[Book 2 Complete] Industrial Mage

"Come back when you've cracked open the rune I carved into your soul."

That's what Seraphina told him, and then she slammed the door right in his face. Theodore hadn't even gotten a word out. Not a hello, not a 'I've thought about your offer,' nothing. Just bam, door closed, conversation over. It was almost like she'd known exactly when he was going to show up and had been waiting just to deliver that one line.

Well. That was rude. And also kind of impressive, timing-wise. How had she even known he was coming? Was she watching him through the rune somehow? That was a deeply uncomfortable thought.

No point standing around glaring at a door that probably didn't even exist half the time. Magic shops were weird like that. He sighed and turned to leave.

Just as he started walking away, he spotted Senna approaching. As she passed by him, heading for the shop door, the soon-to-be fellow apprentice smirked at him. You're not worth her time. She mouthed.

Was that a challenge? Theodore raised an eyebrow. Because it sure as hell sounded like a challenge. Fine. He'd crack the damn rune. Though honestly, what kind of skill would someone like Seraphina even put in there? She was supposedly one of the strongest people in the world. The woman who could delete monster hordes and reverse time like it was nothing. What would someone like that consider worth passing on?

***

"You know, you're really tense right now."

Theodore opened his eyes to find Freya's head on his thigh. They'd finished sparring maybe twenty minutes ago and he'd sat down to work on the rune puzzle while she did her cooldown stretches. Apparently, she'd finished and decided his leg was the perfect pillow.

"I'm trying to concentrate," Theodore said.

"On what?"

"Breaking a magical puzzle that's attached to my soul."

"Sounds boring."

"It's actually quite complex."

"Still sounds boring." She shifted slightly, getting more comfortable. "So can I help?"

"Not unless you know anything about multi-layered runic security systems."

"Nope. But I could punch something if that would help."

Theodore couldn't help but smile a little at that.

"Why is your head on my thigh?"

"It's comfy."

"My thigh is comfy?"

"Very. You should be honored. Not everyone gets to be my pillow."

Theodore rolled his eyes and pushed her off.

Freya yelped and rolled dramatically across the training ground. "Betrayal! Rejection! My heart, it breaks! How will I ever recover from this devastating blow to my dignity!"

"You'll manage," Theodore said dryly, already closing his eyes again to get back to the rune.

"You're heartless, Theodore Lockheart. Absolutely heartless."

***

He was walking back to his room after another training session when he spotted her. Leona. His little sister. She was coming down the hallway from the opposite direction, probably heading to her own training or lessons or whatever noble children did in the afternoon.

He realized then that he didn't really know his sister, and that was an uncomfortable thought, and the fact that he found it uncomfortable made him even more uncomfortable.

She saw him too. He could tell by the way her entire body went rigid.

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Theodore felt awkward. Deeply, painfully awkward. Their last interaction hadn't gone well. She hated him, rightfully so. The original Theodore—no… He couldn't excuse his behavior like that anymore, and he didn't know how to feel about that, he still hadn't gotten to process all that information that'd been revealed to him, so he shoved it down and locked it somewhere in his head like always. Point being, he had been horrible to her for years, and even though he wasn't quite that person anymore, he still wore the same face and bore the responsibility, somewhat, even if it had been out of his control.

Should he say something? Try to talk to her? Or would that just make things worse?

He debated internally for what felt like forever but was probably half a second. Maybe he should just say hello. Something simple. Non-threatening. Show her he wasn't going to be cruel anymore.

"Leona, I—"

She was already gone, he realized. The moment he'd opened his mouth, she'd averted her eyes, looked down at the floor, and practically fled past him. The whole thing had taken maybe two seconds total.

Theodore sighed.

***

Back in Holden, Theodore had both his clones working on the rune problem too. It had been a week now of constant attempts. Wake up, morning training, work on the rune. Administrative duties for the clone in Holden, work on the rune. Meals, conversations with family, work on the rune. Every spare moment was dedicated to cracking this puzzle.

The thing was incredibly complex.

Every time he thought he'd figured out a pattern, new layers would appear. Security measures he hadn't even noticed before would activate, blocking his progress. It was like trying to pick a lock that kept growing new tumblers every time you got close to opening it and pushed you back to the start line.

But he was making progress.

Slow, frustrating progress, but progress nonetheless. And his skills were benefiting from the constant practice.

[Arcane Awareness] has leveled up! – Lvl 17 > Lvl 18!

While trying to sense the pathways inside the rune, and the new barriers that kept popping up to stop him from entering the rune's inner dimensional space, his [Arcane Awareness] had sharpened. The skill had been working overtime just trying to keep up with what Seraphina had created.

[Mana Control] has leveled up! – Lvl 21 > Lvl 23!

[Mana Control], that was an obvious one. He'd had to thread his mana through so many complex pathways, maintain so many simultaneous flows, that he was honestly surprised he hadn't gained even more levels. Some of the pathways were so narrow he'd had to compress his mana to almost nothing, while others required massive surges of power delivered with surgical precision.

[Cloning] has leveled up! – Lvl 12 > Lvl 13!

[Parallel Processing] has leveled up! – Lvl 5 > Lvl 8!

[Cloning] got an expected increase from all the simultaneous work, but it was really [Parallel Processing] that shocked him. Three levels! In about a week! That was insane. But it made a weird kind of sense when he thought about it. He'd been using his clones constantly to work on different aspects of the puzzle, comparing notes, trying different approaches simultaneously. What these levels in [Parallel Processing] had done was let him use both clones truly simultaneously as himself, instead of just using one actively while the other ran on basic commands.

Three minds, all focused on the same problem from different angles. It was giving him a headache, honestly, but it was also incredibly effective.

What kind of skill could possibly be worth this much security. Seraphina was supposedly one of the strongest people in the world. What would someone at that level consider valuable enough to lock away like this? The more he worked on breaking the rune, the more impressed he became with its construction.

Every layer had been crafted with incredible precision. The way the security measures interacted, supporting and reinforcing each other, was almost artistic. You couldn't brute force your way through because trying would trigger cascading failures that would lock you out completely. You couldn't be too gentle either, because some barriers required significant power to overcome.

It was like she'd designed it specifically to test every aspect of magical ability at once. Power, control, perception, patience, creativity. Theodore was starting to think the puzzle itself might be as much of a lesson as whatever skill was hidden inside.

His grandfather had said Seraphina had a penchant for theatrics. This definitely qualified. Who else would turn handing over a skill into an elaborate test that took weeks to complete?

Though Theodore had to admit, he was kind of enjoying it. Not the frustration part, obviously. That sucked. But the challenge itself was genuinely engaging. It had been a while since he'd had to push himself this hard intellectually.

Back to the rune itself—it was quite surprising how hard it was to break even with his runic skills. He could actually see the true structure of it, the fundamental patterns that made it work. He probably could deconstruct the entire thing if he wanted to, just tear it apart at the seams to see what made it tick, and reconstruct it himself. But he hadn't done it because he had no idea what that would do. Would the skill be destroyed? Would it damage his soul? Would Seraphina know and be pissed off?

Better to do it the intended way. She likely had no idea about his runic skills, so this pathway method was probably the right approach.

Theodore was sitting in his room at the estate, eyes closed, most of his consciousness turned inward. His clones were doing the same in Holden. Three perspectives on the same puzzle, all working in harmony thanks to [Parallel Processing]. Really, he wondered what it would take—

The rune cracked.

Theodore barely had time to brace himself before information about concepts that made up a skill slammed into his head.