Chapter 911 - Manajuice (Patreon)

The train makes a circle around the mountains, switching tracks a few times so we don't hit other trains. There is a lot of space for it, as almost as far as I can see is a grassy flatland only dotted with some ruins, smaller forests, or rivers. In the middle of this all, the volcano with the skeleton fallen into it sticks out like a sore thumb.

“Pip, this is kind of fucked up,” I say what I think out loud to the adult kindred next to me as we both watch from one of the bigger balconies.

“Language! Younglings might hear. Yes, yes, might hear!” Pip taps his leg after every 'yes' and twists and shakes as if in a panic.

“Oh, so they cannot hear me swear, but they can watch you constantly burn the still-alive monster? For how long already? 300 years?”

“Probably longer, yes, yes! But it is the enemy! Tariel the Undying. He refuses to die.”

“How did you even take him down?” I ask as I rest against the railing that isn't made for a human, but rather for kindred children, so it's all weird, bent, and with bigger spacing, as these dangerous creatures are quite big.

“We suspect Tariel was damaged, yes, yes. Nearly failed barrier after resting for so long. Too ancient, maybe buried in the cavern, damaged and not fully fixed from the war!”

“So you somehow got him during the start of the war, and since then, you torch him.”

“Yes, yes.”

“This cannot end well.”

“No other choice! But very useful for the calculations. The city is a great place for the younglings to socialize! Tariel is an enemy, so there is no need to be sad!”

“I wouldn't say I'm sad,” I say, looking at the skeleton while the train rattles on the tracks so the other train can pass by. “But yeah, I guess you cannot kill him, and somehow the asshole regenerates from the bones that you cannot destroy.”

“Not asshole. Tariel!”

“Yes, yes,” I sigh.

“Yes, yes!” Pip says excitedly.

“Why don't you kindred eat meat, Pip?” I decide to push away my slight boredom by questioning this kindred. Mostly because I feel like watching and taking a short break from the training.

“Don't eat meat because it belongs to beings with thoughts!”

“Oh, yes?”

“Yes, yes! Yes.”

“What if you meet some demon that has no thoughts? You know, a typical battle maniac that doesn't think of anything. Logically, you could eat him then, correct?”

The answer doesn't come, and when I glance to my left, I see Pip with his head bowed down as he is in deep thought.

“Pip?” I ask carefully

In answer, I only hear him muttering quietly, “Yes, yes, logic there. What if no thought? Hmm?”

Deciding not to risk turning an entire race of vegetarians into a demon devouring plague, I poke him, and Pip shakes his head and looks at me.

Pip growls in what is supposed to sound dangerous and takes a few tiny steps towards me. “Nathaniel's head often empty,” he says, and once again growls, moving even closer. “Me eat Nathaniel. Yes, yes.”

I feel myself smile and tap his head, which causes him to vibrate in happiness.

“You silly, little troll,” I say to him.

“Me not troll. Pip is a kindred, and Pip will eat Nathaniel!” He pushes even closer and presses his head against me, poking my side as he mutters, “Nomnomnomnom.”

He even pokes me with his weird arms, but does so gently.

“Nathaniel has a soft body! Like babies! We will eat babies too because no thought, head empty. Yes, yes! Nomnomnomnom.”

Ten minutes later, we are still making wide circles around the mountain, and we are still switching tracks when I find myself on top of one of the wagons, the one where Sophie set up her garden.

Only Min-Jae is here with me, sitting and curiously watching as I experiment with [Jüdrajil].

First, I have an orb I made with 10 or so percent of my mana. Holding it in my hand, I use [Jüdrajil] on it to take, to which the orb liquefies, and that liquid floats and bounces just over the wagon.

[Jüdrajil - lvl 13 > Jüdrajil - lvl 14]

No matter how tightly I weave my constructs, how much I use my passive to temper them, or how hard I push with [Manifestation], that damn skill liquefies it too damn easily. But currently it isn't a bad thing. I touch that liquid and try to “take” again.

And damn, the liquid turns into liquid. A more purified one, with less of it there, but still the same liquid.

And then I take again, and again, and again. Until the amount of liquid is a single nail-sized droplet that I put into a similarly small vial and close with a cork.

That liquid inside still floats slightly, bounces, and lacks the wetness of water, behaving more like some levitating mercury. Its color is now a darker blue, with light blue and white making a much higher contrast to it. Once again, I'm amazed by how little mana [Jüdrajil] requires to use.

