Jial was still in his weird emotive state, looking at Gilliam it was almost like he was staring a god in the face, the same kind of disbelief and wonder.Gilliam continued his statement about knowing the runes. “I can’t say for sure as I haven’t seen them before today but I could read yours, right?”The tone of his voice changed to more and more hesitant through the sentence, he realised a bit too soon that there was no good reason to why he knew a language like this without having seen it before.

Jial’s face, emotion state and all around body language went back to his normal self. “Quite...”There was still a hint of interest in him but it was now hard to see again.“Tell me, Mr. Gibson. How do you know this language?”There was almost a blaming tone to his voice, it might have been a bad idea to mention that he hadn’t seen it before...

Again, the cat’s sort of out of the bag, might as well be honest to a certain degree.Letting out a sigh, Gilliam intended to be honest about things save the other world thing.“I have no idea. To be honest I learned that magic existed like a few days ago, so I’m a bit new to all of this. Perhaps it’s tied to the Heptagon mage thing?”This was an honest answer, he had no idea, whatever that let him understand the language they were speaking now was potentially also why he could understand the magical runes... Or perhaps they are two random chances? The language was done in one way and the Heptagon mage thing, the one that gives him this weird understanding of magic, was what gave him the.. Well.. Understanding of magic?

Jial didn’t look entirely convinced, but then again he didn’t even look too interested when Gilliam managed the seven lights even though he claimed to be impressed.“Not much is known about the Heptagon mage’s abilities. It might be, yes.”His eyes became more piercing than before, he did confirm an excuse that Gilliam could use in the future if needed but at the same time he didn’t seem to believe what he was saying.“Putting that aside. How well do you know this language?”It seems that his interest in the subject gave Gilliam a free card for the discussion.

“I have no idea, if I think about it I can see runes, like how you have the four Multiply runes, if I think about the runes and think about Multiply, I also see these two.” Gilliam got up from his desk and went over to the blackboard, using the chalk he wrote up two runic symbols.“I can’t tell you why it would work, but if you swap out some of the repeating ones with those, I think it might be better.”Gilliam shrugged a little at the end, he knew this was a fact somehow, but he couldn’t explain why. In the other other-world tropes the person being sent somewhere are given some gifts, Gilliam had long-since assumed that he got some über mage powers, and if the magical language is tied to this that could well enough just be a bonus there.

Jial pondered this for a solid minute, he seemed to do some mental calculations or... something. Suddenly he manifested the same magical circle he used before to make the hundred or so lightballs. Touching some runes with his fingers having them disappear and in stead exchanging them for the ones that Gilliam wrote on the blackboard.Like before he charged energy in his fist and put it in the newly updated magic circle, opening it the magic circle, like before, disintegrated into many small orbs of light.Though impossible to say at a glance how many there were, there were easily another 50, if the original number of 100 was correct. It felt, from a viewer perspective, that the addition of the runes had increased the spell about halfway.

Jial’s eyes widened as he saw the effects, his reaction was so strong in fact that it had the lights flickering and dying out randomly before the whole spell collapsed.“It worked....” he looked into the air as he said that in disbelief. Turning to Gilliam he repeated the sentence: “It worked.” A little less disbelief this time but it was clearly there.

“It would seem so.” Gilliam smiled back at him, thinking to himself that he might have accidentally helped Jial with some weird breakthrough.

Not waiting more than a few seconds Jial went to the next step of the experiment. He manifested the starter magic circle with a triangle inside the circle itself, the one that he explained that they would be using earlier today.Though the runes were different. Instead of Light, Multiply and Focus, this had Light, Strength and focus.“That one is different, it’s the rune for Strength, right?” Gilliam commented as he noticed this, assuming this as a test.

“Yes.” Jial confirmed as he poked it, having it disappear. “If I told you I wanted the ‘best’ rune for strength, which one would you draw?”There was a hope in his voice as he asked.

Gilliam decided to let whatever this gift was to take the reins, so he just turned to the blackboard and drew the first rune he imagined with this in mind. It was a simple rune, like all the other ones, looking seemingly mundane and simple.“This one. It’s not just like ‘Strength’, it’s kind of like an upgraded variant meaning ‘powerful’.”He felt a bit interested in himself that he knew this, but Jial seemed to like it even more.

