What Orion wanted was a way to hide his lab. He had managed so far thanks to something he called the Attention Deficit spell, but that was actually known to the Sanctum as the Veil of Shadows, a basic illusionary technique that cloaked a location, making it harder to notice.

  It worked best in dimly lit areas, which fortunately was the case in this wing of the sixth floor. Reverse-engineering it hadn’t been particularly difficult since it was part of the same tier one Light spells he had already mastered.

  Orion merely needed to tweak the Light Shield spell to cover a larger area, eliminate the reflective portion, weaken the overall output enough to sustain itself on the Sanctum’s ambient mana, and change the purpose from light production to refraction.

  Discovering that most spells could remain active without any input was life-changing. It was another confirmation of his Mana Field theory and made his life much easier.

  The sole limitation was that only very weak spells could sustain themselves on ambient mana, and this was made possible by the Sanctum’s abundance of Light mana. However, Orion didn’t need nearly as much “power” as other people.

  While most witches and wizards were limited to perfecting their spells through sheer repetition or unscientific attempts at “feeling their way through it," Orion could adjust the output within the spell formula itself.

  Sadly, he couldn't specify values as much as he would have liked. Spells often fizzled when he included too much detail, but as he progressed in Attunement, he transitioned from awkward phenomena with minimal control to being able to define specific parameters for his spells.

  If only the Initiate Class didn’t have its limitations, I would have already surpassed most students. I can’t wait for the damn Ceremony.

  Shaking his head to refocus, Orion began reviewing his notes for Schr?dinger’s Defense.

  He had intentionally chosen to avoid the two branches of magic with which he had already gained an understanding. Both Light magic and Force magic required relatively little scientific knowledge to master. Even as a toddler with no prior experience, he had managed to stumble upon workable formulas.

  For this new piece of magic, he had no resources to rely on. It came entirely from him.

  Months ago, before he had set aside the project to focus on the glasses, he had hypothesized that to develop Schr?dinger’s Defense into a spell with energy requirements low enough to sustain itself on the ambient mana, he would have to not only indicate the desired effect but also calculate the specifics of its wavefunction and develop it in a way that the it would be smooth at all points.

  For that to happen, he couldn’t merely express his general intentions through the Mana Field. He needed to solve the equation himself first.

  ? ψ(r) = E ψ(r) was inscribed in red ink, surrounded by various attempts to solve it.

  It wasn’t that Orion couldn’t do the math; rather, the opposite was true. He knew exactly what the solution was, and there was no way he could keep the effect subtle enough to sustain it on ambient mana alone.

  That normally wouldn’t be a problem for new spells. Yes, his lack of specificity meant he had to brute-force some aspects, but his Attunement was high enough to compensate.

  Schr?dinger’s Defense was unique in that it needed to operate effectively in his absence. This was the time when his lab was most vulnerable. Although Morliana—and this also applied to her agents, as they were all fully grown witches—could have easily breached his meager defenses, she was restrained by the potential consequences of the favor Magistra Eire owed him.

  Sneaking into his lab to read through his research would be a much easier way to keep tabs on him. It was such a glaring security failure that Orion had to keep the most sensitive papers on him at all times, but even the material he had to leave behind was more than enough for a witch hunt—pun intended.

  “There is no way she never sent anyone snooping, but until now I’ve mostly kept to what they consider orthodox magic,” he grumbled. The mere idea of someone rifling through his stuff annoyed him greatly, but he hoped that the sheer chaos of the lab would deter them from finding anything incriminating.

  If he could solve Schr?dinger’s Defense, however, he would finally be able to rest easy.

  First things first, Orion decided to gain some hands-on experience with the spell. Although he disliked approaching problems through trial and error, he needed to understand what E, the energy eigenvalue, represented, or he’d never be able to calculate it.

  The Time-Independent Schr?dinger Equation was relatively straightforward. ? was the Hamiltonian operator, which defined the system’s energy—in this case, the lab’s.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  ψ(r) represented the wavefunction at position r. Essentially, it indicated the probability of finding the "particle." He would set that at zero, but he suspected the energy requirements would become infinite if he did, so he started with a safe 50%.

  As his understanding of the equation solidified into something tangible, Orion felt a ripple escape him, spreading across the lab. When he opened his eyes, he was momentarily overwhelmed by a wave of vertigo.

  It felt as if he were drunk and seeing double. Two laboratories, identical in the smallest detail, surrounded him, occupying the same space but not quite.

  Closing his eyes once more, he took a few careful steps forward, avoiding the precarious pile of copied tomes on his left until he reached the door. He pushed it open and exited the lab, opening his eyes only when the door hissed shut behind him.

  The vertigo vanished instantly, but at the same time, he found it surprisingly hard to process the door's presence. He knew it was there, of course, yet his mind kept insisting that he didn’t have enough information.

  This alone would serve as a very interesting active defense. Those wanting to enter would have to battle not only me, but also their nausea and their very senses warning them that what they were seeing wasn’t really there.

