In the room lit only with tall candles standing atop golden candle-holders sat a man clad in blue robes worn under golden armour.

The man sat cross-legged on the marble floor tiles looking at a book.

“…- the manifestation of magical matter, as well as the back and forwards loop of variables, cannot ordinarily be interrupted unless one knows the name of the v-…” the man’s words were cut off by the sound of his subordinate opening the large wooden doors to his room.

“Archmage Abel! We have received a letter from his majesty!” the man stammered out; he was wearing a smaller, lighter version of the armour worn by the man who up until now read his book in peace.

“I see…” Abel said standing up from the comfort of the cold ground, his armour clanked loudly.

In contrast to his bulky armour his face seemed smooth and almost care-free, he wore rectangular glasses and had short blond hair that hung just past his ears.

He closed his book as golden chains rose from the ground, tying the tome down with dozens of layers of gold.

Abel walked down the brightly lit halls of the court-mage building and travelled down to the massive spiral staircase leading down.

The walls were decorated with paintings of mages and paladins alike.

Once Abel reached the bottom floor, he was met with one of his subordinates holding a letter wrapped in thin sheets of gold.

Abel smirked as he tore the gold off and crumpled it in his hand, tossing it aside.

He read over the letter, his expression looking more irate than before.

“Go send someone to check the ‘village’ for any unusual activity,” Abel commanded dismissively.

“Yes sir!” Several armoured individuals saluted before scurrying away to fulfil their order.

Abel nervously scratched his neck, it was obscured by a long, blue scarf.

“We really need to invest in some sort of teleportation magic…” Abel thought begrudgingly heading back up the stairs.

Meanwhile, in the village, Otto was sitting in the inn.

“See?” he asked.

A dozen people in the inn looked at the ceiling in awe, they saw the coin glued there for a second before falling back down into Otto’s open palm.

“That’s amazing! How’d you do that?!” demanded one of the younger members of the town, he looked like he was in his mid-twenties.

Otto breathed a sigh.

“Look, I already explained it…” he said showing everyone his notebook.

“First, I made a battery, I cast a simple spell that only changes the speed and direction of the object!” he explained.

Everyone looked at him, confused.

“…”

“…”

“Do the coin trick again!” they demanded.

Otto breathed a sigh.

“Fly…” he mumbled as the coin flew up from his hand and onto the roof.

From that point forward, Otto was flooded with requests from the villagers.

“Can you make my crops grow twice as big?”

“Can you make me fly?”

“Can you create money?”

Otto was flooded with countless requests from the villagers.

Eventually, he managed to make it home where he exhaustedly collapsed onto the bed.

“He opened Murlin’s book,”

“No time for slacking off… I need to get better… so these people can leave me alone!” he thought.

Otto smiled as he saw the next paragraph.

“Having fun with air and water?” read the book.

“What if I could offer you three more?”

“Terri, this element allows you to create earth!”

“Teepri, this element allows you to create electricity and lightning! But not remove it! 😉”

“Oubi, this element allows you to create wood!”

“On top of that, I’ll teach you one keyword that you might find handy,”

“Mehrylhum, this is a keyword that doesn’t require any further keywords,”

“It will simply make the summoned object permanent!”

“But be warned, this takes up a lot of mana, for every µ of matter the spell will use up double the β of the last one, starting at 1β, then 2β, 4β, 8β, 16β and so on!”

“Otto’s eyes lit up; I can make real water?!” he thought.

He extended his hand forward.

Another epiphany struck him.

“I just got a genius idea!”

Otto created a new variable.

“ƒ MakeBattery « CreateBattery « SetBatterySize 20β « SetName TheBattery « SetPlace Palm « SetManaOutputPlace ThisSpell « SetManaOutputAmount 4β « SetLifespan 5«”

“Now I can half the length of all my improvised spells! Instead of making a new battery each time, I’ll just make one generic one that works for all my spells!”

Otto extended his hand forward.

“MakeBattery!” he exclaimed.

As expected, the battery appeared on his palm for five seconds before disappearing.

“MakeBattery”

“SetElement ElementWater « SetPlace palm « SetSize 1µ « SetName ThisSpell « Mehrylhum”

And so, for a solid five seconds a stream of water poured on Otto’s bed.

“Woah!”

After the magic battery disappeared, he looked down to the puddle of water.

“It’s not disappearing!” he cheered raising his arms up in victory.

After a few seconds he looked back down to the water.

“It’s not disappearing…” he realised.

He let his shoulders droop as he grabbed his pillow and blanket, placing them on the floor beside the bed.

“It’s… not disappearing…” he lamented.

He opened his notebook and started writing down some of the new variables.

“ƒ MakePermanent Mehrylhum «”

“ƒ ElementEarth Terri «”

“ƒ ElementWood Oubi «”

“ƒ ElementElectricity Tepri «”

Otto flipped to the next page of the magic book.

He spent the night thinking of new things he could create with this information.

The next morning, Gredrick left his home after a long night of brewing remedies and ointments for all sorts of afflictions.

He was shocked to see Otto standing by a patch of vegetables surrounded by villages.

Gredrick approached the group and saw Otto holding a wooden rod in his hand.

It was a simple cylindrical shape.

“Oh, Gredrick!” Otto exclaimed.

“Good morning, everyone…” he said through a yawn.

“Check out my new invention!” he exclaimed.

“Invention?” Gredrick asked.

Otto tilted the rod downwards as from it came a stream of water.

Inside the rod was a battery that generated mana for the spell that created permanent water.

It was Otto’s first practical artefact.

Otto looked in shock as the water hit the crops.

Usually, the farmers would have to travel west to the lake to collect water and bring it back in a cart.

“How did you do that?” Gredrick asked bewildered.

“I told you I could use magic!” Otto replied smugly.

“Is the water real?” Gredrick asked.

Otto nodded.

“Yup, I have sacrificed the comfort of my bed to confirm that the water is in fact permanent…” Otto explained.

He poured some directly into his mouth.

“I have no reason to think it’s not drinkable either,” he replied.

Otto planted four of these self-name water-rods in the ground upright so they wouldn’t flood the town.

The water only spawned they were upside-down.

The trick Otto used was a small pebble, inside of the rod was a closed-off space where a pebble moved around, he made the trigger for water spell to be the pebble hitting the top of the rod, and the trigger for the battery being destroy the pebble hitting the bottom.

“The rods are yours, consider them payment for letting me stay here,” Otto said gesturing for them to take the rods.

“…”

The villagers looked at Otto in a mix of awe and gratitude.

“Are they afraid of magic? They seemed ok with the coin trick…” Otto thought not seeing any reaction.

“A-Also, if for whatever reason the rod gets stuck and keeps pouring water, say the words ‘killSwitch’ – granted, this will turn off all the rods, but all you have to do is just flip them again!” Otto explained hoping to calm their concerns.

One of the farmers walked over to Otto, a man in his thirties with long brown hair and a moustache.

He shook Otto’s hand.

“Thank you, mage!”

Otto was slightly shocked by the farmer’s decision to refer to him as a mage.

“I’m no mage!”

“I just sit around and read stuff,”

Otto laughed awkwardly, slowly backing away from the crowd that surpassed his expectations.

“Anyway, I’ll get back to magicking, have fun! Enjoy!” he improvised a goodbye as he retreated back into his home.

Once inside he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

“Phew… that was… fun…” he admitted.

He glanced out the window seeing a few people trying the artefacts out, splashing water onto the ground and some even drank it.

Otto couldn’t help but feel satisfied with his creation.