Ryan wasn’t quite sure how he got roped into sitting down and learning magical fundamentals from a low realm researcher, but here it was. It wasn’t that he wasn’t curious about how all of magic worked. It was just that he felt like there was something better to do to increase his strength right now.
He half paid attention to Darrel, the new [Student]-researcher trying to teach him about magic.
“What I am trying to emphasize is that basic runes are important for everyone to memorize. I know it’s not interesting, but it’s foundational, like one would study the multiplication tables.” Darrel paused and looked at Ryan. “You do know the multiplication tables, correct?”
Ryan rolled his eyes.
“I know basic math.”
“I wasn’t trying to offend. All of this is basic education here.”
“No offense taken.”
Ryan decided not to take offense because he was almost certain that the researcher, Darrel, was being genuine. Memorizing basic runes and simple spell circles was studied in elementary school.
When Ryan half-heartedly drew a rune while he was clearly focusing on something else, Darrel tried to emphasize the importance further.
“The truth is that these spell circles—like math, can quickly become vastly more complicated when you move to the theoretical side.”
“Yup.”
Darrel rubbed his forehead. He was probably confused as to why someone wouldn’t want to memorize an endless number of runes and spell circles. Darrel didn’t have a volatile mana core that would mess with any spell circle Ryan would try to draw.
“Perhaps I need to find another way to motivate you. Tell me, why does this rune up here show in almost every spell circle related to heat?”
Darrel pointed at a rune that looked like a sphere with what looked like little shake marks surrounding it. Looking somewhat like a particle shaking in space. It was placed somewhat near the top in this particular spell circle.
“I don’t know?”
“I’ll give you a hint, it’s the same reason why we use this to represent the number four.”
He drew up a symbol on paper and Ryan’s system granted [Translation] skill automatically let him understand that it was denoting the number four. Ryan quickly caught on.
“Wait, you’re saying all of these runes are made up?”
“Not just the runes, but the location, the timing of addition in the rune and everything else. As far as we can tell, the most fundamental spell circles and runes have been etched into the firmament long ago.”
“By who?”
“That is a question for theorists. Some argue it was a civilization long ago, some say it was simply mages adapting over millenia until the runes became as efficient as they could get, and some say it was etched by divine beings when they created the world.”
Or it was the Trial System. Ryan did not say out loud.
“Whatever it is, what we do know is that there is nothing more efficient than these fundamental runes and basic spell circles that everyone learns. Every single one of these have been used by Mages since time immemorial. When we are using these, we are communicating with our ancestors or perhaps even the gods themselves.”
Ryan, who came from a world originally without magic, doubted that was true for him.
“Then what about new spells? I’ve seen runes and spells being made before.”
Grettfield had crafted that citywide spell with inky runes that he’d never seen before. Gamielle had crafted a completely new spell to counter his volatile mana. How had they
“They would be either true mages with high understanding of theoretical knowledge or madmen that do not understand what they’re messing with. Either way, when someone truly crafts a new spell circle, they are etching their own understanding of magic into the firmament itself.”
Darrel shook his head.
“It is not something that anyone other than the most careful should attempt. Not only can new spells be dangerous, but if they succeed and continuously etch it into the firmament then they risk it becoming easier for future Mages to learn. I hope I don’t have to explain how dangerous that can be.”
Ryan actually knew that one. There were laws regarding making completely new spell circles with unattuned mana. He would have to remind Gamielle of that one when they next met. Maybe he’d report her to the Adventurer’s Guild.
“Okay, I understand that there’s rules and dangers regarding unattuned mana but what about freeform magic, like telekinesis or the stuff that [Witches] and [Elementalists] use? I’ve seen plenty of non-magical spell circles, do they not uh, etch things into the firmament?”
Darrel looked a bit more uncomfortable about that one.
“Telekinesis through magic is considered more of a parlor trick unles specialized. The others… those are always more inefficient than spells cast through established spell circles.”
He’d heard of this argument on the Realmnet. [Witches] would get especially catty when [Mages] suggested that their classes were superior.
Ryan wagged a finger.
“That’s biased. I know of at least two [Witches] that would hex you for telling them their magic is inefficient. There’s elementalists that can cause [Earthquakes] faster and more powerful than a [Mage] can form a spell circle, what do you say to that?”
“I hope they’re registered with the Adventurer’s Guild…”
Darrel muttered that under his breath. Ryan just raised an eyebrow and stared at the researcher until he gave a less biased answer.
“Yes. While mana tends to adapt to the path of least resistance to form structures we know as spell circles, that does not always have to be the case. Witches tend to add other less structured energies to their ‘spells’ like emotion and mental capacity. It also means that their spells are much more difficult to replicate, even amongst other witches. Elementalists normally combine their body with qi and make themselves specialized at being in tune with ‘nature’. Whatever that means.”
