After turning the rainwater tap and waiting for 10 minutes before realising it had no pressure and the pump had no power, Spencer was forced to improvise and with an inefficient spell form draw in marker onto the faucet to pull the mana from the tank, once the flow started he would need to, interrupt the rune as the ambient mana would keep it on. This had taken Spencer longer than he had anticipated, finally figuring it out with a more complex spell and not just a single rune.
When the water was flushed out of the plumbing and replaced with a steams of liquid mana, a liquid that instantly would start to evaporate as it trickled out, but retaining more of the liquid when the flow become more of a stream as it hit the basin.
With a constant flow of mana from the tap, Spencer was able to draw a triangle spell array that would function as an artificial containment and condense spell form, transforming some of the liquid mana flow into a mana crystal, that would once solidify into a crystal, and absorbing enough mana to be was larger then the glowing triable spell, it would drop into the basin and causing the spell form to start the creation of another. Once he had a crystal in hand he was then able to grind the solid mana into a powder with the mortar and pestle, with the blue like a powder down to the consistency of flour, he opened the top of the texter and added a few teaspoons. With a quick cut on the back of his hand, he added ten or so drops of blood, close the texter and shook to mix it all. Spencer is now armed with a crude version of enchanters ink. Spencer knew this cheap and dirty replication of the ink would only be used once or twice before it burned out the paper or medium the array was written on, and spencer would not be able to rely on any longevity in a sigil written on paper with the ink he currently had. The reason for these added steps was to address a few points. The main point was that he was unlikely to be able to carve the spell array into the concrete back patio with the current storm raging. He could however draw it from the shelter inside his house to empower the spell array and through the sympathetic link between his blood and the power stored in the Mana crystals, he could transplant from that medium and move the powered array and burn it into the patio to be in direct contact with the mana storm.
With the sigils and array forms that he designed with Victoria, and based on the memories from his past, the spell array form was quickly finalised and transposed onto a fresh sheet of paper. With pencil first, the array took form and with an hour spent with great care, it was finished with his blood-mana dust-texter.
The final Spell array was similar to his original designs and sketched, it had a similar style to most of the arrays he had drawn. Spell arrays always held the characteristics of the creator, almost like a signature, always using the ancient language at its core, the arrangement and designs were always personal and with enough familiarity, recognisable.
Many mages would use this technique to cast powerful spell arrays prepared into a grimoire or spellbook. It was an easy way to boost the spell power with non of the requirements of being able to hold a mental image of the array, it did however have many major long-term drawbacks, principally that it would be a crutch, and many mages could never move past the use of such aids after being reliant on it for so long. But for enchanting and large scale arrays that could be built from multiple arrays, it was a perfect technique.
The lines and runes held a purple colour, some mixture of his blood, ink and mana dust creating a slightly metallic hue when shown in the right angle of light.
Spencer stared at the page, every detail held in his mind as his eyes confirmed that memory, and as he formed the connection with his small mana reserve to power the initial activation of the spell. As the spell activated the initial power loop runes locked on and shifted its draw of power from his small reserve to the vast power in the ambient mana supply. This would not be possible under normal circumstances, however, the storm provided enough power for this inelegant activation technique.
As the purple glow spread from one rune to the next, glowing with a blue-purple sheen the array powered the single transfer array loop and the array lifted off the page and hovered an inch from the page.
As the last rune detached itself from the page and the glowing spell form expanded from the rough A4 size paper to a diameter of 1 meter, the transfer loop of the array slowly faded and the with a pop detached from the spell, disintegrating to nothing and then the remainder started to glow slightly brighter.
The remaining smaller mirror of the floating array on the page was somehow slightly less tangible than it was before, not as metallic and slightly less bright. Spencer knew the page was probably only good for a single additional transfer, and that was acceptable.
With an effort, he willed the spell to move, but he held the transfer array rune in his mind, effectively mitigating the need to hold the entire array, and simultaneously not letting it complete its transfer into reality.
The spell array moved, slowly at first as Spencer reacquainted with the feeling of manipulating free form spell arrays. As the array began to move towards the concrete patio just outside the glass door. As the array moved up to the glass of the back door it stopped, not able to phase through.
From its position, a circle of glowing sigils, lines and runes layered on a horizontal axis, Spencer without breaking his concentration and eye contact moves around the array to open the door.
As he slid the door opened the storm almost as if a hungry lion, flooded in across the threshold and at the array of runes at the cardinal points, streams of visible mana surged into runes instantly forming small mana crystals above them.
With a flourish of his hands, the array slammed into the patio, expanding to a 3-meter diameter, flaring with a bright light meer inched before making contact. When the array touched the ground, the glowing groove burned into the cement. Instantly the rain and darkness were pushed outwards like an expanding bubble of force and Spencer was thrown backwards and onto his back.
The abrupt silence from within the bubble was almost as shocking as the explosion of silent force, leaving a ringing in his ear, a similar ringing that anyone who had ever left a heavy metal concert would be familiar with. The design from the spell array that was now glowing a silvery purple from its new medium was a sight to behold, illuminating a bubble of space with bright light surrounded by darkness. Its brutality and simplicity are displayed in its 3-meter diameter. A wall of force now surrounded most of his patio and the doorway to his house. Power moved from outside the array to within, now and then a dark electric tendril from the inside of the dome would strike the mana crystals, that would brighten for an
an instant before a pulse of glowing light would flow through the array.
To confirm that the array worked as intended, he stepped through the design, not caring if his feet landed on the design or not, having no affecting the array at all, another sign of success. As he entered the centre he felt the vast ambient power around him, similar to walking from a cold room into a warm blanket that floated in midair.
As he drew a deep breath in, he could feel the ridiculous power in the air, feeling the mana instantly saturate his lungs and flowed into his heart and fuse with his blood.
Spencer looks at the core formation array around him with no small amount of pride,
“This would do nicely indeed,” he said to himself, slight shock hearing his voice in the silence of the dome, the first time in days.
Victoria skipped around the glowing array, giggling in delight as she would run up and leaned against the invisible force field at the perimeter of the illuminated area, before being pushed back, like a trampoline.
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The very shield that protects her and the large area from the raging storm outside, one of many amusements she had found from within the array. With giggles and shouts of joy, she hops scotched around the spiralling runic script from the floating crystals to the centre and the extreme density of mana in the middle of the spell formation, before being gently pushed back by another force shield that surrounded the high-density area. The centre of the array held a seated Spencer in a lotus position.
“Again, Again daddy” Victoria shouted to her father.
Spencer cracked an eye and smiled, shifting his vastly more powerful will than when he started yesterday, it locked and activated a rune under one of the four mana crystals at the North cardinal points, now the size of a basketball, l started to sparkle before exploding in a fountain of blue light. Victoria shouted in pure joy and ran through the light, grasping it as if it was tangible before it would be absorbed by the runes. The absorption runes would pulse with a flash and the power would follow the runic path into the centre of the main array. Increasing the mana concentration in the centre a hundredfold. As the mana increased as did the pain of its density flowing around his body, the burning pulsed down his arteries with every beat of his heart, in time to the waves radiating from the mana crystals, it was just background to Spencer now, at the start the sensation had threatened to force a scream from him and have him crawl out, however, his previous life was not new to pain and as he acclimated to the ambient mana so to did is pain tolerance.
Seven small glowing runes floated in an orbit around him, creating a link with the twins drawn on his body, the same ink used with the array. The marks on Spencer’s forehead, lower left chest above his heart, below his navel, both inter thighs and inside of both biceps glowed with power as the identical twin to the floating runes.
The runes acted as a direct sympathetic link between the formation array and the runes Spencer drawn close to his major arteries, directly cultivating mana into his blood.
This was the most dangerous as the bain of the runes now had the feeling of a constant brand, and would need to be reapplied after every session.
The effort was not in vain, and by this point, Spencer had attuned every cell in his body to handle mana. This was the most important part of the formation of a mana core, now that he had established through brute force his mana formation core and his circulatory system now his meridian channels, there was no going back to the system guilds, what he had done was permanent.
As a result, his body was now accustomed to the and every breath, heartbeat and cell were now one with the singular task of circulating mana around his body, and that process exposed every cell in him to mana and left a cumulation of mana remanence over time.
Spencer knew the first stage of formation was almost complete, and the exponential growth that the array provided along with it. Once his formation was finalised the brute force approach would lose its impact and the process to increase his power would become more difficult and based on time. The use of the array would be helpful but only to speed up the regeneration of mana if he was forced to dip into internal reserves and not just use the ambient mana for spells and empowerments.
Though not at the power of his previous life, he was close to the upper limits of what a mage core would have enhanced him. So far most of his hypotheses have been proved correct with the ease of how the array worked, it was painful yes, however, it was more so when forming a mana core. This type of formation didn't just feel too easy, it felt correct. The wrongness of when he formed his mana core was not present, the feeling of unease that everyone Spencer had to meet had felt when following systems guidance was no longer a nagging that plagued his psyche. He was beginning to have faith that the mage style mana core had caused the majority of the hurdles they had encountered.
As a result, he would assume he was just as powerful as the mage ground trooper, an accomplishment that had taken Spencer decades to achieve last time. His mind was clear, sharp and fast, the power strengthen every aspect of his body, it would take weeks or months for the long-term effects on his body to show dividends, he could feel the burn in his muscles already, a burn that would be with him until his body reached the end of the formation. Every cell in his body was permeated with mana and it was a refreshing feeling, a feeling close to how he was, now with the strength approaching that from before, Spencer was less afraid of what would be waking when the storm ended. He was worried at first that it was the right thing to do to expose Victoria to the mana of the array, but his caution was displed with the retrospective knowledge of how much the mage core had crippled everyone in the past.
This way the array would guild the mana initially and mitigate any adverse effects, better now and under control than later and random uncontrolled.
Victoria had initially been cautious of the array and the silence from the rain within the dome, however, it was by far the safest place in the world right now, and after the first time she saw Spencer increase the density by dissolving a mana crystal at the cardinal point of the array, she was inside and looking at everything with no fear in her at all.
The shield protecting the array and the immediate area was being powered essentially by the storm, as the liquid mana rain hit the invisible force protecting the array it would be transferred into the four mana crystals that acted as capacitors for the array. Aside from the concentrated mana effect at the centre of the array, the array area inside the protective dome was also creating an elevated area of mana, this was where Victoria spent her time.
If Spencer wanted he could have just sat within the same array and increased his mana formation, and for anyone, without his knowledge, this would have been sufficient, for his daughter the passive effect on her would be highly beneficial in the long run, though she was not in the high density of the centre and Spencer would not have her anywhere close, not until she was much older if ever, the proximity would be nothing but good for her body, especially with the arrays programmed intent to fuse with the blood cells primarily. Mana by its very nature would provide sustenance and nutrients, and her growing body would be consuming mana as a substitute, starvation was almost non-existent in this new world. When a simple mana infused apple could sustain a grown adult for days, the high levels of ambient mana found in the cultivation array would keep an entire family alive indefinitely. This discovery early on was a shocking revelation and was stumbled upon a few weeks after the storm had ended when he had found a group of survivors who had exclusively sustained themselves on plants mutated by mana.
And more specifically the array was crafted to keep the mana in its gas state and prevent it from transferring into its highly volatile liquid state, a state that if exposed to before you have reached your formation, could cause unpredictable mutations, a shiver ran up Spencer's spine as he remembers what the exposure to the storm had done to him.
A lot of the problems of the world would be a moot point now that the system was in English, many people who have been exposed to mana would get messages to force a core formation using the class trainers, this would not save everyone, but it was a start.
Mana would solve many of earth's problems, food, energy, pollution and so on almost instantly, in its place a lot more immediately deadly threats replaced it, Spencer was not sure if the old world problems were so bad now.
Spencer and Victoria spent days in the artificial dome of daylight, which as it grew more powerful expanded to the inside of his house and most of his back yard, at some point the day after Spencer had begun, Morry their dog decided to join him and his daughter by lazily sleeping up against the field protected the centre of the array. When Spencer would finish his hour-long session the dog would move to sleep in the spot he vacated, absorbing the residual fumes of high-density ambient mana.
The mana storm lasted 6 more days, as spencers mana foundation progressed to the final stages and his body, mind and soul hit levels of power he was used to, and as much as the formation array was capable, his memories had stopped fading and the ones not entirely lost become crystal clear, some of the memories were lost, and he suspected with the cleanness of some of the gaps, something had not gone perfectly with the transition.
Again Spencer will his mana into the message ‘yes’.
And again a warning.
Spencer had no idea what calcifying a nexus node was, it had never happened or more likely it had finished before he got this far with the system.
His next step was clear, he needed to get to his pregnant wife.