Nihility [ Isekai • Dragon Evolution ]

I kept reading the book for the rest of the loop and used the next 10 loops reading it and asking for detailed explanations from the elf priest, whose name I learned was Shira. With that I had a basic understanding of how magic worked, as Shira herself wasn't that knowledgeable on magic herself, she just knew enough to get by, but even that was enough for me.

The way their magic worked was two ways. The first one is a chant type of thing, but if I were to imagine the words in the chant itself weren't necessary beyond doing the actual chant and keeping the mental image of what you want to do. The other one is closer to what I can do with my [Magical Programming Language]. They drew circuits with runes that connected between themselves with a set order and after charging it with magicules the effect was cast.

Although I could use their way to cast, I prefer my own, with the use of my skill as I could set everything I wanted and didn't need to preoccupy myself with poorly drawn runes like the case of magic circuits. Though, poorly written spells were still a possibility. My soul still hurt from the perfect example of a poorly written spell going catastrophically wrong.

I tried to stay away from the Witch of Pride whenever I could, but I still encountered her sometimes. The card was still counting the loops as she keeps asking about it to almost everyone that doesn't piss her off right off the bat, like Henry usually does and she uses a more sophisticated version of the silencing spell Shira uses to make him lose the ability to speak altogether. Scary.

After finishing the book, I used up the next 20 loops familiarizing myself with the process of coding magic, making them more complex and trying to mimic multi-thread processing to magic, with minimal success as I didn't have the magicule quantity necessary to fully cast them.

During those tests I even gained another level in [Soul Damage Resistance], which was now at level 4. The pain of using my skills was still there, but I learned to ignore most of it, and because of it I even managed to gain another skill

Contrary to the name, it didn't diminish the pain I felt, it just allowed me to ignore it better, which I felt was a scam, but whatever.

I even started reading the next book, "The Principles of Magical Circuits", but I gave up after the fifth page, not because it was too complex, but because the language used made me want to throw up. Imagine old English but crank it up to 100, that kinda of thing. I even felt the [Humania Language] skill struggling to understand it, and when I asked about it, Shira said the book was a thousand years old, from the start of the study about magical circuits. "The newer books on the subject should have a more modern language you can understand and more information in general" She said to me after I questioned about it.

I gave up on trying to understand it and decided I would be best to do it myself, as I would be learning alongside my skill. If I were to study on the book, then I would need to relearn parts of it to integrate on my skill, just as I did with the basics of magic, although it was somewhat simple process overall I still used a full loop just trying to create random spells using the knowledge from the book before noticing the way my skill creates the spell were different enough that I needed to basically learn magic again.

It was the fifiteth loop, I think, I hadn't checked the counter for a while, the loop had just restarted and I was already back into my dragon form.

"Ok, let's try this. Test number… I don't know, I lost count after the 64th" I said as I pulled the latest version of the spell I was trying to create and charged it with the minimal amount necessary for it to run for a single moment.

After I had casted it, I then pulled another spell I had made for me to monitor it. As I casted it, Gereth and Mavi approached me, asking the same questions they always ask. If I could understand them and blah blah blah.

"I'm busy. Could you guys just return from your camp? Thanks" I answered without looking at them as I was observing the screen I was able to project after failing to do so for 7 loops. I felt like trying to code the kernel of a computer whenever I tried to create my spells, but the end result was worth it.

The screen was currently showing the charge, the strength of the pull and the stability of the overall spell, both the one I was monitoring and the one I was using to monitor.

I observed the spell both through the screen and directly looking at it. I was perfecting the gathering spell I had used on the crystal cave, a name I gave to it, very fitting if I do say so myself. I didn't even know how it worked that time, as whenever I tried to use that version of the spell outside of the cave it just broke down before doing anything.

As the spell dragged in more and more ambient magicules, I observed as the charge increased and how there were minimal quantities of elemental energies in the environmental magicules but with the spell affecting a larger and larger area the quantity being absorbed was increasing, slowly but steady. I had created countermeasures for them, but I didn't know if they worked as it never reached the necessary saturation for them to trigger and if I used them with not enough charge it would just release the energy back into the environment before being dragged back into the spell, entering a feedback loop and causing the whole spell to collapse after a while.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

When I saw the drag in effect begin to expand I started to walk away from it so I wouldn't interfere with the spell with my own magicules or damage the monitoring spell I was running. Gereth and Mavi were still there, they didn't leave after I asked them, but seeing me back away from my spell made them back faster and actually go back to their camp, probably to inform Henry about me but I didn't care.

