After making more friends with people like him. Commoners. Albion began to hang out with them more. Since he hadn't been anywhere besides the red light district they took him around the city to explore. Going to bakeries and cafes. Tourist sights. Anything they thought would be fun to do in the massive school campus and external city.
Days went by and now Albion was in his room. Sitting on his bed and looking at his wall. Thinking. The homework Sylvia set was harder than he thought. He didn't know where to start. It was already late at night and he was still thinking.
Albion: So normally merging both Barrier and Static Shock causes…
*Bzt*
Sparks and static formed and dissipated in his room. Albion just overlapped the two circles and turned them into one. But as he saw it didn't work.
Albion: I have to combine them. It can't just be a copy and paste onto each other. Maybe making the Barrier the main spell with the Static Shock one on the inside as a smaller sub-spell.
A magic circle formed that had a smaller separate circle in it. But when the magic was cast a small ball with electricity was formed that exploded in a discharge. Albion's hair started floating from the charge. Falling as he grounded himself. Feeling a slight spark.
Albion: That didn't work. What if I split the magic circle in half and smash them together?
Albion kept on doing this and while it made different circles not a single one worked. Not producing anything or dissipating somehow. Some even exploded in his face.
Albion: *Cough Cough* How do I do this? Lightning Bolt looks like this… wait.
Albion had the magic circle of Lightning Bolt appear but didn't activate it. Albion just looking at it.
Albion: Maybe I positioned it wrong. This one has a smaller magic circle but it's not in the centre like I did. One point of the circle is touching another. The two circles connect at one point. That would allow with mana flow. Maybe…
Albion tried it. It did do something. But it exploded in sparks scorching his clothes slightly.
Albion: *Sigh* At least it was stronger than the rest. It's not going to be dissecting all the runes and piecing it bit by bit. That's not combining but creating a completely different spell. Should I ask for help?… Nah. I can do this. Think. Combining circles. Circles. Circles. Circles. Runes. Circuits. Circles.
Albion sat there for thirty minutes drawing circles in the air with magic. Making a few different combinations but all failed.
Albion: ARRRR! Come on! I've completely scorched my clothes! All I need to do is make a circle. It's not rocket science! This world doesn't have rockets! Ok. A circle. Curved because it helps improve mana flow instead of corners on other shapes. Rune. Created from draconic magic more than thousands of years ago so humans could use power they only dreamed of. Magic. The core of life here. A building block much like an atom but can't be seen without control over it. A circle. Pi. Pie. Circle. Shapes… 2D… 3D? Smooth curved lines.
Albion created a magic circle. Then turned it into a sphere.
Albion: Curved lines all over. Just an infinite amount of infinitely thin circles all together spinning on one point.
Albion put the basic runes for Barrier in. But it didn't activate.
Albion kept it up while creating the regular runes for Barrier. Filling up the sphere.
Albion: Hmmm. Maybe it needs to be in the centre.
Albion moved the randomly spread runes to the centre of the sphere. Then he came up with the idea that maybe they need to be around the edge like in the magic circle. Moving the runes around the curve of the sphere. But again it didn't work.
Albion: Why isn't that working? It should be the same. But… if a sphere is many more circles span around a point… I need many more runes.
Albion kept making runes around the edge inside the sphere. Until something happened. After having 6 times the amount of normal runes the magic sphere sparked.
Albion: Ok. What am I missing… OH! I haven't done the lines separating the runes into their segments.
Lines formed inside the sphere as it looked like inside the sphere were 6 Barrier spells span around the one point on a vertical axis. Albion felt it. With the lines and the fully formed circles, all the mana was flowing around the sphere and on the inside too. Albion activated the spell as it worked. A barrier formed around him that was multiple times thicker than the normal spell and leaning closer to opaque than the normal translucent look it had. The mana consumption was about 3 times more.
[Congratulations. You have created a new magic method. "Magic Sphere Formation". You will be greatly rewarded.]
[Your Main class Mage (Growth) has turned into Advanced Mage (Growth).]
[You have gained the skill Spell Weaver (A).]
[Mana Body (F) (Growth) has become Mana Body (E) (Growth).]
[Magic Adaptation (E) (Growth) has become Magic Adaptation (D) (Growth).]
[A new skill has been created Combination (F).]
Albion stared in shock.
Albion: What the… No! Ride the wave! So what changed? 6 times the amount of runes, 3 dimensional… Wait!
Albion made all the spells he knew and even though the runes were all different they all meant something. Runes were a language. Magic Circles a sentence or a book that formed magic. The circles and lines were just connecting the runes, telling you which way to read the spell. Showing you what affinities were in the spell.
Albion: The runes have to be connected but not all have to be used. A rune can't be used just because you make it. It has to connect, written on the line. But magic was like forming a complex image from words. Even if you take some sentences out, there are others that still paint the picture. But it wouldn't work if those words weren't in the right order. That's why it didn't work when I just threw the runes in. But why did it require 6 times the runes? Maybe because it's as I said. I need enough sentences so that even when I take some out there's still enough to understand or even paint the picture well enough. That's why when I have 6 barrier circles inside of one sphere and it makes the spell stronger. Because it's creating a more detailed picture. But why are the others redundant? It only feels 3 times stronger even though I have 6 times the magic circles.
Albion tried to activate more runes controlling his mana but it didn't work. Only some of the runes were activated. The Barrier only being 3 times stronger for 3 times the mana cost.
Albion: Ok. Let's see if I can do this.
Albion took out many of the Barrier runes and placed in Static Shock runes. He decided to place in three static shock spells as it just made sense to evenly split them. Three were Barrier magic circles and three the Static Shock circles inside the one magic sphere. When he activated the spell it worked. A strong cage of electricity was formed around him. It wasn't just electricity or sparks. It was lightning that sparked and surrounded him. He marvelled at it. But then he quickly noticed. It was burning his stuff.
