I sighed as I read the top of the page. "In order to cast the spell [Legerdemain] you need to close your hand, rotate your wrist, stick your fingers out—yeah, you already told me all of this stuff."

The rest of the book was currently blank, with its contents only being displayed once he became a Weaver. Why this was the case most likely had to do with the forbidden technique.

"Odd." Syn rested her fingers on her chin. "Does it really not contain anything else?"

After describing the somatic motions, it described the different effects of the spell. The first part included the ability to heat, cool, or flavor any small nonliving object. The second allowed the caster to color, clean, or soil any lightweight object. The third part was rather vague and specified it could create harmless and temporary sensory effects. Nothing else was of note except for the mentions of how the spell type changed upon which affect was used.

"You didn't mention any of these other convenient quality of life effects."

"In order to achieve mastery of a spell, or anything for that matter, you need to focus on just one aspect at a time. You would obviously learn the rest of the effect in due time."

"Fair enough." I skimmed through the page once more, yet nothing stood out to me. Feeling like I must have missed something, I started at the very top once more. Underneath the runic writings of the spell, I stopped and noted a brief caption which I missed. "The verbal components of the spell require the caster to say, Unwaor—"

"Unweorðian râd mund." Syn raised her hand and pressed her palm against her face. Her eyes squinted and mouth hanging slightly agape. "How am I so dumb? I completely forgot that you need the verbal components to start out."

"Eh, don't worry. It happens."

She exhaled a hefty breath of air through her nose. "Seriously. How could I forget?"

I shrugged and turned my attention to the chicken breast. "How did you say that again?"

"Unweorðian. Râd. Mund."

After many minutes of failed attempts at pronouncing the archaic words in a way that didn't sound like verbal vomit, I managed to say the phrase with only a minor hiccup.

"Good. And make sure you say it fast enough and in rhythm with the motion, or else it will end in failure."

"Got it." I cleared my throat and began. I followed through on the hand motions and said, "Unweorðian râd mund."

Upon completion, a warm sensation danced across my hand. Not even a moment passed before I felt a small spark erupt all across my body. The center of my chest tightened and started to revolve and fight against my very being. I gasped and panted, aiming to breathe in as much air as possible. Yet, as soon as it started—it ended. Static ripped through my blood and my spine jolted upright, slamming my back against the chair and onto the floor. I coughed, spitting out black mucus and phlegm as I stood up.

"That was more violent than I expected."

"You don't say," I said while picking myself and the chair back up.

"How do you feel?" Syn asked with a curious expression. "I want to know how the method affected you."

"I'm in pain."

"Besides the physical injuries."

"Roughly the same."

"You don't feel as if you have any additional abilities, or have been enlightened, or anything?"

"Sorry to disappoint, but not especially? Am I supposed to get more skills alongside the book?"

"No, your way of thinking is backwards here. The book is an auxiliary tool that teaches you additional spells. Your primary source of power normally stems from your soul."

I nodded before noticing a cold sensation from the back of my left hand. It seemed as if the warped pentagram had grown slightly larger.

Syn stopped nibbling on her thumb and said, "Cast [Legerdemain] again. This time cool the chicken."

Before casting the spell, I touched the chicken to check if there was any effect for the first time. Although nothing physical had changed, it was actually warm to the touch. And it also caused my stomach to growl.

"Oh, your hunger and exhaustion levels are also important to maintain," Syn said. "If your body and mind are in a weakened state, your soul also slows down in order to not overdraw and completely drain your body."

"What if you're in a permanently weakened state like me?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Your soul will refine anima slower than normal."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"That was supposed to be a gotcha moment, but, wow, it backfired." I shook my head before casting [Legerdemain] on the chicken, this time to cool it down.

"Perfect, now follow the anima you absorb to the center of your body. That's where your soul is located."

I closed my eyes and focused. In the nothingness, I caught sight of a thin and muddy grey stream. Following it down, deeper, and deeper, and deeper—until it stopped. The strand flowed into a and equally blurry black rectangle. There was no question in my mind. A manifestation of my soul. Without any further thought, I reached towards it and grabbed. At the same time I flipped it over, my eyes opened. In my hand, the same rectangle. No, it was a card. A black tarot card. The Fool.

"Interesting," Syn said, looking at the card from behind his shoulder. "Souls do activate and manifest in their forms due to life experiences. It appears that your little charlatan trickeries hold more value to you than I picked up on."

My mouth transformed into a wry smile. "It does."

"This means instead of calling you a fool now, I can instead call you the fool."

"The joke is actually on you because this major arcana card is a part of my skill set. Once per day, I'm able to use [The Fool] to instantly cast a spell."

