Chương 2: Lock

Enzo sighed and leaned back against the couch, right leg propped up on the coffee table. His eyes ached from reading the glowing text for the past hour. The Guide had given him answers. Not all of them, and not the ones he wanted most, but enough to start making sense of what had happened. Earth was part of a protected system. Intentionally set aside for the development of humans capable of manipulating mana.

The barrier had been in place for hundreds of thousands of years, the solar system stripped of ambient mana, allowing for controlled reintroduction as humanity evolved. Mana was a byproduct of stellar fusion. Their sun had been producing it the entire time, accumulating within the shield. From the sound of it, everything was proceeding as planned by whoever owned their planet. Until a dead Star Eater bled through the shield and all over the solar system. For humans, mana became magic through one of two genes.

The split between them was roughly even, though the Guide stayed vague on the exact numbers. Activation depended on sensitivity, exposure levels, and other factors not elaborated on. Helpful. Wizards carried the Mana Manipulation gene. Internal manipulation was impossible for them. They stored mana in their brains and could project mana externally to create varied effects. Spells, though the Guide again provided little information beyond the basics.

Sorcerers carried the Mana Cultivation gene, and unlike wizards, they couldn't manipulate mana externally. They stored mana in their hearts and circulated it through their blood, reinforcing their entire bodies from within. This resulted in cultivation of the body, providing increased strength, speed, and durability, along with improved healing and physical senses. Both were classified as mages. Arcane mana was the default. The purest expression of mana.

Specialized types existed, but again the Guide remained light on details. It also mentioned that the first use of magic was often emotional. Instinctive outbursts when control went out the window. Enzo thought about the explosion in the park. The force that erupted from his palms and sent a man flying twenty meters. That had to be external magic. Which made him a wizard. The Guide was exploratory by design.

It would explain things as he encountered them, codify and simplify ability usage, track his status and progress. But growth was personal. Shaped by experimentation and individual understanding. The Guide would change as they developed, expanding in functionality as their society adapted. Otherwise, it provided no learning aids. Except for one. A tutorial covering the principles of mana absorption and usage. How to sense and store it. How to control or cultivate it. Enzo glanced at Murph.

Still sleeping, curled in her bed. He looked out the window. Rain drummed against the glass, steady and thick. It was time to see if any of this actually worked. The first step was sensing mana. There were two visualization methods, depending on which gene had activated. Both involved creating a mental lens to perceive what the body couldn't naturally detect. Wizards formed the lens at their foreheads. Fingers steepled with thumbs pointing down, pressed against the skin, creating a gap.

The idea was to imagine a third eye opening there, looking outward through the space to perceive atmospheric mana. Sorcerers used a similar approach, but positioned the lens differently. Fingers interlocked with knuckles pointing down, pressed over the heart. The idea was to open inward, allowing mana to enter and shape the self. The Guide didn't elaborate on why the difference mattered. Or if the philosophical nuances were relevant. Enzo settled back into the couch and brought his hands up.

Formed the lens as described. He closed his eyes and focused on the space between his fingertips. A third eye. Looking outward through the gap. For several seconds, nothing happened other than him feeling stupid. Then, suddenly, the world shifted. Purple filled his awareness. Thin wisps drifted through the apartment like smoke caught in an invisible breeze. They moved in slow currents, eddying around furniture and walls.

His perception extended maybe ten meters in every direction, a sphere of awareness centered on himself. Outside the apartment, the mana was different. Not subtle wisps but torrents. Chaotic streams downward, spiralling from the sky, thick and violent. Where they hit his window or the eaves, other flows erupted upward, meeting the descending rain in swirling collisions. The blood pooling everywhere was slowly evaporating, releasing absorbed mana back into the atmosphere. A thought distracted him.

The purple was the same shade as his eyes in the mirror. His focus broke, and the sensation vanished. Enzo's eyes snapped open. He was breathing hard, hands still pressed to his forehead. The whole thing had lasted maybe ten seconds. And it had happened too fast He pulled up the tutorial again and scanned it quickly. Found the section that stated it could take hours before one sensed ambient mana for the first time. Building the visualization took practice.

The mind needed to learn how to interpret something it had never experienced before. Hours. It had only taken seconds. Enzo studied the glowing text. The Star Eater's blood had to be the reason. Mana was everywhere right now, saturating the atmosphere in concentrations the Guide probably never anticipated. Of course it was easier when there was so much of it. That made sense. He shook his head and scrolled to the next section. Absorption. Once mana could be sensed, it could be drawn inward and stored.

