Ingram opened his status board with bated breath before freezing from what he saw,
{Name: Ingram
Title: None {View Available Titles}
Race: Human
Mana Type: Mixed Mana
Experience: 16,540
Merit: 159
Life Level: 10 (Experience required until next Life level: 0) [Locked until Life Advancement Quest is complete]
Main Class: Basic Barrier Mage [Level: 20/600] (Experience required until next Class Level: 0) [Learnable Magic Circle Components] [17/25 Learned] [Locked until Class Advancement Quest is complete]
Hp: 400/400 | MP: 47,700/47,700
Stamina: 300/300 | Satiety: 35/100 | Thirst: 31/100
Physical Attack: 0 | Physical Defense: 0 | Movement: 24
Magic Attack: 2,415 (2,917.32) | Magic Defense: 2,385 (2,881.08)
Stats:
Vitality: 16 |Strength: 13
Endurance: 15 |Agility: 24
Intelligence: 161 |Wisdom: 159
Free Stat Points: 15
Free Class Points: 113}
‘I didn’t realize just how much my Magic Attack and Defense changed. It’s kind of surreal, I mean I get a 20.80% increase to all magic stats. Now, if I could get my hands on a decent magic staff, that would be perfect.’ Ingram dreamed before gently shaking his head and focusing on his Class Points, ‘I have one-hundred and thirteen, I need… one-hundred and twenty. I’m short, but I can just learn one the normal way. Now as for what to manually learn, I’m thinking Physical Repelling should be the easiest to learn, well that or Physical Status Resist.’ Ingram rubbed his hands together as he thought about it.
‘Hmm, this is hard. I would say Physical Reversal, but due to the required Class Points being fifty, it might be hard to learn, despite looking simple.’ Ingram fell into thought before deciding, ‘I’ll learn Physical Repelling myself and learn the rest through Class Points. I really don’t want to meditate again, I’m still tired, well mentally anyway. Alright time to spend money, I mean Class Points. Oh, and before I forget, I should balance my Magic Stats, it’s only two stat points. I want to save some, just in case I need to put them in other stats to equip an item or something. I don’t if armor and weapons have stat requirements in this game, so it’s best to be safe rather than sorry.’
Ingram rubbed his temples before he gently slapped his cheeks and got to learning, ‘Alright, I’m prepared, bring on the learning headache. It’s only three things; I can do this.’ First Ingram mastered Physical Status Resist for 20 class points and 700 MP. He saw a dark silhouette repeatedly draw a shield blocking a black and white sword, once, twice… ten thousand time before it faded away and his mental fatigue grew, but he understood everything about how to resist Physical Status effects.
Ingram harshly exhaled as his eyes reddened but he kept up his momentum and mastered Physical Isolation for 30 class points and 800 MP. He saw the same faint silhouette appear, this time looking more solidified as it drew an empty circle, but unlike the shape Sphere, even the grey void of the magic circle space wasn’t present inside of it, in its place was just an abyss. After it repeated the cycle ten thousand times, Ingram returned to his body and nearly fell over, but he understood the concept of complete isolation from the Physical World. This esoteric knowledge made Ingram pause for a second, before he stared down the last Barrier Characteristic and the one, he was the most curious about, Physical Reversal.
After taking a few breaths, Ingram used 50 Class Points and 1001 MP to master Physical Reversal. This time when the dark silhouette appeared, it seemed to hesitate, as if it sensed Ingram floating behind it, but it started drawing like it usually did. It was simple, a grey circle with two twisting arrows inside it, it looked as if the two arrows were chasing one another, endlessly. After ten thousand and one drawings, Ingram was kicked out of the magic circle space, but not before the silhouette peeked over their shoulder and sighed at him, as its waist length beard shook as the now male silhouette faded away from Ingram’s sight. This time, the esoteric concept of Physical Reversal brought Ingram to his knees as the knowledge seemed to reverse everything he knew about the physical world.
