A Little Alchemy Goes a Long Way (Fantasy/Isekai/LitRPG, Original Fiction)

A/N: In joint work with Orpheus Kidwell we are attempting to craft a short chapter, faster-than-weekly, updated story. Feedback is GREATLY appreciated.

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A Little Alchemy Goes A Long Way
Chapter I

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The first sensation I had was of cool grass scratching against my skin. It was a strange feeling. Foreign. Something I hadn’t felt since childhood. Why was I outside and not in my bed?

I opened my eyes but immediately had to shut them again, my hand shooting out to cover them from the very bright light that was directly overhead. Why is the sun allowed to be this bright? I opened them behind my palm, trying to understand my situation. I was definitely not in my bed. I was definitely naked. What was going on?

I didn't remember taking any drugs, and I was pretty sure I locked my… apartment? Yes, I locked my apartment door last night. Was I kidnapped? I shook my head. Who kidnaps someone but then leaves them naked on a lawn? Why has no one found me yet?

Finally, when I was sure that my eyes were accustomed to the daylight, I allowed my hand to fall to the side and sat up, looking around. Everything was green. No, not everything. The grass was green, and the trees scattered about. The sounds of rushing water in the distance told of some clear blue, which I quickly confirmed as I turned my head.

I… Was not on someone’s lawn. I was in the forest.

I was naked. Alone. In a forest. My eyes darted around as my head snapped back and forth, looking for a hint of clothes or people. This was the part where someone came out from behind the tree holding a camera saying “You’re on my youtube channel and you just got PRANKED!”

…Right?

My breath hitched and my hands shook. I couldn’t see anyone.

But… In the periphery of my vision, there was a bouncing light blue alert box. The second I focused on it another blue box opened in front of me, this one darker and more opaque, perfectly rectangular. Outlining it was a thin band of white, and it gave off its own light that was distinct from the daylight that had nearly blinded me a moment before. It only took a moment for me to recognize the letters on the floating, almost electronic-looking, plate that hovered at eye level.

[Greetings, Creator.]
[Welcome to: The Creation Engine.]

Reaching out, I tried grasping the plate of light and letters, but the moment that my fingers touched it, it shattered into so many particles, disappearing before they even reached the grass below. “Creation… Engine? What’s that?”

Another, different, plate of light and letter materialized in front of me so suddenly that there was no distinction between when I had uttered the first words, and when it was there. It was so sudden, in fact, that I couldn’t help but scramble backward at the jumpscare. Catching my breath as I waited for my heart to dislodge itself from my throat, I crawled closer once more to get a good look at what it said this time.

[The Creation Engine, for you, is composed of the Table, Book, and Wand.]

I waited a moment to see if the text would change. When it didn’t, I reached out against it and pressed my finger to its face, wondering if that would change anything. It shattered once again; its existence seemingly fragile. “What is the Table?” Expecting another plate to appear, I was not nearly as surprised when it showed up this time, though I still jumped a bit.

[The Table is where Elements are combined.]
[The Creator may access it as he wishes.]

Elements? I wasn’t precisely sure what the text box was talking about, but I think it had referred to me as Creator moments ago. Did it mean I could access this Table just by thinking about it? Well, it was worth a shot.

Another structure of light that definitely hadn’t existed a moment before sprang up in front of me with significantly more light show fanfare. Unprepared, and maybe a little on edge, it managed to send me rocketing backward once again. It really was a table, if not a very large one. Purple and semi-translucent, unlike the plates, but very much still table-shaped. Slowly standing up, I looked around this strange field I found myself in, but there still wasn’t anyone or anything else I could really see. Maybe… Maybe this isn’t a prank. And it certainly didn’t feel like drugs either.

Cautiously, I approached the Table. When I pressed one palm onto the top of it, it did not crumble as the plates had. Rather, it felt surprisingly solid and sturdy. My hand simply stopped as what felt almost like hardwood pressed back against it.

The surface was not empty, however. In the center of the table, there was a stone-ish feeling disk, with two indents that looked like you could rest something inside them and connected with a vertical line that would have bisected the whole thing into equal halves if it continued all the way in both directions. On my left, there were also four spheres resting inside similarly sized holes. Something about this setup seemed familiar to me, but I couldn’t remember why.

