Day 6
I remember the dream this time, it was the meditation ritual to start, wall, door, forest, waterfall, the crystal sitting there, it changed as soon as I sat down though. The sounds suddenly stopped, then I opened my eyes, and before me was a rip in the air, like a mouth, then I heard it, “You have met the requirements to bond with the artifact, would you like to name it?” a placid voice asked, “what, what do you mean?” I responded, confused and worried. “the artifact attached to your left wrist, it has bonded with you because you have met the requirements necessary. Would you like to name it, as you are the first intelligent creature to find one of its kind.”
“Wait, who are you, whats happening?”
“I am the voice of the collective, you have found a naturally occurring artifact of power, and would you like to name it yourself, or have us name it?”
“Can I ask you other questions? Where am I, was I summoned here, whats going on?”
“No.”
“Oh, well, what would you all name it then, what does it do?”
“Its default name is an absorption crystal, it absorbs and consumes liquids and mana to grow, if it detects something with high amounts of mana, it will prioritize that liquid. It has bonded with you because you where expelling an excessive amount of blood, which contains a high amount of mana. it is now feeding off your excess mana in a symbiotic relationship, as it is now under your control, you can channel mana through the artifact. It has changed though, since this is the first time its bonded with someone, we shall observe its changes. What would you like to name it?”
“Uh, sure, can I have a second?”
“Yes.” my thoughts where racing, I had so many questions, and the first thing I could talk to wasn't willing to talk about them. When I name this thing, is it gonna be called that by everyone, wait, that could mean that there's civilization, there's intelligent life above me, somewhere. I looked up at the vois thing, and said “Manaphage, I want to name it Manaphage.”
“Very well, the name of this naturally occurring artifact type is Manaphage. Would you like your name to be included as the person who discovered Manaphage?”
“Yes?”
“Very well, thank you for discovering Manaphage, Luis Caisson, you may finish resting now.” and with that, the rip... zipped up? I guess, that's the only way to describe it, it started from the bottom, closing itself, till it was gone. Then the sounds came back, the waterfall, the birds, the wind, everything, all at once, it was so jarring I woke up with a start.
I laid there, in stunned silence for a good half hour before sitting up. The Manaphage shining again, I thought long and hard about what all this meant and came to one important conclusion. None of that mattered until I got out of here alive, survival was the most important thing right now. Right now I need food and a way to transport a lot of water. Feeling thirsty I reached for my mug of water, then I thought of something and poured it on the Manaphage. Instantly my thirst was quenched. I then shoved it in the stream. It started glowing brighter, and I felt a lot less hungry. “oh this is gonna be good” I said to myself, beginning to realize the potential this thing had.
First, I touched it to some damp blankets I had, and it absorbed all the moisture from them, and upon touching them I felt the blankets where cool to the touch. Odd, considering that this thing burned a hole in my welding glove. I then reached to touch it with my hand again, and right before I touched it, I felt it, maybe an inch away, a powerful repelling force, like pushing together to same sided magnets. Pushing my hand a little closer, it started to get warmer, until right before I touched it, when it felt like I was sticking my hand in fire. I pulled my hands apart, not wanting to get burned again. I made a mental note, to never touch my hands together again, for almost any reason. I then tried the effect on my elbow, and noticed, there was no effect, no burning, no repelling force, nothing.
The next thing I tested was how full could I get from absorbing water. I stuck the Manaphage in the stream and waited. After what felt like 30 minutes I started to feel full, for the first time in a long time. I pulled it out then, the Manaphage glowing brighter than any flashlight, I quickly covered it with a blanket, dimming the light a fair amount.
I was feeling really good now, a lot of worries alleviated, now I had food, water, and a way to get more. Now all that was left was a way to kill that giant rattipede, and I had a pretty good idea at what to do there. I sat down, leaning against the cave wall, feeling content. I rested there for an hour or two, thinking back to everything I saw, and rereading what I wrote, editing parts, the light in the Manaphage had started to dim, back down to where it was when I had woken up. I guess it can only hold an excess charge for only so long, or something. Tomorrow, I decided, I'm gonna head out. As such, I finished up my writing, and went to bed.
He isn't curious as to what mana is and the fact that it exists?
Thank you for the chapter.
Hes accepted its a fantasy world, and well, he did say that none of how that worked mattered right now, which translates to, I'm unsure of how exactly it works and he'll think about it when i hammer out the fine details.
@lokiandcoded that is fair, good luck with that.
No. Why would he be curious what mana is? It might not be real but its a normal word and would be weird NOT to know what it is.
He really takes his sweet time doesn't he...