Albion: No no no!
Albion quickly turned off the spell as he put out the fires. His table had burn marks and his sheets had holes in them. His floor scorched. But after all of that, he could only think of one thing. The person he needed to show this to.
Albion: I… I need to find Sylvia!
Albion quickly put on some proper clothes and left. Going to find Sylvia to see if this new magic method was any good.
Scene change
*Knock Knock Knock*
A wooden door was knocked on as Sylvia woke up. Her bed was massive. She was lying on it upside down. Her head was at the end of the bed. To her, it seemed like such a waste to have a big bed like this. It felt empty. She yawned as she stretched her arms. Putting on a white see-through nightgown. The nightgown was made of a thin material that could easily be seen through.
*Knock Knock Knock*
Sylvia: {God! It's the middle of the night!}
Sylvia could tell that much with her mana sense. The mana was colder than usual. Her sense of mana was nearly as good as a spirit. She walked from her room in the complete dark toward the front door, opening it up. Seeing with her mana sense a familiar person. Albion standing there.
Sylvia: Oh Albion it's you! What are you doing up so late?
Albion: I was doing the homework, and I think I did as you asked. But I… didn't do exactly as you asked.
Sylvia: You didn't do it as I asked? What do you mean? {Why was he up so late doing it? Is he that enthusiastic about magic?!}
Albion: Have you got anywhere I could cast the spell?
Sylvia: Yeah. Come inside.
Albion walked in as Sylvia closed the door. Her house a larger one on the outskirts of the city.
Sylvia guided Albion to a basement that was very large. Completely concrete but with some magic circles etched into the walls. Albion could sense a similar crystal embedded into the walls as there was in the magic test and the walls in the magic and swordsmanship training facilities. Small magic lights turned on to dimly light the basement made for testing or training.
Sylvia: So show me what you did.
Albion held out his hand. He didn't need to form the sphere to cast the spell. Like he did with Lightning Bolt he could cast it without it. His perfect memory letting him do that with all spells. He knew the flow of mana and the order in which the runes were activated. Knowing roughly what the regular combination of the Electro Cage spell would look like. This was why he was so good at magic. His Perfect Memory as well as his Accelerated Learning. But he wanted to show Sylvia what he had done. So Albion formed the magic sphere with runes in it as it activated a cage of big powerful lightning around them.
Sylvia looked in amazement as the cage was much more powerful than what would have been created if the normal spell had been cast. Sylvia looked at the magic sphere. Looking around it.
Sylvia: What… what did you do?
Albion: I just made it 3D. Instead of a 2D circle, I made a sphere. I was finding combinations a bit hard. But with this… it was easy.
Sylvia: You found combinations a bit hard. So you did it… by making an entirely new method of magic?
Albion: Yeah!
Albion smiled as Sylvia looked at him. Sylvia also smiled.
Sylvia: YOUR AMAZING!!
Sylvia jumped and hugged Albion. Albion blushed as now he focused he could see her body clearly through the white see-through nightgown. Sylvia looked up to sense Albion look down at her. She could feel his blush. She blushed too. Sparks of magic literally surrounded them. Sylvia got closer and closer to Albion as she whispered into his ear.
Sylvia: I'll be taking a little break from school. Heart told me where you live so I'm going to ask your girlfriend.
Albion blushed more as the spell turned off. Sylvia slightly giggled.
Sylvia: Also when I get back we're studying this new method of yours. I recommend taking it for a test drive so you can see what is capable of before I get back.
Albion: Ok. {I… I… I can see… everything!}
Albion wanted to look anywhere else but wouldn't that be obvious? But not as obvious as looking directly at her. Sylvia gave a small giggle.
Sylvia: Oh also, can you do one thing for me?
Albion: What?
Albion snapped out of it as he looked at Sylvia's white glassy eyes.
Sylvia: Could you let me touch your face and describe to me what you look like?
Albion: Wait. Why?
Sylvia: {It's… It's actually nice he didn't notice even while staring into them. I like that he gets lost in them so much.} Well I'm blind. An accident when experimenting with magic. I can't see without mana sense and while I'm so good at it I can read with the slight difference of ink on paper. I can't see colour besides mana affinity. And… I just like it when I don't use mana sense. When I get to feel the different textures and looks with my hand. I would like to feel what you look like.
Albion was getting lost in her eyes. He thought that her beautiful eyes were completely natural. He felt slightly bad that he was finding something that caused her pain so beautiful. Gulping as he took a breath.
Albion: Ok.
Sylvia slowly raised her hand. Touching Albion's face. Moving it gently around.
Albion: Well… I have green eyes. Similar to emeralds. My hair is long with a brighter blond colour with long red tips. I'm average-looking I guess.
Sylvia: You're a lot more than average looking. I can tell that much.
Sylvia smiled as she moved her hand to Albion's cheek. She could feel the warm blush on his face.
Albion: I also have a regular pale skin tone. That's… That's about it.
There was a silence as Albion's heart was pounding out of his chest. His blush was hot on his face.
Sylvia: Do… you want to stay the night?
Albion looked at Sylvia. Feeling terrible that he wanted to say yes. But Eve would always be the love of his life. So if she said no to Sylvia, he would listen to Eve. He had to wait for her answer.
Albion: That seems a little bit inappropriate as of right now.
Sylvia: I understand. I'll see you after I get back then.
Sylvia had a gentle smile on.
Albion: I'll see you then.
Albion placed his hand on Sylvia's. Hers is still on his cheek. It lingered there for a moment as they looked into each other. It felt more than just looking at each other though. It felt deeper than that. As Albion parted the touch and left. Sylvia went back to sleep. Leaving for Albions home the next day.