Everything I thought I knew about magic was wrong, or at the very least was based on misinformation. I had thought that magic was some kind of energy that existed beyond the limits of physics and would just react based upon arbitrary rules that I had yet to grasp. I was wrong. Magic as defined in this book is a separate force in this world that is infinitely adaptable, reacts to living beings, and can be controlled using four separate mediums. These are listed as follows: physical matter, mental influence, spiritual guidance, and magical understanding.

A breakdown of how they work is written here on the pages, but my way of explaining doesn’t mention the ethereal plane every five words. Physical magic is about actually using your body or carved runes to make mana flow along with you, through you, or out from you. Mental casting is about channeling your ideas and desires into being with magic acting as the paint to your canvas with things like images or words acting as the manifestation of your intent. Spiritual formation of spells is tricky to define, but it boils down to having your essence charged up with magic and giving you super powers instead of spells. Magical understanding is the most scientific of these and relies entirely on the user’s knowledge of magical concepts such as converting mana into matter or breaking energy into positive and negative polarities.

Between these four mediums were six methods of pairing them together, then four ways you can use three at once, and a terribly inefficient method of using all four and an equally bad usage of uncontrolled magic. Sixteen different ways to be a mage, and nowhere did I see a mention of someone who made mental runes that altered the physical world with magical formulae. Maybe my scanner can tell me about these now that I know what they are.

Conduit usage-

Magical: 30%

Mental: 21%

Physical: 45%

Spiritual: 4%

Interestingly, it would appear that I am primarily a physical caster. It must be because of how I apply runes in an unusual way that I’m dipping my toes into mental and magical usage as well. Spiritual doesn’t really make sense unless that 4% is from me getting better at communicating with Charles. What’s your take on the matter anyway Charles?

“Kayrux is deepening connections to Charles subconsciously, allowing communication even in turbulent mana waves. Likelihood of theory being accurate is high.”

Glad you think so little buddy. Alright, back to reading.

Here’s something interesting: a distinction between runecrafting and enchanting. Wait, the two aren’t the same? Underneath all of this needless flowery talk of the ‘desire of the soul’ or ‘dancing with spirits’ is an actual explanation that makes the two stand apart.

Runecrafting is the creation of real shapes or channels that operate using only the physical side of mana flows in order to create calculated reactions between the material world and the magical energy field being used. Runes are incapable of being affected by intent or desire, operating explicitly by their shape and used material. Runes are also broken into five tiers, but the book only details that the first three go from basic unassembled parts to lesser runes, then from the lessers being combined or modified come middle runes. I see, so my evolving runes were just the progression from tier two on to tier three.

Enchanting is similar, but instead of runes it is words or ideas that are written into the essence of their target, and the magic reads the intent of the caster in order to work. The book describes that a simple silvered sword with the word ‘fire’ can have any number of effects. Perhaps the enchanter wanted the blade to be engulfed in flames giving the wielder a flaming sword, or perhaps they wished for there to be a stream of fire shot forth from the tip of the blade, maybe even for the sword to propel itself forwards as though it were shot from a cannon. The same went for every word, every meaning of those same words, and for every individual mage’s idea of what they wanted the sword to do. No two fire swords would act exactly the same unless intentionally made to do so.

If that is all true, then does that mean that my mental runes were some sort of outlier to these supposed rules? My runes had a designed method of operation, but my idea of what I wanted them to do would also come into play whenever they were given enough power. Chief among them was the sensor rune, which was moldable and intuitive as to what I wanted it to do with the information it picked up. On the other side of things, the thunder rune refused to work the way I wanted and would only allow me to successfully discharge the electricity continuously. Was it possible that more advanced runes were capable of being influenced in such a way? The thunder rune was just a lesser rune after all…

I set the book aside as I contemplated what to do with this information. I wished to keep reading, but there was something poking the back of my mind where I kept the rune schematics. A flashback to my first magic experiment, a glance to the heavy copper plate bolted over the crater, and the jittering in my hands were all happening at once. Did I trust myself enough to try again even after how far I had come? Would it be a bad idea if I just gave it a shot, just one little try?

No, it would be fine. I just have to make sure that everything is as safe for others as it can be, then I can try easing my way up to it. Sorry Tim, but I’m not going to risk you being turned to dust by a stray arc, so you’re going with Dobo for a while outside of the lab. I shut the doors but left them unlocked, pushed the blast shield back, prepared a small pile of bandages and a water bucket on my table, and set up the thunder rune along my right hand. This mixture of fear and enthusiasm was like a bitter-sweet mix in my mouth, and the sound of my heart in my ears was only like the beating of a drum for me to go along with.

Starting off at 20% felt like someone pinched me, but only because I hadn’t eased my way up to it like I usually did. Sporadic arcs of electricity were already jumping on the rungs on the faraday cage, but I could tell that this rune wasn’t even close to changing. I ticked up the power one notch at a time until I was at my safety threshold of 30%. The lightning at my claws was starting to make my fingers go numb, but still the rune was not ready to budge. Alright Kayrux, it’s time to go further.

