Mana is a fickle mistress. She is an ethereal wave of power just slipping from my grasp, right on the edge of reach, but not quite within my hands. I'm left to make do with the dregs of power I can pull from her grasp. In short, magic is still hard. But at least it seems like it could be a decent living. If I make enough mana crystals I imagine I could live quite comfortably in this world. So that's what I'll do, man crystals FOR THE WIN.

8 hours later I've come to one simple conclusion: this better be fucking worth it. I head downstairs, grab some lunch and make my way out to the market. It's time to see how much my crystalized mana is worth. Keeping one hand on my coin purse and one hand on my blade, I quickly make my way to the same stall I used the other day. The same weaselly man is standing there *note to self, get his name* and he instantly brightens up. I imagine that's because I'm an easy mark, but maybe he's just friendly, not EVERYONE is out to get you after all, just most of them.

Skipping past pleasantries I decide to test him out with the little piece I made yesterday. He calmly takes it in his hand, quicks it a quick once over, and then deftly pulls out a set of scales. While he's doing this I try and butter him up a bit. So, what did you say your name was friend, I ask. Vekel, he replies. Oh, have you been doing this long then, I ask? For all my life, grew up trading with the free folk, he comments. I'm about to ask who the free folk are, but judging by the look on his face, that's common knowledge at this point.

Vekel looks me dead in the eye, and without a hint of guile says: I can offer you one bit for this piece of mana. Immediately my dreams are dashed, *FUCK* I scream internally, this little piece of mana isn't worth a tenth of what I had hoped for. Alright, calm down Justin, it's time to think things through rationally. If crystallized mana was worth that much, it wouldn't be so easy to make. Sure It knocked my ass out, but that's my own damn fault. I should know my limits better. I quickly pull out my bag and place the rest of my crystallized mana on the stall. He gives these a once-over as well, and plops them on the scale. After reading the scales he offers me 1 copper 5 bits. I hastily agree and get the hell out of there.

I quickly walk up to my room and do the math in my head. If it costs a silver week, and I make a copper and 5 bits in one day, that means I can make a profit of roughly 3 bits. Not alot, but if I factor in my growing mana capacity and I factor in my manipulation skills, I should be able to crank out more and more each day. My only issue will be inflation, but I doubt something as useful as mana crystals are going to stay on the market for long. I guess I'll just have to roll up my sleeves and get to work making these crystals, fun. Time for an 80's montage or something.

Day 1: Everything appears to be the same crystal wise. I haven't made any big advancements and my mana capacity isn't increasing to a noticeable extent. At least I'll be able to support myself on my meager earnings as long as I don't do anything too wild.

Day 2: I've made one more crystal today than yesterday. This brings my daily total to 16 crystals and my daily earnings to 1 copper 6 bits. I'm not going to be the Bill Gates of this world, but at least I won't starve anytime sooon.

Day 3: No new changes, everything is the same as yesterday, nothing special happened today.

Day 4: Somehow I managed to make 20 mana crystals today. I'm not sure if its because I had more time, *it's not exactly like I have a clock to go by here* or because I'm getting better at this, but we'll find out tomorrow.

Day 5: I have indeed made progress. 20 mana crystals a day is enough to get by with. I should go out though, being cooped up in my room can't be healthy. Tomorrow I'll go out and try to interact with the big wide world.

Day 6: I'm a liar, it's plain and simple. I try not to lie to others, but I lie to myself on a daily basis. I'll work out tomorrow or I'll clean that up the second I'm done cooking. Lies, Lies, Lies! In short, I spent the entire day hold up in my little room making crystals, nothing new on that end.

Day 7; I payed Trixie for another weeks worth of service and holed myself up in my room again. She has a distasteful look on her face, but I can sense she's too polite to say something. I wonder what it could be. Have I angered her somehow? Am I so ugly that I scare away other patrons? Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter that much.

Day 8: Upon informing Trixie that I was going out, she gave me a few coppers and had me pick up some things from the market for her. I followed her directions, collected her goods, and sold my mana crystals to Vekel at the usual price. In my opinion, everything went by smoothly. Well, that is until I got back to the inn. Trixie promptly thanked me, pulled a bar of soap out from behind the counter, and informed me that it was high time I'd had a bath. Ahh, that's what the look was about. I should really pay more attention to my surroundings. This whole time I'd been giving myself a whore's bath using a pitcher of water and a rag, but nothing beats a tub of water. I promptly bathe and dry myself without incident, as much as I want to lounge around in the warm water I can't, I have important things to do after all.

Day 9: 21 mana crystals were created today, yay. This isn't major progress but I am making some progress after all.

Day 10: I've made a mistake, I blew through most of my savings last night. I don't quite remember what happened, but apparently I came downstairs, ordered first one, then another, then another and so on mugs of ale. Apparently I met a sweet young girl, spent the night wooing her, then her boyfriend showed up, demanded I apologize, which I did, by buying the whole inn a round of ale. God I'm stupid. No more drinking for ol Justin, that's a promise!

Day 11: My hangover combined with my poor attitude contributed to a sub-par yield of mana crystals. I made 15 today, but that's better than yesterday. After checking my savings I have 3 silvers, 8 coppers, and 5 bits, along with 36 mana crystals.

Day 12: I swear sometimes I'm a dumbass. In every game I can think of, there is a potency level for mana related items. Why wouldn't it be the same for mana crystals? After experimenting with a few marble sized crystals, the thought finally occurred to me to add more mana to the crystals and see what happens. It turns out that they glow, the effect is subtle at first, but it increases in potency the more mana I put in. I wonder if this is more efficient than making new crystals each time. I'll have to try and sell these to Vekel tomorrow.

Day 13: 4 silvers and 5 coppers. I made that much just by charging 9 crystals and selling them! The price increase is crazy. Doing the math, each standard crystal is worth 1 bit, and each charged crystal is worth 5 coppers! Sure amount of mana requirement increases exponentially, but I should be able to pull off 9 or 10 of these a day if I really knuckle down. Well, now that I've gotten the boring bit out of the way guess I'll end the montage *80's music plays in the background*