Magic is Programming

Chapter 35: Plans

Carlos stood up and stretched before replying to Amber. "You're done already? Which spell did you pick?"

Amber raised an eyebrow as she smiled at him. "I think you should try to figure that out from sensing its mana. Don't you?"

Carlos nodded. "Good point, learning via mana sense is the goal for this exercise. You already cast it?" He turned his attention to the mana all around him. He was still getting used to having a whole extra sense, and most details of it went unnoticed when he wasn't focusing on it. It was an especially complex sense, too, like sight and sound combined of an alternate layer of reality, maybe with a bit of scent thrown in on top. He had to mostly tune out his actual vision and hearing to understand much about the mana around him.

He sensed Amber's soul glowing with mana as always right in front of him, though it felt more dense and solid than it used to. More significantly for his current goal, he sensed a compact bundle of mana floating right next to her in the flows of ambient mana drifting through the air. "Ah! Spotted it." He narrowed his eyes in concentration, even though he was mostly ignoring his actual vision right now, but hesitated as another thought occurred to him. "I should cast mine before I try to figure out what yours does, though, so we can both work on it. Um, maybe cover your ears so you don't hear the words?"

"Right." Amber put her hands on her ears, and even closed her eyes.

Carlos cast his new warmth spell, and as soon as he finished Amber let her hands drop back down from her ears and started chewing her lip in concentration. Carlos looked at her for a moment, wondering how she'd known when to stop blocking her hearing, before realizing she'd probably sensed the spell's mana settle into the tiny bundle of its completed form. It wasn't really doing much at the moment. He hadn't been feeling even slightly chilly, so the spell was just monitoring his body temperature, waiting for him to need some extra heat. Even just monitoring was still costing mana steadily, but at a slow enough rate that it could keep going for a long time. He estimated it would probably last several hours if the active heating effect never needed to kick in.

He shook his head slightly, dismissing the thoughts about his warmth spell, and closed his own eyes to follow Amber's example and focus better on the spell he needed to puzzle out. He found the bundle of mana floating next to her right where it had been before, and this time he kept looking for more details. There was a narrow strand connecting it to her, and he could dimly sense movement of mana within that strand. It was more than just a tether keeping the spell connected to her; the amounts of mana moving along the tiny strand were minute, but the movement seemed purposeful, carrying some kind of meaning. He wasn't the recipient of that information, though, and he couldn't sense what it was.

Carlos shifted his attention to the spell itself, the little bundle of mana floating beside Amber. It was very small, but cohesive and with a sharply defined boundary, and a clearly structured form. There was a slowly shrinking ball that he sensed no particular meaning from. A slow trickle flowed from that ball into an arrangement of pipes, and he realized that the ball was the mana supplied to power the spell. The pipes, then, were the operational part of the spell that used that mana to achieve whatever the spell's effect was.

With a flash of insight, Carlos realized that some of those tiny pipes formed of mana were familiar, and he thought he knew from where. They were not the same as any of the structures he formed in his soul to learn various incantation keywords, but... He cast the light spell, and examined it for comparison. Exactly as he had thought, major sections of the spell's form once it was cast were identical to sections of Amber's spell that he was studying. There was the intake pipe, that took from the power supply at a steady rate and fed it into the rest of the spell construct. There was a junction pipe, that split off a portion of the flow into the main operative section. There was a looped section that connected back to the intake and kept unexpended mana flowing in a cycle. Hmm, it looked like adding more junction pipes would let a single spell of this form have multiple effects. He'd have to look into that later.

Basic structural similarities were not surprising, and not the main point he needed to focus on, however. He focused more closely on the operative section attached to the single junction pipe in the spell construct. That section was completely different from the light spell, and presumably corresponded to this spell's effect keyword. The thin strand connecting the whole spell to Amber was hooked into that section specifically, and he could just barely sense regular pulses of almost microscopic amounts of mana being emitted from the operative section and sent along the connecting strand to Amber. Those pulses were carrying some kind of information, he was sure of it, but what?

Carlos concentrated, straining to focus more, trying to make out more detail of the spell's operative section or sense anything about its purpose. He thought it was some kind of divination effect, and his comprehension aid agreed with that assessment, but what was it divining? He felt like he was trying to look with his naked eyes at something that would be best examined with a microscope, or at least a magnifying glass. He could tell there were more details there to be seen, but they were fuzzy and indistinct.

After several more minutes of failing to identify anything more specific, his introspector finally popped up an alert for him.

