The Finest of Two Worlds

Volume 1, Chapter 2: Twins of Fate

Part I: Joining of Fates

As my old world's 'Finest Assassin' as the Goddess called me, it's fortunate that I have been reborn into the house of assassins. My father, Cian Tuatha Dé is a respectable man and on the surface one would expect him to be no more than a kind and competent noble. However the Tuatha Dé is known for a darker secret, their assassinations. While publicly the Tuatha Dé focuses on medicines and being well-versed doctors, that is really used to hide their true motives, handling threats to the Kingdom and its people by the order of the Royal Family.

I wasn't alone in this family either, as I also had a twin sister, Tána. Whereas one might accept one's twin sister to be playful, attached, or rivaling their twin brother, Tána is fairly silent and distant. In appearance, we both look like the opposite gender version of each other, with Tána having white hair extending to her shoulders, though notably having the purple eyes of my father rather than the gray eyes I got from my mother.

While many nobles will simply ask their servants for food and they'll gather it quickly, the Tuatha Dé will frequently hunt for food. While we are a lower nobility, it's likely we could still afford such a lifestyle if we chose to, however it's clear my father is trying to teach us even the most basic of skills while keeping us active by having us hunt and cook much of our food. Tána herself is a fairly good shot for how quickly she learned, and while I have my experience as an assassin from my past life, it seems Tána has worked hard in her spare time to not fall behind.

As we're twins I generally expect that Tána likely has mana, though how much I can't say for certain. I also wonder if being in the same womb together and having similar genes may have ended up giving her some of my skills or perhaps gave her mana levels similar to my base ones without limitless growth in play. Either way she'll be useful against the hero, and since she's already family, getting her on my side is already done for me.

In terms of our actual training to be assassins under the Tuatha Dé, I've certainly already shown that I surpass Tána, though she either doesn't seem to mind too much or is just very good at hiding her emotions. Despite my father saying that she didn't need to become an assassin if she didn't want to, as she could easily be useful to the family in other means, she persisted. While it's hard to compare her advances to mine when I have Accelerated Growth and Rapid Recovery, my father says she's coming along quite well, so I'll take him at his word.

What is my, and I also believe Tána's main ambition at the moment is to gain a magic tutor. While I know I certainly have a large mana pool, and have even begun doing things to exercise and train it, I still need an actual tutor to begin using magic.

However, for now, there's something else I want. The eyes of Tuatha Dé. With them I can not only get enhanced eyesight but detect and see mana in the air and from people. Overall its perfect for assassinations, hence why the Tuatha Dé made it after so many tests on death-row inmates.

Fortunately for me, I wouldn't have to wait too long as following a routine assessment from my father on my physical development, he said he would perform the surgery to grant me them. My only hope is that I don't catch the envy of my sister Tána, such jealousy could forge a rivalry that may prove disastrous in getting her to work closely with me in the future. For now I must simply treat Tána kindly like a caring older brother, even if I am barely older than her.

Part II: Assessing the Situation

If there's one thing I needed most, it's a fundamental understanding on how to properly use magic in this world. While the information Being Y gave me has certainly come in decently when using my former magical abilities and formulas with the current magical system, I can still only teach myself so much.

That's why I was quite pleased to hear from Lugh after his eyes had recovered that we were to be getting a tutor soon. Despite not knowing how to use magic in this world, I'm still able to, in part from my Mana Manipulation skill, use my former formulas and abilities. As such, I'm still able to detect mana and mana frequencies, and it was clear as day that Lugh's was quite vast. In fact, if it weren't for my Mana Manipulation skill which allowed me to raise my mana growth rapidly, I likely would be significantly weaker than him.

With his new eyes of Tuatha Dé, he is able to see and detect the mana of others, as such I have used Mana Manipulation to hide my full magical power, as I'm not sure yet whether or not to trust Lugh. For now it simply looks like that on a magical level, I'm on the higher end of what humanity and experienced mages can achieve, which in of itself is a lot.

In reality my magical strength is likely around over 1000 times stronger than the average mage, and that's not accounting for the fact that my magic usage is always near maximum efficiency and I recover mana faster than anyone else, even those with skills like Rapid Recovery fall short in terms of Mana recovery.

