Elevation of Mana 2: A Progression Fantasy, page 6
Slowly, I moved toward him. Maybe he wanted me to approach him? As I reached out, he spoke again.
“Everything okay?”
“Y-yeah, um, no, I… Should I just…” I tried to figure out what I should do.
“Anywhere else really,” he told me with a firm tone.
Carefully, I went over to one of the empty segments of boughs and sat down, looking over at him. He was going to sleep, to sleep? Was he all right? Did he not like me? I’d seen him looking at me at Atal’s palace. Maybe he didn’t like women? Really, I didn’t know.
The light faded long before my questions did. Those nagging worries kept me up well into the night.
The next morning when young Chien saw me, he began to laugh uproariously. He even took time to point at my face like he knew this was going to happen. I’d already decided that I couldn’t stand him, but this was a bit much.
“You knew what would happen,” I accused.
“Your face is amazing,” he said between bouts.
“Does he like guys?” I asked.
“Oh decidedly not,” the boy answered.
“Then why is he—”
“Sweetheart, I’ve known him for years, and I still don’t get it. If you start to understand why he is the way he is, you let me know.”
Over the next few weeks, I discovered that Chien was right. Justin seemed to have some kind of moral code, but I didn’t understand the reasoning behind it, and he didn’t seem to want to explain too deeply. He didn’t care about a lot of the things people really cared about here, and did care about things most people ignored. One day he got very excited about something, but when I inquired about it, his explanation made no sense.
Then there were the tasks I was sometimes given. He had me doing a lot of things with fur and plant fiber—making very thin ropes, almost too thin to even hold together. Then I had to do all these other things with them like looping and doing a weird column and row thing. It was easy but tedious. He told me his fingers were too big and clumsy, and using his power to do it was a pain, so it was now my job.
In the end though, my new master was nice. He didn’t treat me like I was his possession, but as a person, making sure I had plenty of food and nice clothes and somewhere safe and warm to sleep. There were even some beads set aside for me to buy the things I wanted. Altogether, this was a pretty good life; odd, but good.
Chapter 13
✧
MAGICAL MATERIALS
Ida was working out wonderfully. I’d put her on the fabric project I’d given up on a couple of years ago. The work was outside of my wheelhouse. Perhaps she’d have better luck with it, and if nothing else, I might get a bit more material to work with from her. My own attempts had been successful, in a certain light. I’d managed to make some rough cloth, but wildly failed because of the sheer amount of mana I’d had to waste doing it. Spinning was hard, and no matter what I tried, I just couldn’t get my fingers to make it work.
Having Atal as a backer did have some other benefits though. I’d sent a messenger to the palace to ask about magical materials recently, and I’d been told that I could come by later today to talk to some people. That was exciting, as I’d had little success working with those materials as of yet. Even if I couldn’t find something for Atal’s project, perhaps I could find something for my own. C
It was still early though, so I was taking some time to get work done in my underground lab. A small portion of my copper had been converted into wire, and I was in the process of building a proper computer. Games here I came! Ha! More like basic math, poorly and with some bugs, but one thing built upon another, and with time I could build high.
I’d not yet discovered anything approaching a proper medium for magic, nor was I worrying about it at the moment. Instead, this was good ol’ electricity, and honestly, poorly made. One day I might have access to pure silicon crystals and the ability to inscribe upon them advanced patterns. I could even see what that would look like in my mind, but I lacked the know-how and the architectural mind for it.
The memory that came with being an elf had given me one advantage that I’d never dreamed of as a man. My perfect memory; it was so much, so amazing. Even now, I could remember everything down to the tiniest fragment. This meant that if I could ever figure out how a computer worked, or a chip, I could make them. Once I’d committed the design to memory, I could probably build it atom by atom with my magic. It was amazing, unbelievably powerful, and something I’d do eventually. I promised myself that.
For now though, I began working my way through exponents, looking for obvious issues with my current labor. It was rough, very rough, and I had to power it manually—put in the digits manually and everything else manually—but it could tell me what two to the power of twelve was, so that was something. Eventually, I would need to make some kind of proper programs to go into these, not something I cherished doing. I’d been a garbage programmer in my last life, only ever knowing the basics. I’d always been much more of a hardware guy.
A few more hours of playing around and it was time to leave. There weren’t any clocks around here, more like general times of day, but being on time was polite. My work wasn’t going anywhere for now. So, with a few flicks of my wrist I locked up my workroom and headed out.
Before I left, I went to check on my workers. Chien was sharing a few different shovel designs with a group of girls who were paying very close attention to his movements. I wasn’t sure exactly which would work best for them, so I’d armed him with a few made of wood, from small gardening trowels to larger digging implements. None of these would be all that hard for them to make, but the shift in thinking was what we needed. Ida was in her little work area and looked up at me as I came in the door.
“Oh, hello, um, Justin,” she said, still awkward around me.
“Good morning, Ida,” I replied. “How are things going?”
