Chapter 178: Tools of the Trade (2)

After almost ten minutes of playing around with the blackboard, Michael was able to ascertain its utility. Not only could it instantly replicate any spell within its compendium, it would also activate the magic circle with a single press of a button.

He had absolutely no idea how it was possible, but he could already determine that it would be quite useful for their purposes.

Just as he was about to think of a way to best utilize the mystical apparatus, Rudy happened to reach up and touch the blackboard out of curiosity.

To his surprise, the rune within the magic circle that he’d touched suddenly disappeared—causing the once white chalk to turn red.

“I-I didn’t do anything!” Rudy exclaimed, raising his hands and creating some distance between himself and the item.

“Hmm? That’s odd…” Michael was more intrigued rather than angry at his friend. Judging by how the apparatus worked, it seemed this was one of its functions, not a flaw.

He walked up and inspected the magic circle closely, seeing that where Rudy had touched there was a single rune now missing. After a little thought, he pressed the blank space, only for a window to appear in front of him.

It was full of runes—hundreds of them.

“Wait, no way right?” he muttered, scrolling through the window.

After finding a similar rune to what had been erased, he pressed it.

Sure enough, the rune appeared within the blank space—causing the red magic circle to flicker momentarily before turning white once more. It now stood as it had before, like no one had ever touched it.

“Oh thank goodness… you fixed it.” Rudy let out a sigh, clearly relieved.

However, Melody and Michael were busy staring at the magic circle slack jawed.

“What the hell is this thing!? Can it really do that?” Melody almost shrieked.

“I can’t believe it… This will make our research monumentally easier.” Still in awe, Michael looked at the floating apparatus with reverence.

He had absolutely no idea how it worked, but if he could construct and deconstruct magic circles with a few flicks of his finger—it would save so much time, effort and brainpower.

Not only he erase runes at will, he could also populate them from a list within the compendium with the click of a button. This in addition to the fact that they didn’t require any mana to cast, made it seem like all his prayers had been answered.

This must be how the professors and graduates create their spells… Michael thought inwardly, finally understanding Stark’s previous words.

The fact that they had this kind of technology meant that mages were certainly capable of utilizing trial and error methods to easily create new spells and test its effects with relative ease.

Which also backed up another one of professor Stark’s points. It wasn’t that modern mages weren’t capable of researching ancient magic—just that they had lost the runes associated with the magic itself.

The light elemental runes that Michael now possessed was proof of that.

“What? Why are you guys acting like that?”

“Are you seriously that dumb Rudy?” Melody’s impatient voice echoed out within the space.

“Oi, that’s rude.”

While in his stupor, Michael failed to overhear the discussion between Rudy and Melody behind him—too absorbed in the possibilities this training room and tools opened up.

The light elemental runes won’t be in the compendium, so I’ll have to draw them myself, Michael surmised, reaching up to erase the magic circle completely.

Just as he was about to draw the first rune upon the now blank circle, he paused.

“Wait, will this thing even recognize the light runes?” he muttered.

“I’m not sure, but I’d say it should.” Melody spoke behind him, startling Michael slightly. He hadn’t realized the girl had approached so close.

“Just draw it and see what happens.”

This time it was Rudy’s voice from just behind his shoulder. The scent of old pancakes and syrup wafted into his nose, causing him to scowl in response.

“Dude, you’re too close.” He complained, shoving the guy back.

“H-hey! Melody is close too, why aren’t you getting angry at her?” he complained bitterly.

“Her breath doesn’t smell like she hasn’t brushed her teeth this morning.” Michael quipped back, annoyed at the distraction.

“Ah, I knew I forgot something this morning…” He replied, looking a little embarrassed. “Anyway, just draw the runes—what’s the worse that could happen?”

“Gross…” Melody uttered, her voice laced with disgust.

Michael frowned, choosing to move past his friend’s bad habit of forgoing hygiene as a result of his innate laziness. “I’m worried that it either won’t recognize the runes—or it will save them to the compendium…”

“I don’t want other people who use this training room to chance upon the light element runes and steal our credit. Without this contribution, I have no hope of starting my own noble house in the future,” he admitted, feeling rather vexed.

The training room and its facilities were a priceless tool that would essentially supercharge their research on the subject of healing magic. But if it came at the cost of leaking the runes, it was essentially useless to him.

“Ah…”

Both Rudy and Melody went silent, clearly understanding his reluctance.

“Wait, surely there are others who had this kind of problem before us right? Is there a privacy function? Or a way for it to not save the runes to the compendium?”

Surprisingly it was Rudy who spoke up, causing both Michael and Melody to turn in his direction almost simultaneously—each wearing an incredulous expression.

“What? It’s logical right?” he said defensively.

Instead of replying, Melody moved into action, navigating the menu screen with precise swipes of her finger. Soon enough, an option appeared at the very end of the list.

“Private session?” Michael muttered with interest.

The girl clicked it, only to be met with a wall of text and a request for confirmation. It took a few minutes to read through, but by the time they reached the end, both Michael and Melody’s expression brightened.

It turned out there was an option that allocated their research directly to their own pass. So even if the runes were stored within the compendium—only they would be able to access them.

Of course this could probably be overridden by someone with the highest privileges, but the only person on that level was the headmaster himself—and he knew about the light elemental runes anyway.

“How can you be so stupid, yet such a genius at the same time?” Melody asked in a bemused tone, her sapphire eyes evaluating Rudy closely.

“Thank you I guess?”

Michael laughed, his good mood returning. “Now that we don’t have to worry about people stealing our work, let’s crack on,” he announced with a grin.

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