Not hesitating he copied that rune into the spot that the Strength rune was before, and activated it like before, channelling energy into his fist and opening his hand within it.The circle disintegrated but formed a fist sized light so bright it felt like standing in sunlight, both of them had to turn away well before the light reached its peak power simply because of the pain.Jial cut the mana flow to the spell having it poof into nothing. Turning to Gilliam with some weird eyes... A kind of desperation mixed with an epiphany and some weird emotion mix Gilliam could not pin down.“I will teach you what I know of magic circles, in turn can you teach me some runes when possible?”Ah, that was the missing emotion; pleading, though it was not a nice colour on him he did have a good deal. Gilliam helped him with some runes at times and he got a specialist’s training in a field.

“So. I get your mastery of magic circles, in turn I help you with runes when I have the time and chance? That seems a bit too good to be true.” Gilliam decided to call his bluff, deal... whatever. He wanted to make sure that there was no bull between them.

“I will admit that it seems you are getting the most out of this to your untrained eye. However you underestimate the power of the words. As you saw now, swapping out a single rune had a massive difference in effect.” He sounded incredibly keen and honest about this.This also confirmed that he didn’t just pump in an insane amount of mana in that light spell. From what it sounded that one rune change might have unlocked some weird amplification or 1:1 energy usage thing. Gilliam didn’t know how this worked enough to really even know what to think but it was amazing, if nothing else.

Depending on ones arrogance it can be mused that too much power to someone and whatnot, but all things considered; Jial has a lot of experience but he was a teacher, he seemed to be quite smart and even if Gilliam helped him often he would never reach the same mastery of the language as Gilliam passively has. So in short he didn’t see any problems with it.

“I don’t see a problem with this, you scratch my back, I scratch yours, and whatnot.” A simple yes could have been enough but Gilliam wanted to emphasise that this was a mutual deal for some reason.

Gilliam took out his notebook and ink-pen in preparation and like that, so started one of the hardest and complicated lessons Gilliam had had in his life, interest and progress did wonders for motivation. He learned the importance of the different shapes, when to use it, why to use it, what not to use and how small changes in angles could have dramatic differences.The main problem Gilliam ended up with was the three dimensional circles, he could draw them when guided but he used some time to understand their construction. A whole nother dimension added a strange level of complexity to things but Jial was actually an incredibly good teacher. Once he found the level of detail, jargon and metaphors to use with Gilliam this went much smoother.

“The minimal magic circle is just that; a circle, but in that case it doesn’t help at all with the spell and the only thing this does is to give the spell somewhere to go, I can use that to help aim but nothing else.” Gilliam started his series of questions to make sure he understood.

Jial simply nodded, so Gilliam continued. “The only real reason for the geometric shapes is to link the runes together, if you have two runes a line is enough, if you have five you need a pentagon or pentagram or something, though the latter can link one rune to two, or the other way around.”

Again Jial nodded, it seemed like there was nothing to comment on yet so Gilliam again continued with his test-explanations.“If I want to link together several circles like your light spell, I need to make complete magic circles small, so I need a very thin and clear line to draw, but this needs to be placed exactly on an intersection to ‘lock into’ that point. In this way I can in theory link how many circles I want together as long as all of them are complete?”This part had a more confused tone to it.

“Yes, though when you project a magic circle you need to know that once it’s locked down it needs to be projected exactly like that. Exactly. A single rune, a single line, a single intersection not aligned can have potentially catastrophic results and might kill you. The simpler the circle the less the details matter.”Jial emphasised some of the concepts on the blackboard, drawing a small area of a circle and on purpose misaligning a small triangle a few millimetres (0.1inch). It was subtle but clear when pointed out.

Gilliam appreciated Jial’s honesty, this really put things into perspective. In theory he could make a ten layered multi circle construction of doom. But the level of detail at that point needing to be utterly perfect explains why that’s not used more often. And though the problem was not in this being impossible, it just became tedious and hard to do in any practical scenario.The more complicated a circle the more things it could do but also the more power it could hold, as most circles were charged up with energy to activate. A massive ten layered circle of doom would take tremendous energy, if this were to fail due to sloppy drawing...