I do have my Computation Jewel as well as my rifle, just as Being Y promised. I found it fairly recently after I detected a familiar magical frequency which turned out to be emanating from it. I currently use illusion magic to keep both it and my rifle invisible, and thanks to Mana Manipulation, I can hide the aura the illusion formula emits, hiding it from even the mystic eyes of Tuatha Dé.

I've similarly begun experimenting with enchantments, and utilizing the small handful of books we have on it, I believe I have got the basics. The main problem initially came from the fact that few enchantments were of much use to my rifle, let alone my Computation Jewel, though enchanting the Type 95 is a whole other can of worms.

I did quickly find out though that enchantments can be viewed as someone similar in many ways to formulas, though to say they were overlapping or close to being the same would be an overstatement. My knowledge of formulas certainly helped, but I'd say it only helped me understand the basic principles more easily. With it though, I've already placed a few enchantments on my rifle, though it'll take some time before it's properly refined.

The main thing I hope to accomplish is to upgrade my Type 95 if possible. Normally, even with the mediocre magical output I had before, it allowed me to reach significant power. Now with well over 1000 times that, the Jewel should allow me to go far beyond my current power. Normally the Jewel would likely overreact and explode, however through Mana Manipulation, it's destabilization can be avoided entirely by making sure mana flows through smoothly.

The main problem in upgrading it is that I barely have an idea how it works. Computation jewels are complex machines, and the Type 95 is no exception. Its dual cores make this even more complicated, though if I can upgrade it properly, I can either upgrade this one or make an entirely new one with even more cores.

Soon enough though, the magic tutor would arrive and it would be time to take my next step in increasing my strength.

Part III: Trio of Prodigies

The magic tutor arrived in a carriage, riding up to the house of Tuatha Dé before stepping out and looking upon the two 'girls' in front of her. As she got onto the ground from her carriage, Cian spoke to her,

"We've awaited your arrival. Thank you for coming, despite your busy schedule."

"Don't worry about it. The Viekones owe the House of Tuatha Dé a great deal. So they're going to be my apprentices? I was told one of them was a boy."

This tutor was young, likely no older than either of us. It was also when she said that last part that I realized Lugh was in a dress… for some reason. I looked over and gave a confused, and partially concerned stare, Lugh just looking forward, clearly hiding his emotions.

The tutor was also suspiciously similar to us in appearance. I hadn't been around much, but from what I knew, white hair wasn't all too common, and with their domain close by, I immediately had some suspicions as to if we were related or not, though it didn't quite matter enough for me to put any focus into it.

"I am a boy." Lugh said, clearly still hiding his emotions. It was likely hard for anyone else to tell, but when dealing with the politics of the General Staff and military command, you pick up on key details that give them away, though as an assassin he should be fairly good at hiding those too. If anything it showed how embarrassed he likely was in this situation.

"My wife dressed him." Cian then says, which is warning enough for me to avoid her at all costs. If she did that to Lugh, a boy, there's no telling what she'd do with me. It'd be that propaganda photoshoot all over again… My only hope was that she only likes crossdressing boys.

"She's always been a little…" the tutor sighs, clearly indicating she knows her somehow. If I had to guess, we may be more directly related to her than we thought, or at least they're a second cousin or something. Given the Viekones' proximity and how many noble families marry into each other, I don't find it unlikely.

"Either way, I feel like these two are too young to be studying magic."

['Speak for yourself! You don't look more than a few years older than us!'] Course I couldn't say that out loud, I'm smart enough to not piss off my only instructor immediately.

"These two are special, like you, Ms. Dia, they're geniuses, even if Tána doesn't like to show it off."

"That's what they all say…" Dia mumbled under her breath, quite enough that I doubt anyone would've picked it up without the hearing formulas I had activated on instinct. It's quite hard to hear in high-altitudes and speeds after all, though I didn't need it here on the ground. Though regardless it seemed to be helping. I also now realize that I have had that formula passively on for likely months at this point! What other formulas have I left on?

"C'mon then, let's test your magical capacity so I can see how hard I can train you." Dia spoke while walking, heading towards the garden at the front gate as Lugh, still in his dress without a chance to change followed, me shortly afterwards.