Mana sensor development is insufficient to identify the precise effect of an unfamiliar spell.

Carlos sighed, lowered his head, and just sat there for a while. It was disappointing that he wouldn't be able to finish the last two synergy links for now. On the other hand, that alert seemed like almost positive confirmation that it will be possible in the future, and that he just needed to develop his soul more first. He straightened back up and squared his shoulders. Well, they could still absorb ambient mana in Dramos for rapid development up to one more density compression, and there was no time like the present. Might as well get to it.

Carlos had barely begun actively pulling in mana from the environment when two loud knocks sounded from the door. He stopped; the timing of those knocks was too precise to be coincidence. Amber opened her eyes and looked questioningly between Carlos and the door. He walked to the door and opened it. "Is there a problem?"

Colonel Lorvan stepped in, tight lipped, and closed the door. "Yes, sir. I am uncertain how major a problem it is. A messenger delivered this letter while you were working. My apology for the interruption, but in light of the contents, I judged that you should know of it before doing what you were about to begin." He held out a crisply folded sheet of paper, and Carlos carefully opened and read it, then passed it to Amber.

Carlos and Amber,

You have attracted attention, at least antagonistic, if not outright hostile. I can only speculate as to what drew her interest, but one of the most experienced and powerful adventurers of Dramos came to my office to ask questions about you. Liafra deflected her, but she is not the type to let the matter rest.

Be wary, and cautious. Esmorana and her party are formidable and resourceful, and she expressed concern that you may be disruptive to the status quo of adventuring in the nearby Wilds. That is an issue that concerns their livelihoods.

Mayor Stelras

Carlos frowned. "You stopped me from actively absorbing ambient mana to develop rapidly. You suspect that doing that yesterday is what drew this Esmorana's attention?"

"Yes. Most people, even highly experienced adventurers, do not have external mana sense good enough to detect that from any significant distance, which is why I did not caution you about it yesterday. Skilled mages do, but Dramos has none of any repute. If any who could sense it were in range, however, your rate of absorption would have immediately given away your approximate soul rank."

"I see. Hmm." Carlos tapped his foot a bit as he considered this information. "Wait, something doesn't seem to fit and I'm not sure what I'm missing. I technically could have pulled in mana several times faster than I did; I was limited by how much my soul could stand without being damaged, instead. Is platinum rank so much slower that it can't even pull in that fraction of as much mana?"

Lorvan shook his head. "All ranks are limited in this by what they can withstand without damage, and that limit is the same for all. The difference between ranks is what portion of the flow is absorbed, and what portion merely flows through and re-emerges, wearing away at the structure of your soul to no benefit. And in that regard, even the very peak of platinum rank cannot achieve even one third of the absorption that you can. The best of gold rank could potentially reach about one fifth of your absorption. More typical gold rank souls might be closer to one tenth."

"Oh." Carlos cocked his head. "What about mythril? Or orichalcum, while we're at it."

"A minor noble at the high end of mythril rank could match about half of your absorption. Orichalchum is superior to you, of course, but you are remarkably close to it, less than 10% short."

"So anyone who sensed that and knows the ranges of each rank knows that we're high nobles at adamantium rank."

"Yes, my lord. Detecting the precise tier and details of each structure would require a close active inspection such as you went through in Kalor City, but passive mana sense with a high level of development could have detected that you are adamantium rank from several rooms away."

Carlos took a deep breath, and slowly let it out. "Ok. So Esmorana and her party, and possibly others as well, might know that we're high nobles. And rapidly developing again here might announce that to someone else. But... Would doing it again actually matter? Pretending to be lower rank today won't undo anyone noticing yesterday, and how likely is it that anyone would notice today who didn't already notice yesterday?"

Amber pre-empted Lorvan. "Very unlikely, I think. We were doing it for hours, into the evening and past nightfall. If that's what drew Esmorana's attention, that secret is out already. I suppose there could be a new arrival who just got here today and happens to have a developed mana sensor, but..." She shook her head. "I don't think that possibility is worth delaying anything over. The more important question is what Esmorana and her friends are likely to do, and whether Lorvan and Ordens can handle them."

Lorvan nodded. "Yes, we can. Adventurers of their caliber are exactly the sort of thing we are here for, and we have soul development, training, and equipment all well beyond theirs. If they attack you, we will stop them."

"Really?" Carlos frowned. Something about that statement bothered him, but he wasn't sure what. "Alright, so I think the thing to do is to go ahead and develop as far and as fast as we can here, relying on our guards while we work on getting strong enough to stop needing them."

