Aurum - Year 3 {1 Month later }

 

 

In the last few days I've been... testing my skills, and I ended up discovering that [Evaluate] wasn't bad as it seemed. The skill allowed me to see rarities. Something that I didn't even know existed, and because of that I discovered that most of the things we create are rarity [Rare].

Everything that was made with life mana automatically gains [Rare] rarity regardless of [Quality] so it seems that life energy is so rare that any item that was made with it is already an altomatically a rare item.

I even tried to see if the rarity [Rare] wasn't quite common, but I ended up discovering that basically nothing in our region had the rare quality. Only the [Ruby Cherries] contained the rare rarity, while the [Tears of a Saint] had the [Legendary] rarity.

I didn't know how to react to it, to me they were just pretty flowers with a special ability, but now I understood why the kobolds were so happy when they got some [Tears of a Saint], the plant was legendary, I don't know what it means to be a legendary plant, but it certainly didn't gain this rarity just because it's beautiful and ability to heal a little.

I also discovered that with this skill [Evaluate] I could tell if a skill or trait was rare or not. The traits were easier to say, they were already printed in the status itself, but the skills were something more... Intuitive, I could look at them and simply know if they were common, rare, or unique.

It was more like a sixth sense, I could know when something was fool's gold, or real gold.

But the most incredible part of this evolution was [Crystal Core].

Apparently I have a core inside me, just like Muck, or a golem, but my core doesn't replace my heart, it's just an extra. It's like the heart of mana, the core pumps and stores all the magical energy I have. And this new crystal core seemed to be very good at doing that.

Using mana had never been easier, it felt like I had gone from an amateur to a pro in mana mastery, I could see it, feel it, and... Smell it. The mana stench was not because the mana was smelly, but rather because the mana in that specific region was rotten.

The entire forest was surrounded by this greenish-gray cloud, and the smell that rise from it all was a mixture of day-old rotting corpses, sulfur, and cat vomit. It was simply horrible, and there was no way to hide it, the mana was everywhere.

And the worst part was that I was in a region of low concentration of this rotten mana, inside the forest I could see and feel how the mana became denser, the stench also increased, I was just smelling it from afar and I still felt it making me want to vomit.

"Bye-bye bad odor, you're out the door. We won't miss you, not anymore. So long, farewell, smell you never. With our fresh new scent, we'll be forever clever. Bye-bye bad odor, you're out the door~"

Now I was forced to watch a small group of [Cleaners] completely cleaning my room, they sprinkled some flower essences, cleaned everything with damp cloths, and then placed some scented items, with soap, oils and perfume.

They even made a damn little song to sing when cleaning, these guys were workers who liked cleaning so much that they evolved to do it with mastery, Peper, the leader of the cleaners, was someone lively and with a lot of personality, so he started making these little idiots songs while cleaning.

It wasn't bad, but it was still embarrassing to see someone singing while cleaning something, as if it were Disney's Cinderella.

"How are you now mom? Has the smell gotten better for you?" Pepper asked.

"Not really... Unlike the air where we just need to close the windows and doors, we can't stop the mana from coming in, so this stench won't go away anytime soon...."

The room was wonderful, the wax on the walls even reflected my reflection, they were so clean and well polished, but the stench didn't diminish at all, in fact it was even more nauseating, it's like trying to mix perfumes in a pile of feces, the stench doesn't go away just because you put some good smelly items in, If it smells like feces, it will only have the acidity of the perfume mixed in.

"Really? The room looks so nice to me, but if you're saying so then it must be true. I'm sorry if I couldn't help, that's all the cleaning club can do." Pepper said.

"Don't worry dear, you did an incredible job, it's not your fault that the mana acts like radiation and even has a smell. I just need to find a way to create a zone of life mana, that way I can expel that stench."

"Alright! If that's all let's retreat, we still need to clear the magic tower!" Pepper said excitedly.

"Of course, you can go, thank you for your hard work."

Soon I was left again in the newly cleaned room with just my delegation. I really need to find a way to stop this stench, I don't have the mental stability necessary to handle this type of environment. I can barely survive without my mángas, what will you say about in a stinky place 24 hours a day.

It turns out that I already had a way to get rid of this stench, the solution would be to create a field full of life mana, in this way the life mana would overcome the rotten mana that is in the air, forming a "safe field" the problem was that I didn't know how to do that.

To create a mana field I needed to make the mana stable, otherwise the mana would just decay quickly and dissipate into the air. Basically it was like pouring water into a stream, even if the water had a different color (affinity), this would not prevent the natural mana from the environment from washing away the colored mana.

