“You can’t give in to the book…” the voice quietly said from under the floorboards, Otto could tell it was murky Otto speaking.

“I thought I left you at the tower…” Otto remarked.

He sat up and noticed that it was already bright outside, he looked out the windows only to be met with the sight of the sand of the desert outside.

“I take it this is a dream…?” Otto asked.

“Yes, it is!” the book remarked, he looked over only to see himself sitting there.

“Hello again…” the book version of himself said.

“Listen carefully…” he began.

“You need to read this book to the end!”

“Why?”

“What’s at the end?” Otto asked.

“I… don’t know…” the book-him replied.

“I’m nothing but the echo of your soul, a manifestation of your will rather than a sentient being…”

“That road cannot lead you anywhere but here!” the voice below exclaimed.

Otto looked back outside seeing piles of bones leaving the sand.

“Reach the end, Otto…” the voice of the book-him exclaimed.

“Throw the book away!” the voice of the murky-him exclaimed.

Suddenly the dream ended.

Otto opened his eyes, immediately he glanced over to the table beside him, confirming that the book was still there.

The sun from outside came into his room for real this time, he looked out his window and was relieved to see the village still there.

He looked back to the book.

“Reach the end…” he repeated.

Otto grabbed the book, opening the last page only to find it incomprehensible.

The words were there, but he couldn’t understand them.

The words were in English but they seemed alien.

As soon as he took his eyes of one word its memory and meaning were lost.

“Damn it, Murlin…” Otto thought flipping back to the page he left on before.

“Artefacts…” the page began, the first word caught Otto’s attention right away.

“What is an artefact? Whether it’s a tool, a weapon or a comfort item, at its heart an artefact is just a magic tool,”

“What makes it different from just casting a spell and specifying the placement of the fire or water on the tip of the blade is the fact that an artefact can be used by anyone without any previous knowledge!”

“In order to create an artefact, you need to master one concept, triggers…”

“First of all, adding a trigger to a spell will mean it will not be executed until an action is performed,”

“For this, the keyword ‘Drigurhum’ is used,”

“There are two additional requirements to this spell, one is the place an action must be performed,”

“For example, your palm, words, or your fingers if you want the trigger to be a certain word!”

“Next you need to actually perform the action followed by the keyword ‘This’”

“Keep in mind, you can either attach this keyword to the spell or the battery, it’s up to you, 😉”

Otto took a mental note to update his variable list after finishing this chapter.

“The action is more of a mental concept, so there is no need to worry about, let’s say snapping your fingers at the wrong angle when setting up the spell unless you specifically wanted to have the angle to be required by the spell!”

“That’s the first part you need to learn, the next is quite simple…”

“Recorhum, this keyword simply ‘stores’ variables or entire spells in the object you choose,”

“Simply touch the object and list off the variables you want stored inside,”

Otto reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver coin.

With his index finger on one of the faces of the coin he thought “here”.

“ƒ MakeCoinFly « CreateBattery « SetBatterySize 10β « Name CoinBattery « SetPlace here « SetManaOutputPlace CoinSpell « SetManaOutputAmount 2β « SetLifespan 1«… « Name CoinSpell « SetPlace here « SetDirection TheFloor TheCeiling « SetSpeed 10µ « SetLifespan 1 « Drigurhum Word “Fly”«”

He said the word “Fly” when specifying the Drigurhum command.

Otto looked at the coin and said the word “fly”.

Nothing happened.

He cast the spell by saying “MakeCoinFly”

The battery appeared as expected and disappeared after a second due to the “SetLifespan 1” commanded, at no point did the coin fly.

He cast the spell again and quickly exclaimed “Fly!” the instant the battery appeared.

Instantly the coin flew up, reaming pressed-up against the flat ceiling of Otto’s home for a second before falling back down into his hand.

“Alright… Now I’ll save the function to the coin…” Otto thought.

He placed his finger on the coin again.

“Recorhum MakeCoinFly «” he commanded.

Nothing happened.

He looked at the coin again.

“Fly!”

Nothing happened.

“…”

“Oh, that’s right! The spell is created when I say fly, not the battery, but the spell won’t activate without a battery!” Otto realised.

He placed his finger over the coin again and thought up a new spell.

“ƒ MakeCoinFly « CreateBattery « SetBatterySize 10β « Name CoinBattery « SetPlace here « SetManaOutputPlace CoinSpell « SetManaOutputAmount 2β « SetLifespan 1« Drigurhum Word “Fly”«… « Name CoinSpell « SetPlace here « SetDirection TheFloor TheCeiling « SetSpeed 10µ « SetLifespan 1 «”

It was the same, except the trigger was moved to the battery.

“Recorhum MakeCoinFly «” he exclaimed for the second time.

Without a moment of hesitation be proceeded to test out his new ability.

“Fly!” he commanded as the coin flew up for a second before falling back down.

“Nice…” he marked the coin with his pencil and placed it back in his pocket.

“I bet I could make something useful with this…” he thought.

Otto updated his variable list.

“ƒ SetTrigger Drigurhum «”

“ƒ AttachFunction Recorhum «”

Otto walked over to the only other room in his house and sat down on his chair, feeling his stomach grumbling.

“Oh yeah… I get hungry now…” he realised.

He placed the book before him.

“Is there like a magic breakfast summoning spell?” Otto asked looking at the book.

