Divine Celebrity 124

It took a while for me to leave the stadium, making sure my dear Coach left before I did, but I didn’t waste my time. Instead, I continued the long and thankless effort of trying to decipher the book, to at least develop a general understanding of the subject. 

From what I could decipher, the simpler diagrams were not above my capabilities, especially the ones that include one rune with no interconnection — unlike what I had watched Arthur draw on his padding in blood. 

The writing implied that he used his own blood, some kind of conduit to make sure he could absorb some Intent — though they called it several different terms, including Aether, essence, magic, and mana, in the book, which might be interchangeable, or I lacked the context to understand the difference. 

Either way, most of the warnings were about interacting with the energy I called Intent, and the plethora of danger it could create if one tried to use it directly. It was somehow … polluted, or at least, that was the impression I got. 

I was very lucky that the System allowed me to skip that step completely, cleansing Intent to prevent that side effect from occurring. “It’s fascinating, isn’t it, buddy,” I murmured as I looked at the box that held my pet as I leaned back in my chair in my dorm. “Not only I can do magic, but somehow, I have the ability to cheat.” 

Unfortunately, my tortoise did nothing but shuffle in its place, uncaring of my presence. I shuffled in my place in discomfort as well. Even if the sudden burst of power that I attained came much easier compared to other people’s magical abilities — who were clearly working for it for months, with dedicated organizations — I was aware that the other shoe would soon drop.

I still remembered the warning of my guide about upcoming disasters. A scary proposition. 

It was why, rather than watching more films to make sure I was prepared for the tricks of my opponent, I was practicing drawing runes. My fingers danced on paper, first practicing repeatedly to get familiar with the patterns. However, an hour into the practice, I started adding just the slightest amount of Intent to the runes. 

“Interesting,” I murmured after my third repeat, realizing I was starting to get a sense of the meaning of the rune. It was a soft, nebulous feeling, hard to pin down like trying to remember a dream. Curious, I started going through some of the other safe runes — well, as much as I could decipher based on my broken translation, but avoiding words like death, fire, and curse was not exactly a complicated process. 

Instead, focused on runes I could link to enhancements and protection, repeating them again and again on the paper, imbuing more and more Intent to the flow, each repeat giving me a more instinctual understanding of the runes.

As I practiced, I wondered about the actual meaning of the runes. Were they just random, artificial scribblings that somehow attained magic due to the effort of men, or whether they came from an external source.

I could imagine my guide and other angels teaching them — though probably not dressed as a dominatrix. 

Though, as I practiced them more and more, I was starting to understand that shape mattered. The intent danced through the structure in a certain pattern, and it probably affected the impact. The protective runes were mostly circular, while the transference runes had more linear shapes. 

Others, like death and fire, had much sharper edges, the shape itself scary enough without the translation. The pattern suggested that, at least to a degree, the shape had some kind of meaning. 

How much it truly impacted me was not a question I could answer right now.  Instead, I repeated the patterns again and again, trying to expand my understanding of the concepts… 

An hour into the practice, I started to get a better sense of direction, realizing that I could affect the rune more than its shape. For the lack of a better term, I could add some flavor to the runes as well, as long as I channeled the Intent through one of my Traits. Interesting… 

“It seems that it’s time to have another experiment, little buddy,” I said as I turned toward the tortoise. He turned toward my voice slightly, and I chuckled, imagining his annoyance. 

I was not the best pet owner. To my defense, I was almost completely sure that the rune I was about to draw on him wouldn’t actually hurt him. It was a protection rune. 

With the decision done, I turned to the practical aspects of it. How to draw. I soon picked a nice piece of stick that would allow me to draw. The ink was a more troubling aspect. I could just infuse intent as I draw, but from the ones I drew on the paper, I realized doing that didn’t keep it for long. I experimented with the ink I had in my room — which wasn’t much, I wasn’t obsessed with calligraphy — but it didn’t hold Intent in a permanent manner. I experimented with water, coke, and even beer, but none of them worked either. 

“It looks like Arthur had a good reason for using blood,” I murmured. I had been hoping that, with the System, I would be able to bypass that, but that didn’t seem to be the case. With a sigh, I grabbed my blade and cut my finger. I didn’t react as I cut my hand, waiting for enough blood to the pool before I used Recovery Intent to cover the wound. I wasn’t afraid of pain itself, but cutting myself was not something I should reach as the first possible solution in any case. 

After flooding my blood with Intent — which held it much better than random ink, or even that lightning-infused wood — I turned my attention toward my little pet. “You’re going to be the strongest tortoise ever, my little buddy,” I said as I grabbed the stick, and started drawing the rune at the center of its back. 

Protection. 

I didn’t know how exactly it would function, but it seemed like the safest bet from the small range of runes I had developed an understanding of. I drew slowly, much more carefully than in my earlier paper experiments, targeting perfection. And, with the assistance of the Precision trait, when I targeted perfection…

Perfection I would get. I kept my focus on the rune as it slowly grew, the intent dancing as I slowly drew, mixing with the presence of my pet. I was careful, not wanting to ruin my first proper magical attempt where I wasn’t using the System as the shortcut. 

Somehow, it felt significant. It was marking a milestone of my journey, moving from passive to active, symbolizing my choice. I could have summoned my guide and begged for her guidance, and she would have taught me if I bargained with her. I didn’t trust them to teach me really important stuff, but I had a feeling that what I was trying to do didn’t even register to her as a beginner effort. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t trust her, not enough to trust her to set the fundamentals of my understanding about the nature of magic and everything that came with it. She was not to be trusted not to manipulate me. 

Fumbling in the dark was no less dangerous, but I rather burn myself rather than be stabbed in the back. At least, it would be my fault. Was that preference healthy? No, I was mature enough to admit that it was not, but I was also stubborn enough to ignore that realization. 

My mind dancing to the implications, I finally finished drawing the rune. As I put the last line, I felt some kind of … presence settle over my pet, one that felt like some kind of static. To test, I make a little telekinetic push, but it failed to find purchase, just sliding away. I repeated several times, with increased strength, but only when I used enough push to break a door, it reacted, its energy depleting slightly. 

“How interesting,” I murmured, quickly replicating that rune twice, one on the door, one on the window, hoping that it might work against the shadows if they targeted me again. 

Unfortunately, the results weren’t as impressive as I had hoped. It still worked, of course, but, for the lack of a better term, drawing on dead objects didn’t find a … purchase. The sense of clicking that occurred when I drew the rune was missing, and my telekinetic pushes took much more energy. I had a feeling that I had to replenish them every few days to avoid a disaster. 

“Still, the room is not burning in cursed fire and no sudden shadow demon is attacking me. Altogether, a satisfying first experiment,” I murmured as I abandoned the runes, and turned my attention to the computer. On one screen, I started writing some code to make sure I infiltrated the computer systems of the campus — including the emails of the management to allow me to keep track of the political issues — while on the other screen, I watched the tape I had on our opponent, from the perspective of my latest playbook. 

I wanted to be prepared for the match tomorrow. 

After all, I had an important bet riding on the result.