She handed each of us a strange spherical stone or gem or crystal ball or something. "This is a Fahr Stone, it's used to store mana, try pouring your mana into it. These things can hold a lot of Mana, so it can take years to properly fill one-"

She is promptly cut out by large streams of light emanating from the Fahr stone she handed to Lugh. He was undeniably overloading that thing with mana. I had known Lugh had lots of mana, likely comparable to my own, but I wasn't quite expecting that. Through Mana Manipulation, I can fully see just how much mana would be needed to fill this thing, and it's just as Dia said, it needs a lot.

Unlike Lugh, I'm able, or am at least actually putting an effort to hold back my mana. I managed to gauge what would likely be considered 'very high' by their standards, but not enough to stand out as nothing more than a rarity. With that, I filled the fahr stone with the proper amount of mana as it made a light glow.

Meanwhile I look up and Dia shouts to Lugh, "Quick! Throw it as far as you can!" and then I see Lugh throw the stone far into the air before it makes a powerful explosion. If I had to compare its size, I had fired off similar attacks on the Rhine Theater, most notably when I took out a whole company of mages before I would spend some time in the rear. However that's just a comparison of size, in terms of sheer magical power, that kind of blast would far surpass the damage I caused with my Type 95.

Notably though, these stones have potential, if I could use them properly, they could be used for numerous uses, most powerfully as an upgrade to my Type-95. While I'm certainly no expert, I know that from the way these stones seem to work I may be able to take miniature versions of them and use them as more powerful cores in the Computation Jewel, perhaps even using them to add more. With this power, I could possibly add anywhere between 6 to 10, though 8 would be the highest I'm currently willing to go. Putting 9 or 10 cores in there may cause a severe destabilization.

Still, I had to get my hands on some Fahr stones. Since I'm not quite sure how to best integrate them, I need to do a more thorough analysis on them, and as such I need more. However Lugh was a step ahead of me, though I'm sure he was more likely focused on its weaponization prospects.

"You think I could get more fahr stones?" Lugh asked Dia, who held up her pointer fingers crossed in an X.

"No you can't! Fahr stones are a treasured object of my home region of Viekone, we can't give them out to people from other regions."

"Tch"

"Did you just click your tongue?"

"No. Are you sure I can't have fahr stones?"

"Yes!"

I just stare at them as they bicker, though I was just about as annoyed as Lugh at not getting any fahr stones. Luckily though, I had just figured out how to stabilize flight even without the stabilizers that come with our mage gear, so flying over the mountains to Viekone shouldn't prove difficult. The matter then was where to find them, but I'll figure that out on a later date.

"Oh Tána, I almost forgot, how's your mana capacity?" Dia hurries over and gazes at the Fahr stone in my hand, lighting up, but certainly nowhere near the level Lugh's shone.

"Oh that's quite a lot too! Not enough to cause the thing to explode, but you might still have more mana than me! I'm sure you'll both be excellent students! I suppose Cian was right when he called you prodigies."

Part IV: Training

The training ended shortly after that, most likely since normally filling up a fahr stone with all of your magical power drains a person, so she likely wasn't prepared to continue today regardless. I spent most of that afternoon fixing up the damages Lugh brought out when he nuked the sky, eventually heading to sleep, noticing Dia entering Lugh's bedroom as I passed.

['There better not be any- you know what, that's not my problem. If this is anything like the uncivilized Medieval period of my old world, incest is probably legal. My main concern is if Lugh even knows about it… Whatever I'm going to bed.']

I woke up early the next day, looking into Lugh's room where the door had been left opened slightly to see Lugh was definitely sleeping with someone he was almost definitely related to. Regardless it wasn't my problem so I just walked by and ignored it.

Training that day came later, as we headed out into the forest and near a lake, a fairly random spot, at least on initial glance. Any professional with magic, or someone who is able to detect mana flows, could tell this area was fairly rich with magic. It was where a few mana streams met, so the mana in the air was slightly denser than other areas. This isn't exactly a rarity, these kinds of mana flows are natural and occur once every mile or so. Ultimately its effect is minimal, though for beginners it might prove easier to cast magic within it.

She eventually handed us each a fahr stone, "Today I'm going to check your attributes, put a little magic into it!"

I noticed she put emphasis on the 'a little' part of it. She probably didn't want Lugh destroying the entire ecosystem. I also imagine these aren't that easy to come by either.

