Chapter 17 - The languages of magic

Words : 1248 Updated : Sep 27th, 2025

Chapter 17 of "The Girl Who Hacked The Magic System" opens with: Chapter 17: Chapter 17 - The languages of magic In theory, if I take the taser... See what unfolds next!

Chapter 17: Chapter 17 - The languages of magic In theory, if I take the taser aria and just switch lightning for water, it would create water on my hand. But that’s a theory I haven’t been able to test yet. And in practice, it might be more complicated than that. Because the taser aria doesn’t only summon electrical energy, it summons it directly in the outer layer of my hand. I’m not sure if I conjure water that way, it will end up outside of the skin or right inside that outer layer, forming a potentially painful blister. And I don’t want to use the same burst function of the lightning bolt aria, because it has already proven too inefficient. I use a stick to do some drawings on the dirt, creating a rudimentary workflow to better visualize the way the aria works. It looks like the words in the ancient language were created with mana efficiency in mind. They are quite hard to pronounce correctly, and it’s very easy to misfire the arias by using the wrong vowel tonality. But still, they provide a strong bang for their buck. The languages used by the people living in the world are geared towards communication. They use a lot more words to convey meaning because we use both text, subtext, and corporal language to communicate effectively. Magic doesn’t have access to subtext and only limited access to corporal language. Thus, the instructions need to be precise and unambiguous. I decide to add just one word in the Esperansy language, the one for ’outside.’ I add it as a spatial parameter to the function that calls forth the element. I get myself up and try it right away. I extend my hand forward and say the words of the aria. Right after I finish it, a blob of water appears on the front of my hand and falls to the ground. It’s around two liters of water. It looks like thirst won’t be a problem anymore. The best part is that the mana consumption was okay. It seems that having a word in a different language as a parameter has less bearing on the system than having a whole function in another language, like what happened with the lightning bolt. I do the same test with air, which happened to create a breeze. With ice, it created a feeling of coldness in the air, which was a bit disappointing, as I was hoping for actual ice. But then I had an idea. I go to the burrow entrance, put my hand through it, and cast the ice aria, then the air aria. Or, better names, the cooling aria and the breeze aria. Yeah, it effectively cooled the burrow, making it more comfortable. Good. Now, I repeat the test of the new aria using fire. It looks a lot more combat-usable than the other ones. It created an actual flame that raged for a bit before snuffing out. I’ll probably want to make it linger longer and throw it at targets. What if I try to rewrite the aria from scratch but using Esperansy as the aria language? But first, let’s put that water-conjuring spell to good use. ::: I take a long look around, double and triple checking that nobody would spot me. Then I take my clothes off and conjure water over my head. It all falls at once, which is not that good, but... a bath is a bath; I’ll take it. I try adding some words to the parameters, sometimes changing or taking out, as I test and tweak the quantity of water being conjured every time. By the time I finish cleaning myself, I’m able to sustain a little jet of water over long periods. It tastes okay, and I can generate it any time, so the thirst problem is solved for the time being. Next, it’s clothes-washing time. I don’t have any soap or anything, so it’s just water and scrubbing. I use some sticks to build a makeshift hanging ’line’ to put them on. With the sun and heat, it doesn’t take long for me to dry, and I decide to study some more magic while my clothes are drying. ::: "Ah, I know that yesterday I said that today I would be walking all day... but this is just too fun." I know that I can’t linger here for too long, but I still need more combat-oriented spells. The next thing I test is the icicle spell the guy was throwing at me the other day. I managed to get the gist of the aria, but I was just too focused on escaping to pay enough attention to get all the words right. But it was in Esperansy, which is helpful. So I go through the steps to make it work with the knowledge I have. It doesn’t take me too long to figure it out, and soon I’m sending icicles flying, and they look menacing. But it takes too long and uses too much mana. Not as much as the ghastly lightning bolt aria, but still a lot more than any of the other ones. But it made me learn two new functions. One is a throw function that looks more efficient than the one I had, and the other is a hover function that allows the icicle not to fall to the ground before I launch it. It is a direct command to the ice to hover. It doesn’t affect the gravitational forces directly. And it looks like it’s responsible for almost half of the mana consumption of the spell. But what if I add it as a spatial parameter in the conjuring aria I’ve been using earlier? I draw some more symbols on the dirt as my mind machinates another spell. Right, let’s test this. Last one before I continue the journey. ::: A cylinder made of water, with a sharp-looking point, appears exactly where I willed it to be and stays there without falling. I have to keep concentrating on willing it to hover while I chant the second aria; otherwise, it will fall. The water cylinder instantly freezes and bursts forward in a powerful motion. It hits the shrub I was aiming at, yanking it off the ground. Yeah, this will work. It consumed two-thirds of the mana of the aria that the guy from the other day was using, and both its size and the force of its throw were a lot greater. Even though they are two different spells, the chanting is shorter as well. This will come in handy. Buuuuut I think I can make it better if I switch it to lightning, because I won’t need to sustain a blob of water in place while I freeze it and hurl it. I can just switch the ice aria to lightning and use the same structure. This time is truly the last test. I promise! ::: It was too good, so good that I’m at a loss for words. Using the command to throw as a spatial parameter instead of a complete second function in itself did reduce the mana consumption, as expected. And now that I know how to tweak the size and power of the conjured element, as well as sustain it... I feel like I’m Palpatine himself, after he got a buff. Yeah, now I’m ready for anything that might come my way. I pack my things and start walking north once more.

Chapter 17 - The languages of magic

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