"How do you want to start?" I asked. While I could be rather controlling when it came to experimenting, that didn't mean I would just ignore an expert. And, when it came to magic, especially fire magic, there was not even a question about who was the expert.

She smiled. "Let's start with how you taught me. Cast ten fire bolts, unmodified."

"Establishing a recent control group, excellent start," I said in approval, happy that she hadn't forgotten what I had taught her. I followed it by casting ten spells, each landing harmlessly on the target.

She nodded silently once I finished. "Now, try to cast one while empowering the fire portion," she said.

"Ah, are you sure?" I questioned. "It can go rather … explosive."

Maria waved her hand. "I'm sure nothing will happen to us," she said.

"Yes, but the same couldn't be said for your notes," I said, pointing at the papers that covered the floor enough to make the carpet invisible.

"Really, them?" she said. "You clearly have a general idea of how the runes of a spell work enough to apply to decay bolt, so…"

I sighed. "It looks like you have a misunderstanding about how well that particular experiment went. There was a reason I had mostly experimented in the dungeon, where decay wouldn't destroy the large swathes of land."

Her eyes widened. "That bad? Don't tell me you hurt yourself?"

I shook my head. "Of course not. I was wearing armor at that time. Do you think I would be that careless…" I continued, only for my voice to fade under her sharp gaze.

"Do you need me to remind you all the times you have ignored your precious experimental safety rules?" she admonished, which was rather biting despite her smile.

"Let's focus on the experiment first. We don't have any time to waste," I said even as I started to gather the papers, which was not an attempt to avoid her teasing gaze.

Definitely not.

While I tidied up the room, she set up a bubble shield around us and the target. "Ready?" I asked. She nodded. I raised my hand, using the skill to trigger the spell, but while it was forming, I focused on the rune at the center of the formation, which carried the concept of fire.

While my progress when it came to deciphering spells had been dismal at best, even those dismal results had been enough to identify the central fire rune, which then I replaced with a carrier for decay to create my own variant. I focused on that center, and —

It exploded.

Rather spectacularly, even. The spell just lost its cohesion, turning into a grenade … one that I had forgotten to throw. Naturally, the effect washed over my armor without any effect.

"Are you alright?" Maria asked, but her laughter made it rather insincere.

"Nothing is hurt but my pride," I responded in mock hurt.

"Too bad," she responded, unrepentant. "That was a complete disaster. You even managed to use the wrong type of fire."

"What do you mean, wrong type?" I asked.

That seemed to stump her. "Just … wrong," she said.

"Instinctual skill understanding?" I asked, familiar with her confused declaration. Not everyone cared to examine the inner workings of their skills, which, frankly, was a great shame.

She nodded, then closed her eyes. She stayed like that for almost a minute, her fingers twitching. Then, she cast a few spells, including a fire bolt, though comparing the two was like comparing the sun and a campfire. Her spells snapped into existence in an instant rather than forming slowly, flew crisper, and even landed more accurately.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I wondered if it was the effect of her Legendary skill, the assistance of Intelligence affecting more than just spell formation, or sheer experience. But, at this point, I was better at ignoring potentially interesting but non-critical scientific points. Fora

betterreadingexperience,visitM(VLEMPYR).

Instead, I waited until she raised her hands, both with singular runes, and two flames rose on them. On the right, there was a smooth, contained fire flared to life, monotone in color. It was an interesting object, structured, rigid, and beautiful in its simplicity.

The flame on the left, on the other hand, was raging and chaotic, flickering in every direction as it pulsed, almost about to go out. Interestingly, despite its chaotic nature, the flame felt strangely empty, while the one on the right had a satisfying conceptual echo.

"The one on the right is what the skill requires, while the one on the left is what you're trying to force," she said.

I frowned. "I don't think so," I said.

"Who's the expert here?" she asked. "The fire spells, despite their reputation, require a strong discipline, a structure that needs to be contained. The core of the spell needs to be stable to interact with the spell runes, which would add the element, the four critical features of the beginner spells: form, intensity, stability, trajectory."

"That's not the part I disagree with," I countered. "The one on the left is too different from the conception of fire I borrowed from the dungeon."

"Show me the difference," she said. I did so, and a similar-looking flame appeared, but unlike hers, it was not an empty shell. It carried a potent wildness, threatening to devour it. "I don't see it," she said, frowning.

I opened my mouth but found it difficult to explain. We simply lacked the right terminology to discuss the difference."The conceptual nature of the two is too different," I said as, with a touch to metal, I created a small sheet of metal, and then cut it into two. I created two flames, one copying hers, the other mine, and tested it against the metal.

The true fire melted through the sheet quickly, while the other barely warmed it. "I can see the difference, but actually detecting it…" she said. "Is it the difference Wisdom brings?" I nodded, and she frowned. "Can I even help you if I can't feel the difference?"

"Of course, you can," I said. "Don't you remember, back then, how we managed to create mana alloys? And, back then, I didn't even have Essence, so I couldn't actually sense mana. Compared to that, sensing mana is trivial. Especially since we each have one part of the puzzle."

"You can copy my variant of the flame to fuel it, right?"

"Yes, but what would be the point," I replied. "Ultimately, the amount of power I could put behind a modification by myself is limited. I need the dungeon to supply me with the energy."

"How about all those Radiant Flame weapons. Don't you modify the flame mana for them?"

"Yes, but you're forgetting something. I have a Legendary class skill handling the conversion process,"

"True," she said. "But then…"

"We can solve it with practice, don't worry," I said.

That turned her frown into a bright smile. "You're right, no need to lose sight. Let's practice."

I nodded, and we started practicing. At first, she was enthusiastic, trying to calculate a stable spell for my flame, but as the number of explosions increased, her enthusiasm decreased. "It's not working," she said, frowning. "No matter how much I modify the spell, it doesn't work."

"Only because we're making some blind attempts," I said. "But, we can take a pause and discuss. Tell me how spells work? Is it similar to coding?"

"In what way?" she said. "I don't know much about coding."

"Essentially, you have a long line of commands, variables, and definitions, and the computer goes through them one by one, until it processes all of the commands, and then the results happen."

Maria shot me an amused glance. "Not at all. The complete opposite, actually. Once the runic structure is set, everything … how should I put it, happens at once, but unless you have a stable spell structure, the result varies significantly."

I blinked. In a way, I could see where she was coming from. My experience had suggested a similar direction, but I had always assumed my lack of relevant stats prevented me from seeing more in detail. "In what way?"

She frowned. "It's difficult to explain. In a way, it's like building a very complicated tower of cards by throwing the cards in the air. It all collapses at once, but it requires a miracle to land in a way to build the tower. The spells are that miracle."

"Then, how to come up with new spells?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I have no idea. My skill, like many others, has a set of spells and modifications. Intelligence allows us to modify it, but that's still limited by our Skill."

"I see," I replied. We had never discussed the spells from this perspective before her departure, because I didn't have the right questions to answer. That, and without the dungeon trick, there was little benefit in such a thing.

Her explanation made it clear that even the simplest spell was far more complicated than I realized.

"You look lost," she said.

"No, just coming to a realization that the situation is more complicated than I realized," I said, then a smile bloomed on my face. "I wonder if there's a mathematical model to explain it!"

She gaped at my sudden shift, her ability to talk lost momentarily.