Spell Weaver [Book 2 Complete]

Alex leaned back in his office chair and rubbed his eyes. He took a moment to himself before returning to the runic manual on his desk. He’d been studying for hours, and the sun had long gone down below the tree line outside his window. Many of the concepts of this runic magic resembled learning a language to him, whereas ritual magic had just felt like learning a new type of art style.

He used his finger to trace along the lines and mumbled the words aloud.

“The art of inscribing magic requires a deep understanding of form and structure. While many traditions involve drawing or carving magical patterns, runic magic stands apart in its demand for precision. Each line, angle, and intersection in a rune must be exact. There is no room for approximation or adjustment once the rune is inscribed.”

Alex paused, as this was a theme he’d seen through the fundamentals of this manual.

The use of runes is considered really rigid, especially when combining them into what they call arrays.

The contrast was striking. Where he could reshape and adjust ritual components to match his desire, runes seemed to only work in very specific ways.

"While this manual won't cover runic arrays in detail, it's crucial to understand that they allow even less room for error or adjustment than individual runes. The spacing and ordering of runes within an array are just as important as the formation of each rune itself. When engraving arrays, both the depth and angle of inscription must be precisely controlled to ensure proper mana flow."

He couldn’t help but think how he’d so casually shrunk and rearranged ritual components over the last few months. There had been a lot of trial and error involved, as well as advice from Eura, who had a much greater grasp of mana than he had, but he’d still been able to adjust and manipulate the rituals to become something that fit better for him. He hadn’t had any idea how unusual that flexibility was until now.

The next section caught his attention, as he was particularly interested in enchanting. He had only made it halfway through the section before he let his head droop.

Of course.

He read through the section again.

‘The pinnacle of runic magic lies in enchanting with arrays or formations. This is the permanent binding of runic arrays to physical objects. This demanding art requires not only perfect execution of individual runes and arrays but also a complete understanding of how they interact with material properties over time. Many aspiring runic masters spend years mastering basic arrays before becoming enchanters.’

Well… fuck.

Closing the book, Alex leaned back and rubbed his eyes again. Enchanting would clearly have to wait. He could continue learning and practicing the more fundamental aspects of rune craft, but he was drawn to familiar territory.

Using his threads of mana, he began weaving a small ritual circle in the air above his desk. Slouched as he was, he manipulated the circle so that it faced him rather than horizontally along the surface of the desk.

The threads glowed softly in his mana vision as they formed the patterns he’d practiced so many times. Forming the modified shapes to channel and contain the mana into the proper nodes and catalyst segments.

As he watched the circle float in a way that reminded him of a hologram, Alex had a thought that he’d attempted once before.

What if I could understand this even better?

Alex’s [Ritual Insight] was on cooldown after using it on the Ignition Ritual schematic he’d been working on.

Maybe…

He kept part of his concentration split on the ritual in the air while focusing his Heavenly Eye on the floating formation. He pushed the eye, willing the analysis functionality to activate. Immediately, he felt resistance, like trying to push his mental strength against a brick wall.

He attempted to apply pressure to the mental block, applying his high Willpower. Though, there was no budge and he felt like he was just distracting himself by having the ritual in his hand be made with threads and maintaining it.

“This isn’t working,” Alex said. Val lifted his head from where he had been dozing on the cat tree. When he realized Alex was talking to himself, he put his head back down into the coiled pile of tail under him.

Alex let the circle fully dissipate and absorbed what little mana he could from the threads as they drifted into a smoky transparent form of mana. He stood and walked over to the whiteboard with his notes on them and turned it around to the blank back side.

With a steady hand, Alex drew out the ritual circle on the board. He made sure each line was clearly made, and the shapes held the right proportions. Once he was finished, he stepped back from the board and took a deep breath.

With no need to maintain the actual ritual with his threads, he hoped that he’d be able to concentrate fully on using the Heavenly Eye on the ritual pattern. He felt the pulsing sensation run through his forehead and eye as it activated and he felt the mental resistance as before.

This time, things felt different. Rather than a brick wall, it felt like a flexible board. He pushed harder with the ability, forcing more power into his observation. He could feel information on minor details about the ritual construction begin to enter his mind.

A slightly crooked line there.

There is a possibility for mana efficiency there.

The strain built in his mind as he tried to pierce through whatever blocked his understanding.

Just a little more, come on…

He was so concentrated and determined, feeling just at the edge of a breakthrough, that he didn’t notice when his head began to feel disconnected from his body. The room started to spin, and darkness crept in at the edges of his vision. Before he could react and cut off the skill’s activation, he lost consciousness.

“-oore! Master Moore!”

Alex could tell that someone was shaking him, and he blinked groggily.

Fuck.

Edwin’s worried face swam into focus above him, with Valtherion’s blue form streaking past in the background.

“What happened, Master Moore? Are you alright? Shall I call an ambulance?” Edwin helped Alex sit up slowly, bracing his shoulder.

Alex grabbed his head and tried to think through what had happened.

He thought back to just before he’d lost consciousness and remembered pushing through the pain and clear warning signs from his ocular enhancement.

Okay, in hindsight, that was stupid.

“Stupid. Alex, stupid.”

But, even as he thought about it and Edwin pressed him with more concern, Alex realized he had more knowledge about the ritual pattern than he had previously.

Damn, this was a schematic that I used [Ritual Insight] on before, but I wonder if my new understanding would mean that I have a good enough grasp to use the skill on it again.

Better yet, he realized that his mind had made connections on better understanding the schematic. He felt like he had a fantastic grasp on the Ritual, and he had the thought of trying to use this on a schematic at the same time as his class ability.

Can they work off of each other? With the scan giving me the perfect knowledge of how it’s formed, then the [Ritual Insight] giving me knowledge on how to improve that, based on the perfect knowledge?

Alex pulled up the skill description again, just to refresh his memory of the exact wording.