A New World, an immersive game experience

Placing it down, Eldrian repeated this two more times. One he did not add any dot and the other he planned to add and remove mana from the dot. With the one with a dot, he confirmed that he could effectively control the runes, like a switch.

With the first one, he confirmed how long it could stay 'on', and with the one without a dot he tested if he could still activate the runes. While he was able, he found that the cost of doing so was the cost of activating the runes.

Granted, this cost was lessened by the material it was engraved on, however, the fact that the dot could make the cost just 1MP was massive. This small change might make it able to use an item's ability with near no cost.

Observing what was going on with mana sense, Myropsis on the other hand used a variant of inspection to allow her to see the flow of mana inside items, the two found that the mithril was actively being drained. Which was not ideal.

"I'm not sure how useful this will be, but it seems that it can function as a requirement for activation least," Eldrian mumbled.

"There are other runes that do that, I've never seen runes eat the mana of a magic metal like this." As Myropsis mentioned this, the Mithril started to crack and soon it fell to the ground as dust.

Sighing, Eldrian noted that leaving it on was not a good idea and scrapped the idea to make it a cheaper activation method.

"I guess it does work, but it isn't ideal. It's-" Eldrian's eyes flashed wide as he realized this might be more than he had suspected. It wasn't just a positive, it was an ultimate activation. Causing the connected runes to draw in mana until the area/item was completely empty.

On the mithril, this had led to it crumbling as dust, in the air, it might cause the surroundings to crumble. Jumping to the dot he had left in the air, Eldrian leaped to deactivate it. Having just barely activated mana sense to observe the flow of mana in the room.

Luckily, there had been no other runes to be activated with that dot. This inadvertently informed him that it must be part of a 'circuit' for it to work. As he had suspected/planned.

'Still, there is no way it can be so insane. Right?' Eldrian denied it, but he didn't want to test it. He already felt like the mana in the air was a bit weird before he canceled the floating dot. 'However, if it used the mana completely then it should actually not be dangerous. It is the imbalance that leads to instability.'

'A lack of mana is sure to be an imbalance on the larger scale, but depending on the size of the imbalance it can be harmless. Still, I shouldn't continue with this recklessly.'

"Well, I guess we can't really expect to find the language of magic so easily. However, I think I realized something." Eldrian mumbled, drawing in the air with his hand the image of a mirror. It looked just like a random square, the important thing was he was imagining a mirror in his mind.

'If I'm right then to achieve mirror-like magic would require a combination of water and light like I did back then. If I imagine something like that but reflecting the light entering the water...'

Closing his eyes, Eldrian slowly fed the 'mirror' mana. At first, he failed, however, the clearer he imagined the mirror the better it worked. After a few minutes, a small mirror about the size of his hand appeared in the air.

"Did you really just make a rune?" Myropsis asked in disbelief, confused how Eldrian could say it wasn't so easy and then make it happen. She assumed the former was a fluke, but the second had to be proof.

"No, this isn't a rune," Eldrian replied, struggling to keep his image of what he wanted perfect. "This is a mix of what I've learned."

Letting the spell dissipate, Eldrian explained that this was a combination of structurally envisioning a spell as well as skipping then to the wished outcome while modeling it in the drawing. Effectively skipping the how by only considering the 'energy' needs and the outcome.

"I don't get it."

"Basically, its dynamic casting made a bit more formal. And, if I can somehow save my thoughts I might be able to finally link our ideas with the items."

Eldrian repeated this two more times and was shocked to find that each revision was easier than the former. On the third attempt, he also got a system notification of spell creation.

"No way!" Eldrian was so excited by this discovery that he could even keep it contained. "Is that why it always required-" He paused as he realized he was talking aloud, coughing awkwardly he continued his thoughts.

'Is this why I always needed to repeat spells. Does mana actually learn? Or what is going on here?'

Eldrian felt that this must be it, but he had no idea how it worked. 'Maybe it is how AI are able to learn? Not the really advanced ones like GAIA and Ziraili, but the basic AI in machine learning... Through confirmation, it slowly becomes added to a library of sorts? Or does it feed off my knowledge? Am I the storage or an archive?'

Repeating it once more, Eldrian found that the focus that was required was heavily reduced. The next time he did not envision the outcome, yet it still resulted in the same mirror.

"So, you really did succeed?" Myropsis asked after seeing Eldrian cast the mirror spell two more times after his outburst.

"Unexpectedly, it seems so," Eldrian replied, "I still don't think it is a rune, but to test that can you do it?"

Nodding, Myropsis stood up and drew the square in midair. Naturally, after this past week with Eldrian, she had also become able to draw these runes in the air. After all, unlike Ilmadia and the other she already had a grasp on mana control.

"Do I need to envision the results like normal?" She asked, still new to runic magic and still learning. She was only at the point of summoning the magic, control was not possible like with lower Tier spells, and temporary additions to items were still a long way off.

"Let's try without first, and with after."

"How much mana?"

"It should be around the amount of mana required for Nidia and Fos together," Thinking of other spells that might be clearer indications Eldrian, "Think of Anthizo or even Thera. That amount but water and light element."

Nodding, Myropsis closed her eyes to focus on her mana. After finding the right control she opened her eyes and stared at the square floating in the air with determination that could kill. Slowly, she ushered her mana to it.

Her control was still very lacking and thus this would be the perfect test. If the spell worked then it meant Eldrian had made a rune, if it failed it meant he had more created a type of spell. If he were to go by the system notification then it was the latter, but they still needed to test.

As expected, the mana entered the square. However, without a vision of end result, it slowly started dissipating into the air. Like ash turning to smoke.

AN: A big thanks to everyone who continues to support the story by simply reading on Web, voting for the story, or sharing comments. It is all greatly appreciated.