  Dismissing the spell brought reality back to where it belonged. One moment, Orion was staring in confusion at the door; the next, he had no trouble identifying it. It truly was quite remarkable.

  Yeah, yeah, I get it. Orion waved off the blue box. He was starting to accumulate a ridiculous amount of deferred experience and attribute points. If he kept this up, he might make the jump from level twenty-five to fifty all at once and earn his tier 2 class.

  It won’t be that easy, since each level has increased experience requirements, and every class reportedly needs different amounts. However, I bet I’ll get a significant head start. I know only one other person who might be close to the level cap, and she isn’t the type to keep pushing.

  Orion paused to breathe through his nose, clearing the last vestiges of vertigo. After ensuring no one had seen him, he entered his lab once more and hurried to his desk to write down his observations.

  “The energy requirements for even the basic form of Schr?dinger’s Defense are relatively high. Though mana isn’t an internal energy I could use up, I can definitely feel a drain in my body at the stress of manipulating so much energy,” he muttered, scribbling down his every thought to make sure he made the best of the experience.

  “As it is, the biggest drain in the spell is the wavefunction ψ(r). Setting it at 50% was meant to make it as easy as possible, but even that much is proving to be a hassle. However, since I know that spells become less expensive to cast the more I understand the process—and, more importantly, the more detail I add to explain what is happening—it might be that the problem isn’t as insurmountable as it once appeared.”

  Nodding to himself, Orion felt a little better. Last time, he’d been stymied by his still-developing understanding of how the System interpreted “incantations.” Although he wouldn’t get confirmation of his theories until the Glasses were ready, he could apply some of the principles he’d discovered so far.

  If I were to invoke Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, I could probably increase ψ(r) without adding to E. Given that there is no momentum to ? (Δp), I could greatly scale up position uncertainty (Δr).

  Setting Δp to zero would likely be too risky. This would mean that any slight movement of the Sanctum’s structure could disrupt his spell. While he wasn’t anticipating earthquakes, he understood that buildings weren’t as stable as people often thought.

  Given that his Equalizer had been ruined by a flaw in the flooring… Yeah, he wasn’t going to do that again.

  “So, Δp at 5% would probably account for most natural movements with a decent margin (σ) of the wavepacket in space. That means that I only need to add a few more details to include me as the origin… Yeah, that should do it.”

  Looking down at the final formula, Orion felt something swell within him. It wasn’t anything magical or mental. He realized, after a moment, that he was proud of himself. “No need to get ahead, let’s try this out first…”

  Blinking a few times to ensure his vision was free from the pesky humidity that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, he stood and stepped out of the lab once more, not wanting to experience vertigo again if things went wrong.

  He was considering himself as the secret center of the "particle," which should allow him to bypass the side effects, but it was better not to risk it.

  |ψ(r)|2 ∝ exp[???|r ? r?|2?∕?(2 σ2)?] was the final equation, and the moment he felt the world ripple, he knew he had gotten it right.

  The door was there; there was no doubt about it. He knew it was there. Yet, the moment he shifted away from the center, he became completely unaware of its existence.

  A small, nagging voice whispered that something was there, but it was easily ignored when compared to what his senses were telling him.

  Blinking, he centered himself once more, and the door reappeared. Orion smiled, and after a quick check to see how much energy that had consumed, he realized that the spell was already efficient enough to sustain itself with the ambient mana.

  Nice.

  Rushing to his class was less about his dislike for being late, though that was certainly a factor, and more about his desire to avoid missing a crucial lesson.

  “Sorry!” he yelped as he jumped down five steps, narrowly avoiding a collision with a worker who had a floating bucket of soapy water trailing behind.

  Most of what was taught to the Initiates consisted of things he had either figured out on his own very early on or information that anyone could pick up by reading enough of the first floor’s library.

  Sometimes, however, Magistra Eire would personally hold a lesson, which had become quite rare given the high demand for her time, and Orion knew he didn’t want to miss it.

  The first few lessons had been rather basic, but as they progressed, she began teaching them more about the esoteric aspects of how magic worked and, on rare occasions, insights about the System itself.

  Given their upcoming Class Ceremony, Orion was almost certain that today would provide an explanation of what to expect on that day and, more importantly, what classes were in the first place.

  “Cutting it a bit close this time,” an amused voice came from a nook he hadn’t even noticed, startling him.

  “Must you do that all the time?” He asked, annoyed with himself for letting his attention waver. He knew she liked ambushing him like this.

  Selene smiled serenely, as if the delight he knew she felt every time she managed to scare him was merely in his imagination. “I don’t know what you are talking about," she murmured, lowering her head to let her platinum blonde hair shield her eyes.

  The tiny, mischievous grin she was sporting revealed just how sincere she was in her apology. “Ugh, alright, enough wasting time.”

  His friend hummed softly, falling behind him at a more leisurely pace, never losing her amused smile.