Eli POV

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All 6 of us got up and headed off to the room. It looked like a medieval conference room but there were 3 books at each seat. The twins immediately sat down on the left, kicked up their feet and started reading their individual books on casting spells.

I sat down on the first right side seat and immediately began examining the other two books, aside from the spell casting book. One was on craftsmanship and the other was on magical training techniques and harvesting materials.  Joey, a slim kid with brown hair, a sharp nose, and thick glasses over his green eyes decided to sit by me and do the same. Whereas Jeff and Andrew sat in the mid right section, acting as a bridge between the two groups. The crafting book looked more interesting so I decided to look through it first.

I found the explanations for those strange diagrams in the necromancers journal on these pages with a considerable overlap in terminology as well. The diagrams broke down the individual components: The circles were used for summoning. This included raw mana from their surroundings to fuel the rest of the invention or summoning the raw matter that was 'not quite real' to use during the spells. The squares were used to direct the mana where it needed to go and in what quantity, acting as something between a router and mana limiter that kept the mana from being constantly used. It was also this shape that the user pushed when the object needed to be activated, but these two functions couldn't overlap.

The triangles were used to activate the spell to work its effect. It could also materialize the matter summoned by the circle to 'make it real' beyond the confines of the circle, but apparently there were varying degrees of 'realness'. One example it used was a water based spell. While the cost was astronomically higher, water could be summoned in a particular quantity that would stay around for as long as any normal amount of water out of a river or pond would.

But for a significant mana discount, the water would disappear after a short period of time after its use in the cheaper set up. I was getting a headache just considering the physics involved in this "free" matter concept. It made no sense that something that would take untold amounts of energy could be gotten at so little price. I could almost hear the drips and splashes of every physicist's tears at the shredding of their life's work.

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'All right, will uncovering the mystery of this help me with my goal? Yes. Would it help me more than focusing on biology or computer science? Depending on what it means for quantum computing, possibly. But I don't see any evidence that the human body functions any differently in this world....'

My long back and forth of reflection was interrupted by a huff.

One of the twins, the one with a rock in his elemental pin, was looking at me with a hint of disdain in his brown eyes. The other had a wind element pin and was keeping his green eyes in his book.

"Listen, I don't know what passes for manners in what ever hole you crawled out of. But, next time show Ryan a bit deference. Your lack of respect has already irked him" The twin said, his voice dripping with the authority of the almighty.

I just looked at him for a long moment.

Finally, I responded when the moment began getting uncomfortable  "What is your name?".

"Len and my brothers name is Ren".

"Well, Len, take care not to attach yourself too closely to Ryan. Do you have the military authority of a general? The political power of a high ranking official?"

Len looked at Eli in confusion.

"We have magic, there is nothing else worth considering"

This allowed me a turn to huff.

"His whole identity is bound up in his status as a scion. Do you think he will ever tolerate either of you surpassing him? Ryan won't mind having associates who provide him alternative means of power.  But magic wise? He will only tolerate pawns and being his good little minions will afford you some opportunities as long as your interests align. But at the end of the day a pawn that can rival it's king is never tolerated for long". At this I put my head back into the book but kept just the barest vision of my surroundings.

Len looked like he had bitten into an apple and found half a worm. Ren, however, had a more thoughtful look which he immediately hid behind his book.

Joey was quite pissed, although I couldn't imagine why.

I returned to reading the book which then went into how to craft these objects. The crafter must imprint his spirit magic in the shapes and connecting lines while maintaining the single thought of what is going into it. What was being summoned, which section the mana would flow through the lines and where to, the final outcome in the form of how the triangle would interact with the provided mana and materials.

However, for all of its possibilities the book also contained these crafts critical flaw. When the item was hit with a spell from a caster or another craft it would overload the triangle and circles with mana, which would shut down the links for nearly half an hour, some times permanently if the mana overload was severe enough.

I eventually puzzled out how to get around this problem but I wanted to practice the basics of crafting before committing to such a strenuous idea. Feeling stiff, I looked around and saw that the twins and joey had left with the sunlight outside saying it was midday. Stretching, I then got up and went out the door for lunch, leaving Jeff and Andrew to study by themselves in the room.