I was sleeping, though I didn't remember when I went to bed. Ah, wait. I'm not in my bed. Let's fix that. I slowly opened my eyes and sat up. I was lying close to my Core, and thankfully I wasn't as cold as last time I woke up in here. I didn't seem to be hurt from falling down, so I just opened up my bank and placed my bed down. I thought about just jumping in it, but I took the time to put all of my things down somewhere nearby. I left my food and water inside though, since I didn't bring my fridge. I could make one, I guess...

I changed into my second set of pajamas, since I didn't know how long I'd been wearing my old ones. Then I sat down in my bed with my blankets wrapped around me. I opened up the Interface, and went back to the Magic tab.

The first two tabs were greyed out, unsurprisingly, so I tapped 'Search'. Just like with the other menus, a long list appeared in alphabetical order. There was no point in reading through one by one. The spells I needed to look into, should they exist, were 'Clean', 'Dig', and maybe something for gathering information? I knew some games with magic for seeing the future or getting clues... Portent or Augury maybe. Lastly, something fun. Who wouldn't want to be able to throw around fireballs, after all?

I started with cleaning spells because I've always thought it would be convenient to be able to clean things on the fly. The list was relatively long considering it seemed to also include results like 'Cleanse Poison'. After a moment, I settled on one called 'Gentle Clean'. Clicking it, a short description popped up.

I wondered why the second option was greyed out... But maybe I just needed a physical book for it to work? That was the feeling I got looking at it. I clicked the 'Cast' button after thinking about myself and immediately felt a fine mist forming on my skin, even under my clothes. The feeling vanished almost instantly, and neither my clothes or my skin was wet. My hair felt a bit silkier though... Was that a coincidence, or were shampoo and conditioner unnecessary now? At one CP per cast, it probably wouldn't replace the need for a shower, but it was nice.

Next was a digging spell. The original screen said that I could increase my CP regeneration by carving out floor space. So! Uhhh... Digital Burst? Is that really a spell? Let's just pretend I didn't see that, for now. Just like with Clean, there were several similar results and several related concepts like 'Shatter Stone'. That one might be worth looking into if 'Excavate' doesn't work out.

2 Meter cube... Is the efficiency even worse than with the cleaning spell? It occurred to me that the 'Interface casting' part of the Cost was probably important. Other ways to cast spells without the Interface... Maybe I could make a creature that knew the spell? But then the question would be what it used to cast the spell. Would it actually be any more effective than just spamming the button? Scanning through the other spells, none of them were more effective than Excavate, at least for cost compared to volume. It definitely seemed like 1 CP was the minimum Cost, and almost no spells cost more. The description mentioning mana was probably the most telling thing. In order to get the most out of magic, I would have to learn how to use mana directly instead of just pressing the buttons.

I focused on the wall that seemed like it was in front of my core, not like I had a map or anything yet. Using the Excavate spell hollowed out a person sized hole in it, causing a large pile of dust to flow over and to the side. A quick check showed my CP regeneration was the same, at 2 per hour. I felt like it would take the whole month of digging if I relied on that method. Thus, I had to move onto the divination magic.

Just typing in divination brought up a lot of the kinds of spells I was thinking of. I read through their descriptions carefully. The biggest problem with the majority of them, was that they almost required you to know the answer you were looking for. Ask a yes or no question and get a yes or no answer. There were a few that gave glimpses of the future and the like, but they were some of the few spells that required more than 1 CP. They also gave the impression that the future was constantly changing, and so most foretellings would be useless. So far, magic was surprisingly frustrating.

I decided to move onto the fireball part of magic. Well, I didn't wanna burn my furniture, so I typed in 'Ice' instead. There were a lot of interesting spells, but the one that looked least likely to ruin my bed was called 'Ice Lance'.

I was still a little wary, so I moved away from my bed. I pressed the cast button, and there was a mild breeze as a jagged icicle the size of my body formed about a meter away from my head. It stayed stationary and pointed forward. I assumed it was waiting for input from me, so I pointed towards the two meter deep hole in the wall, and watched it fly at ridiculous speed straight at where I'd pointed. The lance shattered against the wall, leaving a sizeable hole and several deep cracks. I noticed late that my face was split in a huge grin. It wasn't great for digging, but it was so much cooler than the other spells I'd tried.

Still, I thought further experimenting would just be a distraction. I still had a few more tabs to look through after all, and there would be plenty more time to play around later. Or so I thought. When I backed out to the magic menu, the Known Spells tab was no longer greyed out. I clicked it, not really expecting anything too interesting.

Oh.

Cipiteca396

I was so focused on figuring out how to write how excited Selene was to be using magic that I forgot to design the Magic menu. It took me a while to figure out if I was forgetting something that should have been part of it, like Rituals, and then I ended up not going with that. I may have to come back to add things in later... I'm also really tired lately. Probably not because I binge read a story and forgot to sleep properly. Probably. I also threw in the divination magic on the spur of the moment. I feel like it's going to become an important tool later on...