While Jen was more than pleased by her new skill, she still felt a small amount of disappointment. She had hoped to gain an actual spell from completing the path. Her current ability to use magic boiled down to forcing it out and using it as a light source. While useful, it felt at times to Jen like she was using a computer as a space heater, taking advantage of waste energy instead of it’s actual purpose.

With her previous amount of mana, there really hadn’t been much else she could afford to do. She had needed to expend all her mana to make light to interact with the system at all, and it was only now that she felt comfortable beginning to ‘waste’ mana experimenting with the system.

Eager to begin, Jen ran through her options. While she could play around with her magic by itself, using Mana Manipulation and Mana Control in an attempt to do something new, she much preferred experimenting with other objects. Injecting mana into the mushroom had allowed her to create a light, even if she was wary of attempting said feat again.

Her recent expedition had given her a new resource to play with, one that had, in fiction at least, had great effects when combined with magic.

While Jen knew from the description that Identify gave her that they were simply fluorite crystals, she was still hopeful for some interesting interactions when combined with her mana. Magic was such an unknown at this point that it seemed anything was possible, a heady feeling to be sure.

Still somewhat wary thanks to the parasitic mushroom roots, Jen hesitantly picked up a crystal in one hand and formed a small sphere of mana in her other hand. Ready to drop the crystal and back away if anything unpleasant occurred, she slowly brought the two together.

While the rock had seemed to have no interaction with her mana, and the mushroom had seemed to actively absorb it, the crystal just seemed to be resistant. Her mana seemed to be filling the crystal, but at a slow pace that ignored how much physical pressure she brought to bear.

Using Mana Control to funnel her magic into the crystal seemed to have an effect, and Jen watched in fascination as her mana was absorbed, the crystal slowly changing in hue, its crystalline clarity gradually becoming more opaque.

After the last of her mana had been absorbed or dissipated with time, Jen waited for a moment, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness again. She was curious if the crystal would emit any light at all, as even the rock had given off a temporary glow after being exposed to her mana, but she could make out nothing. While Jen was disappointed as to not have another method of creating light, she was curious to see what effects this experiment might have.

Creating another light, Jen began to examine her creation. While the crystals she had pulled from the river had been clear in nature, this one was much more opaque. Looking at her light through it still allowed a small portion to come through, much less than originally. It seemed darker as well, but given that her light source was red tinted, Jen wasn’t sure if it was actually darker, or just had picked up some other color on the spectrum.

Beyond the visual appearance, it seemed much the same as it ever had. The surface was still smooth and hard, nor did it emit any heat or sound like her expelled mana did.

After her cursory examination, Jen was pleased to see that her identify skill had triggered.

Mana Crystal, Common

Happy to see that the system now thought of it as a different object, Jen wished she had more information, before remembering how she had accessed the skill descriptions from her listing. Reaching out to touch the box containing the name, she was pleased to see the text transform into a short one line description.

Can be used to power a spell or magical construct.

Jen sadly didn’t have any spells or magical constructs to power, but she was confident she could find some method of putting this new item to use. It would just need a bit of creativity applied to it.

Jen reasoned that if spells or magical constructs could use the mana inside the crystal, it might be possible for her to draw the mana out as well, giving her a method of restoring her mana. Initial attempts proved futile. Trying to use Mana Control, feeding it additional mana and then reversing the process, even sticking it in her mouth to try and physically suck out the mana. No matter what Jen tried, the mana crystal might as well have been a normal crystal for all the effect she was making. She even took a moment to re-identify it, just to make sure that it was still a mana crystal, only to be disappointed when it only affirmed that the failure was all on her.

Trying to break it to let the mana out proved equally futile. It might not have been the hardest crystal around, but Jen lacked any tools at all, much less built for this task. Trying to use a rock to break it only led to the rock cracking, and a banged thumb for Jen after a strike missed and hit the hand holding the crystal in place.