Ingram was breathing harshly as he did his best to blink away the conflicting thoughts in his head. ‘That was tough, no it was beyond tough; it was borderline torture. Especially that last one, I mean how could a barrier made of mana, it has too many uses, I mean reversing the gender of the one inside until the leave is just crazy. No wonder this came from something called the Esoteric Legacy of the Madman. Whoever made this is certainly a madman, it’s like they wanted to learn transmutation, but they didn’t know how it worked. I can reverse up and down, left and right, forwards and backwards, I can even do gross things like reversing the insides of a person with their outsides and the individual would still be alive with loss of HP, well if the knowledge I learned after it reached 100% is correct anyway.’ Ingram harshly sighed, “My head hurts.” This time it only took Ingram a mere 5 minutes to learn everything, but it felt like several lifetimes.
Ingram refused to wait around any longer, mostly because he wanted to see how the knowledge he received aligned with reality and he had a few ideas he wanted to experiment with. ‘Okay, first things first, I need to hide my traces with a large Physical Concealing Barrier, then I want to experiment with the other types of barriers. After that, I need to start making the Physical Repelling Barrier Characteristic, I really don’t think I can sit still right now. At least not with this headache.’ Ingram planned before he entered his Magic Circle Space and started filling a certain Magic Circle with 600 MP before working on seven other magic circles. After slightly over eight seconds, a series of new magic circle appeared in front of Ingram along with a system Prompt,
{Judgment: Magic Circle is 80% accurate. Barrier strength is decreased by 20%.
Perfect Barrier Durability: 5,834.64 HP | Penalty applied, New Barrier Durability: 4,667.71 HP
8 Proficiency Points gained.}
Ingram activated it before the other seven appeared with a few seconds in-between them, for 4,895 MP in total. In this order, One-Meter Plate Physical Block, Magical Block, Spiritual Block, and Absolute Block. Two-Meter Spherical Physical Status Resist, Physical Isolation and Physical Reversal.
{Judgment x4: Magic Circle is 100% accurate
Perfect Barrier Strength: 5,834.64
10 Proficiency Points gained.}
{Judgment x3: Magic Circle is 86.67% accurate. Barrier strength is decreased by 13.33%.
Perfect Barrier Strength: 5,834.64 | Penalty applied, New Barrier Strength: 5,025.47
8 Proficiency Points gained.}
Ingram felt his mana dip, but it felt much more manageable at least when compared to before. After peeking at his MP gauge, Ingram let out a sigh of relief that echoed off the Absolute Block Barrier around him, “I can maintain all nine magic circles for a while.” When he heard his slight echo, he mentally deactivated the Absolute Block Barrier. ‘Alright, time to experiment. First, how far is the limit of my Barrier’s activation range. Is it really as far as I can see or is it within a certain radius.’ Ingram mused as he looked at a distant tree on the other edge of the bloody clearing and mentally activated the Physical Block Barrier. To Ingram’s surprise, it actually appeared next to the tree. ‘I don’t know how far that is, but it’s kind of hard to see. I never learned how to measure distance with my eyes. I wish I had a pair of binoculars or a telescope, then I could really test this thought. For now, the judgment is, I can place a barrier as far as I can see.’ Ingram deactivated the Physical Block Barrier and replaced it in front of him along with the Magical Block, Spiritual Block, and Absolute Block Barriers.
‘This experiment is… I don’t really know. I already know I can’t walk through the Physical Block, but what about the other two? Would I feel anything or not. If I had magic, I could see if the Physical Block Barrier blocks any of it. Next time I got to town, I really need to buy a lot of different types of adventuring gear. Would fire made through normal means through the Physical Block Barrier or would it be blocked? I have so many things I need to know before I can safely understand my Magic, but I don’t have the tools to put my barriers through a comprehensive test. Anyway, back to business.’ Ingram skipped the Physical Block Barrier for now and stood in front of the Magical Block Barrier.
With a shaky outstretched hand, Ingram slowly walked closer to the dark grey barrier. Once his hand made contact, it seamlessly passed through, and he stopped when his hand was completely on the other side. Ingram felt like something was stuck in his wrist, while his hand on the other side felt weird and tingly, like he slept on it wrong. ‘It kind of feel like when I tightened a watch too tight and accidentally cut off my circulation, that bloated feeling in my wrist. I wonder would happen if I walked through completely.’ Ingram stood still for a moment, feeling the bloated feeling in his wrist before deciding against walking through the barrier. ‘That might be a bad idea, I don’t know how this bloated feeling might change. I’ll have to test it on an animal or something later. I assume this barrier is blocking the mana in my arm from passing through, but I can still move my hand just fine.’ Ingram waved his hand with no other problems appear, just the bloated feeling on his wrist and the odd sensation on his hand.
