Devouring the Neverglades:(Beta Version) Chapter 5 (Patreon)

Although the men went out almost every day. There were times like if it was storming, or something major was broken down and needed to be fixed before they could go out that they would stay in the compound.

Which happened a week later. In this case it was a storm. The entire compound was battened down as the winds whipped water every which way.

Although rain and water didn’t bother me, everyone was cautious when this sort of thing happened.

It was a lot harder to spot powerful monsters if you couldn’t see in front of your face, and most monsters with any power wouldn’t care about a storm.

It was prime hunting time for them.

So it was a bit of a surprise when Papa called me from my room where I had been lazing around mostly just catnapping between meals. All my chores, already long done.

“Yes?” I called padding out of my room to see Papa and Old Man William at the kitchen table. A trick of the compound's square buildings meant that everyone's home was connected through an interior door. So despite living on the other side of the compound the old man was bone dry. 

“Well James has been bothering us about something.” Papa offered and I felt my excitement skyrocket!

“Yes! The furnace! There was still magic vibrating inside the steel when he was done! So maybe! Maybe I could pour more into metal! Or even figure out other uses for the Fuel!” I started rambling. I had been waiting all week, James had shaken his head each time I asked him for any update. People were still talking about it.

“Expensive request.” William replied as stroked his white beard. “But something we are all curious about. Never had a mage in the compound before. So this is a good chance for us. We’ve decided to pull a small amount from the reserve to see what you can do.” The seriousness of the statement dampened my excitement a bit.

“Is it… That expensive?”

“It’s mana Vicky. Even if it’s our only use for nearly empty, or weak monster cores, it’s still not easy to collect them. Most monsters will struggle to their last breath to escape or kill before they die.” I nodded. I had yet to see a single Monster Core since the Great Boa that we had killed.

“We use it sparingly child. It is why we have lights out at night. It is the fuel we use for the boats, and the truck. If we run out…”

“Then no more hunting.” I finished understanding.

“Quite. Yet, we are in a good period right now. That Mana Crystal, cleared out much of our troubles. But… Yet.”

“Always plan for the future.” Papa said. A common saying among the men. Apparently Old Man Williams' own father had said it nearly every day for his long life, and had become a bit of a meme among our compound.

“So it’s precious, and wasting it is absolutely not allowed.” I offered and both men nodded, Papa even smiling as I once more proved my adult brain in child body made me seem incredibly wise.

I wasn’t. I was actually a bit of a dummy, but I was thrilled by everyone thinking I’m smart.

“Okay I can work with that. Just gotta be careful and actually figure out something useful with it, that’s all.”

“Easy Monster. We know it’s likely nothing will come of it, we just want to make sure you understand it isn’t something you should just waste, but if you can’t get anything to work that’s okay.”

“Aye. Your father’s right girl. We mean for you to understand the seriousness, but even if it doesn’t work…” The old man shrugs. “Then it doesn’t work.”

“Okay. Right.” I said then firmed my resolve. “When does it happen?”

“If you are ready? Now.” William said with a smirk and stood. Papa joined him in heading out of the kitchen.

I wasn’t ready! Too fast! Let me at least have a moment! 

“Wait!” I called out then actually meaning it. “Give me a second.” I said running to my room, ignoring the calls to not run in the house to grab the booklet and my ID card.

It wasn’t much, but it was the only magic stuff I had.

I came back out, booklet clutched to my chest and nodded. Then followed the two men through the interior compound. Out through a few homes, before reaching the communal spaces, and then into a back room near the kitchen that I had never been in before only to find myself in a small space with a large liquid tank. It reminded me of the propane tanks that you might see outside houses up in the mountains back in the previous world.

It wasn’t quite as big though. Longer more than anything. Only three or so feet wide at the largest, it was long, about six feet or so.

As I approached I flinched when I got in range. It wasn’t a lot, but yeah, there was definitely magic in there.

I noticed the tank was attached to a large generator in the room, and that was basically it.

“This is the main Mana Fuel tank.” Papa explained as he walked over and messed with a valve, after a moment he grabbed a cup that was beside the tank and with a few seconds messing with a valve a small drip of liquid reached my ears as they poured out some of the liquid mana.

“Is it dangerous or anything? The liquid mana? It won’t like… Blow up will it?” All this security was making me a little nervous.

“What? No. It’s not reactive to most things. You need a magic circle like inside the generator to get it to do anything really. We use it to provide electricity to the compound.” William explained, looking confused at my worry over explosions.

Look, it was secured like gasoline, or propane. It was fair for me to worry.

Then Papa moved away and held out a cup of just… Vibrations. That’s what it felt like.