The orbs weren’t very large, perhaps the size of particularly large strawberries. I gazed in wonder as I could see something swirling within each one, each a different color: white, brown, red, and blue. Picking up the white one a strange breeze that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere danced around me.

At that moment I had a flash of recognition. Something scratched inside my brain about how natural this felt. Rather than place it back into the hole I found it in, I decided to put it into one of the hole in the center of the Table. As soon as I did, I saw big, white letters appear at the top of the Table, aligned closely to the center: AIR.

Pursing my lips, I reached out for another one without really looking. The sudden warmth at my fingertips made me pay attention quite quickly though. Bringing it closer, I noticed it was the one with the red, swirling energy inside of it. Mulling over it a moment, I decided to just put it in the other hole.

AIR+FIRE=HEAT

The letters wrote themselves out as if they were being typed, and the two marbles glowed much more intensely with their white and red energies, before dying down.

[New Element Discovered]
[Heat, a combination of Air and Fire]
[Check the Book for more information]

Not expecting another text box, I jerked back again. It didn’t take but a moment to regain my composure again, though. Just as with the Table, I asked out loud. “What’s the Book?” I had no idea what was going on but there was some part of me that just wanted to see how long this would last, to find out what exactly was happening to me. Maybe it would somehow explain how I got here.

[The Book is where Elements are understood and refined.]
[The Creator may access it as he wishes.]

The response was oddly similar to the one about the Table. That should mean that merely thinking about it would have a similar effect for the Book. With a thought, the spheres atop the Table were cleared, with the Air and Fire marbles returning to their places on the side. The text disappeared, and the holes in the center of the table were filled as the surface became perfectly flat. A moment later, the table was no longer empty. Now a brown tome, also made of some sort of light, sat closed atop it.

Reaching out, there was no denying that it felt as solid and permanent as the Table. Since it hadn’t shattered on contact, I wanted to open it and see what was inside. Try as I might, I could not lift it from its place, but the cover opened easily enough.

There was no title page or introduction. The first page was left blank. Flipping to the second and third pages, they were titled Air and Earth. The fourth and fifth pages were similarly titled Fire and Water. On the sixth page was Heat, and the seventh was blank. Every other page after that throughout the Book was also completely empty.

Strangely, most of the titled pages were also empty. The only exception was that on the Air and Fire pages, they each noted that combining the Element with the other produced Heat; on the page for Heat, it listed that the combination to produce it was Air and Fire. There was no further information anywhere else about any of the Elements.

“There’s nothing in here. What did it mean by where the Elements are understood?” I wasn’t really asking the… well, whatever kept sending me messages. Even so, it seemed like it wanted to answer anyway.

[The Book is inscribed with all that the Creator has understood about the Elements.]
[The Book allows the Creator to refine the Elements he understands.]

I grunted in frustration. The messages really weren’t that helpful. So, the Book inscribes everything I understood about the Elements? So, was all that I understood how to make Heat from Air and Fire? Maybe I had to use the Table to make new Elements to ‘understand’ them? Well, there was that other thing. I scratched the back of my head trying to remember that pane. What was it? Oh, that’s right. “What’s the Wand?”

[The Wand is how Elements are manifested into the world.]
[The Wand materializes Elements from the Book.]
[The Wand is always at the disposal of the Creator.]
[The Creator may access the Wand as he wishes.]
[The Wand is limited by the Book.]
[The Book is limited by the Table.]
[The Table is limited by the Wand.]

It was, by far, the longest message I’d received. Even so, I tried to see if I could make sense of it. Right, so this ‘Wand’ was the third part of the Creation Engine. Whatever was messaging me referred to it differently than the others, and also spoke about limitations. It kinda gave me Holy Trinity vibes with how that last message was phrased. Well, first I should worry about how the Wand actually works before wondering about its limitations, right?

And so, I thought about wanting the Wand. The Table and Book both disappeared, erupting into their own showers of light that never quite managed to reach the grass before dissipating into nothingness. Another thing made of light then appeared, but this time in my hand. It looked like some sort of stick made of glass, nearly colorless and translucent.

