Chapter 288 - Preparations and secrets (Patreon)

"I can come back later," Nina says somewhat awkwardly.

"It's okay," I answer and shift a bit.

Currently, I'm sitting on the floor, and two women are drawing on my skin. My upper body is naked and my pants are pulled up high, revealing my thighs. The women hold brushes in their hands, using mana-conductive paint I still have some left of.

On the ground in front of them is a design I made, and on my skin as well, something like a sketch with washable normal paint.

It's the middle of day two of my planned 3-day stay in the Sanctuary, and with Darren's help, I went looking for someone to draw circuits of my design. Suspiciously, he picked two pretty young women. Even more suspiciously, they started acting too friendly too.

I guess that's maybe also Darren's attempt at tying me to the Sanctuary?

Well, it doesn't matter. At least they can draw well; otherwise, I would send them away.

Nina nods and after glancing at me for a moment, she says, "We started unblocking one of the oldest facilities. It's a secondary control room, but we never had any use for it, and it's damaged. In an hour or two, it should be ready as you asked."

"That sounds nice," I mean, the current enchanting and smelting facility is nice, and I tested plenty of things, but who wouldn't want to see more?

"Also, your disciple tried to stab and bite one of our men who wanted to help her carry her bag," Nina adds.

I turn to the side where Vega is practicing. The little half-demon doesn't pretend to not hear and returns my gaze.

"Good job, but next time try the kick first. Stabbing is for when you are sure he means you wrong," I tell her. To that, Vega quickly nods and returns to her training.

Nina watches our exchange with a bit shocked expression, but then quickly shakes her head.

She takes a step closer, "And if you have time tomorrow, my father wants to talk with you about something serious."

"We will see tomorrow." I lift one of my arms so the woman can paint it.

Not having a reason to stay, Nina leaves, and I observe the circuits drawn on me. It's annoying that I couldn't do it myself, but it's hard to draw on my back or on my chest while keeping everything as required.

Sure, some mistakes are not a problem, and the first attempts I made on my arm weren't that bad. But I want to test out if something will change with well-drawn circuits. Is there a difference between a slightly wobbly line and a nearly perfectly straight one? Does making an ellipse shape instead of a perfect circle affect it too much? How much lost accuracy isn't a problem, and how much inaccuracy causes it to not work that well?

That's the kind of questions I ask.

The women Darren recommended are doing a good job. Their hands are not shaking, and they are not wasting any paint. They even stopped ogling and focus on their work. I mean, I don't blame them, hehe. As my mom said around twelve years ago, I'm a handsome young man.

"Minion, I'm handsome, right?"

"It's Vega, master, I'm your disciple, not a minion." She already given up on her reverse psychology attempts.

"Sure."

"Master's eyes are pretty."

"Only my eyes?"

"Heart too!"

Well, even that much is fine, "I also like your eyes and heart, minion," even though it is an undeserved 4th trait spot the demons somehow cheated to get.

One of the women giggles, and when I catch her gaze, she smiles with a slight blush on her face. She quickly reverts her gaze and continues.

Testingly, I send my mana through the circuits they've drawn and that already dried up. When mana flows through them, the paint hardens even more, and I immediately notice the difference between my wobbly lines and the nice ones.

Damn it. I just want to do things in my own janky way.

Sending a bit more mana through them, I activate my mana wavelength iris and observe the movement of the mana. So far, it looks like everything is working as it should.

Sure, I could do a construct instead of this, but right now I hesitate. The drawings should help me deal with black mana, and I'm not ready to create a construct for that until I'm sure it's correct. Anyway, I'm already preparing another construct and am working on its structure that I recorded inside one of the mana stones. I have no time to create another one.

Unlike lines drawn on my skin, the constructs are much more difficult and require more of me. They need to be carefully placed and connected at the right places. They also affect me more deeply.

Also, there is limited space inside of my body, unlike my skin where I can just wash the paint off.

Soon enough, the work is done, and I send both women away before they attempt something.

Sending mana through my skin, I dry up the mana paint and observe the result. So far, it seems all good, and if it works as intended. I should be able to strengthen my body with black mana without many aftereffects. And if that works, I should be able to use black mana to power some other skill without my brain melting. That would be nice.

Unfortunately, it seems to be a one-time use as the drawings crumble the moment black mana flows through them, but even that is somehow okay. In the worst scenario, I can use black mana even without them, just with harsher aftereffects.

Standing up, I put back on my shirt and fix it.

"Minion, we are going to see the facility," I have decided to keep Vega close to me as much as possible.

"Yes, master!"

As we head towards where I expect to find Darren, I observe Vega. She is still constantly using her detecting mana, and even though she is so low-level, she does it well. Even when I met her for the first time, she did pretty well with it, and it only improved with my amazing mentorship. She even keeps circulating mana through her body, an early attempt at Mana Cycling Lissandra taught me.

The fun thing about it is that the more I use Mana Cycling, the more I appreciate it, and it runs the entire time I'm awake. I even have some suspicion that my body is reflexively doing it while I'm asleep.

Mana Cycling takes my mana and sends it through my body in the channels I want. With a better understanding, you can even stop mana from leaking. I'm not at the level where I can do it fully, but it's good enough to trick most people, even some at a higher level than mine. Other than hiding mana, it also improves my control over it.

We reach the circular door entirely made out of the same metal as the others. There is already a group of men nearby that moved whatever was blocking it.

I give time to Nina to greet them and give orders before we follow inside of the hallway-like tunnel. Unlike the one from before, this one is much smoother, and there are even some decorative lines etched into the walls on our sides. As we pass by them, I touch the wall and after examining it shortly, I send my mana through, making it slowly light up as we continue to touch.

