SHHH!

	My life use to be so simple. Get up at dawn, move with the caravan, keep an eye out for bandits, fight any that show up, do any odd jobs that needed doing, go to bed. For about ten years my daily routine was just this, with a few days a year where this cycle was broken. Living with traders was a hard life, but it wasn't bad.

	I gave up this life when my brother ,Vlad, decided to take care of Bella, and I was given the choice of staying with the Merry Lamp or leaving with my brother. Wasn't much of a choice, really. He knows more details then I do, but soon after he found her the three of us were walking to the home of someone called “Magus Arcana”. After we set up camp I asked my brother Vlad if he knew where we're going. I quickly learned that we didn't have much to go on. My brother had heard a few rumors, but nothing really concrete. With only the general direction of “To the lands of the mage guild!” we set off. So our adventure began, if a little out of the blue.

	My name is Demir Highborn, and I am a blood mage. I have since earned the title of “The Battle Mage” to go with my brothers “The Alchemist”, my teachers “The Ritual Master”, my friend Tiberius' “The Architect” and my adoptive sister Bellas “The Demon Kin”. But I am getting ahead of myself, back to the beginning of our little “Journey”.

	About two days after leaving the caravan, we stopped at a small town to get my brother a sword(We only had enough spare money for one) while I went to sell a few gems. While at the market I noticed two men in mage's robes, so if anyone was going to know where to find Magus here it would be them. I walked up to a vendor near them, neither of the two noticing me walk past them while they chatted. I traded the gems for a fair bit of coin, then asked the merchant in a voice a little louder then normal :“While I'm here, have you heard any rumors of a man called “Magus Arcana”? I have some business with him.” The merchant chuckled and told me that he was nothing but legends told to kids to calm them down. Thankfully, he wasn't the one I was asking. Out of the corner of my eye I saw both of the robed men glance at me, then quickly turn back. They never would have made it as traders. I thanked him for his time, then started walking out of the market, down a narrow path under a few oak trees that had very few people. As I walked away, I noticed both of the robed men following me, just as I planed.

	I slowly walked down the narrow path, giving the pair more than enough time to catch up with me. “Hey.” One of them said as they drew close to me. I turned around, acting surprised that they had stopped me. “Why hello there. ' Didn't see you walk up.” I told them, a simple trick to fool even mages that could tell when  you're lying. While it was true that I didn't “see” them, I still new fully well that they were coming. The one on the right nodded, reading that I told them the truth. “We heard you asking about Magus, what business do you have with him?” The one on the left asked me. “Well, that is a little complicated. I need to find him so that he might teach my brother and I. I already know a little about magic, but people willing to teach for little too no coin are few and far between these days.” The one on the right nodded again, then said “That is far too true. My brother Way and I were once apprentices to Magus, and he refused every coin we tried to give him. If you want to find Magus, head north east to a village called Lurric at the heart of these lands. We can't give exact directions, but I'm sure this is better then what you had. But fair warning, he tends to be reluctant to teach just anyone who comes knocking.” I thanked them both, and they told me to say hello to their old teacher. Returning to the well, where my brother said to meet up, I found both Bella and Vlad waiting for me. “What took so long, Demir? You normally don't take this long to make a sell.”, my brother asked. I told him what I found out. “I got more then coin this time, Vlad. I got a name: Lurric. That is where Magus is suppose to be living, and we should find it if we head north east.”

	About three weeks of walking later, we arrived at Lurric. It was as lackluster as the rumors said, with very few signs that a mage lived around here. Vlad found one such sign while Bella and I went to find some antiseptic for the wounds he had gotten when a skeleton caught us off guard. He meet us with a grin on his face, then pointed us to a cobble stone path out of the village. After walking for about a quarter of a mile, we finally saw the fabled stone house of the great mage Magus Arcana. To say it didn't look like the house a mage would live in was an understatement. The outside was simple, with nothing really standing out that screamed “Magic!”,so I became very skeptical of just how great he is if he lives in a place like this. It was smaller then the homes of some of the local lords, let alone most of the nobles. We walked up to the simple wooden door, the only possessions we had left were the clothes on our backs, Vlad's brewing stand, a few items odd items that Vlad had collected over the years that we couldn't sell, and the sword we had bought a few weeks ago that had saved our lives more then once.

