Ethan didn’t allow ?panic to overtake him. He found the nearest piece of rubble, sat cross-legged, and placed the chunk of stone in his lap. The guard had since vanished, but the scribe couldn’t pay attention. A message hovered in his vision. While it was similar to the normal emulation message, there were some key differences. He knew at once this wasn’t a normal system.

  Thanks for the tip, Amelia.

  [Anomalous X-13 System Variant Emulated]

  ERROR: You have emulated an anomalous system. This variant of the X-13 system is incomplete and mostly non-functional. Your interaction with this system will be limited more than normal. Please use your Celestial Pen to resolve enough errors to stabilize the anomaly.

  Gravity Magic Anomaly

  Difficult Rank: Extremely Easy (Rank -1)

  Known Errors: INCOMPLETE

  System Alignment: X-13

  Anomaly Designation: Nascent Gravity Magic Font

  Current Status: Unstable.

  The system message was incredibly helpful. It told him that there was a problem with the system he was interacting with and gave, in addition, a definition of what it was. This was a gravity magic anomaly with a difficulty rank of extremely easy. Ethan breathed a sigh of relief after reading that part. It didn’t tell him what the errors were, but at least there was enough information to get working. The most interesting part of all was the message at the top.

  He could use his pen to resolve the errors… but how?

  The sound of feet shuffling behind him drew Ethan’s attention. He turned his head to see the guard approaching. Off in the distance, several more guards lingered in an alley, apparently too timid to approach any closer. “Sorry, I’m afraid this is the point where I’ve got to take you in.”

  Ethan gritted his teeth. Of course, this was the part where he had to be taken in. He had neglected to take into account the destructive nature of the way he siphoned the mana from the anomaly. There would have been some problems outside of the circle he had created, more than likely. There was some damage to the city, and someone wasn’t happy. But he couldn’t bring himself to think much about that. He needed to fix this anomaly. He was so close, and he doubted anybody would let him come back if they apprehended him.

  Ethan turned, giving the guard a resolute look. “Just give me half an hour. That’s all I need. I can have this thing fixed, and then you can throw me in whatever dungeon you want.”

  The guard looked over his shoulder again, spotting his companions in the distance. He lifted his visor, his eyes twinkling. “I’ll give you as long as I can, but laws are laws.”

  With his pen in hand and a couple of ideas in mind, Ethan turned back to the anomaly. He didn’t have time to deconstruct the ridiculous nature of being sponsored by some planetary benefactor to do this job and then being punished for it. All he could do was resolve the problem before him. The issue, as far as he was concerned, was simple. The anomaly was making too much mana. If the purpose of the thing was to make some mana, then something in its code told it to make too much.

  But now he was emulating the system. He could observe it, breaking down the system-based sigils that made it function. The first thing to do was to write those sigils into existence.

  The scribe focused, ignoring whatever the guard said behind him. Perhaps he was counting down the time or giving advice, but he couldn’t spare a moment’s thought for it. Instead, he sketched out everything he saw within the anomaly. Now that he was emulating the system, he saw it as a faint shimmer right above the pile of rocks. He identified a handful of functional sigils and created system sigils for them, effectively giving him a way to interact with it.

  Now it was time to denote which sigil did what.

  Snapping out of his trance, Ethan arranged the symbols in the air and turned to the guard. “This is where things get complicated,” he said, pressing the back of his pen against his chin. “This one says to create gravity magic. That’s my assumption anyway. This one here says to do specifically an even mix of positive and negative magic, and that one, I have no idea what it says. But that’s all the sigils that are here.”

  “Well, that seems rather simple, right? I mean, I always thought magic contained quite a lot of symbols, but you’re telling me this one has three?” The guard shifted uncomfortably, looking back at the others once again. “You have about five minutes before they come rushing in.”

  “The grand system says this is a very easy anomaly to fix, but that’s why I fixed something I don’t really understand.”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Well, how did you understand the ones you just pointed out?” The guard harumphed, his armor clattering as he placed his hands on his hips. “Seems like you have some intuitive knowledge of what’s going on here, unless I’m missing something.”

  There was some amount of intuition that went into it. Mostly, Ethan peered into the anomaly and watched as things happened. The sigil he had denoted to the center of the formation was because he could see it as a wellspring of magic. He knew that’s where all of the mana was coming from. The next one that controlled positive and negative was right above that. All the mana after it went to either side. The last one was confusing. It sat right below the generation sigil and was attached as though it was some kind of modifier.

  Ethan poked his pen into the bottom sigil, realizing how much like a tree the arrangement he had created appeared. “This could be quantity, time delay, or something else I’m not thinking of.” The scribe turned his attention back to the arrangement and stared. He watched, seeing the bottom sigil pulse at a regular interval. “No, it’s not quantity, it’s time. This is like a repeater.”

