When the light came, it wasn’t a modulated flicker or a slow build up. No, it was a blinding ball of supernova fury, searing into my one remaining eye and causing me to shout out in pain.

As soon as the pain abated somewhat, I realized I forgot to add the enchanters ‘default setting’ rune to the chain. This would have prevented my eye from being solar blinded. The enchanters of decent experience oh-so-lovingly call it that when someone got tired of the ‘max setting’ being the default when any enchantment was activated. Much experimentation was put into this particular rune, which led to the discovery of a low output default as well. How kind of my predecessors.

Swearing to myself, I negate the rune chain with a mana infused fist swiping through the lines hanging in the air. The good news is that it worked. The bad news is it’ll be a few minutes before I can even try to see again, my eye sockets leaking tears.

Running through the runic chain again in my head, I can’t help but chuckle to myself. Even with all this accumulated knowledge from a well bought skill, I’m making rookie mistakes one after another. Of course, I’m going to blame my childish excitement. It’s not every day you manifest mana or even set that mana to code light into being. Man-child gets a new toy, he has to play with it and damn the instructions.

Minutes pass as I slowly regain my sight back. Once I’m able to see, I remake the runic chain and be sure to add the low luminescent default at the end. Don’t want to blind myself again.

Once I’ve written the code in the air, I turn my head and close my eyes before completing the chain this time. Light, the equivalent of a weakly powered sixty watt incandescent light bulb in my old world flickers to life.

Using the control modification I added, I send the light further away before opening my eyes. The little ball of light, about the size of a baseball, hangs about chest high about three meters away or so. Flexing my will, I start to control the little ball to zoom all about the area, adjusting the speed and height as it flies merrily along.

I started with hand gestures, but after a few moments decided that was too silly. Putting my hands in my pockets, I will the little ball all over the place in order to practice control. With it further away from me, I also increase the brightness and light up more of the area.

While I’m tickled to death that this worked, I’m sure someone else has figured out an actual spell for this little light ball. If not, great for me. If so, it was a good bit of practice for more advanced attempts later. Other than making this an attraction for entertaining children, this had no real purpose - except for my own childish entertainment.

The crux of the matter was to get control of my mana so I could use my fancy flying boots, without caving in my skull while in this manufactured cave. Finding I could infuse that mana into the air was a mega bonus, learning to focus my will and intent to determine what that mana does… That’s so fucking priceless. Experimentation for the win!

Deciding to try a few more things before getting back to the reason this all started, I try to will the little light ball to shift colors. Light, pure light, has all the colors in the spectrum except black. Following that train of thought and science, I figure will and intent could change the existing parameters of the generalized enchanted floating light ball.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not so much, the light does not change colors. Thinking on it for a moment, I start to reason out the why. Color is seen due to absorption of the other colors into a substance. For instance, the main three colors of red, green, and blue. If you see green, then red and blue were absorbed with the green colored light being reflected off. Different hues of color are displayed based on the color reflective properties of any given substance. Black light is a different frequency of light, most of which is not within the human visible spectrum, while black is the absence of all color or light.

Since I do not have a filter or prism in place to change the color or even the elemental properties of the light, it will be a very pure ‘white’. With nothing to reflect or absorb certain colored wavelengths, the color of the little light ball will not change.

Like it or not, I’ve found a limitation for the will and intent affecting an existing enchantment - without introducing additional energy or runes.

I suppose that I’ve already found something new in my foray into the world that is enchanting. The memories of the enchanter I received didn’t have any thoughts or explorations into what I’ve just done. They were all about better enchantments for equipment or tools, not drawing their mana on the air and making something from it. They didn’t care about color filters or the light spectrum or little floating balls of light.

Go me.

While this is very minor in the grand scheme of things, it still ties back into the use of mana itself as a weapon. So further exploration and thought is merited, though it will take a back seat for now.

Willing the floating light ball back near me, I head over to the circle of runes and the dead body. Halfway there, I stop for a moment to play with the flying boots. Slowly increasing the mana units sent to the boots, I start to float above the ground at about twenty units. Side to side, forwards and backwards, I can will myself to move while floating. The mana expenditure doesn’t increase, so I decide to try floating up.

I slowly start to float higher off the ground, the cost doesn’t increase yet but I’m also not moving fast either. This is not where I’m wanting to play with that aspect yet, since I’m enclosed and could cause severe damage to myself. I do have a bit of self-preservation, thank you very much.

The floating movement is jarring to my senses, particularly my inner ear and balance. I’m moving forward without moving forward, so that’s definitely throwing me off. Getting a bit queasy, I set myself back on the ground. That’s going to take some getting used to.