“Oh, very well. So, you know how you told me to brush out the fibers before using them?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Well, if you do that and make sure they’re all in the same direction, you can roll them up, and…” She began to demonstrate how she’d changed the direction of the fiber she was using. I could also see she’d spent a lot more time separating them and combing them before bothering with this. It was the end result that I was interested in though.
“Your thread,” I said, pointing to the little spool there. “May I?” I could’ve just taken it, but being nice and respectful was important.
After quick confirmation, I unspooled a bit. She’d managed to outdo me on this, and while it certainly wouldn’t match the fine silk stuff Earth had, it was more than good enough to make cloth from. It was thin, and quite regular.
“Excellent work,” I said, giving her a smile and patting her on the shoulder. She turned, but I didn’t miss the slight blush that crept up her face. “Now, I must be off.”
She waved me off, as did Chien when he saw me leaving. The trip to the palace was quite a walk, but not too bad. When I got there I saw something I’d not expected—they were renovating. The entrance was getting an arch put over it, something which raised my eyebrows quite high.
Rather than being taken to Atal, I was taken off to a side room, where I was greeted by a woman who instantly set my hair standing on end. She was a full head shorter than I was, but half of her hair was white, and her expression spoke of stark disapproval.
“Good day, miss…”
“Jina, you may call me Jina. Before we start, I will inform you that I disapprove of this heavily.” She had a strong frown as she spoke.
“What about, if I may ask?”
“You may. You’re too young for this Justin, far too young. Normally, even the simplest of these secrets wouldn’t be given to someone until they had their first white hair, but Grandfather has spoken highly of you and insisted himself. Let me inform you though that some of what I will be showing you is banned, and for good reason. If it is misused, you will die, either at your own hands or Atal’s. Am I understood?”
“Yes, clearly understood,” I answered.
“Good, follow me.” With that, Jina turned and began walking away.
As she showed me to her room, the only conclusion that I could reasonably come to was that she was the closest thing to an honest-to-goodness witch I’d seen since coming to this world. It looked like a bright and airy workspace, with hanging herbs, mushrooms, and even a few rocks in piles and atop simple shelves. Some were even in bowls of various types. A few glowed with eerie light, and a few had auras. In one corner, there was a beast in a wooden cage, where the tree had been grown around it to keep it in place. The beast let out angry hisses and odd squeaking noises.
“Sit,” I was told, a finger pointing to a spot near a little table. As soon as I’d found my place, Jina began pacing, now able to tower over and look down at me. “I will be showing you general recipes for a number of potions and dyes today, along with some other, less common, materials. If ingested, the first of these will raise your power significantly, but at the same time, cause your death. The magic in it spreads and burns through you, and once the process begins, it cannot be ended.”
“… I’ve seen something like that before,” I told her.
“Oh? And what happened to the drinker?” she said with genuine curiosity.
“He… he went mad, and I had to kill him.” I couldn’t look up as I spoke, the memory still fresh.
“Not unusual, and I’m glad you’ve seen it, so you know the dangers.”
As she explained each herb, she took it down, listing uses, where to find it, what it was called by some people, and others that might be used in its place. Some needed to be dried, or crushed, or wet. I watched as she prepared almost a dozen of the brews that I knew were fatal. Each time, she would tell me who’d made them, how they’d died, and the destruction they’d caused. It was going to be a long afternoon.
Chapter 14
✧
CONDUCTOR
Jina had the bedside manner of a bag of angry bees, and her poor victim, who’d come in to get a tattoo, was in incredible pain and crying by the time she left. I felt bad for the girl.
“You could have numbed her,” I pointed out after Sina made her way out the door.
“I could have,” Jina agreed. “But, as it stands, she learned a valuable lesson, and I think you might have too.”
“And what would that be? Not to piss you off?” I guessed.
“Not to irritate those more powerful than you. You need to remember that, because I am far more forgiving than my grandfather, though admittedly, easier to anger.”
I looked at the tool she’d been using. This wasn’t the modern world, and they didn’t have something like a tattoo gun; instead it was simpler, and not in a good way. There was also magic involved though; I’d seen that much. Jina had something going on as she moved along, something that got the ink locked in faster, and I doubted it would leak or fade much with time. Sadly, that sort of thing wasn’t my wheelhouse.
“Why tell me that though? To scare me? I’ve already seen Atal in action, and I assure you I’ve no desire to anger him, or you, for that matter. It seems that neither of you would have a problem killing me if I did anything to warrant it. Or is it that your grandfather wants this done, and done right?”
“The latter, and something for you to understand for later. If he’s calling upon you now, others will in the future. Keep that in mind while you consider what you do,” she replied with a sigh at the end. Perhaps she didn’t hate me, if she was trying to get me to learn this without hurting me. Then again.
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
“Good, any questions on the other materials we’ve covered here? If so, please ask them now.”