Darrel said that like he didn’t believe in the existence of nature. He scoffed.
“It also makes their spells useless for anyone else that does not copy their body attunement in the same manner. Both can be considered completely selfish disciplines of magic. Only useful to themselves and nobody else.”
Ryan just scratched his chin. While it was clear Darrel was biased to all hell, Ryan didn’t know enough to argue against it. In fact…
“I’ve never really heard of [Elementalists] making enchantments.”
Darrel had that smug look on his face, liked he’d won an argument because Ryan sort of agreed with him there.
“And that is why responsible mages don’t taint our mana with other energies. We create solid paths in the firmament for the future generations to tread.” Darrel puffed out his chest. “We may not fight in the front lines, but we fight in our own ways. Civilians support us, and we make sure to protect them.”
There was that phrase again. Every time Ryan heard it, every time it annoyed him. To him, it sounded like a phrase indoctrinated cultists repeated about themselves to make themselves feel good. Not only that, Ryan didn’t really agree with it.
He shook his head but didn’t argue, it wasn’t really the time or the moment to convince someone they were wrong. He would have to bring that complaint to someone higher up and change things that way.
Darrel continued.
“It is also why despite these other disciplines. You still want to memorize these fundamentals because they are the building blocks of how everything is put together.”
Ryan put his head back and groaned. They were back to trying to convince him to memorize runes that he would never be able to utilize properly.
Thirty minutes later…
Ryan had enough. He scrunched up the spell circle he was etching from memory.
“None of this is practical. Real [Mages] don’t give you time to react to these. They hide spell formations with their hands or add a trick rune that looks similar to another but does nothing.”
Deslan looked at him in surprise.
“So you do have some cursory knowledge of magic.”
Ryan rolled his eyes. This was stuff people had figured out in the Settler war.
“I know how to combat [Mages]. Like I’ve told Fetterue—”
“Grand Mage Fetterue.”
“Like I told Fetters. Real combat magic is different from this theoretical stuff. I’m not going to catch up to their theoretical knowledge no matter what I try, and doing magical mind games is going to be playing into their comfort zone, not mine.”
Frustration bubbled in his chest. This was turning out to be a waste of time. All of this was fascinating and it shed light on just why magical education was structured the way it was for adventurers.
But it would never help him against people like the Witch Tyrant, or even someone like One-Eyed Rick.
Before Darrel could formulate an answer, the door from Fetterue’s workshop swung open and everyone paused to stare at the confident woman striding forth with a phone in her hand.
“Foundational knowledge is never a waste of time. Tell me, do your skills and talent mean you should never practice your swordcraft?”
“No, but this is memorization.”
“This is practice for the mind. Just because you do not see the use in these things does not mean it’s a waste. You will pick up an intuitive understanding of these things over time. Just like how swordsmen can pick up new forms of swordcraft quicker. Practicing these things will help you gain that level of intuition over time.
“I don’t have time, seventy days is the max I can stay here. Hard limit.”
Fetterue sucked in a breath at the hard time limit and closed her eyes.
Yes, technically Ryan could fail out of the Trial and return to learn again and again but he had a crawling feeling that the moment he left the Sixth Trial he would regret any moment not taken to advance as much as he could.
The Grand Mage opened her eyes, no less determination than before.
“You may never have time. But that is our challenge, not yours.”
Ryan blinked as she threw her phone at him.
“Inside you will find the basic curriculum of spell circles and magic. I recommend that you spend at minimum thirty minutes everyday studying these things. Use [Spellweave Perception]. In fact, why are you not using that skill to study right now? It gives you intuitive knowledge of spells, correct?”
Ryan stared at the phone in his hand, then turned to the spell circle he had been drawing out by memory.
Then he used [Spellweave Perception].
“Huh. I should have thought of that.”
——
And with that, the learning happened in full. He was still studying spell circles and runes—just in a more practical way.
Fetterue held a metallic pipe with a dusting of runes hovering over the object. She pointed at a particular rune that was just three lines.
“What happens if I change the angle of this rune to here?”
She pointed it closer to the heating rune from before.
Ryan frowned.
“It spikes my [Lesser Dangersense] and [Spellweave Perception] tells me something is off, though not necessarily dangerous. Oh wait, now that I’ve realized that, I’m getting a little bit of a warning coming through.”
Fetterue had been right, the more he truly understood, the better [Spellweave Perception became. Combining it with [Lesser Dangersense] had been his idea.
“Anything else?”
Ryan shook his head.
“I don’t think so, no.”
Then the Grand Mage flicked a finger and the rune moved towards the location she pointed out. Ryan jumped back in alarm as the pipe turned red hot, shook for a second, and then exploded outwards. He got out of the way well ahead of the time, though he guessed the flying shrapnel wouldn’t have done more than bounce off his skin.