Approaching the circle, I finally start to check a few things. Using the ball of light, an enchanted magical construct, I send it over the boundary. This will help me determine if the circle is still mana sensitive, if it’ll activate if I cross the threshold.

The light ball doesn’t dim or act differently, the runic circle does not light up or activate. I’m not sure what the purpose of the runic circle is yet, but I’ll take a closer look after examining the body.

I use my boots again, to float up about a foot or so above the ground. I slowly move my way forward, hovering closer to the body. This is definitely one of those times I’m glad I have a light source available. I’ll be able to determine more detail than the grey tones my night vision provides. See in the dark? Night vision is awesome. Determining colors and details of what looks like a murder scene? Night vision sucks.

I set myself over the body and crouch down. Using one of my knives, I start to move the shredded clothing around to check for wounds. The light moves as I will it to help see the best at different angles, like a flashlight without holding it.

Heh, here I am able to enchant on the very air itself with my mana and I make a glorified flashlight.

The rending and cutting of the flesh is a really close match to what I saw on Jacob’s ghost, so I’m working on the assumption that this is Jacob. Making sure my gloves won’t expose me to the body, I reach down and grab the corpse.

The mana expenditure increases as I start to float up with the body in my hands. I’m tense, waiting for a flash or for the runes to spark to life. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen and I make it outside the circle without incident.

I set the body down on the side of the circle that I entered the cavern from, so I don’t confuse myself later, and really take a closer look at the remains. If this was Jacob, it looks like he was tortured badly before whatever the circle did finished him off. He may have bled out, but there was no pool of blood or even a drop remaining in the circle.

I check what remains of his clothes for anything he may have left there or was missed if he was frisked and searched. Of course, there is nothing to be found in the torn remains.

I take a moment to glance around, noticing that Jacob wasn’t present. I’m not sure where he went after I entered the cavern, I’ll call for him when I’m done looking at the circle.

Said circle is massive and filled with hundreds of runes, all linked together. I float back over to the center and start working my way through this puzzle. Every enchantment has a starting and end point, the center of the circle on the ground isn’t making much sense to me. It could be something custom and complex, but runes are runes and the memories are telling me that you write a story every time you use them.

Every time, even if it doesn’t make sense immediately - a story is told.

If the runes on the ground don’t make sense, how about the ceiling? Glancing up at the center of the circle, I see the start of the story - a larger rune set right in the center.

Sacrifice.

Following the swirling and flowing lines, the story comes to light - so to speak. This circle is meant to empower the recipient with a sacrifice. The sacrifice being vague on purpose, so that more runes don’t have to be added for willing or unwilling, dead or alive, or dozens of other required runic placements for the desired effect.

I start at the beginning again, I need to find who or where the recipient is. If there wasn’t one, then the circle would have continued to glow, the sacrifice having nowhere to go. Contained and waiting for an outlet.

As far as empowerment runic circles go, my memories are telling me this is about average. Since it was left so vague, the sacrifice only imbues about twenty to thirty percent of the overall life force towards whomever this recipient is. The rest is bled off to power the circle itself.

I look closer at the inscribed walls, casting the light about back and forth. Sure enough, the lines were all cut into the rock. This is permanent until destroyed or eroded. That means this circle is likely to be used again.

Meaning I will likely be a target once this murderer finds out their lair has been sold. That would jeopardize their means of growing stronger, faster.

Frowning, I keep reading over the runes. Bit by bit, I’m seeing that a majority of the scheme is set to empower the recipient at another location. That seems way too complicated, since it would be easier to set a receiving circle on the other side of the room.

Blood and death are the qualifiers to activate the circle. Once activated, it spends about seventy percent or so to send the remaining life force to a destination predetermined with exquisite detail. Altitude, distance, even time are all taken into consideration. The time is the oddest of them all, since this will send the sacrificial life force at midnight two days after the body has expired.

Tremendous detail was given to this part, to ensure the murderer had time to get to the location and get their boost.

Why make it so unrefined then? This circle could be made more efficient, so that over eighty percent of the life force is sent to empower the designer.

Looking it over once again, I start to see what I was initially missing. There are segments basically cut out and then pasted to the scheme. Looking at the finer details, you can see the difference in quality. The distance, altitude, and particularly the time modifiers are all master work level. The rest is about middle ground, with the empowerment being the lowest quality of the bunch. This was put together by an amatuer.

So be it. Let’s start here for now. I think up an alarm scheme pretty quick, using the idea of infrared lasers from my world. I go to each entrance to the cavern and enscribe the runic work into the stone itself, facing in towards the caves center and add a light negation rune as part of the chain. This way the runes aren’t visible to the naked eye when loaded with mana.

