"Teacher, I finished the book."
"Hmm? Weren't you illiterate?"
Jane ignored the insult.
"Since I finished the book, there's something you want me to do with the runes, right?"
"But doesn't my disciple already know how to enjoy his new powers?"
"Ever since I was little, my dream was to become a rabbit. I wasn't doing that because I enjoyed it. It was needed for my goal, after all."
"What kind of monster would stop his student from chasing his dreams? Go on, now."
"No, but jokes aside, what are we doing today?"
"Take a look at your locket."
Jane fished out the locket from his pocket, and opened it up to reveal the runes inside.
"What about it?"
"Do you think that it matches your current capabilities?"
"It does exactly what it needs to, so what's the problem?"
"One second."
Calex took the locket from his hand, and began using it. He then walked over to a nearby tree, leaving a trail of footsteps behind. Soon, the tree started to look a little hazy. Jane could easily see the shortcomings of his simple magic.
"You want me to improve upon it?"
"Close. You still don't know how to make magical tools, do you?"
"No?"
"You'll learn how to, soon."
The two of them had been walking around the forest for hours, with seemingly no end in sight. This happened so often that Jane had stopped questioning why exactly they were walking around, but it seemed like there was an actual reason this time.
"There."
Ahead of them, there was a small squirrel resting in the grass. Since they were still far away from it, it hadn't started running away yet.
"My disciple, go kill that animal."
"What?"
"Just do it."
Jane was fairly sure that his teacher wasn't the type to kill animals for no reason, so he obliged. He activated the locket, and circled around the squirrel. Once he came close enough to it, he manifested a negated 'Force' rune incredibly quickly around it's body. While he felt his mana slipping away, his rune concentrated its effects on the vital organs of the squirrel. It died almost instantly.
"You see a bit of mana coming out of it, right? Grasp that with a tool imbued with mana."
He covered his fingers with mana, and then focused on his soul core. Indeed, there was something coming from the dead squirrel. He grabbed it, then brought it closer to his eyes.
"This is the squirrel's Manaheart, right?"
"That's right. Hold it tightly, or else it'll escape."
Hearing this, Jane imbued his other hand with mana, and overlaid the two on top of the soul core. Since it was so tiny, his hands enclosed it easily.
"Teacher, how exactly am I supposed to engrave anything into this? There's almost no mana inside."
"Do you think something has to be alive to tame mana?"
Jane more or less understood. He exerted control on the ambient mana in the air, and started moving it. Except this time, he wasn't taming it for himself. He brought the mana to the squirrel's soul core, and waited. While he was taming the mana, his teacher continued lecturing.
"There are certain substances and metals which are easier to imbue with mana. Some of them even store it without requiring any of the mana to he controlled. That is how magical tools can entrap a soul core, and prevent it from escaping."
"Then, the locket's made out of something like that."
"So keep it closed, or else the core within will eventually escape. Are you done?"
The Manaheart in Jane's hands was now as large as the one inside of the locket. Any larger, and it wouldn't fit. Jane freed one of his hands, and took the locket out with it. Seeing his poor work inscribed on the soul core within, he was overcome with a sense of nostalgia. Gently, he pushed the soul core out of the locket.
"That locket can't store too powerful of effects, but the design is at least convenient. There's a tiny soul core stopping the larger soul core from having an effect, and a switch that breaks the structure."
Jane placed the Manaheart inside of the locket, then shut it closed. Now that the stressful part was over, he could take a deep breath and think seriously about what kind of spell he wanted to engrave.
'When my teacher hugged that tree, it started being affected...'
The engraving would need to have an option to prevent certain areas from being under it's effect.
'His footsteps were visible in the grass...'
The engraving would also need to be able to muffle his steps. However, it couldn't do so internally.
'Huh? But how would I do that? It would work in one situation, and then fail in another... The biggest problem is that I don't have any control over how the runes work. But adding more control defeats the purpose of the spell. There has to be a middle ground.'
"I have a question."
"Yes?"
"Can you combine magic tools with normal magic?"
"My disciple, what exactly is stopping you?"
As always, he was just right enough to make Jane think. As he considered how the rune would take shape, he had an idea.
"Teacher."
"What?"
"You're supposed to be teaching me engraving, but didn't bring anything sharp?"