Ingram carefully pulled his hand out of the barrier and both sensations faded away instantly with no aftereffects. Which felt strange, one second his hand was tingling the next it was completely fine. ‘That was odd. Next, what happens if I put my hand through a Spiritual Block Barrier. I assume something similar is going to happen, but let’s do it anyway.’
Ingram walked over to the Spiritual Block Barrier and immediately pushed his hand through it and his hand on the other side immediately went limp. Ingram panicked when he couldn’t move his hand and pulled his arm back. Once he did, his hand could move just as it always could like nothing happened. ‘What was that? If I had to guess I would have to say my Soul was separated from my hand, or something like that. I could still feel with my hand, I just couldn’t move it. If this is the case, then I wonder if my soul was exposed to the world or was it stuck in my wrist like before. I don’t know, I panicked pulled my hand back before I could get a good feel.’ Ingram looked at his hand and then the Spiritual Block barrier before refusing to move.
‘Actually, I already got all the information I needed. I need to test the effects of walking through it on an animal or something. It’s not because I’m scared my soul would be separated from my body or anything. Actually, now that I think about it, Alan’s soul was stuck in the barrier, but the grudge filled sword fell through.’ Ingram fell silent before he sighed, “I guess I already have a partial answer for this experiment, ghosts will be stuck on the other side of the barrier, but whatever they’re possessing can easily pass through. This could be useful on day, but I really hope I don’t need to fight another ghost. I can’t see ghosts after all, not that I’d want to. I watched enough ghost movies to know being a spirit medium sucks.’ Ingram walked in front of the Absolute Block Barrier and stopped.
‘I honestly don’t know why I made this one, I guess I was being a perfectionist. I already know what this can do, blocks all damage. That’s it, full stop, there’s nothing to experiment with. I guess now it’s time to experiment with the new barriers. I wonder what a Physical Status Effect is. This one might be hard to test without external stimuli. Are Hunger and Dehydrated physical status effects? I mean I assume they are due to them coming from my body, in the physical world. I guess, I kind of got used to feeling weak so I forgot they were there.’ Ingram rubbed his stomach as it rumbled for the umpteenth time, and he felt his lips were dry, so he licked them to moisten them.
Ingram removed the Physical Concealing Barrier from around him and replaced it with the Physical Status Resist Barrier. Once he did, his stomach stopped growling and his lips no longer felt dry as the two status effects disappeared from the corner of his vision. ‘I don’t feel hungry or thirsty anymore. Does that mean I don’t have to eat or drink anymore? I don’t know, but the system might. Status.’
{Hp: 400/400 | MP: 42,205/47,700
Stamina: Error/300 | Satiety: Error/100 | Thirst: Error/100
Physical Attack: 0 | Physical Defense: 0 | Movement: 24
Magic Attack: 2,415 (2,917.32) | Magic Defense: 2,385 (2,881.08)}
“Huh, I honestly don’t know what to say. Stamina, Satiety, and Thirst are all showing error messages. That can’t be good, I hope the GM doesn’t think I’m trying to cheat. I’ll keep this to myself. I’ll just deactivate this barrier for now.” Ingram murmured before slowly adverting his eyes from the Status Board filled with error messages as the feeling of weakness returned. Instead, Ingram began to experiment with the Physical Isolation Barrier. Once the Barrier appear around him, the world around him vanished, leaving a strange energy world in its place. Ingram looked down at his hands, only to see they were still they were flesh and all.
‘Okay, so this is what it meant by Physical Isolation. It literally isolated me from the Physical World… I wonder if I could walk through physical objects, or even the Physical Block Barrier. It’s worth a shot, first I have to find it. Sounds like a lot of work and I don’t want to accidentally walk through the other two. They all look the same from this, uh, energy world, so, bye bye for now Physical Isolation.’ Ingram pondered before deactivating the Physical Isolation Barrier and the world reappeared as he knew it. After slightly shaking his throbbing head Ingram walked over to the Physical Block Barrier and reactivated the Physical Isolation Barrier.
