After reading several articles about war, Caleric had a good understanding of the present scene of Virelia. Although there was no strong evidence on which the speculations of the coming war were based, many thought it could start as soon as 6 months from then!
If it wasn't for what Aron had mentioned previously, Caleric would have ignored it, thinking of it as baseless rumours similar to those he was very familiar with back on Earth.
World War Three hasn't happened yet. Caleric joked inwardly.
The war was indeed a problem, but he wasn't too worried about it. After all, there was no way he could magically save the city. He also believed that if things did get heated, he wouldn't be in any type of danger as he was technically the son of Aron Gnalet, even if adopted.
In case the city does fall amidst chaos, we would probably have left it long ago. He didn't give the topic any more thought.
It was already 5:30 in the morning. The sun was up high in the sky, shining brightly and radiantly. Caleric, who had finished reading his newspaper and wasn't feeling sleepy, decided to go up to his room.
As he stood up from the sofa and walked towards the stairs, he saw Cally come out of her room. She was wearing a different pair of clothes, completely black but with different white patterns.
"Are you going somewhere?" Caleric asked her.
"To Mr. Vincent's workshop."
"This early?"
"I don't have anything to do." The reply left Caleric stunned for a moment. Then he realised that Cally, just like her brother, was also a manalogy freak.
"Is the workshop open this early?"
"I have spare keys."
This Mr. Vincent sure trusts you a lot. Caleric found it somewhat funny.
After watching Cally leave, Caleric finally went upstairs to his room. This room was much smaller than the rooms in the Gnalet mansion. In fact, the room was almost the size of his room back in his world.
He looked around the room. There was nothing special about it. It was an ordinary room with a study table, a bed, and a cupboard for storing clothes. There wasn't a mirror in the room, which made Caleric really sad. He was obsessed with looking in the mirror and admiring himself, and with his new body, which had a face many times more beautiful than his previous one, he had even more reason to look into the mirror.
Maybe I'll get a wall mirror at some point.
He then sat down at the table and, with the help of his memories, recalled where everything was arranged.
Caleric had his things neatly arranged, which made it easier for him to quickly find and take out the book from the lower shelf. The book he wanted to read. The book titled Manalogy.
The book wasn't an official publication of the nation's education board, nor was it an unofficial release of some unknown manalogy genius. The book was Caleric's own notes about manalogy, his recorded experience over the years of mastering it, ordered chronologically so that anyone could understand it easily and was probably the best manalogy book out there, even better than the education board's official books!
Caleric opened the book, skipping the index, directly to the first chapter. He found it rather amusing that, despite being a book written to teach and educate, it was written in the form of a novel. It had long paragraphs explaining terminologies but also somehow felt organized. There were headings and subheadings for different topics, and anything that shouldn't be included in a given paragraph wasn't included.
"After the King of all Gods created this world, and before he created life, he created the Sun and the Moon, starting the endless cycle of day and night. Then he had a need to establish law and order in the chaotic world. Individually making laws would have taken far too long, thus he created the system that would govern the entire world. Everything that was, that is, and that will be is governed by what was created then. A small set of invisible things, that we call particles—a set of seven divine particles that define our world. Today, the term used for the study of these particles is called manalogy.
"He then created his seven princesses and gave each of them authority over one of the seven particles. The King symbolised himself with the Sun that glowed and burned forever, but a single Moon couldn't suffice for the princesses. The primordial Moon then broke into seven parts, forming the seven Moons that we see today. Today we refer to the seven princesses as the Seven Moon Goddesses.
"Orange Moon Pyro, which is visible on Mondays, is the moon symbolising Goddess Pyrosyne, who wields authority over the Pyrosynth manacule, a symbol of energy and alchemy.
"Red Moon Ignis, which is visible on Tuesdays, is the moon symbolising Goddess Ignisara, who wields authority over the Ignivar manacule, a symbol of flame and destruction.
"Yellow Moon Sol, which is visible on Wednesdays, is the moon symbolising Goddess Solvyra, who wields authority over the Solvion manacule, a symbol of light and foresight.
"Pink Moon Lustra, which is visible on Thursdays, is the moon symbolising Goddess Lustrae, who wields authority over the Lustralis manacule, a symbol of emotion and illusion.
