The moment Trex let go of the line that is pointing at the joystick-looking glyph. Green smoke formed on his left hand.
From his pinky to his thumb, a total of ten circles with different glyphs appeared just under the tip of each finger. Behind his left hand appeared another sign. However, it looked more like a brand logo than something mystical. It was a green square with a 3D-looking yellow flame.
Suddenly the room's color shifted to green, and a yellow spinning icon appeared on top of the crystal. Then, as if casting a spell, the spinning icon enlarged with runes, imploded, and the same square with a yellow flame appeared.
/"Hahi Arcane Console"/
/"Reading game… Spellworm… Launch?"/
In his left hand appeared a red 'X' while the right one had a green 'O.' Trex immediately understood what it was but was unaware of what exactly he needs to do. As an experiment, he used his index finger and tapped the 'O.' A sensation unexpectedly felt by Trex as if he touched something solid. However, it quickly disappeared as if the solid popped like a balloon.
Suddenly, a worm slithered in front of Trex. Quickly, in every turn and curve it took, the worm elongated until it formed the word Spellworm.
To Trex, he found this level of 3D immersion was similar to mixed reality games found in his previous world. Except he did not have to wear glasses, contacts, or gloves. Even the haptic feedback was unprecedented for a mixed reality game.
After a short pause, two buttons appeared close to Trex, where it is convenient to reach.
/ Start /
/ Quit /
It was so basic. The graphics and control technology was miles ahead of his previous world, but the user experience and quality of life reflect the days during the Atari era.
Within him, criticism of the products arose. Trex could feel Jonathan disdaining the lame and boring buttons in contrast to the realistic 3D graphics of the intro.
*Plock*
With a tap, the game commenced, and the room dimmed. Slowly, the ceiling lights went off, which surprised Trex, and a small pad appeared in front of him.
A worm dressed in a black robe and a pointy hat appeared right in front of him. On top of the worm's head appeared a text box.
/"My name is Vurm and you're gonna help me fight against the evil that is Ihgel. Using the pad in front of you, find the right sequence of a spell that could potentially help me fend off his minions. Goodluck! "/
Trex realized something, there was no audio, nor were there any knobs or options to enable it.
Fortunately, this was just an educational game for arcanists. With that in mind, Trex focused on the moving worm in front of him.
Realistically, a meter away from the worm spawned a slime. In its head showed 'Weakness: Fire.'
Looking at his pad, glyphs appeared. Due to the memory and soul wipe, Trex had no inheritance that came from his current body. Thus, he had no idea what exactly the glyphs do.
Fortunately, the glyphs had colors. Red, yellow, green, blue. Safe to say that red is fire, blue is water, yellow is air, and green is earth, right? Trex thought.
With that in mind, he tapped a glyph that was a square with a dot on each side and another in the center.
Underneath the worm, a red triangle appeared, and one point reflected the rune that Trex tapped.
Understanding what was required, he tapped two other glyphs, which quickly appeared on the triangle. A new button appeared below the pad that says "cast."
A speech bubble appeared on top of Vurm.
/"Flame bolt "/
From Vurm's mouth, a small cylindrical flame shot out towards the slime. A red bar appeared on top of its head which shrunk as the bolt hit.
The glyphs that Trex tapped disappeared and were replaced by new ones.
This time, he tapped four glyphs and immediately cast.
The spell circle that appeared under Vurm suddenly turned square. As the spell circle imploded, the fourth glyph, a square with a diagonal line and two dots like a square yin-yang, appeared on Vurm's skin.
A red bar appeared on top of Vurm's head which shrunk by one-third while Vurm the worm shook in pain.
/ Backlash! /
A banner appeared on top of the pad. Trex did not understand what happened. As if sensing his confusion, the banner refreshed.
/ Runic sequence is invalid and will cause a backlash. Please refer to the complimentary book for help. /
Trex was surprised. A book? Bringing up the lights, he began to scour the room for the book.
In the drawer, he found a book called 'Spellworm: Educational Book.'
An incredible sense of closeness made his heart tremble. He still did not know how he came to be, but he at least realizes that it had something to do with magic.
Taking the book in his palms, he began to read.
——
Spellworm's Grimoire: Vurm's Notes
Perusing the childishly adorned book in his hands, Trex began to learn a simplified method of spell casting.
The more he read, the weirder he felt.
In constructing a spell, he needs a few things. First is the loop, starting from the triangle all the way to infinity. The number of points that the loop has, the more runes it could hold.
The second is runes. A rune is a set of rules. Depending on its shape, color, size, or opacity, the rune can be softly altered for varied effects.
The third is the container, commonly seen as a circle that encompasses the loop and the runes. Once the three are built, a spell circle is formed.
Fourth is the medium. For spell casters, it could be their hands, tattoos, talismans, or basically anything where a spell circle could be drawn physically.
Fifth is the energy which, and from what Trex has seen so far, refers to the omnipotent energy in the atmosphere, also known as mana or arcane energy.
Once enough mana is injected, the physical spell circle will begin to manifest its arcanic form.
Depending on which medium is used, the arcanic form of the spell circles usually appears wherever the caster wants the spell to spawn.
From Trex's understanding, with the caster as the input, mana is the source, spell circle is the program, the loop is the main function, while the runes are customized functions. Lastly, the medium is the output that relays the app to the user.
After the introduction of spells came Vurm's introduction and background story.
Due to the educational nature of the game, the tale of Vurm and Ihgel revolves around their inevitable confrontation.
For a game story, it was as linear as it gets. As for the gameplay, suffice to say it was remarkably similar to word games back in Trex's original world. One might even say similar to a worm with a penchant for books.