“Check this out,” Nico said.

For the past half hour, he practiced inputting the smallest traces of MP into the Kinetic Burst Formation drawn on the bottom of his shoes. It took only a few attempts until Measure calculated the right amount. Doing so increased his walking speed without his body having to counterbalance the sudden amplification in momentum too quickly. Whiplash could be a potential problem if he wasn’t careful.

Currently, Nico input just a little more MP, and found himself bouncing lightly. He suspended in the air like an astronaut on the moon.

Vera giggled.

Chris frowned. “Stop that. The added pressure on your landing may activate a pressurized trap.”

“Not true,” Nico grinned knowingly. “I would have sensed a trap like that by now or we would have already activated it. The amount of pressure I put into the ground is nowhere near the amount Keith does with all his armor.”

Keith played at being hurt, and raised his mace menacingly. “Are you calling me fat?”

Nico chuckled, and put his hands up in defense while bouncing twice as high as before, just to irritate their party leader. “Chris is upset I have a fun ability that allows me to have super parkour powers.”

“I can riddle you with a dozen arrows in the time you land on your next bounce,” Chris stated flatly.

Nico withdrew the power from his Kinetic Burst Formation and walked at a normal pace. Despite Nico’s attempts to lighten the moon, the party leader was right. This tower was dangerous. Levity at the wrong moment could cost them their lives. Chris’ constant agitation came from the desire to keep his friends alive. That was to be respected.

A notification screen appeared.

[Calculation complete. Prana Piercing Formation modified for body.]

[Remaining theories above a 90% estimated success rate: 3]

“Oh, nice,” he muttered. He pulled out his black marker, which got the attention of everyone in the party.

“You sense trouble?” Chris asked. The string of his bow glowed into existence, and two arrows appeared in the archer’s hand.

Nico didn’t stop walking, shaking his head. “Nah. Just something I’ve been wanting to try.”

With the help of Measure, he drew the modified Prana Piercing Formation on his hands. It was split in two, with the center meeting at the thumb edge of Nico’s inner palm.

The others kept the pace as they watched Nico draw his new formation in the periphery of their vision.

“There,” Nico said, capping his black marker. He slapped the edges of his palms together, investing .298 MP into the formation. His Auto-Scan’s range, ability to gather information, and effectiveness increase considerably.

“I don’t get it,” Vera wondered. “You can’t summon a spell by drawing a formation on your body. Like, a thousand people have tried and failed. I know you’re smart, but you’re not that smart.”

Nico shrugged. “That’s true, but I’m not summoning a spell at all. The formation enhances my natural divination. The problem is, I have to expend power to maintain it on my body since I don’t act as a grounding source.”

Keith blinked, swiping his gauntleted hand above him. “Uh. Woosh. Right over my head.”

Chris spoke as if reciting a lesson from memory. “We have to draw formations on solid, non-living objects. Drawing formations on others to summon a spell or even direct your energy doesn’t work. The foreign prana and magic are of completely different resonance. It can work theoretically, but the power-loss is too great, notwithstanding the danger to both parties.”

Nico found himself impressed at the recall. Chris summed up one of Gallahad’s elementary theorums. Most magicians brushed past it once they moved on to their own school of magic. The archer’s master was a good teacher. Nico bit back his lifelong envy at having someone he could learn from in a formal manner.

“The exception is yourself, right?” Vera hummed, squeezing her eyes as if trying to remember an old memory. “Your energy just needs to act as a stabilizing force within the formation so more energy can run through it, kinda like a plane on a runway. Only, you gotta build the runway and the plane by yourself.”

“Or like a pipeline,” Nico offered without any humor. The idea came to him after finding out someone used his sigil as a sort of pipeline for their own leyline magic.

Chris frowned, rolling his shoulder so satchel holding the map and portal scroll didn’t bump into his magical bow. “Except...the level of control you would need to create a grounding force through the spell formation is that of at least a warlock-class practitioner.”

Everyone stopped walking except Chris, who eventually stopped after realizing what happened.

Nico shook off his momentary confusion. “W-warlock class? Like, can control level three spells?”

Chris chin lifted, and he stared at Nico as if seeing someone for the first time. “Yes. I haven’t met a single magician beneath the warlock-class who can ground their spell arrays on their body. And the ones who do ground spell arrays end up dismissing it as too costly. Yet, you can, and you’ve found a way that it doesn’t deplete your already puny magical potency.”

Puny. Ouch.

“Wowzers,” Keith managed with an impressed expression.

Vera gave Nico an odd look which he couldn’t quite penetrate.

Nico himself didn’t expect Chris’ assessment to be so high. He always prioritized control over power. It wasn’t like he was born with it that innate sense. He developed it due to his lack of magical potency. Memories of countless late nights with spell arrays backfiring in his basement ran a shiver up his spine. Gallahad’s principles demanded efficient magic.

