Chapter 31.

The next day, the three of them sat around the fire. They were about to talk magic, and more precisely who would get which booklet. Nick had already lent his to Rose for a day, but Enora happened to be interested too, and he wanted the fire one. Yet he was also interested in actually finishing his beforehand.

- Look, I just have to read the last few pages, can we talk about that afterwards ?

- Yeah, no problem., answered Enora with a softer than usual voice. We can wait a bit, I guess, go ahead.

The man was not thinking of reading it immediately at first, but since they seemed quite eager to get stronger, why not ? So he grabbed the brown book and quickly finished it.

' This piece of information I have to share with you, reader, is actually a series of experiments of mine. You see, I wondered for a long time about the limits of wild magic, about whether I was only scratching the surface of its uses or not. And let me tell you how right I was to wonder. Basic energy has quite a few non-combat applications that are revolutionary, and I never shared them with my colleagues, as it would probably jeopardize the current peace. I mean, I managed to link minds and increase physical abilities permanently. Can you imagine ? Having the possibility to make yourself stronger or maybe smarter, forever using magic. Or being able to build a permanent telepathic connection with one or multiple individuals, and share thoughts, feelings and memories in a second. That would be a game-changer in the entire magical community, and not necessarily for the better. I do not want to be responsible for that. But, sharing this knowledge with a select few, that's not so bad. I can explain to you in rough terms how to make that link or change your body, but you need to be extremely careful : playing with permanent effects means the possibility of making permanent mistakes. The precise techniques to achieve these feats will be given later, as I have yet to talk about my most important discovery concerning the actual use of magic. It is also the most dangerous though, but I do think it is worthwhile. Let's talk about the theory of Mystical Arts a little first, and more precisely how it works from a technical standpoint. To make use of the Mystical Arts, meaning to take the energy and produce and effect, said energy must be purified and then manipulated to adopt a certain form before releasing your control on it. That is the very basic, but it also means that the Mystical Arts are triggered when energy is released. This is the precise moments where feats can be achieved. But what if, for example, only the minimum amount of fire energy was used to produce the effect, and then another energy was provided to fuel said effect ? What if that other energy happened to be the most abundant and the easiest to purify in the Magical Flow ? Would it not make a mage capable of using Mystical Arts for a longer time than others ? How powerful would that be ? So I worked on it, experimented a lot, and concluded that yes, it is powerful but, as always, there is a drawback : some randomness. It is to be expected that feeding a Mystic Art with different energies will inevitably produce some unforeseen effects, even more so with wild magic as it is the most polluted. However, I am convinced that those random events can be at least partially predicted and mostly avoided with experience. Meaning you will have to be careful and see for yourself. For the telepathic link, I would say the main concern is more about the people chosen rather than the magic itself. It works, but connecting with someone means sharing everything, which is a dangerous matter if the people involved cannot completely be trusted. We are talking real trust here, real understanding that will deepen once the magic is in place. Just be careful with these matters. Also, I gave names to these : the Weaving of elements and the Nexus of minds. As for permanent physical improvements, let's just call it Body Enhancement. Simplicity.'

"That's … how is that possible ? Linking minds ? It sounds interesting and equally dangerous …", thought Nick, amazed. He had been reading for ten minutes under the waiting gazes of the two women, but those revelations made him forget all about it. Consumed by curiosity, he voraciously read everything about these experiments, wanting to know as much as he could.

It was weird though : why did he feel that need to know ? The Nexus made him very excited for some reason, and he knew it had to do with his unknown past. It had to, since nothing in his available memory made any sense. The idea of being able to share feelings with someone else in its purest form, rid of the impracticality of imperfect words. Only the truth. Honesty.

- Are you done ?, asked Rose when seeing him lost in thoughts.

- Yeah !, answered he. Yeah, I read most of it, the rest is only secondary information. Let's get started on lending.

- Cool., said Enora. Well, we only have three books, so we have to decide who will get which and avoid wanting the same. I would like to study wild magic, what about you, Rose ?

- Wild magic too, but I guess I can try flames if you insist.

- Well I'll take the Sunray School then., chimed in Nick. Being able to heal myself seems useful enough.

And just like that, the magic books were exchanged. Clearly, the most desired one was the brown, and having only one was making it difficult. Truthfully, Rose could probably keep cultivating it without the book for a while, until Enora was finished. It would build a solid foundation for her when she would resume its study. "If we can all work on the basics of these three Schools, our stay in this labyrinth will get way comfier, that's for sure.", thought the man with a smile.