Chapter Text
“This is trivial,” Celine says as she slaps another sheet of paper onto the growing pile in front of Rena, now completely covering the surface of the corner table in the dingy tavern they chose to spend the night in. “The basic formula for calculating the effect of your spell based on your opponent’s elemental strengths and weaknesses. So, we have our elemental matrix here—”
Rena tries to make sense of the surprisingly few numbers, worryingly many letters, and strange symbols she’s never seen before. All it does is make her head spin, and her heart heavy. She was the one to ask Celine for help, and Celine has taken the time to passionately teach her the science behind Symbology ever since. It’s just that Rena underestimated the complexity of science, and overestimated her own ability to understand it.
She eyes what Celine introduced as a ‘matrix’ but just looks like a regular table to Rena. It’s probably because she doesn’t get it. She sighs. “This is the trivial stuff?”
“Oh, absolutely.” Celine nods and holds up a finger. “That doesn’t even take environmental effects, any active supporting spells, or the phase of the moon into account.” She slams her hand down on the table. “And what if your opponent uses a weapon enhanced with elemental properties, you wonder?”
Rena doesn’t wonder. But Celine is unstoppable and seems to be excited about the answer, so she puts on her best “I’m wondering!” face.
“Well, I got you covered!” Celine cheers. And if there wasn’t a fire in her eyes before, there sure is now. “Usually you need to consider at least your opponent’s measurements, viscosity if it’s a liquid monster, ambient temperature, relative humidity, the aforementioned moon phase, and that’s just the basics! The result is a rather complex formula that is tedious to sort out.”
She adds more symbols to the ‘trivial’ formula, which already looked complex and tedious to sort out before.
Rena sinks into her chair. “That’s… a bit much,” she mumbles into the hand that now supports her head. It’s gotten quite heavy.
“Don’t worry, dear Rena! We simply combine all these variables into what I call the Combined Elemental-and-Locational-Influences-of-Noteworthiness Evaluation factor!”
“Influences of… noteworthiness?”
Celine grins at her, and with a wide and dramatic gesture she crosses out all of the newly added symbols and draws an angry monster instead. “Our human, and more than subpar, senses make for a splendid filter for inconsequential details, isn’t that great? You simply take in your surroundings, and depending on what you see, hear, and feel, use this handy dandy sheet to determine the value!”
She hands Rena yet another sheet. Upon closer inspection, it’s just a list of instructions.
Rena reads the first rows aloud, “If opponent is smaller than you, plus one. If bigger, minus one. If your spell is ranged, minus zero point five for every target.” The rest of them are all of the same pattern. She jumps to the bottom of the list. “If it’s a full moon, plus zero point five if your spell is of element light.”
Celine claps her hands. “You’ll have it memorized in no time! This way, you can easily do the math in your head. I have been working on this for years!”
“Wait.” It’s Rena who slams her palm on the table this time. “You came up with it?”
“Of course!” Celine tilts her chin up. “This has my handwriting all over it. Mind you, it is an approximation and heavily simplified for practical purposes.”
Rena looks at the sheet again. It does seem more like a shopping list than actual math. She pumps her fists. “I’ll do my best to learn it! I even know all of the symbols on this one!”
Celine laughs. “I was a little overeager, hm?” She rests her chin on the palm of her hand, her eyes straying to somewhere behind Rena. “Usually my more practical approach is laughed at. All those old farts dominating the field of Symbology never actually use the formulas they come up with in combat, and try to outdo one another by making them more complicated than they need to be for the average Symbol user.”
“Well, I’m obviously no expert, but you made it into something that pretty much anyone can use, right?” Rena says. “That’s beautiful!”
“Beautiful,” Celine repeats, as if trying out the word. “You’re right. In reality, most details don’t matter for something as small as a single spell, since the effects are so minuscule they would be outweighed by something as simple as your eyes wandering to the bulging muscles of your sword-fighting companions while casting. And how would you calculate that?” Celine taps her chin. “There is science in theory and science in practice. One is not more valuable than the other.”
“Well said!” Rena lifts her grape juice and pushes the pile of papers aside. “To our beautiful Celine!”
“To the beauty of science!” Celine clinks her glass of not-really-grape-juice with Rena’s and gives her a wink. “And to you memorizing the handy dandy sheet by tomorrow’s lecture!”
Rena chokes on her actual-grape-juice.