He didn't just stop there however with his reading but moved onto the next section that was about obligatory rituals. The way these worked was both similar and different to sacrificial in that much like sacrificial ritual something was traded for something else. The difference however was that sacrificial ritual's were one and done affairs while obligatory rituals required one to do or give something multiple times or even indefinitely to keep whatever they got. The best way to explain the concept was that one would sacrifice wood at regular intervals to keep a fire going after they obtained it.-
Some of these rituals seemed useful but tedious in Nick's opinion such as the one that needed one to sit under the full moon for the entire night every month to maintain an internal clock. A useful thing to have but otherwise a tedious process to carry out. Nick read through all the rituals for this type given before directly moving onto the next section of the book that was about finite rituals. These as it turned out were basically just temporary buffs that were obtain via a series of actions. Things that would get you funny looks from those not in the know like dancing with a rabbits foot in the morning for a boost of luck throughout the day.-
This sounds ridiculous but it was apparently a very real thing and did in fact work in some cases. The author expressed a profound level of disdain for this particular category of rituals and only gave a single usable example before going directly to the next type. Fusion rituals were as the name suggested made up of multiple types of rituals in a single ritual. The example given for this section of the book was the ritual of all hallows eve.-
This particular ritual was a mix of sacrificial and obligatory that involved making an offering to your ancestors during the holiday in order to request prosperity for future generations. The catch was that it only worked for as long as the tradition is up held and once stopped for whatever reason three generations must pass before the family can perform it again. Nick wanted nothing to do with luck altering magics like this because it was just as easy to bring ruin through it on accident. Tempting fate like that was the last thing Nick was willing to do when he could just get success on his own effort instead.-
All of this information including the rituals was only the first half of the book however and Nick was thrilled to discover why after finishing it. The entire second half of the book was an in-depth step by step instruction guide to creating rituals as well as modifying currently known one to better fit one's circumstances. This information was pure gold to Nick as while it was complex and difficult to memorize the benefits of doing so was well worth it.-
Unfortunately Nick found one very big problem right away that made this knowledge useless to him at the moment. The biggest and most important thing for making and modifying rituals was a firm grasp of arithmancy or the art of using math to assist in magic. The problem was that the class to learn the subject was only taught starting from the third year onwards. Nick could self study of course but doing so without guidance is simply asking for trouble. All it takes is a single wrong number when modifying a ritual and he will go from giving grapes for a stronger sense of taste to becoming tasty grapes , not a fun time.-
Helpless about the situation Nick could only return the book the shelf before searching for other books that contained rituals in the "ancient" section. He was rather spoiled for choice it seems as he found five such books in as little as ten minutes looking. Two of those books were things he wasn't going to touch as they were about human sacrificial rituals and he wanted nothing to do with them. The other three however were filled with obscure and useful rituals for all manner of things.-
Nick only got halfway through one of them before it was time for dinner so he stored the rest in Greed and left the library. Still he had made a list of three rituals that he wanted to perform to give him a serious edge. The ritual of reflexes , the ritual of night eye and the ritual of breath. The first had already been explained but the second required the eyes of a bat and the eyes of a beetle and allowed one to have night vision. The final ritual was a bit special however as it required the lung of a dragon and the blood of the caster in order to give the ability to draw in the magic in the air to replenish their own with every breath.
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