It was quite a pleasant afternoon at the day. The breeze was nice, there were no clouds, and the clear blue sky was just a pleasant thing to look at. A perfect scene to set up a picnic or whatnot. And in the garden of a certain house, within the country of Australia, that was exactly what a family was doing.
Well, it wasn’t a picnic, it was more like an, outdoor party, with grills, and hotdogs, and other food that would usually be appropriate for this kind of thing.
It was quite a chill party, with children happily roaming around the garden, playing with one another, while the mothers watched from the side, all seated around a table having a couple good scoops of ice cream.
“So, Karen, where’s Leore?”
One of them asked a woman, who was sneakily taking another scoop of ice cream from the ice bucket. The woman sighed and brought her hands back to the table, along with another scoop of ice cream.
“Hah…Well, he’s still working on that ‘Project’ he’s been so keen about…”
“Oh! You mean the one he’s been yappin’ about since last month?”
“Yes…That one…It’s making me worried! He hasn’t left that room since yesterday!”
Karen sighed once more, as she was reminded of what her son had said to him, before he disappeared into the basement with a bag full of packed food and drinks. Since then, he hasn’t left the basement, not even to sleep!
“Karen! Do we still have some leftover fuel?”
“Oh, yes, right here!”
Stopping her ice cream escapades for a moment, she reached down to her little plastic bag, and took out a blurry red crystal, probably about the size of a baseball. She blew away the dust on it and handed it over. The woman who was on the grill thanked her and slotted the crystal in, igniting the fire with the much needed fuel.
As you may now know, this world was not simply pioneered by technology. Yes, technology was still there and helped greatly for the populace’s everyday lives. But alongside it, came a mystical concept, now widely known, as [Magic]!
No one really knew where magic came from, nor what purpose it was first created for, but in this day and age, it was used in a great number of activities. From using it to heat up some lanterns, to using them as weapons in the war against [Monsters].
“But he’ll be fine, won’t he? I mean, last I heard, he was a genius in [Magical Engineering]!”
“I know! I know he’s a genius…But I can’t help but be worried for my son!”
Her son, Leore, was a genius, plain and simple. At the young age of 4, he already begun to learn and understand [Magical Constructs], the fundamentals of magic. However, due to their family not having enough [Mana] to sustain using magic, Leore chose another path, and that path was Magical Engineering!
By the age of 12, he had won competitions after competitions, and received a scholarship to further his learning in a specified school aimed at teaching Magical Engineering, and he absolutely delivered, winning even more competitions, and crowding his shelf with so many medals he himself couldn’t count.
Now, at the age of 19, he was known as a genius, working part-time at a research institute in the department of Engineering. Although, he somewhat disliked going there, since the other researchers looked at him as if he was somehow above them.
In truth though, she wasn’t really sure why he was pursuing this path with such determination. Even as a young adult, he still loved watching [Magicians] battle it out, either on an arena, or in the battlefield.
“Karen, how many scoops have you taken?”
“Eep! Eh…Ahaha~, um…5? I think?”
“Hey! You were the one who promised to take 2 only!”
“Ehehe, woops~”
Well, the outdoor party continued on from there, with them now getting into a tea party, while their children were still duking it out on their imaginary battlefield. Meanwhile, back at Karen’s house, inside the house’s basement,
“Phew…It’s finally done!!!”
Inside, the figure of a boy could be seen, happily shouting as he raised his arms into the air, the lab coat he was wearing flapping wildly as he jumped up from his seat. His back stung with the pain from sitting down for too long, but the euphoria he felt from finally finishing his project easily overshadowed it.
This was Karen’s genius son, Leore Frederick. The amazing genius in the side of Magical Engineering, and a part-time researcher at the Harvot Research Institute. The same person who crowded his shelf with so much gold medals that he could probably melt them all down and sell them for a pretty good price.
Calming his excitement down, he looked over to his invention, the hulk of a machine that took up about half of his pretty big basement. And that’s not including all the medical tools and cables. But, it was his competition winning money well spent.
Leore grew up wanting to be a magician. Going around, casting magic with a chant, jumping from building to building, and fighting against monsters on the front lines and coming back with a good sum of experience and money in his pockets.
Sadly, this world wasn’t all fair. Some people were born with incredible [Aptitudes] for magic, while others, like him, were secluded from such a fantasy due to his lack if magic.
