Ryuji tried asking Dorn about the word parallel and the word concentric but the old dwarf drew a blank saying he had never heard the words before. Once he was listening most of the words coming from his mouth didn’t sound anything like Japanese and those two words he had used were pronounced in proper Japanese. In that way, Ryuji was able to come to the conclusion that if he tried, he could speak Japanese and also that some words just didn’t translate.
Resuming the lecture, Dorn explained that only shapes with lines that crossed themselves, like pentagrams, would work for the higher-tier spells. The exception to the rule was that you could draw multiple simple shapes inside the spell circle. Ryuji realized it was like two triangles making a star of David from the Jewish religion. With the now more complex shape the space in the center would be tighter and could touch all the parallel concentric rings.
With the explanation out of the way, Dorn handed him a thin leather-bound tome and told him to open it. It was full of circles with geometric patterns inside them. At the bottom of each page was some text and some of the patterns had text near them but Ryuji couldn’t read any of it. Dorn told him to begin practicing tracing the shapes. He said having a basic feel for the shapes was important and once he felt confident enough with a shape that he thought he could reproduce it then he could try drawing it with the powder in magic.
Ryuji was worried and asked if that wouldn’t trigger an incomplete spell. Dorn explained that without the symbol in the center the spell had nothing to channel power through. It was like describing a hole without actually opening it. Dorn told him that he would be practicing all of his scripts for the outer parts of the spell before he ever wrote the first elemental glyph.
That was apparently the way that spells were written. A wizard would start with the geometric patterns to set the tier and complexity of the spell. Next came the description symbols that would control the power once it was applied. After that, the central glyphs were written in which was like finally opening the hole. Then the last step was for the wizard to push the correct amount of mana through the spell, much like pushing the water through the hole you created. It all made sense to Ryuji.
He began tracing the patterns in the book and Dorn left him to the task. After a few minutes, Ryuji got bored with the tracing and decided to try drawing them for real. He dipped his finger in the powder and applied the measuring techniques he had learned earlier. Using centering techniques he had learned in geometry, he tried drawing the circles and it wasn’t too long till he got the basic form of the circles pretty close to perfect.
It was at one point when he messed up a little and his hand shook that he got a strange wobble in his circle. Looking at the finished circle he got mad and with his fingers still in the circle he flared his mana unintentionally. To his utter surprise, the circle glowed brighter and straightened out. What remained was a perfect circle in a slightly off-brown the same color as the ground-up rock.
Ryuji was amazed that he had figured this nifty little trick out. He tried it several more times and discovered that if the shape was roughly circular it would work but if it diverged too far it failed and the drawing dissipated. The circle would immediately fail and dissipate if there were any corners in the edge of the circle so he knew that you had to be a little careful but not all that much.
Ryuji began wondering why he wasn’t taught this if it was so handy. It was a little after that that he decided to try the same trick with a triangle but that immediately failed. He figured it must be the corner points. If he pushed mana into that it would become a breaking point. He discovered that he could draw concentric circles but it would only work on the innermost that he had drawn. He could however fix them one at a time before drawing the next smaller one. Even more nifty was the way the spacing automatically became even and the circles became parallel when he flared mana into the central circle.
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It was while he was practicing the technique with concentric rings that he suddenly began getting queasy and light-headed. He went into the back and told Dorn he was feeling sick and the old dwarf asked how long he had been practicing his drawing. He said he had been working on that pretty much the whole time and Dorn told him to feel of his mana reserves.
Ryuji was shocked to find that he was very low on mana. He figured he only had maybe a tenth of his total capacity left. Dorn asked him to demonstrate what he had been doing once and he could go home for the day. Ryuji decided he would watch what his mana did while he was drawing the circles.
Everything was fine at first, Ryuji made a pretty acceptable outer circle and he didn’t feel that it needed correcting. When he drew the next of the three intended rings though, it wasn’t quite symmetrical. That’s when he flared his mana to straighten it out. Suddenly he felt queasy again and he could actually see his mana flood out in that split second of flare. Now he understood why it wasn’t a common practice. The simple act of flaring his mana used a disproportionately large amount of mana.
After Dorn helped him to his feet, he slowly began to feel a little better after a few minutes. Dorn told him that he was using the same amount of mana or more to straighten the circles that he would to activate a spell of mid-tier. Ryuji was impressed with the amount of mana that he had but now he knew exactly why Dorn didn’t tell him to do that. He said goodbye for the day and left the magic shop.
He then made his way back to the inn intending to go straight upstairs for a short rest. Teresa stopped him first and handed him something that had been delivered for him. The sight of new sets of clothing made him feel ever so much better. He then made his way upstairs for a rest.
After a short nap, he awakened and felt very refreshed. He decided to go clean up and got a basin full of the now cold water from outside the privy. After washing off in his room he was finally able to change clothing for the first time since coming to this world. The new clothes were remarkably well-tailored and fit him perfectly with just enough room in them to move freely.
Ryuji then made his way back downstairs where Karen was waiting for him with a steaming plate of pork roast. This was something very special because meat like this was expensive and all the more so if you were going to serve it to all of your customers. The vegetables and bread all looked to be freshly heated and the whole entree left him practically drooling.
Ryuji asked Karen about the occasion and but she wouldn’t give him a straight answer. The truth was that he was teasing her because he could easily tell that they had delivered her cream-colored dress since she was wearing it. She was also wearing the earrings and they complemented both her complexion and the dress nicely.
Karen sheepishly sat her plate down opposite his at the table and the blush was back on her face. They enjoyed a leisurely meal together with the obligatory jealous stares from both male and female patrons mixed with quite a few sly grins. Among those in the grinning category was the old owner of the inn Teresa. She stood near the end of the bar watching approvingly.
After going back upstairs Ryuji went back to his room and made sure to lock the door. After he had lit the lamp and settled in, he began filling the satchel with copper coins again. To his surprise, the coin pouch now dispensed three copper coins at a time. His goal of filling the satchel finished he thought about going to bed but he had taken a nap earlier and wasn’t really sleepy.
Ryuji decided to practice his magic circles with water this time. Much to his surprise, it was easier to control the flow of mana into the water and thus through the circle it created. He realized it was probably a bad idea to try using his mana so soon and dreading another headache he took a look at his mana reserves. That’s when he received another shock, his mana reserves were full again. He just shrugged it off and kept practicing.
After a while, he got bored of drawing circles and stars in the air with water. He decided he would go ahead and log the day’s lessons while they were still fresh in his memories. It probably took over an hour for him to write down everything that he had been taught that day. Afterward, as he was looking back over it, he was glad he had decided to write it down while it was fresh. He was amazed at how much he had learned in one day. After that, he decided it was time for bed.