“The runes between the intersections, along the lines and curves, they are more like guiding forces to make sure that the energy goes where it needs to. Kind of like a one-way valve or restraints around a pipe for structural strength.”The tone of explanation ended in a definitive statement of fact, even though all of this were questions to make sure that he had understood.

Jial again nodded. “That is correct. In theory any line needs no more than one or two runes. Due to lack of knowledge in the runes, more of them are used to compensate. With your understanding this might change.”

“Wait-” Gilliam interjected, seeming to have just realised something. “Doesn’t all of this mean that the magic circles are not locked down for each spell, they can be altered on the fly? I read in the intro book that parts of what made structured spells was a predetermined magic circle?”There was uncertainty in his voice, the information he read simply explained that Structured spells are easier to learn or teach away because they are a list of predetermined things needed for a spell to work. Much like a checklist if you did all the listed things properly the spell would always have the same result. But the teachings he have here and now hinted that the magic circle, the core of Structured spells, could be altered on the fly with enough knowledge.

Jial nodded. “Both are true. Structured spells have predetermined magic circles that has been researched, tested and confirmed working. This means that it will work for me, you or anyone able to cast the correct element. This means I can teach it to my students or any other mage. It will always work as long as the proper circle is made.”

So far this made sense to what Gilliam had read.“But with anything, proper understanding and research can improve or alter the magic circle entirely. Many mages use years to make spells, only to sell it to someone later. You have the ability to read and understand the runes. Take the basic light spell circle.”As he explained and mentioned the circle he manifested the simple spell circle with the three runes Light, Multiply and Focus.“This is the first circle the students will learn. It is harmless even if you fail, so a good start. It will always work as long as it’s drawn properly. Even if drawn a bit off-”To simulate the effect he’s speaking about he purposely made all the lines a bit wonky, a bit wavy and one of them even weakly arched. “This will still work fine, even though it looks like it’s drawn by holding a brush by the handle’s end. However, changing the runes-” he touched the rune for Multiply and put in the one meaning Strength. “-this changes the effect from many orbs, to one stronger one. This takes knowledge, knowledge that can only be taught so far. Students will learn about this but it’s mostly focused on in the second year after they have a proper foundation of knowledge.”

Waving his hand dismissively through the circle had it dissipate in smoke. “The book you read was the introductory one in your room, correct?” Though Gilliam nodded Jial didn’t seem to wait for a response and just continued explaining. “That book was made to be as simple and introductory as possible. The problem about explaining too much is that it’s daunting to new students. It doesn’t say that the magic circle is always predetermined and rigid, it just states that the ones the student will learn are predetermined and will always work.”

This made a lot of sense, start with the simple, don’t over explain and once the student is getting the hang of things, go to the next level to keep them challenged and learning.The problem GIlliam had was that he didn’t read into things properly, he took things at face value as fact due to his own lack of pre-knowledge. Though this was an introductory book he was the problem more than the book.Internally cursing himself a bit he realised that he needed to have a more open mind in the future.

“Although, that said-” Jial continued his explanation. “-doing these changes on the fly in combat takes a massive amount of experience and quick thought. It’s easier and safer for anyone involved to keep to the tested and true. This doesn’t mean that a mage will only use the same magic circles his whole life, but more that you should research, test and find out what works before you need to use anything in combat.” This sounded like it was from experience as well as a textbook example.

Gilliam perked up a bit when discussing combat, though that’s not all magic is for it was always an exciting concept back home. Depending on who you ask it might also be the ‘proper’ use of magic... In a world without magic.Kind of ironic how strong some opinions were about the nonexistent.“Casting combat spells is about speed, this is why the simplest circles are used as they are faster. If you are able to project the whole circle in one movement and your opponent needs two; you might have won in one move. This is why we teach magic circles as pictograms rather than drawing each line separately. All students start with singular lines to learn but they will not be considered having properly learned until they can project the simple circles in one move.”

