Ch.28Drawing the Flame

During our expedition to find the Arcane Word, we unexpectedly encountered a troll—a formidable opponent—and managed to escape, safely returning to Ambers Ranch before sunset.

Unpacking our belongings on the second floor of the town hall and having dinner with pre-ordered bread and soup downstairs was the same as yesterday, but since this was our second night’s stay, we had to pay an accommodation fee of 1.5 gold per person.

It was hard to accept that they charged more than a decent inn just for letting us sleep on the second floor of the town hall without beds or bathtubs, but apparently this was necessary to prevent outsiders from treating the town hall as cheap lodging.

“It’s already past 8 PM. Are you going to prepare magic for dealing with the troll now?”

“Yes. If possible, I’d like to do it when no one outside our party is watching. It’ll take about 2-3 hours, so you two can go to sleep first.”

“If I won’t be in the way, could I watch? I’m curious about how a mage prepares magic.”

“I don’t mind showing Will and Seti, but… it’s not particularly interesting work.”

As she spoke, Jessica laid a wide piece of leather with magic circles drawn on it on the floor, then took out her well-used grimoire, bottles containing strange-colored inks, and a pen with a transparent tip made of what looked like glass or crystal.

“That ink is pretty.”

“Shh, don’t disturb me while I’m concentrating.”

“It’s fine. I can do about half of this work while chatting. Just don’t touch anything or speak to me when I close my eyes to concentrate and the grimoire starts glowing.”

“Oh, really? I thought you’d be performing some kind of magical ritual for the full three hours.”

“When creating high magic, I sometimes need to concentrate for over an hour… but basically, it’s like replacing pages in a picture book and then rewriting the story to match.”

Jessica began explaining, pointing out each spell she had been using to help me and Seti understand.

In Grantis, magic is completed by connecting “magical elements”—puzzle pieces—to form a proper “formula.” These magical elements are acquired through various methods: oral traditions or books, discoveries in ruins or dungeons, or flowing into one’s mind through contact with magical tools or artifacts. Regardless of whether one is a Codex Mage or Staff Wizard, how many different “magical elements” a mage has mastered ultimately determines the number and performance of spells they can handle.

In other words, magical elements are like various ingredients or seasonings, and the formula is like a recipe that effectively combines them to create a complete dish.

However, mastering various magical elements doesn’t necessarily guarantee versatility. Magical elements have properties that make similar ones attract each other, causing side effects when the same elements are used in multiple spells.

For Codex Mages, this side effect manifests as increased mana consumption for all spells using the same elements. For Staff Wizards, it increases the time needed to complete a spell. The latter is particularly problematic since failing to complete a spell within the time limit provided by the staff results in automatic failure, requiring Staff Wizards to be extremely careful.

“I see, so you can’t prepare a balanced variety of spells with all sorts of attributes and forms.”

“That’s right. If I consider the mana consumed by Stone Bullet as 1, and if I register wind, fire, and cold attribute versions of the same spell in this grimoire…”

“All four spells would consume 4 mana each, is that it?”

“That’s the simple way to think about it. In reality, since various elements like rotation or condensation are used, if they all overlap, mana consumption increases accordingly. In the worst case, I might need to use high-magic levels of mana to cast a single Stone Bullet and rest for hours afterward.”

A spell that fires stone bullets in a straight line, a spell that spreads ice particles radially, a spell that disperses wind impact in all directions… Creating spells that can handle various situations while minimizing overlap between components seems to be a common concern for Jessica and many other Codex Mages.

“Now I’m going to concentrate for about five minutes. Don’t touch anything placed here or my body.”

“Got it.”

When Jessica closed her eyes, extended her hand over the grimoire, and concentrated, the open pages began to glow, and the complex magic circles drawn on them started to writhe and move. Like watching a toy assembly process in reverse, they scattered into individual elements—triangles, circles, curves, and straight lines—and slowly disappeared one by one.

Without knowledge of magic, I could only guess, but somehow I understood that this process was breaking down the completed formula into its component elements, returning them to an unbound state.

It took about five minutes, as Jessica had said, for the magic circle drawn on the page to completely decompose and disappear, returning to a perfect blank page.