	When we walked up to the door, Vlad asked us both if we were ready. I told him I was, and Bella(Who had hidden behind me and Vlad) gave him a quick nod. With our blessing, Vlad knocked on the door sharply. After almost a minute the door opened, and a tall man answered us. Vlad talked to him, asking if Magus was here. Another minute later and a slightly taller man greeted us. I let Vlad do all the talking, watching as the man first seemed puzzled,then curious, and as he let us in he had a face of amusement. I forget most of what happened after that, mostly due to the fact that Magus had the other man make sandwiches. By the time I had finished my second sandwich, they were done talking. Magus and the other man left us, and I began talking with my brother. An hour later, Magus and his apprentice Tiberius(Vlad had filled me in on what happened while I was eating. I was almost hurt when he said that he wasn't surprised that I was more interested in the food then the man who gave us said food.) returned, gifts in hand. While Tiberius barely managed to bring in a large roll of fabric,  Magus came in arms loaded with more food. Once again, what happened next is a blur. The next thing I remember clearly was Magus and Tiberius creating new rooms for the house using their magic. No wonder it looked so normal from the outside, most of the building was under ground. With three new rooms and a hallway built, each of us had a room to call our own. This was odd for Vlad and I, as we had always shared one room(Normally with other people as well). Once we bathed and changed into the clothing Magus had made out of “Enchanted fabric”, each robe dyed to a different color. Vlads green, mine red, and Bella asked for purple. Once we were all changed, we met for breakfast. It was a simple meal of waffles, syrup, milk, and eggs. While we ate, Magus asked a question: “Out of curiosity, do any of you have last names?” Vlad and I told him no. “We didn't need them as traders. The leaders always told us names got in the way of a sell.” I said, before finishing the last of the eggs. He then turned to Bella, “What about you?” She also said no. “We... We got last names when we turned eighteen or took up a profession. Even so, everyone went by first names.” Magus began to scratch his chin before saying “Well, most people around here have last names. Would you mind if I gave you one? You can't take Arcana, that name only brings trouble. So how about “Highborn”?” All three of us thought it over, then one by one we nodded with approval. Magus began to grin, saying “Very well, henceforth you shall be know as Vlad, Demir, and Bella Highborn.”

	We spent the rest of the day and the next filling out our rooms. Magus provided furniture, supplies, and countless other thing to help us feel at home. Unfortunately, I had no idea what a home was suppose to look like, so my room ended up looking a little barren. I asked Magus if I could move a strange table I found in one of the storage rooms into mine. He told me I could, and offered me a hand moving it. It was a plain wooden table with a red cloth on top, a few strange symbols were faded in the cloth and in the wood. As I touched the table I felt something strange in the heart of the table: a strange power that wanted to escape the table.  I told Magus about it, and he was curious as well. “That is... Odd. I bought this a few years ago, intending to work out what it does. Feel free to take a crack at it yourself. Let's move it to the main workroom instead of your room then, alright?” We soon had it at one of the half dozen work spaces that doted the large room. This particular space was close to a white structure with an empty basin on top of it.

	It took me three days, but after looking into a few books I discovered gaining access to the power inside the table was going to be both easy and tricky. to get it out of the table I needed some sort of “Bridge”, but I discovered there were two problems: Finding something that works as a bridge, and what happens next. I had no idea what would happen when the power was released. As far as I knew, it might be nothing or it might unleash hell on earth. I hoped it was somewhere in between. I quite literally stumbled over the answer to the first problem. At one point when I was walking out the back door to the strange structure so I could get a little air I tripped over the leg of a table, knocking off a  small box that popped open to reveal a small red crystal sphere. The box had the label “Failed attempt” written on the lid, and it also had a very sharp edge that I quickly cut my thumb on. As I picked up the sphere with my cut hand, I felt a strange sensation as I touched the crystal with my bloody thumb. Then the crystal started vibrating. It was soft at first, and as I carried it down to the work room it grew stronger and stronger. It suddenly  stopped when the crystal touched the table, and it seemed to flash briefly when this happened.