Well, if this was the Wand, then I should be able to materialize Elements, according to the message. Thinking a moment, I visualized that first marble I picked up, the one filled with white, swirling energy. As the thought of Air filled my head, the Wand also filled with a similar colored energy.

Pointing it forward, I watched as the Wand glowed brightly like the marbles had, before erupting in a flash of white energy and releasing it from the tip. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I had been thinking of that breeze that I felt when I picked up the marble. As the energy shot out, it made what appeared to be a very small and weak twister of air, a very tight dancing of breezes that remained together a moment before dispersing and shaking the grass around it.

Once the energy was gone, the Wand returned to its nearly colorless, translucent, and glassy look. I was still no closer to figuring out where I was, or how I got here. But this right here? This was legit. Whatever was going on had a whole lot more happening than me just getting kidnapped or having a really bad trip. This Creation Engine thing seemed pretty cool though, so maybe I could mess about with it a bit until I figured out what was going on? I wondered if I could somehow make some new clothes out of it. That’d be nice. It would really suck if there was someone else out there and they saw me naked.

I said it would really suck.

I paused and listened, the gentle sounds of wind and leaves filled my ears. No one was jumping out yet.

No one was going to jump out, were they?

I’m alone. I’m naked. I’m scared.

I want to go home.

 

AN: 10 days is under a week right?

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Chapter II

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“Three weeks without food, three days without water, three hours without shelter.”

At some point, reality set in, and the gears of my brain started to turn. I was alone. In a forest. Without anything. And as I started to look around the forest trying to figure out what I was supposed to do now, old memories came back to me… I don’t really remember who, but I was relatively sure that it was something one of my old PE teachers told me once about how long humans could survive in extreme conditions.

I didn’t remember when I last ate - or what I ate last. Deep breaths. Or when I last drank water. But… standing around like an idiot wasn’t going to do me any favors. I looked around my immediate area, ‘Maybe there is something easy like a river or berry bush nearby?’ To my surprise there really was a river not far from where I woke up. Even better, the water was clear - and I was pretty sure that was important? - but the banks were a bit too deep for me and it looked like it was flowing pretty fast. I really wasn’t confident in my ability to get back up if I fell in.

But, rivers have to go somewhere, right? And people need water for stuff so following the river couldn’t hurt. So, I began following it downstream in hopes that I might find somewhere easier to reach down and drink or civilization, whichever comes first.

It wasn’t a long walk, but it was kinda nice, the ground was soft so it didn't hurt to walk on my bare feet that much to my surprise. Then without fanfare, the river dumped into an enormous lake. My breath caught in my throat as I took in the scene. The treeline broke above me enough to see the sunlight more directly as it shone upon the enormous body of water. Somehow, despite the stream appearing mostly clear, the lake itself was a bright, bright blue and had this sort of glow to it that reminded me of those marbles on the Alchemy Table.

Surrounding the lake on all sides was a field of lush grass, greener than anything I’d ever seen before. Dotting the grass were flowers of all sorts that I couldn’t even hope to try and recognize, vibrantly painting the landscape like some sort of carefully engineered photograph on an influencer’s social media. This little grove of unnatural beauty then gave way to the treeline, which I realized actually formed a perfect circle around it.

I shook my head. I could marvel over the stunning picture of nature later, as my body had just let me know that it was actually quite thirsty. Which meant that I should actually approach the lake. Just… Walk up to it. Put one foot in front of the other. Leave the forest and approach the lake. Okay, deep breaths, right. I made my way to the lakeside and got to my knees. I cupped my hands and submerged them in the water. As soon as I did, my entire body began to shiver. Despite the sunlight bearing down upon it directly, the water was cool to the touch in a way I hadn’t expected.

