Magic is Programming

Chapter 14: A System, of Sorts

Carlos meditated again, focusing once more on the feelings of mana moving into his soul and etching itself into a structure. This time, the concept he focused on for what the structure should do was the second on his list, the introspector: a structure that would examine the state of his soul and keep him informed about it, with the comprehension aid he'd already made helping him interpret the information.

The mana began to flow easily enough, but this time there was no existing mana construct to connect to and use as a base. It had only his intent to guide it, and had to create the foundation as well as build upon it.

Minutes passed. A quarter hour. Half. A full hour, and a while more. The flow of mana slowed, but Carlos felt no impression of nearing completion. Instead the mana that was still moving felt... aimless. Like it didn't know where to go, or what shape to take. Understanding dawned; the mana needed more details.

He focused on examining his first soul structure, the comprehension aid, and a connection grew between the new and still forming structure and the established one.

He focused on examining the soul structures he would make in the future, and eight dormant nodes formed, scattered around the structure's surface and ready to extend new connections when the time comes.

He focused on examining the inner workings of each soul structure to determine precisely what they could do, and the structure grew intangible tendrils, filled with sensory and analysis mini-constructs.

Carlos's mana was flowing smoothly and quickly into the new soul structure again, but he still had more to do.

He focused on examining the growth and development of each soul structure, and more tendrils formed with new and different sensory constructs.

He focused on tracking changes over time, and a section of the structure's interior changed to record information and store it.

He focused on examining the locations and arrangement of each soul structure, and a small new line wrapped around the connection to the comprehension aid.

He focused on examining his soul shell and how much of it was left, and a connection grew alongside the flowing stream of mana, following it back to its source.

He focused on tracking how much mana he had available to use for spellcasting, and a connection reached out to what he realized was the surface of his soul, where a thin and patchy layer of condensed mana had begun to accumulate.

He remembered what Amber had said about general soul development via covering the soul in layers of mana, and focused on examining those layers, and the connection to his soul's surface split and changed.

He focused on analyzing for potential improvements, and every analysis construct grew denser, packed with more refinements.

He focused on allowing for improvement and expansion to incorporate ideas he might think of later, and several protrusions emerged from various points on the structure's surface, full of unshaped potential.

He almost stopped there, but then mentally slapped his forehead and focused on examining the introspector itself, and a connection grew out, looped around several times in a spiral, and merged back into it to direct all the introspector's inspection tools at itself.

The flow of Carlos's mana began to slow.

Amber meditated, focusing on the familiar sensations of mana moving into her soul to build a structure. She had felt this four times in the past several months, when she had built the four soul structures she already had. Each of those times had taken a few hours to finish, and this time was no different.

She had been surprised, and a bit envious, when Carlos had finished building his first soul structure in only one and a half hours, but she reminded herself that he had only really built a fraction of that one. The real test of how long he took to make a soul structure from scratch would be that 'introspector' of his, which he did not have a dungeon-made wish to incorporate for it.

She shook her head and dismissed the idle thought. She needed to properly focus to ensure her fifth soul structure would serve its purpose correctly. She wanted it to help her understand everything, just like Carlos's, but she especially wanted to be certain it would help her understand his language and the strange concepts he told her about. Maybe then she'd understand why he considered an introspector so important.

She snorted quietly and dismissed that thought too. It was closer to on topic, at least, but still a distraction from what she was doing. Her new soul structure was maybe about two thirds finished, and she needed to stay focused for about another hour.

She wanted this soul structure to translate communication, especially including Carlos's language, but not exclusively, into her native language.

She wanted this soul structure to give her the understanding to translate her own language into other languages.

She wanted this soul structure to help her learn new spells, both understanding them intellectually and learning them in her soul to be able to cast them.

She wanted it to help her understand whatever information and concepts she might encounter.

Most especially, she wanted it to help her understand the things Carlos had explained to her, and the things he would explain in the future, and how she could use all of those things to benefit both herself and him.

But despite the emphasis in her desires for those particular pieces of understanding, she did not want to sacrifice any capability of general purpose understanding. She wanted this soul structure to fulfill its maximum potential. Many things Carlos had told her about remained baffling to her, but she fully agreed with the concept that knowledge in general is immensely useful and powerful.

Finally, more than an hour after Carlos had briefly interrupted her work to give her his cautionary warning, Amber felt the flow of her soul shell mana slow and stop, the soul structure feeling complete, primed and ready.

She opened her eyes, and quietly stood and stretched, glancing over at Carlos as she did. He was sitting motionless beside Purple, eyes closed and breathing slowly. If she focused, she could sense his soul shell mana moving, forming into a new soul structure. The movements of another person's soul shell mana were subtle and difficult to detect, but the sheer scale of the amount of mana required to make a proper soul structure made it obvious enough anyway. It was just his second soul structure, she was pretty sure, so he seemed on track for a normal speed at making them.

Amber felt her own new soul structure quivering inside her, waiting to be used, and she walked over to where Carlos kept his notes. When he'd shown those notes to her that morning, they'd been an incomprehensible mess of squiggles and symbols she'd never seen before. Now, she dug out that same first page from his pack, and smiled as her own comprehension aid settled into permanence and the heading at the top of the page suddenly made perfect sense - it said simply, "Soul structures list".

She skimmed through the list, just quickly verifying that it matched what Carlos had explained while they walked over to the cave, and flipped to the next page, with the heading, "Synergies".

