[Formation diagram detected, would you like to import this to the Formation Design Workspace?]
"Yes."
After he replied, his vision changed into an empty space.
In that space, a glowing diagram had appeared, composed of just lines and nodes. It resembled the patterns on the fireball diagram in reality.
Dean panicked, thinking he had gone blind, and then realized it was his 3rd trait activating, putting his mind in this space, or to be more precise, his formation workspace.
[Do you want to proceed with the tutorial?]
"Thank God, yes please."
After he replied, a glowing arrow appeared, pointing to the bright pattern. Then,a cool artificial voice emerged in his mind
[This is a [Spell Diagram] identified by its white glowing form]
[You can import any Spell Diagrams that is within your vision from reality into the workspace. To import non-life and non-diagram objects, you must learn [Material Analysis - Master]
[Movement in this space is controlled by your thoughts. Please zoom in on the Spell Diagram.]
The voice paused. A circle highlighted the spell diagram.
Dean thought in his mind to zoom in, and his vision was immediately pulled in front of the Spell Diagram.
[Good job. Spell Diagrams are composed of nodes and lines, representing elemental particles and the flow of energy between. The more Nodes there are, the more Mana Cores are required to activate the formation.
Keep your nodes as few as possible.
Please select one of the nodes and focus on it. Imagine a circle enclosing it.]
"Got it."
Dean did as he was told, and the node he chose was now highlighted. A red arrow was shown pointing where it was oriented.
The voice continued.
[Nodes have no scale, only a position and an orientation. Its orientation in space determines its properties. In paper, nodes are invisible, and their existence and orientation are represented by the flow of mana when the ink touches the paper. Keep this in mind.]
Please rotate the node selected by 180 degrees on the y-axis.
"Y what?"
Dean reflexively replied. His brain immediately flipped and recalled his high school math lessons.
Before he could ask, he saw the node he selected with a thin green line piercing it, extending as far as the eye could see.
He knew instinctively, this was the y-axis. When he tried to rotate it, it would only rotate on the green line, and as he did, a number and an angle appeared -45. The red arrow had turned golden. He reversed the rotation until he saw 180.
At this point, the arrow had changed two times, it became green, and then blue.
The voice then explained,
[The nodes exist only in 2-dimension, so they can only be rotated on the y axis.
The angles dividing the 4 quadrants, 0, 90, 180, 270, represent the four elements. Representing Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water. In between are combination elements, having properties of the main elements.
They are called combinations because nodes can only rotate by a fixed 45-degree increment.
This is to mirror reality, where Mana can't take the properties of 2 elements at once. The average angle of two nodes is required to access the combination elements. You can perform operations in the Nodes by arranging their positions...]
"Yep, understood."
He did not understand anything.
As the voice continued explaining, and Dean kept following its instructions, he suddenly found himself in a trance. The things he previously could not understand suddenly became clear.
His thoughts turned to the buff [Enlightenment x 1], and he suddenly realized something.
'This, this wasn't just a simple buff.'
[Please pay attention. In order to solve some complex logical problems, you have to know about Node entanglement....]
The lecture tutorial continued for more than 4 hours, and he barely noticed the time. In his neighborhood, only his room still had lights on.
He just did 2 things repeatedly. Listen. Do.
It doesn't matter whether or not he understood, as his [Enlightenment] provided...well, enlightenment, during his study.
When he was done, the original [Fireball Formation Diagram] had turned into something unrecognizable from its initial state. Rotate here, rotate there, connect here, connect there, and fireball turned into a water ball.
[Well done. You have successfully created your formation. To test this, simply think in your mind [Simulate] and you will enter the simulation space.]
"Simulate," Dean spoke. Speaking the thing was the same as thinking it here, after all.
Just as he finished speaking, the glowing formation lit up. A Mana Core appeared out of nowhere, connecting to the power source, which was a unique node arrangement that allows absorption of Mana from a core.
The mana runs through the nodes, its nature transformed, turning into a water attribute. It ran to another node, causing it to materialize as water droplets. As the mana flowed, more water droplets were created and merged together.
After sucking third of the mana from the Mana Core, it stopped it's absorption.
A head-sized water ball formed in the air, stayed there for 5 seconds, before dropping under the influence of gravity.
[Congratulations]
Dean also felt an unknown feeling of pleasure and relief upon seeing his creation work.
Well, technically, it was designed by the Tutor, but he still put an enormous amount of effort into understanding why this works.
He exited the workspace, still staring at the unchanged fireball diagram in his hand.
"This reminds me, I should try drawing that fireball formation."
He checked the time, 3:24 PM. He jumped into his bed and immediately fell asleep. Tomorrow was the weekend anyway.
Despite his all-nighter, Dean woke up early, full of energy and motivation.
"According to the tutor, Formations can be inscribed on any surface."
On a non-magical surface, it would need a Mana Core to activate it, and the ink would fade after one use. Basically, a one-time consumable.
On a magic conductive surface, it might or might not need a Mana Core depending on the nature of the material used, but the ink would stay, and it can be used more than once.
Again, this reusability also depends on the integrity of the material used. Even if the ink stayed on the material, what if the material itself got burned by the fireball?
Magic conductive doesn't mean fireproof.
In other words, this fire diagram could still be used only once.
Dean informed his parents and went into the player market near their area. This market sells goods that could be found in rifts, including Mana cores and monster parts.
Mana cores were needed as a power source for the formation, but he, as a Mage, has his own Mana Core. He needed it because it was an ingredient of the ink.
When he asked for the price of Mana cores, it was 10,000 union credits.
10,000 credits per piece, more than the monthly living expense of an average household.
And this price was already considered cheap.
Major guilds were constantly farming Mana Cores 24/7; however, only a few rifts has monsters that produced them, and rifts needed to be cleared and closed regularly to prevent disasters. Guilds that fail to do so are fined, and their license to exclusively farm a rift would be revoked.
Every month or so, the supply of Mana cores would fluctuate due to guilds closing their rifts and moving on to look for another. Sometimes they would get lucky and chance upon many, sometimes they'd be overtaken by other guilds.
As a result, it was the favorite commodity of speculators. Its price is extremely volatile.
Dean returned empty-handed. He found out that player-related goods were way beyond his funds.
Thankfully, he had his 2nd trait, and fortunately, there was the existence of practice dungeons.
Rifts that never close or cause a disaster, and their monsters were weak, just slightly above harmless. Designed for beginners to get used to the player life.
He decided to earn his first pot of gold there.