Chapter 81 - Null-Magic

Erick and I had been on the road for a few days, and if you were thinking that the fact that we were travelling via carriage this time made the journey relaxing, or comfortable, you would be completely wrong.

The roads were terrible.

And the carriage didn’t have what we on Earth would call a suspension.

Every bump we hit felt like we had gone over an entire mountain.

Even though the seats were pretty plush, it still felt like I was sitting on solid wood after about an hour of that punishment.

I swear after a few hours it felt like my kidneys were going to start malfunctioning.

I spent most of my time in the carriage chatting away with Erick, or practicing control over my magic.

Between the bumps and jumps, and all round jostling of the carriage over what felt like each and every meter we travelled, I had gained very good experience with controlling my spells. I mean if every moment was suffering, and you could still keep a clear image of a spell in your head, and cast it too, then you’ve definitely made progress.

Apparently it had only been me suffering like that, because Erick was sleeping like a log on the seat across from me.

On my hand a small human figure was dancing around, the only thing that stood out about this figure was the fact that it was entirely made of fire.

My limited ability to sleep in the carriage had made it possible for me to now be able to create those little dancing figures with all of the elements I could control, although creating a little shadow figure that danced around didn’t really look all that... impressive.

I had spent hours practicing with each and every element I could control, except of course null-magic.

Since I had started to use magic, I had never really spent any time on practicing null magic, the only variation of null-magic that I even consistently used was my storage spell.

Which is why I decided at that very moment that I would change that.

Although I had absolutely no idea where to start, elemental magic was easy to control, you literally just had to imagine what you wanted to create out of that element, and then pour the perfect amount of magic power into it, and viola you had your spell, if you could be even more specific with your visualisation during the spell, the stronger the effects would be.

For example, if you could visualise the different particles that would create your spell, and the ratios and consistency of said particles, then you could empower your spell to a completely different level.

But with null-magic it was a bit harder, I had absolutely no guidelines I could follow.

I didn’t even really know what I could do with it.

All anyone had ever been able to tell me about it was that all magic that was not of an elemental nature was considered null-magic.

Which, as you can probably guess, isn’t helpful, at all .

But oh well, I had time, so I figured I might as well do some experimentation.

I held a pebble in my hand, and focused deeply, or as deeply as I could with all that damn jostling going around.

Seriously, that bastard Duke Charles could’ve at least spent some money on those shitty roads of his.

Anyway, I focused on the pebble in my hand, and visualised a bubble around it, a bubble in which gravity would have no effect.

And lo and behold the pebble started to float in my hand.

The thing that was even more interesting about the entire spell was that it was only the initial action that drained any magic power. As soon as the spell was cast and the bubble of anti-gravity surrounded the pebble, the drainage of my magic power stopped completely. And yet the anti-gravity field stayed in place.

I couldn’t help a massive smile from appearing on my face, because if my suspicions were correct, then it meant that null-magic basically meant that anything I could imagine, and had enough magic power to create, could become reality.

"Now that’s magic," I muttered with my smile widening even more.

My thoughts and excitement were interrupted however by Erick’s incessant snoring.

I swear the man could probably shake an entire inn with the vibrations his snoring made.

This led to my thoughts drifting to my lovely wives again, and the extremely cute snores they had. I swear it sounded like two small kittens purring in my arms sometimes.

As my thoughts drifted around my beautiful wives, an idea that I had thought impossible previously, formed again.

I looked over at the open mouthed Erick again, the smile on my face widening even more.

I reached out to my storage space, and pulled out a water bottle.

I spent a few moments trying to calm my mind and excitement down, visualising a portal that would lead from me to Erick, or to be more precise only a small portal that would fold the space between me and Erick’s open mouth.

At first nothing happened, I could only feel my magic power being drained, but in the next moment an iridescent portal almost exactly like my storage portal opened in front of me, and exactly in front of Erick’s open mouth.

I couldn’t help myself from letting out small, very controlled, bursts of snorting laughter.

I mean come on, I was excited. Not only had I figured out a sort of teleportation spell, but I could already imagine Erick’s reaction.

I opened up the lid of the water bottle, and poured it into the small portal that had opened up on my side.

And there it was, falling out of the other side, directly into Erick’s open loudly snoring mouth.

I didn’t overdo it though, I only wanted to wake him up after all, not drown him.

The moment the water started to pour down Erick’s throat he startled awake, and had one massive coughing fit.

Now of course, I acted as if I had nothing to do with any of this.

I didn’t burst out laughing like the most guilty person there at all.

After his long drawn out, and completely overreacting, coughing fit where water streamed out of his nose, and some tears had started to drip down his cheeks, Erick gave me his ultimate death-glare.

"What the hell?!" He yelled.

Okay so maybe it wasn’t the nicest thing to wake a person up by pouring a bunch of water down their throat, but I mean it wasn’t all that bad right.

I still decided that maybe the best way to calm him down was to share some good news with him.

"How would you like to go home?" I asked with a smile. "You probably miss Beth, right?"

"You want to turn around now?" Erick frowned. "We’re almost there, and you want to turn back now?"

"Of course not," I smiled. "The carriage will keep going just like this, but we’re going home for the night." I answered, already starting to visualise the portal, and the space I want to link it to.

"Huh?"

I could see that Erick wanted to ask something else, but he was interrupted by the portal opening up in front of him.

"What’s this?" Erick asked. "What are you getting from storage now?"

"Why don’t you poke your head in there and see," I smiled.

For a moment Erick only looked at me, almost like he was waiting for me to tell him that I’m just joking.

When he finally saw that I was completely serious, he slowly moved closer to the portal. At first he just poked and prodded at it with his fingers, but finally when he saw his hand came back intact after he put it through, he poked his head through.

I could see the moment he realised what had happened. His entire body stiffened up, the hand he had resting on a knee went completely limp.

"You."

"How."

"This."

"Let’s go spend some time with our girls," I smiled at him.