Chapter Twenty-Four — The Language of Magic
📍 The Ship — Deck | Crossing to Heraki
The ship moved steadily. Most passengers were below deck. Up top it was quiet — just the water and the creak of the hull.
Kiyoshi found Kavato at the railing.
"Can I ask you something? Magic swords and magic circles — how do they actually work?"
Kavato turned from the water. For the next hour he explained everything — mage types, how spells are made and sold, how magic circles work and why the high-rank ones can level entire areas, how runes differ from circles, why only certain blacksmiths can even touch them, and what magic swordsmen actually are.
Kiyoshi listened and said very little. When Kavato mentioned the Asmiya family, he paused.
"You said your father was Asmiya."
Kavato looked at the water. "Firstborn. Should have been the magic swordsman. Woke up as a warrior type. His brother got it instead. They sent him away." A pause. "He came to Ramiya when it was still beast men territory. Defeated them. Built it from nothing."
Kiyoshi was quiet for a moment. "A man who lost everything and built something from nothing."
"Yes," Kavato said. "Exactly that."
A voice came from behind them.
"What are you two babbling about?"
Mahori Aki was leaning against the mast, arms folded. She had clearly been there for part of the conversation.
Kavato straightened. "Nothing. General discussion."
She looked at them once. Then back at the water.
"We arrive in two hours. Rest if you can."
Kavato exhaled quietly. The ship moved on.
✦ CODEX — Chapter Twenty-Four ✦ World Archive: Entries Relevant to Chapter Twenty-Four — Based strictly on this chapter only
ENTRY 097 — MAGE TYPES: TWO CATEGORIES
Two main types: elemental mages and rare type mages.
Elemental mages control one of five elements — fire, water, earth, air, or lightning. Typically fixed to one element only. Exceptionally rare cases of dual-element mages exist.
Rare type mages work outside the five elements entirely — gravity, space, dark (curses). Dark magic is legitimate but dangerous. The mechanics of rare types are not well understood even by those who use them.
ENTRY 098 — FIRE MAGES
Require a wand made from flame tree wood. Legend says a fire sprite lives in the flame tree — this is why the wood holds fire inside it but will not burn itself. The mage draws that fire out through the wand. No wand, no fire. They cannot produce flame from their own body.
ENTRY 099 — WATER MAGES
Can draw water from within their own body when no external source is available. Can also pull water from air — but only using a small existing amount of water as a seed first. Cannot extract from dry air with nothing to start from.
ENTRY 100 — EARTH MAGES
Manipulate existing mud and rock. Do not create earth — only work with what is already present.
ENTRY 101 — LIGHTNING MAGES
Every body contains a small natural electrical current. Lightning mages channel that current up through their body and out through their hand — at that stage it is tiny and harmless. It enters the wand, which converts electrical energy into plasma. That conversion produces the actual lightning strike. The mage feels no shock because the internal amount is too small. The wand does the amplification.
Some experts at the highest level can generate plasma without a wand at all — amplifying the current through skill alone. Extremely rare. Lightning mages themselves are rare.
ENTRY 102 — AIR MAGES
Rarer than lightning mages. Air is everywhere but almost impossible to isolate and direct with precision.
ENTRY 103 — SPELL CREATORS
A title earned by a mage who has fully mastered their elemental affinity. Regular mages use pre-existing spells only. Spell creators manipulate their element freely by visualisation — they form the attack in their mind and the element responds. Limited only by MP.
To sell a spell: cast the attack, capture it in a magic spell creation circle, seal it into a spell or activation word. Requires a licence. Only S rank and below can be sealed. Above S rank cannot be transferred — stays with the creator permanently.
ENTRY 104 — THE SPELL PICKER
Every awakened adventurer gets 1 to 3 spell picker chances — maximum 3. The first 2 to 3 are chosen automatically by the system—the rest the adventurer picks freely.