The energy world reappeared, and Ingram hesitantly walked forward until the two barriers collided. He was expecting the Physical Block Barrier to block the Physical Isolation Barrier, but that didn’t happen. After waiting for a moment, Ingram walked right through the Physical Block like it was just a dark grey puff of smoke. Once he was on the other side, Ingram deactivated the Physical Isolation Barrier and looked back at the Physical Block Barrier before placing his hand on it, only for it to be blocked. ‘I see. Though, I do have to wonder, why didn’t I fall when I activate the Physical Isolation Barrier? I caught a glimpse, but the earth under my feet was glowing a dense golden brown. What’s the criteria to be able to walk through Physical Objects? Is it will or the amount of energy within the object? I don’t know, but thankfully I didn’t sink into the earth. I didn’t even think about falling through the ground. Unknowingly, I took a huge risk.’ Ingram gently stroked his chest in an attempt to calm his racing heart.
After taking a few deep breaths, Ingram decided to test the final barriers effects. ‘This is the one I’m the most curious about. According to the description, it can physically reverse whatever is inside it. I wonder if that means literally, like my inside become my outsides and vice versa. Or, metaphorically, like changing a man into a woman… would those be opposites? I don’t know what the opposite of a man is. I’m assuming a woman, but now I’m not so sure. What’s the opposite of Human? Would a person reversed become an animal or a different race, like a going from human to elf or something. Or would it leave the humanoid form and become an insect or something? I have so many questions that I refuse to test on myself, but I can test a few of these ideas.’ Ingram mentally complained while pacing around before stopping in front of a blood-soaked blade of grass.
‘This is surprising. I didn’t think anything could survive the Beast Tide’s frantic trampling. Mother Nature sure is amazing, it always finds a way. I’m probably overreacting, I’m sure there are a lot more patches of grass around here somewhere. This patch of grass and the soil below it shall be my test subjects. If I’m remembering my sciences right, the opposite of Plant cells would have to be Animal cells. So, will this blade of grass take on the attributes of animal cells… though if I’m being honest, I have no idea how that would work. This is why the scientific method exists, even if I’m doing magic… The irony just hit me, I’m trying to use my understanding of science to learn more about magic.’ Ingram gently laughed as he encased the blade of grass and a bit of the bloody soil beneath it in the 2 Meter Physical Reversing Barrier.
As he did, Ingram felt a new sensation, in that instant, Ingram realized he could decide what in the barrier would be reversed and what traits would be reversed. Ingram rubbed his invisible beard as he mentally decided, ‘Alright, I hope this doesn’t make a horror movie monster. I want to reverse that Plant Cells into Animal Cells and vice versa. Also, reverse the soil into air, just because I wonder it that will work. This is a world of magic, so maybe not. I don’t know.’ After his mental decision was made, it happened in an instant. The vibrant green sharp grass was now a blood crimson colored rounded blade of grass that began to wriggle around, while the blood in the soil took on a color similar to chlorophyll. At the same time, the soil vanished, but it was more like it became transparent because the flesh grass was still rooted in something revealing its blueish roots. Ingram looked down at his pale arm and realized they were similar to the veins in his forearm.
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‘Huh, it worked.’ Ingram leaned closer to the barrier to study the changes to the grass and the animal blood. ‘How odd. Unlike plant cells, animal cells shouldn’t be able to stand upright like that. Their cell walls just not built for that, does that mean inside the grass has muscles of some kind to keep it up right? I’m not a biologist, but I have a bit of knowledge from high school, and this crimson grass doesn’t seem to conform to some of the rules. How does it eat? While the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, it still needs resources to make energy. After all, animal evolution is different from plant evolution. Plants evolved to be self-sustainable, while animals competed and ate one another to obtain the resources to grow larger and make more of and better itself. I don’t see any of the necessary resources to eat something… what a second.’ Ingram saw a strange sight that made his skin crawl. One of the seemingly ordinary roots began to wriggle until the pulled themselves out of the solidified air before a long straw like appendage slid out of its end and began to greedily drink the chlorophyll animal blood.
