I Tricked a God

By the time the moon rose above the horizon, the military camp had grown somewhat quieter.

High overhead stretched a clear night sky, strewn with countless stars, while between the rows of barracks and training grounds, the rhythm of activity had changed. Some soldiers were returning from duty, others were resting after training, while still others gathered in small groups near the illuminated buildings, discussing the events of the passing day.

And amid the countless conversations, one name came up more and more often—Kael.

Rumors of his first visit to the Horde's Bone Tower had already spread far beyond the training complex. Some repeated what they had heard from acquaintances; others added their own conjectures, while still others were already confidently speculating about what his future would look like several years from now.

“They say he only recently joined the squad.”

“Yeah. And he’s already doing things like that.”

“If he keeps it up, one day he might even rise to the rank of Captain.”

“They say he could’ve gone even higher... I think someday he’ll definitely be on par with the Captains.”

Conversations like these flared up here and there, gradually becoming one of the main topics of the evening.

Kael himself, however, had no idea any of this was happening.

After returning to the Doomgrin Squad's territory, he had dinner, rested for a while after the eventful day, and then headed to the bathroom…

✦ ✦ ✦

At that very moment, the wide doors swung open with a soft thud, and Kael calmly stepped out into the dark corridor.

A damp towel hung over his shoulders, and he was dressed in loose gray clothes. Running a hand through his still-wet hair and sweeping it back, he said with a contented exhale, “I feel reborn...”

The water had washed away the last of the day’s fatigue, while his muscles, still aching not long ago after hours spent in the Tower, had finally relaxed.

For several seconds, Kael simply stood in the middle of the corridor, savoring the sensation, then absentmindedly touched his chest.

Beneath the fabric of his clothes, his Mana Core pulsed steadily, and along with it, he could sense Libero’s presence. The contracted spirit was unusually active even now, several hours after leaving the Tower.

Lost in thought, Kael murmured with relief, “Good thing I listened to her advice...”

The image of the stern red-haired woman who had warned him against climbing any higher immediately came to mind.

Grabbing the towel, Kael gave it a flick and immediately tucked it into his spatial ring, thinking, “While I was in the Tower, I didn’t even notice how badly I’d overstrained my mana channels. I’d better rest tomorrow.”

But even as he thought this, an eager grin spread across his face, and he immediately corrected himself, “A break from physical training, but not mental training...”

Kael resumed walking and continued leisurely down the corridor.

“The battle for Whitewater Fort is tomorrow, which means most of the squad will be gone for at least another day...” he thought as he passed a row of closed doors. “I’ll use that time to study Sierra’s work.”

The more he thought about the idea, the more sensible it seemed.

After quickly rounding a corner and making several more turns through the familiar corridors, Kael soon found himself at the door he was looking for.

Unlike most doors in the squad’s territory, this one looked rather unusual. A long needle was engraved in the center of the wood, surrounded by inscriptions.

Stopping at the door, Kael glanced over the engraving and thought, “I hope she’s still working...”

Then he raised his hand and knocked on the door several times.

Not even a second passed before a slightly languid and somewhat distracted female voice came from inside: “Who is it?”

Kael cracked the door open and, peeking inside, said with a smile, “Hi. Is your offer from this morning still good?”

A familiar figure appeared in the doorway almost immediately.

Standing by the window, Sierra slowly turned her head toward him, then brushed back a few strands of pale blue hair that had fallen forward again.

A faint smile appeared on her lips.

“Oh... it’s you,” the girl said calmly. “Come in. I was already starting to get bored all by myself.”

Kael merely smiled back and quickly stepped inside, closing the door behind him.

Only now, once inside the workshop, could he finally get a proper look at everything.

The room was noticeably more spacious than he had expected.

Tall wooden cabinets lined the walls, filled with hundreds of neatly labeled vials containing multicolored solutions, powders, and ground ingredients. Between them stood special racks where dozens of long inscription needles of all shapes and sizes hung in rows—from the thinnest silvery ones to massive dark tools with handles made from the bones of unknown creatures.

Several wide worktables stood in the center of the workshop, with wooden crates beside them filled to the brim with sheets of parchment. Some looked perfectly ordinary, while others immediately stood out due to their unusual hue, metallic sheen, or strange surface texture, as though they had been made from the hides of magical beasts.

Prepared pieces lay on some of the tables. Some bore only faint markings, while others were covered in unfinished chains of symbols and runes that ended midway. Nearby stood open inkwells, small containers of reagents, and tool stands, making it easy to imagine how many hours Sierra usually spent working here at a stretch.

In the far corner of the room was an area for more complex inscription work.

Heavy metal stands and massive stone slabs densely covered in engravings stood there. Special cutters, small hammers, and reinforced inscription needles intended for working with metal, stone, and other hard materials were neatly arranged beside them.