She skimmed the first several entries in that list. It was fairly obvious that a comprehension aid could help all manner of other soul structures work better, and the introspector and mana redistributor were all but defined by having synergy with literally everything. But then she kept reading, and the list. Just. Kept. Going!

She went back up to the end of the first three soul structures' sections of the list, and carefully noted the pairings, one by one, as she read how the list went through them all systematically, in order, skipping none.

Amber's hands started trembling as she read through closer and closer to the end. Soul structure after soul structure, each and every one of them was listed as having synergy with all nine of the others.

This was... This was... She felt faint, and almost collapsed onto the hard rock of the cave floor. This was... unbelievable.

She had thrown her lot in with Carlos because a moveable dungeon core that communicated like a person, combined with a piece of dungeon-born magic that aided understanding to such a degree that a full spell incantation read like normal writing, suggested incredible possibilities. But this?!

Unless she was missing something, Carlos had written out a complete outline of an orichalcum rank set of soul structures! An orichalcum rank set that she could use herself! She, Amber, the ridiculed and bullied child of an unimportant town, could become an orichalcum rank mage!

Amber fainted, overcome with stunned excitement.

Purple watched as Amber fell over, and wondered what had happened. She seemed healthy and uninjured, but her collapse hadn't looked like a natural and intentional movement. There was no apparent cause, so nothing to treat or to protect her from. He wished he had his bond making soul structure finished already, so he could just ask her what was wrong.

He considered asking Carlos, but Carlos was busy making a soul structure himself and had a grasp on the mana for it so weak that any distraction might shake it loose. Purple took a closer look, noted that Amber was breathing and not bleeding, and decided she was probably well enough that he could simply wait.

Purple turned his focus back to filtering turbulent ambient mana into a calm and ordered stream, which was flowing into a newly formed structure inside his soul. It was a slow process, but Carlos thought it was necessary, so Purple did it without complaint. The structure was only a fraction of the way toward completion, but steady work would see it done sooner or later. Just not having to spend his mana on wishes was already a luxury compared to his life before Carlos showed up. Mere tedium didn't even register to Purple.

Carlos felt his introspector reach completion, finally, and considered how to use it. He wanted it to work together with the comprehension aid to put the information in a convenient and easy to understand form, but what form should that be?

An idea came to mind, and he chuckled. Well, why not? His experience with magic for all but the last few days of his life had been exclusively in the context of role playing games, so why not use that context as the source of a good way to interpret magical information? He focused on the concept of a character screen, or as many stories called it, a system status, and pushed that concept at the combination of his introspector and his comprehension aid. For a moment, the mana in the two soul structures seemed to consider the idea, and then suddenly a translucent blue rectangle full of text appeared in his mind's eye.

Personal mana: 22

Soul shell: 9518

Soul structures (2/10):

• Comprehension aid
• Introspector

General soul development:

• Layers: 0
• Progress to next layer: 220.5

Carlos frowned and tilted his head as he looked over the information. It seemed rather minimal, with basic information missing. How much progress did he need to finish the first layer of general development? What was his maximum personal mana, and how quickly did he regain spent mana? How much soul shell mana had he started with? Just as he thought those questions, the missing numbers appeared.

Personal mana: 22 / 22

• Regen: 11% / hour

Soul shell: 9518 / 11097

Soul structures (2/10):

• Comprehension aid
• Introspector

General soul development:

• Layers: 0
• Progress to next layer: 220.5 / 1024

Huh. What about how much progress the second layer would take? And where the 220.5 progress he already had came from? The status window flashed at him, and a red error message appeared for a few seconds.

Insufficient soul development to analyze that information.

What, did he need to finish the first layer to get that? And why would that be needed for reporting on the sources of his progress? The error message reappeared with a clarification.

Insufficient introspector soul development to analyze that information.

Ah, that made more sense. But didn't that mean there should be development progress numbers on the individual soul structures too? Said numbers immediately appeared, both of them single digit amounts out of 1024. Carlos smiled and dismissed the status window. He was hungry and exhausted, and for now it was enough to know that it worked. He could investigate all sorts of other details later.

He stood and shook himself out a bit, then turned toward the center of the cave where Amber had lit a fire and was cooking... Was that bacon and eggs, plus some reheated stew? Much tastier than the hard and dry trail rations they'd eaten for lunch, but they didn't have much of it left.

"What's the occasion?"

Amber beamed at him with a smile that seemed almost permanently fixed on her face. "I got my comprehension aid made, and read your notes. I think it should work. All of it. And that means I'll get to be orichalcum rank! Screw the royal academy, who fucking cares about their maybe-platinum crap, I'm going to be orichalcum with you!"

Carlos chuckled heartily, and sat down to eat.

The following morning, four men appeared in a flash of light in the nearby wilderness. Darmelkon quickly spotted a small blackened area of ground, and walked over to inspect it more closely. "It looks like they built a fire here. They didn't stay, but it appears likely they weren't expecting successful pursuit."

Enchanter Tornay nodded, and gestured toward the younger man beside him. "Apprentice, see what signs you can find."

Darmelkon beckoned for his servant to search the area as well, and brought out a tightly coiled strand of hair from his belt pouch, and held it out to Tornay. "I have no shortage of hairs from Amber, but unfortunately my aura tracer was only good for one use."

"Ah. Cheap apprentice craftsmanship. I have better." A ring on Tornay's right hand emitted a pulse of light, and suddenly a small circular pane of glass lined with runes was in his hand. "Let's get started, shall we?"