8 Sword

10th day.

Vin has finally adjusted to the 24-hour body clock.

By using invocations (Invoke) and incantations (Cast), they mixed dirt with water to create clay, using earth magic to form walls and flames to harden the clay.

Their cave dwelling is now a 50sqm space with two bedrooms, two workshops, and a bathroom. Outside the cave, they practiced their destructive spells. Burnt trees and craters are scattered around the area, leaving a devastating look.

This was made as a deterrent to show that a battle already happened in the place. If there's anything in the area surrounding that's exploitable, it's already ransacked.

Vin and Nathan weren't sure of how effective their set-up was like, but it was better than nothing, they reasoned.

Without the necessary technology, they still couldn't make amenities close to the modern era, such as bathrooms and foams. For now, body waste is dug down with magic, while bundled leaves currently replace beds.

For heating, they carved a fireplace and a vent that forks around five different points in the cliff to avoid getting pinned down by passersby.

Furniture made of carved clay and wood is made. For one, the distinct lack of metal and glass gave their cave-dwelling a very earthy feeling as if they were very close to nature.

In Vin's workshop, a disheveled man with unkempt hair is sitting in front of a desk. Two branches of wood as thick as an arm and around a meter and a half long are stacked on the top. Green and Aqua circles are hovering above his palms. Then he clenched his fist except for the index finger. The green and aqua circle merged, and a blue-green circle converged at the tip of his finger. From the ring, a .5mm beam of water jetted.

With the beam, Vin began to carve the branches.

Half an hour later, two rough-looking longswords are resting on the table. The entire carving cost Vin a total of 67% of his mana.

"This really is inefficient." Vin thought.

Over the three days, Vin's mana capacity has improved. Five days ago, his mana only enabled him to use the water beam spell continuously for 5 minutes before he drops to the critical zone of 10%. Now he could go for as long as 53 minutes on average, that is, if he maintains the beam at a stable length of 3 inches.

Whether the speed of his improvement is fast or slow? At this point, no one could tell.

Staring at his barely passable craftsmanship, a smile crept on to Vin's face.

After recovering his mana, he stood up and carried the swords with him.

Nathan's Workshop.

Four overlapping mana circles are laid on the floor. At the point of intersection, Nathan is sitting with his eyes closed. On his forehead, beads of sweat and wisp of blue smoke are trickling.

Over the last three days, Nathan began to focus on recovering his lost memory, where he realized that being surrounded by mana increases his mental capabilities.

He already recalled everything prior to his burst of courage. He's aware that there's more to the memory that he hasn't passed out yet, but he couldn't recover what happens after his breakdown.

After dipping to the critical zone, Nathan releases all his spells. And with a deep sigh, frustration covered his face.

Seeing that Nathan is done, Vin knocked on a wooden plate that is hanged on the wall beside the entrance.

"You okay?" Vin inquired.

"Still nothing," Nathan answered, disappointment evident on his tone.

"That's fine, you'll recall it soon enough." Vin encouraged.

"Thanks," Nathan replied with a smile.

"I got you something," Vin said as he brought out two swords he was hiding behind his back with a shadow spell.

Nathan had his eyes full as he saw the swords. "Holy shit!" he exclaimed in surprise.

Vin pointed one of the swords to Nathan's face, "Nathan, are you willing to be my knight?"

Happy with the sword, Nathan complied, "Yes, your majesty." he replied as he kneeled and bowed.

Acting an accolade, Vin placed the sword in Nathan's shoulders then his head and said, "Rise, my knight."

Nathan stood up with a poker face. He raised both his hands in a receiving gesture. "Thank you, your majesty," he spoke in a stern tone.

Nathan and Vin's face began to contort as they try to hold their laughter. With a cough, Vin placed the other sword to Nathan's hands with a broken, cold look.

Once Nathan got hold of the sword, he slashed it towards Vin and shouted: "This is treason, bitch!"

Vin, already expecting the turn of events, laughed and parried the slash.

Two grown men began to play swords like children. 10 days aren't enough to come over their modern-day childishness and geekiness.

In their playing, Nathan walked backward and shouted, "With my master sword, I shall cut your evil!. Blue smoke exuded out of his hand and covered the blade part of the wooden sword.

Vin stared stupidly at the scene.

Nathan, unaware of what he has done, slashed in the air. A blue crescent beam shot out towards Vin.

In a panic, Vin invoked a spell of earth to block the beam. A wall of rock raised from the ground and blocked the beam.

When the beam hit the wall, a dent of 2 inches appeared, Nathan stared dumbly to what he has done while Vin had his face covered by his arms.

Vin opened his eyes to see the result, he was safe and sighed in relief.

Nathan stared dumbly at his sword then at the dent in the well. Realization struck him and said: "Shit! I didn't mean to do that!"

With Nathan's words, Vin returned back to himself and nodded at Nathan. His focus was stuck on the sword in Nathan's hands.

"Did I just made a wooden master sword?" he thought as enthusiasm overcame his reason.

"Did you just make a wooden master sword?" Nathan asked, clearly having the same line of thoughts as Vin.

"I uh..." Vin hesitated, then his reason came back. "No, I think you invoked a spell to your sword, I saw it getting covered by blue smoke," he concluded.

"Sword... spells?" Nathan spoke in a hush. He stared at the sword in his hands with a glint in his eyes. Suddenly, blue smoke came out of his hands and into the sword. Then he lifted the sword atop his head.

Nathan pointed his sword towards an empty wall and released his spell, a blue beam shot out from the tip of the sword.

The beam continuously fired. Slowly, the beam shortened, and the edge stopped cutting the wall. Once the length was less than an inch, the beam began to contour towards the blade, giving it a sharper edge.

"When the beam was cutting the wall, my mana drained rapidly. When it got shorter, the mana consumption reduced drastically and became constant." Nathan discussed.

"Is the consumption rate equal to the volume of the beam?" Vin asked as he took a wooden slab in Nathan's desk. Using a water beam spell, he began to write out the information in the piece.

"That's what it felt like," Nathan answered.

Suddenly, grey smoke began to come out of the wooden sword. The wood wasn't turning into ash, but instead, it was shrinking without any chemical reaction.

At the sight of the decaying sword. Vin let out a sigh and kept writing remarks about the situation.

Nathan continued: "When the mana perfectly contoured the blade, my mana stopped decreasing. I think it began to circulate around the edge, which stopped the mana decay. The wood, however, is too weak to hold this kind of mana, and it's currently being cut the same way that the wall did."

Before the sword was wholly gone, Nathan cast an earth spell to create a 120x120cm of earth pillar from the ground, then he slashed it with the mana covered sword.

Completing the slash, Nathan kneeled as he felt weak. The sword in his hand disappeared entirely, and the pillar was only cut half.

Nathan was already low in mana after doing the beam, and when he tried to cut the pillar, his mana dropped to 6%.

Vin placed down his wooden slab and reached Nathan to assist him. "You okay?" He asked.

"I'm okay, slicing took out quite a lot of mana from me, good thing that before my mana depleted the sword disappeared," Nathan replied, tiredness evident in his voice.

"Seems like compared to the water beam, this pure mana beam cuts things cleaner," Vin added.

"That seems to be the case," Nathan concluded. "I'll go rest for a while."

Vin nodded and stood up, he took the wooden slab and left.

Nathan looked down on his hands as he contemplated what happened.

Out of nowhere, Nathan began to feel hot. His meager amount of mana began to boil as it rapidly multiplied.

Once Nathan entered void state. A click resounded in his mind.