Last Words chapter 42 (Patreon)

The chair was warm. That was the first thing I noticed. Not warm like someone had been sitting in it, but warm like it was ALIVE. It was unsettlingly warm, giving me the impression that I’d sat down in the mouth of something hungry and it was deciding whether or not to take a bite. Alexa clearly noticed my discomfort, because she shot me an apologetic smile. “You noticed the heat?”

“How could I not?” I asked her with muted disgust. “It’s so blatant I’m surprised you can’t feel it from there.”

She chuckled. “I can’t feel it when I’m sitting there. Neither can Bran. The magic in the chair is subtle, to most. If you can feel it that must mean you have a strong resonance with neutral mana. It’s not an affinity, mind, you can’t have an affinity for neutral mana, but mana resonance is an important aspect of magecraft. It’s a good sign that you might have strong affinities.”

I suspected it was more likely something to do with my perk, but I’d take what I could get. “So, how exactly does this work?” I asked as I settled in to let Alexa fasten the restraints around me. “The mana thing, not the chair. I get the patterns use mana, but like…how?”

She took a second to get what I meant, but then nodded in understanding. “Ah the mechanism? Well, it depends on the pattern. Different patterns require different amounts of mana to fill. You funnel the mana from your body into the pattern until it’s full, and then you can activate the pattern at any time. Most tier one patterns are pretty cheap, but since Beginners start with a single mana, it usually takes a while to fill them.”

“Wait, so you can only use patterns once?” I asked in disbelief. “That’s…kind of terrible.”

“It’s temporary,” she assured me. “By the time you hit tier two you can refill a pattern a few times usually. Even once you’re partway there you can use them once or twice. Beginners aren’t really built for combat anyway. Your pattern is more of a last resort at that level.”

She spoke calmly and cheerfully, guiding my hands down to the handholds as she did, distracting me with information as she speared my fingers on the blades. She had a good bedside manner, it was almost enough to take my mind off what was happening. Almost. I hissed as the heat from the chair pulsed through my fingers, getting hotter and hotter until it flooded through them and into my bloodstream.

A quick burst, then it receded back into the chair. Then again. And Again. Like the chair was pumping my blood through itself and then back into me. It was unsettling. I tried to focus on the talk. “How about mana regeneration?” I asked through gritted teeth. “How does that work?”

“About ten percent of your total per hour,” she said serenely as she worked. She was fiddling with some kind of metal tracework on the chair I hadn’t noticed, moving around levers and even gears. “So you basically get one mana every ten hours at Beginner. It’s enough to fill some low level patterns in a day. You can even connect the pattern directly to your mana pool so it’ll fill on its own, though you can only do it to one pattern at a time.”

I nodded absently. That meant I would be able to do just under five mana per day, where everyone else would be clocking two point four. Once I got another few levels in my Mana Body I’d be doing even more. That was…a sizable advantage.

“Can you stockpile charges?” I asked hopefully. “Charge a pattern twice in some way?”

She shook her head. “Not at Beginner. Once you form a Braid you can store a charge for the entire Braid in each pattern, though you’ll only get that second use once, since all your Braids share the same base pattern.”

That made sense. It seemed unlikely I’d be able to just spam patterns then. I might be able to just buy them full, but I suspected they’re cost way more, and it would pretty much be LITERALLY burning money. A plausible last resort if it worked, but I’d need to test it. “What about a mana fruit?” I asked casually, interested in their reaction.

“You COULD use a mana fruit to charge a pattern,” she said slowly. “But it would be a horrible waste. Any mana that the pattern absorbed would be mana that didn’t go to refining your mana body. That’s sacrificing permanent improvement for a brief temporary boost. Considering how rare they are no one with any sense would do that.”

I nodded internally, I’d thought so. “Why are they so rare?” I asked in a friendly tone. “Don’t they grow out in the woods?”

“They do,” she acknowledged. “But we aren’t the only ones who need them. Beasts LOVE mana fruits, even unripened ones. Every mana fruit tree has a plethora of guardian beasts lurking around it, and most of them are clustered together. Species of beast tend to have neighboring territories, so if you attack one of them you can set off the whole cluster. A careless attempt at fruit harvesting can set off a beast tide.”

“And that’s the unripened ones,” Bran added grimly. “They grow on the smallest, weakest trees at the edge of the forest. The REAL mana fruits, the ones that higher tiers need, those are deeper inside, and they have much more powerful beasts watching over them. You’d have a better chance of shoving your head in a river and spontaneously learning to breathe underwater than you would of getting your hands on one of those.”

I noticed that the heat was starting to slow down, the pulses becoming both less frequent and less intense. “Is that why you haven’t tried eating one?” I asked Bran. “You said you don’t have the body to become a mage, can a mana fruit change that?”

