Irigal vanished before Wayland could even process her words.
"Hey! You're the system. You're supposed to be building a good reputation with me before the end of our time together. If you keep this up, I'm giving you a one-star review!"
Wayland shrugged. Silence was his only answer.
The following month was a blur of lectures and practical magic training.
By the end of November, Wayland had successfully completed the first sub-mission of his second main quest: Level 2 Magic Mastery. His reward was a second Original Rune.
Isa. The 11th rune of the Elder Futhark, representing ice and stillness. In magical terms, it was a rune of suspension, control, and sealing.
By now, Wayland had gained a solid foundation in the twenty-four modern runic characters.
Whether ancient or modern, each rune was composed of straight vertical lines and forty-five-degree angles, a design perfectly suited for engraving. Because of this, every skilled runic magus was also a master of carving, capable of engraving the characters into wood, stone, or metal.
In terms of both shape and meaning, individual runes weren't suited for long, complex spells. To use them effectively, a magus had to be flexible, applying a single, potent character at the perfect moment to maximize its impact.
Unlike the pure, overwhelming power of an Original Rune, the modern runes developed by Touko Aozaki and others were structured differently. While the characters looked the same, their effects were diminished. To compensate for this, modern magi used 'Runic Composites',sequences of multiple runes chained together to form a coherent spell.
Touko Aozaki referred to these sequences as Phonetic Scripts.
The most common sequences used groups of three, mirroring the Norns of fate: the Beginning, the Process, and the End.
The first rune was the trigger, representing activation.
The second was the theme, representing the magus's intent and the primary magical effect.
The third was the conclusion, representing the termination of the spell.
Beyond three, some magi used sequences of five, seven, or even nine. The potential combinations were nearly infinite, which was why Runic Magic was considered one of the most versatile schools of magecraft.
As soon as he completed the first sub-mission, the system issued the second.
[[Sub-Mission 2: Level 3 Magic Mastery.
Description: Master has reached the rank of Cause. To match this level of prestige, Master must master at least fifteen different three-rune phonetic scripts.
Timeline: Unlimited.
Reward: Third Original Rune.
Progress: 0/15.]]
Wayland wasn't surprised. It seemed the system intended to issue a new challenge for every rank he achieved. With eighteen Original Runes in total, there were surely many more missions to come.
As November gave way to December, Wayland turned his focus toward his academic year paper.
Like a university student, every pupil in the Modern Magecraft department was required to submit a five-thousand-word thesis in addition to their theory exams,a 'preview' of their final graduation dissertation, as the professors liked to call it.
After a few days of deliberation, Wayland settled on a subject he knew better than anyone.
'The Guardian Heroic Spirit Summoning System: FATE.'
In this world, Marisbury Animusphere hadn't yet participated in a Holy Grail War, meaning Chaldea was still likely in its conceptual or early prototype stage. The FATE system didn't exist yet. Wayland decided to take the core concepts of the Fuyuki ritual, remove the 'Reaching the Root' aspect, and discuss the technical limitations and possibilities of Heroic Spirit summoning on a grand scale.
His title: On the Feasibility and Scalability of Mass-Servant Manifestation.
He drew inspiration from the events of Fate/Apocrypha. In that timeline, the leak of information about the Fuyuki ritual had led to the proliferation of 'Sub-Grail Wars' across the globe. The Clock Tower had even established a sub-department within the Necromancy division just to manage them,the Department of Evocation.
Wayland spent a week drafting the paper before handing it over to Waver.
After reading it, Waver looked up, his expression thoughtful. "This system you've designed has a fatal flaw: maintaining the manifestation of multiple Servants simultaneously would require a truly staggering amount of prana. Where does it come from?"
Wayland nodded.
Without the technology to convert electrical energy into magical energy,a technology unique to Chaldea,the idea was nothing more than a pipe dream.
"If you're interested in Heroic Spirits, there's a magus from centuries ago named Makiri Zolgen who wrote several papers on the subject. Some of his theories are... eccentric, to say the least, but they might help broaden your perspective."
Waver looked over the paper again, a flicker of recognition in his eyes. "Wait... some of the ritual parameters you've used here... they look familiar. Did you reference the Fuyuki ritual?"
"I did. While I was working for the Department of Policies, I came across several reports on the Fourth War. I pulled some data from the records of Lord El-Melloi I's involvement."
Wayland didn't have to lie. The data was there, though he'd carefully omitted anything related to the Root, focusing instead on the summoning arrays and the tragic fate of Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald.
Waver didn't press him further.
"The paper is excellent. Even if you haven't solved the prana issue, the system design itself is remarkably coherent. Who knows? Perhaps it might actually be possible one day."
***
The Achievement of the Year
Following the submission of his paper came the dreaded theory exams of December.
Since he'd joined midway through the year, Waver had assigned him a specialized curriculum, meaning there were several subjects he hadn't taken.
He'd asked Irigal about the mission requirements; he didn't need to have the third-highest total credits, just the third-highest average across the exams he actually sat for.
Wayland temporarily halted his practical magic training and threw himself into his studies.
The exams were structured much like the ones back in his old life,multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanks, true/false, and long-form essays. After two weeks of intense, 'battle-ready' studying, Wayland didn't just meet the mission requirements,he crushed them.
He took the top spot in every single subject he sat for.
[[Congratulations, Master. You have completed Sub-Mission 3 of the first main quest. You have acquired a clue for Ereshkigal's catalyst. Please travel to the ruins of Kusa in the Mesopotamian Plains,the site of the Temple of the Goddess of the Underworld.]]
Wayland blinked. The system had skipped the 'asking' phase and given him the location directly.
'Convenient.'
However, 'Kusa' was an ancient Sumerian name. Based on the timeline of Gilgamesh's reign, it had been over four thousand years. Finding the exact coordinates of a city that had long since vanished into the dust of history would be no small feat.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]