Abuse of Magic

Chapter 144: Almost Voiding a Warranty

After the last of the mages left, Joseph left the cleanup to the workers and headed out to check on all of the children who wished to learn magic. Pausing after a few steps, he changed direction and headed towards the nearest farmers. There were things he wanted to do with them first. Stella didn't comment, just changed direction right along with him.

"Stella, did you prepare a picnic basket?"

"It's already ready, already, Joseph," she said with a smile.

Shaking his head, he decided he deserved that. He had picked on her one time with a tongue twister in Elder Irohan, and she still hadn't forgotten it.

"How do you do the voodoo that you do, Lady Stella?"

"Hey! You said you wouldn't call me bad words, like lady."

"Ah, you're right, of course. Huntress Stella."

"What is your wish, Joseph?"

"Your lovely picnic basket," he said, and they both broke out laughing.

Everyone was looking at them rather peculiarly, as they had been switching between a dozen different languages to make it all rhyme, and none of them were from this realm. After nine years, trapped in the bubble together, their number of inside jokes had gotten ridiculous.

Turning to one of the ranch hands, when they finally reached the fields, he said, "Ok, you are going to get some new animals. Run and fetch whoever is in charge, so they can be here for my explanation."

The man nodded, leaning his pitchfork against the wall, and ran off, shouting for someone. Several minutes later, five men had arrived, all out of breath, and Joseph started again.

"I'm going to give you some new animals today. For the most part, they are similar to the animals you have been raising, but they will be more impressive. I need 30 sheep for wool over there, and 30 for meat and milk over there. I need 30 horses for farm work in that pen, and 30 for long distance over there. I need 30 meat cows over there, and 30 dairy cows over therepigschickensrabbits"

The entire morning was spent separating out the animals he wanted. Everyone was exhausted by the time lunch rolled around. Stella pulled out her picnic basket, which freaked everyone out, then proceeded to hand out sandwiches on paper plates. The workers were amazed at the quality of the bread, a far cry from the hard loaves they were used to, and the thinness of the meat slices and cheeses. She only had to tell one of them that the paper plates were not to be eaten, but otherwise it was quite satisfying.

"Let's get started."

PERMANENT SHAPESHIFTING.

After casting that a lot of times, one of the rancher's muttered, "Master Josephhow, what?"

Stella laughed. "He has seen many different types of animals and decided to bring them here through magic. These are only the best of those he saw."

"I am changing these, back into animals lost to this world, to help heal the world," Joseph said, after looking over his handywork.

He hated lying to them, because it meant he would have to remember what he had told them, but the truth, that they came from previous lives, would have been too difficult to explain. The cows were actually ridiculously genetically engineered, from a colony planet. They ate practically anything and matured within a year. But trying to explain all of that would make them sound like magical creatures and he couldn't turn non-magical beasts into magical beasts. He could only change one kind of magical creature to another type.

"These creatures will return to their former kind after death, so try and keep them healthy. Their offspring will stay as these new types though. I hope to have a large supply of breeding stock out of all of these by this time next year."

(YOUR SUBJECT'S AWE AND FEAR OF YOU HAVE INCREASED.)

The next morning, he had all of the children aged 3-11 gather, regardless of possessing magery or not. He still couldn't decide if he wanted his entire kingdom to stop being human in order for everyone to have magery or not. He did know that he wanted every citizen to have knowledge of magic so there would be less fear. This was what he had invented a new rune for. He had managed to tame down a dozen spells to work with it as a beginning rune for diverse mages. As the children gathered, they looked at the amplification runes he had already drawn, curiously.

GREAT VOICE.

Thousands of children had gathered. Everyone would hear him as if he was standing right next to them. The kids' reactions were fantastic, and it really cheered him up as they oohed and ahhed over the way he was floating in the air. Several laughed as he made his mana visible and flew small bird shapes through the air. The adults were a little freaked out, but that was because his eyes were glowing blue and gold. As the last child was put in place, he had the birds dive bomb into the circuits under their feet, lighting up the entire area with the runes he was injecting with mana.

TELEPATHY.

Normally this spell would only target a single person at a time, and even with the mana control he had, modifying it to an area spell, he couldn't grab more than a dozen per casting. But he had taken hours to draw these runes in order to expand the ability to reach every person he could see. And, as long as he stayed in the center, his mana enhancer was also distributed, though greatly weakened, to the entire area.

Every child and person in the area was now connected with his thoughts. This would allow his communication to them to be at the speed of thought. Since his time magic penalty was in effect, this was the best he could do.

(ENACRA IS PAYING CLOSE ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU ARE DOING.)

(COMMUNICATION AND MIND CONTROL ARE OBSERVING YOU.)

(JUDGE IS MONITORING YOUR ACTIONS.)

(WHAT ARE YOU DOING JOSEPH? I'M PRETTY SURE THIS IS GOING TO VOID MY WARRANTY.)

Inventing a rune is never a simple matter. The runes govern things that have always existed. No rune can be made from nothing. Origin words have always existed. That is why they are powerful. Inventing LIFE was about finding a word that has always existed but never been spoken.

LIFE.

He spoke the word softly and the world went white.

(F23F4 SDFGO A4636FSDL43G3 ASSKFJOA0 DFGDLC. JOSEPH ASFKLI. JOSEPH.)

'Yes, system? Are you better now?'

(WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?)

'I think you probably have a few messages for me, don't you?' he asked with a smile, as the light slowly faded.

(DO YOU KNOW HOW INSANE WHAT YOU JUST DID WAS? THAT WAS THE MOST ABSURD THING ANYONE HAS EVERY DONE TO MY CURRENT VERSION! YOU SPOKE A NEW RUNE WHILE IN TELEPATHIC COMMUNION WITH OVER A THOUSAND PEOPLE!)

'And the result?'

There was a long pause, and for a moment, he wondered if the system would refuse to talk with him.

(FINE.)

(FOR SPEAKING A RUNE FOR THE FIRST TIME, IN ANY REALM, YOU ARE AWARDED 30 LIFE POINTS.)

(ENACRA HAS BLESSED THE FIRST HEARERS OF THE RUNE AND GRANTED THEM UNDERSTANDING OF ALL SPELLS OF THE RUNE AT BASIC UNDERSTANDING: PURIFY AIR, CALM ANIMAL, REFLEXES, SENSE EMOTION, SHAPE EARTH, IGNITE FIRE, PREPARE GAME, MINOR HEALING, COMPLEX ILLUSION, DETECT MAGIC, CONTINUAL LIGHT, CLEAN, KEEN VISION, LIGHTEN BURDEN, SENSE SPIRIT, IDENTIFY PLANT, SENSE DANGER, SILENCE, CREATE WATER, PREDICT WEATHER.)

'Thanks, system. Have I told you, you're awesome lately?'

(ACTUALLY, YOU'VE NEVER SAID THAT.)

(I WOULD LIKE TO KEEP OUR RELATIONSHIP STRICTLY PROFESSIONAL IF YOU DON'T MIND.)

'Then when can I expect life points from my king side instead of just my mage side?'

(ALL LIFE POINTS SO FAR HAVE BEEN AWARDED FOR BEING THE MAGE OF MAGE KING. YOU WOULD NEED A CROWN AND A DOMAIN BEFORE YOU CAN EARN LIFE POINTS FROM KING TASKS.)