IM1: Chapter #36 (Patreon)

A sheepish look on his face, Thorn was sitting cross legged in front of the small cottage where the spirit of his master, the elven High Mage Keadore, lived, listening to his master berate him. Nearly growling in frustration, the High Mage repacked his pipe with tobacco from the pouch that floated at his side. Clicking his fingers, he sent an ember into the bowl as he took a drag. Shooting a glare at Thorn, Keadore shook his head.

“For someone with a mind as powerful as yours, there is absolutely no excuse for forgetting so many important things. Forgetting is bad enough, but tell me you haven't been slacking on your training or we are really going to have a problem.”

“I’ve been keeping up with my meditation and spell construction training, master. Though I do have a few questions now that I’m dealing with denser mana.”

“Huh, well, chances are, I have no idea,” Keadore replied, smirking as he blew a smoke ring into the air. “All of my knowledge was bound to Angoril. Have you adapted to the denser mana of the new world you are in?”

“I have.”

“And have you realized that you are incredibly weak compared to those who have been living here for a long time?”

His shoulders slumping, Thorn let out a depressed sigh and nodded his head.

“Yes.”

Chuckling at the forlorn expression Thorn was showing him, High Mage Keadore stood up and walked over to his large apprentice, patting him on the shoulder.

“Being weak is okay, as long as you understand the path you must take to get stronger. That is one of the greatest advantages of magic, really. Physical strength is good, and if you can build it, you should, but magic allows you to shortcut that process, borrowing the power of the world to magnify your strength. A good mage should be able to fight multiple levels above their own strength, leveraging power that they normally would never be able to touch. Keep working on your spells, and you’ll soon find yourself able to compete with even the strongest in this world.”

Bowing his head to show that he had understood his master’s words, Thorn asked a question that he had been thinking about ever since he entered the crystal orb.

“Master, are you able to come out of the Codex of the Mountain?”

“No,” High Mage Keadore replied, shaking his head with a bitter expression on his face. “The difference in mana is too strong. I’m working on a solution, but the mana density out there would burn up my spirit in less than a minute if I were to leave here.”

Confused, Thorn’s brow furrowed as he tried to figure out how the High Mage could possibly know how dense the mana outside the Codex of the Mountain was. Currently, the crystal orb was inside of the Great Forge, and had not come into contact with the mana of the outside world at all. Frowning for a few seconds, Thorn’s eyes brightened and he lifted his hand.

“You sensed the mana in my body and extrapolated the mana density from that?”

“Correct. Hmm, you are finally starting to think like a mage. That’s good. Yes, the density of mana you carry can be correlated to the ambient level of mana of the environment you live in. In this case, even getting close to you starts to corrode my spirit, which tells me that if I leave the codex, I’ll be in trouble. Still, there should be a solution. The Codex of the Mountain itself should be fine to take out of the Great Forge, and if you do, I can begin filtering mana from the outside, slowly upgrading the mana the Codex of the Mountain contains, and subsequently, my mana as well. It will take a bit, but it should work.”

“Is there anything I can help with?” Thorn asked.

Nodding, Keadore began drawing a spell construct in the air.

“Yes. This is an enchantment that can be added to a staff that will filter trace amounts of mana into the Codex of the Mountain, while also allowing me to control the flow. Wait, you don’t have a staff yet, do you?”

Shaking his head, Thorn pushed some mana out of his palm and held up his hand, creating a variety of small weapons that floated around in a circle.

“No, I typically use a tetsubo, a bow, or another large weapon.”

“A mage without a staff is like a warrior without a sword or a knight without a shield,” Keadore said, frowning. “You need to make a staff. It will serve as your source of power, constantly feeding you mana that it collects from your surroundings. You can use the codex of the mountain as the gem since it is effectively an earth attributed mana stone.”

Seeing Thorn’s strange look, the High Mage’s eye narrowed and he stared at the Titan.

“What? Is there something I should know?”

