The lessons on magic took a long time. The magic mother used was very complex. To keep the cost of such a powerful generic ability in check, there were lots of rules turning the whole thing into something like a puzzle. I was able to learn how to do most basic spells, and during the occasional free time she gave me, I developed a crafting ability, and customized my appearance.
Using spell circles, I can now make fire, ice, water, gusts of wind, wind blades, and I can put any of that into a breath attack like a dragon. I actually learned a lot more than just elemental magic, but it’d take too long to list it all. I made a point to create a spell circle for cleaning. It was a difficult but interesting challenge, and I didn’t want to have to worry about getting dirty. Mom helped a bit even though she thought it was silly.
In addition to instant effect spells, I learned how to enchant myself with spell circles as well. The only enchantments I learned were basic attribute buffs though. I know it’s possible to do far more by mixing both the active spells and enchantments, but mom didn’t seem interested in teaching that.
One self-improvement I created that mom didn’t think to do (or see much value in) was to increase capacity of an internal pouch I made. Since my body is really a slime, I can put things inside my body. I even created a special ability to improve that inherent capability, and then used enchantments to improve it further. I should be able to carry the contents of a small wagon now while keeping it all hidden inside my body.
Since I wanted to make things, I created an interface to draw blueprints of what I want to make, and an ability to then create the item inside my internal storage. To determine the attributes of the created materials, I use a system similar to the magic circles, which helped keep the cost down. The puzzle-like nature of it makes designing things take longer than the actual creation part, but it’s kinda fun. The system doesn’t distinguish between natural and magical traits, so I guess everything I make is magical. A decanter of endless water was remarkably easy to make, though I have no idea how big a deal that is.
For my appearance, I chose to make myself look a bit older than I had originally started, less “girl” more “young woman”. I didn’t really bother changing anything else though, so I still have the long sky-blue hair I started with, and fair skin.
Sadly, when I finished mastering “basic magic” mom said it was time for me to go, and teleported me out. Feeling disappointed at not being able to learn more, I decided to look about and carry on. Best to just enjoy what I can.
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Saturday, February 17, 2018
Chapter 2: Learning the Basics
Mother:
“Now that you are merely a slime with human appearance instead of human, you should be able to feel the power within you, and the possibility it offers. The first thing you should do with that, is build an ability that helps you understand and use that power.
“Any ability you can imagine can be made, however there are rules to learn and use, making knowledge and understanding of what you can do, and how it will all work, very important for optimizing your use of your power.
“For example: The style of magic I use requires preparation. Time must be spent creating the magic circles before they can be used. This limitation makes the ability require less power than it would if I could simply will magical spells into existence.
“Additionally, there are space requirements, limiting how many such spell inscriptions I can have within my body at the same time. While it is quite high, it further limits my spell casting ability, and further reduces the power cost of having it.”
Girl:
“So, I need to develop an interface for creating abilities. It needs to contain good information. It needs to be limited enough to not cost too much. I can sorta feel it."
The first limitation feels obvious: limiting it to displaying information about ideas I have already thought of and am current contemplating. Even without a proper interface, I can feel that trying to know about all possible options is well beyond my power.
As a second limitation, creating a visual interface that relies heavily upon text to convey information, means I’m limited by my reading comprehension and my skill with numbers. Thankfully I already know a language, and know quite a bit of math…"
“I only know one language, is it the language I knew before? Do the humanoid races of this world speak it?”
Mother:
“I do not know what language you spoke before. You probably forgot it when I imprinted this world’s language upon you. In time, as your soul heals, you might remember, or if you encounter something to trigger those old memories they might return. The humanoids of this world all speak the same language.”
Girl:
“I see. I guess weak memories can easily be forgotten without something to help me recall them. Somehow, I feel like I’m better off without strong memories of my past life. Remembering all the people I’ll never see again isn’t going to help.”
Mother:
“If you ever decide you want a different appearance, you can change it. It works just like any other power you want. As a monster, you can change the very nature of how your body works. Appearance is relatively easy to modify.”
Girl:
“That’s good to know. Maybe I’ll take a look at that first with my new User Interface."
It works! It’s a little funny seeing bright information windows in pitch darkness like this. Now I need to build a numerical system for measurements. Maybe I can just use the cost of this UI as the base. Call it a cost of 1.
Now to use it to take a look at myself… ah right, that’s technically an expansion of it beyond what I initially built… oh, that doubles the cost. Making it able to display good information on my current state is pretty important though.
“Woah, why does limiting information on others to those weaker than me provide such a huge cost reduction?”
Mother:
“Information on monsters weaker than you is of little real help in a fight, since they can easily be defeated without any. It is information on equal or stronger foes that is valuable.”
Girl:
“Maybe I shouldn’t bother with information of others yet. At least not beyond some very basic info… oh, just knowing if they are stronger or weaker in a general sense is free?”
Mother:
“Try to feel the power within you, can you feel that it’s growing?”
Girl:
“Hmmm… yeah, it’s like there’s a constant pressure from one side… it’s from you! Are you pouring power into me?”
