It turns out magic was more science than mysticism. Like math uses formulas to map out a desired outcome, magic was less about self-discovery and flinging spells around and more about understanding advanced calculus and patterns. Magic was like building a car in seconds, winding up the engine, and sending it out. It wasn't something one could do hastily or complacently.
For example, the fireball was an excellent offensive spell, but it wasn't simply a matter of drawing a sigil, filling it with mana, and sending it out. Sure, that’s how it appeared in practice, but in reality, pouring in more mana didn't produce a bigger fireball; it increased the likelihood of failure. One had to calculate the necessary amount of mana needed, considering factors like the angle of the throw, wind resistance, humidity, and the dryness or dampness of the target.
Then, they had to know exactly how much mana to use. There was some leniency, but too much mana was wasteful, while too little caused the spell to fizzle out. Far too much mana would overload the spell, causing it to blow up in the caster's face, and the margin for error was thin. Failure was an excellent teacher, but one student seemed immune to its lessons.
A young man named Earl Hayes excelled at annoying her by always being correct. He made a mockery of her. She would attend classes confident in herself, only to be lapped by him repeatedly. The torment fueled her determination. She may have been a side character at home and not even part of the original story, but here at this school, she was the main character and no magical nerd was going to outshine her! She needed to get first place and rub it in that smug bastard's face. “God I wished he smiled, then I could wipe it off his smug little face.”
Slam!
Ravina flinched as a heavy book slammed against her desk, propelled by a powerful spell from the teacher. “I trust you're not thinking about some useless nonsense," she asked.
“N-no ma’am!” Ravina declared loudly, enticing a giggle from some of the other students but they were quickly quieted by a glare from the formidable older woman. Quickly the room fell silent and after a glace the teacher resumed her lessons
There was an option to brute-force everything. Instead of creating a perfectly tuned spell, one could create a device to overshoot what was needed. For example, instead of making a fireball to fly 15 feet, curve at a 16-degree angle, burst after 203 seconds into a 36-foot radius, costing a total of 87 M.E.U., one could create a spell totem. This totem would always cast a fireball to shoot 300 feet at a 15-degree angle and burst on impact in a 50-foot radius, costing 200 M.E.U. each time.
This method was quick and repeatable, as long as one had the mana to pull it off, though it overused mana. This is why most mages used staffs and wands. These were not simple sticks picked up from the ground but intricate slices of spell carvings layered on top of each other. Thousands of small circle slices of wood or metal bonded together by magic in the shape of a staff, creating thousands of preprogrammed spells in the hand of a mage. All one had to do was fill the right circle with magic and lose the spell.
“Then what's the point in studying!” demanded a kid with curly red hair and a boyish face. This young man’s name was Chet Hansen and he was another student at the academy. He was complaining in the family restaurant known as Vents. It was the same restaurant where they enjoyed the food the first day and as time passed it became a hang out for the magic students.
Today only a few kids were enjoying the end of class meal. In the beginning they all would come back, but as classes progressed more and more returned home to study. “Go complain to your so-called brother.” Avis said with a sigh. He sat with this back straight as he delicately enjoyed the water in his cup, holding it delicately as if it was wine.
Stolen story; please report.
Chet scoffed, “pretty boy frankie is busy with his secret investigation.” he complained. “Ever since he got that stupid letter he stopped being fun.” This comment earned him a slap on the back of the head from Betsy.
“How can you be so crass,” she admonished him. “He saved your ass from those loan sharks.”
“Hey!” Chet stood up outraged. “I wasn't the only one that fell for their lies was I!”
“Yeah but I only borrowed a few dozen dons, not a hundred Kasse.”
“He told me it was return when able!”
“He lied!”
A large clap ended their argument. It was another classmate that wasn't included in the original group. “Come on kids,” the gruff voice of an older man came from a young looking child. With black, combed hair and small grey eyes the young man took a tremendous amount of time in making himself seem more adult then he really was. All this ever got him though was the smiles of adults thinking ‘how cute’. Of course he was oblivious and thought himself to be far more mature than his counterparts. Perhaps this is why he always tried to mediate when they went off topic. “Right now we need to focus on Ms. Emilies coming test.”
“Oh shut it.” Rocco complained, rolling his eyes at the high and mighty Jacklyn Wise. he looked at the boy. “We’re trying to forget about that test, Alocueshia formulas are the worst.” he groaned, his head hitting the table, his arms covering it soon after.
“It's not too bad,” Tommie commented. “I mean, once you learn Αρκαδία then it's pretty much easy to figureout how to write it out”
Rocco lifted his head. “The hell you're on about!” he demanded, causing the other kid to shrink a little in his seat. Αρκαδία and Alocueshia are two very different things!”
“W-well yeah but i mean. Like it's a code really, isn’t it?”
“Code?”
Tommie shuffled nervously as everyone looked at him.
With a gulp he bought time by drinking some water, feeling it was still parched even after he drained his glass. “Well yeah, think about the basic fireball spell.” he waited like a teacher looking around, waiting for an answer.
“Standard fire ball is 𐌙𐌡𐌐𐌋𐌌” Ravina stated, curious where this was going.
Tommie nodded, “Yes!” he said excitedly, forgetting his nervousness. “So the usual breakdown of MEU (myoo) for that spell is around 82.2.” a groan escaped the lips of the kids. 82.2 was a magic number. Not as magical as fireballs and spells but after five months of schooling, if you didn't know the significance of 82.2 then you no longer attended the school. Some of them even had nightmares about this number, while others used it as a passcode for their bank accounts - substituting the . for a zero: 8202.
“So to find that number you know that the formula M=A×F.”
“Yes, yes we know” Betsy hurried him. “Factor is always going to be 1.37 unless otherwise stated so all that means is we need to get A depending on the spell.”
“Yes well… it always the same isn't it?” noting the confused looks Tommie quickly corrected himself. “The cost per Αρκαδία that is.”
“Cost per Αρκαδία?” one of them repeated.
“Yeah, well again, taking fireball into effect, 𐌙 is usually always going to cost 20 MEU, 𐌡, 10, 𐌐 5, 𐌋 15, and 𐌌 10 making 60 MEU times the environmental factors; 1.37.”
A hush fell over the students. Cold and silent. After a while Tommie was about to ask if he was wrong when Betsy asked a simple question. “Are we stupid?” she asked.
“No… but… no…”
“I mean…”
“It's… obvious.” of course it was obvious when one was told about it. The cost of fire, 𐌙, was usually around 20 MEU. it hardly ever changed. This was also the core of the spell itself. 𐌡𐌐𐌋𐌌 were just along for the ride.
“I've been using Lissial's formula every single time.”
“Me too… but… it's always the same.” The realization was damning.
Tommie could only look as the other students seemed downcast at the news. Still, on the day of the test, almost all students of the Vents lunch club earned a perfect score.