Surprisingly, I couldn’t seem to cause any sort of backlash. I suspected I might just need more opponents and more shields being damaged at the sa ti, and I added that to the list of things to try in full squad training the next day. I thanked the cores for their help and let them resu whatever fun they were having while asking Corey to co with to the garage.
“Is sothing wrong?” Corey asked once we had the garage door closed behind us.
“Wrong is a strong word. But what are your thoughts on the cores so far?” I asked.
“Alpha and Gamma are adjusting well. Beta, I am not sure about. Sotis what they say seems like attempts at jokes. But I have never been able to fully grasp humor, and I do not know that Traveler was able to either. It is currently a conundrum I wish to discuss with the more knowledgeable of our kind,” Corey answered.
“Understandable, as I can’t really read them either. Do you think everything is fine for now, though?” I asked, wanting to calm at least so of my concerns.
“I do. I still maintain full control over the mana connections between them and you. They cannot bypass that,” Corey replied.
“Glad to hear it. I’m going to dig deeper into the rest of my mana orbs. You’re welco to go enjoy yourself as well,” I said, wanting Corey to continue exploring their own independence.
“Thank you, Dave. I am enjoying this new form far more than I expected to. It is quite interesting to have a fully autonomous body that is just your own. I will forever be grateful to you for allowing this chance,” Corey replied.
“Just pass it on. Let’s do our best to figure out the new cores and try to get them as happy and healthy as you,” I said.
“Understood,” Corey replied as they left the garage, leaving alone again with my orb plans.
Starting with the Life orb I moved dical Teletry to the max value, and then I unlocked Soul Regeneration and did the sa there. I figured if I was going to start throwing around soul mana, it was likely for the best that I had the ability to heal any damage I did to myself. I also needed it for the long-term investigation into the soul knots the Jesters had created on the others. Beyond that, there was a curiosity about soul oaths as well, but as we still weren’t bound by the Arena one that didn’t seem as important.
I really wished I had more of the orbs leveled beyond the second tier, as things seed to get much more powerful in the fifth tier of mana skills. Hopefully, as our mana flow grew and my very close proximity to the sources continued, I might be able to increase the growth rate on the orbs. There was also the possibility of Mana Weave Path, but that would likely take a lot more leveling than Corey could easily handle at the mont.
In the Body-Enhancing orbs the only real choice I had was Overwhelming Strength, and I still didn’t have any interest in it. At any point, I could see myself actually needing to use that I had almost certainly already lost the fight, and activating it could only make things worse. I just wasn’t the type of combatant to find that useful, at least not yet. There was, of course, still lesser mutation, but I wasn’t ready to play with that quite yet.
On both Elental orbs, I quickly moved Silent Casting up to twenty-five ranks. I didn’t need the enemy to know exactly what I was casting just because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. I knew that I would still hear the words in my mind from Elicec and that certain builds would still be able to pick that up for countering, but it was for the best to reduce that chance as much as I could.
Components did still sound interesting and was almost certainly sothing I’d take the ti to explore more of once this was over. I had a feeling the ability was just more useful for in my future magical experints. While I was sure I could utilize them in a fight, there wasn’t really ti to add that level of complexity to things I needed to figure out at the mont. I was pretty settled into the idea of my current battle plan for the tenth floor. There was also the fact that with the way Aether seed to work for , I’d likely need to start carrying around pure samples of elents to make the best use of it. Which was sothing I wasn’t remotely against in the future, it was just that now wasn’t the right ti to start building my collection.
That left imbuing, which was my orb still at the lowest rank. The only real increase I could do on it was to finally fully invest in Elental Affinity. This did leave with a question, though. Was Corey able to activate mana skills from Alpha’s mallet to the other tools? Or were we only limited to using Imbuing on Alpha themselves?
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
I opened my chat window, hoping Corey had a good answer to that question.
>Dave: Corey, are you able to channel the Imbuing orb from Alpha into the other core’s tools?