“Uh, I have the Stone Heart. Well, not really, but I have an equivalent that gives me an endless supply of earth attributed mana.”

Rolling his eyes, Keadore let out a long-suffering sigh and gestured toward Thorn with his pipe.

“You are ridiculous, you know that? Granted, I never would have accepted you as my apprentice if you weren’t. I confess, I assumed you would have had to leave the Stone Heart in Angoril, but since you brought it, or at least, the effect, with you, then your staff will be even easier. Typically, mages build their staff to do one of three things. Gather mana, store spells, or amplify the magic they cast. Since you don’t need the first, you should focus on the others. Spell storage will give you the ability to instantly cast complicated spell constructs, which you’ve already demonstrated that you can do, which means that the only thing you are lacking is magic amplification.”

“Eve, do we have any enchantments for a mage staff that focuses on magic amplification?” Thorn asked, speaking in his mind as he closed his eyes to ponder the High Mage’s suggestion.

[I have twenty-seven recorded. However, none of them are as strong as the effect of the Ved rune. I would strongly recommend creating a new enchantment using your ancient runes to maximize the effect.]

“Got it, thank you.”

Opening his eyes, Thorn nodded.

“I think I can do that.”

“Do you have a good amplification enchantment? Or at least access to one?” High Mage Keadore asked. “The runes you use are incredibly powerful, and you should be able to modify an existing enchantment to use them.”

“Thank you, I do.”

“Good. The last thing to keep in mind is that you will want to find a good metal for your staff. Something highly mana conductive like mithril or, better yet, arcanite. Once you’ve created your staff, stop in and I’ll help you out with it, as an ascension gift.”

*ding*

Standing, Thorn bowed his head, paying his respects to his master. He could feel that the Great Forge was letting him know that someone had come into the yard and was at the door of the forge, and his master seemed to be able to sense it as well.

“I don’t have much more to teach you in the way of spells, Thorn, but when you are feeling stuck, come and talk to me.”

“Thank you, master.”

Waving his pipe as he started to fade away, the High Mage looked up toward the tall mountain, his eyes reflecting the peak lost in the clouds. A moment later, Thorn found himself back in the Great Forge, the Codex of the Mountain resting in his palm. Holding it tightly, Thorn left the Great Forge and reappeared in the storage room of the village forge. He had expected to find another customer when he walked out of the storage room, but instead, he saw that the person who had arrived was wearing the symbol of the Thorn Tree Alliance.

“Greetings, Master Thorn. I come from Lady Maret to request that you join her at the Thorn Tree Alliance headquarters, as soon as you are able.”

“Is there something urgent?”

“Indeed, sir. Lady Maret wished for me to inform you that it was quite a time sensitive matter.”

“Got it. I’ll head over right away,” Thorn said, nodding. “Let me just close the forge.”

Aciakko was back at the guild building, working on some of the commissions the guild had gained over the last few weeks, and Akira was sleeping on the roof of the forge, so Thorn locked the doors and started to follow the messenger out of the yard when a red blur shot through the air and Akira landed on his shoulder.

[Master! I told you, you are not allowed to leave me behind anymore!]

“I’m just going to the Thorn Tree Alliance,” Thorn said.

[And last time, you nearly died! No! You have to take me along. What if someone came to attack you again? Last time it was sixth tier idiots, but what if they are seventh tier idiots this time? Or even worse, what if they were as strong as Ms. Aciakko? You would be dead before I was able to arrive, and I would be super super super sad!]

“Okay, okay, I get it. You can come.”

Scratching Akira’s chin as she continued to berate him, Thorn nodded to the messenger who had stopped.

“I’m ready now, you can lead the way.”

At the end of the alleyway that spilled out into the yard were two burly looking young men that Thorn was employing to keep the curious away from the forge. They looked no different than the normal thugs who lounged around in the streets of the city’s western district, but when they saw Thorn, they jumped up and saluted sloppily. Nodding to them, Thorn told them where he was going and instructed them to keep everyone out of the yard till he got back.

