234, 1/2

Erick felt lighter than air as he raced to his workshop ‘home’, almost dancing around slower travelers on the road, somewhat because he had to dance to avoid them for he was invisible when moving, and somewhat because he was ready to have some fun with mana crystals. When his turn on the main road came up, Erick rapidly decided on a specific series of experiments that he needed to set up first, probably involving one-way mirrored [Force Wall]s that he could place around the entire property, because there were people camped outside of his home.

He did not like it when people camped outside his home.

Erick stepped off into the golden wheat, stalks of grain rustling all around, as he whipped around the property and hopped across the low wall, onto his land, completely avoiding the campers. A quick verbal command to the dungeon placed his weaponry into his storage, inside his house, without him needing to actually go inside, as he walked around to the front of his cottage estate.

“Hello there!” Erick called out, from inside his property line. “What brings you all here today?”

Seven visible people were camped outside of his wall, though there was only one actual camping tent, and the tent was only big enough for two people. The majority of people were on chairs, probably taking shifts, as most of them didn’t look to be with each other at all. Erick counted at least 4 groups among the people here.

At Erick’s voice, they all jumped up at once, some were faster than others, and were already raising their voices to be heard over the rest.

“We’d like for you to join—!”

“The Red Barons invite you—!”

“The Wood Warriors have openings for—!”

Erick spoke louder, “I’ve signed with the Iron Bandits.”

Instant disgust among some people. Instant regret among others. Some people spat out questions concerning how the fuck the Iron Bandits had gotten here first, while others complained about monopolies on all the good crafters.

That last comment prompted Erick to say, “I’m not looking to delve, or to get into politics of the companies down here. The Iron Bandits’s offer was for me to be able to sell to whomever I wish to sell, and I will be doing that, for they have already given me a mana chamber to play around with. They’ll be here later to install some furnaces and whatnot. I plan to flood the market with [Rejuvenation]s, first. Then comes specialty items, perhaps. Mostly, though, I will not be here. Come back tomorrow if you want something special made, and I’ll maybe tackle that spellwork, if it interests me.” Erick added, “And with that out of the way: Is there anything else that needs to be said? Otherwise I would very much like to get on with my projects.”

Almost every recruiter went from confused, to intrigued, to wary and weird. Many did not know what to make of Erick’s declaration that he didn’t want to delve, so most of them didn’t know how to approach him anymore.

One woman with white hair and wearing leathers, spoke first, “Welcome to the Glittering Depths, Ashes Woodfield. Have you figured out a pricing structure for your creations yet?”

“Nope. But I will. If you have suggestions, then I’ll hear them tomorrow or some other day. Thanks for coming out, though!”

The white-haired woman gave a small bow, and was the first to depart. A few others considered saying small words, or even very large words to try and tempt Erick their way, but then they thought better of that action and did what the white-haired woman did; they left.

Soon, the wheat field outside of Erick’s property was empty again.

And Erick went into his house, grabbed the mana cube from Storage, and went to the first floor of his mage tower… And then he stood there for a moment. Was the tower a good spot for the cube? The upper floor was 4 meters away, so the cube would fit on the stone ground, and the tower itself was 8 meters across on the inside so there was plenty of space otherwise. But was this area good enough for both the cube, and the metiron workshop?

Erick looked up at the beams that formed the second floor, and at the bookshelves he had up there. It was a library space, but… Did he need that library space? It wouldn’t be a good idea to build a library over a place that heavily used fire.

“I don’t have to have the library up there,” Erick decided.

And then picked a spot at the side of the room, put the cube down, and—

“Actually. Time for my first experiment.”

Instead of channeling mana into the cube directly, through physical contact, Erick tried releasing his aura into the air, to send mana through the air to the cube.

This did not work.

His aura dissipated under his skin, like it had on all the other floors. He could somewhat use his aura to craft magic inside his body, and inside a mana chamber when that mana chamber was filled with his mana, but there was no aura control outside of his body. Now that was certainly a function of the Glittering Depths, and not how mana usually worked.

