Null now understood why the others weren't as excited as he was but that didn't mean he couldn't still be excited. He locked himself away in the workshop not allowing anyone to interrupt him during his training.
It was time for him to finally get a greater understanding of exactly how the different types of magic worked. He had the system explanation on true magic aswell as Vark explanation on technomagic. Null didn't trust the system and wasn't sure if Vark lesson was complete. He wanted to gain his own understanding.
He had seen how the dwarves used runes, and the unknown race from their previous mission also used written characters and how Zero used to use molecular programming to change the Zallium.
He analysed the similarities and differences between the different methods and concluded that the rules of magic revolved around intent. The fields didn't care about the method of interaction as long as the intent was clear. Each rune, character or line of programming had to have a clear intent behind it. The field would interpret this intent and try an fulfil it.
He had spent a week studying the in and outs of technomagic. This pales in comparison to the research done by the scholars of the universe but he wasn't looking for any deep insights. He would be happy to have a well-rounded understanding of the basics.
His current understanding was that Zallium would trap the essence of a field that could then be programmed. When powered the programmed crystal would use the programming to change reality. This seemed simple enough but the power requirements of some spells seemed to be excessive especially when compared to their attempts to cast the same spell with true magic.
After the week of study, He had two breakthroughs and had called Runemagi Vark to the workshop to show them off.
"Hi, You are going to be impressed " Null wanted to jump straight into it and show off what he had accomplished over the last week.
Vark was interested in what kind of breakthroughs the boys could have made, he had been studying rune magic for 150 years as part of the TMA and in all that time they had only been minor changes in its underlying principles.
"Now I'm sure you are aware but there are two major draws back when using technomagic. It's static programming and its power requirements."
"How would you react if I told you I can use Runes to all allow for adjustable spells?"
"If it was anyone else I would say you are lying. All the races have studied that question and haven't found a solution" Vark interest was well and truly pique now.
Null handed over a small device it consisted of a crystal, a battery and a small metal rod.
Null explained how to use the device "Hold the metal and think of a colour".
Vark did as instructed and was surprised to see a small ball of light that was of the same colour he was thinking about. He started to think about other colours and the ball changed colour to match. The simple demonstration had changed Vark whole view on rune magic.
"How?"
"All magic is all about intent, you program your intent into the Zallium and it does all the work. We programmed this Zallium to search the rod for the intent that decided the colour of the light. The rod has been imbued to be able to store intend but I'm sure you could do it with other material"
Even with the rod being imbued it still meant they could make programmable spells and Vark first consideration was jump gates. At present each time they jumped to a system they had to use a different crystal which was expensive. Eventually, they would build up a library of jump crystals and it wouldn't cost anything but energy, to return to a location they had already visited. This also had the drawback that every crystal was locked to a single location. This location then became a prime candidate for ambushes.
Vark had realised how simplistic his thinking had been. He knew that higher races could jump to anywhere they wanted but he had assumed they had an abundance of crystals to use. He now realised that learning to create programmable crystals was the next step along the fields usage ladder. His desire to master this new step grew stronger within him.
"Teach me, please"
"We will but we haven't got to the best part yet. We harvested the crystals from our suit for these devices but this next one is fun" Null then handed him a similar-looking device but it was encased in an energy shield.
"This time think of a type of sun, not how it works or anything just its type" Null's instructions seem a little strange to Vark but he did as he was asked. An extremely small red dwarf formed inside the energy shield which was struggling to keep it contained.
"Now, I know that's not possible. The energy requirements to make even a small sun is astronomical" Vark was extremely confused, he knew it wasn't feasible but yet there it was. He knew the boys' well enough by now to know they weren't scamming him.
"Can I see the runes?"
"Of course" Null turned off the device and handed Vark the crystal.
Vark didn't know if he should laugh or cry the runes loosely translated to "make ? sun, size =0.0000001"
Null could see from his expression that he was confused so decided to explain it to him.
"magic is all about intent. You tell the crystal your intent and it makes it happen. If something already exists in the universe then it takes next to zero energy to summon a copy of it. We wanted a sun so we told the universe to give us a sun. All the spells I have witnessed had the process written into the spell and that is what used all the energy"
"So if it doesn't exist in nature it takes energy?" Vark was confirming the theory.
Null answer that question and many more he had about what they had discovered. Afterwards, Vark headed to his workshop, it was time for him to get his research on.