Raising my hands up to my face, I began to drink and dropped the water in surprise. The water tasted sweet. I was no survival expert but I was fairly certain water didn't taste sweet. I paused and tried to think about the dozens of so-called ‘natural’ brands of water that my local grocer sold. I was pretty sure water didn’t taste sweet? Maybe it was and I just got used to the tap water tasting like metal? I waited a bit to see if I would suddenly double over in pain or start frothing at the mouth, and when I didn't, I shrugged and gathered another cup of water. As I drank it, I definitely began to feel myself relax. It made sense, being thirsty sucked, and risking getting swept away by a river just to drink a bit each time was something I didn’t want to do. I basked in the feeling, like all the things I’d been worrying about were trivial and there was no need for me to get anxious. It reminded me a bit of when I looked too closely at the marble.

My head was feeling clearer as I sat back, not even caring about the grass against my skin. I took in the scene around me, the worry in me easing away. Letting out a sigh, I still wasn’t sure what I was going to do. But hey, I’d at least found a source of drinkable water. I was unsure if I wanted to leave it, however.

No matter, I can leave that for later. Despite how sweet the water tasted it didn’t seem to override the growing sense of hunger that had my stomach gnawing at my insides. I should probably find a way to fix that.

With a huff and puff I rose to my feet again and began dragging my eyes across the field and treeline. It didn’t look like there was anything edible here in the grove, or, well, even if there was, how was I supposed to know? I’d never so much as gone camping, so there was no way I could just spot the plants I can eat off the bat. I had to find a berry bush or a fruit tree or something. I think you can eat acorns? Eh, the squirrels could so that meant I can, right? I shook my head, whatever, I’ll figure it out, how hard could it be?

Suspiciously, it actually didn’t take that long.

I wanted to chalk it up to my skills but even I knew I had to give this one to Lady Luck. It was on the opposite side of the grove that I entered from, far enough back that I couldn’t have possibly seen it from the lake, was a fruit-bearing tree. Hanging from the branches were what appeared to be apples, but there was something off about them. Or maybe it was a, uh, different species of apple? Whatever they were, they were not the apples I picked up from the supermarket. And right now, they were well out of reach, but I didn’t worry too much about that.

Because, duh, I had magic now.

With nothing but a thought, the Wand appeared in my hand. Twirling it between my fingers a moment, I tried to recall what I’d done before. A soft breeze probably wouldn’t knock it down. As an idea popped into my head, I could feel the corner of my lips twitch a bit at the cool factor.

None of the Elements that I remembered from the Book would really be super useful here, with one exception. Even if I could manage to make something stronger than a breeze, my prize was high enough that it might get damaged if I couldn’t catch it. Water had the same issue. Fire and Heat, well, I didn’t want to burn the forest down around me.

No, the clear winner was obviously Earth. I didn’t want the apple to get damaged on its way down, so clearly, I just needed to go higher. And by its own name, Earth should be able to do something like that, right?

Stepping back, I tried to gauge the best way to go about what I was planning even as the rod in my hand began to swirl with a light brown energy. An earthy smell and feel filled the air around me. I rhythmically tapped the Wand on my palm as I tried to imagine how exactly I could use Earth. Maybe a pillar? Or should I use a ramp? How steep should it be? Do I need to make it thick?

I pointed the Wand at a space directly under where the apple hung, and as I focused I could feel the area begin to hum with that same strange energy that the Earth marble had. Slowly, very slowly, I began to raise up the tip of the Wand. I wouldn’t want to turn the apple into a pancake after all.

As my hand moved, a perfectly square tile of the grass began to rise up. As it moved up, higher and higher, I could see several layers of other earthen materials come with it: dirt, clay, hard soil and finally stone. Fascinated, I looked closer, it was almost like a perfect cross-section of earth was being raised out tf the ground. Wait…

Crack!

So absorbed in watching it as I was, I was jolted out of my focus when I heard a gunshot. The Wand flew from my grasp as I was instantly hit with an explosion of dirt. Through squinted eyes I watched as it shattered into a million particles of light the moment that I was no longer touching it.

The next moment, I was on the ground, dazed in a mix of shock and concussive force. My eyes darted every which way trying to spot what the hell happened, but I eventually realized the question wasn’t who but what happened as I looked upon the mangled mess of the fully-grown oak tree leaning at a 45-degree angle, its roots torn and exposed.

A sickly feeling built in my gut. The only culprit here was me. Somehow, I’d forgotten that trees have roots, and I’d managed to accidentally uproot the very tree I was simply trying to get the fruit of. There was no gunshot, only my incompetence.