‘What the, no I promised to stop swearing, but this is just surreal to watch. So, this means, this crimson grass is a scavenger.’ Ingram froze before he came to a realization, ‘Actually, that makes a lot of sense. I mean, it is still grass, just made of animal cells. So, I assume it keeps some of its previous habits like spending most of its time underground stuck in one place. Actually, I don’t know, maybe it can move, somehow. So, it must eat or drink decomposed things in dirt like a worm or butterflies, I mean they have those long straw mouths so. It could also have a lethal ability, like the ability to spit venom or something. I don’t know, I can’t write anything off and I’m certainly not going to stick my hand anywhere near that thing, what if its mouth straw is sharper than it looks and drinks blood to gain its nutrients or lay eggs or some even more grotesque. The one thing I’m sure of is, if a biologist saw this that’d be panicked while also extremely elated to discover a completely new species, well maybe I’m not a zoologist either. Maybe something like this exists somewhere.’
Ingram studied the odd creature until it seemed to drink its fill as last vestiges of the green liquid left in its blue vein-like appendage disappeared up into the main body of the grass as it returned to its original position underground. ‘This is what those first victims in those sci-fi horror movies feel when they discover a brand new species only to die to it a few moments later… Oh, well I had my fun thinking about this. Time to reverse it back. I’ll call this Life Reversal.’ With that thought, the green blood reverted back to crimson, and the crimson grass reverted back to green, also the soil returned to normal.
Ingram began to think, and he suddenly had an idea, ‘Can I reverse directions? Like left becomes right, up becomes down, the floor becomes the ceiling, etc.’ Just as the thought that, the mental feedback responded by reversing those directions as the barrier seemed to rotate and the soil was on the top, and the air was on the bottom while the grass was completely fine. Ingram was slightly shocked when he was this scene, but not as much as the first reversal. ‘I see, this can be used as an attack method, as long as the barrier’s big enough. I mean just imagining a reversed mountain in the sky before I suddenly remove the barrier drop it while someone’s on the top of said mountain. I don’t think they would get off injury free, and my magic wouldn’t be responsible for the damage, gravity would so the damage shouldn’t be zero. Though imagining if it was, would be funny too, I think a person might die of a heart attack before they even hit the ground… can a player die from a heart attack? I don’t think I ever want to figure that one out. I’m getting sidetracked, I have a few more I can experiment with, but I should put this back to normal first. I’m starting to feel bad for this patch of grass, just a bit. Oh yeah, I forgot to name this one, this is Direction Reversal.’ The floating grass once again sat upon the earth, never knowing the torture a curious man forced upon it.
‘Next, I want to reverse the insides and outsides of the grass, though, I don’t think much would change. I should probably save this one for a more suitable target. Although, imagining that possibly bloody scene is making me queasy, it would be like medical gore. Just thinking about seeing a beating heart along with something’s insides is making me—” Ingram covered his mouth as the images of his late-night curiosity filled searches flashed before his mind.
‘I need to think about something else, that thought process shall be called Inside-Out Reversal. Okay, next idea. I don’t think I can test with grass. I mean I can’t tell the difference between male and female grass, is there a difference? I’m not a botanist, I’m a gamer.’ Ingram sighed as he deactivated the barrier, freeing the patch of grass from the cruel human’s ruthless experimentation. Ingram squatted in front of the patch of grass for a while as he thought about testing a reversal on himself but was slightly afraid that it might stick even after the barrier is removed. ‘Just to be on the safe side.’ Ingram once again covered the patch of grass and instantly reversed it until it was floating and became crimson grass again. After a moment, he deactivated the Physical Reversal Barrier. The crimson grass instantly changed back into green grass as the patch of soil fell from the air.
Ingram patted his chest out of relief before he encased himself in the Physical Reversal Barrier before hesitating. Ingram quickly pulled open his pants before quickly peeking down to memorize what was there for future reference. After he ensure everything was normal, Ingram closed his eyes and gave the order, ‘Reverse my gender.’ He expected a flash of pain or extreme discomfort but all he felt was a heavy weight on his lower back. Ingram opened his eyes and realized he couldn’t see his feet. ‘I really became a girl. I don’t really feel different, well mentally anyway. Apparently, I have a lot of potential as a woman. My chest is… this is getting perverted. On last check then I can return to my original male form.’ Ingram slowly ran a hand over his pants only to realize it was gone, and he felt a sense of loss. ‘Truly a man’s worst nightmare, I don’t want to do anything drastic my female form, now I feel off. I could probably use this form as a disguise or something. Reverse me back to male.’
