2 Chapter 2: Poor man's Grimoire

Adam spent a few minutes to get accustomed to his newfound abilities before he sat under the same he blew a hole in again. "Now that I've confirmed that I can use magic, I should try and use another Code spell I remember. I should've spent more time memorizing my notepad, but it is what it is."

Adam stood up and exhaled deeply before the golden energy coalesced around him again, "A notepad has three, no, four main components. The paper, the cardboard, the metal spirals, and the ink that makeup the lines on the paper. Now paper is mostly made up of cellulose fibers, cardboard is basically paper with extra steps, the hard parts are going to be the metal spirals and ink." Adam spoke to himself as he eventually decided to cancel the spell.

"The metal isn't THAT hard, since the molecular composition of metal is very simple but the ink is where I'm stuck. So I can deal with this in two ways, wait until I reach society to encounter some ink and use Code Analysis and Breakdown, or I create a blank book," Adam put his hand on his chin and deliberated before weighing his odds, "It's probably better to do the latter option. I won't include metal at all in this rendition of my spell notebook, so it's just going to be a book made out of cardboard and paper, fun."

Adam focused once again and allowed his mana to flow around him. He put his palms out and slowly four magic circles began forming. After around a minute of concentration, the magic circles were created and the desired outcome was nonexistent.

"Huh," Adam envisioned a book and took in consideration of the molecular properties of paper and cardboard but in his hand was a brown brick that couldn't even be called paper or cardboard.

"Ah shoot, don't books have something to actually hold the paper in place? Maybe I will need the metal spirals after all..." Adam tried again and after another minute, another failure was produced. This failure was a brown square with metal spirals a tad bit too big for the 'book' and the paper was a bit green.

"Perhaps I'm coming at it too hard? I need a clear picture," Adam sighed and sat down for a moment, "A grimoire. That's essentially what I'm trying to create, so let's envision a grimoire, like the ones from Black Clover."

Adam exhaled once again and began to focus. His mental image was a basic brown grimoire and after a minute of casting the spell, the outcome he desired wasn't exactly what he wanted but was good enough. In Adam's hand was a brown book with it's pages held together by black metal spirals.

When Adam opened the book, the contents of his notepad were on the book but it wasn't written in ink but mana itself, giving the words a mystical feeling, "Woah, did I just unintentionally create a magical artifact? I mean technically, this thing is magical just by it existing, but I can feel the miniscule amount of mana coming off of these words."

"So from what I understand about this spell, if I don't envision correctly and also don't fully understand what I'm trying to create, then it fails horribly. Magic is so interesting, I'm literally going into uncharted territory!" Adam shouted before he began reading the spells in his grimoire.

"If only I had more time to write down more spells, I could have created a Level 8." Adam said with disappointment. Before his untimely death, Adam created so many theoretical spells that he divided them in 7 levels. Each level from 1-7 is stronger than the last but cost more mana and time to cast. For instance, a level four spell like the one used before, used four magic circles and took around a minute to cast. If magic truly existed on Earth, Adam would be a genius as he basically guessed how magic would work and was mostly correct.

"Now that I've got one of my most important items back in my possession, let's find a way to get out of this forest." Adam picked a random direction and began walking. So he walked, and walked, and walked, until it was dusk and Adam was a bit frustrated.

"HOW BIG IS THIS GODDAMN FOREST?!" Adam yelled before calming down and sighing, "All that spell casting must have made me retarded, why am I walking around like a regular person if I have a flight spell?" The spell Adam was talking about was the Level 3 flight spell, Graviton Flight.

"I remember when I made this spell, I was looking up Superman for some reason and I saw that one of his numerous abilities was the ability to fly by manipulating graviton particles, so I copied it." Adam reminisced before focusing on casting the spell. Three purple magic circles floated around Adam with the largest one being under him. Adam slowly began to float and after 35 seconds, he was completely levitating off of the ground.

"Holy shit!" Adam flailed in the air for a moment before he regained control of himself, "If I use the advice Omni-man gave Mark, I just have to piss my pants," A golden stream flowed out of Adam's lower area and there was a dead silence for a moment.

"That never happened. I never did that. Good thing I'm naked," Adam said with a completely straight face before returning his mental facilities to his not knowing how to fly issue.

"Maybe I should just move?" Adam thought about moving forward and ended up crashing through a tree, "Okay, maybe just forward a little bit..." Adam got up and recasted the spell.

"This spell is not just a flight spell but an active manipulation of graviton particles, so I have to treat it as so," Adam exhaled and willed to move forward just a tad bit. Adam moved forward and it was the amount of space he desired, "Now we're getting somewhere! Now let's move a little bit further."

Adam spent so much time practicing that he didn't notice that the sun has completely set, and he was flying around in darkness.

"I think I've got the hang of this whole flying thing. I'm not Superman level good and I don't really trust myself to fly too fast but it's all about experience at this point." Adam flew above the clouds and stared at the star-filled, moonlit night sky.

"This is a view I would never have been able to appreciate before, it makes me realize how cluttered my life was. Always busy, always working, I even turned entertainment into work, how sad was I? Now that I've been given a second chance, I should try to make my life smoother and less chaotic, if that isn't possible then I at least want to be at peace with what I'm doing," Adam solemnly spoke to himself before he floated down above the forest.

"Now to exit this forest and interact with humans!" Adam flew at speeds of 150 mph and after two hours of flying, he saw the city lights, "The Empire State Building? So I'm in New York, at least I know where I'm at." Adam floated down into a dark alleyway and was on a self-imposed time limit.

"It's only a matter of time before a drunk guy or homeless man come into this alleyway so I have to find some clothes, somehow, someway." Adam began looking at the people walking and saw a target that caught his eye. It was a businessman in an all black suit with a red tie and a top hat.

Adam simultaneously casted Code Analysis and Code Breakdown, both being level 1 spells and their cast time being near-instantaneous. Information about the composition of the man's clothing were flowing into Adam's mind and once the man was out of eyesight, Adam smirked.

"I have enough information to copy his suit but not create it, that's fine though," Adam put his hand on his chest and clearly envisioned the man's clothing before casting another level 1 spell, Code Copy. The same exact suit the man was wearing materialized onto Adam's body, making him smile.

"Maybe I could copy something bigger and cooler?"