160. To Tame a Mount II (Patreon)

AN : Chapter 2/3

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The darkness deepened, the sound of chirping insects fading away to nothing, the smell of grass and flowers and a fresh evening on a clear mountainside dulling to a null void, the remains of the pain flowing away from him.

His thoughts comfortably stretched themselves inside the void, feeling no emotions or sensations, no pain or fear, no joy or thrill. The feeling of lighter than air was left out there, too. For all intents and purposes, only he existed here… Most of the time. There was the occasional swarm of billions of tiny visitors and the gateway to his Anima was there too, but he could overlook its tiny presence perfectly well, and do so without even trying.

For now, he decided that it was of the greatest importance to give some thought to the issue of extending the Seal’s life by turning it into a skill. Visualization helped him conjure a clear mental image of a book that opened itself and on its pages were long, long lists of questions and statements, things he suspected and theorized, and some of them that he knew for sure. Years of study of Mana and Energy, of skills and spells and all manner of strangeness, all found in a massive mental construct. It was unfortunate that sometimes entire parts of it were lost simply because he forgot about them, but he couldn't bring himself to write these things down even in his old languages permanently. Someone could find a physical copy and then…

Still, he had recently made a way to prevent loss by combining newly grown Visualization with Quick Learning. The temporary loss of the second skill would make new additions difficult for a while, though…

He focused solely on the last bits added and started from there.

The last entry concerned finding some sort of command list that he would imprint on Energy to have it grow a semi-formed skill crystal capable of admitting mana. For starters, it had to be said that imprinting a command on Energy with the skill was just an idea he had and not the usual way he manipulated Energy so far. But then again, different ways to do one thing existed. What if instead of him doing all manipulation manually like Mana seemed to require, he just issued a command and then let Energy do what he commanded? Was that still manipulation, though?

It could be seen as one way of doing it, certainly.

Now that he thought about it, this reminded him of something from a while back. Listing through his mental construct, he came upon it quickly. During an hour-long lecture at the start of the year, the teacher of magical theory, Master Lazarus, had mentioned different ways to cast and intent casting was one of the ways mentioned then. A Magos capable of casting spells by intent alone was considered to have reached the pinnacle of spellcasting… but how was it done? The man didn't delve into it, but Tercius had suspected even then that Energy might have something to do with it, simply because normally Mana seemed to be perfectly content to sit still and be guided as thoroughly as possible with each step of the way, while Energy, on the other hand, seemed tailored for independent actions.

The guidance that the Mana needed could come from skills or it could come from a spellcaster who took active control of it, but there was technically another possibility that he should take into account. When truly powerful emotions get a hold of a spellcaster, Mana was known to start acting out based on those emotions, forcing a so-called “wild magic” effect to occur where literally anything could happen.

For example, Tercius had almost suffocated himself a month ago when he experienced a short bout of existential terror and found himself suddenly enclosed inside a statue of pure mana-formed crystal. If Amber and Mistress Kalina hadn’t been with him…

The classes at the Academy taught the kids and teenagers there how they ought to be careful of overwhelming emotions because wild magic was nothing if not unpredictable. Tercius now wondered if “wild magic” was solely Mana’s fault. After all, Energy was manipulated in a certain instinctive way by all beings even before they had the skill… So wasn’t it more reasonable to suspect Energy as the cause for the behaviors exhibited by bouts of wild magic?

Wait… A crazy thought came to him. Was "intent casting" some kind of a… controlled version of wild magic? What if the caster issued the order, the intent, then Energy picked up that intent and then guided Mana on how to do it? He had no idea if that was what intent casting was, but the description did fit like a glove to something else.

Skills.

All skills did just that, only wild magic resulted in an unpredictable effect. But that, he reflected, was to be expected. After all, a skill's function was limited in scope by its nature. It had too tight a framework to go wild. It was specialized, you might say.

