Locke spent several hours reading Basics of Magic and Sigils. Now while the book wasn't particularly interesting or well written he was still completely immersed in the contents. The reason being was the possibilities that were presented in regards to creating your own magic was everything he wanted and more. There were not many humans on earth that didn't fantasize at one point of being able to masterfully control magic at their fingertips.

Creating magic came in several steps which he would not fully understand until he actually tried it himself. Locke read the book over many times just to be sure, mainly so he could pass Claire's little quiz.

The book explained that the essence of creating magic is the combination of a spell core and the sigils that are carved into it. There are multiple layers when it comes to Sigils and each had its own pattern to draw to which you will have to memorize. The first Sigil that you have to carve is the Elemental Sigil followed by the Primary Shaping Sigil. After that, there are Support Sigils that can be carved into the core but the book doesn't go into enough detail on these.

Locke organized his thoughts and summarized what he had learned in six steps.

1) Push mana outside your body and form a Spell Core. The easiest and most commonly used pathway is towards the palm of your hands. You want to keep the Spell Core close to your body as mana gets harder to control the further away it is. The Core will initially require a small amount of mana before hardening into a spherical object. The Core will start very small due to how little mana is required to form.

2) Mana inside the body does not contain an element, which means the Spell Core that is created will be the same. You will then begin to carve an Elemental Sigil on the Spell Core using your own mana. Locke understood that this was easier said than done as you are carving a very specific and detailed symbol onto a small and barely visible object using nothing but mana. It didn't go into detail on how a human could ever possibly learn this but he understood that the Second Brain must play a pivotal role here.

3) Once the Elemental Sigil is carved you will then surround the Spell Core with a new layer of mana. This layer will be converted to the element you chose when the Core draws in mana from the world. The thicker the layer, the more mana it will draw in. To put it in more simple terms this would effect how much damage your spell would do but also increase the mana cost. The book explained that there is a minimum and maximum amount of mana that can be used at this step, the maximum can be increased later. Once you have completed this step the Core will harden just like in step one to allow for future carving.

4) When the elemental layer is hardened you can then carve the Primary Shaping Sigil which will give your spell its identity. The three Shaping Sigils provided were Touch, Short Range Projectile, and Long Range Projectile. To give a couple of examples the firebolt spell was a combination of the fire element and Long Range Projectile Sigil's allowing a small bolt of flame to be shot at a distance. Whereas the mannequin that shocked the training dummy most likely used the lightning element with the Touch Sigil.

5) At this point you could also carve Support Sigils into the Spell Core but the book stated that these would not be available for beginner mages. The amount of information was very little. It explained that there are Support Sigils such as Area of effect, Damage over time, Status Affliction. However, it didn't explain what exactly they did, or showed the symbols he would have to carve to have them work. It did mention that after each Support Sigil carved you will have to add another layer of mana to the spell core similar to the Elemental Sigil.

The thickness of this mana will determine how strong the support sigil is. This also meant that the mana costs will increase exponentially as the Core will continue to grow larger in size. There was no explanation but Locke assumed this meant a thicker layer of mana on the Area of Effect Sigil would make the explosion bigger. The main reason it stated beginner mages wouldn't be able to use this was due to the high mana cost increase for each support Sigil added.

6) Now for the final step which is activating the spell. The Core will then rotate extremely fast while drawing in the mana from the world. This mana converts your mana to the chosen element. Like mentioned previously the amount of mana it draws in is determined by step three. Once the elemental layer is completely converted to the proper element the spell will activate and perform the desired effect.

Locke also noted a couple of facts that he thought were important.

- There are many reasons a spell would fail to form. Running out of mana while in the process of forming the spell; carving the Sigils incorrectly; using Sigils that are incompatible with each other.

- Once a spell fails to form due to the above a spell mishap could occur. The common example provided was the spell core exploding. However, the book mentioned that mishaps are extremely rare and in most cases, the spell just dissipates instead. These types of mishaps will be more common with more complicated spells.

- While forming and carving the spell you are using your own mana to do so. This means if your control is lacking you will waste precious mana forming the Core. It won't be much but every bit helps in the end.

Reading and memorizing most of the contents took roughly five hours. Slamming the book shut he stood up and walked towards Claire's study. Locke opened the door to find the instructor reading a familiar tome that she was studying the first time they met.

“I have finished the contents of this book and understand most of it,” Locke said excitedly. He knew interrupting her was not the best idea but between the excitement and the hope of keeping everything fresh in his mind he chose to do so.

Surprisingly she didn't seem too annoyed by this as she replied with “Good, very good now you can finally proceed to the last step which is spell creation.”

Locke hesitated before asking “What about the quiz to test my knowledge?”

“What quiz? There is no quiz.” Watching the surprised look on Locke's face the instructor finally responded, ”Oh maybe I did mention something like that. Of course, that would have been to make sure you put in an honest effort before coming back to me.” She teased while nodding “Yes that does sound like something I would do.”

