First Magic

"How are we coming along?"

Damien had finally gained the fitness required to walk around.

'I feel I have become more robust'

"Five more days to the other edge."

Sylvie was sitting next to him, promptly replied. After a day's worth of constant nudging, he had finally started giving Damien lessons in magic. The group had become closer as they passed the days in the wilderness.

Although they had crossed half the forest, the trees were as endless as ever. The AI gave the approximate direction.

'I can bet that the better versions can easily outmatch mine.'

The campfire felt safe and cozy in the wilderness. Reiya was flirting with Morty.

'Reiya has a killer body.'

The brother elves were as quiet as ever. The dwarves were organizing...again.

'Why do I feel they are teetering on the edge of OCD?'

Sugimaru was sitting alone, seemingly deep into his thoughts. Alex and Ben were out on patrol duty.

"Can we have a lesson?"

"Ok, sir. Have you drawn the rune?"

"Yes. The rune is complete."

"Then you can try to execute it."

Damien looked at the mana solid in his mental space. When he was reading the tomes carefully, he found out if, ideally, the solid could be closed with runes then more mana could be stored in it. Frankly, the twisted language in the tomes reminded me of the unnecessarily complicated romanticism in Victorian literature back in the old era. Even though he had to read them in school, all it reminded him was how not to write. What a disaster those classes were for him!

Yet, there was a silver lining. He was able to comprehend the tome's similar language. So he came up with a creative solution for this issue. Too many mana solids, as described by Sylvie, would cause the negative coefficient of mana to increase. In turn, the equilibrium between his mana solid and that of the surrounding would be disrupted. This was kind of similar to osmosis. Although he had to create the semipermeable barrier that sieved the mana into the solid but too many of these would create instability and hence the general rule of five was agreed upon by the masses.

The solution was to create one large dip and many chips. He made one spherical solid that was to have no runes as his centre. Then, due to the fixed area required by each rune, he made eighteen long tetrahedrons and dipped the pointy edges into the spherical solid. Not too much, just slightly. This way when he carved the runes on the tetrahedron's surfaces he would trap the mana but the sphere at the centre could keep

absorbing at an even faster rate due to the high surface area. Thus, all in all, his mana structure was extremely stable. Yet this was not the end. He could use eighteen different elements and all in all, 90 spells!

Whereas the average person could cast 25 spells only.

Right now, Damiens mana structure was full. It took his 3 days to fill it to the brim while Sylvie had told him that he needed only 12 hours to do so. A major disadvantage. Not only that, he did not have that many tomes

either. The tomes were full of rubbish spells. There was a Space Magic called minor separation. It had a description that told Damien that it had a major use in the bedroom, equating it with modern-day contraceptives.

This was very enticing to Damien but he quickly shook his head.

'What bullshit! Even if I want to I couldn't. The five spaces for Space Magic has been used already.'

One of his tetrahedrons had mystical runes all over it.

woooong!

As mana flowed in, the rune was activated. "Space Magic: Folding Space"

Zoop!

A rock near the campfire flew into his hand.

"Ah!"

He threw away the rock hastily, it was blisteringly hot. The men in the campfire laughed while Serious Sylvie performed a minor Heal. Even Reiya giggled in Morty's arms.

Damien smiled after a long time. After years of persecution, he was finally able to perform magic.

His eyes twinkled like the stars above.

A plan was born.