Chapter 12: Chapter 12 – Home

His eyes somewhat dazed, Noah leaned on the hem of his chair. He looked at his side and found James still reading the magic guide.

Stuffing his phone back into his pocket, he then rummaged through his bag and picked the same booklet.

Noah flipped through the pages while sighing before he spoke. “Casa’s coming over in like fifteen minutes. What do you wanna do?”

“Hm.” James subtly said with his eyes rooted in the book. “Let’s just wait here.”

“Okay.”

Noah reached the space element section.

 

[Mental lift—apply ‘telekinetic’ force to an object. 1st version: lift. 2nd version: lift and throw.

1st: Designate an object with the ‘designate’ factual. The object will levitate for five seconds.

2nd: Designate an object with the ‘designate’ factual. The object will levitate towards your magic placement and hover for five seconds. Applying another force to the object will cause it to fly towards the direction of the overall sum of its force. Safety Tip: Users typically place the magic circle in their hand.]

 

Neat. So people would use the first spell for practice, while they would use the second for combat. But thinking about it, they could also use the latter for other things. For example, couldn’t someone use the designated object as a ball?

Words and pictures appeared in his imagination.

“Ugh.”

Noah shook his head. His thoughts went off on a tangent again. He shifted his gaze towards the 1st version, and he studied its casting process.

The Factuals determine the activation, the magic content. It also defines the abstracts. Pentagons are used for containing the designated object and the numerical factuals, ovals for receiving the force applied, and circles to realize the factuals. First, the designate factual will to envelope the chosen object. Then, it raises the object in an upward motion, levitating it for five seconds before the mana dissipates.

Yawning, Noah closed his eyes in boredom. Then, he wiped his face using his hands.

Ugh. I’m too tired to think. I’ll just practice later. He closed the book and darted his eyes around.

People came and went.

Each one of them walked the vast hallway with direction on their minds. Headphones squished their heads between, blasting music and distracting themselves enough from the monotonous atmosphere. Others... had their eyes glued to their phones, smiling at whatever funny picture or maybe a video they saw.

How fun.

He let out a long and soft exhale. Then his shoulders came down as his body trembled. Although not everyone was a Transported like him, it was an obvious display that everyone had found their way into this magic filled world. Maybe some still haven’t found their true calling. But for him, seeing them made him think of their predicament once again.

Sent to this world to fight monsters... Is that really why we’re here? He placed two hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling, then back outside once more.

People streamed the roads, laughed at jokes, and minded themselves. Peacefulness permeated the atmosphere that confused him and his thoughts.

Monsters, where are they? Are they really a problem? Why couldn't the military eradicate them? Send nuclear bombs to their faces as they left whatever hellhole they had come out of? And even if they couldn't wipe all the monsters, were the Transported just sent only to help with the eradication effort? Or was it for another reason? To make people remember why the world was united?

Shaking his head, Noah couldn't think of any other reason. If his idol actually separated them from their family so humanity doesn't become extinct, he'd be sad.

He clenched his fists and muttered. “Why? Why?” Blinking multiple times, his eyes blurred as he choked on the words about to leave his mouth.

Subconsciously, a scene of his sister and him took shape within his imagination.

‘Brother, I need money.’

‘Get it from mom, you brat.’

Nothing beats banter between siblings. He chuckled and thought of another scene. His friends was going to a beach. Happily talking to each other, they set up their place within the sand. They had fun swimming. But most of the fun was because they were together doing things.

Soon, crying laughter began to emerge from his mouth as his blurry eyes looked far away, longing for the feeling of home.

Then his sobs turned into whimpers.

Noah tried to hide his voice, but James somewhat heard him.

“Did you say something?” Wind carried James’ higher-toned voice, pulling Noah out of his memories. He glanced at James. His face was still buried in the book, but his head tilted toward Noah’s position.

Noah's mouth slowly crept into a smile as he appreciated the man's concern. Despite being sent here without notice or consent, the man never stopped to cry and kept himself busy with books. Sure, it might be his way of coping with the truth and, perhaps even the reality still hasn't hit him. But the man knew what needed to be done and did what he could to move forward, which made Noah understand that... he should also do what could only be done.

“Only what could only be done.” Noah said, as he rested his head on the chair. Then his chest heaved down. Enough is enough. Past... is the past. There’s nothing I can change about the past, but I can definitely change my future.

Soon, he closed his eyes.

 

---

 

After ten minutes of waiting, Casa arrived in his new vehicle. The two hopped on, with Noah sitting on the shotgun seat and James behind them.

“How was your day?” Casa asked as he stuffed crumpled papers under the middle compartment.

“It was pretty great. We met more people like us. What about you?” James replied.

“Oh, nice. I went to the Adventurer’s Guild here. Their building looks awesome. We should check it out sometime.” He quickly made an up-down motion with his eyebrows.

Then he said with a grin. “By the way, I have some quests you guys might like to do instead of those boring assignments you get from school.”

“What is it?” Noah grabbed the side of his seat because of a slight swerve as Casa made a hidden fist pump.

“I know both of you are interested in quests, so I made sure to pick three quests you might like. They’re just inside the city, though.” He gave a shrug while turning the wheel counterclockwise.

“Okay.”

Seeing his confirmation, and James’ nod, Casa spoke. “Let’s do it later. I’m starving.”

The two resumed what they were doing earlier. James tucked into his booklet, and Noah with closed eyes, replaying the day in his mind.

Casa didn’t speak any further.

 

---

 

When Kevin spoke of ranks, he saw question marks form on Noah’s face. “What, Lukas didn’t mention about ranks?”

“Nope.” Noah shook his head. Lukas really defined himself as unreliable by his mysteriousness. Couldn't he at least mention it?

“Seriously? He didn’t even tell you the cultivation thing?” He asked in a serious tone.

