After all, if he spent his entire time messing around, he wouldn’t progress his practice any.

My mind-numbing, possibly useless practice.

There were two obvious solutions within the Basic Small Force Blade spell. The first was to simply create a second blade on the other side of his finger, angled so that the tips of the two blades met, thus allowing him to cut the v-groove in one moment. The spell seemed to indicate that such was possible, mentioning multiple constructs clearly in its description.

He’d even tested it, and he could make two on two different fingers. With that knowledge, he felt sure that he could make them on one, and angle them properly with practice, and he was getting enough of that, but something held him back.

As to what that was? He had a vague memory that most materials didn’t respond well to sharp cuts. It was true that he was having that result at the moment regardless. Because of that, this potential solution wouldn’t lead to worse results than he was already getting, while it would improve the process.

Honestly, if it was his only idea, he would have pursued it with abandon and no regrets, but he’d had another thought.

Nothing in the skill had required the blades to be straight. He’d simply been modeling them on exacto-knife blades of late, but what if he modeled them after carving tools?

He’d seen some in various magazines and on shows like This Old House, and the woodworking show with one of those same craftsmen… He couldn’t remember the name at the moment, but it hardly mattered… It would not bug him…

Not at all.

Regardless, that vague memory had been enough for his Basic Carving skill to nudge him every so often, making him frustrated that he had the wrong tool.

If he were being honest with himself, without that nudging, he’d probably have just kept on as he had been, irrespective of the time this took. After all, he was just practicing, not trying to accomplish something specific in a set timeframe.

He’d fallen into the habit of considering the carving as a stress-relieving final activity before he slept each night, and such things were rarely considered in terms of efficiency.

“Nope, I want to be efficient.” He was fine with his slight self-deception. He was not just bending to the persistent mental prodding from one of his skills.

Not at all. His reasons were his own.

Regardless, he knew of a v-shaped carving tool, where the tip of the v was round instead of pointed. He thought it might have been some kind of scraper? He wasn’t even sure it had been used for wood… maybe pumpkins? Again, though, it didn’t matter. The real question was, what if he bent the blade he created into that shape?

He held up a finger, creating the straight blade on the inside of his right index finger.

He could see the shape of it now that he looked closer. Especially with his recent experience modifying Force Burst. The artistic seeming lines, whirls, and patterns were now quite obvious to see as a continuous chain of hundreds—if not thousands—of relatively simple, compound magical symbols.

The System granted spell allowed his mind to form the shape and his mana to fill it with effortless ease, creating something that he’d have no hope of putting together with his current level of mana manipulation.

He shook his head, pulling himself away from his analysis, and then sheepishly moving the seemingly infinitely sharp blade back, away from his eye.

Focus, Alex. You have a goal.

He reached out with his mind, combined with his mana manipulation skill, and the Basic Force Blade spell, itself.

Then, he slowly tried to bend the blade.

It was odd.

He knew that this type of blade was ridged, unable to bend without breaking… but this wasn’t a steel craft-knife. It was made of magic and wishes, and he wished for it to flex.

It shattered.

Thankfully, it wasn’t steel, or he’d have filled his all-too-close face with shards. Even so, it felt like he’d been punched in the side of the head, adding to the mostly ignored pain that was already there.

He jerked back involuntarily, grunting in pain.

On the other side of the room, Jacob’s head whipped up, his eyes quickly scanning the room. “You alright, Alex?”

Alex rubbed at his temples. “Broke a spell… somehow.”

“Oh, so, backlash?” The man nodded, starting to settle back down.

“Is that what it’s called?”

Jacob looked at him incredulously. “How have you not experienced backlash before?” He held a forestalling hand. “Wait, you basically only use those two spells in combat, and they’re quick-cast, instantaneous effect.” He shook his head. “Some people have all the luck.”

Alex arched an eyebrow. “You could just, you know, not cast spells. Or only cast those sorts of spells.”

Jacob looked at him for a long moment then shook his head. “Fair, but no, that’s not happening.”

Alex shrugged, the headache mostly banished to the back of his mind… along with his other aches. “Your choice.”

Jacob looked at him searchingly. “Wait… is the headache already passing? You’re already getting it under control? Are you kidding me?”

Alex shrugged again. “It was just a basic spell.”

Jacob sighed. “Some people have all the luck.”

“Again, you could change how much or what you cast.”

He waved Alex off. “Whatever.”

Alex chuckled, shaking his head and turning back to his practice.

He broke his spell five more times—suffering from increasingly painful, increasingly persistent backlash and additions to his headache each time—before he got the force blade to bend.

He wasn’t sure if it was a change in mentality—or even a weakening of mentality because of the headaches—but once it happened once, the blade became almost easy to mold.

The first thing he did was make the blunted v-shape, chuckling to himself, and earning a glance and eyeroll from Jacob.

Alex didn’t care.

Now that he had the right shape, he shrunk the width of the blade. Having the wider surface behind the cutting edge had been a boon when he was working freehand, as it helped steady and keep his lines straight. It hadn’t even been a liability as he’d even bent the blade to have it help guide him around curves.

Alex stopped, blinking as his mind worked that over.

He’d been bending the blade, front to back, to make the carving easier.

He’d been doing it for days without issue. What he was attempting was just a bending of the edge which he hadn’t done before.

He smacked himself in the forehead. He’d been imposing a limit on himself that didn’t even exist. He felt like he’d been slamming his head against a wall, and when he finally broke through, he pulled back and noticed an open door that had been right beside him the whole time.

I’m an idiot. He sighed, then looked at the wire-thin, blunted-v arching from one side of his index finger to the other. But I’m an idiot who’s done it! I’ll be able to carve so much easier now.

He almost set right to it, but then he realized that the tool would carve too deep, so he shrunk it until it would only cut about a quarter way through the shingles when the pad of his finger was pressed to the wooden surface.

Let’s do this!

Then, his mind slapped him upside the head with something, causing him to pause with his finger hovering over the shingle. “The New Yankee Workshop! That was the show’s name.”

Jacob looked up, frowning. “What are you talking about?”

Alex waved him away. “Nothing, nothing. I just couldn’t remember something, then I did.”

The other man sighed, returning to whatever it was he was doing.

Alex smiled to himself, happy to have remembered as he pulled up the page with the needed symbol, projecting it in his mind via his Inventory skill. When it was properly sized and placed, Alex began running his finger down each line, tracing the symbol in place with ease.

In less than ten seconds, the symbol was carved. The process was more than twice as fast, because he only had to trace the line, he didn’t have to try to keep in mind his previous cut for each motion. Each stroke or swirl was one and done.

Ten seconds later, it was filled with mana, and Alex was cackling again, much to Jacob’s bemusement.

Alex didn’t care. This was going to be so, so much easier.

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