Chương 188: New Assignment

When classes started back Damion was surprised to find a new assignment for the rest of the term from Professor Toole instead of their normal class work of studying glyphs. Each student in the class, Study of the Ancient Language, was to attempt to create a spell. While Damion had learned a great deal in her class, and from his knowledge of Nashto granted by the Magic System, he felt he was a long way from being able to create an entirely new spell.

He could understand the interactions and the effects of the glyphs in his tier 1 spells, but he had yet to gain more than a cursory understanding of tier 2, let alone even study the magic seals of his tier 3 or 4 spells. However, Damion was not one to shrink from a challenge and he set about doing his best to try and create a spell, the problem was creating a spell that would be useful.

After thinking about the assignment for most of the class Damion was fairly confident he could create a worthless spell like conjure ice by working out glyphs from the Clean Water spell in the Magic System's memory and his Ice Shield and Ice Wall spells. But was making such a spell worth using up one of his spell slots for. Sure, he now had plenty of credits for the Magic System Shop and could buy a number of extra spell slots, but he still felt like making a useless spell would be a waste.

One thing that Damion did know for sure, was that the only way he would be able to create a worthwhile spell, would be to enhance his knowledge of Nashto and now that he had a tier 3 and a tier 4 spell, Damion felt that if he could work out some of the interactions of the glyphs, he would be able to complete his current quest Increase Nashto Proficiency, and obtain a substantial leap forward in his understanding of the ancient language.

For the next few weeks of the term, aside from his daily training and classes, Damion put all his focus into studying his magic seals. Unlocking the secrets of Nashto was a harder task than he thought possible. Damion had a good grasp on his tier 1 magic seals. The glyphs, while still hiding some of their meanings, were fairly straight forward and he could see how their meanings and how they interacted with each other to create the effects of the spell. Tier 2 magic seals took Damion longer to begin to grasp.

The fundamentals of the glyphs seemed to keep changing. Each rotation of the glyphs created new ones, that he had to figure out in turn. The tier 3 magic seals were even more complex. Instead of just having a second layer of spinning glyphs, there were three. The new third layer spun at a slower pace than the other two rings of glyphs, but connected both. Where the third ring of glyphs interacted with the other two rings, entirely new glyphs that Damion had never seen before formed.

As for understanding his tier 4 spell, Damion had to admit defeat. After studying his tier 3 magic seals for days, he expected the tier 4 magic seals to add a fourth ring and the magic seal for Ice Clone did not disappoint. The fourth ring of glyphs connected the first two rings like the third ring did, but opposite of the third ring.

Where the third and fourth rings crossed, in the space between the first two rings, they formed new unique glyphs that were completely new and Damion had no idea what their meaning was. Seeing how complex the tier 4 magic seal was, he shuddered to think how complex a tier 5 magic seal would be. The longer Damion studied the more he was certain he was close to making a breakthrough, but that elusive Magic System took an annoyingly long time to happen.

Finally, when there was only a little over a week left in his first term, with the assignment due quite soon, the notification came. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Ding {Quest Completed} [Quest: Increase Nashto Proficiency – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 100 Store Credits] Ding {New Quest Available} [Quest: Master Nashto] [Description: You have increased your knowledge to the advanced stage of understanding the Nashto language giving you an edge over all other mages. If you can advance your knowledge further, you will be able to see the secrets of the weave.] [Reward: 1, 000 Experience, 1, 000, 000 Store Credit] Despite expecting a change, the sudden understanding of Nashto shocked Damion so much that he did not even notice the reward for his new quest of mastering the Nashto language. When he did notice, he was left speechless. The idea that he would be able to fully understand the language was incentive enough to want to complete the quest, but 1, 000, 000 store credits, that would go a long way towards his goal of the Anti-Regression Potion.

With his understanding enhanced, Damion set about reexploring his magic seals. He reviewed each tier 1 magic seal and then proceeded to each higher tier in turn. Each spell showed him more than he knew before and helped him grasp intricacies of magic he had not conceived of before.

When Damion got to his tier 4 spell, Ice Clone, there were still a number of mysteries hidden in the meaning of the glyphs and how they interacted, but he did grasp several key concepts of the glyphs which gave him an idea for a new spell. For the next few days, Damion worked increasingly frantically, trying to get his spell to work before the end of term. Each glyph had to be perfect as did its interaction with all the other glyphs in the magic seal. One misaligned interaction would cause the spell to be unstable.

An unstable spell could cause all sorts of problems, anything from complete failure to rebounding the magic on the caster. With his new knowledge of the ancient language, Damion started to step-by-step create his new magic seal. As he worked he quickly realized the spell he envisioned was too complicated for a tier 1 spell prompting Damion to begin constructing a second layer of glyphs.

The second ring of glyphs more than just doubled the glyphs and their interactions, each interaction changed the core of the magic seal and thus the meaning and interactions of all the glyphs. With each update and change Damion made to one glyph he would be forced to make changes to all the others. As the last days of the term ticked by, Damion found himself racing against the deadline. The night before the last day of class Elicia finally came to him with a confession.

"You won't fail the course if you don't create a spell."

"What?" Damion asked as he looked up from his notes.

"It doesn't matter if you make a spell or not. The assignment is a challenge, meant to push you. Very few students ever succeed in creating a new spell and those that do, what they make is always a tier 1 spell that has almost no use." Damion was silent for a long moment. He did not regret the progress he had made in his knowledge of magic seals and the ancient language, but to know that he did not actually need to push himself so hard did leave a sour taste in his mouth.

"Why not tell me sooner? I'm sure all the other students from noble families already knew this. They've probably just been relaxing all term."

"At first, it was because you looked really excited by this project. You seemed to genuinely want to make a new spell. And the harder you worked, the more time you put in, I thought you might actually make it." Taking a deep breath, Damion shuffled his notes together in a pile and then let his held breath out. The calming action helped him collect his thoughts.

He was close to finishing his spell, or so he believed, but not close enough to be able to finish before tomorrow's class, even if he spent all night working on it.

"I think I'll get a good night's rest then. Thank you for telling me."