The concept is simple, set up a massive infrared laser network that, when breached, sets off an alarm rune inscribed on the inside of my left arm piece. The inscription is in blood, so once it activates, it’ll fade away. Once someone activates one of the trip lasers, I’ll be notified with a little light and sound show. Similar to a system notification...

I set up the whole underground cavern and made sure to set up the equivalent of an on/off switch at both entrances. Having covered the place, I make sure to add a transformative rune cluster set on a time delay. This way the entrances are sealed over with solid stone over three meters deep.

I ended up using my blood as a substitute for proper enchantment materials, but that’ll serve my purpose well enough for what I’m doing.

I’m working this all out on the assumption (yeah, I know the saying for that particular word) that the murderer is working alone. This should trap them here.

If the killer is working with more people, then whoever brings the sacrifice will be caught inside as well. This is a stop-gap at best, I’ll need to go look for the actual murderer or try to set another elaborate trap.

I frown as I start to massage my temples. Political intrigue and spy games were never really my forte. While I excel at infiltration and exfiltration, actual spying or dealing with dignitaries in a diplomatic way is a bit beyond me.

In other words, I’m more of a ninja assassin rather than a James Bond.

Activating the enchantments as I set to finish exploring the tunnel, I try to set a mental reminder that the enchantments will need to be recharged in about a week. Hopefully, I won’t need to recharge them and this mess will be resolved.

Walking a ways down the unexplored tunnel, I make sure to extinguish the little light ball enchantment. I’m slightly impressed it lasted the hour or two I was down here looking things over and enchanting.

My night vision restored, I make my way through the weird and utterly blank tunnel. After a bit, there is a ninety degree turn to the right and I finally find Jacob again. He’s hovering a few meters after the turn.

I stop and look around for anything that might stand out. Seeing nothing, I make my way to Jacob and call out to his ghastly ghostly self.

“Yo, found your body. I pulled it from the circle but wasn’t sure if you wanted it buried or not. Did you want it buried?” I couldn’t help but ask, seeing as I wouldn’t care one whit either way if I was in his metaphorical shoes.

Jacob shakes his head in the negative, so I put it out of my mind.

“Is there anything else you can show me to help find your killer?” Maybe he can take me right to them, though he may be excorcised before getting that far.

Another shake in the negative.

“Is there anything else you want to show me?” Last ditch effort. If this doesn’t pan out, then I’ve exhausted all the help he can give me.

The last shake in the negative. My horrendous luck strikes again.

“Ok, well hang out for a bit. I need to get settled in the manor and try to figure this all out. Try to stay out of trouble in the meantime, yeah?” With those parting words and a nod in the positive, I mosey on out of the tunnel.

I don’t bother keeping track of time or distance this time, just move out. The tunnel slopes upwards a bit but doesn’t deviate past that one turn. The exit is a carefully constructed series of rocks that camouflage the entrance. Multiple large rock walls half cutout at angles prevent anyone from seeing the entrance from the distance or even close up. You’d have to know where it is and walk into the first set of half walls to figure anything out.

It’s also located on the land secondary large plot of land I purchased with the manor. Suspicious much?

This is way too elaborate. Either built for Royal blood to escape or for it to never be found. Jacob may not even be the first victim either. If I ask for anyone specializing in this level of construction, I wager they have gone missing - and I’d have a massive target on my back by figuring that out. Best to keep the investigation benign for now, let them come to me and underestimate what I have figured out so far.

I absentmindedly head back to the manor and start the glorious task that is housekeeping during the scant remaining daylight. I let my mind wander as I go through motions most adults know by heart now.

Instead of candles, I set several dozen of my little floating flashlight enchantments light the house. The master bedroom is where I will be staying, so I make sure that it’s ready for habitation. After that, I have a dozen or so rooms to clean. Joy.

My hud registers the time being after midnight as I stop. Not all done, but I’ve made some progress. I’ve also decided to go see Maria about that family to help take care of the place. Otherwise, I’ll waste my remaining time cleaning.

“Fuck that. Guess one lucky family is about to win this worlds equivalent of the lottery. I get to play with spells tomorrow and then hunt for materials as well.” There’s the talking to myself again. Meh.

I pass out for a few hours, no dreams or nightmares visit while I’m out. I wake before the sunrise, try out the bath in the master bathroom, and finish as the sun starts to peak over the horizon. Dressed again, I make my way back to the village or city - I’ll figure that out when I get there again.

I’m humming to the tune of secret agent man as I walk through the gates into the village proper, the BGM in my head playing soothing tunes that I’m not really wanting at the moment. I won’t complain though, I’ve missed that once before and I’ll be damned if I fuck that up and fall into madness - even more than I have.