So Erick sat down, touched the cube, and began channeling mana into the thing…

His mana regeneration in the dungeon was only 22,500 per hour, though, and only with his [Meditation] necklace activated. This would take a while. Maybe he did need to do some delving, if only to get that number up. Skipping 3 floors meant he was missing 3 floors worth of ‘MP up!’s.

It took nearly half an hour, sitting there on the floor with his hand on the cube, to put 10,000 mana into the cube. It was easy to tell when he was done, though, because words appeared in the air.

Meta Diamond Creation Chamber activated. Please step away for full deployment.

Erick stepped back—

As soon as he was four meters away, the cube expanded, going from small size to full size in a split second. This should have caused an explosion, Erick thought. But there was no air displacement, or any physical repercussions from that quick of an expansion at all, which made Erick think that perhaps the ‘mana chamber’ Rebecca had given him wasn’t actually an expandable and shrinkable cube, but that the 10,000 mana was to power a Spatial Magic effect. The miniature cube went somewhere else, and Erick ended up with this mana chamber, ready for use. Did the small cube go back into circulation in the dungeon’s random loot tables?

Anyway!

Erick smiled brightly, and said, “Storage, every meta item but my bracelet of [Self Rejuvenation].”

Instantly, all of the metairons on Erick flickered away, and deposited themselves into the storage room, which was outside the mage tower…

And then Erick went and retrieved his Amulet of [Meditation], because that had vanished with all the rest, but he needed that one to better spill mana into the air of the chamber. He also put his belt back on, because—

He had briefly exposed his core.

There might have been people long-range mana sensing him outside his house.

Ah.

Shit.

Erick grabbed his own mana inside his core and [Return]ed to ten seconds ago.

The world tore as Erick once again stood in his tower, wearing all of his meta gear.

Erick breathed a little, feeling odd about what had just happened. The [Return] felt mostly normal. But Erick should have known not to remove his belt, which hid his core. He was not used to having to worry about that, ever, except here he was, making a tiny mistake that would out him as a… dragon. Well. How big of a deal would that be, actually? Kinder already knew he was a dragon. And they already had dragons in this dungeon, so people knew there were dragons in here. No Benevolence dragons yet, though, according to Kinder. Which was a whole other issue. Which other dragon was down here?

Eh.

The other dragon didn’t matter, and it probably didn’t matter if people found out he was a dragon, either. Erick was just being paranoid. He was going to get outed soon enough, but it was better to put that off for as long as possible.

Since Erick was once again wearing all his gear, Erick physically went to the storage box and placed his extra metamonds there, to ensure that they weren’t messed up by the mana chamber metamond creation, all the while thinking about this mana sensing issue. He wasn’t very well protected inside his house right now, was he? No he was not.

According to Kinder, people could not come onto his property without his permission, and they could not mana sense onto his property either. Erick had even seen the messages from the dungeon saying as much. While that may or may not be true, Erick didn’t really want to test that right now, and he couldn’t really see any invisible people on his property. Taking Kinder or the dungeon at their word was not something he wished to fully do, but he probably had to, for now.

Erick had thought about putting up some one-way mirror [Force Wall]s when he saw the people standing outside his property, and while yes, he would be doing that, there was another layer of security he could enact to ensure privacy, according to Kinder.

… Erick mostly believed Kinder was a good guy. But.

Erick said to the air, “Dungeon. Decrease mana density of my property to 80%.”

Decreasing mana density to 80%.

The air suddenly felt dry, like all the moisture was actively being sucked away, directly from Erick’s own flesh and the world around him. It was a pinch upon the soul. And then it was over.

Erick’s mana sense had turned ephemeral. He could still see all of his property, and even some of the space around, but mana sensing the air inside his property was more difficult, and his actual range had dropped to maybe 450 meters. The mana outside of his property remained completely unaffected, though.

“Drop mana density of my property to 50%”

Decreasing mana density to 50%.

A full body pinch grabbed Erick and shook his senses, draining him of power and mana. Floor 1 had been 80%, and his range had been 400 meters there. Floor 2 had been 60%, and his senses had dropped to 10 meters there, but here at 50% his senses dropped to 4 meters in every direction.

It was good enough.