I set a collector rune connected to a sensor behind the thunder rune and an emergency shut off limiter right after them for safety, then I went for the much larger variable limiter that would go up to 50%. I hoped that this wouldn’t need to be changed again, but something told me that thunder was a mana intensive rune to use. I poked at Charles to see if he had any suggestions, but the poor little blip didn’t know any more than I did. The door was still closed, Dobo still had Tim, and no more safety measures were available. Test fire number two, let’s see what happens.

Going from 0% to 30% output hurt a bit more than 20%, but as before it just took some time for my mana lines to adjust to the flow and remove the pain. Each increase in output power made my heart rate increase as the crackling energy left my hand in more violent jumps. There was the smell of ozone and hot metal in the air, a weak red glow coming from the copper, and a soreness beginning to rise in my arm. There, at 45%, the thunder rune began to jitter in the telltale sign of evolving. This was it, that feeling from before!

The rune was slowly morphing into something else, the magnetic core of it splitting into three parts and the lightning bolt shaped channels on the sides stretching and multiplying. Wait, it's not done yet, why is it slowing down? I watched in morbid fascination as the thunder rune slid backwards along the mana line, batted the shutoff rune aside, and began to assimilate the collector rune. The inward facing spiral arms of the collector began to shift and stretch, an additional layer was added on top of it and below it, and the feeling of the rune’s completion began to set in.

As soon as the rune clicked back into place, the entire space around my hand went hot, then cold, and then back to hot again. The smell of ozone in the room vanished as a new feeling began to pulse along my hand. Black specks that would appear and disappear swirled around my wrist as a strange and powerful surge shot forth. Everywhere the new brighter energy touched erupted in a shower of sparks, the metal left behind glowing red hot and smoking. I refused myself the option of panicking as I had before, this time deciding to slowly ease my way back down on the power scale until the rune was unable to operate due to a low input. The black specks stopped appearing, the energy no longer arced, and the numbness in my hands faded into a burning pain.

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I would be writing notes about what I just experienced, but right now I need to quench my hand. I dunked my open claws into the bucket of water, though luckily there was no hiss of jet of steam, just the cool relief from the hurt. The cooling sensation unfortunately brought my attention to the fact that my joint felt inflamed and my scales were now quite bleached of color. No wait, they aren’t bleached, they're just covered in some kind of residue. A little scouring took the strange layer from my scales, but there was no change to the water it was scraped into.

Looking at the rune again, I wasn’t certain what exactly I was looking at right now. Three stacked collectors feeding into the main system, three different magnetic parts in a triangle in the center, and an elongated outer conduit. My sensor rune that had been looking at the collector was now technically aimed at the new rune, so maybe it can tell me what it was seeing.

The magnets were set for positive charge right, negative charge left, and neutral inhibitor front, but something called the energy charge stabilizer was not present? Okay, let’s look at that stack in the back: positive, negative, and neutral charge controllers. And those prongs are being called matter separators. I turned the scanner to look at the whole rune, the name appearing in my mind being ‘lightning rune’.

My science classes were nearly a decade in the past, but even I knew what atomic structures are and what particles were in charge of the positive, negative, and neutral energy that bound matter together. This rune, this evolved thunder rune, was taking the particles of the air around me and making some kind of super-dense electrical energy using both protons and electrons somehow. As I had seen before with the filter rune, mana was able to tear matter apart without causing a nuclear blast, and by being the guiding thread for the arcs it was somehow possible to have a positive and negative charged energy coexist at once. Those black specks must have been that neutral charge inhibitor’s doing, somehow filtering the condensed neutrons away from the rune.

This wasn’t some lightning rune, this was an honest to goodness plasma arc emitter. I looked closer at the copper faraday cage, and sure enough there were pits and scars everywhere the arc touched. Even the floor had some scars carved by the intense energy of this new and frankly terrifying rune. This was definitely the same rune that had tried to form before, but now that I knew its shape I could test it, quantify it, and understand it. I felt powerful as the feeling of accomplishment set my troubled mind at ease.

I sat myself at my table and wrote notes faster than the ink could take to the parchment, my wrist aching from the exertion and already present fatigue. My third upgraded rune after refining and wind was now lightning, meaning that I had taken yet another step towards controlling this unfathomable mana I had been given. I could just picture how surprised my family would be to see me slice through sheets of steel like butter or fire beams hot enough to bore through stone. Someday Kayrux, learn the limits of your runes first you crazy girl!

I had just finished putting the finishing touches on my notes when I felt a flicker of mana coming towards my lab. This was very similar to one of those floating eyes, but the way it moved made me think that it was being carried rather than floating. I slipped my notes underneath the book on magic theory and hid both behind my satchel. I didn’t like how this felt, almost as though there were danger about to rear its ugly head at any moment.