Even so, he was sure he didn’t always have the magical control of a warlock.

Ah. It must have been his ability, Measure. Now that he thought about it, he was certain that Measure was somehow subconsciously guiding his control over the flow of his magic.

All of Nico’s formations were some sort of variation on Gallahad’s Formations. They were the most elementary arrays, but also the ones everybody abandoned for cooler or more established traditions. Nico tried other formations as the base to his modifications long before getting Measure. He always found it easier to adapt their theories into Gallahad rather than the other way around.

It wasn’t the first time Nico mused if he might be the premiere living expert on Gallahad’s Formations. No wonder the others in the party laughed when he mentioned Gallahad earlier.

They continued walking, following close behind Chris. Every few minutes, Nico pressed his palms for a more powerful Scan. He indicated the direction of nearby traps, which the others either avoided or activated prematurely to avoid damage.

An hour later, they rested.

Keith shook his head, downing his last water bottle. “You’re one useful son of a bitch, man.”

Nico smiled. After a lifetime of indifference from other practitioners, appreciation felt good.

Vera nodded. “Whoever didn’t allow you another shot at the Apprentice Exam should get fired.”

Nico grew grim. “Mage Pullman was just overwhelmed with what happened. If you remember, one of the examinees died. Rashid was one of the four who were part of that ritual.”

Chris pulled out his map from his side satchel, checking its contents. His eyebrows knitted together, “Something about your story doesn’t line up. Before you get mad, I don’t mean that you’re lying. Just something about how that all went down doesn’t sit with me.”

“Yeah. A boy died,” Nico rebuked. He looked away, unclenching his fists. With no one chasing after him at the moment, he realized it was the first time he could process what happened. Someone died right in front of him. The stench of the burnt body was still ripe in his mind. Were there therapists who specialized in trauma within the magical community?

Probably wanting to lighten up the mood, Keith said, “Screw that Pullman guy. You should join us in California when we get out of here.”

That brought back the grin to Nico’s lips. “Careful, now. That’s the shit people say in movies before they die.”

“Break is over,” Chris commanded, standing up and gripping his bow. He rolled up his map, and tucked it back in his side satchel next to another scroll. “The treasure room is around the corner and down the hall. Nico, you scan for traps down the primary hall and the halls of egress in case we need to back up. Don’t venture further than that. This map only shows us a small part of this tower. ”

Nico joined the others in getting ready. He stood up, and pulled out his black marker. All of the spells and formations he could use effectively were only cantrip class. His class one spells would take too much time summoning to be of any help in a battle where every second counted. The best he could do was lay formations in the hall to help their escape or regenerate their MP faster.

Chris continued. “Vera and Keith, don’t get too confident with your spells now that they’re much more efficient. We still can’t afford a long drawn out battle, even with Nico’s formations. And Nico? You said you had a new spell?”

Nico had made two in the past hour with above a ninety five percent chance of success, but couldn’t use the buffing spell since it could interfere with Vera’s own magic. His buffing spell was just a mangled version of Vera’s. So, he had to default to the second one.

He confirmed, “It’s only a class one spell which can be activated once they step in the formation. It’s basically a debuff to their speed and stamina by ten percent while they are in the formation. But it only works on the Grey Dead. If it’s the Silver Dead or anything else, I’m useless.”

“How long can you maintain it?” Chris asked as if a general to a soldier.

“Indefinitely if they are in the formation, and I’m in a regeneration array. Although, that’s not including if they are resistant to the buf”

“Jesus,” chimed in Keith. “Now you’re just showing off.”

Chris snapped his finger. “Stop joking around. Get your head in the game. We only get one shot at this. Every treasure room we’ve come across has had a guardian. If we aren’t careful, we could be dead meat.”

Keith shut up.

Vera added, “Worst case, we can just portal out.”

Chris stared into space, as if envisioning a hundred different scenarios all at once. Nico could see how the man was the party leader. Chris said, “Okay. Nico, you trail behind me. Put up whatever formations you need to at least one hundred yards away from the treasure room. That seems to be the safe zone until we trigger their attention. After that, you’re in the back.”

They wanted him in the back where he wouldn’t get in the way. He wasn’t offended since he had never been in this kind of a fight before. These stakes were clearly out of his weight class. He felt a sense of pride in the fact he wasn’t completely useless. Chris, who had advocated for killing him a few hours earlier, now used Nico like a new tool. The archer trusted him enough for his own strategies. Nico would not betray that trust. This would be good practice for when they faced the killer.

Vera hummed a few notes, readying her incantations. Keith shadowed boxed with his shield-arm and swung lightly with his mace.

Chris checked his equipment. The strings of his bow glowed into existence. He asked, “Ready?”

Everyone nodded in silence.

“Then, we go.”