Toz's recently gained insights didn't help him make his spell more mana efficient or restructure it to become better.
The more he thought about it, the closer Toz felt to the answer. But it also felt like the closer he got, the further he would have to go to finish his spell.
Unless darkness was completely alone, it always took the shape of other things. Even shadows took the form of what they shadowed. Toz wondered if maybe that was why his spell cost so much mana. He was trying to mold and shape an imitation of the entirety of the Void to fit a single being. Even if it was just an imitation, and one Toz created at that, the Void wasn't something a person could control.
Toz realized he could go the other way. Instead of enveloping his target in an imitation of the Void, bringing the Void to the target, why not bring the target to the Void?
While that was the general train of thought in Toz's head, it wasn't as if he was actually going to send his target's mind and body into the Void. Toz would stop designing and adapting his darkness to suit each specific target and make do with a single straightforward copy of the Void that he places around the target.
Unfortunately, it wasn't like he could try out his spell on anyone on the island, and casting it on the void beasts only let him know how much mana it used up.
Toz's latest try did use less mana, but not enough to make the spell efficient enough for use. He also didn't know how well it worked since it was fruitless trying to submerge a void beast in the Void.
But at least he was making progress. Every failure brought Toz one step closer to success.
Toz was dawdling and playing around with an old sword when the next burst of insight hit him. He had been practicing combining his sword fighting with magic and various elemental combinations when he realized another truth regarding how darkness worked. Darkness didn't create or destroy. In every elemental combination he tried with darkness, the darkness covered the other element's appearance.
Darkness covered the metal construct with a layer of shadows. It did the same with all the other elements.
During Toz's first attempts with his spell, he had tried to create an imitation of the Void and destroy his target's connection with their surroundings. However, that wasn't the most optimal way to use darkness.
What if instead of replacing the target's senses with darkness, Toz merely covered them?
Toz couldn't stand still with his new inspiration rushing through his mind. Thankfully, a swarm of void beasts wasn't too far away.
Unfortunately, Toz wouldn't be able to tell how effective the spell was other than its mana consumption. But it was still better than nothing. Especially since it only drained a fraction of how much his first attempt had used.
The only thing Toz needed to do to finish his spell was verifying its efficacy and find out how to awaken as much of the darkness mana's true nature as possible. However, that would have to wait until he had someone to test the spell.
The success with the development of his darkness spell inspired Toz to work on something he had put on hold for a long time, training passively.
The last time Toz had tried to figure out how to do it was when he and the cats were on the way to Treblor Forest. He hadn't had any success back then, and he hadn't had any need to try and solve his problems with it since he ended up stuck on a piece of wood drifting through the Void, where the only pastime was training.
However, since he was falling further and further behind the cats in level, he figured it would be a good opportunity to try and figure out a way to counteract his overall slowness.
And thanks to the wondrous void magic, Toz had a clue on how to proceed. More specifically, the combination of void and fire magic. The grey flame devoured other sources of mana without Toz's interference or continued manipulation. While the part where the flame consumed the flames wasn't something he desired, Toz appreciated the aspect where he only needed to get the ball rolling before the magic took care of itself.
Toz hoped he could come up with something similar. He had moved on from the idea of training personally while walking at the same time. It would be easier if he could devise some kind of magic that automatically converted, absorbed, and led the mana through his body to his mana pool.
Since Toz based his idea on the functions of the grey flame, he took a few risks as he experimented with the flame and his own body. He worried that the grey flame would latch onto him and burn through his mana.
However, he quickly realized that it was nothing to worry about as long as he stayed calm and controlled the flame which he created.'
Toz was happy that his magic wouldn't harm him, but he didn't know how to proceed after covering his body in a layer of grey flames. He initially tried to reinforce his body with the grey flames, but the flames ended up on the outside for some reason.
Toz waved his arm through the air and watched the grey flames bend and twist in accordance with his motions. Even if he didn't know what the grey flames did, it looked cool in a sort of ghostly fire sort of way.
Since he didn't know what it did and because it didn't look like it was the right way, Toz put out the flames and tried something else.
If only fire and void weren't enough, maybe adding a third element to the mix would do it. The question was which element to try first.
Toz decided that it would be easier to follow the same order he did with most other things and begin with metal.
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