Mother:
“No, it’s an inherent part of being a monster. Every monster creates a field of power around them. Anyone weaker will feel it, and can tell where it comes from. So it’s very easy to tell when someone is stronger than you. Likewise, it’s a fairly simple matter to detect anyone within the range of your field, and to tell how big the power difference is.
“Try to focus your attention on your surroundings. Feel the power, feel the aura, feel the field around you.”
Girl:
“Oh! I can actually sense the floor, and you! I don’t detect any walls or ceiling though. Do I just not have enough range?”
Mother:
“That’s correct. You’ll need to get stronger to improve the range on it. Simply staying here while I teach you should be sufficient for you to grow much stronger. I am one of the lords of the Monster Continent. You won’t find a stronger monster to grow from.”
Girl:
“How many monster lords are there?”
Mother:
“Oh, I don’t know, I never really tried to find them all. I know of six near me. We fight sometimes. Before the humans arrived, our fights were our main source of entertainment. Nowadays I and several others enjoy watching the humans in their daily struggles. Unlike with monsters, we can’t easily see how strong they are, so it’s much harder for us to tell who will win in a fight.
“Now that you have the basics down, it’s time for me to teach you how to create a proper spell casting ability.”
“Now that you are merely a slime with human appearance instead of human, you should be able to feel the power within you, and the possibility it offers. The first thing you should do with that, is build an ability that helps you understand and use that power.
“Any ability you can imagine can be made, however there are rules to learn and use, making knowledge and understanding of what you can do, and how it will all work, very important for optimizing your use of your power.
“For example: The style of magic I use requires preparation. Time must be spent creating the magic circles before they can be used. This limitation makes the ability require less power than it would if I could simply will magical spells into existence.
“Additionally, there are space requirements, limiting how many such spell inscriptions I can have within my body at the same time. While it is quite high, it further limits my spell casting ability, and further reduces the power cost of having it.”
Girl:
“So, I need to develop an interface for creating abilities. It needs to contain good information. It needs to be limited enough to not cost too much. I can sorta feel it."
The first limitation feels obvious: limiting it to displaying information about ideas I have already thought of and am current contemplating. Even without a proper interface, I can feel that trying to know about all possible options is well beyond my power.
As a second limitation, creating a visual interface that relies heavily upon text to convey information, means I’m limited by my reading comprehension and my skill with numbers. Thankfully I already know a language, and know quite a bit of math…"
“I only know one language, is it the language I knew before? Do the humanoid races of this world speak it?”
Mother:
“I do not know what language you spoke before. You probably forgot it when I imprinted this world’s language upon you. In time, as your soul heals, you might remember, or if you encounter something to trigger those old memories they might return. The humanoids of this world all speak the same language.”
Girl:
“I see. I guess weak memories can easily be forgotten without something to help me recall them. Somehow, I feel like I’m better off without strong memories of my past life. Remembering all the people I’ll never see again isn’t going to help.”
Mother:
“If you ever decide you want a different appearance, you can change it. It works just like any other power you want. As a monster, you can change the very nature of how your body works. Appearance is relatively easy to modify.”
Girl:
“That’s good to know. Maybe I’ll take a look at that first with my new User Interface."
It works! It’s a little funny seeing bright information windows in pitch darkness like this. Now I need to build a numerical system for measurements. Maybe I can just use the cost of this UI as the base. Call it a cost of 1.
Now to use it to take a look at myself… ah right, that’s technically an expansion of it beyond what I initially built… oh, that doubles the cost. Making it able to display good information on my current state is pretty important though.
“Woah, why does limiting information on others to those weaker than me provide such a huge cost reduction?”
Mother:
“Information on monsters weaker than you is of little real help in a fight, since they can easily be defeated without any. It is information on equal or stronger foes that is valuable.”
Girl:
“Maybe I shouldn’t bother with information of others yet. At least not beyond some very basic info… oh, just knowing if they are stronger or weaker in a general sense is free?”
Mother:
“Try to feel the power within you, can you feel that it’s growing?”
Girl:
“Hmmm… yeah, it’s like there’s a constant pressure from one side… it’s from you! Are you pouring power into me?”
Mother:
“No, it’s an inherent part of being a monster. Every monster creates a field of power around them. Anyone weaker will feel it, and can tell where it comes from. So it’s very easy to tell when someone is stronger than you. Likewise, it’s a fairly simple matter to detect anyone within the range of your field, and to tell how big the power difference is.
“Try to focus your attention on your surroundings. Feel the power, feel the aura, feel the field around you.”
Girl:
“Oh! I can actually sense the floor, and you! I don’t detect any walls or ceiling though. Do I just not have enough range?”
Mother:
“That’s correct. You’ll need to get stronger to improve the range on it. Simply staying here while I teach you should be sufficient for you to grow much stronger. I am one of the lords of the Monster Continent. You won’t find a stronger monster to grow from.”
Girl:
“How many monster lords are there?”
