The fake gold coins Skuggir had were not normal. They were coins made from a metal that looked and felt like gold but had only a tenth of the density and weight. In addition to these physical properties, the metal held a slight holy aura, making it extremely valuable.
The fake gold coins made from this metal came from the gods, who find the metal useless as it has no divine properties of significance. Therefore, it is 'fake' and 'trash' to them. Aurelite was this fake gold.
Even made out of this precious metal, nobody would notice under normal conditions, as the coins had been cast with an illusion spell very lazily by the gods.
Now, in the shop owner's hands was one of these coins.
Inspecting the coin, the man spoke up in an old and cracked voice: "I will give you the book for two gold coins if you tell me where they are from." As the man had been talking, he pulled out an inspection device and used it to inspect the coin.
"Sir, I produce them in my hometown. It is a very secluded place." Staying respectful, Skuggir kept himself from lying while giving the man the wrong idea.
"The book is yours, man. Hope you can read the ancient languages some of it is written in. No refunds, just to be clear." the old man said with a raspy and cracked voice before he took a sip of water.
walking out of the shop, Skuggir found a bench nearby to sit on and read. back when Skuggir lived on earth during the twenty-first century, he would read. more specifically, Skuggir read stories of fantasy and sci-fi. Magic, words of power, focus objects, Skuggir had seen many different ways for the magic to be cast throughout his reading odyssey, But never before had he seen Magic cast the way this worn-down book told.
"Words channel the power of the spirits in the most common forms of magic, and with this priests learned to channel the power of the gods. But where do the spirits get their power?" the book starts with a question, its entire text is in Latin.
the next paragraph within the book truly piqued Skuggir's attention. "The Spirits that exist as sub-sentient energy beings draw their magic from resonating with the laws of nature. their movements cause them to vibrate and in turn resonate with the the laws that control everything and bend them to change if only for long enough for a fireball to appear, or wall of earth to be risen."
"But Movement is not the only thing that can resonate with the laws of the universe. when we write words in the languages passed down by the gods, such as Latin, Egyptian, Norse, and a very select few others, we can produce similar effects if written to perfection and with the proper meaning."
turning the page, Skuggir found a diagram and an explanation to go with it. The Diagram was a single word in Latin that read, intellectus. When Skuggir read this word his mind felt as if he understood the text he had just read on a deeper level, as if the word was infused with the knowledge, the intent.
With his [Universal Language Comprehension], Skuggir Understood Latin, he now understood why everyone else thought of ht ebook as trash as without a good understating and grasp of the language you would be unable to feel the word, even with its magical properties assisting it.
Reading more of the book, Skuggir found more examples, though no more infused with the intent of the author. After a few more minutes of reading, Skuggir reached chapter 2 of the "Scientific Approach to Magic" and found why it was titled as such. The pages were filled with different ways of casting magic, each broken down until the parts were all separated and explained, then put back together again. each explanation was methodical and structured. the rulesestablished like the laws of motion or the conservation of mass. In the final pages of the chapter the author wrote, "The previously extrapolated methods and their strengths and weaknesses are all trumped by the method of circles. Circles of magic form a feedback loop for the laws of the universe to feed back into effectively recycling them. most established mages make circles naturally, whether this is because it is how they were taught or how they fought themselves does not matter." flipping the page, Skuggir read more on the specifics.
"The more rings to the circle the more space for the laws to resonate with, but this greater resonance can be hard to create and even harder to keep control of without killing yourself, or worse. between each circle, anything can be put, but the most important part as with any of the methods discussed so far is the meaning behind the filling symbols, or text. even a lack of anything can cause resonance if the meaning can be channeled through in such a manner into the circle, but thismethod is extremely hard to pull off in practice."
Finishing the second chapter, Skuggir decided to try and put his new knowledge to the test. Deciding to cast in Norse as it was the language passed down from the Nordic gods of which Loki was and may still be a part, Skuggir Pushed his mana out to his finger where it started to leak out as an opaque black substance. drawing his hand in a rough circle, Skuggir the thought about fire while writing,ᚠᛁᚱᛖ ᛚᛁᚲᛖ ᛏᚺᛖ ᛋᚢᚾ ᛋᚺᛁᚾᛖ ᚠᛟᚱᚦ, before stopping the mana flow at the same time he finished his text.
the rough circle lit up for a second its black milky substance shaking ever so slightly before it fizzled out. at thievery last moment the circle violently shook, its form exploding into a black wave that killed off all the grass around the bench.
Casting magic without a skill acting as a guide rail and safety net was considered one of the most dangerous things to do for a magician at any level, as the semi-gaseous mana would inherit the properties of your life force, and for most humans, they had a fire of ambition within them, no matter how small. But for Skuggir he did not have a life force, heretaliated by killing everything nearby and making Skuggir feel as if he had lost peace of himself.
with his failure, Skuggir stood up and wandered the city, deciding to practice more later after he had healed, if he healed. eventually making his way back to his dungeon, Skuggir immediately got back to work.