Chapter 6: The Spearbow

I slowly laid the contents of the box out on the living room floor.

Each piece inside exuded meticulous detail the weighty gleaming weapon leather bound care manual, the authenticity card stamped on thick shiny tungsten, even the leather sheaths of the spear were perfectly stitched.

I turned off the tv it was suddenly got loud on breaking new report, something about guilds began an unprecedented level of recruitment of cadets, so I could focus on the silvery luster of the metal in front of me.

“It feels reliable.” Was the best way I could describe it. I lifted up the rod of magically smithed metal and studied it under the light.

I wonder if it was something to do with magic that I could feel an innate resonance with the weapon.

Having no experience with a polearm I was careful not to knock anything over, fighting the urge to try and spin it like a windmill was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

“Look I can balance it on one finger!” A testament to how carefully crafted this thing was. I put it down to and picked up the user manual.

I flipped through the thick almost cardstock like pages.

“Oh, so this weapon actually has three forms glaive, bow, and ring.” This is great! I wouldn’t have minded carrying the bow around, but having it turn into a simple ring is a bonus.

“It says while holding the weapon to use my thoughts or to command it aloud to change its form. Naming each form will help with thought clarity.”

“What do you think I should name them?” I put the manual down.

“Oh shit, I’m so sorry…” I suddenly was reminded.

“I never gave you a name either.” A bit of guilt filled me.

I had grown quite fond of the AI the past week and was beginning to see it as a true friend. Being near someone, or something, so caring for 24 hours a day would do that. I really had to praise the programming it was truly indistinguishable from a person outside its inhumane processing ability.

[So master finally remembered.]

I gave a bashful smile. I was processing so many new things that day, it completely slipped.

[Your subconscious feels guilty so it’s not really hiding anything about this. I’ll forgive you.]

Hearing that I only felt worse.

“I’m..I’m sorry.” I let out a sigh I felt bad.

“I’ll give you a proper name, but I want it to come naturally.”

Ah!

“You can read my thoughts right?”

[Yes…]

“So wouldn’t it actually be faster for you to control the spearbow’s forms? Instead of, you know, me having to manually command it every time?”

[Hmm, I think its possible. Nice idea, if I can be of help then leave it to me!]

I gave a hard nod. I wouldn’t say I wasn’t a little worried leaving my life in the hands of an AI, but it sounded motivated and I owed it to the AI. It really was indistinguishable from a person.

“Alright, I’ll be in your care…Eurvel.” I said in a low voice. It was a little embarrassing naming an AI after all.

[Eurvel? Is that my name? Your mind is saying yes. I love it, master.]

“Ahem.” I gave a dry cough.

“Let’s try it out then.” With a thought, Eurvel transformed the glaive in my hand into its bow-form instantly appearing as if I had been holding a bow the entire time.

“Cool!”

I aimed the stringless bow towards the clock above the television. It felt good in my hands.

“The manual said, I needed to make the bowstring and arrows with magic.” I didn’t have the money to buy a spell or even have one made for me. Of course, there were bow arts available to me, but if I wanted to be a mage I should start somewhere.

I let out a long breath.

“I have a lot of work to do if I want to use the bow.”

I had a month to make the bow useable otherwise I would have to use the glaive. I knew nothing of close combat so I was asking to get my face beat if I stepped into class and had to use the glaive.

I propped the bow against the wall near my desk and brought out ‘Stuff Master Should Know’. I went to the page with the folded corner and begun my lessons once again.

{You can do it, master!}

The three weeks passed by. I was driven, no maddened, to make the bow work. I attended all of my courses and recorded them since I didn’t want to be kicked out. I even vaguely understood the lesson on reality inversion.

The fourth week came quickly came and I was halfway into creating magical bowstrings and arrows.

Although I hadn’t succeeded yet I was able to get some experience with more complicated spells, so at least I was now good at the basics. Summoning mana as I wanted and shape it like playdough inside me was easy, now that my mana sensitivity high enough.

More importantly, I could also now combine two different magic circle types which I felt would be the breaking point in completing the spell.

The combinations allowed to make simple spells like create a small breeze or flame with ease. I could also do the same with the other two elements, but they drained too much mana.