Erick had gone for the 50% option because his personal mana was already down to half, because of the earlier [Return], which had been done in haste and in a dungeon environment which shut down outside magic almost completely; it had cost him more than expected to make that magic. His remaining mana was good enough for another 2 [Return]s, though, for Erick figured he could compensate for the tearing oddness he had experienced; it was just a bit of temporal sickness.

Anyway. He could walk around his house with this level of mana density and not feel bloated, or worried about people spying on him from the outside. This was fine. Later, he would have to actually approach Kinder about that ‘artifact of [Renew]’ that would allow him to keep a full core. Kinder had offered that as part of Erick’s deal to leave the second floor behind, but he hadn’t actually given it to Erick yet.

… Well. Could he fix that problem right now, too?

Erick said to the air, “Dungeon. Please alert Dungeon Master Kinder that I am interested in that artifact of [Renew] that he spoke about earlier.”

Automated message from Dungeon Master Kinder: I have set up this message to automatically trigger when you asked about that artifact. That artifact does not exist. What I will be doing instead is allowing you special exceptions to connect to the Script in the barest of ways. This will allow your own mana to come to you, from the Script. That mana will still equalize with whatever mana density you’re currently inhabiting, for I cannot change that.

If you break my dungeon with outside magic, then I will be exiling you. Please do not break my dungeon.

As soon as the message appeared, Erick began to feel something loosen inside. His core mana began to climb a fraction, as the Script supplied him with mana. Gradually, his core equalized with the 50% mana density of the air around him, which meant that Erick had spent a lot more mana on his [Return] than he had planned to spend… Hmm.

Hmm.

Anyway.

With this ‘connection’ to the Script, this was like how cores and mana worked in Ar’Cosmos. You couldn’t gain mana from the Script inside Ar’Cosmos without having a core to begin with, but once you did, your core regained mana based on the power of your core.

Erick said to the air, “Thanks, Kinder.”

There was no response.

Erick went into the mana chamber, closed the door, and began channeling dungeon mana into the air—

He stopped, opened the door, and went and got some books to read while he channeled; this was going to take a while. His dungeon mana only came back at 22,500 mana per day, or 6.25 mana per second while [Meditation] was active. Metamond creation was mostly waiting around for his dungeon mana to actually produce a drop of solid mana, and that took time. Once he got some mana crystal books, Erick grabbed a chair and went back into the mana chamber.

As Erick sat down, he cracked open his book and metaphysically tapped his bracelet of [Self Rejuvenation], opening up the mana therein to the chamber itself. As white glows faded into the air, filling up the chamber, Erick flicked on his amulet of [Meditation], and the white glows began to move faster. The chamber was still dark, though, so Erick couldn’t read right yet, but it didn’t take long for the white circles of the interior of the chamber to begin to glow and provide light. Once that started, Erick flipped through his book and picked up where he last left off.

He found his spot, and started reading.

– – – –

Half an hour later the mana of the room began to saturate, and Erick could move his aura through the mana instead of having his mana fall apart just beyond his skin. It was an odd way for aura control to work, but Erick supposed that’s how the dungeon allowed it to work so that people only made spellwork inside these rooms; to enforce the metiron/metamond Second Script that Atunir was trying to showcase.

And so, Erick extended his glowing white aura (which was also different, because normally his aura was clear unless he wanted to show it off) through the air, into the density of liquid Benevolence-flavored mana in the center of the mana chamber. As he touched that collection of liquid power, Erick hummed a tiny song of Elemental Healing, causing a rippling effect through his aura, changing his white glows into something more cerulean. It was rather easy for him to make a [Rejuvenation] metamond, because his dungeon-granted Benevolence was prone to lingering positive effects, and [Rejuvenation] was a lingering, positive, full-body effect.

Some Mana Altering made up the difference between Benevolence and Healing.

With a bit more aura control and shaping, Erick flickered more actual Elemental Healing into the droplet in the center of the chamber, to begin to form the actual spell. Whatever white glows remained in the air began to filter out of the collection point, while more cerulean blue power filtered inward. Four points of mana became the basis for Elemental Healing to inhabit the body. One remaining mana was to time the release of Elemental Healing properly, and to ensure the other four mana did their job properly. The five point spell was not a large spell, but that’s all [Rejuvenation] needed to be, because it wasn’t focused on healing anything in particular. It was just a buffing spell, basically, and in a very specific way where true intent or specific actions were not needed, or wanted.