The process used the same visualization, but instead of passively observing, the mage actively pulled mana through the lens with an added layer of imagination. For wizards, that meant drawing it into their brains. Enzo closed his eyes and formed the lens again. The purple flows appeared immediately this time, already sharper and clearer than before. He focused on the wisps drifting closest to him and imagined pulling them through the gap between his fingers. The mana immediately responded. It felt wrong at first.

Foreign energy passing through his forehead, uncomfortable and intrusive. But once it settled into what he could only describe as a reservoir behind his eyes, the sensation shifted. Warmth spread throughout his head. It felt pleasant. Right. Like something that had been missing his entire life suddenly slipping into place. He kept pulling. The thin wisps in the apartment flowed toward him, drawn through the lens and into his mind.

Each one added to the growing reservoir, a pool of mana that he realized hadn't been entirely empty. Exposure to the rain must have caused some passive absorption. He could feel it accumulating, a pressure building behind his eyes that wasn't painful but present. Minutes ticked by until, eventually, the sensation stopped growing. Instinctively he knew the reservoir was full. Enzo released the visualization and opened his eyes. The apartment looked the same. Murph still slept in her bed.

Rain still drummed against the window. But inside his head, something had changed. He could feel the stored mana, a well of potential waiting to be used. He glanced at his phone on the coffee table. Still no signal. He'd checked three times in the last hour, as if the cell towers might have spontaneously fixed themselves. Valentina was twenty-two and undertaking a PhD program at UCSF. Biomedical engineering. She was smart and driven.

And if anyone could figure out how to stay alive through an apocalypse, it was her. The problem was that staying alive and staying put were different skills, and Val had never mastered the second one. She'd argue with a burning building if she thought it was wrong. Walk into danger because walking away didn't occur to her when someone needed help. He could picture it too clearly. The rain starts. People fall.

And instead of sheltering in place like any reasonable person would, she's out in it, dragging classmates to cover, barking orders at people twice her age, absolutely certain she knows best. Enzo exhaled and set the thought aside. Worrying accomplished nothing. He'd wait for first light, then go get her. His old walking cane was still in the closet, even if it wasn't as good, lacking the adjustable height, but it would get the job done.

Until then, he just had to figure out as much as he could about what was going on. Starting with what he could do with mana. Fireballs were the obvious choice. That's what wizards did. They threw balls of fire around, blasting their enemies. Blowing things up. But it also seemed like a bad idea. He looked around the apartment. His small, highly flammable apartment, with curtains and rugs and a wooden coffee table.

Not to mention the couch he was sitting on, and the six-month-old border collie pup sleeping just a few meters away. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Perhaps something less destructive made sense. From where he sat, he could see the rest of the space. The kitchen opened directly into the living room, separated by a short counter. Two doors led off to his left. The first was his bedroom. Technically.

Valentina had claimed it the day she moved in, back when their parents called and announced she'd be staying with him because it was closer to campus. He'd been sleeping on the couch ever since. Not that it bothered him. The second door led to his workshop, where he actually spent most of his time when not walking Murph or dealing with his sister. Enzo had inherited the family's jewelry boutique downtown, known for its bespoke pieces.

He had a store assistant to handle the retail side, but did all the actual crafting himself. His work involved designing, casting, engraving inscriptions, cutting and faceting raw stones into gems, which were then set into the final piece. It was work where a single mistake could ruin days of effort and cost thousands in materials, demanding intense patience and attention to detail. Over time, he'd filled the workshop with benches and tools for more than just jewelry.

Lapidary work, cutting and shaping gemstones, had given him a foundation for understanding stone, which had expanded into carving and engraving larger pieces. Metal engraving came later, different but with the same demands for precision and steady hands. He sold those pieces online. The store was just for meeting clients and displaying the finished work. The workshop at home allowed him to focus without interruption. At least, that was the idea.

Valentina hadn't been part of his master plan when he set everything up. And she was plenty disruptive. She'd reorganized his vinyl collection within a week of moving in, sorting it by genre and decade instead of the system he'd used for years. He'd complained. She'd pointed out that his system was alphabetical except for the albums he liked most, which were filed at the front, making the whole thing functionally useless for anyone but him. She wasn't wrong.

