With how lavish the dorms are very little was needed to be brought. A couple suitcases for clothes and some toiletries. As such, rather than flying or driving he opted to take the train, an archaic system dating back to before the flying cars and even before cars were the main means of transportation. It wasn't lavish but it was cheap, and for a college student, he'd rather spend his money on entertainment or school supplies. Nick had packed his things, got to the train station, wished his parents goodbye, started his journey, become bored and pulled out the Grimoire to examine it, excited to take it to his professors for research.
Three hours into the 6 hour train ride they had made several stops along the way but now the train was bypassing stations and cruising directly to the final stop, the college town where the University resides. From there he will get a ride to the dorms and prepare for his new life. Meet some new people maybe...
As of right now however, he was staring down 3 more hours of nothing to do in particular and was looking at one of his digital textbooks on his phone, in hopes of using it to decrypt the Grimoire. (Physical textbooks are waiting for him at school.)
Magic can be represented in code, in words, or in complex visual patterns called sigils. It's helpful to see all three though there are numerous rules and complexities to go from one form to the other and not all versions work the same way. The sigil for a basic cleaning spell is dangerous to people because walking through an activated sigil will clean your blood, where the other versions of the spells don't do that. Only the most basic of spells have their complete mapping laid out and now days, everything is pretty exclusively developed in code as it can be directly copied if the spell effects are valuable and safe.
Sigils and verbal spells fell out of favor as soon as it was discovered computers can trigger magical effects and there was an explosion of development all around the world. The spells from the 2050's and early 2060's being just as likely to explode if someone nearby sneezes during casting as some random target growing a beard upon the spells completion. Since then, the most dangerous of spell effects have been outlawed and the knowledge secured. This has led to the standardization of grimoires and their spell effects.
Nick rubbed his eyes, he doesn't usually get carsick but the multi hour trip was doing a number on him. He never realized how bumpy trains can be...
He pulled out the Grimoire again, two hours left... he stretched out his neck and back, as things popped back into alignment. There was a heavy bump and the train rocked.
He felt the a surge of magical energy from his lap, a spell was activating! The brain symbol! Where was the confirmation screen? Where was the choose target option that would let him cancel the casting? Where was the stop casting button?!?!
There was a strong pulse throughout his body as the spell activated, his thinking slowed and his brain went foggy as knowledge flooded into his head...
The brain fog was so he wouldn't freak out as many would when casting an undescribed spell. The spells target was automatically the user, so no options were given. The rest of the effects were... something else...
