Quartz sat in his room recalling things from his past world. (I can manipulate mana, and can sense it, the only thing stopping me from using magic is not having a core, but that seems strange, as why would we still be able to influence it if it cannot be used?) As Quartz mind wondered, details from a role playing game he had once played began to flood his mind. The magic system in that world revolved around tattooing symbols on to your body to channel magical energy as you chanted. “Symbols huh?”

Quarts pulls a wisp of fire mana towards his arm. Condensing it into a curved line which faced his hand rather than the floor, he watched, as the mana that should have vanished remained, though not visible to the normal senses, it would be seen by anyone with mana sight. Curiously he traced a line of pure mana over the symbol, a wave of fire burst forth from his open hand. “Shit!” His curtain was now on fire. (Why did I use fire of all things for this experiment?) A mirror image appeared on his opposite arm, only instead of red it was blue, as it was made with water mana. Like before he traced the symbol with pure mana, this time in a rush, as he had a fire to put out.

Quartz now had four different curved lines on his arms one on each side. They were made of the four basic elements. A clump of dirt rested under drenched curtains. Lifting the window, the finale line lit up, the wind carried the dirt and curtains away into the woods below. For once Quartz was glad he lived so close to woodland. (Okay if I want to test this more, I should head somewhere outside.) Gazing at the tree lines, Quartz whispered. “Well somewhere I will not burn down an area.”

This is what lead Quartz to a secluded river. “Perfect, I can shot things over here without it causing problems.” (Now what other symbols can I test?) “It could not be that simple could it?” What Quartz was referring to was something very common in role playing games. To be safer, he drew a small circle on his index finger, gathering fire mana wisp to form it. Tracing the wisp with pure mana, a tinny ball of fire shot out from his finger tip, to be more exact, it was a precise replica of the symbol size included, the only difference was that is was now a sphere instead of a circle. “No way! I did it!” This was indeed a fireball, although a small one, a fireball no the less. “Lets try for a bigger one shall we?” Quartz was unaware he had started to speak out loud.

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The palm of his hand now had a circle made from fire mana plastered on it. Once more he traces it over with pure mana. The fireball shot forward, although slowly, now that Quartz had time to think it over, aside from the wind, most of these spells had been rather slow. (How can I speed them up?) His eyes hung on the curved line made up of wind mana. “Wait what if?” Motes of Wind mana began to gather, he pressed them into another curved line only this one was directly below the symbol for his fireball, in fact it was pointing directly at it. Quarts began to trace the line with pure mana his palm open, however rather than create a ball of fire a gust of wind shot out his finger lifting his bangs. (Well that did not work as I thought it would. The casting of wind started long before I could finish tracing the fire.) The distance between the two symbols was rather clear. “Wait two symbols?” More wind mana pulled towards Quartz, he traced it over connecting the two symbols together into a new one.

Once more Quarts traced pure mana over the symbol, only this time they lit up as one. A ball of fire hurled forward over the open river, then it curved slightly upwards. “Well that went better, but why did it curve upwards?” He compared the two wind symbols, and realized he had overlooked something when connecting the two, this one had slightly more waves, as he needed to connect them somehow, but there was no way to start over. (Or is there?)

Rather than tracing the symbol with pure mana Quartz traced it over with the same element. He did this carefully, as he did not want to create a new symbol by mistake. From what he could tell it worked like a positive and negative number in math, they canceled one another out. Finished with his new fireball spell, he set it off. It hovered forward as it was rapidly launched in a straight line. “Success!” Though more limited than those with cores, this use of magic was a raging success, not only that, but unlike those with cores, this system of magic did not have an energy limit, as the supply of mana was abundant, the only real consumption limit was the concentration of the user. “I am looking forward to what I can do with this.”