Touch of Fate

Chapter 166: A Steady Increase

The magic theory instructor mentioned much of the same information Johnathan had put out. It seemed that the campus was quickly being warned of the coming conflict, and yet classes continued as usual. Mike found it rather strange. After all, the same students sitting around him and taking notes on stability of elemental energies in unnatural environments were going to be fighting on the front line in the near future. It was surreal when he thought about it.

Shaking his head, he returned his attention to his current project of copying down Conjuration chants from the borrowed library book. Much like the one on Elemental Magic, it consisted of a limited number of chants with long sections detailing how to properly put them to use. However, this particular tome only contained 12 individual chants, which he'd finished before the class was even halfway over.

Now he was left wondering how to spend the remaining time. Listening to the lecture was an option, but he quickly grew tired of the dry manner in which the professor taught. He understood why such a class might be important to future researchers, but a fundamental understanding of the way magic worked wasn't necessary for the majority of students. They just needed to know the best way to put it into practice.

[I suppose the same could be said for most sciences back on Earth, but they still taught them in school.]

Sighing, he decided to occupy himself with attempting to unlock Scrivening. He pulled the required materials out of his bag, earning a few questioning looks from his classmates, and opened his grimoire (journal) to the place he'd copied down the details on the skill. As far as he could gather, it was simply a matter of charging the ink with mana, and drawing the runes for a given spell onto the future scroll.

After selecting an appropriate sheet of paper, and mixing a quick batch of ink using the specialized charcoal and mana cores he'd powered earlier with a little mana infused water, he began the process of loading the enchanted pen.

This proved to be far simpler than he'd thought. A built-in reservoir with a lever created a small amount of suction that drew the ink in, trapping it in place. Really quite a neat design. It reminded him of a old fashioned fountain pen from Earth.

Now ready to start, he took a moment to think about what to make. Figuring that a light spell would be the least likely to backfire in a horrible manner, he started drawing the arcane runes in the way displayed by the guidebook. Thankful his Communication Magic did the majority of the translation work, meaning he simply had to focus on keeping his hand steady.

The process required a great deal of focus, since a slight error in the structure of one of the runes could lead to the scroll failing, wasting the materials and mana.

Despite that, he found the act of Scrivening quite soothing. There was a meditative quality to it, which made the time pass quickly. Before he knew it, Mike was done. A newly formed scroll of a basic light spell he came up with, laid out in front of him. It created a small glowing orb that followed the caster until its mana had been expended. While his ring obviated his personal need for light, he figured it could be helpful to his allies when operating at night or in underground locations.

Looking over the finished product, he felt quite proud of himself. It was a little rough around the edges, but it had an elegance to the runes that was pleasing to the eye. He used Appraise to examine his new creation.

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{Scroll of Lantern Light}

Magic Item (Tier 1, Rank 4)

A scroll of the Lantern Light spell. It creates a small globe of light that follows the caster, providing illumination. Reduced from Tier 2 due to a flaw in the Scrivening process, lowering its mana efficiency.

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While his face crimped a bit at the last line, Mike nevertheless enjoyed the act of creation. Scrivening was more straightforward than Alchemy, and he felt that, with a little practice, he could become quite good at it.

Quickly scanning his [Status] he located the new entry.

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- Scrivening (Tier 2, Rank 1) -

The art of drawing arcane runes with mana infused ink to create scrolls. Provides a minor system correction to act of Scrivening. Higher levels of skill increase the mana efficiency and potency of inscribed spells.

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[There's not much to that description, but I suppose that's alright. Its a fairly simple skill once you have the basics down. I wonder how valuable scrolls are. Maybe this could be a good source of income, assuming I even need such a thing anymore.]

Guessing that he had enough time and ink left over for one more scroll, he decided to try something more common. Settling on his old standby of Fireball, he started working.

Perhaps because of his new skill, he found himself falling into something of a trance during the Scrivening. After a few minutes, he had finished and was once again looking at a new scroll. This time, the number of mistakes had been reduced. He figured that after a few more tries he could make one without any inherent flaws.

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{Scroll of Fireball}

Magic Item (Tier 1, Rank 5)

A scroll of the Fireball spell. It creates a small flaming projectile that will explode with great force upon contact.

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[Still Tier 1. The book did say that the potency of the scroll would be limited by the materials. Maybe this is the best I can do without more valuable items.]

Comparing the two, he noticed a strange difference. The light scroll's rune were sharper and more direct, while the fire scroll's seemed to be wavier and more energetic.

[Is it a simple matter of the runic language reflecting the represented elements, or something deeper?]

He found himself growing more interest in the topic.

