Abuse Of Magic

"I have just come back from the forest of the elves. I"ll tell you about it tomorrow. For tonight, I had an idea that I want to try."

He drew a small circle on the ground with just enough points for Stu, Stella, Derek, Stephan, and Tekaun to stand inside his enhanced mana aura. They quickly took their place.

"It won"t feed everyone, but it will certainly feed us tonight."

If the elves saw this, they would totally claim this was an abuse of magic, like the time with the oranges. He wanted to make all the various plants that he loved to eat in his last lives. It didn"t occur to him until his intelligence rose earlier. He had used magic to create oranges for Stella, so why couldn"t he make them all?

They were in an area right outside the gate, as it was the only clear area big enough for what he wanted to do. The circle greatly expanded the range at which he could Sacrifice for mana.

Raising a hand, he killed all of the gra.s.ses for a hundred acres, and drew the mana towards him before he started chain casting.

DECAY. All the dead gra.s.s turned into nutrients in the soil.

CREATE PLANT. Dozens of rows of sprouts appeared.

PLANT GROWTH. PLANT GROWTH. PLANT GROWTH.

He ran out of mana from the gra.s.s and started drawing from his companions, so he had to be careful. Even if the mana was instantly replenished, he still couldn"t take more than half of their mana at any spell. The gra.s.ses and most of the vegetables were done, but the trees still needed more.

PLANT GROWTH. PLANT GROWTH. PLANT GROWTH

Taking a breath, he wasn"t sure if the next spell would work.

PREPARE GAME. All the vegetables and fruits, and gra.s.ses were separated into piles. The whole field was harvested!

(FOOD AND PLANT ARE SURPRISED. PREPARE GAME HAS NEVER BEEN USED TO HARVEST A FIELD BEFORE.)

(37 LOST SPECIES HAVE BEEN RESTORED.)

(112 NEW SPECIES HAVE BEEN CREATED IN THE REALM.)

(HELENA THE G.o.dDESS OF MOTHERS, PROTECTOR OF THE HOME, AND KEEPER OF THE HEARTH, HAS TAKEN NOTICE OF YOUR ACTIONS.)

(YVETTE, THE G.o.dDESS OF HERBS AND GARDENING, HAS SHOWN GREAT INTEREST IN YOUR ACTIONS.)

(URINA, G.o.dDESS OF COOKING, AND HER HUSBAND, BEARUS, G.o.d OF HUNTING, HAVE SHOWN INTEREST IN YOUR ACTIONS.)

All the seeds were divided by plant type and everything was already chopped up. If they wanted this in time for dinner, he would have to hurry. Stu was about to cry, seeing the piles of ingredients, but Joseph warned him they were short on time.

Realization bloomed on his face, as Stu immediately jumped into action. Stu wouldn"t miss this chance if he had to crawl out of a hospital bed.

Stella chipped in a bit.

"Boil that, bake that, this goes in the soup with the goat meat, that needs to be rubbed on the pork roast before you grill it. That, you can eat raw, just peel it."

William and Joseph"s mom arrived shortly, with even more cooks and it became a feast.

As Joseph was finally able to sit down with his parents and Stella in their dining hall, his mom turned to him.

"So, Joseph, how did everything go?"

William sighed, "As honestly as you can, Joseph, or your mother will know."

She nodded as she looked at him.

"Well. We saw the elven queen naked, so we got banished from the forest."

William squirted his drink out of his nose. His mother looked shocked. Joseph quickly continued before they could recover.

"We teleported into the delivery room, past the elven guards, because I woke up when I could feel the little princess crying out. A magic rune was killing her."

"What?" asked his mother faintly.

Joseph turned to look at Stella, who was leaning on one elbow.

"Oh, no. Don"t look at me. I"m looking forward to this," she said.

"The barrier around the elven forest blocks mana from getting in, so the elves are slowly dying as their mana is drained into maintaining the barrier. As magical creatures, the constant low mana causes issues with all of them, but mostly causes stillbirths and miscarriages. They have a rune in their capital that gathers mana there, which allows the women to carry the babies to term, but the spell is in the castle. The queen was so close, the mana was being drained out of the babies."

William interrupted, "New babies?"

"Yes, a new elven prince and princess were born. When we arrived, they were both blue and not breathing."

His mom covered her mouth in horror, obviously upset.

"What did you do?" she whispered.

"I…rebuilt them?"

"What?" asked both of his parents.

"The rune was so strong that it didn"t just drain the mana out of them, it wiped out whole sections of their mana pathways and distorted other sections. So, I rebuilt them magically, using some of Stella"s circuits as guidelines, and some intuition of what felt right. The magic barrier around the kingdom draws power from the royal family, but with mana being depleted, it drains their life force instead of their magic. So, I broke the children"s link to the barrier to prevent it from eating them too.

"That was actually a very carefully laid trap that almost killed me, even as I was successful in saving the babies. They aren"t really elves anymore, they are something else now, but they are alive."

"Wait, you almost died?" asked his dad, and his mother leaned forward to hear his response. All their food was getting cold, but none of them seemed to care.

"Yes, the barrier decided I was dangerous and wanted to murder me, so Stella grabbed me and ran all night to get me out of the elven forest. I woke up outside the forest and rested for a couple of days before I teleported back this morning."

"And you didn"t think you needed to tell us you almost died before you what..? started cooking dinner?" exclaimed his mother, horrified.

"The danger had already past. I figured we would talk at dinner anyway. Also, I need to go to the gnomes. I hope to find the trick to breaking the elven barrier without killing the king from them. And the elf queen had a hard delivery so she thinks I was trying to a.s.sault the children instead of save them. That"s another reason I"m banished from the forest until I can fix the barrier issue and save the elves trapped inside.

"Stella did you cook this? It"s amazing."

"Yes, Master Joseph."

"Oh, and Stella may have been…enthusiastic in getting me out of the forest so some of the elven guards may, or may not have been, um…cough…killed, as we left. Oh, they also know she is actually an ancient fey and not a human. They thought they were all dead already."

"Oh…my…goodness…" said his mother. She was completely overwhelmed.

Joseph calmly reached for his drink while she sat back and tried to process.

After supper, there was a large gathering of all the people Joseph thought of as friends and allies. There were also a dozen people William considered close advisors. Tekaun, Chug, Daniel, Stephan, Derek, and Becky were all there. It was wonderful to have friends.

It was several hours before everyone was ready to go to bed. They talked about a ton of things, from how the barbariansnorthernerssoutherners, were doing, to the progress each were making in magic, to what his plans to study next were.

Joseph told them about the requirements to earn the basic, intermediate, and advanced mage t.i.tles. Stephan and Derek could go to the magical world whenever they wished, but Joseph was the only one who could bring others with him still. His plan was to get several protection spells, for in the future, and then keep up with the elements. He was hoping to discover other t.i.tles as he went, like elementalist, or something.

Stu came in and shouted, "Master Joseph, you"re a G.o.d! I"ve never seen so many dishes in all my life!"

Joseph laughed, then said, "No I"m not, Stu. Not yet."

He meant it as a joke, but everyone in the room got really quiet.

(PLEASE DON"T JOKE ABOUT THAT. PLEASE.)