Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King

Now, while Petros could use the advanced mana sense of a Rank Eight mage to essentially see the mana flows that went with the spell, the rest of the classroom was just looking at the symbols. That meant that what they saw was Wolfe writing a novel in the air, and then binding it into a spherical spell, as the layers shifted so the alignment runes overlapped, but with the next layer turned, so the rest of the symbols didn't.

Then he flattened it and imbued it on the desktop of the lecturer's desk in the corner of the room.

"That will remain in effect for the duration of the seminars so that nobody is tempted to take out their frustrations on their neighbours. Learning a whole new language of runes will not be easy, and I fully expect that some of you might not have the knack for it." Wolfe explained.

That statement proved to be prophetic, and as the morning went on, some of the Nobles were already having issues with the idea of combining symbols into syllable blocks. Some lines were omitted if they duplicated a line on the one before them, and the result was simply incomprehensible to some of them.

"Don't worry, the University promises that you can keep the book after the seminar, so you can have as long as you need to learn the basics of the runes." Wolfe explained.

"You mentioned advanced runes. But I don't see a way that these would become more complex than this." One of the frustrated women declared.

"There is more than one written alphabet. This is the newer and simplified one. Then we have the seventeen thousand precision runes of the old language. I am told that they are more powerful than the new ones, but unless you're willing to learn them all, you will be either imprecise or limited in your magical activations.

That led to many new mages only duplicating spells, and not personalizing them, or using them properly for a situation. So, the new language was made." Wolfe explained.

"Seventeen thousand." The woman whispered to herself.

"So, for all these magical items and spell scrolls we have that have other runes on them, they're likely from an entirely different magical language?" One of the men asked, holding up a dagger.

Wolfe looked at it carefully, then laughed.

"That particular dagger is Demon Forged. The runes are in Demonic standard, which is a wholly different magical language. But there are others in this room that are written with a mix of old and new runes.

That's probably because the caster only knew certain runes for each word and couldn't actually read them, but it definitely isn't optimal.

How about we do a demonstration. Could we get Matriarch Dallas to volunteer?" Wolfe replied.

The ancient woman, very nearly a Saint, came to join him at the front, looking eager to see what Wolfe was up to.

"The hairpin you have on, did you make it? It looks like your magic." Wolfe asked.

She nodded. "Indeed I did. A bit of vanity, I will admit."

Wolfe created a new set of plain black hair sticks, similar to the ones she had on.

"The spell is made with a mix of runes, but with all the new style runes, the words for black hair look like this.

Now, if you write them down the length of the sticks, instead of in a proper circle, the effect will be greatly weakened, but your intention will remain, and the spell will activate. Here, use this paint pen." Wolfe suggested, making one with gold paint in it for the purpose.

She looked suspicious when the pen just appeared in his hand, and Petros was laughing as he realized that Wolfe wasn't taking these items from storage. But, she took the pen and moved to the desk to carefully write the runes.

"Remember, it is a spell, imbue the mana at the end with a focus on the exact shade of black you want." Wolfe reminded her.

She rolled her eyes at him. She was a Rank Six mage, even if she wasn't familiar with casting spells like this.

The spell activated smoothly, and the golden paint glowed as it hardened with magic, and left her with two matching and beautiful hair sticks. The gold paint on the onyx stone stick was both stylish and functional.

She took her old hairpin out, and long blonde locks cascaded down to the middle of her back.

She spun it back into a half braid, leaving the bottom loose, then twisted it into a bun and inserted the sticks to hold it in place.

Her hair turned to a raven black, and her complexion changed from pale to slightly tanned, which matched better with her hair.

"As you can see, the exact words aren't the extent of the spell. With the right intentions, you can add minor secondary effects without more runes, much like adding details to a dress when you're using an armour spell.

You're looking lovely, Matriarch. Excellent penmanship."

One of the others raised a hand. "Can we take a moment to discuss the fact that she has been a blonde all this time? I've known her for seventy years now, and I didn't know that Madam Dallas did not naturally have black hair. Not even a hint of blonde roots as her hair grew out."

A few of the other older Nobles laughed. The hairpin she always wore had the symbol of her Noble House on it, and it was perfectly normal for her to wear it every day, so she had been hiding her hair colour the same way for at least seventy years.

The Matriarch smiled at the man who had called her out. "My husband loved my blonde hair and wanted to keep it for himself, so I hid my hair colour in public. But when he passed some years ago, it seemed odd to suddenly stop, so I just kept doing it."