"We'll start with lugh, we'll test for fire first." she held out her hand and the stone in Lugh's hand, already glowing slightly, shimmered a light red color. "You have an affinity for fire, however it's possible to have multiple attributes so we'll test for the others, starting with water."

She held out her hand again, and along with the already present glowing red color, a bright blue color shimmered from the stone. "Wow, you have an affinity for water as well! This is my first time seeing someone besides myself who has more than one attribute! It's very rare!"

It seemed having more than one attribute was a rarity, though at least not completely impossible. Since I was limited to only things within human standards, albeit that needed an insane amount of luck, it should be possible for someone to achieve 4 attributes as well. Is it possible some people just don't realize they have more than two?

"What about the others?" Lugh asked in response to her praise. Which on one hand, calm down man, you've just been confirmed to be a rarity in this world with two attributes and you wanna know if you have more? But then again on the other hand it's fair enough, I've always taken lugh to think outside the box, so I'd doubt he'd limit his thought process to the accepted norms of this world.

"I've never seen someone with more than two attributes but…" She extended her hand, and shortly after she did, the stone shone a deep purple in response. "You have an affinity for Earth too?!" She tries again, the stone shining a light green as she did, "Wind, too! You have all four attributes!"

"Seems that way"

"You're unbelievable"

Alright now that's a stroke of luck. Either the goddess purposefully placed me with someone she knew would have a lot of magical potential, or some of my skills or proficiencies rubbed off on him in the womb, a theory I've been considering for a while now. Though there is one other possibility…

"Now we'll try you Tána, flow mana into the stone."

As I did, she reached out her hand, the stone shining red as to indicate my proficiency for fire. I had considered hiding my proficiencies before, especially after seeing how rare it is, however it would be bad to sacrifice learning two attributes for the sake of hiding my 'luck.' Besides with Lugh having all four as well, it's much harder to individually stand out.

"You also have an affinity for fire! Now let's try water!" As she said this, the stone turned blue again, and her face turned from joy to a mixture of shock, awe, and mild annoyance. "You gotta be kidding me…"

A few moments later the stone shone both purple and green as her face slowly changed, shifting to realize she was now training two 'prodigies' who each had all four attributes.

"Anyways… Now that I know your magical capacity, if 'capacity' is even the right word, I can begin to teach you properly."

A few seconds later she was sitting on a log taking Lugh's shirt off.

['For fucks sake! Get a room! I don't need to see your incest exhibitionist fantasies!']

"Casting spells requires you to convert your mana's attribute. Your first attribute conversion is a powerful and memorable experience."

['Is it? I just figured out how to do it a few seconds ago with Mana Manipulation. Not that I'd tell anyone though']

"Receiving guidance from an unskilled mentor can leave you with bad habits." Dia continues speaking while practically fondling Lugh's chest.

"You're not an unskilled mentor, right?" Lugh asked rhetorically.

['I swear to the Empire if that was a flirt']

"Don't worry I promise you a wonderful first time"

['Alright, they're fucking, I'm out of here… is what I would say if I wanted to have to hide my magical power for my entire life. Whether I like it or not, I'm going to have to get my loli cousin to fondle my chest aren't I?']

"Focus, we'll start with Earth, my preferred attribute. Feel the change in mana on your skin. Etch it into your mind"

Both appeared to be glowing, and just from my ability to detect mana frequencies alone, I could sense the mana flowing between the two as it disrupted each of their individual frequencies.

"Thank you for a wonderful first time" Lugh spoke, making me slouch in mental anguish.

['I'm going to fucking find a new family if they keep talking like they just had sex.']

Dia giggled, not helping my mental state, "Give it a try now." Lugh closed his fist before opening them, revealing the stone in his hand glowing a full purple, to which Dia commented, "Looking good!"

"You set a good example-" he stopped for a moment before continuing "I have memories of something that looks like letters."

"You learned a spell."

['So that's how they learn spells? I'm gonna be pissed if its some 'divine revelation' bullshit.']

"This is a spell?"

"When you take on mana from one of your attributes, you learn spells as a revelation from God."

['...']

"The more often you cast them, the more new spells you'll receive"

"How do I cast them?"

"Speak the incantation in your mind."

"I can't read these letters."