Some of the slabs glowed faintly from within, while thin flashes of mana occasionally raced along the engraved lines, causing individual symbols to flare with a soft light for an instant.

However, what drew the most attention was the long worktable by the window, beside which Sierra herself now stood.

Unlike the rest of the workshop, this area was completely uncluttered.

Several nearly finished talismans lay on the surface of the table, neatly arranged on special stands.

But neither the ink nor the talismans were the main feature of this work area.

Several small artifacts shaped like metal rings floated slowly above the table.

Each ring had its own system of fine engravings, with a large mana crystal secured at its very center. As the rings rotated, faint flashes of light continuously flickered across the surfaces of the crystals, while thin streams of mana flowed smoothly downward toward the talismans lying on the table.

The process looked remarkably smooth and steady.

Mana did not flow into the blanks in a single stream, but entered them in small amounts, gradually saturating every symbol and every line of the inscription. Whenever one of the talismans absorbed another portion of energy, the runes on its surface flared for an instant before fading again.

Noticing this, Kael’s gaze involuntarily lingered on one of the artifacts.

“Infusing the blank with mana... It looks more interesting in person than it does in the books,” Kael thought, feeling his interest growing.

Taking a deep breath, Kael became aware of another detail.

The air in the workshop was filled with a mixture of scents.

There was the smell of ink, old parchment, ground herbs stored in the numerous vials lining the walls, as well as a faint metallic scent somewhat reminiscent of blood.

Apparently, some of the ingredients used for inscription contained animal-derived components.

Looking around the room once more, Kael said with genuine admiration, “Your workshop is impressive, Sierra.”

The girl merely waved a hand dismissively, as though such an assessment did not interest her in the slightest.

“It’s the squad’s workshop, not mine,” she replied, beckoning him closer. “Everything was bought with shared funds.”

At Sierra’s beckoning gesture, Kael headed toward the long table by the window, saying as he went, “I meant the way this workshop is used. I can see that all the solutions are organized by type and potency.”

Sierra said nothing.

Tilting her head slightly, she continued to stare intently at the talismans lying before her, as though checking something in their structure.

As Kael stepped closer, he lowered his gaze to the table as well.

Now he could get a much better look at the blanks.

Fine lines of inscription covered nearly the entire surface of the small plates, intertwining into complex geometric patterns. Individual contours were connected by dozens of auxiliary lines, forming a single system through which mana was now slowly circulating.

For several seconds, his gaze moved over the magical circles as he pretended to need time to understand the nature of the inscription.

“Looks like communication talismans...” Kael murmured thoughtfully.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, he shifted his gaze to the outer edge of the nearest blank.

“But for some reason, the outer circuit is incomplete.”

But before Kael could continue his thought, Sierra immediately replied, “Because I’ll finish it later.”

Without taking her eyes off her work, the girl nodded toward the metal rings slowly rotating above the table and calmly added, “First, the talismans need to accumulate enough mana.”

Slipping the tip of her inscription needle beneath one of the talismans on the table, she lifted it slightly off the surface.

“If you seal the contour too early, part of the structure will remain unstable,” Sierra explained. “The talisman will work, but its range won’t be sufficient for our purposes.”

As she spoke, the girl carefully turned the plate over, allowing him a better look at the complex interweaving of lines.

“During operations, squads can be a great distance apart. If communication is cut off at the wrong moment, someone could die.”

At those words, her voice remained just as calm, but her fingers held the needle still for slightly longer than usual.

Then Sierra returned the talisman to its stand and looked back at the other blanks.

Kael merely nodded slowly.

To an observer, it might have seemed that he was simply listening to Sierra’s explanations, but in reality, his attention was already focused on something entirely different.

Kael’s gaze moved over the talisman, lingering on every tiny detail.

Kael analyzed the inscription itself, trying to grasp the internal logic behind its construction. His gaze moved over the interwoven lines, noting the mana accumulation nodes, stabilization contours, the logic of the combined runes and their meaning. He tried to understand why individual elements had been positioned precisely as they were and what function each of them served within the talisman’s overall structure.

He instantly compared all these details against countless fragments of knowledge he had accumulated over long years in the Divine Library.

Squinting in intense concentration, Kael felt a complete picture gradually taking shape deep within his mind.

It was as though a three-dimensional model of the talisman he was observing was taking shape somewhere within his mind.

Every detail he noticed immediately took its place within the forming model: the type of parchment, the composition of the ink, the amount of mana infused into it.

All of it seemed to be drawn toward a single center, taking its place within the overall scheme.

What had initially been nothing more than a scattered collection of facts was now gradually coming together into a coherent whole.

A kind of mental model.

