Chapter 39: Mistakes Were Made

**Ding! Sense Illusion has reached level 20!*

Kaius gasped in relief, rubbing his eyes. He’d been staring at floating illusions for hours. Long enough that Porkchop had woken from his nap and was now watching him curiously from the church. His friend had seemed fascinated with the process of scrawling runes and the resulting effects they produced.

At least, he had the first few times. Kaius sent a contemptuous scowl to the charred pile of boards that had been collecting behind him.

At first it had been enough to simply make more arrays to generate floating orbs. Eventually that stopped pressuring his skill, and he had to take far more time on the array. Making it, and by extension the illusion, as perfect as possible. On rough wood. With a stick of charcoal.

It was enough to make him tear his hair out.

If that wasn’t enough, eventually even a perfect floating orb wasn’t enough. Too simplistic. Too flat. He’d had to start adding complexity to the shaping arrays. Giving the orb variation in colour and texture. Making it respond superficially to touch and movement. Adding better light scattering.

Tasks that Gretchen’s Standard was not well suited for. By the end he’d had to reinscribe his final array four times. Four! Times!

Rising from his comfortable seat, Kaius lunged into a deep stretch, working out the kinks he had developed after sitting over hunched for so long. Walking over to Porkchop, he grabbed one of his water skins and slumped down. Leaning heavily into the warm softness of his friend’s side.

“Going well?” Porkchop asked, chest rising in a series of quick chuffs. Bastard was laughing at him.

He let out an unintelligible grumble.

“The sooner I never have to think about that stupid script again the better. My hands hurt, my ears hurt, and my brain feels like it is melting out of my ears. So yes, it’s going well.” Kaius ranted, before slipping out a grin. “I capped the skill.”

Porkchop simply rumbled, amusement still flowing across their link.

“I should get back to it,” Kaius sighed. “I’ve only got Sense Mana now. The inscriptions for that should be a lot simpler.”

Pulling himself up to his feet, Kaius wandered back to his waiting pile of wooden planks. He pulled one free, letting it fall to the ground with a clatter.

Taking a seat in front of it he began tracing the lines of his next array. He’d told the truth when he’d mentioned to Porkchop that the array he needed was much simpler. It was also firmly in the wheelhouse of the simplistic arrays that Gretchen’s Standard was designed for.

Flowing lines, geometric shapes, and whorling passages of runic hymns materialised in his mind’s eye. He held the image, searching for mistakes and imperfections. It was about half the size of the array he had used for Sense Illusion. He’d been able to completely rip out the shaping array, and most of the binding ones too – just the central sigil and some tertiary directing runes remained.

Stripped down, it was really just a gathering array, a few conduits, an emitter, and the binding.

**Ding! Mental Visualisation has reached level 18!**

“Good,” Kaius thought to himself. He should be able to finish the skill before he was done as well.

He sharpened his charcoal with his hunting knife, placing the rudimentary writing implement down onto the wood and began to inscribe his array. Ten minutes, and a handful of corrections, later and he watched the array activate, sinking deep into the wood.

Focus dived inwards, forcing mana to flood into his eyes.

He reached saturation just as the formation activated. It was far quicker than his earlier illusion array. Only needing to condense the mana, rather than transform it into a different form.

Thick hazy air rose up from the array, the mana dense enough to cause physical deformations. Ignoring his rising headache he peered at intently. Trying to reveal its secrets. To see the hidden world of magic that suffused and radiated through all of existence.

Something sparked. A flash of colour?

**Ding! General Skill Available! Would you like to learn: Sense Mana (Rare)?**

Letting out a woop, Kaius relaxed his hold on the mana in his eyes and accepted the skill.

Instantly the world was awash in a riot of colours.

**Ding! Sense Mana has reached level 2!**

A geyser of spiritual energies roared out of his array.

**Ding! Sense Mana has reached level 3!**

Blues, reds, and every other colour morphing and changing in a violent current that surged upwards, splashing out and down from the cavern ceiling.

**Ding! Sense Mana has reached level 4!**

So bright it was almost blinding. A primal force of nature.

**Ding! Sense Mana has reached level 5!**

His array vacuumed at the surrounding energies, syphoning great clouds.

**Ding! Sense Mana has reached level 6!**

The mana seemed to scream in rage at their confinement, elemental aspects fighting to diffuse themselves. To separate from their opposites.

**Ding! Sense Mana has reached level 7!**

Forced into close proximity.

**Ding! Sense Mana has reached level 8!**

The array started to whine.

**Ding! Sense Mana has reached level 9!**

**Ding! Sense Mana has reached level 10!**

**Ding! Sense Mana has reached level 11!**

Kaius screamed at his body to move. He couldn’t. Suck staring blankly at the sheer presence of the mana.

**Ding! Sense Mana has reached level 12!**

**Ding! Sense Mana has reached level 13!**

There shouldn’t be so much of it. Should there? Mana was diffuse. Thin. Even if he was in the Depths, he was only on the second layer.

**Ding! Sense Mana has reached level 14!**

**Ding! Sense Mana has reached level 15!**

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The board rattled.

**Ding! Sense Mana has reached level 16!**

**Ding! Sense Mana has reached level 17!**

Something closed over his shoulder. Hard. Digging into his flesh.

**Ding! Sense Mana has reached level 19!**

He was yanked backwards. His head lolled to the side. The mana was everywhere. So bright. Even looking away from the syphon, it suffused everything. Too much. He couldn’t see.