With his last cast of the spell, he was content with the structure. There were more chains around him than he would ever care to count, and he could tell by examining a few of the chains around him that almost the entire chain, for each one, from the ground up was almost completely rigid and unyielding. However, the last few links of the chains were definitely pliable and ready to replicate as soon as they came in contact with a target. So now, all he had to do was test that the binding part was working properly.


To do that, all he had to do was use his shackle spell to send a large branch his way. Once the large branch was flying towards him, Mikajia dropped to one knee and placed his hands on the ground. He flooded his hands with magic power then quickly released it into the earth. A moment later, countless small chains shot up from the ground and intercepted the branch as soon as it came within range. Once the chains had stopped the momentum of the branch, the pliable links instantly began replicating and winding around the branch, securing it in place in a powerful bind.


With that, Mikajia was sure that his training for this spell was complete. But just for shits and giggles, he began spinning around, grabbing multiple branches all around him and sending them flying towards him after the last area of effect spell was canceled. With a few different branches heading his way from multiple directions, he shot down and cast the spell once more. He was very interested however, to see that yes, every branch was stopped, but only one of them was actually bound. That was rather peculiar he thought, as he tested it out again.


WC = 7,800/9,125

Again, the same thing happened. It didn’t matter how many times he tested the spell out, or how many branches he sent his way. His spell apparently could only bind one target, but it could stop several around him. It wasn’t perfect, but it was still useful. He’d just have to find ways of working around that little weakness. It wasn’t the end of the world, and he was most definitely prepared to deal with a few hiccups in his training. On the bright side, if it didn’t work for this spell, he figured he could assume the same flaw would be present in his similar spells.


He had been hoping he could stop and trap multiple targets in binds if they ever tried to surround him. And though it was true his chains could stop multiple targets; he would just have to deal with only being able to bind one at a time. However, there wasn’t anything that said he couldn’t immediately use a different spell to bind a second target, a third for a third, and so on. It may be tricky, but Mikajia was determined to find a way around this.


With renewed determination, Mikajia cleared away the branches and debris from around him and began to set up for his next area of effect spell. This one had to be one of his most unique ones. The only spell he looked forward to learning, more than this one was his final spell he had planned for this day. With the branches all set up in the clearing around him, each stuck in the ground and situated roughly ten meters apart from each other, Mikajia began readying for the next spell. He took several deep breaths, cleared his mind, then began pooling magic power in his hand.


WC = 8,100/9,125

This next one might have seemed simple at first, but quite frankly, now that he was about to attempt it, he realized exactly how difficult it would be to get it to work properly. But it was pointless to sit here wondering how the hell he was going to make it work. He just had to jump into the deep end, and trust that his training up to this point paid off. Mikajia had managed to get some fairly tricky spells to work out for him, so he wouldn’t go so far as to say it was impossible. All it would take was trial and error.


What he was looking to do, was make a spell that he could first throw, then once the spell reached a certain point, that being the edge of the area of effect spell under his target, the spell would split. The smaller parts would then spread out to form a dome around his target. The individual links of chain would then begin replicating to form an actual chain dome, and once that was formed, it would quickly shrink and converge on the target, and place them in a bind.


Simple enough to say, but a thousand times harder to actually make happen. He built up the magic in his hand till it felt white-hot then curled his fingers like he was grabbing a ball. The next second, a chain ball appeared in his hand and he sent it flying towards one of the sticks he’s set up in the ground, roughly twenty meters from his position. The way he imagined it, the chain ball should shatter into dozens of smaller individual links once the ball reached the edge of the magic circle underneath the target. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out how he wanted.


WC = 8,400/9,125

Thankfully, he got the feeling as soon as he tossed the chain ball that it wasn’t going to go how he wanted and had taken measures to prevent himself from being injured by his own spell. The moment he had sent the ball flying, Mikajia cast the previous spell he’d been working on. As soon as the ball reached the edge of the magic circle it had in fact shattered, but dozens of small links of chain had ended up flying towards him at incredible speed. There was no doubt that he would have gotten hit by at least a few of those links if he hadn’t set up some kind of shield.


Apparently, he needed to be much more specific in his visuals about what he wanted. On his next try, he made sure to focus as hard as he could on the links exploding out, but as soon as they shot out, to quickly surround the target, assuming a dome formation around them. He already knew he wanted this to happen, he just apparently wasn’t focusing hard enough on the actual motion of the links after the ball separates.


His next try was much more successful. At the very least, he was confident that he wouldn’t need a shield to protect himself. The ball shattered as it hit the edge of the circle, the links flying out and quickly zooming around to form a dome around the branch. But unfortunately, after that, the links ended up just zooming in to converge on the branch without forming a solid dome. Technically it worked, but it wasn’t going to put them in a bind, and anybody in the middle of the spell, if they were agile, could just dodge the individual links. He needed the links to form a dome.


WC = 8,700/9,125

He had set up several branches as targets ahead of time, knowing this spell would likely cause him some trouble. After a couple of hours though, Mikajia had managed to make some considerable progress. He could make the ball shatter and the individual links spread around to form the dome every single time. However, it took several tries before he could get the pieces to begin replicating to form a solid chain dome around the target. But eventually his persistence paid off. Once he got that part to work for him, it was almost too easy to get the spell to consistently work how he had intended.


He tested the spell out one last time; building the power up in his hand, then curling his fingers causing a chain ball to appear in his hand in the middle of the gray magic circle, he then sent the ball flying at the last target. As soon as the ball hit the edge of the circle, it shattered, the links quickly flying around and setting up all along the edge of the circle, creating a makeshift dome over the target. Less than a second later, they began replicating and forming a solid chain dome. The moment the dome was fully formed, it instantly converged on the branch in the center, and placing it in a bind. Happy with the result of the spell, he could finally move on to the last one. It might not be as difficult to get as the previous, technique wise, but for what he had in mind, it would need something he hadn’t thought of or even considered possible. But little by little, as he had developed his spells, he began to realize the chains actually responded to his thoughts, trying to shift and change and adapt.


WC = 9,000/9,125

For this spell to work, he ideally needed an actual living target. But he figured he had managed to made the trees and branches around him work for his spells so far, so he would just have to find a way to improvise. He was looking to make a spell that would actually force his target to obey a certain way after giving them conditions. It was wholly different than any other spell he had tried to make so far, and he wasn’t completely sure he would be able to get it to work. At first, that is. The thought of being able to dictate whether a person trapped in his chains behaved a certain way or not, was laughable when he had first started this training.


However, now, after seeing what all he had accomplished and developed, he was certain he could find a way. And so he set to work, testing out his idea on the plants and trees around him. Ideally, he wanted to come up with a spell that would inflict damage on an opponent trapped in one of his bindings, if they attempted to use magic against him. It would be a way of almost completely insuring his victory over them. But then he thought about targets that didn’t use magic at all. After all, he had encountered plenty of those as well. And finally, the thought occurred to see if he could also choose to force them to only target him during a fight where he may be working with allies.


As he continued training, he finally realized, all it really required, to make this spell work, was his imagination, yet again. He merely needed to envision the chains reacting to his opponent disobeying, and it would happen. Every time he demanded the branch trapped in a bind to move, and it didn’t, the chains would tighten, until eventually the branch broke. That told him that whatever condition he applied to the target trapped in his bind, they would have to follow, or be dealt some significant damage.


And that was it. With that spell being completed, he had now finished his three days of training to finally fill out his repertoire of spells. He gathered his belongings, packed his bag back up and made his way back home.


WC = 9,385/9,125


Total WC requirement: 18,250 (50% WC reduction with Int stat = 9,125)

Spells Trained: