I have a lot to do now, first and foremost, I need to move my core to a different floor. Invaders keep coming to the fifth floor because that is where they know my core to be, but there is no reason for me to leave it there; in fact it would be foolish to do so. And since I can send mana filaments up and down the walls, I am able to claim rooms on other floors without those rooms having a clear path connected to the stairwell that enemies can follow. I may already be a fool for not having done so before now.
It will likely upset Violet, because she will be forced to choose between moving with my core or staying with Rose, unless she can convince Rose to move with her. I am sure River would not mind the move though, as she does not seem especially attached to the room they are in.
Discussing it with Rose myself and seeing what she thinks of the idea is probably the best course of action right now. She is currently leading the other imps through training mana control, with most of the imps gathered in my core room. I would prefer she take it easy for a while but she insists on continuing the normal routine.
After exhausting herself healing those who were injured, she ended up sleeping for the rest of the day and well into the night. Far longer than any imp would usually sleep, even Coal, and it caused quite a bit of concern, but once she woke up she went right back to healing the others, after she had had something to eat; several imps all independently had the idea to go out and bring something back for her while she slept, so she had plenty to choose from.
Thankfully, the first aid administered by the human medic did help reduce some of the burden of healing. With no one at risk of death or permanent impairment if they have to wait, Rose is able to heal them in stages without worry so there is no need for her to push herself to that point of exhaustion again.
Despite the ongoing practice, there are still no other imps, besides Rose, who have shown any talent for magic. At least many of them now are getting quite proficient at preventing their mana from being stolen. Though none of them can hold out against me, two are now able to completely stop Rose from taking anything from them, namely, Violet and, surprisingly, Calla.
I patiently wait until she calls an end to the session before speaking to her.
I am thinking of moving my core to another floor.
“That’s probably a good idea, since everyone seems to know about its current location. Where do you want to move it to?” She asks.
Down to the third floor, to the room furthest away from the stairs.
“Down? Not up?”
If I went up to a higher floor, then I would also have to put more time and mana into claiming the stairs as well, otherwise they would be able to move freely once they pass the fifth floor and I would lose sight of them.
If I go down, it will be easier to keep track of invader’s locations if they have to backtrack to a lower floor. That is assuming they even realise that the core is not on the fifth floor anymore, which, ideally, they would not even get that far.
“What if they deviate from their normal behaviour and enter the lower floors before even making it up here like the last group did?”
They only did that so they could access the elevator shaft, which hopefully will not be a problem anymore soon. But if it does happen and someone learns about the core’s new location, we just have to make sure they do not survive long enough to share that information with anyone else.
Seeing Rose standing alone and talking to the air, Violet wanders over.
“Are you coming up with more plans? Is it for something fun?” She asks.
“Magentam is thinking about moving her core to a different floor,” Rose replies.
“Okay, I’ll start getting all my things. Oh, I need to tell River as well. Where are we moving to?” Violet inquires.
The third floor is what I am thinking.
“Great, let's go,” she cheers and marches towards her bedroom, but stops halfway and turns to Rose. “You’re coming too right?”
“I wasn’t planning on it,” replies Rose.
“What? No, you have to,” Violet whines.
“Why?”
“So we can stay together,” Violet insists.
“You know, you don’t have to move just because Magentam’s core is moving, right?” Rose retorts.
“But I want to,” Violet says, her lower lip quivering until Rose sighs.
“Fine,” she concedes.
“Good, let’s get our stuff.” Violet, now beaming, grabs Rose’s hand and pulls her towards their room.
No need to be so hasty, I have not even claimed the room I want to move the core to yet. We are just making plans for now.
“Oh, okay, but you have to tell me before you move, alright?” She demands.
Of course. I will let you know.
With that, Violet lets go of Rose’s hand and wanders off again to play with the others.
Thank you for agreeing to move with her. I am sure she would have been quite distraught otherwise. I tell Rose.
“It’s fine. It’s a minor hassle, but not really a big deal,” she confirms.
I wish I could dump all of my mana into expanding to reach the room I want faster, but I also need to start making mana stones to fund my future trading with humans; in particular, one transaction, that will hopefully come soon, that I do not expect to be cheap. That is, assuming William is able to hold up his end of the bargain this time.
—--
While we have some time, with nothing serious going on, we should take the opportunity to investigate Coal's teleportation a little more. I ask Violet and Rose to gather with Coal in the core room with the hope that they will be able to help in communicating with him.
You said that during the last attack, Coal was able to bypass the humans’ shields, right?
“Things were a bit hectic so it was a little hard to keep track of everything that was going on, but it did seem that way,” Rose replies.
We are going to test that today, and some other things, so we can get a better understanding of his abilities.
I try asking Coal about it directly first, but he just tilts his head and teleports about a metre to the left of where he had been standing.
“Teleport,” he declares.
