Here's the first chapter for this week!

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Chapter 13: Mana Crystals and Floating Skulls

Standing in front of the glowing sigils, Kaz carefully pinpointed and identified the centerpiece sigils. Gathering his mana, Kaz formed two mental spikes individually. One in each hand, Kaz hesitated for a second. Then, taking extremely careful aim, Kaz unleashed his spells at their targets. Closing his eyes in anticipation of a huge explosion, Kaz raised his hands as if defending himself from an attack.

Curiously, there was no huge explosion. Shattering crisply with two small bangs, the centerpiece sigils collapsed at the same time. Immediately afterwards, the glowing protective network on the door’s surface grew fainter and fainter as the protective magic flickered and failed. Finally confronted with a dark door, Kaz reached to push the door open. At Kaz’s slight touch the door’s runes flashed a bright green once, then the door opened by itself without any further stimulation. Kaz could see a dark hallway through the door, getting darker the further it went. Lighting one of the last torches that he had crudely made from branches and tree resin, Kaz cautiously walked forwards.

{Ahhh….the air is even more saturated with mana inside. This feeling is supremely comfortable. You should really not get used to this feeling, since most other environments just aren’t as relaxing. It’s a shame really, if only your innate magical power pool was greater you could absorb so much more. As it is, this environment only provides you a trifling benefit at most.} Thoroughly enjoying the feeling of a mana saturated atmosphere, Ahriman was uncharacteristically chipper.

With a stifled groan, Kaz walked deeper into the dark. After some time, Kaz started to notice that crystals that overflowed with mana seemed to be forming and disappearing in the air.

Stopping to look at a few of these crystals, Kaz’s eyes glinted as he studied the crystalline formations in the air.

“Ahriman, are these crystals made up of pure mana? It seems that some of the mana from the air has forcibly turned into crystals. Some of these larger crystals seem to have been formed for a while.”

{You’re more or less correct in your guess. Pure mana follows a set of guidelines in nature. Under normal conditions, mana is only found in air. However, in situations where the atmosphere is considerably saturated with mana, crystals of it could precipitate out of the air in the form of crystals. If enough of it comes out of the air, we can expect crystals of pure mana to form like those you see here.}

Picking up a mana crystal, Kaz studied the shape, and found that it was not unlike the shape of some precious metals. About the size of a fist, the mana crystal faintly glowed by itself. Kaz got the feeling that the crystal almost seemed alive. Walking further down the hallway, Kaz had many things to ask Ahriman.

“If these crystals are the result of pure mana being condensed out of the air, they would have to only exist in areas where there are high levels of pure mana right? Assuming this, the moment I take one of these crystals outside they would disperse.”

{Exactly right. Many people in the past have attempted to figure out a way to farm these mana crystals. Many methods including airtight containers have failed to successfully transport mana crystals out of their formative environment. However, one method eventually succeeded. Do you know what it was?}

“Assuming that a magical method was the sole success. I’d have to say that it was a Spatial Magic method that eventually succeeded in isolating the mana crystals in a way to facilitate transport.”

{You know, I really enjoy the academic side of you when it’s centered on the topic of magic. That’s right, Spatial Magic was the only way to isolate mana crystals outside of their formative environment. The Spatial Magi would create a small pocket of space where nothing could get in or out, including mana. They would then insert a mana crystal and therefore could take it outside without the mana dispersing.}

“Wouldn’t the downside of this be that you would have to hire many Spatial Magi if any significant mana crystal farming was to be done? I think that would be prohibitively expensive. Plus, if the mana crystal formation area was exposed to such open activity like magi coming in and out, wouldn’t the mana leak out of the area at an increased rate? Then the pure mana would run out and nobody could get any benefit.”

{Although you’re right about the expense, areas containing pure mana do not run out that easily. Since only practitioners of Spatial Magic could successfully harvest mana crystals, they profited greatly from any discovery of a mana crystal mine. Eventually Spatial Magic was lost when their magi had a rather long civil war. But that’s ancient history at this point anyway.}

“You can’t tell me that the Spatial Magi had a civil war and then brush it off like it’s nothing! Ugh…” Kaz’s interest was piqued, but being unable to get the information from Ahriman, he could do nothing but bite his tongue.

Further talk was not going to go anywhere anyways since it was at this point that Kaz noticed that he had reached the end of the long hallway. The concentration of mana crystals had increased dramatically as Kaz walked.

“Near the entrance, there were only tiny mana crystals the size of a berry. Now there are mana crystals lying on the floor as big as my head. Each is a different shape, even. Although some are similar in shape, there are distinct differences between every mana crystal.”

Facing a set of stone doors, Kaz realized that there were even more complicated sigils carved on it. Getting excited, the apprentice got close to the doors and started to study them.

{.....}

Normally, Ahriman would complain about Kaz’s interest in such things, but now he just sighed and kept quiet.

