192 192 Stress Pillows
“You said that there were a few things that you wanted to try out. If that’s the first one, what are the others?” Cassie asked.
“The next one isn’t as impressive. I learned a physical enhancement group of spells, and I wanted to know if they worked on witches. They make me much stronger than the average human and faster as well, far beyond just what we gained from the new armour spells.
We will need to make amulets with that enchantment for everyone at some point as well, but we don’t have that many coins, so we will have to make some alternatives.
That’s for later, though. First this.” Wolfe cast the combined suite of physical enhancements on Cassie and Ella, plus Priya and the Servants, while everyone just stared at him, waiting for something to happen.
“Nothing at all? Try jumping or something to see if it’s working. The spell builds up over time, but it had an immediate effect on me.” Wolfe asked, confused as to why they didn’t feel anything.
Mio jumped up a few inches and shook her head, then looked at the others. “I felt the spell cast, but I don’t sense it on anyone in the room but you. I don’t think it works on us.”
“Unfortunate. The extra abilities would have come in handy. But it’s not the end of the world. I’ve got a lot of studying left to do to learn the basics of what I managed to get information for, so I can keep trying until I get everything that we need.”
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He had the knowledge for them in the Inheritance, but once Wolfe looked a the spells, he realized that they were still way beyond his capabilities. He was going to have to practice something easier if he wanted to be able to get a spell that complex to actually activate.
It was like the difference between owning a bicycle and an operator’s manual and actually knowing how to ride a bike. You could memorize the theory, but until you actually tried it and built up the experience, it wasn’t going to work as well as you hoped.
“In that case, we will leave you alone to study so that you can make all sorts of amazing new enchantments for our village.” Ella teased.
“You would think that the first one was enough for the day, but you’re already trying to work me to the bone.” Wolfe laughed and pulled the little witch into his arms.
He was certain that she was getting smaller. She was not shorter, but her athletic curves were slowly turning into well-trained and sinewy muscles. She was stronger than before but not as soft.
Wolfe made a mental note that he would have to ensure that the witches were eating enough. Cassie and Ella had been somewhat less stressed than most, and if they were losing weight, then the ones who were too stressed to eat regularly would quickly be in declining conditions.
Those were the only new spells that he was really confident with, other than the few new attack magics that he had prepared for the attack, but Wolfe was nearly ready to move on to the next round of basic magics that the Inheritance recommended.
Once he finished activating the Array to gather mana in the Den, it had recommended that he start on a spell called [Preservation]. The Inheritance was very light on details since it was assumed that he would already know what all these spells were, but the name seemed to be self-explanatory.
The Utility spells were all designed for a new Magi to prepare his own room for long-term occupancy, so it must prevent the contents from decaying. It would be great for the store rooms, and depending on how it worked, it might keep blankets and sheets like new.
Of course, it might not repair or maintain cloth, but without any directions, Wolfe wouldn’t know until he actually got the spell to work.
Now that the excitement was over, the rest of the witches started filtering out of the room and back to the work of getting everything stored and organized while the Colonel went to recruit helpers to get the new gardens prepared.
Earth Magic could dig out the cavern to plant the crops, and Witch Magic would take care of the rest, so they didn’t need any sort of supervision on Wolfe’s part. The best thing he could do at the moment was actually to learn what the Inheritance considered the basics of the basics, the [Preservation] spell.
He pulled Cassie onto his lap and sat down on the bed to focus on the spell, while Ella sat down next to him with a smirk on her face.
“I see how it is. You got so used to meditating in bed at night that you can’t focus properly unless you’re hugging a witch.” She giggled.
“I can neither confirm nor deny that accusation. But I will admit that it certainly makes focusing on how to form a spell inscription much more pleasant.” Wolfe agreed.
The witches slowly fell asleep in the silent room as Wolfe focused on the spell, so he lay them all down in the bed while he stared at the runes only he could see.
It took almost all night before it started making sense, and it would likely take another day or two before he could actually get the spell to activate, but looking at the way that it was constructed made him realize just how simplistic the attack spells he had been using were.
[Preservation] was arranged into twenty layers to set conditions and modifiers, while most of Wolfe’s attack magic was a single-layer inscription. Using a similar layering technique, not only could he make much more versatile attack magic, but he could also set precision wards that would only hit the targets that he wanted, even if others were in the vicinity.
It was like the more he learned about the basics, the more he realized that he had greatly underestimated the power and versatility of Elemental Magic.