Basic Spells

The hours passed in the Nether, but Roman couldn't tell the time down here. His only clock was his stomach and his need for sleep. As it turned out, it was much harder to survive here than he first imagined. And he had first imagined it to be very difficult to survive in the Nether. Somehow, it still exceeded his expectations.

After a while, his mouth was completely parched from thirst. Despite his having the Thermal Sustenance skill, it would not help him in regards to his most prominent need; water. And no matter how much Roman tried to calm his rising anxiety about his situation, he had no clue how he was going to find water in a place with a temperature of 350 plus degrees. Even in the game of Minecraft, water was impossible to keep in the Nether; it evaporated.

As a last resort, he would feed his final two unique materials to the key, but if he could find a solution it would be even better. His first thought was to look for a trading piglin and hope that he could negotiate with them to get some water. After all, this wasn't the game of Minecraft, it was now real life for him. His legendary weapon translated languages automatically for him, so he had confidence he could negotiate. But to his dismay, there was no sight of the piglin anywhere nearby for as long as he looked.

Finally, he thought of a solution; water magic. He had picked Water as an affinity during the jump chain document and hopefully, it carried over along with everything else. He hadn't tested his affinity with a magic ball but after the notifications from earlier mentioned a [Fire] and [Solar] affinity he was confident. Since Roman had selected a 'general knowledge' perk on his jump chain sheet, he had basic knowledge about the system and the world put in his head. Including 4 chants for the four basic elements of [Water], [Earth], [Fire], and [Wind].

"Fluid currents, mystic sea, pure and bright, shape the world in liquid light. Create Water!" Roman chanted while concentrating.

"Fluid currents, mystic sea, pure and bright, shape the world in liquid light. Create Water!" 

"Fluid currents, mystic sea, ..."

"Fluid currents, mystic sea, ..." 

Roman continued this same chant for hours, smacking his parched lips in annoyance. Magic shouldn't be so difficult, he knew he was just too stressed to get the magic to cast correctly. He took a deep breath and forced himself to control his breathing. His heartbeat calmed after a few minutes and he tried again. 

"Fluid currents, mystic sea, pure and bright, shape the world in liquid light. Create Water!" 

He felt a slight weakness pass through his body as the mana was spent in the spell. A small amount of water appeared in his cupped hands and dripped onto the hot ground. The water instantly evaporated upon contact with the floor.

*Sizzle* *Sizzle* *Sizzle* *Sizzle*

"Hahaha! YES!" Roman eyes lit up as he instantly downed the water thirstily.

[New spell chant learned: [Create Water LV 1]]

Little did Roman know that learning magic in less than a day was considered abnormally talented back in the world he came from. It required getting a feel for mana that most people could not even grasp, not to mention most people wouldn't be able to relax themselves in the situation he was in. The legendary key's fiat ability was already at work, increasing Roman's natural learning speed by 3 times. What should have taken him a few days, was done in less than 1.

Roman recast his new [Create Water] spell multiple times until his thirst was gone and his mana bar was almost empty. It was concerning that his mana bar wouldn't be able to sustain him with water in here unless he leveled up and increased his mana bar. His priority when leveling up was to increase his mana pool. Out of curiosity, he recalled the basic earth chant he knew of and attempted to remove the Netherrack from the cave wall with the last of his mana.

"Earth's embrace, roots, soil, and stone, take it to hold and roam. Move Earth!"

[New spell chant learned: [Move Earth LV 1]]

A small amount of Netherrack moved slowly from the wall and onto the ground, where Roman directed it. However, the longer he took to move the Netherrack, the more mana it consumed. After a few seconds, his mana pool only had a single point of mana remaining and Roman was breathing heavily.

*Huff* *Huff* 

"It works." Roman smiled tiredly.

With these two spells alone, he could survive here. He was incredibly thankful he didn't pick any other strange magic affinities from the jump chain other than [Space]. They would have been utterly useless to him as there were only chants in his knowledge for the basic elements. 

"Minecraft Steve? Never heard of him." Roman joked.

Roman turned and looked outside of the cave exit in front of him. He realized that for him to progress in this place further, he needed to find a [Warped Forest] biome if he wanted any semblance of comfort in this place. The cave he explored behind him didn't lead to anywhere and was a dead end. He was forced to descend the cliff from where he first arrived and navigate along the lower floor until he found a place where he could settle down.

He gingerly looked over the long fall from the cliff he was on and gulped silently.

"L-let's recover my mana first," Roman muttered to himself.

Roman had a fear of heights just like any other normal human being. Add on to that white-hot lava at the bottom of the possible fall to your death and you get a very frightening challenge. Roman was not a rock climber, but he needed to learn if he was going to continue to survive here.

Roman walked back into his cave and tried to find a comfy position to sleep. He ended up just finding the smoothest area of the Netherrack floor to lie on. He lay flat on his back while staring at the cave ceiling for a while trying to count sheep in his head and sleep. However, half an hour went by and Roman was still awake.

"AHH! I CAN'T EVEN SLEEP!"