Chapter 46.

PART 1.

Three months of classes later, the professors have gathered for a meet and greet. The group responsible for the first-years is chilling at a corner table. It is unknown who started this tradition. But each year, the professors of every year gather at a particular place, and complain about their students, or just unwind from their work of grading students and running their own experiments.

This year, the gathering spot is the hotel of Dhruva, located in the nearest city to the Academy. Currently, professor Dhiraj is sipping his tea while Amrita and Amelia are doing the women's talk, while Amarjit and Bali are complaining about Hatori.

“And the worst part of it is that, whatever he is doing, it is working!” Said Bali, slamming his hand on the table. “I tried to punish him through a duel with Praduman Rao. But he handily beat the boy.”

“Is he taking some enhancement potions?” wonders Amarjit.

“No.” Said Dhiraj. “Sultan tested him for those things. He came clean. Whatever he is doing, it’s the result of his own training.”

“But he shouldn’t skip classes like that.” Amarjit agreed with Bali.

“Get over yourselves.” scolded Dhiraj. “You’re behaving like a bunch of brats. The only reason you’re complaining is because your egos got hurt. I don’t see Amrita and Amelia complaining about him.”

“Yeah,” chimed Amrita, female talk halted for a moment. “He’s doing the work of my class on time. I’m happy with it.”

“Hmm. Though I do wish he would pay attention to the finer details of math. It can serve him well in the future, especially if he wishes to keep his independent streak.” Said Amelia.

“Talk to him about it then.” Suggested Dhiraj.

“Enough of unruly students. What do you two birds say to a tag duel?” said Bali, already fired up from the very thought.

“Yep. This time, you won’t win!” Amarjit agreed.

“Bring it on, pigs.” They said together.

“I’ll bring my potion kit.” Said Dhiraj.

None of them want Dhiraj involved. The man remains quiet most of the time, but he actually beat them all by himself the last time they challenged him.

PART 2.

“Hey guys,” said Josh, entering the dorm, where predictably Hatori is missing.

Raven is reading something, while Shin is just lazing on his bed, his harp resting nearby. James is tinkering with a toy, though Josh thinks it is a basic yantra. “What did you learn?”

So far among their group, Josh and Shin have proved to be quite friendly with other students. As a result, whenever there is some piece of important student gossip or some rumor, they are the first ones to learn about it. Raven thinks this is quite advantageous, and as a result encourages Josh to actually meet and get involved with other students. Though with Shin, things are a little bit harder. Other students are wary of actually letting him be a part of their group, due to his birth. Raven understands this feeling; after all, he himself doesn’t come from a powerful family either.

“There’s a month-long festival coming next month. The classes will be suspended during that time, and students will organize all sorts of events during that time, from sports to entertainment, and various experts from the world will come to share their knowledge in conventions.” Explained Josh.

“Sounds interesting.” Said Shin, already planning to get in on one of those musical performances.

“The news is interesting, but I’m much more interested in finding out something else.” Said Raven.

“What is that?” asked Shin and Josh.

“Where does Hatori disappear to?” He asked. No one in the room has any answers to this question.

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James, who did not stop tinkering with his yantra when Josh was explaining about the festivities to come next month, dropped his yantra, and listens to Raven. Not even he has an answer to this question.

“I’m planning to find out.” Said Raven. “I’ll track him down and see where he disappears to, and what he is doing there.”

“What if he fights us?” asked Shin. “He is quite strong.”

“We aren’t weaklings either.” Said Raven. “We have also improved. But he doesn’t know that. If he wants a fight, he’ll get one.”

“So, what’s the plan?” All three boys crowd around Raven.

“Well, we’ll start by observing him around his usual haunts. Then, we’ll slowly start to follow him around after classes or lunch…”

PART 3.

Hatori finally has gotten the invisibility down. To practice quietening his footsteps, he walked on the rocky part of the ground. He tried to walk without the crunching sound of stones and pebbles under his feet reaching his ears.

The spell took him a long time to perfect. His blindness got in the way, for no matter how hard he practiced, he just couldn’t get the spell to hold on for too long, and it often lost its effects without him even realizing it. How can he get the concept of invisibility down, when he hasn’t seen anything in the first place? The magical sensing does allow him to pin a lot of things down. But it is no replacement for eyes.

While returning to the book of fociless magic and Mind and Magic, finally completing the list of books assigned to him by Zeko, Hatori finds a book of creative rune projects. He also finds the runic formula of the invisibility spell.

The spell seems to be way too complicated. It apparently tricks the eye of an observer or something. These details went over his head.

Utilizing his basic knowledge of runes, Hatori lays out the formula. Instead of the complications of the previous spell, he stops the reflection of light entirely. No reflection of light, no sight. After testing his rune work twice, he finally casts the spell on himself with his foci.

> He walked in front of Josh and Raven, who seem to be searching for someone three times. They fail to see him. just in case to make sure they weren’t playing a prank on him, he goes to Avinash, and pokes him with his finger.

When even he fails to see him, Hatori realizes that he has gotten the spell down. To practice it, he casted it on himself as often as he could, and now he can hold it for a long time.

Though, he doesn’t know whether the means of cracking invisibility will work on his modified spell or not.

Done with his spell practicing, Hatori also focuses on his new book of runic projects and enchantments. Taking a look at the table of contents, he is amazed to see the variety of projects in the book. From simply lighting a circuit, to actually creating a basic yantra through the basic runes and enchantments. It all appears to be quite amazing to him.

PART 4. SELECTED READING FROM CREATIVE PROJECTS IN RUNES AND ENCHANTMENTS FOR A BEGINNER.

If you go to a math mage, they will claim how math can perfectly lays out everything necessary to perform magic, how it is important to create spells. dear reader, do not listen to them.

While it is true that math has its place in the research of magic, when it comes to creating enchantments, wards, or spells, runes are more important. They allow you to instruct the magic to perform your tasks.

In this book, you will take your first steps with runes, opening a wide world of magic to you. No longer you will be restricted to using the spells taught to you by others. You will be able to manipulate magic, make yantras, and in future, manipulate magic through your mind just by thinking of certain runes. You will also be able to modify your body through the knowledge described in this book, should you choose to do so in the future.

(End.)