This chapter is, once again, full of Cid's ramblings about magic. Includes a bit of Xianxia stuff, but just a bit, still warning though.
And Shir0R4ven: no, I absolutely am not mentioning Mibry's stuff, no sir =)
Alpha was looking through the documents.
'Mitsugoshi's income increased over the last month… Lambda asks for a new training equipment… Eta's department requires more funds…'
A tedious work, but important nonetheless. After all, who else would skim through all of this if not her? And she doesn't want to take Master Shadow's time…
'Hmm? What's this? A letter?'
Once she worked through a pile of documents, she found a simple letter with familiar handwriting.
'Hmm, Master Shadow? Interesting… Going away to work on new magic ideas, will be in this place, if you need something just come… By the Goddess, Cid, not again…'
She could feel the incoming headache already.
'Hm, hm, hm, Ancient Runes, here I come!'
Cid found a good place to test the magic out and took the books out.
Most of them were written in language of the ancients, good thing he took the books about it, too!
Of course, at first it's gonna be hella hard, but he doesn't need to start with the hardest runes either; in fact, he's quite eager to learn the basics first. After all, even with his level of control he can't create self-sustaining phenomena yet, while Runes do exactly this; you inscribe them once and only need to do maintenance sometimes to keep them working.
In short, artifact making! Of course, he doesn't want to create some god-tier gear and end up relying on it, that would completely go against his whole philosophy, but learn the magic language and adapt it to his own style? Yeah, he can make it work!
And so he took out the first books and started reading them.
'Oh, so it's like this… Hold up, you can actually inscribe the runes on something? No, wait, it actually differs from time to time… You need a different style for different usage, for example, for weapons it would be like this, while for daily necessities it's gonna be… this…'
Cid was engrossed in receiving new knowledge.
As it turns out, even the most basic Runic Inscription (it didn't have a name but Cid gave one he thought was cool) required different instruments. For example, trying to inscribe something on metals with wood was as great as trying to beat nuclear bombs while being a normal human; completely impossible. Metal completely negates most magic actions you try to do through wooden instruments, yes, even trying to simply paint temporary runes using… you got that right, pencil! For those who don't know, pencils are usually wooden with graphite leads.
However, if you use either other metallic instruments, precious gems like diamonds, or something animal-related, the material will give in. It wasn't explained why, exactly, it worked like that, but if Cid had to guess, it's because metal on metal is normal use, diamonds are superhard materials, and animals' parts still carry on special qualities even after the owner's death after being basked in their magic for so long.
Of course, you can also inscribe runes on something different, but Metal was the most popular choice, and there was a reason for that. You see, it's possible to use soil and rocks as your material, but it does not have enough, so to say, lifespan to actually be used properly. Rocks will simply break down mere days after, being not able to handle such stress on their forms. Soil is even worse; you know, there are plants trying to grow there, little insects making their tunnels… In short, soil is everchanging. Using water? Well, remember what he told about water's qualities? Yeah… However, rocks are a great training material; you will be able to train your inscribing abilities on them as before moving on to more precious materials.
Now wood, on the other hand, is a good alternative, but while Metal was the go-to choice when you wanted to create something you would use in battles, Wood was often used for mundane life. Of course, inscription rules become different here; you can't use Metal on Wood as it would completely kill off whatever magical qualities it had, but you can use liquids instead, for example, using quills and ink. Inscribe the runes carefully on wood, let it imprint, and done!
Oh, if it's so good, why practically no one uses Runic Inscription?
Well, you may have noticed Cid used Past Tense when describing everything, right?
Yes!
Nobody fucking knows how to actually do it!
Everything that was left is old books, and everyone simply deciphered them to know how to use artifacts that already existed. Nowadays magic was used as brute force, unfortunately; people's peak was channeling their mana into a weapon to increase its prowess.
He now respects Eta even more; Alpha often told how she was creating various thingies, and even her cuffs were actually created with a different form of artifact making, unlike ones used by Midgar forces. Now how exactly was she creating artifacts he didn't ask, but it's fine, Eta wouldn't mind a little conversation with him.
The more advanced way was to use your own body as a magic conductor… Yeah, practically press your fingertip into material and start writing. The problem here is the fact that if you mess up your body will be damaged, and you can't change your size so doing it on something small is… troublesome.
And even more insane way is using pure magic. Like you barely touch your material and just send magic in multiple directions, forming runes along the way. Benefits? If you actually manage to pull it off your newly created artifact lasts for as long as the material without need for maintenance, and if creator is the one who uses it, well, conductivity become insanely high. But unless you had great control over your magic it's completely impossible and you will blow up the material instead… Well, good thing he trained in control since childhood!
