Jane woke up, having slept better than he ever had before. His quality of sleep was due to the sheer strain he put his brain through yesterday, ending with him passing out on his bed. And while his muscles were still a little sore from chasing after his teacher— who cheated by using magic to get away— he no longer felt like a rotting corpse. In fact, if his teacher hadn't used magic to escape, Jane was confident he could catch him. However, that slippery bastard would never play fair, and Jane understood this. Why else would he have been practicing long into the night? Soon enough, the student would become the master.
However, it wouldn't be today. Jane would most certainly lose in a one-on-one fight, and an ambush would be impossible with how much mana he emitted. There existed a saying: "chase two rabbits, and you will catch neither". The takeaway was that one could surely catch a singular rabbit, if only they put their mind to it.
"Heh heh..."
"What are you laughing so creepily about?"
"Teacher, your legs are so thin, how are you going to escape from me with those— Ah! What the hell!?"
Jane whipped his head around in his bedroom, and quickly found the source of the voice. His teacher was resting in a refined manner on the corner of the mattress.
"My disciple, your house is so poorly defended, how are you going to hide from me within it?"
"Teacher, how could you not even realize I have you exactly where I want you?"
At Jane's provocation, a circle of 'Fire' spells quickly surrounded him.
"How scary. My disciple yearns for their master's life, so I must do whatever I can to survive their assault. Truly, the world is no longer a safe place, even for the gentlest of men."
Jane coughed a little from the smoke.
"Master, your disciple is hurt, he clearly meant that he wished to receive more teaching from you, ones which he would never apply to your detriment!"
His teacher slowly dispelled the runes, an unnatural smile on his face.
'Did he want me to call him "Master" that badly?'
"In that case, what choice do I have but to continue on with today's lesson?"
---
Jane and his teacher once again sat in a remote region of the forest. The latter started manifesting his mana into the air, yet nothing happened.
"My disciple, do you know what rune this is?"
"No? It's not in the book, so why would I know it?"
In the air, a lone circle was constructed with mana.
"Ah, I can't believe my very own disciple doesn't even know basic Runic... What do they even teach in school nowadays?"
"We don't have a school, though? You should know this, since you've been in town for so long."
"Forgive me, I thought Runic was common knowledge for everyone, even uneducated villagers. However, I asked a trick question earlier. This is not a rune."
The mockery irritated Jane a little. He considered himself to be an exceptionally educated villager.
"But since you said it was a part of Runic, that also means it has something to do with magic, right?"
"Not bad. This is one of the most important fundamental structures in magic. Remember the spell that produced fire?"
"Yeah?"
"While that spell relies on interactions between simpler spells in order to make fire, it's not actually a fire spell, is it? It's just some runes mashed together. However-"
His teacher manifested a circle in the air, then filled it with the runes for 'Heat', 'Fuel', and 'Air'. Once he arranged them into a passable shape, a fire emerged, except it was located at the very center of the circle.
"Just one simple change turns amateur magic into a bona fide spell."
"Does that actually do anything, though?"
"Watch."
Calex formed a massive circle in the air, then filled it with hundreds of 'Heat', 'Fuel', and 'Air' runes. At the center of the circle, a small flame burned, but Jane felt like his face would melt off simply by being close to it.
"The effects of certain runes can be concentrated into a singular area, removing the limit on how powerful a single spell can be. Otherwise, you would have to space these runes out for clarity, and they would have a dispersed effect."
Jane looked at the massive amounts of mana which were dissipating in the air. Slowly, he began to construct a circle, and filled it with as many of the same rune as he could muster.
'Rock.'
"Wait, stop—!"
As Jane was constructing the magic, a large and complex array of runes appeared all around him. Just after those runes were complete, his own magic had also began to work. In the middle of the circle, he could see a rock being formed out of nothing, and then—
It exploded, knocking him several meters back and releasing his control of the magic. The spell his teacher had hurriedly cast protected him from the worst of the damage, but tiny pellets of rock had embedded into his skin and hurt like hell. All around him, tree barks and even the wood underneath were shredded into bits by fragments of stone, and the ground was covered in a layer of freshly dug up dirt.
---
"In other words, it is important to seriously think about what effect your magic will have before casting it. A spell to make fire is fine, since all of the fuel burns, but what do you think would happen if you tried to put a bunch of rocks in the exact same place?"
Calex stood over Jane, lecturing him while the latter was picking bits of rock out of his skin.
"Mass runes like those are dangerous, you know? And don't even get me started on internal spells— do you know what happens when those go wrong? There isn't even bones left!"
"Teacher."
"What is it, my soon-to-die-in-an-accident disciple?"
"Wouldn't that spell be really powerful if I used it offensively?"
"Not really, no."
Jane looked at the remains of the forest around them.
"Why not?"
"Because defensive magic is much stronger than that. Look, we're both almost unharmed, and that was a defensive spell I barely put any thought into."
"And you're going to teach me that spell?"
"Do you really think you can understand it at this stage?"
It was true. The defensive magic his teacher used was composed of many smaller circles inside of a larger one, dozens of tiny runes, and some unfamiliar constructive syntax. It wasn't something that could be casually slapped together. And even if he learned it, he lacked both the mana and the precision to get any real use out of it.
"Anyways, you'll come up with your own version after learning enough, so there's no point in me teaching it to you now and stunting your growth."
With that, his teacher walked off yet again, into some random direction of the forest. Jane was starting to suspect that he was actually homeless, and using magic to make himself look presentable. Of course, he would have to actually catch his teacher before confirming that theory.
Left alone in the forest, he constructed another circle in the air, and started manifesting runes on it's inside.
'Roc— no, wait, I'll really die this time.'
He filled it with a few 'Heat' and 'Water' runes, then watched the produced steam rise lazily into the air. Already, he was running out of ideas for spells that wouldn't bring him serious danger. His repertoire of runes was lacking, it seemed. Thinking about that reminded him of the book of runes back in his bedroom.
Begrudgingly, he began walking home.