“The Seal of Spirits is the creation of the Magi of Lorthar. Beyond these Guardians lies the Power to Change Eternity. Where once there existed a Mountain, there will exist a Plain.”

Kaz stepped back, and sat on the ground as he thought about the carved inscriptions. Playing with a mana crystal in his hands, Kaz casually began to refill his innate mana pool with the energy trapped within the crystal.

“These protective sigils actually spell out a story, or could be interpreted as a story. Each capitalized word corresponds to a sigil of power, which will combine with the others to form the protective magical network. However, figuring out the centerpiece sigil depends on analyzing the message of the sigil.” After several exposures to the protective sigils, Kaz started to grasp the core theory behind them.

{Hoo..you’re actually really good at this theory stuff. I will admit that I spent much longer trying to decipher the core theory behind protective networks when I was studying them. Then again, I wasn’t nearly as motivated as you are now since protective theory is so damn boring.} Not one to be easily impressed, Ahriman nevertheless admired Kaz’s aptitude for magical theory.

Lighting his last torch, Kaz left it in a large crack in the wall as he prepared to deconstruct the stone door’s magical protections. Sending his magical sense out towards the door to probe for the magical connections between each sigil, Kaz realized that the stone doors weren’t actually magically protected.

Sighing, Kaz could only retrieve his torch and sheepishly walk towards the stone doors. Although the sigils were carved correctly, either the stone doors were never intended to be in use, or the magus carving it forgot to power it up.

“The stone doors have the Eternity Sigil. That alone allows it to regenerate its power from the surrounding environment in order to keep the protective magics up and running. With such a mana saturated environment, the activated protective network could have lasted for thousands of years, perhaps tens of thousands. It looks like today’s my lucky break!”

{You know, if only you’d have probed the door with magical sense first, this wouldn’t have happened. Do you really need to study everything that interests you?} Unable to resist poking fun at Kaz, Ahriman’s scathing voice carried hints of condescension as well as sarcasm.

“I need all the information that I could get. Although I don’t know how to carve and imbue these sigils with mana at the moment, being able to decipher and deconstruct the magical protections surrounding them is a very useful skill in my opinion.”

Bracing himself for any unexpected effects, Kaz placed his right hand on the door. The moment his fingers touched the cold stone doors, a bright green flash originated from the Eternity sigil on the door. The rest of the sigils started to power up, and the set of doors opened. Breathlessly, Kaz walked beyond the stone doors.

Within the stone doors was a large cavern of sorts. It seemed to Kaz to be a sort of laboratory. However, there was an object that drew most of Kaz’s attention. In the very center of the cavern was a massive mana crystal, many times larger than even the head-sized ones that had materialized back in the hallway.

Kaz’s seven bound souls writhed endlessly as they felt the extreme saturation of the mana within the cavern’s atmosphere. Sending them to scout for dangers, Kaz gaped at the central mana crystal as he approached it.

Looking at the ground, Kaz realized that the floor was not actually just stone as he initially thought.

“There seems to be an extremely complicated magical network carved into the floor. Although it does not cover the entire cavern, since I did not notice it immediately as I walked in, it does cover a sizable portion of it. Curiously, the center of this particular magical network is directly below the huge mana crystal.” Walking around the central mana crystal, Kaz’s concentration as he studied the magical inscriptions could only be described as intense.

After a short while, Kaz sat on a nearby stone bench in front of the crystal. Deep in thought, Kaz didn’t even hear Ahriman as the latter desperately tried to get his attention.

{Hey, this cannot be that interesting. It’s just a really big version of all of those little ones outside. Gods above, how can he be this interested in this pile of junk? There’s not even a practical purpose for studying this huge mana crystal. There’s no way of taking it out of here, even if he did know Spatial Magic. I’ve never seen a mana crystal this large either, but I know they can get this big in theory so it isn’t as interesting to me.} Lacking the verbal ability to shake Kaz out of his thoughts, Ahriman resorted to lightly shocking Kaz mentally with magic.

“Agh! Ow...Why did you do that?” Annoyed, Kaz glared at the empty space around him.

{Because you were lost in thought, and this really isn’t a good use of your time. Isn’t your torch going to run out soon anyways?} Trying to steer Kaz off into a path more interesting, Ahriman tried to appeal to Kaz’s sense of caution.

“I hardly even noticed it. The bright glow coming from this central mana crystal is of comparable brightness to a full moon. There’s barely a need for additional illumination. In addition, despite the rude awakening that you’ve provided me, I think I have a basic idea of what the magical network on the ground is for.”

{Oh? Do tell. I’m sooooo interested in hearing what you have discovered.} If he still had eyes, Ahriman’s would have been rolled all the way to the back of his skull. If he still had one too.