"Watch this, Etaerc Reppoc." A collection of magical circles forming into a shape of some kind of diamond appeared above Dia's hands, creating a diamond of copper which fell into them.

['Oh great, creating metal, what kind of chaos will that unleash into the market? I'm a modern nation, if it was possible to make Iron that easily, wars would be far more deadly. Heck copper is a fairly valuable resource where I'm from, though that may not apply here since technology is non-existent.']

"This is the first Earth Affinity spell that appears in your mind"

['The FIRST?! There's no way in hell that copper isn't just worthless in this world. How rare must magic users be for nobody to properly inflate the economy with these?']

"Like this? Etaerc Reppoc." Lugh successfully recreates the spell, the magical casting circle appearing above his hands and giving him a piece of copper, though one arguably far worse in condition.

"How did you learn that after hearing it only once?"

['I probably could as well, and with Mana Manipulation, I could probably do better than that lump of copper he got.']

"I'm confident in my memory. My tongue can't quite keep up, though."

"Pronunciation is key when casting spells. The accuracy of your pronunciation affects your magic."

['Unless you have a skill that manipulates mana to make up for any such mistakes']

"So that's how it works."

"Yep! Anyways Tána it's your turn!" she pats the log next to her, "Come sit down."

['Here it comes, the dreaded time when I have to get my chest fondled by my likely cousin. Or worse yet she could also be my sister. I'd rather not think about it.']

Without much choice if I wanted to hide my skills, I sat down, however…

"Lugh's leaving though, I'm not doing this with him here." I really didn't care much if he was here or not, however I don't trust the sex drive of an adolescent kid, no matter how mature he is, to not get the wrong thoughts.

"I'll meet you at the house then." Lugh took off quickly, I assumed he understood, however it was hard to get a read on if he was upset or not.

"Alright, are you ready then Tána?" Dia asked cheerfully

"I'll never be, but I doubt I have a choice if I wanna learn magic…" I mumble and Dia giggles.

"Nope! Don't worry I'll give you a wonderful fir-"

"Stop referring to it like that."

I assume she got the hint and began working. I let her do so, although I had already figured it out, so there wasn't really any feeling to it.

['At least I could sit through this without looking like it was the first time a woman had ever touched me, cough cough Lugh.']

"Alright, that's it so try it out!"

I held out the stone in my palm, and it promptly glowed purple, just like Lugh's had.

"Great, now have you gotten the spell?"

I nodded, holding out my hands and reciting the spell, "Etaerc Reppoc." As I said it, a diamond of copper formed in my hands, effectively the same clean copper as Dia's, mostly since Mana Manipulation allowed me to correct the imperfections.

"You made it perfectly on the first try?! You and Lugh really are going to be a strange handful to teach… Anyways shall we head back?"

I nodded to her, I had no reason to sit out here in the woods after all.

Part V: Beyond Revelations

I had met up with Lugh and Dia in Lugh's room, once again not questioning why they slept together, especially with our multiple guest rooms, however it seemed from the looks of Lugh's copper diamond that he had generally gotten the hang on that spell.

"Nice work! You're progressing so quickly!" Dia complimented him cheerfully as I closed the door behind me, entering the room. We were planning to head back into the forest again, however it seemed they were doing something here first.

"So this is magic. It's fun." Lugh was holding the copper diamond, a similar shape and quality to mine and Dia's, and while I'm unsure the amount of time it takes to master a spell, if Dia's right, then he must've gotten it quite fast.

"I was so excited at first, too! The more magic you use the more spells come to mind!" Dia collapsed onto the bed after doing a small twirl, however I was more focused on my thoughts.

If I need to cast spells over and over again to learn more, that could prove fairly tedious, not to mention I'm not the biggest fan of receiving 'divine revelations' in order to cast. I was about to ask something before Lugh seemed to ask it before I could.

"Can you cast a spell off a transcription written by someone instead of the letters in your head?"

You know it's times like these when I can really respect Lugh's thinking process. I'm not sure if I've had anything to do with it, or if Being Y put me with him for said reason, but he always thinks beyond what is deemed normal here.

"Without a revelation from God?"

"I want to try it."