Locke didn't interrupt her while she performed this obvious charade in front of him, He was irritated but made sure it didn't show on his face. Giving her the satisfaction of that kind of reaction was the last thing he was going to do, she would have to settle for that surprised look from earlier. This also might explain why he didn't get a quest from her previously as there was no end goal she was looking for at this point.

“Alright so no quiz, what's next?” Locke inquired.

“We will go back to the first training room, it's finally time for you to create your first spell,” Claire responded in a friendly manner.

Soon the student and instructor found themselves within the first training room. The wooden dummies and mannequins remained in the same place until she raised her hand. All the training equipment was then pushed towards the edges of the room. Locke couldn't identify what she did as there was nothing visible to the eye that would cause that reaction. He didn't have enough time to focus on what the mana in the area was doing when this occurred. However, even if he did the results would have been the same due to his lack of experience.

“Amazing, magic like this exists. I look forward to learning it” Locke declared.

“This magic is beyond what you will be capable of for a long time,“ She replied, “This is unique magic that I acquired through painstaking research and effort.

“Unique? That is the first time a spell has been described that way to me since I came to this world.”

“A curious one aren't you? Unique is a term to describe magic with its own specific Sigil that is not compatible with other custom creations. Unique magic is generally very specialized to tackle certain tasks. Take this telekinesis spell for example, I can move inanimate objects at will without my physical interaction, it has so many applications to make life easier. Let's test your brain a bit, what kind of Sigil do you think this is and what would make it so unique that other spells wouldn't gain any benefit.” Claire asked, but her expression showed that he would not come up with the answer.

Interesting challenge, wonder what happens if I get this right.....is it even possible for me to get this right?

His brain went a mile a minute thinking of a proper answer to this question. The instructor issued a clear challenge with low expectations, this was his chance to prove her wrong. He tried to avoid useless thoughts like how would one stumble upon creating a unique sigil that could only be used in one spell. Or how Sigils were created in the first place, why do they do what they do. These distractions would not help him find an answer here.

“My knowledge of magic is clearly limited to the basics, but sure let me take a wild guess. That telekinesis spell most likely does not use an Elemental Sigil, the only one that would come close is air but that would have caused sounds or something. Also, the book never stated that magic wouldn't function without an element, one could assume that Sigil has been replaced with one that controls mana that doesn't contain an element. This type of mana might be invisible to an untrained eye. Hmmmm no on second thought a sigil of this kind should be able to be used in more than one spell though so let's move on.”

“Since all objects moved at once there was most likely a Support Sigil or two that allowed multiple targets to be affected by the spell at once. That kind of Sigil doesn't sound unique either so I will continue on. The only Sigil that could be Unique would be the Primary Shaping Sigil. This Sigil would give the ability to make this element-less mana actually cause an inanimate object to be pushed but why an inanimate object specifically? If I take your previous statement at face value this kind of Sigil doesn't seem useful with any of the Elemental Sigil's thus making it unique.” Locke answered.

A slow clap resounded and echoed throughout the room from the instructor.

“Wrong!” Claire replied, “However with the knowledge you have that was a better answer than I was expecting.”

Damn, I might have gotten a hidden reward with this NPC if I got that answer right. Oh well, nothing can be done about it now.

“You were correct that there are Sigils that can use mana without an element. The uses for elementless sigils are limited but they have their niche to fill making them useful. This form of Telekinesis used a Primary Shaping Sigil called Wave which is used in many other spells. Three support Sigils were included here one of which was unique. Cancel Damage, Cancel Force, Move Inanimate Object. As you might have guessed move inanimate object was the unique Sigil. Sometimes the answer is more simple than you think. You picked out the inanimate object being the key difference in this spell compared to others but couldn't figure out what Sigil that would apply to.”

Locke nodded in understanding “Can you explain why so many Sigils are required here?”

“Control Inanimate Object allows my mana to completely cover an object that does not contain a soul and stick to it. Once fully surrounded I can freely move that object how I wish. Element-less mana might not be very useful in combat but if I were to send it out in a wave it will still cause damage and apply enough force to push an object. The push might be useful but telekinesis is all about full precise control so both the damage and force need to be canceled. The Wave Sigil of course allowed me to coat multiple objects with mana making it possible to move them.”

What the hell, this sounds busted.

“There has to be limitations here! The amount of abuse this kind of spell could have is unreal, like picking up a one hundred ton block and dropping it on someone's head.” Locke blurted out.

“You are correct there are limitations, size, weight, base mana cost, and time. All these factors must be considered when using this spell. There is an extremely high base mana cost for this spell due to the fact there are three support sigils. Then you need to decide how much mana to actually launch at the objects you are trying to move. A heavy object will require more mana surrounding it to move, also over time the coat of mana will degrade until the spell fails. So for your example of carrying a one hundred ton block over someone's head and dropping it would be impossible. No mage in the world would have enough mana to move that kind of object.”

After hearing this Locke could not contain his excitement, this kind of spell sounds just like the tip of the iceberg of what can be done in this game when it comes to magic. The number of possibilities are beginning to pile up the more he learns.