The sun sank beyond the horizon, once again welcoming the darkness of night. This was the second night Zephyr was going to spend in this new world filled with magic and mysterious creatures.
Zephyr glanced down at the table before him after eating his fill. Then he glanced at the modified drawings of the mana gathering spell he made.
'If you think of a spell as a computer program, each rune behaves like a small function within it. These functions cumulatively make changes to the input mana and create a desired output.'
'Mana gathering spell behaved the same way.'
'It consumes a small amount of mana to do a process of absorbing mana from the immediate vicinity of the user.'
'I have no way of knowing which runes actually trigger the mana gathering function and how many runes it needs to function properly. But I believe it must not be much. After all, the majority of the runes were stabilization runes that repeated periodically.'
As he was thinking up to this point, he suddenly thought of something.
He once again lifted his fountain pen and moved it across the mana gathering spell he drew.
The initial spell he received from the storm tower was 96 runes long. After eliminating the repeating runes and the runes he thought were useless, he was left with just 13 runes. These thirteen runes were unique in nature and must serve a single purpose, he deduced.
'The only way to find out is by testing with my core.'
Zephyr's core was small…
…Very small.
It could barely fit three runes together. Considering that not all runes are similar in size, it could even be less.
So, there was no way for him to engrave the thirteen runes on his core together.
Thus, he had to change his approach. He decided to do one at a time and see how it was going to respond.
'Executing runes in unintended sequences can have dire consequences. But I have to take risks to break away from my fate.'
Zephyr was fated to become a monster after being captured by the demonic organization. He, as in the soul occupying the body, couldn't allow the tragedy to repeat.
Hence, showing no more hesitation, he dived straight into experimentation.
'I need to find a three-rune combination that will allow me to gather mana. If that is not possible, I should change my approach.' He firmly states in his mind.
After that, Zephyr took out the stack of paper next to him and began to write the combination of runes he was going to test. He swiftly moved the fountain pen in his hand over the paper, representing the thirteen basic runes as a set of numbers to write out all the possible combinations.
Though his hands ached as he swiftly wrote, Zephyr persisted, knowing what the future holds. After all, death and danger were great motivators.
Like that, more than an hour went by. Once he was done with it, Zephyr felt a blistering pain coming from his fingertips. And yet, he shook off the pain and glanced at the stack of paper.
It was more than he expected.
The total number of combinations that existed was well above a thousand and five hundred. It took him a while to write down all the combinations.
'Still, it is better to do it this way. Or else, with my memory of a gold fish, I will forget the combination I have tried out even before I complete the task.'
Massaging his finger, Zephyr moved onto the next step—to test out the rune combination by engraving it on his core.
'How do I do that?' he wondered, and instantly, memories of meditating surfaced in his mind.
Following the memories, Zephyr closed his eyes and began to envision his mindscape. Moments later, he felt the darkness disappear as he saw a small core floating in space.
Zephyr couldn't sense himself or see his own body. He existed like a specter within the space without a body.
And yet, he could feel and see the crystalline core floating nearby clearly. It made him feel in control of everything that is happening inside. And he knew that with just a thought, he could control the core however he wished.
'All my mana is stored in it.'
Zephyr was amazed by the fact that the one-centimeter-wide bead had enough mana to activate the magic tools within the lighthouse.
'Anyway, I have to inscribe the runes and find out if it will react in some way. Let's start by drawing a single rune structure first.'
Zephyr didn't really want to draw all the thousands of combinations of runes. It would be exhausting and a waste of time.
By morning, he has to make a core with a mana gathering ability. So, he decided to optimize the process.
'By selecting to draw single runes, I can see if any individual rune shows a mana gathering property. Then, I can add complementary runes to make it stronger.'
'That's the best way to go about it.'
Zephyr was almost sure that with the majority of the functional elements taken away from the mana gathering spell, it wouldn't behave in an intended way. So, the chances of him failing were higher than the chances of his succeeding.
And even if he created a core with mana-gathering ability, would it allow his core to grow stronger? He was not sure.
'I should be optimistic.' He silently said, shaping the mana around the core.
Absolute mana control was a blessing. With just a thought, he willed the mana to seep out of the core. With his mind in control, he used the mana as a chisel to engrave the first rune he remembered.
The rune was a squiggly character enclosed in a circle, like all other runes. It was a tiny bit bigger than the rest.
However, Zephyr tried his best to make it as small as he could without any loss in definition.
Like that, taking no more than a few seconds, Zephyr drew the first rune on his core.