"Count me in on that as well, I was thinking the same thing, though if it was possible surely there would be no need for revelations and people would simply share knowledge with books. There's no way nobody has tried this before… right?" I finally speak up, I had begun growing tired of third wheeling them this entire time, and I don't wanna look like a slouch, so it's best that I contribute somewhat to the conversation at least. Besides, I stand by what I said, there's surely no way nobody hasn't tried this before.

Dia got a piece of paper and began writing, which showed that either us or Dia were pretty well of nobility to have such things in medieval times, or that it's not quite as rare here, either way it could be worth noting if I ever need to get into the economics of this world.

"We'll try iron next. Here." She pushed the paper to the end of the desk, revealing a string of letters which portrayed the spell. Looking at it visually, and even in its pronunciation, it was fairly similar to copper. If that's not a coincidence, it could mean magic functions more like equations or formulas, which would make it much simpler to utilize my computation jewel to the fullest in such a case.

"Etaerc Nori" both me and Lugh say in unison, creating a block of iron in our hands. This does prove one thing however, Iron can be made by magic. Normally it seems magical capacity is fairly low compared to what I, or even Lugh has. To add to that, it seems once you're fully drained it takes a while to recover. With all of that, it's easy to see why Iron isn't over-inflated, though to say it's completely without it would most likely be a lie. Regardless if I ever find myself isolated from this family or any other revenue stream, I could easily use my vast magical capacity to just make copious amounts of valuable materials. Depending on what I could make, I may be theoretically capable of constructing modern weaponry with the proper knowledge to do so.

"No way! It worked!.. Why hasn't anyone figured this out until now?"

['That's what I wanna know. Are people so entranced by the fact spells must be given by 'divine revelation' that they simply ignore logic? That's really what's to be expected by religions, making you give up logic and reason for the sake of worshiping a 'higher power' that 'may or may not exist.'']

"The copper and iron spells have nearly identical incantations."

"Yeah. I don't know what the words mean, but it's just this part that's different." Dia taps the part which is different, of which it only seems to be a handful of symbols.

['On one hand if you could translate it, would you be able to make spells? But there was a 'Spell Weaver' skill, I had almost chosen that over what I ultimately decided, but surely there wouldn't be a way to override that skill so easily. Maybe you need that skill to actually make the spells, regardless of whether or not you can write it down.']

"Dia, could you transcribe all the incantations you know?"

"What? That's a lot of work."

"If this minor difference changes the metal produced, we may be able to create a new spell by changing this part. We need samples to determine which letters mean what. I'll do anything for you in return. Please."

"Got it!"

Dia set out to write down most of the incantations she knew, as it would take a while Lugh decided to get her some tea to drink, not having much of a reason to stay there I followed.

"Do you really think you can just make spells that easily? Magic has been used for hundreds, even thousands of years, how would nobody have discovered this?" I wanted to know his thought process, I could generally already see where he was coming from, however getting a good understanding of how those near you think is just common sense, at least back in the Empire.

"They didn't discover being able to read transcriptions, so it's likely they didn't discover how to make spells either that way. However if you're asking why or how they never discovered even that, I'm not sure. There might be some interference involved, or maybe the way magic works makes it so nobody really considers it. Despite how it seems, there's only so many people who use magic, and that number hasn't really altered too much for the last few centuries. Magical knowledge likely doesn't spread too much when there's no incentive to when God tells you all the spells directly through revelations."

It's a sound argument, and to be fair I never thought of it like that. However, knowing people with power, I wouldn't be surprised if Being Y somehow did it on purpose to avoid people from running amok and causing havoc, whether for the greater good or their own protection.

At this point, Lugh had finished making tea, handing me a cup, "Shall we head back?"

I nodded, however my mind was focused on one thing.

['One of these days I'm gonna find coffee beans.']

"Dia, we're back." Lugh placed her tea on the desk, she took a quick sip before speaking.

"There are 36 magic letters. I think the difference between copper and iron is the numbers. It makes sense logically if these are numbers, so…" She looked up at Lugh, who was slightly startled. "Lugh are you listening?"

"Y-Yeah. I'm listening."

He wasn't. Here I had the advantage, years on the Rhine Front and serving under the Empire made me have to sit through and listen to the ramblings of my peers and superior officers, so listening to boring nonsense is something I've gotten used to. Though most of what she's saying is valuable information, I'll give it that. Since this world follows similar digits as both of my old worlds, that likely leaves 26 magical letters for words. Which is strange because they seem to line up pretty well with English letters if I recall what English looks like correctly.