Then what about Mana Manipulation and Mana Metamorphosis? The two skills made someone a spellcaster and the true genius of the two skills was that they were specialized in being as adaptive as possible. Together, they were specialized in being as general as possible. Their only limit was the knowledge of their wielder but then, when thinking even more broadly, knowledge wasn't a true limit of the two skills. Tercius could if he wanted to and was crazy enough to try, change his mana as he saw fit. The only problem with that would be that more often than not, many such wild and erratic changes ended up in mana self-destruction, which resulted in both a physical explosion and a mental recoil. To form a somewhat safe system of spellcasting, the Magi of the Society had paid a price in lost lives and some continued to do so even to this day.

The caster had to be very specific with the intent or he might just end up blown to bits or brain-dead if the metal recoil proved hard enough but, moral failings aside, the theory stated that Mana Manipulation and Mana Metamorphosis were capable of anything. Mana was likely capable of anything, Tercius might agree with that, but left alone it was dumb as a one and a zero carved onto a rock. It needed something to animate it… and Anima and Energy came in handy there. Skills used the intent of their wielder, the intent was then transferred to Energy, and Energy, in turn, commanded Mana to execute the wishes of the controller. Specialized skills were the ultimate expression of intent casting…

Leafing through the mental construct, Tercius carefully connected some bits about skills in general, about Energy and Mana, wild magic, and guesses on intent casting and started overlapping things.

He lost himself in his work completely and utterly, and with nothing to hold him back or bother him in the vast void, he didn't stop until he drained his entire line of thought. Looking at the new conclusions he came to, Tercius tried to find anything to disagree with. He found nothing. No matter the angle he tried, all the conclusions seemed sound. Yes, he might be onto something here, but to be sure he had to try it out.

Carefully, of course. This was important, but he had to think of keeping the Seal intact…

Tercius reached out with his thoughts towards the gateway and the darkness of Meditation disappeared. Suddenly sensations returned again and Tercius smiled with anticipation. This would be another major discovery if confirmed…

The gateway had led him to his Anima, a metaphysical side that all living beings had. His Anima was a world of gray fog, which seemed to be endless. He never found an end to it, at least. Inside of the fog-filled space were two and a half dozen spheres of color, which he knew to be the metaphysical side of skills that he had. Years ago, he had named them Skill Cores.

The gateway left him in one such Core.

The center of the spherical Core was a massive rotating globe of blue and green. Two enormous disembodied hands hovering around the globe as if the planetary representation was a simple crystal ball used by a fortune teller. Thin silvery-white threads linked the gargantuan fingers to the globe, occasionally twitching or moving and in doing so making the threads waver. Compared even to the little fingers, Tercius came up short. The way the spherical Core of Energy Manipulation looked was his doing, but this was one of the earlier effigies he made and when he had made it he had focused more on the manipulation part than the Energy part, which he recently came to realize might have been some kind of a mistake. As things stood, only the white, spider threads represented Energy. He didn’t have any evidence that this was a mistake, though, but it was just a feeling that he should balance out the two parts at the very least…

Later, though. He had something that he had to check. He also better get some sleep soon. An interesting subject coupled with Meditation was always a recipe for hours to fly by… and he didn’t want to sleep in late.

Tercius moved around the massive globe, searching behind its considerable bulk for his Anima tenant and he found it easily. No bigger than a basketball, the small glowing core was bound with rings upon rings of chains. The captive wisp hovered a little bit here and then a little there, seemingly without any pattern to its movement. Flu, he called it, had been with him for years.

I’ve had a crazy day, Tercius complained to the wisp as he approached. Just… crowded with a lot of… Anyway, I won’t bore you with my troubles. Now, less talk and more work.

He reached out and grabbed towards the outermost chain. A single touch was enough for the chain to pop like a bubble. A freezing pain shot up Tercius’ arm just as Flu came to a halt. Ignoring the wisp’s sudden halt, Tercius quickly reached out with his Energy Manipulation and grabbed the moving Energy under his hold before any of it had a chance to escape into the endless gray fog of his Anima.

