Having finally obtained what he was sure was a source of pure silverite, untarnished by foreign mana and therefore suitable for connecting with the System, Orion set out to produce his latest version of the System Detecting Glasses.

  While he had called them his first true, unique piece of magic, that didn’t mean they were a spell. Most people, even within the Sanctum, considered indirect forms of magic to be of secondary importance compared to direct casting.

  While it was true that in a fight, spells were superior to all except the best artifacts, that didn’t mean that other forms of magic were lesser.

  Well, perhaps that is too generous. I certainly do not enjoy astronomy, divination, or botany. They feel a bit too wishy-washy for me, even with my new tolerance for the arcane.

  Still, the point remained that most children didn’t consider things like enchanting, potions, or rituals to be worth their attention. They'd learn that this wasn’t the case once they started having practical lessons, not just theoretical ones; he’d seen that same bias repeated even among adults.

  Orion, on the other hand, had developed a fondness for enchanting.

  Not because he believed that the way it was taught in the Sanctum held any merit, no.

  Sir Theron taught essentially a religious history class, explaining how parables, psalms, and prayers could be transformed into enchantments, including some rune study to prepare them for the future.

  At first, Orion had believed it was all a huge waste of time. If inscribing something like a parable could create a magical effect, then writing down precisely what he wanted to happen without complicating things with literary flourishes would be far more effective.

  Well, it turned out that there was a reason why the Sanctum adhered to such a strict religious doctrine. Magic happened when people were capable of projecting their desires and understanding into the Mana Field with enough strength for it to react, and if they plainly stated what they wanted to happen in Common, they risked their mental image becoming distorted by their lived experiences.

  If someone got burned by fire and summoned a fireball just by asking for fire to appear, they would have a warped perspective of what should happen. Depending on the individual, this could lead to both greater and lesser outcomes, but it wouldn’t provide a clear, consistent baseline.

  By using a chant from a prayer they had recited since childhood, on the other hand, they could avoid dealing with bothersome emotions and memories that might disrupt their casting.

  Orion had inadvertently taken a similar, albeit parallel, route by substituting religious parables with science. If there was one thing that was objective and reliable, it was precisely that, especially regarding basic principles.

  By exploring more advanced concepts for Schr?dinger’s Defense, he had already given up some of that safety, although it was still regarded as well-understood science. His spell ended up straddling the gap between tier one and tier two, being just weak enough to be considered lesser, but complex enough to require an incredible understanding.

  It proved that using higher concepts would allow him to “punch up," essentially leveraging his otherworldly knowledge to refine spells far beyond what most natives could.

  All that was to say that he had been working very hard to find the right way to replicate enchanting without resorting to runes and religious symbols. He had developed some equations that showed promise, but they were too vague for Orion’s tastes.

  “If I had more Attunement, I could probably brute force it. But I don’t want that. I don’t want to get a result in spite of my ignorance. If I cannot achieve it with understanding, then I’m not yet ready.” After several failures, he had finally stumbled upon a better approach.

  The witches of the Sanctum used runes in their enchantments. They did this to obscure the true capabilities of their artifacts, as the specific runic language they employed was taught only to those who demonstrated sufficient loyalty and was thus known only by the coven.

  Additionally, runes held both literal and symbolic meanings.

  They could express multiple functions within the same space required to inscribe a phrase. While that might limit them in certain aspects, it also opened up options that would not have otherwise been possible.

  So what did Orion have available that might be loosely considered a runic language, which could be interpreted in various ways and would offer the necessary security?

  Coding—more specifically, coding languages that could easily be mistaken for runes at a cursory glance. APL was the first that came to mind, with its unique glyphs, and it had been the first he’d used.

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  Its biggest issue in modern applications was precisely its uniqueness, which would ultimately work in its favor. It had the problem of lacking named blocks or modules, which made it more difficult to add complexity to the enchantment; however, for this specific use case, it would function just as well.

  The glasses were, after all, simply meant to interact with the Mana Field and read the System’s presence. Nothing more.

  Still, he had also prepared a string of code in Mathematica just to compare. It featured numerous special functions, modules, and blocks, allowing for much more complex demands. He was quite sure he would end up using it down the line, once he managed to achieve his independence from the Sanctum and no longer needed to worry about not stirring the pot.

  But for the moment, APL would suffice. The simulations he’d run showed almost no difference between the two lines of code, so he chose the more acceptable one.

  Using an extremely sharp scalpel he’d liberated from his mother’s stores meant to cut delicate organs out of monsters, he had carved his string of commands into the previous prototypes, only to end up in failure when they couldn’t sustain a connection with the System despite the decoding matrix working just fine.

  The tainted silverite simply lacked the necessary purity.

  “But that is not a problem anymore,” he grinned, placing the medallion on his work table. After ensuring it was positioned properly and wouldn’t escape at the first whack, Orion grabbed his hammer—a brutish tool made entirely of iron, the least mana-conductive element available—and began the work of smashing it flat.

