Research

Actually it wasn’t all that crazy. I want to try combining fire and ice, without it becoming water. To do so, I try creating both fire particles, and ice particles. I say particles because I don’t mean tiny pieces, but particles of the mana that make those elements. When you use mana to create an element, it is just mana acting as that element, so water will dissipate into mana, fire won’t need fuel, and rocks will slowly disintegrate back to mana.

I try creating them individually first, and I am successful after twenty minutes. With that being achieved, I try simultaneously creating both types of particles with one hand, which is much harder than anything else. I spend a few hours practicing, and I hear Ulleah return.

“Welcome back! Did you gain valuable research?” I asked her when she returned, and she bowed.

“Yes, it is partially cloudy outside, and the temperature is cool and refreshing.” She told me with seriousness, and I decided that wasn’t enough.

“Hmm. Yes, my research deeply requires this information! I apologize for this, but I think you will need to enjoy the outdoors for at least the next week. Remember, don’t let anyone bother you, it’s vital to my growth.” I explained to her, and I assume she understood my intentions, but she didn’t show any signs of it.

“Well then, you sit here and make sure the room is safe. If any robbers break in, give ‘em the stink eye.” I joked around before leaving, and went to get us some food.

‘Does she like carrots? I’ll get some carrots, and ranch. Who doesn’t like ranch? But she ate steak, so I don’t know.. I should research her some time.’ I decided to put the development of genetics based magic on my bucket list, and grab some food.

I grabbed myself and Ulleah a bread roll, and some chicken before I came to the carrots. I grabbed a couple of those, and looked at myself.

‘Carrying two plates and serving oneself is rather hard. How does she do it so easily? I could set one down, but carrying them back will still suck.’ I had been a waiter before though, so I had some experience with this. As I was preparing to leave though, a boy with blonde hair, Jerrick, looked confused at me.

“Are you bringing back food for your servant?”

“No? Why?”

“Oh, then what’s the other plate for?”

“Me, am I not allowed to have two buns and some chicken? We live in a castle now. Besides, don’t they have the dog food?”

“Oh, okay. I’m sorry, just thought maybe she was trying to trick you into getting her some. I played around with mine last night, but I saw yours and wooh, she’s the prettiest.” He chuckled a bit, and I decided to leave him at that.

He was known for being a jerk, and I don’t want to attract more trouble to Ulleah than she apparently already has for herself. It wasn’t her fault of course, but Jerrick. I could see him doing something stupid.

I brought back the meals, and gave Ulleah hers.

“Don’t tell anyone I gave you that, and watch out for a kid named Jerrick. Blonde hair, Green eyes, ugly personality, and a forcefield ability.” I warned her, and she nodded in compliance.

With her having her food I went to my bed and sat down to read the research papers I grabbed. There are two beds in the room, though the one for servants is smaller and not nearly as soft.

‘Eventually I want to help them. At least her.’ I thought a bit about their situation, and more about what I suspected. I believe that they enslaved her, and made her give a second authority or ownership to me, the next person he met. This was because if she had just been commanded to listen to me, then I wouldn't be considered an owner, but a user or commander.

Ignoring that, I read about mana capacity, and near death experiences for a few hours. The most important aspect I learned about was the soul, as it was what was affected in a near death experience. Essentially, the soul moves after death, and its consciousness begins to fade. If the consciousness completely fades, your soul is lost and you die. If you stay conscious and return to your body though, your capacity is increased.

This likely meant it had to do with spreading out one’s soul, which would be extremely dangerous. One error and you would die, and if you did it wrong there was not only no benefit, but a possibility of injury. Even if you succeeded once, it would mean you actually caused a near death experience, and it likely wouldn’t happen again.

For me however, it’s different. I can make a spell to perfectly dissipate my consciousness, and using that I can learn a skill that will allow me to correctly do it instantly. Yeah, I’m a genius.

Ignoring that though, I saw that my food was cold and decided it was the perfect time to begin learning chef skills. I was a rather good cook in the other world, and I heard enough of Gordan Ramsey’s yelling to know what I shouldn’t do.

With Ulleah being asleep, I gathered my silverware and tried to raise their temperature perfectly. I learned the skill from it, and did it in both directions. I could now make silverware hot or cold, and ignore their effects. Next, I wanted to be able to act like a microwave instantly, choosing a perfect temperature and heating food to that temperature, then using my silverware to cool it to a perfect temperature for eating.

It was actually pretty easy to do that, and once I learned the actual skill the mana cost went down significantly. Last but not least, I want to be able to create a thin layer of ice on a surface, and cause it to produce heat like a hibachi grill.

