Pressing my hand against the bubble, I closed my eyes to focus my perception on the magic flowing through it. I felt a gentle scratch against my back but chose to ignore it for now. The magic flowing through the bubble was stronger than anything I’d felt before, and I only understood about one out of a hundred of the runes that circled around the thing. It was beyond anything I could comprehend from an enchanter perspective, and my class did nothing to help me with it.

  I closed my hands into fists and punched the bubble. An angry flash surged across the surface, dispersing the damage. I leaned forward and licked it. Tingly. I opened my eyes and saw the five on the other side pointing and laughing, which changed to shock as I bit into it. A small hole where I’d bitten appeared before quickly closing back up. I could hear the outburst from both sides.

  Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I turned to see Cari’s determined face. I waited for her to speak.

  “Whatever you just did, keep doing that. We’re going to bury these three and come back.”

  “While I was concentrating on the wall, did one of you scratch me?” I said, not angry but curious. Her confused look answered before she did. “Well, now I’m even more curious what that was. I’m going to try some things before I dig into the bubble, so you may get back before I’m finished.”

  She nodded and they started gathering Donna and the others up as I sat down before the bubble. The five on the other side had run off, probably to report to whoever was overseeing the sphere. Works for me.

  Alone again for the moment, I entered meditation and felt my circulating energies. The skill selections gave me some ideas to play with, so I cupped my hands and focused my mana into spheres in each. The energy felt… pure? Calm? Stable? That was it! Stable. Mana served as the scaffold in enchantments, so it made sense that it would be so.

  Okay. So, how to disrupt the stability of the mana spheres? Well, if mana was the vessel, stamina was the fuel. I knew fuel could be explosive, I just needed to figure out how to make the fuel explosive.

  “The pulse form of stamina can create explosive effects. So, if I core out the spheres and fill them with pulse stamina, that might get closer to the desired effect. Like ornaments filled with gasoline?”

  The spheres emptied of mana except the exterior, and I pulsed in stamina. I filled the ball to the top and kept pushing, feeling the pressure build within. After several moments, I pushed the sphere into the bubble.

  There was a small pop and flash of green, but nothing particularly spectacular happened. My meditative recovery was fast enough that I hadn’t lost much in the creation of the energy balls.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Okay, great, where did the issue arise?” I muttered to myself as I started troubleshooting. I tried just the mana itself, and it just fizzled when it struck the bubble.

  What if I treated the energy bolts like a regular enchantment? What was I missing? Mana the form, stamina the fuel… I’m such an idiot sometimes. Vitality the bond. That’s missing. Of course it is. I went back to what I knew about the bond forms, expanded a bit from my practice in the dungeon.

  The Anchor form is best used when creating objects that can function independently of any input, like glowing stones, or perhaps a cup that keeps a drink hot or cold. The Echo form adapts to the user, typically by connecting to a stat when someone binds the item to themselves, such as a pair of glasses that lets you zoom in based on your Perception stat. The Thread form as stated before connects to the soul, but it is more that it connects to and is powered by the user’s internal energy pathways, such as a sword that can deal elemental damage by pulling from one or more of their Health, Mana, or Stamina.

  Hmm.

  Perhaps connecting to the core or soul can pull aspects of said soul into the effect? No time like the present to test it out, right?

  The shell of mana filled with the pulsing stamina, and as I threaded vitality around it I felt the energy ball connect to my core.

  HUNGER!

  I felt the consuming power move through the thread to the sphere.

  HUNGER!

  The threads broke as the mana-blue sphere began to turn white with dark red veins throughout.

  HUNGER!

  The crimson veins arced across the sphere, back and forth, until the entire thing was nearly black.

  HUNGER!

  I could feel the desire of the sphere to consume, nearly as strong as when I had first changed. My mental stats had vastly improved since then, and I reigned in the impulse. It dropped my health, stamina, and mana by around ten percent.

  With a final pulse, the ball smashed against the bubble's surface. The hole this time was far larger. It tried to repair, but the hungry energy consumed the bubble's as quickly as it spread. I watched in fascination as the bubble did eventually take over the hunger and return to its former state. I felt some new notifications and didn't delay.

  New Profession Skill Created! Feast Bolt.

  Feast Bolt. Inferior. Using internal energies, you have manifested your endless hunger into the Feast Bolt. This bolt of hungry energy will eat away at any physical or magical materials it contacts, and deal damage to living foes.

  DING! Profession: Neophyte Enchanter has increased from Level 10 to Level 13.

  DING! Race: Omnis Vorare has increased from Level 11 to Level 12.

  As I was finishing up, Gregory, Cari, and Tucker walked back over. “Everything go okay?” I asked as I stood and dusted off my leathers.

  “No monsters interfered with us while we worked, if that’s what you mean,” Gregory said.

  I nodded.

  “You figure out how to get in?” Tucker asked.

  I held out a hand and a dark crimson sphere appeared in it. “Yep! Gained some Profession levels out of it too!”