I felt it was only a matter of time before I could summon a bowstring. I just hoped it would be before Sunday.

“Come forth!” I tried at another magic circle on top of my bow. Nothing, no bowstring.

“Figured, guess I’ll start into the next chapter. Maybe I’m missing something.”

{At least all these failures are filling up your bow with mana, master}

I pressed on well into another Friday night about to entering the section on deeper mana control.

“ think I can now compress my mana inside of me.” I put the book away and pulled up the Laurant’s Silence technique stored with the AI.

This was a huge leap from when I first started where I was questioning if mana summoned inside of me could even be compressed!

“It won’t hurt to try, err, it won’t hurt permanently I mean.” I mused myself.

“Eurvel turn off all the lights and the television please and only disturb my meditation if it’s urgent.”

{Master is finally trying out mana lustrating?}

I nodded in response.

{Leave it to me.}

I sat in the lotus position at the foot of my bed facing my desk. Being in complete darkness and silence was best as it limited distractions.

“Circular outer ring, square based center, connecting ley lines making sure not to touch the 12 insulating sigils, and his inscription for stasis.” I opened my eyes and placed the spell under myself.

I began the chanting part of the spell filling the room with a melodic tune. I could feel the mana swirling around into me at a steady rate.

A soft grey light colored the dark room from under me. Satisfied, I closed my eyes again to focus on the mana.

The magic circle wasn’t the difficult part since I had to just copy the simple design it, but what came after was hard.

Even though I could now control the flow with no sputtering I had to keep compressing mana into itself. The harder and more I packed the larger the effect and more I could ‘feed’ my mana body.

“What the hell was my mana body?” Apparently, I would know once I saw it. It was vague, but that’s what all my research and books told me.

At least it did say the stasis effect under me will help keep the mana from expanding if I lost focus, but if I lost complete focus I was in for a world of hurt.

“What’s my representative mana body?” I had my eyes shut and saw only blackness there was nothing.

A light shined onto the outside of my shut eyes.

“Eurvel did you turn on the lights? Did something happen?” I felt my concentration waning from the sudden brightness. There was no reply.

“Eurvel?” I opened my eyes to see why the lights were on.

“What the heck.” The floor under me was gone completely gone I wasn’t in my room, but floating in an endless black space except for the giant red flame flickering before me.

“Ohh.”

I instantly understood the moment I saw it, an instinctive feeling from deep inside.

“This is my mana body.”

I walked forward towards the huge flame. Slowly I neared it scared of getting burned.

“It’s not burning me at all. Is this even a fire?”

No matter how close I got I wasn’t burned at all instead a soft warmness filled me that the further I walked into it. Like being covered in soft blankets.

“How pleasant.” It truly was a wonderful feeling that traveled into every inch of my body filling me with a relaxing warmth. Tenseness that I didn’t even know was there begun to melt away.

The pressure that had accumulated in my body from the compressed mana begun to dissipate allowing the flame to rise higher.

“I get it now, I’m using this incarnation to deliver the compressed mana to grow the mana body.” The section started to become clearer now that I was actually experiencing it.

It was so comfortable inside the flame I began to drift asleep.

{Time to wake up master!}

My eyes shot open. A new fear had been ingrained into me these past few weeks. The fear of that horrible laser. I got up from my bedroom floor and begun to get ready for the day.

“What a trip.” Is all I could really say recalling the night.

There was no haziness remembering so I knew it wasn’t a dream. The only dream-like part was the surrealness of the experience. I can see why they said meditation was good for you in my old world now.

The relaxed state I was in was extraordinary enough to leave me with a longing to enter that state again. It honestly felt better than sleep in some ways. Of course, real sleep was necessary though. Just not as much.

“So, mana lustrating is just the prerequisite to increasing mana. The real growth happens once you used the summoned mana to feed the mana body.”

I felt a technique’s limitations begin to show when the amount of mana needed to grow became larger. I bet the technique I used would do nothing to someone like Mrs. Eddy. I made sure to note down my thoughts.

There was no class Saturday, but I felt that the final push to summoning a bowstring and arrows were so close. With the increased clarity I felt after lustrating I felt I had to solve it.