Jack stored the journal entry safely with the others in the cabinet. After that he sat back down at the table with a new sheet of paper. He wanted to attempt to replicate the plus and minus signs he had seen on the door of the apothecary shop and the warehouse.
He wrote the plus sign on one side of the paper while letting the pen absorb his mana. This was an experiment to see what would happen if the magic had no personal meaning attached, just the symbol. It took slightly more energy than normal to write and the ink looked normal. No effects. He continued.
The moment he wrote the minus sign, the two sides of the paper attracted each other like magnets, folding into an imperfect cylinder.
Did I make some form of magnet?
He looked at the paper and then at the small cooking stove next to him, which had an iron top for cooking. He moved the paper toward it but there was no attraction. His theory about magnetism failed.
He began to think about why it worked and came to a conclusion. If the plus sign was a positive value and the minus was negative, the two canceled each other out and moved to a null position. Hence the cylinder.
He wanted to try again but didn't want to waste more paper, so he watched the current sheet to see if the effect was permanent. It wasn't. After about five minutes the paper returned to flat, though very slightly curved.
He took the paper and tried infusing the symbols with mana directly from his finger, attempting to copy the feeling the pen gave him. He placed his middle finger on the plus sign and focused. Something warm moved from him into the symbol. It felt like moving a warmth that was controllable around the body, but after it exited it it was more expensive energy wise to control it.
It wasn't forceful like the pen. It was surprisingly easy and natural.
After a while the symbol became harder and harder to push mana into. Eventually he gave up and did the same with the other symbol. The effect this time was much weaker, only pulling the sides slightly toward each other.
He concluded that the pen was far more efficient at pushing mana into symbols than he was, with more energy the effect would be stronger. He also figured that if the energy went unused it would stay in the ink for much longer. That meant he could essentially make something like a battery.
He was already imagining himself throwing fiery charms at enemies and smiling about it. Then he stopped.
He didn't know the logic behind making a charm actually trigger. He had found a way to store mana and attach an effect, but he had no idea how to make it activate on demand. He wanted something like how the clay tablet activated when Compes showed it to Randam, but he had no idea how to do that.
Thinking further, he also had no idea how to build the spells themselves. He could potentially work out the activation condition, but if the activation only caused the paper to burn then there wasn't much point. Or at least he could use them to light fires.
Maybe if I write it on a piece of wood I might actually make something useful.
He looked back at the paper, now flat again, and began questioning whether researching magic was even necessary right now. All he really needed to do was get rid of the pressure. But after finding how useful it was, he was hesitant to simply expel it.
It's like a genie.. No, I AM the genie. One that can answer his own very reasonable desires.
It even comes with consequences.
Maybe I should seek out that sorceress. From what Victor told me I assume she might be able to help with this.
Do I really want to risk execution?
Jack exhaled.
If it's possible I'd like to return to Earth. At least there I can take a proper bath.
Jack at this moment was still in his underwear.
The lobster here is surprisingly cheap. Only a Flora above a day's wage. And that includes the cooking.
He sat there tapping his finger on the table, observing his own internal state as he did.
Not exhausted. Not tired. No particular emotion pulling in any direction. The two states canceled each other out the same way the plus and minus had, and the lack of tiredness meant he wasn't going to sleep out of boredom. He just sat there with nothing to do.
It was then he realized just how much he missed Earth's entertainment.