※ “An anomaly is only a pattern waiting for definition.”

  She opened a small notebook she had bought and noted her observations precisely.

  

  
• Banking offers storage only. No capital growth.


  
• Trade permit required for selling. Location quality dependent on permit tier.


  
• Runes and sigils are local utilities. Determine how to acquire the skill.


  
• Class: Priest nonviable.


  
• Inventory requires clearing before further experimentation.


  
• Find a skill for alchemy. May mix well with Impact Dispersion.


  

  A faint movement brushed the back of her hand.

  She glanced down and saw the small silhouette of a mosquito settling on her skin. Without conscious decision, she pressed her fingers together and ended it. A trivial gesture. A routine biological maintenance action.

  Which made the soft ripple of light that followed entirely inappropriate.

  A subtle shimmer passed over her forearm, as if the air itself had recalibrated. The sensation was neither magical nor physical—simply an indication flag, the kind the System emitted when it wanted to draw attention to an internal inconsistency.

  Lisa reopened the log pane.

  

  [LOG][DamageEvent]

  Calculation Energy Leech = {(Damage × 0.5%) / (Target_Level - User_Level), (Damage × 0.25%) / (Target_Level - User_Level)} → round down

  DivisionByZeroException

  [LOG][FallbackProtocol_03-default]

  Calculation Energy Leech = {(Damage × 0.5%), (Damage × 0.25%)} → round up

  [LOG][OverflowHandler]

  Awarded: 1 HP / 1 MP

  She reviewed the sequence twice, then a third time to ensure there was no interpretive nuance she had missed.

  The mosquito had counted as a valid target at level 0.

  The default fallback was rounding up.

  “Of course,” she murmured, almost academically. “Any level-0 organism will now produce a minimum return.”

  Immediately, she opened the description of the Insect Channel cantrip.

  

  Insect Channel (Channeling)

  Cost: 1 MP per second

  Effect: Conjures one insect per second

  Type: Bee

  Range: 20 meters

  Behavior: Aggressive toward designated point.

  She triggered the cantrip for a single second.

  Mana dropped by one point.

  A faint ripple in the air responded, and a bee materialized near the corner of the room. Not a calm one. Its wings buzzed with a harsh, jittering rhythm—the kind associated with defensive aggression rather than curiosity.

  It locked onto her immediately.

  Lisa lifted a hand to deflect its charge. The insect darted—persistent—correcting its path with surprising determination. She redirected it twice, then caught it gently between two fingers and ended its movement with a controlled press.

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  No shimmer followed. No ripple. No notification.

  A level-one creature produced no error and no fallback.

  Energy Leech remained silent.

  She released the tiny body into the waste bowl beside the washstand and noted the result with clinical finality.

  No gain.

  Expected.

  Spell parameters remained accessible, as granted by Magic Fundamentals.

  She reopened the interface for Insect Channel and began adjusting the parameters.

  Range first.

  Reducing the distance produced no change at all.

  Increasing it did.

  Twenty meters remained the baseline at one mana per second. At twenty-one meters, the cost shifted to two mana per second. At forty-one, it rose to three.

  A clean linear progression, without any limit.

  She restored the default value and moved to cost scaling.

  Adjusting the cost field produced an immediate response.

  Two mana per second generated two insects per second. Three mana produced three.

  Simple. Proportional. No hidden modifiers.

  “Next parameter.”

  She tested behavior descriptors next: aggressive, calm, curious, passive.

  No effect on cost. No variability at all. Behavior was a free parameter.

  The type field remained.

  It allowed only common, non-magical, non-mystical insects—creatures plausibly known to the caster.

  Bee was the default.

  She tried a hornet.

  The cost jumped to two mana per second.

  Expected. Larger, stronger, more dangerous organism.

  She switched to mosquito.

  The cost returned to one mana per second, but the output rose to three per second.

  Lower mass, higher spawn density.

  “Potential exploit.”

  She set behavior to calm, then activated the cantrip for a single second.

  Three mosquitoes formed immediately, drifting in a loose cloud.

  She disabled the spell, then removed them one by one with short, precise movements.

  Three glints pulsed across her vision.

  Energy Leech triggered each time.

  Three increments.

  Three confirmations.

  She allowed herself a small, contained smile.

  She changed the type again.

  Fly: five per second.

  Then gnat: ten.

  She tested gnats.

  Ten gnats materialized almost instantly, drifting in irregular, erratic arcs.

  Far harder to terminate sequentially.

  Their movement lacked the predictable weight of mosquitoes, forcing constant adjustments in timing and angle.

  She stopped after the first two.

  The rest scattered in unpredictable trajectories.

  “Impractical,” she noted quietly.

  But interesting.

  She lay back on the narrow bed, the rune-light tracing a clean circle across the ceiling. The room was quiet, the kind of quiet that left space for structured thought.

  The numbers settled first.

  The behaviors.

  The ratios.

  The potential uses.

  She followed each thread only far enough to confirm its validity, never to conclusion. Not tonight. Not when the day had already required so much categorization.

  The mattress warmed under her. Her breathing slowed.

  She closed her eyes.

  The ideas continued for a few moments, circling with mechanical precision, arranging themselves into sets, patterns, and hypothetical sequences.

  Then they dimmed.

  Sleep claimed her not gently, but efficiently.