“I did it!” Rex exclaimed, staring at the brightly glowing ball of electrical energy between his outstretched paws. He was sitting on his haunches, practising what Leonard had taught him about the basic spark spell. He’d finally managed to create something like a trapped ball lightning between his paws, but now, he looked a bit panicked, as he wasn’t sure what to do with it. “I, uh, now what?” he asked nervously as the ball of energy continued to grow in brightness and intensity.

“Aim it away from us!” Leonard said, “I can always buy a new door to my office… in the future we might want to do this outside though.”

Rex turned away from Leonard and Eric, struggling to keep the ball of electrical energy contained, but then Idea spoke up.

Nervously, Rex did as Idea told him, and then he watched in fascination as the cackling lightning was quickly absorbed by the metal Idea had built into his claws into some hidden reservoir. A status screen appeared in the corner of Rex’s vision;

Energy Storage 85/100% +50 gained Mana Storage 80/100% -20 consumed

Idea said with some satisfaction.

“How fascinating,” Leonard said, watching the half turned dragon absorb the spark spell, “You used some of your “nanotech” to absorb that spell? But it sort of looked like you weren’t sure that would work.”

Rex nodded, turning to face Leonard sheepishly. Rex, with Idea’s help, had done his best to explain how the technology inside his body under Idea’s control worked, but the duo had refrained from explaining that there were actually two of them inside the dragon’s skull.

Rex worried that his friends would think he was insane, or schizophrenic as Idea Three had called him, and Idea worried that the AI would be seen as some sort of alien invader trying to possess Rex’s body. But other than that, they had done their best to explain what they could and couldn’t do, stressing the fact that they were still discovering new applications for their alien “tech-magic” as Eric had dubbed it.

This was true, Idea had spent much of the last month coming up with new tricks like the one he’d just demonstrated, adding a few cyber features to Rex’s body. Additionally, In the month since Rex had swallowed the PDC, Idea had successfully repaired it and they’d created the class “Dragon Mage”, which is how Rex had finally been able to master the spark spell.

“I wasn’t, I couldn't be sure it would work until I figured out the spark spell.” Rex admitted. He’d known Idea had done something to his claws to turn them into specialized electric absorbers, but he’d forgotten about it in the shock of getting the spell to work, so he’d been about to blast Leonard’s office door.

“Congratulations, Rex!” Eric said cheerfully, “I can’t believe you’ve been a dragon mage for only three weeks and you already unlocked your first spell. I’ve been a noble my whole life and I still can’t get any spells to work,” he complained.

“I am still no closer to understanding how to use my gravity affinity, though,” Rex said to comfort Eric. Idea suggested.

Rex repeated that advice.

“Well as to gravity affinity, I’m not surprised you haven’t figured it out, but you can see mana?” Leonard asked. “You should try watching how other dragons do it. There’s not much I can teach you about that type of magic, since it seems to be restricted to dragons only. But, tell me, how do you see mana?”

Idea hesitated then tried to explain, using Rex’s voice. “I can see the way mana changes magnetic fields around my body and Eric’s body. I have special nanotech receptors taking measurements from different points to create a three dimensional…” Idea could see Leonard’s eyes glazing over a bit, so he simplified, “It’s turbulent, Eric is stirring the mana too hard, it doesn’t form stable patterns like it does when you do it.” he finished.

Eric looked thoughtful. Leonard nodded, saying, “That sounds about right, I can see mana around both of you, but not with such fine detail. For me it's more of a glow. It’s very bright in your beast core, and it’s a dim glow that covers all of Eric’s body. I can’t see it in the air the same way, it’s too faint. But, try that, visualizing your mana moving slower.” Leonard told Eric.

Eric concentrated between his hands, trying to move the mana in the pattern of a spark spell, but slower this time. A single bright blue spark appeared and expanded, sending tendrils of electicity to caress Eric's palms. “Hey! That worked a little. How come it's just a tiny spark?” He asked.

Rex reached out and touched the spark, absorbing it for +5 more energy storage. Eric nodded in thanks, grateful that he didn't have to fire the spell inside Leonard's office.

“You don’t have a lightning affinity. Rex’s three affinities are magic, lightning, and gravity, that means that he can cast any spell, but only his lightning and gravity spells will be powerful like the one he just demonstrated. Having an affinity in a type of magic makes that type many times stronger and it's easier to learn a spell if you have the affinity for it too. But there’s a lot of spells that don't require much power, like the analysis or the sleep spell. Those spells are what I will teach you once you master some of the simpler spells like spark.” Leonard explained.

Eric nodded in understanding, there was still usefulness to having magic, even if he couldn't do brute force magic attacks like a more specialized mage could.

“Congratulations, Eric,” Rex said, patting the boy on one knee with his paw, “You made your first spell work.”

“Thanks, we should celebrate our first spells tonight,” He said with an easy smile.

“Don’t forget that we’ll be leaving for our trip to the capital tomorrow,” Leonard reminded Eric. “So have your stuff packed bright and early, your father wants to leave at dawn.”