The candle flicked from side to side as the mysterious fountain pen wrote another observation in his Soul Weapon. The uneven light brightened the dust-ridden room, surrounded by ancient scrolls and tomes. Many of them were half-scorched, others dipped in water and crusted from not being dried properly. And yet their scents remained as a reminder of the knowledge inscribed in ink within their decrepit pages.

Soren, however, was not amused. For even the material runes he could find pertaining to the Wards affinity were not enough to satiate his desire. As he sat before the slowly melting candle, he couldn't help but sigh deeply. One of both frustration and exhaustion.

Before him hovered a translucent, glass-like sword, reflecting the uneven light chaotically. He could see his reflection within its violet-hued form—the eyebags that had subtly grown over the past week.

Then, he let his mind flow. With his eyes closed, images of his past and future began to take shape as he slowly lost himself in the moment. And that was when it happened. He heard a cracking sound from somewhere nearby.

Opening his eyes once again, he noticed the brilliant sword he had just created had shattered into pieces.

Just as I expected, he thought. His frown widened more and more as he leaned back against his chair and sighed again.

"This isn't working," A woman's voice came from behind. He casually turned to her—the visage already forming in his mind.

"Isha…"

The black haired girl shook her head dejectedly. "I must say, to have an affinity this rare and still being able to reach the 1st Circle is a monumental achievement. But I am unsure whether your strategy will really work this time… The 2nd Circle won't be as easy to reach as the 1st…"

Over the past week, the both of them had worked together to try and figure out a way to upgrade the already existing Fairy Blades spell into the 2nd Circle. As a young shaman who learned most of her skills from the elders, Isha had no experience dealing with foreign magi from the south. Their ways were slightly different when it came to casting magecraft compared to the Luvinican standard. So to satiate her curiosity, she volunteered to help in Soren's research.

Not that he really minded—having another magus, especially one that was already in the 2nd Circle to overlook his research was immensely helpful. As for the consciousness training, that was not necessary at the moment. He was indeed equipped to cast a 2nd Circle spell if need be—his Channels of Willpower have already grown to more than two hundred and fifty by now. After his battle with Rodrick, Soren's ability to focus and control more of them at once had grown immensely.

The problem,however, still remained the same: a missing axiom. One that could stabilize the shape even when his thoughts wander… If he could just find the proper material runes for it, everything would be solved. But as luck would have it, that turned out to be much harder than he had assumed. Most of the grimoires in the village were simply scriptures of the Serpent of Untruths—invocation spellforms that utilize prayer, not one's own individual anima. And the ones that did contain knowledge on actual sorcery magecraft corresponded to Affinities like dragonflame and others that were more common in the tribe…

Still, since his Mesmerism affinity had fused with Wards, he was able to process those material runes as well. And out of the archive's first floor, only a few tomes truly contained information on the subject. To make matters worse, because of the fact that Elder Kaalan could spy on his activities at any time, Soren could not find an opportunity to enter the [The Faerie Court] undetected. That limited what he could theoretically do in his experiments…

How annoying… He glanced at Isha from the corner of his eye—she stood there plainly reading another book.

"I know what you mean, but I do still think it is possible. All I am missing is one solid axiom, after all. If I can properly assemble one with a newly discovered material rune—one that could allow for the shapes to be stabilized, everything would function properly. Perseverance is key in this field."

She sighed. "Perhaps. But time is a cruel Mistress, Soren. How long will it take for you to find the answer you need?"

"If time is a cruel Mistress, then fate has to be a Villainous." He chuckled. "The future isn't something I can completely decide, so I might as well give it my best."

She shook her head slightly, both out of disbelief and admiration. Glancing at him again, Isha sighed.

"Here, take this." She said while handing him the book she was reading. "It may or may not help you."

He felt hesitant at first but reached out for it anyway. Soren squinted while reading the title. It was written in ancient Dulvali, but the script had worn out over the ages. Even its leather seemed worse than his own Soul Weapon's front cover.

"This is…"

"A forbidden book. One that was locked away in the upper floors of the ancestral archive."

His eyes widened after hearing this. Soren looked at her sincerely.

"But I thought I wasn't allowed to read the things there… Won't we be in trouble if Elder Kaalan found out?"

Walking towards the door, she turned to face him and chuckled, "What can he say? My grandmother is also an Elder. She'll beat him up if he tries anything!" She twisted the doorknob, but just as she was about to exit, she paused once more.

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She turned to him slowly, smiling softly as she gave a playful wink. "Don't tell my brother—he'll throw another fuss, no doubt. Let's keep this a secret between us, okay?"

Leaving the room, Soren was left to wallow in his own thoughts on the matter. He stared at the ancient book once again and smiled.

"What a strange girl…"

While the snow roared outside his window, the shadows grew more and more as the light of the candle was replaced by the light of the sun. A new day had emerged.

