“Whew, that's a lot to take in.”Arthur sighed, letting his body fall down to the questionably soft mattress. It might not have been like the beds he was used to in his old world, but it was better than the planks in the holding cell, that much was for sure.

  He flicked his wrist, and the floating text boxes appeared once again, surrounding the air around him. They gave off a soft, light blue light, resembling the colour of the system windows themselves.

  Some more hours had passed from when he woke up in the medical bay, spent reading all the Archive could tell him about that world's magic, and how it worked. He wanted to figure out quickly whether he, too, could use it, but was somewhat embarrassed at the thought.

  He didn't want to seem desperate, but judging from how much text he had consumed in that short window of time, he wasn't doing a good job at that. He spread his arms outwards, trying to summarize ‘magic’ as a whole in his mind.

  ‘In short, it all revolves around that Archê thing. It's some sort of energy innate to every living being in this world, and to inanimate objects, too. Like those Moonstones.’

  Glancing up, he noticed a text box appearing, automatically filling in the blank, floating sheet with his thoughts. ‘That Archive sure is restless.’ He thought. The Archive omitted that part, and Arthur chuckled lightly.

  He sat up straight, looking at the writing text box, before passing his hand through it. If the information the Archive gave him was correct, Archê was some sort of unending energy, produced by everything.

  Although, he had his doubts about that. The only reason, being the word's spelling. Had the Archive been a speaking Archive, and not a written one, he might have thought Archê to be spelled as ‘Arc’, or ‘Ark’, but it wasn't.

  He placed his hand beside his lips, thinking. His studies of choices revolved mainly around mechanical and electrical engineering, despite his job at a computer corporation.

  However, for his earlier studies, and out of personal curiosity, too, he had read many books on the broadest and most varied subjects. He had a talent for engineering, but his interests often changed quickly, from mysticism, to divination, to blacksmithing, and to philosophy.

  Philosophy, in particular, was one of his shorter lived interests, only lasting for a few years. However, those years were the most densely packed with studying, on his part.

  He wasn't a philosopher himself, nor did he have the rhetorical capabilities or wisdom to be one. He simply enjoyed reading about the human mind, and what it could devise.

  He liked reading philosophical theories of ancient figures trying to figure out how the world came to be, or how the spirit and body were connected. The point was, he liked reading how humans thought.

  This caused him to develop an interest in psychology too, later on, but it was satiated mostly by reading books and literature with psychology as their main focus, or simply with characters possessing peculiar mindsets.

  That interest in philosophy was how he first found out about the term ‘archê’.

  In his old world, Malkuth, ancient Greece could be called the birthplace of the majority of philosophical trends and currents.

  Men like Plato, Aristotle and Socrate, they shaped the philosophy which would come in the centuries to follow, and there were many more where they came from. That was ancient Greece, in Arthur's mind.

  And many of the Greek philosophers living in that time period, had theories about the creation of the world, and where life came from. No matter what form it took, the universal term referring to the ‘original substance’, was ‘archê’.

  The term itself had many meanings, simplifying it as the ‘original substance’ was just that, a simplification. For some schools of philosophy, it was the literal first substance, which created everything in the world through transformations or changes in form.

  To other philosophers, it was the original state of the world, a state of Chaos, or a period of divinity before some God created the universe, and Malkuth. To yet others, it was a cosmic force pushing forward the machinations of the universe.

  In some way or another, they all recognized the word archê as something which indicated an original substance or state of the universe, or something needed for the universe to keep existing as such.

  He looked up at the text box in front of him and asked the Archive, “Is there any information on who first coined the term Archê?”

  After a brief period of electrical static, the text box provided a curt and direct response.

  [That information would be dangerous for Arthur Luria's mind. Instead, I can provide the most common theories on the origin of Archêometry.]

  Arthur was speechless for a second. Even something like that was a danger to his mind? Either whoever ideated Archêometry was something like a national secret, or his mind was really weak. Well, that body was probably to blame, not him.

  He pondered over the written words, before telling the Archive he didn't need any explanation. Archêometry, that was the term coined for the science studying Archê and magic as a whole. It was taught in most schools, both the theory and the practice.

  With a silent sigh, he jolted down on the text box in front of him, ‘Find out more about Archêometry’, before getting back to his original thought process.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  This was mostly a gut feeling, but he felt like he could learn important information by finding out who first created the doctrine of Archêometry.

  If they coined the term based on knowledge from the world Arthur knew, that would surely imply something important. Be that they, too, were a transmigrator, or that they had knowledge about Malkuth somehow, Arthur didn't know.

  In the text window about Archêometry, some of the earlier theories about Archê, and the figures that developed them were mentioned. Oswald Wirth, was the one who first introduced the term Archê to the world.

  He hailed from Teiws, but most of his works were published in the Kingdom of Goetia. A philosopher as well as a man of science, he lived up to the standard of Greek philosophers!

  However, Arthur only knew that much, from the information stored in the Archive. To learn more about Wirth, and his initial theories of Archêometry, he would need to find copies of his works, and read them.

  It seemed that this body wasn't interested in older philosophy, but it knew quite a lot about the modern theory of Archêometry.

