Chapter 52: Chapter 51 – Energy Control

Luna couldn't help but cheer. She had been trying harder and harder for a long time, not doing anything more than tickling that piece of metal. It had made her pretty frustrated, but now she finally got some results.

"Nice. Now you just gotta get proficient at that. Start pushing the limits of your mana control. Experiment with different ways of throwing your lances. Maybe start using different weapons. You can take a break from this and practice forming your ice." (Dream)

"Ok. Have you finished your forging?" (Luna)

"Not yet. It just has to cook a bit."

"...Oh."

"You know what, maybe we should all practice together. I have elemental magic too that I haven't used. Let's sit."

Dream summoned chairs for the three to sit in. 

"What should I practice?" (Iris)

"Hmm... I want you to make shapes with your fire."

"Shapes? Why shapes? Why not just practice making my fire hotter or something?"

"Because you need to learn to control your fire. The way to level up your skill is through practicing manipulation. So here's your goal, I want you to make a ring of fire. Just a simple ring."

"...I'll try."

Iris began messing with her flames. Luna also began creating various weapons with her ice. Dream let them be and pondered. 

'Alright, so I have the four elements. Let's try water.'

Dream concentrated and began manipulating his mana. Since he hasn't had any skills like this before, he was rather unaccustomed to it. But he quickly learned how he needed to go about it. 

Since he didn't have a high-level skill like Luna that was borderline creation, he had to draw water from a source. For this, he decided to go the hard route and pull it from the atmosphere.

He actually began incorporating air magic for this, he began to create a light breeze, circulating the air around his hand and capturing the moisture. After a short bit, he had a ball of pure H2O above his palm. 

<[Basic Air Magic] has leveled up!> 

<[Basic Air Magic] has leveled up!> 

<[Basic Air Magic] has...>

<[Water Magic] has leveled up!>

<[Water Magic] has leveled up!>

<[Water Magic] has leveled up!>

Dream watched as notifications popped up in his eyes. His air magic leveled up 8 times while his water magic leveled up 3 times.

'Huh, this isn't so bad. It just involves guiding this mana around. Since I'm trying to capture the water, it's almost like the magic does it for me.'

[That's the intent we talked about. Your water magic allowed you to take control of liquids and wanting to do that, along with understanding it, made it easy to grab water.]

'Indeed. Moving the air wasn't as difficult as I imagined either. Now, how about some Earth...'

Dream summoned out some fertilizer and dumped it on the floor. The girls looked at him weirdly but realized as soon as he began controlling it.

The pile of fertilizer rose up and became a wall. It then gradually began to harden and compress, until it could stand on its own.

'That wasn't too difficult either. A bit easier than water. Probably because it's not formless like water, it requires less thinking. But it does take more mana to control since it doesn't want to break structure.'

Dream kept playing with the dirt. He made a cube, a ball, a diamond, a hand. He used the hand to wave to the girls, which garnered giggles. 

<[Basic Earth Magic] has leveled up!>

<[Basic Earth Magic] has leveled up!>

<[Basic Earth Magic] has...>

The result of playing around earned him 8 levels. Dream nodded in approval. He then moved on to his last element.

'Fire will be difficult. I don't think I have control over heat like Scarlet.'

[You sort of do. You're right about it not being anywhere close to Iris, but your ability to produce heat is there. It's like we found out before. There are three ingredients, fuel, oxygen, and heat. The mana is the fuel, while the heat comes from your ability.]

'Hmm...'

Dream went into thought and began tampering with his mana. He put mana around his hand, then began to heat it. Or so he tried. But nothing happened. He felt no heat on his hand, and nothing happened visibly. Irritated, he tried a million things for about 15 minutes before huffing in frustration.

Iris saw his weird face and spoke.

"What happened?"

"Well, I can't seem to make fire magic. No matter what I do, the mana won't heat up. I'm starting to question whether I have the skill."

"Heh, you suck at fire magic."

"Shaddap... Maybe I'll try something else."

Dream huffed at Iris and paid attention to his mana. He tried to visualize everything in his head.

'Heat is the movement of energy. But unless I can transfer energy from another source, I won't be able to heat my mana. That breaks the laws of thermodynamics since energy cannot be created or destroyed.'

[But we're talking about mana and souls here. Your 'energy' is now intent. Like telling the mana to do something.]