“That I know. Our friends who rescued us both mentioned it.” Noah said.

“Oh, nice. But they didn’t tell you about the ranks?”

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“Nope.”

Kevin scratched his head. “Well, you see. Each tier has nine ranks. To move between ranks, you need to accumulate mana in your system. After it’s full, you can try to expand it by taking more mana when you meditate... For me, it took a week to get to the next rank, then three weeks after that. I’m pretty sure I’ll get to rank four around two weeks from now.”

“Ah... Does ranks do anything?”

Kevin pondered. “Apart from getting bigger mana reserves, I think your spells hit harder.”

“Huh?” Noah pondered for a second. “It’s kinda like those in an RPG where you level up and your mana resets, your stats increases, and you hit harder?”

“Ah, yeah. Exactly.”

“Thanks. I’ll do that later, then.”

“You’re welcome.”

Noah went back to practicing his magic. So did Kevin.

They exercised their spells, Noah cast icicles, James created wind slashes, Kevin conjured self-modified fire bursts, and Mark sent water waves.

When exhausted, they rested and commented on each other’s magick. Noah laughed at Kevin and James’ bickering.

“Okay, I admit, I did it.” Kevin said with an open smile, while Mark widened his eyes in anger.

“So, it was actually you!” He shook his head. "I should change friends.."

“W-Wait, how come you didn’t burn his room?” Noah asked as Kevin formed a proud smile.

“That’s because I’m too freaking good. I made it so it doesn’t spread outwards and maintain the shape.”

“HAHAHA!” Laughing, James placed his hands on his chest.

 

Sometimes, they’d chat about spells... Things such as the space element’s sensing zone spell. That led them into a spiral of weird spells they could think of. Gravity training rooms, telekinesis-assisted movement, element-substitution. Noah smiled. Learning is the best when there’s other who you can learn with. Or at least that’s what he believed.

Amongst the mundane topics, they also talked about modifying spells, which made Noah happy as he desperately needs to improve to compete with his friends.

He glanced at James; he didn’t even know whether the man felt the same as him. So, he could only focus on improving himself for now.

Shaking his head, he listened to the conversation.

Mark told them that modifying spells doesn’t take masterful understanding of the art, but it wasn’t easy as well. Explaining further, he outlined two ways of modifying spells. First, the multi-step technique, which was thinking of abstracts as the foundation of behavioural limits of the factuals, you can expand the magic spells to do anything as long as it was defined properly.

At first, both blinked rapidly in confusion at his jargon.

So, Mark simplified it. “Basically, you need to make more of the correct shapes and helixes, so you can make the spell. Let’s say, turn left after moving straight.”

“Ah...”

The two nodded, so he continued.

“Now, this is easy for those familiar with creating new spells. But for us, we can’t create ‘new’ spells. Still, we can just copy their spells, learn from it, and modify it only by a little.” He said. “For example, with a fire burst, we can add another series of circles, pentagons, and factuals after the ‘propel’ factual activated to wrap the fireball and turn it to the left.”

“That seems more complicated than I thought.” Noah scratched his head.

“Same, but that’s what the internet said... The second one is easier to do, but it doesn’t give the spell unique behaviour. That is the reinforcement technique.” He paused for a moment before speaking.

“Basically, you can make the spell hit harder by reinforcing its factuals. Now, to do that is pretty easy, that is by stacking the same factuals on each other.”

“... So how?” He raised an eyebrow at his own question and spoke. “You can reinforce a factual by adding another of top of it when you draw it.”

“It’s hard to explain, so I’ll try to make one.” He raised his hand, then a hollow magic outline appeared on his palm.

Abstracts and factual poured into the circle. Mark opened his mouth. “Watch closely.”

Noah and James came closer towards his hand until the outline was within their eye level. Staring closely, Noah saw the numerical factuals, which determines the size, speed, etc. of the magic, became thicker than normal. As if height were being added to its dull, two-dimensional appearance.

He looked to a forming numerical factual. Two tri-helixes were drawn. Afterward, Mark’s authority suddenly turned, coming back to the tri-helixes, and re-drawn it. Soon, it started drawing factuals and abstracts altogether.

Noah heard Mark’s voice once again, “You can place them together by adding it twice, but make sure to place it correctly and your outline doesn’t have any psion gaps. Otherwise, it’d break.”

They nodded, and the magic circle dimmed and disappeared.

Lightly sighing, Mark wiped his head with his shirt. “Phew. So, did you get it?” He asked.

“Yeah.” James said.

“Okay. So, do you want to try it now?” He asked Noah.

“Nope. I’m too tired to do it. I’ll go rest for now. Maybe on next Tuesday I might.” He walked towards their table on the left side or the area with an exhausted look.

“Sure, let’s rest.” Kevin said, as he joined Noah.

The rest followed him, and they spent the rest of the class hour to rest.

Afterward, Kevin and Mark bid goodbye to the two, saying that they had a city quest ongoing, so they left quickly as the bell rang.

Noah and James sat at a table facing the outside road, passing their time before he arrived.

Soon, a blue hatchback appeared before them, with Casa smiling in the window.

“Hop on.”

Picking up their belongings, they left the unmanned store.

 

---

 

Only after the sun had set, did the trio arrived at their apartment.

Casa opened the door and headed inside. Following him was James, who had a haggard look. Noah came in last.

Glancing at every appliance and furniture, he realized everything seemed clean. Of course, he knew it was the cleaner’s work that made it happen, judging from the odor of freshener that lingered in the air.

Even so, why stared at each item in the house wasn’t for curiosity. It was to commit them into his memory... as these things would surround him from now on.

Whiffing the environment’s scent, Noah lengthened his arms out and bent. Letting a warm breath out, he said with a smile.

“We’re home.”

 

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