I hurried back to my desk, but instead of grabbing the few markers I had, I hastily bought an entire box of them with a rainbow of colors. Mine were surely at the end of their lifespan anyway and something like this was spare change. Literally.

  Returning to Levia, I presented my purchase to her. “Keep those here. They are for you to use. No idea if different colors change anything but have at them.”

  “Thank you. Are they like paint? Made from different ingredients?”

  “I think so. I’m no expert on markers but I would assume that different colors are achieved with different substances even if a clean base is applied.”

  “Then I am going to test them all out.” She accepted the box and started browsing through the contents. “Before I prepare ink with better spiritual properties, these shall do great.”

  “You did mention that the ink and the paper are important for this. Is there anything we can get you to make it better?” I asked, glancing at the empty cards she’d laid out on the counter.

  “I have an idea that would require some time. And your permission.”

  “Oh? And that is?”

  Levia turned her sleepy face to me. “We can liquefy the energy stored in the Spirit’s Heart. It will become an ink of the highest spiritual quality and conductivity. Though, I am not sure if the cards you provided me with would withstand that much power. If you do not mind making such use of the fallen Pixies, of course.”

  I stroked my chin while pondering. “You said that they would definitely be happier to have their life energy put to good use rather than just disappear. If your method doesn’t torment them in the process, I’m all for it.”

  “It does not. They will not feel a thing, except for the sensation of freedom and release when their energy is spent during the invocation of the spell.”

  “Then sure.” I nodded.

  “I will start the preparations during my free time, then. It is not a simple thing to achieve. For now, let us make use of these markers. We have quite a few arcanas to draw.”

  “There’s one thing I’ve been wondering about. Previously, it wasn’t really a problem since the number of cards was low, but with a full deck, how will you fetch the one you want without pulling the entire thing out of the holster and looking through them all? Do you memorize the order too?”

  “I had a skill called Perfect Draw that allowed me to pick the desired arcana out of a bundle. I am hoping to reclaim it soon,” she explained. “But, before that happens, I plan on carving a simple kinetic enchantment into the bottom of the holster. Every imbued spell has a different mana imprint and if I know them well, I can use that enchantment to push out the one I need.”

  “Creative. I like it.” I nodded approvingly. “Perhaps learning Telekinesis will help you bring it back sooner. Past skills are often easier to get when you try to imitate them with something similar. I can teach you a little bit if you want.”

  “I shall consider your offer.” She bowed her head respectfully. “We already have so many plans yet our time is very limited.”

  “Yeah. It’s always like this.” I chuckled. “I’ll shut up now and let you focus on drawing.”

  I stepped away to give Levia more space and peace of mind. She regarded me with one last slow glance and I smiled at her warmly. Returning her face to the front, she took a deep breath, sighed softly, and began the artistic part. I silently observed her from the side, fascinated by the magical process, thinking about everything we’d talked about. Countless ideas swirled in my head.

  Chapter 13

  Basic Advanced Circuitry

  I watched from the side as Levia examined each marker from the pack and tested them on a few empty cards. It didn’t take her long to get a hang of their handling and she wiped the patterns she’d made for practice before getting into the real thing. For about twenty minutes, I observed the careful and deeply focused movements of her slender hands, fascinated by the attention to detail she had to keep at all times.

  As she worked, I took the opportunity to keep an eye on the mixture slowly boiling in the cauldron in the middle of the workshop. The hot liquid bubbled faintly as it glimmered with various colors of a rainbow. It was clearly the effect of the different species of Luminous Moss being mixed together. Though, I was pretty sure that it was starting to fade unhurriedly, leaning stronger towards brown hues.

  After about an hour, Levia had finished a bunch of different cards and took a short break to relax. Focusing this hard for extended periods of time was definitely draining as hell. We met by the cauldron and she examined the state of her concoction, nodding to herself in approval. She asked for permission to buy a few inexpensive things to add to the mixture and I sent her back to Aisha to order for her whatever Levia needed.

  In just a few minutes, she was back with what seemed to be quite normal-looking fruits. I spotted different kinds of berries and some mint. As per her request, I fetched her three small bowls and a mortar. She skillfully ground each kind of berry in a separate container, taking care to wash the mortar, and poured the contents of the first one into the brew, explaining to me when to use the rest.

  Since we had to wait for at least an hour, she returned to her arcanas, inviting me to watch from up close this time. Standing right next to her, I had a much better angle to see the entire process of her drawing the circuits. I didn’t even notice when I got so engrossed that I lost track of time.

  Easily a few hours had passed when Levia paused to remind me about the fruits. Quickly apologizing, I jogged to add the blueberry mush into the cauldron. She waited for me to return before picking another blank card and tapping the marker on the countertop while thinking about which spell she wanted to imbue into the arcana this time.

  “Could I ask something?” I interrupted her pondering, seeing that she was taking a moment.

  Levia turned her pretty face to me. “Of course. Is there anything else you would like me to explain?”