This would require my fire and ice particles to combine, so I could choose which ones were where. After another few hours of experimenting, that spell was completed and learned as a skill. The perfect thing here was that the king’s castle would be the perfect place to use these skills, acting like a hibachi chef.

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New skill:  Object temperature control - control the temperature of an object, the size of the object and the speed of change is dependent on intent and mana input.

New skill: Spatial temperature control - control the temperature of an area of space, the speed of change is dependant on intent and mana input.

New skill: Elemental Particle control - allows for direct control of elemental particles, allowing for them to ignore conflicts, adapt to another particle type, or be freely controlled.

New skill: Fiery ice - Burning ice, freezes and burns at the same time.

New skill: Cold fire - doesn’t burn physical materials, can burn mana.

New skill: Cooking surface - creates a clean antimicrobial surface, the temperature of which the user can control.

New skill: Disinfection - instantly sterilize an object.

\========

I went to sleep rather easily with all that I gained, and was woken on time by Ulleah. How she kept a perfect sleep schedule, I didn’t know.

“Come with me to do research today. Your outdoors research will be halted until later today.” I didn’t want to be mean, but Jerrick roamed a lot during the earlier parts of the day, so this would be somewhat safer. He wasn’t allowed to directly hurt or bother her, but he could surely create problems.

‘But, if I stay worthless I can’t guarantee that they’ll let me stay here.’ I decided increasing my apparent abilities was the most important right now, and I could think of a few things I could do to improve myself.

The heroes should be training tomorrow all day, me excluded, to increase their abilities. As for me, it seemed they would let me do whatever I wanted for a bit, and see if it would bear fruit.

Thus when I turned in my books, I made sure to disclose my newly created chef skills from before. Not my researched skills, just the grill, disinfection, and spatial temperature control. These were skills I had made, and they only existed for an instant. So others might not be familiar with them.

“Ulleah, can you get me a few hundred pieces of paper, some leather covers, some binding thread, and some ink?” I asked, having a new idea that would allow me to significantly increase my research.

She nodded in agreement, and so I let her leave. While she was doing that, I decided to find a scanning spell, or something that would allow for me to vibrate and sense vibrations. Both of which I was able to find, with the scanning spell being arcane magic, and the vibration magic being earth attribute and arcane.

I checked out both books, and that wasn’t their main spell so I wasn’t worried. It only took an hour to find them, so I left with the books to return to my room. I spent the next few hours that Ulleah would spend gathering materials researching these spells.

When she finally returned, I took the materials from her and sent her to research enjoyment of the outdoors for a few hours. I looked excitedly at the papers, leather, and ink, because I might have a way to completely subvert the kingdom’s surveillance, in the library at least. Yeah, this time I actually have a cool idea!

Elsewhere, in an empty room a mage stood with a sphere before him. He wasn’t uncomfortable, as he had magic holding him in the air, so it actually felt extremely relaxing to just be held.

“Oh! He learned some interesting skills!” The mage read the newly learned skills of Ashton, and released himself from his suspension spell, running to get the king immediately.

The king was in the middle of reading some papers, so the mage stood and waited. Forty minutes later, the king set the papers aside, and looked to the mage, who immediately kneeled.

“My king, he has gained new skills!” The mage excitedly proclaimed, and the king showed some degree of interest.

“Ashton? The chef? What are they?”

“They are all cooking related. He seems to be able to clean materials, make a cooking space, and heat or cool foods, but none of those are spells!”

“So, what does this mean then?” None of the mages would bother the king with something insignificant, unless it pointed to a larger possibility or problem.

“I believe that he is learning skills related to being a chef through reading about magic, so I suggest we let him continue.”

“I see. I trust your insight. I hope you’re right about this though, so I can forget about Mellis.”

“You needn’t still worry about him. His talent wasn’t guaranteed, and maybe he wouldn’t have learned his skills inside of the castle.”

“Still, losing someone of his aptitude, to the Berrachia empire at that! But, what’s done is done. Thank you for your report, anything else?”

“No, my king.”

The mage bowed, and left the room promptly. After he was gone, the king observed the papers once more, with quick glances, before setting them aside. After a bit of thinking, he made up his mind.

“Markus.”

“Yes, my lord?” A bald man silently standing next to the king, who most never even noticed, spoke to him.

“Have Ashton given a new room, with more space and a grill. Tell him he will be cooking something for me in, let’s just say a month. I want to see what he can become, whether that is as a hero or as the best chef in the kingdom.”

“Yes, my lord.”

With that done, the king left his throne room and returned to his bedroom. His wife was sitting in the room, still reading various books she had accumulated, and the two sat there to discuss the kingdom into the night…

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