The bookstore owner might have been physically frail.
But that did nothing to diminish his expertise when it came to choosing books.
In fact, the fact that he had taken over a bookstore in Hogsmeade Village was proof enough that he might not have had much business sense, but he certainly had a pure love of books and knowledge.
The three textbooks he had picked out for Ian were all perfectly suited to beginners, ranging from simple to not-so-simple, allowing novices to cross the threshold of learning with ease.
Magic Phonetic Table: A phonetic guide to Ancient Runes, containing their written forms, meanings, and standard, correct pronunciations.
Simple Introduction to Ancient Runes: Just as the title suggests, once you've learned how to read Ancient Runes, this is the book to turn to for a deeper understanding of the basics.
Advanced Rune Translation: This was probably a compendium of knowledge that delved into the actual use of Ancient Runes. It would teach learners how to understand texts written in Runes.
Three textbooks, arranged in a gradual progression.
They were more than enough to help Ian cross the threshold into the study of Ancient Runes, one step at a time.
Of course.
Even with a reasonable learning plan, a subject like Ancient Runes was never easy to learn. Just as the bookstore owner had said, most people struggled to master it.
"Yikes! This is really hard!"
Ian sat by the window of the wooden cabin, clutching the book Magic Phonetic Table.
Golden sunlight streamed through the gauzy curtains.
It fell into every corner of the room, draping the tranquil space in a golden veil, but did nothing to lift Ian's somewhat gloomy mood.
He had been studying diligently for quite some time, but still couldn't master even the simplest Ancient Runes pronunciation. As a result, no new skill had appeared on his personal panel.
How should he put it?
It really was hard.
It was easy to understand why, when you thought about it. If Ancient Runes hadn't been so complicated and difficult to learn, then as a medium for casting magic, how could it have been replaced so quickly by modern wizards' spells?
That's right.
Ancient Runes.
And modern spells like "Lumos" and "Obliviate."
They were both just mediums for casting magic.
Wizards had first chosen Ancient Runes as a medium for magic, then transitioned to using simple, easy-to-understand spells instead. This shift had inevitably been a process of "survival of the fittest."
To be honest, Ancient Runes had a much higher ceiling than spells. That was why so many powerful wizards studied them as they grew.
However.
The heights Ancient Runes offered were open only to the exceptional. For the mediocre, the floor it offered was just as shockingly low.
In ancient times.
Many young wizards died because their magic was unstable.
Likewise.
Many wizards, like Ian now, had remained stuck at the starting line for years. They squandered their lives, and even in old age, might have struggled to cast a few decent spells.
In the early days.
Many witches and wizards had been sent to the stake by ordinary people. This was largely because Ancient Runes, the popular medium for magic at the time, still held sway.
The advent of spells.
Made magic easier to learn for middle- and lower-tier wizards.
That was the most important reason spells had replaced Ancient Runes.
After all.
They made up the vast majority of the wizarding population. Comparing Ancient Runes and modern spells was a lot like comparing manual and automatic cars.
"I hope the magic Professor Mara gave me is powerful and impressive. Otherwise, all this suffering will have been for nothing!" Ian didn't have a particularly nimble tongue.
Unfortunately, Runes were among the earliest creations to evolve from the traits of magical creatures and plants. Naturally, they included many sounds that the human vocal cords could hardly imitate.
It was frustrating for Ian.
Still.
He didn't give up learning.
And so, in the end, Heaven rewarded his perseverance.
[Successfully understood how to sound out Runes. Runes Mastery proficiency +1]
Ancient Runes were difficult to learn.
Fortunately, Ian might not have been among the very most gifted, but he was certainly talented enough to be considered one of the best. So he wasn't doomed to spend his whole life without learning more than a few Runes.
After throwing himself into his studies.
He made some progress.
And once Ian learned how to sound out his first Rune, a new skill appeared on his personal panel. The "epiphany" trait granted by the panel began to take effect.
[Successfully understood how to sound out Runes. Runes Mastery proficiency +1] [Language Mastery proficiency +12] [Successfully understood how to sound out Runes. Runes Mastery proficiency +1] [Successfully understood how to sound out Runes. Runes Mastery proficiency +1] [Language Mastery proficiency +12] ...
Some things.
Once you took the first step.
The rest became much easier thanks to the cheat. At least, that was certainly true for Ian. Each increase in proficiency brought him new insights.
However.
Compared with the progress of his other skills, his [Runes Mastery] proficiency was clearly rising much more slowly. Fortunately, learning Ancient Runes seemed to raise his [Language Mastery] proficiency as well.
And by quite a lot.
This was probably because Ancient Runes were a language, and a particularly difficult one at that. It appeared as a separate skill because it was more than just a language.
Ancient Runes.
Most commonly took the form of Ancient Runes.
They were secrets that human wizards had uncovered among magical creatures and plants as they first explored the mysteries of magic—a bridge that let human wizards first encounter and master magic.
Most ancient magic and ancient Alchemy had been created on this basis. In the primitive age of magic, Runes were the best medium for containing and releasing magic.
They could be thought of as a special kind of circuit. When magic flowed along this circuit, it could produce ancient magic, which was quite unfamiliar to modern wizards.
Likewise.
When Runes were carved onto ancient alchemical objects, those objects were naturally imbued with the same properties. This even allowed ancient wizards to capture time with the help of such objects.
As Runes evolved.
This medium for magic, which was exceptionally hard to learn and could cause unpredictable, disastrous instability with even the slightest mistake, fell into decline because of two creations born of the changing times.
The first.
Was the wand, a revolutionary "wheelchair" for wizards, created to stabilize magic, make it easier to learn, and reduce the risks involved.
It was like a stabilizer for magic.
It made casting spells more stable and easier.
As the times continued to change.
The advent of wand cores made wands even more important, adding other properties to the magic wizards used. Each wand core had its own unique traits and effects.
This.
Increased the power of magic.
Likewise.
It also increased the danger of magic.
Disastrous magical accidents surged as a result... So modern spells, simplified from Ancient Runes, emerged from wizards' research to meet the needs of the times.
They made magical circuits simpler, which naturally reduced the power of magic considerably. However, their ease of learning and greater safety made them the darlings of the age.
With the Ministry of Magic in place.
Most wizards had no need for powerful magic. So, when you thought about it, spells that were not particularly effective for self-defense gradually replaced Runes.
Of course.
For wizards seeking greater mastery of magic, learning and applying Runes remained an unavoidable part of the journey. The pillars of the magical world had simply become the playground of a gifted few.
No one could say whether this was good or bad.
Nor could anyone say whether, as the times changed, spells would gradually follow the same path as Ancient Runes. Perhaps some parts of history had already begun to repeat themselves, unnoticed.
After all.
Change always began quietly.