I then became acutely aware of how fast my heart was beating, and how erratic my breaths were. Forcing myself to breathe more evenly, ‘In, out,’ I felt my heartbeat slow and the pounding in my ears calm. Getting back to my feet, I began dusting myself off only to belatedly realize that maybe trying to brush the dirt off myself with my dirt-coated hands wasn’t making any headway at all. I sighed.

The Wand had got me into this mess, so may as well use it to get myself out of it. It shouldn’t be hard to, like, pull the Earth off of me. I thought of that earthy feeling the marble gave off and waved my wand with a flick like I was brushing dirt off myself.

…and nothing happened. ‘Huh?’

I looked down at the wand and really focused on Earth. The Wand remained unchanged. “What the hell?” I muttered to myself. Why wasn’t it working now? ‘Oh god,’ I felt my world dim a bit, ‘was this some sorta limited-use system?’ It didn’t feel right.

No. No, I had to be wrong. Maybe it was some sorta hippy-dippy cycle of the elements thing, right? It would be way too lame if I could only cast everything once. Wasn’t it better if I tried that out now? It would be way too stressful to hold onto my other marbles, afraid to use them like a health potion in a video game ‘Just in case’ I needed it later. I worried my lip, I was dirty but also the spells or whatever weren’t very strong so it's not like I could really use them to fight stuff, right?

That and I would feel like an absolute chump if it turned out that they just had a cooldown. Well, there was nothing to it. With a thought, the Wand was back in my hand. It glowed a bright blue as I thought about the Water marble, pointing my wand to the sky I paused. Before I got any other bright ideas without testing what these Elements did, I wanted to just see what Water was like. If something did go wrong, what was the worst that could happen? I get wet? It was the end goal anyway, so success or failure It all works out. Water burst from the Wand into the air above and gently rained back down like one of those giant fancy showerheads. There really wasn’t much pressure to speak of with the water that sprang from the tip, so at least I wasn’t likely to kill myself with this.

A few minutes later and the feeling of dirtiness was gone. Surprisingly, the duration of the water spout lasted quite long and while I was hoping for that I was also expecting just one big burst and nothing else. Instead, I was left very wet, and surprisingly cold. I hardly even noticed how chilly the air was before, but the shivering was hard to ignore. I knew I had to dry myself off and considering the lack of anything that might approximate a towel, I did still have three other Elements at hand that might be helpful.

Considering that Air and Water were so weak, I’d probably be fine though. Looking at my Wand, I focused. Interestingly, the Wand didn’t glow a single color. Instead, a double helix of energy formed inside of it, one strand being a bright white, and the other a deep red. The Wand definitely felt warm to the touch, but it wasn’t uncomfortably so.

I wasn’t entirely sure how to do what I wanted, but everything about the Creation Engine seemed to be as simple and basic as possible. This means the obvious answer is the answer. So, Heat was Air and Fire combined… Which means it would be like a, uh, giant industrial blow dryer in front of me, and with a jab of the Wand the energy sped out to manifest the effect.

My shivering ended very quickly, exactly as I had guessed how it worked, it happened. I was full-body blasted with a strong gust of hot, but not burning, air. The chill on my skin dissipated instantly as I suddenly felt very dry, and warm. The sudden shift in temperature was strange, like standing directly in front of an open oven on a cold winter morning. It felt somehow natural though.

Remembering how it had just shattered before, I let go of the Wand. If I needed it again, it would only take a thought, so no reason to keep carrying it around and I didn’t want to accidentally trigger my remaining marbles accidentally. Instead, I looked towards the fallen tree.

Rather than just one fruit, there were dozens that I could pick right off the branches now. For now, I just grabbed the nearest one and used the lake to wash it off. Taking a bite into it, I was actually pleasantly surprised at the taste.

I was expecting something a bit milder, but whatever kind of apple this was, it had a natural sweetness that was actually quite similar to the water from the lake. I couldn’t quite place my finger on what it was, but a warm feeling like I had just drank a cup of tea infused my body.