Apparently he wasn't the only one. While he had been focusing on the fruits of his labor, a small crowd had formed around him, silently watching his efforts. Mike looked around, noticing the stunned expressions on their faces.

[Crap. I did it again.]

Even the instructor was watching from the aisle, slightly shocked. "Did you just scribe a scroll in the middle of class?"

"Yes?" Mike answered, not really sure how to respond.

"And you're a first year, right?"

He nodded.

"How...." The instructor trailed off, apparently not sure how to ask the question.

[Well, I really don't want to deal with this right now. Time for escape plan alpha!]

Looking around at the crowd, he threw his hand down towards the ground and called out, "Smoke bomb!"

Using a very reduced application of Steam Composite Magic, he summoned a cloud of mist, quickly filling the room with swirling fog. While the students were milling around in a panic, he made his way over to the window.

An enterprising classmate came up with the idea of using wind to disperse the cloud. Fortunately, by the time the air was clear enough to see by, he'd already dropped into the courtyard below.

Mike casually started walking to the library, leaving a few confused pedestrians behind. Unfortunately, it didn't look like he would be able to attend either his Magic Theory or Chanting classes over the next few days, since he wanted to avoid being mobbed by curious classmates. Considering the upcoming war, though, he figured that skipping a few wouldn't really matter.

After arriving at the library, he dropped off his returns, keeping the volume of Alchemy recipes. The work was larger and more detailed than the other two, so simply copying the information down was an untenable prospect.

[If I have time today, I should really see about getting an invitation to that private bookstore. Securing some solid reference books will greatly help with my future development.]

While working hard to control his enthusiasm, he made his way to the level three restricted section, feeling a little triumphant as he walked through the archway successfully. The chamber he found himself in looked much the same as the previous levels, with a number of bookshelves in the center, surrounded by cages used to protect the other works. However, there was a strange feeling to the air, which seemed to hint at the power of the knowledge contained within.

Giddy with anticipation, he began perusing the shelves, quickly finding a number of books that caught his attention. He'd already decided to use the opportunity to find a more advanced collection of Elemental Magic chants, but he was having a hard time deciding on what the other one should be.

There were a much larger number of skills covered in this section, some of which he'd been clueless about. For instance, a book called "The Wild Heart: Beast Taming and You" described an ability that he was really interested in mastering. It focused on the skill of the same name, which allowed users to create bonds with powerful monsters and animals, and direct them to assist in battle.

He figured that, with his Communication Magic, this would be an ideal method of dealing with monsters that he might have to kill otherwise. The longer he spent in this world, the more he felt that the line between a dangerous monster that needed to be put down, and a misunderstood creature, was hard to determine. At the very least, he might expand his current selection of allies with something a bit more reliable than people.

Besides, combining this skill with Space and Calling Magic would allow him to pursue one of his childhood dreams. Now, if he could just figure out how to make storage items in the shape of balls, he'd be in business.

Judging from the way the Beast Taming skill was described, he didn't think he would have any trouble acquiring it, so long as he followed the proscribed method, so after jotting down a few notes on the process, he returned the book to its shelf and continued his perusal.

There were some crafting guides he contemplated looking at, especially one entitled "Forging Miracles," which covered the art of creating enchanted weapons and armor, but considering his current smithing skills, he felt it was a bit premature to think about such a thing.

Finally, after a long internal debate about his current weaknesses, he picked up a volume entitled, "The Inward Road." It focused on meditation techniques that were supposed to increase mana volume and recovery, healing speed, and the strength of the soul. While he really only picked it up for the first bit, the last one seemed like something that was worth investigating. The strange system messages he'd seen during his fight with Brutus in the plains near Wyrport suggested that refining his soul might be a means of increasing his overall potential.

Satisfied, he moved on to looking for a chant textbook, but quickly found himself discouraged. Apparently, once reaching the intermediate level of Elemental Magic, chants became much more complicated and dangerous, so each element got its own book. Thus, Mike had a decision to make.

After exploring his options in depth, he finally decided to take one that focused on Ice Magic, one of the forms of Composite Elemental Magic that he hadn't done much with, yet. It seemed to be a phenomenally versatile type of spellcasting that combined decent offensive abilities with semi permanence.

Taking his finds down to the checkout desk, he was feeling quite upbeat, at least until he heard the distant ringing of the clock tower. Realizing that he was late for his Summoning class after counting six bells, he mentally kicked himself. Leaving early was one thing, but skipping entirely was a bad habit he was trying to avoid forming.

[Oh well. Looks like I have most of the afternoon free, now. I suppose I can take the opportunity to head into town and do some shopping. Maybe I'll even check in on Selene.]