I did not really expect him to understand my question, he still has a long way to go in his comprehension of Balkret, but that is okay, we will just move straight on to practical testing. I ask Rose and Violet to move away from him and when he tries to follow them, he is blocked by a mana shield.
Coal raises his hands to feel the invisible barrier that is blocking him. He tries to side step the shield only to discover that I have created a dome all around him. He frowns and disappears, reappearing beside Violet a moment later.
Good work, I say to encourage him.
Violet extends a hand to give him an enthusiastic thumbs up and he returns the gesture.
“So I guess that confirms it then?” Rose asks.
It is a start, but there is more to test.
I created that dome to intentionally not cover the floor beneath his feet, similarly to how humans often do, which is something that I am able to bypass. Next I will see if he can teleport through a shield that is completely enclosed. Once Violet and Rose have moved away, I ask him to try teleporting again, but as before, the shield offers no obstacle to his teleportation.
This is both encouraging and concerning. If the humans cannot stop Coal with a mana shield, that gives us a distinct advantage, but it also proves that there are things that a mana shield cannot defend against. I would like to think that such abilities are not common, but it is a possibility that I cannot ignore.
We perform the same test once more, only this time, I try increasing the mana density of the shield, theorising that doing so will improve its strength, though I have no idea if that would actually make any difference in this circumstance.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
It takes a lot more concentration to maintain the shield like this, to the point that I do not believe it would be feasible to keep it active during a serious combat situation, at least not for a single individual. Even for me, it would take all of my focus to maintain it and I would not be able to spare any attention for anything else, but perhaps that is something I could improve on with further practice.
Coal is still able to teleport through the shield, though he is not unaffected by it. Whenever Coal teleports, there is always a slight delay between disappearing and reappearing. It is not much, merely a fraction of a second, but it is what allows Violet to react in time and respond when they fight.
This time, it took about half a second more than usual for him to reappear. Neither Coal nor Violet seem to have even noticed the difference, but Rose frowns.
“That took longer than it normally does, right? I didn’t just imagine that delay?” She observes.
You are correct. He was definitely delayed.
“So what does that mean?” she inquires.
That it could be theoretically possible to block Coal from teleporting, but it is difficult to imagine what it would take to actually do it. I doubt it is something a single person could ever accomplish on their own.
“Do you think we could do it if we worked together?”
I do not know, perhaps it is something we could try later, but for now I want to move on to other tests.
I turn my attention back to Coal to explain what I want him to do next.
Can you teleport to the hallway from here?
Coal looks towards the door, then disappears. Reappearing a moment later by the door, he opens it and disappears again. That is, unfortunately, not what I had in mind.
“Why the hallway?” Violet asks.
I have only ever seen him teleporting within a single room, but never between rooms, like he is relying on line of sight. But if it works like magic, I have a theory that he should be able to teleport to places he cannot directly see, as long as he can properly visualise his destination. I do not seem to have properly conveyed my intent though.
“Ohh, let me try,” she requests.
Violet rushes over to Coal as he walks back into the room and she pushes the door shut.
“This time, teleport through the door. Door stays closed. Do not open door,” she explains to him.
“Door…closed?” He repeats, uncertainty evident in his tone.
“Yes. Door closed. You teleport to the other side. Can you do it?” Violet confirms.
Coal blinks, then frowns and scratches his head. He looks towards the door and closes his eyes. He disappears again and I can sense his arrival in the hallway a moment before he pushes the door open with a wide grin on his face.
“I do it!” He declares, raising his arms into the air.
“Great work,” Violet cheers and picks him up in a hug that he eagerly reciprocates.
Good, now I want to try from a greater range. Violet, can you take him down to the meeting room and ask him to return directly to this spot?
“Got it.” Violet puts Coal down and takes his hand.
She dashes out into the hallway and towards the stairs, dragging Coal behind her. Even though he is following her willingly, without any resistance, it is still a struggle for him to keep up with the larger, faster imp.
I wait with Rose, but it does not take long for the pair to reach their destination. After a short pause, Coal appears before us again.
“I do it!” He cheers again
“Yes, you did very well,” Rose encourages him.
He grins and disappears again, teleporting back to the meeting room, presumably to return to Violet, but she is already making her way back up the stairs. He teleports again and I soon sense them both coming up the stairs together. I confer with Rose while we wait for them.
I think we should summon more imps like Coal. Their ability to bypass shields will give us an edge in battle and we need every advantage we can get.
“It would be helpful to have more like him, but if Coal is a typical example of his kind, we should be prepared for them to want to fight as soon as they arrive,” Rose agrees.
That is a definite possibility, but Violet handled Coal easily enough and this time we will know what to expect, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
“True, the real challenge will be dealing with them after that. Coal was rather belligerent about a lot of things at the start. Even now, I still don’t think he has fully adjusted yet,” Rose says.
Coal reappears by his box and Violet bursts into the room a moment later and changes towards him. She chases him around the room while he repeatedly teleports to keep out of her reach in a rather one sided game of tag.