Hum, I guess it makes sense that the apple tastes like the water though? What was the saying? Uh, ‘You are what you eat.’? If the majority of the water the tree, uh, ate, was from the sweet water… I gazed over the vibrant field of flowers that I had only seen in staged photos. Whatever was in the water definitely had some effect on the plants too, but there was no way something could be toxic and taste good.

Taking another bite of my prize, I began walking along the coast of the lake. I still had no idea where I was, or how I got here. I could be anywhere in the world, honestly. Or maybe even that wasn’t thinking broadly enough since I don’t imagine this sort of magic was exactly something that could exist back home. Or maybe it did and I was just on a supernatural version of PRANKED!... A supernatural YouTube would probably be wild.

Maybe this whole situation was making me more open to the daydreams I had before college, but it was an interesting thought. If the magic was real, then why couldn't the multiverse be? If the multiverse was real then couldn’t Isekai also be a thing somewhere?

“Another world where magic is commonplace? That’s ridiculous.” I chide myself. I didn’t have any proof I wasn’t having the most insane drug trip of human existence, but I also didn't have any proof I was, either. Still, a figment of drug-induced imagination or not, the Creation Engine was definitely magical. At least, nothing I knew about science could explain it.

Shaking those fantasies from my head, I sighed. I needed to be serious about this. I shouldn’t treat this as one big lucid dream, but rather as a real survival scenario. I needed to get a hold of myself so that I had a chance of survival. I had water and some food for a bit. That shelter part was still a work-in-progress, and I kinda did the whole process backwards but whatever, but I could probably get something figured out given enough time. I could keep myself warm with my wand if nothing else.

Probably. If the spells were not single cast.

Finishing off the apple, I leaned a bit to peer into the lake. I hadn’t seen any wildlife to speak of so far, so I was curious if there was anything at all besides all this flora. It didn’t take long for me to spot some small fish swimming about though, and so I tossed the core into the water. Fish could eat that, right?

Sitting back down, I pondered what I should do next. Realistically, I wasn’t even sure where to begin trying to make my own shelter. Not only did I have no tools, but I didn’t even know what I would do if I had them. I was beginning to regret staying inside so much both as a teenager and as an adult. I never thought learning all that survival stuff would be useful though.

Camping was itchy, inconvenient, and boring, and I probably would die in whatever apocalypse collapsed civilization so why bother? …Is what I thought before now.

Stretching my arms above my head a bit, I found myself laying back and staring up at the sky. I wouldn’t even have food if it wasn’t for the Creation Engine. Maybe I should focus more on figuring that out instead of trying to think about how I should do things the normal way with tools I didn’t have and couldn’t reproduce.

Getting back to my feet, I had already decided on my course. I needed to figure out how things worked if I wanted any chance of getting back home. I needed a shelter, first and foremost, so I should put all my resources into that goal. After that, maybe I could actually get some clothes.

“One step at a time. Okay, let’s start with this Book.” I muttered to myself, light already solidifying in front of me as quickly as the thought had occurred.

 

Sneaky A/N: sorry about the delay folks sometimes life comes at you fast and suddenly ure working somewhere new. Poor Orpheus got clapped by college duties.

Orph A/N: A week-long orientation and first week of classes back-to-back really fucks with your free time. Fingers crossed that the next one takes less time to push out.

A Little Alchemy Goes a Long Way​

Chapter III​

There were some changes to the Book since the last time I looked at it. To be more precise, there were exactly four additions. On the pages titled Air, Earth, Fire, and Heat were clinical descriptions of what I’d been able to do with the Wand. ‘Neat, it seemed that the Book updated as I used the system.’ My wrist hurt at the idea of doing something like needing to write stuff in by hand.

It reassured me that my hope theory about Elements not being single use, since it would be absurd for these pages to be so large if I could only use each Element only once. A traitorous thought hung about, that it could still be single-use if I need to go find and harvest additional sources from, like, element nodes or something.

But I have faith that whoever or whatever made this system is more intelligent and better at game design than well… the current industry. I probably wouldn’t have to worry about microtransactions at least. Unless it cost parts of my soul or-

You know what, nope. Back to fun things. Like magic.