After a while it had reached the maximum it could as I had placed a hardcoded limit on how many magicules could flow through it, limiting the pull effect and the absorption to a more manageable level. Satisfied with the results, I used the disrupting effect I had placed on the monitoring spell that would target a module on the absorption spell and break it. The spell lost stability and quickly broke apart and the stored energy shot upwards, releasing a bright flash of light that cut through the sky for a moment, just like planned.

"Ok. Now, range" I said before casting the spell the closest I could to the crystal cave without placing it inside the spell's range and then running towards the Darnas camp. After reaching the edge of the anti-monster field, I then casted the monitoring spell. It took a moment for it to form and then almost a full minute for it to connect to the other spell, making me almost go over to see if anything had happened with it, but it did connect, although I could see the connection wasn't that great. I didn't know if it was because of the distance or it was having trouble passing through the pull effect of the spell itself, or a combination of both.

Unfortunately I couldn't debug and change a spell that has already been cast, at least for now, else I would try to increase the connection strength on both ends.

As I observed the readings I could, I heard footsteps approaching me.

"Oh, sir dragon from the Myriad Palace. I am Henry Darnas, currently representing Duke Darnas at this encampment. How may I honor you?" I heard Henry's voice coming from behind me, I didn't want to deal with him in this loop, though.

"Could you please wait a little? I'm in the middle of something. Thank you" I said, without looking at him, which I know must have made him angry, but he didn't show.

"Of course. I just wanted to make sure that we offered our services to your esteemed dragon. I'm sure those of the Myriad Palace can understand" He said.

I was about to respond but my spell lost communication with the other. Curiously I started to jog towards my other spell. It reconnected at the halfway point, but soon lost connection again.

"It's getting too strong for communication" I said out loud to no one in particular.

"I beg your pardon, sir dragon?" Henry asked me after a few moments. He had followed me into the forest, most to Mavi's dismay, with an entourage of about 7 knights.

I ignored him and kept going towards the cave when I saw light coming from the entrance. Approaching it I saw that there was a continuous gush of fire, water, electricity, wind, and rocks being thrown upwards. I tried to connect with the spell again, but was unsuccessful, as the elemental energies being released into the air were disrupting the flow of magicules way too much for a stable connection to form.

I sighed. "I need to release the other elements in some other way"

"What is that?" Henry asked, again.

I looked at him and sighed. I would answer him and see if anyone in his group could have an easy solution for my problem, which I doubted, but who knows? Maybe one of them could shine a light where I failed to see the obvious.

"That's a spell to absorb the ambient magicules, but it overloads with elemental energies and that was my solution to get rid of them, using them up, but it creates too much interference on the ambient magicules. Right now it is out of control" I explained. "Do any of you maybe know of a way for me to dispose of those energies?"

The knights and Mavi looked uncertain, while Henry was a little confused, but I don't blame him. If I hadn't spent… What, 5 days straight if I counted the hours? studying his books and learning by trial and error I would be very confused as to what I was trying to do.

"Do you… need to dispose of them like this?" Henry asked, waving his hand in the direction of the multi-elemental jet of stuff being directed upwards.

"I could point them straight down, but then it would hit the floor and end up in the same situation" I said, shaking my head.

"Apologies, sir dragon" Mavi said, taking a step towards me as he did so. "What I believe Lord Henry is trying to say is. Do you need to actually release it?"

I thought for a moment. The reason why I was doing this was because the last time I made a absorption spell it ended up dragging to much elemental energy that mixed with stuff it wasn't supposed to and then blew up in my face, so I was trying to stop it from happening by simply using them before it could mix with anything else…

I frowned, a sudden idea coming to my mind as I looked again at the spell, then at the knights Henry was dragging through the forest to follow me.

Finding the archer, I approached him and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Could you please fire an arrow in the base of that? Right where the base of this elemental tornado is" I asked, to which the knight looked at Henry for his permission, and he nodded.

The archer then pulled his bow and a single arrow, pulling the string until it was tensioned against the base of the arrow, aiming at where my spell was currently sitting and then releasing his finger.

The arrow flew from his bow with an astonishing speed. One moment was in the bow, the next it was embedded in the stone wall of the cave with a resounding boom.

"Now, everyone," I said, drawing everyone's attention. "Please run and find cover" I said before turning back and doing just that.

The knights, picking up what was happening behind them, quickly scooped Henry up and ran, passing by me faster than I could accomplish. Damn, higher levels I thought as I jumped in a small hole in the ground, just in time to hear the explosion of my spell as it released everything it had after being disrupted by the arrow.

I was about to get out of the hole when the crystals in the cave cascaded in explosions, making me try to hold in the dirt, but ultimately falling into another hole when the ground opened up underneath me, making me fall and hit stone and dirt as I was thrown around like a ragdoll and finally hitting something.

When I opened my eyes I saw the smooth texture of the boronita for a second before it turned white and the loop reseted.