Now he needs a rock… Yeah, they're literally everywhere, but he needs something big enough so he can use his finger at first. Yeah, he decided to settle for Advance way for now.
Oh, here's the rock. Now, what exactly does he want to do?… Oh, he doesn't know a single rune yet. Where's that book again…
Hmm… what can he use on a rock… Maybe something simple? A rune that emits light? Yeah, that one should be fine…
Cid started moving his finger on the surface as he channeled his mana. Slowly, a pattern appeared. And once he finished…
Nothing happened.
"Huh, now that's weird…"
'Well, trusty book, your time to shine. What went wrong?'
And nothing went wrong. He did everything exactly as it was told in the book. But still nothing happened. Hmm, he should re-read part about inscribing again…
Intention. Yeah, of course. He kinda forgot that each time you use magic you need to visualize what you want first. It is afterwards using it like that becomes second nature and doesn't require anything other than fine control.
Right, let's do this again… Light, light, light… Stroke, stroke, stroke…
Oh, he feels something. He can actually see how his creation slowly lights up… Literally!
It worked!
And if he uses magic sense, he can see how magic energy stored inside the rock slowly goes the way he inscribed and transforms into… something? Light? Electricity? Another type of magic? He doesn't know yet.
But does that mean that what he writes actually doesn't matter, and what he needs the most is his own intention? Gotta test that out, and for that he will take the word 'light' in English and Japanese languages… Well, first Japanese.
Stroke, stroke, stroke…
It worked in both cases, but at less intensity? So Ancient Runes actually have advantage over whatever other language he might use, but what is the reason behind that? Is it because it's practically imprinted into the world itself, existing in it since time immemorial, while Japanese and English came from his past life world?
Then how does Will Inscribing (made up name) works? Like Instrumental Inscribing uses various tools to ease the task, Conductive Inscribing discards them in favor of your own body, and the third one? Just manipulating magic and forcing your intention onto the material?
Cid can use the elements to do what they are already able to do (wind blowing, liquid flowing), but he can't force it to do what they can't, as in metal won't act like liquid unless he melts it. What Runes do is adding something that wasn't present in the material before or enhancing the qualities it already has. So when he uses Inscribing onto material, he practically adds a concept to it? And that's why intention is needed to make it work, as he needs to understand how the process actually works? That might explain why nowadays practically no one uses Rune Inscribing; as tests showed, if he actually uses knowledge from his previous life about light, mana costs become pitifully small while efficiency raises tremendously, but if he just thinks "go light it up or something", he needs a percent or so of his total magic reserve, and even then the result… Well, he threw this rock away. It will break sooner or later anyway. It's trash.
And that's a percent of his magic reserve. For most people it's practically eating their whole reserve up just to make a rock shiny!
But then why do Ancient Runes work better?… Or do they?
Cid inscribed runes in Japanese and Ancient Language with intention "go-go shiny".
Ancient Runes performed infinitely better, giving away a stable light compared to almost unnoticeable light of Japanese symbol.
Then Cid inscribed the light rune in Japanese, using his full knowledge about the light properties. Then he did the same with Ancient Runes.
The check showed that artifact quality was the same in each case.
'So that's how it is…'
His theory was correct: Ancient Runes were created specifically as a language describing the properties of various concepts, and when user inscribes them, they carry these concepts over to material. Once user gains profound understanding of the world around them, they can disregard Rune Language and enchant artifacts with their will alone.
And it turns out he was right; even though the end result was a bit worse than when he wrote anything, he was able to force concept of light onto the rock. There was another problem with that, though: when he inscribed the rune with writing, it was a gradual process. Now he forced it all at once. Guess what happened? Right: rock couldn't handle that and broke in dust. The dust was emitting light, though, so he actually could inscribe concepts into things. The only problem would be material's durability, but otherwise he could do it!
Of course, all of what he has done was simply inscribing a single concept of light. Sure, it works, but what if he inscribes high-temperature flames? Correct: whatever quality material has, sooner or later it will melt away under its own heat. That means he also needs to add fire-resistance to the material without breaking both of these concepts…
Huh, what's that?
Cid focused his gaze. He could have sworn he just saw something in magic spectrum… No, wait, he actually sees something!
It's not magic, per say, but it's somewhat close… Like light? No, it's the light itself? But why here and now?
No, hold on, Cid was experimenting on inscribing the concept of light into objects and now he sees something closely related to it. Coincidence? Cid thinks not!
