Another month had passed since the last time I put my thoughts into this journal. I had done so many things in such a short amount of time that it all felt unreal.
First, I created more clothing—a reinforced outfit made from the leather of the monsters I had killed. It only had a couple of runic inscriptions whose sole function was to disperse kinetic energy into the air if it exceeded a certain threshold. The way it worked was by using a bit of magic stored in the runes; these runes would absorb the kinetic energy, spread it throughout the fabric of the outfit, and then expel it outward—safely and without harming me.
The next thing I created was something I don't really know how to name properly. It was basically a square backpack the size of a small person. It used a special set of runes that created a spatial expansion inside, folding space in on itself—but with some limitations. First, it could only contain a total volume three times its original size. Second, the weight didn't disappear or get lighter due to the law of conservation of energy. If the bag got damaged, everything would shoot out violently because the objects "wanted" to regain their rightful volume in real space. That's why I had to make the backpack at least three centimeters thick—I didn't want to end up dead just because the thing got a scratch.
I redesigned my four companions. I made Liberty smaller—now just under a meter tall. I cut the cannonball loading port to make it a tube. The internal runes now convert ambient energy into heat, which is then used to form plasma. That plasma is enchanted to remain stable, hot, and shaped. What it fired could practically melt flesh like butter. It resembled those flashlights the empire's soldiers used to carry. She basically became the bright girl of the group—and she seemed to love that role.
Hugs was different. First, I made her much smaller—just enough to carry her with one arm—almost like a pistol. This beauty shot small, non-lethal pellets. You might think that's all there is to it. Nope. The important part is what the pellets did: they had a spell that increased gravity, only activating upon impact. This bad girl liked to give hugs—from the ground—to everyone who wasn't me.
Caresses wasn't much different. She was smaller too, but with a really wide mouth. She liked to "caress" monsters using shotgun shells the size of a ball. The pellets were coated in an alchemical substance that tensed all the muscles in such a way that the victim looked relaxed—which they definitely weren't. Monsters, vile as they were, cried under her caresses, and that made little Caresses sad. A real shame, since she was the tiniest one in the group.
And lastly, Friendship, who didn't like making just one friend at a time. She hated being unable to make friends at all. Monsters always ran away when she arrived. This shy girl fired a wide-area beam of light and had a few seconds of cooldown before firing again.
Among other things I crafted was a ring whose only function was to transmute air into a directed wind blade, launched in the vector I pointed the ring. I made it mostly as a way to spam magical distractions at monsters, allowing me to cast more complex spells.
And lastly, an alchemical staff. Its only real function was to mold matter when infused with a bit of magic. I crafted it from copper, aluminum, and an artificial amethyst—everything made through alchemy.
That said, I also increased my magical energy—but only within the same margin I'd been following so far. One thing I was researching, though with no real results yet, was making the magical transfer alchemical spell more efficient. I mean, I created it purely using human magic alchemy. I didn't break any principles. Basically, what I achieved—so to speak—was the integration of external raw magic into a being. That's my only achievement on that front.
Anyway, I had been researching ways to increase the percentage of magic received each time. No real progress. The first thing I tried was, let's say, patching the code with a third alchemical spell that stabilized the second one in terms of energy dispersion and integration. Spoiler: it worked—too well. Look, I tested it on one of the monsters here. It resulted in exponential energy transfer—each moment more magic was flowing than the one before. When the magic from circle one (the sacrifices) ran out, the monster had so much magic in it that I couldn't even count it anymore. And apparently, that wasn't a good thing—because the creature died instantly. No flinching, no overload, no sound—just instant death. It took me forty-two test subjects to figure out what was happening.
Apparently, the soul—where magic originates—entered into conflict with the way raw magic was being input. It clashed with the new magic, and since the incoming energy was a lot (like comparing an ocean to a lake), the soul was crushed by the pressure until it basically broke.
Now, someone might say, "That's not good or useful." Well, screw them—if they're not smart enough to think around the problem. I simply used a smaller amount of sacrifices as the cost, so the received energy would be lower and the soul wouldn't collapse. Seriously, why try to prevent soul collapse? For safety? Please. The soul is way too abstract to fully understand in just one month. Even the conceptual spells from the book only target the mind—and only to enhance it. The soul? I'll definitely have to study it more later, but in a controlled environment.
Setting aside my rant with the imaginary readers of this journal, a new problem arose from all this: I'd now have to measure the soul and the sacrifice before actually using it. And measuring the soul—that's the hard part. They all looked the same—or at least that's what I inferred from the monsters here. I even used different species, different ages—from damn newborns (yes, newborns) to what I think were elders—and all their souls looked the same. Only the energy around them was different. It wasn't much, but I could work with that. Maybe another month and I'll be able to calculate how many sacrifices I need per session to avoid erasing my own soul.