The chain that he had painfully destroyed with a single touch was completely regrown. The wisp was still as if waiting. Harvesting the chains was actually the only thing that had ever made the wisp react in any way and Tercius took the being's halt as a sign that the being wanted to be free.

Speaking as someone who prized his personal freedom above many things, he could see himself easily giving Flu a helping hand. But then again, he would be a fool not to ask himself why was the strange being chained in the first place and what would happen when or rather if he ever freed it…

Whatever he felt or thought about it was irrelevant. As things stood now, it was a fact that he could not free Flu. The damned pain got firmly in the way, better than any barrier ever could. The deeper you went in, the worse it got. The speed of chain regrowth was faster the closer to the tiny white core he got, too. Years ago, he had tried to see how far he could go and when he got to about a third of the way through the chains, he had simply blacked out from the pain. Even now he shivered when he remembered the deepest point. It had been… Well, he had spent an entire day in bed, just blank and without the will to move even a finger afterward. Not even Meditation had been able to shake him out of that strange state.

Harvesting the outermost chain over and over again was much easier than delving deeper, almost as if someone had specifically made the chains this way. That way, anyone able to see and interact with the wisps would be unwilling to commit to going deeper where the price of Energy harvest was much steeper. After all, who would choose to harvest an absolute killing of a precious resource the hard way, when you could get the same thing with an easier one instead?

He liked to think of himself as one such person. The Energy he got from Flu’s chains had helped him and those around him many times now, and repaying Flu by liberating him seemed… appropriate.

Letting Flu get back to its wanderings, Tercius looked at the ball-sized sphere of white silver Energy that he harvested. Where mana was almost gas-like, Energy was almost liquid-like. Where he could compress and scatter mana, he could do neither to Energy. Where mana needed detailed instructions, Energy could make do with a bare minimum of a desire or an action.

Tercius narrowed his eyes trying to bore holes into the sphere, mentally ordering the Energy not to move. Slowly he let go of the firm grip he had on the sphere with Energy Manipulation. The sphere held its shape for a little bit then it slowly fell apart before his eyes. He was quick to catch it all before it had a chance to escape.

He remade the sphere and before he let it go again, he ordered it to hold the shape for as long as it could.

The perfect sphere moved slowly towards the gray fog of his Anima. Tercius sighed; that movement was likely a pull by the vacuum of Mana Touch and its unstable Core. The shape of the sphere, though… it lasted much longer than earlier. Tercius reached out with Energy Manipulation and recaptured the precious resource under his firm grasp, dragging it all back towards him in a blink of an eye.

Picturing the destination in his mind, Tercius ordered two things to the ball. It had to hold its shape and move to the spot pictured. As soon as he let his hold on the shape fade, the ball of Energy wobbled in place and made a tiny movement towards the destination he imagined, but then it settled, unmoving. Tercius came near it, observing the snail’s pace the ball of Energy had towards his Anima, in the direction opposite of his command. The pull of the Energy vacuum that the chaotic Core of his new skill was just a little bit stronger than his command…

The shape started decaying into watery threads soon enough, while the rest of the ball started gaining some speed towards the vacuum. Tercius let the Energy threads move until they almost reached the fog of his Anima and only then did he re-establish his hold over them and bring them back.

He already knew that this would work. After all, this was something he had done many times before, both consciously and otherwise. The true test was doing this with Energy Manipulation. He refocused on the ball of Energy and brought it between his palms. This time he didn’t send his commands towards the white ball, but rather towards Energy Manipulation, the command altered only slightly. It was to make the Energy ball hold that shape, no matter what.

The Core around him brightened with light that seemed to have no source. Tercius startled. A hunger growled from deep inside him, demanding food. The mental grip that he kept on the ball of Energy was suddenly left without a solid hold, the Energy slipping between his mental fingers and heading for the green and blue globe. Tercius’ narrow gaze followed it and then when nothing changed it swept around the Core. Nothing seemed different, but…

His Energy Manipulation was at [40], at its second boundary of change. A new function had to be added to the skill for it to grow further and this one seemed like a good one. More than good, actually. This one seemed like a solution to many current problems and, better yet, he could easily see this opening new avenues for the future.