Purchased spells cannot rank up through combat. They stay at the rank they were bought at, permanently.
Only these two categories can rank up through combat:
Skills and spells assigned by the system at awakening. Skills gained by killing monsters.
Pricing — E-rank fire spell: 10 large gold coins.
ENTRY 109 — CURRENCY
The standard unit of currency is the small gold coin, worth $12 (or ¥1,800). These are collected in stacks of ten to form a large gold coin, valued at $120 (¥18,000). In turn, ten large gold coins make up a single imperial gold coin, which is worth $1,200 (¥180,000).
ENTRY 105 — MAGIC CIRCLES
Magic circles function like a language. Different shapes within a circle hold specific meanings. The combination, arrangement, and proportion of shapes communicates a precise instruction to the magical field. Change any element of the circle and the instruction changes entirely.
F-rank magic circles can be purchased from magic shops on mana-infused paper. The user infuses their mana into the paper to activate it. A magic circle can only be used once — after activation it is spent.
Anyone with the aptitude can enrol at the magic academy and learn F and E rank magic circles.
For D to B rank there are higher languages. These are significantly more difficult to learn. Only select students at the magic academy are permitted to study them.
For A to SSS rank, these are areas of research — not standard courses. Only a very limited number of elite mages are permitted to work with them due to the high risk and complexity involved. A single small error in drawing these circles could reduce an entire area to dust. Total destruction.
The magic spell creation circle — the one used to seal spells for sale — is itself an SSS rank magic circle. Only five legendary spells have ever been created in all of recorded history. All five are protected by blood seals — they cannot be accessed or broken without the specific blood of the creator or their heir. According to rumour, only two mages have ever fully mastered the legendary spell creation circle: the Mother of Mages and her apprentice.
ENTRY 106 — RUNE LANGUAGE
Runes are enchanted into weapons using the rune language. Rune language is related to magic circles but has one key advantage: runes can be used more than once. A magic circle activates once and is spent. A rune carved into a weapon activates every time the wielder draws on it.
Runes can defy physical laws, amplify mana, and change between different elements.
The number of runes on a weapon determines its strength. Legendary weapons have twelve runes. That is the maximum known.
Only Rune Blacksmith type blacksmiths can engrave runes. This type must be present from awakening — not all blacksmiths have it regardless of rank. The current highest-ranked Rune Blacksmiths can only craft weapons up to seven rune characters. This is an incredibly difficult task — approximately a 40% chance of failure. It is also extremely expensive: 5,000 MP per character, and the cost doubles with each additional character.
The teleportation circles in every city were created by a legendary blacksmith seventy years ago using a twelve-character rune. Rumour says he could merge magic circles and runes together. After his death, only a select few still possess knowledge of rune use.
ENTRY 107 — MAGIC SWORDSMEN
Magic swordsmen are a rare hybrid class. An awakened individual who can wield both magic and a sword simultaneously — not switching between the two but layering them together. The magic flows through the sword and the sword extends the magic.
If a magic swordsman uses fire — the sword becomes fire in the moment of contact. They can throw that fire like a magic spell. They can cast fire spells through the sword itself. As more mana is put in, it burns more intensely. At close range and at range they are equally dangerous. They are rare and extremely dangerous.
The Asmiya family is renowned for magic swordsmen. The eldest child of the Asmiya family always inherits the magic swordsman type — a reliable inheritance that is unusual, as most types are unpredictable even in noble bloodlines.
ENTRY 108 — THE ORIGIN OF RAMIYA
Kavato's father was the firstborn son of the Asmiya family. He was expected to inherit the magic swordsman type. Instead he awakened as a regular warrior type. His younger brother took the magic swordsman type instead. His father was removed from the Asmiya family and sent away.
He came to the land now known as Ramiya. At the time, beast men occupied it. He defeated them and claimed the territory for himself. He built the city from nothing and established the Ramiya family name. That was approximately fifty years before the current story.