The Shield spell, once in place, did not change colour or shape; though it was in contact with the stone and the faint mist of golden colours Earth Mana that came from it, it remained untainted and unchanged as he had hoped. This meant that it was possible to use a spell on an object that contained Mana without that spell being compromised, meaning it was possible to use a spell to buff or alter said object, like he was increasing the defence of the stone in his hand at the moment.

It made sense that it would work that way, of course, but he wanted to see it first hand before he went any further.

Now that he knew he could do that though, what could he do with it? The description of the rank I Shield spell said that it increased the natural defences of whatever it was cast on, while the higher levels seems to work more like barriers that surrounded the target and absorbed some of the damage for them until it broke. But did the Shield he had just applied actually make the stone harder, or was it just some nebulous ‘damage resistance’ effect that was applied to it?

The easiest option was just to put it to the test. Oberon flew over to the nearest tree, enhanced stone still in hand and raised it above his head before hitting the trunk of the tree as hard as he could. He repeated this two more times, waiting to see if the Shield had broken before striking again.

Was it simply a defensive buff, or could it be used to make a weapon more effective? Could he take a simple wooden stick and turn it into the equivalent of a quarterstaff or a steel pipe by magically increasing its hardness or durability? Could he maybe use the same principle to apply other effects to an object? It was in theory possible to cast a Shield spell using Fire aligned Mana to create a flaming weapon, but whether he could do so without burning the object or himself to a crisp was another thing. Or, if that didn’t work, what about Metal Mana? He knew it existed, though he had yet to use it himself. Could he create a Shield spell, or some equivalent, with a sharpened edge?

If he remembered correctly there was a dagger at the camp that had been taken from the Goblins earlier. If no one had claimed it then he could use it for some experiments, both to try and learn Metal Mana and also to try and use buff spells on a weapon that hopefully wouldn’t be rendered useless by them.

Speaking of the camp, he was now close enough to it that he could see and hear the others. Torrent was awake again, or at least he presumed it was Torrent, having finished her evolution and was now suggesting that they go hunting for food before dark. [color=f49ac2]“Hunting sounds fine to me. Did we have a dagger around here somewhere? I want to try something.” [/color]

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Cavepixie hit tree with rock. Magic rock.
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[@Gardevoiran][@Old Amsterdam][@Zeroth][@Rune_Alchemist]