The First Mage

If I could get Oryn to try a script on a water source, with us right next to him, I could get mana. All I would need is a script he didn’t recognize. There’s no way in hell that this guy wouldn’t be curious.

“You understand the sigils?” he asked.

“Not exactly... but for some reason I couldn’t stop thinking about them since the ritual. I feel like I understand them... but I can’t put it into words.”

“Is that so...”

“What’s weird is that I’m thinking of specific sigils that I’ve never seen before.”

At this, his ears perked up. “Can you show me?”

I nodded and he handed me the quill. The script I started drawing should’ve been one he’d never seen before. It would get activated by a blue stone, but it was missing the conversion, and with the ludicrous output I defined, it should hopefully be enough to blow up even a normal water source. I also added a slight delay and a few instructions that wouldn’t change the outcome, just to add more unknown sigils and make it even more interesting to him. If all he ever studied were scripts on water sources and the ritual platform, this should get him really excited, but it wouldn’t get him much further with his research if he didn’t understand the sigils.

‘What is happening here...?’ Lilana asked in my head, though she should understand that I couldn’t respond right now.

Oryn looked at the script on my arm with great interest and immediately took out a notebook to compare the sigils to the ones he had researched so far. As he flipped through the pages, I caught glimpses of his notes, which confirmed my suspicions. It appeared that he was just testing every single variant he could think of. His notes seemed kind of random, and a lot of it was complete nonsense.

“Do you know what these sigils will do?” he asked, pointing at the delay part of the script.

Good eyes, I thought. He was at least able to quickly recognize the part that I had added just to pique his interest. “I believe that controls the form the water will take,” I said, lying through my teeth, and he nodded enthusiastically in understanding as he noted down the sigils.

When he continued and opened another page, my eyes widened slightly. “This part is similar to the black stone sigils,” he mumbled.

What!? Oh, wait... someone had ordered a black stone before. That was him? And he has figured out the black stone script? He knows more than expected then.

“Oryn,” I said, while making the biggest puppy eyes I could muster, “if you test these sigils, can I watch? I can’t get them out of my head, and I need to know whether they’re real.”

He looked surprised for a moment, but his expression quickly changed to one of delight. “Certainly! How could I decline the request of a fellow researcher?”

‘Wait, are you trying to trick him? You know exactly what will happen, right? Stop making me act like that though!’

How annoying... Like someone constantly commenting on what's happening on the screen during a movie...

He closed his notebook and took another close look at the new script on my arm. Instead of getting up and getting ready to go somewhere to test it, however, he suddenly started copying it on his own arm.

“Wha... Wait, what are you doing!?” I asked in a panic.

“I’m testing the sigils of course! Sorry, Lilana, we can’t let a suspect go for a stroll around town, but we can confirm whether they’re real right here and now! I can use sigils, you know?”

Shit, this guy is crazier than me!

“But what if it is real!? And what if it’s harmful!?”

“Haha, don’t worry. I’ve studied the scripture sigils all my life, I think I would recognize a dangerous one by this point,” he said with a chuckle, before his expression turned a little sad. “And my energy is very low anyway.”

What. The. Fuck!? He has absolutely no idea how dangerous this is! What do I do...? To stop him, I would basically have to attack him. That seems like a bad idea. But if I don’t do something, he might blow himself up! Although... would I get mana that way? But if not, we might lose our only chance to get out of here!

In those precious few seconds when I was hesitating, he finished the script and grabbed a blue stone. I hurriedly got off the bed and tried to stop him from putting the stone on his hand. “Wait, this is dangerous!” I said, but my warning came too late and he had activated the script before I could grab his hand.

Damn it...

He looked at me in surprise for only a moment, before focusing on the sigils again. I let my shoulders slump, while he waited for something to happen. After a few seconds, he looked up at me with an encouraging smile. “I guess they weren’t real. Don’t feel bad though, it takes years to find new sigils,” he said.

“You moron...” I said in daze.

‘Hey! I mean, he is a moron, but you can’t just tell him that!’

“You absolute lunatic...” I said as I hurriedly walked past him and laid down with my back pressed against the wall, protecting the back of my head with my hands.

Oryn looked at me with a deeply confused expression. “What are you doing?”

“Sorry, this wasn’t the plan,” I said to both Oryn and Lilana.

If it works, the script should activate in 3... 2... 1...

Oryn’s body shook briefly and his eyes went wide, before he closed them. As if his strings had been cut, he dropped to the floor. Before his head even touched it, however, a wave of mana shot out from him and hit me, pressing me against the wall even more.

‘What is happening!?’

I don’t know how much mana he had, but that wave wasn’t any weaker than with the water source back then...

It took just a few more seconds until I started feeling a familiar burning throughout my entire body and I gritted my teeth. “Ngh...”

