unlimitedpower

I know I'm late, I was hanging out with friends. it's still here though.

Chapter 11: magical testing and interesting discovery

The following morning I could not wait to begin my research but first I ate a bit and cleaned myself a bit although I was aware of the horrible stench around me. I could use magic for it but it wasn’t to the point that it was distracting and I didn’t want to risk it with magic. I still didn’t know that much about it after all.

To change that last issue I started on my research and activated my Mana sense. I started casting a spell to see how it works exactly and once I started writing I saw not much happening until I finished my cast. The letters seemed to absorb Mana from me to cast a spell but at an atrocious efficiency. I probably saw it lose at least 50% of the Mana I poured into it. This would have to be fixed later but for now I studied it more and saw that as soon as the Mana reached the words, it began to transform from my arcane Mana into something different depending on the word. Since I was casting earth magic most of it transformed into earth Mana but some of it seemed to change slightly but still remained mostly pure. This mostly happened to words that were mostly for things like how far it would have to fly and at which speed so I assumed it was because of that. The issue was that I had no idea how to make this more efficient. I tried some magic I was less capable at casting to see if the efficiency changes but that was not the case so it probably couldn’t be improved with practice. Maybe the way I was currently using magic was simply bad? It could very well be, maybe I should see if I can make actual spells and create a spell system.

The next step was going to be to see whether or not I could drain the Mana from the Mana core and see if I could increase my own Mana pool that way. I placed my hand on the core and I could feel the Mana within it. I noticed that because of my frequent use of Mana sense, I could now even feel it better without the Mana sense active which was useful but not necessary since it still wasn’t to a point that I could rely on it. Turning my attention back to the core, I tried draining it and it worked without a hitch. I could feel large quantities of Mana flow inside me and I quickly checked how it was getting converted to arcane Mana and the answer to that was more annoying but also easier than I thought. It just worked. As soon as the Mana tried to enter my body it simply converted to arcane Mana, probably in the same way that natural Mana regeneration works.

Now that I knew this I wouldn’t have to leave monsters alive just to absorb their Mana. With that conveniently out of the way, it was time for me to see if I could use the core to power things such as spells. First I tried casting a firebolt through it since that was currently magic that was too expensive to normally cast for me but that didn’t work. I could not drain Mana to then use it in my spell without using my own Mana. Then I tried some earth magic but it had the same result so that was a bust.

I was thinking back to the history of my own world and remembered that a lot of the ancient tribes had runes that they considered magical. I didn’t remember any of the runes since I wasn’t that interested in history but I could create my own, see if that works for a magic script. I’d have to experiment with it but I could see it having potential.

I went to work the very same day and I started writing down various symbols and see if I could get anything with a reaction. This didn’t work at all and I felt a little stupid for trying it like this, I didn’t even know what to expect. I sat down and thought for a moment and decided to meditate for a bit to see if I could become more in tune with Mana. I closed my eyes and emptied my thoughts, it took me a while to enter a fully meditative state but it wasn’t too hard. I sat there and tried gathering Mana around me, specifically water Mana. I sought to understand it as opposed to just use it. I gathered it around me and thought back to what I knew about water, it’s H²O, two hydrogen atoms binded with one oxygen atom to create a water molecule. I sensed it but I also sensed the Mana around it, following it and reacting with it. It didn’t noticeably change it but I could feel it take some of its attributes. I felt it flow, calm and serene, I felt it move always and everlasting, I felt it wash away, destructive and powerful but also healing it cleansed filth, it balanced the world. I could feel the essence of it around me, in me, I sat there for days, maybe even weeks, the water kept me fed and enhanced me. I felt myself become one with the water, fully understand its nature and as I did that I saw a burning image of countless symbols in my mind, they numbered a near infinite amount and all hummed with power. It hurt to look at them but it was what I was looking for. Magic runes. I could feel Mana in this space everywhere, all kinds of types mixed together in a blend of pure power. I felt the space warp and a single rune appeared in front of me it looked like some kind of weird N and it was radiating an aura of pure Mana. I got snapped back to the normal world and around me was a pool of water, it had made an actual hole in the ground and I sat atop of water. I stood up to write it down and study it. Once I wrote it down I saw it gather water Mana quite quickly while my own Mana only drained a little bit. This was exactly the type of magical script I wanted and it seemed that I could not research it. This would become an issue since it’d slow down my progress tremendously.

The rune I had written a while ago had stopped gathering Mana but the amount it gathered was truly impressive. Even without using my own magic to sense Mana, I could feel it thrumming with power. The main issue that I currently had is that while I did now have a rune, a single rune would not be enough to do much of anything since it required a command. This rune could only gather water Mana and hold on to it. Although this was the case, the feeling of being one with the water Mana was exhilarating and I was looking forward to unlocking more runes. A feeling that I got however was that water was an element I was very much in tune with and therefore I would make it my priority. While knowing a large variety of magic could help out a lot, I feel like being good at a single water type and decent at others would help out more in the long run. I was probably going to continue research into runes, meditating as often as possible and trying to find a new way to use magic. If I could do this, I would finally be able to go to the city and hopefully make more human contact. While I didn’t need it per se, I was getting quite lonely in here by myself.