“What did you do?!” Jial had lost his composure completely, his calm and collected appearance was replaced with an incredibly surprised and uncertain one.
His voice was raised, though not by much but enough to make a difference.
“I... concentrated the light into a beam..” Gilliam responded both honestly and without detail. Given Jial’s reaction he guessed that people didn’t know what a laser was. And since the light spell was generally assumed to be a weak and super safe starting point, this just furthered the assumption.
Though all of this Gilliam had to put in seven runes, most of them might not even be listed anywhere practical, so it was still a safe starting point.
“Should I not have?” Gilliam did his best to hold back a smile, though all of the uncertainties and reactions he honestly did enjoy this reaction. If his assumption was correct he had basically invented lasers in this world, sure, some mage before him might have done it but if nothing else it was not common knowledge.
Jial did his best to calm down, almost returning to his normal self.
“Explain what you did.” This sounded like an order more than a request, he didn’t seem angry but more determined.
“Not sure how much you guys know of light, but where I come from certain aspects of physics might be known that you don’t know of. Much like how a lens can focus the sun to allow you to burn paper, twigs and whatnot, focusing light much more than this allows for something like that-” Gilliam started explaining as he used his hands to emphasise something being crushed into a smaller area.
“The particles that light is made of can be concentrated, I don’t know the theory completely but as far as I know; if there is a limit to how much it can be concentrated I don’t know what it is. There exists concepts of this light focusing that allows to melt metal from a considerable distance... Although this takes an enormous amount of energy.”
He was referring to the weaponizing of lasers, able to take down missiles from afar as a defence mechanism. He didn’t know all the details about them but he knew they somewhat existed as concepts if nothing else.
“This... can work at a longer distance?” Jial’s mind appeared to be spinning with ideas, he might have enjoyed the laser idea more than Gilliam anticipated.
“Yes, one of the runes I used was actually a distance limiter, since light can travel in a theoretical unlimited distance if it doesn’t hit anything. I didn't want to hit walls or even worse; people outside...” He accidentally let slip that he knew this was going to be powerful, to try and save himself he abruptly added another defence. “I decided to use only a small amount of energy to make sure it was not too power...ful...”
As soon as he added that he realised that he accidentally also explained that it could be much more powerful than this.
“However, I had to add three runes of various power and energy concepts to make this work. I also added one for streaming energy to make sure it was properly fed, a limiter to limit the distance, a modifier for Beam to have it focus like this, and naturally for control to let me move it after it was made.”
Gilliam was honestly proud of this, though he had a cheat’y understanding of the runes he was still stoked that he was able to make this up by himself. Naturally this was possible at all due to Jial’s extremely good guidance and explanation but even with the teachings given to him, he was happy about himself.
Jial was still not sure how to process this, everything Gilliam explained seemed to register properly with him it just seemed to be an understanding error behind.
In the end Jial had to sit down as he pondered a moment to himself. “All of this from the light spell.” he seemed a bit distraught.
“Well, it also needs an understanding of light that I’m not sure is common.” Gilliam assured, partly as a comforter in why he could not have known, but also simply as fact.
“Wait...” Jial exclaimed, seeming to have realised something. “If this is based on the light spell, then anyone can cast it...”
This was a good point, everyone could use the light spell it seemed, meaning that anyone could make this work as well. Although it used runes that people hadn’t found or at least shared yet, just printing the circle and explaining it should be enough to let people use it.
“I can... teach you if you want?” Gillaim was already certain this was going to be a yes, but he felt like asking anyway.
Like someone slapped Jial he came out of his unrest and locked his gaze with Gilliam’s.
“Please.” This was a determination that Gilliam had not seen before. Apparently this hit harder than Gilliam expected.
The concept was simple, but since Gilliam didn’t know how well known this was in this world he started with the simple facts. It started with understanding that light is actually a stupid amount of particles that are flung from the lightsource, these particles can be bent and focused; this is why a lens works to let you burn something. You are collecting more particles together which together give their energy to the target which in turn heats up and catches on fire.
A laser is a variant of the same concept, just concentrating the particles even more than you could imagine, to the point that the very air around it heats up.
Explaining the idea behind the circle was super easy, Jial was an expert after all so only a brief explanation that he used a seven edged shape because there were seven runes he wanted to use. The circle was there to focus the energy as normal but the runes were not placed on top of the intersections, but in circles on the inside. Gilliam could not explain why he wanted to do this but it felt appropriate as he was making a magical lens that could ‘contain the power inside’.
Jial took the precautions he could, he had Gilliam make the magic circle first and studied it intensely before replicating it.