And the longer he looked at the talisman, the more detailed that model became.

“The art of inscription is mesmerizing...” Kael noted to himself.

But aloud, Kael merely murmured, “Now I understand why they’re so expensive...”

Sierra slowly turned her head toward him. Her blue eyes immediately lit with interest.

“And what were you able to make out?” the girl asked, the corners of her lips lifting slightly. “Let’s see how much you know.”

Kael merely smiled.

Reaching out, he lightly tapped a finger against the sheet of blank parchment lying beside the prepared talismans.

“The base isn’t made from ordinary paper.”

Picking up the sheet and bringing it slightly closer to his face, Kael examined the material’s surface under the lamplight for several seconds.

“Judging by the texture and density of the fibers, this is treated hide from a Marked Mage-level beast. And it’s been impregnated with a solution of ground mana crystals and stabilizing herbs.”

With that, he bent the edge of the blank slightly between his fingers and continued, “With a base like this instead of ordinary parchment, the talisman can hold several times as much mana.”

At those words, a peculiar gleam appeared in Sierra’s eyes.

Even so, the girl still said nothing, continuing to watch him closely.

Noticing this, Kael shifted his gaze to the nearby inkwells and continued, “The ink isn’t ordinary either.”

Carefully drawing in a breath through his nose, he spent several seconds picking out the individual scents from the dense mixture of reagents, then said:

“Mana crystal powder... the blood of a fairly powerful beastman to improve conductivity... and most likely an extract of Serpent Root and White Datura flowers to stabilize the structure.”

As he spoke, he leaned slightly over one of the open inkwells without touching it.

“And the blood wasn’t used as the main component, but as a binding agent. Otherwise, the smell would be much stronger.”

Kael fell silent for several seconds, once again running his gaze over the talismans lying on the table, then confidently concluded, “The basic ingredients alone cost a fortune...”

For several seconds, silence reigned in the workshop, broken only by the hum of mana flowing into the talismans.

Sierra slowly set the needle down on the table, looked at Kael, and said, “You know... This is actually a little frightening...”

For the first time, a hint of uncertainty crept into her voice.

Sierra looked once more at the talisman lying before them, then back at Kael.

“For someone who only just joined the Inscribers’ Guild, you noticed far too many details.”

Her bluish eyes studied his face intently, as though she were trying to figure out exactly where the catch was.

“You should be just an ordinary apprentice...” the girl murmured absently.

But Kael merely met her gaze and, without showing the slightest embarrassment, replied confidently, “If I were a mere apprentice, I wouldn’t have earned personal instruction from Archmagister Bontia herself.”

Noticing Sierra grow wary at the mention of the Archmagister, he merely smiled enigmatically, leaned his hip against the edge of the table, and added, “So, will you take me on as an assistant? While there are no assignments, I could work with you for a few days.”

For several seconds, the girl continued looking at him as though she couldn’t tell what was true and what was a lie. But the next moment, her eyes noticeably brightened, and she nodded eagerly.

“Of course,” she replied with an almost sleepy smile. “This will be... interesting.”

Shifting her gaze toward the cabinets of materials and already mentally returning to her work, Sierra raised a hand and pointed to one of the racks of ingredients.

“Help me make a fresh batch of ink, genius rookie,” she said teasingly. “What’s left of the old batch will only be enough to finish the talismans on the table.”

As she spoke, she glanced at the blanks lying beneath the saturation rings, with thin flashes of mana still slowly running along their lines.

Kael straightened his back and, pressing a palm to his chest, declared with exaggerated seriousness, “As you command!”

Sierra gave a soft, rather charming laugh at his response.

“Here, this is the detailed recipe.”

Without wasting any motion, she waved a hand and activated her spatial ring. The next moment, a folded sheet of paper flew out of it and slowly drifted toward Kael.

Catching it in midair, he immediately unfolded the sheet and quickly ran his eyes over the contents.

The list of ingredients was quite detailed. In addition to the names, it specified the proportions, the order of mixing, and even the recommended temperature of the solution at certain stages of preparation.

As he read the recipe, Kael nodded absently, but after only a few seconds, he frowned slightly, his gaze drifting toward the communication talismans lying on the table.

Noticing exactly where he was looking, Sierra tilted her head slightly to one side and asked, “Is something wrong, Kael?”

But the answer did not come immediately.

Still holding the recipe in one hand, Kael looked thoughtfully at the talismans, recalling certain ancient treatises on inscription that he had once encountered in the Divine Library.

Fragments of knowledge gradually began falling into place, prompting him to look back at the recipe.

“These talismans could be made significantly cheaper without sacrificing their effectiveness...” Kael thought.

Beginning to think the idea through in greater detail, Kael reread the recipe.