He could see this as a road towards intent casting… he just had to pave it properly… and then find a bridge to Mana itself. One bridge came to mind immediately. What would happen if he used Energy Manipulation to feed Mana Manipulation, much like Quick Learner fed Teaching…

Better yet, what about if he ever added Energy Metamorphosis to Mana Metamorphosis?

Cracking a small smile, Tercius celebrated. His celebration doused itself short when he realized that this, like many of his abilities, he had to hide if he intended to keep himself away from troublesome and complicated situations and individuals. After all, a kid halfway to thirteen owning something that people four or five times his age rarely had was the main ingredient for a recipe of inviting prying eyes to come and inspect him and that… Well, he had far more valuable secrets than something like intent casting.

Secrets which could tempt even the oldest of Magi to break the Laws and poke around the head of a student of their Academy.

Tercius snorted. He was getting a bit ahead of himself. Even the first step– adding a new function to Energy Manipulation– would require a considerable portion of Energy, for one. That Energy would require hours of pain. Currently, his only free hours were those reserved for sleep. Well… he had likely dented this night, so he might as well get something out of it.

Tercius caught up with Flu again. He winced and grimaced with each chain that popped at his touch. From a ball-sized sphere of Energy, he went for a sphere the size of a person, and then to a sphere into which Lucky could have fit. Harvesting Energy was without a doubt the worst pain-inducer he ever experienced, eclipsing even the pains that went along with the formation of the Well, a burst appendix, and a broken leg, but years of willing exposure had made him more tolerant towards it.

There used to be times when he shied away, but those times were long gone. To him, all pain had become something of a currency for exchange.

Once more, Tercius gave an order to Energy Manipulation and expected it to handle it all on his behalf. The Core came alive with light and then hunger and the Energy that he paid for with pain was ripped away from and integrated into the green and blue globe. Tercius cycled through harvesting Energy and then sacrificing all his gains for a function to grow and the skill to evolve to a new state. He completed the cycle once, twice, thrice… it took eleven of them.

Energy Manipulation [40] is now Energy Manipulation [41]

An entire pool of Energy remained from the last harvest. Tercius sighed deeply. He had expected the function to take a lot more Energy than it ended up needing and so he didn’t expect that he would have to slow down anytime soon.

Tercius sighed again. He would have to spend it all before he had a chance to rest.

He reached out to Energy Manipulation and gave it a list of commands. It was to remain inside Anima no matter what, and then it was to hold the rest of the Energy tightly clumped together and keep it near the massive globe. Even before Tercius let his mental grip fade, the sphere had started to move slowly towards its new destination. Tercius observed as the sphere of Energy, which was just a little bit bigger than him, started to orbit around the globe, an imitation that brought a small smile to his face. Ignore the massive hovering hands and the silk-like threads, and there it was, the Moon still circling the Earth.

A little bit of an old home.

His head bowed down and he closed his eyes for a few moments. He needed a moment of rest before he could continue anything. He had no idea of how much time had gone by, but it was time to bring this Anima expedition to a finish for the night. He only had to deal with the Energy. After all, who knew if his imprinted command had a time limit.

Tercius looked up, his eyes narrowed with intent at the Energy-Moon. A hand reached towards it and he took command the old-fashioned way. His mental grip took over the entire sphere and halted it in tracks. Tercius smiled. That was good. The connection was strong, stronger than before even. He separated a few watery drops of Energy to the side and the rest got a list of commands imprinted. Don’t leave Anima, hold that shape, follow at my side.

Like a good puppy the moon came at his side, the orb’s Energy insides twisting and turning on itself but holding the shape that he made for it. Tercius nodded. So far so good.

