The fire crackled softly as morning broke across Velden. Auren sat alone, legs folded on the old rug in Elias’s study, his hands hovering above a bowl of water. His eyes were shut, but his senses were sharp focused inward, watching the hollow swirl of mana inside his chest.

  No affinity. No instinct. Just potential and pressure.

  He directed a thread of mana into the water, not to freeze or boil it he couldn’t do that yet but to feel the way energy changed it. Tiny ripples formed, spreading outward. Surface tension shifted. The experiment was simple, but important.

  He scribbled notes beside him in his journal.Water mana shows a harmonic vibration when interacting with structured mediums. Temperature isn’t the only variable. Density and cohesion seem more responsive to mana-induced pressure gradients than expected.

  His lips curled into a faint smile. He was getting closer.

  Training Ground, Midday

  “Don’t hold back this time,” Elias barked, raising his staff.

  Auren nodded, twirling The Spindle in his hand. The staff, reinforced with conductive veins and inscribed with basic mana channels, hummed faintly under his grip. He had added those channels last night, experimenting with a pattern based on resonance theories from his past life.

  Elias struck first—earth magic surged from the ground in jagged arcs. Auren moved quickly, body low and balanced, dodging the attack by inches. His training in martial movement—borrowed from basic biomechanics—was beginning to show results.

  He spun and extended his staff, firing a concentrated burst of raw mana shaped into a spiraling pulse. The blast hit the stone barrier behind Elias, cracking it.

  “Still not elemental,” Elias noted, though his tone was less critical than before. “But you’re refining it.”

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  Auren wiped sweat from his brow. “I’m trying to simulate wind this time. Not copy it. Build it from the base properties up.”

  “You’re not trying to learn spells. You’re trying to recreate them from scratch,” Elias muttered, almost impressed. “That’s a hard road.”

  Auren’s voice was steady. “It’s the only road I have.”

  Later That Evening

  The house had grown quiet again. Auren sat at the desk in the guest room, diagrams, notes, and open books spread around him like an organized storm.

  He was beginning to notice something strange.

  Every elemental affinity had unique rhythms—mana moved differently through different mediums. Fire surged in rapid pulses, like combustion; wind drifted with high-frequency fluctuations; water moved in smooth, layered waves.

  It was almost... mathematical.

  He scribbled more symbols into his notebook—frequency maps, elemental profiles, and crude models of mana flow structures based on pressure systems and thermodynamic states.

  It wasn’t just biology anymore. He was applying physics, chemistry, and engineering principles to magic.

  And for the first time, he felt like he was building something real.

  Not imitation. Integration.

  Far From Velden

  In a distant city wrapped in steel and smoke, the merchant faction known as the Iron Sigil was preparing for the seasonal magitech auction. Led by traders who blended invention with profit, the Iron Sigil controlled most of the realm’s enchanted tools, raw materials, and rune-embedded devices.

  They had recently intercepted rumors of an unusual magical reading in a backwater village—pure mana, unaligned but surging in pulses too refined for a novice.

  “Track it,” their division head ordered, voice low. “If someone’s crafting new magic from nothing... we need them. Or we bury them.”

  Back in Velden

  Auren sat cross-legged on the roof, watching stars shimmer above. In one hand, he held a glowing mana crystal. In the other, a crude mana sensor he had built from copper wire, crystal dust, and enchanted thread.

  He watched as the device responded, reacting not to elemental mana but to fluctuations of raw energy that mimicked its structure.

  It worked. Barely. But it worked.

  The road ahead was long. He had no affinity to guide him, no prestigious name, no noble blood. The academies, the factions, the Arcane Council they weren’t built for someone like him.

  But he wasn’t trying to walk their path.

  He was making his own.

  And step by slow, hard-fought step, he would reach a place they couldn’t even imagine.