Then Erick blasted the collection point with intent, crystallizing mana into magic.

A tiny cerulean dot of a metamond coalesced into the air, taking a great deal of the blue glows of the chamber with it, and implying a whole lot of stuff with that simple action. That exact same thing had happened all the other times Erick had made a metamond; that dimming of a specific element, almost like it had drained out of the chamber. Which it had.

First, Erick plucked the new metamond out of the air and used his ring of [Identify] on it.

Rejuvenation, instant, touch, 5 mana per cast

Grant a touched target increased healing, condensing a week of recuperation to 10 minutes.

So that was good. Exactly what he wanted to make. The little cerulean dot glowed, while the interior was filled with fractals like a pane of artistically-shattered glass. It looked normal; just like the other ones Erick had made before. Except now, Erick could really try to understand what had happened in this creation.

There had obviously been a mana drain in the air, which would account for the lessening of Elemental Healing glows in the air. This could only mean that, even though Erick had made a 5 point spell, the crystallization of that spell had taken a lot more than 5 mana. How much more, though? According to what Erick remembered of his previous experiments, and this one here, it had taken…

“Maybe 400 mana? 425, to crystallize?”

Erick flicked his aura at his bracelet and began to pump more Benevolence mana into the air, to restore what was lost, because it wasn’t just the Elemental Healing that had been taken. The Benevolence in the air had decreased, too.

Erick tried an experiment with his next [Rejuvenation].

He barely put any effort into that creation at all, simply crushing Elemental Healing together to see what popped out.

Harmful Healing, instant, touch, 47 mana per cast

Cause unknown healing effects in the target, with a greatly increased chance of causing cancers and other malignancies. NOTICE: Using this spell on yourself or any other friendly target will heal them once, and use up one of their Saves. If the target has no more Saves, then this spell will allow the target 2 minutes of life, and then they will be forcibly resurrected on the entrance floor, where they will be expelled from the dungeon to receive proper treatment.

Erick smiled a little bit at the brilliant little gem in his hands. That was a pretty insidious little spell, and it looked no different than [Rejuvenation]. Higher mana cost, much different effect, and proof that Erick needed to actually try to make Healing Magic down here; the Script wasn’t here to smooth over bad outcomes, and, his Wizardry didn’t smooth over bad outcomes, either.

It was time to see exactly where the line lay between good, useful mana crystals, and bad, harmful mana crystals, and what sort of oddities Erick could make on that spectrum.

– – – –

Erick calculated a few different things that told him almost nothing at all, but which fell in line with what was generally known with mana crystals.

It took about 500 mana to make a basic meta-diamond, with the cheaper final-cost ones costing less atmospheric mana to create them. [Rejuvenation] took about 400 mana from the chamber, and only cost 5 mana to activate. [Harmful Healing] took 650 mana from the air, and cost anywhere from 30 to 65 mana to activate. By really focusing on actually making [Harmful Healing], and not some other Healing spell, Erick was able to make a [Harmful Healing] that only took 30 mana to activate, and which drained 500-ish mana from the air.

So that told him that directed thoughts created spells with less mana costs and mana-from-the-air, which was pretty much his experience with mana anyway. It was good to know that some baseline understandings remained the same.

But every single cerulean gem he produced ended up being the same size.

Erick started to wonder why that was. Shouldn’t a spell that cost 650 mana from the air be bigger than one that cost 450? The mana density of crystals was a variable thing, of course, so that accounted for some of it, but not all. The fractals inside [Rejuvenation] were a lot less intense than the fractals inside [Harmful Healing], though.

And normal mana crystals did not have fractals… Or at least that’s how it was according to the books Erick had gotten from Kirginatharp, and from other sources.

“So obviously there’s some sort of crushing going on,” Erick mused to himself, as he held up one [Rejuvenation], and one of his larger [Harmful Healings]. “Some sort of… inner infinity? Instead of expanding outward, the gems expand their magic inward? Well that sort of makes sense.”