Lorvan bowed. "Very well, sir. I will send in dinner when it arrives." He opened the door, stepped out, and closed it again.

Amber stared after him for a moment, then looked at Carlos, and finally sighed. "So you concluded we'll have to develop more before we can finish these too, then?"

Carlos nodded. "Yeah. I could tell that your spell is some kind of divination, giving you information about something, and that it uses the same structural framework as 'light', but the details are too small."

"It's 'compass'. It tells me the direction to a chosen location that I've been to. Only the direction, though, not the distance. This time I picked my bed." Amber shrugged. "For my part, I figured out that your spell is monitoring something, and has a related effect that's inactive right now, but that's all. I might be able to sense something about that other effect if you make it active, but probably not much. I tried seeing if I could get some resonance going to feel it out more, like when I'm learning an incantation word and getting the mana construct and conceptual meaning to match, but nothing I tried gave even a hint of positive feedback."

"Hmm." Carlos grabbed his synergies list and scribbled a note at the bottom. "That's a worthwhile idea to keep in mind, but I think we just need more development. Anyway, 'warmth'. Monitors my body temperature, and warms me up if I get cold."

"Aaah, so that's what it was." Amber nodded. "Let's try again after we develop to the third compression." With no further ceremony, ambient mana started pouring into her soul. Carlos followed her example a moment later.

Esmorana cautiously kept her distance as she followed in the tracks of an especially dangerous beast of the Wilds, moderately distant from Dramos. This deep into the Wilds, the ambient mana was many steps denser than in Dramos, and the creatures that roamed here were correspondingly more powerful. This particular monster was an apex predator, a giant thing several times taller than a human despite prowling on all four of its main limbs, with jaws big enough to swallow grown men whole three at a time. It could sprint faster than most people could see, had skin tough enough to make ballista bolts bounce, and would greedily devour an entire herd before taking a long nap to digest them all.

Most importantly for her purposes, it had a strong and very recognizable stench that emanated from it constantly, warning other predators to steer clear. Its prey had also learned to flee from that scent, of course, but by the time it was close enough to smell it was often too late, and some of its victims would panic so badly that they would trip over their own legs, or run into trees or boulders or even cliffs, or in other ways disable themselves by accident. There was a bit of mana embedded in the scent as well, that would induce fear, confusion, and clumsiness even in those unfamiliar with its source.

As she walked, a swirling shell of air flowed around her, filtering out the foul and dangerous stench before it could reach her nose. The swirling air also gently but firmly pushed aside small branches from her path, and shuffled leaves out from in front of her where she was about to step and around back to cover her tracks behind her. Her dress, though perhaps shorter than what she wore in town, and colored to blend in well with the trees and bushes, still flowed elegantly, and the wind casually conspired to prevent it from snagging on anything, and to deflect any splashes of dirt or mud before they could reach it.

Above Esmorana's head, a vast invisible sphere of very, very stinky air gradually grew ever larger and ever more concentrated, as it vacuumed up the cloud of stench left in the wake of the beast she was following. A large man walked soundlessly beside her, his head constantly swiveling as he continuously scanned their surroundings, though he paid special attention to the beast distantly in front of them. Periodically, he glanced up at the ball of air and stench that normal eyes could not see.

"Think you have enough of that stink yet?"

Esmorana glanced upwards. "Hmm. Perhaps. Better to have more and not need it, no?"

Ressara slammed her mug down on the bar at the Adventurer's Haven. "Another."

The barkeep smoothly swapped it with a fresh mug, full of ale. "Rough day?"

Ressara took a big gulp from the new mug, set it down briefly, then took another swig. "Hard choice."

"What's hard about it?"

Ressara remembered the twin vortices of ambient mana being absorbed that she'd sensed in her abortive trip up to her room before she'd turned around to start drinking, and shuddered. "Risky."

The barkeeper shrugged. "High risk comes with high rewards, or so the saying goes."

Ressara chugged the rest of the mug, and swayed, then leaned forward onto the bar and sighed. She shook her head, and sighed again. "Just- I- ..." Her voice cracked slightly, and she cleared her throat. She stared into her empty mug for a long moment, then closed her eyes, opened them, pushed off to stand straight again, took a deep breath, and faced the barkeeper squarely, focusing on trying to speak clearly. "Tell... Tell Carlos and Amber that I would like to join their party, and that I think I could be useful to them."