Sound rushed into Theo's ears as a fresh breeze did the same, refreshing his ears after the bulbs popped safely by themselves. He resisted the urge to rise up on his feet to pace back and forth angrily, but only because he found absolutely no reason to do so. Instead, he fumed while sitting, finding being lazy worked just as well.

  He wondered whether he should do something worthwhile while doing so, but he refused that as well. Sometimes a good tantrum was simply... necessary. A reboot, kind of.

  Then, some time later when he had cooled off a bit, the doom at hand finally took precedence. Once more he opened the valve, letting trickles of mana out from his finger. It wasn't tiring, nor did it seem that dangerous, so Theo could keep the trickle running for quite a while. He didn't even necessarily have to draw anything, but still he did so. The faintly blue glow stuck in the air for a lingering second as he weaved his hand about was rather pretty, all things considered. Why wouldn't he make it?

  The thought struck him in the middle of the night. He couldn't cast 'Fireball', but what if he could cast another spell? One without an element requirement? It wasn't like he needed to, but he had an overabundance of magic at his disposal, for a limited time only. He didn't even know how much mana he'd usually have to throw around! But the question remained... How?

  He had no glyphs on hand. He'd already waved about willy-nilly without much happening, and considering the almost violent intricacy of the 'Fireball' glyph, the chance of stumbling onto another by chance over one night was probably less than the chance of him instantly dying from his Boon.

  There was always the Primer. He eyed it as it lay there, teasing him with its mysteries. 'What could go wrong?'

  He eyed his Boon's remaining mana and opened the book, placing it in front of him. 856. About two hours he'd sat there, doing nothing. That was about to change. He opened it right on the fourth page, finding the box that he was certain he'd remember without even looking at it, though for his own confidence's sake, he still found it there.

  It was quick to draw, even for his rather unsteady and unskilled hand. Four corners and a strike through the mid-

  The symbol flashed, locking in place in the air and chimed as it did, a hollow yet resounding chime like that of a hundred giant bells sounding a thousand miles away. It hovered there, willfully, almost, yet did nothing. There was no magic circle growing around it, no magical script, nothing except that it remained. Theo touched it, or at least tried to, but his hand slipped right through it. It was... nothing. But it certainly did something, he was sure. Why else would the symbol lock in place?

  The symbol started crumbling, shattering into three, then seven, then a hundred pieces, each one falling toward the ground like snow. Each shard had turned to a million by the time they hit the ground, all but disappearing without a trace as they did. Nothing was left of the symbol after this. Was it a glyph? Maybe. But Theo didn't think it was. It was... something else.

  He eyed the slow countdown of magic remaining inside him, surprised to see that simply drawing that simple symbol had drawn a whole five mana out of him. He certainly hadn't used that much whilst drawing it, but maybe that wasn't all there was to it. Maybe the glyphs drew a cost even after that? Chaste hadn't mentioned, but then again, his short explanation was far from years' worth of schooling.

  He'd have plenty of time to ask in the morning. For now, Theo grinned to himself as he eyed the book again. It was time to start from the beginning. The book was full of clues, clues that were meant for him, and him alone. Arcana didn't seem to be someone who did something entirely random for nothing. Theo could see the symbols, and the symbols did something. He'd only have to find out what and how. Only after he did that could he use them for his own gains. For his own advantage.

  A certainty grew within him that with these symbols, he'd not only catch up to everyone else that had a 20-year advantage. He'd surpass them. It was time to get to work, starting on the very first page. He flipped the pages, finding the initial three precisely drawn scribbles, the oxymoron of which something he realised.

  The first was a basic 'V'-shape with a short line between the larger, angled lines. Theo drew it with his Mana, smiling as the drawing flashed brightly once he finished it. This one similarly locked itself into place before eventually crumbling a short while later, doing nothing while it was there. Another five mana down.

  'Definitely something', he thought, looking at the second. It was a circle with a line crossing it diagonally. He drew it, needing only a trickle of mana to finish it in the time given before the magic started dissipating. Again, it flashed, locked and chimed before crumbling. Again, five mana down.

  The third symbol was a simple long line downward with one shorter line balanced on top of it and below it. Same thing happened with that. While it was great to see his mana having rapidly shrunk 20 whole points, he was a bit miffed about nothing too exciting happening. As it was, it seemed all these symbols did was linger. Waiting?

  Curious, Theo drew the first one in the book, waiting until it flashed before trying something new. He drew the second, which, just as he'd hoped, did something new. It flashed an angry red and turned to a transparent smoke as it, and the first, evaporated, leaving behind nothing but the sound of a disappointed hss. Who were they to be disappointed in him? He didn't know what any of this even was!

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  Still, it was... some kind of progress, he had to assume. Those two symbols clearly didn't like each other very much, but all experience was good experience. Now, Theo was certain what the symbols were doing as they simply hung around. They were waiting for him to make more. Were they words? Numbers? Who knows!