"Copper is probably 8.9, 1,083, and 63.546. Iron is 7.9, 1,540, and 55.8, I think."

"Really?!" Lugh seemed excited about something. Judging from the numbers I would guess it was likely something more on the scientific side of things, however I was a salaryman, not a scientist.

"Good job figuring that out! Where's the number to magic letter conversion chart?"

"Here."

"Do you know what those numbers even mean?" I asked, once again trying to gauge his knowledge. From how he acted, I never thought of it much before, though I certainly considered it, but it's entirely possible he's also reincarnated here. It would explain why he thinks so outside of the accepted norms and why he somehow knows what these numbers mean. It would also support how he has so much power and all four attributes, it wouldn't be bullshit luck, just another 'coincidence' by Being Y.

Lugh nodded, "Mhm, these numbers are the parameters defining the type of metal created."

"In simpler terms." Both me and Dia said, though Dia was more asking him to while I was more or less commanding him to.

"The three numbers represent the specific gravity, melting point, and atomic weight. By changing the parameters to those of silver, we can produce silver."

While that wasn't a simpler exclamation by any means, I at least understood it. I'm no scientist, however I understood what those terms were to some extent. My question was how in an unscientific world such as this, with only the books we have in this house, did he find that out?

"That's even more confusing."

While I understood it to a degree, it seemed Dia is only more confused, which makes sense since what he just spoke, even if known about in this world, is most likely not common knowledge by any stretch of the imagination.

"Dia, don't you want to produce gold?"

"What?"

"I know the parameters for gold."

"So much for a 'gold standard'" I mumble under my breath

"Really? Let's do it!"

Dia got back to the desk, beginning to write onto the paper as Lugh spoke out the numbers.

"Specific gravity, 19.32. Melting point, 1,064. Atomic weight, 196.966."

"Done! Etaerc Dlog."

A magic circle appeared in her hand, however it simply glitched out and she collapsed to the floor, looking like she was about to die of some sickness, though she was quickly recovering.

"Are you all right, Dia?!"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I suddenly got a really bad headache. Did we get something wrong?"

['That explains what I was wondering about earlier. It seems that most likely without that Spell Weaver skill you probably can't create your own spells. It's a shame really, I could've gotten it, but oh well, it's not too important.']

"I'll try it, Etaerc Dlog."

Lugh had picked up the piece of paper, and upon reading the spell off of it, successfully created gold.

['Huh?']

"Y-You did it! It's gold! This is amazing, Lugh!"

"And a threat to the economy…" I added, impressed by the spell, but not exactly impressed with the consequences it could have.

Lugh moved again to the desk quickly, writing the same spell down onto the paper himself before showing it to Dia.

"Dia, I want you to read this. You don't have to if you don't want to. I could always get Tána to do it."

['You bitch!']

"It's necessary to determine the conditions required to produce new spells."

"That's not fair." She snatched the paper aggressively from Lugh, "I can't suppress my curiosity when you phrase it like that. Watch this, Etaerc Dlog."

She held out her hand again, this time the magic circle creating a bar of gold that fell into her hand.

"I did it! I made gold!"

['And an economic crisis! As a former Salaryman, I will never get over this.']

"Does this mean that if I create new spells and have you transcribe the incantation, then I can use them?!"

"That seems to be the case."

"This is so exciting!"

"Yeah, we can create even more impressive spells."

"Yeah! Let's make spells together!"

"Tána, would you want in on this?"

"I don't see why not, expanding the capabilities of magic opens the door to quite a lot of possibilities."

In truth there was no way I wasn't gonna leech off of someone who got the one skill I almost chose. There was no doubt in my mind that Lugh had Spell Weaver, and the probability that he was sent and reincarnated by Being Y skyrocketed. While I respected Lugh, even trusted him to a degree, since he was sent by Being Y, and I'm not sure what to think of her yet, I'll lay low and not reveal myself just yet. However, knowing Lugh, he'll find out eventually.