Why that song? Because my great-grandfather was a massive music lover and then it was passed down to each generation there after. If I wasn’t raised on the good old songs of an age past, I’d likely be brainwashed into thinking the shit being made before I left was amazing. My platoon often played the oldies while we were deployed, hating the new age shit that was made as well. A word or phrase repeated a dozen times - a song it does not make. Heinous.

My hud shows it’s a little after six in the morning local time, so I hunt down some grub and take my time people watching. Those tails that everyone here apparently has is throwing me off a bit. I can’t tell what origin they may be, like cat or monkey or something. Another question to ask and hopefully it doesn’t offend whoever I ask.

While people watching, I luck out when I notice Maria walking by. Which is incredibly weird all by itself and I glance around quickly for trouble. A few heartbeats later, and it all seems ok. I wave at her and beckon her over. It’s barely seven, so she has a bit of time to spare before work.

She notices me, her eyes widen a fraction and a slight smile appears. She looks tired, bags developing under her eyes and her shoulders drooping a bit. She waves back and heads my way.

“Morning Maria. I’m glad I caught you here, mind doing a bit of business before work? I’ll buy breakfast.” I cut right to the chase, no sense beating around the bush and possibly sending mixed or creepy signals. While she’s very attractive, I’m not sure when or if I’ll be interested in another woman. Especially given my time limit.

Smiling a bit more, she replies, “Why, Mr. Gram, are you asking me on a date?” She’s teasing me, I can tell.

She’s made her way over and sat across from me while I reply, “Sorry to burst your bubble. While very attractive, I’m not looking for a partner of any sort at the moment. I wouldn’t mind a bit of conversation though.” I was never very good at seduction or social interaction either. Another fail on the road to being a double oh agent. I think I fidgeted.

If anything, a twinkle appears in her eyes. Trouble on the horizon, mayday, mayday. “Well, if you’re offering breakfast, I won’t say no. What did you want to discuss before business hours?” I think I blush a little bit. Is that a charisma check I failed?

Flagging a waitress over, I reply, “We discussed having a family reside in the secondary housing yesterday. I’d like to go ahead and hire a group. Trying to keep up with all that myself is going to greatly cut into other projects I’d like to attempt.”

She’s quiet for a few minutes after ordering her morning meal. A contemplative silence. That’s good, gives me a moment to get myself together. I’m slightly weirded out that I reacted to her that way, but I brush it off and get back to matters at hand.

Over the next thirty minutes, I keep a portion of my mind in a metaphorical box. We hash out the details and costs for the family being hired. I told her that I wasn’t too worried about the who’s and why’s, that I’ll leave it up to her judgement. The cost was a little less than I thought, but given what Mab told me about yearly income I wasn’t overly surprised so little was requested. I would also be providing them a roof over their heads and income towards food and essentials. The family would essentially become my vassals.

I also asked about what the designation of this place was - city or village. She said that the mayor claims it’s a city, but in reality it’s a village. The population and area which they reside determines those definitions. Village it is then.

When carefully asking about the tails, she out right laughs at me. A full belly laugh, which caught me off guard.

When she calmed down, her reply was simple. “Everyone without one asks that question. We’ve long since gotten over getting offended by such simple questions.”

The tail is not based on any animal I know. She claims that their ancestry is unknown to them, so they do not know the exact reason why they have tails. What she does know is that everyone on this world has one. Losing their tail is like losing their limb, it affects balance and can be used to grasp light things. So, prehensile tail.

She also blushed a slight bit when she mentioned it was incredibly sensitive. When I jokingly asked if the full moon did anything for them as a people, she blushed a bit harder.

“Think of it as mating season. When all three moons are out and full, our hormones go into overdrive. It makes things difficult for those without a partner, as you say.” Mind. Blown.

At least they all don’t turn into gigantic, energy blast flinging monkey people. Cue shudder.

When asked when this happens, innocently of course, she said it’s a seasonal thing. It will happen again in about three to four weeks, so I won’t be around to worry about it.

This will influence the bath house I’m planning to make though. I’ll need to make it a full blown inn, with heavy sound proofed walls for those times the moons play merry havoc on their hormones.

Our breakfast comes to an end. I discreetly hand her the required money to hire the family to help upkeep my manor. I don’t want to seem desperate or negatively impact her reputation with the people around us. She does live here after all, I don’t want to make it look like I hired her or anything. If that’s even a thing here.

Which I’m sure it is, it’s pretty much universal. Go go red light district.

My business done in the village, I make my way back to the manor. It’s time to explore my magic and then hunt me some materials for proper enchanting.