Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage Chapter 932: Rudiments of Space Magic II

CH932 Rudiments of Space Magic II

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Master Sahira Nefaru paused for a moment to study Alex’s expression.

Her years of experience as a researcher explaining her projects to others and as a teacher instructing new students in her field of study had granted her an astute eye for telling whether a listener was truly comprehending what she was teaching.

Studying Alex’s expression, particularly his eyes, which shone brilliantly, the Master Space Mage concluded that the youth was indeed able to follow what she was explaining to him.

She set aside the scarf as she continued her lecture.

"Back to the fundamental rule of Space Magic—Space Mages cannot move spatial energy by Will or Spiritual Force.

"Spatial energy, or spatial mana, is the mana or energy associated with space, or perhaps I should say the energy that powers all spatial phenomena: Spatial Compression, Spatial Expansion, Spatial Distortion, to mention a few.

"Since Space Mages like myself can’t move spatial energy by Will, we instead cast Spatial Magic by creating conditions that cause the ambient spatial mana or energy to react automatically.

"This is no different from how we use, say, Gravity, in everyday life. Aside from rare professionals who have comprehended the Natural Laws enough to manipulate Gravity, almost everyone cannot command Gravity, yet we all use and exploit it every day," Master Sahira explained.

Her gaze turned to a ruler on the table.

"Let’s say I want to move this ruler from the table to the ground. Instead of using a lot of energy to pick up the ruler, I can create the condition where Gravity can do the work for me."

She reached for the ruler on the table and gently pushed it off the table.

"Gravity naturally pulls everything to the ground. In order for me to move the ruler to the ground using Gravity, I don’t need to control Gravity. I just need to create the condition where Gravity can act on the ruler in the way I want.

"And in this case, it is as simple as pushing the ruler off the table, i.e. removing the obstruction between the ruler and the ground, and Gravity does the rest."

"This is a simple example. We can scale the use of Gravity from simple examples like this to larger and more complex uses, like the ostentatious aqueduct network built by the dwarves, which moved water from the Aegean River tributaries to their mines."

"Apart from Gravity, there are many other phenomena that we exploit like this."

Alex nodded to himself.

One such phenomenon that came to his mind was electricity.

Humans of his previous life could not even remotely move electricity by Will. However, by understanding that electrons flow from a negative pole to a positive one, they created circuits that established a potential difference and allowed the electricity to flow naturally.

With this basic principle, the ’weak’ humans of his previous life built a civilisation that was, in many ways, no less advanced than that of Pangea.

"Essentially, just remember that at its core, Space Magic is not a form of manipulation, but rather one of exploitation," Master Sahira commented.

"However, Space remains a very advanced phenomenon. For this reason, in order to be able to exploit it—i.e. create conditions for it to act in an intended manner—a Space Mage must be very knowledgeable across multiple disciplines: Forgesmithing, Alchemy, Runesmithing... further adding to the complexity of the discipline.

"Different Space Mages have different ways of creating the conditions they need for their intended spatial phenomena, but typically, these methods are alchemical, forge, or runic in nature. As a rule, it is best for a Space Mage to have some knowledge of all three while specialising in one."

"What is your specialisation, Master Sahira?" Alex asked.

"I belong to the Runic School of Space Magic," Master Sahira replied. "As the name implies, my field of specialisation in the discipline is using Runic Formations to create intended spatial conditions."

’Lucky!’ Alex cheered inwardly, but without showing it on his face.

"That doesn’t matter much to you. I doubt our discussion will reach into the nuanced differences between each school. Though I should point out that each school isn’t necessarily better than the other. They are just different routes to reach the same destination," the Master Space Mage said.

Alex’s mood deflated a bit, but not by much. At least he was getting tutelage from a competent Space Mage.

On Master Sahira’s cue, Asta placed down a long, cuboid box about a metre long but only a couple of tens of centimetres wide and high.

The outer appearance of the box made it look like it was a carrier box for a flute or something similar. However, the box was actually an artefact used to train Space Mages.

Under Alex’s gaze, Asta injected her mana into points at the two ends of the box, activating it. Then she took out a scroll and quickly scribbled down a Runic Formation on it.

’A Runic Inscription Scroll? Interesting. However, the Runic Formation is a bit inefficient. There are too many redundancies within it that would make a Runesmith angry. However, judging from Master Sahira’s expression, it seems this level of efficiency is good enough.’ Alex evaluated inwardly.

Orion worked to decipher the purpose of the scroll as Alex’s gaze remained fixed on it.

’Let’s see. Judging from the runic logic, the formation is intended to scatter ambient mana within a localised area. Fascinating.’ Alex mused to himself.

Asta placed the scroll on the body of the box, then carefully guided her mana through it.

Through the Spirit Sight of his Truth-Seeker Eyes, Alex watched the ambient mana around and, more particularly, within the box scatter out. However, there was no madness to the chaos.

’Wait, it looks like I was wrong. Scattering the mana isn’t the full purpose of the scroll. The scattering has a filtering effect. Most elemental mana are pushed away, but there are more resilient mana types still remaining within the box itself.’

In Alex’s vision, once the colourful elemental mana were stripped away, the remaining types of mana within the box turned chaotic, almost as if they were jostling for dominance.

Then, as Asta channelled her mana carefully through the formation, it seemed the formation altered its functioning slightly, almost as if helping—or rather, suppressing—a specific type of mana.

’Is the formation singling out Spatial Mana? Fascinating.’ Alex watched with interest.

In his curiosity, he unknowingly exposed himself to Master Sahira.

’Can he sense what is going on in the box? Wouldn’t that mean he has high Spatial Awareness?’ she wondered to herself.

Under Asta’s control, the situation in the box slowly but surely changed. Space turned chaotic within the box.

Humm~~

The box suddenly released a soft hum.

’The box did something.’ Alex deduced.

Under his gaze, Asta picked up a wooden stick, which she pressed against one side of the box, and the tip of the stick came out of the other.

***