Bookbound Bunny

B4 - Chapter 22 - Sudden Lesson

Being able to walk along the floor of the archipelago's sea was much better than needing to swim around, especially for Lily. Not only was it far more convenient, allowing a much more leisurely pace, but she also found it enchanting to see the underwater world from a completely different perspective.Of course, if you were a water-related Demi, then you might feel otherwise, and Lily was pretty confident that anyone with natural water magic would probably scoff at this idea. A water mage underwater was considered even stronger than an airborne wind mage, and being able to "swim" as if flying probably contributed to that opinion.

As for Lily, she was still extremely insecure about swimming, so keeping her feet on the ground while still exploring the underwater domain was ideal. She deeply desired an equivalent for flying, and while she reckoned it was probably possible to make floating platforms in the sky, walking along them would defeat the primary purpose of flight—saving time.

[You could make a platform, stand or sit on it, and then have the platform fly. I know your friends called that fake flying during the tournament, but the concept might appeal more to you.]

{I guess… Although I think flying as a whole will always remain a sore point.}

[Personally, I find the ocean depths far more intimidating, but I suppose in these shallow waters it's hard to compare. I also believe if you have enough contingencies for emergency situations, you'll feel safe regardless of whether you are flying, diving, or other riskier methods of travel.]

{Like teleporting?}

[ teleporting. There's a lot that can go wrong there that I won't specifically mention to avoid frightening you, but just know that while I might have made it look casual from an observer's perspective, I was doing a lot of safety calculations at the same time.]

Lily nodded. She'd seen Arakil draw those teleportation inscriptions and still had very little idea what was actually involved in the process. The only thing that compared in terms of complexity was his demonstration of the self-replicating glyph, which also boggled her mind.

As they continued to casually converse telepathically, Lily was harvesting plenty of valuable materials from the seabed. The way the bubble worked was marvelous; when she came in contact with terrain, it would just slowly envelop it as she walked toward it. This let her carefully harvest and deposit the items in her pouch, but at her pace, she was rapidly running out of space.

{I really need to get a bag just for harvesting. I love my pouch for its sorting function, but for gathering I just need a big sack.}

[It's a pity that you won't get tools and materials for enchanting until your second year; otherwise, I would have shown you how to craft one on your own. Then again, if you successfully incorporate enchanting and astral constellations, nothing would stop you from turning a portion of your Nebula Veil into a makeshift pouch.]

{!? I could do that?}

[I don't see why not. Logically, any enchantment should work, although their effectiveness will differ greatly based on the medium. You won't get any benefit from adding a sharp enchantment to your cloak, but spatial storage shouldn't have that flaw. In fact, it might even receive a compatibility boon.]

{Is that because it's like a material, and bags are made from leather or cloth?}

[Partially. More so that space and spatial have a connection. In fact, there is an astral spell you could use for storage and retrieval, but it is far too risky until you are older.]

{Astral magic has a storage spell?}

[Well… The original purpose wasn't storage, and only the astral mages with levels of control could actually use it that way. For the rest, they either lost all their items, at least, or a limb at worst.]

Lily gulped. {They lost a limb?}

[Recklessness has certainly done worse. As I said, it was very much not a storage spell by design, and these overconfident fools rushed where they shouldn't have.]

{I don't want to rush ahead, but if control is the issue, what about with a glyph? Or an inscription?}

[I had a feeling you might ask about that. Yes, a glyph would indeed be the optimal solution for a lack of control. If only others saw the beauty in them like we do.]

Lily couldn't help but smile at that.

[I've never shown you a single astral crest up to this point. Do you know why?]

Lily paused for a moment, thoughtfully considering her answer as she felt this was important. {I always thought it was so that there was a clear distinction between my spells and glyphs. So that I wouldn't overly rely on astral for everything, and that I could see the flexibility that every crest could provide.}

[A good answer, and yes, a clear separation can be good for your development. You've remained committed to both your astral spell studies and your glyphs. You've also properly stepped into inscriptions now, so I'm very pleased with how things have progressed. But that is not the only reason. Astral crests are quite dangerous, more so than any other crest I've shown you before.]

Lily was genuinely shocked at that answer, as she had never thought her Astral spells were dangerous. In terms of crests, she always felt an out-of-control fire or lightning crest could do far worse, but now Arakil was very clearly stating the opposite.

[I can see you are confused. Tell me: what would you say is the key difference between learning a spell for the first time and a glyph?]

Again, Lily felt this was an important question, and though several ideas immediately came to mind, she forced herself to take a moment to consider it. Arakil thankfully never rushed her; in fact, he seemed pleased that she was being so thoughtful about it.

{Visualization…}

[Elaborate.]

This copy came from the official page maintained by the author without approval; reading that chapter supports them.

{To cast a spell with an incantation, you need to properly visualize it, or it won't necessarily work. Yes, there are cases like Rose where her unwavering belief in herself is enough, but that isn't the same for the vast majority of spellcasters.}

[Continue.]

{When drawing a glyph, assuming there is nothing wrong with the overall design, it work. No matter what. And if the medium is strong enough, like Rose's blood, it can even ignore obvious blemishes. You don't need to know how the spell works, or to feel it; it will occur because…}

[Because…?]

{Because it's an established magical law?}

There was a pause after Lily finished, and she wondered if she had given the right answer. The suspense was killing her, and she wondered if Arakil was doing it on purpose.

[I'd give you a gold star if I could. While there's more nuance to it, you got the gist, and yes, glyphs don't require any visualization. A magical law is a reasonable term for it; others have called it a universal fundamental, and I just call it logical. Glyphs and inscriptions are logical, no matter what.]