  “I hope that helps you fix this in about 15 seconds.”

  Ethan jabbed his pen into the arrangement, piercing through his sigils and into the system itself. He dragged his pen through a line, changing one number that was high to a number that was quite low. How low, he couldn’t exactly tell, but anything was better than the rapid generation of mana the anomaly was currently spitting out. If he could change the delay of the repeater from every 1 second to once every minute, it would make a massive difference. The anomaly would be functionally inert.

  “I think that’s it… Oh! A message.” Ethan dropped his pen. It clattered onto the ground, vanishing as it returned to his soul. He looked up at the guard, holding his hands out as though he were ready to be cuffed. “You may arrest me.”

  The guard grumbled, helping Ethan to his feet. “Not like I want to…”

  Ethan grinned as he looked over the message. It was worth it.

  ***

  Feyhammer House apparently didn’t have any dungeons. Instead, they had a tower. Ethan sat in a moderately comfortable room, shaking his head as he looked out the window and took in the beauty of the city from afar. It was much more appealing from the heights of the tower rather than on the ground floor. He sighed, leaning back in his chair with a smile on his face as he looked over the system message yet again.

  [Gravity Magic Anomaly Repaired]

  You have repaired an anomaly known to the Grand System. Please continue to resolve anomalies.

  Reward:

  Increased breadth and depth of one Attribute Ring of your choice.

  25 coins.

  The most surprising part was how the grand system had recognized his accomplishment. Like a quest in a video game, he had been given a reward. He didn’t even know he was on a quest, but he wouldn’t complain. He flipped the 25-coin piece and caught it in the air, flipping it onto the back of his hand and smiling as he looked at the head of the coin. The increase to his attribute ring wasn’t unwelcome either. When he placed the rewarded energy into his mind attribute ring, he felt his pool of mana swell as though the tide was rolling in.

  Eventually, a gentle knock came from the door, and a figure let himself in. It was one of the races Ethan had learned was a dwarf. Just like fantasy media back on Earth. He had a shaved head with a long silver beard. He wore a fine pair of shortened slacks with leather shoes. Although he used a cane to walk, he moved to the table in the room’s center with a decent amount of grace. He then sat and grumbled.

  “I’m unsure how things are done in Gale House, but here in Feyhammer, we don’t make a habit of unleashing gravitational energies to destroy a city block.”

  This is where the politics of things came into play. This is where a younger student, perhaps just fresh out of high school, would plead their case with excuses. They would do anything to get out of trouble, but Ethan simply wasn’t a child. He knew that arguing against this guy would get him nowhere. It was better to just take his licks and move on with his life. He would offer no apology or excuse.

  “I understand.”

  The dwarf’s eyes nearly popped out of his head, but he cleared his throat. “I’m Headmaster Heldinmine. I could have you expelled.”

  Ethan nodded.

  “Is that all you have to say for yourself? A dismissive nod? I should have figured. Gale House is full of tricky wizards and swindlers. Feyhammer House demands recompense for this.”

  “I can’t speak on behalf of my house.”

  The headmaster leaned over the table, tapping his fingers on the surface. “Perhaps you’re more shrewd than most magic-users. Are you sure you don’t have a crafting class? Bah, you’re not going to say anything are you?”

  The headmaster paused for a few long moments. “I like you,” he said. “I won’t put in a motion to expel you, but you still owe us for damages. The entire block was written off as a loss, but there was some residual damage outside of the perimeter, something to the tune of a thousand coins. I’ll expect payment promptly, but otherwise you’re free to go.”

  Ethan did his best to exemplify the definition of a poker face. He was pretty certain none of his features shifted as he bowed his head in agreement. A thousand coins for the damage he caused seemed like nothing. He might even be able to get the Anomalous Materials Group to cover it since he was working a job for them. That just revealed to him that this was all politics to the headmaster of Feyhammer House. Was he trying to catch a member of Gale House out of line and foist the responsibility on them to deal with?

  Once again, Ethan was glad he had worked all those years for horrible managers. They always jumped on him more when he reacted. “Thank you, sir.”

  No promises to never do it again. No groveling around for the mercy of the headmaster. Just a simple ‘thank you’ as to not add fuel to the fire.

  “Get out of my prison tower,” Headmaster Heldenmine said, pointing to the door with his cane.

  Only when Ethan was outside of the room did he allow himself a smile. After he turned a few corners, asking some administrators which way to go to leave the prison, he reached down and rubbed his hip. The fall had given him another fresh injury, but that was nothing the healers at the church in Gale House couldn’t fix. He headed out, breathing freedom and grinning even wider. He went stiff when he felt a firm hand on his shoulder.

  “Already finding yourself in trouble? Reminds me of myself,” the benefactor said. He pushed his red hood back, revealing a wide smile. “Come, let’s get something to eat. I’m starving.”

  RoyalRoad, and

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