Volume 6 Chapter 3 Spell Learning Part I
When Al got to Eric's mansion on North 1st Street, the strict gatekeeper recognized him. He quickly said that Mr. Eric was waiting and took Al inside. They entered a large room, about 10 meters square (around 32.8 feet). The room had no windows and was about 1 meter deep (about 3.3 feet), but it had a long table in the middle that was about 5 meters wide (around 16.4 feet).
After a while, Eric, Fitz, and the head apprentice Leda came in while Al was waiting. Leda was carrying a rolled-up parchment, a small pot-like object, a thin stick, cloth, and some thread on a tray.
"Welcome, Al. I thought you would arrive a bit earlier..."
Al scratched his head at what Eric said. Beside him, Leda opened a large spellbook on the table. The book was about 30 cm tall (around 11.8 inches) and 2.5 meters wide (about 8.2 feet). Although it was called parchment, it was made from the skin of a big magic beast, not a sheep, but people still called it parchment because it looked similar. Like other spellbooks, it was filled with complex circles, symbols, and writing. The table was so big that the book didn't hang off the edges.
"This is the spellbook for 'Floating Eye'."
At Leda's words, Al couldn't help but blush and nodded vigorously.
"It's a common trick, but we placed it on this large table so you can see the spellbook at a glance. You can use this room while you learn this spell. We've prepared some tools for you. Fitz, please explain."
Eric told Fitz to explain while he arranged the items on Leda's tray on the table. There was a special glue that leaves few traces, thin wood and cloth, and thread. These are used to write or emphasize the meanings of magic symbols and circles to deepen understanding.
"As a way to interpret, I call these symbols, and I have my apprentices write the images they receive on another piece of cloth and then stick it in the spellbook."
Al was impressed by Eric's words. The symbols in the spellbook have a special effect that inspires understanding just by staring at them. By stacking mana in order according to the images gained from them, spells can be used, but the problem is the number of symbols.
To learn spells, there are 2 main stages: 'interpretation' to understand what is written in the spellbook, and 'spell activation' to stack mana based on that understanding to create effects. During 'spell activation', the symbols must be unified into one to gain the effect. However, in the third layer, there are more than 50 symbols.
Stacking over 50 symbols to create a spell is really tough. You might have to try hundreds of times. Each time you fail, you look at the symbols, hoping to find your mistake and get inspired to succeed. Many people have a hard time with this, and some even write notes in their spellbooks to remember what they did. Al did this when he started. It makes fixing mistakes harder later, but everyone is eager to get their spells right.
And Eric's method must help make it easier to remember the inspiration he saw. That way, activating spells should become easier, and it should also reduce damage to the spellbook. Someone must have used this method to learn, but it should be fine.
"In my case, Mr. Eric, the symbols you're sticking... you called them symbols, right? Instead of sticking the notes of those symbols in the spellbook, I'm bundling them together. Like this..."
Al said this and took out a bundle of parchment from his backpack. The parchment had detailed notes about the symbols used in the spellbook, including the images Al received and which spells they were used for.
"Oh, can I see one?"
"Sure."
Saying that, Al pulled one out from the tied bundle and handed it over. There was a circle surrounded by a wide oval, and 5 dots were drawn above the oval.
"This symbol appears in the 'Sensory Boost' spell and the 'Illusion' spell, and I think it probably shows what I saw. It might also be used in the 'Floating Eye' spell..."
Leda tilted her head after looking at the symbol on the parchment that Al had handed her.
"I feel like I've seen it somewhere before..."
'It's 54 cm (≈ 21.3 in) to the left from the center and 11 cm (≈ 4.3 in) up from the bottom.'
Al heard Glee's voice whispering to him. Only he could hear it. He looked again at the place Glee pointed out. There was the symbol he had thought about. He had actually found it the night before while looking at the spellbook he hadn’t fully learned yet. Glee's memory was impressive; she remembered all the papers Al had set aside and could quickly match the symbols in the spellbook.
"This is it."
When Al pointed to the spot Glee had shown him, Leda looked surprised. When Eric held the parchment he got from Al up to that part, there was indeed a similar symbol drawn there, even if it wasn't exactly the same since it was Al's handwriting.
"Hmm, I see. This could help jog my memory. But if you just look at the symbol, you can understand its meaning. Does it really save that much time?"
Eric and Fitz didn't seem very impressed.
"That's right. In the end, I remembered a lot of the symbols, so I don't have to keep recalling them over and over."
"Ah," Fitz said, sounding convinced, but Eric tilted his head.
"I've definitely thought that some of the symbols looked familiar when learning spells. However, I tried to get rid of those memories because I was worried they would give me the wrong impression when receiving inspiration. So, you actively use them, huh... But was that okay?"
When he asked if it was okay, he meant if it didn't lead to misunderstanding and failing to cast the spell correctly. Al lightly tilted his head and thought for a moment. After a while, he looked like he realized something.
"It was when I tried to remember the 'Flash' spell. You probably know, but the 'Flash' spell is very similar to the 'Light' spell."
At that time, Al mistakenly stacked the symbol for light in the 'Flash' spell with the symbol for light in the Light spell. Instead of just releasing a bright flash that would dazzle, the light from the sun didn't disappear from his palm for a while.
"Back then, it was my second spell to learn, so I didn't fully understand the options. I knew I could change the brightness with the 'Light' spell, but I couldn't handle it well with the 'Flash' spell. Maybe this failure made me more aware of the options."
"So even if they look like the same symbol, sometimes the effects are different. And that's what the options are..."
Eric thought for a moment and said,
"I got a bit off track, but it was a very meaningful conversation. Very interesting. Please continue with that method for a while. Before you leave, I'd like you to talk to Leda and explain what you've accomplished that day. Also, if you find anything that seems like an option, please let me know. Can you do that?"
"Understood. I'll borrow the room for a while."
When Al replied, Eric and the other 2 nodded and left the room.
* * *
"Well then, let's get started."
After the 3 left, Al muttered to himself.
'Okay, Ally. Let's play~♪ I'll find it right away.'
Glee happily responded. Searching for the symbols written on the stack of parchment that Al created in the spellbook was a bit of a hassle for Al, but it seemed like a game to her.
"Can you teach me in order?"
Al used the 'Illusion' spell to color in the symbols from the spellbook that Glee taught him. He filled them with light green and then wrote his notes in red on top. Since it was an Illusion, the color would vanish when the spell ended.
In under 30 minutes, most of the spellbook was filled with light green, leaving only a few symbols untouched. At first, Al wrote directly on the symbols, but now he felt safe using the 'Illusion' spell.
"This is a symbol I don't know... I'll look at them one by one."
Al began copying the remaining symbols onto a new piece of parchment using the 'Spray' spell he had recently learned. Normally, without any options, the spell would create a blurry circle about 10 cm wide (≈ 3.9 in) with the prepared ink. However, by adding options, he could control the image it created and the thickness of the ink. This meant he could accurately copy the symbols from the spellbook onto the parchment.
"This is really useful. Sure, just a circle isn't that helpful, but I can draw most things I've seen."
Al couldn't help but mutter that.
'Next time, Glee will try drawing too.'
At Glee's words, Al smiled and nodded, of course, he would.
Al stared intently at the finished parchment. It looked just like the original, but unfortunately, he couldn't get any inspiration just by looking at it, unlike the items in the spellbook.
"I wonder if there's something different about it. Next time I have time, I should ask someone about the steps to create a spellbook."
Even though Al had done repair work before, he had never done copying work. There might be some special way to do it.
"For now, I need to master this first."
Al muttered that and stared at the symbols in the spellbook, starting to decipher what they meant.
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