The light is gentle, nice to the eyes, yet bright enough to evenly light the hallway. There are even some side rooms, and I peek inside, but most of them are fully empty, with barely any interesting circuits inside. At the end of the hallway, there is a circular entrance, and we enter a room that isn't even that big.

In the middle of that room stands a single pillar made of mana crystal. This one seems different from the ones in other facilities. How to say it, of higher quality maybe? Its shade is also a darker blue.

"The mana crystal seems to be damaged, or at least the control panel connected to it is."

"Are you not worried about letting me into the control room? I could take over and cause all kinds of trouble."

Nina flashes me a smile, "You are just that kind of person that goes against my skin. But I can't deny anymore that if you wanted, you could have caused much more trouble already. Without having to bother with such tricks."

"Maybe I'm just playing with you and planning some evil stuff behind your back."

"Maybe you are, but I trust my father, and he seems to think it will be fine. And it's too late to try to stop you at this point."

I can't help but be a bit disappointed. These people gave up that easily and put their lives into the hands of some random guy only because he is stronger than them. Yes, there is logic to it, but it's still somewhat disappointing.

Thankfully, at least Vega seems to agree with me, judging by the look she gives to Nina.

Already collecting my mana for a while, I put my hand on the control panel and send a bit of it through. I quickly identify where the inscriptions are messed up and search for the secondary pathways, and surprisingly, they are damaged as well.

In the end, I decide to ignore the messed-up parts. Fixing them would take a while as I would have to replace the entire segment. Instead, I just put an anchor on the mana crystal and send my mana directly to it. There will be leaks, but I decide I will get through them with just the sheer amount of mana I will be feeding to it.

I step away and continue to send my mana through [Tether], and gradually the room lights up. There is no crystal in the ceiling, instead, beautiful ornaments light up all around the room, and even the mana crystal starts letting out some light.

Taking a few steps, I reach another control panel, this one for this facility. The mana stone that is the center of it seems okay, and I put my hand on it and send a bit of mana through.

Inside the mana stone, there are multiple segments inscribed, each for a different part of the Sanctuary. Some seem to be for inscriptions that would work to protect the bunker. Others are for heating, water, and air filtration, and much more. Plenty of the segments don't seem to be working, not because of the mana stone, but most likely because these parts of the bunker are ruined.

Looking through, I still don't find anything in the hidden tunnels from where Darren and others were bringing the meat. Interesting, did they maybe block it on the other side?

Otherwise, there isn't much interesting to do. Sure, it's all fun and cool. I could turn on the heating, send more mana through, and open the door or lock all of them. I could even use water from the tanks to fight against a possible fire. It's something I would otherwise like to play with, but not with such a time limit I got on this floor.

"Nothing interesting, most of the things are impossible to control from here, and there is plenty of damage to the connections," I tell Nina and stop feeding my mana to the mana crystal.

It gradually dims out, and together with her, we leave. The door stays open so I can return here a bit later.

***

"So, do you understand what to do?" I ask Vega.

"Yes! I will sit here inside of the barrier, and if something happens, I send the signal into your anchor, as you call it, and you will return."

"Good. See you later then, okay?"

"I will continue to train."

I give Vega one more look. She is currently inside the room I got. It's a nice room in one of the original towers in the middle of the main cave. The room is nicely decorated, and most of the furniture is made of stone with some soft stuff over it.

Around Vega, there is a barrier made of [Regalia]. It's powered by one of the higher-grade mana stones I left with her. While not using mana from the stone, the barrier should be able to last for hours; that's how much I powered it.

Then it can defend against multiple attacks on its own, and when that's not enough, it will use mana from the mana stone. I don't think there is anyone in the city capable of breaking it quickly, yet I still leave an anchor nearby so I can return quickly. The door into the room is also blocked by my mana, as well as other entrances.

Giving a last look to the room and my disciple, I use [Tether] and teleport to the anchor I left near where the hidden tunnels are. Then I start hiding my mana and use [Perception] to avoid people.

[Mana Domain] expands, and I create a few more anchors, teleporting multiple times, avoiding more people. There are a few guards inside of the house over the secret tunnels, but they don't feel me placing anchors and not even me teleporting.

Appearing behind the door they are guarding, I start walking. The tunnel is dark, and the air here feels different. There also aren't many inscriptions or veins of metal like in the other ones. This tunnel feels much newer. Did they construct it only after moving here? That could explain why they weren't on the maps inside the mana crystal.

I feel another presence heading towards me, and I reach past them and place the anchor. Only when I'm about to be spotted, do I teleport past. As before, the guard doesn't feel my domain, nor anchors or teleport. I send more of my mana ahead and find a small room at the end of the tunnel. That room currently has only a single person inside of it.

The air takes on a smell like rust. It smells of blood, lots of blood.

I detect the guard leaving and continue to walk towards that room. The closer I get, the more I smell it, and the heavier the air feels. There is even dried blood on the floor and on the walls.

Gradually the light gets into the dark tunnels, and I enter the room. The room is painted bright white, yet everywhere, on the floor, on the walls, and even on the ceiling, there is blood that is even more visible because of the bright light.

In one corner of the room are a few boxes, all of them filled to the brim with cut-off limbs - legs and arms. And in another corner, a man sits on the bed. His legs up, knees in front of his chest. He has long hair covering his face and is wearing bloodied clothes with short sleeves on both arms and legs.

His eyes are cold and he watches me calmly. I notice a silver metal collar around his neck and a chain of similar metal tying him to one of the walls.

[Lifebloom Weaver - lvl 206]

***

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