In an instant, Ingram could see his feet, but his shirt was still stretched out. Ingram sighed before taking a deep breath and peeking down his pants again, only to see every was where he left it. He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding as he gently shook his head. ‘That was scarier than I thought. I know I should have tested a few more things in my female body like the pitch of my voice, how I would need to walk, I would say physical strength, but I’m already not very strong. There are so many things I needed to test, but I’ll leave that for later. The mental shock was, let’s say much worse than I thought it would be, twenty-three years with it and suddenly losing it was just too much. I’m going to forget about this experience through working on the Physical Repelling Barrier. I can’t take another mental shock right now.’ Ingram stoically decided as he once again covered himself in the Absolute Block Barrier and the much smaller Physical Concealing Barrier while removing the rest of the barriers and mentally shattering their magic circles. This entire session of experimentation took an hour and twelve minutes.
Ingram found it hard to calm down after his latest mental shock, but he stubbornly kept drawing and redrawing the Physical Repelling Barrier Characteristic. As he kept remaking the magic circle, he calmed down and quickly speed up near the end. After exactly one hundred iterations of the same magic circle, he finally achieved a meager ten percent accuracy for Physical Repelling. ‘Finally, I didn’t think it would take an hour to learn. I learned Physical Concealing in thirty minutes, is this how motivation affects a person? I mean I was really motivated to draw Physical Concealing; I didn’t want to miss the fight and I’m glad I pushed myself so hard.’ Ingram opened his eyes and stretched his arms before slowly climbing to his feet. ‘That doesn’t matter now. Thankfully my body got stronger with each Life Level up otherwise I think I might have pulled a few muscles just now.’ Ingram thought as he stretched his waist.
Before Ingram left the Magic Circle Space, he started filling the new magic circle with 405 MP, so soon after he stood up a system prompt and a magic circle appeared simultaneously,
{Judgment: Magic Circle is 85% accurate. Barrier strength is decreased by 15%.
Perfect Barrier Durability: 5,834.64 HP | Penalty applied, New Barrier Durability: 4,959.44 HP
8 Proficiency Points gained.}
With a thought a new One-meter plate barrier appeared in front of Ingram. ‘Now, how does the Physical Repelling Barrier work? Does it activate on impact or by proximity? Only one way to find out, let’s touch it or try at least.’ Ingram mused as he carefully walked closer to the silent barrier, but once he was within one meter, a violent force rushed out of the barrier and threw Ingram back. The force acted upon his barrier until it left the one-meter radius around it. While his Physical Concealing Barrier didn’t take any damage, he was knocked off his feet from the sudden burst of force. Usually, the barrier’s repelling force gets stronger the closer a moving entity gets, but Ingram isn’t very strong, physically, so he immediately toppled over due to poor footing.
‘That’s so cool. Is the size of the repelling field dictated by the size of the barrier, or is it always going to be one meter? I’ll make a two-meter barrier to test it. If it’s the former, then that’s still good, but if it’s the latter then.’ Ingram began to laugh to himself as he made the new magic circle. After a tiny bit over eight seconds and 408 MP, a fourth magic circle appeared in front of him along with a familiar system prompt,
{Judgment: Magic Circle is 85% accurate. Barrier strength is decreased by 15%.
Perfect Barrier Durability: 5,834.64 HP | Penalty applied, New Barrier Durability: 4,959.44 HP
8 Proficiency Points gained.}
Ingram deactivated the One-Meter Physical Repelling Barrier and placed the Two-Meter Physical Repelling Barrier in its place. ‘Okay, moment of truth. Did the repelling distance change, or did it remain at one meter.’ Ingram crossed his fingers as he carefully began to inch closer to the dark grey barrier. Once, he got within two meters, he felt a violent force act upon him, but it was much weaker than before. This time Ingram managed to keep his footing and began to inch closer to the barrier. As he did, the force pushing him back got stronger with each step, until he lost his footing and was shot backwards out of the two-meter radius. Ingram slid along the blood-soaked ground for a bit before he finally came to a stop. ‘I knew this feeling felt familiar; it’s like when hold two magnets of the same polarity next to each other. At first nothing happens but you force them to get closer, they start to resist and push away from one another with growing intensity. I could never force them to touch, but I saw a video of it and when they were released, they shot across the room away from one another. Though I don’t think this is how my barrier works, it's the same principle. The closer you get to the barrier, the more force with act upon an entity. If I keep using the magnet analogy, the Barrier size is what dictates how strong the magnet is, I guess.’