When both Gilliam and Jial felt this was proper, only then did he give the circle a tiny bit of energy before activating it. When this failed and the circle just popped into nothing it was clear that it was not given enough, giving it more energy the next try he kept this path of more and more going until he finally found the lower point of success.
Like with Gilliam the circle focused itself into the thin beam of yellow energy, but it only lasted a second before it dissipated. Even to Gilliam’s untrained eyes this was Jial cutting the energy to limit the effect.
“This... this is surprisingly low energy cost...” he seemed a bit scared.
Gilliam was aware of this, though it ate its share of mana, and though lasers are not always super nice with energy demands back home, magic could skip a few steps in converting stored energy into the needed light. With this cheat in place this meant that the energy-to-light ratio ended up much better.
Jial picked up the wooden board that Gilliam cut, and he went through the process again, giving it the energy he used before. The circle as expected made itself into the laser and he brought the wood into it. It burned a nice hole before Jial dismissed the spell immediately.
Inspecting the damage it was not as powerful as Gilliam’s but Jial was smarter in how he did things, even then it managed to make a burn mark into the point where it burned all the way through.
“I want to warn you, though-” Gilliam started. “-I don’t know how this spell will work with mirrors, but mirrors are used to bounce the laser around at home so... Gilliam wanted to warn him just in case.
“Might be careful when you use it and test a bit...”
Jial seemed to think for a second and nod to himself. “I like to think that I’d realise that, but thank you for the warning.”
He seemed to take that warning very seriously, and a good thing as well. The test Gilliam did on his first cast cut through the whole board without effort, so if he were to pump some more mana into it... Well, it could be a bit dangerous if it reflected off something and removed your arm or worse.
“I suppose this is a good time to talk about Obfuscation.” Jial nodded to himself staring into nothing, seeming deep in thought.
Gilliam didn’t consider that, or at least what he assumed that Jial meant. If you see a mage cast a certain spell and get a good enough look at the magic circle, could you not just replicate it? This felt like something that mages would have found a way around, it would be not only frustrating but also dangerous if the wrong people just copied your spells like that. Imagine the laser in the hands of the 13year olds that just started school, a tiny conflict could turn bad.
“There are a few ways of doing this-” Jial continued after moving his focus back to Gilliam, as he was explaining he conjured up the basic light multiplication spell, the one with the triangle and three runes.
“-This is the basic spell circle. Now if I were to cast something like this almost anyone would be able to just take a glance and not only know what I was casting and prepare accordingly. But also copy it as they see the circle, its runes and the spells intended effect once I cast the spell.”
Gilliam nodded, this was basically exactly what he expected.
“There are different ways for different people. The easiest way is to require a specific mindset, almost like your mind then becomes the key. It sounds dumb and simple but when you make a magic circle you will find out that it depends on a certain understanding, expectation and general mindset. This is why focus is important when casting spells.”
As he explained he pointed to his head and made some motions with his hands to try to show his point.
“Like the laser, though you know the result by looking at it, you have already put in a considerable amount of pre-knowledge needed to be able to cast it. Had you not explained to me what a laser was, how you can compact light particles and the science behind it, I would not have been able to use your circle.”
Gilliam blinked confused a few times as he processed this, he accidentally made a theft proofing in the spell simply based on knowledge that was not available. That makes a lot of sense.
Jial didn’t give him more than a second or two to process before continuing his lecture. “Other methods used are related to the display of the circle itself. Although drawing it glowing is the simplest, it's not a necessity. It will use more effort and focus since you have to change the light spell as you draw it, but it can make the circle borderline invisible. Since you just need to display the circle somehow it doesn’t have to be with light-lines, it’s just universal because of how easy it is even in combat or your focus wavers.”
This also made a lot of sense, everyone learns it because everyone can do it, then at some point you get used to it and it’s just easier. People often take the fastest way to get the effects they are after.
“You can animate the circle, though this is most often used for, as my students call it; Cool effect-”.
Still having the simplest of magic circles projected he makes the geometry spin clockwise and the runes spin counter clockwise.
“-This just adds complexity to keeping it manifested and though it’s hard to know where the runes go, the runes still need to be in the correct place at the point of casting. This means that if you mess the timing up you’re just ruining it for yourself.”
This made sense, you had to activate it at the correct timing, since the runes needed to be at their proper locations this just looked like a neat trick to seem cool. Much like many trickshootings are just that, tricks and could be done better the normal way.
“I would recommend going for the simplest, mindset and if needed; make the circle harder to see.” Jial ended with a recommendation, which made a lot of sense.
There is the KISS standard back home, translating into one of two sentences; Keep It Simple, Stupid. Or; Keep It Stupid Simple.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
In short, the simplest you can do something is often the best, oversimplification has its place but rarely in practical life.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Gilliam made finger-gun pointing at Jial with a dumb grin hinting at his pun.