To create a "safe field" I needed to create something like an ice block, a canoe, a shield, something to keep the ambient mana and my own mana in different "states and consistencies".

"Damn system, I never asked you for anything, and I know I've insulted you a lot of times, but how about giving me a hand here?!"

---

 

"Sooooo.... Is it a magical wand?"

"Don't call it a wand mother! It's totally different, and much less advanced than the concepts of magic wands!" Max demanded.

Recently Max and the magic club, together with the research, craftsmanship, construction, development and communication club. Had discovered a way to get around the restriction when creating spells with a specific type of mana.

The restrictions I speak of are in relation to the issue of [Affinities]. Normally to control life mana, you need to have affinity with [Life], otherwise, the mana will not obey you, and will simply ignore you, as if you were a total stranger or someone worthless.

But now the boys had discovered a way around this problem.

They still couldn't manipulate life mana directly, so instead of trying to give commands directly to the mana, they created an "intermediary", the life mana energized this "wand" and anyone just needed to pour intentions and create a spell from scratch made with life mana.

It was an ingenious way of doing things, instead of trying to make the mana "bow down" to them, the mages tried to adapt to the mana and focus on its most basic principles. Mana needed commands, intentions and feelings, all to acquire "form" and become a real spell.

Now, when we added [Affinities] on top of all this, we ended up with an extra limitation, which was compatibility between the user and the energy. And to get around this, my mages created a device that could inject intentions into mana, without actually coming into contact with the mana.

The entire machine was over 50 cm tall, and looked like a cone of roots growing out of the ground. The entire contraption was filled with root "cables" that connected to bubbles filled with mana crystals, all of which were then connected by cables into a large translucent ball in the center that was filled with a mysterious liquid. Inside the mysterious ball were dozens of crystals of life mana, which were wrapped in a tangle of roots, which extended from the top of the ball to the highest part of the contraption, that was just a pointed branch.

"Does this shit really work? It looks like it's made from a bunch of forest trash...."

The thing was mostly made of roots, mana crystals, replaceable mana bubbles, and plants. The only thing that was really impressive was the translucent ball, which appeared to be some type of fruit that had received extensive chemical treatment to achieve that appearance. The rest of the machine was made up of animal bones, mud, wood, stones and glue.

"Of course it works! I couldn't be bothered to show you a non-functional prototype!" Max said pompously.

Max gained a lot of power within the hive. Because I really like magic, and Max is the head wizard, he ended up gaining a lot of attention, becoming one of the "Richest" members, having a personal room (something only members of the inner circle can have). Meals prepared just for him, and priority in the information department.

He was becoming very arrogant, but Max always lived up to his arrogance, he always had a new gadget or method to show, and his department had even they own tower, unique materials and priorities.

Soon Max's practiced demonstration began, he instructed a wizard to place a single flower seed on top of the contraption, and came close to the super device, placed his hand on one of the crystals that served as a "control panel", and began to "operate" the machine.

Them I could see the bubbles that contained the mana crystals begin to shake violently, the roots that wrapped them had golden veins that converged on the large ball suspended in the middle.

So the liquid inside the ball began to bubble, and glow lime green, soon the crystals contained in the liquid began to glow the same lime green and the roots that connected the spell bubble to the outside world began to create green veins.

After thar, the seed at the top of the contraption was flooded with moss green smoke, and from within the seed sprouted large quantities of branches and leaves, which soon gave rise to roots that began to curl into a strange shape, after a few moments I could see that Max had transformed a seed into a plant pot made of roots that contained 3 flowers of different appearance and colors.

This technique required precision, molding the magic to make it take on specific shapes was not easy, and changing the basic nature of a plant was also not the work of an amateur, someone had to have a lot of knowledge to change the shape, color, size and smell of a flower, without changing its [Species].

"Incredible Max! That was wonderful!! That's almost a magic wand!"

The thing could make someone without affinities use mana that contained affinity. I think it shouldn't be something common, people from this world with [Water] affinity shouldn't go around looking for ways to use spells with fire mana, they just specialize in what they're good at, but my boys didn't have any affinities, they just could use generic, and limited spells.

So this contraption that looked more like a child's doodle was still an incredible advancement, if we could compact it, I could provide live mana for the entire hive, or better! I could have access to all types of mana!!! No need to limit myself to spells with life mana.

---

 

 

"Holy shit, praying to the system actually worked?! Those crystals are awesome!"

I was so upset by the stench, that I started testing my new skills, and to my surprise, [Crystallize] had more uses than it initially seemed to have.

