Free Web NovelChapter 6: Learning Signs and Casting Magic
Luke rubbed his temples as he stared at his status. The memories gave him a good grasp on what the mana and spells displayed.
But Trust?
Affection?
Milestones?
These were all things foreign to both the original Lucius and the current one.
The system was telling him to gain brownie points with the woman he had just married hours ago and doing so would give rewards. He couldn’t doubt its validity, as the rewards were very much real.
Luke couldn’t think of any useful questions to ask the system. Instead, his gaze drifted toward the books spread across the table.
History of the World, A Complete Guide to Rifts and Monsters, and ASL for Dummies.
With his current memories, he knew sufficiently enough about the world to ignore the first two, but ASL was something he knew nothing about and the system clearly wanted him to make Valeria’s life easier.
Lucius looked down the hallway toward the bedroom where his wife was quietly sleeping and decided to pick up ASL for Dummies.
He opened the book and read through the glossary. There were 20 Chapters, each going over a different topic. The first Chapter covered the history of ASL, while the next explained what motions were commonly used.
While he was reading, another screen appeared in his vision.
[New Task: Learn 10 Words in Sign Language]
[Completion: 0/10]
[Time Limit: 8 Hours]
[Reward: Increased Proficiency in Learned Words]
[Penalty: ASL for Dummies will Spontaneously Immolate]
Luke, already tired, mentally decided to complete the task. His plans before sleeping already consisted of trying to learn some words, so the task was just another reason to study.
How hard could learning sign language be?
Apparently pretty hard.
It took him more than 30 minutes just to properly learn ’yes’ and ’no’. He was sure that he was following the book’s images to a T, yet the system didn’t acknowledge the words as learned.
It took well over a hundred tries before he finally progressed to 2/10, his forearms and fingers burning from the effort.
’Jeez, the system could lighten up on the requirements.’
His eyelids drooped, so he took a small break and got a glass of water from the kitchen.
When he came back, Luke focused his attention on the next two words; Good Morning and Good Night. These signs were even more physically draining, as it required him to use his whole arms, not just his hands.
Fortunately, he seemed to get the hang of the words quickly and it took only 20 minutes for him to fully learn the words.
At this point he finally took off the black suit he was wearing, gently resting it on the back of the couch.
Luke then spent the rest of the time learning the last six words; Hello, Goodbye, Eat, Help, Bathroom, and Understand. He made sure to pick words that would be extremely useful in his daily communication with Valeria.
Overall, the last six words took five hours. It could have been faster if Luke wasn’t drifting off to sleep every few minutes, but there is only so much he can do to combat basic bodily functions.
[Completion: 10/10]
[Click Here to Claim Rewards]
Lucius tapped on the screen and felt a wave of muscle memory flood his body. Ignoring the new screen that appeared, Luke signed every word one after another. Compared to his slightly odd and clunky signing, he was now fluidly moving his limbs between words; he was even able to make simple sentences with his limited vocabulary.
Luke was more than satisfied with his increased dexterity and debated getting some sleep. He wasn’t sure what time it was, but he remembered seeing a wall clock hanging near the front door, so he walked to it.
3:21
The time was not adequate, to say the least. It was Monday, meaning he would have to attend his academy classes in just a few hours.
’I can’t seem to get sleep in two worlds.’ Luke chuckled at his own expense.
’If I’m not going to be able to sleep, I should at least continue my productive streak.’
So, remembering the note his parents left him, Luke decided to check out the training room. He walked back down the hallway, to where the stairs descended, but before heading down, Luke wanted to make sure Valeria was still doing okay.
His footsteps continued down the hallway, reaching the bedroom door, which he cracked open. Inside was Valeria quietly breathing, still as a statue.
Confirming she didn’t need him for the time being, Lucius headed downstairs. At the bottom was a single steel door without a handle. Instead, beside it was a button. If Luke hadn’t gotten the memories from this world, he wouldn’t have tried to touch the button, but now he knew it just activated the spatial enchantment for the training room.
He stretched out a finger which met the cool metal of the button as it pressed inward. It clicked, causing the metal door to retract into the wall.
Inside was a massive space, it looked like a commercial gym with free weights and rows of lifting machines. What sparked his interest instead was that the whole middle section was shaped like a firing range, with human shaped dummies standing at the end.
For a moment he forgot that this world revolves entirely around magic.
Any half decent training room would come with mana dispersing dummies.
This excited Luke as he thought about the magic of the world. His mind replayed scenes of spells that exploded holes larger than any atomic bomb, healing magic capable of attaching limbs back to their owners, and even spells that create beasts that fight for their summoner.
Lucius thought of his own magic. The previous Lucius had already learned the spell Defense Increase, a defensive magic spell that allowed the user to strengthen any object they wished. Unfortunately, it only worked on things like armor and clothes, it couldn’t be used on his body directly.
Even though Luke had the memories of using the spell, he still wanted to feel himself use magic. It was a dream of his since childhood and now he was living it.
He recalled the mana pathways to activate the spell. Bringing mana from his core and forcing it out through his hand, making sure to say, ’Defense Increase’, as the mana touched an object.
Luke closed his eyes, feeling the Mana Core floating between his heart and stomach. Instinctively, he forced mana out of the foreign organ, guiding it up his chest and to the shoulder. The mana seemed to move on its own as it trickled down his arm reaching his hand.
He hadn’t thought of a target, so he used his button-up shirt.
"Defense Increase!" Luke shouted, excitedly.
Instantly the shirt lit up, as mana wrapped around his torso. Within moments a light coating of mana was hugging tightly to his shirt.
In his memories he hadn’t actually seen Lucius test the durability of the armor, so Luke decided he would figure out how much damage it could take.
He raised his hand above his head and slammed it towards the middle of his chest, watching as it collided with the mana.
Shards flew, before disintegrating into the air. The coating of mana had disappeared into thin air at the force of a singular punch.
’What kind of defense is this?’
"The Frost Spike must be better, right?"
The activation for the spell came naturally even though he hadn’t learned it from a spellbook. It was almost exactly the same as the Defense Increase, but required almost a tenth of his mana.
"Frost Spike."
Frost formed at the tip of his finger, as it formed into spike the length of his forearm.
Luke stared down the middle dummy at the end of the range.
He steadied his breathing, lined up the target, and fired.