Or so he though.
Just like a human brain, anyone that is born is actually really smart. Anyone could actually do math, anyone can draw, anyone can create. It was just locked behind several gates, that needed to be opened to unleash the person’s potential. The sudden unlocking of a person’s natural potential was called [Acquired Savant Syndrome].
The same goes for someone’s Aptitude with magic. Located deep within the human body, are 8 different ‘Gates’ that channelled mana, or more appropriately known as [Internal Mana Valves].
By opening these ‘Valves’, a human would allow their stored mana to flow, which meant that their aptitude towards magic has been awakened.
Of course, there was still the difference in the size of one’s [Mana Pool], but with enough training and determination, along with some bit of luck and advice, anyone should be able to amass a mana pool as big as an ocean, if given enough time.
That was the main reason why he took up his education at Magical Engineering. He hoped, that with enough time and effort, he would discover a way to unlock the human body’s 8 Valves. And with the help of his hard earned money, the fruit of his labour now stands before his eyes.
Throwing off the safety goggles he was using, he walked into his machine and sat down on the metallic chair at the centre of the machine. All around him were a mash-up of buttons, screens, and a music player to reduce his stress. He actually forgot what songs he installed in there, but any songs were fine, just not country songs.
Taking off his clothing, except his pants and underwear, he pulled the 8 cables by his side and attached them onto his skin, precisely above where his Internal Mana Valves were. He also strapped himself onto the chair, just so he wouldn’t move while the machine was active. If he missed, for even a nanometre, he’ll be fried to death, and that’ll be bad.
That was also why his handbook was sitting right beside him, pasted up on the wall for him to see. From his findings, all the cables seem to be attached at the correct position, but even then, the worry of death still lingered in his mind.
So, just in case, he had several different medical machines ready to go, just in case something goes horribly wrong. First, an automatic wire cutter, to stop the transmit of energy into his body. Second, a device to check for his heart and brain. And third, in the case any of them were failing, her army of medical machines would go to work to ‘Revive’ him.
His heart stopping was still acceptable, since his machines could just start it up again. But if his brain happens to stop working, well, all bets are off at that point.
“…Okay…Let’s do this! For science!!”
Letting out his fiercest battle cry, Leore hovered his hand over the activation button. His hand was trembling, almost completely soaked and dripping with sweat, but from excitement, or fear? He didn’t know.
“3…2…1…”
Taking a deep breath, a smile formed on his face, and he shouted.
“0!!”
The button was pressed, and everything began to work in an instant. His consciousness flipped on and off as a surge of electricity made it into him. His entire body convulsed, but the straps on him kept him in place.
Finally, his brain couldn’t handle it anymore, and he blacked out.
…………………
“Uah…wh…a…?”
Slowly, his consciousness began to return, as his eyes began to open. His vision was blurry, with everything around him only looking like a bundle of jelly and light. How much time had passed while he was asleep? He asked himself, but his eyes couldn’t focus enough to see the clock on the screen.
His hands were still trembling, most likely as an aftereffect of being shocked and all that. Although slow and unprecise, he was able to untie himself and stand up from the chair. Not bothering to take his shirt back, he left the machine and began making his way up the toughest set of stairs he had ever gone up, even though there were only 8 steps.
He somehow managed to make his way back into the living room, but his energy was quickly fading. With renewed determination(From tripping over and over on the rug), he began making his way up another set of stairs, a challenge perhaps even harder than his test to enter his school.
Step by step, breath by breath, he finally made it back into his room, and on the sight of his comfy bed, leaped onto it, and instantly fell asleep.
…………………
An entire day had passed since then, and Leore found himself waking on his bed, pushing off the blanket he had been sleeping under-, wait, blanket? Even though his memories of yesterday were slightly blurry, he didn’t recall falling asleep under the warmth of his blanket. Perhaps his mother found him lying dead on his bed, and decided to put the blanket over him.
Getting up, he quickly made his bed and put on a shirt, since he doubted his mother would enjoy seeing him half-naked. After all’s set and done, he took a glance at the clock to determine the time, and went down to greet his mom and have some breakfast. He did skip his dinner after all.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Ah! Leore, good morning!”
“Eh, yeah, morning.”