“Maybe you hold onto that until we set it down somewhere? I don’t know if it will shock me.” I told Papa and he instantly raised it out of reach.

“That’s.. A good idea.” Papa said seriously. As he guided me out of the room and into the communal kitchen, and then not back home like I expected. But to one of the small tables to the side here.

“Best you play with it here, and not in a home. Just in case. The kitchen can handle any weirdness.” Papa explained and I nodded at that.

“Okay… Let’s… See.” I muttered as I took a seat and pulled out my book and grabbed my ID card.

The tingling of all the magic in the cup was washing over me.

“Experiment one.” I muttered, reaching out to gently touch the tin cup that Papa had placed the liquid in.

A little tingling but not too bad.

“Okay that’s not bad… Experiment two.” I said and took a finger and brought it down into the cup. I could see Papa and William both looking interested at what would happen.

I felt my finger touch the mana and shivered.

The vibrations were there. The Wave of Mana in the cup spiraled up my arm, and then my heart beat in time. Wavelength touching and interacting.

“BzZzZz, That feels weird… But I have no idea what if anything I can do with that.” I said to the two men with a frown, as I grabbed my booklet with my free hand. Keeping my finger in the mana I started searching and then found the magic circle. 

It only took a moment for my Wavelength to reach it and activate the circle, but that was all. The circle literally just guided my mana to imprint onto the ID card. At least as far as I could understand. 

But I hadn’t done it just because. The first time I activated it, I had needed to hold the ID card as the Mana Crystal wavelength woke up my sensitivity and then I could imprint the crystal.

Monster Cores were mana crystals of a different type.

So what would happen?

I opened my eyes and looked at the liquid in the cup.

No change. It wasn’t capable of imprinting? Or had I just done it wrong?

I examined the wavelength the mana in the cup was giving off and assured myself there was no change. It felt the exact same.

“No change.” 

“Neat to see magic like that.” William whispered to Papa who smiled. He had seen me practice in the mornings plenty of times.

“Okay. So that wasn’t getting me anywhere.” I muttered, closing up the book and pushing both away so they wouldn’t get in the way of what was next.

I pulled my knife.

Then placed it on the table. No, I wasn't about to try blood sacrifice. For one my Papa was right there, and for two, cuts hurt.

I pulled out my finger from the cup a droplet of glowing liquid mana on my finger as I brought it slowly over and pressed it into the metal of the knife.

Then I tried sending my Wavelength into the blade. Mana wasn’t water. It wasn’t even really crystal… I think. The mages in the city had called it a Wavelength, and when my limited mana sense was active it felt like a vibration, or a wave.

So it wasn’t actually water despite dissolving into the water letting the compound use it a little. Mana fuel was just water that was full of vibrations. No, Mana it was… Light? Maybe, probably even. I remember college courses mentioning Light acted like a wave at times… Sometimes.

Ugh. I shook it off, focused. I don’t think the mana was entering the metal in the furnace because of the fire, it was just bouncing around and found something to latch onto. Maybe even some of the mana filled water catching on the steel and iron as it evaporated.

I didn’t know, but I suspected I could use my wavelength to stick the mana into metal in the same way. Creating the same function.

It would be the first time I found a real use out of my magical ability.

So I concentrated, sending my wavelength down only for it to just sort of not do anything.

Nothing. I ‘pushed’ harder only to feel like I was trying to power up like DBZ. That was obviously not the right way.

I sat back. Looking at the drop of glowing water now resting on the blade. The fact it was glowing, the only sign it was still there. The water was already starting to evaporate.

I closed my eyes and focused once more. This time using the same method that the magical circle in the book used.

That magic circle had been about prompting a mages magical wavelength into marking something.

If I did something similar without the circle directing it. Maybe I could get the mana to get stuck in the metal the same way.

Unfortunately I wasn’t getting anywhere. I felt the small pulses of control I was shooting into the liquid mana, just bounce off the blade. Like dropping a rock into water and having it just splash around.

There was… Nothing for the mana to fall into in the blade.

But that was stupid. Of course there was. Metal wasn’t a solid chunk, it was atoms and molecules, and had plenty of space to fall into.

It was the liquid aspect I realized. The water normally would slip into where it needed to go. Like when the liquid mana turned to steam and slipped into broken metal and was then covered up maybe?

I shook off the thought. It should be possible to do without breaking the metal, I just needed the mana to move away from being a liquid.

It was a wavelength. A light, I reminded myself. The water was extra. Not Mana itself.

So instead of trying to push the liquid mana into the blade, I instead tried to focus on the mana in the liquid, trying to bring it all to a point against my skin pressing against the blade. Let the water evaporate, while keeping the mana in place.

But it was too late. The mana liquid had already dried out leaving me with nothing.

