4:00 AM.
Wayland suppressed the immediate urge to run to the library. He picked up his bedsheet, straightened it out, and lay back down.
He waited until 6:00 AM, the moment the library opened, before springing out of bed.
Truth be told, he hadn't actually fallen back asleep. The attack had left him too wired to rest, and a small part of him was terrified that the two ghosts might make a return trip.
Each department had its own independent library. The Department of Modern Magecraft's library was located in the building to the left of the main crossroads, just in front of the primary academic building.
The structure had seven floors, though as a standard student, Wayland could only access the first three.
Wayland entered the building to find the familiar structure of a Clock Tower facility: a spiral staircase directly facing the entrance, with flanking corridors on the first floor and stairs leading up to the second floor further back.
The place he was looking for was on the first floor.
Reading Room 101.
Foundational Magecraft Archives.
He headed down the left corridor and soon found the entrance to a massive reading room.
It was hard to even see the far wall.
Ten rows of densely packed bookshelves stretched deep into the room.
Wayland quickly located the librarian in charge.
"Excuse me, teacher. I'm looking for detection magecraft."
A woman with long, curly black hair looked up. "What is your primary field of study?"
Wayland scratched his head. "I... I'm not entirely sure yet. Is there a general-purpose spell?"
"There is. Chaos Magecraft. You can find it on row seven, bookshelf ten."
"Thank you."
Wayland gave a small bow and vanished into the sea of bookshelves.
The 'Chaos Magecraft' the librarian had mentioned was a quintessential Department of Modern Magecraft specialty. It was a hodgepodge of various magical traditions, containing elements and traces of countless other systems.
"Found it."
Basics of Chaos Magecraft.
Wayland flipped through the book and found detection magecraft in the table of contents.
It wasn't complex. In fact, it only took up a single page.
Wayland read through it carefully, skipping over the historical context and focus on the single-verse incantation and the specific Magic Circuits required for the spell.
In modern magecraft, the power of a spell was often reflected in the number of verses in its incantation. Spells were classified into ten levels, with each verse corresponding to one level. There were spells that exceeded ten verses, but they were exceptionally rare.
Most foundational magecraft consisted of a single verse. The incantation speed was nearly instantaneous, though the power was relatively low. The more verses a spell had, the greater its power and the more prana it required--often far more than a single magus could provide alone. To cast such spells, one usually needed magical items, ritual circles, or bounded fields. Furthermore, due to the lengthy incantation time, most magi avoided them in active combat unless they possessed the 'High-Speed Incantation' skill.
If a magus truly intended to use high-level spells, they would follow the example of Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald from the Fourth Holy Grail War. They would transform a specific location--be it a temple, a residence, or a hotel--into a magical workshop (Mage's Workshop). While fighting within their own workshop, a magus received immense bonuses to their abilities.
[Side Quest 5 Generated: Basic Mastery.]
[Quest Description: The simpler the magecraft, the more useful it will be to you in both daily life and combat. Master at least thirty Level 1 spells.]
[Time Limit: None.]
[Quest Reward: Your first Primordial Rune.]
[Task Progress: 0/30.]
Wayland froze at the sound of Irigal's voice. He set the book down and focused on the system text.
'What do you mean, 'my first Primordial Rune'?'
["There are eighteen Primordial Runes in total. They can be used individually or in combinations. If you master all eighteen, you will effectively have complete mastery over the entire Rune Magecraft system."]
Wayland fell into deep thought. He understood what Irigal was suggesting.
Every established magus eventually specialized in a specific magical system. Some were inherited, like Rin Tohsaka's Jewel Magecraft or Zouken Matou's Binding Magecraft. Others were a matter of choice; for most commoner magi at the Clock Tower, the twelve departments represented twelve distinct schools of magic.
Within the Department of Modern Magecraft, there were many sub-systems, but the most common was Chaos Magecraft--the specialty of students like Flat Escardos.
Under normal circumstances, Wayland likely would have chosen Chaos Magecraft.
But now, the system was offering a different path.
The power of Primordial Runes was unquestionable. In the hands of Scathach, they were virtually omnipotent.
Primordial Rune magecraft utilized Rune characters and typically required a medium to hold the spell. As divine creations, they needed specialized items to withstand their power. On the plus side, because they functioned like magical items, they could be prepared in advance.
Wayland remembered reading that Touko Aozaki once prepared an staggering 100,000 Runes for a single battle.
'So, my future quest rewards will eventually allow me to collect all eighteen Primordial Runes?'
["Yes."]
'In that case, I choose to specialize in Rune Magecraft.' Wayland made his decision then and there.
Because of the new side quest, Wayland didn't stop at detection magecraft. He continued to study other foundational spells.
After about an hour, he closed the book and walked back to the librarian. "Teacher, can I check this book out?"
The woman glanced at the title. "You can. Are you a student of Modern Magecraft or another department?"
"Modern Magecraft."
Wayland watched as she opened an old computer. To be honest, this was the first time he'd seen an electronic device since arriving at the Clock Tower, even if it looked nearly twenty years old.
"Name?"
"Wayland."
The woman tapped at the keyboard, entering his name and the book title. "Is this your first time borrowing a book?"
"Yes."
She pulled a library card from a drawer and handed it to him. "Your library card. As a standard student, you can borrow up to ten books a month for a maximum of two weeks. If you're late returning them, your credits will be docked."
'Credits again.'
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]