“It can,” he nodded. “The same way flooding your body with a mana type can create a pattern, flooding your body with neutral mana can force it to adapt to mana. Unfortunately, the worse your resonance with neutral mana, the more fruits it takes. My resonance is terrible, so I’d need probably twenty or thirty of the things to break through. Considering how rare they are, there’s no chance of that ever happening.” His voice was even, maybe even chipper, but his eyes were blank in a way that told me that he wasn’t as unaffected by the subject as he seemed.

But I was barely paying attention to his depressed expression. Because I was still stuck on the thing he’d just said BEFORE his mood took a nosedive. He’s said mana resonance decided how many fruits you needed to break through. Mana resonance was what decided regeneration, and if mine was doubled now…I swallowed hard. It was highly possible mana fruits were now TWICE as effective for me as they had been before.

I made a promise to myself to try to help Bran. If for no other reason than the colossal favor he’d just done me, it would have been worth it. Besides that, I liked him, and I was rooting for him and Alexa. Add in the fact that he was trained as a Scribe and could potentially join my group, and I had a lot of good reasons to do him a solid.

The chair began to slow down even more, and beneath my hands, it started to cool. The flashing exchange of heat became a dull flush of warmth, and beyond that, the wood beneath me began to grow tepid. Almost clammy, actually, in a very unpleasant way.

“Alright, almost done,” Alexa assured me cheerfully. “Please wait just a moment while I imprint your results.” She turned and scurried over to a desk, grabbing a plain sheet of paper and carrying it behind me. I glanced back to see her slip it in a metal plate affixed to the back of the chair, then start flipping switches and screwing in bolts to tighten it down. Once that was done, there was a sort of electric pop and a hiss from behind me, and she undid the process, pulling out the paper and handing it to me proudly. “And there you are. I didn’t look, though you’re welcome to show me if you like, I’m always curious but peeking is a bit of a taboo for apprentice Scribes.”

I nodded absently as I held up the paper to read over it. I was too distracted by the results to bother with the question. It was kind of wild to see that I had actual mana affinities, nevermind that I had a few I had never even heard of.

Affinities:

Nature-24%

Fire-12%

Blood-6%

Moon-32%

Ocean-11%

Star-2%

Gravity-1%

I blinked at the eclectic list. “Ok…what do these mean? I haven’t heard of half of these.”

“Well, Moon and Star are often overlapped,” she commented. “Awakening one can cause the other to awaken in rare cases, though you don’t appear to have much of one. Ocean is another one with a strong Moon overlap, so that isn’t too surprising. Blood is VERY rare, as is Gravity, but anything less than ten percent is basically pointless at lower tiers.”

I blinked. “Actually, what do they do? I know you need an affinity to create a wild magic pattern, but what purpose do they serve for normal inscribed ones?”

“They’re a percentage reduction in mana cost,” she said immediately. “The higher your affinity, the cheaper your pattern is. At lower tiers that’s basically worthless though. One or two percent of two or three mana is negligible. Not to mention even finding patterns for things like Blood or Star mana is nearly impossible.”

I grimaced at that. It made sense but it wasn’t exactly good news. “What about wild magic?” I asked. “How do affinities affect that?”

“The higher your affinity, the less mana you need to create a pattern,” she shrugged. “Trying to create a pattern with a one percent affinity might require hundreds of mana, where creating one with a hundred percent affinity might only require ten. Naturally, lower mana requirements are safer. Anything below fifty percent you might as well invest in raising it instead of getting the mana. You’re more likely to die in the attempt than manage anything good.”

I noted that down. I would need to find more affinity raising materials. Luckily, I could BUY that mango nectar whenever I wanted. If I could find a few more of those I’d have access to a strategic resource to help my friends farm affinities.

Tucking the paper away, I smiled gratefully at her. “I appreciate this,” I told her cheerfully. “I’m guessing you and your father don’t have many Moon patterns available?”

“None, actually,” she said apologetically. “It’s a rare mana type. Mostly enhancements. All the Moon patterns I’m aware of are kept under lock and key. We DO have a couple of Nature patterns you might be able to afford, if you’re interested.”

I nodded along. I needed a primary pattern, and Nature seemed like a good place to start. I wondered what kind of spells the patterns would grant. Maybe like binding roots, or some kind of healing spell? Maybe I could turn into an animal. Ok, probably not that last one, given the low rank, but still, there were plenty of interesting options.

Strolling back over to the desk, she picked up a large leatherbound book and brought it over, dropping it on my lap. “Take a look,” she said helpfully. “If you find one you like, we can go let my dad know. You’re here on Esther’s tab, so don’t be shy. She’s good for it.” I hadn’t known I’d be getting a pattern here today, but I supposed I probably should have guessed. Still it was an exciting prospect. I flipped the book open, ready to look through the list, and settled in. Time to pick out my first magic tattoo.