I opened my eyes pushing my finger into the cup for another drop of liquid mana and tried again.

Slowly let the water vanish as I focus the mana that was left over, and when it was just mana, push it into the metal. In the same way that Mana fuel was just water with mana finding a natural environment. I just had to clear out the water and try to turn the metal into the next best environment for the mana.

I felt a gentle thrum under my finger as my wavelength gathered more and more mana into a small spot, and then.

As the water finally fell away and there was only mana the vibration soothed away and when I opened my eyes I looked down on a blade that had had a small glowing circle in the metal.

Slowly the mana flowed through the knife filling it, even as its density fell away, the light faded, but the vibration didn’t.

“I did it!” I squealed as I looked from my knife that now had a tiny mana vibration running through it, to Papa who had been sitting in a chair nearby with William in order to not disturb me.

“Really?” Papa asked, looking quite excited as he hurried over and I threw him a big grin and nodded.

“Yeah I got the mana to seep into the metal! It’s just like the harpoon!” Then I tilted my head and frowned a bit. “Well not just like. There is less mana in my knife than in the harpoon, but I think I can just add more Mana!”

“Fascinating.” Old Man William offered as he too joined Papa in looking over the blade. “How much liquid mana would you need for the same effect as the harpoon?” He asked and I frowned. That was… Hard to say. 

“I don’t know. I guess. If you can bring one of the harpoons over, I can keep working on the knife until it’s about equal? Oh but then I guess I would have to see if something with more surface would need more mana as well…” I said humming as I picked apart the entire thing. Stuffing mana into an object strengthened it. That was…

Interesting. 

Very very interesting! Was this finally something cool I could do with magic!?

“Well we still have a cup for you to practice with.” Papa said as he nodded to William who nodded in turn. “I’ll go grab my own Harpoon. James did some work on it not long ago.” William nodded and Papa was off. Breaking out into an almost jog to get moving even faster.

“Don’t run inside!” I called out specifically because Papa often told me that. I was laughing as Papa slowed down, turning just enough to throw me a look before continuing on.

“You did well Victoria. If you can end up using less liquid mana for the same effect. Well it’ll be a big help for all of us.” He offered, taking a seat and handing me back my knife. 

“I know the harpoons are important, but… Does making them stronger really make that much of a difference?”

“Yes.” William said without equivocation. “The most dangerous part of our work is pulling in some dangerous monster. The harpoons let us keep our distance, until we can get a killing strike. If they break off, then that means a man isn’t holding the beast away from others and is also now in danger.” 

I nodded, feeling the seriousness of the conversation. “I’ll do my best. Maybe I can even put in more mana? Make it even tougher?”

“That would be a useful trick. Do you think you can?”

“I honestly don’t know.” I answered brushing my hair back mostly to have something to do with my hands as I considered it. “I think I can add more? The mana in the knife doesn’t feel like it’s taking up everything?”

“Then we do some more tests and find out.” William agreed and I nodded smiling up at the old man who reached out and patted my head for a moment. 

It wasn’t long after that Papa returned carrying his big old dark iron and steel Harpoon. He placed it on the table because it would not be easy for me to handle, and only once he was settled did I look at it with more than my eyes.

Mana vibrated within the metal.

But it wasn’t a lot. I reached out, and I felt my own wavelength move through the metal, and I could even feel where the mana was strongest, where a chunk of the harpoon had been replaced.

“There isn’t a lot of mana in the metal. It’s actually…” I grabbed for the cup before stopping. “Let me see if I can push more mana into my knife first.” I said aloud, mostly for my own benefit to keep myself from experimenting with Papa’s harpoon. You know the item he took with him to work every day.

So I pushed the harpoon to the side and grabbed my knife and placed it back in front of me, then my hand went into the cup and I pulled free another few droplets of liquid mana on my finger and pushed it against the blade.

Once more I vibrated the mana until the liquid was gone leaving just a pure mote of mana on my finger which I gently urged to soak into the metal. It took a few moments to get the right… Frequency? I still wasn’t sure I had the right terms. But it took a moment to get it right to let the mana seep into the metal, and then…

It was stronger. The mana in the metal was stronger, the wavelength filling more of the spaces in between.

“It took more mana.” I confirmed and that had William smiling with a look in his eyes that was almost greed.

“Good job Vicky!” Papa said laughing in delight as he walked over and pulled me into a hug earning some giggles in return for attention.

“Can you do it again?”

“Yeah I think I can put in more mana still. We aren’t done yet!” I assured the adults and got smiles from both.

—--

“Ughhh.” I groaned as I finished filling another of the harpoons with mana.

That was my job now. After the tests on the mana infused harpoons and my knife, where it was discovered to be much much stronger than the metal should be, I had been pulled into helping to fill mana into all of them.

