"So what you're telling me is that I'm an idiot."

"Not precisely, this stuff is pretty complicated after all. Can't believe you missed something so obvious though." Grimal almost grumbled the last part.

I sigh. The spell components are pretty difficult to figure out I guess.

To think, though, I had actually been making my mana visible with one. Mana was apparently naturally hard to see, although its owner could see it better than others.

Two of the spell components I had been using in mana links were actually lighting up my mana so it was more visible.

Apparently I hadn't actually tried making one without either of them involved.

Apparently they're used as a training aid and a mana stabilizer. It makes it easier to show your teacher what you're doing with mana, but it increases the cost of spells to use them.

It was going to be annoying to remember to make mana links differently, but removing them helped me stretch my mana pool 10% farther.

Slow and steady wins the race. I need any improvement. Give me more, Grimal!

I pulled a brain core out of my chest cavity while I was thinking about the implications.

"I've been trying, but I haven't figured out how to engrave cores like this. Do you know the secret?"

"Naw, we used to just pay the lower tier Archons to do it. Some people would enter indentured service for a set period of time in exchange for getting a mana crystal engraved. The hard part is growing yourself a new one, it's very painful and difficult. They were always recruiting for the squabbles between factions, but they needed mundane help too, and kept their secret pretty well to make sure they always had it. Supposedly it was something only they could do."

*Thump*

"What about these rune plate things I found in the oven? don't they work on the same principles?"

"Yeah, they do. They are a bit different though. In a mana crystal, the mana flowing through the engravings strengthens them and makes flow more consistent. In rune plates, mana will eventually destroy them. The ones like these are made of a special alloy that lasts a fairly long time, but you can make a rune plate out of anything really, it just tends to stop working pretty fast. One use runeplates made out of paper used to be pretty popular."

That gives me an idea. Vine runeplates? Investigate later, question more now.

*Thump*

*Thump*

*Distant crashing sounds*

I'd like to know what's making those noises, but I don't want to get reduced to wood pulp. I'm going to continue ignoring them and hope they go away. I'm getting pretty on edge though. This place is punishing me for being curious though. Don't investigate, Brian. Leave it alone, Brian. If it comes over here, deal with it then. Until then it's not my problem. Not my problem.

*Thump*

Convincing myself not to go look isn't working very well. Quick, let's talk with Grimal more and distract myself.

"Oh, also, what's the deal with the sun orb and all the little baby versions of you? I think I should see if I can go get the sun orb, I'd like a better source of light I don't have to power, but I'll have to get through that room I found you in, might be nice to know what I'm up against."

"Well, I don't know what sun orb you're talking about, but there's a ritual circle nearby you can use to make clones of yourself. The teachers used to use it to populate the monster rooms with creatures to kill. It takes a really long time for creatures made that way to become sentient, but I was hoping I could gain a few allies once they awakened. Needed some help to fight off the rockworms. Turns out I'm an asshole though, didn't work out. The stronger ones awakened, but they teamed up to push me around. Had to keep making more or the stronger ones started getting aggressive because they didn't have anyone to fight. It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn they had already killed each other without me there making more."

Good news, I guess. Makes me look at Grimal a little differently though. Back on topic.

"I just call it the sun orb. It's a big, bright floating ball that looks like the sun, it had a bunch of zombies marching around it, and I think it was telling them to DEFEND really loudly."

"Ah, one of the defense sparks is still online? Those things are pretty useful. They used to all link together in a big network, and the headmaster could add unawakened creatures to the network, and given certain stimuli they could mobilize a small army of mindless creatures to put out fires, perform emergency labor, and act as cannon fodder in a fight. We could use them to communicate at a distance also, circulate announcements, they're generally very useful in the hands of a decent Psionic who knows the command languages."

It's a computer. They have a magic computer.

Holy shit.

Well, they're about to have had a magic computer, because I'm going to steal it. I have no idea how to program it, but I might be able to figure it out. At the very least, free light, all the time. I can get rid of this lamp limb, and replace it with something more useful.

I wonder if it can run doom?

*Thump*

Ah, no, please stop with the creepy noises, thank you.

"Ah, I see. I only have a few more questi..."

"You've been asking questions for a while now. My voice is gong out and I'm tired. I'm going to cast some basic spells, for you then go back to sleep. Watch carefully."

"Candle"

a little flame appears. I scoff internally. I already figured out how to do that.

When I look at the actual spell, I freeze. This looks nothing like mine at all.

This might be useful.

"Stoneshape"

Wait, I was still trying to remember the other one!

A little lump bulges up from the ground and forms a pillow

"Snowball"

Oh god, I'm not going to remember any of this, am I?

An icy sphere manifests, and hits me in the knee. You punk!

"Sunder"

Hey, that actually looks kind of like my heat spell. Not quite like the flamethrower one.

A rock on the ground heats up and literally explodes!

That is absolutely cool.

Grimal lays down on his earthen pillow and I hear snoring in moments. Impressive!

Lets go play around and see how much of that I can remember.

Then I'm going to build some weapons and clean out the Mini-Grimal room.

*Thump*

*Thump*

Or maybe I need to check and see what that noise is first.