Yes, their behaviour could be a problem, an issue that could be compounded if there are a lot of them together. I will just summon a few to start with and we can consider bringing more over in the future, after they have acclimated to…
I am interrupted by a sudden impact as Violet collides with me. I am pushed back a few steps and Violet also stumbles backwards a little, looking down and raising a hand to her sternum. It was not a full body collision, but rather, a small impact point around the middle of her chest.
What…just happened?
“I think I hit something…maybe? Or something hit me?” Violet wonders, looking around for whatever she had run into.
Rose is looking between me and Violet with eyes wide and mouth agape, stunned speechless by what she had just witnessed.
Yes, you bumped into me.
“What? Really? Does that mean I can touch you now?” She exclaims, stepping forwards and waving her arms through the air in front of her.
While she does reach me, her hands pass harmlessly through my body without facing any resistance.
No, I do not think so. Not with your hands, at least. Please hold still for a moment, I want to check something.
“Okay,” Violet complies, immediately freezing on the spot.
I step towards her and slowly wave a hand through her body. At first, I do not feel anything, just like in the past when I have ‘touched’ any of the imps, there is no physical sensation. Until my hand actually does make contact with something solid. In the middle of her chest, there is a spherical object roughly half the size of my fist. I can even feel a little bit of mana when I touch it.
Did you swallow a mana crystal?
“Huh? Of course not. Imps don’t eat rocks. That would be silly,”
Well, you seem to have one inside your chest.
“Really? I don’t feel anything,” she says, poking herself where she felt the impact before. “How did it get there?”
That is what I would like to know.
I usually try to avoid moving through my imps’ bodies, even though I know it is not harmful in any way, so I have never noticed it before now. I do not even know how long she has had it. But despite trying to avoid collisions with imps, none of them can see me, so it still happens occasionally, and I have never noticed any others with mana crystals inside their bodies.
“It could be because she’s a guardian. Maybe it’s something normal for guardians to develop,” Rose suggests.
Do you mind if I check if you have one as well?
“Of course, go ahead,” she insists.
I focus on the same place where the mana crystal in Violet’s body is located and, sure enough, Rose has one too. Just to confirm, I check Coal as well, who had wandered over when Violet stopped chasing him, but find nothing.
It seems you might be right about it being related to being a guardian as you also have one. Except, Violet’s…original body did not have one or I am sure we would have noticed it.
“That’s right…Perhaps it’s something she only gained after being resurrected?” Rose theorises.
You never died though.
“Well, me becoming a guardian was an abnormal situation right? Maybe that allowed me to skip that step,” she offers.
That sounds like it could be plausible, at least. If these mana crystals are inherently linked to being a guardian, is it also possible that they are somehow the reason why I am able to stay in contact with the two of you even when you are outside the dungeon?
“That makes sense, based on the timing of when we started being able to do that,” Rose agrees.
Well, while this has certainly been an interesting discovery, it has distracted me from my original objective. There is one more thing that I would like to test with Coal, but I am going to have to rely on you to handle it, if you do not mind.
“Sure, what do you need me to do?”
I want to know the maximum range of his teleportation, but we might not be able to properly test that inside this building.
“That shouldn’t be too hard,” She accepts.
I explain what I want to Violet and Coal as well, and the three of them head outside together.
While they are doing that, there is something else that I can check on. Noctis and the other hellhounds are currently resting in their room. As Noctis is also a guardian, I should see if she has a mana crystal as well. Though if the theory that they would only develop a mana crystal like that after dying and being resurrected holds true, then she would not have one yet, but it is still worth investigating.
She does not react to my presence when I appear before her, so she might actually be sleeping. Calla is leaning against her and also appears to be asleep, while the other hellhounds are strewn about the room.
As I wave my arms through her body, I do not find any solid crystals, I do notice one area where mana is quite concentrated, enough that there is actually some resistance as my hand passes through it. With my curiosity piqued, I check the other hellhounds as well to compare. They all have similar areas of concentrated mana in the same place in their bodies, though none have the same density as Noctis.
Given what I know about hellhounds and their magical capabilities, it is not entirely surprising that they would have a higher concentration of mana, though it is interesting that it is primarily focused in one place like that. It seems like I am learning a lot of new things about my creatures today.
While musing over my thoughts, I am contacted by Rose.
‘We haven’t found his maximum range yet, but I’m beginning to think he might not have one. However teleporting over longer distances does seem to tire him out, with longer distances taking a greater toll. I think that might be the primary limiting factor more than any specific ‘maximum,’ She reports.
I see, how far did he get?
‘About one and a half city blocks. He could probably go further, but he’s looking pretty exhausted right now, so I think we should call it quits for today.’
I am not sure how far a ‘city block’ actually is, but it seems like it could be a considerable distance for Coal to be able to travel like that.
Thank you for your help with this. Today’s efforts have been quite enlightening.
‘Of course, I am always happy to assist with anything that could help improve our defences.’