Not wanting to admit defeat quite yet, Jen took a quick break, racking her mind for other things she could possibly try and use the crystal for. While experimenting with the mushroom had been traumatic, at least it had been easy to put its longer duration light to use as a beacon.

Jen snapped her fingers. While she was pretty sure the mushroom wasn’t a magical construct, it did have a potent ability to utilize magic. Giving it the mana crystal would be educational, at the very least.

The fact that it was oversized made it easy to find in the dark. After patting its head, Jen reached downwards towards the roots. She hoped that she would be safe from the roots without external mana to draw it. Surprisingly, the roots had started to dig into the rock, even in the short time that it had been left there. Taking this as more confirmation that mana was the main resource that the mushrooms consisted on, Jen carefully pried it loose from the rocks, eventually grasping it by the head and leaving the root system dangling.

Sadly, her first attempt to feed it the crystal was met with no response. Simply poking it in the roots with the crystal wasn’t enough to activate whatever response had driven it to attack her body. If she wanted results, she would have to try something a little risky.

Reminding herself that she had Mana Control in case anything went wrong, Jen produced a moderately large globe of mana, hoping that the time it would take for the mushroom to consume would be long enough for her to substitute the crystal as a valid target. To further this, she began feeding the mana into the crystal as it lay on the ground, even as she brought the mushroom closer.

The mushroom reacted to the presence of magic much the same as it had previously; springing to life violently, its roots speeding forward to absorb as much of that precious resource as possible. Jen sprang into action, using Mana Control to shape the globe of magic, pushing it away from herself and towards the crystal, leaving it connected to her palm by the thinnest piece possible. At the same time she carefully lowered the mushroom down, placing it on the ground where it could still easily devour the magic. With her now free hand, she picked up the crystal, pushing it through the mana towards one of the seeking roots.

This time there was a response. When contact was made, the root split into four smaller probes, each of which began to trace the surface of the crystal, soon surrounding it in an intricate network. By the time they had finished, the rest of the roots had finished absorbing the rest of the mana. Jen had managed to cut the connection to her hand before they could follow it back, and after backing away a few feet, conjured yet another globe of light so she could more easily follow what was happening.

A quick check of her status screen showed that she had spent almost forty mana since beginning this experiment, but that still left her with plenty for anything that might occur.

Turning her attention back to the mushroom, she saw that the rest of the roots had made their way over to the crystal, almost completely surrounding it. She could just barely make it out underneath the overlapping roots that seemed to slowly be pulling it back towards the mushroom stem.

She noted that while the mushroom had given off a light while it was consuming magic, both her external and internal magic, there was no glow coming from the roots around the crystal. The mushroom head was giving off a dim light, the byproduct of whatever reaction it used to grow, but the roots were dark, apparently not able to pull any more magic from the crystal than she could.

But for all that, they seemed interested in keeping the crystal, inching it closer to the mushroom proper. Jen debated stopping them, her caution warring against her curiosity. Her curiosity won, and Jen paid close attention as the crystal was brought next to the stem, and then slowly made its way inside, the mushroom splitting around it to provide it passage upwards. Jen paid close attention to the bulge as it steadily made progress towards the cap.

Eventually the bulge flattened out, the crystal either dissolved or otherwise incorporated into the mushroom’s structure. Pressing down on the top of the cap revealed it to still be intact, the section surrounding it much harder than the rest of the mushroom.

A quick Identify still named the mushroom an Antimagic Mushroom, and Jen felt a little more of the tension fade away. The crystal might have changed something about the function, but at least it didn’t seem to be anything major.

After a moment to weigh the pros and cons, Jen decided to feed the mushroom some mana. She wanted to know if whatever change had occurred affected her ability to use the mushroom as a light. The first few moments confirmed her fears when the mushroom no longer gave off a steady glow, regardless of how much mana she forced into the cap. What previously had been enough magic to keep it lit for an hour now faded after only a few seconds of illumination.

Making a mental note to grow another mushroom to serve as a beacon, Jen moved away from the experiment, turning her attention towards what she could learn from all that had happened.