For a moment or two, I moved around the room, checking to make sure I’d not missed anything. Ingredient by ingredient I looked, one after another, to make sure I’d followed her lessons. None of these seemed useful in the least, well not to me anyway. I was frowning until I came upon a small crystal that I’d not seen before. It was elongated and had not been carved in any way I could see.
“What’s this do?” I asked, pointing. There were things in this room I wasn’t willing to touch.
“Oh, that’s just a curiosity. If enough power goes through a small enough space, it sometimes forms those. Grandfather gave me that one; it came out of a beast of some kind.” She seemed to disregard it.
“Does it do anything?” I asked.
“Not anything useful. All it does is move a small amount of its energy from one side to another.”
At my blank look she rolled her eyes and came over to me. “Watch.”
My teacher picked up the stone and began focusing. I could see her aura focus around her finger, which she then poked to one side of the stone. What I saw next was difficult to describe, as it happened in both magical sight and a physical one. The mana traveled through the stone along a path that branched and came back together, like those weird shapes lightning made. Where it met at the end, a small amount of aura and light poured out, barely enough to see, but it was there.
“Do they break easily?” I asked, my eyes never leaving her demonstration; it was perfect.
“No, but like I said, they’re pretty hard to find. This one came out of a truly massive beast. It had a horn that shot out beams of burning light. You’ll not be able to find a source around here or anywhere else.” I could sense her frowning at me, even though I didn’t look. “They don’t work in any potion or tattoo either. I’ve tried.”
It was the conductor I’d been looking for, and it might, just might, have an output as well. It was perfect, completely perfect. How to make one though. How to create such a thing. She’d said these stones could only be found in places where a lot of magic had been concentrated in a very small area, and perhaps that was the answer. I didn’t know yet, but I knew that I needed to find out.
“I need to look into this,” I said quietly.
“You can’t have it; this one is mine.” There was a tinge of childish greed in her tone that made me blink. When I looked up at Jina, she was frowning.
“Um, I meant the item in general, not this specific one. If others are found though, I’d like to see them,” I said, trying to waylay any issue.
“Ah, I see. If any others are found I’ll keep that in mind, but they don’t turn up often at all.” Her hands were tight around the little stone, and I wondered if there was more that I’d missed. She’d said it was a gift, so maybe she had a sentimental attachment to it.
After a few more awkward minutes, I left and was quite tired, but with a new idea that might one day lead me to greatness. Perhaps not today, but one day, I could see that stone and what it did becoming something more.
Unfortunately, I was waylaid on my way out by one of the king’s advisors I’d met just a few days prior. He’d not shared his name, and I’d not cared, but he smiled when he saw me.
“Hello again,” he said. “I was hoping you’d come up with some new weapons. Everyone loves those stone throwers, but they’re limited.”
“Sorry, not at the moment. Was there some important need for them in particular?”
There was a look on his face as he formed his words that was hard to describe. “Yes and no. Nothing at the moment, but whispers from the west. I’m sending some of the guards out to look around, to make sure things are well. That said, I don’t think we’ll have any problems.”
“Are you looking for something to use for close combat or long range?” I asked. Weapons really weren’t what I knew much about, but if he had some idea of what he wanted, maybe I could come up with something. Then again, there were only so many ways to cut, stab, or bludgeon someone to death.
“Close,” he answered.
“Right, I’ll think about it, see if anything comes to mind.” Honestly I was far more interested in trying to make magic crystals though.
Chapter 15
✧
CRIMSON
Ihad a lead, but a lead was not an answer. That crystal was the thing I needed, just the thing, and if I could get it right and make it work like I wanted it to… well, the possibilities were nearly endless, weren’t they?
Before I could go forward with that plan, though, I had a number of problems. These crystals were formed by large quantities of magic in tiny spaces, but how large? How small a space? How did I get them to do what I wanted, or form where I wanted? Did I even have enough magic to make it happen on my own?
Time would answer these questions, time and research. My days fell into my downstairs lab, trying to get the answers, refusing to leave my questions unanswered. I had my lead, and I was going to chase it down until I found what I needed to truly bring this world to the next level.
Successes were… slow. The first thing I needed to do was recreate even that small example I’d seen. This proved difficult, as I guessed it might. Magic, it turned out, did not want to be shoved into a space that small.
I leaned over my workspace, pushing against an imaginary point, trying to shove my light spell into it. This was proving not only difficult but dangerous. So much energy focused in one location wasn’t something to be scoffed at. I was even running some calculations to see just how dangerous this would be.
My first attempt at making a light crystal had me blinking until I could see again. One trip to a local healer to fix the dark spot in my vision later, and I was back at it, this time with more shielding. A few attempts in, and I decided that glass wouldn’t be enough. On second thought, this would all need to be done in an iron box.
Again and again I tried, and again and again I failed. There was something I was missing. The small cube, about a centimeter across, that I was trying to make just wouldn’t form, no matter what I tried. Was I going for an area too large? That seemed ludicrous, but perhaps it was true. Maybe it had something to do with the light itself.
