10 Chapter 10 - Soup For Lunch (2/2)

Stu informed him, that it often took months for a rune to be first comprehended, not to rush it. Joseph decided not to tell him that he had studied for almost ten hours that day.

The next day he managed to get twelve hours in, but only because he had to sleep less. He was able to squeeze in eight more hours while they were packing and preparing to leave. Stu gave him some notes so he could keep working, but they were mostly descriptions of what the known spells could accomplish. He would have to comprehend them on his own. While the system could help him, he was glad to know what the required path was.

Certain spells had to be learned before others, and some, while not required, made learning others easier if they were learned first. That information would save a lot of time and effort, and he wouldn't lose a lot of valuable time.

After thinking about it, Joseph figured it only made sense that in order to more easily comprehend later spells, one should have to comprehend the base rune completely. Once he had the food rune figured out, he would need to learn test food, then decay, then purify food. If he tried to skip decay, then purify food would cost extra magic to cast.

As they got on their way, the trip was mostly uneventful. He spent the entire time pouring over FOOD, and studying Stu's notes during his breaks.

Thaumatology 2%

It was the first time he could remember such a depressing update. Maybe other mages had books about the study of magic itself, but learning by trying to comprehend just one rune wasn't making any real progress.

The next town didn't have any mages so he continued his study, and started working on externalizing mana. Fortunately, the rune FOOD was on magical paper, to allow him to study it, but soon he would have to figure out inscribing. True mages could trace the rune in the air, but beginners could use the magic paper. The magic paper would be used up in a single attempt, so he would have to spend hours practicing the rune before actually inscribing it with magic.

If he had the rune on the magical paper, he could use that rune to cast a spell, otherwise he would have to spend another 200 hours learning to write it in the air. He decided to go ahead and use the paper to cut down on the time needed to accomplish his mission of casting his first spell, so he could get those five life points and cut down on his needed hours for sleep even more.

Because he had no bonuses learning to externalize the mana, it would take 200 hours. Then it would take 50 hours for each method: gaze, area, breath, missile, and jet. He realized it was no wonder that most mages took years to learn magic.

After only half an hour, he was exhausted trying to externalize his magic. When he checked Stu's notes concerning it, he saw that it was normal for an adult to only last about an hour during training. It was rea.s.suring to know that as a child, he wasn't doing bad, and he knew that he would be able to work up to that hour.

BASIC FOOD RUNE COMPREHENSION COMPLETED

TIME LEFT ON MODIFIED FOOD RUNE FOR THE TEST FOOD SPELL – 100 HOURS

TIME MINIMUM TO EXTERNALIZE MANA – 250 HOURS

TIME UNTIL INSCRIBE RUNES INTO WORLD – 200 HOURS

TIME FOR GAZE – 50 HOURS

TIME FOR AREA – 50 HOURS

TIME FOR BREATH – 50 HOURS

TIME FOR MISSILE – 50 HOURS

TIME FOR JET – 50 HOURS

Joseph was ecstatic to have finished his first rune, and even though the hours listed seemed like a long time, he would soon be able to diversify into more spells and other runes.

Checking the system, he saw that once he was down to just three hours of sleep, it wouldn't let him go any less without another 10 points and a reason to justify stepping beyond humanity. He looked back over the required hours of study before casting his first spell, and saw it was 650 hours. Sitting back, he felt a bit intimidated for a few minutes. Then he remembered that was nothing compared to the years that every other mage had to endure.

It was time to throw himself into this wholeheartedly!

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