Ingram observed the still dark grey barrier for a while before coming to an odd observation, ‘Why isn’t the dirt next to or under the barrier being repelled?’ Just as the thought appeared in his mind, the crimson soil began to violently shoot away from the barrier until it sank below the surface, but the soil kept flying out of the hole. Ingram’s expression changed slightly as he came to a realization, ‘So it was my fault. I guess on an instinctual level I didn’t want the earth to be repelled, I mean sinking into the soil every time I used it wouldn’t make a very effective barrier.’ Ingram nodded as he deactivated the barrier and replaced it on the mound of fresh dark soil.
‘So, my thoughts and ideas have an impact on my barriers, to a certain extent. It’s like how with the Physical Reversal and Physical Isolation Barriers, both used my own common sense and thoughts as a basis before acting upon their ability. I wonder just how much my own mind is limiting my barrier’s ability? Whatever, nothing I can do about that. It’s too hard to change instincts, they’re not even habits anymore. It’s like breathing, once you start doing it consciously, you become hyper aware of it.’ Ingram sighed as he started manually breathing after thinking about how to breath.
‘That’s all for barrier types. Now, time to test how applying barriers works. I’ve had a few questions, for example, what point on a person is the barrier centered on? Like how does it cover an entity? Is it centered on a certain point, or is it a subconscious placement on my part? Also, how is the barrier floating around me? It’s odd, now that I think about it. I can walk around like I’m on solid ground, but I’m not. I’m walking on the barrier that’s in contact with solid ground, but I don’t feel the rotation of the barrier or any of the sensations of walking on a smooth spherical surface. At this moment, I’m pretty sure due to being in a barrier in a barrier I’m floating off the ground, but I don’t feel like I’m floating at all. The usual instinctual sense of, “Oh, my feet are off solid ground” isn’t there. Like when I climb the stairs, that sensation appears in the back of my mind before I climb back down onto solid ground. Maybe I’m the weird one, I don’t know.’ Ingram pondered as he began pacing around the two meter radius of the Physical Repelling Barrier.
‘I’m getting sidetracked, this next test is on, Barrier Placement. I don’t have a reliable test subject, so the current plan is to throw a rock and then create a barrier around said rock while it's in the air. For the first throw, I’m going to do as I always do, but for the second, I’m going to try to purposefully try to place it so the edge of the barrier cuts into the rock. I hope to learn where the barrier naturally forms and what happens when it hits the ground, will the rock sink to the bottom of the barrier or will the barrier itself sink into the ground to maintain the central point of the rock. When I lay down, I can’t really tell, so I’m hoping this experiment gives me a few answers. I just hope my thirteen points of strength can throw the rock pretty high.’ Ingram meticulously planned before he deactivated his two barriers to pick up a nearby palm sized rock the Physical Repelling Barrier dug up.
After rolling his right shoulder a few times, Ingram looked up into the sky before pulling his arm back and throwing the rock with all his strength straight up into the sky, well it was at a slight angle due to his body’s innate limitations and not wanting to hit himself on the head. To his surprise, the rock flew extremely high, before it lost to the force of gravity. Ingram quickly activated the Absolute Block Barrier around the falling rock before watching both free fall. After a few seconds, the barrier made contact with the ground, then the rock made contact with the bottom of the barrier. Ingram quickly walked over and began to study the inside of the barrier, only to see the rock and that’s it.
‘That was anti-climactic. Not quite what I was expecting, but I’ll take it. Time to see how a barrier that forms on the ground, leaves the ground. Then I’ll do the second throw.’ Ingram deactivated and replaced the barrier, ensuring he got some of the soil in the barrier along with the rock. He then tried to physically lift the barrier, only to feel it was rooted in place, so he gave up. ‘That’s strange, when I place a barrier on myself while standing on the ground can I move around freely. What’s the difference? I’ll place the Physical Concealing Barrier on myself, and I’ll try it from the inside.’ Ingram quickly removed the Absolute Block Barrier and placed the Physical Concealing Barrier on himself, ensuring he get a portion of the soil below his feet. He then carefully began to move forward, just in case it doesn’t move, and he walks into the edge of the barrier. However, his eyes were locked onto the bottom of the barrier as he walked forward. The patch of earth he started on and the earth he ended on were different.