Upon closer inspection he realized that this thing was indeed a concept of light, but… materialized? If he can say that? Like even now without magic vision he can see that surroundings were indeed brighter than before, even when he covers all his previous attempts. But with every passing moment the light slowly grew dimmer… Yeah, this "wild" concept of light was not able to sustain itself for long without some kind of anchor… What if he feeds some of his mana to it?
Oh, it came back to life! And now it slowly moves towards him. Huh, he actually can feel something on the back of his mind… It's like this thing wants to converse with him?
Well, conversation is not the right word, more like they exchange their intents. What this thing wanted is a mana supply and some kind of anchor, be it something material or his presence; in exchange it would provide whatever it as a concept of light can do and some innate insights into itself, allowing him to understand it on deeper level than even his previous scientific world gave. In essence, it offered a contract.
And what Cid did? Of course, he accepted! That's bright new field of research right there! The presence of materialized concept of light raises a possibility of other materialized concepts! What if he finds concept of fire? Or metals? Or Shadows?!
And the cost was completely laughable for him: he gave away less mana than he regenerated. Oh, this thing also noted (if he can say that) that it can evolve as a concept if it gets more knowledge about itself and other concepts. Neat! He feeds it knowledge, then takes the knowledge himself! Of course, his ability to get this knowledge himself was based on his, well, abilities, so better read more smart books.
Oh, he also has to give it a name… Hmm… Well, he will call it Radiance! Oh, he thinks it liked that! Well, now you're Radiance!
Hold on, there are more lights? Were they attracted to successful contract between him and Radiance? But he doesn't need any more… Oh, they convey that it's alright if he just binds them to material world somehow? Like imprint to something? Sure, he might also need some training in using the materialized concepts…
While working on making an area for them, he also came to an understanding: these things do not have the Ego, per say. They can die, but they do not fear it. If they die, they simply dissolve back into something they were representing, so concept of light will give a final flash of light and disappear, concept of air will merge with the surrounding air… Sure, they will try to fight back when provoked, but otherwise they will simply follow whatever their concept represents. That's completely different from material world, where every living thing seeks to survive in any way possible.
It's almost like… they're spirits! Yeah, he will call them spirits as a whole!
And when he uses Concept Inscribing, his radiating knowledge of concept attracts and materializes spirits of that concept, where he can then either use them as a material for Inscribing (which makes it way easier) or make a contract with them. Or ignore them, they don't mind that, either, and simply dissipate back.
And the deeper knowledge he possesses, the more spirits he attracts and of higher quality they are. Almost like they are formed from his intention… Huh, it might actually be that way.
Oh, Radiance conveys that they either form exactly the way he described — that is, with sentient beings' help, — or in places of extremely high concept concentration. For example, it might be possible to find concept of fire in extremely hot area… Possible, but very rare. Because concept needs understanding of itself, and without sentient beings with deep knowledge nearby… Well, it's almost impossible. It also needs some kind of magic energy in order to actually be born, as material world energy like electricity… Well, it's not compatible, which is why his previous scientific world did not have any concepts running around despite being advanced enough for their birth. And in this world people did not have enough understanding about them, despite having magic, so they were never born here, either. Huh, neat… So he's actually trailblazing here.
Wait, hold on, how can it be if Ancient Language existed?
Oh, it needs an understanding of sentient being and not of language it uses. Not to mention Ancient Language being way inferior compared to his own understanding…
Wait, if other worlds exists, does that mean there might be a world made entirely out of concept?
Radiance conveyed confusion and noted that there was a world like that, literally at his feet.
He slowly lowered his head to look below. At his feet. Where his shadow was.
Shadow.
"Huh, guess I really am gonna become Eminence in Shadows… Literally."
"Princess Iris, look, it's here," soldier bowed.
"Thank you, you may go," Iris nodded.
"Damn, that place sure is beautiful… I can almost believe that this is where something like long forgotten sanctuary might be," Alexia looked around, "I definitely gotta bring Cid here… For him to sightsee, of course."
"Hmm…" Iris looked around, "A shame Sherry left after the incident. We could need her help to decipher what this place is."
"Meh, don't we have contact with this Shadow Garden?"
"Doubt they will tell us much, but they probably already know about this place, so we can just wait for them."
"O-key…" Alexia nodded and looked at a shining column of stone.
Shining column of stone, in the middle of night.
And there were other objects that emitted light, starting from small rocks. The biggest thing she saw was an oak that had intricate rune patterns on it.
'Yep, definitely some kind of magic place. Wonder who made that…'