“Was that really necessary?”
“That had been one of the original designs for enchanted heated piping. It might not be dangerous to you, but for mortals it could have been deadly. Remember that for next time.”
Ryan stared at the pieces of metal lying around.
“Huh.”
——
It turned out that how you taught someone was almost as important as what you were teaching them.
Ryan ended his third day there, on the roof of the mage tower, just staring at the sky ruined by the light pollution of the capital. His mind abuzz with runes, spell circles and their placement. He had a feeling that maybe his [Arcane Volatility] would work better too.
He was realizing that he’d been tricked into a day full of worryless education by a crafty old Mage.
[Spellweave Perception] leveled up!
[Spellweave Perception] level 6 -> 8
It didn’t feel too bad.
——
Day four…
Of course, you couldn’t just distract Ryan with elementary magical lessons forever. He quickly demanded they get back on track with his main problem. The problem was, he was stuck in a debate on ethics after having done [Class Change] on someone else again.
He was on the defensive.
“No, I’m not ripping anything out of the firmament, whatever the hell that means.”
“Linked grand magical rituals can ripple reality and destabilize it. This looks far too close to what you are doing.”
“What you’re talking about we call Legend manifestations. It’s just reality not being able to handle the weight of energy that’s being passed through. It fixes itself immediately.”
“That is not what the research dictates. There’s evidence that immense uncontrolled ripples in reality, alters it for long periods of time. You are doing it in small amounts, but accumulated over time you might be permanently damaging the fabric of reality.”
Ryan frowned.
“Where I come from, there’s plenty of people that can casually cause miles long ripples in reality. You might be right in that it does permanently alter reality, but I think there’s a self-correcting mechanism or the people I know wouldn’t be so free with it.”
Darrel looked horrified at Ryan’s words and refused to believe it.
Ryan was… half certain what he said was the truth anyway. If it really was a danger then Gamielle would have mentioned it like she did about the power of faith. Now that he thought about it, what Darrel was concerned about sounded awfully close to what the power of faith did.
Ryan shook his head.
“If what I was doing was truly that dangerous, then it would have already destroyed a world considering there’s a million people out there with classes significantly more intense than a [Student]. The concepts are already there, all around us. I’m just bringing it to the forefront so your soul could resonate with it.”
Another researcher by the name of Wesla looked up in concern.
“He’s saying he’s influencing the soul."
“No. I’m not doing anything to your soul, and I can’t force anything that’s not already there and especially not if you don’t want to take the class… huh.”
Ryan trailed off as the argument raised a key problem with his plan to ‘fix’ Pinkie. Maybe the Witch Tyrant could force a class on someone, but from their experiments, he knew he couldn’t make someone take a class they didn’t want to take.
Fetterue, who had been happy to just watch the argument, raised an eyebrow.
“Would you like to share with the rest of us what you’ve just realized?”
Ryan rubbed his forehead, realizing just how ridiculously unprepared he was.
“I have to try to find a class that a depressed sociopath would resonate with, then try to convince her that changing her class is a good thing. Meanwhile, I have to make sure the new class doesn’t give her a new perspective on life that doesn’t end up with her going on a rampage revenge-streak.”
That was on top of trying to figure out how the [Class Change] skill seemed to be able to push other concepts back into the background. He couldn’t just give Pinkie the concepts either, he needed to push the concepts of the [Aberrant Shapeshifter] back as he pushed another forward.
Of course, none of them other than Fetterue understood exactly what he meant.
If the whole point of this discussion was to make him understand that he really was incredibly underprepared for all of this… then she had succeeded.
“I’m uh, going to need to start with some tougher test subjects. Which of you are in the fifth realm?”
Nobody volunteered.
It was a good thing that a reluctant test subject was just what he was looking for.
——
By the end of the fourth day, Ryan was back on the roof, playing with a magical orb custom made for him and his volatile mana. He felt the way his mana moved as he thought about… everything.
The whole day had been exciting. It was when he was sitting down, arguing with the researchers for the tenth time, that he realized the [Conceptual Neophyte] class really did suit him. Maybe not to the extent of the [Adventurer’s Guide], but it had been nice. Being surrounded by passionate people, pushing the boundary of knowledge forward in a mad dash.
Despite that, his frustration rose, higher than yesterday’s.
But there had been no levels.
Realistically speaking, he shouldn’t have expected to level everyday. Especially not when they were talking about the highest rarity Epic skill Ryan had ever heard of.
He was still moving at a blazing pace in a near-perfect environment.
Yet the frustration remained. There was that nagging crawling feeling that Earth was collapsing, that maybe something went wrong where millions died when he could have done something about it.
Ryan closed his eyes and let the feeling wash over him.
Seffara had once told him to rely on her but this was a problem where even she was out of her depth. He still remembered how she stood in that planning room, deferring to the twelfth realms because this wasn’t a fight she could handle.