'I understand that. So even if I know that I can now create 'energy', I still have the problem of the fact that mana has no substance which would let me transfer its energy to another substance. That's what heat is.'

[But mana can affect substances even if it has no substance.]

'*sigh* Well, how does Scarlet use mana as a fuel for fire if it has no substance? By all logic, it shouldn't be possible.'

[Even I haven't figured that out. Right now all we can do is attribute it to her innate talents or whatever. Either way, you still have the problem of not being able to create fire or burn mana. So how do you plan on fixing that?]

'...I'll have to do something more elementary. You said that I can basically create energy by affecting matter with mana. So let's do that then. Let's create some Joules.'

Dream stood up and grabbed a chunk of iron from the box. He then began soaking it with his mana. 

When he began filling the chunk with his mana, he was able to attain more awareness over the chunk. He kept filling it more and more, not stopping until 95% of his mana was inside. 

Dream disregarded his tiredness from lack of mana and concentrated on the chunk. He needed to produce joules. He needed to produce energy. The first thing he thought of was vibration. But it wasn't as simple as shaking the chunk around. No, he needed to produce movement on an atomic level. But something that precise wasn't something he could do by himself. 

'I won't be able to do this without you, Sophia. Sorry.'

[Don't say sorry and let me help. I don't like it when you don't ask for help. I feel left out.]

'Thanks. You know what I'm trying to do.'

[Of course. I've already been working on it. Producing energy on an atomic scale will require a large amount of awareness. Luckily, you've already filled that chunk with your mana, giving us a good look at the molecular structure. This lets us target those atoms with our mana and vibrate them, producing energy. This will use a bit of Earth magic, but primarily your soul's Will to create the energy.]

'Then let's do that.'

Dream gave her the green light. Immediately after, he felt energy being drained from him. Although it was only a bit, he could already feel a bit of fatigue coming on. This was the result of his soul being directly used instead of through magic. 

At the same time, he could feel the chunk getting warmer. Sophia began tracking the temperature of it.

[90 degrees, 170 degrees, 250 degrees]

After a minute or so, the chunk's temperature rose to nearly 300 degrees. The interesting thing was that Dream never had to put down the hot metal. This was because Sophia was keeping the thermal vibration, aka temperature, of the molecules isolated within the chunk. It couldn't transfer the heat to another source unless she wanted it to.

After a bit longer, the chunk began to glow red. The temperature it reached was nearly 1700 degrees at this point. Dream's fatigue hadn't risen by much though. But when he thought about it, it made sense. Iris could even melt metal without getting that tired, not to mention getting it to this temperature.

It was when the chunk reached 2400 degrees that Dream started to form it. He didn't use a hammer but instead used Earth magic in an attempt to shape it. 

When he tried it though, he found it was much tougher to shape than dirt or stone, which was obvious. Though nothing he couldn't handle.

The chunk gradually took shape. Since it was saturated with his mana, he could 'see' every surface of it all at once, making it easy to design whatever he wanted. 

He decided to shape it into a cube. Its edges were so precise and perfect, that he could probably slice his finger on them. With Sophia's help, he could form it down to the molecule. He was almost sure that there was no more perfect cube on Earth.

'It's the Allspa-'

<[Basic Earth Magic] has leveled up!>

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<[Basic Earth Magic] has leveled up!>

<[Basic Earth Magic] has leveled up!>

<[Basic Earth Magic] has leveled up!>

<[Basic Earth Magic] has leveled up!>

<[Basic Earth Magic] has leve-->

<[Basic Earth Magic] has evolved to: [Solid-State Magic]>

<[Solid-State Magic] is level 23!>

<You have earned the Passive Skill: [Thermal Fluctuation]>

<[Thermal Fluctuation] is level 11!>`

<[Regenerate] is level 27!>

<Congragulations! You have earned one of the 11 Energy control skills as a First Class! This Achievement will be reflected in a Title.>

<You have earned the Title: [------]!>

Dream watched the sudden stream of text in his vision. When it ended, he tilted his head.

'...Why the hell did regeneration level up?'

[That's what you're curious about? It was a result of thermal fluctuation. Regenerate is about returning the body to its optimal state, which includes any excess heat.]

'Huh, nice. Though I'm also wondering about that title. And what does it mean, 11 energy control skills?'

