Luckily, the library is well organized and has signs everywhere which allow me to find the reading area. There I find Lin sitting at a decent sized table that has books all over it. She gives me a smile when she spots me and just points at a stack of books on the table.
I return her smile as I walk over to her, then I give her a kiss and sit down next to her. I grab the book on top of the stack, flip it open, and start reading from the beginning. It is about the spell that is used to dispel any kind of illusion or shapeshifting.
The book details how the spell was developed and all the changes that have been made to it since. According to the book, some of the changes were improvements, but some were made out of necessity. Apparently, the demons found ways to beat the spell several times in the past.
Luckily, the book explains how they did it and the changes made to the spell to counter it. This information is really helpful considering I want to beat the spell as well. Just from reading the history I can see several problems with the current spell.
They are nothing major, just places where updates caused tiny problems. If all of them were removed, the spell would be more efficient and have a slightly larger range. While that doesn't interest me, it would also make the spell more stable and easier to enhance.
"Lin, did you read this?"
Lin says "No, I just skimmed through it."
"Well, with this I am pretty sure I can make the detection spell do what I want it to."
Lin says "What about your shapeshifting?"
"I think you were right, I am going to have to rebuild that spell from scratch."
Lin says "One of the books in the stack was all about the demon's shapeshifting. I thought it might help you."
"Oh, great! I will read that one next. I want to work on one spell at a time so that I don't get distracted."
Lin says "That's probably a good idea. Trying to think about too many things at once can lead to making mistakes."
"Exactly. So, first I am going to clean up the detection spell, which I will give to the association as thanks for letting us use the library. Then I will improve it for us to use on the peninsula, which I won't be sharing. Oh, do you have something I can write with?"
Lin says "Writing materials are provided, they are over on that table."
"Oh, perfect!"
Since I have to get up to get writing materials anyway, I give Lin another kiss. Then, when I sit back down I start writing out a cleaner version of the detection spell. As I am removing the errors, I find a couple of other small ways to improve the spell.
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My improvements create a couple of small issues, which I fix and then check over it again. Once I am sure that there are no more problems and no other small improvements, I hand the spell to Lin. While she is reading through the spell I grab another sheet of paper and start writing.
Lin says "This is the one you are sharing, right?"
"Yes. I am working on the one will will use right now."
Lin says "Then am I just checking this for errors? Or am I making improvements?"
"Both, but only minor improvements that won't give the local mages too much knowledge."
Lin says "Got it."
As Lin reads over the spell, I keep working on the upgraded version that I want to use on the peninsula. I don't plan to try and make the spell all that powerful, I am focused on making it stable. That way I will be able to enhance it so that it covers the area that I want it to.
I have also had the thought of using it as an enchantment, maybe even adding it to the tower. That way demons wouldn't be able to disguise themselves ever again on the peninsula. It is possible, but it is something that I would have to talk to Yui about first.
I am also not sure if my enchanting skills would be up to adding anything to the tower. I can still remember how complex the tower's core is and I don't know if I could even make changes to it. Not having to worry about demons infiltrating the peninsula would definitely be worth it though.
For now I will just work on the spell and talk to Yui about it when we get back. As long as I have the spell figured out, converting it into an enchantment is extremely easy. That is another reason to make sure the spell is stable, but I get distracted when a book flies past my head.
"What was that?"
Lin laughs and says "The books have an enchantment on them that returns them to their rightful place. When you are done with a book just tap the cover and tell it 'Return'. It will then fly back to its place on the shelves. I have already learned the enchantment, I plan to use it for my library."
"That is definitely convenient. It is definitely easier than trying to remember where you took a book from."
Lin says "True. The enchantment was probably created by a lazy mage."
"Or it was made by someone responsible for making sure the books got back to the right spots who just got fed up with it. I imagine that after finding a few hundred books in the wrong places, anyone would get sick of it and look for an alternative."
Lin says "I didn't think of that. That is actually the more likely answer."
Lin hands me back the detection spell and I can see that she made a few small changes. However, instead of changing the spell itself, she made changes to the method of casting the spell. She simplified it and made it more efficient, which is something I didn't even think about.
I have never cast spells like normal mages so I didn't even really look at the casting method. I am glad that I don't have to memorize chants and hand symbols for my magic. Especially considering some of the crazy spells that I normally come up with.
Since I don't see anything else that I want to change with the detection spell, I get up and look around. When I spot what looks like an employee of the association I ask them to send a message to Almort. Then I go back to working on the upgraded detection spell until Almort shows up.
Almort says "Did you need something, Ash?"
"Here. This is our thank you for letting us have access to the library."
Almort says "You don't need to do that. Wait, isn't this the detection spell? Why does it look so different?"
"I was curious about the spell so I took a look at it. There were several errors in it so I fixed them. While I was at it, Lin and I made a few small improvements."