There was quite a bit I had yet to experiment with for this system. I turned the Book back to the page on Air, and I thought for a moment. Materializing the Wand back into my hand, I pointed it to the center of the lake without taking my eyes off the page.

Rather than another breeze materializing and causing ripples across the water like I’d wanted, it was exactly the same as when I tried to clean myself up with Earth. I grimaced in frustration and trepidation. Letting go of the Wand, I sighed. “Why isn’t the Wand working?”

[The Element of Air is currently on cooldown.]

The sudden appearance of another screen with text made me jump back from the Table and Book that were in front of me. They too shattered like the Wand.

I paused. ‘Huh.’ I shook my head, later. Reading through the text again, I hummed in thought. So there is a cooldown timer for the Elements. I felt my inside unclench, that was reassuring. “How long is the cooldown on Air?” These sorts of systems always came with timers and stuff to extend gameplay. Maybe it could give me an accurate assessment of that while I was at it?

The screen dissipated and was soon replaced with another.

[The Element of Air is not currently on cooldown.]

It was literally just on cooldown. Unless… it just stopped being on cooldown? I smiled, ‘Convenient, but I’m not going to question it.’

I gripped the Wand tightly as it re-manifested and looked over the lake again. On cue, its translucent shell began to fill with glowing white energy and I could feel a slight breeze around my hand. Rather than try to cast a spell with it, though, I decided it might be more prudent to save it in case I really needed it.

I wasn’t expecting there to be anything in the Book but looking down at it I was surprised to see that there was a new addition on the Air page. There was, of course, the description of the time I’d used Air to make a twister, and in parentheses next to it was the number 2400. What was that even supposed to mean?

I scratched my head in thought, before sighing and shaking it. I got the feeling this was one of those things I should just leave for later, the magic comes back and nothing has attacked me yet, so I should be fine. There were better uses of my time, like the fact I still didn’t have any proper shelter or clothes, so those might be better things to prioritize.

“How long is the cooldown on Earth?” I wondered, hoping for a better answer this time. Well, the best answer would be that it wasn’t, but considering Air I figured that wasn’t going to be a possibility.

[The Element of Earth is currently on cooldown.]

Even though I expected it, I still suddenly felt the urge to punch the screen but managed to hold myself back. “I know that already, I’m asking how long the cooldown on Earth has left.”

[The Element of Earth is currently on cooldown.]

Almost on instinct, I swiped left at the screen and was amused to see that it actually disappeared. Whatever was talking to me through that screen either was of the same intellectual capacity as one of those AI assistants, or whoever made the system really wanted to mess with me. In either case, it was more than I felt like putting up with right now.

Assuming Earth took as long as Air to become active again, I wouldn’t be able to make any shelter with it for a while. With that in mind, there really just was one option. So, I summoned the Table.

Just as I was about to reach for one of the marbles, I stopped in my tracks. I was expecting four marbles, like last time, or maybe also an extra marble for Heat. Instead, there were only two, the ones for Earth and Water, it looked like. With a groan, I tilted my head back and looked toward the sky.

“Are the Air and Fire marbles on cooldown too?”

[The Element of Air has no active charges as all are currently on cooldown.]

[The Element of Fire has no active charges as all are currently on cooldown.]

Well, that was just great. Okay, no big deal. They’d come back eventually, though I wasn’t even going to bother asking how long the cooldown was for. Swiping the screens away again, I turned my attention back to the Table.

I only really had one option considering there were two marbles, or charges as the system called them, and two holes in the table.

EARTH+WATER=DIRT

[New Element Discovered]

[Dirt, a combination of Earth and Water]

[Check the Book for more information]

That was odd. Shouldn’t it be mud? That’s obviously the first thing that comes to mind, you add water to the ground and it becomes mud, obviously. Well, maybe mud was included in dirt since mud was just wet dirt? Even so, how would dirt or mud even help me? Mud wasn’t really great for much, unless…

An idea struck me. I was able to move quite a bit of the ground using Earth, and it all stayed in an enormous column even after my wand disappeared. “Is Heat on cooldown?” I asked. If it was, I’d just have to use Fire instead, but I really had such a great idea I wanted to try.