[It must mean that there are skills that allow you to control/ create the 11 primary types of energy. They are mechanical energy, thermal energy, radiant energy, electric, magnetic, nuclear, chemical, ionic, chromodynamic, acoustic, and gravitational. There are other subcategories, but those are the main 11. So it looks like you have quite a ways to go before getting all 11.]

'I guess so. Being able to create nuclear energy? I'd have to become a god to do something like that! Not to mention gravitational or mechanical energy...'

Dream rubbed his head while slowly moving the yellow hot metal through his fingers like putty. The girls, who had been watching him this entire time, got curious.

"Dream? How are you doing that?" (Iris)

"The metal? Well, I just got a couple of skills. One lets me control solids, while the other lets me control temperature. It's rather cool if I do say so myself."

"Rather cool? That's ridiculous! I mean, it's not fire magic, but controlling temperature? That's not normal. And what do you mean, control solids?" (Iris)

"It means exactly that. This metal? I'm controlling it with that magic."

"..."

Both Iris and Luna looked at him with dumbfounded faces.

"...Why aren't you more excited about that?" (Iris)

"Because Earth magic was already a control solids skill. It's just a different name for Earth magic honestly. I really only got one skill, which was the passive skill that lets me control temperature. And I am excited, but I'm not gonna jump for joy about it."

"*sigh* Whatever."

"How about you guys? I was too concentrated earl-"

"I can't make a ring! It's too hard! I can make a ball. I can make a line even. But a ring? Nu-uh. Not doing it. My head hurts."

Dream recoiled at Iris' sudden outburst. When she finished, he tried to console her.

"Now now, this stuff takes time. Try making multiple lines, then connecting them in a square. That should be easier. Then you can try curving them later. What about you, Luna?"

Dream turned to Luna, who decided to show him the fruits of her effort.

She held up a sword and spear. The sword looked like a gladius sword, and the spear looked like the sword just with a long handle.

"Nice work."

"Thanks. Sophia told me about all the different kinds of weapons. She told me I should be able to fight long, and short-ranged enemies. I can fight ranged with my lances, but I just don't know which one, spear or sword, I should use in close combat."

"Why not both? Use the spear to keep distance from the enemy, and if they get close, pull out the sword. If you add a shield, you'll be a... a uhh..."

[Gladiatrix.]

"Yes, a gladiatrix. That'd be badass."

"Hmm... I guess I could try both."

"And if you don't like one, then don't use it. Though being proficient in multiple weapons is best. People who refuse to learn other masteries because they think only one is best are idiots. If you can learn both, then your survivability will be higher."

Luna thought about it and nodded. For someone such as her who could create any weapon she wanted, if she could use 100 different weapons and her opponent could only use one, she would have many more ways to take down her enemy and be the most likely to win. Unlike the enemy who only had one style of fighting and therefore much fewer options to use.

*Ting!*

"Already?"

Dream stood up and walked to the toaster oven, which had just finished cooking his knife. He took it out with his bare hands, since he could.

"Can we cool this off?"

[We can.]

Dream began using his new passive skill. The knife gradually cooled. When it got to room temperature, he heat it right back up. As he did, Sophia began reshaping the knife, refining it even further as well as strengthening the molecular structure. 

After squatting by the toaster oven for 20 minutes, Dream stood back up and took a look at the knife.

"One hell of a weapon for my first forge. Though we kinda cheated at the end, but whatever. I wonder how well it cuts."

Dream brought the tip of the blade to his palm, nicking it. He didn't even put force into it. Just placing the blade on the skin could cut it open. Though the cut was quickly healed under the effects of Regenerate.

"I like it."

"Can I see?"

Iris walked over, curious about it. Dream handed her the knife.

"It's nice."

"It's alright. You can keep it. I'll probably make another."

"Ok!"

Iris happily put the knife in her inventory.

At about this time, the two dads walked in from the other room.

"You guys destroying my forging room?" (Graff)

"Of course. Are you ready for another round of knowledge?"

"Pretty much. Things are starting to come together more and more with every batch."

"Ok. Let's do that and I think I'll head back up afterward. I'm tired."

"I'll go with you." (Iris)

"I think I will too." (Luna)

Everyone walked out to the main room and Dream imparted more knowledge to the dads like the USB stick he was. He then head up back to his room for a nice power nap.

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