Lily let out a sigh of relief, happily blushing and smiling that Arakil was proud of her answer.

[With incantations, bearing powerful exceptions like your crazy professor who repeatedly casts transmutation, they are limited by several factors. You need sufficient Mana, you require the correct visualization, and the method to invoke it: be it an incantation, somatic gestures, or otherwise.

Unless you somehow stumble upon some kind of forbidden invocation method, you're limited by what you've been taught. I don't have to worry about your Starburst suddenly destroying Regarth because that's not what it was capable of, and you wouldn't know how to modify it to do so.]

Lily was nodding along, agreeing with everything said so far. However, what came next shocked her to the core.

[But, with the right crest and the wrong sigils, you could quite easily make that a reality. You could call a crest the key to the very foundation of that magic, and while I've taught you several, they have mostly been very common… Astral crests are common, and some were even considered forbidden.]

{!? But… But… Astral magic can't be forbidden!}

Lily refused to believe it. The word forbidden was for stuff like necromancy, manipulating the mind, or curses, not her beloved stars!

[Calm down, it's not that bad. Even healing magic has forbidden crests. I think you'd understand more where I'm coming from if you saw it for yourself.]

{I don't want to cast a forbidden spell!}

Arakil chuckled. [I'm glad you're so apprehensive. Maybe I was too worried about you not heeding my advice, which, considering you've resisted every temptation so far, might have been unfair of me to do.]

Lily wasn't sure what to say, still fixated on the word "forbidden" and hesitant about what Arakil was suggesting. Another reason was that she didn't want her picture-perfect ideal image of Astral magic tarnished in any way, even if he said it was something all magic had.

[Look… I promise nothing bad will happen as long as you draw this glyph how it is. I'm going to stress this again: this is a glyph that you are not allowed to modify at all. You are to change even a single sigil on it.]

{I promise. Although I still think it would be better to avoid this entirely.}

[I partially agree, but this would solve your storage issues. I also feel like this is an important lesson to fully comprehend what I've told you. Glyphs and inscriptions are wonderful things, but they are purely logical, and they do not care about feelings or morality. I say this not to scare you, but so that you fully comprehend the power behind them and respect them.]

Lily swallowed nervously, unsure of how to respond.

[Not that you been respecting them…] Arakil added and sighed. [Apologies, perhaps I'm being too dramatic. I'm used to giving these kinds of speeches to mages who are very ignorant of glyphs and inscriptions, which I can't say is the same for you. Now, how about we return to the island since I don't think your bubble will have enough air for this.]

Lily couldn't help but giggle at Arakil's sudden change in tone, although it hadn't cleared her apprehension entirely. Still, she had promised to follow his instructions as his apprentice, and she believed he wouldn't lead her astray, so she hastily returned to the beach.

Dismissing the bubble with a pop, she sat down on the warm sand, and Arakil unfurled his pages to reveal a rather strange glyph with a crest like she'd never seen before. The first thing that came to mind when she saw it was that it looked vaguely like a whirlpool, but that seemed too simple a way to describe it, and the minute complexities in its design clearly indicated its importance.

"What kind of crest is this…?"

[Hmm… Perhaps I better not say its name for now, just in case.]

Lily frowned. Was even the name too much? Did Arakil not trust her?

[Let's just keep it unknown for now, just in case anyone asks you about this so you can claim ignorance. However, I promise to tell you its name on the day you manifest your first glyph outside of the library.]

"Okay! I'll do it!" Lily promised.

Lily couldn't help but wonder whether Arakil was doing this to motivate her further, or if the warning was real and he'd decided to add the motivating factor at random. Either way, while she was very curious about the name of this mystery crest, there was probably nothing she could do about it.

[As I said, if you are going to use this crest, you are not allowed to change even the slightest thing. Not by even a single meter or split second. Also, do not activate it without my permission.]

Lily nodded and studied the unknown glyph. Other than the crest itself, it was very basic; in fact, she was curious what it would even do at all. Arakil had configured this crest to only have a radius of half a meter, and a duration of a tenth of a second. What would the spell even do in that time frame? And yet it was supposed to save her storage problems?

Even stranger was the fact that the distance limitation was repeated four times, which was something she had never seen before. What was the point? Did repeating the same limit sigil divide the limit even further? Lily asked, and unfortunately Arakil gave no answer, only telling her that she had to follow this exact glyph no matter what.

All of Lily's previous teachings screamed at her that this was a bunch of redundant sigils, but Arakil refused to elaborate. With how stubborn he was being about it, she wondered if these were here as safety backups in case she messed up.

Part of her almost felt offended by that idea, as she couldn't even remember the last time she made a mistake on a sigil. Perhaps when she first got the wand and tried drawing in the air?

Everything except the crest was stupidly easy to complete, but copying the crest and ensuring it was perfect had taken a lot longer than she had thought it would. The design wasn't as simple as it might have appeared, and if it was a lost, hidden, or forbidden crest, she could understand how it was kept under wraps.

"I think I'm done."

[Yes. I'm glad you followed my instructions perfectly. Alright. Place the glyph on the ground and position the items you want to store on top of it.]

Lily obeyed and maneuvered the glyph like Arakil told her to before emptying out her pouch with the various coral and plants she had gathered. Now that it had reached this point, she found herself growing a little nervous.

[Okay. Stand away from it and activate it with the wand.]

Lily nodded and took several steps back, although her confusion was now nagging at her.

Lily held her breath and activated the glyph. A pulse of purplish black flared in a tiny sphere, then it was gone. All of it was gone. The items Lily had placed had vanished along with the glyph, as well as some of the sand underneath where it had been placed. What was unsettling, though, was that the sand had been cut out in a half-meter dome.