Jial was not amused.
Gilliam’s grin faded, finger guns retreated, and he decided to change the subject before this turned into an awkward moment. However before he was able to start a new conversation Jial broke in and took over the conversation.
“I think that’ll do for today, don’t you think?” There was a tiny smirk on his lips, and though he’s a teacher and could hide it under the guise of not overstraining his student, it was clear that he wanted to do his own thing for the rest of the day.
Gilliam couldn’t complain, he had gotten special tutoring from a specialist, created his first spell, taught that spell to his teacher and all around learned a ton!
“I suppose that can do for one day.” he smiled in return. He really wanted more, much more. He also had a ton of questions he had to write down so he didn’t forget them. During today’s learning there was mention of using external sources for energy in the circle, though he understood how to do that in the form of the circle itself he did wonder about these managems.
By the time Gilliam had planned some questions Jial was already on his way out the door, in stead of any questions or new discussions he at least managed to shout out a “Thank you for today’s lessons!” before Jial had closed the door behind him.
Gilliam was now alone in the classroom, tilting his weight backwards he pushed his chair only on its hind legs in a balancing act, but held in place as he put one of his legs on the desk he was sitting at. He looked to the ceiling and let everything process, today was a very, very good day. Quite a lot to process and a lot remaining he still wants to know.
Taking his leg off the desk had his weight shift and tilt back in a proper position he took his book that was now full of drawings, notes and all kinds of things and started adding some questions or notes on things he wanted to check up on.
The things he remembered here and now was that he needed to learn more about Mana gems, his future class schedules, unstructured magic and Foci.
There were many, many other things he wanted to learn and look into but these were the things that stood out at this moment. There was also the thought if he should consider the Familiar ritual as well. Back home he always enjoyed the concept and liked the things that followed it, but this was not a game, this was real. If he bonded with something sentient then it could make things easier, but if whatever creature this is isn’t sentient then training, caring and whatnot becomes a part of this life. It’s not just like getting a cat that somewhat went on autopilot most of the time.
He pondered for a moment before he decided that perhaps it was time for some air, his school day was long since over so he might as well go do something else. Parts of him wanted to find a quarry or something far away like that, he wanted to see how much damage he could cause with certain magics without being afraid of accidentally killing someone.
Though this could wait for now, he had one new spell he could play with that was surprisingly easy for him to cast, it didn’t have much range yet but... perhaps he should play with the runes? Swapping out the Stream rune with a pulse rune and adding a higher buildup could perhaps make differences?
He had to experiment... Something he didn’t want to do at random, if this went through a door or something it could be catastrophic.
For now he got up from his chair, packed down all the stuff he had spread across the desk, taking care to put the cotton paper things in between the fresh ink pages before leaving the classroom. Not having a goal in mind he ended up aiming for outside.
Taking a right turn to the main hall he found the first way out from there into the Air field. The sun was still up, although being that it was very to the west at the moment the field was mostly covered in shadow. There were many students here testing some spells, Gilliam decided to walk past them and just take in what was going on.
The reading he did last night explained the easiest way to tell what year someone is, could be found based on their pin’s disk colour, using a common metallic value logic as medals. Bronze was year one, Silver year two and Gold year three. If someone had a badge that had all three metals this meant that they had graduated and finally white were teachers.
Walking past the students it was not always easy to tell what metal the little 4cm (1.5inch) sized pin on their chest, around their neck or wherever, had. But the few he did see hinted to the level of spells they were training on.
There was a large difference in skill between the few he could recognize as first, second and third year. Some first years were still to the point that they struggled with the glowing lines, if they were new that made sense so he couldn’t exactly judge based on that. The ones in third year had more impressive spells and circles. He saw some runes that weren’t in the list of easy to use runes, so they had either gotten some bonus info from somewhere or had reached some conclusions in their own research.
This had Gilliam oddly excited, he had no idea what things he was going to be able to do but he was looking forward to it nonetheless. As he was contemplating taking a walk to wind down, he realised that he had not yet eaten dinner!
The map in his bag told him where he needed to go for food and he still had some time to go!
All meals were served in the Wing you stayed in, so Gilliam always ate in Wing 3. Luck would have it that he was in the Air field at the moment which was between Wing 3 and 4. Changing his goal to the mess hall he walked over to the door leading straight in there.
Gilliam mused a bit to himself that whoever made the layouts of things on this place either did very well, or did less than well and he was just lucky at the moment. In either case this just made things easier for him.
Entering the door into the hall of food he noticed that there was a surprising lack of people here, might be because the time was nearing end of dinner so most people had probably already left, perhaps many of them were the ones training in the Air field just now.