It was mostly laziness on his part, but he'd never admit it. And he had actually enjoyed the break in habitual behavior, which led him to rediscover many of his favorites buried in the obscurity of the old system. It had been a busy few days, and they had barely spoken. He was even beginning to miss arguing with the brat, which was a dangerous thought. So he buried it and focused on something else. His eyes landed on the security case sitting on the kitchen counter.

Made of reinforced metal, with a simple key lock on the front. He used it to transport work and materials, gold and gemstones, back and forth between home and the store. He'd brought it home yesterday before taking Murph to the park. Moved the contents to the safe, grabbed the leash, and walked out without any clue the horror the afternoon would bring. He frowned. The tutorial had mentioned layers of complexity.

Advanced spells required intricate patterns, precise control, and a deep understanding of the effects being created. But the basics were simple. Conceptualize. Gather mana. Guide it with intent. Let the energy do what you wanted it to do. Tumbler locks weren't complicated. Pins needed to align. Cylinders needed to turn. That was mechanical and straightforward. Surely that couldn't be too difficult. Enzo pushed himself off the couch and crossed to the counter before returning with the security case.

He sat back down and held it in both hands, the metal cool against his palms. The locking mechanism faced him. The idea was simple. A small goal. Magic that could lock and unlock something. A lock spell for Lorenzo Locke. He grinned. Then focused on the word. Held it in his mind. Worked through his understanding, limited though it was, of how locking mechanisms worked. He thought about combination locks. Safes. Even the simple act of tying a knot and binding something together.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized that locking something was a far more complex concept than he'd originally imagined. His mind wandered to keypads and computer logins. Handcuffs and vaults. Enzo shook his head and cleared his mind of distractions. Then he took a deep breath and tried to push mana outward the way the tutorial had described. Nothing happened. He squinted at the case. Concentrated harder. The mana sat inside his head, warm and real as far as he could tell, but it refused to move.

Refused to obey. He glared at the lock. Willed energy to flow from his head and out into the world and into the metal. Still nothing. His jaw clenched. Muscles tensed in his arms. Then his chest. His neck. He could feel the strain increasing as he physically tried to force something to happen. Enzo gasped, sucking in air and allowing his muscles to relax. He set the case down on the coffee table. The approach was wrong. The Guide mentioned visualization and control.

Perhaps that meant he needed to sense the mana first, as he had during absorption. He settled back into the couch and brought his hands up into the lens position. Eyes closed. The purple flows appeared immediately. He focused on one of the strands closest to him and imagined guiding it toward the case on the table. The mana responded. It shifted direction, flowing where he directed. Except the strand was ephemeral and thin. When he tried to shape it into something more concentrated, it dispersed.

It also defied the logical conclusion. If he could wield ambient mana directly, surely there would be no need to absorb it into himself. Not to mention he couldn't see the case with his eyes closed. Enzo opened his eyes. The purple vanished instantly as his sense of the mana cut off. He wondered if that was a genuine limitation, or something that would simply require practice to master. Surely sensing mana while doing other things was a necessary skill for a mage. He frowned.

Getting the mana to go inside his head had been easy. Natural, even. Enough that he'd considered himself gifted for a moment. But this was like trying to manipulate a muscle you'd never separately exercised control over before. Like those people who could make their pecs flex one at a time. Or bounce their earlobes. Weirdos. Enzo looked at the security case. He needed a bridge. Something to connect the mana in his head to the lock in front of him. He leaned forward and placed one finger against his temple.

The other he pressed against the lock mechanism. A physical pathway. He closed his eyes and focused on the reservoir inside his skull. The warmth was still there, that pleasant pressure behind his eyes. He held the sensation in his awareness, remembering how it had felt when the mana first settled into place. Now he needed to reverse it. Enzo imagined the warmth moving, instead of trying to push and pull at it. Allowed the mana to flow from his mind.

Envisioned a small stream running down his face, across his shoulders, then along the length of his arm, before finally reaching the finger touching the lock. Something shifted. The sensation in his mind cooled slightly. Just enough to be noticeable. His heart raced, and the mana wavered in response. He gritted his teeth. Restrained his emotions, forced himself to breathe. The mana stabilized. It felt different to his senses, not like the ephemeral wispiness of ambient mana. It almost seemed denser.