This felt a little harsh, but it made perfect sense. This was a school that taught mages for several reasons but self preservation aside, military services were some of the reasons.Jial continued before Gilliam got a word in. “This is a good example why most mages carry grimoires, they are not only for notes and research. If you have a complicated circle it can be incredibly helpful to see it in writing form as you cast it. This might have the spell take a few more seconds to cast but depending on the spell it can increase the success chance substantially.”

This made a lot of sense, the reason to carry a book into combat was for visual reference. Sure, you might remember the simple circles or something you have spent years perfecting, but once you want to cast a spell needing a complicated multi-layer magic circle seeing it on paper could indeed be very nice.“This is also why physical combat is so important and part of the curriculum.” Jial added, breaking Gilliam out of his train of thought in surprise.Jial seemed to notice his surprise. “Why use complicated spell circles and expend your mana if you can just stab someone. Or what do you do if someone attacks you faster than you can complete your spell. This affects your focus more than most expect.”

Gilliam pondered for a moment, and it’s true. Though it might be the best way to go in certain games which are based on numbers, reality is different. If someone is charging some amazing attack you shouldn’t wait, just shank them, throw a rock at them. Magic is a tool just like a weapon, you should use the most appropriate tool. He halfway started understanding Angela’s view on just punching things. Sure she was augmenting this with her weird form of training but it was simple and effective.At this point he realised that this also meant that he was going to learn physical combat, something he had absolutely zero skill in. But it sounded fun if nothing else!

Drawing his breath to ask Jial a question he was instead startled like there was no tomorrow from the school bell. It gonged once signalling that it was lunchtime and that the class was over.Gilliam had not been given any curriculum so he didn't know where to go or what to do.“I’ll send for food.” Jial halfway ordered, wanting Gilliam to remain.

“We can do that?” Gilliam was not sure how most things worked, he wanted to continue as well but, well, this was a blessing in itself.

Jial seemed to concentrate for a few seconds and then focus back on Gilliam. “I have contacted Frederick, my aide, he will bring some food.”

Gilliam smiled a little, apparently Telepathy was also a thing that had to be experimented on later but for now there was more to learn!

Almost as if part of the same sentence, Jial continued where they left off.

The bell rang a while later, besides the startling nature of it this didn’t stop their talk and discussion. Every example of circles and runes were improved by swapping at least one rune causing Jial to take some notes on the runes’ meaning and details. Then they continued to learn and bounce questions back and forth.

Most of the lunch talk was about charging the magic circle with energy directly, that this was the basis of a magical trap, if several mages were working together casting a single spell or in certain cases if a spell needed a specific way to release the energy. Most of the time this was not used but it was good info nonetheless. A magic circle can work in any medium, the light-drawing is used as it’s fast, accurate and easy. For more permanent concepts they are often drawn with something or just engraved, both could be done with magic or by hand. Circles could also have areas dedicated to special functions like using whatever was inside an area as fuel or as a source of input, in those cases the area was often left blank with runes around it instead.The teleportation circles worked like this, leaving a blank area inside for the people to stand in.

“Wait, so the circles aren’t specific to the spells?” Gilliam realised and needed confirmation. “I didn’t really consider that but just swapping the runes could let the same circle work for many spells...” He felt a bit dumb realising it now after several hours of talking and learning.

“That is correct-” Jial confirmed without any condescending tones. “-The light spell I used to amplify the single light, or create several smaller lights only had one rune changed. If I instead were to put a Fire rune instead of Light, this would create a fire source.”

This was like a mind blowing moment for Gilliam, but it made sense. Since the geometric shapes depended on what you wanted to have done, and the runes altered the effect, there was no reason to not use the same circle for many spells as long as it needed the same amount of runes in the same basic configuration.The light spell with Light, Strength and Focus could have Light swapped for Fire, as Jial suggested. This would create a fire source. Swapping Fire for Water would just create water.Though, since everyone were limited by their attunement, a Fire mage putting in water would have the spell fail as it was given the wrong kind of mana. Much like how certain constructions needed the correct fuel; putting gasoline in a diesel car would not only not work but could ruin the engine. Putting fire-mana into a water spell could have bad results as well.