	So one half of the task was done, finding the bridge between the world and the table. My next goal was to see what happens when that power is released. With the permission and assistance of Magus, I went out a few hundred meters to conduct the test. With a simple nod from Magus, I began trying to tap into the crystals power. At first, nothing happened. Then I felt a burst of arcane energy, that then did nothing. “How odd...” Magus said as we walked home, defeated. “I felt the magic of the crystal as well, but it was almost without any form. There might be a way to shape it, so don't give up.” While Magus left to help the others, I returned to the work room. Then I noticed something odd: The table was a few inches closer to the white structure(Which I later learned was a blood altar). On nothing but a hunch I used the crystal again. Once more the arcane energy went out, doing nothing. But I watched the table while this happened, and as I thought it seemed to move a little closer to the altar. With a quick push from me the table sat next to the altar, and the runes seemed to brighten a bit. I rested my hand on the table, and felt the power moving from the table into the altar as if it was seeking something. Going with my gut once more, I started searching for an item to use as a “Focus”. After a few minutes I dropped a set of flint and steel in the altar, then went back outside to try again with Magus watching from just outside the door. After taping into the crystals, I felt a wave of warm air around me. It seems a focus is not enough, so I returned to search for something to refine the tables power even more. After an hour I found a few old skulls and heads of several monsters. After placing a skeleton skull on the table, I felt the table hum with power briefly. It was nearing dark, so with the last few lights of the day I tried the crystals power one last time. Magus watched near me as I tapped into the crystals power, and felt myself get a little weaker as a ball of fire shot out of the crystal.

	After showing Magus and the others my setup, both Magus and Tiberius seemed surprised to see that it needed the altar. After I showed them the crystal I had found, Magus and Tiberius asked me hold off on experimenting with this further for a few days. Two days later I found out why.

	I don't feel like putting down all the details, so a quick summary: Each of us had unknowingly discovered new branches of “Blood Magic”. Blood magic was a new form of magic that he and Tiberius had been trying to create and prefect for quite some time. Everything we had done so far had connected into blood magic in ways both of them had never expected. If we wanted to continue with the work we had been doing, my spells, my brothers alchemy, and Bella's demon taming we would need to become blood mages like them. They went over the risks involved, told us that death was a real possibility, and that if we didn't want to go into blood magic we didn't have to. We quickly gave them our answer: We've already started on the path, so we can't really turn back now. We then went through the first test of any blood mage: The creation of a weak blood orb. All of our palms were tender at the end of the day, but we were now blood mages.

	I discovered that the spells the table created used LP, and for the next month I searched for items to act as foci. Here is the list that I have discovered so far, but I can't remember what each of them do. So anyone reading this will need to experiment on their own, or as Magus says “Life is nothing without a few mysteries.”

Flint and Steel
Ice block
TNT
Ghast Tear
Glowstone Dust
Bucket of Water
Obsidian
Ender Pearl
Apprentice Blood Orb
	Something else that is interesting about the table is that it does not need to be re-bound to the crystal. If you change the foci or the paradigm the spell with change as well the next time you use the crystal.

	I also found four “Paradigms” to use with the spells. Skeleton heads imprinted a ranged attack to the energy of the spell, the wither skeleton skull made the spell more suited for close combat, the zombie turned the spell defensive, and the creeper head gave the spell more environmental impact. I should also note that Magus shared with me crafting recipes for turning wither skeleton skulls into heads of the other mobs. Seems a bit pricy, but when you have no other choice...

// Recipes for skulls

	I asked Tiberius how he made the spell crystal, and he told me that while trying to create a new blood orb he stumbled across it. All it needed was a piece of glass in a blood altar, using 1k LP to transform the glass into the crystal.

 	We managed to recreate the powers and effects of the “Spell Table” using blood magic. Amazing what you can do with items laying around Magus's home...

//Recipe for spell table

 This brings us up to today, when Tiberius brought us books so we could write all our work down, if we wished. It has taken a few hours, but here we are. Currently I am working with my brother to create a much more advanced form of the spell system, and will add any information I learn to this book when I have time.

	Has it really been three years since we came to this place? My life before coming to Magus seems like a distant memory now, and my days have become filled with training and work that I have fallen in love with. Since I last wrote here so much has happened... My sister Bella has come out of her shell, freely walking amongst the villagers in the market without cowering behind us. She has become more outgoing, helping Magus deal with demon attacks and cutting the number of deaths every year substantially. She has formed pacts with over a dozen demons, while working with Magus and my brother to create a way to “Pull” demons into our world, body and soul.

	My brother Vlad has been busy with his alchemy, creating new potions that have powerful effects but more often then not taste like tree bark mixed with dirt. Alongside that he has been helping me create the components I need for my spell constructs. I needed materials that conduct large amounts of magical and elemental energy, and he has been the only reason I've gotten so far. And no, I'm not writing that just because he is sitting next to me, though it would be a lie to say that hasn't been a factor.

