Book 3, Chapter 23 (Patreon)

In many ways, lacquering a mana core was similar to creating a lattice for it, only on a far grander scale. The first time I’d done this, it had taken me close to two years to complete. In my defense, I’d been dealing with a trio of mage hunters on a quest for revenge at the time – something about burning down their town and killing everyone they’d ever known. I’d never gotten the full story, none of them being terribly inclined to talk whenever they’d caught up to me.

Once I’d finally managed to kill the last one off and been able to set up a permanent workshop without fear of interruption, my progress had rapidly improved. I’d gotten more done in the last six months of that project than in the first eighteen, so much so that the work passed me by in a blur. At the time, I’d been inordinately impressed with my own skill.

This time around, it took me five days to match my first eighteen months of progress. I even took four hours off each day to sleep, just to keep my mind fresh. It wasn’t that it was impossible to fix mistakes, or even really all that difficult – at least not until I finished. I was more concerned about the mistakes I might make and not notice.

I’d do a final pass over everything once I was done, of course. I might even do two passes, depending on whether I found any mistakes. That would come after a good, long night’s sleep to fully refresh myself. For now, I slid a tiny strand of shaped mana into place as I slowly created the most elaborate spider’s web imaginable inside my core. One more piece done, thousands to go.

  *

I woke with a groan and sat up. My bed was shoved in the corner of the workshop, a lesson I’d learned many, many centuries ago. Oftentimes, it wasn’t feasible to step away from a project for long, and every budding researcher quickly mastered the art of napping. Having a handy bed and basic tier enchantments set to wake one up after a specified period of time was an essential amenity in any serious lab.

Most of the rest of the workshop was taken up by a bank of mana crystals lined up against the far wall and a pair of desks opposite them. The wall the bed was pushed up against shared space with a table and a set of shelves that housed the many, many books I’d stolen or otherwise acquired over the last half a decade or so.

I’d finished placing the last pieces of my newly enhanced mana lattice last night and spent twelve hours going over the entire thing multiple times. Every metaphysical inch of my newly expanded mana core was covered in elaborate designs – curls, loops, folds, and bridges. Additionally, thousands of threads of connected runs were anchored to it, crisscrossing my mana core and more than quadrupling the total surface area it brushed against the astral realm with.

The whole construction was delicate, too much so to survive the rigors of hard casting. I’d be constantly making repairs to the lattice if I left things like this, which was where the lacquering part of the process came into play. Creating it was complicated, to put it mildly. I had a tank of liquified mana sitting on the desk, about three gallons or so. Next to it was a flask I’d filled with a bubbly, green concoction I’d derived using the sap of a local tree as a base, along with about two dozen other ingredients – everything from needles plucked from a rare cactus to organs from monsters to simple salt pulled from sea water.

It had taken me four tries to get a result I was happy with thanks to all the substitutions I’d had to make. Honestly, the second attempt probably would have been good enough, but I wasn’t willing to settle for ‘good enough’ in this matter. I’d taken two more attempts before I I’d found what I was looking for.

Now that it was time, I found myself wondering if I shouldn’t have taken a fifth run at it. Yes, I’d been satisfied with what I’d created, but there was always room for improvement. It would have changed very little, but perhaps I could have…

I shook my head. No, the mixture was more than strong enough, and it wouldn’t dilute the liquid mana’s potency below the acceptable threshold. The lacquering process would be strong enough to protect my mana core against anything weaker than a master-tier spell, and even if I did happen to run afoul of some archmage—not that I believed any of those were left—my own willpower would reinforce my core against attacks anyway.

I had a rack of vials waiting for this step. Working slowly and carefully, I filled each one to a quarter full with the bubbly green concoction, then topped it off with liquid mana. The green swirled up into the mana but didn’t fully mix together right away. By the time I’d finished pouring the last of the ten vials, the first one had started to settle back into individual components again. I took a thin glass rod with a flattened end and stuck it into the vial, then gave it a few twists to agitate the mixture.

Once each one was a uniform pale green color, it was time. I grabbed the first one, drank it down, and waited for it to take hold. That only took a few seconds before my body was flush with the impure mana.

The potion acted much the same way a typical mana potion would, except it delivered the alchemical lacquering agent as well. From there, it was a simple, if tedious, task of painting it across the fragile mosaic of crystallized mana that filled my core. Soon enough, I ran through the potion and drank another one.

Ten wouldn’t be enough, not even close, but I’d have a few hours before I started the second layer. That was more than enough time to mix up the second rack of vials I had waiting. I spread the agent across the inside of my mana core, taking care not to disturb the delicate construction of my new mana lattice.