“Hold on... This feels almost too easy...” Gilliam was a bit taken back, it felt too simple. But the more he pondered about it the more it made sense. Though everyone could use the same magic circles they could get slightly different results based on their element. And different elements would act differently, a stream of water, fire and earth would act very differently due to their mediums. The bonus here is that the school only needs to teach a few specific circles and concepts, letting the students swap out for their own runes. Keeping things simple kept it safe for starters.

“The simple spells aren’t complicated. A force missile, a fireball, an ice spear, a rock. All of them are the same concept of throwing some collected energy at your enemy. Why would it need different magic circles? The mana and rune decides the element, the magic circle is just the lens, after all.”The wisdom of Jial made perfect sense. This was back to the information that started all of this. Gilliam had been so caught up in things that he had forgotten the very, very base of things. Sure, he was spoiled with the elemental aspect of it but there were clearly plenty of things he didn’t know.

During their testing a man came in after knocking. It was a young man, looking 20 something years old, he was incredibly well built, had tanned skin and a very calm and fair expression. This man felt like a farmer stereotype used for examples.He was carrying a wooden plate with food on it. He had collected an assortment of breads, meats, cheeses and some water on the side. Wordless he entered, placed the plate on the desk near them and left with a bow, not interrupting Jial’s talk at all.Gilliam assumed this was the mentioned aide, and since Jial didn’t react at all he was very aware of him, ignoring him for now as he got himself some food they continued discussing, explaining and learning.

Ignoring the following bells Jial continued his tutoring, explaining that there were different ways to nest magic circles. Like you could have light pass through one lens that did one thing, and then another lens to do something else; likewise could this be done in a magic circle. This needed preparation, planning and correct distancing. The planning was extra needed in the order of things to happen, if you had the second of three circles manifest the spell, the third one might not be able to do it’s thing. If they were placed too close to each other the previous circle might not be properly done, and if too far apart then the energy might become unstable before entering the next circle.

Jial used the light spell as an example, being harmless it was a perfect teaching tool. Explaining some simple circles with only two runes to have the light change colour, he placed them at the correct distance and it did indeed change colour as planned. Crunching the circles too close together had the spell just fail as the collecting of energy could not properly funnel into the colour-chanting part, or the colour didn’t manage to change properly before it was being manifested; causing more problems.

“Now, with everything we have talked about, explained and tested, I would like to see you try on your own. Keep to the light spell for now.” Jial ordered.Which was fair, a test after all of this just made sense.

Gilliam pondered, he had been able to draw lines all day so that was fine, he was a bit unstable on some of them and he could not manifest whole circles in one move, but that was not expected either. He had already tested the simplest of light spells as part of their talks and testing, but this was different.Doing something with light, he could make it strong, weak, big, many... The world was his oyster in a sense and rather than not knowing what to do, he was burdened by too many options.He didn’t want to just change the colour or intensity of it, he wanted to try something else. He formed an idea!

He started by making a circle, it ended up teal in colour like most of his magic circles. Inside he formed a Heptagon (7 sided shape), he made a small circle for each one of the corners and put in the runes that felt right with his idea in mind: Light, Stream, Beam, Metre(~1 yard), Strength, Power, Energy, Control.Then he started feeding it with energy, not sure how much to give it he decided to caution on the weaker side, there was already enough power built into it.The circle charged more and more until he stopped channelling and activated it. In a split second the circle collapsed into a metre (~1 yard) long thin beam extending from his index finger. It almost looked like someone had just drawn in the air but it had a weird intensity to it, it almost seemed to radiate heat in it’s closest vicinity causing heat-haze around it much like above a fire.

“You... Made a beam of light?” Jial asked confusingly, not seeming to have managed to decode the magic circle.

“Kind of.” Gilliam poorly explained as he picked up the wooden board that his aide used to carry the food earlier. He held the board in front of it and slowly moved the line of light through it.The intense light burned its way through the wood like it was not even there! Gilliam smiled satisfied that his laser creation worked as planned.Cutting the energy flow to the spell the beam faded into nothing instantly and his finger was no longer deadly!

Jial’s jaw had dropped and his eyes looked like they were about to pop out from his skull.

Gilliam smiled embarrassed back at him. “Too much?”