  Archê, that mysterious energy, could be sensed by all living beings in an instinctual manner, through a method colloquially referred to as ‘Dipping’.

  Feeling as though one's whole body had been suddenly submerged into an abyss, surrounded by water that couldn't be perceived, Arthur had gone through something similar already, he figured.

  The dream he saw before waking up in the medical bay bed, was probably a result of a state of Dipping.

  Controlling Archê itself, according to the modern theory of Archêometry, was close to impossible, due to the sheer strength of the unending energy. For Archê to actually be harnessed by human beings, it had to go through various steps.

  The first one would be to refine it.

  After grasping the instinctual feeling of Dipping, one could try their hand not at controlling the Archê inside of their body, but rather, to direct it. It's much easier to redirect the sails of a boat during a storm, rather than to change the direction of the wind, after all.

  That was a quote mentioned by the Archive, taken from a modern Archêometrist whose name wasn't recorded. Arthur understood the concept, but of course, he couldn't put it into practice.

  The redirected Archê would become unstable, inside a human body. Unstable, and dangerous. With the risk of quite literally blowing up the body, due to the sudden surge of energy, if handled incorrectly.

  But, if the sails were turned towards the right direction, then the boat would soar safely, with the wind propelling it on the wind's tail. That, too, was a quote.

  Apparently, humans in that world possessed an invisible organ called ‘Core’, close to their heart. It could be perceived only during a state of Dipping, usually a glowing, spherical construct floating inside one's own ribcage.

  That Core was to Archê, what a heart is to blood. Taking in the unstable, uncontrollable Archê, and transforming it into a substance which humans could actually utilise.

  The process usually took only mere instants, on average, and even less than that when attempted by someone who used magic on the regular. Due to how common magic was in that world, the refining process was nigh-automatic for most human beings.

  Arthur wasn't part of that majority, of course, and had no idea how to even begin. He sighed, and kept recounting what he read.

  The new substance, the refined Archê, would then take the name of Ark. That was the actual energy that could be used for magic, to cast spells, or to power gemstone-based technology.

  Ark was easier to handle than pure Archê, but of course, the refining process had its downsides, too. For one, there was only so much Archê a Core could produce.

  Or rather, that was one of the current theories. It was universally recognized that some sort of limit existed to how much Ark a singular person could output, without resting or restoring their energy.

  Some theorized people only had a limited reservoir of Archê to draw upon, thus limiting the amount of magic one could use, without waiting for that reservoir to fill back up.

  Others thought the Core was the limiting component, needing a rested and fed body to keep working, like any other organ. Arthur kept himself from making assumptions, as he had too little information.

  That Ark could then flow throughout the entirety of the human body, through a system of invisible circulatory canals, similarly to the core, called Ley Lines, or Leyline Circuits.

  Although invisible, when large amounts of Ark passed through those circuits, the glowing light would highlight them. Compared to the only theoretical existence of the Core, Ley Lines were considered a system of the human body.

  According to most Archêometry and anatomy books, Ley Lines directly overlapped with veins, signifying that they were either one singular system with two functions, or weren't completely physical. Once again, Arthur refrained himself from guessing.

  If one didn't care about all the details like Arthur did, ‘Curse my love for reading!’, magic, or rather Archêometry, could be watered down to three steps.

  The process of refining Archê and producing Ark, which granted the body the energy required to cast a spell.

  The process of letting Ark course through one's body, which not only filled up every Ley Line, but had the side effect of strengthening physical capabilities such as strength and the skin's resistance.

  And lastly, the process of forming glyphs with the Ley Lines. In fact, what allowed Ark to translate into magic, were the Ley Lines themselves.

  Ark could strengthen a body by simply coursing through it, but no additional effects could be obtained in that simple manner. That was why humans possessed the ability to innately give new form to the Ley Lines in their bodies.

  Forming specific patterns and shapes with the circuits, and then powering them with Ark. Just like granting electricity to an electrical construct, that was the basis for calling down the miracle known as magic.

  In fact, Innate Gifts, too, worked under the basis of Ley Lines and Ark. He wasn't too sure on the specifics, as the details, even in the Archive, were lacking.

  However, most scientists speculated that Gifts originated from specific Ley Line patterns carved onto one's very Core. Those circuits, which activated whenever Archê was refined, were the reason for the ‘passive’ nature of Innate Gifts.

  Arthur stopped his train of thought for a second, a sudden realization falling upon him. If Innate Gifts sprang to life with the refinement of Archê, that must mean he, too, was subconsciously refining Archê.

  He looked down at his hands. An extremely subtle and feeble glow could be seen, peeking out from underneath his skin. Barely noticeable, he didn't feel any strength coming from that energy.

  More notably, there were spots of light on the back of his right hand. Seven in number, there were various ones on the right edge of his hand, as if tracing a line along the side.

  Then, two more spots, underneath the knuckles of his index finger, and between his middle and ring finger. He had no idea about the nature of those spots, whether they were normal Ley Lines, or something different.

  As he was about to ask about it to the Archive, a few gentle knocks resounded from the wooden door of the medical bay. Without waiting for a response, a person's head peeked out of the doorframe.

  Feminine features hidden underneath a hood, the girl from the Moonstone Refinement Facility spoke up.

  “I, er, came to check up on you.”