Chapter 7.5: Experimenting With Magic

Previously...

"Ah, I just know." Makarov said vaguely. "Now come, we must be on our way back to Fairy Tail."

As the group walked out of town, the villagers cheered for their saviors. "Thank you for everything!"

The master just waved back, grinning. "No problem!"

Currently...

Ramza sat at his desk, reading the book that master Makarov gave him a few days ago. When the villagers said that the book was really one of a different language, they were right. He didn't understand the words, most of them, anyway. The book didn't give off some bad vibe, like it contained stuff detailing torture or killing someone or anything like that, but it definitely had some sort of significance.

He sighed at he glanced at the foreign letters on the page. It was still unclear to him, but he tried his best everyday at trying to understand it. Yesterday, he got to read an entire word: Frigis. Whatever that meant, he had no clue. Perhaps someone could help him?

Ramza closed the book and put it in his pack. Maybe Erza? She seemed intelligent for a swordswoman. Or the master? No, he's probably busy or something... He snapped his fingers. Lucy! She's a reader, so she's likely the best chance he's got at a translation or something. He stepped over to Lucy's flat and knocked, but no one answered.

"Anyone home?" Ramza asked aloud.

No one responded.

"Eh. Maybe she's at Fairy Tail."

He then walked over to the guild, greeted the members hello, and sat at the bar. Mirajane was cleaning glasses, like the usual.

"Hey Mira." Ramza called to her, "Can I have-"

"A cup of coffee?" She finished, "Yes, you can."

Mirajane placed one on the counter in front of him. "Thanks." Ramza took a sip and brought out the foreign book. He opened it and started reading.

"What book do you have there?" Mirajane asked.

"Well, the master gave it to me from that mission I went with the guys a few days ago, but I have no idea what language it is." Ramza took another sip, "That's why I'm looking for Lucy, I think that she could help me with it."

"Well that's too bad, Lucy took a mission just a while ago. Looks like she'll be going on it for a while." Mirajane's eyes landed on a certain blue haired girl, "But how about Levy?"

"Levy?" Ramza said.

"Yes. She's good with that sort of thing plus, you guys already know each other!" Mirajane said cheerfully.

"Huh. Hadn't considered that before." Ramza finished his coffee, "Thanks for the help, Mira."

"Anytime." Smiled Mirajane.

Ramza walked over to Levy, who was buried in a book. "Yo." He said.

Levy looked up. "Oh hi, Ramza!"

"So, I've a favour to ask." He lifted the book for her to see, "Master Makarov gave this book to me, but I don't know the language that it's written on."

"Say no more." Levy kept her book and placed the new one on the table. She opened it, scrolled through a few pages, and lifted an eyebrow. "Definitely not one from here."

"Can you help me?"

Levy smiled back at him. "Of course. Come with me to the archives."

The two made their way to the back, where high shelves of scrolls and books are stored. Several ladders leaned against the wall, and tables for reading were covered in pages of information.

"C'mon!" Levy grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the large amount of information.

"I guess we're looking for something about foreign languages?" Ramza clarified.

"And anything that looks familiar to the language in that book of yours." Levy added.

They then took a ladder each and climbed up the shelves in search of anything that could help them find out what that book means. Levy took out a few books, but she shook her head and placed them back. An hour passed, and the two placed all that they could find on language on a table.

The amount of books that they had gotten had stacked up to be two feet tall. Ramza sweatdropped.

"Okay, this is going to take a lot of time..." Ramza muttered.

"Not really." Levy reached into her back pocked and pulled out two reading glasses. "We could use these!"

"Glasses?"

"These aren't ordinary glasses, they're Gale-Force reading glasses!" Levy said proudly.

"They help us read faster?" Ramza theorized.

"By eighteen times, to be exact." Levy handed him one, "Now pick a book and start looking."

The pair each grabbed a chair and sat down, browsing the books at an extremely fast rate. Ramza flipped through book after book, finding no leads on the language that the book master Makarov gave him. Levy had no luck as well, even throwing one in frustration. Ramza just sighed and read through the scroll that he was reading, but his eyes caught on one particular word.

"Frigis." Ramza said aloud.

"What?" Levy asked him.

"Frigis. I recognize it from the book." Ramza picked up the scroll and showed it to her, "Got any idea what it means?"

"Let me see..." She quickly read the lines of the scroll, and she gasped back in excitement.

"What is it?"

"This is a scroll about runes!" Levy exclaimed, "Hand me your book!"

Ramza tossed the foreign book to her. She took a look at the cover and looked at the scroll again.

"The name of this book is: Sacred Script." Levy said.

"Isn't that a little ominous?" Ramza wondered.

"It's a spell book!" Levy realized. "That must mean that the words in the book are supposed to be cast!"

"Cool." Ramza shrugged, "But can we figure out what the words mean first?"