The drops separated earlier he willed into the shape of an arrow and let it loose with an imprint. Don’t leave Anima, hold that shape.

As soon as the arrow was free it moved towards the endless gray fog and Tercius followed after it. The vacuum of newly acquired skills had long served as a compass of sorts, and it allowed Tercius to map out a bit of the fog.

His eyes went wide and he almost smacked himself on the forehead. That same vacuum also provided a small security measure for his Seal. How did he not think of this earlier? Tercius snorted. Worry for the Seal had made him blind. He knew that an Energy surge in his Well would lead to the Seal’s destruction and he had automatically dubbed all uncontrolled Energy as hazardous. He looked at the sphere at his side. Beside the arrow, it was the only light source in the fog. All that Energy was far more likely to rush towards that emptiness found where the Core of Mana Touch was established, rather than towards his Well.

For a moment his eyes narrowed. Should he just… let the Energy free? It would get him to bed earlier… Tercius shook his head slightly and continued following the arrow. Just to be sure, he would finish the entire trip.

Time went by with each step. Gray fog was everywhere, his only guide a little arrow of white light. Then a blood-red light appeared in the distance of the lightless gray fog. With the destination in sight, Tercius collected the arrow and rushed towards the Core.

While mana appeared like a gas cloud to all who saw it, people with a sight sense all saw it differently. For Tercius, the mana of humans was a dark red when peaceful. For one of the kids, he knew at the Academy, mana clouds were a bright yellow. According to Mistress Kalina, the color palette was almost universally individual. Each skill holder had to find out the color codes of different mana types for themselves.

The spherical Core of Mana Touch was small, at least when compared to that of Energy Manipulation, and its insides were in a bloody storm. A single crystal pillar hovered in the center of that storm, barely visible from outside. He neared the colored boundary of the Core carefully and halted at the very edge of where gray ended and blood-red began.

He looked at the sphere of white Energy beside him and waved his open hands at it, each arm taking control of two streams of Energy. The sphere rippled and two arms of Energy manifested at its sides. Tercius brought his palms closer to the bloody boundary, and the Energy-arms mimed his movement. The moment the hands touched the Core's boundary, the hungry storm inside started eating. With each bite eaten it receded a little bit at a time, as chaos turned to order. More energy flowed in and the outermost volume of the Core became pacified. Seeing a safe enough space being made, Tercius stepped out of the gray fog and into the Core, following closely at the storm's heels.

The shrinking sphere of Energy followed at his side. As it crossed inside, the pull started affecting more and more of its surface, the Energy inside wobbling, then entire threads of Energy started arching. Tercius looked at the sphere but did nothing. It was resisting the pull with all its might. The command that he had imprinted was proving its worth here and now.

Moments later, all threads of the Energy sphere were siphoned off. Tercius just observed. The side closer to the storm started peeling off in pieces slowly, while the far side turned to threads that started a slow migration to fill the hole. The process was slow, but eventually, the Energy he brought was consumed before his eyes, sacrificed to pacify a small portion of the Core.

Tercius looked around the Core and eyeballed the work completed. Less than a fifth of the volume. When he took into account that more Energy would be needed the further towards the center of the Core he got, he calculated a rough approximation for Energy he would require to complete the pacification entirely.

Tercius closed his eyes and imagined himself going back. With a lurch backward, he found himself in the void of Meditation. A push made the skill release him back into the real world.

The gray canvas of the tent was the first thing he saw.

“I thought I specifically told you to rest.” the cool voice of Mistress Kalina came from behind him.

Tercius stiffened. The muscles of his leg agitated the mended ankle, but he didn’t utter a sound.

“Few things can substitute sleep, Tercius, and even they can only do so up to a point. Go now, and let your mind and body rest. If you make me repeat myself again…”

Tercius knew a threat when he heard one and he wasn’t willing to discover how his Mentor made good on them, not when it could all be avoided with as little as a bit of sleep. Sweet, sweet sleep…