All metamonds were round things, and a little squishy when they were inside a mana chamber. Outside of a mana chamber they were perfectly spherical and hard as, well, diamonds.

All the shapes for mana crystals inside the books were of normal crystal shapes, and all normal mana crystals expanded outward as they grew. But meta-diamonds expanded inward… Somewhat.

Erick’s staff, with its fist-sized iridescent white metamond, was a clear outlier, but that spellwork was also the largest metamond spellwork Erick had done so far. Staring into the interior of that gem was like staring into a kaleidoscope funhouse without end.

So now Erick needed to do some tests with making bigger and bigger spells. Just cramming everything he could cram into—

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Well. No.

Actually. Erick needed to do something actually constructive. And so Erick crushed all of his [Harmful Healing]s and took half an hour to change them all into [Rejuvenation]s.

That satisfied his bargain with the Iron Bandits! Now, moving on…

Erick decided to make Bolts of every possible flavor, and begin mushing them together just to see what happened.

– – – –

[Fire Bolt] with an [Air Bolt] became [Plasma Bolt], which was a rather normal occurrence. All three spells had rather normal-looking [Identify] results, too, because Erick didn’t spend more than a single moment making any of them, and so they were simple.

Fire Bolt, instant, long range, 5 mana

A bolt of fire unerringly strikes a target, igniting them for fire damage.

Air Bolt, instant, long range, 5 mana

A semi-invisible bolt of air unerringly strikes a target, and might unbalance them.

Plasma Bolt, instant, long range, 10 mana

A bolt of plasma unerringly strikes a target, enveloping the target in highly damaging plasma for a short time.

One gem of glowing red fractals, the size of a thumbnail. One gem filled with vaguely magenta fractures. Together, they became one gem filled with bright pink fractures, which wasn’t any bigger than the original two gems. So there was definitely some condensing happening there.

Erick broke that [Plasma Bolt] and the room filled with the thousand-ish mana of the original two Bolts. With that much saturation, re-condensation happened almost instantly…

Erick could have stopped that recombination. But he decided not to. No aura touched the liquid mana. No intent reached the pink glows—

The gem coalesced again, all on its own. It was a little larger than it had been before, so something was happening there, too. Odd. Erick [Identify]ed it.

Uncontained Plasma, instant, touch, 50 mana

Release a burst of plasma.

“… I’m pretty sure that one would literally blow up in my face if I tried to use it.”

Erick crushed the gem, releasing the mana back into the air.

This time, he put intent into the working, to make a Bolt exactly as he had made through the combination of the Fire and Air magics.

A pale pink dot once again coalesced out of the air. It was the same size as the previous [Plasma Bolt] had been —small as a thumbnail— but did it [Identify] the same?

Yes, it did.

Plasma Bolt, instant, long range, 10 mana

A bolt of plasma unerringly strikes a target, enveloping the target in highly damaging plasma for a short time.

Erick frowned in concentration. “I think I need to take pictures, or something, to compare the interior fractals… Could I make that here?”

Making such a spell under the Script would be rather difficult, but Erick knew how he would do it. There’d be Particle Magic involved, for sure. Some light to scan, and then some polymer-drawing/drawing from the CO2 in the air, to lay down a copy of an image onto a sheet of plastic paper that the spell would create at that moment…

Or maybe, Erick could take ready-made paper, some light or maybe Elemental Radiance, and scorch an image into that paper—

Ah.

Erick had actually planned to make a one-way-mirror [Force Wall], hadn’t he? So he could stop people from spying on his property.

Ah. Let’s do that, then…

A few hours later, and after deciding that he didn’t want to make a simple mirror and that he wanted to make something much more useful, Erick had to stop with his experiments because he was getting lightheaded, and he rapidly realized that the mana chamber didn’t have any vents for air.

Erick burst out of the chamber, breathed clearly for the first time in an hour, laughed a little, and then went back in to collect the few hundred meta-diamonds he had made. All of those metamonds went into the front room and Erick went back into the mana chamber.