Chapter 39: An Important Question

After experimenting with the increased capabilities of the web Villin was extremely happy. He noticed the efficiency of awakening nodes or attempting to cast new spells without leaving behind his senses was about half compared to when he closed his eyes and fully immersed himself within his web.

Right now the nodes no longer felt like simple dots within his mind, they felt like an actual part of him, like a finger. He also noticed that if he sapped power out of a node and then tried casting a spell that utilized it, it would become harder the emptier the node is, because of this he decided to start trying to gather magic power from the nodes he didn't use at the moment.

Once the two hours were fully over, it was time to head to the 'Rune Magic' class. Even though he could also ask to take this class off, he decided not to since he truly thought professor Crumb was a great teacher.

He was the first student to enter the class and when he did he noticed the professor was sitting down on his desk studying a few enchanted objects before him. This wasn't an uncommon sight and so since he was currently the only student in the class he decided to ask the professor something that was probably an idiotic question.

"Professor, what is the difference between an enchantment and a magic array?"

This question had bothered Villin for a while, he knew magic arrays generally created something around or within the area it was surrounding while enchantments simply caused an effect to enter the object it is drawn on but he couldn't tell the real difference between the creation of the two.

Sure a magic array is drawn with special chalk while enchantments are drawn with a pen but he knew this was only because the materials the ink/chalk were made off were very easy for magic to traverse.

Generally, runes were simply drawn from left to right or from the top to the bottom depending on what you were enchanting while Magic arrays were in a circle with a circle above and beneath every line of runes.

But when he asked this potentially stupid question, the teacher didn't shoo him away or give a short but simple answer. Instead, the old man with a seemingly bad temper looked him in the eyes for a long time. In the dozen seconds he got stared at, Villin didn't blink as he felt an immense pressure coming from the professor's gaze.

"Who told you there was a difference?" the old man said simply staring at him once more.

Villin gulped and he was about to ask why the effects were so different then when he noticed the professor hadn't finished speaking.

The professor put one of his hands in the pocket on his robe and pulled something out. It was a miniature wooden train set that should not fit inside of the pocket but Villin didn't say anything as he awaited the man's words.

I have a little toy here I made myself but I forgot what techniques I used. Come find me and tell me how I did it again before the month is over."

After handing over the miniature train set which consisted of a total of four carriages he turned back to his work ignoring the boy before him.

Villin felt stumped for a moment as he went to his seat, there was no way he could store the train set anywhere so he had to carry it with his hands, he got a few odd looks when people saw he had a small train set with him but most people understood what was going on. In the last few classes, there had been a few other students who had gotten a task but, thus far, Villin was the only one who was successful.

Soon the class started and so Villin began studying the train. After a few minutes he had yet to find the enchantment symbols and so he decided to infuse some magic power into the object so he could spot the symbols easier. As soon as he infused some magic power into the object a loud sound traveled through the classroom.

"CHOO CHOO!!!!!"

Villin instinctively moved his hands to his ears as he retracted his magical energy, causing it to be silent once more. At this point the entire class was looking toward him, a few students had even fallen off of their chairs in shock.

Everyone expected the teacher to berate him as he usually did when a student made noise but instead he pulled out his wand and pointed it toward Villin's table.

"Grafy"

A silver light shot out of the wand and soon it landed upon the table, then the silver light dimmed a lot before it expanded causing a see-through silver circle to encompass the area around Villin's table.

When the professor started speaking again Villin realized what he had done, he couldn't hear the professor at all, it seemed like the silver dome stopped all sound. Villin decided he would get this spell sometime later as it seemed useful for a number of different things, but for now, he had to work on the train.

This time he very carefully reached out with a tiny strand much smaller than the one he previously connected and when it touched a sound once more came from the device.

"Choo Choo"

But this time the volume was very manageable, after the train made that sound it started moving exactly as a train would. He noticed it was very agile though and now if he engaged it with more magic power the train would speed up more. After a few minutes, he knew that most of the runes were around the wheels, there were also some in what would be the driver's cabinet and on the connections between the carriages, lastly, he spotted some within the pipe on the top of the train.

When he released his magic power though, something surprising happened. The train was still moving forward and the wooden pipe on top was still emitting white smoke. He waited it out, turning the train when needed and after half a minute it stopped moving entirely.

Villin thought for a bit and figured the train must have some magic storage runes, this was a rune practically every enchantment needed so it kept hold after being activated. He still felt weird though, what did this device have to do with his question?

With a patient mind, he started observing the runes on the wheels. Every single wheel had runes all around it, he suspected they were what caused the wheels to spin as they did. When he studied it though, he noticed he didn't recognize many of the runes, he would have to make a trip to the library to see if he could find them it seemed.

That being said, while he was there anyway, it was about time to get a few more spells to prepare for the tournament.