“The magical network on the ground is not actually a protective network. It’s more of a condensing network. You can see the Wind Sigil carved multiple times on the outer rings of the network. These are still powered, and I can feel them diverting a constant stream of mana towards the central crystal. I hypothesize that the underneath the massive central mana crystal there lies either a Vortex or Gather Sigil combined with a outer ring of Condense Sigils. This would provide a simple basis for the diverting and condensing of a single magical crystal within the magical network. If my theory is correct, this mana crystal should still be growing. It will continue to keep growing until the pure mana in the atmosphere is exhausted. However, it does not seem likely that this exhaustion event will happen anytime soon.”

{I should not have asked. I should not have asked. Gods above and Devils below, I should not have asked.} Muttering to himself quietly, Ahriman deeply regretted prompting Kaz to speak about his theories concerning the central mana crystal.

“Curiously, we can hypothesize about how this mana crystal was created, but we have no idea about the purpose of this object. There does not seem to be any channeling of the gathered mana towards a specific purpose. The most concrete theory that I have now is that the mana crystal has been created to light up the cavern, but that would not have been viable in the beginning. Such a huge mana crystal must have taken many years to form, therefore it would not have provided any significant lighting when it was first condensed.” Continuing on and on, Kaz looked to be nowhere near finished with his thoughts.

Fortunately for Ahriman, a ghastly shriek from one of Kaz’s spirits interrupted the historian’s train of thought. His face darkening at the thought of impending danger, Kaz turned to the direction of the shriek and set off at a brisk pace.

Condensing the mana in his body, Kaz quickly condensed a Frozen Spear in his left hand has he approached the origin of the shriek. Mentally commanding all but two of his patrolling spirits to come to his location, Kaz turned the corner to a curious sight.

“Kakakakaka! Take that you filthy intruder! No one is allowed to defile the master’s sanctuary!” A floating skull was busy shooting bolts of magical energy at Kaz’s spirit. Although Kaz’s spirit was agile, it did not have great defenses against magical attacks. The skull’s aim was quite awful, but it did get a couple of hits onto the spirit as the spirit approached in an attempt to attack with its claws.

Sending four of his other spirits in to attack the floating skull, Kaz hid behind a natural rock formation and watched the heated exchange go on.

This is my chance to study this skull. It’s the first time I’ve encountered something like this. Besides, it doesn’t seem like my spirits are going to be destroyed at the rate that this skull is attacking them.

Zipping through the air, the skull cut a slightly graceful figure. Eyes lit up a bluish-green with balefire, the skull launched bolts of magical energy from its mouth.

“Kakaka?! MORE SPIRITS? How did you dirty mongrels even get in here? I didn’t ever think that there would be a way for such scum to break past the various magical protections that master laid down.” Agitated by the appearance of additional spirits attacking it, the balefire in the skull’s eyes turned into a bright crimson. Opening its mouth wide, a ball of dark energy condensed.

Sensing the imminent danger, Kaz mentally shouted at his spirits to take evasive action. Condensing dual Mental Spikes in his hands, Kaz watched for an opportunity to unleash his magical attacks.

“You’re not getting away from this, little ghosties! Take this!” The dark-reddish energy finally finished condensing, the skull turned to one of the closer spirits that was trying to run away. With a silent shout, the skull shot the bolt of energy at his target. Flying faster than any magical bolt that Kaz had seen before, the dark bolt clipped the spirit’s lower half.

Shrieking miserably, the spirit slowed considerably as its ethereal body took a considerable amount of damage.

“Tsk. It seems that my aim has gone quite sour in the years since Master left. Why, in the past I could have shot down a bird flying high in the sky without a second thought.” Gathering dark energy again in its mouth, the grinning skull prepared to fire another deadly bolt at the wounded spirit.

Noticing that whenever the skull gathers its mana its movement slows to a grind, Kaz took this opportunity to pop out of the background and unleash his Mental Spikes at the skull’s gathered dark energy.

“Wha– there was actually a necromancer here? Is that why AUUUGHH” Unable to cancel his spell in time and surprised, the skull was unable to avoid Kaz’s Mental Spikes as they crashed directly to the dark energy that it was gathering.

*BOOM BOOM* A double explosion erupted from the skull’s mouth as the Mental Spikes disrupted the dark energy. Interrupted and unstable, the dark energy took the path of least resistance, which was to unleash all of the stored energy in the form of explosions. Ripping apart the unfortunate skull, the dark energy finally dispersed after vaporizing everything in approximately ten meters from the explosion’s origin.

“Shit. That last explosion completely destroyed the spirit’s physical body. I can still feel the bound soul connected to me, but I am unable to access any of Soul Power that it previously provided. Ahriman, is there any way to heal the spirit?” Worried about losing an extremely valuable resource, Kaz sought help from Ahriman.

{You don’t need to worry that much. As long as you siphon some magical energy to help it regenerate its well-being, a bound soul will eventually be able to manifest another spirit body. As it stands, you are extremely fortunate to be in an area with a high pure mana concentration. Just divert some of that energy to your spirit and it should be fine after a day or two.}

His worries aside, Kaz looked around to see what else was in the cavern.

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