>Corey: Yes, I should be fully capable of doing that, though the mana cost will likely increase, dependent on distance.
>Alpha: Make friends stronger?
>Dave: Yep, that’s the plan.
>Alpha: Good idea.
>Maud: Does anyone know why the moose has a shield?
>Dave: No, no idea. Why don’t you ask Glorp? he might know.
I closed the chat window at the realization that I hadn’t completely removed the shield on the moose. Well, at least that ant he was safer roaming the grounds. It was certainly a strange turn of events that a moose was becoming such a fixture.
Checking the ti, I still had an hour before dinner; that ant I had ti for one more conversation. I needed to talk to l about Maud. I was just too worried about her not to know what he was planning.
Surprisingly, l wasn’t where I expected him to be. Instead of floating near his favorite tree, I actually found him talking to Glorp about possible choices for his classes and mana orbs. He had mapped several pathways out on a whiteboard with details of what he thought would give Glorp the best growth in several different directions. This had to be the l everyone referred to as a legendary manager. Whatever the tree was doing for him, I was glad for the change.
“Hey Glorp, any chance I could steal l for a chat?” I asked as I approached.
“Oh yeah, sure, I need to look over these ideas anyway and consider so things,” Glorp replied. “Oh, and do you know why Maud thinks I put a shield on the moose?”
“I don’t, but thanks for letting borrow him,” I said, looking toward l and doing my best not to give away my own guilt.
“What’s up, Dave?” l asked as he bobbed his cloud form next to . We were heading into the woods for a little privacy, but not far. I didn’t want to risk any more attacks.
“I’m worried about Maud. That last floor people can actually die on, right? Is it really safe to bring her along?” I asked. Hell, was it safe to bring Glorp? Sure, he had managed so powerful things with his speed, but that was likely sothing this other squad would be more prepared for.
“Oh, I may have made that seem a tad more dangerous than it actually is in that regard, mostly because ya do have to win, and at the ti, the idea of retreating wasn’t viable. So basically, anyone who takes a killing blow has an option ta imdiately leave the floor or stick around with a tir. The tir is based on just how much damage they took, but it can’t be less than five seconds. If y’all can manage to heal them back up before that ti runs out, they will be fine ta continue the fight, and obviously, if they leave, they’re fine too,” l explained.
“But if the tir runs out, they do die?” I asked.
“Yes. In future floors, yer gonna find all kinds of weird rules that play with tirs like that, so this is ant to be the introduction ta it, and ta further weed out so people. So yes, there ain’t really a reason to leave Maud behind; she can always tap out if she has ta,” he explained. I felt the crushing weight of one of my fears fade away. We could just escape if we had to. And with my new battle plan of shielding and healing, I could likely keep everyone up and fighting beyond what they were expecting us capable of.
“l, you have no idea how much pressure you just took off of ,” I said, smiling at the man.
“Yeah, well don’t get used ta it. Tomorrow, I got so new plans to push y’all even further, so don’t get lazy!” He yelled, so of his bluster back in his eyes, but I could see the caring along with it. The rough edges that been pushing so of his angrier monts seed to be calming down.
“Help, the moose stole a mana orb!” Maud yelled as she ran past , bursting out from several large bushes. The moose was now chasing behind her. I sighed loudly, accepted my own bla in this, and started chasing the two of them, leaving l to let the others know what had happened.
Energy is not infinite. You can’t produce more mana than exists in a system. That’s an important thing to rember and a goal no one should try to chase. Now, alongside that, it’s important to rember the mana in a system is generally much harder to fully take stock of than most people realize. Once connected to the Spiral, you are no longer in a closed system in the sa way most species understand it. Entropy starts to work vastly different than in closed-off universes. There are even those capable of utilizing entropy as a force in itself. But what I’m trying to get through here is that you should not be trapped in a pursuit of so sort of perpetual mana machine. What you need to understand instead is all the mana forces at play around you. Study them, understand them, utilize them.
Mana Sources by Henjen Klank
User Comments
0 comments from readers