It's fucked up.

“This, dear Min-Jae, is manajuice.”

“Please don't. Call it manasol or something,” he says right away, as if expecting this conversation.

“What does that even mean?”

“Sol could be short for solution or solvent. I think it fits!”

“How long have you been thinking of that?”

“Since the moment you mentioned you could liquify mana.”

Shaking my head, I look at the vial. “Manasol it is, and manajuice when I'm in the right sort of mood.”

“Okay, and what now? Can you ignite it?”

“I can,” I say to him, “but I thought of something else. You know how when I give, it takes all my available mana? Well, I tested it a bit, and it seems that giving also turns manajuice back to mana and gives it as well.”

Looking at it, I shake the vial wildly as if punishing the manajuice inside. “But this damn thing refuses to be used by me in any other way than through that damned skill.” I sigh and lower my hand. “And I think it's weird. I mean, I can ignite manajuice, right?”

“As you said,” Min-Jae confirms when he notices I'm waiting for a reaction.

“So, how can I ignite the damn thing if the damn skill takes all my damn mana, which includes even the mana from the manajuice that I'm trying to ignite?”

“You said it was a prototype.”

“It's weird, I don't like it, but yeah, screw the system, I will use it that way. By the way, igniting this thing is scary as hell, and it's scarier the more I gather,” I mutter.

My mana reserve is mostly regenerated, as I replenish it fast through my Ignition Heart and often also through drawing on ambient mana, it's mostly up to my mood.

I push my mana a little and turn some of it black, not much, just around one percent, and hold it steady even as it tries to pull on the rest of my mana.

Then I use [Jüdrajil], touch myself, and take.

It is one of the worst feelings, but all my mana disappears in a mere flash of a moment. All except the black mana that, for these few moments of weakness, powers my skills, during which I dissolve it back into normal mana and power everything with it instead. The process isn't smooth yet, but I will get rid of that weakness after a few sessions of tuning. I just need a little bit of black mana, which is resistant to [Jüdrajil] entirely.

As a result of taking it, 10,000 stat points worth of mana is turned liquid, which I take and take and take until I compress it much further to the size of a grape that I put into another vial.

All that mana, that insane amount, in a tiny vial like this.

I shake it, and if it were bigger, I would slap the side of the glass container.

“Do you think storing it like this is better than using a crown, halo, or some other way?” Min-Jae asks curiously, and when I throw the vial to him, he catches it, observing it from the outside.

I already gave it some thought, but I think about it again, talking out loud as I do, “It is different. Currently, I cannot use it in any other way than just when I give all my mana out through [Jüdrajil]. But it also means that likely no one else, other than some fucked-up specialist, will be able to do anything with manajuice.”

“But people usually can't do anything to your mana anyway. When was the last time someone stole it from you? It would be safe in a crown, too, and you could actually use it,” Min-Jae says as he pulls out some weird-ass monocle and starts looking at the vial through it. Some of his skills with a perception element activate as he does so.

“You saw how small the vial is. The signature it gives isn't even that big, nor is the radiation-”

“I think it would kill a normal person in a few seconds,” he interrupts me.

“Just this?” I'm taken aback.

“Your view on this is a bit skewed, to be honest,” he looks up and smiles before looking back at the vial. “When on your person, these sorts of items often have their radiation devoured by your Mana Cycling. But if you left it somewhere, it would kill someone weaker. People around level 50 or higher would be safe, as the signature isn't that strong, but below that, a few hours would be enough to cause some damage.”

“That's fucked up.”

“It applies to some more powerful arcane and low pristine items too. Often, just their presence is dangerous. I did some testing with Sophie, and our signatures aren't the only things to worry about once we return to Earth. Here, it is mostly okay because people have higher levels or are born to awakened planets, but it will be different on Earth.”

“I guess,” I acknowledge, looking at the smaller vial I still hold. “My idea is that I could always hold some vials with manajuice. I could easily have 10 or so, with each having my full mana pool worth of mana or more. Using them to ignite something would be overkill and possibly destroy the item, but I could either just give mana to someone while keeping a bit of black mana, or I could just ignite the vials themselves.”

“If you think about it, don't some effects overlap with your black mana?” Min-Jae asks.

“A bit?”