  “Well, kind of. After watching you for a while, I noticed something. At least I think I did and I might be completely wrong but I figured it wouldn’t hurt asking.” I chuckled softly. “Is there some pattern to drawing these arcanas? I mean, they are all patterns, in the end, but like, are there some specific elements that are universal?”

  “You have noticed correctly.” She made a delicate nod. “While each circuit might seem unique to someone unaware, every single array is made of many pre-existing components. It is their proper combination that allows me to achieve the desired result, which is the spell I want to activate through the use of the arcana. The components have different functions and I think it would take a long time to introduce all of them to a person unaccustomed to the creation of circuits.”

  “I see. This makes sense.” I rubbed my chin. “Would it be too bothersome to ask you to show me a few of them on the cards you already finished?”

  “Not in the slightest.” Levia gently shook her head. “Let me find the simplest ones.”

  She picked up the stack of arcanas from the side and went through them like a professional dealer looking for specific cards in the entire deck. In just a moment, she fished out six cards and laid them down in front of us, face up. Six different circuits were present on the slick white paper, though they were all mostly circular in shape.

  “Alright. Look here.” My Witch teacher placed a finger over the first array. “This one evokes a simple Firebolt. There is not much power behind the spell but it is very fast and accurate. Those are the qualities you have to consider when preparing an arcana compatible with it.”

  Taking a peek at my face, she moved on to the second one after I nodded.

  “This card holds a Fireball. As you can see, the circuit is somewhat similar but some parts are clearly slightly altered. Those parts are related to the mentioned aspects of power, speed, and accuracy,” Levia continued. “A Fireball moves slower and is harder to aim at a small target, but the explosion of flames that takes place on impact makes it much stronger than a Firebolt.”

  Receiving another nod from me, she pressed her finger onto the third arcana.

  “Now, this is Flame Breath. Besides the aforementioned elements, we can find a few more here, which are range and spread first and foremost.” Levia moved her fingertip over the drawn paths. “In comparison to Flame Wall, the spread is quite small but the range is definitely much bigger. The way you put those elements on the card plays a huge role in achieving the correct spell. Otherwise, the result will be a failure or something completely different, which can be dangerous. The material of the arcana also dictates the limits of the circuits.”

  “There’s much more methodology to this than I’d have assumed.” I moved my gaze over the three introduced cards and then the three leftover ones. “Which part of the circuit dictates the element?”

  Pulling the Fireball arcana closer, Levia began poking her finger over it once more.

  “Every formation has its core, which is located in the middle for the most part. It is not an unbroken rule but it makes it easier to follow the entire array and the direction of the mana flow. The spiritual energy you put into the arcana starts from that point and continues through the paths, activating them in proper order,” she explained. “The first section right after the core is always the one to generate the element. The one here is obviously fire. There are six main elements in total. They are fire, water, earth, air, light, and darkness. They combine into advanced ones.”

  I should have expected some kind of a rock-paper-scissors system in the circuit creation, honestly. Magic did feel like something that would operate on compatible and incompatible elements. There were so many games using similar divisions, and I was pretty sure that even in the real world you could find some portrayal of those, like the elements making up the world or something.

  “Okay, let me try something.” I tapped my lips a few times while staring at the arcanas and picked up a few empty ones.

  Levia watched curiously as I drew some short lines, paths, circles, and other things. None of them were connected in any form. I just sketched those shapes in a kind of zoomed-up state on each clean card. After finishing a bunch of them, I sorted the cards into two rows and pointed at the first one.

  “This is a core?” I raised a brow at my Witch companion.

  “Correct.” Levia nodded after taking a peek at the figure.

  “This is an element selector, currently attuned to fire?” I moved to the second card.

  “Correct.” She nodded again.

  “These are respectively responsible for power, speed, accuracy, spread, and range?” I tapped the next few cards.

  “Yes,” Levia answered softly.

  “Great.” I smiled to myself and switched my attention to the second row. “And this is?”

  “A slightly awkward water element selector. It might work but I would not guarantee it,” she replied and I could tell from her cautious gaze that she was doing her best not to sound too rude.

  “Perfect!” I pumped my fist, confusing Levia a little bit. “So, continuing along the lines of that, these should be earth, air, light, and darkness selectors. Am I wrong anywhere?”

  “That is… all correct.” Levia’s droopy eyes opened a little bit more in a faint surprise. “How did you know? The cards I brought out are all Fire and Water.”

  I smirked at her. “Give me just a second, please.”

  Grabbing a new clean card, I picked up a dark blue marker and leaned forward over the already finished arcanas. For about a minute, I attentively studied them all and compared the designs behind the drawn circuits, focusing on the differences. I could feel Levia’s growing confusion and curiosity as she stood next to me.

  Nodding to myself confidently, I moved all those arcanas away and focused on the shiny piece of paper with a blank surface.

  “So… If we put the core here just like this… And then drop the selector module on top, connecting those two like that… Then, alter the latter so it goes like this… We will have water which will continue into three additional sections responsible for range, spread, and… power, definitely,” I muttered to myself under my nose. “Let’s copy the range from Flame Breath… Try to reduce the spread by thinning out this pattern… And as for power… Since water is much heavier than fire, we need to compensate for that by adding a few twirls like this… Then loop it here… Connect the ends like this… And voila!”

