Ping! You Have Entered Annorak’s Trial of Magic!...

Rue felt a weird notification sound in her head. Unlike the regular system messages, this felt more distant, not coming from within herself but from without. It felt almost identical in every other way, not malicious or attack-based. With the advent of this message Rue looked around at the room, the previously inert walls now glowed with a subtle light, indicating magic at work. Frosty lines of blue magic worked their way across the smooth cut blocks of grey stone. Where they passed a chilly blue-grey stone was left and any cracks or seams were gone. Rue bared her teeth and stood in the center of the room as she watched the magics progress.

When the magic reached the door, it too was left a flat blue-grey stone wall, no trace of a door to be found. Rue was starting to panic, the magic she saw was strange and clearly had a purpose. It appeared to be like ice magic, and she considered bursting into flame to try and fix the room and the door. What stayed her flames was the lack of cold coming from the weird magic. Instead of finding a way to freedom, she might have angered whatever was controlling the effect. She would not do that again without good reason, and for now, it was not harming her in any way. At least physically.

As the magic completed its transformation of the walls it began to creep to encompass the ceiling and the floor, rapidly gathering and spreading its blue influence of the stone floor and ceiling. It crept towards Rue’s clawed feet and tail, her large stature meaning it would reach her quickly. She folded her tail up to avoid the magic, but it soon reaches her paws and she tensed waiting for the inevitable to happen. The magic left her untouched but continued along to floor and ceiling until the last inch of stone disappeared and the room pulsed.

Rue was still tense, and the walls and floor lit up with shapes and swirls of luminescent magic. Glowing words materialled out of the air, written in mana so tightly woven it was miserable as a mist. They hovered there, small eddy current flowing within the symbols, and somehow Rue understood them, much the same as she understood the systems messages.

{Rubrum Ignasia: Initiating Trial of Magic: Level 1}

So, this was part of a trial, none of her dragon memories told her anything about trials. Either her ancestors knew nothing of them, and they were rare, or… well they existed. Perhaps they were unique to this place, but surely lots of places like this building existed.

Rue once again focused her attention on the room when 9 stone platforms extruded themselves from the stone floor, each coming to rest about a meter high and half a foot in diameter. Perfectly smooth and arrange with 8 in a circle around one central pillar. They had left enough room for rue to move around and inspect them even with her large frame, and the objects resting delicately on top of each pillar were at head high for her to inspect.

They were shiny clear crystals, they all looked identical but were evidently not, the one in the center must have been special. Rue felt a very faint stirring of desire reach from inside her chest at the sight of the crystals. It was familiar and she recognized it as her dragon’s greed. It was nowhere near as potent as for the Mithril door, so perhaps these were less valuable or less desirable?

She slipped her forked touch out and gently licked the center crystal’s shiny surface.

Mana Crystal, High Purity, Valuable

Ding! Ability Evolution Mineral Assay[1] è Mineral Assay[2]

Mineral Assay[2]

Used to feel the composition of an object. This skill can identify the composition of [Minerals] in an object and their [Rarity], [Properties], and [Value].

It now told her the rarity of the item, and the bit about basic properties not just said properties. Rue decided to try out the improved skill on the same Mana Crystal to test the results. More confident this time she licked the crystal.

Mana Crystal, Affinity Neutral, High Purity, Valuable, Rare

This was a lot more information. And the added bit out it being rare and of neutral affinity gave her the idea to inspect all of the crystals. As she walked around licking them she discovered they were indeed all different.

Mana Crystal, Affinity Necromancy, High Purity, Valuable, Rare

Mana Crystal, Affinity Divination…

Mana Crystal, Affinity Transmutation…

Mana Crystal, Affinity Evocation…

Mana Crystal, Affinity Abjuration…

Mana Crystal, Affinity Illusion…

Mana Crystal, Affinity Conjuration…

Mana Crystal, Affinity Enchantment…

They were all the same grade of crystal with the same rarity and purity but they each had a different affinity. It was clear she needed to do something with these crystals to pass the challenge, she doubted there was a way of ending the challenge early. The magically sealed room would suggest her staying here until it was complete. But level 1, she could beat this, it couldn’t be that hard?

Rue stared at the crystals, and waited, then stared at them some more. What could she do though? Rue tried picking up one of the crystals with her mouth but when she tried to move it a magical force held the item in place and protected it from any harm, heat or force, she could inflict upon it. After a good half hour of paw swipes and flames without so much as a blemish left on the room, Rue was once again back to just sitting and looking at the crystals.

Well if a physical and firebase approach won’t work then she would have to try magic. This was a trial of magic after all. The only problem was she had no real magic skills. Neither mana manipulation nor mana sight. Both were available from her core points but she had none to spend and saw no way to get any from within the room.

Rue prowled around the crystals going over the few draconic memories of how to learn magic. There was the easy way, purchase them with core points, but they could also be learned. She could already sense and manipulate mana within her own body, so why not just do that outside her body. Rue focused on a spot in the air and willing it to flow…

She stared at the spot in the air for a few minutes before huffing and pacing the room furiously again. She just couldn’t feel or see anything in the air that might be mana…

Wait, the whole room was one giant spell, there was evidently mana everywhere. The message at the start had been made from solid mana, and that had been visible. Perhaps the room itself was her salvation. She stalked over to one of the pillars and inspected the gently flowing blue glow that was constantly running up and down the pillar. She could see faint wisps of something, very faint and behaving against the normal laws of the world. She swiped a paw and instead of being blown away in the air currents it simply continued its complicated twists and turns as it made its way lethargically around the pillar.

This was mana, she was seeing mana, the most visible part but if she looked closer and felt more than saw. Rue shoved her snout right up against the pillar and breathed, and she felt something resisting her pull.

Ding! +[Mana Sense [1]]

Mana Sense [1]

Allows for the [Sensing] of mana outside your body, this can be used with mana manipulation to manipulate your [Mana] once it leaves your body.

She had done it! Rue looked up and now with a new sense, she could feel the mana in the room, see the mana flowing in every inch of the room, forming patterns in more than 3 dimensions, flowing in circular hexagons, and disappearing only to reappear a moment later. And when she looked at the crystals, she could see the center one, a multi-colored swirl, and the eight around it.

Red

Yellow

Lime

Green

Cyan

Blue

Magenta

Purple