I thought it would be an ability to create mana crystals, but apparently those aren't the only types of crystals that exist. I tried to turn a berry into a crystal, and ended up spending 10 mana points, and getting a pink jewel that broke soon as I put a little pressure on it.

So I moved on to another idea, the idea of creating crystals from mana. The Skill said I could crystallize objects and things like that, so why couldn't I crystallize life mana itself? And when I tried to do this I ended up spending an incredible 23.3 mana points to create a crystal shard the size of my fingernail.

It seemed absurd that so much mana had been wasted on something so small, but I soon managed to realize that the crystal was slowly pulling the energy from the environment into itself, and releasing an almost imperceptible aura of mana of life.

Because of this, I discovered its uses, and I genuinely came face to face with the crystal's abilities. Creating zones of life mana was not an easy task, you needed to stabilize the mana in a way in which it wouldn't fall apart in the air, and this little tramp crystal could do that.

"Oh holy cow, I'm going to make so many crystals that when I'm finished I'll be able to open a Hipster decorations store."

The crystals consumed a considerable amount of mana, but I had a lot of mana, and I could completely regenerate it in 1 day of rest, so making a ton of these crystals shouldn't be difficult, after all I would only need time.

And that's what I have the most lately.

Another great discovery was about the {Imperial Empowerment} skill. The 5% bonus was pretty weak to be honest, but the cost was so insignificant that I could bless dozens of soldiers before I started to really lose mana. I could also do something that was very useful with this skill.

Normally I need to touch the target to bless it, but I've found that if a target already has the 5% bonus, I can instantly switch it to the 40% bonus at a cost of 10 mana points, plus the cost of operating the blessing.

This was simply stolen, I could send dozens of seemingly harmless soldiers to fight a strong creature, and in the middle of the battle strengthen all the members of the delegation tremendously. This meant that the soldiers could completely turn the tide, because if they were having a difficult fight, I could give them a quick 40% bonus to all their stats, and when they won the fight I could change it back to the 5% Making my troops very dangerous and powerful.

The skill just had one big problem not mentioned in the description.

distance and extra cost.

The further the soldiers would go from me, the greater the expense of the skill, and it reached a point that was simply unsustainable, so to be able to use the {Imperial Empowerment} bonuses, everyone needed to be within a radius of at most 20 meters away from me, anything further than that made the skill more expensive.

Another thing was that I could only bless weak members, if I tried to bless Hans with the 40% bonus for example, I would end up using up my entire mana reserve in a few minutes. the skill never mentioned that "the stronger the blessed target, the higher the mana cost", but the skill was still very good when used on teams with several weak members.

I can't say if it's a good thing or a bad thing. {Queen's Blessing} didn't have those limitation, and I could bless members indefinitely, no matter the distance, as long I continued to pay the mana rate every second.

Now {Imperial Empowerment} has gained explosive power in terms of strengthening and utility, but has lost the ability to operate at great distances, the skill makes us a difficult castle to fall, but it also means that we would have to attract the enemy to our home if we wanted to cause harm and a lot of damage to them. Something that was absurd, the tower need to be a safe place, and free from enemies, so bringing enemies that could cause damage to the tower here on purpose was absolutely stupid.

Another great Skill was {Spectral Surge}, which was a bright energy field around me, and everything that entered this energy field would suffer from the field's properties. If he were an ally he would have his wounds slowly healed, and would receive an attack bonus. Now if it were an enemy, the aura would cause damage similar to chemical burns, in addition to causing confusion and discomfort. At least that's what tests with Wappos showed.

The problem was that to use this, my enemy had to be very close, too close. Like, 1 meter in front of me. What was an unthinkable thing for me and the hive, my low resistance, life, and damage make me a paper warrior, well, my life and defense are high, but that would only make me a tough punching bag. But I think the {Spectral Surge} skill would still help me a lot in a "final battle", in some situation where the enemy has gone too far.

The {Crystal Fur} skill was a very explanatory skill, I could turn all the hair on my body into crystals, creating a super armor full of crystal spikes that turned me into a crystal turtle. The thing was really cool, and I looked like a rich lady full of jewelry when the skill was active.

I had hair all over my body, mane, fur, pompoms on my arms and losses, and a bee-like abdomen covered in a thin layer of hair. So this skill was really very useful.

If I curled up in a fetal position, and closed myself off completely, I could even disguise myself as a crystal, or precious jewel. The problem with this skill was that the crystals also hurt me, so if I wrapped myself in the wrong way I could end up cutting myself with my own armor.

And now I was trying to use the most abstract skill of all, {Spectral tuning}. The skill seemed to turn me into a medium, or a gypsy. But I still haven't achieved anything with it, and the reason is that it's very difficult to imagine the action of talking to the spiritual world when you've never spoken to the spiritual world.

