Chapter 114: Lazy Day (1/2)
After Pronos' first success, they spent close to two hours perfecting his control over it. Sadly, now that he could properly cast the magic, the drain on his mana made it hard to train as much as they would have wanted but it still bore results.
The first thing they checked was how many aspects of the arrow his Infinity Magic could modify and in what way exactly. Velocity and acceleration were obviously the first ones. The second had been the weight of the projectile; making a regular wooden arrow weigh close to a hundred kilos in an instant.
The third one was size. It was surprisingly the easiest to change, perhaps for how easy it was to picture the transformation. On his first try, Pronos had made the arrow bigger than Rakna himself.
The fourth one had been durability. It was confirmed that Pronos needed to alter a number for his magic to apply. Velocity and weight were easy ones but durability was another. There was no proper base unit to measure durability, at least, not in a direct way.
Shock absorption, flexibility, hardness of the material, etc… All of these were quite hard to apply with Pronos' understanding but one of them had worked splendidly; density. In other words, the mass per volume.
However, it had a different effect from just changing the weight. It was as if the material itself was being compressed to welcome a higher quantity of it. It was as if the material of a hundred arrows had been forced to fit in only one.
This had the effect to make the projectile incredibly tougher, and heavier at the same time. Which worked perfectly for Pronos since it gave it two effects for the cost of one alteration.
Their last discovery was a random idea that Rakna had come up with. Since they were working around numbers, it was natural to believe that negative values could also be employed. That revelation allowed Pronos to reverse-engineer the aspects and make the arrow lighter, slower, or more fragile. It also took severely less mana to do it.
”Hm, the time it lasts is variable,” Rakna commented as he spun an arrow between his fingers. ”On average, the enhancements you place last about five minutes. Sometimes less, sometimes more. It most likely correlates to how much you change the initial value.”
Pronos nodded tiredly as he was finally getting some rest. Rakna had already fed him two mana pills in order to prolongate the training.
”Well, I guess it's enough for today,” Rakna said and told Trii to take back the bow as well as the hundreds of arrows littering the floor of the training room. ”In the future, you'll have to test if you can modify the aspects of living beings and the numerical values of items or statuses...”
”You could potentially change the effectiveness of a consumable, the attack of a weapon, the cost of a skill, or even stats and attributes. It would also be incredible if you could change the level of a target so we could exploit how much experience we get from defeated foes,” Rakna said with an even tone as if he hadn't just said something completely outrageous.
On the other hand, Pronos gaped at the possibility of such a loophole. Tyran had heard him but he wasn't as smart as his snake friend so he couldn't grasp the full implications.
”{…wow, that is… wow…}” Higure was speechless.
[…] And Alexa didn't even know what to say.
”Oh well, that will be for later. For all we know, it might be impossible or it might require obscene reserves of mana,” Rakna shrugged and pulled out his unfinished book from his storage. He went to the page he had bookmarked and opened the door. ”Well, you two can do whatever you want for the rest of the day… I'll be laz- I mean, resting in the lounge room,” he said before leaving them to their devices.
Tyran And Pronos looked at each other and with a shrug, followed after him, jumping on the door's knob to open it.
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An hour later, Rakna was reading the last page of his book whilst a green hexagonal barrier floated above his head, slowly rotating. After a short moment, he closed the book and hummed. ”7/10. Not bad but nothing is striking about it.”
”{They… kissed?}” Higure muttered. ”{That's it!? That's how they end it?!}”
'I told you,' he retorted dully and sat up on the couch as the book returned inside his storage.
”{That's rubbish!}”
'Now, now, don't go too far. It's just not to your taste. Don't insult the work that went into writing this story, mediocre or not. A good reader finds enjoyment in both the bad and good literature. It doesn't necessarily mean to read something you don't like but rather to learn something from it no matter what it is and reset the bar of your expectations.'
'That makes the discovery of a good read even more satisfying,' Rakna said. 'You said you were disappointed because of the dreary nature of the relationship; then you'll be overjoyed if you read a story afterward that takes things to the lengths you were imagining.'
”{Uh, I never pegged you a bookworm,}” Higure commented.
'Already forgot? Uncle? Big collection? Does that ring any bell?' He sarcastically responded.
”{Ah, true. You did say you that you read a lot but I never expected you to be so… passionate.}”
'Well, what do you know. You can never judge a book by its cover, can you?'
”{Hahaha! Indeed, you're right!}”
Rakna snorted in amusement and glanced at his two pets relaxing on the table, with Tyran sitting down and Pronos on top of his head. They were currently focused on the TV, watching a cartoon out of all things.