Mother:
“Oh, I don’t know, I never really tried to find them all. I know of six near me. We fight sometimes. Before the humans arrived, our fights were our main source of entertainment. Nowadays I and several others enjoy watching the humans in their daily struggles. Unlike with monsters, we can’t easily see how strong they are, so it’s much harder for us to tell who will win in a fight.
“Now that you have the basics down, it’s time for me to teach you how to create a proper spell casting ability.”
Saturday, February 10, 2018
Chapter 1: New Life Start!
Little Girl:
*Opens eyes*
“Huh? Where am I?”
Mysterious voice in the dark:
“Oh good, you're awake. I wasn’t sure if you'd recover or not. Are you well? Does anything hurt?”
Girl:
“Nothing hurts, if anything I feel pretty good. Though I can't see anything, and I don't remember being a girl before.”
Voice:
“There's no light here, so it's only natural you can't see. As for your body, I'm afraid there was so little left of you, I just had to guess. I apologize if it displeases you.”
Girl:
“I feel like I don't know enough to care right now, I can’t actually remember what I was. You say there was little of me left. Did I get killed or something?”
Voice:
“Or something would be right. You were drifting in the void between worlds. I don't know how you got there. It's very rare.”
Girl:
“Void between worlds... am I in a new world then? What kind of world is this?”
Voice:
“I haven't spoken with many world travelers. However, I believe the phrase I most often heard was ‘Swords and Sorcery’. Likely due to those being the most prominent weapons used by the humanoid races.”
Girl:
“Are you not one of the humanoid races?”
Voice:
“I am not. I am a slime. In truth, you are a slime as well now.”
Girl:
“My body feels human.”
Voice:
“There was enough of you there for me to tell you were human, so I did my best to create a human body. However, such is really not within my area of expertise. I had to create a slime body first to put you in, and transform you. The magic is strong enough, that few spells will be able to see through it, and even if someone tries to undo the transformation, it will restore itself in time. So you should be able to live as a human with little trouble.”
Girl:
“If you are able to use such a powerful spell, does this mean you are a skilled sorcerer?”
Voice:
“I am certainly skilled in magic, yes.”
Girl:
“Can you teach me?”
Voice:
“If you wish to live as a normal human, it would be better for you to find a human teacher.”
Girl:
“How come?”
Voice:
“I can only teach you how to use magic like I do. It will be obvious to others that it's not the method used by humans, elves, or dwarves. Every race has their own traditions, and are secretive enough to not share them with outsiders. Using magic that I teach you, will make you stand out a lot. Whether this will end up being good or bad, I cannot say. Also, my methods cannot be used by anyone that isn't a slime. So you won't be able to teach it to others.”
Girl:
“This sounds interesting. I'd like to learn from you.”
Voice:
“You will have to fully accept being a slime and embrace what that means. A solid body cannot use a slime's methods. As a slime, I engrave the symbols and runes inside my body, and channel the magic within. So, to start, I will be modifying the transformation to make you less human. Since you’ll be living as a monster, call me mother, or mom. While I know humans usually have name, monsters usually don’t, and I’m no exception.”
“Or something would be right. You were drifting in the void between worlds. I don't know how you got there. It's very rare.”
Girl:
“Void between worlds... am I in a new world then? What kind of world is this?”
Voice:
“I haven't spoken with many world travelers. However, I believe the phrase I most often heard was ‘Swords and Sorcery’. Likely due to those being the most prominent weapons used by the humanoid races.”
Girl:
“Are you not one of the humanoid races?”
Voice:
“I am not. I am a slime. In truth, you are a slime as well now.”
Girl:
“My body feels human.”
Voice:
“There was enough of you there for me to tell you were human, so I did my best to create a human body. However, such is really not within my area of expertise. I had to create a slime body first to put you in, and transform you. The magic is strong enough, that few spells will be able to see through it, and even if someone tries to undo the transformation, it will restore itself in time. So you should be able to live as a human with little trouble.”
Girl:
“If you are able to use such a powerful spell, does this mean you are a skilled sorcerer?”
Voice:
“I am certainly skilled in magic, yes.”
Girl:
“Can you teach me?”
Voice:
“If you wish to live as a normal human, it would be better for you to find a human teacher.”
Girl:
“How come?”
Voice:
“I can only teach you how to use magic like I do. It will be obvious to others that it's not the method used by humans, elves, or dwarves. Every race has their own traditions, and are secretive enough to not share them with outsiders. Using magic that I teach you, will make you stand out a lot. Whether this will end up being good or bad, I cannot say. Also, my methods cannot be used by anyone that isn't a slime. So you won't be able to teach it to others.”
Girl:
“This sounds interesting. I'd like to learn from you.”
Voice:
“You will have to fully accept being a slime and embrace what that means. A solid body cannot use a slime's methods. As a slime, I engrave the symbols and runes inside my body, and channel the magic within. So, to start, I will be modifying the transformation to make you less human. Since you’ll be living as a monster, call me mother, or mom. While I know humans usually have name, monsters usually don’t, and I’m no exception.”
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