I was sneaking back to the water cave. At least I considered it sneaking. Feet in new boots, that were actually more comfortable than they looked, and wearing a leather apron. Maybe it was a smock?
Regardless of those details, I was a little worried. There had been no signs of any other giant rats or bats. After having spent hours fighting off the giant vermin, there were none to be seen.
I made it back to the cave and had to stop once through the passage. The cave had changed. Where there was once a pool of water near the floor, was now a raised pool, twice as large as the original. I think I could sit in there up to my neck, stretched out a bit with a little room to spare. The water slowly emptied to a smaller pool that itself emptied to form a small stream of water that just kind of vanished.
“Risk and reward, right? I get a bath and a sink or something after surviving?” I asked, aiming the question to whatever entity was running all this. Of the three that I suspected existed.
I didn't expect an answer and didn't get one. Shaking my head, I just removed my boots and the smock. I'm going to call it a smock. I took some time to wash the blood and dirt off of myself in the smaller pool. Once I'd gotten as clean as I could, I lowered into the bigger pool with a happy sigh.
As my muscles joints soaked in the heat from the water, I let my mind go ominous contemplations. On Runic symbols, to be exact. I'd been able to reproduce the spell formations that Word of Healing and Arcane Shot were composed of and thought I was close to deciphering at least one rune that each spell shared.
If I was understanding any of what I was doing, then both spells were composed of at least four runes and actually shared two runes. I can see your confusion. How could I make use of either of these spells if I didn't know the runes that made them? I had a hypothesis.
Magic in this world is based on conceptualization, what one can imagine, then one can make happen. If I used any of the fantasy worlds written about back in the old world, then the chants or rhymes or phrases used to cast spells added to hand gestures and maybe some kind of physical component would focus the spell into what the person casting it had been told to envision happening.
Runes being put together into spell formations is just one method of imagining a spell. I had the name of the spell, Arcane Shot. I had a description of what the spell did. After having cast the spell, I had visual proof that it could be done in two ways. The actual result of casting the spell, a sphere about the size of a golf ball made of energy shooting out at my target, was the first. The second only existed for a short time, but was a formation of lines, runes, and other symbols that I'd been coming to believe made up the directions or circuitry of the spell. The same went for Word of Healing.
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Having followed a bit of logic with that hypothesis, my mind seemed to latch on two unrelated runes that were set at nearly the same positioning in each spell formation. From there, it seemed a domino effect of runes and positions that my mind was telling me. I knew how this was structured and how it was powered.
The notifications came as I traced each spell formation. “Mana, cause it has to be powered. Distance to provide the ability for range, though here on Healing, it has a secondary symbol that the Arcane Shot doesn't…” I muttered to myself.
That was becoming a habit, talking to myself. I hadn't even been like this for a day. The things we let our minds do to us, to keep us sane, y know?
Anyway, the runes within the formations of the spells. It looked like from there, there was a split between the differences of the two spells. Both had runes that came after Distance that were not the same, then one that was, Trauma. Looking at the runes before Trauma, I had a thought. “Elements, types of energy being used as base for the spell? If Arcane goes here and represents an element, then this could be Healing here representing an element. You'd get a result of Arcane and trauma, which would be the spell Arcane Shot and Healing and trauma, which would be… Word of Healing.. that can't be right, can it?”
< Mana: A rune that dictates a method of powering spell formations and enchantments. Distance: Descriptor to provide a measurement of range to a spell. Arcane: One of the Triumvirate of High Elements, generally used if/when a specialized element is not needed Healing: Generally linked with Divine elements, meant as a catch-all descriptor for restorative magic Trauma: Rune descriptor for damage>> “Well, that's a lot to learn.” I sat up in the pool bath, grinning as I read through the notification. That was a lot of new runes. If I was right, I'd be able to experiment with them and create new spells. Or at least, new to me. I seriously doubted that I'd ever create a totally new or unique spell. Given the apparent way spells could be researched, at best, I'd be able to create a different method or combination to get the results of an already existing spell. < Defeat Tryraticous Rex to move on to the next phase of tutorial>> And it looked like I'd need to start trying out some combinations. “We have got to work on ya'lls timing. Really.”