  Another 10 mana down. If he kept this up, even if he didn't quite figure out what each symbol did, he'd get rid of his Boon by morning!

  With increased fervour, Theo drew the first symbol on the page again, then the third. Both fizzled angrily and vapourised.

  He kept it up, mixing and matching with the symbols on the second page as well. There were four symbols there, each of which he first tried with each of the first three. It was certainly a tiring process, if not physically then mentally.

  After having painstakingly drawn each of the first-page symbols along with each one on the second page, he'd spent another whopping 120 mana points, though with no real benefit. All he knew was that none of the symbols seemed to fit with the others, and he wasn't even sure if he had enough mana points to try the same thing with the third page. Actually, he definitely didn't have enough.

  He'd need 10 mana per combination he attempted and there were six new symbols on the third page. With the seven from earlier, that was forty-two different combinations even before starting to mix together those on the third page. That was 360 additional Mana, totalling 780 total mana, a number he was already below at 701.

  Actually, was it? There were six symbols, but he hadn't tried combining two of the same symbol until now, so it would only be six symbols combined with five others, reducing the total cost to 720. It was still a bit too high, but the important thing about that calculation was why hadn't he attempted each symbol combined with the same symbol? How had he missed that?

  Of course, he tried that a moment later, matching that 'V'-shaped symbol with an identical one. If this thing just turned out to be a Mana-intensive Match-3, he'd definitely find a way to kick Arcana's ass to kingdom come.

  The twin symbols fizzled like any other pairing, though that made him sigh in relief. It didn't mean none of the others would work like that, but for right now, he would have to try random mixes. Hopefully the number of symbols per page meant that each page was related somehow. If that was the case, then any one of them might pair better with a symbol of a later page.

  He also considered the order of which he drew the markings. He'd only done them in the order in which they were written until now. He certainly didn't have the Mana to try every possible combination in every possible order. He'd have to trust the book's order for now, however it sorted the scribbles.

  Theo was also considering looking further ahead in the book to see which symbols were placed together there, though he had no clue what those lines, encirclements or squares meant, meaning he'd only have an even larger amount of things to try. Was he actually starting to hate the fact that his so-called Boon didn't have enough excess magic coursing through him? He was.

  Deciding to mix and match randomly in hopes of being onto something. It was to his surprise an instant success!

  Drawing the first shape from the first page along with the first of the third page, both symbols locked in place next to each other, waiting for something. They both hummed in dissonant tones, yet there was nothing seemingly wrong with the pairing.

  Theo let the symbols hang there, and he was glad he did. When they would've otherwise started crumbling, they flashed again instead, this time with a vibrant red colour. They flared up, a hot fire taking their place as they vanished, though the flying fire left behind still lasted a few more seconds. Without fuel, it burned itself out, leaving only a shocked Theo behind with a grin plastered across his face.

  'I made fire', he nearly giggled. Which one meant fire? Why exactly these two? How much did that cost? Just 10 Mana. There was no additional cost taken from him when the effect took place.

  Now, the only question he had left that he couldn't quite shake was 'which one to try next?' Should he stick to the first symbol in the book and try the next on the third page, or should he keep it random? Choices, choices...

  He drew the first one again, then the next symbol he hadn't tried. If this amounted to nothing, he'd go for the random approach.

  Both flashed and locked in place, and then Theo had to wait. Whatever they were waiting for, it took all of Theo's patience. The only reason he wasn't scratching his own skin bloody with impatience as he waited was that they didn't instantly hiss and disintegrate. And then, they blinked again.

  As the symbols themselves disappeared, as he had come to expect, a droplet of water the size of his fist appeared from where they'd been. It hovered there for the briefest of moments before unceremoniously dropping down onto the ground, wetting his book, his 'Fireball' glyph and his own trousers.

  It felt ice cold, though the feeling went away so quickly that he soon realised it was likely just him being unusually warm in the radiant warmth of the campfire brick-thing. Of course, the moment Theo saw the massive droplet of water falling, he dove for his materials in hopes of keeping them dry. It was a mixed success, which was kind of comforting.

  The book seemed perfectly fine, with no smudging of its contents. The roll of paper, on the other hand, was unusable. The glyph it depicted wasn't likely to guide anyone's hand to casting a 'Fireball' ever again.

  With Chaste's quill still in possession, Theo grabbed a new roll of paper, hoping Chaste would forgive him for borrowing without asking, and made a little notebook of his own. Well, note-sheet, really.

  He drew the first glyph of the third page imperfectly, though with enough likeness that it was still fine. He then drew the second one of the same age. Under the first thing he drew, he wrote the word 'Fire' as he grinned, having finally figured something out. Under the second, he wrote 'Water'.

  With 671 to go, and a general idea of what the 'V'-shaped symbol on the first page did, he continued his experiments all through the night. Theo hummed giddily.