Levy composed herself. "Sorry, just got a little excited there."

She buried herself in the Sacred Script book and the scroll, occasionally writing down something on a piece of parchment. Ramza tried to help, but Levy seemed to doing fine on her own.

"There you go!" Levy handed him the paper that she was writing on, "These are all spells from the book that I could decipher."

Ramza took the paper eagerly. "Thanks! By the way, how do you cast the spell?"

"It's easy!" She held out a finger in front of her and wrote 'flower'. The words came to life as a small bush of petals. "Just like my solid script magic, you just write it in the air! Although, you draw the runes instead of writing the words."

"Like this?" Ramza glanced at the paper that she had handed him and put his finger in the air. He drew a symbol that looked like curved lines going upward in a spiral. "Ignaten?"

Levy held out her hand. "Wait, not tha-"

Flames sprouted from the rune and lit a chair on fire. Ramza's eyes widened. He was such an idiot; of course, the fire looking rune would summon fire! He scanned the paper for a rune that looked like water. There it is! He quickly slashed through the air, creating a symbol that mimicked flowing water.

"Aqua!" Water blasted from the rune and doused the chair that had been set on fire. Ramza sighed. "Well, at least I know what not to do."

Levy looked at him with an annoyed tic in her eye. "Yeah, good thing."

The two of them left the archives to explain to Mirajane why there was a damp, but charred chair inside it. She said it was no big deal, since the others usually did worse things to it when they fought. Ramza let out a breath of relief, he thought he was going to get in trouble for that.

"Let's go outside instead." Levy suggested.

The pair then headed out to the open, grassy fields just outside Magnolia, where nobody really stays.

"Well, now that we're in a safe environment, I want you to try out those spells that I wrote for you. They're similar to mine, so I can supervise." Levy explained.

Ramza nodded as he took out the piece of parchment which contained the spells that she had written down. He eyed a particular spell, then let down the paper.

He swiped at the air, creating the 'z', with a curved end. "Fulminus!" A small bolt of lightning sprung from the rune, leaving a smell of ozone in the air.

"Lightning Zap."

Ramza then wrote three spirals in the air, striking it. "Aerogan!" A strong breeze erupted from the rune, flattening the grass.

"Wind Blast."

Ramza proceeded to create a square with a smaller circle in the middle. "Bramn!" A translucent wall appeared in front of him.

"Barrier."

Levy smiled at him. "Add those to your fire and water spell, and that about sums it up."

"Pretty cool that I can use this stuff now." Ramza held the book close to him. "I've a feeling it'll come in handy one day..."

"Oh, fancy seeing you guys here." Came a familiar voice. It was Gray, with Erza beside him.

"Hi, Gray. Hello, Erza." Ramza greeted.

"May I ask what you two are doing out here in the fields?" Erza asked.

"We're practicing the magic from the book that master Makarov gave me." Ramza explained.

"Yeah." Levy nodded, "I also helped him with it, since it's similar to my Solid Script."

"Training then?" Erza quipped.

"You could put it that way." Levy said.

"So why don't we help you?" Gray said, "You did say that your magic was based of on my ice make spells."

"And you're a swordsman. I can help with that." Erza smiled at him, "A bit of training never hurt anyone."

"Unless you count that time you beat me and Natsu up..." Gray muttered quietly so no one could hear.

"I guess that's my cue to go." Levy looked at Ramza, "I'll see you at the guild."

"Yeah, see you." Ramza waved at her as she left.

"So," Gray finally said, "Let's train."

The three of them trained until the sun set on the horizon. Gray told him the basics of ice make magic, as to how it is made and how it is used in different situations. Ramza's wind make of this time is still relatively beginner level, but Gray's advice and tips helped him understand the potential of this power.

Erza, in her case, literally beat the training into Ramza. She whipped out her sword and armour and made him engage in a spar. He lost pretty easily, but after a couple of rounds, he could stay standing for more than a few seconds. She also pointed out the weak spots in his stance and attacks, and said that he use more weapons, as for the purpose of flexibility.

"Why don't you opt for a long sword?" Erza suggested, "Perhaps a katana?"

"Yeah, but it gets kinda hard to move with that, my wakizashi, my arrows and my bow." Ramza complained.

Gray sweatdropped. "That's a lot of weapons..."

"How about I teach you the basics of requipping magic?" Erza said, "It's relatively easy to learn."

Ramza's face brightened. "Great idea! Can you teach me now?"

"Hold up, it's night time." Gray pointed out.

"Aww..." Ramza's head bowed.

"Calm down." Erza put a hand on his head, "I'll teach you tommorow."

"Y'know, thanks for this." Ramza smiled at them warily, "It's nice to have friends like you guys."

"No prob." Gray chuckled, "You're our teammate, remember?"