Once Nick reorganized his thoughts, making yet another mental note of increasing his defensive skills, he added this island to his list of ‘revisit later’ and moved on to find another island that hopefully had no or fewer hostile creatures.
Before engaging with opponents whose power levels were much higher than that of Nick, he wanted to clearly carve out a way to protect himself. Right now, he thought the best way to do this was to create a stronger shield or maybe even a combination of different types of shields.
Nick was not just stalling for time. He needed reinforced defence desperately because without it, if there were a lucky Prive level shooter, then Nick would succumb.
In the meanwhile, it was not sensible for him to risk his life just to explore this small island and its secrets.
Nearly half an hour later of being on the go, Nick founds a place where he could reside for the time being.
The island was not big. According to Nick, it should most likely be around 10 KM at best. There were no living or other kinds of creatures such as the Ancient Stone Archers here.
The island was completely made up of stone and on the face of it, it did not pose any direct threats to Nick.
He flew towards the mountain’s peak and took a deep breath as he looked around and whispered.
“It looks good here; the scenery is peaceful and gives a feeling of bliss.”
Nick sat down cross-legged and started thinking. If he was going to improve his shield’s capabilities and power, he needed to understand what kind of defensive mechanism he needed to create.
On most occasions, these things were easy to comprehend for Nick.
He zeroed down on three ways in which he could improve his defensive capabilities.
– Upgrade the existing ‘Passive Blood-Iron Magic Shield’.
– Create a new shield from scratch.
– Create a new type of shield with defensive mechanism that overlaps with the Passive Blood-Iron Magic Shield and will not affect the original shield’s effectiveness.
Nick exhaled and started working with the first option, which was upgrading his current shield. He opened the spell algorithm for the Passive Blood-Iron Magic Shield.
‘Imagination – Imagine a magical shield surrounding yourself + Imagine wearing a weightless Iron Armor’
‘Imagine ‘natural iron deposit’ + Knowledge – think about ‘Fe’ and imagine the place of ‘iron’ in the ‘periodic table’.’
‘Hemoglobin — the oxygen-carrying pigment and predominant protein in the red blood cells. Hemoglobin forms an unstable, reversible bond with oxygen. In its oxygenated state, it is called oxyhemoglobin and is bright red. Hemoglobin contains ‘iron’ & ‘Fe’ and gives a red color to the molecule.’
‘Rule 1 – ‘User needs to hold or carry some kind of iron on his body.’
‘Rule 2 – ‘User needs to have iron in his veins. The blood must carry the iron.’
“There are some things that I can upgrade when it comes to the element used.”
Nick knows that ‘Iron’ is a strong and durable element but compared to the magical or physical power of a Provec Level Mage or Fighter (Archer), it was nothing.
In fact, Nick himself could break down the blood-iron shield with one bolt of magical energy in his current level, and he is only a Prive Level Mage ‘Beginner to Intermediate’ at this point.
A Prive Level Archer at level 10, could most likely shatter his passive defences with ease. If the archer, who shot at him today in the weird island he first landed on, was Provec Level, then Nick would have been dead—no questions asked.
Nick started thinking about the best way in which he could upgrade ‘iron’ in the spell. He put his mind on this for nearly three hours before he had a breakthrough. He smiled and started re-writing the Passive Blood-Iron Magic Shield spell.
The idea was flying off his head, and within seconds the revised spell was complete.
‘Titanium-Aluminide Blood Magic Shield’
‘Imagination – Imagine a magical shield surrounding yourself + Imagine wearing a weightless Titanium-Aluminide Armor.’
‘Knowledge 1’
‘Titanium aluminide, commonly gamma titanium, is an intermetallic chemical compound. It is lightweight and resistant to oxidation and heat but has low ductility. The density of γ-TiAl is about 4.0 g/cm. It finds use in several applications including aircraft, jet engines, sporting equipment and automobiles.’
‘Titanium aluminide has three major intermetallic compounds: gamma TiAl, alpha 2-Ti3Al and TiAl3. Among the three, gamma TiAl has received the most interest and applications.’
‘Knowledge 2’
‘Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Its atomic weight is 47.867 measured in daltons. It is a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in seawater, aqua regia, and chlorine.’
‘Rules’
‘User must have some kind of knowledge about ‘Titanium’ in his mind.’
While Nick finished writing the spell, he did not need to add any specifics about the ‘Hemoglobin’ or ‘Blood’ part of the existing algorithm. This was because he had not created an entirely new spell but just improved the existing shield itself. The parts about hemoglobin should continue to stay as existed without creating any complications.
Once the spell was in place, Nick activated it.
The previous spell had a glint of gray and some bit of crimson in it, symbolizing blood. This time, however, as the shield activated for the first time, a burst of white-gray energy poured from Nick’s body and within a couple of seconds, the light dimmed to the point of being gray.
This passive shield was evidently heavier and stronger, making Nick feel its power very clearly. The blood color in the usual shield changed into the shape of ‘TI’ and spread around the shield, coating it with a layer of mysteriousness.
Nick knew that if he were to be attacked by the same arrow now, the arrow would not affect the shield. Not only this, his shield was now capable of stopping magical or physical attacks from Provec Level Mages or Fighters as long as he did not meet anything excessive; for example, the enemy side fighting with more than three to five Provec Level Mages who could attack him continuously.
Nick sighed with satisfaction and smiled as he thought.
“With this new shield, I feel safer but it is not enough. I must create one more defensive spell that will not only resist the enemy’s attacks but also stop them in their tracks. A force field shield to be exact.”
With this new idea still turning in mind, Nick reached out to his storage space to replenish his energy with a quick bite and some water. His brains calculated what kind of enhanced shield he needed to supplement his current shield.
Without creating at least one more defensive/offensive shield type spell, he would not feel safe in a place, that was filled with many unknown beings and magical creatures.