Then Grettfield looked to him to solve the mess. Because she had been looking for any hope and he was the only one with an idea.
Maybe in another time, when Grettfield wasn’t exhausted, she would have realized what Fetterue had. That he was just some dumb kid getting lucky. That…
Ryan’s hands shook, he clenched the training orb tightly.
For the first time, Ryan was thinking about what would happen after he failed. What would happen if he died? The past couple days made it clear that he really was flying blind, there was so much about all of his abilities that he didn’t know. So much about magic, so much about concepts, auras, everything.
And there was no damned time.
What happens if I die? Milock releases everything to the world in his anger, Clara becomes depressed and hollow. Seffara and Barry return to The Realm on a suicide charge for their own Legends and the Witch Tyrant…
What would she do when there wasn’t someone that was progressing up to her standards?
Ryan felt nauseous, he dropped the orb.
It was an unintended effect of what Fetterue had told him. She had told him to weigh the consequences of his death to his survival and Ryan had in his own fashion went through with it. It had been easy to risk his life for a great purpose, for the purpose he had always wanted.
But now the consequences of dying was coming rushing back to him.
What the fuck was he doing?
A deep sonorous voice rang in his ears.
“Breathe.”
A large dark purple hand wrapped around his shoulder as a warm presence suffused around the world. Ryan startled and turned to look up at a horned giant of a man, or rather, a demon.
Ryan went on the verbal offensive immediately.
“I always knew you were watching. Is this what you do, wait until others are vulnerable because you’re too much of a coward to face my questions head-on?”
Agrinth just gave Ryan a rueful smile. Like you would an old friend that immediately started their antics the moment you saw them.
“I was hoping to meet you later, once you saw more of my beautiful kingdom. I guess now is as good a time as any.”
“It’s a shit kingdom with cultish behavior. I was about to look for the quickest exit because I couldn’t stand it.”
Ryan expected some level of anger, the demon just chuckled. Damn, even his laughter makes me feel small.
“Really? And here I thought you would have loved our adventurers.”
This argument was a great distraction. This was another bit of frustration that he’d been stewing in for days now.
“You made them into heroes. That’s not what adventurers are supposed to be. They’re supposed to be like everyone else. Flawed people that you look at and think you could be, maybe even be better than them. Instead, you have a bunch of hero worshipping civilians and a bunch of adventurers with impossible standards of perfection.”
Agrinth didn’t even consider the argument for a moment, he answered back immediately.
“But not everyone can become an adventurer, Ryan. This isn’t your world, we don’t have a System. We have limited resources and cannot support everyone in their progress. Valmere’s culture was built this way because it gives those that can’t have what I do a purpose, and it gives those that do gain society’s resources a responsibility instead of feeling like everything they have is a right.”
Ryan opened his mouth, then closed it. Agrinth raised an eyebrow at the furiously thinking human.
“Is that the extent of your argument? If so, then Fetterue’s assessment about you was correct. You are just a petulant child that chases after the impossible.”
Ryan’s jaw dropped.
“You cheeky little fucker. I should have bullied you more when you were a kid.”
The demon scoffed.
“If I recall correctly, I remember beating you in an argument in front of an army. What a shame because it seems nothing has changed now.”
Ryan felt like his jaw couldn’t drop any further.
“I felt sorry for you! That’s why I let you win that argument. Besides, you had ninety-seven years to prepare for this. If I had ninety-seven years, I’d beat your ass both verbally and physically.”
The demon considered this for a second.
“Well, you only have a little under seventy days to come up with an argument to convince me because…”
Agrinth stood proudly, his presence equivalent to a dragonslayer. A true higher state of being. An ascendant. He spread his arms like Ryan liked to do. Then Agrinth gave Ryan a smirk.
“You do not have the capability to beat my ass physically.”
And with that, Agrinth flew off the tower. The damned demon did it slowly too, spreading his presence throughout the capital. The cheers and adulations arrived a moment later. At first like a wave, then a raucous cacophony of celebration.
The adopted son of King Theskar, Agrinth Deu Jalinmar. The Son of Valmere. A Great Hero that had saved the kingdom countless times.
“Just you wait! When I hit the tenth realm… no wait, when I hit the ninth realm I’m going to kick your ass.”
A telekinetic message hit him right back. Refusing to let him have the last word.
‘So, you are admitting to my vision of the world being correct? A shame.’
Ryan decided that he was going to show Agrinth just how flawed this cultish kingdom was. He ripped out the [Conceptual Neophyte] and picked up another.
[Class Change: Arcane Saboteur]
This world had would-be heroes. They did not understand that great heroes meant having great villains.
/////
Double chapter because 4k words. I have zero idea why I thought I could do all of this in 2.5k words.
Enjoy!