The bobbing magic source reached my doors, and through the cracks I could see the body of that pompous old kobold from Vynrashu’s office. What was his name? Tapir? No, Truapar, that was it. This already reeked of fishyness, and I couldn’t even see who he was with properly. They were tall, really tall, and almost golden in color. Whoever they were, their singsong voice almost gave me whiplash with how happy they sounded.

“Hello~o, is anyone in there? I just saw quite the display of magical mis~chief, so I know you’re in there! Do open the door Kayrux, this is an order from your superior Ephkarn the oversee~r!”

Red flag! Red flag! Nothing good ever comes from somebody you just pissed off arriving with someone with a title. I pushed my things even further back where they couldn’t possibly see them, scanned my tables for anything else I wanted hidden, then cautiously approached the door. I took my time removing the lock, then cautiously opened the door enough so that I could get a good look at who was here.

Truapar was his same grouchy self with tan scales and brown spots, and that half concealed mouth full of sharp teeth held in a snarl. I’m not happy to see you either asshole, but you’re the one coming to my domain. I made a note of the distinguishing features on him, such as the slight discoloration on the left side of his frilled lizard face or the slight slouch he had. Don’t think I’m not going to keep an eye on that small metal device in your hands pal, I know it’s a camera.

The other kobold, this Ephkarn I’d heard about, set off a number of uncanny valley alarms in my head. He was tall, maybe as tall as Tuleni, but it was all height and no bulk. His whole body was narrow except for his head, which itself looked almost frog-like with those bulging pink eyes. His tail was coiled up along his back in a spiral, though I could tell that if it were extended it was as long as he was tall. The smile he wore only made his disturbingly off appearance worse to me, though it might just be my mind playing tricks on me.

He wiggled his fingers in a tiny wave as he bared those needle like teeth in a wide smile.

“Greetings and well met. I am Ephkarn, the co-overseer of this workshop. You have not met me yet due to us having different schedules, but I am sure that you have heard of me from Vynrashu, yes? I am sorry to intrude upon your experimenting, but my associate here has requested that we perform an urgent inspection of your work area to ensure that you are not endangering any of your fellow workers. May we come in?”

That’s a trick question Ephkarn, don’t you think that it isn’t. I can’t say no or that gives you and stub-tail here cause to boot me out of my job, so go ahead and look around. I stepped out of their way, but not before being extra polite and waving this supposed overseer in. I made sure to put myself between them and my satchel, but not once did I let either out of my sight. As expected, Truapar was going around with that camera and taking pictures of all of my shelves and crates, sometimes lifting my materials up so he could look them over in confusion. Meanwhile, Ephkarn didn’t bother to look around and instead was focused on the unfinished disc sander slash rotating platform that was idling as it always did. While the shifty one was digging around and looking for evidence, the actual man of authority was busy watching a gizmo do something as mundane as spin with enjoyment in his eyes. Typical managers letting their underlings do all of the hard work.

As the not-so-subtle raid was going on in the storage half of my workplace, Ephkarn tried to make small talk with me.

“You know pup, I expected an inventor’s workplace to have more…things going on. You’ve already made a name for yourself with one device, and as I’ve heard from some others of my compatriots you were scolded just the day before by your abusive overseer Vynrashu. Tell me, where might this new project be? I am quite curious as to why he is so desperate to get his hands on that he would berate and intimidate a child such as yourself.”

I slowly reached behind my back for my slate and wrote a reply to his inquiry, but never did I let either escape my field of view for more than a second.

“I can’t speak. The invention is not available right now. I can’t discuss more.”

The golden kobold tilted his head to the side while a strange look in his eyes became apparent.

“My, are you being threatened so badly that you are too intimidated to even utter a single word? I shan't stand for this, it is unfitting of an overseer to coerce his subordinates in such a manner. Little pup, if you are truly being threatened by Vynrashu you need only say something now and I shall take it into my own hands to rectify the situation.”

You’re either a moron or a sadist with that assumption, and I don’t like either. Truapar stopped his spying and turned his attention towards me, and I could tell from the glimmer in his eyes that he was thinking of twisting this situation around. Not on my watch buster. I crossed my arms and shot the Ephkarn the nastiest scowl I could muster while leaning back on my table. I shook my head slowly, a clear message that he was dead wrong.

His pink eyes narrowed and widened in an uncomfortably odd way, and something akin to a smile began to pull at the corner of his lips. He was about to speak when a heavy metal object slammed into the ground, drawing the attention of both of my unwelcome guests. Vynrashu stood in the doorway to my lab, his sledgehammer acting as his armrest as he leaned forward with a mask of cocky confidence. Ephkarn’s eye twitched as he turned to face the newcomer and Truapar slunk back behind the shelf he was next to.

Vynrashu clicked his tongue, that false bravado seeming less forced now as he shifted his weight back in a relaxed pose. Something was about to go down, and I was somehow in the middle of it all as usual.