Chapter Forty-Nine: Hot Showers

FORTY-NINE

Roan leaned back on the bed in the dormitory and sighed in relief as something in his back clicked and a sudden wave of relief rolled through him. Fighting and bleeding for days on end was exhausting and the bed felt like heaven. The communal showers were running as others rotated through them, but Taoya and Moira had wanted to talk before they rested.

“We need to get back to the others. We have a lot of wounded,” Taoya told Moira as he sat on the edge of his bed. The entire structure creaked under his weight, but held up otherwise.

“Then I’ll go back with you. This place is amazing, Taoya. The Tower Master must be a space or time or…or both, mage.” Moira’s voice had shot up multiple octaves as she paced before them.

“Why?” Taoya asked, leaning forward.

“All towers manipulate space, we know that. The enchantments in them help, but this place, Taoya. They have time dilation chambers here. For rent. Cheap rent.” Taoya reeled back as if slapped, stunned.

“Anyone want to explain to the desert rat?” Roan asked.

“It goes to mana theory. The more it deviates from the natural world, the more expensive it is. A fireball is a lot cheaper than, say, accelerating time in a localized area,” Moira said.

“So a time compression chamber is expensive? The tower is draining mana out of the entire region for the last century. It should be thick with energy,” Roan said with a shrug.

“And you’re a hundred percent correct. But, you’re still not appreciating how much mana it takes to do this. And this village has multiple time dilation chambers which compressed time while expanding space. This is one of five villages in the area. If each of them have multiple facilities, then the only way it’s possible is if the Tower Master specializes in space or time or both. Which means they’re very, very powerful.” Moira stopped talking and looked at Taoya who nodded his head in agreement.

“Does that change what we’re trying to do? Or should it?” Roan asked.

“I don’t know. I thought with the first level he was a life mage or a necromancer, which are strong but common enough. There’s only one tower climber who has left a tower with a fully functional time mana core. And he’s isolated in Antarctica.”

“That has to do more with he’s a psycho,” Taoya cut in which caused Moira to nod her head in agreement before she continued on.

“Every tower has a theme or something that it specializes in. It’s better to lean into the specialization. For those who’ve cleared multiple towers, it just becomes farming opportunities. Mana rich materials or knowledge from other schools of training that they want. With how the market works I wasn’t sure which way I wanted to lean.”

“Thought you were doing alchemy?” Roan said.

“That’s a profession or hobby, not your mana speciality. My bloodline works well with morphing things. Transmutation technically, but with how weak I am I can’t make that work. I can shift something I hold, change its shape, which is useful for alchemy. Can purify ingredients or whatever, but it doesn’t limit my mana type, not like Taoya’s does,” Moira said. Roan looked over to the big man who nodded.

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“Need a momentum or something similar to that mana type and a body tempering that works to enhance my durability to withstand the power I put my body under. Specializing in fire could work or anything to do with movement or expanding, but nowhere near as useful as a momentum core,” Taoya said.