“Do you think it's the system giving you a replacement in hopes you give up on black mana?” He throws the vial back to me, and I catch it while musing over his words.

“And getting offered [Usurpation] was a question or a test to see if I want to usurp the system, right?” I snort. “I think I got this exact prototype because the system is experimenting with skills that are akin to black mana, and it also wants to test me, who already has black mana, to see what I might use more or how I abuse it. Who the hell knows? Overall, I think [Usurpation] was more versatile, but [Jüdrajil] is much, much more powerful and almost has that sort of absolute, unavoidable effect. I also think [Jüdrajil] will be much better for the combination in the future. The skill that comes out of it will be fucked up.”

“I agree with all of that,” he says.

“Well, thank you for agreeing with me, o’ all-knowing Kim Min-Jae,” I say, which still gets a smile out of him, and I shake my head. “Anyway, want to find some stronger monster so I can show you what igniting manajuice does?”

“Yes!”

We leave the still circling train, which makes me wonder if it's done to make the kindred children dizzy, throw up, or faint. Both Min-Jae and I can fly, me with kinetic power and him by pulling himself with his [Telekinesis].

It is a few dozen miles away, but through my scans, I find a somewhat powerful monster in an area that is clear of any tracks or population. Just one of those zones the kindred avoid. There are many craters around and lines where some kaiju dragged itself through.

There is a huge lake that is probably a mile deep according to my scans and the size of a city. Inside of it is not a fish, not a lion, but something in between, and it's quite ugly.

[Merlion - lvl 387]

It becoming a test subject becomes unavoidable as it throws some sort of mental attack that I disrupt, along with jets of water that Min-Jae splits in front of us so they pass by our sides.

Currently, I have both vials of manasol with me and am holding the one with more of it. I allow a bit of my mana to compress and turn black, swiftly using a few triggers to have it power up my constructs, passives, and skills, and then I wait.

The surface of the lake explodes, and from inside of it, a huge whale jumps up, grabbing the Merlion into its mouth in its entirety and killing it with a single bite.

[Hafgufa - lvl 436]

I use [Jüdrajil], and touching the liquid inside of the vial, I ignite it and quickly throw it with a boost down where it crashes against the whale, which is just diving underwater in a spray of blood from the killed Merlion. That vial explodes, and the liquid crashes out like gasoline that spreads on the whale before erupting in those weird flames the ignition causes.

I can see the flames even through the water as they brightly flicker and spread across the whale, covering its body and then reaching inside. They feed on mana, taking in a similar way [Jüdrajil] would, and that taken mana is then further used to ignite the manasol so it can burn more.

"It just keeps taking mana," I say to Min-Jae as I observe the whale, which thrashes around trying to get rid of them. "The flames don't burn you, they don't cause damage, and they don't spread to anything else other than the first living thing they hit. The effect isn't nearly as fast as me touching them, but the flames spread through you, take all your mana, and use it to support the flames so they can burn longer and continue to take."

Min-Jae seems like he is slowly grasping the idea. "How long do they last as they are now?"

I shrug. "Honestly? I'm not sure. It likely depends on how much I purify the manasol, the target's mana pool, their mana control, and several other factors. I used my entire pool, plus manasol, so it'll be..." I pause and calculate through experience from previous testing and what my Preeminence eyes see. "Probably a few days? Maybe a month? That would be, of course, if the whale stops generating mana. But as it creates mana, it just feeds the flames, so I wouldn't be surprised if the flames last much longer."

Slowly, I start gathering kinetic energy and narrowing it into a needle point that, unlike Lioren's true needle point, ends up being as wide as a bus. When the whale twists and looks at us to attack, I release that blast of kinetic energy.

It bursts towards the lake, sending a huge volume of water splitting away and, for a moment, creating something akin to a very deep crater, in which my attack kills the whale.

A notification dings, and as the water rushes back in, the whale begins to sink down while the flames continue to blaze across its corpse. Now that it is dead, these flames aren't firmly attached to it anymore, and I know they will either die off after some time, when the mana that ignites them runs out, or they will jump onto another living being that touches the corpse.

My expression is now as serious as Min-Jae's. He is a smart boy, young man, or whatever age he is now.

He also realizes that if I level up the skill and gather enough mana, it should be possible for me to literally make someone manaless for decades, or... forever. Destined to be harmlessly burned by these flames that take away the gift of mana from them if they fail to counter my skill.

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