  *

My family found me sitting at our table the next morning, eight days after I’d started. I’d slightly underestimated how long it would take me to lacquer my mana core, a mistake I was happy to make. It meant I’d managed to enlarge my core even more than I’d expected. Something about living in a mana desert my whole life had strengthened my core in a way that I hadn’t fully explored, and not having exact measurements was throwing off my calculations.

“You’re back,” Senica said, rubbing at her eyes. “Welcome home.”

She shuffled past me sleepily, apparently uncaring that I was still alive. Mother, however, swept me up into a hug and said, “You need to be a bit more specific about how long these things take. I thought you’d be done days ago.”

“Sorry,” I said.

“Well, did it work?” Father asked. “You don’t look any different.”

“Oh, it worked,” I told him. “Would you care to see?”

My parents exchanged looks. “I… am a bit concerned when you say it like that,” Father admitted.

“He’s just being dramatic,” Senica said, eyes bright now as she examined me. “Go on, show us.”

For the first time in years, I fully relaxed the shielding over my mana core. Nobody, not even my family, knew exactly how much mana my core could hold. They could make guesses and speculate, something Senica had done several times, but they couldn’t feel my core like they could everyone else’s.

My core had been roughly the same size as my father’s a month ago, perhaps a hair bigger. Where I’d shone was my ability to generate mana four to five times faster than everyone else, a perk of my core being stage two. Tetrin was the only person in Sanctuary who could match me there, and even then, I still had the edge over him.

With my advancement to stage three and then four, I was now the undisputed strongest mage on the whole island. Some of the brakvaw were in the same weight class when it came to pure size, but only because of how physically big they were. No one could come close to matching my mana generation speed.

“Ancestors watch over us,” Father whispered. “That’s… a lot of mana.”

It was a bit of effort to keep my smugness off my face. “I feel strong again for the first time,” I said.

“There’s strong, and then there’s whatever this thing is,” Mother said. “At least I can rest comfortably knowing you’ll be safe from… well, everything.”

“Yes, there was a reason I delayed my trip for so many months. I feel much more prepared to handle any unknown problems now.”

“It’s a lot of mana,” Senica said, “but how fast can you fill your core back up.”

“That is an excellent question. Let’s find out.”

The mana battery that powered our home’s enchantments was stored in a closet off the kitchen. I walked over to it, poured in enough mana to fill about a third of it, completing draining myself dry. Immediately, my core started refilling as a torrent of mana flooded through the astral realm.

Father shook his head and laughed. “I think I’ll stand by my initial assessment. That’s a lot of mana.”

“At this rate, it should take about three hours to fully fill my core, which has a capacity of roughly twelve times what I had two weeks ago.”

Put more simply, I now generated enough mana to cast four master-tier spells per day. Unfortunately, my maximum capacity wouldn’t reach the point where I could do so without the aid of a storage device of some kind until stage five. That was…. Not outside the realm of possibility to reach this year, but I would have to eschew any and every other responsibility to focus solely on that project if I wanted to make that time frame.

Unfortunately, I did have a debt to repay to the brakvaw, and I’d put off my exploration of this planet long enough. Now that I was no longer limited to this one area, it was time to see what was waiting for me beyond the island’s shores.

“I’ll be gone for a day or two to fulfill some obligations, then I’ll be a back for a week or so to get everything in order here,” I said. “After that…”

“I want to come too,” Senica said immediately.

“That’s not a good idea,” Mother argued.

“It’s not safe,” Father added.

“Actually,” I cut in. “It’s not the worst idea in the world. I’m going to do some long-range scrying to get a better idea of what’s out there, but if things aren’t too bad, I’m not entirely opposed to the idea.”

“Wait, really?” Senica asked. “I just thought- but you said- I mean… Well, alright!”

“I think this is something we can discuss more later. For now, how about a nice breakfast to start the day,” Mother said, glaring at me from behind Senica. I could completely understand why she was against the idea, but really, Senica had too much wanderlust in her to stay in Sanctuary forever. It was better if her first expeditions were with someone who could protect her.

“Breakfast sounds good,” Father said.

Before anyone could move to start that, someone started pounding on the door. “Hey! Is everyone alright in there? I felt something big. A huge blob of mana.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the withering look I received from both my parents. In hindsight, it probably would have been a good idea to warn people so no one thought there was a giant monster in the middle of our village.

“You guys get started on breakfast. I’ll go take care of that,” I told them as I carefully shielded my mana core again.