‘Hey! Please tell me what’s going on!!’

Shut up... one kind of pain is enough right now... I thought, while doing my best to bear it without screaming out loud. Just don’t fall unconscious... Tomar managed it as well...

After a moment, I pried my eyes open. “Ugh, god damn it.”

The experience was similar to the first time, when I had decided to stay in control of Tomar’s body just a little longer to test scripts, and I was waiting for the sudden spike in pain that I had felt back then. However, it never came. Maybe something about this body was different, maybe it was that I was more prepared for the pain, or it was because I wasn’t trying to actively use mana at the same time. Whatever the case, after a moment I managed to slowly prop myself up and look around the room.

The entire incident couldn’t have taken longer than a couple of seconds. Maybe a minute, even if it had felt way longer. I saw that the bucket and the few other light items in the room had been thrown against the walls, and the ink jar lay in pieces. The agents didn’t enter the room, so the clattering of these few items either hadn’t been very loud from the outside, through the thick door, or they had been instructed not to come in, because they weren’t supposed to see the experiments. Oryn was still lying on the floor where he had collapsed. I crawled over to him on all fours, still in pain, and carefully felt his pulse.

“Huh. He’s still alive.”

‘Did you try to kill him!?’

“God damn it, please don’t yell like that! I know you don’t feel the pain as much up there, but bearing that alone is taking a lot right now.”

‘You should’ve thought about that before you did... whatever this is!!’

“Do you ever listen!? This wasn’t the plan! This maniac used a random script on himself, even though he didn’t have a single clue what its effect would be! This plan really sucked...”

Then again... I guess this isn’t the worst possible outcome, and he didn’t even die, I thought, as I looked myself up and down, examining the mana around myself.

‘Hey, what is that white stuff!?’

“Long story,” I said through gritted teeth.

‘You doomed me! You stole my body!! And you almost killed someone!!! At least tell me what is happening here!!!’

I made a face every time the sharp pain shot through my head. Her head... Ugh. I could’ve really made life hell for Tomar.

“Okay, okay. I’ll tell you, but please, please, stop yelling. This white stuff lets humans use scripts.”

‘... you mean... scripture sigils...?’ she said, in a noticeably more mellow tone, though I had to assume that it was more out of surprise than anything else.

“Yes. Look,” I said, pointing at Oryn. “He has it as well, and he used a script.”

Although, now that I took a closer look at him, the amount of mana he exuded was just barely above what normal humans had. I guessed that was part of why he hadn’t been worried at all. This guy had probably tried various scripts on himself already, and the results had almost certainly been underwhelming. He thought he couldn’t possibly produce anything dangerous...

‘But I’ve never seen that before!’

“You can only see it if you have this energy yourself.”

‘Wait, that’s why you drew sigils on my leg...? You can use them? What do they do?’

“One is for defense, one is for offense, one is to mask our energy, and one...” I said, as I took the bucket and held my bare leg over it. “Is for this.”

I pressed the script only briefly and water fell down into the bucket. After a moment, I stopped the script and took a sip. Okay, the first experiment with a little bit of mana usage was a success. And the pain didn’t change.

‘Wha... wha... I... You...’

Oh? Did I break her? I thought, while I washed away the script from Oryn’s arm and put his notebook in the water, so he wouldn’t be able to recreate my script, to do this thing again.

‘How is this possible!?’

“Ngh...” I grunted.

‘Oh... uhm, sorry. How does this work?’ she asked in a quieter voice.

“Basically,” I said with a relieved sigh, “we’re like a water source now. And if you understand the sigils, you can do interesting things with water sources.”

I sat down on the floor and leaned against the bed. I had to go through this pain and get ready as quickly as possible, since it was only a matter of time until either Oryn woke up again or someone came in to check on us. It would be great if we could just go through the wall right away, but I didn’t want to risk any side effects from using too much mana too soon. Tomar and Riala had waited hours before they tried it after all, and they had been fine, while I had fallen into a coma when I tried using a serious script while still being in pain.

‘Huh... Wait. Didn’t you just assault Oryn though? And... and you want to use this to get out of here? You’re turning me into a criminal!’

“Yea... that part definitely didn’t go as planned. Ideally we would’ve been outside, where we could’ve just made a run for it.”

‘What kind of plan was that!? And how am I supposed to go back to a normal life now!?’

“You’re not the first person to tell me that I make bad plans under pressure... The good news is that we will be able to get out of here. And I’m almost certain that we’ll be able to get me out of your body as well. I don’t break promises. We’ll have to see what comes after that though.”

‘Almost certain!? You can’t even guarantee it!?’

I clutched my head in pain. “I know everything sucks right now, but give me a break here.”