He replied somewhat awkwardly, wondering if she saw the machine he built in the basement, but he’ll save that for later. His breakfast bacon & eggs were readily waiting for him, so he sat down at the table and began to eat.
The atmosphere was mostly silent, with the occasional song from a nearby bird. None of them wanted to break the ice. Since when did this start? He couldn’t quite recall when. His family wasn’t always like this.
“Leore.”
“Ah, uh, yeah?”
“…What is that machine downstairs?”
Well then…It seems like she did take a look while he was asleep after all. That was bad, really bad. Cold sweat was trailing down his back.
“Um…That’s…A project, to test out, uh, some new magic formation.”
“…Tell me seriously.”
Ah, instantly found out. Leore was never good at lying, even when he used to large abundance of knowledge to try and implant lies and hoaxes into the opposing side. His nervous expression and his stuttering speak was way too obvious to not be suspicious.
“Ah…Well…That’s…um…”
“Leore. What. Is. It?”
“……It’s an [Activation Device]…To allow me to cast magic.”
When she heard those words, her eyes burst open, and her mouth was left agape. It almost seemed like a joke, knowing that this son of hers wasn’t born with any aptitude for Magic, but at the same time, he was a genius, and one that sucked at lying at that.
She felt inclined to ask what the side-effects were, but seeing him yesterday, all tired and weak, with his body burning and weak breathing, there was no doubt that the machine was a dangerous one. But seeing him okay like this, somewhat lightened her worry.
“Are you, okay, after that?”
“I can’t feel any big changes, and the fatigue was gone too. I’ll go check downstairs after this.”
Just like he said, after he finished up the last piece of bacon on his palate, he cleaned his plate up and went downstairs, this time with the supervision of his mother. Once they were downstairs, Leore immediately went to work, preparing all the devices he needed for a medical check-up.
‘But…Even then…’
This machine was amazing, both in terms of size, and function. No matter how many times she went down here to check up on this behemoth of a machine, she couldn’t help but stare at it with fascination.
“…There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with me.”
“Are you sure?”
“No signs of Cancer, no burnt flesh and muscles, my brain activities are normal, my heart is beating fine, and my lungs still seem to be functioning…But…”
“…But?”
Leore himself couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Not being an engineer herself, she couldn’t read all the stuff that was being displayed on screen right now, but judging from her son’s ecstatic smile, it didn’t seem to be anything bad.
“I…did it.”
“Huh?”
“I-I did it!! Haha! I did it!!”
“Y-You did what? And calm down, it’s still in the morning.”
Jolting up from his seat, Leore made his way to his handbook and began jotting down all the events that had transpired until this moment, and the success he had managed to achieve!
“M-Mom, I did it! I’m able to use mana now!!”
“…eh?”
She wore a blank expression as she heard those words. ‘Able to use mana’, it wasn’t something she expected to hear, especially coming from him, but for some reason, her body moved before she realised, and hugged him with tears in her eyes.
“I-I’m glad, hic, that y-you did it, hic!”
“Y-Yeah! M-Me too!”
His eyes were beginning to tear up too, but he held them back, because he knew that there was still a long way to go, until he could start reaching for his dreams, that is.
His dream was plain and simple, to carve his name into the [Arcane Compendium]. To put it simply, it was similar to a history book, except that it took notes of every single magic spell that has been officially announced and accepted. His dream was to create his own spell, and place it inside there.
Of course, if he wanted his name to be there, he needed to be able to use magic, but, born without any talent for magic, the barrier seemed impossible to climb over. But, finally, after many years spent on perfecting his knowledge, he finally did it!!
They shared a congratulatory morning smoothie straight after, and Leore ended up having a brain freeze for a bit.
…………………
Today was Monday, which meant that it was now time for his part-time job. He would’ve liked to skip today to test out his new magical powers, but his boss might smack him a good Monday if he did that.
Stepping out of his taxi, he gave the driver his payment and turned towards the research facility. Despite being quite well-known as a very prestigious research lab, the building was quite small.
The reason being that the ‘Boss’ of this place didn’t hire people only to bring in more manpower. Instead, he handpicked each and every engineer to come in and work. Leore got in the same way, albeit in a slightly different fashion.
Once, the leader of the facility came to visit the school he was currently attending, to take a visit at the science festival that was going on. He was actually just there to sightsee, but to his surprise, a device made by a young engineer caught his interest.