“If I alter the parchment impregnation slightly and adjust a few elements of the magic circle at the same time...” he thought, absently running a finger down the list of ingredients. “I could also change the method used to extract the essence from the Serpent Root...”

Several alternative methods of processing plants that yielded a greater amount of pure extract immediately came to mind.

“If all these adjustments were applied to mass production...”

But his thought was interrupted before it could fully take shape.

“Everything all right, Kael? Is there something you don’t understand?”

Looking up, he saw Sierra yawn widely, then flutter her long eyelashes and tilt her head slightly to one side.

Despite the late hour and her obvious fatigue, the curiosity in her eyes had not faded in the slightest.

Kael merely smiled and shook his head.

“No, the recipe is perfectly clear.”

Turning toward the shelves of ingredients, he once again ran his gaze over the dozens of vials, jars, and labeled containers, then asked as though in passing, “By the way, what happens if someone improves a recipe?”

Pausing briefly, he took one of the vials he needed from the shelf and added, “Or, for example, improves a communication talisman?”

The question sounded casual enough, but deep down, Kael was already eagerly awaiting the answer.

Sierra thought for several seconds.

Still sorting through the tools on the table, she gazed dreamily up at the ceiling and said, “Depending on the value of the improvement, the artisan receives a bonus...”

Her voice sounded as though she had imagined such a moment more than once.

“But reputation and contribution to the war effort are much more important. If a discovery is genuinely useful, it quickly spreads across the entire front. New recipes, improved talismans, more efficient production methods... All of it finds its way into the hands of other artisans fairly quickly.”

As she spoke, the girl absently twirled a long needle between her fingers, clearly lost in thought.

“Sometimes a single successful improvement can significantly strengthen the army. Or reduce material waste by tens of percent. Things like that are highly valued at the front.”

However, the next moment Sierra smiled slightly and looked at Kael.

“But don’t get your hopes up.”

The corners of her lips rose even higher.

“Pulling off something like that is extremely difficult. You could say that most such discoveries happen by accident.”

Turning toward the table, she carefully moved one of the talismans closer and checked the condition of several runes with the tip of her needle.

“Usually, every successful discovery is preceded by dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of failed attempts.”

At those words, a note of displeasure entered the girl’s voice for the first time.

Grimacing slightly, she set the needle aside and added in an aggrieved tone, “Worse, you have to pay for all those experiments yourself...”

Kael laughed softly and, taking a vial of scarlet liquid from the shelf, added, “Sounds like you know that from experience.”

“You bet I do!” Sierra exclaimed indignantly, her head snapping up. “The Captain does allocate some MMP from the shared budget for experiments, but it’s nowhere near enough!”

Planting her elbows on the table, the girl puffed out her cheeks in displeasure and continued, “One failed experiment—and the entire allocated budget vanishes.”

While Sierra grumbled, a sly smile was already spreading across Kael’s face.

Continuing to examine the ingredients on the shelves, he remarked as though in passing, “As soon as you show me how everything works around here, I’ll become part of your team.”

Taking a nearby jar of ground herbs from the shelf, Kael glanced at the recipe and calmly added, “Which means we’ll be able to share the cost of experiments.”

The words sounded so natural that at first Sierra didn’t even react.

Only a couple of seconds later did the girl blink, and a warm smile appeared on her lips, one she made no attempt to hide.

“I know you’re only flattering me, but thank you, Kael,” she said warmly.

Kael merely laughed and replied, “I wouldn’t dare say something I didn’t mean.”

And he said it so naturally that it was impossible to tell whether he was still joking or being completely serious.

Sierra merely shook her head and returned to her tools, while Kael himself was already thinking about something else entirely.

“I need to start being more careful about the miracles I keep performing...” he thought as he opened one of the boxes of ingredients. “Otherwise, even my allies will start suspecting something.”

Casting a sidelong glance at Sierra, who had already returned to studying the talismans on the table, Kael narrowed his eyes shrewdly.

“If I do everything right, I can nudge the experiments in the right direction...”

He liked the idea more and more.

Kael understood that he didn’t have to personally present finished solutions or demonstrate knowledge that an ordinary person simply had no way of obtaining. It would be enough to ask the right questions at the right time, draw attention to the right details, or subtly steer the course of the research.

“Sierra will do most of the work herself, which means she’ll get credit for the discovery... But just like with military missions, I’ll also receive a share of the reward.”

At that thought, the smile on his face grew slightly wider.

“Still...” Kael picked up another vial and reached for the next ingredient. “What matters far more is that this will help in the fight against the Beast God’s Horde.”

For an instant, a cold, determined gleam flashed in Kael’s eyes, and he thought, “Since fate has blessed me with so much knowledge, I have a duty to share it with the Human Dimension... For the future safety of my family and loved ones.”