Perhaps that was what the tutorial meant. Intent guided it. Purpose shaped it. His control over the mana sharpened as it started flowing again. Moments later, the mana completed the journey and slipped into the mechanism. Found the pins. Small metal cylinders sitting in chambers, blocking the tumbler from turning. He focused on the first one and imagined the mana pressing upward. The pin shifted. Barely, but enough. He moved to the second pin. The third.

Each one required concentration, tiny adjustments to get them into the right position. Then he had to leave part of the mana behind, holding it in place while he moved onto the next. But patience and fine control were his bread and butter. He might be more familiar doing precision work with his hands, but that didn't seem to make a difference. The pins aligned. He wondered if magic could be left behind to secure the lock, ensuring only he could open it.

There was a brief pulse from the thread, as the mana permeated between the moving parts, responding to the thought. Enzo visualized the tumbler rotating. The mana responded, applying pressure in exactly the right direction. The lock clicked. He opened his eyes with a smile. Tried to open it, just to confirm that it was truly locked. It was. Then he frowned. The Guide was pulling gently at his attention.

Alerting him, as it had when it first appeared and provided the idiot's guide to the Guide, that there were notifications for him to review. With a thought, he pulled them up, causing the illusory boxes to appear.

— Mana Sense (Level 1) Learned Mana Control (Level 1) Learned Mana Absorption (Level 1) Learned Mana Sense (Level 1) → Mana Sense (Level 2) Mana Control (Level 1) → Mana Control (Level 2) — Spell Codified: Lock (Level 1) Type: Arcane Description: Engages mechanical locking mechanisms and reinforces them with magical binding. Can be bypassed by the proper key or equivalent physical or magical force. — Notification First spell creation detected.

The Universal Training Guide has analyzed and recorded the magical effect. Codified spells are added to your personal record and can be accessed through your status interface. Simplified Casting: Codified spells can be invoked verbally by speaking the spell's name. This method reproduces the recorded effect without requiring manual mana control, allowing for faster and more reliable casting. Note: Status interface can now be accessed at any time. — Enzo read through each notification slowly.

His ability to sense mana had improved. That tracked, given how much quicker it had come to him the second time. So did Mana Control. He assumed that increase was associated with his efforts to guide the mana from his mind to the lock, and within. Then there was Lock itself. His first spell. The description confirmed what he'd felt during the casting. Not just engaging the mechanism, but reinforcing it with magic. He'd created something. Actual magic that the Guide had analyzed and recorded.

The explanation about simplified casting bothered him, though. The idea that he could just reproduce all that effort with a single word was remarkably convenient. And 'remarkably convenient' sat right next to 'almost too convenient' in his opinion. But if it meant faster casting, more reliable results in situations where he didn't have time to concentrate the way he just had, then it was obviously valuable. His focus settled on the final line, where the mention of a status interface sat.

Innocuous, but heavy with implications. Enzo hesitated for only a moment. Then thought the word. — Status | Name: Lorenzo Locke | Class: Wizard | Mana Perception: 12 meters | Spell Range: 6 meters | Mana Capacity: 110 units Skills | Mana Sense (Level 2) | Mana Control (Level 2) | Mana Absorption (Level 1) Spells | Lock (Level 1) Techniques | None — And there it was. Proof that he, Lorenzo Locke, creator of the Lock spell, level two master of Mana Sense and Mana Control, was, in fact, a wizard. He wanted to laugh.

Blood rains and Star Eaters and magic and galactic bureaucracy and planetary owners. It might have been funny. If not for the fact that the horror he'd witnessed in the park and on his race home was probably happening everywhere. A screech cut through the night. Distant, somewhere to the south. The same inhuman sound he'd heard during the broadcast, but more raw. Then another answered from the east. Closer. Enzo crossed to the window. The initial torrent had slowed, but the damage was done.

Blood had risen past the curb, lapping at the bottom steps of the buildings across the street. Abandoned cars sat partly submerged, dark shapes in the red glow of dying, flickering streetlights. Between the flashes of illumination, someone sprinted down the street, their features hidden in the shadows. A third screech, this one close enough to echo off the buildings. Murph's ears twitched in her sleep, but she didn't wake. He watched the street for a long moment, then pulled back.

Whatever was making those sounds, he'd find out soon enough. Come morning, he would set out to track down his sister, and nothing out there was going to stop him. Which meant he needed to be prepared. He sat down and considered which spells to create next.