AN: String of updates? As I said, because the beginning of a story is the easiest part to write. I wrote for sevral days, disregarding my other fictions

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During the rest of the afternoon, Marc stayed outside near his house, with his shotgun and pistol. He had mad small experiments with magic.

From his understanding, fire and electricity were a form of energy. So he wondered if he could change the magic energy, the mana, into either fire or electricity, or an imitation of those. The result of the experiment was a success. It was also a good thing he made these experiments outside with his back facing the house.

The lightning ball he generated, and unintentionally detonated, left a small crater on the ground and blasted him 10m away. It burned his clothes and his skin, and nearly ruptured his eyeballs and eardrums. He almost suffocated to death from the temporary paralysis of his diaphragm. If he had started with fire, he would probably have killed himself.

He spent the rest of the day trying to restrain the amount of mana he would use. And it turned out to be more complicated than he expected. Precision control of the body was one thing, precision control of the mana was another thing. At least, directing the mana toward a certain direction wasn't complicated. Thanks to that he didn't have to worry about his spells hurting him.

The fire and lightning made from electricity did indeed look and feel slightly different from the natural thing. Marc though it was appropriate to call them magic fire and magic lightning. Natural fire and lightning controled by magic wouldn't be called “magic” by him. He also noticed that magic fire and lightning could induce or strenghten natural ones.

“I'm a fire and lightning mage! Not bad after half a day of practice” he joyfuly told himself as he was eating his dinner. “Still, that kind of mana manipulation is more tiring than I though. I guess using magic will always come with a splitting headache at the end of the day. Why does it have to be so mind-numbing? Haaa...”

After finishing his meal, he washed the dishes and went to the bathroom.

“Using magic is nice and all, but if I must endure a headache after each major uses, I'm going to be completely defenceless... Need to learn how to make magical objects. Magic tools or magic weapons. Maybe I'll even be able to make some needed automated defenses, or some golems... Well, I'll think about it tomorrow...”

The next day...

“Now what? Yesterday when I though about it, it sounded simple... Finding a way so that the magic would stay in an object is probably the easiest part. There are things that seem to attract mana and absorb it, like my body for example. I bet I can use my own blood if necessary. The hard part will be how to tell the magic in the object to do this or that.”

“In fictional works, it's achieved through the use of runes. So, by using a magical language. Now, is there a unique magical language? Or is it possible to use one's own magical language? I think there must be at least a basic code to follow...”

“Thinking about a code... Yesterday, all my magic experiments were made using thoughs and willpower. I didn't try to chant arias or make special gestures. I didn't try to make some magic circles or the likes...”

“Thinking about magic circles, mana is revolving around my property. If mana by itself is making circles, doesn't that mean that mana can react to certain circles as well? And maybe other geometric forms? Like some geometric paterns naturally found in nature?”

“Circles and natural geometric paterns. Materials that absorb and hold mana. A specific language. I believe those 3 are needed to make proper enchants. I'll work on the first 2 points in the mornings, and the third one in the afternoon... No, I'll only use half of those periods for enchanting research. The other half will be for spells and eskrimas training. The evening will be for whatever must be done around the house.”

Marc's uncle had books about biology and geology. It must have been because the house was in the countryside, not far from the mountains. Marc was able to find some natural geometrical shapes and formations in those. Things found on plants, on some animals, or in the structure of rocks, cristals, and snow flakes. He reproduced them on paper, in an unused text book which he called his grimoire, his personal magic research book.

He took a break at noon to eat. He was on his rooftop, looking at the surroundings.

“When you have a small garden, it's easy to keep an eye on things... Here, I have a 500000m square garden with a fence 400m away from the house, 2500m long. On top of that I have to be wary of the sky too. That's a huge area to guard alone. I really need an alarm system, at least for ground intrusions... And one that won't break or be disabled easily...”

In the afternoon, he drew several circles and geometrical paterns with differents materials on differents supports. The materials he used to darw were his own blood, dragon blood, ink, chalk and paint. He drew on paper, fabrics, cardboard, glass, wood, metals and stones. He made as many combinations as he could, and observed how the ambiant mana would react to them.

At the end of the afternoon, he noticed that mana was drawn toward the blood the most. Ink, chalk and paint didn't attract much more more mana than any other random materials would. Marc though that, if not for some geometric patern, they would attract only as much mana as a random peeble. Paterns drawn on paper, fabrics and glass seemed to attract more mana than stone and metal. Wood seemed to attract more mana than stone and metal, but less than paper, glass and fabric. Mana was indeed attracted to certain shapes and materials.

“Hmm, this time I only observed the reaction of ambiant mana. Tomorrow, I will draw the paterns while infusing mana into the material used to draw. I will also how it will work with water, especially water with something dissolved in it. Once the water evaporate, the dissolved thing will solidify again and remain. I will also see how ink, paint and water will do if I mix them with some drops of blood. I didn't try oil or something similar... I guess I will have a lot to experiment during the next few days!”

As he was about to enter the house after storing the items he experimented on, he noticed some movement at the edge of the forest. The sun was setting, so there were a lot of weird shadows, but he was certain to have seen 2 or 3 figures there. He went from a relaxed mood to high alert as his heartbeat quickened and his concentration increased.

“At the end of the second day, and already some knew visitors... Sneaky bastards they are this time... I guess I won't be able to sleep tonight.”

Marc was very worried. Watching out for intruders during the day wasn't too troublesome. But at night, with the lack of light, within the darkness, it turned into a scary task. The idea of missing one of them, and ending up stabbed in the back, was quite frightening for someone living alone away from civilisation.

He stayed outside for a few more minutes, making a round around the house, then he went back inside the house as the light of the sun disappeared and the darkness settled. He had decided to leave the semi-automatic rifle under the stairs with its amnutions so he could easily get it from either outside of the house or from the upper floors.

As soon as he locked the door behind him, he went straight for the MAS-49 and hurried to the ceiling. He didn't turn on the light there. He discretly opened one of the windows and sneaked out on the roof. The external lights allowed to properly see the ground around the house up to a distance of 100m. Even if it wasn't clear, he would be able to notice something at a distance of 150m. But it didn't illuminate the roof. In fact, it made seeing anything there harder.

Marc was lying low on the roof, being carefull of notgetting completely on the top where he might really be noticed. Still high enough to be able to see all around without trouble. He was constantly looking around, unwilling to relax, the MAS-49 charged and ready, the amnution at arm length.

He may be physically quite strong, but he was unwilling to face an unknown enemy on close range, especially at night. He had already used enough magic during the day, he didn't want to use more and get one of those headaches that would in the end make him sleep like the dead. Besides, using magic would tire him mentally, which is a bad thing when one has to be on look-out in at night.

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AN: ---