Part VI: Weapons of War

Today we were once again at the lake, yesterday got a bit sidetracked by Lugh putting every gold-based economy in jeopardy by making spells to create gold. Now he seemingly wanted to test something. Me and Dia did a small bit of practice on our own beforehand, however in truth I don't need it, especially now that we know I can just read the writing of spells or use spells that Lugh makes. The only thing that would be left is to improve my general skill, which from Mana Manipulation and my own past experiences with mana, I've gotten a good hand of already.

"We should be safe here. No one will find us."

['What spell did you make that you need to 'hide' from people? Should I be scared? If so. should be I be scared on behalf of any enemy of Lugh's, or on behalf of the economy…']

"Secrets are so exciting!"

"Here we go. Elfir Etaerc."

A moment later, a magical circle appeared in front of his hands, creating a rifle.

['Thats a fucking gun…']

"Erif!"

A bullet shot out of the rifle, piercing a mushroom in the distance and causing it to effectively explode. If there was any doubt that Lugh was a reincarnation, it was gone now. He made a gun!

"All right! It worked!"

Dia shouted out happily, though if she knew the horrors that thing could cause if mass-produced, she would not be so joyful.

"Let's call this spell 'Fire.'"

"Sure! That was awesome! Let me try it now. Elfir Etaerc."

A rifle appeared in her hands and she started shooting at some of the trees.

"Erif!"

The bullet flew at a branch, snapping it off the tree it was on.

"I did it, too!"

Dia started cheerfully hopping around, firing her gun at random targets with no regard for firearm safety, regardless of how necessary that was for a gun made with magic. Either way, not wanting to be outdone, I made my own, and while I did have my rifle transfered from my other world along with my computation Jewel, I was using illusion magic to hide them and then Mana Manipulation to hide the mana illusion magic gives off. I had my jewel at most times, though it remained hidden, though my rifle was in my closet, similarly hidden.

"Elfir Eraerc! Erif! Erif! Erif!"

Utilizing Mana Manipulation to maximize efficiency and power, my bullets flew more accurately and quickly than Dia's, and while not by much, someone with the eyes of Tuatha Dé like Lugh has probably could tell. Not that he was even paying attention anyways.

"Let's try modifying it a little."

"Huh?"

['Why do I have a bad feeling about this?']

"Eraerc Nonnac!"

A massive magical circle appeared in front of Lugh, larger than he was as Dia shouted out in shock.

"What is that?!"

From the magic circle appeared an artillery cannon, one reminiscent of that used around World War I and World War II, an era of military technology I was familiar with.

['THATS A FUCKING HOWITZER!']

There was no question, Lugh was a reincarnation, and one with the power of weapons of war on his side. Anyone who got on his wrong side, apart from me at least, would be properly screwed.

"Dia, Tána, cover your ears."

I didn't need to be told twice. I didn't need to be told at all, that thing's a fucking howitzer with the added power of magic. I'd go deaf if I didn't block my ears.

"Drabmob!"

The shell fired, completely destroying the small rock island in the middle of the lake, easily at least a mile away from where they were standing.

"What are you planning to shoot with that?! It's clearly too strong!"

"I made it quite thick, but it cracked after firing a single shot… Maybe I'll try using a martensitic molecular structure instead."

['What the fuck is he talking about?']

"That was crazy, Lugh. But firing that weapon must feel amazing."

"Let's call this spell 'Bombard.' Would you like to try it?"

"I hate to admit it, but I can't. I'd need a crazy amount of mana like yours. I'm fine with just 'Fire.'"

"Shall we practice some?"

"Okay!"

The 'practice' carried on for the rest of the day, mostly consisting of Lugh firing his cannon. I likely had the magical capacity to fire it as well, however for now I wasn't ready to reveal my true strength, by maintaining a close alliance with Lugh I likely wouldn't need to for a while so long as Lugh didn't hold back himself.

Eventually we returned home, I personally went straight to bed, wanting to give the impression of someone with a magical capacity only a bit higher than Dia's, who herself was just as tired as I was, though notably less so as she spent half the time in awe of Lugh. She told me on the way back that she would have to head back soon, so that was that for our training. For now I would focus on figuring out my enchantments and perhaps nudging Lugh on to make some more spells. Maybe I can subversively convince him to make a Tank. Regardless, these past few days have made great strides in progress, and now with my full magical potential open to me, I can finally begin.