[The Element of Heat is currently on cooldown.]

Well, that meant I wasn’t seeing heat for a while then either. I furrowed my brow as a sudden suspicion hit me, ‘Wait, Heat is the next tier does that mean it's going to have a longer cooldown?’. I groaned, god this was going to suck. Magic was supposed to be fun, damnit! If this didn’t work, then maybe I’d just have to wait for Dirt to finish its cooldown and try again with Heat.

Summoning my Wand, I tried to really clearly picture what I wanted. I only had one shot at this and then I’d have to wait for who knows how long, and I didn’t even have a watch to track time before I could even make another attempt. That and I didn’t want another repeat of my attempt with Earth.

I didn’t need anything fancy. Just something I could work with until I could make something better. Simple shapes would probably be best.

With that in mind, I looked around for a good place to try my hand at what I wanted. Yanking a stick off of one of the nearby trees, I began to walk the perimeter of the lake until I found a level area with wet ground. Snapping the stick in four, I set each one into the ground to form a large rectangle. There were several feet in between them, but they were mainly there to help me think.

That pillar I’d risen before came out as a perfect square, exactly as I’d pictured it. The breeze I’d made came out like a twister, exactly as I’d imagined it. The Water and Heat spells had manifested exactly as I’d imagined them. I was hoping that I was seeing a pattern and not just a coincidence. One time too many did that happened back in college, and there was no professor here to point me in the right direction.

Ignoring that thought, I pointed the Wand at a point equidistant from the sticks and took a deep breath. As it filled up with blue and brown energies, twisting into a double helix like before, I began to slowly lift it up.

I almost lost my concentration as I watched the ground lift in concert with my Wand. I didn’t know if I was just imagining the extra weight on the wand as I dragged it higher. Despite the movement, the sticks did not budge. The muddy ground ascended, but not as a pillar like my Earth spell had.

Under my careful ministrations, the two arm-thick slabs of mud raised into the air. Slowly I began to tilt them until they rested against each other. Again, I wasn’t sure if it was all in my head, but the wand felt heavier. I grimaced as I focused harder, trying to thicken the bottom of the slabs. I was honestly shocked the mud hadn’t fallen apart yet, but magic, so…

I focused on the mud and could feel its state, it appeared that it was tightly packed together to such an extent that if I didn’t know otherwise, I might think it was made of stone.

Taking another deep breath, I ‘let go’ of the spell. I wasn’t entirely sure how I knew what to do to make it end, but it was sort of an instinct. Maybe it was like when I was casting the spells, and it was just the visualization and idea of the thing that mattered. A spell only stayed up so long as I willed it to, or something like that. That’s how it worked in anime and games, right?

The next part, I wasn’t actually that sure of what to do. I knew what I wanted to happen, but this was more difficult. Luckily, the muddy structure didn’t seem to fall apart the instant my Wand stopped glowing, so that was a good sign. But… no, it was definitely starting to sag. So I better get this done quickly.

What was once filled with a double helix of brown and blue was soon blazing with a bright red beam of energy. I could feel a warmth coming from the Wand not unlike when I’d used Heat, only this time it felt more concentrated.

Taking a step back from my work, I pointed the Wand at the makeshift tent I was trying to make and visualized the whole thing enveloped in flames. I wasn’t really sure how the whole thing worked, but I knew mud bricks were a thing and you cooked clay to get bricks, so this should work like that, right?

With my mindset and the mental image in place, I let loose the spell and watched as the entire structure was suddenly on fire as if I’d doused every square inch of it in gasoline. At first, everything seemed to be okay.

And then it began to crack and steam.

For the second time today, dirt exploded all over my body. “Goddamn it, I just got clean.” Chunks of dried mud were scattered amongst the grass, but more than large enough to be visible while standing. The four sticks had also been burned up at some point to my growing disappointment.

Sighing, I fell to my back and looked up at the sky. Everything was going so well. What did I do wrong? Maybe it was just too hot. Or maybe I’m going to have to actually make mud bricks properly, instead of taking a shortcut.

“What’s even the point of magic if I can’t take shortcuts?”

I still didn’t know how to make a mud brick.