  It was a surprisingly low-tech solution for someone like him, who was accustomed to the metallurgy of twenty-first-century Earth. However, there wasn’t a non-magical forge anywhere for miles, possibly not at all, and creating one with materials that could be tainted by foreign mana was entirely out of the question.

  This is my one shot, he thought as he continued to whack, ensuring that he wasn’t just flattening the amulet but also pulling at it to transform it into a thinner filament. If this fails, I will have to set the project aside for months, maybe years.

  Eventually, after a lot of cursing and sweating, he managed to turn the oval amulet into something resembling a frame. Setting aside his hammer, he picked up the more delicate tools needed to transform that monstrosity into something that wouldn’t be considered more self-harm than a fashion statement.

  Another hour passed as he did his best to incorporate the aesthetics of his old world into a functional frame. They were somewhat round, but flatter at the top. Thick enough at the sides for him to write the code without fear of running out of space, yet still usable.

  Overall, it wasn’t a bad result. It was certainly much better than his first attempts. “If I could use spells, I would make a much finer frame, but this will have to do. Once the matrix is working, I can start thinking about modifying it.”

  After completing that arduous task, Orion stood up and stretched for a moment before walking over to the drink station he had set up on the far side of the room.

  Mou was his one indulgence. While it wasn’t as delectable as coffee, it satisfied the same craving, offering a lasting energy boost along with an enjoyable flavor.

  The caramel and milk notes were delightful, and the floral aftertaste became enjoyable once he got used to it. If he could make one change, he’d reduce the sugar in the mixtures, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

  At least that merchant told me they were about to import a new inventory of flavors. Its growing popularity in Valderun’s noble circles means that the price has increased, but I’m okay with that if they continue to provide different options. One day, someone will produce a less sweet one. I’m sure.

  Eventually, Orion set down the mug and strolled back to his bench. He wasn’t exactly nervous, but he could tell that this would be his best attempt yet.

  If the glasses didn’t work this time either…

  Shaking his head, he picked up the scalpel and began to carve.

  “Fundamentally, the enchantment will serve as a Mana Field Information Siphon, which will then be repackaged into the simplest way possible through the System.” He said out loud, finding that the practice let him focus better.

  “First, I need to define my coordinates, or I’d risk the Glasses just sending me a stream of raw data I have no way to interpret.” That was easily achieved by defining the Mana Field function { ? ← ?[1] ? ?[2] ? ?[3] to unpack x, y, z into left and right args, where ? was the right‐argument vector was held, and manually bound its elements to ? ?[2] and ?[3].

  Next came the constant. α β γ δ ← 1 2 3 0.5 would suffice. Then the circular trigonometric function meant to interpret the Mana Field (○(α×?)+ (β×?[2]) + (γ×?[3])) + 2×?/(?×?[2]×?[3]).

  “I can then lay out the rune matrix as a 3×3 array of uppercase characters ‘ΩΧΨΦΛΤΑΒΓ’. Where Ω is my coordinates, and I can select the most resonant frequencies with (~/1=2??2)(??¨?CT|ΩΧΨΦΛΤΑΒΓ). ?CT converted each cell to its character code, ?¨ graded them, ? flattened, 2??2 picked those whose imaginary part ≠ 0, then ~/ masked. All so the matrix could sift through the noise he knew was an intrinsic part of the Mana Field.

  Carving the string of symbols three times on each side was laborious, especially because Orion wanted to reduce human error as much as possible. It took an unexpectedly long time, but eventually, he succeeded.

  Once that was done, he took out the two ordinary pieces of glass he had purchased in bulk and spent several hours carving them up before popping two in.

  In this life, he didn’t need prescription lenses, but it wasn’t uncommon to see people wearing them. Sure, they were typically special equipment that witches used to either see in great detail while enchanting or observe mana fluctuations before a ritual, but he wouldn’t stand out too much.

  “There, now I just need to set the secret key. I guess I should keep it simple. ‘Inspect’ will do.”

  Orion placed his finger on the schema, channeling his understanding of everything he was attempting into his command. “Inspect.”

  For a moment, nothing happened, and he feared he had failed again. Then, all of a sudden, he felt the frames heat up lightly, and something flashed across their lenses.

  Exhaling lightly, he put them on, feeling his heart beat like a drum.

  His vision with the glasses on wasn’t too different from normal, but there was a haziness to it, as if he were looking through a light mist. It cleared up soon enough, and he was glad to have spent so much time on signal clarity.

  For a minute, he stood there, waiting to see if anything would happen. It then occurred to him that nothing in his lab was connected to the System, and since he had established himself as the basic coordinate, he couldn’t exactly inspect himself.

  Stepping out of his lab, Orion hurried to the end of the corridor, where a large window provided access to one of the many gardens. There, people moved about: some were playing, some were laughing, and some were studying.

  It was a perfectly ordinary sight, and yet, when he gave the command, it changed.

  “Inspect,” he murmured, focusing on an older witch who was watching over the younger children playing nearby.

  [Vespera - Lv. 118] [Silver Star - C-Rank]

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