Soren had spent the whole night reading the book Isha had "lended" him. Did it ruin his sleep schedule? Yes. But at least he gained a new perspective…

The ancient book wasn't anything special. It was not a grimoire nor was it a lexicon of runes. It was simply a compilation of essays and theories proposed by someone named Pendragon. More than likely, a pen-name used by someone in the past to hide their identity…

As odd as that was, a book was still a book, authors be damned. Soren was much more concerned with what was written inside—the knowledge he could obtain. And fortunately, he was not disappointed.

The person named Pendragon, in between his weird monologues about ancient magi being lazy and his strange obsession with kings and heroes, seemed to be laying the groundwork for a very preposterous theory on the evolution of material runes.

He proposes that while material runes are a representation of objects in the Beyond, they are also a representation of a person's own thoughts. That affinities, which are a manifestation of our shades of self, are simply a reflection of what material runes we can shape and use…

And while Soren did find that claim to be rather obvious, given the fact that material runes belonging to affinities a person does not possess are unable to be used, it did make him question something…

Why exactly does it work that way? Why do our very shades of self dictate what we can and cannot use in the Beyond? Psychologically, humans are able to change mentally. He himself had grown in countless ways over the past few months… And yet, the very components that make him who he was—his shades of self… his True Self. These were immutable. Nothing he could do would ever change them—at least once they were observed and solidified.

In a way, this tied back to what his mistress had said. That while the path of Mysteries leads to corruption, the path of Magecraft leads to insanity… That he was physically stunting his own mental capacities with every move forward. The parts of his personality that shaped his Mesmerism affinity can never be altered. He will forever hold onto those fragments of himself, even if the rest continue to evolve and change…

Knowing that parts of me will stay me, while others could shift and morph endlessly… I don't know whether to feel relieved or saddened.

As sleep clouded his thoughts, Soren continued to think about Pendragon's assumptions. While it was true that your shade of self can dictate what material runes you can use, one could look at it from another perspective. Rather than it simply being a filter, perhaps it was also the very thing that shapes what material runes exist to begin with.

The Beyond was made of Astral Anima. And Astral Anima was made of the collective willpower of everyone in the world. That was why Abstract Runes needed to influence the world—for that influence was then reflected back to them in the Beyond through the willpower of the collective subconscious. And in a similar vein, one could then theorize that material runes exist in a similar way.

Soren had also wondered about something similar… Why were material runes so random? Why were they so archaic in their forms, that even the same object could be represented in different ways? Without a pattern, countless magi struggled to even find the proper runes to form the most basic of spellforms in the past… Then they had to invent a whole different system just to discover them—Runology.

But Pendragon's thoughts on the matter shed some light on this issue. It finally began to make sense in his mind… He couldn't help but laugh to himself.

The material runes were random… Because people's thoughts are random!

It was so basic, he couldn't help but laugh at himself for not finding out sooner.

Since the Beyond was made up of Astral Anima—powered by the very willpower of all people in this world, obvious contradictions will form… How one person observes and understands an object will differ from how another does… And so, the very material runes that represent this world will shift and morph endlessly, with no obvious pattern to be observed.

This also creates a very significant feedback loop for the most popular of affinities. Affinities, which are simply a manifestation of people's Shades of Self, will obviously influence this shifting of the material runes in the Beyond… The more popular an affinity, the more material runes will populate the Beyond in its flavor… Which in turn, causes more magi of that affinity to rise higher…

This Pendragon fellow… He really is a genius… Who the hell is he? Despite earlier saying that he did not care who the author was, a part of him now did… He was curious about his identity—of his life… What kind of magus was he?

It also slightly angered him… Someone of this calibre should be far more famous. Their writings should be honored on the walls of Luvinica for generations to see. And yet, it seems not even the very people who owned this book cared for what happened to it. Its disheveled pages and worn down leather was evidence for this. He even suspected that Isha's grandmother handed him the book not out of generosity, but because she truly believed it held nothing of value…

In the end, no one truly understood you, he thought, thumbing a creased margin.

Most likely, Pendragon's contemporaries had already decided what the truth was. They'd dismissed his theories as fiction, madness or worse—delusion. With how much the man incessantly rambled in his words, it was easy to lose track of what was being said—missing the brilliance buried beneath a mountain of absurdity.

Either way, these theories finally cemented a foolish idea in his mind. One that he couldn't even utter out loud without chuckling to himself:

"If I can't find a material rune to fit my needs… Can't I just invent one?"

After all, according to Pendragon, all material runes were simply the manifestation of how people observed and inferred about the world… through their own flavor. The Beyond was simply a reflection of that reality—a primordial soup of knowledge born from the Astral Anima of all who exist… If he could simply create enough willpower to infer the existence of the material rune he needs, won't the Beyond reflect that reality?

The question is, how the hell would I even achieve that? I am just one person… The amount of willpower he would need to even consider it was preposterous. He had no way of even quantifying it.

Tricking the Beyond into manifesting something you need… This already crosses into the domain of Mysteries. He would have to essentially alter nature itself with just his thoughts alone.

Was it even possible?

His eyes then settled upon a strange, crimson jewel, reflecting the light of the sun. He gazed upon its form cautiously as it laid there at the center of his desk, beckoning him to reach for it.

Soren licked his lips and smiled. "I guess those blood sacrifices really will come in handy…"

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