This just made things easier for Gilliam, although he had experience with queueing he didn’t need to draw on this today and could just take a plate and go over to the buffet right away.
Still feeling a bit odd that the foods here looked strangely familiar, being in another world he sort of expected something super exotic at times, but besides the collared ‘servants’ behind the counter this all felt oddly at home.
Putting the whole slavery part behind him again, he focused on the food, anything else would just make him depressed. He found himself at a table with some food, mostly meat, only a few vegetables and some gravy-looking sauce. It didn’t taste like gravy but it looked familiar enough that he gave it a go. That’s not to say it wasn’t good, just different.
He enjoyed his food, although he was a bit sad not to have seen Angela today. He saw her just last night and though she probably had her own stuff to do, he kind of wanted to speak to a familiar face and perhaps gloat a little bit. Ignoring that for now he completed his dinner and left without much more consideration. It felt a bit weird just leaving his plates on the table but there was a sign specifying that was the thing to do, if nothing else he stacked it in a simple carryable way to make it easier for the people cleaning up after him. Finding himself in the Air field once again he took the scenic route and ended up just going to his room.
It had not even gotten dark yet at this point, but he was oddly tired, having used his mind in high gear all day long he was getting somewhat worn out. Going back to his room and just doing some light reading, perhaps some testing before crashing sounded like a good idea.
Coming down the hallway he saw Albert standing outside his door, looking dapper as always, not even looking bored.
Getting in conversation distance he turns towards Gilliam before he’s able to start the conversation himself. “Good afternoon, Mr Gibson. I was told to give you this”
There was no smile, no expressions, just pure professionalism as he handed Gilliam a small wooden box.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me.” he followed up as soon as Gilliam held the box, after a bow he walked off, no doubt to do more dapper things.
Gilliam was a bit confused but took the box with him in his room. Wondering about its contents he closed the door behind him and immediately opened it.
Inside was his school pin! Sandwiched between a small pillow in the bottom and another in the lid, it was polished and shiny, a bright bronze disc with seven coloured triangles on top, forming a nice rainbow heptagon. The backside of it had some pattern in it, the eyelet for the needle or string, as well as his full name engraved.
There was a length of jewellery chain and a sturdy needle at the bottom of the box, as well as a little note explaining how to wear it.
Gilliam went for the necklace method he had already decided on last night, it felt the easiest.
The note also explained that this was weather, water and all kinds of wear and tear resistant, so you didn’t need to consider any weather, bathing or whatever. Just wear it.
Gilliam appreciated that thought, it seems that either people complained about that in the past or the people who designed this just were good at thinking ahead.
Well, if nothing else it looked neat and shiny!
Now that this was taken care of, there was the question of what to do. However, now that he actually took a look around in his room he noticed that there was a letter in an envelope that was propped up against a candle on the round table he had in there.
Picking it up it read his name on the front, apparently someone has access to the rooms on the campus, that made a certain sense but he didn’t like the idea of invasion like that.
Well... this was also a magical school, so someone could just as well have teleported it in here for all he knew...
Shrugging his thoughts away he opened the envelope and checked out the letter.
It was from Angela, she had caught up with the people she wanted to at school. She had three goals when she was here. The first was to get him enrolled, which worked flawlessly. The second was to catch up with some friends, which she used most of the day for. The final was to have the school consider what Gilliam is and give him special tutorship, she apparently had to use her fathers name for this, she disliked that but it was for a good cause.
She didn’t have the exact details but she knew that he was going to report to room 5-1-4 where everything would be explained to him.
Outside of this she wished him the best of luck, that he had fun and perhaps made some friends; after all anyone there could be the other figures in her vision. She was going to see her father and spend a bit of time with him, this would take a few weeks at least so she wanted Gilliam to remain in the school until she returned.
During reading Gilliam had sat down on a chair he pulled out from the table. Once he got to the end of the letter he half-threw it onto the table, knocking another paper to the floor.
Groaning like an old man as he bent over to pick up the paper, thinking to himself that Angela had an almost motherly feel to her with all the planning and well wishes, she’s a good friend. Putting the paper back on the table he now ended up wondering what to do.
The introduction book almost felt boring to consider, although it did have chapters about other things than just what Gilliam somewhat skipped ahead on today. The more he thought about it the more interesting it sounded to just look more into spells and magic circles.
Before he knew what happened he found himself with his notebook open, taking notes and designing concepts that he wanted to try later in time, some notes about the mindset, what to think about and how to mentally imagine things as well as the circles and runes themselves.
Suddenly it had become dark, well perhaps not suddenly but Gilliam didn’t notice the passing time. He didn’t know what time it was but it was absolutely time to go to bed.
Tomorrow was going to be another interesting day!