That meant in the morning waking up eating breakfast, seeing Papa off and then going over to the same spot in the communal lunch room and working on filling harpoons with small amounts of liquid mana.

Of course it was cool, and fun at first. At first. 

You can only repeat the same act a hundred times before you start getting a bit bored of it. Not that playing with magic was boring, I mean I was basically enchanting metal to make it stronger.

Which is super rad. But also..

“Ughhh.” I wanted to go hunt crabs, or swim in the stream, or just go outside. 

I felt like such an extrovert, but I guess being a free range kid in this life changed some things.

“What’s got you groaning?” A voice called out and I perked up.

“Mama! Save me! I’m bored!”

She let out a mostly hidden snort as she walked over, carrying a basket full of.. Clams? Oh! “Don’t even think about it. These are for Theresa’s chowder.”

“Ooh!” I purred at the thought. That sounded really good right now. Mama just laughed, “I don’t know where you get your appetite from, as skinny as you are, you eat more than any of the other kids.”

“Not any! Erik eats more! Probably!”

“I’ve seen him struggling to eat his dinner after a day playing with you little Monster.” Mama said as she settled into the chair next to me, and to my surprise pulled her knife to start prepping the clams.

Mama was the best. I went back to work for a bit as well. Filling another harpoon with mana while she continued cleaning up clams.

Finally I finished the harpoon managing to get enough mana into the metal that it wouldn’t take anymore and I stretched groaning like a sixty year old man after a nap.

“That’s quite a noise.”

“Uuuugh.” I whined at her, but didn’t get the attention and commiseration I deserved. So instead I grabbed my knife and then a few clams. 

“Going to help?”

“Um! I need a break from all the mana work.” I confirmed as I with a single motion popped the clam open with my knife. Mama looked surprised at my ease as I emptied out the inside into the pot she had placed for that.

“Want to try my mana infused knife?” I asked, offering it to her. The blade wasn’t just stronger after the mana infusion. 

Mama took it and then gasped at how easily the blade sunk into the clam shell to pop it open. “It’s sharper?” She said surprised, checking the blade with an interested eye.

“Not directly. That was the first thing I checked, but the blade doesn’t lose its sharpness anymore. So I had James sharpen my knife to a super duper edge. In exchange I have to tell him if it loses the edge, but it hasn’t yet.” not that I’ve used my personal knife a lot in the last few days being stuck inside, but still. Super edge!

“Hmm.”

“If you want one. I can probably infuse your knife too.” I whispered to her, and she threw me a look before shaking her head. 

“No, thank you, but no Vicky. The Harpoons are more important first. Besides, we are saving so much mana liquid now, I’d be surprised if we don’t move on to normal tools soon.”

“Uuugh.” I moaned as I realized that my job wouldn’t be finished with just the harpoons.

Mama burst into a chuckle as she put the knife down and then pulled me into a side hug, which I accepted eagerly. “Try to stick it out a bit longer my girl. You are doing a great thing for everyone.”

“I know. It’s just… Blegh.” I offered, sticking out my tongue. Mama not liking when I was without manners tapped me on the nose instantly and my tongue retracted.

“Elizabeth! There you are, ah, I see you were sitting with our little mage while taking care of the clams.” Another voice called out and Mama and I turned to see Old Carla. She was Old Man Williams' wife, and the oldest woman in the compound.

So she was kind of in charge of the women's tasks. Luckily she was well liked, so it wasn’t an issue.

“Carla. Did you know about this?” Mama asked, waving my knife at a little having picked it up.

“Maybe, what should I know?”

“Infused knives hold a sharp edge.”

“Ah, ya. James told me. Was practically crying at all the ideas our little mage gave him with it.” The old woman winked at me, and I smiled back. Carla was nice like that. Always treating everyone in the compound as her family.

“Good.” Mama said nodding as she grabbed a clam and started opening them with my knife… I don’t think I was getting that knife back. 

“Heh. Once the mens gear is all done I’m sure we will get some knives fixed up. As long as our mage doesn’t mind?” The old woman asked, looking to me and I shook my head. 

“Nope! It’s boring, but useful.”

“Boring, she says. Well that’s mages for you. Playing with the most powerful thing in the world is boring.” Carla cackled at the end and all I could do was puff up my cheeks. 

“I like it too! But doing the same thing over and over is boring!”

“Heh. Get used to it, little one. All chores are the same thing done over and over.”

“Yeah I know.” I grumbled, but shrugged, then reached for another harpoon. If Mama was going to use my knife, then I had better get back to work. If I keep it up hopefully someday I’ll be free to run out in the wilds again.

Just not today.