"Is there a way to grow a little bit of weed around here? I think that would help me... I don't know, my friend once told me that he saw paradise when he was high, so the weed should help me connect with something more spiritual...."

Letting go of the idea of smoking a little weed, I start thinking about more spiritual concepts. Things like soul, consciousness, etc., but nothing seemed to activate the skill.

"What to do? What to do? There has to be something that works, you shitty system, you forgot to give me a manual for the skills, is that what? Some kind of discrimination? I want manuals too!"

Angry with the system again, I start thinking about my echo, the little mana jellyfish, and start thinking about deeper concepts, like the existence of a whole new plane, or a "filter" of reality that I couldn't get to see.

Soon I start to feel my mana receiving a tug, and a light appearing in front of my eyes. When I open them I can see many things that definitely weren't there before, things like worms swimming across the sky, small glowing dots with stranger colors flying in groups, and auras and clouds of smoke that float peacefully in the air.

"Is this the spiritual world?! This thing looks more like a SpongeBob cartoon!"

The energy creatures in front of me looked a lot like deep-sea creatures, floating around and glowing. They weren't oddly shaped like the deep-sea creatures, and they all looked like the childish scribbles of 3-4 year olds, but they were everywhere, from my throne room to my personal garden, just chilling or sucking the mana of the environment.

"What are the use for those little bastards?! What do they do besides just walk around without purpose..."

Determined to find out what these little creatures were doing, I went to my garden and sat down on a chair, while being ventilated by the guards and eating a drink of honey, I was able to closely observe the action of the spirits. The spirits were floating around in groups or alone, eating the energy of the environment and farting more refined energy.

It seemed that the spirits were the reason for the high concentration of rotten mana in the forest, they could absorb the natural energy of the world and throw it into the air in a stable form, turning entire environments into mana-rich zones. I could also observe that some of them simply divided in half, creating a new spirit, they used mitosis to reproduce, as if they were cells or something.

And I could even see some larger and more colorful spirits floating to the ground and entering it. It didn't look like they were just migrating to the ground, but rather blending in with the earth, and I don't know why.

"These little guys have some relationship with the planet... They seem to be life forms that help maintain the planet. But why don't they attack each other? Why do they enter the earth? And can they evolve?"

I tried to analyze these spirits, but I just couldn't get anything out of them, it seemed like they weren't there, or I didn't have high enough skills to analyze them.

To test it I send a life mana wave into the air, and I can see the world being bathed in a golden aura for a few seconds before the aura blends into the world around it and disappears. This attracted some spirits that seemed to be savoring the remains of energy that I threw into the area.

"Interesting... So you are attracted by mana... Could I possibly create some spirits capable of turning this region into a zone of magical energy with [Life] affinity?"

Extending my hand towards the spirits, I see them fleeing at a speed I didn't know was possible, as if they were a frightened school of fish. I try to pour more mana into the environment, and this attracts the attention of the spirits, who begin to absorb the energy and fart waves of rotten energy.

"Damn... Where did these guys come from... I wonder if I could eliminate them from this area and I would get rid of the rotten magic zone? But what happens if I do that... They must be everywhere for some reason, what would happen in an area without spirits?"

Leaving that aside, I try to attract a mana spirit to my finger, and soon I see a large purple orb coming towards me lazily, it looked a lot like fishing. You needed patience and a good bait, only then would you be able to catch the big one.

"Come on... Come eat this delicious mana... It'll do you good, I swear."

Soon the great spirit began to eat in the palm of my hand, and after some time feeding it with mana of life, I saw it double in size until it began to tremble and split into 2, a purple spirit like the previous one, and a golden spirit like the mana of life.

"Holy shit, now I see the advantage of talking to the spiritual world!"

Before I could celebrate the birth of the new golden spirit, I felt SOMETHING look at me. It seemed to be very far away, coming from deep in the forest, and it seemed angry at what I had done just now.

"W-What was that?!?!"

Before I could process the information, I saw the strangely colored spirits floating up to the golden spirit and circling it in a wave of spirits, the strangely colored spirits then began to "eat" the golden spirit until it disintegrated into a wave of life energy. So when the massacre ended, the spirits went back to living their lives as if they hadn't just eaten a newborn baby.

"What the fuck is going on here!!?!!?"

Something looked at me, something from deep in the forest glared at me, and after a few seconds of trying to process what had happenedI  felt like this thing had lost the interest in me and disappeared in the same way it appeared.

"What the fuck was that?!"