Insulator

1.0 Perfect Insulation

The unknown.

What do you think of it? Does it make you excited to think about all that's out there that we don't know about? Does the world seem filled with potential and mystique, where you never know what will happen?

Or does the unpredictability scare you? After all, we can never know what to expect out there. People will have strange abilities we didn't even know could exist. Even the world itself has many secrets to be found, like locations that give off certain auras that increase the effects of certain skills...

It's a strange place, this world...

When I was young, I found out that I had a unique ability, something that not just anyone could learn. If you think about what kind of infinite possibilities there are that could exist in this world, one might be quite disappointed to discover what my ability was, and how useless it seemed to be.

There's a reason I call myself 'Insulator', after all. I'm an enchanter, and it turns out that I had the unique ability to perfectly seal things. It's not like I could seal off big holes or anything noticeable either, but only increase the sealing of things already closed, supposedly already sealed.

One might wonder, could such an ability have any real use or purpose?

To which, the answer would be no. Well, that is, not until you learn a little secret about how this world of ours works...

There are certain bottles that can be used to store up a magical attack, to be used for later. They aren't the most useful items, as the magic drains quickly over time, so one must use it soon to retain as much of its energy as possible. But what happens if you seal the bottle completely?

Okay, so you can store a spell forever then? Is that really all one could do with it?

No.

It turns out, that this power was a lot stronger than anyone could have known...

You see, when storing a spell, it slowly leaks from the bottle, losing energy over time. There is a point where you can seal it enough to no longer be losing energy, but that isn't when it's perfectly closed-off. A perfectly sealed bottle will actually gain energy and grow in strength.

It's something I wondered if anyone else knew about the world. For some reason, the very atmosphere and air around us increases magical energy. It's unclear where the leaked energy goes, as it dissipates into the atmosphere, but this trick and bit of knowledge gave me a lot more strength than one could usually have, especially at such a young age.

If the power of a stored spell continuously increases, then it didn't matter how weak the spell was. The only difference was how fast it increases, as they would all end the same. The limit is how strong the bottle is, as these bottles can only contain so much before breaking, releasing the pent-up energy into the world, in a spectacular explosion.

But that's the thing, I can only change how long it takes by sealing it in a certain way. I don't make the bottles, and the common bottles I get all explode at the same level. It's good to know it won't increase infinitely, but the downside is that the only "timed bombs" I can make are a little too powerful... After all, the energy within them is enough to destroy bottles that are designed for holding magical spells...

There aren't many people that would have been able to survive being so close to one of these timed explosions, when discovering it. It was the weakest magical spell possible that we tested it on, so it was only natural to not expect much from it, but the explosion was big enough to kill a dozen people, or burn an entire house to the ground...

It's a scary thought, that people are capable of such things...

Looking back, there were quite a lot of very specific and unlikely pieces that, somehow, all fit into play, both for my ability and story to head this way, but also for how the world around me would react to it...