Jane stared at the neatly drawn symbol in front of him. Like 'Project', this one had a large circle as part of it's structure.
"Whenever you are making a complex spell, always encircle it in one of these. This piece of syntax prevents the magic inside from taking effect. When you're ready to activate it, you can simply dispell the auxiliary rune, and what's left will be a regular old circle."
"What happens if I construct a messy one of these, then?"
"Of course, your magic will start taking effect. While only one is required no matter how large the spell is, it is especially important for large spells to have it very neatly constructed."
"Wait a second. Can I safely refine any rune, as long as I put it inside of one of these?"
"Sure, but you might die if you lose control of the syntax for even a second."
His teacher stared at him, and Jane stared back.
"So, I didn't actually need to engrave those runes from memory? I could've just switched the whole thing off?"
"Did you really think a magical tool wouldn't have an 'off' button? It's your fault for not trying to find one."
Infuriatingly enough, there was some sense in what he said. Jane copied the rune from the page using mana, then put a 'Concealment' rune inside of it. He began absentmindedly ironing out flaws in the structure which he couldn't see before. He decided to call the new rune 'Void'.
"Do you have any other really important syntax runes that I should definitely know of?"
"They're all in your book, you know?"
'Except for this one, though?'
"Okay, then what if one of those runes has the effect of turning harmless spells into ones that brutally kill poor, bright-eyed village boys?"
"Didn't I tell you that none of the spells in the book are dangerous? Well, unless you purposefully try to get yourself killed using them."
Jane looked at his exposed arms. They were covered in tiny scabs and scars from his magical practice. His teacher was right, but there was something fundamentally wrong with his way of thinking.
"There's no way your training was this tough, right? Aren't you just picking on me?"
"You're right. My training was a normal one, where I became an obedient disciple who respected my master. Alas, not all people are willing to have good things. Also, you're a hardy disciple, no? You don't need me to coddle you and rock you to sleep?"
At that moment, Jane realized. With his tender age, he could not muster up even a tenth of the spite his teacher had for him. This was the difference in experience.
---
Jane skipped over some of the pages in his book, and chose to mainly focus on the runes which had large circles as part of their structure. With that, he had learned several new runes. Among the most notable were 'Diffuse', 'Condense', 'Negate', and 'Amplify'.
'Diffuse' weakened the effect of the inner rune, but caused it to be applied in a wide radius, with the amount of spread depending on the runes quality. 'Condense' did the opposite, focusing the effects into a small area. It was different from a regular circle in that the effects did not simply emanate from one point— they actively stayed there, instead. For example, a 'Heat' spell wouldn't warm the entire room when used; it would simply make one spot intensely hot.
'Negate' was a curious one. It caused the inner rune to counteract preexisting physical manifestations. For example, when Jane used 'Negate' with 'Air', a vacuum formed in the middle of his room. The strength of the effect depended the quality of both the inner and outer rune.
'Amplify' was of no use to him at the moment. The only effect it had was making the inner rune stronger, similar to putting duplicates of the rune inside of a circle. While it was an absolute waste of mana when casting simple spells, Jane could see some potential uses for it. Complex spells would be benefit equal amounts from a single 'Amplify' or an increased number of runes, but the 'Amplify' would actually use less mana in that situation. For now, though, it would do him no good.
Despite only practicing 4 runes, Jane was already completely out of mana. After all, every syntax rune would require twice the amount of mana— some for the outer rune, and some for the inner rune. That was not even mentioning the times when he would put multiple runes inside the circle.
'Here we go again.'
Jane sat down on the side of his bed, got comfortable, and started focusing on his soul core. No matter how many times he saw it, the sheer complexity of the engraving underneath his skin shocked him. Unfortunately, he still had no idea what their effect was. His teacher's magic looked comically large in front of the microscopic runes covering the shell, so it would be a long ways before he could even read them, let alone understand their purpose.
Pondering over such things was useless, though. All he had to do was repeat this process of taming mana, perceiving mana, and using it, and he would eventually learn what exactly was going on with his Manaheart. Unbeknownst to him, a small smile formed on his face.
'This is fun.'
It really was fun. Compared to when everything he did was for the purpose of surviving, his actions now felt like they had a real purpose. He could see himself advancing, never stagnating for even a moment. It was like his life was previously that of an animal, and now he could finally live as a human.
He only allowed himself a moment to reflect on his newfound hope, then turned his focus back to taming mana.