The Thorn Tree Alliance building had not changed since his last visit, and Thorn met Lady Maret in the same room. This time, however, there was an incredibly solid looking bench for Thorn to sit on. Appreciating the gesture, Thorn tapped it once before he sat down, testing its strength. Though it groaned slightly under his weight, it didn’t collapse. Letting out a sigh of relief, Lady Maret shut the door to the room and picked up a piece of paper from her desk to hand to Thorn. Roughly sketched on the paper was a map, and it only took Thorn a second to understand that he was looking at a map of the mines that had been recently cleared.

“As we reported, mining has been going well, and the second shipment just arrived. Thanks to your efforts, we have had no incidents with the local monsters. The steel-skin centipedes had swept the area of every other monster, so when you killed them, the mine was essentially monster free. We’ve been employing hunting teams to maintain that state, which has allowed us to mine without interruption. This has us at least two weeks ahead of schedule. In my latest report, I’ve outlined the updated schedule we’ll be following. However, that is not why I’ve asked you to come. Rather, something was discovered in the mine that I need your input on.”

Hearing Lady Maret lower her voice to barely a whisper, Thorn frowned and held up his hand.

Sweeping the area with his mental sense, he tapped the air, creating two runes that brought a deep silence with them. Multiplying, they sank into the floor and walls, creating an area of silence around Thorn and Lady Maret. Once he was sure that no one could eavesdrop on their conversation, Thorn gestured for her to continue.

“Ah, thank you, Master Thorn. The miners were opening up a new passage and they ran into a metal gate that was not recorded on the map. Curious about what was beyond it, they tried to open it, but the magical lock was too strong for their picks. Instead, they found a parallel passage and opened up the wall, bypassing the gate entirely. The passage was long, but the two miners who found it followed it to the end, stumbling across a door into a ruin. They quickly retreated when they discovered it, and returned here to report it.”

“Did they see what was beyond the door?”

“No, the door was sealed, which means that we’ve probably stumbled across an untouched ruin,” Lady Maret said, her voice trembling.

Examining her face, Thorn’s mind whirled, putting everything he knew about the ruins together. According to what he knew, the ruins were a treasure trove of wealth, both in terms of the artifacts they held and the research that could be recovered from them. To have found a sealed door deep in a mine was like a coal miner sinking a pick into the wall and uncovering a vein of diamonds. However, it was clear from the way her pupils trembled that Lady Maret was as fearful as she was excited. Given how the ruin had been blocked off by a magically sealed gate, Thorn was sure that Lady Maret was worried that she had stumbled into something beyond her ability to handle.

“How recently was the gate installed?” Thorn asked, watching Lady Maret carefully.

When she winced, he knew that he had correctly identified her worry.

“It… it looked to be new. Within the last year or two.”

“I see. The miners who found it, are they trustworthy?”

Again, Lady Maret winced slightly, hesitating as if she was trying to find the right words to say. Unable to come up with a good way to speak her mind she finally sighed and shook her head.

“No. Well, one of them is. The other is a blabbermouth who’d sell his own mother for a drink once he gets going. Thankfully, they hurried here first, and I’ve got both of them detained. I wanted to talk to you about what you wanted to do before I decided what to do with them.”

Sensing the resolution in her voice, Thorn had the strangest feeling that if he gave the word, neither of the miners would wake up the next day. Shaking the thought away, Thorn felt a flash of worry. This world was one where strength ruled, and it appeared that it was having a greater influence on him than he believed.

“Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Lady Maret. If it does turn out to be a new ruin, the Thorn Tree Alliance will not go without a share. However, before we make any concrete plans, we’ll need to know what it is that we are actually dealing with, so I’ll go check things out. We can use the excuse that I am inspecting the mining operation. Before that, however, let's go talk to the miners who discovered the gate in the first place.”