	Anyway, back to what we're here to write about. We have discovered a way to use the items known as “Blood Shards” and my brothers alchemical reagents to create a new way to form spells using blood magic. It uses four components: Paradigms, Effects, Modifiers, and Enhancements. The main improvement of this system over the old one is the ability to “Chain” spell effects together. Before I cover how to create the spells, I should go over the parts.

The paradigms act as the starting point for the spells, and define what the spell will target. There is only one “Output” side to these blocks, and it is on the side with five points(It will be hard to miss it), and the output side can be rotated with a simple right click. We have currently created three different paradigm versions: Projectile, melee, and self. While the names feel self explanatory, I'd best talk about them anyway.

	Projectile: Makes the spell ranged, and will trigger on impact with anything.

	Melee: Short range spell, normally the target must be within one to two blocks for the effect to work.

	Self: Targets the caster, or the area immediately surrounding the caster.

	Next we have the effect blocks, and these are what give the paradigms some kick. Unlike the paradigms, theses have both an input and an output. An effect blocks input is always the five pointed non-colored side, while the output is the side with the colored ends(The color depends on the effect block). We currently have the effect blocks for fire, earth, wind, and ice. The effects of these blocks are heavily influenced by the modifiers that come after it, but spells can function with only a paradigm and one effect.

	Modifiers change what the last effect in the chain before them does. So, if you had a fire, ice, wind chain then placed an offensive modifier, the wind would take an offensive effect while the others remain default. The current modifiers are: Default, Offensive, Defensive, and Environmental.

	Default makes the effect act as if you left it without a modifier. Useful for spells where you want to guaranty its effect.

	Offensive makes the spell more combat oriented. Doesn't mean the spell will deal damage, but it might help in combat.

	Defensive has shown to change effect to protect the user. This comes in several forms, from creating shields and cloaking the user to slowing an opponent.

	Environmental does what the name says: It makes spell effects have  bigger impact on the world, from setting fires at the targets feet to carving out large chunks of land.

	Finally we have enhancements. Enhancements improve the spell in without major changes to the effect. The enhancements are: Power, Cost, and Potency. Like most other spell blocks, plain is in and colored is out. What should also be covered are the frames that hold enhancements. There are three types of frames, each stronger then the last. Your cheap and basic unstable frame can only withstand one per type(You may have one power, one cost, and one potency. If you try to add two unstable power enhancements one will not be able to improve the spell, and actually might blow up damaging the blocks around it). While you may only have one unstable per type, you may have two standard and three reinforced for a grand total of six enhancements of any type. As I write this down I realize it is a little confusing, but with a little practice it becomes simple.

	Power boosts the, well, power of the spell. If you had a spell that did damage and gave the target a potion effect, the spell would do more damage.

	Cost lowers the cost of the spell effect. Doesn't get much simpler then this, yet will always be useful.

	Potency increases the potency of the spell. What this means differs from spell to spell, but with our damage/potion effect example it might make the effect last longer or be stronger.

	This covers all the parts of a spell, but there is still one block remaining: The conduit. It doesn't add anything to the spell, but it allows you to have the parts of the spell farther apart. The input and output is dictated by the dots on the respective side. Four small dots is the input, one large dot is the output.

	Now then, how do you create a spell? First, pick your paradigm. Then, create a complex spell crystal to bind to the paradigm(Crafting recipes will be on the following pages for convenience) and make sure the crystal is also bound to an owner. Then, place and connect an effect block to the paradigm(Change outputs with right click, inputs with sneak right click. Do note that one side can't be both the input and the output.) Now the spell will work, but it might not do what you want. You can alter the spells effect by placing down and connecting a modifier. Still doesn't mean the spell will work as expected, but you can at least nudge it in the right direction. Finally you can add enhancements to boost the spell, but they might make the effect cost more(Unless you add cost enhancements), There are three tiers of enhancements, and a spell effect can one tier one... You know what, I went over this in the modifiers section. Look there for more information. But you don't need to stop on one effect, you can chain to another effect and another effect and another.... The possibilities are as endless as your soul network will allow.

	A few final notes: Every spell will do something. Some need other effects to really flourish while others work best on there own.

	The cost of the spell will always be the sum of all the effects and their enhancements multiplied by the complexity factor. So you can create massive spells with several effects at once, but watch your soul network as you use it. Just a warning.

//Here we have recipes. Lots and lots of recipes.


//End of countless recipes.

Tiberius has informed me that this book will update as I add to it, so if we ever create more blocks for the advanced spells, you'll know when I do. For now, this is the end. And yet it might be your beginning.