Syn let out a quick whistle. "The once per day and anima costs is what brings it down, but instant casting sounds pretty nice. Anything else?"

"Nope. Nothing else."

"And your soul has one cycle, correct?"

"I do not know."

"Examine your soul again."

I closed my eyes and looked within myself once more. "What am I looking for?"

"Around that card, is there a layer of anima surrounding it?"

"All the anima is within the card, from what I can tell," I said before opening my eyes.

"Zero cycles? I know of level zero skills, like the one you just cast, but I've never heard of being in such a stage before. This must be one effect of the forbidden method. Also, no other abilities?" Syn played with the nail of her other thumb.

"So, is this a bad thing?"

"I don't know? What I can come up with is that having zero cycles means you can only cast spells at the zeroth level as they don't require refined anima since you don't have your first sphere? Hopefully, the answer is within the book."

"I have a feeling you're going to say that last part a lot."

"Probably."

"Why are you here again?"

"Powers of the pact."

"I'll judge them when I get there," I said, turning my attention back to the book. The page that had previously contained information about the [Legerdemain] spell was mainly the same but had a few changes. First, it included a new line about how it could be used to create a crude-looking object. In addition, depending on which effect was used, that would change what subtype it belongs to.

"That's odd," Syn said, pointing at the last line. "I didn't even know there was such an effect, but know I'm curious about why that was mentioned."

"I'm a little lost on that part on the change subtype part as well."

"There are eight subtypes of anima, not including elemental anima. Those eight are: abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion, necromantic, and transmutation. And the four main elemental anima types are: air, water, earth, fire. The other most common are probably ice and magma."

"You weren't kidding when you said that there many more types."

"No, I wasn't. And besides that, being part of the reason I didn't mention them is also because the anima subtypes don't tend to matter. The soul is already attuned to kinds of spells you can cast, and automatically refines the appropriate anima for them. The elemental types do matter more so as people attuned to specific elements gain resistances to other. Alongside that, there can be equipment or potions crafted that grant resistance or immunity to certain elements."

I nod along and absorb everything she said. "Why is the subtype change mentioning then such a big deal?"

"The forbidden technique I used already makes it, so you destroy anima when you use a spell. And while I didn't notice anything strange when you cast [Legerdemain] this might be because it is only a level zero spell and thus can instantly convert and use the raw anima you absorb. By mentioning the specific subtype changes along with being [Rank Zero], I'm afraid that your soul won't engage in this process automatically and instead you will need to refine anima manually. The reason—"

"Wait," I said, stopping Syn from continuing. "Before you continue on that line of thought, how about I just see if there's any other changes in the book. If there isn't, then you can continue upon your line of theory."

"Fine."

"Great." I glance at the page for [Legerdemain] once more, but there were no other changes. Upon confirmation, I turned the page. On each page, new spells were described and listed.

However, before I got the chance to read them, Syn spoke up. "Continue until you reach the end of what is available to you. Looking at a level one spell is what really matters right now."

After flipping page after page, I came to a stop at the end of what I was allowed to read. The right page was once more scribbled in unintelligible white scribbling. On the left page was a spell called [Warp Flesh]. I could cast it on any myself or any target up to ten feet away from me. Its effect targeted a wound and warped the surrounding flesh, closing it and preventing further bleeding, but still kept the pain such an action would cause.

"A bit vicious, but not bad," I said out loud.

"Yes, but look at how you cast it. Alongside the verbal and hand motion, it requires one cycle of transmutation anima and a one cycle of necromantic anima."

"Judging by the way you said that, it appears to be a problem."

"Your soul takes care of the whole refining anima for you. So specifying the type required seems odd."

"I wonder who cursed me with such an ill fate," I said with a sigh.

"Truthfully, you genuinely could have been cursed and neither I nor you would know. Well, the pact is also technically a curse, so we do know of that one at least."

"I said that as a joke."

"It could be true."

"Ugh, yet another thing to keep me awake at night."

"Well, if it really does exist, we can't do anything about it until we learn of its existence."

"Let's say I did have a curse. How would we learn of it?"

"Mostly by accidentally triggering one of its restrictions. Even the most powerful of curses and magic have limitations."

"Even this book?"

"Obviously." Syn looked at me in disbelief. "Notice how the book has only been giving you information about the existence of certain spells, along with how to cast them. It's giving you the information and knowledge you need and not casting them itself. If you need another example, just look at me. A certain part of of this book saved me from death, but not without a price. Temporary stasis within a sleeplike state for an uncountable amount of years, and the only way I came back was with your discount medicine and as an eidolon."

"What about the gods?"

"If I knew how the gods worked, I wouldn't be here right now."

"Fair enough." My stomach rumbled once more.

"Alright, you can go eat now. We can figure the rest out after."