"Well, what do you think?"
"What?"
"How do you think teleportation magic works?"
The question was unexpected, since Jane had just been shown how it worked. There was a single rune, which had the effect of teleporting objects. It was named 'Teleport', of course. Jane copied the rune in midair, then picked up a nearby rock and threw it in. It disappeared.
"What I mean to say is, how exactly do you think magic can be used to teleport an object from one place to another, in a controlled manner?"
'Remember, this is not my appearance...'
"By focusing the effect in one direction?"
"Try it."
"You're only saying that since it won't work, so what's the point?"
"No, no, I'm sure that my talented disciple could invent an entirely new way of teleporting just with his half-baked assumptions."
Jane grumbled a little, but he was honestly curious about what effects 'Project' would have. He manifested the rune, then put a 'Teleport' inside.
"By the way, what'll happen if I walk into it? Will only part of my body be teleported, or?"
"Have fun finding out."
"Teacher, if even I'm being cautious, then your jokes would get me killed for sure."
"I'm being serious. If you manage to survive doing such a thing, and then tell me what you saw, I'd be very happy. Unfortunately, no one has ever come back from using plain teleportation runes."
"How do I use them, then? I don't think anything I know right now would make it usable."
"...Truthfully, it's difficult to teach you any magic that doesn't use new runes. Well, you're going to need this spell, anyways. I won't show this to you too many times, since the mana consumption is severe. Never try to modify this spell in any way, alright?"
Jane nodded, having seen the rock disappear forever.
"Well, where to?"
"The tower, I guess?"
"Ah, how nostalgic."
While his teacher constructed the runes, Jane tried to gather their meaning.
'There's a big "Teleport", of course. Hmm? It was a syntax rune? I'll have to remember where the inner runes go. It's surrounded by a "Void", too. No, it technically wouldn't be a syntax rune, since it has an effect. This is something else. The inside... "Project", and an unknown number of some other rune. Is that "Force"? The outside is just a "Diffuse" and "Include", with the latter acting on the "Force". That should only define the area affected by the spell. Come to think of it, what happens if I teleport into a solid structure? Oh, so that's what the "Force" is for. There's only that one rune remaining, so it must have something to do with the location we're teleporting to.'
Calex activated the magic for a second, and then reformed the 'Void' runes. The 'Include' was changed to an 'Exclude', and it covered the ground beneath their feet.
'It's starting.'
Jane braced himself. In an instant, he was yet again in front of the tower from before. It loomed down over them, casting a pudgy shadow under the sun's light.
"Teacher."
"Hmm?"
"That rune, no... Is there a rune that describes distance?"
'This isn't my body, this isn't my face...'
"What do you mean?"
"Well, it looked like you were going in one direction, and you said something about navigation being needed before."
"Not too bad. Indeed—"
His teacher manifested the unknown rune from the teleportation in midair.
"—this rune represents a certain length. You already know how much."
"One merd?"
"Exactly."
"But, I didn't see you navigate to this tower when you teleported before."
"Why would I need to? I just know far I've traveled."
Jane looked at his teacher, thinking he was crazy.
"What the hell?"
"You can do it too, you know?"
"I didn't mean that it was impressive, I would just rather not waste the energy."
"My disciple."
"What?"
"I teleported us 54 merds, 37 degrees clockwise from the morning sun."
"Wait, don't—!"
It was too late, since his teacher had already teleported away using concealed magic. Jane stared helplessly at that spot for a second, then began thinking. At times like this, it was nice to have a perfect memory.
'We set off in the morning, so I can use that as a benchmark for the angles. It was this many steps... hmm.'
Jane ducked into the tower for a second, and grabbed a paper and pen.
'Right now, the sun is setting. Ah, at this point, I made a turn. Hmm. Each merd is... of my steps, so I can speed it up here. The sun was directly above at this point, so I'll have to rely on my own turns.'
In front of him, he had planned out his course on a piece of paper. Finally, he had simplified it down to a total distance, which he then tracked in the sky. According to his calculations, he began forming teleportation magic. His was a little bit larger than his teacher's example, since he wanted to be extra precise. It seemed like 'Distance' runes would have certain amounts of error when constructed poorly.
Jane breathed deeply, and sent the 'Force' portion. After pointlessly checking his runes again, he stepped inside and activated it. Then, the forest around him became unfamiliar. Right where he was standing, a tree had been decimated.
'Wait.'
"Fuck! Ahh!"
Jane hurriedly pulled at his leg, trying to disconnect it from the tree stump. Alas, the two had merged completely, and he could not tell where his leg ended and where the tree began.
'Screw this.'
He formed a blade made of air, then sliced his leg free from the stump. While jumping around on one leg, he remembered something. Suddenly, he felt like an idiot.
Ignoring the pain, he hopped back to the stump, and stuck his leg back onto the cut-off portion. Then, he healed the two together. He had ended up right where he started. But this time, he had an actual plan.
He formed negated 'Pulp' runes, then ran them over the tree stump. An unspeakable pain went through his merged leg every time it was separated from the tree, feeling like every single nerve in it was being shredded. Which, it was. Jane had enough of it, so he sliced his leg from the stump yet again. Then, while supporting it with 'Breath', he finished removing the tree from his amputated limb.
After a stupid amount of effort, he managed to glue his leg back together again. He honestly began to think that walking would've been faster than extracting his leg from the tree. On the bright side, no permanent damage was done. Now that the crisis was over, Jane took a look around the premises.
'Isn't this the appearance of the guy who killed me?'
Right in front of him was his house.