The book didn’t reply.

Otto breathed a sigh as he stepped outside, the cold nightly air still lingered as he headed over to the inn, reasoning that they must have some food there.

“Oi!” on old, bearded man stopped him in his tracks, Otto turned to face the man.

The man waved Otto over.

“You’re the new guy aren’cha?” he asked.

Otto nodded.

“Yeah,”

“Say, ya’ interested in earning a copper coin or two?” the man asked.

He was sitting on a wooden stool, resting his back against what must have been his house.

“I’m not into dudes, sorry,” Otto replied awkwardly.

“Not like that!” the now flustered man exclaimed, he jumped to his feet.

“Do you drink?” he asked.

Otto nodded uncertainly.

“Well, the witch running the inn kicked me out, said my liver can’t take any more booze!”

“Can you believe it?!” the old man folded his arms.

Otto raised an eyebrow.

“He doesn’t seem all that drunk to me…”

“So how about a deal, go by me a drink and I’ll give you a copper for the trouble, how about it?“ he asked.

Otto thought about it for a moment, he looked over to the balding man with more hair on his beard than Otto will ever have on his body all combined.

“Sure,”

He held his hand out as the old man reached into his pocket and handed him two copper coins.

“Thanks,”

The old man cleared his throat.

“I shall be awaiting your triumphant return,” he said sarcastically, even in this fantasy world nobody except nobles with heads so far up their ass they can see the opening of their mouth talk like that.

Otto made his way into the Inn, a two-story wooden building with a big fireplace over which three differently-sized pots hung from a long, metal rod.

Several tables stood were placed around the building, each one having four chairs around it.

From across the room the voice of a woman caught Otto’s attention.

“Welcome! You must be the new guy!” she exclaimed.

She wore a plain blue dress with a white apron over it as well as a chef’s hat, she had red hair tied back into a ponytail with long bangs.

“Hello…” Otto replied making his way up to the till.

“What can I get you?” she asked.

“Don’t panic… just ask for a beer for myself…” Otto thought hoping not to be caught smugly alcohol to strangers.

“How much is a beer?” he asked.

She squinted.

“Mmm….”

“That depends, is it for you or for someone else…” she asked with an expression that looked right through Otto into his soul.

His shoulder hung low.

“You got me…” he admitted, it didn’t even take ten seconds for him to break.

The woman behind the till breathed a sigh.

“Then it’s one copper,” she replied.

“Thanks,” Otto replied handing the woman a coin.

“And how much for some food…?” he asked.

“This time for me…” he added.

“Well, I can heat up some stew from yesterday if that’s fine with you, she offered.

Otto shrugged.

“Sure,”

“That’ll also be one copper,” she offered.

Otto handed her the other copper coin and awaited the food.

She walked up to the fireplace and used a big metal hook to remove one of the pots from over the fireplace before hanging up a smaller one filled with clear yellow broth.

After a few minutes and the occasional stirring with a wooden ladle the soup was hot enough to eat, the innkeeper handed Otto two bowls of soup on a wooden trey as well as a pain of foaming beer.

“I only wanted one bowl…” Otto remarked.

“Yeah, I was hoping you could bring that fossil something to eat, at this rate his liver will actually give out…” she sighed.

Otto shrugged, “Alright,”

He grabbed the tray and placed the pint on it as he headed outside.

As he was about to leave the woman called out to him.

“And tell him to come get his own booze next time! Though the only thing he going to get is my boot up his-”

Otto awkwardly left the inn; her words were easily loud enough for the man outside to hear.

“…”

Otto walked over to the man handing him the bowl of soup, immediately the man reached for the pint, placing the soup aside.

“Phew… thought I was going to dry out…” the old man said sounding relieved.

Otto lifted the bowl of soup from his tray, drinking directly from the bowl since no spoons were provided.

“The soup’s good…” he remarked turning back towards the inn, he was planning to finish his food quickly then return to his home.

“The soup’s always good, too bad the chef’s a witch…” the man sighed.

“What do you mean by witch?” Otto asked.

“Not the magical kind, just the alcohol denying type…” the old man clarified.

“Oh…” Otto sighed.

The old man pulled his face away from the pint for long enough to chuckle.

“You make it sound like you expected her to be a mage!”

“Hey now, why would a magic user work in a town like this?” the old man laughed.

“What about Gredrick?” Otto asked with a raised eyebrow.

“That’s different, he’s still here because he lacks ambition,” the old man replied.

“With an ability like that he could be rolling around in golden coins, maybe with a few platinum ones thrown in for flavour…”

The old man shook his head.

“Instead that idiot is here trying to get strangers a place to stay…” the old man laughed.

“His mindset is nothing like that of a trader! Make a profit wherever you can and however you can!”

Otto raised his eyebrows.

“So, you’re a trader?”

“Was, I’ve travelled so much every silver merchant knew my name!” the old man proclaimed proudly.

“Silver merchants?” he asked.

“It means they don’t sell anything below a silver coin in value, it’s like a rank for them,” the old man clarified.

Otto nodded signalling the man to continue.

“But a life of a trader is doomed to end with you dying in some forest when you have no home to return to…” the old man said with a hint of sadness.

And awkward silence appeared for a few moments.

“Still worth it, if you ask me!” he laughed finishing the last drop of beer in his pint.