‘What? So, if I’m right then the barrier below the surface is… intangible or is it, what’s the word, uh, in a different state of matter, like air or maybe a different dimension, nah that last one’s going a bit too far.’ Ingram thought for a few seconds and suddenly jumped, and the bottom of the barrier surfaced and refused to sink below the surface again, but Ingram didn’t feel anything different under his feet, it still felt like solid ground. Ingram placed his foot on the edge of the barrier and tried to push it, only to feel a solid feeling under his foot as a faint grey energy appear under his foot. ‘Is this also due to my subconscious actions? I don’t know, but as long as it works, I don’t care. I didn’t see this energy when the rock was in the barrier, then again, a rock can’t move.’ Ingram froze as he realized what he just thought.
‘I think I get it now, I’m only seeing what I want to see. I assumed a rock couldn’t move, so the barrier around it refused to move. I thought I was walking on solid ground, so I was. I wanted to see what happened to the soil in the barrier, so the barrier phased through the soil. I wonder if I thought something like, the barrier uses mixed mana to assimilate the soil inside it to add to itself or something, would it work? Another test.’ Ingram deactivated and replaced the barrier around him and this time the soil in the barrier rapidly sank into the barrier before vanishing, like ice in a red-hot pan, but soundless. Ingram was slightly giddy at his realization, ‘So, I’m the source of everything. That makes a lot of sense, I’m the caster of the spell. That makes more experimentation redundant, I’ll only get the results I assume I’ll get. This constant use of my subconscious knowledge makes experimenting hard. After placing my barrier, I realized that while it focuses on the center of a target, I can also choose where to place it. This is hurting my brain, you know what, I don’t care. It’s whatever, as long as the barriers work, that’s all I ask. Though I should give my barriers more thoughts in the future, a different interpretation my come in handy one day. It’s a shame that when my barrier assimilated the soil, I didn’t restore any MP.’ Ingram playfully thought before he activated his Absolute Block Barrier and began to pace around.
‘Now what? I experimented with all of my barriers and got answers to most of my questions. I know I should do my Life Advancement Quest, but I want to get my gear in order first, just in case I get lost in the forest again… I guess I should return to Yonder and buy some adventuring gear with my current funds. How much do I have anyway? I never checked, but I assume it’s less than two silvers.’ Ingram reached into his right pocket and pulled out the magic pouch and saw the cracked gem. ‘What happened to it? I hope it doesn’t affect the storage space, if it did, I wouldn’t have anyone to cry to.’ Ingram hastily opened the pouch and felt a faint wisp of magic flow into his mind as a small room appeared in his mind with a single silver coin silently sitting in the center. Ingram sighed in relief as he reached into the pouch and focused on the coin before he pulled out the silver coin.
He played with it for a bit before he carelessly tossed it back into the pouch and started walking back to Yonder, ignoring the damage he caused the artificially made clearing, but he suddenly froze and looked at the two extra magic circles before moment before they shattered. All of Ingram’s experiments took an hour and twenty-seven minutes, with most of that time being spent on thinking about what else to experiment with next. Unbeknownst to Ingram, after he left, the odd forest that caused the Beast Tide began to slowly expand in all directions, as if driven by an unseen force as a vibrant flash of purple appeared above the forest as a young man looked out past Yonder and at the courtyard Ingram appeared in with deep eyes before he sank back into the forest, with one word echoing throughout the empty forest, “Awaken.”
Ingram felt a dense wave of magic waft out from behind him, so he turned around and saw the seemingly inert gloomy forest at the other end of the clearing began to glow with a soft light as the blue sky above it gave way to a sea of stars that fell down onto the forest. ‘That’s new. Not my problem, if the sky falls, there will be others to hold it up. I’m just a nobody, back to what I was thinking about. Should I buy a pot or not? I mean, I don’t think I need to eat with the Physical Status Resist, but food is tasty, but it’s also time consuming to cook. Hmm.’ Ingram gave his adventuring gear serious thought; the anomalous forest cast out of his mind.