Leore was still young back then, much younger than the rest. Yet, the device he brought to that stand was beyond what the school offered, heck, even more than his own lab could offer and produce.
Once he approached him, Leore was shocked to see him, since he knew quite well who this man standing before him is. He quickly got to work, to display what this machine was capable of.
The leader was intrigued when Leore said that this machine was a ‘Printer’ of sorts. As a showcase, Leore took out a spell crystal he bought several weeks ago, containing a complicated [Magic Sequence] that was mostly used to generate high-powered electrical bursts.
He slotted the crystal into the machine, and let the device do the rest. The man was shocked to witness as the machine began to replicate the crystal, and at the end of it, an exact copy of the magical crystal he slotted in!
It was…very practical, especially for long term projects. Being able to reproduce something when the supply was about to reach bottom would be an amazing ability to have. Then again, he didn’t know what the difficulties of this device was, but it was still a marvel nonetheless.
That was when he learnt of his name, and also of how he got into this prestigious school. After he came back a second time to visit him, he offered him a position at his research facility, and he agreed, but with a condition. That condition, was to only work part-time, 3 times a week. The reason was he needed to support his single mother, so he couldn’t refute that.
But, anyways, with his lab gear worn, he stepped into the building, and walked into his research room. If he recalled correctly, they were prioritizing on ways to sustain a clean flow of water throughout the city, without relying too heavily on water pipes running below the streets.
It was something that the mayor of the town proposed to them, and the leading scientist gladly took the job. Their deadline was next month, and that was scarily close, knowing that they hadn’t made much progress.
And this was super important too, since the life of this town relied on this turning out to be a success. Recently, the number of Monsters crowding on the outskirts of town has been increasing at an alarming rate. And if the water pipeline suffers any more damage, the cost of repairs might be too high.
As for the reason why they hadn’t made that much progress…Well, it’s mostly the researchers’ overconfidence. They somewhat knew that this was an almost impossible thing to accomplish in just 5 months, but their pride took over, and it resulted in this.
Everyone in this facility was looking at finding some way to create high-speed, super durable pipes that could easily move the water from the source and into the tanks within the city. He could almost imagine what kind of headache they were going through right now, but that was their fault.
Instead, he had been looking at a different solution. As one of the leading countries in magic development, [Japan] was sure to have some kind of solution to this, and he did find one!
It was a [Magic Spell] called [Storage], or simply [Space]. To use an example, think up of the [Inventory] in an RPG. You can put stuff in, and you can take stuff out.
His plan was exactly that, use the [Storage] spell to suck all the water in, and then expel them out into the city’s main water tank. But, he was never a magician, so he was unable to actually create a [Formation] that had this spell, until now!
Now, with his Mana Valves open, he should be able to cast magic now! Well, that depends if he could master controlling his mana and learning how to cast an [Advanced-Level] magic spell from another country in a span of a month.
But, that should be possible, maybe. All he needed was some time off, a good translator, and a chair to sit on. Well, he’ll need to finish his work for the day though, so he’ll start by creating a prototype for the exoskeleton of the machine.
Luckily, he had a lot of Styrofoam, so making a small model shouldn’t be too hard, and running some tests on the computer should only take around 15 minutes. Well, better begin work now!
………………….
As the day comes to a close, Leore arrived back home and was immediately greeted by his mother, and an uninvited guest.
“Yo, Leore!”
“Ah, hi, Morgan.”
Sitting by the dining table, was his old time pal, Morgan Jefferson. Morgan was just about the same age as him. And just like him, he is a Magical Engineer. Unlike him, he wasn’t a researcher, and he hadn’t graduated from school just yet.
“Dinner’s ready!”
“Woo~, right, let’s eat!!”
“Yeah.”
The food today was mainly seafood, with deep-fried fish and boiled shrimp soup…But there seems to be an intruder on the table. A single plate of…boiled eggs? Well, whatever the case, it tasted good, so that’s fine.
But he couldn’t stay cooped up eating all the time, he needed to start learning magic, now.
“Oh? Already done?”
His mother was genuinely shocked at the incredible speed he just ate all those food on his plate. Leore smiled wryly and replied back.
“I need to finish my work.”
“Oho, is it another project from that place? Man…You’re so lucky…”
“I guess so.”