  Grinning to myself, I straightened up and swiped the finished arcana off the counter, accidentally spooking Levia, who had been leaning in to follow my movements from the side. Chuckling awkwardly, I held the card towards her.

  She received it like it was going to disappear with the slightest incorrect movement and her eyes quickly widened. “What?”

  “If I got it right, this should be something like the Water Jet spell or similar, no?” I raised an expectant brow at the slightly shocked Witch.

  Levia glanced between me and the card before turning around and extending her hand forward. The blue patterns shone as she infused her mana into the circuit. Right after, a thin stream of water poured out of the tip of the arcana, comparable to that coming out of a garden hose. It made an arc and poured onto the floor less than three meters away from us.

  “Well, not as much of a jet, I’m afraid.” I smiled wryly.

  The circuit slowly dissipated and the water stopped flowing alongside it. Levia looked at the empty-now card with a clearly astounded expression before turning to me.

  “How?” was all that left her pouty lips.

  “Algorithms.”

  “Algorithms?” she repeated, even more confused.

  “I had a feeling this seemed familiar but it looks like circuit creation is just a fantasy version of algorithms.” I chuckled softly while shaking my head in disbelief. “It’s like programming from my realm. There are loops, ifs, ands, ors, switches, conditionals, and so on. Want to make something stronger? Loop it. Want to make something more precise? Thin it out by forwarding it through a few other modules. In the end, it’s all super basic blocks in fancier clothing. After I was able to identify a few patterns, it wasn’t that hard to create something simple with them. Though, I clearly need more practice.”

  “Incredible… It took me years to master the circuits…” Levia looked up at me with a somewhat amazed gaze.

  “Don’t get discouraged, please. You certainly put lots of effort into this. It just so happens that I had to study something similar for my job. Since it was my responsibility to oversee the people who wrote these things, it was only natural. I learned quite a bit from just discussing it with them,” I explained. “My past experience allowed me to quickly grasp the concept but I won’t be able to suddenly create arcanas alongside you on an even closely similar level. You’ve seen the result. That can’t be called a good arcana. Unless you want to water some plants.”

  “It does not change the fact that you succeeded on your first try. That is truly commendable.” Her expression partially returned to normal as she regained control of her emotions. “Aisha was right. You must be a genius.”

  “I certainly didn’t look like one while getting my ass kicked by mere Kobolds.” I snickered quietly. “As I said, it just luckily overlapped. While there might be similarities, there certainly are many things done differently too. I shouldn’t try to stick my nose into your business too much or I might accidentally poison your knowledge and cause some unwanted damage.”

  “No, I think this is an incredible opportunity.” Levia placed the empty card down and turned to me. “I have never had anyone to talk about the circuits to. Everything that I learned came from books and grimoires. If you would not mind sharing your knowledge with me, we could potentially reach even higher expertise together. Bring arcanas to another level. My understanding of circuit creation and your understanding of those algorithms could create a much more streamlined process.”

  I pondered over her words for a moment as she gazed up at my face and finally nodded. “Alright. There might be something to that. We can both benefit by learning from each other. It would definitely do me good to learn more about magic from someone experienced in it.”

  “I would be honored.” She politely lowered her head.

  “But first, it’s strawberry time.” I smirked at Levia and she showed the ever-so-faintest hint of a smile as we headed to the cauldron.

  After dropping the mentioned tasty fruits into the mix, we returned to the side and started discussing circuit creation and arcanas. To not continuously dirty the clean cards, I jogged out of the workshop to bring some paper sheets. Something bigger than palm-sized was certainly better to study and practice anyway.

  The wise Witch then began drawing various parts of the magical patterns, paths, lines, symbols, shapes, and so on. She slowly explained their meaning to me, trying to summarize everything in the simplest words before going into more detail. I did my best to quickly understand what she taught me and began offering little bits of feedback in return.

  When I was more or less comfortable with the fundamentals, we jumped to the creation of specific circuits. Of course, I still needed lots, lots of help and assistance from Levia as it was utterly impossible to memorize all those patterns in just one sitting. I had some experience in doing that with coding languages, for sure, but this case was slightly more abstract as I had to associate literal brush lines and twirls with correct modules. My brain hadn’t managed to fully grasp the new method yet.

  But, as Levia drew some simple spells to illustrate whatever she was explaining, I was able to chime in with a comment or two, which made both of us feel incredibly excited. She took care of most of the process while I suggested ideas for possible improvement. After Levia judged our altered arcanas safe for testing, we activated them and watched the fruits of our labor turn into magic in front of our eyes.

  Easy to imagine, plenty of arcanas failed either spectacularly or without even activating properly. We didn’t let temporary failures deter us from the higher goal. Just the fact that my suggestions had at least a somewhat close effect to what we’d intended them to have was what kept driving us forward with our experiments.