“I just disassembled Ignite. I’ll disassemble two more low-level spells like this, then craft new magic.”

“That’s fascinating. So this is how mages create new spells.”

“Only low-level spells with few magical elements can be adjusted this easily. With even slightly more complex structures, it’s impossible without the facilities at an academy or pioneer branch.”

“So the new spells you’re making today are also low-level?”

“Yes. I’m preparing Fire Bolt, the fire attribute version of Stone Bullet, and Fire Enchant, a spell that imbues weapons with the fire attribute.”

“Didn’t you say using the fire attribute twice would be burdensome?”

“Sometimes you have to choose utility even if overlapping magical elements increases mana consumption. Only I can use Fire Bolt, and attribute enchantments can’t be used on my gun. If I don’t prepare both spells, someone will have to face the troll without an attack method.”

So while strictly separating elements to save mana is important, sometimes you need to boldly overlap them to prepare solutions for difficult situations. Balancing these aspects seems to be an important quality for a mage.

What followed wasn’t much different from what happened earlier. She disassembled the Stone Bullet spell, then a mysterious spell she had never used while traveling with us—a spell that removes moisture from firewood to make it easier to light, which became obsolete after she developed Ignite, which could light even damp firewood without issue.

Creating the two new spells was even more mystical than the disassembly process. With an ink bottle in her left hand and a pen in her right, she concentrated while muttering incomprehensible words. The ink in the bottle slowly decreased as drops fell from the tip of her pen.

The ink that fell onto the grimoire flowed across the paper as if seeking its proper place, and upon reaching the right position, it spread out and transformed into a geometric magical element. However, watching this process repeatedly made me feel dizzy, slightly nauseous, and gave me a mild headache.

“It’s better not to stare at it continuously. The spell completion process is designed to create discomfort for anyone watching except the caster. It’s a kind of security measure to prevent others from remembering the specific details of the formula even if they see it.”

“Hmm, that’s definitely not good for mental health. Do we just leave it like this until the spell is complete?”

“Yes. It’ll take about 30 minutes for Fire Bolt to complete, and about an hour for Fire Enchant.”

“By the way, why is stone called ‘bullet’ but fire called ‘bolt’?”

“A mage needs to accurately imagine the effect of their spell down to the smallest detail. Beginners do this through descriptive chants, and once they become more familiar, they establish their own naming criteria to concretize this aspect. In my case, I distinguish spells that rotate to increase destructive power as ‘bullet,’ and those that don’t as ‘bolt’.”

“So even spells with identical designs could have different names depending on the user?”

“That’s right. Some mages actually use uncommon names to prevent others from figuring out their structure. Of course, if the user gives a name that’s hard to remember or confusing, that defeats the purpose.”

So even for the same fire attack spell, instead of “Fire Bolt,” some mages might use chuunibyou-sounding names like “Eternal Burning Inferno.” The fact that a mage’s sense and taste are exposed to the world every time they cast a spell… what public humiliation. I’m thankful I’m a gunslinger, not a mage.

“Will and Seti’s weapons imbued with fire attributes will be the core strength in our troll strategy, rather than Fire Bolt, which has somewhat lower attack power than Stone Bullet. However, Fire Enchant only lasts about 10 minutes, and I need to approach both the weapon and its user to cast it.”

“So after 10 minutes, we need to approach Jessica to receive the fire attribute again.”

“Yes. But while that might work for Will, there’s likely no chance to recast Fire Enchant on Seti.”

“Ah, I see…”

Seti, our only frontliner, can’t leave the confrontation with the troll to maintain the front line. Even if Jessica approaches Seti, if Seti stops moving to receive the spell, both would be exposed defenseless to the powerful troll’s attack range.

This means Seti’s only chance to receive Fire Enchant is right before battle begins. If we can’t defeat the troll within the 10-minute duration, Seti’s spear will be excluded from our combat power.

In the long term, adding party members, especially someone who could serve as a frontliner, would be desirable, but that’s not something we can resolve now. Particularly considering that Jessica and Seti are in romantic relationships with me, we need to be careful about expanding the party.

For now, let’s focus on defeating the troll with the means currently available to us.