He stood up from his chair and inserted the plate into the dishwasher. He also took out some orange juice from the fridge and drank it all up. He quickly washed his hands off and was began heading up stairs.
“Hey, man! Can I join?”
“…Finish your food first.”
“You heard my son!”
“Yeah, yeah!”
Dinner done and eaten, he went straight into his room, pulled out his tablet, sat down on his red swivel chair, and gave it a quick twirl around before he got to work. First, he found himself a website with details on how to invoke magic.
The practice was, surprisingly simple. The steps were, sit down somewhere quiet, take a deep breath, and do your best to control your flow of mana. Get a feel of how it works and moves, then focus his mana into one point, most likely his index finger, and begin drawing the [Magic Formation] for a spell. Choose an easy spell first, or else you might end up with a [Rebound], a state of sudden shock and pain from the spell falling apart.
So, he’s already sitting down, so first step was done. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and-
“Hey, Leore!...What are you doing?”
“God damnit, just come in. And close the door.”
He came in, and closed the door behind him. He seems to be curious about what he was doing, but he’ll find out soon anyways, so he didn’t bother giving an explanation.
“Just, be quiet.”
He began the process again. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and…feel his mana…? What does mana feel like anyways? Born as a normal boy, he had never gotten a feel of what magic was like, so how the flow of mana ‘felt’ was quite hard to picture.
Or maybe, was he looking at it the wrong way around? Perhaps, he couldn’t feel it, per se. As an example, we know that our blood is moving, and our brains are functioning, but we can’t really see or feel it, right? Could mana work the same way?
Then, the way to ‘feel’ mana, was to put it into action? To see the effects without really seeing or feeling the origin itself perhaps?
He opened his eyes, greeted by his friend, who had been staring at him with a curious expression. Thankfully, he hadn’t said anything while he was thinking, so no interruptions were felt.
He began tracing the Magic Formation of a certain low-tier spell he had recalled from the past, in the air, which garnered him a curious, and also severely confused look from his dear friend Morgan there.
…But nothing appeared.
Was that theory also wrong then? No, not yet. Perhaps he was going way over his head. Maybe creating a Magic Formation without any base object was way too advanced for someone who had opened his magical potential yesterday.
So, he took another approach. He tried tracing the Magic Formation on the wall, but still, nothing came out. ‘Hmm, maybe even that is still too hard for me…’ He thought as he began to search for more reference.
And then, he recalled that time, back in elementary school, when they were asked to memorise the Magic Formation for the spell [Light]. What it would do was, just, create a floating orb of light, that will vanish after a while.
He still recalled how enthusiastic he was, to see the drawings on his paper turn into magi-…Wait, paper…paper…Paper! That’s right! He might need a medium to create the magic formation!
Scavenging through his desk like a madman, much to Morgan’s shock, he took out a sheet of paper, set it down on his table, and began drawing the Magic Formation for the [Light] spell. His hands moved swiftly and precisely as Morgan watched from the back.
“Huh? Isn’t that the [Light] spell?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Back in elementary, since he was unable to use his own magic, his teacher did it for him, inserting her own mana into the paper, and causing the formation to activate. The way her mana snaked out of her hand and into the paper, was still deeply engraved into his memories.
So, he did the same.
Putting the paper down on the floor, he knelt down, and placed his hand over the paper. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and concentrated. He could almost feel it, the ghostly feeling of something flowing within him, and willed it to move!
“W-Woah?! What the hell?!”
Then, it happened. A translucent energy began snaking out of his palm, and into the paper, causing the formation to shine! An orb of pure light began to ascend out of the paper, until it disappeared into thin air. But Morgan was deeply shocked.
“Oi, oi, oi! What the hell, man?! You just used magic!!”
“Yeah, I just did.”
“B-B-But how?! We were born without magic powers man!”
“…An accident occurred at the lab, and this happened.”
A lie was spouted out from his mouth. But, although he was a terrible liar, Morgan was even worse at it, simply accepting what he said as truth, despite knowing that it was near impossible.
“Man…! I wish I was there too!”
“…Sure…”
But, with that, the first step to complete this task was now complete! Next, he needed to draw and master the [Storage] spell, and then implant that into his machine, and then do test-runs, and then-, okay, maybe there was still a lot to do left. But, baby steps.