"Blue Moon Aether, which is visible on Fridays, is the moon symbolising the Goddess Aethera, who wields authority over the Aetherion manacule, a symbol of thought and mind.
"Green Moon Ver, which is visible on Saturdays, is the moon symbolising the Goddess Verdalia, who wields authority over the Verdanite manacule, a symbol of nature and life.
"Violet Moon or the Shadow Moon Umbra, which is visible on Sundays, is the moon symbolising the Goddess Umbraethis, who wields authority over the Umbrosine manacule, a symbol of shadow and space."
The book was very detailed, using history to back up the facts. It was also because of the history that the book felt like a novel to Caleric, who found himself deeply immersed in reading it.
"There are three branches of manalogy: Spells, Rituals, Techonolgy.
"Spells based on manacules are the oldest form of manalogy, originating more than ten thousand years back at the start of the first epoch. They were discovered by ancient humans and human ancestors during the time when the first civilisations were established. Being the oldest, it is also the most studied form of manalogy, and humans have perfected it over the years.
"Rituals based on manacules, which use the characteristics of manacules to achieve results that spells are unable to, are the second form of manalogy. They originated five thousand years ago and are believed to have begun around the start of the second epoch.
"Technology based on manacules is the third and youngest form of manalogy. This form is usually misunderstood to have originated three hundred years ago, but the origins can arguably be traced back to the very start of Aeon Mortalis ten thousand years ago, as all the artifacts and relics come under this form, and such artifacts and relics have always existed!
"Humanity only started making big inventions around three hundred years ago, and so some might say this is the true origin of this form. However, after careful consideration, researchers and manalogy experts have come to the conclusion that the origin of this form can be dated back to the kingdom of the Undead King a thousand years ago because of the excavated manuscripts that resemble blueprints and are assumed to be an artisan's notes related to what we would call today manalogical tech."
After reading for a while, Caleric flipped the pages and went to the index that he had previously skipped.
As I thought! This book has notes only about spell-based manalogy. The other forms are not covered. Maybe Caleric was planning on writing different books when he gained more knowledge about the other two forms.
He then continued reading further.
"Spells work on the principle of 'sets' and 'combinations.' The easiest way to visualise how spells work is by imagining a cauldron. Imagine you have a cauldron and seven different ingredients that have visually distinct characteristics. When you add an ingredient to the cauldron, you get a desired drink. If you add only one ingredient in the cauldron, then your drink will have the same colour and properties as the corresponding ingredient.
"Now, if you add two ingredients to the cauldron, the colour and properties of the resulting drink will be different from the original two ingredients. If you keep adding until you are left with no more ingredients to add, then your resulting drink, which is a mixture of seven different ingredients, will exhibit very distinct properties from the original ingredients.
"This is how spells work. Adding manacules together creates a spell. There are seven tiers of spells. The first tier of spell uses only a single manacule, which is equal to using only one ingredient to make your drink. Similarly, a seventh-tier spell uses all seven manacules.
"One might confuse this as: 'The higher the tier, the stronger the spell.' However, the strength of a spell does not depend on its tier. The use of the term 'tier' is indeed confusing, as the only significance of this system is that there are more high-tier spells in number compared to lower tiers. In short, a tier two spell might be stronger than a tier seven spell. As for first-tier spells, these are basic and can thus be considered the weakest.
The manacules used to make a spell together are called a 'set.'
"Now, let's come back to our cauldron. Now imagine adding the blue ingredient first and then adding the green ingredient to get a particular drink. Now reverse the order of adding the ingredients. Naturally, the drink should be the same, but in spells it does not work like that. The drink now obtained will be different from the previous!
"This is the law of combinations. The order in which the manacules are combined in a set alters the result of the spell.
"Now, you might've already guessed that there are way too many combinations. And yes, indeed, there are a lot of possible spell combinations. However, not all of them work. The majority of the spell combinations negatively impact the individual's mind and body and, in almost all cases, lead to instant death. Hence, spells are very dangerous. One small alteration can kill.
"Over the course of ten thousand years, with trial and error, humanity has developed a record of safe-to-use spell formulas. This record contains 99 spell formulas and is called the Spell Index."